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[Tartiflette]

Added to the OP!

[Tartiflette]

This is probably my favourite mod on this site especially when it comes to aesthetics, don't get me wrong I really like all aspects of this mod but the unique but lore friendly aesthetics are just the cherry on top, kicking my Corocotta to full burn and watching that engine plume is what I live for. Seriously the whole one big jet engine with afterburner kinda effect really makes the Scy ships look like they have the most advanced engines money can buy, it looks like a clean efficient burn which is as far as I understand exactly what these guys are supposed to have. It's high tech without being the same old high tech everyone's used to, the ships all have a clear intended role in a fleet, there really aren't any jack of all trades super ships here, what you see is exactly what you get, and that kind of ship design imo is exactly what makes this game shine.

The attention to detail here is also something I have to talk about, the KAC really didn't need that electric arcing effect every time it fires, it would have looked fine without it, but it looks a whole lot better because someone took their time to add a detail that you're not even necessarily going to be paying much attention to, as an artist I can say from experience that those kinds of little details often don't get a lot of attention when people talk about your work, but they show just how dedicated you are to your vision, so kudos for that. I came here looking for some aesthetically pleasing ships to blow up, stayed for the beautiful top tier cruisers and innovative design choices.

[HELMUT]

Volkov Industrial Conglomerate 1.3.2

https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=19603.0

I just finished playing a pretty long VIC campaign. Nothing fancy, standard bounty hunting campaign, with plenty of fighting. This gave me opportunities to experiment with the ships and see what they're capable of. I managed to reach the very end-game and take on the Coronal Hypershunt's defenders.

From what i've seen, VIC is a glass cannon faction. They move fast, they hit hard, but they can't take a punch. Getting into position without being intercepted and avoiding a head on brawl is paramount with their ships. Thanks to the mobility of most of their crafts, they can quickly exploit openings and disengage before retaliation is coming. At least in theory, in practice it requires some forethought in how each ship should be built, what support do they have, when and how to engage, etc. Many times i got wrecked because of some ill-advised battlefield decision. It's easy to get caught, and a VIC ship rarely have a second chance when that happens.

It's especially true during early and mid-game, when you're stuck with their vulnerable frigates, destroyers and even cruisers. However the game becomes much easier later on once you get access to capital ships, but i'll come back on this later.



I started this campaign with a small combat fleet. The Pruflas frigate was my first flagship, one i really enjoyed playing with. It isn't especially strong, but it's agile, the mini mine-layer system is very handy against missiles and fighters, and the built-in phase lance gives it some unexpected bite. While it was a fun experience to directly fly it, its ability to influence the course of the battle is limited. Still, because it's fast and (relatively) cheap, i kept a bunch of Pruflas in my fleet throughout the campaign, for quick objective capping and harassing isolated targets.

I had to iterate several times before finding a proper build for those. Just like most VIC ships, they flux out quickly, making them quite vulnerable. For scouting/capturing duty, i found it better to leave some hardpoints empty as to save OPs. Investing those in shields hullmods and capacity, as to increase their survivability. Even with empty mounts, a Pruflas is never completely under gunned because of the built-in phase lance anyway.



The Xaphan was also part of this starting fleet. An oddity of a frigate, with only 3 hardpoints but with a built-in hullmod that pretty much double the efficiency of the weapons. The limited weapon layout and inability to use point defenses severely limits the Xaphan's roles on the battlefield. It's a frigate hunter, or optionally, a direct fire support, but not much more.

I tried a variety of loadouts, from a long range tac laser harasser, to an anti-matter blaster bomber, to some unexpectedly performant mono-railgun build... The Xaphan works, but feels weird both on the refit screen and the battlefield. Because of the doubling OP cost from the hellstorm hullmod, and the absolute necessity of the PD arc emitter hullmod on something that can't protect itself from missiles, the customisation possibilities becomes very limited. My Xaphans fought decently during early and mid game, but i ended up preferring the more versatile Pruflas in the end.


The Kobal is another frigate i got early. The smallest sibling among the "Adaptive Assault Configuration wedges" family. I did use quite a few of those as part of my fleet, but never as a flagship. With three medium hardpoints, the Kobal seems like an easy ship to outfit, however it does share the common VIC's Ordnance Point starvation issue. Yes, you can mount those big guns on it, but you won't have the flux to fire them, nor enough room left for any hullmod either. And VIC ships really wants hullmods to function well.

The Adaptive Assault Configuration system also "forces" the player to mix energy and ballistics for a bigger damage bonus, so i often ended up with weird builds in an attempt to optimize the damage buff. I'm personally not sold on that hullmod/system. I think a variant of the Xaphan's hellstorm hullmod would make for a more straightforward system for the AAC wedges ships.

As for the Kobals of my fleets, i usually preferred to use low-end weapons like Mortars and Arbalests, or long range beam platforms, or even leaving one mount empty to economize OPs. The saved ordnance points could be invested in return in better flux stats and important hullmods, like PD arc emitter and Auxiliary thrusters.



I did not really try the Nybbas for this campaign. The only one i got, i gave to the AI. It struggled to do anything, constantly on the brink of overloading, probably due to the extremely high cloak upkeep, before eventually falling to CR degradation. I lost it after maybe two or three battle. The new Nybbas seems like a far cry from the monster it used to be, but i have to admit i haven't used it enough to give an informed assumption.



The Moloch destroyer was part of my fleet from the beginning, but it's only a bit later that i used it as my flagship. At that point in the campaign, i needed some high impact ship that could turn the tide of the battle. As much as i enjoyed the Pruflas, it wasn't that ship, and i hoped the Moloch would fix that. While it wasn't the silver bullet i wished, it did well enough to handle early game pirates.

I experimented a bit with the Schturm Overhaul, however the lower shield efficiency and flux capacity made my ship waaaay too fragile. It could have worked for a flanker build that avoid direct confrontation, but i had nothing yet that could form a decent fire line to keep the enemy's busy. I was forced to brawl against my opponents one by one, that's not what the Schturm hullmod is for. I fell back on a standard SO build with a trio of Ion Pulsers. Not the best armor breaking loadout, but good enough against pirate rust buckets.

It was also at that moment i noticed my extreme vulnerability to fighters, which made the next few battles much more difficult than anticipated. I'll segue the discussion to the PD arc emitter hullmod for a moment. For early game, this hullmod is godly, it's a cheap and extremely efficient PD system that pretty much nullify missiles. It can intercept with ease a few salamanders or harpoons, which is the most you'll encounter in an early game skirmish. It's a good idea to remove Point defense weapons to instead invest in PD arc emitter. Back then, i told myself it's overpowered, and it was in some way.

Unfortunately, it does nothing against fighters, and i learned that the hard way. I constantly had to interrupt my duel with another ship to defend myself from buzzing interceptors, trying to manually hit them with my main weaponry (the two small turrets at the front of my Moloch were rarely sufficient to deal with more than a few Talons). Later on, PD arc emitter can easily be overwhelmed by saturation missiles and flares. Funny how it went from "must have" to "very situational" depending on the number of enemies on the field.

Later on, when i switched flagship. I gave my Moloch a more conservative build. Since it basically function as a mid-tech Medusa with the opportunity to mount ballistics, you can turn it into some extremely nasty kiting bastard. It's hard to beat a Mauler/HVD combo. Alas, i had no easy access to those weapons then. So i did stick to VIC weaponry for a long time. I did like the Gagana Smartdart Launcher for its exceptional reliability, thanks to its homing projectile. Even fighters had a hard time dodging those.


I only bought a single Samael destroyer during this campaign. It began its career fighting early game pirates and somehow survived long enough to fight end-game remnant Ordos. I was looking for a solution to my fighter problem, as well as a way to pressure enemies at long range to cover my Moloch flagship. I couldn't afford a carrier yet, so i settled for a long range beam Samael. Not exactly flashy, but hey, it worked well enough. An exceptional annoyance to enemies, and the decent fire support i needed. One description mistake i noted, it still mentions the presence of a built-in Shabriri drone.

Just like the Kobal, the Samael can a very weird ship to equip because of AAC, but it can be pretty good when outfitted properly. It's also afflicted by what i call "the curse of the rear defense turret with an extremely narrow arc". The arc is too narrow for a point defense weapon to properly function unless it's something very bursty like burst PD. I personally always left it empty.

I admittedly didn't looked at it that much during this campaign. I wanted to focus on a very fast and agressive strategy, therefore i couldn't really find a place for the "AAC wedges" during this campaign. Maybe it's possible to create a proper VIC deathball with those, but i don't have enough experience of it to say for sure.



The Jezebeth support destroyer quickly became the fleet workhorse in this campaign. The VIC Sunder is not as well armed as its vanilla counterpart, but much more versatile. With a large hybrid, a single launch bay, the weird custom Enthropy Amplifier and a good shield emitter, it always have a place in any fleet. Unlike most VIC ships that can sometimes be tricky to outfit, the Jeze is very easy to build. Focus on the big gun, now make sure the big gun keeps firing, and voila ! Your Jezebeth is ready for battle !

This ship also taught me how to love the Capacitron Discharger. Monstrous burst KE DPS, hitscan "projectile" and ability to fire over allies, the Capacitron Discharger makes for an exceptional support weapon. A weapon i eventually added to all my support Jezebeth for shield bursting duty during late game. Even without that specific weapon, the Jezebeth is a compliant ship that'll function without trouble whether you give it a Hellbore or a Tachyon lance.

Since i had some issues dealing with fighters so far, the Uvall interceptor seemed like an obvious choice for the launch bay. It's a bit expensive at 12 OPs, but that's a price i was willing to pay for a premium interceptor. And boy, did it worked ! Not only the Uvall is very good at wrecking other fighters (i noted they have a tendency to fire their Strigoy flak at point blank range against other fighters, that's 300 burst frag, and they got two of those). It's also a very competent heavy fighter, thanks to its Rarog atomic emitter. Even destroyers can't ignore a group of Uvalls for very long, lest they end up with their armor stripped clean.



The first cruiser i got was the Cresil carrier. A box filled with 4 launch bays, and a few point defenses. Flying a Cresil is almost as fun as reading the phone book, it's strictly made for the AI only. Despite being a boring design, it does its job at flooding the battlefield with fighters. I used mine with a mix of fighters, bombers and- Just kidding, i used 4 Uvalls. I wanted space superiority to cover my fleet, and the heavy interceptors already proved their worth on my Jezebeths. It worked, i no longer had to worry about missiles and fighters.

What more can i say about this ship? It's a fighter vomit platform, and that's really all about it. There's nothing wrong with keeping things simple, but compared to the rest of the faction, the Cresil almost feel like it comes from another mod by its simplicity.



At this point in the campaign, i started to encounter my first few enemy capital ships, as well as plenty of cruisers. I was in a dire need of firepower to deal with those. The Thamuz cruiser seemed like an obvious choice for that role. An oversized pile of guns, with the grace of a masonry wall. A distant cousin of the Dominator that forgot to wear its armor. It shoots hard, but also dies hard. The mix of atrocious mobility and fragility makes the Thamuz a choice prey for agile skirmishers. Un-escorted, my cruiser can't bring to bear its excessive firepower to defend itself and fall apart quickly. It's much more survivable as part of a squad of sturdy front liners that'll protect it from flankers. Alas, i did not had sturdy frontliners at the moment, and with few ships i could delegate to escort duty, my first Thamuz got close to death many times.

Being an AAC wedge, I never managed to find a real place in my fleet for my Thamuz, even during late game. I suspect they would shine against low mobility opponents, like space stations and the Hegemony. Unfortunately, my enemies tended to be very mobile and agressive, like PRV fleets and VIC deserters. I was also quickly reaching the point where i couldn't deploy everything in battle, and more often than not, the Thamuz stayed in reserve.



Completely different from the Thamuz, the Valafar was the next addition to my fleet, as well as my new flagship. Long story short, the Valafar is an upsized Moloch and follows the same "Schturm" design theories. It's fast, fragile and hit hard. However due to its bigger size and higher stats, it's also the closest thing to a line ship VIC have. Not that it means it's a good line ship. It's more of a cheap, fast flanker. Like an overgunned Falcon. It's certainly not adequate for a frontal assault against ships of the same size.

Like the Moloch, the Valafar tends to run hot on flux, especially if you give it VIC weaponry which is notoriously flux expensive to fire. Fortunately, it can quickly get out of a tricky situation with its Omni-Lunge, at least as long it doesn't get overloaded. That's one reason i also skipped the Schturm Upgrade on this ship. Yes, it noticeably increases its flux dissipation, but drastically reduces its survivability through lower flux capacity and shield efficiency. I managed to make it work much later in the game, by micromanaging a squad of Schturm Valafars doing hit and run on vulnerable targets. Not the most practical and efficient tactic though.



In the capital ship category, the Oriax fills the role of support battlecruiser. The "support" part is from my experience at least. Technically you can use it as a direct frontliner, but given its fragility (almost as bad as an Atlas MK.II), the Oriax doesn't want to be exposed to the front line. Granted, it got a pretty solid shield emitter and decent flux stats to back it up, but once the shield burst, it's game over.

Because i often had experiences of VIC ships overfluxing themselves with their own weapons, i was very averse about mounting big guns on my Oriax, despite me needing badly those big guns at the moment. Instead i went for the missile boat route. Missiles don't generate flux, the OPs usually invested in flux dissipation were now free to use on capacity instead, to ensure my precious shield wouldn't overload. Plus, missiles can usually be fired indirectly at a longer range, allowing my battlecruiser to participate to the battle at a safe distance. The missile boat idea worked exceptionally well. Combining an officer with missile specialization and expanded missile racks, my dual Hurricane Oriax had sufficient ammo to last even for longer battle, and the MIRVs gave me the raw killing power my fleet needed. Oh also, the Fervor hullmod works on missiles, +30% damage makes for really nasty long range bombardment. And because i used my battlecruisers as second line ships, the increased damage taken from Fervor didn't mattered that much.

I was not convinced by the Flux Rapture system. The ship system itself with its giant ring, the electric arcs and all are noticeable in combat, but it feels like it's just for show, as if it had no real impact on the battle. My AI ship is using it? Ok. It's not? Whatever. Some adjustments to make the system more impactful would be beneficial i think. The Oriax is already a pretty strong ship though, so it'll need to be done carefully as to overly buff it.

I'm also mitigated on the Power Redistributor hullmod. The ability to re-route power to the needed systems à la FTL is cool. Doing it through the targeting system is janky as hell though. I tried doing it when i used the Oriax as a flagship but it gets messy real fast. Fortunately the stats modification from mis-using the system is relatively low, as not to penalize the AI using it. It's a good idea, but the execution isn't quite there.


Finally, we're coming to the central piece of every VIC fleet : the Apollyon.

To say it bluntly, the main objective when playing VIC is to get an Apollyon as quickly as possible (which i did not do). Once you get one, the dynamic of the battle changes drastically. As a Schturmcapital, the design philosophy is the same. It's a highly mobile glass cannon. However, while the Apollyon is built upon the same rules as the Valafar, Moloch and Xaphan, it doesn't play the same game as its smaller siblings.

While most VIC ships rely on mobility to get close and hit the target when they're not looking, the Apollyon is more of a gunslinger that shoots first to win. Because of its higher stats and range (through ITU or Schturm Overhaul), it can reach a critical mass of firepower that nullify the usual weakness of its smaller cousins. Schturmships can't brawl well, because they can't take a hit. However you don't need to take a hit when the enemy is dead, and few things can handle the full striking power of an Apollyon. That's why i built my Apollyon as a burst damage monster that can vaporize the heaviest cruisers in a single alpha strike. With that ship, you're no longer performing hit-and-runs, you're steamrolling, and nothing you short of a Paragon or a Radiant can stop. In the event you might encounter one of those two, the Quantum Lunge allows the Apollyon to outmaneuver your opponent and hit from a better angle.

It's a very expensive ship to deploy in battle, but that's a price worth paying given the massive influence on battle an Apollyon can have. Mind you, it's not a great AI ship, it will often Quantum Lunge in a dangerous spot, and is ill equipped to deal with being surrounded. Unless your fleet have ways to quickly support an isolated ship, the whole "flank the whole enemy fleet" Quantum Lunge maneuver is often a losing gambit. Especially since it can tear through most opponents in a slugfest anyway.

If i have to make a complain about the Apollyon, it's its tendency to turn most ships irrelevant by comparison. Why use something else when you're already flying one of the most impactul ship in the game? Granted, the same can be said about ships like the Ziggurat or IBBs. However those are unique ships, and are time and effort consuming to acquire. The Apollyon is a common sight in VIC markets and deserter fleets. Yes, i did eventually swap it for a flagship Oriax later on, but it was more for experimenting with some OPcenter shenanigans than trying to win the game. Apollyon is clearly the superior VIC flagship in all conditions.


That's it for the ships ! I did not do some in depth testing about the fighters and weapons, so i won't talk too much about those. I will talk about hullmods though, because i think this is where lies the weakest point of the mod.

VIC hullmods tends to do many things, and simultaneously do nothing at all. The most egregious exemple is the Laidlaw Tech. While the shield changing arc depending on where it's facing can be an interesting gimmick on some ships, like the Oriax, the other modifiers are not. A little bit +10% this, a little bit of minus 10% that, it feels like some RPG skill tree that gives you +1% damage or some other boring stuff. This is a completely subjective complaint, but for me, if something doesn't do anything noticeable in game, it might as well not exist. At no point i did take in account all those little stats modifiers stacked upon each others in my campaign. The Apollyon Adaptive Warfare suffers from this, the Convoy Drive hullmod, as well as some weapons like the Zyldzen. For me, VIC really need to do some cleaning among the messy and the irrelevant. I may have a few suggestions for those if you want, ping me on the discord if needed.


Overall, i enjoyed this campaign, i played it longer than i usually do. It's a good mod, although one that still requires refining in some aspects. You can totally tell how its evolving by comparing the old from the new content, and it's going in a good direction i think. Still, for me it's a faction that deserves a permanent place in the mod folder for a Starsector playthrough. Unless you're not into space catgirls i suppose.