- Astral is just pathetic. Why this is 60 DP is beyond me. I can field a Radiant or Paragon for that. A freaking Onslaught/Legion is 40. WHY THIS IS 60??? Literally entire community is chanting "make it 40 DP please". Why would you ever field this if you want a carrier, when Heron exists? Either give highh techs a good carrier cruiser, or reduce cost on this. 60DP and doesnt even have Large Energy turret lol. Just a terrible expensive ship taking up your DP. This ship right here is also the reason why AI high tech fleets suck - every time this is spawned instead of a Paragon, its a joke.
It's 50 DP. It's mostly a joke due to bomber's poor performance, they are the worst of all the "artillery/backline" weapons. High-Tech does need a fast carrier, I would recommend a Shrike conversion that drops its medium missiles, as PD Shrikes are already very effective escort carriers.
- Odyssey probably used to be good, I saw a few old videos of Odysseys farming Ordos. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore. With pathetic shield/damage ratio, awkward turret placements, and plasma burn that dumps it into the middle of enemy fleet it just dies horribly faster than a fruit fly. It's awesome when you farm pirate trash, but when you meet proper enemies or Ordos it just flops pathetically. Basically - yes, you can get faster to your enemies than a Paragon will. But what are you going to do once you got there? It shines in the hands of careful player who knows how to flank, and dies horribly in the hands of AI as soon as it gets any aggro. Badly needs its shield/dam ratio fixed, and AI looked at.
Accidently due to its loadout, it is one of the best backline/artillery ships in the game, it just lacks good sustained missile options. Had the DEM missiles been regenerating like Pilums or the Omega missiles, the Odyssey would be fine as is.
- Fury (and by extension Shrike) too expensive for what it does - and what it does is rushing asap to die as quick as possible. I saw the old rant by players when its cost was raised to 20 DP, and I honestly don't understand why it was - the ship is terrible as it is now. Badly needs attention.
Shrike is fine, you just can't build it for close range combat in late game. Instead, you have to rely on its large OP pool to make support variants. It suffers the same issue as the Odyssey as it would be far better with more sustained missile options.
- Medusa could be good, because phase skimmer is IMO hands down best combat aility in the game, but the extremely tight points makes it very hard to fit anything relevant. Usually just dies horribly in the hands of AI. SO Medusa is a little better with same issues - it simply cant fit the required SO kit to project good force on the field. Why would I field this when Hyperion exists? Needs fixing, but carefully, because if buffed too much it will outperform the Hyperion and will be a new meme.
It's fine as is, you're just building it wrong. Same as all phase skimmer ships, Medusas need an officer with system expertise. Once you have that, they are functionally immortal, and can kill almost all non-capitals in the game. Albeit cruisers can take a long time for them to kill. Front universal mounts should be kinetic, medium mounts should be some mixture of a heavy blaster, pulse laser, or phase lance. The remaining OP should be spent on a tiny amount of PD, maximizing its combat time, maxing out its shield arc, and maxing out the damage it can take.
- Brawler TT is perfect where it is. Would love to see Escort Package integrated with this ship. Omen is okay but to me feels a bit too situational, squishy, slow, and not having good niche compared to other frigates. Scarab is strong with SO and not so good without it. I could see trying to minmax these, but why when Hyperion exists. Frigates live and die by their mobility usually, and this one doesn't have any. Tempest used to be a thing, but then got its ability changed to terminator drone which basically ended all its glory and usefulness. Never field those except Brawlers tbh, it just so good why bother with the others. I need these ships to rush to control nodes and win a dogfight with enemy frigates or destroyer. Unfortunately, all these other frigates suck at this role and only Brawler is good at it, the only one better at it is Hyperion.
Omen is Emp support, and a PD escort. Its biggest issue is low PPT, which it shares with all the other HT frigates. Scarab has to be built for longer range, so maxing out HSA tactical laser is the minimum range you really need for survivability against everything. The problem is the Scarab's system costs flux, meaning if it gets stuck at near max flux it won't use it. All it really needs is an AI improvement to drop shields until it has enough flux to use its system. Tempest's system doesn't mesh well with the current skills, and its PPT it too low for sustained combat, same as the Omen. Otherwise, it's a fine ship. So, fast it never dies, with enough damage potential to easily beat other frigates and most destroyers.
