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[Delta_of_Isaire]

Been doing a long playthrough of Starsector 0.95.1a (cycle 225 and counting). Here's a list of some of the things I noticed that could maybe be tweaked/added.

> In battles on the tactical map, ship icons have two bars showing hull integrity and combat readiness. Please add a third bar displaying flux level. That info is already available one ship at a time by clicking on it. But one ship at a time makes it hard to see at a glance how a fight is going. (and flux level is much more indicative of whether a ship is winning or losing than hull integrity is)

> The AI too often refuses to use Maneuvering Jets / Plasma Jets / Phase Skimmer to catch up with a backpedaling enemy. To the point where I feel like Systems Expertise is wasted on my Falcons. By contrast, the newly improved Burn Drive does get used appropriately in situations like this.

> Consider the option for battle orders like Engage or Avoid to apply only for a specific control group. For example, that way you could order your Frigates in control group 1 to Engage only enemy Frigates/Destroyers while Avoiding enemy Capitals; while ordering your capitals in control group 2 to Engage the enemy Capitals. That's exactly the behavior I want from my current fleet, but I cannot achieve it without manually assigning each ship to Engage a specific enemy every 10 seconds (and running out of command points).

> Make the Defend order less like Engage and more like Escort. Specifically, ships ordered to Defend currently wander off way too far. Let them stick much closer to their assigned location/ship. The difference between Escort and Defend (if the assignment is a ship) should be that where Escorts stick primarily to the rear of their assignment, Defenders should stick primarily to the front.

> For carriers, seperate movement orders from Fighter Strike orders, allowing both to be given simultaneously. For example, a Carrier assigned to Escort duty should still send its fighters off towards designated Fighter Strike targets.

> Add an Ignore order, the opposite of Engage and a subtler alternative to Avoid. An Ignore order should mean "don't bother attacking/chasing after this ship, but prefer attacking something else".

> We need Officer skill respecs. Even if it is just one skill at a time. Because anything is better than having to fire a mentored Officer with 4 Elite skills to train an entirely new Officer from scratch. This might actually make me use Pod officers as well, because currently 95% of those have schizophrenic skill distributions that are useless. (And if you're worried about lvl 7 officers being overpowered... Don't. And IMHO those should be lvl 6 anyway)

> Allow certain uses of storypoints to be alternatively done by spending a (ridiculous) amount of credits. this eases the late-game storypoint grind and provides a moneysink. Things like colony improvements, officer elite skills, the historian, or escaping battles.

> On a related note: I would gladly spend 1 credit per bonus XP to instantly convert that bonus XP into real XP. Make this possible please.

> Ordnance Expertise is power creep. It provides a substantial increase in sustained DPS for nearly every ship. It is hard to justify an Officer build without it. It's not even the power increase that I mind, but rather the fact that it's a mandatory skill for a lot of ships. Case in point: my Onslaught (XIV) goes from 1270 dissipation to 1698 dissipation (+34%) and my Conquest goes from 1850 to 2254 (+22%). Either make Ordnance Expertise a fleetwide skill (maybe with half the effect magnitude, i.e. +1/+10 instead of +2/+20), or replace it with something else that is more specialized (like a skill that increases the Hitpoints of Fighters).

> There is a vacant niche for an HE equivalent of the Heavy Autocannon. Something to fill the rather large gap between the Heavy Mortar and Heavy Mauler. 10 OP, 800 range, decent accuracy, 180 DPS, 150 dmg/shot.

> Add a Midline Support Fighter, to complement the High Tech Xyphos and Low Tech Mining Pod. Moderate OP cost (~10), 2 or 3 fighters per wing. Give each fighter 2 LR PD Lasers and a Breach SRM.

[Megas]

Agreed on officer respecs.  Especially if player changes his fleet and needs new officers to fit in with different ships.

> Ordnance Expertise is power creep. It provides a substantial increase in sustained DPS for nearly every ship. It is hard to justify an Officer build without it. It's not even the power increase that I mind, but rather the fact that it's a mandatory skill for a lot of ships. Case in point: my Onslaught (XIV) goes from 1270 dissipation to 1698 dissipation (+34%) and my Conquest goes from 1850 to 2254 (+22%). Either make Ordnance Expertise a fleetwide skill (maybe with half the effect magnitude, i.e. +1/+10 instead of +2/+20), or replace it with something else that is more specialized (like a skill that increases the Hitpoints of Fighters).

Anymore than Gunnery Implants?  If anything, I consider Gunnery Implants mandatory on every ship, more so than Ordnance Expertise, because AI cannot handle being significantly outranged.  (For example, AI Fury and Aurora letting AI Falcon kite and snipe them to death because high-tech ships have no range and AI is too cowardly.)

Also, it is nice that Industry has powerful combat skills because it is primarily the QoL tree.  If Industry did not have good combat skills, then taking any Industry beyond tier 1 like Containment Procedures, Industrial Planning, Hull Restoration, Derelict Operations would hurt.


I have few suggestions of my own:
* Have Energy Mastery damage bonus apply to any range, not decay past 600 range and no damage bonus past 1000 range.  If the damage is too much, lower it to 20% or 25%, and give it another bonus, perhaps more range like Ballistic Mastery.  It should be comparable to at least Ballistic Mastery, which gives range AND damage that does not decay.  Energy Mastery only gives damage that decays over range.  Currently, energy mastery is only useful for small ships with small hard-flux energy weapons.  Ships that use beams, large energy weapons, or with significant range boosts (Paragon's ATC, any ship with ITU and elite PD) get robbed of their damage.

* Cybernetic Augmentation needs to do something without further cost.  Currently, it does nothing if you do not spend more story points.  Even Best of the Best, whose main power relies on spending story points, gives something else without further cost.

[DirectionsToL3Please]

Currently, energy mastery is only useful for small ships with small hard-flux energy weapons. 

Well that's just factually wrong. Energy mastery is useful for bringing energy PD systems up to par with ballistic PD systems.  As it stands, energy PD has longer range than ballistic but lower damage, but energy mastery scales up that damage so that tough or numberous targets can still get popped quickly before hitting the ship.  And of course, the elite version of the skill is enormously useful for any ship with a heavy energy loadout, high tech or midline. It's great for Paragons, Auroras, Champions, and fantastic for PD Medusa setups.

[Delta_of_Isaire]

> Ordnance Expertise is power creep. It provides a substantial increase in sustained DPS for nearly every ship. It is hard to justify an Officer build without it. It's not even the power increase that I mind, but rather the fact that it's a mandatory skill for a lot of ships. Case in point: my Onslaught (XIV) goes from 1270 dissipation to 1698 dissipation (+34%) and my Conquest goes from 1850 to 2254 (+22%). Either make Ordnance Expertise a fleetwide skill (maybe with half the effect magnitude, i.e. +1/+10 instead of +2/+20), or replace it with something else that is more specialized (like a skill that increases the Hitpoints of Fighters).

Anymore than Gunnery Implants?  If anything, I consider Gunnery Implants mandatory on every ship, more so than Ordnance Expertise, because AI cannot handle being significantly outranged.  (For example, AI Fury and Aurora letting AI Falcon kite and snipe them to death because high-tech ships have no range and AI is too cowardly.)

Also, it is nice that Industry has powerful combat skills because it is primarily the QoL tree.  If Industry did not have good combat skills, then taking any Industry beyond tier 1 like Containment Procedures, Industrial Planning, Hull Restoration, Derelict Operations would hurt.

Range is indeed very powerful, and the AI being scared for no good reason is a large contributor to that (although SIM Falcon is a bad example because its speed and weapons are the perfect soft counter to High Tech). But at least on paper non-Frigate ships with good speed should prefer other skills, unless they are specifically built for kiting with 1000 range weapons. Target Analysis, Energy Weapon Mastery, Field Modulation, Helmsmanship, Systems Expertise, Missile Specialization, and of course Ordnance Expertise. Edit: or the powerful Elite Point Defense + small mount weapons combo

Or what about missile boats and carriers? Ships like Gryphon and Heron don't need gun range, but using Ordnance Expertise on them saves a ton of OP on vents.

Or SO ships? Aside from the obvious Frigates for which 4% ECM is worthwhile?

About Industry tree - actually the fact that Ordnance Expertise is locked behind a non-combat skill is the reason I don't get it for my flagship. Because I want Automated Ships, Best of the Best and either Systems Expertise or Missile Specialization. (I do start the game with Industry 5, but then respec out of it after my colonies start giving me infinite money)

* Cybernetic Augmentation needs to do something without further cost.  Currently, it does nothing if you do not spend more story points.  Even Best of the Best, whose main power relies on spending story points, gives something else without further cost.

That's a good point. While Elite officer skills are powerful, there are so many other uses of storypoints that take priority that Cybernetic Augmentation is a very, very late endgame skill. I do plan to get it eventually, once I've chewed through my 30 million bonus XP...

[Megas]

Currently, energy mastery is only useful for small ships with small hard-flux energy weapons. 

Well that's just factually wrong. Energy mastery is useful for bringing energy PD systems up to par with ballistic PD systems.  As it stands, energy PD has longer range than ballistic but lower damage, but energy mastery scales up that damage so that tough or numberous targets can still get popped quickly before hitting the ship.  And of course, the elite version of the skill is enormously useful for any ship with a heavy energy loadout, high tech or midline. It's great for Paragons, Auroras, Champions, and fantastic for PD Medusa setups.

I suppose this is in addition to Point Defense.  If boosting energy PD is priority, then taking Point Defense before Energy Mastery would be a better idea.  More damage (and more range if elite).  But energy PD would indeed be boosted by Energy Mastery provided the ship has significant flux, so your point stands on that case.

The elite part of Energy Mastery is the only good part of the skill, which I can only rely on my commander and AI cores I use.  If my officers can only have one elite skill, I probably would not use it on Energy Mastery.

Range is indeed very powerful, and the AI being scared for no good reason is a large contributor to that (although SIM Falcon is a bad example because its speed and weapons are the perfect soft counter to High Tech). But at least on paper non-Frigate ships with good speed should prefer other skills, unless they are specifically built for kiting with 1000 range weapons. Target Analysis, Energy Weapon Mastery, Field Modulation, Helmsmanship, Systems Expertise, Missile Specialization, and of course Ordnance Expertise. Edit: or the powerful Elite Point Defense + small mount weapons combo

Or what about missile boats and carriers? Ships like Gryphon and Heron don't need gun range, but using Ordnance Expertise on them saves a ton of OP on vents.

Or SO ships? Aside from the obvious Frigates for which 4% ECM is worthwhile?

Falcon is fairly common in endgame bounty fleets, and ships get separated at times and end up in duels, so the "bad example" SIM Falcon is not too contrived.

As for Gryphon, it most certainly can use gun range.  It can use enough guns to brawl like a destroyer or Falcon, which is handy if I do not use Squalls on it.

For carriers, that varies by ship, loadout, and AI behavior.  If it has guns and not using expensive bombers (and AI is aggressive enough), then carriers too can especially use the gun range.

For SO ships, okay, range boosters (and weapon accuracy) are downplayed.

About Industry tree - actually the fact that Ordnance Expertise is locked behind a non-combat skill is the reason I don't get it for my flagship. Because I want Automated Ships, Best of the Best and either Systems Expertise or Missile Specialization. (I do start the game with Industry 5, but then respec out of it after my colonies start giving me infinite money)

I generally want Hull Restoration, Automated Ships, and at least three combat skills for more mobility and PPT/CR.

I get Industry primarily for Hull Restoration.  It makes casualties much easier to stomach.  Plus, it is the only cheap way of repairing ships the player cannot build or buy, like Ziggurat or any automated ship.  Automated Ships is fun at times, although I have considered dropping it and some other Tech prereqs for Leadership (or other) skills.

I would like Best of the Best, except if I reassign skills after getting a third s-mod, I lose them all without any refund, and that really hurts.  However, the best thing about BotB is removing unwanted s-mods on exotic ships by getting three s-mods then selecting the one s-mod the player does not want after removing BotB.

I like to get at least five Combat skills, but I do not take System Expertise or Missile Specialization unless the flagship I want really needs the skill to become much stronger, like Systems Expertise on Doom or Radiant.  For Combat, I always take Helmsmanship and Impact Mitigation for mobility (and armor for armor tanks) and Combat Endurance for more PPT and slower decay if I want to pilot a small ship or SO ship.  After that it varies.  If I pilot a Paragon or phase ship, I want Field Modulation.  If I pilot something that wants to use HMGs or various midline and high-tech ships that can mix railguns or needlers with beams, Ballistic Mastery.  If I want to rely on small weapons for offense, Point Defense (for the elite effect).