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Author Topic: Good AI controlled assistant ships?  (Read 10298 times)

xyzeratul

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Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« on: September 29, 2019, 09:48:49 AM »

I am in my 2nd round with some basic mods right now, running a fleet usually with 1 Onslaught, 1 Paragon and 2 Heron), I am mainly control the Paragon or Onslaught, but I am looking for some smaller(destroyer or frigate class) ships loadouts , can be a good assistant in the hand of AI officers, do some harassment or point defence for my main fleet.
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goduranus

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2019, 09:50:08 AM »

-Herons with Thunder
-Drovers with Broadsword+Claw
Enemies will be stun locked and will not be able to fight back.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2019, 09:55:41 AM by goduranus »
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Agile

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2019, 09:52:28 AM »

Omens.

They can EMP enemy fleets with shields down, and their emitter ability is excellent at PD. Stick PD exclusive weapons on it and escort duty it onto a bigger ship and its the premier way to keep your big ships free of missile and fighter attacks.

Bonus points being the fact that it has good speed and is very small so it can dodge most enemies.

The other one is the brawler, but only with a specific build. You need to give it double rail guns, integrated targeting unit, and keep it behind a SLOW capital or cruiser, otherwise if its caught alone it will get annihilated. Its not good at PD but its good at adding damage early to mid game. I don't recommend it at your current stage, however, as you already have several capitals.

Drovers and Herons are good, and you should continue to buy / manufacture them, as their fighters act as PD in of themselves, making it so you don't have to use up DP on other ships.
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xyzeratul

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2019, 09:53:06 AM »

Herons with Thunder
Drovers with Broadsword+Claw

Enemies will be stun locked and will not be able to fight back.
thanks but is there any none carrier options?
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goduranus

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2019, 09:57:00 AM »

-Tempest with dual Ion Pulsers
Ion Pulsers are pretty potent with Tempest special ability, enemies will be disabled for a long long time.

-Tempest with Pulse Laser and AM Blaster
AM Blaster will one shot frigates and cripple destroyers with Tempest special ability to increase energy damage

-Afflictor with 4x Linked dual Atropos, Ion Cannon/ECCM/Expanded Missile Racks
This one is pretty devastating as long as you order it to engage ships with frontal shields from the tac map, it tends to harass the wrong enemies if you leave it to generic orders.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2019, 10:00:58 AM by goduranus »
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SCC

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2019, 11:44:17 AM »

Herons with Thunder
Drovers with Broadsword+Claw

Enemies will be stun locked and will not be able to fight back.
thanks but is there any none carrier options?
You can have Drovers with interceptors, but they won't stop bigger ships and they need escorts of their own, or more frontline ships they can hide behind.

Bradley_

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2019, 11:55:28 AM »

Medusa is objectively the best destroyer, both as flagship and as escort in larger fleet, as it has the advantage of ballistic mounts and armour of midline ships, but also the flux capacity and shields of a high-tech ship, and the mobility of its phase skimmer. It even has rear mounts wich will add you some PD without sacrificing frontal firepower.

About AM blaster on temptest, you should try ion pulser instead. IDK, why alpha damage is so popular, but if you install battle analytics mod, you'll see that the numbers for AM blaster are consistently 4-5 times lower, than PL or IP.  And I don't think having two of them is a good idea, as it also against sustained firepower and is very bad against armor, though I never looked into that, never thought two pulsers are a thing.
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Maeleth

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2019, 12:36:47 PM »

The cheapest option would be Centurion. Cheap, reliable, with decent speed and survivability. Slap any mix of Ions/TL/LR PD/LR Pulse/Railguns on it, max vents->caps and you're good to go. Add Hardened Subsystems for extra few minutes of operating time. Though it will not survive high burst damage from laserboats, so take care.

Omens are extremely good with double PD or Pulse + salamander, again HS and max flux. Extremely tanky with it's speed, size and shield. Just don't expect to it to kill anything more than 5 DP worth by itself.

Tempest is incredibly good at both distracting and killing stuff, my preferred option is Grav Beam+Tach Lance+Salamander/Hammer. Optics and/or HS are optional but welcome addition.

Drover with any mix of interceptors and fighters. Usual setup would be Talon/Broadsword early game, Lux/Spark later on. Consider any other options if you don't rely on missiles and don't really need flares.

Mule (P) is surprisingly good as a support boat with 1k range Ion beam and salamanders.

Medusa is OP as *** at crushing small ships, but struggles with bigger targets. I'd rather bring an extra XIV Falcon for (almost) the same DP cost and double damage potential. Or another Drover for that mindless carrier spam?

And let us not forget about Monitor. Unkillable chunk of cosmic steel that will float around and eat all enemy fire for eternity without blinking an eye, this is the only small ship that will actually survive lategame carnage on a battlefield (without constant babysitting).
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goduranus

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2019, 02:12:36 PM »

Yeah, second that with the Falcon, it's only slightly more DP than Medusa, but it is a cruiser, and can do most of medusa's loadouts.

majorfreak

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2019, 02:53:20 PM »

caveat: it's still just cycle 215 for my game
currently i run with a very complex set of officers all the way from reckless to timid. large amount of subcapitals since i juuuust picked up a beat up (D) conquest with cheap ass guns for low flux (mostly vanilla with most of my tinkering in the settings.json)

reckless are my shuttles for hunting down routers post game
aggressive are my centurions & lashers & i think it's a mod for the "shrike"?
steady is for all my cruisers (a dominator, apogee, falcons both xiv, standard and especially the pirate version) & a few enforcers i still find useful
cautious is for my missile cruiser (not really sure the efficacy of a griffon) and my horde of vigilants with no energy turret and a pilum...muahaha
timid is for my carrier cruiser (a heron), a pair of drovers and a horde of geminis.

i tend to set the aggressive to guard my flagship, when i was running with a pirate falcon (i went with no PD so it was dicey when facing fighters, damn those broadswords...makes you appreciate the cheap ass fighters when some are slowly killing u)
the steady i just let loose
the cautious i set to guard the heron
the timid just guard the heron and the heron i just let loose.

reckless and aggressive don't have the skill nor the hull mod for CP endurance
cautious-timid all have both skill and mod for endurance

i pretty much have a tonne of officers to fill my hands off approach. i still have the default battle sizes & AI fleet size. but those centurions...damn...they rock, dude. i was thinking of getting a monitor to see what they're like and definitely try out these suggestions by the others
« Last Edit: September 29, 2019, 02:55:42 PM by majorfreak »
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xyzeratul

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2019, 07:14:13 PM »


The cheapest option would be Centurion. Cheap, reliable, with decent speed and survivability. Slap any mix of Ions/TL/LR PD/LR Pulse/Railguns on it, max vents->caps and you're good to go. Add Hardened Subsystems for extra few minutes of operating time. Though it will not survive high burst damage from laserboats, so take care.

Omens are extremely good with double PD or Pulse + salamander, again HS and max flux. Extremely tanky with it's speed, size and shield. Just don't expect to it to kill anything more than 5 DP worth by itself.

Tempest is incredibly good at both distracting and killing stuff, my preferred option is Grav Beam+Tach Lance+Salamander/Hammer. Optics and/or HS are optional but welcome addition.

Drover with any mix of interceptors and fighters. Usual setup would be Talon/Broadsword early game, Lux/Spark later on. Consider any other options if you don't rely on missiles and don't really need flares.

Mule (P) is surprisingly good as a support boat with 1k range Ion beam and salamanders.

Medusa is OP as *** at crushing small ships, but struggles with bigger targets. I'd rather bring an extra XIV Falcon for (almost) the same DP cost and double damage potential. Or another Drover for that mindless carrier spam?

And let us not forget about Monitor. Unkillable chunk of cosmic steel that will float around and eat all enemy fire for eternity without blinking an eye, this is the only small ship that will actually survive lategame carnage on a battlefield (without constant babysitting).

I am using medusa right now, any loadout suggestions? I feel this thing is a bit struggles with enemy missile spam, maybe I should give Falcon a go, always got Eagle or better ships before it, so never really use it.

and I will try out other ships as well, Monitor and Omens seem like good choices for cap points.
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Modo44

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2019, 10:32:13 PM »

If we're talking cheap, take a Wolf with full caps+vents, and extended shields (crucial to prevent it from eating missile damage). For super extra cheap, only use ones "found" in space, and never restore them.

Both the Medusa, and the Shike, really like to have dual burst PD lasers on the front side mounts (which have enough reach to cover their flanks), extended shields for protection when they inevitably dive between enemies, and no weapons in the rear mounts to give them maximum vents with ~half caps regardless of the build.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2019, 10:35:52 PM by Modo44 »
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goduranus

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2019, 12:06:22 AM »

Imo the Medusa doesn't need PD, its shield is very efficient, might as well let it take the hits on the shield, and it'll use its phase skimmer to vent. Maybe throw in Hardened Shields so even sabots won't break through.

Also try this design
-Scarab with 2x AM Blaster or 4x IR Pulse lasers
Scarab's special let's it rapid fire and gain increased flux regeneration, it'll get a second shot of AMB in before the enemy can finish venting.

Bradley_

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2019, 03:56:16 AM »

Always surprised to hear that falcon is a good ship. Doesn't have the flux for its weapons, wich are just slightly better then medusas, weak shield, exposed rear, it can't sustain fire in a tight formation, it always gets caught out of position, despite its jets, it dies instantly is it's alone against more then two enemies, even if those are destroyer and a frigate, and in my experience it's the firs ship to go in a battle, from either side.
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Igncom1

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Re: Good AI controlled assistant ships?
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2019, 04:13:23 AM »

The falcon only need to be able to mount 2 HVD's and it's good to kill anything smaller then it's self outright.

Anything larger isn't supposed to be killed by a single falcon, so no worries.
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Sunders are the best ship in the game.
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