It's not official stat-wise, but I'm a big fan of the VCX-350.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/VCX-350_light_freighter
LibrariaNPC has a great stat-block for it in his Freighter thread, which is an amazing resource...
It also looks great, and let's be real... that matters.
Still have yet to see anything here beat the Citadel Class Light Freighter.
Pound for pound, it beats anything in its class.
Also, when looking at vehicle attachments, I do not care what anyone says, at the top of your list should be the Advanced Targeting Array. Even if you do not end up getting it, one should at the very least heavily consider it. Space ships are notoriously fragile and combat can quickly become a game of rocket tag. To possibly get up to 3 upgrades when firing, is worth 10x its weight in credits.
For fighting, the Citadel or a heavily modified HWK are tops in the freighter class.
HOWEVER, as you suggest, space combat quickly degenerates into rocket tag, so MANY parties actively try to avoid it. This aversion to combat leads many parties to consider other ships as better for their purposes than the Citadel or HWK.
If the party is not regularly involved in space combat, all the awesomesauce that is the Citadel is wasted. This is why I tend to recommend other ships before the Citadel. For an Edge party that's not blowing things up constantly, a 720, Gozanti or other ship will serve them better through versatility than a Citadel will.
Kinda disagree. But its cool. Differing opinions should be accepted.
The problem I see with a Gozanti, is that while it is a great Sil5 ship, it is just that, a Sil5 ship. You cannot do any of the typical combat actions in it. And though it has an impressive amount of weaponry, those turrets need to be manned. For a small party that could be a burden that may not be worth it. Plus those high hull points are nice, but are also expensive to repair.
Do not get me wrong, like I said, it is a great ship. One of my favorites. But to me, it is a ship that you upgrade into, when funding and more importantly, an identity is established. It is not something you should get right out of the gate.
It's not official stat-wise, but I'm a big fan of the VCX-350.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/VCX-350_light_freighter
LibrariaNPC has a great stat-block for it in his Freighter thread, which is an amazing resource...
It also looks great, and let's be real... that matters.
Yeah I love the VCX-350... the only problem is that it's a New Republic era ship.
In our current game, my players highjacked a half-completed prototype. They've been running around the galaxy to finish it and have it shine.
It looks badass and we like it that way
Does the Citadel-class have any ability to land on a planetary surface?
That fixed vertical "wing" on the bottom would seem to indicate "no". At only 36 meters, I'd think it would otherwise be able to.
There have been unofficial artist concepts that had the ventral fin folding to the side, while the two vertical wings on the side rotate 90 degrees. You could also have the ventral fin rotating up and out of the way.
It would be up to the GM to decide how this would actually work in your game, but it should not be too much of a stretch of the imagination if the GM decides to allow it.