I have to leave momentarily, but i'd like to say that the mace does make it rather easy. I'm a little flustered by the hardpoints with such painfully wide arcs. Maybe use turrets or make it a narrower arc. With the flak at the back it gets knocked out by salamanders too.
I've noticed that too. The hardpoints arc is 45 degrees. I'm going to reduce that to about 25 degrees or less. Other than that the hardpoints work well, I think? Especially in a Needler/Mauler combo. Not sure what you're saying about the Flak gun in the back. Do you mean that Salamanders knock down the hardpoints in the front, because the Flak can't stop the Salamanders? The Flak can take down missiles just before they reach the front of the ship, unless the missiles are too fast. Also note that you do not have to put a Flak there if it doesn't work well for you. Slap a couple of missile launchers in the front and focus your main firepower around the aft section. That works too.
Thanks for the comments.
Hardpoints are good because they take more damage to offline, and they lose accuracy from firing slower. 25 degrees may be a little wide still, but will be much more manageable. The mauler & needler combo is pretty devastating to little ships, and i can kite an enforcer to death with it. Good loadout.
The flak is nearly unable to hit salamanders with the green starting crew. This is problematic because once one hits, it knocks the flak offline, and usually two of the vulcans too. Then it opens you up for a salamander parade which will be enough to actually offline your engines. Very dangerous for this ship.
The nearest analogous ship is probably the hammerhead. This ship actually has less firepower because it has drones instead of accelerated ammo feeder. It is also slower, and has less shield coverage. Though for the stated purpose it is does a very good job. Starting out with a cruiser shaves at least an hour off my normal startup routine. I imagine this would also be a very good anti-frustration feature for a new player too.
I haven't tried any of the new increased op versions of prior ships yet. I'll try them out when i'm better rested.