Ship Portal

Spaceship Portal

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Quicklinks Fighters Bombers Freighters Transports Liners Gunboats Capital Ships

To the humans of the 3rd millennium, owning a spaceship is like owning a car was to their 21st century-ancestors. Space itself may be a vacuum, but in C-110, it is sprawling with life: small shuttles like the Starflier or Startracker are available to even the lesser-off citizens of the colonies and are often used for inter-city or in-system travel; giant freighters and transports piloted by corporate employees cloud the sky; mercenaries showcase their newest Eagles, Rocs and - if they are really wealthy - Raven's Talons; Gunboats accompany majestic Cruisers, Carriers and Battleships commissioned by the most distinguished military officers.

Of course many groups jealously guard their ships and technology, especially that of a military nature, for more information see Technology Accessibility.

When purchased, Transport, Gunboat, Cruiser and Battleship class vessels will show up as a "Freighter" on the ship purchase dialog. This is because the Freelancer game itself was never intended to have these ship classes available to players, and cannot be fixed. Refer to the info card to review the actual ship class.

Fighters

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Main articles: Light Fighters, Heavy Fighters, Very Heavy Fighters, Super Heavy Fighters

Ivory's Raven's Talon VHF

A fighter is a (para)military spaceship primarily designed for attacking other small vessels. Fighters are comparatively small, fast, and maneuverable. They are one of the most commonly used class of ships in the Colonies. The Fighter class is split into 4 subclasses:

Light Fighter is the collective noun given to the most nimble craft among the Fighter class. They are extremely agile, but this comes at the price of heavy armor and firepower. Light Fighters are used for racing, scout missions, intercepting heavier Fighter and Bomber vessels and civilian transport.

Heavy Fighters are a hybrid class between Light Fighters and Very Heavy Fighters. They are more agile than the latter, and pack more armor and gun slots than the former. They are sometimes used in interceptor roles, though often overlooked in favor of their bigger brothers.

Very Heavy Fighters are the tools of trade of military pilots and elite security personnel. They are fairly well armored and can rain down blazing death upon their enemies; especially Bombers will quickly fall victim to their guns, and others, like the Rogue Werewolf come close to ultralight Gunboat-Bomber hybrids.

Super Heavy Fighters are rather unique ships; some of them, like the Spatial, are deep space reconnaissance craft. The only things they all have in common are their low Bomber-like agility, a huge powerplant and the thickness of their hull plates.

Bombers

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Main article: Bombers

A Roc floating in the colorful Tau-29 system

Bombers are military vessels built to take on heavier ships like Gunboats, Transports and capital warships. They can be equipped with Bomber guns as well as heavy energy weaponry which, while being rather ineffective against fighters and other bombers, can seriously hurt larger ships, which in turn often employ fighter wings to fend off approaching bombers.

Cargo ships

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Main articles: Freighters, Transports, Liners

A "Ragnar" Rheinland Armored Transport in transit

As their name indicates, cargo ships are used to move cargo through space. They are divided into three classes:

Freighters are more agile, but much smaller than Transports. They are mostly used by small-time entrepreneurs and independent traders who cannot afford a larger "cashcow" (a fairly common slang term for Transport).

Transports are big, heavy beasts of burden. They are about as agile as a brick, and their turrets pose nearly no threat to marauding pirates, but they can carry gargantuan amounts of cargo. Because of their high profit generation capabilities, they are prime targets for pirates, and thus, corporations often employ fighter wings as "bodyguards", but with little success.

Liners are large, slightly more defended ships specifically designed to transport people- although they are capable of filling their holds with other commodities as well. Most factions do not have access to Liners, and those that do have it specifically listed on their ID. For other purposes, a liner is exactly like a transport, just with more armor and firepower.

Gunboats and Gunships

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Main article: Gunboats

A Type-23-Liberty Gunboat

Gunboat is the designation given to the smallest and most agile class of warships. Like other warships, they are rather restricted in who can be sold one. However, Freelancers and Mercenaries with strong factional ties have been known to request them from their producers. Gunships are light Gunboats and handle slightly different than their larger brethren.

Capital Ships

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Main article: Capital Ships

Battlestar-class carrier. Decommissioned in late 816 A.S.

Capital ships are heavy warships and the largest constructs that can still be called ships. Capships can be anything between an elegant Cruiser and a gargantuan Battleship.

Cruisers are long-range bombardment ships. Their heavy artillery is quite capable of damaging Carriers and Battleships from afar and anything smaller caught in the crossfire will be eviscerated almost instantly.

Battlecruisers stand between Cruisers and Battleships when it comes to firepower. They are usually deployed on force reconnaissance missions, and in fleet engagements can dominate hostile cruisers, screening friendly battleships.

Battleships are the floating fortresses of space. They are machines of destruction, capable of tearing apart all ships in range, glassing entire planets, but unable to defend from long ranged strikes of bombers and cruisers. Carriers are Battleships which exchange some guns for giant hangars and launch tubes capable of unleashing a swarm of fighters and bombers upon their enemies.