Primary failing: It is lacking in maneuverability even with the constant zero-flux boost from SO and Evasive Action 1, and has trouble lining up on targets blessed with the gift of movement.
I
could swap out blast doors for aux thrusters, but then it would be literally bleeding crew every time it did it's job as an anger magnet.
I
could also swap SO for UI, aux. thrusters and something else, but then I lose the dissipation to free-fire all guns, and I lose rotation speed boost even with the extra thrusters as it is then tied to flux for maneuverability.
I
could lose the torpedoes and run guns only but then I lose a significant fraction of the punch this thing has, and the ability to overload targets that are edging thier flux caps by flickering shields to dissipate and fire. (Plus missiles are the funnest weapons.)
I
could lose the vulcans to free up more OP, but the fixed forward shields mean and lack of maneuverability means that without rear PD the Dominator regularly suffers from a terminal case of
missile suppository syndrome.
I
could swap the vulcans for MGs, but would only be a gain of 4 OP in return for a vastly less effective PD screen.
I
could swap the devastators for something smaller, but that would mean giving up PD shotguns and splash damage for either mark 9s (and swap the autos for LAGs, which is a poor loadout that struggles with anything with actual armour) or hellbores (which are not bad, but need the autos downgrading to singles and the mortars removing in order to fit thrusters, but you still lose your main PD screen which is painful).
The lateral guns could really do with being upgraded to LAGs, but there isn't enough OP. Mortars aren't really fast enough to reliably hit frigates and fighters.
The forward smalls would be better as railguns for the extra penetration and range, but autocannons are adequate.
Standard flaks are fine and do everything I need them to.
ITU would be useful, but not useful enough to warrant the extra hassle of constantly replacing crew by swapping with doors.
Flux capacity is down a bit due to the (D)elightful mods, but repairing it for an extra 1000 cap is not worth the loss of the deployment/maint. bonus. I don't care about the other damage mods at all. If I could pick a single mod to repair that would not be a problem. (I don't think that will ever be a thing though.)
In the end, the compromise I ended up with was:
Which loses penetration and range on it's forward turrets in exchange for a boost in PD coverage and enough reduction in weapon flux to swap vents for thrusters.
It's still not as dangerous as an 'old' Domi, it feels much more vulnerable and doesn't have all the caps and QoL mods that it's 0.7 counterpart has.
It is not awful, but requires being closer to targets to be effective than I usually like to get. A mediocre but functional ship.
Hardly the 'best' of anything let alone everything.
I am however still looking for all these OP I'm supposed to have left over for extras.