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Author Topic: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?  (Read 13407 times)

Aereto

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #15 on: April 17, 2020, 03:24:09 PM »

safety-overriden sunder with 3 fuxking mining blasters strapped to the front, like an absolute madman

You deserve some Volturnian Lobsters, mate.

Highly recommend everyone try Combat + Onslaught XIV out sometime. 2.4k armor + Combat skills shrugs off everything except sustained high-alpha HE barrages. Much more exciting than a Paragon flagship.

I would consider doing a Combat-oriented run with an Onslaught at some point. I have not done something like that since the earlier versions well before the procedural generated star map and market economy updates.

That being said, I would not envy an Onslaught having to face a ship armed with EMP payloads.
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Thaago

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #16 on: April 17, 2020, 03:55:07 PM »

@Shrek_luigi: While I applaud your choice of flagship, please don't circumvent the profanity filter. Thats against forum rules.
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Grievous69

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #17 on: April 18, 2020, 12:49:28 AM »

@Shrek_luigi: While I applaud your choice of flagship, please don't circumvent the profanity filter. Thats against forum rules.
I was surprised this was a thing so I went and checked and this isn't even on the rules and guidelines page. Might want to add it then since I bet people will be confused.
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Null Ganymede

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #18 on: April 18, 2020, 06:35:14 PM »

Start with an SO frigate or cheapo destroyer. Use point defense weapons to max out damage-per-flux early on, they're good sources of kinetic pressure. Safety Overrides turn all bad ships into good ones.

Ideal ships: SO + hardened subsystem + speed hullmod + annihilator + machine guns Lasher, restored Luddic Path Lasher with more of the same, broken down SO Enforcer with lots of Heavy Machine Guns, etc.

Eventually find Something Cool. This may be a black market elite frigate/destroyer purchase, some modded exploration or event content, or a lucky kill/faction salvage. Sometimes it's a rare weapon that can define a ship. Proceed to build fleet, skills, and officers around cool flagship.

Ideal ships: plasma cannon SO Sunder, any of the modded elite destroyers/frigates, Tempest, Harbringer, maybe a really early Doom or SO Eagle, etc. My favorite modded ships at this point tend to have mobility abilities first, cool built-ins or ship systems second. I spend a lot of time drawing attention with minimal fighter cover and picking off stragglers.

Endgame is determined more by fleet composition, which is mostly a matter of faction commission or colony blueprints. At that point the flagship is complementing whatever the rest of the fleet lacks. I kind of prefer long range artillery boats with burn drive and auxiliary thrusters - dual Gauss Legion with shield bypass and escort frigates, dual Devastator Onslaught with mauler/HVD mediums, etc.

Ideal ships if modded: BRDY Karkinos, that underworld pirate flagship with the turret and burn drive, other artillery capitals. If the mid-game coolship was something ridiculously fun like a Sylphon Rakia (SO on it is amazing fun) or other phase cruiser/super-destroyer it might be my preferred endgame ship. Some of the smaller player-bait ships start to get tedious when you're grinding through large fleets, but phase ships with interesting mechanics never get dull.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2020, 11:01:04 PM by Null Ganymede »
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Aereto

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #19 on: April 21, 2020, 09:20:44 AM »

Some of the smaller player-bait ships start to get tedious when you're grinding through large fleets, but phase ships with interesting mechanics never get dull.
I favor phase ships with synergy for fleet fights like Doom for that reason. Phase cloak slows time, giving my reaction window a wide berth and a lot of space to spot opportunistic hits. The mines make performing hammer and anvil tactics especially effective against omni-shield ships, while popping carriers with regrouped fighters.
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Schwartz

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #20 on: April 21, 2020, 09:35:34 AM »

Early game, I try to get an Enforcer or a Hammerhead as soon as possible. But at this stage, anything goes. Anything that works and brings the Bigger Gun.
Mid game, I'm usually in a Sunder, Medusa or Apogee. Apogee is the most economical all-around ship in SS.
Late game, it's either a capital ship or a Doom. As far as cap ships, I like the Conquest and the Paragon for different things. Odyssey is an old favorite but I haven't warmed up to it in this version.

I also cap ship fast hunter frigates for chasedowns, which may be a Wolf early on, but ideally a Tempest or Afflictor.
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Eji1700

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #21 on: April 21, 2020, 09:58:59 AM »

Early- Venture

Mid- Mora

Late- Legion/Mora

The venture is basically awful but I like it.  When i get sick of dealing with having to try I swap to the Mora which I love as it's decently affordable and can fill either front line or carrier duties.  The legion does both at once, but I just don't like the largest ships sometimes.
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Kpop

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #22 on: April 21, 2020, 05:20:38 PM »

Some of the smaller player-bait ships start to get tedious when you're grinding through large fleets, but phase ships with interesting mechanics never get dull.
I favor phase ships with synergy for fleet fights like Doom for that reason. Phase cloak slows time, giving my reaction window a wide berth and a lot of space to spot opportunistic hits. The mines make performing hammer and anvil tactics especially effective against omni-shield ships, while popping carriers with regrouped fighters.

Doom has synergy with everything because it is really good at killing everything, no? :P
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Aereto

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #23 on: April 24, 2020, 08:19:39 PM »

Doom has synergy with everything because it is really good at killing everything, no? :P

Depends on how the Doom is used, actually. My other ships are the ones doing the killing blow, since my only defense in taking hits is armor. Charge and alpha-strike weapons works best in a Doom for that reason, and fighting a Doom requires consistent beam weapon use and mine busting solutions. Frigates can maintain pressure on an isolated Doom, though I used a few Tempests and Harbingers geared for anti-sub phase ship combat. Harbingers have the system ability to overload ships, even while phased.
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bobucles

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #24 on: April 26, 2020, 06:38:38 AM »

Quote
since my only defense in taking hits is armor.
Well, there's that, plus the going totally invincible in phase space ability.
DOOMs are fantastic ships to fly, but phase ships take a completely different style than ordinary ships to fly. Venting early and venting often is key, because there's no telling when the ship may be forced to stay under for a long time. It is for example very useful to vent immediately out of cloak if your flux is under ~25%. There's about half a dozen reasons to do a quick vent directly out of cloak, and you'll notice a huge boost in performance from doing so.

Big burst weapons are ideal for all phase ships. Antimatter blasters are golden, phase lances are solid, and pilums offer a mix to attack and defense. PD is up to preference, but if you keep getting hit by pilums then by all means invest in PD. All phase ships receive a huge boost from simple tier 1 talents, Impact Mitigation 1 in particular is S tier.

BigBeans

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #25 on: May 01, 2020, 06:16:32 PM »

I enjoy flying the hound for as long as possible. It's fast and nimble and with ACG it's a scary light flanker that can rip small ships too pieces or tear into the sides of distracted or surrounded destroyers and cruisers.

Once that starts dying alot I usually switch to a Hammerhead. Railguns, Heavy Mortars and Ion cannons are a good loadout tho ACG + Railguns and PD are also a good shout.

Late game I usually jump in a Medusa if I can find one or an Autopulse Sunder. Sometimes I'll use the Aurora but I find it hard to arm efficently cause of it's weird layout. But it's fast as hell and has a great shield

I prefer to stick to fast, smaller ships that can punch upwards in Player hands. I'll then fly around supporting my fleet and picking off weak or overloaded enemies. I dislike personally flying anything over cruiser size other than the Aurora.

Modded has a much wider variety of ships I'll fly though but my playstyle stays mostly the same.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2020, 06:21:12 PM by BigBeans »
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Megas

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #26 on: May 02, 2020, 09:26:44 AM »

Among phase ships, Doom plays completely different than the other phase ships.  Doom can attack while phased and can brawl a bit (by distracting enemies with mines then decloak while enemy cannot point guns at Doom).  Other phase ships play mostly the same.  For AI, dance and cower away from the enemy until PPT runs out.  For player, outmaneuver enemy shields and alpha strike with Reapers or AM Blasters like a glorified bomber, then retreat when out of ammo.

Doom is fun to pilot and AI is dependable with it.  The rest are annoying and I do not trust the AI to pilot them, and aside from disgusting Reaper cheese Afflictor can do, I rather pilot Doom or a big capital than a small phase ship.

I have no problem raising phase doctrine to two or three to cram more Dooms in AI fleets.  If I do not have Doom, I wish I could set phase to zero because the small ships are bad unless I pilot them, which I usually do not want to.
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Impetus

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #27 on: May 02, 2020, 10:59:08 AM »

I'm the kind of player that values burst speed super highly (since I play like a madman), so my favorite is the Wolf for early game, Medusa for mid game and then begrudgingly switch to a Paragon once the firepower of the earlier two is outmatched.
I also like cheesing stations and capital ships with pin-point reaper deliveries using a few Afflictors.

For modded playthroughs my priorities are much the same, but this time around with my favorite ships in each weight class; the Versant, the Desdinova, the Nevermore and the Pandemonium. In particular the Desdinova is a beloved ship that I've used to solo entire fleets by abusing the incredible mobility the ship system provides. I honestly consider the Desdinova's ship system to be just as good as actual teleportation (i.e. the Hyperion), since you can easily boost up to people and unleash short ranged, flux-efficient fury in the form of shredder batteries in their face and then get out even when you're sitting at max flux.
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Thaago

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #28 on: May 02, 2020, 11:15:58 AM »

Try and get your hands on an Odyssey then Impetus! It has a great burst system and good firepower. Hard to find though...
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Mondaymonkey

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Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?
« Reply #29 on: May 02, 2020, 11:31:51 AM »

Try and get your hands on an Odyssey then Impetus! It has a great burst system and good firepower. Hard to find though...

Odyssey is great, but has a great weakness - it requires a good (human) pilot. No mistakes allowed.

I find myself incompetent piloting this thing. Shame.
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