I'm thinking about purchasing a Junker Salvage Frigate with one of my characters. But before I pump 100 million into Viques Shipyardm I'd like to know some things about this ship.
How is it classified? Transport, Cruiser, Gunboat, ... ?
What about the agility? Is it easy to move through scrap fields or rather hard to miss asteroids?
Defence capabilities? Am I abled to stand one or two attacks from the Wilde or the Nomad NPCs?
It's a transport. Despite what others say, it has a transport shield, and thrusts at transport speed, not gunboat speed. It is also not as agile as a gunboat, but still handles better than most transports. It takes a little getting used to but it's fun to fly.
It's not a heavy combat ship. It can defend well and get you out of a scrap with a bomber, but 2 bombers and your in trouble. If you want to use it as a combat vessel I suggest flying in group with fighters or bombers.
It's not specifically a combat ship. So if you're flying alone, avoid trouble. If you use it with a group of friends flying fighters and bombers, it's excellent as a fire support vessel and for mopping up the leftovers after the fight.
It does become your foe's primary target very quickly, even when used with supporting fighters, so save up for the cap armor. You will need it.
.:j:.Salvager - Junker Congress (Salvage Frigate) := Recipient of the Yanagi Defense Medal
.:j:.Salvager.VHF - Collector
.:j:.Salvager.B - Recycler
.:j:.Salvager.B2 - Waran
"Good news everyone. I suddenly and unexpectedly have job vacancies for an entire spaceship crew!"
As an exploration vessel, no. There are plenty more suitable vessels for exploring with, like Zoner vessels. The Salvage frigate is best suited for the task it's named after; salvaging. Hang around friendly pirates and mop up dropped cargo, or use it for mining scrap fields.
It's simply too slow, bulky and cumbersome to make an effective explorer, however for the average Junker occupations it's ideal.
.:j:.Salvager - Junker Congress (Salvage Frigate) := Recipient of the Yanagi Defense Medal
.:j:.Salvager.VHF - Collector
.:j:.Salvager.B - Recycler
.:j:.Salvager.B2 - Waran
"Good news everyone. I suddenly and unexpectedly have job vacancies for an entire spaceship crew!"
I would agree with my fellow .:j:. members generally. Many of the Junker Congress members own Salvage Frigates and enjoy using them. It is a great mining/scrapping ship, a decent trading vessel, and can defend itself well enough in combat.
That said, it's kind of a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none ship. It is easy to name lots of other ships that are better in each individual role. But it would be hard to recommend a better all-in-one ship for a Junker.
It's not a gunboat, and should't be treated as such...sure, it can mount 6 GB turrets, but, due to it's plant, handling and size, it can't fight like one. However, it is definitely more than a transport. A well-thought loadout could see you easily holding off or killing a few fighters, and, with the addition of some heavier guns, you can put some serious hurt on transports, possibly even larger ships (most larger ships have the good sense to stay away from Junker bases, tho...the constant pinging tends to dissuade them, as such, I have yet to test it in that role).
As to how it behaves in it's natural environment, it's no Collector...but that's not to say it's useless. Small horizontal profile means you will dodge the worst of the asteroids, and it's turning is reasonable for it's size.
So far, mine has been used for scrapping, trading, base defence and....uhh..."elimination of business rivals".
Also makes a good pirate ship, you can load it up with 2 gunboat pulse turrets and 2 gunboat battle razors, and have another player tag along in either a bomber or fighter (for the cruise disruptor).
Also makes a fairly good defense ship for the junker's scrap fields, unwanted scrap miners can be chased out with superior firepower.