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[TheLaughingDead]

Imagine being able to beat 6 Ordos and still being confused about the range modifiers in this game. Thanks. I discounted the hull damage bonus because we have plenty of that from other weapons.

I think the absolute highest priority upgrade for this ship, if I had any extra OP, would be Resistant Flux Conduits. That one would probably boost damage output too by reducing flameouts. Just can't get the 15 OP from anywhere though. The caps are needed vs Radiants.

Hmm. Just having a peek at the video again, have you considered taking it from vents? Considering most of your flux dissipation is from OrdEx(E), and your Onslaughts are fairly liberal with active venting, could the ship still work with 40 vents instead of 55?

[CapnHector]

That's actually really interesting. It's pretty smart because RFC gives +25% dissipation when venting, and the Flux Distributor only increases dissipation by 10%, so if the ships are using active venting anyway, it might even increase total dissipation. Of course the problem is the ships do not in fact use active venting all of the time. You could configure them to be more aggressive about it by grouping Heph to the autofire group though.

Trying it quickly, swapping Flux Distributor for RFC and 5 caps doesn't at least ruin the ship, it still appears to work and now has more of a margin of error in the frigate spam phase because frigates will not be able to take out your engines so easily. I'm not sure how to test whether it's better through the battle, because the battles are very long and to be honest doing a 5 Ordo many times with the same fleet is not that enjoyable of an experience, they are usually very intense and require a lot of mental effort.

[Tempest]

In the video: ships fight in a neat formation, civilian ships follow orders and don't do anything stupid

In my game: everyone gets in everyone's way, civilian ships rush the enemy and ignore everything I say

[TheLaughingDead]

That's actually really interesting. It's pretty smart because RFC gives +25% dissipation when venting, and the Flux Distributor only increases dissipation by 10%, so if the ships are using active venting anyway, it might even increase total dissipation. Of course the problem is the ships do not in fact use active venting all of the time. You could configure them to be more aggressive about it by grouping Heph to the autofire group though.

Trying it quickly, swapping Flux Distributor for RFC and 5 caps doesn't at least ruin the ship, it still appears to work and now has more of a margin of error in the frigate spam phase because frigates will not be able to take out your engines so easily. I'm not sure how to test whether it's better through the battle, because the battles are very long and to be honest doing a 5 Ordo many times with the same fleet is not that enjoyable of an experience, they are usually very intense and require a lot of mental effort.

I get it. Props for the testing you've done up to now, far more than most players are willing to go! I like to consider myself an "armchair tester", aka suggest things to test but never do it myself lol

In the video: ships fight in a neat formation, civilian ships follow orders and don't do anything stupid

In my game: everyone gets in everyone's way, civilian ships rush the enemy and ignore everything I say

My game as well is mostly a free-for-all!
I think this careful formation is mostly due to hours (days?) of testing with a purely AI fleet, which naturally leads to a more intuitive grasp of how the AI responds to commands. Watching the Executor video, the Legion video, the Onslaught video, etc, it is clear that there is a broadly effective strategy that Hector employs where he will rotate fluxed ships on the "front lines" (although usually just one line!) out for fresh ships behind or on the flanks, so the exhausted ship can vent. The issue (especially with capitals) is that there is a lag on how long it takes for the ship to register or follow the command; not only are they slow in getting to where they need to go, but often there are quirks of the AI that make commands clunky (namely to do with engaging, disengaging, moving past enemies... anything with enemies). So getting the commands to work is really a matter of extensive experience: at what flux level is a ship's AI starting to act out? How many enemies can the ship handle at a time, and from how much flux? How far in advance should the exhausted ship start rotating out, and how long will it take for the fresh ships to fill that hole? Will enemies fill that hole in-between those times? And so on.
The opaque nature of how the AI responds to different orders leads to the player eventually either having to suss out AI behaviour through hours of (at times frustrating) gameplay, or to do away entirely with grappling with the system and subject their AI fleet to capture points and serve as distractions. Not to say the game could be any other way, given the years and years of work done to calibrate the AI for some degree of self-sufficiency.

[CapnHector]

Exactly what you said. My basic AI command strategy is to try to rotate ships that are at high flux to the backline/less exposed position to be relieved by ships low on flux. The way these powerful capitals die is being swarmed and unable to back out.

Accomplishing this requires a couple of things. First of all no ship may ever be left alone. Ships should ideally be in range of their companions (Odyssey is generally an exception to these rules). Second, you must try to be aware of the location and flux level of each ship. Third, ships are not allowed to be directly behind each other as this blocks retreating, unless that is specifically what you want to do.

Another thing is just trying to roll with the AI rather than order it to go against its inclinations. For example you may notice sometimes I order something, look at the ships, then immediately cancel it. That is usually because I notice a ship's heading and intentions and change the order to better align with those. You eventually get a feel for it and try to guess what the AI is doing.

Then there's the commands themselves and unfortunately it must be kind of learned ship by ship what they do. For example on the Onslaught I can use Retreat to signal "fix lateral position, head directly south". This is not permissible on Astral or Odyssey because retreat command causes them to drop shields.

If you can bear to watch it, I think the Gigacannon Executor video is my best command work and also fairly generic as there are no special AI meanings to the commands for that ship unlike say Astral or Odyssey.

I actually think that if you do all this to avoid its pitfalls - namely keep a line of battle so each ship can fire and back off without blocking each other, and guide the ships in harmony with their natural movement so to say - then the AI does a really good job of the micro, gauging when it should back off etc, other than the bugs to do with orders. Your job is to have a plan, to be aware of the overall situation, to issue orders to pre-empt developing dangerous situations like Fulgent swarms or excessive pressure on one ship, to occasionally tell it to focus an important target, and to untangle the inevitable knots in the battle line effectively, and the AI can do the rest.

[Tempest]

OP is an esoteric AI whisperer then 

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

I found a build for you to play with. It may be better, I haven't tested it vs Ordos yet.
Fill all medium mounts, except the PD mount, with Arbalest Autocannons. This includes the 4 back mounts.
Replace the two side HAGs with Mark IX Autocannons.

The reason it seems to work vs swarms is the better anti-shield damage in terms of volume of weapon mounts, which pushes ships back, and 200 hit strength, which means they can strip armor and destroy hull quickly, fulfilling the role of the HAG.
The issue is OP expense. If I did my math right, you'll be down -26, so you'll need to drop Hardened subsystems, and decrease caps or vents by 1.
I recommend vents as you'll be up 158 flux dissipation.

Link the front Arbalest with the PD, but don't link the back or you'll over flux yourself.

[Lawrence Master-blaster]

and 200 hit strength, which means they can strip armor and destroy hull quickly, fulfilling the role of the HAG.

I know you people don't like the HAG but this is kind of ridiculous don't you think?

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

and 200 hit strength, which means they can strip armor and destroy hull quickly, fulfilling the role of the HAG.

I know you people don't like the HAG but this is kind of ridiculous don't you think?

It's quick vs the remnant, which are mostly shields. Killing one frigate quickly while getting surrounded isn't as good as getting a bunch of heavily damaged frigates to back off.

[Ryan390]

Thanks for sharing, just some feedback on the video, would of preferred some editing out of the constant map/command screen as it distracted from the action too frequently and got annoying.

Interesting build though might try that the next time I pick up the game.

[CapnHector]

Thanks! Sorry about spending so much time in the command screen. It's a tricky one because this fleet (and in fact all of my 5 Ordo fleets) are as much about the strategy and fleet command as they are about the build. So I really want to show how I play it, too (and I think of it as a strategy game, in terms of formations etc here). And this ship won't work if you don't apply the formations you see here: it has no PD and no rearward firepower, so if you let your ships get flanked or surrounded you will be sorry. To make it so you don't have to micro it you should replace the side HephAG with Devastators and maybe even consider putting something in the rear mounts, as well as fit in Resistant Flux Conduits to handle flanking frigates with Ion Beam. Since those will be big problems if the ship is not microed to not get surrounded. However I was unable to take out 6 Ordos with such a build so I needed to drop almost every safety feature to focus on killing power, and compensate for the lacking defenses by learning to command the ships into a formation as you see here.

It's a justified criticism and at least for the Odyssey I decided to do a separate video where the ships just take out 2 Ordos without orders to show just the build. Maybe I should do some more like that too.

Let me know how it works out if you end up trying it!

[SCC]

It's a good thing I tore down Derelict Contingent years ago. While you might not have gotten to experience its power, I think builds using Derelict Operations are more interesting.
I have to wear sackloth and ashes now. I dissed HAG for just being a worse Mjolnir, yet it keeps popping up in builds that do work.

[Zhong Xina]

based and XIV pilled

[SundayElysium]

Iv'e been doing some fiddling with the Arbelests and ended up with this, and I'm getting much more damage with them than I expected. I'm really not sure if there is a way to check damage for specific weapon mounts or only of that weapon type, because I really want to see whats going on with the side/rear mounts. Swapped to pilums to free up OP and to get something that drives ships back a little more. I'm still finding my main failure point is right as the battle-lines crash, usually a ship gets savaged and the big fat low-tech boys are to slow to reposition even if I can see it coming. Pics of what I've got below, from a 3 ordo clash, that's my largest successful fight so far.

[Genir]

I'm really not sure if there is a way to check damage for specific weapon mounts or only of that weapon type, because I really want to see whats going on with the side/rear mounts.

There is, but it involves modding, or at least editing game files. You need to copy the weapon deifinition and give it a different name. Then replace original weapon with the copy in the back/side mount and Detailed Combat Results will list them separately.