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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: My Dominator is completely useless.  (Read 6670 times)

Euphytose

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My Dominator is completely useless.
« on: May 16, 2023, 06:01:30 AM »

Hey,

I'm using this loadout for my Dominator. I think it's the most generic you could possibly use, it's a slightly modified default variant one.

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However, this loadout, even with an officer (steady)... Is just completely useless.

I always deploy at least one Onslaught during combat. I then set the Dominator to escort it. But this is what happens afterwards:

The Dominator keeps switching targets constantly, never getting any damage done, never, ever uses its Reapers, and eventually gets flanked, engines die, and it's a slow and painful death for it.

It used to work in previous versions, but something probably has changed since then. Because of this I don't deploy it anymore, my Apogee or Eagle are much better picks because at least they do something.

Not sure if it's the loadout or my orders or something else. :-\
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Amoebka

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2023, 06:13:17 AM »

Use agressive instead of steady, make sure you have helmsmanship and/or elite impact mitigation for better turning speed, link the reaper tube weapon group, and use defend order instead of escort. It's not going to be stellar either way, but it will be better.

Switching targets is made much worse by you using an escort order. Don't use it for slow large ships.
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Grievous69

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2023, 06:13:36 AM »

You keep using the HAG on your ships, that's the issue. Alex can preach all day long how it's not a bad weapon, but realistically why would you mount a 480 flux/second HE gun with meh hit strength. Even in this patch I haven't found a ship where it's not overshadowed by other choices.

As for the Dom build, you didn't even max the vents... That's too much PD for a build that's not Shield Shunted. My take on the Dominator is that you either go full tank mode with armour, or make a good big ship killer with strong weapons. It's possible to do both but not without s-mods.
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Euphytose

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2023, 06:25:13 AM »

Alright guys thanks, I'll take those replies into consideration, gonna change things a bit and see how it goes.

My officer does have helmsmanship yeah. I'll retrain him into aggressive then.

Edit: But yeah I really like the HAG for some reason. Is it really this bad? What would you use? I use it as the "main" weapon on my Onslaught too. Quote on quote because the real main weapon is of course the TPC but you get the idea.
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Big Bee

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2023, 06:29:42 AM »

Try an aggressive officer with hellbore instead of hephaestus, it's cheaper and stronger.

I like the hephaestus, it's cool, but it's not actually that good, especially since the hellbore costs less OP.
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Euphytose

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2023, 06:46:16 AM »

Yeah but the Hellbore's projectile is so slow though, it misses most of the time on small targets.

But alright, I'll swap that and see how it goes.
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Lawrence Master-blaster

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2023, 06:52:21 AM »

The Dominator keeps switching targets constantly, never getting any damage done, never, ever uses its Reapers, and eventually gets flanked, engines die, and it's a slow and painful death for it.

Funny, I just had this conversation in the 0.96a thread. AI is bad with hardpoints, especially on a ship with low maneouverability like the Dominator. Best you can do is stack maneouverability modifiers(Helmsmanship skill, elite Impact Mitigation skill, Auxiliary Thrusters hullmod) but the ship will always be limited by the AI.

I've seen you also made a thread about the Onslaught; it has exactly the same problem.

On Dominator I always defaulted to 2x Mark IXs in large mounts and 2x Heavy Maulers in medium mounts. Kinetic damage is more important since that's what lets you win flux battles. Plus with 200 base damage Mark IXs aren't terrible against armor anyway and you can always supplement explosive damage with Annihiliator Rocket Pods.
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Euphytose

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2023, 07:13:28 AM »

Honestly for me my Onslaughts just get things done fairly well.

I haven't fought *that* REDACTED ship yet of course, but I've fought 3 REDACTED fleets (not all at once lol) with the ship that has several large energy mounts, forgot its name, and I did alright all things considered.

So dual Mark IXs? I can try that yeah. Never thought about using anything but Flak in the medium mounts, but again, now is the time to try!

Thank you for your reply.

Edit: Here's the loadout after modifying it with your suggestions!

Spoiler
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I kept the Reapers because since someone suggested linking the weapon group, I want to see it in action, see what the AI does with that. Maybe it will actually fire them now.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2023, 07:42:29 AM by Euphytose »
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Lucky33

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2023, 09:51:41 AM »

If by escort you mean defending against multiple smaller (Frig, Des) threats than you better off with something like that:



Large mounts on Dom are borderline useless against small and nimble targets.

But as escort Eradicator is better anyway.
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Burvjradzite

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2023, 10:47:44 AM »

3x Proximity launchers would help a lot

Candesce

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #10 on: May 16, 2023, 11:15:52 AM »

You keep using the HAG on your ships, that's the issue. Alex can preach all day long how it's not a bad weapon, but realistically why would you mount a 480 flux/second HE gun with meh hit strength.
It has excellent accuracy and turn-rate. Both of which are entirely irrelevant in a hardpoint, of course.

Also, continuous fire means it can't be shield-flickered, which forces targets to shield earlier and more often, cutting down their offense and putting them at much higher risk of overloads.

It's a bit of a punch-down gun, put like that, but frigates and destroyers are entirely dangerous enough to make that kind of thing useful.
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Grievous69

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2023, 11:17:53 AM »

I ain't spending 480 flux with 20 OP to punch down ships.
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PixiCode

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2023, 05:31:33 PM »

You keep using the HAG on your ships, that's the issue. Alex can preach all day long how it's not a bad weapon, but realistically why would you mount a 480 flux/second HE gun with meh hit strength. Even in this patch I haven't found a ship where it's not overshadowed by other choices.

As for the Dom build, you didn't even max the vents... That's too much PD for a build that's not Shield Shunted. My take on the Dominator is that you either go full tank mode with armour, or make a good big ship killer with strong weapons. It's possible to do both but not without s-mods.

Agree that Hephag is bad for the dominator, but I think Hephag is actually kinda decent now that it got such a huge recoil reduction buff. The ability to accurately hit frigates and pound the same spot on an enemy over and over is pretty useful. The key is the "pound same spot on a large ship over and over," this does give it a use case for punching through armor and cutting into hull faster than a Hellbore might. Not because a Hephag deals more armor damage, but because a hellbore isn't going to hit the same spot twice. Probably. I think Hephag has a use on BRF LDAC Retribution builds (though Mjolnir is probably better), Invictus builds and Conquest builds.

Dominator's not going to really be aiming at frigates so who cares, just use Hellbores or even a Mjolnir.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2023, 05:33:11 PM by Chroma »
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Brainwright

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2023, 07:04:02 PM »

Yeah, I'd definately drop the hag, swap out the flak for maulers, and trim at least four vulcans off.

The rest of the OP goes into armored mounts and auto repair.

The IX can flux out most ships, and you want the HE on turrets so they can get the kill.  The side and booty turrets for PD are not great.  You want the line of fire to cross over what you're protecting.
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Lawrence Master-blaster

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Re: My Dominator is completely useless.
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2023, 08:23:59 PM »

HAG is a great large ballistic anti-armor weapon in a game that doesn't really need one.

If by escort you mean defending against multiple smaller (Frig, Des) threats than you better off with something like that:

Shokoshuro? Is that you?
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