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[majorfreak]

Hey guys i am sorry that i have to ask but how are the new ships are integrated? Can i buy them? Are there quests or hidden places? Are those developed through the years in the game? Want to test out the mighty Nagato. 

scarface mentioned it drops as 'loot' only.  which i assume is when you explore ruins and derelict stations? dunno.

[PeachPatrol]

Looking at the faction files, I noticed none of the factions know the torpedo patrol craft blueprint. Is it intended to be player only?

[Warnoise]

It seems the snake has only one Torpedo, not two.

[scarface]

Surprised the Ragnarok isn't a ship made up of modules, seems like it'd make more sense than just one giant ship.

I only found out about that after i already made ragnarok and i wasnt about to sit for 3 more days on my laptop reworking it. HOwever, if you get around to do it, i imagined that the front "armor" part would be detachable module, as well as various other small parts would be detachable a lot like in a fight with mothership. however its centerline should remain solid, cuz its the sporeship after all.

I love this mod but I really dislike that none of the new Path ships have SO and much fewer ordinance points than standard variants. Nothing that can't be fixed by tinkering with the data files of course but still lol.

Well, they are supposed to be quite literally, trash. And they really are absolutely horrible. But they also represent makeshift tanks and technicals in our real world, so i guess it fills that role well.

Hey guys i am sorry that i have to ask but how are the new ships are integrated? Can i buy them? Are there quests or hidden places? Are those developed through the years in the game? Want to test out the mighty Nagato. 

some *** are supposed to be sold by certain factions they belong to. their blueprints should be on their planets AND for ships that arent in any faction list, those should be lootable from stations.

Looking at the faction files, I noticed none of the factions know the torpedo patrol craft blueprint. Is it intended to be player only?

yea, they were supposed to be player only, because i couldnt really balance them all that well and i think AI works best with wings of fighters-its PD isnt as effective, since player can just focus fire on PBs and blow them up, while AI doenst do that.

It seems the snake has only one Torpedo, not two.

Snake is supposed to have one twin hammer mount. according to files i have, its weapon is "hammer" not "hammer_single", so i dont know whats the issue.

[Arcagnello]

I will premise this is just a hunch, but I've got the impression the Staple might be worth a tiny bit more than just 40DP since it can get a 4 large Ballistic Turret Broadside going, plus 6 medium missile weapons (which are going to be Pilums or anything similar) and two medium Energy weapons (which can aim at either side, most definetly going to be Ion Beams).


I've got one 4-Dmod Staple at my home planet, I'll restore it and fiddle with it to provide some better feedback by tonight, altough if really smells like it needs the same treatment the pelican recieved and that a quick bump up to 50DP might solve the balancing issue for the time being.

[Arcagnello]

Update! I've resorted the Staple and di an hour or so of testing!

20 Words or less:
It's definetly 50 Deployment Points at the very least even with vanilla weapons and all mounts occupied

Stats comparison with a Conquest:
Conquest

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Staple

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Differences between the two:
I'll mark differences that are rather massive (and possibly questionable) with a (!) mark at the start of the sencence for ease of reading:
Staple loses 3% less Combat Readiness per deployment
(!)Staple has 120 more seconds of Peak Performance Time
Staple requires 200 more skeleton crew to operate
Staple has 100 more cargo capacity
(!)Staple has 700 more maximum crew capacity
Staple has 100 more fuel capacity
Conquest has 5 less fuel requirement per light year/jump
(!)Staple has 50% more hull integrity
(!)Staple has 33% more armor (150 less than an Onslaught)
(!)Staple has an omni shield 100% wider than the Conquest
Conquest has 120 less shield upkeep
(!)Staple has 5000 more flux capacity
Conquest is 5su/sec faster
(!) Staple sacrifices the two large missile hardpoints for 4 more Medium missile hardpoints and 6 more small energy turrets
(!) Staple has massively more favourable weapon arcs: 3 out of the four large ballistic mounts can aim at the front, medium ballistic weapons have better weapon arcs and more or less all small weapon turrets have better acrs too, with more or less 75% of them also being able to aim directly in front of the ship.
(!!!)Staple has 50 more Ordinance Points

This is, essentially, a better Conquest and has no place at 40DP.
Just for slightly worse speed (which is mostly superficial since the ship gets Manouvering Jets anyway which adds a fixed speed boost) fuel economy and 120 more Shield Flux Upkeep, the Staple has massively improved durability, logistical profile, customizability and is also a breeze for the AI to play it due to the very generous weapon arcs, especially of the large weapon mounts. The ship is even able to comfortably install both Stabilized Shields and Front Shield conversion inder to have a 150 Flux/Sec 360° shield, on a Midline Capital.

Testing and Setup
I've been running some tests against a couple of 40DP capitals at a time (and not the vanilla setups, which honestly suck) and the setup I've found that absolutely butchers them all is the following.

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Weapon Groups

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You can add this to the autofit variants of the ship since it only gets one and it's...not that good to be frank.

I've decided to not go full meta and leave any weapon mounts empty (Devastator at the back and 6 Pilums are nice, but the absence od Dmods usually dictates removing them), or go up to 60 vents since I've got special modifications but all the ship needs is an officer with decent long range fighting skills and it just tenderizes double its own current DP with ease. It even hammers the Paragon down until it's dead.

Quick Fix:
This is what I would do to quickly rebalance the ship and not alter any weapon types or arcs or ship systems
-Staple DP increased from 40 to 50
-Staple OP Increased from 365 to 400 (to keep in line with the ship being more versatile, as per description)
-Shield Arc reduce from 180 to 120 (it's enough to cover both front and most of the sides, better than Conquest but not disgusting)
-Shield Upkeep increased from to 720 (you have 50% more shield arc, you get 50% more shield upkeep!)
-maximum crew berthing reduced from 1200 to 900 (which is still 200 more additional crew above skeleton requirements than the Conquest)

You will have to wait a while if you'd like a full descrpition of what changes towards making it more balance for what's supposedly a broadsiding capital that somehow can still fire 3 large ballistic weapons from the front without turning a single degree. I'll leave you a hint tough:
I've played some warfare-related games, including WW2 naval warfare which also includes battleships. The correct definition of this precise main battery arrangements eludes me but I figure you could easily replicate it for the staple in order to force the Ludd-Forsaken ship to broadside:

This is of course assuming there's still a large ballistic turret in the back.

Whaddya think about this whole essay?

[Sutopia]

Staple worth no less than 60 DP. It’s comparable to a paragon except for the range from targeting computer.

[Arcagnello]

Staple worth no less than 60 DP. It’s comparable to a paragon except for the range from targeting computer.

Yesn't.

The ship has a very attractive array of weapons but it still retains the same exact base flux dissipation and shield ratio of the Conquest, which would put it in quite a pinch if it was bumped all the way up to 60DP. The relatively low flux pool would also be really ankward if it was that pricy.

Now, I could easily see it at 60DP if it had some more flux dissipation, capacity and some more OP too, but simply applying some slight rebalances and stat tweaks to make it fit 50DP perfectly looks both easier to execute and more appealing as far as I am concerned.

[scarface]

Staple worth no less than 60 DP. It’s comparable to a paragon except for the range from targeting computer.

Yesn't.

The ship has a very attractive array of weapons but it still retains the same exact base flux dissipation and shield ratio of the Conquest, which would put it in quite a pinch if it was bumped all the way up to 60DP. The relatively low flux pool would also be really ankward if it was that pricy.

Now, I could easily see it at 60DP if it had some more flux dissipation, capacity and some more OP too, but simply applying some slight rebalances and stat tweaks to make it fit 50DP perfectly looks both easier to execute and more appealing as far as I am concerned.

good essay, did your due dilligence. yea, you can change the price, its in uhhh... ship_data.some excel-like file. And you got it almost right, except for one thing, surge damage. I loved conquests. like, a lot. i used them with either reapers or hammer barrages to one shot enemy capitals or space station sections. No other capital ship has that kind of surge damage. However, role of Staple is to trade one for one with other capital ships of low and high tech as well as oppose redacted ships. you will find it very hard to actually maintain your damage and outdamage other capital ships due to low flux. i should know, i flew staple for dozens of hours, along with most of my other ships when i was making sector wide empire. also, AI does well with staple, like you said. also another reason for its stats. I envisioned midline to be the norm of the sector, with high-tech being rather restricted and low-tech something that only hegemony or crazies use. But again, you can change the price. if you dislike price of staple, you should look into price of superships too, id actually appreciate insight into that since i just kinda eyeballed the DP. Oh and lower OP on staple is intentional too, to prevent some uber builds.

[Arcagnello]

@scarface

Good essay, did your due dilligence. yea, you can change the price, its in uhhh... ship_data.some excel-like file.

I've got to be accurate sometimes, you know? The inherent shame of creating s.posting threads about the XIV Dominator being a crab and all that had to have their opposite written eventually
I am aware of how to edit ship files, but I won't do it. I'm under the opinion it's a very selfish thing to do in the first place, since it's only done for yourself and it  more or less bastardizes the mod to obey your selfish needs.
If I think something about a certain mod needs to be changed I'll complain push a discourse for chages based on well-explained reasons as long as I'll have the mod installed and I'm actively interacting with the content/mechanics it introduces, hence the essay 

And you got it almost right, except for one thing, surge damage. I loved conquests. like, a lot. i used them with either reapers or hammer barrages to one shot enemy capitals or space station sections. No other capital ship has that kind of surge damage. However, role of Staple is to trade one for one with other capital ships of low and high tech as well as oppose redacted ships. you will find it very hard to actually maintain your damage and outdamage other capital ships due to low flux. i should know, i flew staple for dozens of hours, along with most of my other ships when i was making sector wide empire. also, AI does well with staple, like you said. also another reason for its stats. I envisioned midline to be the norm of the sector, with high-tech being rather restricted and low-tech something that only hegemony or crazies use. But again, you can change the price. if you dislike price of staple. Oh and lower OP on staple is intentional too, to prevent some uber builds.

Alright, now that I've laid the foundations regarding the Staple's stats compared to a Conquest and what I think would be a better DP for it, I'll show you a more empyrical kind of data: personal experience!

I've currently got 2 Conquests and a Staple in my fleet (they're mod Conquests from Kazeron Narvarchy with buffs similar to XIV varints, but they get 10% better handling and 5% less shield samage instead)
The Two Conquests are the definition of tryharding. They're purpose built to fight [Redacted] and [Endgame Stuff]. They have 6 Level officers with the absolute perfect skills for them and:
-Elite Missile Specialization allowing the two squalls to have 300% ammo (when combined with EMR) and double the rate of fire with half the reload time.
-Elite Target Analysis allowing the Conquest to deal 240% EMP damage across the two mjolnir Cannons, the two Hypervelocity Drivers, the two squalls, the two sabot pods and even the entirety of the Point Defence system, which is from High tech Expansion and also deals EMP damage.

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(I ended up switching those two missiles for actual sabots later, yeah)
Giving you an idea of how well it performs:

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The Staple on the other hand has been set up...suboptimally, really. Triple Gauss and enough Flux Dissipation to fire them does not sound bad and certainly does not perform bad in the designer (it beats 3, decently set up 40DP capitals in the designer at once now, just FYI) but the AI on such a mobile ship tends to switch target very often and Gauss despite being augmented by Turret Gyros still don't perform well when the ship's costantly switching targets.
Then there's also to mention my Staple officer is suboptimal and I've got to find a good one that
-is aggressive
-has helsmanship, Reliability Engineering, Gunnery Implants, shield modulation, Ranged Specialization and Target Analysis
-has made Ranged Specialization and Target Analysis Elite to both do a disgusting amount of more EMP damage and basically hit with the large ballistics all the time.

Here's some samples of Remnant fights where these two designs were in it at the same time:

Sample 1: Remnant Ordo with Alpha Core Brilliants

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In this fight the arguably subpar staple build not only did better damage than Conquest builds that litterally fire two squalls as fast as if they had 4 of them but the fact it gets a 360° shield and more base flux capacity also meant it took a lot less damage when compared to the conquest, that as of this patch would rather orient the shield towards some bloody Lux Heavy fighters than in the general direction of that Ludd-Forsaken Radiant with 5 Tachyon lances.

Sample 2: Bigger Remnant Ordo with both Alpha Core Brilliants and Radiants

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You can see one out of two Conquests did more total damage, but if you closely look at what the Conquests and the Staple actually damaged during battle you'll notice that as the Conquests were cleaning up smaller remnants,  the Staple was busy tanking and slapping Radiants.

I don't know what else I can say about this really. If a suboptimal Staple with a meh Officer, no elite skills and poorly thought out setup at best is better at balnding Alpha Core spam remnants better than Conquests buffed up the whazoo does not convince you about the staple being worth a bit more deployment points, I don't know what will 

Addendum: I've finally gotten myself an aggressive officer for my Staple, and while I denied myself the pleasure of making a 6 Sabot SRM pod build by Integrating Flux Distributor instead of Expanded Missile Racks, I'm pretty damn sure a Staple with
-2x Mjolnir
-2x MK.9 Autocannon
-2x Hypervelocity Driver
-2x Ion beam
With the same officer my tryhard conquests have will perform better in every single way and won't have the issue of running out of ammo either, not to mention it can reasonably fit both Automated Repair Unit and resistant Flux conduits thanks to having more OP, which added to the 360° shield makes it disgustingly durable for a ship with this much mobility and firepower.

Addendum Nr.2
I personally envision a tryhard Staple to have (Integrated) Hardened Shields/Integrated targeting Unit/Expanded Missile racks and a choice between
-6x harpoon pod, 3x Mk.9 Autocannon,1 Mjolnir, 2 Ion Beam
-6x Sabot pod, 2x Mk.9 Autocannon, 2 Mjolnir, 2 Ion Beam
-Stabilized Shields, Solar Shielding, Automated Repair Unit, Resistant Flux Conduits, rest of OP into vents first and capacitors later
-An Aggressive/reckless officer with Helsmanship, Reliability Engineering, Shield Modulation, Gunnery Implants, Elite Missile Specialization, Elite Target Analysis

I don't think there needs to be a collection of screenshots to showcase why the above build would befit a 50DP superbattlecruiser rather than a 40DP one, or would you like me to do that?

You should look into price of superships too, I'd actually appreciate insight into that since i just kinda eyeballed the DP

I only have the blueprints for the Pelagornis and the Ragnarok but I'm currently on constructing them both while I'm currently 100% exploring the sector. Some initial thoughts:

I only think the Pelagornis has a fitting name
The Luddic Path does not have a iota of Norse culture in it, naming their biggest ship Ragnarok is therefore very wierd. Better names that currently come to my mind would be Path, Apostle, Judgement. They all fit their lore much better:
-Path speaks for itself. It's the name of the faction, signifies a path to both redempion for its followers and leaves a path od destruction to the damnent servants of Moloch and mammon!
-Apostle is a bit more subtle, but it would describe the ship as Ludd's most devout follower, the one that's willing to go out of its way the most to fulfill the Martyr's final wishes 
-Judgement is rather straightforward. It's the ship in the Luddic path that's most likely to bring just that to the servants of the twin devils.

Nagato, again, comes from Japanese lore (and Naruto, unironically the last good chapter in both the anime and the manga) and does not fit all that well in the naming Scheme of ships that are more or less all derived from the Conquest. I've only got one name suggestion but I do think it fits the Dreadnought rather well: Phalanx

It's the main battle formation of the armies under the command of Alexander the Great, one of if nt the world's most successful Conqueror (along Genghis Khan, but he's a lot more famous for the amount of offspring he generated than the land he had under his control) and it fits the ship very well.
It was an almost impassable wall of long spears across three rows all pointing forward in real life, and it's going to be an almost impassable wall of long range lead in Starsector


As for balance, I don't know yet. They've got relatiely low ordinance Points for their Deployment Points but I can see a lot of integrated hullmods coming with the ship, so they might not be all that off DP-wise.

My issue (that's not balance related) is their 200 Deployment Point Cost. You're more or less unable to deploy them unless you either play at 400 battle size or edit the battle size setting in the settings.json file, which more or less breaks game balance when playing at 400 B.S. or lower since, regardless of your Deployment Points, you can always deploy at least one ship.

Example: You're fighting a remnant ordo at default (300) battle size and you only get 120 Deployment Points at the start of the battle, but you'd still be able to deploy a 200 Deployment Point Dreadnaught despite that, effectively cheating game balance.

Rebalancing all these ships around 120, 150 DP at most would not only solve this issue but also allow more varied fleet compositions that include them. I would even argue it would be great for this mod to work in unison with Varya's Sector and have these ships appear in Special Bounties. I also would totally envision these ships to appear in very big, endgame fleets belonging to their own factions if they were "only" 120 Deployment points.

I'll have more feedback regarding them when I end up using them, have a good read until then!

[scarface]

I'll have more feedback regarding them when I end up using them, have a good read until then!

Eh, if staple is a tad bit op for 40, i think you will change your mind about 120-150 for supers, those things tank several (6 was my record) ordos worth of garbage, solo.

Im not familiar with those "specializations" and so on, i dont know if i overlooked anything, but it seems to be from a mod. Ive given up at trying to balance anything with other mods, sorry. just too much work.

In regards to the conquests... Squalls? really? I know they can be useful, but any cruiser and up PD deals with them effortlessly. I just dislike these things... I like my High explosives sent in after flux gets ***. Big boom if the way.

Anyway, i just did like 20 test fights, staples vs conquests. Everything vanilla, without commanders. Staples won a bit more, especially when weapon configuration favored anti-escort on conquests, but conquests were able to overflux staples a few times and kill them in a split second/cripple them, and due to more mass, they take forever to retreat. maybe you are just using too many mods which impacted the performance to a big degree-i mostly didnt use gameplay changing mods and ship mods i used were also barebone like mine.

And im pretty sure that size 7 or 8 and up planets with all-out ship production will spawn corresponding supers in their fleets. not sure tho, i have only seen path do it so far. I dont want supers to be bosses either. just doesnt fit my vision. though i wish it was possible to have them spawn in certain crusades against the player from the factions. alas, i cant program for ***, i can only kitbash.

[Arcagnello]

I'm on the phone right now so I'll give you a short answer I'll expand upon tomorrow but..all those "specializations" (missile Specialization, Long Range Specialization) I talked about are...uh...actual Officer Skills from Vanilla as of 0.95 and not from, well, mods.

I am fully aware conquest optimally works best in a 1v1 with gauss and Hurricanes, but the new officer skills somewhat change that.

First off, Squalls are cheaper and don't necessarily require ECCM, making the rest of the build a lot stronger by virtue of having a lot more OP to work with.

Secondly, the main issues with Squalls is that they do not have much in the way of ammo and their rate of fire while the rack is being unloaded is subpar. The Missile Specialization skill adds 100% ammo and the Elite version of it even makes missile weapon reloads AND their burst rate of fire twice as fast at the same time. It is one of the only weapons that actually is able to overload a Radiant before the AI can react in time and lower shields by how fast it vomits out kinetic damage; Especially when combined with Mjolnir which the AI really dislikes taking hull hits from.

Thirdly, Gauss Hurricane Conquest has issues against endgame threats. Having a conquest variant that instead not only has Disgusting amount of shield damage with Squalls but also absolutely bonkers levels of EMP damage really, REALLY helps late game.

I am not using any behaviour altering mods that I am aware of. As I said previously, even a subpar Staple build does more damage and also tanks incredibly better than a purpose built, buffed variant of a conquest.

Missile weapons scale tremendously with Officer skills and integrated hullmods now in 0.95, Watching a Staple that has Pilums instead of the most intensive long range kinetic damage weapon in the game keep up despite not relying on limited ammo is...worrying.

[scarface]

I'm on the phone right now so I'll give you a short answer I'll expand upon tomorrow but..all those "specializations" (missile Specialization, Long Range Specialization) I talked about are...uh...actual Officer Skills from Vanilla as of 0.95 and not from, well, mods.

I am fully aware conquest optimally works best in a 1v1 with gauss and Hurricanes, but the new officer skills somewhat change that.

First off, Squalls are cheaper and don't necessarily require ECCM, making the rest of the build a lot stronger by virtue of having a lot more OP to work with.

Secondly, the main issues with Squalls is that they do not have much in the way of ammo and their rate of fire while the rack is being unloaded is subpar. The Missile Specialization skill adds 100% ammo and the Elite version of it even makes missile weapon reloads AND their burst rate of fire twice as fast at the same time. It is one of the only weapons that actually is able to overload a Radiant before the AI can react in time and lower shields by how fast it vomits out kinetic damage; Especially when combined with Mjolnir which the AI really dislikes taking hull hits from.

Thirdly, Gauss Hurricane Conquest has issues against endgame threats. Having a conquest variant that instead not only has Disgusting amount of shield damage with Squalls but also absolutely bonkers levels of EMP damage really, REALLY helps late game.

I am not using any behaviour altering mods that I am aware of. As I said previously, even a subpar Staple build does more damage and also tanks incredibly better than a purpose built, buffed variant of a conquest.

Missile weapons scale tremendously with Officer skills and integrated hullmods now in 0.95, Watching a Staple that has Pilums instead of the most intensive long range kinetic damage weapon in the game keep up despite not relying on limited ammo is...worrying.

Oh yea, i see, i havent player 0.95 at all. i only updated files so it wont throw errors.

well, i wont be changing staple points anyway. conquest sucks ass and midline needs some proper battleship, so it works out. however i might reduce number of missile slots for staple, it never really made sense for battleship to have loads of missiles when it should just use guns.

[Arcagnello]

That's a satisfying enough change actually, thank you! 

It will at least prevent builds combining a very overwhelming array of ballistic weapons with very effective missile loadouts. Triple Gauss Staple with Harpoons and Double Mjolnir, Double Mk.9 Staple with Sabots just to name two.

As for the Conquest, I can see why you have a need for the Staple to be better than it, but I'm not under the opinion "it sucks". I will agree it's a ship that can have a lot of things easily going wrong during battle tough which undermines its usefulness, especially under AI control.
Then there's also the fact Conquests scale a lot harder with an officer and integrated hullmods than most capital ships do in 0.95, which you may have not experienced, as an example:

Conquest with 2x Gauss and 2x Hurricane Mirv with all the required hullmods in 0.91 was more or less impossible to achieve unless you were fine with a design that basically had no point defence, no flux capacity and still kept the terrible shield.

A Conquest with an officer and 3 Integrated hullmods in 0.95a Can reasonably fit 2x gauss, 2x Hurricane Mirv, Hardened Shields, Expanded Missile Racks, INtegrated Targeting unit, Advanced Turret Gyros and Solar Shielding, plus of course all the important officer skills which add +100% missile ammo, make the shield better still and even increase weapon range by 15% too.  It would not be unfair to say the ship has indirectly gotten a lot stronger with the Officer Skill and Refit changes.


The Conquest works incredibly well when pushing the advantage but it can falter and be easily dealt with under pressure, the fact the 0.95 AI controlling that very narrow Omni shields is somehow obsessed with protecting the ship against fighters of any kind instead of actual ship-based threats does not help, like in this case:

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That's a Conquest aiming its 90° omni shield at some Lux Heavy Fighters in the distance despite both being oriented and aiming at a radiant that's perfectly capable of hitting it with most of its large energy weapons.

I've actually ended up modifying my Conquest designs to both have Front Shields and Extended Shields to prevent this from happening entirely. 240° degree shields can get in the way of other ships considering their size but they prevent a lot of the "AI oopsies" when dealing with an omni shield.

I will eventually try out both Ragnarok and Pelagornis (I've explored most of the sector and have not found the Nagato BP yet) and give you some feedback on them. I've just been busy doing other stuff lately. What do you think about the name suggestions by the way?

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I only think the Pelagornis has a fitting name
The Luddic Path does not have a iota of Norse culture in it, naming their biggest ship Ragnarok is therefore very wierd. Better names that currently come to my mind would be Path, Apostle, Judgement. They all fit their lore much better:
-Path speaks for itself. It's the name of the faction but it also signifies a path to both redempion for its followers and destruction to the damned servants of Moloch and Mammon!
-Apostle is a bit more subtle, but it would describe the ship as Ludd's most devout follower, the one that's willing to go out of its way the most to fulfill the Martyr's final wishes 
-Judgement is rather straightforward. It's the ship in the Luddic path that's most likely to bring just that to the servants of the twin devils.

Nagato, again, comes from Japanese lore (and Naruto, unironically the last good chapter in both the anime and the manga) and does not fit all that well in the naming Scheme of ships that are more or less all derived from the Conquest. I've only got one name suggestion but I do think it fits the Dreadnought rather well: Phalanx

It's the main battle formation of the armies under the command of Alexander the Great, one of if nt the world's greatest Conquerors (along Genghis Khan, but he's a lot more famous for the amount of offspring he generated than the land he had under his control) and it fits the ship very well.
It was an almost impassable wall of long spears in real life, and it's going to be an almost impassable wall of long range lead in Starsector

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[scarface]

That's a satisfying enough change actually, thank you! 

It will at least prevent builds combining a very overwhelming array of ballistic weapons with very effective missile loadouts. Triple Gauss Staple with Harpoons and Double Mjolnir, Double Mk.9 Staple with Sabots just to name two.

As for the Conquest, I can see why you have a need for the Staple to be better than it, but I'm not under the opinion "it sucks". I will agree it's a ship that can have a lot of things easily going wrong during battle tough which undermines its usefulness, especially under AI control.
Then there's also the fact Conquests scale a lot harder with an officer and integrated hullmods than most capital ships do in 0.95, which you may have not experienced, as an example:

Conquest with 2x Gauss and 2x Hurricane Mirv with all the required hullmods in 0.91 was more or less impossible to achieve unless you were fine with a design that basically had no point defence, no flux capacity and still kept the terrible shield.

A Conquest with an officer and 3 Integrated hullmods in 0.95a Can reasonably fit 2x gauss, 2x Hurricane Mirv, Hardened Shields, Expanded Missile Racks, INtegrated Targeting unit, Advanced Turret Gyros and Solar Shielding, plus of course all the important officer skills which add +100% missile ammo, make the shield better still and even increase weapon range by 15% too.  It would not be unfair to say the ship has indirectly gotten a lot stronger with the Officer Skill and Refit changes.


The Conquest works incredibly well when pushing the advantage but it can falter and be easily dealt with under pressure, the fact the 0.95 AI controlling that very narrow Omni shields is somehow obsessed with protecting the ship against fighters of any kind instead of actual ship-based threats does not help, like in this case:

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That's a Conquest aiming its 90° omni shield at some Lux Heavy Fighters in the distance despite both being oriented and aiming at a radiant that's perfectly capable of hitting it with most of its large energy weapons.

I've actually ended up modifying my Conquest designs to both have Front Shields and Extended Shields to prevent this from happening entirely. 240° degree shields can get in the way of other ships considering their size but they prevent a lot of the "AI oopsies" when dealing with an omni shield.

I will eventually try out both Ragnarok and Pelagornis (I've explored most of the sector and have not found the Nagato BP yet) and give you some feedback on them. I've just been busy doing other stuff lately. What do you think about the name suggestions by the way?

Spoiler

I only think the Pelagornis has a fitting name
The Luddic Path does not have a iota of Norse culture in it, naming their biggest ship Ragnarok is therefore very wierd. Better names that currently come to my mind would be Path, Apostle, Judgement. They all fit their lore much better:
-Path speaks for itself. It's the name of the faction but it also signifies a path to both redempion for its followers and destruction to the damned servants of Moloch and Mammon!
-Apostle is a bit more subtle, but it would describe the ship as Ludd's most devout follower, the one that's willing to go out of its way the most to fulfill the Martyr's final wishes 
-Judgement is rather straightforward. It's the ship in the Luddic path that's most likely to bring just that to the servants of the twin devils.

Nagato, again, comes from Japanese lore (and Naruto, unironically the last good chapter in both the anime and the manga) and does not fit all that well in the naming Scheme of ships that are more or less all derived from the Conquest. I've only got one name suggestion but I do think it fits the Dreadnought rather well: Phalanx

It's the main battle formation of the armies under the command of Alexander the Great, one of if nt the world's greatest Conquerors (along Genghis Khan, but he's a lot more famous for the amount of offspring he generated than the land he had under his control) and it fits the ship very well.
It was an almost impassable wall of long spears in real life, and it's going to be an almost impassable wall of long range lead in Starsector

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I think midline supers can be looted from midline factions, not sure though, check the files.

Also, names have meaning to me, so i wont be changing those. Pelagornis represents largest "bird" that flew on earth, Nagato was supposed to be super-heavy BB like Yamato and i wanted this one of a kind ship to carry a fitting historical ship name and i didnt want to call it "Montana"-i wanted SHBB name cuz im a sucker for those, always tryna build those in Hearts of Iron 4. And Ragnarok means apocalypse in norse culture. Sounds cool too. And since its supposed to be fleet defeating ship, its fitting name. Its also ironic name, because model is based on a  sporeship, which originally brought life to the sector, Ragnarok is bound to eliminate life in the sector.

But, if you have time, i was thinking about making some more ships, including supers, and i wanted your opinion on those. You can suggest some names of those as i havent decided yet, and i build ships according to their names.

To not pollute the comments, can i find you on discord or somewhere else?