Theory Crafting

Its 4d6h2. He suppressed the ending, but its actually considering only 2 of the dice in the probabilities. So the odds are low but you can still get a 4 in 4d6h2+2, even though in 4d6+2 you will always succeed with at least 6.

Ah, of course. Thank you.

Unless I could get my hands on some Artifact Weaponry (seriously, a Nightfall Combine would be unparalleled, but a Tools of Ill Omen or SamaelTech would be incredible too)
Though I might be able to do some in-character research/investigation (Talk) to find the location of one. There are always some shady people willing to sell info, it's just finding them that's the trick.

---

I think a Mastercrafted weapon is my best bet.
So base cost of Mastercrafted Medium Advanced Weapon would be 600.
My thought would be to get Phasing, maybe trying to hope for a possibility of Customized Mod with less FIX Maintenance requirement later.
Though if I dont think that is in the cards maybe just getting Customized Mastercraft Medium Advanced Weapon would be my best option.

---

The possibility of a Mastercraft Combat Field Uniform for either Flexible (Encu 0) or customized (AC 17) is pretty tempting too, eventually when I have an extra 10k to get that...

Though I would love to try and work towards obtaining an Artifact, I don't know the likelyhood of getting one. Or more I don't know how possible it even is.
Either way, It'll be some time before before I can get either. We'll see what happens in this next adventure, what shows up on this salvage mission.

---

The other possibility is seeing if I can pay for a fully custom masterwork weapon, paying for the design and construction, and finding someone able to design it.

I also wonder if it would be possible to order a Mastercrafted Flexible Shield.

My envisioning of this item is more that it is made with advanced alloys and methods that make it lighter and just as useful.
The total would be 5,100.

Honestly, I am hoping we get to find some once we get into the second phase of our adventure!

On another note, while thinking about a Free Merchant, I realized it should probably never mount a Fusion Beam. It easily can and is the most effective use of its hard points, but the Beam would be worth as much as the rest of the ship. Meaning bad people would be gunning specifically for your ship to steal the Fusion Beam. They would be willing to rip apart your entire ship just to get that weapon.

A plasma beam? I don't see a fusion beam.
But yeah. Unless you have a fighter escorting it that may be too tempting a target.
Honestly if you were getting a free trader I would think switching out the shuttle for a real fighter with a sand thrower and having a free trader with something like a multi focal battery and a Augmented Plating or Hardened Polyceramic Overlay makes sense.

If I could choose 2 weapons for a Cruiser it would be:
Grav Cannon or Spike Inversion Projector
Plasma Beam
Flak Emitter Battery

The Smart Cloud is tempting instead of the Flack Emmiter, but only if one expects several fighters as enemies.
Besides all that is an incredible amount of power(20/25) and mass(9/8)

Yeah, I meant Plasma Beam.

Also, a Free Merchant is just a frigate sized hull, so it can't really have a fighter with it. (At least not easily.)

The cruiser sized hull is the Bulk Freighter. We have a slightly modified version of the Bulk Freighter.

For the Bulk Freighter, the Grav Cannon and Spike Inversion Projector are just not options because they require 3 hard points, and our ship only has 2.

The Flak Emitter Battery is an option, but it takes an extra Mass, which cuts into the cargo space. That's why I focus on the Plasma Beam.

The Best Ship I can design:

---

---

Though if I was to outfit a Free Merchant all the way I would consider something like this:


Optional Auto Targeting system depending if there is expected to be a gunner readily available. if not advised to take.

The Hardened Polyceramic Overlay is useless on the Free Merchant and basically useless on the fighter. Empty cargo space is more useful.

Also, the fighter should likely have a system drive for more power and mass.

For some reason I just assumed the fighter /shuttle didn't have a spike drive so the system drive.
I think they should both have system drives.

I disagree with the Hardened Polyceramic Overlay on the fighter. It makes sure its 5 armor is more useful. And for a fighter I'm not worried about extra cargo space. That's for shuttles, the fighter is for extra defense.
It is useless on the shuttle, but I was thinking of the Augmented Plating for the shuttle. It's already going to be outgunned or out sped or both by anything else.so some durability I think is good.
Though I was thinking a Smugglers hold for the shuttle.

Actually. Not what I look over the 19 ship weapon options I see that only 3 have AP 10. making the Hardened Polyceramic Overlay unhelpful to all but those.
It looks like fighters just hope to not get hit?
It looks like there is almost nothing that wouldnt take out a fighter with an average hit.
I still dont know if I'd take it off if money were no worry, just in case. but it's not worth much.

A ship needs a minimum armor of 10 to make Hardened Polyceramic Overlay worth the mass. It does nothing for ships with and armor of 5 or less. And mass is the biggest factor, even over the cost.

Why? if something has AP 10 vs armor 5 with hardening 5, it cancels out.

Your ship has 5 armor. You have HPO armor. You are hit by an AP10 Plasma Beam that rolls 11 damage. The HPO armor negates 5 points of AP, reducing the Plasma Beams AP to 5. That perfectly penetrates your 5 armor and you take the 11 points of damage.

If you didn't have HPO armor and took the same hit from a Plasma Beam, the AP 10 would penetrate the 5 armor, causing the same 11 points of damage.

If, however, you had 10 armor and HPO and took that same hit from a Plasma Beam, then the HPO would reduce the AP to 5. The AP then only negates half the armor, from 10 to 5, meaning the incoming damage is reduced by 5, so you only take 6 points of damage, instead of all 11.

You need either 10 points of armor, or a weapon that only has AP 5 to make HPO worth something.

It took me a minute but I understand the math now. Yes
I adjusted the fighter to reflect this information.

I still don't think the Free Merchant should have it either, as it increases what its price would otherwise be by 25%, costs two mass, and provides zero benefit.

Also, I recommend sticking with just TL4 weapons. In general you are going to have to find TL5 weapons; you ordinarily can't buy them, even at their ridiculous prices. Count on TL4; take advantage of TL5 when you get lucky.

Yeah, for some reason I thought it had 10 armor, I think just looking at a lot of stats made me cross wires.
I'm not worried about cost or availability for that. More an experiment in what can be done.