| Factional variants of the Starbridge | |||
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| Civilian | Modified | Pirate | Rebellion |
The Sigma Shipyards Starbridge is a civilian ship in Escape Velocity Nova. This craft is unavailable for most of the Vell-os Storyline or if your shareware trial passes 30 days.
"The Starbridge is a relatively new concept in ship design, in a Federation where ancient traditions are the rule. This vessel channels power straight from a Thorium Nuclear Furnace into its large impulse drives, bypassing life-support and even jump engines. Ancillary power is then provided by turbines mounted behind the engines. This design provides very accurate control of thrust, and great power in normal space. The single drawback is that the turbines must be very strong, pushing the price up by a large margin." ― Buying a Starbridge
The so-called light capital Starbridge is one of the most versatile civilian starships, capable of acting out any role from freighter to courier to pocket battleship. This is the original version, designed for commerce. Many militarized versions have been conceptualized by insurgents, privateers and even Sigma themselves.
250 days after the beginning of the game, the SB can be upgraded to the Mod Starbridge through a Sigma Starbridge Upgrade. In the Rebellion Storyline only, it can also be upgraded to the Pirate or Rebel Starbridges through similar outfits.
The Starbridge is featured in Naev as a destroyer-class vessel. It's produced by Krain Industries, who also produce the Kestrel cruiser-class vessel in that setting.
Stats[]
"The master of the gorgeous sports-ship-turned-merchant parked in bay 4 tells you that the Starbridge is simply the most advanced ship mankind has ever created. The guy seems competent enough; he would have to be, to earn the extortionate price that Starbridges go for these days. His asking price isn't cheap, but a Starbridge handles like a fighter, has capital scale weaponry, and carries a decent load of cargo. This makes it a worthwhile addition to your fleet." ― Hiring a Starbridge
Class A (#133)[]
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The Starbridge is functionally a more nimble but slower Valkyrie with updated electronics and additional expansion and cargo space.
Shipyard Variants[]
Stat changes are relative to the stats of the basic model. The basic model is Class A.
Poorly maintained Second-hand (#367)[]
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This shipvariant serves no purpose but to illustrate how even the mightiest of ships can fall.
Well maintained Second-hand (#368)[]
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This shipvariant should seriously be considered for its myriad of included outfits for only a small increase in price.
Wild Variants[]
These variants are unavailable in the shipyard and must be captured in the field.
Class B (#195)[]
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This shipvariant is slightly faster but is otherwise inferior, even in loadout which has been reduced to a trio of Light Blasters.
Class C (#196)[]
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A standard Mass Expansion has been filled up with a curious combination of weapons: light guns and medium turrets, complemented with weak missiles. It'll plink from behind its strengthened shields.
Class C #2 (#198)[]
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This shipvariant is a "light bomber" version of the Starbridge, gaining speed to unleash an appreciable number of Hellhounds but losing much protection, cargo and equipment space.
Class C #3 (#199)[]
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This shipvariant has sacrificed a great deal of speed and agility to mount a pair of heavy turrets. Note this SB upgrades backwards to the quick Class C instead of to the Class D.
This is the Starbridge type flown by Krane during Assassinate Krane in the Heraan Storyline.
Class D (#197)[]
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The Class D boasts the premier statistics of any original Starbridge, but its loadout is mostly focused on saturation of medium blasts with a small number of massive missiles. When freed up however, more than double the equipment space of the basic SB can be put to use on better weapons.
Technical Variants[]
The following shipvariant is unavailable in the shipyard and serves a particular gameplay purpose.
Class A #2 (#398)[]
This variant is identical to the basic ship, besides being 100k cheaper. It is modeled after the additional Pirate variants that activate when the player is ready for combat, but it does not actually appear in any düdes.
Gameplay Analysis[]
"I prefer this ship over the Valkyrie, but only because of the style points it has. This is just a cool ship. It has great stats, and can be used as a warship to take out much larger vessels (pirating pirates is fun and profitable). I usually go straight from a Heavy Shuttle to a Starbridge." ― EVula Survival Guide
The Starbridge is a ship that many traders who can afford both the licenses and the ship itself will consider buying. The weaponry is decent and the shielding is high (for a trade vessel) so many free-ranging citizens buy one for added security. This is a not inconsiderable expense, so expect to have at least a million credits before eyeing the SB.
The original Starbridge is the only SB that is making a genuine attempt to be a freighter with its 30 ton cargo bay.
The SB just barely comes in under a 1 day jump, making it a great ship for a United Shipping courier, as long as 4 Battery Packs are installed. Progressing this storyline is a good way to improve your relationship with the major factions and the cross-faction deliveries are a decent way to make money. Getting Hypergate access first will reduce the clicking required to make dozen-jump deliveries.
While any way you choose to equip the Starbridge will be excellent in its own right, one of the most effective weapon combinations is an Illegal Ion Cannon with Hail Chainguns. This combination is one of the best upgrades to any ship but is particularly useful with the SB since they all exhibit excellent levels of agility, expansion room and shielding. Taking advantage of this configuration through piracy and plundering of large vessels such as Fed and Pirate Carriers or even Leviathans yields large sums of money. Remember to watch your legal status when doing so. If you like your SB enough to keep it through the entire game, this is a good weapons configuration to keep. Another way to approach the SB's loadout is to equip either Thunderhead Lances or 100mm Fixed Railguns if you'd like to specialize further into close or long range combat.
Videos[]
Images[]
The Starbridge was modelled by Scott Vardy, torn back to individual polygons and put back together by Dave Williams for Lightwave, then remodelled by Dave with textures by either Philip Chick or Dave.
Appearance[]
The Starbridge is shaped like a bike seat. It appears to be inspired by the Baudo-class star yacht from Star Wars.
Ship Spins[]
This ship has 36 frames per set and 3 sets for 108 frames in total. It banks when turning in one direction for a certain amount of time. The port engine rotates up when banking left and rotates down while banking right, while the starboard engine rotates down when banking left and rotates up when banking right.
- Ship: 48x48
- Engine: 72x72
Representative Images[]
Additional Images[]
