So i played an ICE campaign and i have to say i didn't have such a blast in Starsector in a while! This faction give a ridiculous amount of fun to play with. ICE ships are so different yet extremely enjoyable to fly, for the balance i didn't saw anything worth noting. I didn't got the chance to play with the Flashghast and the Pentagram as they were unavailable to the ICE station but maybe they've been resupplied later on, i just bought everything and went to the omnifactory to avoid lengthy travels.
For the frigates, the Spectre standard variant is not that great as a starter ship, the very low range weaponry make it very weak in early frigate knife-fights. Later on as a "ninja" strike frigate against bigger ships though? Much better.
A (very) good starter loadout would be a mauler/ACs combo. A hex AC with a pair of falx beam make a pretty decent support teammate early on as well.
The Nightseer is incredible, while it's a bit weak by itself, it become very scary with at least one support (i used a hex AC Spectre to take down shields). The Nosferatu ray utterly wreck un-shielded targets and with the phase jaunt you can easily dance around the enemy, stealing armor here and there.
The Athame is a bit of a joke ship, at least in the beginning. Later in the game i guess they would make some pretty nasty crewed torpedoes, very niche role but not completely useless.
I'm not sure about the Palantir, the vision it provide is okay and it can keep busy the enemy ship for a while. It's not incredibly useful but for such low cost, i'm not going to complain.
The Seraph however is awesome. Yeah it's just a tug but a tug with frickin' repair drones! Global armor/CR regen is too good to pass, those are the ones that keep your guys alive. Do you know if the drones of several Seraph stack? That could make a fully combat skilled capital ship absolutely unkillable!
For the destroyers, the Soulbane is damn good early to mid-game but very expensive (the Mobius ray add to the cost) unfortunately it felt a bit fragile later on, like most destroyers tho. The Shiekwraith however is much more affordable and tough, i have to say i didn't used it too much in late game so i'm not sure but early on it's very good tank for your fleet, which is a godsend for the fragile ICE frigates. It can't do much more but if you need an early flying shield it'll do the job.
The cruisers are where the funny ones are.
The Eidolon is a nice support carrier but can't brawl like a venture. Also i noticed that standard variant Eidolons have missiles only weaponry and they tend to "hug" their targets, Hex ACs would be good on them but they still tend to go up close and personal which isn't ideal... Later on you can avoid this thanks to the Apocrypha but before you get one of those, it's not perfect.
I'm not that fan of the boomerangs srm on it, mainly because they are srms! I would rather have my Eidolon to stay far away, lobbing lrms at the enemy while its drones and launch bays support the fleet. Same thing apply to the Apocrypha, it is better at a safe range.
The Kelpie is the weirdo of the band, the AI can do weird things with it (cloaking when "eating" an enemy) and can have trouble choosing the right target. For the player however the Kelpie is a monster, in a few seconds you can slaughter everything from a frigate to a capital ship. It's weaker in big battles but in 1v1 it's pretty much invincible.
The Kelpie suffer from its faster phase cloak like the Eidolon, both will abuse it to move to position. Mobility is good but i'd rather want my ships to keep their flux low in case things went too hot, i witnessed a lot my Kelpie/Eidolon charging the enemy with nearly max flux. I think it would be better if their cloak wouldn't make them faster than the passive flux boost.
The Voidreaver is a beast, it's ranked as a cruiser but it work (and cost) more like a capital ship. The twin Mobius rays and the Hypermass driver give it a truckload of damage, because of the nature of the HD i don't really like letting the AI use it but it's an incredible flagship for the player.
For the capital ships, the Apocrypha is awesome. By itself it's barely worthy of being a serious combat ship but the Tactical Ansible hull mod is strong, very strong, too strong? It regenerate the command points and as such give unrivaled mobility to the fleet, you can order whatever you want without being afraid of running out of points. Want that strategic point? Fighter dude, go get it! Enemy fleet is massing in a big blob? Order your fleet to relocate and kite it to death. Want a coffee? Yeah, definitely have a command point for that too.
With this, ICE become the most tactical faction ever, you lure the enemy where you want, you move your ships where you want, it's incredible, it's
fun.
Speaking of luring enemy ships where you want...
Spoiler
You want that sensor array? Come get it!The large mine launcher is brutal. Autofire with Munition AutoFac hullmod and you can lay death trap wherever you want, it's awesome.
I didn't find out how to use the recall teleporter, which would have been very handy to recall my overzealous Eidolon to safety. Sad.
I wasn't that much impressed by the Abraxas though. It's armament is pretty weak and it's not even that tanky, the phase jaunt make it very maneuverable though. I didn't unlocked the heavy armor hullmod, so it may be the reason why it felt a bit fragile. The Nova discharger with Mjollnir combo should make it a beast in 1v1 but i never could get it right... I guess the Abraxas is the kind of capital ship that really become monstrous with high-level combat skills... But otherwise? Not sure.
The Shalom class is basically an oversized valkyrie, without guns, and ship systems. No reason to get this one currently, maybe with SS future updates? I still would have liked to see it in a support role, a bit like the Nomad Oasis.
Not much to say about the fighter wings, they're good, they fill diverse roles. Those bombers are terrifying and looks cool dropping their bombs.
A few little mistakes i noticed. Void Reaver "elete" cruiser, Soul Bane "elete" destroyer. The Mobius ray description name it as a "Mobeus" ray. Finally the Stormwhisp description say it have 2 boomerangs SRMs while it actually have 2 harpoons. Also ICE ships don't have repair cost, they instantly repair themselves between two battles (even in a combat and then pursuit scenario). I guess it make sense given they have all regen stuff and all...
That's it, i think i said it all. Honestly it's currently one of the best mod on the forum to me, it's gorgeous, it's incredibly fun. It's "almost" perfect, yes almost because getting of the outrageous distance to travel to get those ships, i'm still mad at you for this.
Still, good job,
very good job.
