Then you somehow forgot or chose to ignore so many posts over the last period, most probably from me since I whine about it the most, but others have also been pretty vocal and explained why do they think it's not in a good place.
So since I don't want to repeat my thoughts for the 10th time, I'll link the old post I made which was a tiny bit before the current patch, but my opinion is still pretty similar. https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=22963.0
I didn't say there weren't complaints about SO, I said I haven't seen any convincing case (i.e., reasons clearly laid out) for why SO needs a fundamental overhaul, as opposed to keeping the basic principles, but making some tweaks here and there (such as adjusting how it interacts with CR decay).
For example, taking the post you linked:
In a way that it transforms a crap ship into a scary piece of metal that can now cut through your fleet. Fighting a horde of SO ships is cancer, even more so than phase ships imo. The whole thing is supercharging ships to bring them multiple power levels up, at the expense of PPT. Which means in the end, it's just a win harder/faster hull mod.
That statement could be said about anything. There is nothing in that which is specific to SO (other than the mention of PPT), or describes what it is about SO that makes things that way, or establishes the validity of that position. Anybody could write "Fighting a horde of ITU ships is cancer" or "Fighting a horde of HSA ships is cancer" or whatever. That is a
position, not a
reason which justifies or supports a given position. People are free to state whatever opinions they want on a discussion forum, but without giving reasons behind it, it's not particularly convincing.
Moving on:
I don't mind that per se, but the fact that it makes some thing truly broken that many discussion about ship builds go like this:
- "Hey I'm struggling with X ship, don't know what's a good loadout for it."
- "Have you tried putting SO and the only weapons that actually have sense to go along with it?"
That generally works against easier enemy fleets, but not harder ones, where SO effectiveness falls off rapidly. If someone is having trouble against pirate fleets or whatever, sure, throw SO on it. Against harder fleets, I'd say it's actually bad advice. But just because someone says "I have problem with X" and the common response is "You should try Y" doesn't mean that Y is overpowered or needs to change. For example, against endgame (i.e. Ordos) fleets, a very common advice is to use Solar Shielding. Does that mean Solar Shielding is boring or overpowered?
It makes some parts of the game bloody boring.
That's another generic criticism that could be levied about anything, and thus means nothing nor have any persuasive value. "There's a new ship in the next patch!" "That sounds boring." "The Orders tab will be functional next update!" "That sounds boring." There's nothing there which gives a specific issue to address or to discuss.
Now as I mentioned, it does tend to trivialize the early game (since early game fleets aren't as dangerous), but the early game is already fairly trivial anyway for an experienced player, so it basically just speeds up the early game to get to the richer, meaty stuff. I don't see that as a bad thing.
Thank god low tech is getting some love again because all they were good for before were SO builds. But that also makes previous SO optimal builds even more good. Enforcer is a good example of a dumb ship that "begs" for SO. And I hate that it will never get any more flux dissipation that it desperately needs because the SO builds will be 3 times as annoying. The new Eradicator is a prime candidate for SO, ship with already good base speed and AAF system, sign me up Jimmy. SO is a plague that makes the best part of the game (personally), ship customisation, a bit too easy and lazy. There's really no thought behind SO builds, you immediately know which weapons and hull mods go along with it. High tech ships are also victims of "ez SO ship" cookie cutter builds.
I haven't found the SO Eradicator to be more effective than a non-SO Eradicator, other than early fights. Its relatively low flux capacity and shield efficiency means that it absorbs too much damage when going in for it to deal enough damage to make it worthwhile, compared with non-SO builds that can deal damage from afar.
Weapon selection being limited when you use SO is just because only a few weapons are geared for that range. Only 2 of the 9 non-flak medium ballistics are short ranged, so if you're using SO then
of course you'll be using only those weapons for medium ballistics. Just like if you take HSA then
of course you'll likely be stocking up on beams. That doesn't mean "SO is bad and needs to be overhauled because there are few weapons to choose for it", for example a possible solution is "add more weapons in that range band".
Otherwise, SO builds still require much of the same thought that goes into non-SO builds. If anything, more care needs to be put into successful SO builds because with SO taking up a lot of OP, and with the need to put more points into flux capacity (since the ship will be absorbing more damage going in), there's less OP available for everything else. An interesting side issue that doesn't occur as much with non-SO builds is whether or not an SO officer should get elite Point Defense, which then makes LMG and LDMG match the range of other SO weapons.
I actually feel like high tech ships maintain more of their weapon variety with SO, because their weapons have shorter range anyway and they rely more on speed rather than weapon range. The main issue with SO and high tech ships is that high tech ships benefit so much more from it than low tech ships, since it also doubles base flux dissipation, which high tech ships have more of, for the same OP cost. The biggest offender of this is the frigate Hyperion, which only needs to spend 15 OP to gain 500 flux dissipation, since it's a frigate with light cruiser flux stats (and light cruiser OP cost). Since it only has 3 weapon mounts then the weapon selection is fairly limited, but even then I see a variety of proposed weapons for SO Hyperions. So by no means does SO mean that the weapon choice is obvious.
So overall, lots of disparaging comments about SO, but very few if any actual specifics about what's wrong with it. Just multiple statements about it being overpowering and boring, but nothing solid to back it up.