Ok, I need some help.
Diable Avionics is a fantastic mod. It is beautifully crafted and a lot of love was put into it.
But I'm getting demolished in early and midgame. Well, not demolished, but many fights are a very real struggle.
Idk, I feel like most of my ships are either flux-starved and can't reliably attack or the weapons themselves are somewhat very limited with a couple of exceptions. I have tried so many loadouts none of them feel satisfying or good to use. For example, on the Vapour-class, I've reached the point where I just put 1 HVD and 1 Heavy Mauler on it : it now has the range to actually harass and use its superior mobility but it doesn't need to vent every 3 seconds or expose itself because of the Diable's weapons shorter range. Overall, I tend to disregard most of the Diable weapons now ...
I know the Diable are supposed to rely on their wings and their ships' mobility but man every fight is stressful.
Know what you're going through mate - I did a full Diable playthrough in 0.95, and the early game was definitely the worst part. My advice - for the most part,
ignore most Diable frigates if they're not Versants. The Versant - if you're willing and able to get good at using it - is an absolute monster VS frigates. It's a transforming 8 DP elite "frigate" that turns into a fighter craft for a speed and armour bonus (but disables the built-in Energy guns when you do) that requires you to master switching between both forms to chase, escape, and kite a variety of targets. It's a wonderfully fun little ship that deeply rewards the investment you put into mastering it while you save up for something a bit meatier.
The destroyers are decent - the Hayle class destroyers are quick, pack good firepower, and are hard to pin down. The Pocket Gust's special ability lets you commandeer one of your Wanzers and personally pilot it - which can be quite a lot of fun with one of the high level Wanzers. They've all got Burn 9, Sensor Profile 60, and can bully core trading fleets and kill pirates while staying out of the way of things you can't actually beat. You aren't going to take on cruiser-heavy fleets or fleets with capitals using just a Versant and some destroyers, but you can dance around and kill everything else. The Fractus class destroyer carriers only cost 11 DP (compare to the Drover's 14 DP or the Condor's 10 DP) allowing you to swarm the enemy with cheap Wanzers on a budget while still having better weapons and flux stats than either (though it is a bit slower than the Drover).
Cruisers are where Diable really starts to shine somewhat. The Daze is an absolute brick - with the amount of long range kinetic it can pack, flux stats, and with its ship system, it excels at "tank and spank" gameplay and is good for holding the line at a respectable 22 DP. It does tend to get run down by supership capitals like Radiants though. The Haze is 25 DP... expensive for what it does. Yes a cruiser with a flicker core is scary, but it's not worth the cost imo. The Rime (P) is an
outstanding raider's marine boat, coming with an in-built Ground Support Package and 400 cargo. Diable's logistics ships really support raider/pirate/smuggler gameplay in the core worlds very well. Finally, the Gust is an outstanding stand-off cruiser with 1 Wanzer slot and a Large Mount, that excels at line-battle shootouts where it can personally support its launched Wanzer with pressure from an Uhlan Siege Laser (or a Mostro if you're on a tight OP budget?) and classic Diable mini-missile spam.
Probably the greatest ship Diable has - and generally considered one of the most ruthlessly efficient mainline ships in any Starsector mod, period - is the Maelstrom. Seemingly weak at first glance, it's a
very strong performer for its 45 DP pricetag. Has a high skill floor, and an even higher skill ceiling.
The "wanna-be Radiant", the Maelstrom is incredibly hard to master for many reasons, not least of which is its weak-ish armour and flux stats, only one large mount, and long cross section which makes it hilariously vulnerable to flankers and enemy fighters. Despite its weaknesses, the ship is a monster in the right hands - meaning a captain with Helmsmanship Elite and Systems Expertise. The "Phase Grazer Core" system is the key to success - the in-built "Dampened Mounts" mod gives your ballistics extra range, allowing you to pressure from long range, giving you an opening to then flicker in and punish any weak targets. The movement speed of your ship also translates to how far you flicker - learn how to switch off your point-defense and get Helmsmanship Elite (for the zero-flux speed boost) to rapidly jump on and kill vulnerable targets. The Phase Grazer Core also allows the ship to rapidly flick around to face and kill flanking targets who think they have a drop on you, and it can also be used to get out of dangerous situations - flicker back 3 times, vent your flux, then continue to keep up the pressure on an enemy who is now high on flux and out of torpedoes! If the Phase Grazer Core wasn't scary enough, it also allows the Maelstrom to vent a large fraction of its flux - a skilled captain can dodge a Reaper salvo, drain their flux and still stay in weapons range keeping up lethal pressure. This makes Systems Expertise a mandatory skill for any captain using it. I recommend m
The Pandemonium is like the same thing, but bigger and costs a laughably expensive 75 DP. Is it stronger than a Maelstrom? Marginally, but its best use case is taking on Star Fortresses and as a slot-efficient raiding ship when looting Chico's Pristine Nanoforge. No - wherever a Pandemonium might be tempting, just use two Maelstroms. Three Maelstroms are cheaper and much more powerful than two Pandemoniums. The only reasonable use-case outside of that is a combat focused player character using it to hunt down and kill Radiants (with help), but you can just use your Gulf [edit: said 'Calm' earlier, get this one from an IBB bounty or a special Tri-Tach fleet] for that without it costing 75 DP lmao.
The wanzers are... polarising. The cheap ones like the Frost pack a surprising punch, and the Avalanche and Blizzaia hit like trucks, while the most expensive ones (when not personally piloted) leave me shaking my head. No matter how tanky they might seem, they're all still very vulnerable to uninterrupted point defense. Tartiflette clearly worked very hard to keep Diable balanced and possibly overdid it, whereas Alex himself has introduced crazy new stuff like Champions, Executors, the Invictus, doritos etc, let alone all the mods that add slightly overpowered ships. Luckily, you have two one-of-a-kind hero ships you can pick up - there's a Diable deserter using a battlecruiser that is best built as Lasher-on-steroids, potentially so lethal it can even survive a 1v1 with a Radiant, and one of the home-defense fleets of Diable's home system includes an immensely powerful and hard-to-catch destroyer with switchable abilities and switchable built-in weapons.
Some good weapons... you can't really go past Uhlan Siege Lasers (30 DP) in the late game for long range bombardment, while the Nocturne EMP Array is an outstanding Medium kinetic EMP beam that can quickly overload shields and quickly overload enemy targets, ideal for mounting on Versants and Maelstroms alike - providing critical EMP burst that can nearly one-shot frigates and wipe out PD on capitals allowing your Avalanches, Blizzaias and Frosts to get to killing. The Lazyhorn Warp Projector is very good Medium PD and pressure weapon - it has high DPS and fires flux-efficient gravity bubbles that chew up enemy fighters and missiles while also severely annoying enemy frigates. The Artassault Revolver cannon (Medium) is really good mounted on a Versant, effortlessly chewing up enemy frigates. As for small weapons... the Recson S is an 800 range kinetic weapon (nice!), but otherwise all they have going for them is point defense.
A solid faction, but one that relies heavily on both your character's combat skills in addition to good positioning. Make sure to keep testing your loadouts in the simulator - especially the Wanzers. Sometimes, a fancy looking Wanzer with a high OP cost and excessive replacement time isn't even as effective per-slot as the cheaper one with higher unit count and faster replacement time. The simulator is a good start - make sure every loadout you build can beat a vanilla ship of roughly the same DP cost. That's just the starting point - use the Combat Results mod to see which loadouts are lethal for your enemies, or your own fleet.
