Related to HE, wanted to mention shield modulation's special effect in case it's not on your radar.
The AI is prone to firing HE missiles into shields and it feels real bad when they do practically nothing.
Extra penalty does reward skill both in handling shields and explosive weapons but IMO HE hitting shields is punishment enough.
Could be better to give the AI a hand by changing it.
Also shield-related, if you are considering a minor nerf to high tech hardened shields hullmod might be part of that.
Something like 15-20% would probably still make it an automatic builtin choice for most ships, but makes armor bricks comparatively stronger.
Thank you! Both of these are already on my radar, one's actually done and the other one is on the TODO list

With 700 range, sounds like two light ACs may be better than railgun or needler on ships with more mounts than flux can support. (Sort of like two light mortars are better than one LAG, when both had 600 range.)
That sounds pretty good, I think - situation trade-offs etc etc.
If there was a specialized low tech destroyer with a large weapon slot I would give it a ship system that adds ion damage to its shots. Something like Ionized ordnance which adds X% of weapon damage per shot as ion damage that spreads through target's engines and weapons if high on flux
Hmm, why? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, btw, just in general, the "why" of an idea is... basically more important than the idea, really! A random idea is just a random idea, you know? But if there's a line of thought behind it, then that can help clarify whether it's a good or a bad idea, or perhaps lead to a discussion and something even better coming out of it.
Some theorycrafting about weapon range and ship speed,
Spoiler
Increasing range of LAC, LDAC and LAG to 700 means +16.7% range increase. Compared to 0.95, assuming non-ITU frigate builds, low tech and midline ships will have:
- without Unstable Injector : that +16.7% range boost for those guns (700), unchanged max speed
- with Unstable Injector: almost the same range as non-UI in 0.95 (595), together with +25% max speed boost
So overall in 0.95.1 (or whatever next version will be) you get either longer range (baseline) or higher max speed (if spending OP on UI hullmod). In both cases it shall help compete with the highly mobile high tech frigates using 600-range medium guns.
Lasher with 1 LDAC + 2 LAG or Centurion with 2 LAC + 2 LAG:
- without Unstable Injector : 700 range and 120 max speed
- with Unstable Injector: 595 range and 150 max speed (similar to Wolf)
Kite with 1 LAC:
- without Unstable Injector : 700 range and 140 max speed
- with Unstable Injector: 595 range and 175 max speed (similar to Tempest)
So I could see Unstable Injector becoming a high priority hullmod for some low tech and midline ships/builds in next version, especially for people looking for fast non-SO frigates alternatives.
For reference: having UI in 0.95 lowers 600-range guns to 510.
*thumbs up* on the analysis, thank you! Whether more speed or more range will end up being better for surivability remains to be seen, I suppose - but then again that's why it's the tradeoff for UI...
the change to the vanguard sounds nice.
but as someone already pointed out the possible problem in using "a lot" of Vanguard to alpha away a lot of ships i thought about a "little" Countermeasure to this...
why not give a replacement penalty by using that ability. not the normal penalty for loosing the drone and replacing it what gradualy reduces the replacement rate, but a straight -x% the moment the drone explods, or the skill is used to "arm" the bomb...
this will allow for an alpha strike right at the first encounter with enemies, but the repeatable usage of it will dwindle in the heat of the fight where the drones get shot down more frequently.
(Assuming you mean the Terminator drone, not the Vanguard - the Vanguard is the low-tech frigate.)
I mean, that's an option! Right now it doesn't feel too powerful, though; the natural downside of the replacement rate ticking down from losing the drone feels like enough.
next to the change of the BD System.
first of all i like the idea to cancel it somewhere allong its duration. as a new player i am still hiting F instead of V sometimes ...

i think the moment the duration is canceled, the CD will start befor i could reuse it?!
what i would like is a "steady refill" approach. that would enable the skill to be "switched on and off" every time. but from zero to full it would still take as long as it takes now. it still prevends ship to permanently use it as the ship has to gain speed to make use of it, fast on/off shouldn't be a problem.
the overall activation time should be the same.
Ah - I did think about this! Just, ship systems are not at all set of to handle a "steady refill" type of approach. And I do like that aborting a burn early still has a cost - it's not quite as much of a commitment as it used to be, with having to go the full distance, but you a least still are commiting to using the ability and having to wait before using it again.
will there any extra considerations needed for letting the AI understand how to use 2 ship systems from a modding perspective?
Yes - the specific system AI needs to be able to handle it. Most vanilla system AI can't because it assumes that it's using the system returned by ship.getSystem(), not the right-click system (which is returned by ... ship.getPhaseCloak()). So it'd just crash if the system was slotted in as "right-click" - or try to use the normal system. The Damper Field AI had to be adjusted to handle either scenario. Other vanilla AI has not.