I've just finished a Diable playthrough of Nexerelin - the entire sector is a deep, glorious maroon.
To honour my retiring captain, I'd like to give some feedback on how I felt about the Diable ships and weapons.
I began with a small combat fleet, comprised of a Calm, a Vapor, and a Draft.
The Calm performed exceptionally well. I filled the 8 missile mounts with Micro Missile Launchers, which are incredible - not necessarily for their damage, but for how confusing they are to opponents. The Vapor served quite well as a clean-up crew, and I love the versatility of the weapon slots. The Draft, however, underperformed. The Arcus Armor wasn't reliable, and was no substitute for a decent shield, not to mention it would occasionally glitch out and slide away from the prow of the Draft. Despite these shortcomings, outfitting it with Micro Missile Launchers and ordering it to hang back proved a fair compromise.
Have I mentioned that I love Micro Missiles?
From there I upgraded to a Gust. I lamented the reduction in Micro Missile potential, as I captained the Gust over the Calm. I splurged on a Valiant Wanzer Wing, which was amazing for securing early objectives, before transitioning into an escorting role - I imagine that was the general idea there.
When I started facing nuts the Gust couldn't crack, I purchased a Haze. Given the further reduction in Micro Missile slots, I fitted the Haze with Thunderbolts. I was taking down capital ships with that thing!
Here I will digress for a moment - I love the aesthetic, and the placement of overlapping hardpoints was a great choice. A Recson V over a Grave HMG looks so nice, and performs just as well.
Despite the potent nutcracking ability of the Haze, I began encountering fleets with increasing numbers of fighter wings and other small nuisances. I had to fight fire with fire, and I happened across a Maelstrom. Remember when I said that I love Micro Missiles? I was in heaven - the sheer output of missiles made the opposing ships act absolutely stupid. I went overboard, however, and fielded far too many offensive weapons. After a humbling near-defeat, I embraced Diable's defensive missiles with open arms. I love the Magicbox PD Missile - it's cute and effective. My only gripe is that as Diable ships become more expensive and impressive, they are outfitted with comparatively fewer small missile slots. I don't know if this is a Starsector limitation, but I found myself wishing those small hybrid slots were small missile slots instead.
After the Maelstrom, I sidegraded into a Storm - this allowed me to field additional Wanzers. I have each one a shot, generally preferring to deploy Valiants, Ravens, and Frosts. At this point in the game, I could zoom out so far that the missiles and fighters zooming around were almost indistinguishable. I had to sit back and trust that the superior Diable Avionics Wanzers would deliver, and they did. The swarming technique culminated in the takedown of a Paragon using only a Maelstrom and several fighter wings. The poor thing couldn't cope with the sheer number of threats, however small they may be.
So I bought a Pandemonium. My entire Diable career had been leading up to this point. I had loved the missile, embraced the missile, and become the missile - and I was disappointed. For the flagship of Diable Avionics to neglect the missile to such a degree made my soul weep. Sure, it fielded large numbers of Wanzers to an absurd degree, but it just didn't have that level of missile-saturation that the Maelstrom did. In addition to this, the previous lack of small missile hardpoint real-estate was compounded. I had six small slots in which to field Swarmers and Magicboxes, leaving no room for Micro Missile Launchers. I mean, I could annihilate a Paragon without being touched - thank you Uhlan Siege Laser - but it just wasn't the same without an innumerable horde of Micro Missiles re-enacting the moment of impregnation.
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To summarise. I had a great time with Diable, though I got the impression that the focus shifted from missiles to Wanzers at some point during development. The ships reflect this, leaving the capital ship of the Diable as a combination of both the Maelstrom and the Storm, though without the cornerstone of Micro Missiles. It seems the desired playstyle - due to the small shield arcs and mediocre flux dissipation - is for a long-range bombardment from the Pandemonium, supported by wave after wave of Wanzers.
The single simplest change I could propose to fill this hole, would be to introduce a medium-sized Micro Missile Launcher equivalent. If I could install some sort of Micro Missile Battery in the many universal medium slots on the Pandemonium, I would be so happy.
When I have a tad more time, I will expand further on the weapons and ships, as well as the activated abilities.
All in all, thank you for giving me such a pleasant sector-conquering experience.
- G