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[Kinsume]

So in this playthrough I've finally gotten to the point where I've started beating up some [Redacted] fleets. Went into a red system and ran around, killed off a couple of Ordos and recovered myself a pair of Radiants for the trouble. Currently using them with Beta Cores, don't have any Alphas yet, and running them with super simple setups.

5x Auto-Pulse Lasers
4x Heavy Burst Lasers
10x PD Lasers

S-Mods
Augmented Drive Field (I'm just a sucker for moving at 10 / 20 speed)
Integrated Targeting Unit

H-Mods
Shield Conversion Front
Expanded Magazines
Solar Shielding
Advanced Optics

50 into Vents
18 into Caps

Cores are setup to use Helmsmenship, Combat Enduance, Impact Mitigation, Target Analysis, Gunnery Impants

Basically they just melt anything them come across, its kind of silly.

My only issue is that with 2 of them in play they are capping at 40% CR, I guess a reasonable nerf considering their power. Any way to overcome it though?

[Megas]

Not without dropping one of the Radiants or downgrading the cores.  Even using one Radiant with Alpha core is hard enough, since being worth 240 points, Mr. Alpha alone will automatically take -50% to max CR (for 35% max CR with Combat Endurance alone) without any other automated ships in the fleet.  Two Beta Radiants are worth 360 points.  I guess you are already using more +max CR skills like Crew Training, or perhaps Derelict Ops and d-modded Radiants for less DP.

[Kinsume]

Not without dropping one of the Radiants or downgrading the cores.  Even using one Radiant with Alpha core is hard enough, since being worth 240 points, Mr. Alpha alone will automatically take -50% to max CR (for 35% max CR with Combat Endurance alone) without any other automated ships in the fleet.  Two Beta Radiants are worth 360 points.  I guess you are already using more +max CR skills like Crew Training, or perhaps Derelict Ops and d-modded Radiants for less DP.

According to the F1 information its...

-100% for automated ship penalty
+33% for automated ship skill
+15% for combat endurance
+70% for basic maintenance
+12% for crew training
+10% for hull restoration

This is what gives me the 40% currently. I know when I go down to just 1 beta core the CR goes up to 59% maximum with both ships. No beta cores goes up to 100% CR. So I guess I have two follow-up questions.

Firstly, can the Radiants be used without any core piloting them or do they request one of the cores to be fieldable?

Second, if they are being capable of being used without a pilot core, would it be better to use 1 with a Beta/Alpha core or use 2 with no cores?

[Megas]

Radiant or any other automated ship can be used without a core.  In fact, for those with Neural Link, the linked ship must not have an officer or core for the player to body surf between the two ships.

However, automated ship hulls are not really stronger than the average human hulls.  Cores is what makes automated ships strong.  Radiant without a core does not seem any stronger than a Paragon without an officer.  All Radiant has over Paragon is missiles and skimmer, while Paragon has better shields and shot range.  If you want to use Radiant without a core, better lean into its strengths and put a lot of missiles on it.

Late in the game, power per DP is more important since player will be limited in DP while enemies will have an advantage.  It is probably better to use one Alpha Radiant instead of two weaker Radiants.

I would use Alpha over Beta, if I have Alpha available.  If I cannot use Alpha, I prefer Gamma core (over Beta) for more CR or able to support more automated ships.  For me, without Crew Training (I use Hull Restoration), I use either Alpha Radiant for max power or Gamma Radiant for max CR.

[Kinsume]

I took out both beta cores and put one of the radiants into storage. Tossed a gamma core on the one in my fleet with Gunnery Implants, Point Defense and Energy Weapon Mastery since I run all beams currently. Going to see how it handles.

This being the first time I've experimented with automated ships, could use some advice about a fleet comp. Currently flying around with...

1x Radiant (5x Autopulse, 4x Heavy Burst Laser, 10x PD Laser)
2x Champion (HIL, Loctus SRM, 2x HVD, 4x PD Laser, 4x Tactical Laser)
2x Medusa (1x Heavy Blaster, 1x Ion Pulsar, 2x Antimatter Blaster, 2x light dual mg)
4x Hyperion (1x Heavy Blaster, 1x Ion Pulsar, 1x Heavy MG)
4x Scarab (2x Antimatter Blaster, 2x Burst PD Laser)
3x Omen (1x Antimatter Blaster, 1x Breach SRM, 1x IR Pulse Laser)

Edit : As a side note I do have several in storage as well...

1x Apogee
2x Eradicator (P)
1x Hammerhead
1x Sunder
1x Legion XIV
1x Onslaught

And a certain story ship that I never use.

[BCS]

IMO you have way too many small ships.

However, automated ship hulls are not really stronger than the average human hulls.  Cores is what makes automated ships strong.  Radiant without a core does not seem any stronger than a Paragon without an officer.

While overall Remnant ships are pretty well balanced the Radiant is completely busted. Don't even try to compare it to the Limp Donut which can't move, can't generate hard flux and which practically doesn't have a ship system.

[Kinsume]

IMO you have way too many small ships.

However, automated ship hulls are not really stronger than the average human hulls.  Cores is what makes automated ships strong.  Radiant without a core does not seem any stronger than a Paragon without an officer.

While overall Remnant ships are pretty well balanced the Radiant is completely busted. Don't even try to compare it to the Limp Donut which can't move, can't generate hard flux and which practically doesn't have a ship system.

Yeah I did alot of messing around with wolf pack tactics in my previous runs, used it for a while in this one too with good effect. Don't really have a specific setup I'm going for, just lean towards high tech because I like energy weapons and shields. The champions helped me, overall they do pretty solid. Provided enough distraction for me to take down the Radiants without losing any ships or using cheese strats. Basically flew one in directly at the radiant, sent the other to try splitting up the other AI and sent the wolfpack directly at the radiant once it was tied up with the Champion. Made pretty quick work of it. The groups I fought were only 1 radiant and a couple Brilliants. Realize I'm going to need to shift to a heavier loadout if I ever want to take on more than one or multiple groups, so I'm all ears for suggestions.

[Megas]

While overall Remnant ships are pretty well balanced the Radiant is completely busted. Don't even try to compare it to the Limp Donut which can't move, can't generate hard flux and which practically doesn't have a ship system.

Radiant cannot move either without the skimmer, and that is when its focused firepower and lesser shot range (compared to Paragon or ballistic ships with Gauss) bite it when faced against a group of smaller ships that surround it.

When I pilot Radiant via Neural Link, if I do not have Systems Expertise, I need to save skimmer charges for escape because its rear firepower is about as bad as Onslaught's (paying 50 OP to use Neural Integration hurts).  If Radiant lets enemies get behind it, and it cannot skim, it is in trouble like Onslaught is.  (Radiant only has six smalls that may or may not be filled.)  Paragon can get by with various mounts (one or two side heavies, two rear mediums, maybe several smalls) shooting all around it.  If I get Systems Expertise, then yes, Radiant can jump all over the place with a fast recharging skimmer and become overpowered (but not as overpowered as Ziggurat).  For AI Radiant, it should rely on its skill advantage from AI core or missile power to be the monster it can be.

Paragon and Radiant both can use hard flux weapons.  Paragon is probably better at it (excluding missiles) because it can use ballistics in the universals (and Ballistic Mastery is useful for Paragon for boosting medium kinetics).  Fortress Shield has its uses, often to dissipate soft flux safely before venting hard flux, but the AI probably does not use it that way.

As an enemy, most Radiants have alpha cores piloting them.  That is why they are strong.  Human capitals boosted by Neural Link (with eight elite combat skills) can be similarly strong too.  There is a huge difference between AI-controlled Onslaught with eight elite skills and one with merely a level 5 officer with one elite skill.

[BCS]

Radiant is 33% faster than the Paragon even without a Skimmer, but it does have a Skimmer, which incidentally is the ship system that benefits the most from Systems Expertise, which is a good thing and not a bad thing like you're trying to spin it as. Ships don't get surrounded in a normal fleet fight(well, for the player, AI can and does get surrounded if you're doing well) so it's kind of pointless to even talk about it, but even if a Radiant did get surrounded it has omnishield unlike the Onslaught. The fact that Paragon can shoot all around itself is irrelevant because you don't want to shoot at everything a bit, you want to shoot at one thing a lot, and to begin with it has even lower chance of getting surrounded than the Radiant because of the 2k+ beam range.

If you pretend that the two large synergy mounts on the Radiant don't exist then yes, the two universal medium mounts on a Paragon are better... destroyer-grade hard flux generation on a 60DP ship, woohoo. Unfortunately the two large synergy mounts on the Radiant DO in fact exist and once you two Squalls(or Hammers if you that's your thing) in them the comparison becomes laughable.

[Megas]

Radiant is 33% faster than the Paragon even without a Skimmer, but it does have a Skimmer, which incidentally is the ship system that benefits the most from Systems Expertise, which is a good thing and not a bad thing like you're trying to spin it as. Ships don't get surrounded in a normal fleet fight(well, for the player, AI can and does get surrounded if you're doing well) so it's kind of pointless to even talk about it, but even if a Radiant did get surrounded it has omnishield unlike the Onslaught. The fact that Paragon can shoot all around itself is irrelevant because you don't want to shoot at everything a bit, you want to shoot at one thing a lot, and to begin with it has even lower chance of getting surrounded than the Radiant because of the 2k+ beam range.

If you pretend that the two large synergy mounts on the Radiant don't exist then yes, the two universal medium mounts on a Paragon are better... destroyer-grade hard flux generation on a 60DP ship, woohoo. Unfortunately the two large synergy mounts on the Radiant DO in fact exist and once you two Squalls(or Hammers if you that's your thing) in them the comparison becomes laughable.

It is not just top speed but also turn speed.  Without Helmsmanship and elite Impact Mitigation, Radiant is a slow turning slug too.  Even with the two, it still not very fast.  Small ships (and bigger ships with mobility systems) have no trouble catching Radiant that cannot skim away.  As for player use, without Systems Expertise, Radiant does not recharge skimmer fast enough before enemy ships can catch up again and put Radiant back to square one.  This is why (without Systems Exp.) I save charges for escape instead of using it to pounce on something (because it cannot jump far enough away from the rest of the enemy after pouncing).

Getting Systems Expertise is not trivial (cost) for the playership, especially if he already sunk eight into Tech for both Tech capstones to pilot Radiant.  I do not know if I would get it for AI since it just plows directly into the enemy, maybe backing off when losing the flux war.  Getting eight in Tech and five in Combat means two left for anything else.  No officer skills, no capstones in Leadership or Industry.  Piloting a good Radiant is an all-in build.  Personally, I do not think piloting NL Radiant flagship is worth it.  Better to use Ziggurat instead, which is stronger and does not need anywhere near as many skill points to work well.  If I want Radiant in the fleet, Automated Ships and an AI core is good enough.

As for player's Radiant (flagship or AI) getting surrounded, it can happen if it gets separated, the fleet did not have very many ships to begin with (especially if maximizing +xp% bonus against less than double Ordos), or just Radiant plus flagship deployed only with the rest of the fleet held in reserve to conserve their CR.  (Radiant is 60 DP.)  Point is there is no guarantee that Radiant will have full fleet support at all times.

The point of Paragon shooting all around it is it can defend itself adequately against some small fry that flank or get behind Paragon because Paragon is too slow to turn to face faster and smaller enemies.  It is not like a frigate or two getting behind Onslaught and hope its flak or machine guns are enough to gun it down before the enemy takes a big bite out of Onslaught's rear.

I did not forget about synergies.  Synergies is what gives Radiant missiles, after all; the primary advantage Radiant has over Paragon.  If Radiant did not have that and AI cores, I would consider it inferior to Paragon.

[Draba]

While overall Remnant ships are pretty well balanced the Radiant is completely busted. Don't even try to compare it to the Limp Donut which can't move, can't generate hard flux and which practically doesn't have a ship system.

Why would the Paragon not have hard flux damage?
Advanced targeting core with +100% range, fortress shield shrugging off damage while weapons recharge and flux recovers, slow turning, the ship is just begging for autopulse in the hardpoints.
Also has 2 roided up M ballistic slots for ~1720 range autocannons (no ballistic mastery and still outranges gunnery+ballistic 900 base Ls), on top of 1505 range autopulse and plasma.
Beams on Paragon are a noob trap unless the fleet is built around them or you are going up against mostly armor.

Something like this:

Autopulse in the hardpoints reduces damage lost to turns, autopulse/ions help in crushing <capitals and getting capital shields/weapons down, plasmas are plasmas.
Would take this over a 60 DP/50% CR Radiant in most fights, 0.95 wasn't nice to it.

[FooF]

Paragon can also literally just put a pair of Tachyons and a pair of Plasma Cannons in the large slots and ignore all other non-missile mounts. Max vents/caps, load up on every shield hull mod and just keep the big guns firing for ridiculous amounts of time (hiding behind Fortress when necessary). The secondary weapons on Paragons are what overflux them more than anything. Almost nothing in the game can withstand sustained 2x Plasma and the Paragon can fire them practically indefinitely and at Ballistic ranges.

Paragon can still load up 14 Reapers without Missile Spec or EMR. In terms of just crushing the biggest ships, it’s only slightly behind a Radiant.

[BCS]

Paragon's flux stats cannot sustain 2 Plasma Cannons and 2 Tachyon Lances, even with maxed vents and Ordnance Expertise. Reapers have range of 1,200(disregarding that shooting them at max range is largely pointless anyway) so putting them on the slowest(?) capital in the game is dubious at best.

[Draba]

Paragon's flux stats cannot sustain 2 Plasma Cannons and 2 Tachyon Lances, even with maxed vents and Ordnance Expertise

Paragon described by FooF has 40700 capacity, 2150 dissipation and weapons+shields use ~2950 flux/s (assuming only stabilised shields, frontal conversion doubles speed, halves flux again and increases uptime but might not always be good). If the ship constantly fires all guns with shields up it's in a 800/s deficit, it'll flux out out in ~51 sec.

51s is already nice, but!
- no ship has 100% weapon uptime
- using fortress shields for 1s recovers ~2s soft flux
- it can tank with armor, it has dominator XIV armor with almost Onslaught hull
- it can just dump and vent(duh)

Using undergunned ships with flux neutral setups is a rookie mistake.
Ofc Paragon is weak if you give it a really bad loadout.

[intrinsic_parity]

I think paragon in particular benefits from not overfluxing too much because it has fortress shield which uses capacity very efficiently, so it's better to save capacity to block damage (forcing the enemy to trade flux for 90% reduced damage on top of .6 or better shield efficiency, instead of spending your capacity on >1 flux/damage energy weapons). You don't need to be perfectly neutral but significantly overfluxing is bad IMO.

Also, in general, overfluxing with inefficient guns (like tach lance) is bad for the AI because it will fire into shields (and the flux efficiency means you are building more flux in your own ship than the opponent) and then back off because of high flux. You can overcome that to some extent with reckless AI, but that has... other downsides. It can also be tricky to get the AI to turn off the right guns on high flux and you have to be clever with weapon groupings.

A player ship can be as overfluxxed pretty much as you want, because the player can manage that better than the AI.