Random play experience with Hull Restoration and Field Repairs in early late-game:
Tackled a 200k bounty. Enemy fleet and mine had Conquest flagship and a variety of ships - nearly a mirror fight (I had Radiant without a core, they had better officers). I won the fight but lost six ships in battle. BUT... I recovered all six of my ships without any d-mods plus an enemy Gryphon with a single d-mod. With Field Repairs, my seven recovered ships had 30+% CR and hull immediately, almost ready to fight again.
I need to revise my opinion on Field Repairs. While I miss Bulk Transport buffing capacities and civilian's burn speed (which is handy when recovering slow poke freighters), Field Repairs setting CR and hull nearly out of the yellow is very handy for saving supplies and getting them ready to fight again soon.
I might need to haul extra crew for the casualties taken (or get more Damage Control for my officers).
Hull Restoration is great for easing the frustration of casualties when I want to maintain a pristine fleet. Without Hull Restoration, I would have reloaded the game after losing six ships. The bounty pay would not have covered the cost of replacing or restoring ships. Hull Restoration makes casualties much more bearable to tolerate.
And speaking of Gryphon, Ballistic Rangefinder plus ITU and multiple efficient 4 OP autocannons with 800 range let it plink at targets at near medium range before spamming missiles a seemingly viable tactic in the simulator. I need to try it as an AI ship again. My experience in previous releases was it rushed to the frontline and get squashed first. It would be nice if it ends up being a light Champion with more missiles and less guns.
P.S. I might need to abandon the plan with Hull Restoration, Automated Ships, and Neural Link. Two skill points left for Combat is not enough to make piloting Radiant flagship more than a miserable experience. If I want to pilot Radiant, I need to give up tier 3 Industry and Hull Restoration for more Combat skills, which I do not want to do.