Quote:-You give up 1650 cargo compared to a 5k transprot
You give up only 250 cargo in comparison to BWT/Serenity, Junkers can't use 5kers and there isn't a smuggling group that can use 5kers to smuggle cardie from outcasts last time I checked (unless you do some cheeky rephacking but ain't nobody got time for that). Besides, 3350 cargo is enough to have a cap5 and be a valid transport ship.
Quote:-You can no longer fly through Kusari (Junker only)
Not really.
Quote:-You've got a ship as big as a cruiser, but with the hitpoints and shield strength of a transport
The difference with aiming a SNAC at a Serenity and a Salvager is very minor, same is the possibility with hitting it with a Nova. So the size doesn't matter in this case, but you all people talk about it like it was the most important thing of all times.
Also it's very flat making it compensate for its size.
Quote:-You've only got 7 turrets, and they have fairly poor arcs
That are gunboat turrets.
Quote:-You pay twice as much for the ship compared to the BWT
The amount of money you can make with Salvager is not even comparable to what you can do with BWT.
Quote:In exchange you get fair ridiculous survivability through a large ridiculous supply of nanobots/shield batteries, access to gunboat turrets (though limited to a light 400k powercore, despite being larger than heavy gunboats).
+ the ability to mine Premium Scrap.
So to summarize, the Salvager is literally the thing that shouldn't exist within Discovery because it is too good solo. You don't need other people to mine, because your cargo hold is enough. You don't need escorts because you can mount a cap8 on it and still be a viable transport ship, you can also mount gunboat turrets. And on top of that, it's mostly used by Junkers - the ID that most players use for powertrading because their diplomacy is so good that with their cap8 salvagers they can easily run to the nearest lawful base, laugh at you, then undock and be free to go because they're transports and 3.4.