oh, while we are at it, why do people hate the shrike so much?
i never understood it... i found the shrike quite usefull
As someone who had a visceral dislike in 0.91 and found it to be a respectable warship in 0.95, there's several reasons why my opinion of the Shrike significantly changed between the two versions.
-0.91 Shrike had suicidal tendencies with its plasma burn; 0.95 Shrike is much less likely to get itself face-first in an Onslaught's frontal arc if I let it off the leash
-0.91 had 5 less OP than 0.95 shrike, and didn't compare well to 0.91 Shrike (P) which lost OP but received a critical Hybrid turret that could mount kinetic ballistics. 0.95 Shrike (P) stayed at essentially the same strength, but 0.95 Shrike received enough of an OP injection that I don't consider it to be a de facto downgrade to the pirate version.
-Many energy weapons relevant to the Shrike itself were significantly buffed in various ways. IR Pulse received a large flux discount, Pulse Laser received a smaller flux discount, Ion Pulser received a damage+EMP boost on top of a slight range buff, Burst Lasers received a significant flux discount. Taken with the Shrike's OP buff and excluding officer buffs, a 0.91 Shrike with 0.91 weapons is
much weaker than a 0.95 Shrike with 0.95 weapons.
-Fighters are significantly weaker in 0.95 (Sparks & Thunders especially so), so Shrikes (or other destroyers/frigates) melting away the moment I turn my head doesn't really happen nowadays.
-New officer skills synergize well with smaller ships, as well as energy-dominated ships like Shrikes. Energy Weapon Mastery in particular is no joke: Up to +50% damage to energy weapons at the Shrike's most common range brackets; no equivalent existed in 0.91. T5L is also a slight upgrade over 0.91's System Expertise, yielding 6 extra vents in comparison, even if one doesn't take advantage of the S-mod system on the shrike itself.