Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: n3xuiz on January 17, 2020, 08:53:24 PM

Title: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: n3xuiz on January 17, 2020, 08:53:24 PM
the way i've played starsector is rush through the early game and go for bigger and better ships. before mods that meant onslaught and paragon. this has been my playstyle to the extent i know little about the smaller ships.

i am looking for a small ship that i can deploy and that can hold its own in battle. i saw some on streams but i can't recall their names.

my modlist (https://www.dropbox.com/s/r45pnbsshvkt8p9/starsector_mods.png?dl=0)
if you can recommend any that are small and deadly (and if possible also can stay in the fight for more than a minute) that would really help me round out my fleet. because i have everything else now i just need a fast ship that can pick off the things my battleships are too sluggish for.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Flix on January 17, 2020, 11:58:21 PM
Well in vanilla you have the Tempest. Fast, deadly equally strong as an attack ship or defensive and scales really well the more of them you have. A bit expensive though. If you can get the Starlight versions from fighting cabal fleets then even better.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: n3xuiz on January 18, 2020, 12:08:45 AM
lol i just 2 minutes ago got a cabal tempest :)
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Eji1700 on January 18, 2020, 12:58:21 AM
Define "holds its own"...or small.

Lots of frigates can punch way above their level with the right loadout, position, and piloting.  A standard wolf can do some serious burst damage left to its own devices in the blindspot of someone's shields BUT a good portion of that damage is contingent on either running something like a heavy/mining blaster and doing hit and run, or landing some harpoon/reaper/torp shots.  By "holds its own" i'm assuming you mean something that can usually have an effect on a fight, even skill less.

That said there's still certainly some that accomplish that better than others.   I'm not going to include destroyers because even a basic hammerhead can wreck havoc in the right spot.

Also anything phase counts (even the gremlin), although you often deploy them, gank a few ships in the back, then retreat, maybe after cleaning up stragglers.

Vanilla-

Hyperion: As someone else already said it's the vanilla "super ship".  A frigate with an absurd deploy cost.  It's very bursty as you can generally build it to alpha strike, teleport to a weak spot, blast, and get out, but even after that you can usually hop around the battlefield popping smaller ships until your CR gets low.

Scarab: probably underpowered as far as super ships go (mostly due to the lack of great energy weapons to pair with it's time dilation) but it's still a pretty impressive thing to fly.

Tempest: My personal favorite.  Lots of viable loadouts, the drones give you DPS, very maneuverable, and fun to pilot (especially when you get comfortable with directional shields).  Helps that it's also more common(I think) and less DP than the other two.

That said a wolf/lasher can also do in a pinch (although developer request- med/low tech super frigates pls).

As for the mods I know the following have good to VERY good frigate/destroyer class ships:

Black Rock
Dassault
Diable
Anything cabal

And i'm less sure but recall having fun with frigates with:
Neutrino
Tyrador
Shadowyards

The rest i haven't played enough to comment.

Further i seem to recall some of the pirate and vanilla friendly mods add a few very good low/med tech like frigates, but I'm not sure which are in which.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: n3xuiz on January 18, 2020, 01:10:10 AM
wow thanks. i'll look into your suggestions. i'm very bad at piloting but now is as good a time as any to get better.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Serenitis on January 18, 2020, 03:01:24 AM
If you're going to be flying a frigate 'full time', it might be worth going into the menu settings and checking the invert turn to cursor box (if you haven't already).
So you don't have to give yourself cramp holding <shift> down all the time.
Highly agile ships (not just frigates) benefit quite a bit from being able to be controlled like this.

Wolf is a good starting point since it's trivial to acquire one, and is a good all-round ship.
It's fairly quick and performs well as a hit-and-run attacker. It's mobility system is very helpful for this.

Lasher is another easy to get hold of ship, which takes the opposite approach. It's slower, but has better armour so it can stay in the thick of things longer.
And it's ammo feeder system allows it to punch up very well.
It combines with the 'safety overrides' mod better (imo) than any other frigate. But maybe look into that after you're comfy flying 'normally'.

Tempest is possibly the safest frigate option. It's a bit more difficult to get hold of, but not supper hard.
It does however have a built-in safety net in the form of a pair of drones which enemies will often shoot at instead of you, which gives you a lot more breathing room.
Those drones are also your point defence coverage. Good in that you don't have to spend OP or flux, or worry about positioning to have PD shoot at things. Not so good in that they can be destroyed and leave you with nothing. You do get constant free replacements though.
Tempest also scales amazingly well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBw32bjg2og

Hyperion. Rare enough that you might not see one at all in any given game.
Personally I'm not a fan as the teleporting needs the mouse pointer for positioning but so does maneuvering, so there's a conflict between what you're trying to do with the ship. And since this often needs to be done in a hurry my old brain struggles a bit trying to deal with this.
Other people seem to do okay with it though, so if you get the chance give it a go - you might be one of them.

low tech super frigates pls
SO Lasher.
It's a disgusting little monster.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: TaLaR on January 18, 2020, 05:48:55 AM
Player-piloted Afflictor is the most powerful frigate by far. Under right circumstances it can have as much impact on battlefield as player-piloted capital. And PPT problem is solved by simply swapping multiple Afflictors.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Cyber Von Cyberus on January 18, 2020, 08:39:20 AM
Diable Avionics has the Versant assault Wanzer, a frigate sized wanzer that combines high speed and maneuverability with a decent shield and some good (albeit very flux hungry) built in weapons. A good choice for any fleet.

DME has the Snow Goose destroyer, a very speedy ship with a phase skimmer and some amazing damage potential if using DME weapons, although it cannot defend itself from fighters since its's built in PD weapons won't target them, however it's mobility makes up for it. Well worth the cost, but is also very rare.

And if you have the Ship and Weapon pack mod (which I highly recommend) there is the Excelsior in case you wish to be a show off (or die horribly because this thing is a monster to control) extreme speed and maneuverability and inverted flux mechanics, its ship system will absorb projectiles and convert them to flux, your main weapon consums it and deals more damage the more you have, its phase cloak can repair the ship's hull however it also requires and drains flux to function. It's can be a very deadly ship but will mostly be a flying coffin if you don't know how to use it.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Daynen on January 19, 2020, 12:45:34 PM
One of the best uses for a frigate is to split up large fleets and distract them long enough for your main forces to mow the now-divided enemy.  Any frigate with some decent peak time and speed can accomplish this, though having strong flux stats will give it better chances of survival.  Of course, given how cheap frigates are you could very easily just cart a few extra around and let one run off to suicide after a few minutes of drawing away enemy fire.  Ever let a couple of Omens run amok before a huge fleet?  Guaranteed to draw off at least a few cruisers while your forces flank them.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Cyber Von Cyberus on January 19, 2020, 04:56:11 PM
Another fun frigate in vanilla is the Monitor, put safety overides, unstable injector, hardened shields, activate the ship's fortress shields and become an unkillable bowling ball.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Eji1700 on January 19, 2020, 05:39:08 PM

SO Lasher.
It's a disgusting little monster.

It is, but I'm thinking something with a heavier deploy cost and hitting much harder.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: bobucles on January 19, 2020, 08:02:44 PM
Another fun frigate in vanilla is the Monitor, put safety overides, unstable injector, hardened shields, activate the ship's fortress shields and become an unkillable bowling ball.
You haven't truly lived until you've killed an Onslaught with an Astral... with a Monitor.  ;D
Edit: One more for fun.

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Null Ganymede on January 19, 2020, 08:55:25 PM
There's two effective frigate flagship types mentioned so far: murderboat vs distraction.

The murderboat has some combination of SO, lots of guns, and an offensive weapon system. Combat skills increase the ship sizes it can kill before they can retreat to friendly cover. To maximize flux-limited damage, abusing kinetic "point defense" weapons for offense is popular. You usually can't fit in fragmentation damage and have to rely on explosive to chew through hull. Low-damage strike missiles are brought to sustain through peak operating time.

The distraction relies on high mobility and AI tendency to focus your flagship over anything else. It saves friendly ships in trouble, distracts major enemy threats, but can also carry a few strike missiles or antimatter blasters to exploit opportunities. High peak performance time and a mobility system to quickly re-position across the battlefield are preferred.

There's not really any other playstyles. Maybe a Hound in the corner of the map, with nothing but an Operations Center fitted? I also haven't tried an Afflictor playthrough focused on its shipsystem - there's not that many frigates with high-impact support shipsystems.


Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Morbo513 on January 20, 2020, 12:27:12 PM
I play almost completely frigate-centric so I'm always looking to apply new answers to that same question.

In my latest playthrough, I've found that the Invictus (From II) with Safety Overrides, Unstable Injector, and max flux vents/capacitors, with a mix of anti-shield and anti-armour weapons seem to be very effective in the AI's hands, and especially those of the player. They go from push-overs under overwhelming attack to being able to dish it out single-handedly. With the right mix of weapons and additional hullmods, and especially fleet logistics and officers, they will mince through Pirates and medium Hegemony, League and Diktat fleets.

Arcus Autocannon (II), Williamson Shotgun (HMI) or Light Rail Driver for Anti-shield; Contenders (?), Bullpups (?), Blaze Guns (DME), INM Assault Guns (BRDY), or standard Light Assault Guns. An EMP weapon or two amongst the ships can go a long ways too, especially DME's Hybrid Pulser.

This is my previous flagship:
(https://i.gyazo.com/43c83c3265943c54577f44d6c1759a41.png)

(https://i.gyazo.com/bc4e5d4fb339503c6af4a58ad3340fd8.png)
The out-dated standard loadout - 2 PPCs (Mayorate), 2 Shotguns, 1 LAG - I wouldn't recommend extreme modifications without an officer and/or good stats from Starship Legends. Good pressure on shields, high mobility, the ability to do significant damage when they come down; Now I use those Hybrid Pulsers insead of the PPCs for EMP damage and better flux efficiency. A Straff Tactical cannon or Stitch Gun in the central hardpoint can be good alongside assault weapons in the energy mounts, eg. Pulsar Cannons or Blaze Guns

For the most part, esp with fleet logistics, they will last long enough to see the majority of battles through. In support of a more cruiser/carrier-centric fleet, they can quickly run down fleeing ships, eat up the wave of frigates at the start of a battle, create openings for larger ships to exploit.

 I'd strongly recommend getting Automatic Orders - I'd also recommend setting it up as such: Auto-retreat at critical malfunction risk, and 70% hull damage; Allow AO to override officer personalities and if you have one controlling one of these ships, make sure they're aggressive or steady. They can both dip into and out of range, but struggle if there are large numbers of fighters.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Igncom1 on January 20, 2020, 01:13:30 PM
I love the Omen-Class.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Daynen on January 22, 2020, 11:58:43 PM
I'll admit for a long time I seriously underestimated frigates.  The omen changed my mind.  It's the most tenacious little point-defense boat I've ever seen and if it gets behind shields that lightning can do some serious damage.  They may be small and fragile but if you want maximum weapon slots for your deployment points frigates can provide.  Load up a bunch of kites with atropos torps and extended racks, then bring one good shield-buster flagship and WATCH THE CARNAGE.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: LordofFancy on January 23, 2020, 04:46:06 PM
Wolf is solid and easy to acquire. 
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Schwartz on January 24, 2020, 05:03:34 AM
Blackrock has a couple of nice frigates too. Mantis, Weevil, that other Weevil. Shadowyards has a couple of interesting options. Other than that, Centurion is quite good. I wouldn't use a Wolf past early game, it's just too fragile and the medium energy mount requires lots of flux unless you go beam. Tempest is the better Wolf. Afflictor is top dog. Slap 2xLAG and 2xDualAC on there, add armor and extra CR if you need it.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Plantissue on January 24, 2020, 05:53:51 AM
Wolfs are useful till there are too much fighters. Piloted wolf can last for a very long time since as a human you know when to engage or not and what dangers to watch out for. I don't really see much use for Centurions personally. I don't see the use of Light Dual Autocannon on Afflictor, as Railguns are better and you have plenty of OP.

Omens are nice. They are anti missile, anti fighter, and fast. Can also disable engines and weapons. Fun ship to pilot with outsized influence on the battle.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Schwartz on January 24, 2020, 06:06:57 AM
Railguns have a wind-up time which is a negative for phase ships. DualAC has same range as LAG so extra range is not needed. Unless you go 4x Railgun. Plenty of OP is also debatable. ~20 OP in caps and vents is mandatory for me, as well as 3 hullmods. I'll take the cheaper weapons and leave the energy slot empty.
Title: Re: a good frigate / small ship
Post by: Plantissue on January 24, 2020, 07:00:48 AM
It doesn't matter anyways since if you are piloting the Afflictor, antimatter blaster has greater results.

Even if you don't want to use antimatter blaster or missiles, railguns are better than LDAC since they are more flux efficient and do more shot damage.

You can only rephase after 2 seconds has passed anyways. Since you will be using railgun or LDAC as constant damage weapon anyways the wind up time barely matters. If its AI controlled, the Afllictor will spend most of its time dancing around uselessly whilst phased unless it finds an isolated ship, so it doesn't matter too much what you give it, but railguns are still better.

Afflictor has plenty of OP. Whatever those hullmods are you don't need all those vents.