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[SCC]

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?

If a Nova can achieve pro-rata DP of 800 (destroy ships worth 800 DP in a single battle), then it would be as DP efficient as a properly driven Radiant. I think the only ships that can hope to compare to Radiant are phase ships, unfortunately.

shield

I like that Nova has weaker sides. In comparison, the majority of Remnant ships is either too small to generally worry about this (frigates and destroyers, though iirc most destroyers have 180 omni shields), have 270 degree shields, or are so flat it's hard to flank them. This would turn Nova into another shielded-from-all-directions Remnant ship. I suppose this can be done if Nova really needs a buff.

[Killer of Fate]

Nova's lack of durability is meant to give it weaknesses that more nimble ships can exploit, I feel like it's the antithesis of what a Radiant is supposed to be in those terms. And that is honestly a good change. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Fractal gave in the same update a really fun mid game boss fight that's far more convenient than the Hypershunt fights, which I feel like might get reworked in the future to make them more fair towards the player. Though currently there is no end game content besides that and Remnants, so I don't know...

The way I see it is that Nova has a mobility system on top of already good mobility, so it might feel somewhat redundant to have it work that way. But that is just my personal opinion. Currently Nova is kind of a large Shrike. It dashes in fast, but also has the ability to retreat. So, it's less about going and leaving only when the target you wanted dead is neutralised. It's about going in and then slowly back-peddling, unless you manage to kill your opponent. Which is risky, cause Nova is built like a tinfoil golem.

It's small shield profile is just a play on the Retribution's concept, so that it doesn't simply repeat the same behavioural pattern. It's significant impracticality is also meant to add on top of the fact that it's a ship not meant to take easy trades by exploiting its mobility. Similarly to how Conquest can't do that either due to a very inefficient shield that only does not shoot the Conquest in the foot if it gets a superior attack angle. This design philosophy pushes Nova into sort of a role of a flanking dreadnought, which may be difficult to execute when it also has reckless AI that might force it into fatal engagements. But that's just my theory.

If you ask me... I am going to see if I can make Nova function sort of like an Onslaught. In that it is a jumpy moving forward tanky ship, though I do not plan to turn it into an Onslaught. I was hoping that it could have excess frontal mobility and better flux stats and durability at the cost of slightly worse retreat mobility. Meaning, no longer having that 100 max speed someone mentioned. But, that's just modded nonsense, so who cares.

footage of said modded nonsense (WIP, obviously, and probably forever)

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[Thaago]

I love fighting against the Nova as an enemy! They are dangerous and will get kills if I let them, but at the same time they have a weakness that smaller/nimble fleets or good piloting can exploit. If I'm feeling cheeky I can nab some early XP/loot by hunting ordos that have Novas, but at the same time its very dangerous and just a little mistake can lead to the Nova popping several of my ships. It's just fun.

The Radiant on the other hand is a beast for smaller fleets to handle. The phase skimmer doesn't matter so much (as I'm not using anything slower than it), but just the sheer shield/armor/hull hitpoints on top of heavy firepower and a full 360 shield means that I often just can't power the thing down. Which is a challenge in its own way and makes the ordo systems more dangerous for early hunting, as those are the fleets I have to run from.

I haven't piloted one myself but cool to hear that its good in player hands as well.

[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.

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.

I'm glad you liked it.  It was a fun project that maybe I'll revisit again at some point with the .97 changes.

[Lawrence Master-blaster]

I don't feel like changing it, I think it's fine.

[Sinigr]

Nova, Nova. Another ship with a bunch of limitations, unable to withstand a well-assembled fleet. Despite the fact that it can well choke the wrong fleets. And how will you change it? For someone, killing something like this seems will simply just take more time, while others will not be able to win at all and will run to the forum to cry. Great balancer)))

[Haka]

Side Note: I always change the weapon stats for the weapon used for the Nova Burst system to do 3K damage, and the Orion Device on the Retribution to do 1750.
Iz big bomb, I like it to do big bomb damage.

[Megas]

What change would I like to see on Nova?  Nova Burst leaning more into ramming objects, like a battlecruiser-sized missile.  More speed and distance, and much more collision damage to the enemy while Nova takes less damage from collisions and exploding ships when activating the system.  AI updated to ram enemies as its primary attack when Nova Burst is available.

Making the system do more fart damage would be nice too.  If enemies swarm Nova, use the system to blow all of them away for big damage.

Give Nova Rugged Construction, maybe, for its new life at crashing into enemies and dying with them after one too many.

[Killer of Fate]

Side Note: I always change the weapon stats for the weapon used for the Nova Burst system to do 3K damage, and the Orion Device on the Retribution to do 1750.
Iz big bomb, I like it to do big bomb damage.

but wouldn't that imply that the ship would be also doing damage to itself???

[Killer of Fate]

What change would I like to see on Nova?  Nova Burst leaning more into ramming objects, like a battlecruiser-sized missile.  More speed and distance, and much more collision damage to the enemy while Nova takes less damage from collisions and exploding ships when activating the system.  AI updated to ram enemies as its primary attack when Nova Burst is available.

Making the system do more fart damage would be nice too.  If enemies swarm Nova, use the system to blow all of them away for big damage.

Give Nova Rugged Construction, maybe, for its new life at crashing into enemies and dying with them after one too many.

I mean, you can still do crazy *** with it.

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I feel like making Nova into a purely melee ship would be too much of a strain on the NPC behavioural programming. And it would also kinda shallow down the ship, cause it technically wouldn't even need weapons anymore, it's punching profile would be enough.

[Sinigr]

What change would I like to see on Nova?  Nova Burst leaning more into ramming objects, like a battlecruiser-sized missile.  More speed and distance, and much more collision damage to the enemy while Nova takes less damage from collisions and exploding ships when activating the system.  AI updated to ram enemies as its primary attack when Nova Burst is available.

Making the system do more fart damage would be nice too.  If enemies swarm Nova, use the system to blow all of them away for big damage.

Give Nova Rugged Construction, maybe, for its new life at crashing into enemies and dying with them after one too many.

I mean, you can still do crazy *** with it.

Spoiler

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I feel like making Nova into a purely melee ship would be too much of a strain on the NPC behavioural programming. And it would also kinda shallow down the ship, cause it technically wouldn't even need weapons anymore, it's punching profile would be enough.

Dovahkiin of room. OWNED

[Megas]

@ Killer of Fate:  Nova can ram things, but it does not do much beyond pushing things around.  Crazy, but more comical (play carnival music) than hardcore (play heavy metal).  It is similar level of Monitor shield-ramming things. Only when enemy has no life left that Nova can kill the enemy by ramming it.  What I like to see (which probably would not happen, but per the title...) is the ramming made much more damaging so skewering things with Nova is more practical and far more commonplace.  With the frontal shield and firepower it has, it even looks like it was built for ramming.

No, it would not be a pure melee ship, it still has everything else.  I guess AI deliberately ramming ships (with Nova Burst changed to buff collision damage too) is asking for too much, but it overextends too often and gets slaughtered anyway.  Why not exploit that by making Nova deliberately try to skewer enemies instead of simply using Nova Burst to approach enemy but overextending and dying anyway?

[Killer of Fate]

@ megas: yeah, but that won't fix the problem. Being able to ram a ship to just deal damage to it would be just a gimmick to bully its main target (and it's already good at that tbh thanks to 0.6 shields), but it wouldn't fix the fundamental issue of the fact that energy weapons are just usually kinda meh... And the fact that Nova will be in the center of attention with its meagre 1000 armour, poor PD, and a very restricted shield angle. The solution I've cooked up, was partially about changing how energy weapons work, but we don't have time for that and it's not finished yet.

I've modified Nova's stats to be more... All-in focused. The version in the current Starsector seems to be designed around bullying lesser ships with its high mobility, though it is restricted by its small turn rate. It definitely seems centred about lightning raids. In which it engages fast and disengages calmly by drifting away with its 80 speed. That seems to be the attribute everyone highlights. The max speed of the ship. Though to me, that is not an attribute Nova should be about with its Reckless AI.

I would go on and on, but whatever... Who wants to read that *** anyway. Look, I've linked a short modification to this post. It's like a Nova change. You can see if you like it, and you can tell me if it's garbage. It changes its armour to 1250, its changes its mobility stats so that it's slower. And it nerfs its shield somewhat. But gives it a larger profile. It becomes this like scary alligator thingy that can deal a lot of damage. It still won't kill an Onslaught, it would benefit a lot from an escort. But it should be tough enough (or at least slightly tougher) to survive the stupid situations it puts itself in. And if not... I gave it 20 more OP, so that you can put reinforced bulkhead on it.

Good luck.

ps. I also remade vanilla variants to fit this change. They aren't perfect, but I tried my best. Also, I did the HSA build for one of them, inspired by that guy who made that long post about Nova. Should be fun.

TELL ME HOW IT WORKS

ps. Uhhhhhhhhh, it might have a little bit too much max flux and flux venting...

pps. on second thought, nah.

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

I just wanted to put this into perspective since I just did it and it really shows how amazing the vanilla Nova already is.
I soloed the Persean League Blockade all at once. As in I killed five detachments, the Grand Armada, and one fast picket, which is all I could fight due to the mercy rule.
Between them they had 12 capitals, 8 Pegasus and 4 Conquests. Two of the Pegasus were s-modded System Expertise + Missile Spec level 7 officers each with quad Hydras.
While I did have to retreat and re-engage every time my Shrikes and TT Brawlers ran out of PPT, I never had to fully disengage.

The best part is, they were support doctrine Novas, as in they didn't have AI cores. The 4 Novas were escorted by 4 Burst PD Wasp Shrikes and 4 System Expertise Omens built around maxxing out their shielding. The fleet support was another 4 Omens, 4 Phase Lance Brawlers, and a single Heron with a Flash, Longbow, and Trident Wing.

I defeated 2,109 DP of ships or 1,925 DP of combat ships if I did my math right. The only thing that got disabled was one Shrike, which died to one of the two aforementioned broken Pegasus.

I have screenshots if you want to see them, and a save copy from right before I engaged the PL blockade.

[Killer of Fate]

Persean League has a really weak doctrine centred around DEM missiles which appear somewhat underpowered, or at least very specialist. Their ships are also really maladaptive and squishy, compared to something like the Hegemony, and they don't have 5 in doctrine for officers. But still, good job. Must have been your fit design. Would be cool if you posted more data on it.