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General Discussion / Re: Am I the only one think mod ships are lot weaker than their Vanilla counterpart?
« on: August 02, 2023, 11:57:55 PM »Also, in the Xhan mod, there's a super-powerful secret boss that uses all kinds of unfair mod BS against you, and if you beat him you get the ship with his crazy unfair mod powers intact.
Ah yes, that... thing. I was not prepared for it. It's best to bring just a single ship that is immensely capable in duels to kill it head on, or blast it from extreme distance with a carrier or missile ship.
Or you could bring your whole fleet. Especially make sure a Purcellyra with a level 7 Officer arrives first then gets hit with the special ability - what could possibly go wrong?
It's funny to use when you get it too. It's a 90 DP ship that is still worth every point - the stronger the enemy, the better the ship system is.
Aside from that, I have a couple more entries to add to the "these ships are actually Vanilla-grade or better" list.
UAF:
Fuseorina II: 55 DP armour-only capital that excels as an unbreakable wall and capital-class super-Dominator. Has two systems; a UAF-enhanced Burn Drive and an Armour Condenser system that seems to work like Damper Fields (but the ship can still fire weapons!). Where other ships are hammers, this ship is the ultimate "anvil", and addresses the UAF's final weakness - their inability to hold the line against overwhelming odds like a stampeding Legio Daemon deathstack. A specially-mentored lv 6 or lv 7 Aggressive (preferable)/Reckless (if you can keep up) Officer with the right skills (Impact Mitigation Elite, Damage Control Elite, Polarised Armor, Point Defense Elite, Ordinance Expertise & Ballistics Mastery Elite) can produce a ship that is close to immortal between it's armour + the withering hailstorms of fire it can create with its "point-defense" mounts, singlehandedly holding back whole fleets. Unapproachable and near-untouchable. Regularly crushes 240 DP of enemy ships in the simulator at once.
-- The ship's "Reflecta (EXA) Armor Plating" in-built mod can use the twin frontal pylon's armour plates to deflect shots entirely or massively reduce damage, and combines with the Officer's skills and Armor Condenser system for astonishing survivability.
-- The "Auroran Aegis Package" increases point-defense range for UAF capitals by 30% and helps turn this ship into a point-defense king.
-- Loadout: Hypervelocity Drivers in the back-left/right medium mounts for long-range pressure, any suitable 800 range anti-armour weapons in the front-left/right mediums (1x Cryoblaster is also a good pick) for kill pressure, 1x Large 900/1000 Range HE weapon & 1x Large 900/1000 Range Kinetic for long-range damage, 2x cheap 8 OP medium EMP missiles for disabling running targets (Ko Combine's Maiden MRM Pod or UAF's Selemene MSM Pod are good picks), 3x Heavy Machine Gun for ultra flux-efficient kinetic damage + 1x UAF Triyia 30 CIWS for withering frontal DPS and point-defense, and UAF Reina II /PD 30 HMG in all the remaining small slots
-- Mods: Heavy Armor, ITU, Armored Weapon Mounts + Ballistic Rangefinder are all mandatory imo. Also excels with Integrated Point Defense AI - making it almost impossible to hit with Reapers. If you can squeeze in more mods, I suggest Solar Shielding, Advanced Gyros, and Automated Repair Unit (in that order). This ship can also survive using "Extreme Modifications" with this Officer build + Automated Repair Unit, allowing for a 4th S-Mod of your choice.
-- Max Vents. My loadout uses 2996 flux/sec, with only 1923 flux dissipation - not every gun fires at once thankfully, but even with an armour build you need all the dissipation you can get to keep up the pressure.
Exoria: 20 DP cruiser carrier with 3 fighter slots. Accessible early on without special permissions, and the backbone of a midgame UAF fleet. It excels in an Aggressive Officer's hands (necessary so the ship actually ATTACKS with its fighters), using Combat Endurance, Point Defense Elite, Systems Expertise. Missile Specialisation would also be nice, and Field Modulation doesn't hurt either. Would also thrive in a Support Doctrine-based fleet with Aggressive fleet doctrine. Preferably equip with your favourite 12-20 DP heavy fighter, like Nagas/Lumayans/Nekonyans/Super Arias. Midway Protocol ship system lowers re-arm and re-fit time - seems to increase recovery rate too, allowing the Exoria to maintain as much pressure as a carrier with 4 fighter slots. Can mount 2x Medium Missiles and put out decent long-range pressure. Do not let it get jumped on, put it behind tanky cruisers/capitals. 2-3+ Exorias can contribute crushing fighter pressure, drowning and crippling an enemy fleet so your strike ships can execute. You could try slipping in some 25/28 DP gunships, but note that they can really tank your Exoria's fighter refit time (whereas they can often maintain nearly constant 90-100% levels using Nagas or Lumayans for example).
-- Loadout: UAF's Swaras MLRS for shield pressure + irritating enemy point-defense, your favourite medium HE missile, and cheap PD.
-- Mods: Expanded Deck Crew (mandatory), Recovery Shuttles (suppression fighters take a lot of losses lol), Expanded Missile Racks (optional).
-- Vents/Caps are both nice if you can afford them but don't sweat it.
Some others...
The Mayasuran Navy ships seem really strong too. Unluckily, they were wiped out early on my game by overwhelming Hegemony forces - but their ship designs are really scary.
I haven't tangled with No Such Org ships much, but what I did was a serious challenge. When I went up against a Tri-Tachyon fleet late in the story, their ships were used. A faction entirely based on phase ships, along with new mods that really help them out.
Deathknight (30 DP) was particularly notable. This mod adds the "Superposition Armor" system, a mod that lets phase ships regenerate their armour levels outside of combat. The Deathknight with a high level enemy Officer was incredibly hard to kill - it has 1750 base armour, 2x Large Energy/3x Universal/9x Small Energy mounts, an in-built "Elite" version of Superposition Armor, and a Damper Field system. An infuriatingly tanky brick, the best way to kill it is to kill its friends first. A properly-built officer (Impact Mitigation, Damage Control Elite, Polarised Armor Elite, Systems Expertise Elite, Field Modulation Elite, Energy Weapons Mastery) would probably kick ass with it.
Tri-Tachyon Special Circumstances (TTSC) adds the Hronish (35 DP), which has 6 fighter slots. Seemingly the result of "how many fighter slots can I squeeze into a high-tech brick?", it also has a 0.8 efficiency 180 degree Omni Shield, 2x Medium Energy/10x Small Energy for reasonable point-defense, and has a vaguely bearable 60 base speed. Active Flare Launcher system is trash (thank god), but its reasonable flux stats, shields and Overclocked Beams in-built mod mean that two or three of them could effortlessly saturate a battlespace in fighters. The in-built mods are SCARY too - "Overclocked Beams" extends beam range by 50, increased damage by 10% and turn rate by 15% - cumulative with ITU. Not only that, it has "Fighter Chassis Storage" - Fighter replacement rate does not go down when fighters are lost, allowing this ship to use high refit-time fighters without fear of tanking refit speed to 30%. This ship could absolutely drown a battlespace in fighters. I just tested it VS 2 Hammerheads, 2 Sunders and 3 Condors in the sim with the default loadout and it won on Autopilot as long as it kept its distance - and it could focus down a destroyer or two with its energy mounts.
There are others - HMI adds the Equinox which is a particularly scary [REDACTED] beam ship, but that's an AI ship and not player-pilotable except with the Automated Ships skill. This post got too long.