How would the Aurora have low firepower, if the Odyssey does not? In terms of purely shield dps, for the Deployment Points, an Aurora with 3 pulse lasers is the same as an Odyssey with 2 Plasma Cannons. If you are worried about defeating high armour values, 2 Heavy Blaster would be the DP equivalent firepower. The Aurora, just like an Odyssey should be able to dissapitate those weapons flux. Of course, the Aurora needs to be closer and so will get itself closer into more danger, but in theory Plasma Jets will also get it out of more danger too.
Because it has a lot less dps? Like... A whole hell of a lot less. Like... how could you even confuse the two?
So the Aurora has 800 base flux with 425 base shield cost and 3 medium slots(and some smalls). Its a cruiser and so it can fit 30 vents base and 36 with Loadout Design 2. This makes its shieldless and shielded total flux dissipation 1160/735 with loadout design 2. And 1100/675 without. If we assume stabilized shields then this goes up to 1160/948 and 1100/888. With that amount of capacity it can fire Heavy Blasters at an efficiency of 500/720 which gives it a DPS of 806/658 or 764/617 with stabilized shields and 806/510 or 764/469 without. This at 500 armor pen. It could fire Pulse Lasers instead at 303/333(and then IR pulse for when venting is >999 at 1 to 1) but it would be down to 100 armor pen a significant difference vs armor. Either way this puts you at 1070/862 or 1001/808 with stabilized shields and 1070/669 or 1001/614. Respectable numbers either way.
The Odyssey has 1000 base flux with 250 shield cost and 2 large slots (and some smalls that you should probably not bother fitting). Its a capital and so it can fit 50 vents base and 60 with Loadout Design 2. This makes its shieldless and shielded total flux dissipation 1600/1350 with Loadout Design 2 and 1500/1250 without. A Plasma Cannon does 750 DPS at 825 flux per second. This means that its Loadout Design 2 DPS is 1500/1266 and its regular numbers are 1406/1172
Plasma Cannons also have more range than Heavy Blasters and are not subject to being stopped by opposing projectiles in addition to the increased range of ITU and the fact that the Odyssey is as fast as the Aurora even if the Aurora is using its Plasma Jets in terms of chasing things down.(Also the third pulse laser mount is not on a turret and so will miss more often)
So the Aurora peaks out at 1070 DPS and 100/50 pen if it doesn't have its shields up and you have Loadout Design 2. The Odyssey will being doing 1172 with its shields up and without loadout design 2 and 500 armor penetration. Assuming the same fleet skills and similar shield necessity the damage difference is:
Edit: To make it easier going through and doing the per DP DPS ratio
Loadout Design 2/Shields Down/5x armor pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 40% more damage.
7% Less per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetLoadout Design 2/Shields UP/5x armor pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 47% more damage.
2% less per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetLoadout Design 2/Shields Down/Same Armor Pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 86% more damage 24% more per DPLoadout Design 2/Shields UP/Same Armor Pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 92% more damage 28% more per DPLoadout Design 2/Shields Down/5x armor pen: Odyssey does 40% more damage
7% Less per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetLoadout Design 2/Shields UP/5x armor pen: Odyssey does 82% more damage 21% more per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetLoadout Design 2/Shields Down/Same Armor Pen: Odyssey does 86% more damage
24% more per DPLoadout Design 2/Shields UP/Same Armor Pen: Odyssey does 148% more damage 65% more per DPShields Down/5x armor pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 49% more damage
.5% Less per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetShields UP/5x armor pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 45% more damage
3.5% Less per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetShields Down/Same Armor Pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 83% more damage 22% more per DPShields UP/Same Armor Pen/Stabilized Shields: Odyssey does 90% more damage 27% more per DPShields Down/5x armor pen: Odyssey does 49% more damage
.5% Less per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetShields UP/5x armor pen: Odyssey does 91% more damage 27% more per DP vs shields. Armor/Hull Depends on targetShields Down/Same Armor Pen: Odyssey does 83% more damage
22% more per DPShields UP/Same Armor Pen: Odyssey does 150% more damage 67% more per DPNow. If you normalize to deployment points and are using stabilized shields and are shooting at 100/50 penetration then you're going to get pretty close. You might even technically do more shield damage in a brawl-off with the Aurora deployment point for deployment point. The Odyssey costs 45 deployment points and the Aurora costs 30 so. 45/30 -> 50% more DPS is our breakpoint.
But if you want the same armor pen and hull DPS the Odyssey is still going to absolutely crush the Aurora even deployment point for deployment point. Against a 1000 armor'd ships hull Pulse lasers will be doing 66% of their normal damage while plasma cannons will still be dealing 83% of theirs which gives the Odyssey a 25% damage advantage. This puts the Odyssey back on top significantly even deployment point for deployment point.
And then the range and the ability to broadslide and...
Kinda big important note... I totally forgot to include any DPS from the Odysseys two fighter bays. I usually have like Xyphos and Spark or double Xyphos, so the DPS there is usually pretty minimal* but you could absolutely run an interceptor or heavy fighter wing and have decent increase DPS for zero flux. The numbers above do not account for that (nor do they count for missiles but the Odyssey has more missiles slots per DP than the Aurora anyway) and are, as such an underestimation of the value of the Odyssey.
*2 Xyphos Wings still adds 200 DPS at 25 pen (Assuming only the ion beams hit and there is no ion arc damage). So the raw DPS numbers should be like.. So the raw DPS number for the first case. Loadout Design 2, shields Down, pulse lasers on the Aurora should actually be 59% more damage for the Odyssey or 6% more damage per deployment point.