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[Megas]

These are random comments of various aspects of 0.97a, some may be repeats of what I probably posted elsewhere previously.

Gameplay

Spoiler

The seed I played did not have great planet generation.  One of the best systems was one of the closest to Limbo, and the other was nearly as remote.  What made one of the systems good enough was not only it had a gate, but it had two Domain relays, the only low hazard habitable with max farmland and three other resources at +0 in the second, and the gate always orbited a jump point, so all I had to do was T.Jump, take the jump point, then enter gate.

Tried to ride Black Market train like last release, but the market changes put a stop of easy non-stop shortage loops that were easy to exploit.  Now, I need a combat fleet to kill fleets and break stuff to create shortages.  I eventually parked much of the fleet in Mayasura and ran around with a Dram doing exploration scan missions to raise cash.  Eventually, I made it to level 6 and got Hull Restoration to fix ships and slowly build up a fleet that can fight midgame bounties.  Soon, bounties were getting stronger faster than I could keep up, and I eventually exploited the infinite credit bug because I did not feel like spending hours chasing and grinding bounties to get the cash I need to build up colonies and prepare for the massive crisis fleets which were mostly as huge and near-endgame strong as I anticipated.

The second industry on most of my worlds was Military Base because I need a steady supply of marines to replace those killed from raiding big homeworlds with high ground defense like Kazeron.  I need an overwhelming attack score to stealth raid big worlds with an intact battlestation (cannot fight it with Ziggurat in the fleet, nor would I want to even without Ziggurat because I lose even more rep), and the only way to do it without the bonus from Gunnery Drills in Leadership is marines, lots and lots of marines, and raider ships with ground assault hullmods, ideally Phantoms.  Core worlds do not sell enough marines to quickly replace more than a thousand I can lose in raids, so I need my colonies to produce marines.

For crises, Pirates were the first to appear, but soon, Tri-Tachyon and the League joined in.  Tri-Tachyon was the first crises I got, and it was the best of them all.  League was the most difficult crisis I fought and I lost the most rep purging them from my system for no reward that was useful.  Pirates was the third crisis and somewhat fun.  Lots of fleets, much like when they raid the core worlds, but more of them, about twice as many fleets.  Reward is nice, +10% accessibility and Pirate Activity is always overridden by Piracy Respite for no more stability hits from being targeted by a "Station King".  Knights was crisis #4, and while the fight was underwhelming (only a single fleet with three Invictus and other ships), the reward with more stability and production for Ludd worlds, is nice for a farm and commerce world.  My fifth and last crisis was Diktat.  Played out like old expeditions except they will sat bomb your fuel world if they win.  +25% to fuel income is good.  Could not trigger the Hegemony crisis no matter how many points they built up, probably because I stole their spool and synchrotron.  By this point, I considered my game done.  In a fork save, I tried out the Pather crisis, which was very unrewarding.  Remnants is simply an alternative way of core worlds claiming their systems.

Kind of annoying that if I steal items for some core worlds, their crisis will not trigger and I lose out on the crisis and reward if I win.  I do not know if giving back the item will let them start the crisis later, but I am not waiting the game to tick another four to five years while I am away from keyboard to find out.

[close]

Raiding

Spoiler

While waiting for colonies to build up and crises to come, I built up a massive raiding fleet and discovered the joys of pure high-tech phase fleet (that have Phase Field for campaign map) and Insulated Engines.  I had fun sneaking among heavily guarded systems without being seen and raiding worlds without a fight.  I obtained most rare blueprints by raiding the core worlds.  Discovered some things about raiding:

• You need some combat capable ships to scare enemy pickets and merchant convoys into not defending a colony.  You cannot bring 30 Phantoms and almost 6000 marines to overwhelm colony defenses when a weak fleet with nothing but tankers and other civilians will jump in the way and defend the colony.
• Ziggurat is a good ship for a phase raiding fleet because 75 DP is a massive chunk of DP toward scaring pickets and convoys from defending the worlds they orbit during the encounter menu, which means fewer Dooms toward 240 or so DP of combat ships and more Phantoms in the fleet for more ground power.  Of course, you can never fight with Ziggurat in the fleet without destroying rep, but the goal of stealth raiding is going in, stealing things, and getting out all unnoticed, not fighting; although the fleet might still be able to kill some weaker enemy fleets that Ziggurat can safely attack.  After all, Ziggurat and/or Dooms are in the fleet, even if some of their hullmmods are dock mods normally not used in full combat loadouts.
• When raiding, steal only blueprints and use only the minimum marines needed to succeed.  If you do, the target takes a -2 stability hit after the raid.  If you get greedy and use more force for whatever reason, stability hit will be -3, and that is bad.  Since stability loss from raids take three months per point to heal, -2 means waiting six months to stabilize and raid the target again, while -3 means waiting nine months instead.  There are a lot of blueprints to raid for, and if you do not want to decivilize their world, you want the least stability lost so you can raid them more often.
• 20 Phantoms and 4000 marines with low bonus for literally over 9000 attack bonus meant I could stealth raid any world except Chicomoztoc even if the battlestation is fully operational.  I may lose over a 1000 marines raiding a size 7 homeworld, but I still get the blueprints and xp for the survivors, and I can just get more from all of my military bases for the next raid elsewhere.

[close]

Colonies

Spoiler

Now that some crises may be far bigger than what expeditions of previous releases used to be, assuming that they even attack directly rather than attempting a blockade or siege, ground defense is useless for the player.  (Ground defense is still useful for the enemy for how many marines I need and how many they eat when I raid them.)  Things like Planetary Shield and Heavy Batteries?  A cash drain for nothing.  Also, High Command; if I cannot min-max it like crazy, it is worse than useless because it adds more upkeep, raise demand higher than everything else on the colony, and slows down Hostile Activity point gain at a time when I want the point gain to be faster and trigger other crises sooner.

I am not sure if there is a first thing to build immediately like Patrol HQ in the last release or Orbital Station is releases before that one.  Patrol HQ is still handy for +1 stability and to retain control of relays when small fry pirates spawn and maybe try to steal your relays.  So is Waystation if the colony is remote and I need fuel and supplies to restock immediately.

With crises the way they are, defeating them in battle is generally the best outcome because of the reward from victory.  Only pirates (and perhaps Pathers) offer better reward for avoiding the crisis with a bribe.  On the other hand, I need a near-endgame fleet that can easily defeat max strength 250k+ bounties to play the colony game once the first colony grows to size 4 just so I can smash their crises fleets and get their reward.  Sure, I can avert crisis without a fight, but after seeing the rewards for beating them up in a fight, why would I?  Some of the peaceful solutions are not so good when it is stuff like join up with the League or eat patrol scans in your home system plus a blockade or Diktat demanding your fuel profits or else they nuke your fuel world.  So if I want to play the colony game in a way that feels good (by not giving in to any of their outrageous demands), then I need to crush their crises fleets in combat, and I need a near-endgame fleet to do that.

I like that winning the crises makes most factions leave you alone for good.  The constant babysitting of previous releases was annoying, and probably drove many to stack all defenses to one system so that they could outsource the babysitting to patrols and other automated colony defenses.  Now I can feel more comfortable spreading out colonies among more systems if I want to do that.

[close]

Skills

Spoiler

I took mostly the same skills as last release.  The biggest change was replacing Flux Regulation with Neural Link.  Also had different combat skills since I favored an Afflictor and Radiant duo late instead of Ziggurat.  I could not use Ziggurat in every fight when I could not afford to reveal my identity during the course of crises.

Target Analysis:  Since it gives a bonus against frigates at elite, and I was piloting Radiant when I made it to max level, I took this skill instead of Ballistic Mastery (in case I swap to Ziggurat or other capital later).  Conversely, since none of my homegrown officers had elite skills, I avoided Target Analysis on all of them.  If I needed a damage skill for them, I would give them Ballistic Mastery and/or Missile Specialization instead.

Systems Expertise:  Started picking this skill more instead of one of the damage reduction skills for some Automated Ships.

Neural Link:  Much better by the latest hotfix.  It is more usable on capital ships and especially automated ships.  While the OP tax is still annoying, it is not too hard to squeeze it in somewhere on the majority of ships.  Best of all, Automated Ships do not take an excessive penalty for using it.  The extra 10% DP cost on automated ships is more reasonable.  Radiant is still very powerful, but not Ziggurat strong without Reality Disruptor to stunlock enemies, and the other Remnants are not unfairly penalized.  Derelicts are still out of the question with their tiny OP totals - they have trouble affording the basics, let alone luxuries like Neural Integration.  I used Neural Link for much of the game.  My main flagship was Afflictor, and I linked with a variety of ships until I got Radiant from the Red Planet.  Before I got Radiant, I used Instant Transfer to recharge Afflictor's system and had enemies glowing radioactive almost constantly.  Was a letdown on Apex and Fulgent, the first two automated ships I found, although I was not at max level at the time for more combat skills.

Ordnance Expertise:  I guess it is better balanced if I could take it at tier 1 like officers can, but at tier 2, it is not so great as a skill that takes two points to buy like Gunnery Implants is.  If I do not want high Industry, I would dump the tree in a heartbeat now that Ordnance Expertise is not so powerful anymore.  I took it only because I wanted more Industry skills.  For officers, I gave them Ordnance Expertise to mimic Support Doctrine and to make all ships have the same dissipation no matter which officer pilots it.  Kind of annoying giving officers ships they cannot use that I can use because they are missing Ordnance Expertise and do not have the dissipation to use the ship the way I can.  Either everyone has Ordnance Expertise or no one has it.

Hull Restoration:  Much better for pre-endgame.  Now I do not need s-mods for more max CR, and I do not need Best of the Best for the full +15% max CR.  Also, faster repair for cheap ships is nice.  It is based on OP, so I can repair big civilians about as fast as small combat ships, right?  Still, if I had unlimited money (which I had with infinite credits bug) and used Alpha cores for admins, then Industry is still prime dump material if I am interested in a strong flagship I can pilot backed up by a strong fleet (which means Combat/Leadership/Technology).

[close]

Weapons

Spoiler

There were several types I produced a hundred at a time.  They were Railguns, Heavy Mauler, Hypervelocity Driver, Breach missiles, Gorgon missiles Mining Lasers, and IR Autolance.

Railgun:  Still the best all-around light kinetic when I can afford it.  When I could not afford Railgun, I used Light Autocannon instead.

Light Needler:  I used this weapon more than Railgun early because I found the blueprint much earlier than Railgun's.  Once I found the Railgun blueprint, I promptly mass-produced a couple hundred of them and replaced the needlers on every ship that was not a phase ship.  Between Light Needler and Railgun, Light Needler is a weapon for phase ships.

Heavy Autocannon:  The efficiency buff means it works much like a medium Railgun, but with less accuracy.  I have used this more since it is cheaper than Railgun plus Ballistic Rangefinder.

Heavy Needler:  Since Heavy Autocannon became more efficient, I have barely used Heavy Needler, and I used it only on Ziggurat and maybe Paragon.  Now, Heavy Needler is mostly a phase ship weapon who can phase between needler's reload delay.  Heavy Needler is too expensive now for what it does.  Probably needs to cost 12 or 13 OP now if the rest of its stats stay unchanged.  The short range and low hit strength kill the weapon for any ship that does not phase.

Storm Needler:  Seems good, definitely better than before.  Feels much like the original Storm Needler without the windup delay.  When I tried it, enemies lose the flux war fast if they get into range, and that is an if.  I actually spent time trying Retribution with Storm Needlers and Mining Blasters for a little while.  Still a suicide ship that takes a few ships down before it does.

Breach:  They seem unchanged, and they were my general all-purpose small missile of choice.

Gorgon:  The refire delay probably helped more by throttling fire rate and preventing cheap ships armed with only Gorgons from dumping everything on the first target.  Now my Lumens and Buffalo IIs can fill up with Gorgons, launch four at a time, wait a bit, launch another four, and so on.

Proximity Charge Launcher:  Half fire rate ruined their burst potential and made them less of a super Annihilator Pod clone.  Still prefer them over Annihilators because Proximity charges hit things more easily.  I now take them if I want an endurance option that does not run out of ammo quickly.

Squalls:  Much more vulnerable to PD than last release.  If the target has two dual flaks or a bunch of burst PDs, about a third to half of a burst of Squalls will be shot down.  Still lethal against ships with no or weak PD, but it is not the one missile to rule them all, at least if not massed.  This was the one large missile I used the most by far, with Hurricane MIRV as a distant second, and the dumb-fires a few times on Legion(XIV) and Rampart.  Next game, I would not try to use so many.

Cyclone Reaper:  Not sure if Cyclone is worth the OP now that it lost ammo.  While it costs about two-thirds more than Hammer Barrage like Typhoon does over Jackhammer, Cyclone no longer has the same ammo count as Hammer Barrage like Typhoon and Jackhammer, and instant max speed does not do enough to make up for that.  While Cyclone may have been a near no-brainer over Hammer Barrage, at least I paid the OP for an elite weapon.  Now, I do not get my OP's worth in ammo.  The only reason why I may use this instead of the other dumb-fire option that is Hammer Barrage (if not give up and just use MIRVs instead) is if I want to throttle fire rate for endurance use and prevent NPC ships from wasting all missiles immediately like they do with Hammers.  Maybe Typhoon for medium size is the outlier now and needs its ammo count rolled back to the original 5.

Hammer Barrage:  It is much cheaper than Cyclone (10 OP difference), and unlike medium size, it has more ammo than Cyclone, where Jackhammer and Typhoon have the same ammo count.  With cheaper Barrage combined with less ammo for Cyclone, and after some experimenting, I prefer Hammer Barrage over Cyclone Reaper for general use if I do not mind my ships using the ammo faster.

Dragonfire:  Still too expensive and prone to getting shot down by larger ships.  If there were any buffs (I remember reading about activation range), I did not notice them.

Mining Laser:  I have used this frequently as budget PD cheaper than Vulcan even after IPDAI on low-tech ships that have more mounts than they need.  While I could have done that last release, I have used more Mining Lasers for PD in this release than before.  Also, it was my goto filler weapon on every civilian ship I got my hands on since it is only 1 OP and fits in either energy or ballistic mounts.  (Most mounts civilians have use ballistics.)

Phase Lance:  Much better now with 0.8 efficiency.  Used them on Tempests and Medusa up until endgame.  Tried them on Harbinger (why not since I have Neural Link), but phase lances were not as useful as heavy blaster and ion pulsers, and got dropped.  Does not help that lances with enough range boosts will outrange Quantum Disruptor.

IR Autolance:  Still used them as the default choice that got mounted on everything when OP and/or flux cost were issues.  Got the blueprint for this by raiding the pirates (Kaptyen Starworks).

[close]

To end with a few final comments, once I reached max level and gave Systems Expertise to my Neural Linked Radiant, I had fun punishing cowardly enemies that taunted me with their constant backpedalling.  It felt good to teleport up to their face, unload triple plasma and beams, and if they keep backpedaling away, just skim again to keep up and punish them some more until they die.

[Megas]

One more thing I forgot:  Escort Package.  I like it yet dislike it.  I like it because it gives destroyers the range it needs to snipe at enemies that would crush them.  Why I dislike it is it feels like an OP tax that I must take for destroyers in endgame fleets, when they already have a fairly tight OP budget without extras until I give them s-mods.  It hurts more when I add more special hullmods like Neural Interface too.

[Phenir]

Could not trigger the Hegemony crisis no matter how many points they built up, probably because I stole their spool and synchrotron.  By this point, I considered my game done. 

Heg crisis requires a certain amount of AI core usage on a single planet. You need 8 points iirc and gammas are 1, betas are 2, and alphas are 4 (10 for an admin). So if you use one alpha, one beta, and one gamma, they will never trigger an inspection. Also the colony needs to be at least half a year old. After you beat 3 inspections (of increasing size, the first is 150, the last one is 1400), they stop being a threat and you can get story points from Daud.

[Siffrin]

Megas has his colony crisis for the hegemony bugged, here's the full explanation from his other post.

It's triggered by AI core usage and you need to defeat their crisis three times.

I had AI cores for +18 HA points per month and let HA tick up for about four years for the bar to fill up and reset.  No crisis came.  I can only conclude that I broke it, that is perma-avert it passively and unknowingly, by either stealing the Synchrotron from Nachiketa and/or the Fullerene Spool from Eventide long before I started using AI cores to try to fight HegemonyMan for its power.  I was afraid I would perma-avert Diktat's crisis by stealing the Synchrotron from Sindria, so I went to Nachiketa to steal Hegemony's Synchrotron instead.  Did not know stealing any item from Hegemony would break them too.

I do need a forge and synchrotron for my military bases and fuel plant, and the easiest or most reliable way to get those items is steal them from the core worlds.  I do build up a raider fleet for stealing blueprints from everyone (and I need massive ground power to stealth raid Kazeron for capital/DEM blueprints), so why not steal their other items that I need too?  Fullerene spool, two pristine nanoforges, and one synchrotron from the core worlds is good for four out of my five worlds.  Stealing the items also boosts my income a little (I get more market share) and cripples their fleets if the item stolen is a nanoforge.  I call that a win or would if it did not break crises.

Of course, the reward from the League crisis is so lame that if stealing the forge from Kazeron too early perma-averted them, it would be great because then I have HA point gain to get the other crises sooner too.  Actually, not a good thing because of big patrol fleets stopping my fleet in my home system doing patrol scans like with black market suspicion and/or killing trade fleets of their enemies.  I should be the one doing patrol scans to them when in my home system!

The Hegemony reward sounds a bit lame, but only because I still cannot use AI cores (in size 4+ worlds) because of the undying zombie Pather cells that I do not want on my colonies.  If the Pathers could be neutralized or more easily avoided (that does not involve giving them the planetkiller), then the Hegemony's reward would be more useful.  Unfortunately, the Pather reward merely puts them to sleep for a year, same as blowing up a base - totally lame.

Come to think of it, I should start naming my new commander's name Mega Man because the crises have turned Starsector into Capcom's Megaman after I build colonies.  I have every incentive to start most of the crises as soon as I can destroy them for their rewards.  I do not want to resolve them peacefully if it means giving up income or even simply losing the reward I would get if I just kill them.  Only the Pirates give a bigger reward for bribing them (+20% for humoring Kanta instead of +10%).  Pathers do not count.  I am half-expecting to fight Starsector's equivalent of a Dr. Wily crisis after beating all the crises of every human faction.

Crises come too quickly when my fleet and colonies are weak, but when my fleet is strong enough to kill any human fleet, the crises cannot come fast enough.  Next game, I probably will build colonies and keep them at size 3 until I have an endgame fleet, then let my colonies grow and aggravate everyone (except maybe Remnants) for maximum HA gain.

[Alex]

Thank you for the feedback!

If your Hegemony crisis appears to be bugged - would you mind sending me your save? I'd love to take a look!

fractalsoftworks [at] gmail [dot] com

(If you don't mind, that is.)

[Siffrin]

Thank you for the feedback!

If your Hegemony crisis appears to be bugged - would you mind sending me your save? I'd love to take a look!

fractalsoftworks [at] gmail [dot] com

(If you don't mind, that is.)

I'm making a guess but could it be that the Hegemony crisis is being treated like the Diktat one and stealing Nachiketa's Synchrtron Core will stop the Hegemony crisis from happening?

[Megas]

Another thing I forgot about Escort Package, cruisers!  It costs 15 DP to give 20% range (and some other minor buff I probably would not notice) to cruisers only if they are close to a capital.  It costs too much DP for a bonus that is worse than ITU, that is Escorts +20% when near a capital vs. ITU's +40% anytime for the same DP cost.  Escort Package should be like Converted Hangar where the cost is the same for both destroyers and cruisers.

While Escort Package is a must for destroyers late, it looks like a lemon for cruisers who do not have excess OP to waste on stuff like this.  I certainly would not take Escort Package in place of ITU for cruisers for the same cost.  For destroyers, they can get more than ITU from Escort Package at times, but not cruisers.


@ Alex:  I will investigate Hegemony crisis again, this time after giving back their items to see if anything changes.

[Zenaria]

While Escort Package is a must for destroyers late, it looks like a lemon for cruisers who do not have excess OP to waste on stuff like this.  I certainly would not take Escort Package in place of ITU for cruisers for the same cost.  For destroyers, they can get more than ITU from Escort Package at times, but not cruisers.

also Smod give a reduce damage taken by shield which made destroyer become more tanky than cruiser.
while most of people didn't care about maneuver and top speed.

usually i glued destroyer with cruiser to become hunting pack.
but putting cruiser to escort capital for escort buff feel like not worth it.

[Megas]

I built up HA points with Hegemony again after selling back the spool and synchrotron I stole back to them.  Still no warning at 500 HA and no crisis at 600 HA, just a HA reset back to 200-something.  The game was started on RC6.  I may get the saves later.

[Thaago]

Another thing I forgot about Escort Package, cruisers!  It costs 15 DP to give 20% range (and some other minor buff I probably would not notice) to cruisers only if they are close to a capital.  It costs too much DP for a bonus that is worse than ITU, that is Escorts +20% when near a capital vs. ITU's +40% anytime for the same DP cost.  Escort Package should be like Converted Hangar where the cost is the same for both destroyers and cruisers.

While Escort Package is a must for destroyers late, it looks like a lemon for cruisers who do not have excess OP to waste on stuff like this.  I certainly would not take Escort Package in place of ITU for cruisers for the same cost.  For destroyers, they can get more than ITU from Escort Package at times, but not cruisers.


@ Alex:  I will investigate Hegemony crisis again, this time after giving back their items to see if anything changes.

The range bonus stacks and is very rare. You aren't supposed to take it in place of ITU, ever, but instead put it on top so the cruisers can range match the capital. In that case it gives half of ITU (stacking), half of Auxilliary thrusters (stacking), and a 10% speed bump, for ever so slightly more than the average cost (15 vs 13.5). I'd say a 10% speed bump is worth 1.5 OP to bring it up to parity. Stacking range buffs, just like stacking speed buffs, is just good.

Converted hangar costing the same makes sense to me because it provides the same benefit: a fighter wing, which with the exception of support fighters really doesn't scale in value when you add in the capabilities of the base ship (there's an argument that support fighters this doesn't apply and one reason support fighters are so good on CH). For escort, the bonus fully multiplies the value of the base ship, just like other hullmods.

I would like cruisers also getting the 10% damage reduction on S mod though. That would let cruisers like the Falcon who are more like big destroyers also get some toughness increase.

[Megas]

The range bonus stacks and is very rare. You aren't supposed to take it in place of ITU, ever, but instead put it on top so the cruisers can range match the capital. In that case it gives half of ITU (stacking), half of Auxilliary thrusters (stacking), and a 10% speed bump, for ever so slightly more than the average cost (15 vs 13.5). I'd say a 10% speed bump is worth 1.5 OP to bring it up to parity. Stacking range buffs, just like stacking speed buffs, is just good.

Yes, it can stack, but it is expensive for what it gives to cruisers and the condition when it applies (hugging a capital).  With the base OP budgets cruisers have, it would be an either/or between Escort Pack or ITU (or another critical hullmod or a bunch of vents/caps).

For something like Eagle or Apogee, I am already giving up something even without extras like Neural Interface or missile hullmod.  It is worse with low OP ships like Heron or Rampart (especially if I want Neural Integration to pilot it myself).

Even with destroyers, I find the Escort Package an obnoxious OP tax, but I take it because the boosts are massive when next to a capital.  (+40% to range.)  Usually, I remove several caps, to fit Escort Package for up to +40% range, which is better and cheaper than destroyer-grade ITU when next to a capital (and yes, I take ITU too.)

[Megas]

Just remembered something I should have posted in the OP but forgot - the new hyperspace abilities Reverse Polarity and Slipsurge.

In general, both are great, but they also come too late in the game, or it would be too late if I were not waiting years to fight crises.  If there were no crises to fight, I probably would be grinding Ordos before I grind enough Topology to get either hyperspace ability.

Reverse Polarity makes slipstreams much more useful.  Too many times in previous releases, I encounter streams going the opposite way I want, and would get in the way.  With Reverse Polarity, that does not matter anymore.  Makes slipstreams much more manageable.

Slipsurge is fun and sometimes faster or more convenient than gate travel if the systems gates are in are huge and far away from planets and jump points.

[Thaago]

I know we've had this argument before about OP and how I feel like there are way more than you do, but could you tell me what your Eagle fit is that can't afford an escort package? I'm running a pair of eagles early game with no S mods and augmented engines at 24 OP, and they are still performing well/have decent loadouts with every mount used. If I were to have them escorting a capital and didn't need the speed, I'd have 9 more OP to play with and still not be using any S mods.

As an example, an Eagle with 2 Hacs (20), a heavy mauler (12), 4 lrpds (16), an ion cannon (6), 2 gravitons (18) and an ir autolance (, and 2 dual atropos (6) is using 86 OP on weapons. Add 15 for ITU makes 101, leaving 54 free for caps, vents, and luxury hullmods. Escort would lower that to 39, IE max vents and 9 caps (though this is a low flux enough build that maybe it could stand shifting some from vents to caps as heretical as that is). The build wouldn't mind other hullmods, but it doesn't need them to be functional, and S mods exist for 2-3 more hullmods. For endurance builds it could also drop the atropos and ion for 12 more OP - in an escort position those probably aren't doing too much anyways.

Yes, you might have to give something up to get a stacking range bonus, but that's the whole point of the OP system: so that there are tradeoffs. But again, you would never pick between escort package and ITU. When bonuses are rare and have such huge impacts (like speed and range), having a new source of stacking bonus means they are good value even when they theoretically are less efficient (even though as I pointed out, they really aren't because they also mix in half of another hullmod and a minor speed buff).

[Megas]

Loadouts of various cruisers for use mostly by my NPCs.  (Afflictor was my flagship, and it had Neural Interface to swap into other ships or at least copy an officer into a ship.)  No s-mods.  Hulls are all standard skins (no XIV or pirate ones.)

Starting with normal warships plus Doom...

Eagle
Capacitors: 6
Vents: 30
Weapons: 2x Hypervelocity Driver, 1x Heavy Mauler, 2x IR Autolance, 1x Graviton Beam, 4x Burst PD, 2x Atropos (1)
Hullmods: Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit

Champion
Capacitors: 13
Vents: 30
Weapons: 1x Squall MLRS, 1x High Intensity Laser, 2x Hypervelocity Driver, 2x Burst PD
Hullmods: Expanded Missile Racks, Integrated Targeting Unit, Stabilized Shields

Apogee
Capacitors: 1
Vents: 30
Weapons: 1x Squall MLRS, 1x High Intensity Laser, 2x IR Pulse Laser
Hullmods: Expanded Missile Racks, Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit, Stabilized Shields

Doom
Capacitors: 12
Vents: 0
Weapons: 2x Light Needler, 2x Heavy Blaster, 4x Burst PD
Hullmods: Hardened Subsystems, Integrated Targeting Unit, Phase Anchor, Resistant Flux Conduits


Now for carriers.  I try to build them as battlecarriers so they can approach and shoot stuff, or at least shoot back if pressed.  I favor interceptors over bombers because I do not have Leadership to keep bombers alive for very long (no Carrier Group), and I would like fighters to chase down cowardly small ships to put them out of their misery.

Heron
Capacitors: 3
Vents: 15
Weapons: 1x Pulse Laser, 4x Burst PD
Fighters: Claw, Broadsword, Talon
Hullmods: Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit

Mora #1
Capacitors: 9
Vents: 25
Weapons: 2x Typhoon Reaper, 2x Railgun, 1x Light Assault Gun, 1x Vulcan
Fighters: Claw, Broadsword, Talon
Hullmods: Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit

Mora #2
Capacitors: 10
Vents: 10
Weapons: 2x Typhoon Reaper, 2x Railgun, 5x Mining Laser
Fighters: 3x Warthogs
Hullmods: Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit


And for automated ships...

Apex
Capacitors: 0
Vents: 23
Weapons: 4x Jackhammer, 2x Pulse Laser, 2x Ion Cannon, 2x Burst PD
Hullmods: Expanded Missile Racks, Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit, Stabilized Shields

Brilliant
Capacitors: 3
Vents: 30
Weapons: 1x Tachyon Lance, 2x Hypervelocity Driver, 1x Graviton Beam, 1x IR Autolance
Hullmods: Hardened Shields, Integrated Targeting Unit, Stabilized Shields

Rampart
Capacitors: 0
Vents: 3
Weapons: 1x Devastator, 1x Mjolnir, 1x Squall MLRS
Hullmods: Armored Weapon Mounts, Heavy Armor, Integrated Targeting Unit, Resistant Flux Conduits


I am already giving up stuff to fit what I can already.  Without s-mods, I feel like I am stuck with relatively basic or straightforward stuff for most loadouts.  Occasionally, I might eek out a cheap hullmod like Efficiency Overhaul or Neural Interface/Integration.

Most bigger ships I used later are whatever I picked up from the enemy, although I built a few with Orbital Works.  Apogee was my starter ship (I took Apogee start).

[Goumindong]

I know we've had this argument before about OP and how I feel like there are way more than you do, but could you tell me what your Eagle fit is that can't afford an escort package? I'm running a pair of eagles early game with no S mods and augmented engines at 24 OP, and they are still performing well/have decent loadouts with every mount used. If I were to have them escorting a capital and didn't need the speed, I'd have 9 more OP to play with and still not be using any S mods.

As an example, an Eagle with 2 Hacs (20), a heavy mauler (12), 4 lrpds (16), an ion cannon (6), 2 gravitons (18) and an ir autolance (, and 2 dual atropos (6) is using 86 OP on weapons. Add 15 for ITU makes 101, leaving 54 free for caps, vents, and luxury hullmods. Escort would lower that to 39, IE max vents and 9 caps (though this is a low flux enough build that maybe it could stand shifting some from vents to caps as heretical as that is). The build wouldn't mind other hullmods, but it doesn't need them to be functional, and S mods exist for 2-3 more hullmods. For endurance builds it could also drop the atropos and ion for 12 more OP - in an escort position those probably aren't doing too much anyways.

Yes, you might have to give something up to get a stacking range bonus, but that's the whole point of the OP system: so that there are tradeoffs. But again, you would never pick between escort package and ITU. When bonuses are rare and have such huge impacts (like speed and range), having a new source of stacking bonus means they are good value even when they theoretically are less efficient (even though as I pointed out, they really aren't because they also mix in half of another hullmod and a minor speed buff).

You can also save OP by going down to mining lasers (which may be OP)