@ Alex: I forgot to take into account of possible flux use with the Entropy special.
Ah, yeah, I reduced its flux cost a lot. For the Harbinger, I've been partial to using Phase Lances - there's such a nice synergy there with firing, cloaking to dissipate soft flux while also making the lances cool down faster, and emerging to fire again. You can't keep the entropy amplifier up the entire time, but it's still a nice alpha bonus. I might remove the energy damage penalty from QD - added an item to take a look - since it'd be nice to retain more Harbinger build diversity.
"The system AI uses a fairly versatile scoring system to prioritize mine-targeting. For a proficiency test, it had to solo an Astral carrier – which it did, laying mines ahead of incoming fighter flight paths, then crippling the fighter wings trying to regroup behind the carrier, and eventually pressuring and destroying the carrier itself."
That's very nice, but how about going deeper?
Sounds like Astral could easily counter that by using recall whenever significant amount of fighters is threatened. Or even just setting them to regroup for a short while, if they can turn around in time.
Alright, let's theory-craft a bit!
Regrouping probably wouldn't do the job; mines usually end up between the bombers and the heavy fighters, so one or the other is going to bite it. A pure-bomber loadout might be able to pull back, but that's at best a delaying move, and when the Doom gets closer, it'll be able to mine the retreat path or just mine the bombers directly - while you can't telefrag ships (mines will spawn a ways outside their collision radius if you try), you
can telefrag fighters. Mine placement isn't exact but it doesn't have to be.
Recall device is again a delaying tactic, and it's, what, 50% of the base flux capacity. Would save the fighters, sure, but the resulting tactical situation would be worse than what it started with - the Doom is closer, its mines are recharging rapidly (and it almost certainly has some left as well), and flux is high, so another recall would likely result in critical levels.
In a not-1-vs-1, though, both would be useful tactics - and I'd imagine the player could leverage them to win a 1 vs 1. ... actually, that'd be fun to try - let me give it a quick shot.
First try - got completely wrecked by the Doom, dealt zero hull damage. Getting cute with the fighters ultimately accomplished nothing - they survived longer, but couldn't do anything. At some point, the Doom is close enough that it starts placing mines both in front and behind you while also firing Reapers and Sabots and it just gets bad.
Second try - managed to win, albeit with the fighters mostly dead, and taking some damage. Mainly had to do with staggering Squall fire to keep constant pressure on the Doom; the Daggers managed to get a few hits in when it unphased unwisely, and then eventually I wore it down, although by that point, despite whatever trickery, the fighters were down to almost nothing.
Overall, feels like fighter-finesse here is best reserved as a player tactic - I don't think the AI could judge well enough when it's worth it, since it's so often not, and it'd probably look like it was bugging out besides, if you saw it recall (in either sense) nearly immediately on launching and didn't think too hard about it.
