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[Igncom1]

I mean the Hegemony uses gunboats of both lowtech and midline. Frankly speaking they should have access to hightech gunboats too, but I suppose having wolf frigates is better then none.

Honestly If I was to suggest anything, the normal Diktat fleets should have none of the penalties, and then the Lions Guard can have the penalties to see them sticking to their GLORIOUS LEADERS doctrines more closely.

Not that I mind too much with them having slightly worse for wear versions of the original ships, this seems more like people are unhappy that they can't min-max with them, as if they weren't running 5 dooms in every fleet anyway.

[SCC]

I can't speak for all players, but I and presumably at least some other players don't look in detail at ship's capability and loadout in non-endgame situations. The optimised loadout with the best weapon is the goal to achieve, as you want to squeeze as much performance out of that ship as possible. If you need a ship in a pinch, most will do, but they are still stepping stone ships, to be discarded after your financial situation improves.
From gameplay perspective, it's just boring if there's no use case for LG ships, except for challenge runs that focus on using SD/LG ships.

When it comes to SD/LG's characterisation (which seems to be "obvious bad guys you will almost certainly want to fight"), there probably will be ludonarrative dissonance, since despite their one-dimensional antagonistic characterisation, SD will pose no different threat level, while LG might actually be easier instead. Bad guys who are uninteresting to fight are bad for a wrong reason. Reality does tend to get in the way of a good story like that. Remnants are obvious bad guys, are hard to fight, but there are some upsides to it, since you get their good weapons, good ships (if you have AS) and cores.
Now that I thought about it a bit, I don't think it's such a big issue. Hopefully funny-name-cannons will be good enough there's a reason to interact with LG at all.

As for midline having no destroyers with medium mounts, I'm fine with that. Midline either has very few or a lot of missiles, and I think that such extreme characterisation is a neat thing about midline.

(I guess that's Andrada's leverage depicted in game mechanics?).

It used to be the case, but now both fuel and supplies are too expensive there, too often.

'Apex' stealing yet another name from Ship and Weapon Pack breaking the name theme was the one thing that annoyed me when I read the blogpost. I suppose if anyone asks, they can get pointed to dictionary.com where it mentions 'solar apex', but still...
Random bad ideas my sleepy brain generated:
- Arise (clearer reference to the sun, plus haha JRPG title reference)
- Solstice
- Parhelion (I decided I like this one the most, references its drones)

Hey Alex, change Apex's name to Prism, just to mess with Histidine!

[Wyvern]

Oh, right, ship names. Why not just name the new remnant class 'Sol'?

[Hiruma Kai]

Honestly If I was to suggest anything, the normal Diktat fleets should have none of the penalties, and then the Lions Guard can have the penalties to see them sticking to their GLORIOUS LEADERS doctrines more closely.

I'm pretty sure that is what is happening.   The Lion's Guard is the sub-faction (without markets or commission) that has the built in Solar Shielding and special modifications.  Normal Diktat military has standard midline ships, except for the Executor, which they share with the Lion's Guard.  All the Eagles, Falcons, Hammerheads, Sunders, etc in the normal Sindarian Diktat fleets are just as good as their Persean League versions, and what you'll be able to buy in their markets.

From what Alex said, these ships won't even show up in bounties (probably, there was an *I think* in that statement).  It looks like (although Alex can correct me) the only way to get them is to hang around Sindaria and salvage them, although your fleet may need to personally put them into that salvageable state.  Which also means they'll likely start with other d-mods when you acquire them anyways, unless you've got Hull Restoration - which will fix the special modifications problem anyways.

[intrinsic_parity]

Maybe the normal SD fleets can have the cool paint job but not the hullmod?

[Alex]

LP Venture gets a brand new different system from the original one, and the only Diktat capital that's a different class somehow, has the same FMR system as Pegasus... I bet that's still useful but it seems rather disappointing, not sure if I even want to get one Executor just to try it out. So basically the only difference between the two ships is that one has downsides, bruh.

Might as well disable the option to get a Diktat commission. If you're a collector and want the ship, you also want exclusive weapons which you can only get by destroying said ship (and then recovering it). If not, Executor serves the lone purpose of being a gimp ship. Give it a different system, give it some extra stats, anything. A beautiful capital that's a joke/trap feels so out of place in this otherwise gem of a game. You can easily make something "not as good as the average" while satisfying lore nerds while also still making an interesting decision from a gameplay perspective. Since this is a video game.

To be honest I have somewhat of a suspicion that the Executor will be the ship no one ever touches only being seen at the bottom of Tierlists or when farming the SD for weapons.
The Pegasus flux stats are really bad so I don't really see the advantage of the two energy slots compared to losing it's missiles. At best this is a straight-up downgrade to the Pegasus, at worst a Battleship that even with a sensible loud-out will never perform effective. I can't really imagine a niche or situation where I would want the Executor in my fleet.

I think you're probably selling short the power of two large energy slots combined with 5 forward-facing medium ballistic weapons combined with 2 large missile slots. I just threw together a quick Executor loadout that beats up the stock sim Paragon (no skills or s-mods on either side), so it's... definitely not bad. That said, I'm definitely open to improving the Executor at some point if it turns out to be bad; it's just not at all clear to me that it is. Yes, losing 2 large missile reduces the relative value of its ship system. But adding direct punch to a ship that didn't have any is also quite valuable, *and* it pairs very well with its other slots.

The flux stats are bad, but so much of a capital ship's dissipation (aside from a few battlecruisers) comes from *other* than its baseline stats that it's not as big of a deal as it seems.

Also why would Andrada copy the Pegasus in the first place? I feel like as an Ex-Hegemony Admiral he'd prefer the Onslaught with his improvements.

It'd be more a question of what he could get his hands on, no? And imagine the League, always in tension with the Hegemony, and looking to indirectly prop up something that's a thorn in the Hegemony's side...

Also wouldn't it be possible to shuffle the mounts on LP Ships to be more energy heavy and then equip them with one or two kinetic blasters?

I suppose, but they'd be really bad then, where now they're extremely close to normal ships, and the Executor is more of a sidegrade.

Also imagine being Alex, developing and playtesting all this great content, talking about it in a big blog post, only to have 60% of the conversation fixated on one minute thing most players won't even care about once the update drops. Feelsbadman

Right? Right???

It's all good, though; I'm not really that surprised by the reaction, and I understand it, but I think the reasons for doing it this way are good.

IR Autolance: I don't see how it's stepping on Burst PD's toes since it can't target missiles. Sure it will probably be much better for anti-fighter work but that's not even the role of PD weapons, and it will surely be better against shielded fighters. I'm always shocked to hear people think Burst PD is not good. What do you use for PD then? I find everything else underwhelming and demanding of many more slots, when 2-3 Burst lasers give you plenty of protection. And we don't even know how good IR Autolance tracks.

It tracks well! To me some of the value proposition of the Burst PD lasers is they bring a little more versatility - some anti-armor, some anti-heavy-fighter, etc, so it's not *just* PD.

Yeah... I guess people (like me) only speak up about what we don't like than what we do like.

For what it's worth Alex I do love all of this <3

Thank you! I appreciate you saying this <3

I think people are overlooking a very important reason for players to collect LG ships regardless of if they are any good or not: parading an entire trophy fleet of Lion's Guard ships, that you couldn't possibly have come by legitimately, around Askonia while laughing maniacally.

P.S. very excited about the new changes. Can't wait to get my hands on the shiny pew-pew missiles.

Yes! And, thank you

My suggestion for the Lion's Guard: Keep the base hulls as they are in the blog post. Then give them a high chance of having one-to-three s-mods, and allow those s-mods to stick around when the player captures them.

Hmm - interesting idea; I'll keep it in mind. I don't think it's really necessary or quite fits here, but I get what you're saying.

I just had the greatest loadout idea for Pegasus ever, 4 Pilum catapults. I CAN'T WAIT to see the absurdity, although I fear it won't be as good as it is in my head.

It probably won't be very good. But it'll be a *lot* of Pilums.

I'm pretty sure that is what is happening.   The Lion's Guard is the sub-faction (without markets or commission) that has the built in Solar Shielding and special modifications.  Normal Diktat military has standard midline ships, except for the Executor, which they share with the Lion's Guard.  All the Eagles, Falcons, Hammerheads, Sunders, etc in the normal Sindarian Diktat fleets are just as good as their Persean League versions, and what you'll be able to buy in their markets.

(Yep.)

[Grievous69]

I think you're probably selling short the power of two large energy slots combined with 5 forward-facing medium ballistic weapons combined with 2 large missile slots. I just threw together a quick Executor loadout that beats up the stock sim Paragon (no skills or s-mods on either side), so it's... definitely not bad. That said, I'm definitely open to improving the Executor at some point if it turns out to be bad; it's just not at all clear to me that it is. Yes, losing 2 large missile reduces the relative value of its ship system. But adding direct punch to a ship that didn't have any is also quite valuable, *and* it pairs very well with its other slots.

The flux stats are bad, but so much of a capital ship's dissipation (aside from a few battlecruisers) comes from *other* than its baseline stats that it's not as big of a deal as it seems.

That does fill me with satisfaction then. Maybe it's just a bit hard to visualize it currently since we don't have anything like it, closest thing being Prometheus MKII mount-wise. I was worried when I saw Executor in the screenshot but if the big boss says it can go toe to toe with a Paragon, well zero worries right now.

[Atlasreturns]

I think you're probably selling short the power of two large energy slots combined with 5 forward-facing medium ballistic weapons combined with 2 large missile slots. I just threw together a quick Executor loadout that beats up the stock sim Paragon (no skills or s-mods on either side), so it's... definitely not bad. That said, I'm definitely open to improving the Executor at some point if it turns out to be bad; it's just not at all clear to me that it is. Yes, losing 2 large missile reduces the relative value of its ship system. But adding direct punch to a ship that didn't have any is also quite valuable, *and* it pairs very well with its other slots.

The flux stats are bad, but so much of a capital ship's dissipation (aside from a few battlecruisers) comes from *other* than its baseline stats that it's not as big of a deal as it seems.

My concern is primarily originating from it being somewhat of a "jack of all trades" ship while others have a more focused approach to increase efficiency. So it could very well end up as a master of none that is left in the shadow of it's competitors.
In what role or niche would you imagine the Executor?

It'd be more a question of what he could get his hands on, no? And imagine the League, always in tension with the Hegemony, and looking to indirectly prop up something that's a thorn in the Hegemony's side...

I would guess that Andrada would have had a few Onslaughts in his fleet during the rebellion. Considering that this is the ship, him and most of his loyalists operated on for a long time and the Onslaught being known for it's simplicity, I'd argue it would be much more feasible for the industrially and scientifically restricted Diktat to re-engineer and build that than integrating and converting the much more complex and specialized Pegasus.
Plus while I can see the League supplying the Diktat with regular mid-tier ships granting them access to their most developed and advanced battleship seems a little bit too friendly. I think in the same notion TT wouldn't sell Andrada the ability to construct Paragons.

I suppose, but they'd be really bad then, where now they're extremely close to normal ships, and the Executor is more of a sidegrade.

Maybe, it was just really quick idea. Like many here have said I think it would be cool if just like the Executor, LG ships would also be sidegrades in some way. Even if the SD can't use them very well.

[Amoebka]

Paragon might be a bit of a "preferred" opponent for Executor. The main concern is that both large energies seem to be hardpoints, quite spaced apart from one another, and the ballistics are also hardpoints. A smaller ship, like a destroyer, would probably have an easy time avoiding fire altogether. And if it takes forever to turn around, you aren't contributing much to a fight.

[Megas]

The only thing about Executor's energy mounts I may not be fond of they look like they are spaced wide apart like Onslaught's TPCs, and I guess as hardpoints, they barely swivel.  With Pegasus, at least there are homing missile options to focus them into whatever the medium hardpoints are shooting at.  With Executor, there are no large homing weapons (aside from Rift Torpedo, but player may not find two from the Tesseracts in the game).

[Candesce]

The only thing about Executor's energy mounts I may not be fond of they look like they are spaced wide apart like Onslaught's TPCs, and I guess as hardpoints, they barely swivel.

Mount slow-firing guns and put them on alternate?

Works well enough with Dominators.

[Üstad]

Sindrian Stuff: I get the lore reason behind it, but I kind of don't like the Lions Guard ships being worse than the generic counterparts. The XIV ships are mostly better across the board given their hullmod and improved flux stats, making them a nice treat to pick up.

The LG ships on the other hand, are stuck with a permanent D-mod and worse OP in exchange for the relatively useless Solar Shielding - I feel like there would be little reason for the player to go out of their way to grab a LG Eagle. Perhaps I'm too spoiled by the LG ships in mods, that usually are a step above the basic versions.

Ludd Stuff: I first bought this game after watching Sseth's video, and always thought the pathers would be ramming me with exceptionally explosive tanker ships like the space jihadis that they were. The wonderful Luddic Enchancement mod has this, but I wondered if there would ever be official integration of the Kamikaze Tanker ships.

Wonderful work as always, I eagerly await the next update!

Completely agree on these especially on Lion Guard ship issue, the gameplay is more important than lore, the lore should be shaped by gameplay not the other way around.

[prav]

Can't say I'm liking the change in Diktat characterization, the LG HQ's description made them out to be a pretty fearsome group, and Andrada's background had me thinking he was a lot more of a Caesar than a Sese Seko.

[XR17]

A few observations:
1. Since Diktact is now very personality cult centric, does the officers from the faction have a major importance now? Maybe having their fleets more high level officers to compensate the counterproductive designs, and having officers of the LG implanted with cybernetics (3 elite skills) to diferenciate. Also, it could be a good opportunity to have a new bar-quest to aquire better deserters from the faction.

2. Now that TT is more phase oriented, can the revenant and phantom being aquired from their shops or included in their base blueprints to access from the nanoforge opportunity quests?

[Antelope Syrup]

Great Work! This update is looking like one of the greatest yet. The Pegasus looks like a beast, and the new league weapons are both awesome and distinct. No complaints regarding the few changes made to tri tachyon either. The new remnant ships are looking fearsome, and I can't wait to fight them and get my hands on them.

However, I don't really like where the Diktat is headed. At least to me they are becoming more and more of a "meme faction". Their capital ship? A worse copy of some other factions'. Their purpose? Lobster. (Fuel isn't even that cheap in sindria anymore either) Their weapons? Largely a joke. Their elite force said to have the best training and equipment in the sector? A complete joke, no more than a parade army for show. While I understand the reasoning behind the LG's "attributes" I just can't say that they make terribly much sense. As someone whom has thoroughly enjoyed the game and done a little looking around in the lore department, Philip Andrada and the Lion's Gaurd has never struck me this way. And from a gameplay perspective, it makes more sense to me, that the lions gaurd should be a truly elite and feared force. The lions gaurd's ships and weapons can only be acquired by fighting them, and they are rare. But why would players go so far out of their way to aquire these ships if they are objectively worse than the default? These are some really cool sprites, and it seems like a waste of effort if their only purpose is for "world building & emersion"