My ISP just put up a Tradewars 2002 server available for subscribers, so I figured I’d get my feet wet again after over a decade of not having touched the thing. There is an awful lot I’ve forgotten about plying the ANSI spaceways, but one thing I recall clearly is that there’s little more frustrating than trading in a perfectly good ship for a clunker. For most of your gameplay, you’re going to be either trading or stealing, both of which require you to move around a lot and have a lot of cargo capacity. For a small minority of circumstances, you will be fighting stuff.

There are several arguments to be made in favor of ships like the Merchant Freighter, CargoTran, Mule, and Starmaster, though it’s pretty much universally understood that the Corporate Flagship and Imperial Starship are the two best overall ships in the game. Getting into the finer points of these ships’ merits is beyond the scope of this article; you can do fine with any of these. The following ships, on the other hand, are simply to be avoided:

Merchant Cruiser

     Basic Hold Cost:   10,000   Initial Holds:     20 Maximum Shields:   400
     Main Drive Cost:    1,000    Max Fighters:  2,500  Offensive Odds: 1.0:1
       Computer Cost:   20,300  Turns Per Warp:      3  Defensive Odds: 1.0:1
      Ship Hull Cost:   10,000        Mine Max:     50      Beacon Max:    50
      Ship Base Cost:   41,300     Genesis Max:      5 Long Range Scan:   Yes
 Max Figs Per Attack:      750 TransWarp Drive:     No  Planet Scanner:   Yes
       Maximum Holds:       75 Transport Range:      5 Photon Missiles:    No

You start out with one of these, but there’s no good reason to keep it when you can trade it in for a Merchant Freighter on your first day of play and get more cargo holds, faster warps, and spare change right off the bat. It’s nothing special in a scrap and not efficient for trading.

Scout Marauder

     Basic Hold Cost:    5,000   Initial Holds:     10 Maximum Shields:   100
     Main Drive Cost:    3,000    Max Fighters:    250  Offensive Odds: 2.0:1
       Computer Cost:    5,200  Turns Per Warp:      2  Defensive Odds: 2.0:1
      Ship Hull Cost:    2,750        Mine Max:      0      Beacon Max:    10
      Ship Base Cost:   15,950     Genesis Max:      0 Long Range Scan:   Yes
 Max Figs Per Attack:      250 TransWarp Drive:     No  Planet Scanner:   Yes
       Maximum Holds:       25 Transport Range:      0 Photon Missiles:    No

She’s fast, but no faster than a Merchant Freighter, and with under half the cargo capacity. It gets great per-fighter combat odds, but only carries 250 of them. If you find yourself in a position where this is the only ship you can afford, trade up as soon as you can, and shame on you for not keeping a little money in the bank.

Tholian Sentinel

     Basic Hold Cost:    5,000   Initial Holds:     10 Maximum Shields: 4,000
     Main Drive Cost:   10,000    Max Fighters:  2,500  Offensive Odds: 1.0:1
       Computer Cost:   25,000  Turns Per Warp:      4  Defensive Odds: 1.0:1
      Ship Hull Cost:    7,500        Mine Max:     50      Beacon Max:    10
      Ship Base Cost:   47,500     Genesis Max:      1 Long Range Scan:   Yes
 Max Figs Per Attack:      800 TransWarp Drive:     No  Planet Scanner:    No
       Maximum Holds:       50 Transport Range:      3 Photon Missiles:    No

Sorry, it just isn’t worth the money. 400% fighter strength on the defensive sounds good but there’s just no fun to it. Worthless as a trading vessel, worthless as an attacking vessel. Just not worth the credits.

Interdictor Cruiser

     Basic Hold Cost:    5,000   Initial Holds:     10 Maximum Shields: 4,000
     Main Drive Cost:   50,000    Max Fighters:100,000  Offensive Odds: 1.2:1
       Computer Cost:  380,000  Turns Per Warp:     15  Defensive Odds: 1.2:1
      Ship Hull Cost:  104,000        Mine Max:    200      Beacon Max:   100
      Ship Base Cost:  539,000     Genesis Max:     20 Long Range Scan:   Yes
 Max Figs Per Attack:    15000 TransWarp Drive:     No  Planet Scanner:   Yes
       Maximum Holds:       40 Transport Range:     20 Photon Missiles:    No

If there’s an argument for the Tholian Sentinel, there may be an argument for the Interdictor. Would be a good attack vessel were it not for the prohibitive turns-per-warp stat. Its good personal transporter range makes it easy to leave behind, but it’s hard to justify spending over 500,000 credits on a ship you’re going to basically abandon somewhere.

I’m generally disinclined to buy ships like the Corellian Battleship or Havoc Gunstar in favor of the Starmaster, but I understand they have their merits.