First off, I have seen many references to SO Aurora. In my first playthrough I found the Aurora to be a very capable ship compared to other cruisers, to the point I was using two of them. What is it exactly that makes the Aurora so good and worth 50% more DP than a normal cruiser? Why is SO really good on an Aurora but not a typical 20 DP cruiser?
Aurora is worth 50% more DP than a normal cruiser because if it were worth any less, SO Aurora would be completely gamebreaking, to the point that the optimal strategy might be to run a monofleet of them. SO is extremely good on Aurora for the simple reason that the weapon configurations that make the Aurora shine are short range and bursty. Without SO, the Aurora can't maximize its potential as a hit and run cruiser (yes, you read that right
).
If you want to experiment with a very strong SO Aurora build, try this one: 4 AM Blasters, 3 Ion Pulsers, 3 Burst PD Lasers, 1 Sabot SRM Pod. S-Modded: Expanded Magazines, Shield Conversion - Front, Stabilized Shields. Mods: SO, Hardened Shields. If you pilot this with your main character, you can get a Shield Efficiency rating of 0.35! Which is more than enough to solo most capitals.
I see s-modded Expanded Magazines recommended on the Onslaught, but I think it only helps the built-in TPC on that ship. Is it worth spending an S-mod to help only one weapon?
I recently discovered that adding even 1 Thumper to an Onslaught to take advantage of S-EM is quite lethal!
I saw in Gryphon discussion that this ship is only good when you link the missiles to a single firing group. Are there other ships where there are unintuitive linking groups that make the ship perform better? There was a post on one of the Executor threads referring to linking a flak cannon to some of the weapons to make them fire better. What is going on mechanically when you do that?
What Vanshilar said.
Besides LP Brawler, what are other good SO ships?
SO TT Brawler and SO Scarab are AMAZING.
Why is the Hyperion so good? For 15 DP it seems to have really low weapon space.
I no longer find the Hyperion to be good. There are simply too many disadvantages now, for the gimmick that it offers.
It seems destroyers are pretty bad overall. Are there any destroyers that are standouts in a good way?
Harbinger. Its system allows you to deliver burst damage even when a Paragon has its shields fully raised and is in no danger of needing to vent. In my experience, there are no other destroyers in the game that a frigate or a cruiser cannot do their job better.
What weapons are high-value for early game fleets? On my new modded playthrough I find mostly low-tech ships and ballistic weapons. Are there generally useful combos of weapons I should be looking to use in the early game for low-tech fleets?
As I mentioned above, SO TT Brawler and SO Scarab are extremely strong. You only need 2 Ion Pulsers to make that TT Brawler be able to punch above its weight class, while the SO Scarab requires even less: 4 IR Pulse Lasers and an Ion Cannon.
I usually go for the yellow tree in the early game. I know missile and fighter ships do well with Derelict Operations. Are there any good ballistic ships that work well with DO? My fleet is all junkers and clunkers right now. I like the yellow tree early on because it helps with money, so if there is some way to optimize it for combat early on I would like to know.
It's funny that you ask specifically about ballistic ship synergy with DO, because in my mind, possibly the most interesting use of DO is to lower the deployment cost of really expensive High Tech ships, like the Paragon. See CapnHector's Paragon video.
Is there a good discussion of XP mechanics anywhere?
Not sure what kind of mechanics you're talking about here, but if you have specific questions about XP calculations, Alex is very transparent about answering these.
Can someone explain to me the use cases for the various large energy weapons? I know they are supposed to be the center piece of builds. I tried the dual HIL on Executor (I half figured out a useful Executor build on my own--this ship doesn't work without Ordnance Expertise) and I basically got that ship to perform OK. I understand that the HIL is an armor cutting weapon and needs to be supported with kinetic hard flux damage from other mounts. That's why the Executor uses it so well, because it is one of the few ships that has a balance of energy and ballistic mounts.
I don't understand the use cases for the remaining energy weapons:
Tachyon Lance - when and why to use this? on what ships?
Autopulse Laser - this looks like a close-range, expanded mags weapon?
Plasma Cannon - when to use this?
I gather that the Paladin and Gigacannon are bad weapons and should be avoided in most cases.
Tachyon Lance - Best in Slot on Ziggurat, great on Paragon. Think of this as a flux sniper. If you slap 4 of them on a Paragon, you can nuke most smaller vessels in 1 shot before they can even make it in range to shoot you. This is a huge advantage because you don't need to spend flux keeping your shields raised in that case.
Autopulse Laser - Think of this as the natural upgrade to Ion Pulsers, great on things like Odyssey and Paragon, or even a Champion
Plasma Cannon - You can have a lot of fun with this on a Ziggurat with Phase Anchor, because you can almost completely negate the cooldown, while losing flux in phase, so you can easily win a flux war, even against a Paragon with those Plasma Cannons
Gigacannon - Has a bad reputation, but is surprisingly good on the Executor (see CapnHector's video)
Are there other s-mods like Expanded Mags or SO that drastically change how a ship plays?
Converted Hangar, High Scatter Amplifier and Phase Anchor come to mind.
Overall what are the strongest cruisers and destroyers I should be keeping an eye out for in .96?
Cruisers - Aurora, Gryphon, Dominator, and Doom (if your name is SCC)
Destroyers - Harbinger
I want to like Venture and its variants but mine don't perform anywhere close to CapnHector's.
That's because not everyone can be CapnHector (myself included)
Which missile types are good in this update? What missiles should I be putting in which size of mounts, from all the choices? I gather the DEMs are pretty bad. I see Draba and Jang dominating with Reapers but mine always seem to miss. I see people talking about Squall, Locust, Pilum, in what situations are these missiles good? What weapons do they need to be paired with to be effective?
Squall is very strong and will be nerfed to kingdom come by Alex next patch, so you better enjoy it while it lasts! Dragonfire is considered by many to be very bad and unreliable, but in my experience, they can be very strong against High Tech ships with extremely good shield efficiency. Just make sure to pair it with consistent ballistic damage like Heavy Needlers. The idea is that the AI is extremely bad at knowing when to drop their shields, so they will tank your ballistic shots as the Dragonfire charges up, and then drop the shield just as the Dragonfire comes online. Even good against Paragons!
What missiles are worth putting in small mounts? Small mounts basically only carry 1 shot, right?
Breach SRM and Sabots are what I gravitate towards, because they both provide multi-shot high impact conditional utility. Something like a Swarmer has a lot of shots but has very negligible impact unless we're talking super early-game, or a Torpedo has only one, and if you miss the shot, you've wasted the OP investment in that slot.