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What? The odyssey is primarily useful as a player piloted ship, the AI just burns straight into the enemy fleet and explodes 50% of the time when against significant opposition. I love flying it, but I would never even think of giving it to the AI against any serious opposition. I remember the conquest AI being significantly better on this patch, but I still consider both ships primarily player ships that are wasted potential (and possibly a major loss) in AI hands. TBH I slightly prefer odyssey as a player piloted ship, but I usually just fly a doom so I end up using neither most of the time. Conquest is better than odyssey vs. ships with good shields because it can equip kinetics, but odyssey is better for smashing ships with bad shields.
First time poster, long time lurker, but I just had to come out and say something. This quote seems to be the popular opinion on the Odyssey right now and I just cannot, for the life of me, understand why.
Do you not micro your ships? The AI is not capable of any other behavior than to pilot straight on into the enemy. That's why you get the deathballs with every pirate/luddic path armada.
I think that seems to be the big misconception about capitals in this game: They are not created equal.
Sure, the Paragon and Onslaught are perfectly happy just sitting at the heart of battle and taking all the abuse the enemy can dish out, in fact, that's their entire purpose. They cannot maneuvre and are not agile enough to pick their fights.
The Odyssey, however, can do just that. It has the mobility of a cruiser and is therefore suited for maneuvering around the battlefield. This makes the Odyssey perfect for flanking and also for supporting areas where your own ships might run into trouble.
I see it as a better Aurora. And with the right loadouts, i.e. the "shotgun" build or versions thereof, it can easily be entrusted to the AI's hands. You do have to be mindful that it cannot deal well with being outnumbered more than 3:1 by capitals and cruisers.
It needs to be coordinated with your fleet, however, in the sense that it is all too tempting to sic it into a carrier-backline right away and watch it get swamped by the entire enemy fleet on its way there.
Especially if you use a Paragon as your flagship. Only once Paragon is properly engaged can the Odyssey, and by extension your cruisers, safely strike. This requires patience, however, and might seem counterintuitive, having such an expensive ship idle, or just pick off some suicidal frigates.
Additionally, the Odyssey offers a counter to being outmaneuvered, which is terribly important when fighting against phase ships.
In summary, I do not get this discussion.
The Conquest, on the other hand, is just not that good, in my opinion, since I cannot find a role it excels in. It's an HMS Hood or Lion in my mind.