It also means that at least so long as the LP aren't bringing along a Prometheus, you can still win by simply outlasting them. The fact they've got such a tanky ship added to their fleets is actually a bit concerning. If the LP Venture didn't have IAM, they'd make a lot more fights against the LP incredibly grindy without Sunders/Manticores or bigger ships to crack those tanks. Pirate fleets sporting a few Ventures use to be very long annoying fights before their numbers were toned down last version with Eradicators.
Not to worry, hopefully! The Venture (LP) isn't very common, and the Path already has the Colossus variant at the cruiser size.
It does not have a mobility system, and its hard-flux weapon range stinks (barring IPDAI and elite Point Defense on IR Pulse Lasers or High Scatter Amplified Tactical Lasers). Fulgent is one of those ships I seriously consider using High Scatter Amplifier and beams. Its base speed does not seem too slow, but other combat destroyers will either outspeed or outrange it. Reapers are dangerous, but that means giving up medium energy weapons on prime mounts (turrets, whether pulse lasers for general use, HSA Graviton for anti-shield, or heavy burst lasers for light anti-armor/missile). If I use Reapers on Fulgent, then I am stuck with something like Heavy Blaster in the hardpoint, or IR Pulse Laser spam if I have Point Defense and IPDAI.
When I outfit Fulgents without s-mods, I tend to put two pulse lasers on the medium synergies, beam PD on the side mounts, put cheap missiles (usually Atropos) in missile hardpoints, and leave the center hardpoints empty. After I add s-mods, I start using more OP hungry loadouts, and probably more missiles (like Reaper pods).
Fulgents as they are feel like fodder ships, whether I try to use them against the enemy, or if I am mowing them down in Ordos fleets. They are only dangerous if they land a Reaper or if allowed to fire ion beam at my ship for too long.
Thank you for the added detail!
No, it's correct.
The incorrect part is "free". It's definitely not free.
Religious nutters who hate technology have better engineers than a dictator who fetishizes high technology.
I mean, it's easy to say things that sound absurd, but - rather obviously - the issue isn't with the Diktat's engineers.
I know the Diktat is not meant to be "doctrinally sound", but I would've thought there would be an LG Sunder given Andrada's apparent love for energy weapons; even if the GIGACANNON is considered too prestigious to be mounted on a destroyer.
Oh, there is! It just didn't make the graphic.
(I suppose if you have Missile Spec, you could save the 30 OP because you already have double ammo but I'd rather see the ship balanced around no skills than with a high-tier skill).
I feel like that's a good-enough reason not to go with that. Also, you could stick a bunch of Omega missiles on it that don't strictly need EMR.
I always assumed the inspiration behind Andrada was Mr./Colonel Kurtz from Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now. Kurtz had seen the underbelly of society and the system and decided it wasn't worth preserving. Yes, he was a genius but he was also completely insane. In addition, I imagined that those loyal to Andrada were something of akin to the Nazi SS: fanatics for the cause and the figurehead, rife with nepotism and backstabbing, and not actually hardened military troops. They just liked to look the part and bully those weaker than them. The "Lion's Guard" aren't an elite fighting force but rather the yes-men who brown-nosed the most and got the shiniest toys to play captain. I've been around some military commanders that had a cult of personality about them and history is full of examples of armies being loyal to the commander more than the State (Julius Caesar, for example). That Andrada has survived this long without a coup or being backstabbed himself is a testament to his own powers of persuasion, manipulation, and/or a liberal use of scare-tactics.
So, for story reasons, I get it. For gameplay reasons, I'm going to join the chorus and say I wish it was otherwise because they look darn cool and having a G I G A C A N N O N is now on my bucket list. I am still hoping that Andrada himself makes an appearance in some grand flagship and gets swatted down like the pest he is.
Oh, haven't read Heart of Darkness! Probably should at some point, it sounds interesting. But, yeah, the rest of that, very much same page.
I'm both excited and terrified that the Remnants are getting more ships. They're already tough enough so giving them new wrinkles just makes the uphill climb a little steeper. But, more diversity is a good thing. If it means less Radiants, I can get behind it. I don't imagine the Nova will be as difficult to straight-up kill, though they'll probably outflank some of the slower capitals pretty easily. Compared to an Odyssey, how nimble is the Nova? As for the Apex, it seems interesting in a good way. Brilliants with Plasma Burn seem scary though.
The Nova is more maneuverable than the Odyssey (around +50% turn rate etc). Still fairly sluggish, though, once something gets close - and, notably, it has a FRONT shield, not OMNI.
Huge fan of the update overall, but I will say that I'm a bit disappointed if Sindria is going full North Korea. Part of what I've enjoyed about the game is how all the factions are colored in greyscale. The pirates are a bunch of violent criminals who kill for profit, but some of them are also castoffs from a broken society that never gave them a chance. Meanwhile, the Hegemony might be sincere in its quest to bring peace and stability to a sector in turmoil, but they are more than willing to sacrifice personal liberties and use violence as a means of coercion in pursuit of that end. Hell, Brother Cotton is the leader of an extremist sect of murderous terrorists and he's still written with compelling depth. Having the Sindrians be just incompetent megalomaniacs isn't really living up to the rest of the setting in that regard, so hopefully there's another side to that coin.
I feel like there's no real change to how the SD *is* in this update, except that maybe it's presented a little more directly in this blog post. That said, of course there's room for nuance, as David mentioned earlier in this thread, and just because Andrada's influence on the Diktat fleet is rather one-dimensional, doesn't mean the entire picture is. But, you know, we're looking at a guy that blew up Opis to help establish himself as the supreme ruler of a small polity; I'm not sure how one could look at that
prior to this post and see much grayscale.
Similarly, having their rare, unique, collector's edition ships be objective downgrades to the standard models seems excessive. I understand that boondoggle superweapons created to fulfill the vision of the supreme dictator have an abundance of historical precedent, but at least give us something if we go to the trouble of having the things restored!
I feel like there's perhaps a bit too much focus on a couple of ships which basically got a new d-skin, just because that d-skin is shiny
There are some fun new things to play around with that the Diktat brings, too; the baseline LG ships - except for the Executor - just aren't that.
EDIT: I will say that I'm an especially big fan of diversifying the Remnant fleets even though they're already using a unique set of ships, simply because the player is likely to spend so much of their time fighting them.
*thumbs up*
Is the league the only one that really makes use of carriers now? Mainly interceptors at that.
Speaking of carriers, can we please get a bigger Heron? I adore that ship, but once you get to the capital phase of the game there isn't anything to upgrade to. Only the Odyssey has more then half it's speed and that's an incredibly rare ship with less fighters to boot. The Astral has an assload of fighters and the legion is a brick, but both are slow as sin. A battlecruiser style carrier would be a welcome addition.
Both the Hegemony and the Luddic Church use some! So do the indies.
Re: battlecruiser carrier, I mean, that *is* the Odyssey, no? I guess there's maybe some design room for a larger fast carrier, but I think the more fighter wings they have the less interesting they get. Though the Legion shows you can have 4 wings and have the base ship have enough firepower to be interesting-enough, hmm. Worth thinking about!
(very serious side note: if the Diktat are to ever get another capital, I think it is most reasonable to make it Lobster themed)
(There has got to be a mod that's taken a claw at this already, right? Right?)
Point being: If there were say a hullmod that could only be installed on Lion's Guard ships that flips their uniqueness from negative to positive(Say gives them a smattering of tiny little buffs roughly equivalent to what could otherwise be achieved with the OP cost of Solar Shielding) justified by the ingenuity of the standard Diktat grunt having to deal with egotistical inefficiencies forced upon them, given as a quest reward then the players could perhaps have their cake and eat it too.
Hmm, it's an interesting idea. Feels like a lot of work - as you say - without too much reason for it, though. Like, if we really, really wanted to make the LG ships "not a downgrade" there's probably simpler ways - and I probably wouldn't want to go down the route of enabling that through some kind of *Diktat* mission line... hmm.
Regardless, everything does look great.
Thank you!
Author
Topic: Uniquifying the Factions, Part 2 (Read 72629 times)