Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Killer of Fate]

was doing a stupid mod... Well, have been doing for the past 6 months.
*cue Deus Ex intro music*

And I was thinking about recalculating Nova's stats a bit, the problem is that I don't know much about Nova. If there are people here using Nova, please elaborate on your experience with this ship. As my surface level knowledge of it is that it's just... Kinda... Fragile. Fast, fragile, does a lot of burst damage, but is out-tiered by a lot of late game garbage you are going to be using by the time you reach that phase of the game. But I could obviously be very very very very wrong.

So, please... Feel free to elaborate on your experience with this ship. And if it has been negative, tell me what you would like to have it be different about it, Nova that is.

[Phenir]

The nova is good, the ai is bad at using it (and other ships with forward only movement systems). If you really must, changing its variants is probably enough. Give some of its variants extended shield so it can't be flanked quite as easily. It is a 40 dp capital though so I expect it to have some kind of weakness compared to the radiant.

[Grievous69]

It was my flagship in the 2nd campaign and it's pretty amazing for player piloting. AI usage varies A LOT, still fun to have in a fleet.

[Killer of Fate]

can u share your variants?

[Mishrak]

AI Nova is controllable, but you definitely have to manage it well and it's pretty annoying at times.  I wrote a post about it quite some time ago. 

I think it has only gotten better with the skill changes, but as an AI ship, I think the fits that make sense on it are extremely limited.

As a player ship it's much more interesting, given how strong Neural Link and Cyber Aug is for flagship play.  Player Nova can run much more flux hungry stuff, disengage and vent and keep on trucking.

Big fan of Dual Autopulse + Dual Ion Pulser + Dual Mining Blasters.  Float around the flanks and delete anything that's causing problems for the rest of the fleet.

[Grievous69]

Big fan of Dual Autopulse + Dual Ion Pulser + Dual Mining Blasters.  Float around the flanks and delete anything that's causing problems for the rest of the fleet.

Using literally the same build. Nova is perfect for s-modded Expanded Mags setup. Don't even need missiles.

[Mishrak]

Big fan of Dual Autopulse + Dual Ion Pulser + Dual Mining Blasters.  Float around the flanks and delete anything that's causing problems for the rest of the fleet.

Using literally the same build. Nova is perfect for s-modded Expanded Mags setup. Don't even need missiles.

Missiles 100% feel like a waste on it.  Save the OP and get some hull mods/caps. 

Also the AI change to Mining Blasters means autofire will use them better, so no micromangement required.  Could probably also go IR Autolance.

[Killer of Fate]

no expanded missile racks for Nova, I guess...
This does make me wonder how many people put Autoloader on Retribution... If it was just me.

[Mishrak]

I think with all the missile nerfs, and wanting to not just take the most expensive hullmods for s-modding anymore, missiles aren't just a given on every ship just because they have the mounts.  Retribution is in a similar situation.

Edit:

I think s-mods are probably Expanded Mags and Shield Conversion Omni (this is a comfort thing).  A third could probably be S-Aux for even more turn rate/speed, ARU for situations where the ship gets fluxed out, or RFC for better venting. (But that's not getting Cyber Aug so ymmv)

ITU, Neural Link, Max Caps/Vents.

I don't think it needs extended or hardened shields personally.  Same with Solar Shielding.  It's player pilot, so overextending into big shield damage is easy to fix.

Burst PD smalls.  No missiles.

[Selfcontrol]

The Nova is a better Retribution.

Both these ships are good. Like, really *** good. The "problem" is that they are not fitted for frontline duty. They are designed to hunt down ships of smaller size than themselves and to do so opportunistically. Hence their ship system and hence their hilariously overloaded frontal firepower. A well-built Nova or Retribution is capable of destroying at blazing speed ships after ships with very little downtime. From my testing, they accomplish this job far better than an Odyssey (but the Odyssey is capable of going toe-to-toe with more "classic" capital ships and is a lot more slippery).

But there is a price to pay : they are not resilient. And the AI isn't good at using their ship system. Most of the time, they rush the opposing fleet, end up without support and then die (like the Fury in fact). And if they don't die right away, they start backpedaling instead of turning away and using their system to jump out of danger (although it's less easy to do for the Nova since it lacks an omni shield).

Their stats are fine. Perhaps the variants could be better. Don't know for sure.

[Fenrir]

I would keep it the way it is. I think nova has balanced (and outstanding) pros and cons.

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

was doing a stupid mod... Well, have been doing for the past 6 months.
*cue Deus Ex intro music*

And I was thinking about recalculating Nova's stats a bit, the problem is that I don't know much about Nova. If there are people here using Nova, please elaborate on your experience with this ship. As my surface level knowledge of it is that it's just... Kinda... Fragile. Fast, fragile, does a lot of burst damage, but is out-tiered by a lot of late game garbage you are going to be using by the time you reach that phase of the game. But I could obviously be very very very very wrong.

So, please... Feel free to elaborate on your experience with this ship. And if it has been negative, tell me what you would like to have it be different about it, Nova that is.

Based on its stats and weapon loadout alone, it is the best 40DP capital in the game without exception.
It has three main weaknesses.
The first is it is stuck with fearless AI, which makes it very suicidal. This can be gotten around with waypoint orders or personally piloting the ship.
The second is its low shield arc. This can be fixed by building in Omni shields and Extended shields, and even with the loss of two s-mods, it is still competitive with the other capitals.
The third is its weak PD placement. It has 4 small energy mounts, only two of which point backwards, with the best option being burst PD. Giving it a PD escort is pretty much required regardless of its build.

It is the only ship in the game that is fast enough and has enough firepower to reliably pin most enemies to their spawn.

Any fleet build that makes use of Novas needs several things.
Support PD, as mentioned.
Filler ships, just a lot of smaller brawling ships that can fight or safely distract most ships. They plug up the gaps that the Novas leave behind and kill frigates that the Nova doesn't have time to deal with.
Maximize command point increase speed. AI Novas are very heavy in terms of command point usage, as such they need a lot of them.
Finally, build around retreating. At 80 speed, along with helmsmanship the Novas' Nova Burst makes it functionally uncatchable. Due to it having Odyssey armor, you will need to retreat them to restore hull and armor from Field Repairs.

My build is a bit brutish due to me wanting it to hunt Ordos.
Quad Pulse Laser, one Autopulse Laser, one High Intensity Laser, two burst PD lasers in the back mounts, and 4 Pilum LRM Launchers. The Pilums are needed to force the enemy to keep their shields up at long range.
S-mods are Omni Shields, Extended Shields, and Hardened shields.
Hullmods are, Integrated Targeting Unit, Stabilized Shields, and Flux Coil Adjunct.
55 vents, the remainder is caps, I think it's 45 off the top of my head.

These are escorted by Wasp burst PD Shrikes.

I have had success with both captained Tempests and Omens as filler. Phase Lance TT Brawlers with no captains are my go-to for extra filler.

I always use support doctrine so I can use 4 Novas. However, you can use three and place Alpha cores on them immediately before combat. I don't because it feels like cheating. It would probably be more effective to go the cheese route, but I don't like it, so I won't.

All in all, it is everything a High-Tech battlecruiser should be.

[Killer of Fate]

considering Nova is pretty much a melee ship, don't Gazers and Dragons have extreme synergy with it, cause of the fact that they fire from behind its hitbox? Making it impossible for the enemy to shoot them down. This wouldn't apply necessarily to the Retribution, but it does apply to Nova.

Though, I dunno... I started testing a slightly more durable version of the ship. I assume long-termly Dragon's are too useless to pay off their very high OP cost.

[Killer of Fate]

AI Nova is controllable, but you definitely have to manage it well and it's pretty annoying at times.  I wrote a post about it quite some time ago. 

I think it has only gotten better with the skill changes, but as an AI ship, I think the fits that make sense on it are extremely limited.

As a player ship it's much more interesting, given how strong Neural Link and Cyber Aug is for flagship play.  Player Nova can run much more flux hungry stuff, disengage and vent and keep on trucking.

Big fan of Dual Autopulse + Dual Ion Pulser + Dual Mining Blasters.  Float around the flanks and delete anything that's causing problems for the rest of the fleet.

read your original post, and honestly HSA Nova should probably become a default build for the Remnants... Not only for variety's sake, but viability too...

The idea of saving flux by transforming Tachyon Lances into melee weapons and then literally jousting the enemy with them is stupidly intelligent. Kinda sad that I didn't come up with it first.

[helias]

The Nova is my favourite capital to pilot, hands down. As an AI ship, no thank you. I've seen what the Fearless AI does with it. Two Omens can take one of those down. Give me a Neural Integrated Nova any day.

The Nova Drive (or maybe Nova Device, I can't remember) makes the Nova very unreliable in AI hands due to how quickly it tends to overextend, but a player can abuse it in ways the AI wishes it could dream of. Not only because a player can make judgments on their usage of the system the AI isn't capable of, but also because of the hullmod you need to put on a Nova to pilot it to begin with: the Neural Integrator.

The Neutral Integrator does three things: it allows you to take manual control of the Nova, instantly if the DP of your deployed Neural ships is 50 or lower & with a 3 second delay otherwise; it increases the DP by 10%, or 4 points for a total DP of 44; and it adds a charge to the ship system, albeit on a cooldown. Since you need this hullmod to pilot the ship to begin with, there's no reason not to take this mechanic into consideration at all times.

Now, there's one problem with piloting a Nova. If you're gonna pilot an AI capital with Neutral Integrator, why not pilot a Radiant instead? They may fulfill different roles, but the Radiant in the hands of a player is so outright overpowered there really isn't too much the Nova has going for it, right? But a Neural Nova can get one massive advantage a Neural Radiant can't: instant transfer. The Radiant already has a DP cost of 60 before the Neural Integrator so you're always getting the delayed transfer, making it much harder to take advantage of the system recharge. But the Nova has a DP cost of 44 after the Integrator, so you can fit in 6 DP for your other flagship and still get the instant transfer. And would you look at that, 6 DP is just enough to access some of the best frigates in the vanilla game as well! You can bring along an Omen, the ultimate PD frigate, and be your own flagship's escort. You can bring along a Monitor to serve as the ultimate diversion while you tear apart fleets with the Nova. The Pirate-variant Afflictor is 6 DP as well; throw an Entropy Amplifier onto an enemy capital and suddenly the Nova can brawl with the best of them. Sure the AI might waste it while you're in the Nova, but jumping back to the Afflictor resets its system cooldown too! Hell, if you want to do all the work yourself you can just bring along a Kite with Salamanders and a Vulcan just to be annoying while you sit in the Nova until you want to quickly transfer out and into reset the cooldown. This leaves 4 DP on the table for engagements, and 6 for fleetwide skills if the Kites aren't militarized. You can do a lot with an extra 4 DP. That's the difference between running two Enforcers with Converted Hangar Broadswords or running two normal Enforcers. Do you want to run two Enforcers with Converted Hangar Broadswords? I don't know, but you can if you want.

But is there anything I would change about the Nova if I could? Well, there is, actually. You see, unlike the similar Retribution, the Nova only has a frontal shield. A 90° frontal shield on a ship like this is so much worse than the Retribution's 60° omni shield that the Nova is one of the rare few ships that commonly sees S-modded Omni Conversion. I don't do this because Omni shields are weird and I don't like change, but I would like to see it made into an omni shield innately. Maybe even make it a bit bigger, 120°, and make the flux/damage ratio a bit worse as a tradeoff, 0.8 instead of the current 0.6 ratio. That way Omni shield enjoyers can have a bit safer of a shield, and lazy players like me can commit two S-mods to give it a 360° shield. It would also be very convenient for one very particular encounter in the game, which the Nova would outright embarrass if only it had 360° coverage.