And, from the way you describe it, the new Aurora is still going to suffer from role overlap with the Doom; using the Plasma Jets to duck in and out of range like you can with a Phase Cloak. I'm not sure a non-phase ship can ever be comparable to a phase ship in the burst-and-run department, so the Aurora could end up just being a worse Doom that costs fewer supplies.
I see what you're saying, but in practice I think the differences are significant. I mean, "dart in, do damage, back off" is the high-tech (and phase) thing in the first place, so
just the fact that this is how they both go about things isn't cause for concern. The details of how they play are very different even just due to using phase cloak vs shields, other differences aside. I mean, one might make the same point about the Medusa and the Harbinger, say.
On a related note: the new fighters basically hard-counter phase ships and the Doom in particular, where the Aurora does quite well against them.
High-tech ships really need a tanky line cruiser, and the Aurora is the only ship that could fill that role. The Doom can't tank because it's a Phase ship, and the Apogee is supposedly an exploration/utility craft.
That's working from the assumption that the high-tech lineup needs to have ships for every role, and I'm not sure I subscribe to that. If one wants a tanky line cruiser, the Dominator does that job already, right? I don't particularly want to have almost-the-same ships across all epochs. I do get where you're coming from assuming that, but I think if we went down that route too much the outcome would be a bit boring.
I think the Aurora is about as tanky as a high-tech line cruiser needs to be, given that it picks its fights. More tanky than that would be outside the high-tech paradigm. This, incidentally, is what drove the 20% flux reduction - without it, it was entirely too good at not taking any damage at all.
(Naturally, there are high-tech ships already outside that paradigm, but if anything, I'd like to shift things more towards it, and a core ship like the Aurora should fit into it.)
I know I've suggested something like this a while ago, but have you considered just reverting the Aurora's Medium Synergy hardpoint back to a Large Missile hardpoint and leaving it's flux stats/supply cost alone? Maybe swap the Apogee's shield flux/dam with the Aurora's?
Definitely not. A large missile slot would dominate the refit options.
And the Apogee badly needs a nerf, so while I understand the comparisons, it probably doesn't make for the best reference point.
Finally, in terms of mobility compared to the Doom, it's fairly similar. Its top speed is actually a bit higher - 80 base, +125 from jets, +50 from 0-flux boost = 255. The Doom's is 75 * 3 = 225. Now, the Doom can sustain it longer (and the Aurora will usually not have the 0-flux boost), but the Doom will also build a lot of flux in the process, where the Aurora won't. I think saying the Doom's mobility is better is a mistake - in some ways it's better, in other ways it's worse, with major tactical differences.
This just goes back to my earlier point; considering the ship roles to be the same just because they both prefer hit and run tactics is probably a mistake. Most ships in the game will prefer to do this vs the right opponent, it's just not something that's a unique hull property in the first place, but rather a commonplace high-level tactic with a world of possibilities in execution. It's almost at the same level as "these ships deal damage to their opponent, so their roles overlap". Not quite, mind you, but close
All that said, I'm not saying it's perfect right now. Definitely need to spend some more time with it. The main thing, as far as I'm concerned, is that it's now *fun* to pilot. A few more tweaks to its power are no big deal, if need be.
