Regarding all carriers you listed (and basically just carriers in general, except Shepard), at least some of their issues stem from the inconsistent nerfing/unbalancing of fighters & bombers in general. So perhaps the carrier issues should be generally separated from regular ships. You don't need to be Megas to know there are issues afoot with carriers/fighters & bombers! But until there is a more specific carriers/fighters/bombers balancing patch (ideally with at least waypointing, if not pathfinding, but that is a topic for another thread) , kinda pointless to discuss them in a vacuum...
As for the Astral specifically, well, that is interesting. I dunno which
one and only build it makes sense.
you're referring to, but unless you want to arm your glass cannon with MIRVs for some of that extra BOOM (when it blows up from being Icarus, not when it blows other stuff up), putting large missile weapons in the large missile slots are a trap. Astrals basically exist to use Plums in its missile slots. Accept it or start sacrificing carrier slots for extra OP necessary for large missile weapons. Which defeats the purpose of the Astral's long range capabilities, recall device isn't intended for close range use... although yes, it can be used to further speed up the stream of bombers. Just also speeds up CR decay if close to enemy ships; sometimes range is good!
However, I do agree that it seems odd that Astral has to basically choose between using the only real useful carrier hull mod (Expanded Deck Crew), actually using decent fighters/bombers, and shaving OP with cruddier weapons in slots. Though some of this personal cognitive dissonance just naturally arises from trappish nature of having to shave OP with cruddier weapons in general, since it seems to essentially violate multiple basic design principles existing in real life (form follows function, KISS principle, don't use 5 when 3 will do, etc.). Really ****s on verisimilitude, although I of course accept some level of abstraction (and therefore compromise) is necessary since this is a game. But no one in real life adds stuff (weapon slots) in order to be left empty. I mean, if there was some in-game lore reason why stuff can and should be left empty, fine. But as far as I know, there isn't. Hmm, funny, OP reposted as I was drafting with same complaint, why put extra weapon slots in unless its a newb trap?
As for the addition of the 30 second cool down to the Recall Device (plus normal crazy high flux cost), allowing 2 charges with like a 25 second recharge per charge would be a much better alternative. Another alternative is just to have a shorter cool down with a growth curve over time, so shorter earlier in battle but grows over time; this second alternative does seem a much messier compromise though...
