(July 13th, 2018, 14:56)TankSinatra Wrote: The point about Kestrel is that to get the hacking/MC/drone-or-cloak setup you're going to want, you're spending 240-305 scrap (and you're reliant on stores cooperating); for the Slug C it's 85-150 while already benefiting from having two of the systems and getting extra stuff from crew kills. It's a lot to make up. In general I think Kestrel A is worse than it looks. It's got two good weapons and that's it - you're not getting anything from the crew, and it's got no upgrades on anything. They could have at least thrown in a door upgrade or some extra missiles or something.
We do agree that Slug C is better. For Kestrel A, you do need all that scrap to get the "setup you want", but you do not need all of it before sectors 3-4 in order to function with decent outcomes. A third weapon will do by itself, as will hacking or (if you got good crew draws) crew TP. This is the same reason Kestrel B is really good - it continues to be a viable option to win battles with no or minimal damage for not much investment cost into the middle sectors. Kestrel A is like that too, just not as good at it as B.
There are better ships that start with more stuff while lacking big liabilities, but there aren't so many that Kestrel A is below average. Its weapons and having manning bonus on them + evasion is enough.