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Author Topic: Build Two Items into new Paragon  (Read 8548 times)

Jo Jo

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Build Two Items into new Paragon
« on: September 16, 2021, 11:36:27 PM »

I found the BP for the Paragon, and I could use some advice. It's the first ship that many people on the forum mention keeping, and I just built one. To my surprise it came with the default fitting found in the fitting screen.

I can build two hull mods into the ship. Keep in mind I don't pilot my own ships. What would make the most sense? I can get 500 more armor for 40 points or 40% more hull for 30 points with blast doors. Adding the armor takes me to 2000 armor, but the blast doors add something like 4000 hull or so. Also the hardened shields are 30 points. I could build those in. What works well for an AI piloted Paragon?

What's a good build, considering I don't have any tachyon weapons and I'm not using mods. I also have not really started the story line so I don't have any of those special weapons. Thanks!
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Alliostra

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2021, 01:27:40 AM »

I haven't used the Paragon extensively, but the hardened shields are a definitive pick here. Paragon can do armor and hull tanking when it's necessary, but it has good flux stats, a strong shield and a shield-boosting system, so boosting it's shields will get you much more mileage.
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Jo Jo

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon & Hegemony Rep
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2021, 04:29:06 AM »

I haven't used the Paragon extensively, but the hardened shields are a definitive pick here. Paragon can do armor and hull tanking when it's necessary, but it has good flux stats, a strong shield and a shield-boosting system, so boosting it's shields will get you much more mileage.

Thanks! That's a good start for me. I have zero experience with that ship so far. :)

Edit: On another note, I was informed of an AI inspection by the Hegemony while I was writing the original post and I saw one of the options was to resist. Why not? How mad could they get? Well, I went form +100 to -50 just like that and I lost my nearly 100k a month commission. Darn that's a lot of money at this stage.

The whole thing makes me wonder if there's no way to make peace with them. Maybe I should align with Tri-Tachyon because they seem to care less about all the AI's I have in my two colonies. They're both run by the Blue AI, and every industry has some AI help. I'm not sure, but it seems to me that the Hegemony would just keep sending the AI inspections and I'd keep losing story points. There are five planets in Duzahk and one colony has a Star Fortress (largest) + High Command and the other has a Battle Station + is building high command. As soon as I have the extra credits I'll upgrade the second colony to Star Fortress as well. Maybe I should just let the Hegemony bang their heads against my superior fleets while I run some bounty and pirate missions for Tri-Tachyon and bring my rep up?
« Last Edit: September 17, 2021, 04:56:24 AM by Jo Jo »
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Megas

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2021, 06:31:24 AM »

Definitely s-mod in Hardened Shields.  It will be one of your more expensive hullmods on Paragon.

My other pick would be Augmented Drive Field (40 OP), but others do not care about burn speed or do not mind having four or more tugs in their fleet.  If you do not care about ADF, pick the other most expensive hullmod you always use on Paragon.  You probably have some other hullmod worth at least 25 OP on it.
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Amoebka

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2021, 06:44:57 AM »

Why in the world would you build hardened shields on Paragon? It has a fortress shield, like 90% of shield flux comes from upkeep, not damage absorption. Heavy armor makes a lot more sense, to protect it when venting.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2021, 06:48:45 AM by Amoebka »
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Zonk

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2021, 07:07:46 AM »

I try to only s-mod in the most expensive hull mods. Hardened Shields and Reinforced Bulkheads are what I put on my Paragons, and s-modding them into the hull saves 60 OP!

As for why you should put hardened shields on your Paragon, with the right officer skills (shield modulation) you can get the shield flux/incoming damage stat down to 0.35. On a ship with over 2,000 flux dissipation (and with Front Shields or Stabilized Shields to reduce shield upkeep by 3-400 flux) this means you can absorb something like 6,000 (soft flux) DPS and you have the 15% hard flux dissipation under raised shields from officer skills, plus the fortress shield ability. So, in short, hardened shields makes an already tanky ship that much tankier.

I don't like heavy armor on my Paragon and go for reinforced bulkheads instead. Heavy Armor is good against big swarms of small ships but the things which have posed a dire threat to my Paragon in the past do enough damage to ignore the armor this ship would have from Heavy Armor (5x Tachyon Lance Radiant, Star Fortress with Tachyon Lances, enemy Dooms with Reaper torpedoes, etc.) or at least destroy the armor in one hit. Reinforced Bulkheads lets you take more armor-penetrating hits and keep firing.
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Jo Jo

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2021, 09:22:57 AM »

Definitely s-mod in Hardened Shields.  It will be one of your more expensive hullmods on Paragon.

My other pick would be Augmented Drive Field (40 OP), but others do not care about burn speed or do not mind having four or more tugs in their fleet.  If you do not care about ADF, pick the other most expensive hullmod you always use on Paragon.  You probably have some other hullmod worth at least 25 OP on it.

Wow, four tugs. That's taking up quite a few of the limited (30) slots. Maybe the ADF is a good choice. Thanks!
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Jo Jo

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2021, 09:23:38 AM »

Why in the world would you build hardened shields on Paragon? It has a fortress shield, like 90% of shield flux comes from upkeep, not damage absorption. Heavy armor makes a lot more sense, to protect it when venting.

You make a good point! They do have to vent at times. Thanks!
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Jo Jo

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2021, 09:26:14 AM »

I try to only s-mod in the most expensive hull mods. Hardened Shields and Reinforced Bulkheads are what I put on my Paragons, and s-modding them into the hull saves 60 OP!

As for why you should put hardened shields on your Paragon, with the right officer skills (shield modulation) you can get the shield flux/incoming damage stat down to 0.35. On a ship with over 2,000 flux dissipation (and with Front Shields or Stabilized Shields to reduce shield upkeep by 3-400 flux) this means you can absorb something like 6,000 (soft flux) DPS and you have the 15% hard flux dissipation under raised shields from officer skills, plus the fortress shield ability. So, in short, hardened shields makes an already tanky ship that much tankier.

I don't like heavy armor on my Paragon and go for reinforced bulkheads instead. Heavy Armor is good against big swarms of small ships but the things which have posed a dire threat to my Paragon in the past do enough damage to ignore the armor this ship would have from Heavy Armor (5x Tachyon Lance Radiant, Star Fortress with Tachyon Lances, enemy Dooms with Reaper torpedoes, etc.) or at least destroy the armor in one hit. Reinforced Bulkheads lets you take more armor-penetrating hits and keep firing.

Thank you! I appreciate you sharing your reasoning as well. I've yet to take this ship into combat, much less have any near end game experiences. The reinforced bulkheads does add quite a bit of hull, considering you start with so much. It must be a huge ship in real life. J
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Thaago

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2021, 09:38:39 AM »

Definitely s-mod in Hardened Shields.  It will be one of your more expensive hullmods on Paragon.

My other pick would be Augmented Drive Field (40 OP), but others do not care about burn speed or do not mind having four or more tugs in their fleet.  If you do not care about ADF, pick the other most expensive hullmod you always use on Paragon.  You probably have some other hullmod worth at least 25 OP on it.

Wow, four tugs. That's taking up quite a few of the limited (30) slots. Maybe the ADF is a good choice. Thanks!

Be aware that ADF on a ship you use in battle is a big combat penalty on an extremely expensive (in credits and DP) ship. Tugs (if you even want them, I don't care enough about flying at 16 burn) carry no combat penalty as a fleet with a capital is going to run up against the deployment cap far sooner than the 30 ship cap.

While this isn't a hullmod to be built in because its cheap, you absolutely want Stabilized Shields on Paragons. Helps a lot.
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Amoebka

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2021, 09:45:53 AM »

As for why you should put hardened shields on your Paragon, with the right officer skills (shield modulation) you can get the shield flux/incoming damage stat down to 0.35.

Or you can press F and get your flux/damage to 0.06 via the fortress shield. Do you think going from 0.06 to 0.03 is worth an s-mod slot? I will even say that shield modulation on a Paragon officer is a mistake, the shield is already so efficient you don't want to spend resources buffing it further.
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Vanshilar

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon & Hegemony Rep
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2021, 10:02:17 AM »

Edit: On another note, I was informed of an AI inspection by the Hegemony while I was writing the original post and I saw one of the options was to resist. Why not? How mad could they get? Well, I went form +100 to -50 just like that and I lost my nearly 100k a month commission. Darn that's a lot of money at this stage.

The whole thing makes me wonder if there's no way to make peace with them. Maybe I should align with Tri-Tachyon because they seem to care less about all the AI's I have in my two colonies. They're both run by the Blue AI, and every industry has some AI help. I'm not sure, but it seems to me that the Hegemony would just keep sending the AI inspections and I'd keep losing story points. There are five planets in Duzahk and one colony has a Star Fortress (largest) + High Command and the other has a Battle Station + is building high command. As soon as I have the extra credits I'll upgrade the second colony to Star Fortress as well. Maybe I should just let the Hegemony bang their heads against my superior fleets while I run some bounty and pirate missions for Tri-Tachyon and bring my rep up?

Yes, the Hegemony will keep sending AI inspections every so often when you use alpha cores. If you resist then they'll go to war with you.

However, if you turn your transponder off and intercept that AI inspection fleet in hyperspace, and kill it, then you'll only lose 5 rep, since you're an unknown fleet (with transponder off). So with good relations with them, you'll pretty much never have to actually worry about those AI inspections, as long as you have a fleet that can kill the AI inspection fleet.
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Yunru

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2021, 10:05:58 AM »

As for why you should put hardened shields on your Paragon, with the right officer skills (shield modulation) you can get the shield flux/incoming damage stat down to 0.35.

Or you can press F and get your flux/damage to 0.06 via the fortress shield. Do you think going from 0.06 to 0.03 is worth an s-mod slot? I will even say that shield modulation on a Paragon officer is a mistake, the shield is already so efficient you don't want to spend resources buffing it further.
Yeah, at the cost of turning off your weapons! (IIRC.)

Megas

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2021, 10:33:36 AM »

No such thing as too much shield efficiency (on Paragon), especially now when Paragon's defenses seem worse in this release than last release, despite no change in its stats.

Fortress shield steadily builds up hard flux, which is not good.  It is useful mainly for trading a bunch of soft flux into a bit of hard flux when it is not safe to vent or drop shields.
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ubuntufreakdragon

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Re: Build Two Items into new Paragon
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2021, 10:54:45 AM »

Hardened Shields, Speed and manoeuvrability help a lot.
A paragon will not get to use it's armour much shield flickering is replaced by fortress flickering.
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