The problem with the idea of a ship that is only useful for the player
Oh I fully understand that that is an issue. A player can only pilot so many ships at one time, and having too many "player only ships" limits your fleet choices.
Sure I'd probably pilot one over a frigate, but I start the game with a hammerhead or an apogee...
Well if you skip past the early game and get a cruiser and destroyer for free at the start of the game, no wonder you see the value of a Shrike diminish.
I'd still probably pilot a tempest over it and maybe a wolf as well.
Tempest should be up there, or even above mesuda in terms of hard to get. While shrike should be more accessible early on, as the wolf upgrade.
The ship can't run from fighters or other threats so it gets overwhelmed more easily than other ships, it's just not good,
Assuming it has 50% manuverability form either a skill or hull mod, or both it can rather easily turn 180deg and plasma burn away. Though I understand how that's less optimal for retreat than a phase skimmer.
I wouldn't take one to pilot because there are better ships to pilot (where I can do much more over the course of a whole battle)
Well early on I would disagree with you there. Generally giving the AI solid ships that are slow, simple to pilot like hammerhead, while you the player pilots something nimble and does lots of flanking. Generally speaking players can do a lot with a glass cannon.
Also, shooting an enemy in the back requires you to expose your own back to the enemy fleet which is almost always a terrible idea. Strats that work in a 1v1 don't always pan out to fleet battles (using missiles as the only way to effectively overload an enemy also nets a few kills which doesn't cut it in a fleet battle).
Oh play the campaign plenty enough to know how stuff typically goes. I am not saying "here you get a free flank at all times", in fact I think in this very thread I said something like "you need either slower targets or a more spread out battlefield to make outmanuvering work in your favor" as if the enemy fleet is too nimble themselves or too clumped, it becomes harder to do any kind of meaningful flank.
So tactics and situations that spread out the fleet are advisable(luckily there is nav and sensor points to fight over which makes that a bit easier)
By "it's irrelevant by midgame" I mean that, for a serious player, DD's have largely gotten sidelined, other than the very best player-ships (I used to run a Medusa until late-game in previous versions; in my modded game, I frequently drive a Sunder). Once you pass midgame, you're largely fielding Cruisers / Capitals; nothing else will get the job done.
Oh I don't disagree that late game for instance you have options that give you more power on the battlefield. Rather that unless we go back to 0.7.2 days where player skills have a huge impact on your power, you realistically won't be getting as much power out of a frigate or destroyer in the lategame. And again I was under the impression that that is what was desired.
So, when we talk about Destroyers and Frigates, it's important to understand that, short of major modifications to the meta (for example, getting rid of Fleet Cap / Officer Cap and just letting the player swarm with giant piles of weak ships, for example) we're talking about ships that have their major impact early and largely become less and less relevant later. It used to be that Destroyers were pretty viable into early late-game, but that's largely untrue at this point, due to needing to meet Fleet Cap / Officer Cap requirements. So, yeah, the fact that the Shrike's kinda weak-sauce and is, at best, a niche player-ship kind of matters.
Sure sure, again I don't disagree, it's just it's not like the late game is the only thing that exist. And thus it has it's uses early to midgame as a player controlled ship. Personally I agree that shrike is a tad OP starved and buffing that would either make the player life more comfortable, or give the AI an easier time using the ship. Currently the OP margins are a bit too razor thin in my opinion.
On the issue of Shrike vs. Onslaught: sure, 1 on 1 in the sim, it works out. In major battles... the Shrike's usually having placement issues and has to burn its System, unless you're spending most of your time waiting to pounce. So the presumption that:
A. You'll totally see that Onslaught coming.
B. You'll know when it's going to Burn Drive.
C. There won't be three escort DD's nearby blocking your route.
...it's usually not how that works out.
Well considering you know the enemies fleet composition at the start of the battle, there can be no surprise that an enemy has an onslaught that just burn drives out of the fog of war.
If the enemy has escort ships, then I assume you also have some ships and it's not just a single Shrike vs an onslaught and escorts. Besides the deployment cost difference would be huge and you should not be able to win that with ease regardless.
But again, I have done very same maneuvers in "real" battles,. Generally I have solid ships that can hold a frontline and I pilot faster more nimble ships and make things happen, so before the battle even starts I plan out important targets that are vulnerable to flanking, generally either take out slower ships that can maneuver or take out frigate escorts and if a position allows for it I get to dive the backline of some ship with or without support form my fleet. The result usually is that even if you can't straight out kill everything in a short burst, you can be very disruptive to the enemy fleet which leads to your own fleet having an easier time fighting them.
Sometimes, when you have 3 System charges, it's a nice little flanker...
But the shrike has 2? Though I certainly wouldn't mind having 3 max charges as that would make it easier to have fun.
more often than not, it's either irrelevant (has to stay out of range to wait for a chance) or it's dead (the eye of the storm closes while you flanked and you're done).
Usually you got to thin the lines, so to speak while you fight it out at the sidelines for nav/sensor points. After which you return to the main front line and try to flank something.
IDK what size combat engagements you've used this in, but when we're at 200+ DP,
I use the standard 300 battle size.
A ship like this, where the System's all about opportunistic offense, needs more oomph and survivability.
Oh most certainly, again it having more oomph with more damage/better flux cap and venting, would be a welcome boon as currently it doesn't pack a huge punch due to it being somewhat starved of OP.
Survivability should be only the form of better mobility, such as faster recharging/more maximum amount of plasma burn. In addition to it being able to rotate fast enough. The shield if has is enough for it's job, so is the armor and hull.
In any case I do agree that an OP boost would not be overkill for it currently as the margins are too thin for comfort or AI to use it.
Suggestions:
Increase OP to 90
Change forward-center Small Energy mount to a Small Universal
Giving 5-10 OP would go a long way to increasing comfort, and should be still okay.
Changing the forward-center small energy to small hybrid or small universal would help a lot as well, mainly due to being able to use kinetics to punch through shields a bit better.
Both or either of these things would help it quite a bit. I personally would slap on both and then done it down the next patch if needed. The good thing about these is that AI should also have an easier time using it vs giving it for instance more top speed or 3 plasma burn charges which only the player can effectively use.
Stat recap for anybody too lazy to look them up.
People claim there is no use for the ship. I gave a simple example of what the ship is better at. Does it really not suffice? What exactly do you expect from a destroyer class ship?