I prefer singular ships as opposed to a fleet where most of my losses are out of my hands because the AI doesn't perceive it's enemies and just gets itself encircled with frustrating regularity. Plus there are some things that annoy me about AI compatriots. The Tempest's drone has a pretty hefty agro range on free roam, probably 3x the range of any typical medium energy weapon, but when a Tempest is engaging something, the drone just floats off to the right or left and allows ships to have their shield arc facing the Tempest and the drone. Even if you pilot the Tempest to have the enemy ship between you and your drone, the drone moves around the size to stay more or less at a right angle. Some triple A grade flanking going on there. Even giving the Tempest six drones at once doesn't fix that. They mostly all just bunch up at one side and a token other drone will float on the other side or next to you. They have a more than generous leash to attack a Tempest's target from any angle but they never do. If I'm taking one ship, my ship, into a fight, then anything bad that happens is completely my mistake or underestimation.
For example, so far, I've been underestimating the Templar bombers who are much more eager to dump their entire payload at once than I remember and Clarents are durable enough that ballistic PD doesn't really dish the damage but energy burst PD burn out after overdoing it on the first couple missiles of the volley. It's making me feel the frustration the AI must feel when they try to wander in range of my ship brimming with Gauss Cannons and HVDs. Shields? Nah, dis is kinetic damage, you're not allowed shields. No shields? Nah, dis is emp damage, you're not allowed weapons. So far, I can either tank the Clarents on my shields and be at half flux before the first Jesuit is in range which doesn't leave me cool enough to dump the damage onto the Templar ships as they come in range. Or, I can tank with my face, which works well in a Neutrino ship because they have so much armour, can easily slap Heavy Armour on, have +20% armour from skills and halved damage for hits that only affect your armour, but that only works once or twice, then it reaaaaally bloody hurts. But as Neutrino are my go-to for everything that puts up gud fites, I figured I'd try other ships against them and everything's come up short. Neutrino just lets me be really cheesy by flooding the battlespace with photon needles and using things like the Quasar on the Norn, or the herpderp emitter on the Unsung. Which still amuses me to this day. DERP launchers and HERP emitters. Just needs a LOL cannon to top it off.
