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Mods / Re: [0.97a] The Knights of Ludd
« on: February 22, 2024, 03:33:13 AM »
Look great is this compatibility with Nexerelin?
Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)
There's a few "hero" ships that are a bit - or very - OP by their design. Whichever mod adds the International Bounty Board includes a few you can find - the Euphoria (60 DP pink-purple Astral that replaces the Recall Device with a "disco ball" that's a 6x Tachyon gatling gun), the Black Talon (super-Eagle), Excelsior (anime main character's ship at the end of the final season), etc. Diable Avionics added two - there's the one the android leader of "The Last Line" fleet uses (an ultra-fast destroyer with switchable in-built weapon mounts and special abilities), and Calm (cruiser sized ultra-Lasher battlecarrier, best played with Safety Overrides, properly built can survive 1v1ing Radiants and excels at murdering capital ships).
As for regular mod ships, your mileage may vary. Here's a non-complete list from what I can remember off the top of my head.
- UAF has got a mixed bag (some of the ships are weaker than you'd expect), but there are standouts.
-- Minoria and Minoria II (10 & 12 DP) are mobile, cheap and brutally effective carrier frigates. Regular Minoria can field two fighters (and UAF fighters are very very good, esp Arias, Super Arias, and the 20-28 OP "gunships" which are like respawnable frigates), while Minoria II technically only uses 1 fighter slot but can support its fighters in battle with actual weapon mounts and has a ship system that doubles its fielded fighters. Vanilla doesn't have fighter spam even close to being this effective (though UAF pays for it in other ways...)
-- Inazuma II is a 22 DP cruiser with 2 in-built energy cannons and 3 medium mounts. Ideal as a midgame SO player ship, can mount Omega weapons and maul anything it sinks its teeth into at close range (I think of it like Calm's little sister actually).
-- Neuxoria is like the Astral, but can actually keep up with the rest of the fleet.
-- Purcellyra has no equal - a 70 DP missile capital worth every point, but better described as a flying warcrime dispenser machine. 2 combat capstone player character can use it to wipe entire fleets from their screen, turn Task Force fleets and Star Fortresses into shattered carbon, clown on IBB bounties and turn Ordos into helpless prey - but it's still effective without either (just balanced and counterable). Synergises very well with Missile Specialisation (duh) and Systems Expertise (for missile reload system). Only kept balanced by previous nerfs, the AI's inability to effectively use it, and the realisation that even if the ship system technically infinitely refreshes your missiles it doesn't do it quickly at all, and after blowing up the first 600 DP of ships your DPS is rather mediocre and easily countered by competent point defense. Bring a second Purcellyra if Legio brought 10 fleets to glass your donut bakery.
What else? Hmm...
- Diable Avionics:
-- Versant (8 DP) is an outstanding "frigate" with a ship system that transforms it into a very fast fighter jet to zoom around the battlefield (in-built energy weapons and shields are disabled in this mode but it doubles armour), and unfurls into its regular form to fight. A skilled player with Helmsmanship Elite can quickly navigate the battlefield to score picks on frigates and destroyers, and use the jet form to effortlessly dodge attacks and vent while maintaining pressure.
-- Maelstrom (45 DP) is a weird capital with pronounced weaknesses (like an oversized shield, only 1 Large mount, middling flux stats, mediocre armour etc) but still monstrous in the right hands. Long-range bombardment capital with a knock-off phase skimmer, this ship is actually impressively effective even in the AI's hands VS vanilla capitals, and a skilled player can effortlessly sustain pressure on enemy capitals and pounce on weak targets using the ship system. Thrives with Systems Expertise.
-- Like UAF, Diable has very good carrier gameplay - and they recently got a buff to their 'Wanzers' (carrier-based mech units) where Diable carriers increase the squad size of each Wanzer squad by 1 unit. Careful though, most of their early game and midgame ships are the definition of mediocre.
- Hazard Mining Incorporated:
-- Monjeau (not sure how many DP) is a 'destroyer' (actually a playable heavy mech) that is disturbingly fast, fast enough to effortlessly chase down and kill most frigates. An early game terror and it would probably be terrifying in your hands as well.
- Shadowyards (not updated for 0.96 I think)
-- Had a disgustingly strong 6 DP phase frigate that was shockingly fast, with a system that caused burnouts. Ate my frigates alive in the sim.
- Cabal (duh)
-- Their whole schtick is "anything High Tech does, we slightly improve it then add glitter because we have moneyyyy". It's no surprise then that Cabal ships are serious opponents, their ships are long-term playthrough goals, and the IBB bounty featuring them and the Euphoria flagship was the one that nearly wiped my Purcellyra-based fleet.
- Legio Infernalis - pirates but now with more Alpha Cores, bundle-of-sticks-ism, and actually scary.
-- Solid range of destroyers and cruisers.
-- The Flagellator particularly is an early-game terror - imagine a high armour anti-frigate destroyer with a Burn Drive that can rapidly turn! Excels at bullying a player's early game frigate fleet, it might work for you too as a point capture specialist.
Those are the only ones I can think of that are definitely competitive or more-than VS their vanilla counterparts and player controllable.
I find modded stuff to be about on par with vanilla most of the time, the vanilla heavy hitters like the afllictor or monitor don't have counterparts, but honestly i think thats a good thing, i hate the trivializing those two do to the game.
The radiant is an automated ship that you have to spend 5 skill points if you wanna get and 3 more if you wanna pilot it, so it makes sense there is no counterparts. There is the hel* scaith from tahlan who is in the same boat but it is a lot weaker than the radiant in both the hands of the player and the ai still, but if i remember right that wasn't always the case and it only happened because people bitched endlessly for the author to nerf it.
Most mods have at least a few strong ships/weapons. OTOH mods are usually more concerned with avoiding outliers than vanilla is, so their content tends to be more average strength.
it doesn't seem to work for rc10. no crashs but nothing happened, still got vanilla eyes blinding kaboomnever mind there are vanilla setting that does this now.