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« on: July 09, 2020, 07:07:18 PM »
Condors and Ventures and other cheap craft would be much more useful if better military grade ships weren't so easy to acquire. Like if Drovers and proper military ships either cost alot more or required commissions too get there would be more reason too use converted civilian craft like them past the early-mid game.
Condor is good at staying in the backline and slinging support missiles like Pilums or Salamanders. However I personally think it should cost less DP and be slightly faster in combat.
Venture can be turned into a literal missile spewing brick. But the lack of modular fighter bay, only three proper weapon mounts and poor burn speed means it loses a spot in my fleet quite quickly. Maybe a Venture (A) with a modular bay+small mounts for PD would be an improvement? Or a Pirate Venture with a Converted Hangar?
Vigilance is meh, it needs more flux to properly use it's medium energy in anything other than a support role. Decent support frigate for larger ships but never seems to be able to handle frigate attacks. Suffers from the same issue all frigates have where they just become not worth a fleet slot in the end game.
Shrike seems bad because it has a bad ship system. It's actually decently armed and shielded. The problem is that it has a suicide drive which the AI can't handle and gets itself into trouble.
If it didn't have the plasma burn I bet it would play alot better in AI hands.
I'm not fussed about the Shrike (P) being slightly better. God knows the pirates could use one or two half-decent ships in vanilla. Most of the Shrikes killing power comes from it's missiles and Blaster anyways.