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[Plantissue]

I was playing around with the Onslaught and its smaller counterpart the Dominator a bit more. Often I found myself placing lots of hullmods in a bid to make them "work" well:

Heavy Armor, as they will spend time unshielded and if the hullmod seems intended for these ships.
Auxiliary Thrusters for turning round to face enemies, especially since when unshielded, they will turn to take damage to places with the most armour, which will render them unavailable to shoot with their fixed mounts otherwise.
Armored Weapon Mounts because weapons will be likely disabled when unshielded.
Insulated Engine Assembly for the same reason as previously, only that engine disabled also prevents some weapons from targetting.
Resistant Flux Coils sd the ship may be shot by EMP weapons when unshielded, and reduction in unshielded time is great as as it is unlikely the ships can retreat to vent safely.
Automated Repair Unit is not such a necessity with the above three hullmods, but nice to have just in case as when being unshielded, something will tend to become disabled.
Reinforced Bulkhead, as they have large pools of HP.

It feels like they need one of these hullmods inbuilt to make them work better. Perhaps a unique inbuilt hullmod on the same level as Heavy Ballistic Integration or Advance Targetting Core. Or one of the two hullmods that doesn't affect a base stat which is resistant flux coils or automated repair unit should be inbuilt. Both would support their theme as tough armoured ships. Automated repair unit in particular has somewhat synergy with armoured weapon mounts and insulated engine assembly and doesn't replace them.

The only problem would be that if Ordnance Points remains the same, it would be a direct boost. But I beleive both need a boost, and an inbuilt automated repair unit hullmod adds to their theme.

[Megas]

If I pilot those ships, I would not want Heavy Armor because it hurts turning speed.  I put Heavy Armor on Onslaught once recently, and it was too sluggish at turning.  I guess it needs Auxiliary Thrusters, but taking both means not enough OP left for other stuff.

Auxiliary Thrusters is nice, but the OP cost is high enough that I cannot afford it.  I generally rely on skills to give turning speed.

If I have slow turning weapons, like heavier autocannons, Hellbore, or Gauss, I probably would not want Armored Weapon Mounts.  At least not without Advanced Turret Gyros.

I would take Resistant Flux Coils just to vent faster, if I think I may pilot the ship.  EMP protection is good too.

Automated Repair Unit combined with Damage Control 2 is very nice.  With both, weapons and engines repair quickly enough that it does not matter much if they get knocked out.

I would get Reinforced Bulkheads mainly for the guaranteed recovery after battle (if ship has no officer), especially if they were clunkers to begin with.  More hp is nice, but secondary.

If I want a built-in hullmod for Onslaught/Dominator, it would be Expanded Missile Racks.  That hullmod is expensive, and they need missiles to fight well early.

[Thaago]

I find expanded missile racks to be good value on Dominators. Since they are (very) flux limited rather than OP/slot limited, extending the flux free weapon firepower is nice.

[Ebola]

I personally edited in blast doors and resistant flux coils as hullmods, just to cement the thing as a brick wall.

[TrashMan]

Upon inspection of the codex, the one campaign stat where Onslaughts (and Legions) have it the best is CR per deployment.  Assuming officer and fleets skills so you're starting at 100%,  20% for Paragons and Odysseys means after 4 deployments in quick succession, you're suffering malfunctions.  15% for Conquests and Astrals means after 5 deployments in quick succession, you're suffering malfunctions.  Onslaughts and legions can go a full 6 deployments before starting to suffer malfunctions.  In addition, Onslaughts and Legions recover a single deployment's worth of CR in only 4 days instead of 5 for the other capitals.

Or in other words, they're reliable and don't break down as fast as high tech ships in stressful campaign situations.  It admittedly rarely comes up, but there are situations where its handy, such as raiding a heavily defended system like Askonia.  Or taking 4 Ordos one at a time.

And while people always complain about the flux dissipation of Onslaughts, their flux stats are not that bad, especially with fleet skills in a campaign.  A paragon costs 60 DP, and assuming Loadout Design 3 and no officer, caps out at 2000 flux/second (1250+150 flux distributor+600 vents), or 33.33 flux dissipation per DP.  An Onslaught caps out at 600+150+600=1350, or 33.75 flux dissipation per DP.

A conquest admittedly clocks in at 1950, or 48.75 per DP, but at the cost of taking 40% more shield damage than an Onslaught, or 133% more damage than a Paragon.  Odysseys are actually in an interesting place at 1750, or 38.88 with Onslaught quality shields.

So in a typical campaign build, Onslaughts bring just a smidgen more flux dissipation to the table than Paragons in equal DP numbers.  Given that Onslaughts have 360 OP, and Onslaught XIVs have 370 OP, there is no reason to not spend 80 OP on max vents and grab a flux distributor.  So for most player characters fleets, Onslaughts don't seem to have terrible flux stats to me.

The problem with Onslaughts is they have so many mounts it is way too easy to over gun them.  Think of it this way:  Odysseys have three large gun mounts (for 45 DP), Conquests have four large gun mounts (for 40 DP), and Paragons have four large gun mounts (for 60 DP).  Onslaughts have five large gun mounts (3 ballistic, 2 thermal pulse cannons).  If you equip Onslaughts like they should only have 3 large gun mounts (2 thermal pulse cannons and 1 large ballistic), you're equipping it like a paragon in terms of large weapons to flux dissipation ratio.  2000/4 = 500 flux per weapon.  1350/3 = 450 flux per large weapon

You can also consider the smaller mounts.  Value small mounts as 1, medium mounts as 2, and large as 4.  With this valuation, Odysseys have 24 units of gun mounts, Conquests have 36 units of guns, Paragons have 37 units of guns, while Onslaughts have 44 units of guns.  I'm ignoring missiles since they don't produce flux.  And in the Onslaught's case, all but 2 guns face somewhere in the forward 90 degrees.  So in a typical engagements, they can bring 40 units of those guns to bear.  A Conquest in a battle line only brings to bear 20 units worth of guns in comparison. 

Given Onslaughts are way over weapon mounted means you typically want less damaging but higher flux efficient weapons, or want to equip smaller weapons (small in a medium, or medium in a large), or even just leave them empty.  This is why Onslaughts are the king of point defense.  Ballistic PD tends to be flux efficient, and the Onslaught has more mounts than any other capital.

Although, I think the simplest answer is they work well enough at vanilla end game and they're easy to  get.  Given its a single player game, that seems fine to me.  They're not the best capital (mobility system only goes forward, slowest capital going in reverse, no fortress shield).  However, when outfitted properly, they put out respectable damage, and can absorb amazing amounts of punishment over the short term, second only to a Paragon.  And in fighter or missile heavy situations, potentially more.

This analysis assumes you have the OP to fully arm and flux-out the ship. And then you also have to take into consideration a fully upgraded Paragon (stablisied shields, hardened shields, etc..)
The Onslaught really could use some more flux dissipation.

[Hiruma Kai]

This analysis assumes you have the OP to fully arm and flux-out the ship. And then you also have to take into consideration a fully upgraded Paragon (stablisied shields, hardened shields, etc..)
The Onslaught really could use some more flux dissipation.

Given an Onslaught XIV has 370 OP base, and a Paragon has 370 OP, that doesn't seem like a big difficulty.  Even a base Onslaught has 360 OP.  Virtually the same OP for 20 less deployment points.  Keep in a mind, an Onslaught also comes with 2 large weapons built in.  They cost no OP. If you value them like Autopulse lasers, an Onslaught XIV has a virtual 410 OP base without player skills - the most in the game.  If they spend 80 OP on vents and flux distributor, they still have 40 OP in large weapons, and 280 free OP left.  That is as much as an Odyssey's entire OP budget.

Also, Paragon shield upkeep is 750 base, while an Onslaught's is 240.  Even when you slap on stabilized shield for 15 OP, the Onslaught has a 135 flux per second advantage in terms of shield upkeep compared to the Paragon.  If you do throw stabilized shield on both, its a 255 flux advantage in shield upkeep and both ships have basically the same OP remaining.

If you only fill out weapons that are 2/3's of the equivalent of a Paragon, you'll have plenty of OP left over for a variety of hull mods.  Or you can fill everything with low flux cost weapons (Flak and vulcans), and a couple good weapons on the very front like a couple heavy needlers or hyper velocity drivers and a hellbore.

Out of curiosity, for those advocating more base dissipation, how much dissipation do you think the Onslaught should have?  10% more? 25% more? 50% more?  Is an extra, say 150 dissipation going to significantly change how the ship flys (going from 1350 to 1500 as max)?

[Megas]

For AI, I consider TPCs a liability.  They are too trigger-happy.  If they are linked, AI will fire TPCs with reckless abandon and cap flux too quickly.

With Onslaught's arcs, I need weapons all over the place for attacking and defending.  I need flux efficient weapons.  That means mostly heavy needlers (if I want it to hunt Ordos).  Heavy weapons are likely Hellbore, Devastator, or another Heavy Needler.  If I use something like Mjolnir or Storm Needler at the front center, then most mounts up front will be empty.  All small mounts are empty in any case - not enough shot range.

P.S.  As for how much more dissipation, probably from 100 to 200 to start with.

Because of Onslaught's terrible dissipation and arcs, I feel forced to use missiles and Expanded Missile Racks on it.  Onslaught without missiles is too weak to smash the initial pileup when both fleets meet.

[Hiruma Kai]

That is an interesting question.  If you completely remove the TPCs, does the Onslaught perform better?  No extra OP or anything, just remove them. Thats an easy enough modification to test in 1v1 or a fleet situation.

Although the base statistics on them are pretty good for energy weapons.  Range 1000, 0.8 flux/damage ratio, and chunks of 250 damage which are reasonable against most armor.  Biggest issue is, as you say, arcs on them.  Of course better arcs means they get fired more.   If I could, I'd throw them on a Paragon or Odyssey instead of Autopulse.

Similarly, modding the Onslaught to 700 or 800 base dissipation is easily done and we can see what effect it has.

[Megas]

TPCs are efficient at sustained rate, but AI cannot help themselves dumping the whole clip.  Weapon efficiency does not help much if flux buildup from emptying a full clip is too much.  TPCs in separate groups helps a little since AI may fire only one instead of two.  When linked, AI kills itself from overusing TPCs.

TPCs might be okay if AI was restrained enough to fire at sustained rate most of the time, although I would not mind giving them up if I means I can use Mjolnir instead of a Heavy Needler in the middle heavy mount.

[Thaago]

... I wonder what putting the STRIKE tag on TPCs would do... would they save them for when the enemy is vulnerable? Because they are quite good once shields are down.

[Megas]

Because they are quite good once shields are down.

Yes they are.  With only needlers up-front in a mostly needler loadout, TPCs are my only frontal anti-armor attack after missiles run out.  It would be easier if the heavy mounts could overlap more.  As it is, Onslaught that points only forward like the AI does can only use the center mounts against enemies directly ahead.

[Hiruma Kai]

TPCs are efficient at sustained rate, but AI cannot help themselves dumping the whole clip.  Weapon efficiency does not help much if flux buildup from emptying a full clip is too much.  TPCs in separate groups helps a little since AI may fire only one instead of two.  When linked, AI kills itself from overusing TPCs.

TPCs might be okay if AI was restrained enough to fire at sustained rate most of the time, although I would not mind giving them up if I means I can use Mjolnir instead of a Heavy Needler in the middle heavy mount.

Hmm. The burst is 5 seconds long (20 stored + 5 recharge over 5 seconds, fired at 5 per second).  Thats 1000 flux/second, 2000 flux/second for both, for 5 seconds, and then it drops to 400 flux per second for both for the rest of a sustained fight.  So the burst itself is 10,000 flux in 5 seconds from just those 2 weapons.  Thats the equivalent of 50 flux capacitors.  Or well over half its base 17,000 flux capacity.

Strike tag could be interesting.  Other interesting option might be to drop max charges from 20 to something like 5.  So 6 charges in 1.2 seconds.   So a 2400 flux burst instead of a 10000 flux burst. On the other hand, thats only a 3000 damage burst instead of a 12500 damage burst. 

Edit:
P.S. I am amused by the thought of nerfing the Onslaught in order to buff it.

A damaged or pirate Onslaught option that lost the TPCs could be interesting, like how some pirate/damaged skins have fewer or smaller weapon slots.

[Megas]

TPCs may not be the only weapon firing.  Before long, other weapons start firing after TPCs.  It is both TPCs and the rest of Onslaught's weapons together that can hurt.  Player cannot remove TPCs to stop the AI from mismanaging flux use.

I like twenty or thirty shot magazines when I pilot it, because I can dump when I think it is a good idea.  It is the AI who thinks it can fire TPCs willy-nilly until it overloads.

[Hiruma Kai]

Well, adding the STRIKE tag to the hints column in weapon_data.csv does change the behavior of thermal pulse cannons drastically.  The AI fires them much less often.  Probably too little to be honest.  It doesn't open with them when at low flux, and maybe fire 5 to 20 pulses total in a fight against a conquest for example, even when sitting at low flux.

Increasing the base flux dissipation certainly makes it more competitive with Paragons.  Doing some 3 Onslaught vs 2 Paragon tests, the Onslaughts have fights where they actually win sometimes with a base 800 flux instead of 600 (depending on how the AI gets them engage). 200 flux * 180 seconds is a lot of extra flux and damage over the course of a 3 minute fight.  Although I had forgotten increasing the base dissipation rate also increases the flux cost of raised shields (600 flux -> 800 flux base increases shield flux cost from 240->320).

[Thaago]

Doing extensive tests I've come up with a couple of really good no skills Onslaughts that easily pull their 40DP weight. The Gauss cannon is, shockingly because of its poor efficiency, a standout excellent weapon for the AI on the front large.

The biggest problem with the TPCs is not actually the Onslaught dumping its flux: its all the missed shots because of the width! Might sound obvious, but it misses a ton of shots. I think that the arcs on the TPCs need to be tweaked to have a convergence zone - either by tilting them in slightly or by making their arcs wider.