I recently did a free start campaign. I think it was a good way to try a little bit of everything and have fun in the process. I was especially eager to try some of the Seeker stuff in this game. Unrelated to the mod, i went for a "semi iron-man" playstyle, with the rule that i could only save my game at a friendly dock. It made the game quite a bit tense and forced me to play safer than usual, although not as cowardly as a normal iron-man would. It stopped worked toward the end though, since everyone was friendly to me through regular bounty-hunting/contract/trading. If i do something of that style again, i would set the rule as only saving at a singular homebase to keep things interesting.
Anyway, i had the chance to try a few ships during this campaign, and i decided to write a bit about those.
The Adze destroyer was my starter ship, and i have to admit it didn't took long to fall in love with it. Not only it makes for a pretty good destroyer, It is also very satisfying to fly.
Stat wise, it looks very akin to a Hammerhead at first glance. Similar weapon layout, similar stats. Although the Adze is more expensive and better armored than its mid-tech cousin. With that in mind, one could think it would flies in a more brutish and straightforward fashion. But it doesn't. The low-tech Adze is noticeably more subtle, almost like a high-tech destroyer. Even a safety overide build feels different to what i expected.
The heavier emphasize on missiles might have a hand in that. One medium composite, two small missiles and built-in expanded missile racks nudges the player to make use of those. The relatively limited OPs also makes an all gun loadout a bit too constrained for my liking, but still possible.
My starter Adze was outfitted from the standard variant with the newly added miniguns at the prow. Fairly competent against the early pirates rustbuckets in my testing, although i quickly swapped the typhoon for a much more reliable harpoon pod. The Adze prefers to soften the target at range with its dual miniguns before pouncing in with its burst jets to land the killing blow. Few things can handle a ship that can swap from long range pressure to close range missile burst early in the game. Later on, the loadout doesn't even need to change even for a more support oriented role.
For a Safety Override build, i went for something a bit more unconventional. Again, the Adze low amount of OPs limites the viability of a "traditional" SO build. Instead, i used a Sabot heavy loadout with dual chainguns. Short lived on the battlefield, even with expanded missile racks. But by the time it's out of ammo, the battle is usually won.
I unfortunately lost my Adze relatively early in my campaign and couldn't find a replacement. So i don't really knows how well it would perform in larger battles.
My second flasgship was the Marksman, if only for a short time. A cheap, fast gun platform with serviceable armor and a precariously narrow front-shield. Not a frontliner by any mean, it feels like an oversized Vigilance in some way. Often i got bumrushed by some overzealous pirate and i rarely could shake it off by myself. It really needs allied support to hide behind when things gets too hot.
At longer range, the built-in Executioner have decent range and punch, although it needs to be manually reloaded with the ship system. The "Blazing flamingo" special reload is a really nice touch, it turns a fairly boring ship into something much funnier to fly. Although it makes it easier to screw up the reload and miss an opportunity. Enemy ship is disengaging just out of range? Blazing flamingo ! Now you're in range ! Aaaand i missed.
Despite this, i don't feel the Marksman sufficiently pulls its weight as a flagship compared to other destroyers. It's a bit of a shame to see that cool reload system idea being wasted on something that isn't quite good enough to fly by the player. I quickly discarded it as some cheap missile boat for the AI to use, a role it did perform pretty well. A flying pair of Sabot/Harpoon pods is never a bad thing to have throughout the game.
I replaced the Marksman with a Butterfly. Now we're talking! While the Marksman doesn't entirely rely on its built-in gun, the Butterfly absolutely does. The twin Revolver pulse beams can unload quite a lot of damage during early game.
It shines brighter when used as a flanker to assist an ally or to catch a careless frigate, a bit like the Shrike. Although it will eventually overwhelm opponents of its size in duel through sheer DPS. It's the ideal tool for mid-game, when the player have more than few ships to distract the enemy, letting the Butterfly swoop in to unleash its huge burst damage. It does struggle a bit against heavier armor though, so it only get limited use later in the game.
I think expanded magazines should be a built-in hullmod for that ship. As the Butterfly relies entirely on the revolver pulses. Unfortunately for me, i found the expanded magazines hullmod fairly late in my campaign. I felt quite limited without it. Sure, the ship worked, but it couldn't quite reach its full potential without that hullmod.
Later on, i got my hands on a Trailblazer, which i promptly used as a flagship. Despite its sleek and agressive appearance, the Trailblazer is pure support ship. A mobile artillery, but not the usual kind. For those that don't know about the built-in reality drill, it's a slow "phased" projectile that projected an area of effect damage wherever it passes through. Because its is "phased", it cannot collide, and will fly "over" the target.
This is what makes the reality drill be an incredible weapon. Enemies with a elongated shape will stays longer in the projectile's AOE. Ships with a limited shield arc won't be able to cover the whole damage field. Ships that can retreat backward quickly (hello phase shifting bastards) will accidentally back into the projectile's field. And the reality drill does a LOT of damage. It sounds quite good for the player, although i expect it to become a prime target when the enemy is fielding one. Fortunately, it seems extremely rare, i never encountered one in the wild.
But as said above, it's a support ship, it needs backup. Even with its attitude jets, the Trailblazer will get surrounded, and punished. I fortunately had a fleet quite capable of covering my mistakes, and i made many mistakes. The flux cost of the main weapon is high, and spamming the attitude jets is an enticing though, it's a perfect recipe for overextending.
Alas, the joy of firing a large exotic distortion bullet wears off fairly quickly. While the Trailblazer makes for a really good, if expensive, AI support, it doesn't make for the most interesting flagship. Its limited armament beyond the reality drill doesn't allow for much customisation : point defense, long range guns. It doesn't want to fight close, and it wants all the capacity and dissipation to fuel its main weapon.
The Halligan was one of my next mid/late game flagship. Sadly, i got a pirate version, with a noticeably shrunken OP pool and burn drive instead of burst jets. It lies somewhere between the Dominator and the Eagle in term of firepower and endurance. With a touch of Gryphon for the non pirate version with its numerous missiles.
Because of its fewer OPs, the pirate Halligan never feels quite comfortable with most builds. You usually have to choose between hullmods and additional dissipation. I personally made a basic Safety Overide build to make use of the numerous medium turrets. But even with letting the missiles hardpoints empty, i could only make it okay-ish. Not much in-combat experience to talk about though, since i lost it in my first battle.
Also, i am extremely sadened that a broadside build is even't remotely viable. Composite side hardpoints pls.
I also had some scuffle with the plagueships. Rampage and Safeguard. Although it was at a point in the game where i could handle those two quite easily. Rampage will rip apart anything that stays in front of it, but i managed to distract it from the rest of my fleet with a phase ship. Safeguard's mass driver is hard countered by interceptors, and i had plenty of those at the time. I don't think i ever seen the bomb explode once in that battle. No encounters with the other two plagueships so far.
By the way, i think a non corrupted (and nerfed) Safeguard would make for a pretty cool derelict ship. On the other hand, i guess that would cheapen the "unique boss" thing it currently have.
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Topic: [0.95.1a] Seeker - Unidentified Contact 0.53rc1 (2023/02/27) (Read 385159 times)