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Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.96a (Released) Patch Notes
« on: May 15, 2023, 02:51:43 PM »
Conquest also a great platform for Hephaestus, paired with Mark IX on each side.
Starsector 0.96a is out! (05/05/23); Blog post: Narrative in 0.96 aka Movie Night With David (06/02/23)
Nova: Seems like a high-tech Retribution, and just as weird or awkward to use, although I will not pilot it because I will not get Tech 8 to unlock it. Seems like it is built to drive in, alpha strike, back out, and repeat. Loadout I used was two plasma cannons, three graviton beams, one ion beam, some burst PD, and empty missiles (due to lack of OP and Breach Pods at hand). Have not put it through real battle yet.
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So why are these in the field? The Domain navy decommissioned them from military service, so they were de-militarized and sold to budget-minded civilian enterprises in development on the Domain’s frontier, as having some former carriers with big handling/construction bays can be a very useful thing. Once the Collapse comes around, these former construction/mine drone handlers slash ersatz mobile drydocks are re-militarized (thus less useful out-of-combat stats than one might expect). Used perhaps more by pirates, independents, and the Luddic Church more than by the Hegemony or TriTachyon, so that the big carrier fleets of these guys can be supported by something better than Condors but not so good as the Heron or Gemini.
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Summary: I wanted to like Neural link on it's own, but the skill is clearly a late addition to the game, and doesn't neatly fit into the overall game experience. There are a host of minor but annoying interactions that keep it from being good, on top of what seems like penalities this skill has that no other skill does, presumably to keep it in check. Overall, trying to use it in campaign actually feels like it makes the fleet weaker, as opposed to even simply doing no net harm and merely being a skill pick opportunity cost.
Side note: This was also my first run in 0.95.1a using Medusas, and realizing they may have been power crept by their nearest competitors. I feel like 360 degree shield capable ships used to be speical back in the day, but now we've got Shrikes, Scarabs, Hyperions, Furies, Auroras, and Odysseys which are all fast with manueverability systems and can get 360 degree shields. Omens, Apogees, Astrals, and Paragons naturally have 360 degree shields. The only things in the high tech lineup that can't are Wolves, Tempests, and Medusa. I wonder if the Tempests and Medusa might be due for a shield arc increase, especially now that AI controlled Tempests can throw away their PD. Medusas do drop their shields when they skim, so I probably wouldn't go with a front shield on AI Medusas, but would it hurt to bump the Medusa's shield arc from 120 to 150 to match the rest of the line up these days?