I completed my playthrough at nearly 7000 in-game days, covering all the HMI hidden and fun elements added, hopefully. The RNG worked better over time, with more items showing up in the market. A few Techmined ships never appeared on the market, so I needed agents to buy them.
King Alfonzo, here is my experience and opinions on my wild journey, starting as a space miner and evolving into a multi-planet warlord mega corp.
Overall, it was a great playthrough with only a few possible bugged elements that I encountered. This faction proves to be fairly balanced and thematic, with the HMI Junkers standing out and the Techmined hulls playing a secondary role in most cases, in my opinion. The best-balanced design elements were the weapons by far. They all fell within the optimal gray range, where they were neither auto-includes nor auto-excludes based on power balance (cost/damage/area of influence/flux). On the other hand, the ships did exhibit a much larger swing and range of balance, but there are a lot more moving parts in ships compared to a single weapon.
Ship Rankings - I'm going to cover the notable ones here as there are many ships. Following the internet standard S, A, B, C, D list, they are ranked in order from best to worst, even in each category. However, keep in mind that this is my playstyle, and your opinion will likely differ, which is completely fine. We can still be friends even if our views don't line up. This judgment is not solely based on damage output but also considers cost, upkeep, how easy it is to acquire the ship, and any special rules they might have. Additionally, I don't enjoy the Wolf Pack playstyle, so that will be influencing my opinions here, just as if I told you that I only enjoy Wolf Pack - your mileage will vary. Lastly, I'm only evaluating these ships within the HMI roster!
S- These have the wow factor
A- Above average
B- Meets expectation
C- Performs below expectation
D- Not happy with for a variety of reasons
A note on HMI Junker ships for people who are new to HMI or trying them out for the first time: Aim for at least 4 D-mods, providing more ordnance with a -50% D-mod penalty reduction, coupled with some other restrictions. Combine this with the player skill "Derelict Operation," reducing deployment and maintenance costs. Skip the player skill "Hull Restoration" and fix D-mods on non-Junker class ships with cash. Pair this with the mod "Starship Legends," where traits like "Battle Scarred" offer -32% to the effects of D-mods, or "Rugged" provides +8% hull per D-mod (these percentages vary depending on the trait's tier).
Running a mostly Junker fleet proves an economical surplus on supply upkeep, allowing you to sell off extra supplies. If you focus on salvaging, it lets you fix those costly D-mods on non-Junker ships with money, making a substantial profit. This is what I consider a Zombie fleet, with all your Junker ships always offering standard recovery options for post-battle recovery. Given that the majority of Junkers have "Rapid Repair Systems," which doesn't synergize well with shields, here are my recommendations for S-mods from the base game.
Two safe bets from the base game are "Heavy Armor" and "Auxiliary Thrusters," considering you're armor and hull tanking most of the time. "Auxiliary Thrusters" offsets the "Heavy Armor" S-mod penalty and provides a 0-flux speed bonus. Three options for the possible third slot depending on the ship: "Armored Weapon Mounts," with a great base bonus that pairs well with Junkers; "Reinforced Bulkheads," is almost an auto-include for the Hull boost and is costly enough to consider S-modding; and the HMI mod "Mining Hybridization Amplifier," is a common mod that works well on certain ships, with the S-mod giving +15% damage to beam weapons.
Lastly, one honorable mention for hull mods you should consider when you have 4 D-mods and all S-mods installed is "Converted Hangars" on your destroyers and Roach Kings, equipped with either Shell combat drones or Taker mining drones. I hope this helps someone looking into a Junker HMI playthrough, as this is a Zerging, zombie, necromancy, Dakka fleet, as my 40+ years of nerd-dom sees it.
A note on Techmined Hull ships: these vessels are essentially more advanced non-Junker ships developed from mining and salvaging expeditions. They often come with unique gimmicks or technologies but entail significant trade-offs. Finding them on the market can be challenging, with some being extremely rare. I didn't discover an easier way to locate them, resorting to using an agent via Nex to purchase the desired ships before my colonies were fully operational.
What are the downsides? Firstly, there's a 100% CR degradation past peak, 200% longer repair time outside of combat, and 150% increased damage from hyperspace storms, coronas, and event horizons. Quite challenging! For me, these drawbacks led me towards opting for Hardened Subsystems and Solar Shielding as S-mods to counter some of the negatives, but even then, it felt tough to mitigate the downsides. Consequently, these ships may not be readily available for rapid redeployment in high-conflict zones. I suggest finding ones you like and incorporating them to add variety to your combats. However, consider them as an augmentation to your fleet rather than a core component.
Due to their market rarity, by the time I had access to most of them, I was mostly done with frigates, and the non-Junker destroyers felt like wasted slots for me. Personally, I only found a few standouts, but individual mileage may vary.
S-Ranked ships - I'm only judging these ships within the HMI roster! This is the WOW factor category.
Roach King - Just like its name suggests, this ship is the king of the HMI mod faction. It serves as the brutal workhorse of the faction, triumphing over other options by aligning with the strengths of the Junker playstyle. With a reasonable price tag, they are much easier to acquire than a Locomotive and form the core of your combat fleet. The goal for the loadout should prioritize efficiency over a few heavy-hitting weapons, focusing on maximizing the ship's firepower. This assessment holds true even before reaching end-game loadouts. In the end-game, Roach Kings can punch well above their weight class. Their Burn Drive ship ability also allows them to be fairly fast in the combat zone.
Locomotive - While you might consider me crazy for not ranking this at the top, there are some drawbacks to this monster. Undeniably, it's your toughest, most damage-dealing asset—a converted station with 6 segments and a 100% range bonus (for most weapons) in the main segment. Well-equipped and played smartly, it can take on enemy fleets solo with minimal damage taken. However, the downside is that this behemoth is costly, well over a million to buy, so obtaining one might not be immediate. Sure, you can exploit in-game mechanics, but if that's your approach, why are you even reading this?
Additionally, it consumes a significant number of story points to S-mod it out. When added to your fleet, you'll notice an overall slower fleet burn speed and a noticeable increase in fuel usage. While I love this ship, the entry barrier, the need for your fleet to adjust to address max burn speed and fuel use, along with the 13 story points invested into it, pushed it down a bit for me. A recent change that adds two large mounts on the back, slotted by Squalls in the default configuration, is a solid addition, with the Squalls performing well in overall damage support in Detailed Combat Logs. On the upside, the AI handles them fairly well, sparing you from concerns about occasional odd behavior. I'll also just leave this here: I have one Locomotive with 5 large-mounted Dorito weapons for those times when everything just needs to die.
A-Ranked Ships - I'm only judging these ships within the HMI roster! These ships do better than expected.
Creep Destroyer - The Creep possesses the perfect combination of speed, resilience, and mounting options, making it your go-to escort. Being a Junker, if it's lost in combat, you only lose a few resources and a bit of time to recover it. With enough speed, you can dispatch them after elusive targets. If you employ the player skill "Wolf Pack Tactics" and have one or two officers on board, they become even more potent in the escort role. Easy to deploy at 5 points, especially with all the correct aspects lined up with D-mods and Derelict Operation.
Suleiman - This is the first Techmined Hull ship on the list. It would have been an S Rank if it did not have the Techmined Hull with all the negatives tied to it. Nonetheless, it is the most survivable of the Techmined Hulls, as it can skirmish in and out of combat to manage flux, especially when most of the larger forces in your fleet are slow or lack shields. The Suleiman comes stock with a single hangar bay for support and a large energy mount to accommodate the heaviest hitter you can find. The other downside is that it is hard to find on the market, also keeping it out of the S Rank.
Cockroach - The jack-of-all-trades Junker destroyer that can out damage the Creep but is on the slower side. It benefits from all the bonuses of being a Junker, along with enough ordnance points to have a solid loadout. Even sticking with mostly HMI weapons, they function well enough as combat support and will constitute your early-game core combat forces. Easy to deploy at 5 points, especially with all the correct aspects lined up with D-mods and Derelict Operation.
B Ranked Ships - I'm only judging these ships within the HMI roster!
All the Junker Frigates! - Fully D-modded (at least 4) with the right player skills, these will cost you almost nothing to deploy; for example, a Greasy, my personal pick for the most resilient Junker Frigate, is only 2 deployment points. They are cheap to upkeep, cheap to deploy, with no fear of them being lost post-battle. If you modify your fleet capacity, you could theoretically employ silly zerg swarm tactics. The downside is that they are still just frigates, and against mid to endgame fleets, they can still be easily destroyed before dealing out a significant amount of damage. They excel in some aspects, pushing them up to a higher ranking for me, but they remain down-to-earth in terms of damage output, survivability, and ship systems. No overly powerful super ships here.
Herackles - The largest of the Techmined ships, it can deal solid damage with okay survivability. However, being low tech and slow, the Herackles doesn't match up to the core Junkers' combat speeds. As a Techmined hull, it is plagued with negatives, making it unsuitable for rapid consecutive deployments without challenges. Equipped with a ballistic rangefinder and Accelerated Acquisition Computer, it serves as a solid ballistic platform. The most significant negative is its rarity and the method needed to acquire this ship. I never encountered a bounty listing one or saw it for sale. It was a bit tight on ordnance points, so planning well is crucial. Also, being low tech and slow, with the ship ability being Accelerated Ammo Feeder, you can't easily include it in an aggressive battle alongside Roach Kings, Locomotives, or destroyers.
C Ranked ships - I'm only judging these ships within the HMI roster! Slightly below expectations here.
Junk - This receives a B rank because it becomes a core aspect of your fleet for cargo, mining, and salvage if you are playing with a themed focus. In my last game, I mined a considerable amount, boasting over 2k mining strength in my fleet. Being a Junker hull comes with numerous bonuses, including a plethora of weapon mounts and a built-in weapon shared with the Locomotive. With fighter bays, a backup secondary large mount, and a large missile mount, it helps to contribute to the support role. However, it has a limited omni shield and is a modified Atlas, making it a large, slow target that can't keep up with the core combat forces.
Junks are suitable for holding points on the map, adopting a bunker tactic, but that contrasts with the aggressive focus of the Creep, Roach King, Cockroach, and Locomotive. Junks can easily get overwhelmed and come with a heavy crew requirement. They work best in a support role with an HMI mining focus to increase your mining power, utilizing the long-range HMI mining lasers that can fire over friendlies. Paired with the faction hull mod Mining Hybridization Amplifier, the mining lasers can add hard flux to the beams. When facing a HMI bounty with several Junks, it becomes an easy target as the system calculates their value higher than it should be. I do wish there was a modified version of the Junk with more of a fortress focus, something like a Junk King where you sacrifice cargo space for more armor and hull. Essentially, an armored command Junk to position something between the Junk and the Locomotive. This would pair better with a much slower HMI fleet with carriers and some of the Techmined ships.
All the Junker carriers - Slugworth, Fishkill, and Convit. In the Junker hull mod, it states that with increasing damage, there is a loss of integrity to fighter manufactories, decreasing fighter quality and engagement range. However, recent testing suggests that the engagement range reduction may not be impacted at all or only slightly. In defensive actions, the carriers worked fine, but in normal combat, they didn't keep up with the rest of the forces. When used with in-faction wings the carrier is something that could be left out of your fleet if you are going the aggressive route. Now, using a Fishkill as an auxiliary to help with fleet cargo, mining power, and getting built-in salvage gantry and surveying equipment is not that bad, plus the mod is great.
Weaver and Scarecrow - These are neat ships with fun gimmicks like all the Techmined hulled ships. However, they have all the negatives of being Techmined hulls that you need to deal with. Also they are fairly rare to find in the game. You get tight on ordnance points here, and they are slow enough to get caught out and be in trouble.
D Ranked ships - I'm only judging these ships within the HMI roster! These are just not that good compared to the rest of the roster.
The rest of the Techmined destroyers and the Techmined frigates - Outside of getting one of these as a starting ship in Nex, they are rare to find but doable. They all come with some major drawbacks besides being Techmined hulls. Having one or two in a fleet to fill a one-off role to be used every other battle is not terrible. But by the time you can find the one you want and get it fixed, you are simply better off sticking to the Junker hulls. They are amazing models with fun gimmicks, but for me, it was not enough to want them with all the flaws and drawbacks.
Honorable mention goes to the Locomotive (LD) - Give it an aggressive pilot and cue Ozzy’s Crazy Train to play. It does have two bugs. I found one where the Advanced Targeting Core does not work. The second bug is that the ballistic rangefinder will not recognize the built-in Hunig Cannon to calculate with the rest of the weapons.
Wishes for future HMI, if any further development is done:
A hidden end-game mod that is inexpensive to be put on Techmined ships to counter the penalties. Perhaps tie it into acquiring the L^&$na ship, as that would be a nice way to clean up that “mess”.
A low-tech, slow battleline ship between the Junk and Locomotive, as there are two different speed groups in this faction. This could be achieved through a converted Junk into a command (CMD) ship or a bulwark defender.
Weapons!
Honestly this was the best thing about the mod besides the extreme content. They were very balanced and came in three tiers.
HMI Junker/Mining Tech - Low cost but effective at what they do, striking a balance between cost and effectiveness with just the right flux to damage ratio.
Techmined - Good weapons, but each comes with a flaw, either in OP cost or heat generation, adding strategic challenges.
HMI Redacted - These are all end-game variants of normal weapons. They all have a tune-up over the base weapon to varying degrees, making them strong choices. The downside is that they need to be taken from Redacted, making them limited and not easy to get a full loadout. A well-structured system that provides different options for players at various stages of the game.
Fighter
Even though I did not use carriers a lot, there are a number of hangar bays on the other ships. I also put a converted hangar on my Junker destroyers and Roach Kings. Shell and Taker Mining Drone are the two standouts because they are cheap for one. The Shell’s gun has a 900 range, making it fairly active. The Taker Mining drone also has great range but can induce hard flux with the Mining Hybridization Amplifier.
The Scale is good, especially on the Locomotives, but not easy to place on other ships at 16 OP.
The Bombardment Pod is very thematic but fairly slow and may not be worth spending 14 OP on.
The Nail on a Junk is not a bad choice if you want something else besides a Shell or a Taker. They do die fast and are not truly optimal.
The Trapdoom bomber is a better option over the Nail at 3 OP for something that might do damage and die fast.
The Vincensa I run 6 on my Fishkill. They have a single antimatter blaster, and a full wave from a Fishkill can do some work. They do have a long refit time, so manual use of them would be best, as the AI can use fighters poorly after the first strike.
The Scogliera has the coolest, most alien visual aspect but doesn’t perform well when I have tried them, and at 14 OP, it's better to go for a Scale or improve your ship in other ways.
Questions! -Does Junker hull mod really reduce fighter engagement range? I assumed it did but I was using TMI and it still shows my fighters at the full range?
I had a blast playing HMI and will check out the other faction for a play though at a later date, thanks for sharing a very fun and thematic mod.
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Topic: [0.97a] Hazard Mining Incorporated (Getting the Message Ed., 0.3.8b) (Read 712287 times)