I think if you are that late in game money doesn't matter. However the 30 ship limit does. Given the choice I would pick almost any ship over the Ox because fleet speed is less of an issue when 2 armadas clash.
The only time I ever run into the 30 ship limit is when I'm explicitly doing balance testing on the Support Doctrine skill with Command Console. In my playthroughs, I might hit 20 ships in my fleet at tops. Given the power boost that officers provide, I'm typically running 9-15 combat ships, sometimes with a few unofficered frigates for capping and light escort duty, or maybe a mercenary or two. At which point, late game logistics is pretty much solved with 2 Atlas and 2 Prometheus. Alternatively, 4-5 Revenants and not using low tech fuel guzzling ships.
Are a lot of people running Support Doctrine fleets? Or trying to make pure frigate spam work late game? By the time you get into destroyers, you can hit the 240 DP cap with 20-25 of them without too much trouble, and that still leaves 5-10 logistic slots. Sure it'd be nice to have full freedom with designing fleets, but I really don't find the limit all that restricting.
When I think of the spirit of the tug boat it leans more towards heavy trade fleets trying to get an edge over pirates and hustling to the next big trade. Its about lower income fleets trying to pick up the pace. Not end game battle fleets in deep space
When I think tug boat, I think small boat moving a larger ship or barge very, very slowly because they can't or shouldn't under their own power, such as in a crowded dock where the large ship lacks the maneuverability.
Perhaps we should suggest a name change the name from Ox tug to Ox fleet navigation support ship. That way we don't confuse the name with the gameplay purpose. I'm willing to bet the gameplay purpose (spend resources to make capital ship fleets fast enough to catch frigate fleets) came before the name.
The idea is to make it a rational option for anyone not just min maxers. When I watch YouTube videos let's plays most dont mess with them. Sure their are a few weirdos
Since I don't typically watch let's play videos, my impressions come from the forums, and it seems to me based on that measure, there are a lot of people using Ox tugs already. Not early game, but definitely late game. How do you know if the majority of players, who don't make videos or comment on forums, use Ox tugs or not? It is quite possible the ones in the minority are the ones who don't use them. I don't think we have enough evidence to say either way.
I'm just saying it deserves a look at a rework that's all. Also I don't think you should be able to make your fleet faster than the Ox itself
Can you clarify, what do you mean make your fleet faster than the Ox itself? The fleet already always moves at the slowest burn speed, so given an Ox is base burn 8, the fastest the fleet can be is 8+number of Ox in fleet, in terms of base burn. Adding a single Ox to a destroyer fleet with base burn 9 doesn't affect the net base burn, but slows it down to sustained burn 17 from 18, and similarly adding an Ox tug to a frigate fleet with base burn 10, slows it down to a base burn 9, and down to sustained burn 17.
Ox tugs look designed to be used when you have slow cruisers and capitals with base burn 8, 7 and 6 in your fleet. Not early game when you're using frigate logistic ships, as it takes like 4 to have the same sustained burn speed.
So, the Revenant was unique before s-mod bonuses with how it was both a cargo and fuel ship and also had phase field for the sensor radius bonus. However, I feel like the advent of s-mod logistic bonuses have made Revenant a bit redundant. It's a very rare, interesting logistic ship, it should feel cool to get it and make it a mainstay of your fleet for a combat-minded player, but I never care anymore since if I truly want to remain stealthy, I can s-mod Insulated Engines onto my Ox, Atlas and so on. If I want a bit extra fuel, I can s-mod fuel cargo onto my atlas. Stuff like that. I've even started S-modding in Additional Berthing on my Ox ships if I really need that extra crew space.
That made me think it could be nice if Revenant had something extra to make it stick out. What if Revenant was given the Ox's Drive Field Stabilizer hullmod? It could then be used as a special hybrid logistic ship that Atlas, Ox or Prometheus could never do, even with s-mods!
I still think the Revenant's perk is that it is a non-combat cruiser tier phase ship with Phase Field. Phase Field is not the same as simply putting s-mod Insulated Engine Assembly on your logistics ships, given that Phase Field affects the entire fleet, including the base 300 signature that all fleets have. Given only the 5 largest signatures matter, your fleet signature is typically going to be determined by your 5 largest combat ships. Putting s-modded Insulated Engine Assembly on a combat cruiser or capital is typically a loss of potential combat power. Running something like a Doom with Phase Coil Tuning and 4 Revenants (which don't eat into the Phase Coil Tuning benefits) along with 5 combat capitals is going to have a significantly lower signature than 2 Atlas and 2 Prometheus with Insulated Engine Assembly and 5 combat capitals.
Although the Phase Field benefit stacks up to your 5 highest sensor strength phase ships, so getting 4-5 Revenants is typically necessary to get the full benefit.
