Hey there mod team, thought I'd make an account to share what I thought about my current playthrough with the San Batavia mod and give some compliments to the chefs. I like how ambitious you guys are gong with it, I'm looking forward to the new ships as well as the storyline. For a first release, I think you've all done an excellent job with how much there is to offer right away. I've played with plenty of other faction-adding mods, and I'm putting San Batavia in my top 3, they have some very good looking ships and a unique identity to them. I'm not sure what you are going for, but my impressions were that San Batavia has 1. Very mobile and maneuverable ships, 2. Excellent point defense weaponry, 3, Flux-efficient and fast turn rate weapons, and 4. Overwhelming missile suppression. Remnants, Abyssals, Legio, none of them stood in my way. Maybe you'll read the whole thing maybe you won't, but I just really wanted to share.
I'll first go over the ships and weapons I really liked, and then after I'll share thoughts on those I think need more love.
De RuyterSpoiler
While my favorite capital ship is still the Tyrant XIV from Iron Shell, the De Ruyter is a real contender, and it would at least win in the looks department. Outfitted with only San Batavia weapons to continue the theme, it looks absolutely stunning and made for a menace on the battlefield. I posted my loadout for it below, and while it's probably not the most optimal, it could still trade flux with a Hel Scaith and damn if it doesn't look great doing it. The one thing that I think holds it back is that the base shield arc of 90 degrees is very low. The shield wouldn't even cover the whole ship's broadside, so Extended Shields was pretty much a mandatory hull mod. After Integrated Targeting Unit and Hardened Shields, there really is no room for other build options, so it feels a bit one-dimensional in how you build it, albeit said build is very strong.
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Really nice work on this ship, out of the gate this one feels well balanced, and has it's own identity over the Gryphon without being overpowered/underpowered in comparison. The extra medium ballistic slot over the Gryphon helps to holds its own, and has quite a powerful and unique hull mod. I used 3 of these in my fleet, and they added a lot of extra missile suppression with the increased missile rate of fire. With a missile specialization captain and expanded missile racks, I don't think I saw them run out of missiles even in my larger battles. Maybe the built in hull mod is a bit powerful, but we never complain when things are strong, and it fits well in the theme of the faction having excellent missile suppression with the Malakims and Specters (If you are going for that).
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Lumping these together with how similar they are. I personally went with the Almere over Avalon since they had the built in interceptors, but the increased combat stats and OP of the Avalon definitely still make it a competitive option. I put a captain on each one I fielded, and they made for some very cost-effective line-holders, having really great flux stats and weaponry for how much deployment points they cost. Combined with their mobility, they make an excellent all-rounder ship that could chase down frigates with their speed, and hold their ground against ships with superior firepower. With how many you could bring to a battle, losing 1 or 2 in a fight with Legio/Abyssals wasn't a big deal, and was rare to occur with how quick they were. I think my build could've used a better PD setup since they would sometimes be overwhelmed by shielded fighters, but it was rare enough to justify the extra anti-armor. And with each having 2 medium and small missile slots, a sky of missiles would go flying every fight. Honestly, they might be too effective at how cheap they are at 15 deployment points, but we can keep this between us and say it's just a sidegrade Falcon
wink wink.
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The remaining DP was filled with Condors, which aren't anything special, but I like that you added a repainted San Batavia version to them as well as other vanilla ships, really helps to flesh them out further. What I do think is special is the Albedo Strike. I was testing a variety of the strikecraft and the Python VSF and FF-22C Tempest I included in my fleet as well, but the Albedo Strike bomber might be the only truly overpowered thing in San Batavia. I think it would be plenty strong at just the Harbinger, but the extra Revenant all at the cost of 16 OP is incredibly strong. It would feel sad to nerf the weaponry, so I would just increase the OP cost, but there is seriously no reason to use anything else if you have the OP to use Albedo Strike. Very fun how strong it is, but it could really use a tone down.
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I always appreciate when a faction mod includes their own unique weaponry to use, and I don't see many issues with them. The first standout weapon is definitely the Rippel Heavy Machine gun. It kind of is just a better Heavy Machine Gun, but I enjoyed the stronger point defense since it made it more viable to use them normally, other than a Safety Overrides build with the Chaingun. I also used a ton of the Damen 76 Dual Flak which does cost more OP over the Vulcan, but the upgrade in performance really helped with combatting enemy missiles and fighters. It felt really nice to have some properly strong small ballistic PD weapons. And while I didn't use the Holland CIWS (We don't talk about the medium mount and its 5.6 flux/s), it looks very strong on paper as well. I also think having such great PD weaponry compliments each ship hull, with how much and where their small ballistic mounts are positioned. A trend I noticed with the weapons were how flux-efficient and fast turning they were, both of which are very great for PD weapons, though the anti-armor and anti-shield weapons are a tough sell. The Wilton autocannons are overall nice, but the medium mounts have a lot of glaring downsides. You trade range for DPS for the dual variants, but the range is still lacking. The OP cost is on the higher end, especially for the dual variants, and they are all terribly inaccurate save for the Milkor, the one saving grace of the Medium Ballistics which is just a sidegrade Heavy Mauler. The Herstal 152 Tripel is also just straight up worse than the Herstal 203 Doppel in every department. While they can work, I don't think having flux-efficiency and fast turn rate is enough to justify using most of them. The Hybrid weapons have the best of them all, but very hard to field since the San Batavia ships don't have much flux to work with and those are flux-heavy, so I didn't use them. The Large ballistic De Schelde and Herstal have both great range and DPS, but now they lose the flux-efficient identity nearly all the other weapons had, though it doesn't matter as much since they are used on capital ships. If you plan on adding a cruiser with a large ballistic mount in the future though, I feel like the flux-heaviness of these weapons could become an issue then. As for the strikecraft, I think the VTOLs and the Superheavy could use some love. The Superheavy is just too expensive at 40 OP and only the Morningstar would afford it, and it dies really easily with how slow and big it is. The bomb package isn't even nearly as good as multiple Albedo Strike, though that's also just due to how strong it is.
Moving on to the not-so-good ships.
Morningstar and OnbestuurbaarSpoiler
As much as I love the look of this carrier, I cannot find a reason to use this ship. The combat stats make it seem like it should hold out against other ships, but it really plays out like a dedicated carrier with the mounts. There's nothing stand out about the Morningstar considering it is a whopping 60 OP, lacking in ballistic mounts so it cannot be a combat carrier, or missile mounts to make a more influential dedicated carrier and while 6 fighter bays with recall device is strong, the direct comparison to the Astral is there. Downsizing to multiple Condors is also just better. The built-in hull mod isn't nearly enough to warrant using the Morningstar, and unfortunately this capital ship is is need of some love. The same goes for the Onbestuurbaar, there is no reason to use this over the De Ruyter. It's practically worse in every way, and even if it gets better stats and more gun mounts, the Burn Drive ship system is really what puts it behind. With only a base of 1325 armor, it would be demolished in any fight the moment it burn drives into an enemy fleet. The Anelace also suffers hard from the Burn Drive similarly. This one would need a lot of changes to at least give it a consideration against the De Ruyter.
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There aren't too many issues with the Anthony Fokker on paper, but what really breaks it for me is it's DP cost of 28. This cruiser has no reason to be so expensive to deploy, as even an Avalon has more weaponry and better flux stats compared to it at nearly half the DP cost. The two additional fighter bays aren't nearly enough to justify putting them in a fleet. This one really needs a heavy reduction in DP cost and some better flux stats, as it has some of the worst flux stats among all cruisers. The Bommel has a similar issue in that it is way too expensive at 13 DP for how little it has at that cost.
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The Borean gunship isn't that bad of a ship, it's only real problem is how slow it is. It has a very difficult time chasing anything faster than it, and it cannot flee from ships it loses to, which are a lot of ships considering it doesn't have great flux stats. It's pretty much only used in the early game, and even then it gets overwhelmed easily. As for the Boreas Missile, this might be one of the weakest ships I've seen. 12 DP for Flare ship system and 4 small missiles and the same stats as the Boreas, not great in the slightest. This makes the Bommel look godlike in comparison which is saying something.
However, don't let this detract from the fact that I really enjoyed my playthrough as San Batavia, and made a seriously strong fleet using the unique weaponry. I kept up this playthrough for multiple days, and had a real blast in coming up with a fleet and ship designs to beat up Daemons and Abyssals. You've got some beautiful ship and weapon sprites, always love some unique portraits, and oh my goodness the De Ruyter is a beauty. I'm just thinking that while there is a great initial variety in ships, unfortunately a majority are on the weak side and thus, I don't even consider using which is a shame. I'll keep San Batavia as a one and done playthrough for now, but when I see another update comes out, you bet I'll start a new one to explore new options. If you read through all of it, I appreciate it, and appreciate the work you've put in.
-Chi
