From fielding the Dragon somewhat, I'm somewhat skeptical that AAF would transform the machine into a slayer of fleets. At worst I'd roughly guesstimate it'd be slightly overtuned, but I'd expect overall average performance due to general limitations in flux, OP, and turret firing arcs. Also I'm way too busy/lazy/uninterested to actually test that change like I did with the Gladius a month ago
(Slight irrelevant nitpick with Arca's argument though, Odyssey has Plasma Burn since 0.9, not Plasma Jets)
I don't find the Dragon's current implementation to be a problem, though. Not everything's gotta be top grade after all, especially pirate equipment. I'm personally quite happy to blow up 'em all sky-high and take their ever-lovely Stalker escorts as salvage for my next deep-space expedition.
Pardon for the late reply, I've had some busy days!
The Dragon actually has a pretty nice flux dissipation, I was positively surprised by it the first time I tried it, the problem is (as you just said) that it's really hard for it to use all of its large kinetic weapon mounts unless you resort to very flux inefficient tracking/AOE weapons from other mods like the Balor Smartgun (Legio Infernalis) or the Shockweb Canister (Kadur Remnant)
Ah, I knew there was something wrong in the way I called the Odissey's special ability, but I was at bed and too tired to get up and check what the exact name was
Well, more or less every other ship from this mod has better "pound-for-pound" performance than the Dragon not because they've got more mounts or better weapon arcs, but because they all have a special ability that directly benefits their playstyle (I'll list the ones most on my mind):
1)Stalker is an up-gunned kinetic version of the Apogee and while it sacrifices the front facing large slot it retains the large missile mount, gets a plethora of new ballistic mounts, obtains a built-in Revolver wing (wich I love by the way) and even recieves the coveted Accellerated Ammo Feeder
2) Barbarian is an oddly shaped frontsider basically begging you to be overridden but that can also play as a broadsider using railguns (you'll have to skip installing PDAI for it to work) effectively being able to keep pressuring faster ships with its Burn Drive
3)Boar is a great alternative to the Falcon P when it comes to vomiting missiles but is actually a bit more durable and sacrifices the latter's agility for better chasing capabilities thanks to its Burn Drive
4)Infernus is a barely mobile array of TPCs slapped on a destroyer-sized turret with the slowest in-combat speed of any vessel (stock speed is 20 I think) and a hull rotation speed comparable to a low tech battlestation but that gets the option of a burn drive to quickly close the distance with the enemy. A bit off topic but I think the burn drive on this behemoth does not result in the ship getting a flameout even if I ram really big allies/opponents with it. Is it intended?
5)Torch more or less is a miniature Conquest with a makeshift shield generator + extended shield and offensive weapons (heavy mortar + railguns) on one side. It brings quite the heavy aount of firepower for its size and its burn ability makes it keep up with stuff running away from it.
Accellerated Ammo feeder is what I would like Odyssey to have the most of course, I won't deny my bias. Another Option would just be to turn one (or even two to fully embrace the meme) large ballistic mount into composite, allowing it to use large missile weapons and finally, finally make use of the Special Ability well enough to consider installing missiles in the first place.
Just imagine a pirate fleet with some Dragons with Double Piranha, a Gauss Cannon at the front and Double Squall at the sides. Now
THAT would make people respect it a whole lot more. Giving barely PD capable capitals too slow to catch it PTSD and all that.
Edit: Alternatively, how about giving that salvaged TPC at the front a generous weapon arc so that the Dragon can actually broadside on either side to at least utilize two of the three large ballsitic mounts on the same target? That would probably provide the ship with the most customization options, given it's already got a wide omni shield and the only reason it's not a good idea to do right now is because that TPC is fixed at the nose.
Edit: I actually managed to list the Barbarian twice in a 5 point list. Amazing.