Hello! I've just completed a run in the
6th Starsector Tournament with PACK/ASP in the Underdog League!
I was lured in by the premise of an underused faction where the whole was more than the sum of its parts and I was not disappointed. I am aiming to present some notable facets of PACK/ASP to help other players enjoy this rewarding faction, as well as a few personal notes on balance
Due to the specifics of the tournament ruleset maintenance & base ship cost played a big part in decisions, as well as of course AI usage of ships so a lot of feedback is geared towards that. Actual availability of hulls beyond those factors is a minor issue in the tournament format, except where we nudge the tournament spam soft limits, so is not well addressed here. Tournament faction distinctions restricted me to PACK/ASP and weapons & fighters from any faction I was paired with, which specifically does not including Bullseye (BE) variants nor Junk Pirate content
PACK/ASP has a varied roster with a reasonable number of base hulls, which then often have hull variations from Caomarelo Arms & Armour (CA), Canebianco technicians (CB) or Rothund machine shop (RH). These variations should be carefully considered as they often involve different weapon mounts, built-in hullmods, OP changes or extra maintenance and can be significantly distinct.
Broadly speaking PACK has excellent access to omni shields with large arcs, high speed and also high maneuverability, especially deceleration. In Starsector combat these are important factors. The AI is able to use omni shields extremely well, with larger arc omni shields enabling potential close engagements against multiple ships relatively safely.
High speed & maneuverability let them often pick battles, engagement ranges or enable flanking
Of particular note is their generally high deceleration stats, which is often the biggest factor of how effectively a ship can get out of a bad situation. This is particularly important when reversing from full forward to full reverse in order to hide behind a friendly ship and recover flux. PACK ships may be individually weak but by cycling out their front lines they are able to absorb & dissipate exceptional amounts of flux on a fleet level
HullmodsThere are various notable hullmods to accentuate PACK strengths or mitigate weaknesses. It is no accident that many of these hullmods are available as built-ins for the various ASP elements.
Accelerated Shields synergises with omni shields to greatly improve their combat effectiveness, particularly under AI control. An often overlooked factor is a de facto dissipation bonus since it inclines AI ships to drop shields more to passively vent. Often built into (CB) hulls
Auxiliary Thrusters increases nimbleness of PACK to extreme levels. Of particular note is the +50% bonus to the important deceleration stat. Synergises with Accelerated Shields to enable even faster shield rotations that no human could take practical advantage of but the AI sure can. Ships generally spend a lot of time not at max speed in combat and this improves every aspect of that movement significantly. Often built into (CA) hulls
PACK is broadly susceptible to burst damage, with their generally fragile hulls. There are various hullmods to mitigate this, with shield focused ones commonly built into (CB) hulls and a whole host of them commonly built into (RH) hulls. If you like a PACK ship conceptually but find it needs more oomph then do check out those hull variations
Wirefox3 maintenance for a medium missile and a fast omni shield frigate with a medium ballistic. This is an exceptional fleet ship when used en mass or as part of a holistic fleet. The advantages cheap of medium missile access and also medium ballistics are profound
Wirefox (CA)4.5 maintenance for a nimble frigate of the line. Yes a line frigate, despite its fragility. The additional +5 OP goes a long way on top of the free, practically required built-in Auxiliary Thrusters. Swarms of these can cycle damage away very nicely, particularly in combination with any fleet anchors
Diamondback (P)3 maintenance for 3 small missiles on a platform with a blistering
195 top speed. Can be fitted with a long range small weapon like a tactical laser to play the ultimate game of distraction. These things can be extremely slippery while also having excellent strike potential via their missiles. Worth noting that their very high speed and relatively low mass will often see them take more self-inflicted harm from ramming friendlies than from enemy fire; could probably stand to have more mass to mitigate this common issue
Pitbull8 maintenance close range destroyer. Generous 150 arc omni shield enables close quarters battle against multiple threats. Lack of medium mounts precludes engaging at longer ranges, although PACK generally has exceptional access to medium ballistic mounts via other hulls. Pitbull (CB) & Pitbull (RH) are notable if more OP or survivability for more cost is desired
Copperhead (P)15 maintenance hunter cruiser. A 90 speed cruiser with
Plasma Jets and generous flux capacity. Essentially an even lighter Falcon, that still provides cheap access to cruiser-grade hull range bonuses. Can use it's speed & capacity to bully smaller hulls, or fit for long range damage or dual role.
Mastiff15 maintenance line cruiser. A solid ship that demands considered decisions on where to spend it's limited OP. Can be fit for tanking, ballistics support, mass small beam support or a High Intensity Laser but not all at once.
Gigantophis22 maintenance carrier capital. Actual carriers are rare & valuable assets, as opposed to the much more common & behaviourally distinct combat carriers. The only actual carriers in vanilla are Condor, Gemini & Astral; Gigantophis is an actual carrier. Provides relatively cheap access to the exceptionally powerful one (1) second cooldown
Recall Device. This was showcased in the tournament via stripped-down Gigantophis with 50 vents and triple
Longbow wings, providing constant kinetic sabot close support pressure for the PACK fleet just as fast as the 200 speed Longbows could travel to target.
Bulldog35 maintenance force multiplying pocket capital. Features the exceptional
Entropy Amplifier on a durable non-phase ship hull. This is a significant force multiplier for PACK via damage multiplier of Entropy Amplifier, access to large ballistics or capital-grade range boosted beam support.
Particularly relevant in the era of stations as it can mount a Hellbore Cannon; 2250 effective damage from a Hellbore shot past shields will strip an Entropy Amplifier afflicted station's armour very fast, even more so with skills. Unfortunately I was not quite able to field one of these beauties this tournament, an oversight I hope to remedy next tournament.
The two front small ballistics turrets could stand to be shifted further back, or further away from the centerline or swapped to hardpoints. Right now they are practically immediately disabled if any notable damage gets past the shield from the front, making them somewhat of a trap to utilize
There are plenty of other PACK/ASP ships but I don't yet feel confident enough to comment on them specifically
AffenpinscherBroadly speaking PACK has issues fielding enough PD, instead needing to rely on dodging or taking missiles on shields. This is exacerbated by fighters in particular, which can attack from unshielded angles. Affenpinscher is a built-in burst PD laser found on a few hulls with generous 360 arcs that feels like it might be a custom designed solution to this particular problem. In practice they are mostly mounted on destroyers and 650 range isn't quite enough to provide fleet PD coverage for the mobile PACK fleet. I feel like more range on the Affenpinscher could potentially contribute the PACK's more than the sum of its parts theme