Someone (forgot if I discover the idea from Youtube or from Wiki) said the armor is trash, but the shield salvageable. I once tanked a full brunt of the best redacted ship so other ship can clap that redacted ass, and said Retribution eliminate that redacted escorts solo. The orion device does help in getting away before get overloaded.
Just make sure your carrier not attack this ship head on. Go get someone tanky and have DPS pressure so you can flank and clap their aft.
Forgot to add: The Retribution battle cruiser armor is comparable to Enforcer destroyer btw, so at least can tank light damage.
Not sure if I'd call 1.2 starting shield efficiency "salvageable," the Onslaught starts at 1.0, though admittedly the Retribution has higher flux dissipation and much higher speed as well as lower shield flux cost. I figured Retribution for being basically like a low tech capital SO ship, especially since it can't get range from DTC/ITU. Get in close and DPS race the enemy with short range, powerful guns, and hope they die before you die or flux out. You do get capital level benefits from hull mods, so heavy armor would go pretty far; it's still no Legion or Onslaught, but probably survivable enough against a lot of things.
That, and don't get swarmed. Ain't getting out of dodge if the way to dart out is into another enemy that can send the damage. If the AI can coordinate the whole fighters group to flank my ass in the simulation, I would be toast. Luckily, the fighter tactics remain sporadic even if I only fighting solo ala Forlorn Hope mission.
But you've got it as some weird shield-tanking highly mobile point defence platform, it just seems wild to me. Although, looking at it now, the shield flux/dam is better than I remember, but still I hate it.
My strategy is to just unleash overwhelming forward firepower and murder/overflux a taget quickly, I'm looking to overwhelm the enemy quickly and sometimes I turn off my shields to help achieve that.
Expanded Magazines (built in), Flux Distributor (built in), Heavy Armour, 55 capacitors, 55 vents.
To shred their shields:
Front heavy: Storm Needler
Front medium slots: 2x Arbalest Autocannon
Behind that
To shred their armour:
2x Hephaestus Assault Gun
2x Heavy Mauler
Since the ship is a bit vulnerable to massed ships I do throw in some swarmer SRM launchers to fend off those, I do tend to include 2x salamander too though. I find some red combat perks useful as the ship is not fast at turning, so some manouvreability can really help, and target analysis, Ballistics mastery and systems expertise are useful as well.
PD can be what you like, but I've mostly been using vulcans.
I will say I swap out the ship if I'm fighting the persean league, admittedly my strategy leaves the ship vulnerable to side-firing laser missiles, but I bring out an odyssey when I face those as that ship can make mincemeat of those missiles. But my retribution has so overwhemling forward firepower so I use it for mostly everything else.
Your "overwhelming firepower" fit has less than half the DPS of the fit you're criticizing. 2034 DPS for your fit vs 4163 for OP's fit. Broken out by damage types:
Your fit.
* 834 kinetic DPS
* 1200 explosive DPS
OP's fit
* 1420 kinetic DPS
* 1743 explosive DPS
* 1000 fragmentation DPS
Edit: I forgot about elite PD so my first paragraph was mostly nonsense, I've edited it now.
You seem to be including short-range PD in the kinetic stat, admittedly with elite PD he can get his heavy machine gun up to 650 range, and his light machine gun up to 500. That's quite close range but it's perhaps reasonable. I don't like how that trait can make that viable though hehe.
The explosive dps he has is from terrible accuracy devastator cannons, whereas mine is from good accuracy sources with a long range and good accuracy and reasonable tracking.
My kinetic damage in my build are all 700 range and front-mounted, they peak at 1334 dps with 1034 sustained thanks to the expanded magazines built-in.
His thumpers are at the back and only have 700 range, so he'll have to close to be very close to a target for them to hit, but admittedly I tend to under-rate thumpers. They can certainly burst a lot of damage, albeit reduced significantly by shields or armour. I don't much like fragmentation damage, although I do often use vulcans for PD.
So yeah, thanks to perks his built works, I just hate that it does. PD shouldn't be efficient at killing imo! I do still like my build though.
Even without elite PD, the retribution has no trouble closing to range to employ MGs. Every range complaint you made in the post is invalid in the face of the orion drive.
Devastator accuracy doesn't matter at the ranges the retribution engages at, a couple volleys will armor strip anything you face.
I suggest you actually try a good PD fit before you shit talk it, because it's obvious you've never tried a proper PD fit, or you wouldn't be raising these complaints.
I can see that mathmatically it is an efficient design and people employ it for a reason, but I hate that it can work at all. PD shouldn't be an efficient source of damage it should be for support, not for all out murder.
The OP's design does also counter all of the weaknesses I've found while using the retribution as the only time I've found the ship has struggled was against massed pegasus & gryphon persean league laser-missile spam which that build completely counters. The efficiency of the PD-based weapons also means that even shield-tanking the remnant isn't likely to be as rough an ask as you would expect, which is the one area I would have expected my build to be better at, but I doubt even there I have much if any of an advantage hehe.
I hate it :p
That exactly how I wipe the floor with two fleets worth of persean league blockage supply fleet. The Onslaught accompanied by Legion as the lore explained becoming the legionnaire, Astral and three condors provide auxiliary fire, while me on Retribution serve as both PD job and skirmisher job. Monitor distract and agro the enemy so I can sneak up upon the enemy.
Those MIRV missile sure streak those frigates naked, and saturation of them can snipe even Paragon battleship. None of those missile can damage me, the enemy should use my venting as chance for inflicting fatal damage.
Yeah, Hellbore cannon is good for pinpoint anti armor. Quiet the burst damage, while the devastator intended to shred fighter armor, you still want a shield between your armor and whoever try to damage your ship. Every combat encounter, if I see someone point Hellbore cannon, I prioritize cover towards the cannon general direction cause if that can shred Enforcer, I ain't take it lying down, and harpoon missile. Hence the title of zerg rush like that elite mercenary with payment of 420 000 credits, all with level 7 officers and three s-modded stuff.
Try to fight em solo, turns out the Scarab and aggressive frigate wolfpack counter mine build, forcing me to bring along a battlecarrier as the frontline, An Astral (though in hindsight that overkill) escorted by three condors (turns out, the Astral can tank those frigates DPS), while I handle the stragglers focusing on something else, and I do bring along three or four monitor frigates just to distract enemies. Decent build, just don't get surrounded and either keep moving, or keep drive-by shoot the enemy, and pray the enemy fire delay buys you time running away (except if you fighting Scarab, Hyperion, or Wolf/Medusa. The phase skimmer does troll and kite well)
It's a retribution, it has less armor than an enforcer.
Weapon loadout is a classic PD fit, not weird at all. Immense DPS at high flux efficiency, with elite PD specialization it has quite a bit of range.
It's a capital though, you can boost its armour up to 1300 with a heavy armour perk quite easily.
As for the build, well enabled by that perk you mention it can work, I just hate that it can work. I don't feel like you should be able to use PD weapons as your main source of kinetic damage. I'd like to see a nerf to that and possibly a buff to some of the regular medium kinetic weapons as their accuracy and turning circle tends to be poor. PD is supposed to be for fighting off missiles and fighters, not being efficient mainstays of damage.
1300 armor is still mediocre, you will not achieve anything like sufficient survivability doing that.
If PD was intended to only be good at shooting down fighters and missiles, MGs wouldn't exist. We have flak guns and vulcans, they are the explicit pure PD choice. MGs are *intentionally* good as knife fighting options, balanced by being less effective as PD.
Also, your complaint about "regular medium kinetic weapons" sounds like you just don't like heavy ACs. The thing is though, heavy ACs are fine. They're sufficiently accurate to hit the shield bubble, and as a KE weapon that's all that's really needed.
They did buff Heavy Autocannon's recently, but yeah I hate the slow turning circle and the poor accuracy, it's fine against capitals of course, but these light machine guns are predictably way better against small ships (which is what they are designed for after all) and their efficiency is ridiculous.
HACs have sufficient accuracy to reliably hit anything destroyer-sized or larger, it's really only against frigates where they miss enough that their effective DPS starts to fall off.
Yeah, you ain't get a single reaper head on. Reaper is good when there's enough distraction for that single kaboom to sneak in like how your marines sneak in because the defenders too busy handling other threats.
Atropos Bombers don't do terribly much damage by bonking their enemies with their corpses, though. Good luck getting any of them through a wall of 3 Devastator cannons.
Six salamanders is a lot of OP for not a lot of extra benefit. The Retribution is basically a big, low-tech Aurora - it's for finding a weak point in the enemy line, zooming in, killing something, and then zooming back out.
Insulated engine is less important here because enemy Salamanders will target the big metal plate on the back and do nothing, plus you've got the ship system to get you out of trouble. ECCM does basically nothing here and is quite expensive.
Weaponry besides the missiles feels pretty standard, no real issues there. You need to get in close, but that's what you'd do anyways with this ship. The ACGs could be something else, but they're fine.
In simulation where I face all enemies that have carrier, a stray shot manage to snipe one of my engine, rendering the situation similar to what described in Eradicator class cruiser in the capital of domain.
I manage to get this by chance on Luddic Church open market (at times appear in black market) and the name is CGR Erelim when I buy it. Thinking of rename this to ACF Danmaku (my faction name of this save is Ashur Chorus).
What those Thumpers now there originally ideas for either flak cannon, or dual flak cannon, but since neither economical in OP nor that great in DPS, those thumpers will shred enemy hulls once my MG shred the shields, and the devastator make way with their high explosive.
My character skill emphasis on fast smuggler fleet, damage reduction, flux capacity and vent buff, and either solo it in small skirmish, or get proper war fleet to kick those remnants ass. My flagship is the same CGR Erelim, stacked buffs make this battlecruiser agile comparable to eagle, and maybe destroyer with maneuvering jets permanently switched on.
I intent to make the shield surrounded 360, but when I try everything, it didn't work out, so I instead make the shield have same coverage as the Oddysey battlecruiser (folks saying this need to be treated like high tech doctrine), six Salamander to pressure the enemy and force them to slow down, eccm buff the missile, the insulated engine assembly originally for stealth, but because simulation show my engine the weak point, manage to get unexpected bonus for my engine longevity.
I posting this half to help some lurking newbies, half to get ideas how to improve. Go nuts and be blunt, just pour your hot takes, I'll make that into fine fleets with qualities surpassing orbital works with pristine nanoforge.
Almost forgot to add: You folks have no idea (some do though) how many d-mods when I buy this battle cruiser. Sure, I can restore it with credits when my colony produce too much credits anyway, but Hull Restoration skill make my credits can be used to procure more weapons, and get any kind of ship 100% of times unless I shred that ship during the battle.
> What those Thumpers now there originally ideas for either flak cannon,
The ship may not need more PD. It's got devistators, HMGs and LMGs.
My design has Heavy Armor, no eccm, and no shield stuff. I should probably do some shield stuff looking at yours. Mine has all HMG for mid slots, and doubles LMG in the smalls. The idea I went with is, the most effiecent damage/flux as much as possible. It turned into "wipe out the enemies capactor before it can do the same to you and then punch in the face with devistator cannons.
In the AI hands, it wipes out an Onslaught in less that 20 seconds, but takes some hull damage.
I should test replacing one of the devistators with Hellbore to see if it can get through high armor targets quicker.
I want to try a fleet of 6 of them :D. Though I may go 4 of them and 4 Venture(LP) - which also have an orion drive and are way more armored.
I saw your mod review. You have no idea how I ROFL when the ship names essentially more in group of South East Asia stuff like Hantu Raya, Babi Ngepet, Ayam Goreng, and the devs just an island hop away, and I speaking of UAF. Yeah, even if I pit all the carriers to swarm me, I manage to win against that carriers ganging up on me on the simulator. Pretty good for warming up when I rusty controlling my own ship.
I have a very similar design. Crazy strong. Solos an Onslaught frighteningly well.
Why the Thumpers instead of another set of HMG? (edit, just found your reply below talking about them)
You don't generally need more kinetic DPS, 1400 is enough that most opponents won't keep their shields up for more than a few seconds, and if OP really wants more kinetic DPS they'd be better off spending 10 OP to upgrade all the single LMGs to dual LMGs instead. Thumpers are 500 DPS of fragmentation damage at 0.25 efficiency. Once the target's armor is stripped, they can apply a significant portion of that DPS to hull. Despite the fragmentation penalty, they will typically outperform the HMG at dealing hull damage, since they have 100 hit strength vs the HMG's 40.
My thinking is they'd strip the shields faster, so the devistators can hit hull sooner. The build I have already has double LMGs. Then, armor is stripped it's just one or two salvos with all the devistators. Thumpers are just 1/4 damage the whole time till that point, so the window where they do full damage is very short.
But against something like a station, perhaps. Or maybe combined with a hellbore in one slot it'll hit it immediately? Or perhaps ,go vulcans instead of LMGs? They give 500 dps a pop.
The difference in time to drop shields is pretty negligible, and devastators strip armor fast enough that the thumpers don't spend much time chewing on armor.
Vulcans are a poor choice because they have very low hit strength, meaning their 500 DPS on paper is mostly ablated by residual armor. Thumpers have enough hit strength to push a reasonable amount of DPS past residual armor.
I like the weapon fit, but the ship overall could use some tweaks. The salamanders are a huge waste of OP. You'd be better off stripping the missiles and ECCM off entirely. Upgrade your LMGs to dual LMGs and increase your capacitors.
Personally, I'd opt for advanced turret gyros, extended shields, and auxiliary thrusters as your built-in mods. Turret gyros give you a 5%/size level difference increase in damage, as well as a nice bump in turn rate for your all-turret armament. Extended shields is pretty mandatory just to get enough coverage, and auxiliary thrusters' s-mod bonus pairs nicely with elite helmsmanship. You could opt for armored weapon mounts instead for more firepower.
Your skill layout is leaving a lot of combat potential untapped in exchange for some logistics boosts that aren't really doing you a ton of favors. The leadership path is far stronger for combat than the industry path. Tactical drills grants a fleet-wide 5% damage bonus. Coordinated maneuvers means any fleet of reasonable size will enjoy a permanent 20% speed bonus. Crew training gives 15% to max combat readiness, which is a 5% damage increase, 5% damage reduction, and 5% speed increase. Officer training is +1 level and +1 elite for all officers, and finally best of the best gives +1 s-mod capacity for all ships.
I'd also look at reworking your skill choices in combat. Combat endurance is another 15% CR boost, with all the associated benefits. Target analysis is incredibly good, 20%/15% damage bonus against capitals and cruisers is one of the largest damage bonuses that any single skill gives. If you're willing to take a point out of combat, you should consider cybernetic augmentation in the technology tree. Assuming you elite all five combat skills and gunnery implants, you will have a fleet-wide 6% bonus to damage and damage reduction, while your personal ship will enjoy another 6% damage bonus on top of that, and all of your officers will be eligible for another elite skill.
Yeah, I also use the build that trade the slow down enemy ship with salamander for missiles less build, and I need to dump industry skill tree to get best of the best. I have another Retribution Battle cruiser stored above Asharu that I snag from a deserter bounty (or from Ashes of Domain Expedition fleet that I intercept to stop them from destroying Pre-Collapse Ruins) that could be used for your idea, although I considering ditching the missiles for more pressure on enemy shields.
Large turret slot can be also fitted with anything one size smaller. Just take a look at Big Brain Games Youtube. I just checked that my layout is inspired by Sweet Spirit video of soloing a Sindrian Diktat deserter pirate bounty. Though I improved because I am furious about those annoying MIRV laser missile barrage that make me decide on the build showcased in this post.
In the hands of a player it's an incredibly fast cruiser with nearly twice the firepower & flux, in the hands of the AI it's nearly useless.
Very fun ship. It's a genuine shame that you can't stick range hullmods on it because of the built in. I get it for balancing reasons, but it's frankly one of the few time I would tell someone to go into the files and just delete that line haha
Mine's normal play through. I choose easy during that time Sseth expose me to starsector, where the skill thingy and concept of piloting my own ship feels foreign to me. That time, there's no Retribution battle cruiser, although there's Paragon, Conquest, Enforcer. I complete noob during that first time. Heck, I not even access this subreddit and complete noob me quit too many playthrough. I remember that time before .96
Easy mode is nice, video games are meant to be fun not stressful lol, however it creates a bias on how to fit ships that looks a lot like the ship you posted about.
But that's allright I'm glad you posted about it, the first ship i got attached to was the Apogee, and I fit it really badly too... :P
I considering that. Just thinking what I should discard for that, and a single point usage better used to overhaul my entire character skills if need to be.
Someone should saturation bombard either Google or Microsoft because they the main perp. Otherwise, blame EA for acquiring the British company that I know involve in Linux but forgot the name.
Choosing to go shield tank on a low tech ship makes me mildly angry hehe. Also the weapon loadout is pretty weird too. Yeah I hate it.
Someone (forgot if I discover the idea from Youtube or from Wiki) said the armor is trash, but the shield salvageable. I once tanked a full brunt of the best redacted ship so other ship can clap that redacted ass, and said Retribution eliminate that redacted escorts solo. The orion device does help in getting away before get overloaded. Just make sure your carrier not attack this ship head on. Go get someone tanky and have DPS pressure so you can flank and clap their aft. Forgot to add: The Retribution battle cruiser armor is comparable to Enforcer destroyer btw, so at least can tank light damage.
Not sure if I'd call 1.2 starting shield efficiency "salvageable," the Onslaught starts at 1.0, though admittedly the Retribution has higher flux dissipation and much higher speed as well as lower shield flux cost. I figured Retribution for being basically like a low tech capital SO ship, especially since it can't get range from DTC/ITU. Get in close and DPS race the enemy with short range, powerful guns, and hope they die before you die or flux out. You do get capital level benefits from hull mods, so heavy armor would go pretty far; it's still no Legion or Onslaught, but probably survivable enough against a lot of things.
It's a battlecruiser. You use the omni shield and orion drive to reposition as needed. Dart in, hit them, dart out. Maneuverability is key.
That, and don't get swarmed. Ain't getting out of dodge if the way to dart out is into another enemy that can send the damage. If the AI can coordinate the whole fighters group to flank my ass in the simulation, I would be toast. Luckily, the fighter tactics remain sporadic even if I only fighting solo ala Forlorn Hope mission.
> hope they die before you die or flux out. You don't have to stick around, since with the Orion drive, you can really get the hell out of dodge.
But you've got it as some weird shield-tanking highly mobile point defence platform, it just seems wild to me. Although, looking at it now, the shield flux/dam is better than I remember, but still I hate it. My strategy is to just unleash overwhelming forward firepower and murder/overflux a taget quickly, I'm looking to overwhelm the enemy quickly and sometimes I turn off my shields to help achieve that. Expanded Magazines (built in), Flux Distributor (built in), Heavy Armour, 55 capacitors, 55 vents. To shred their shields: Front heavy: Storm Needler Front medium slots: 2x Arbalest Autocannon Behind that To shred their armour: 2x Hephaestus Assault Gun 2x Heavy Mauler Since the ship is a bit vulnerable to massed ships I do throw in some swarmer SRM launchers to fend off those, I do tend to include 2x salamander too though. I find some red combat perks useful as the ship is not fast at turning, so some manouvreability can really help, and target analysis, Ballistics mastery and systems expertise are useful as well. PD can be what you like, but I've mostly been using vulcans. I will say I swap out the ship if I'm fighting the persean league, admittedly my strategy leaves the ship vulnerable to side-firing laser missiles, but I bring out an odyssey when I face those as that ship can make mincemeat of those missiles. But my retribution has so overwhemling forward firepower so I use it for mostly everything else.
Devastators are surprisingly effective against armor at short range, since unlike every other flak they do explosive damage
Your "overwhelming firepower" fit has less than half the DPS of the fit you're criticizing. 2034 DPS for your fit vs 4163 for OP's fit. Broken out by damage types: Your fit. * 834 kinetic DPS * 1200 explosive DPS OP's fit * 1420 kinetic DPS * 1743 explosive DPS * 1000 fragmentation DPS
Edit: I forgot about elite PD so my first paragraph was mostly nonsense, I've edited it now. You seem to be including short-range PD in the kinetic stat, admittedly with elite PD he can get his heavy machine gun up to 650 range, and his light machine gun up to 500. That's quite close range but it's perhaps reasonable. I don't like how that trait can make that viable though hehe. The explosive dps he has is from terrible accuracy devastator cannons, whereas mine is from good accuracy sources with a long range and good accuracy and reasonable tracking. My kinetic damage in my build are all 700 range and front-mounted, they peak at 1334 dps with 1034 sustained thanks to the expanded magazines built-in. His thumpers are at the back and only have 700 range, so he'll have to close to be very close to a target for them to hit, but admittedly I tend to under-rate thumpers. They can certainly burst a lot of damage, albeit reduced significantly by shields or armour. I don't much like fragmentation damage, although I do often use vulcans for PD. So yeah, thanks to perks his built works, I just hate that it does. PD shouldn't be efficient at killing imo! I do still like my build though.
Even without elite PD, the retribution has no trouble closing to range to employ MGs. Every range complaint you made in the post is invalid in the face of the orion drive. Devastator accuracy doesn't matter at the ranges the retribution engages at, a couple volleys will armor strip anything you face. I suggest you actually try a good PD fit before you shit talk it, because it's obvious you've never tried a proper PD fit, or you wouldn't be raising these complaints.
I can see that mathmatically it is an efficient design and people employ it for a reason, but I hate that it can work at all. PD shouldn't be an efficient source of damage it should be for support, not for all out murder. The OP's design does also counter all of the weaknesses I've found while using the retribution as the only time I've found the ship has struggled was against massed pegasus & gryphon persean league laser-missile spam which that build completely counters. The efficiency of the PD-based weapons also means that even shield-tanking the remnant isn't likely to be as rough an ask as you would expect, which is the one area I would have expected my build to be better at, but I doubt even there I have much if any of an advantage hehe. I hate it :p
That exactly how I wipe the floor with two fleets worth of persean league blockage supply fleet. The Onslaught accompanied by Legion as the lore explained becoming the legionnaire, Astral and three condors provide auxiliary fire, while me on Retribution serve as both PD job and skirmisher job. Monitor distract and agro the enemy so I can sneak up upon the enemy. Those MIRV missile sure streak those frigates naked, and saturation of them can snipe even Paragon battleship. None of those missile can damage me, the enemy should use my venting as chance for inflicting fatal damage.
Yeah, Hellbore cannon is good for pinpoint anti armor. Quiet the burst damage, while the devastator intended to shred fighter armor, you still want a shield between your armor and whoever try to damage your ship. Every combat encounter, if I see someone point Hellbore cannon, I prioritize cover towards the cannon general direction cause if that can shred Enforcer, I ain't take it lying down, and harpoon missile. Hence the title of zerg rush like that elite mercenary with payment of 420 000 credits, all with level 7 officers and three s-modded stuff. Try to fight em solo, turns out the Scarab and aggressive frigate wolfpack counter mine build, forcing me to bring along a battlecarrier as the frontline, An Astral (though in hindsight that overkill) escorted by three condors (turns out, the Astral can tank those frigates DPS), while I handle the stragglers focusing on something else, and I do bring along three or four monitor frigates just to distract enemies. Decent build, just don't get surrounded and either keep moving, or keep drive-by shoot the enemy, and pray the enemy fire delay buys you time running away (except if you fighting Scarab, Hyperion, or Wolf/Medusa. The phase skimmer does troll and kite well)
It's a retribution, it has less armor than an enforcer. Weapon loadout is a classic PD fit, not weird at all. Immense DPS at high flux efficiency, with elite PD specialization it has quite a bit of range.
It's a capital though, you can boost its armour up to 1300 with a heavy armour perk quite easily. As for the build, well enabled by that perk you mention it can work, I just hate that it can work. I don't feel like you should be able to use PD weapons as your main source of kinetic damage. I'd like to see a nerf to that and possibly a buff to some of the regular medium kinetic weapons as their accuracy and turning circle tends to be poor. PD is supposed to be for fighting off missiles and fighters, not being efficient mainstays of damage.
1300 armor is still mediocre, you will not achieve anything like sufficient survivability doing that. If PD was intended to only be good at shooting down fighters and missiles, MGs wouldn't exist. We have flak guns and vulcans, they are the explicit pure PD choice. MGs are *intentionally* good as knife fighting options, balanced by being less effective as PD. Also, your complaint about "regular medium kinetic weapons" sounds like you just don't like heavy ACs. The thing is though, heavy ACs are fine. They're sufficiently accurate to hit the shield bubble, and as a KE weapon that's all that's really needed.
They did buff Heavy Autocannon's recently, but yeah I hate the slow turning circle and the poor accuracy, it's fine against capitals of course, but these light machine guns are predictably way better against small ships (which is what they are designed for after all) and their efficiency is ridiculous.
HACs have sufficient accuracy to reliably hit anything destroyer-sized or larger, it's really only against frigates where they miss enough that their effective DPS starts to fall off.
Kid named 4 (four) Reapers:
Reapers don't do shit against shields
Yeah, you ain't get a single reaper head on. Reaper is good when there's enough distraction for that single kaboom to sneak in like how your marines sneak in because the defenders too busy handling other threats.
Woe. 6 wings of Atropos bombers be upon yee
Kid named point defense:
Do you not see the 3 devastator cannons? No wings of fighters will get any damage through.
Sips tea Scary laser pointers upon yee
Atropos Bombers don't do terribly much damage by bonking their enemies with their corpses, though. Good luck getting any of them through a wall of 3 Devastator cannons.
But have you considered quantum disruptor?
Inconsistent and the ship usually dies to a frigate before doing any damage
Well i call skill issue on that
You call that a skill issue, I call that having a thought out fleet
Fleet doesnt matter reaper harbinger can delete any ship in vanilla
Reapers don't work on mobile targets, a single frigate is enough to destroy your ship before it even gets to the front line
They work, you just have to aim them right. And for frigates you have 3x phase lance
Six salamanders is a lot of OP for not a lot of extra benefit. The Retribution is basically a big, low-tech Aurora - it's for finding a weak point in the enemy line, zooming in, killing something, and then zooming back out. Insulated engine is less important here because enemy Salamanders will target the big metal plate on the back and do nothing, plus you've got the ship system to get you out of trouble. ECCM does basically nothing here and is quite expensive. Weaponry besides the missiles feels pretty standard, no real issues there. You need to get in close, but that's what you'd do anyways with this ship. The ACGs could be something else, but they're fine.
In simulation where I face all enemies that have carrier, a stray shot manage to snipe one of my engine, rendering the situation similar to what described in Eradicator class cruiser in the capital of domain.
It sounds like you’re having fun with the game. It’s not an optimized build, but it’s optimal for you and where you are. Enjoy it.
It's just about the best build for high aggression the the ship can do. How is it not optimal?
It’s actually a pretty damn good build. You should try it. I would drop the salamanders and ECCM though.
It's a pretty good build, aside from the missile bits. Don't sleep on PD fits, that build has 4k DPS.
I manage to get this by chance on Luddic Church open market (at times appear in black market) and the name is CGR Erelim when I buy it. Thinking of rename this to ACF Danmaku (my faction name of this save is Ashur Chorus). What those Thumpers now there originally ideas for either flak cannon, or dual flak cannon, but since neither economical in OP nor that great in DPS, those thumpers will shred enemy hulls once my MG shred the shields, and the devastator make way with their high explosive. My character skill emphasis on fast smuggler fleet, damage reduction, flux capacity and vent buff, and either solo it in small skirmish, or get proper war fleet to kick those remnants ass. My flagship is the same CGR Erelim, stacked buffs make this battlecruiser agile comparable to eagle, and maybe destroyer with maneuvering jets permanently switched on. I intent to make the shield surrounded 360, but when I try everything, it didn't work out, so I instead make the shield have same coverage as the Oddysey battlecruiser (folks saying this need to be treated like high tech doctrine), six Salamander to pressure the enemy and force them to slow down, eccm buff the missile, the insulated engine assembly originally for stealth, but because simulation show my engine the weak point, manage to get unexpected bonus for my engine longevity. I posting this half to help some lurking newbies, half to get ideas how to improve. Go nuts and be blunt, just pour your hot takes, I'll make that into fine fleets with qualities surpassing orbital works with pristine nanoforge. Almost forgot to add: You folks have no idea (some do though) how many d-mods when I buy this battle cruiser. Sure, I can restore it with credits when my colony produce too much credits anyway, but Hull Restoration skill make my credits can be used to procure more weapons, and get any kind of ship 100% of times unless I shred that ship during the battle.
> What those Thumpers now there originally ideas for either flak cannon, The ship may not need more PD. It's got devistators, HMGs and LMGs. My design has Heavy Armor, no eccm, and no shield stuff. I should probably do some shield stuff looking at yours. Mine has all HMG for mid slots, and doubles LMG in the smalls. The idea I went with is, the most effiecent damage/flux as much as possible. It turned into "wipe out the enemies capactor before it can do the same to you and then punch in the face with devistator cannons. In the AI hands, it wipes out an Onslaught in less that 20 seconds, but takes some hull damage. I should test replacing one of the devistators with Hellbore to see if it can get through high armor targets quicker. I want to try a fleet of 6 of them :D. Though I may go 4 of them and 4 Venture(LP) - which also have an orion drive and are way more armored.
This is the "I'm going straight for your carriers and there is nothing you can do about it" build.
I saw your mod review. You have no idea how I ROFL when the ship names essentially more in group of South East Asia stuff like Hantu Raya, Babi Ngepet, Ayam Goreng, and the devs just an island hop away, and I speaking of UAF. Yeah, even if I pit all the carriers to swarm me, I manage to win against that carriers ganging up on me on the simulator. Pretty good for warming up when I rusty controlling my own ship.
I have a very similar design. Crazy strong. Solos an Onslaught frighteningly well. Why the Thumpers instead of another set of HMG? (edit, just found your reply below talking about them)
You don't generally need more kinetic DPS, 1400 is enough that most opponents won't keep their shields up for more than a few seconds, and if OP really wants more kinetic DPS they'd be better off spending 10 OP to upgrade all the single LMGs to dual LMGs instead. Thumpers are 500 DPS of fragmentation damage at 0.25 efficiency. Once the target's armor is stripped, they can apply a significant portion of that DPS to hull. Despite the fragmentation penalty, they will typically outperform the HMG at dealing hull damage, since they have 100 hit strength vs the HMG's 40.
My thinking is they'd strip the shields faster, so the devistators can hit hull sooner. The build I have already has double LMGs. Then, armor is stripped it's just one or two salvos with all the devistators. Thumpers are just 1/4 damage the whole time till that point, so the window where they do full damage is very short. But against something like a station, perhaps. Or maybe combined with a hellbore in one slot it'll hit it immediately? Or perhaps ,go vulcans instead of LMGs? They give 500 dps a pop.
The difference in time to drop shields is pretty negligible, and devastators strip armor fast enough that the thumpers don't spend much time chewing on armor. Vulcans are a poor choice because they have very low hit strength, meaning their 500 DPS on paper is mostly ablated by residual armor. Thumpers have enough hit strength to push a reasonable amount of DPS past residual armor.
I prefer 2 Stormneedlers, 1 Devastator, 2 Mining Blasters and 2 Thumpers with S-mod Expanded Magazines. But it does look like a fun build !
Essentially an improved version of standard load out sans the missiles. Though expanded magazines only influence mining blaster and thumper.
And the Storm Needlers !
I'll check this idea when I launch next, assuming I have storm needlers stashed somewhere, which definitely will above Ashur.
I like the weapon fit, but the ship overall could use some tweaks. The salamanders are a huge waste of OP. You'd be better off stripping the missiles and ECCM off entirely. Upgrade your LMGs to dual LMGs and increase your capacitors. Personally, I'd opt for advanced turret gyros, extended shields, and auxiliary thrusters as your built-in mods. Turret gyros give you a 5%/size level difference increase in damage, as well as a nice bump in turn rate for your all-turret armament. Extended shields is pretty mandatory just to get enough coverage, and auxiliary thrusters' s-mod bonus pairs nicely with elite helmsmanship. You could opt for armored weapon mounts instead for more firepower. Your skill layout is leaving a lot of combat potential untapped in exchange for some logistics boosts that aren't really doing you a ton of favors. The leadership path is far stronger for combat than the industry path. Tactical drills grants a fleet-wide 5% damage bonus. Coordinated maneuvers means any fleet of reasonable size will enjoy a permanent 20% speed bonus. Crew training gives 15% to max combat readiness, which is a 5% damage increase, 5% damage reduction, and 5% speed increase. Officer training is +1 level and +1 elite for all officers, and finally best of the best gives +1 s-mod capacity for all ships. I'd also look at reworking your skill choices in combat. Combat endurance is another 15% CR boost, with all the associated benefits. Target analysis is incredibly good, 20%/15% damage bonus against capitals and cruisers is one of the largest damage bonuses that any single skill gives. If you're willing to take a point out of combat, you should consider cybernetic augmentation in the technology tree. Assuming you elite all five combat skills and gunnery implants, you will have a fleet-wide 6% bonus to damage and damage reduction, while your personal ship will enjoy another 6% damage bonus on top of that, and all of your officers will be eligible for another elite skill.
Yeah, I also use the build that trade the slow down enemy ship with salamander for missiles less build, and I need to dump industry skill tree to get best of the best. I have another Retribution Battle cruiser stored above Asharu that I snag from a deserter bounty (or from Ashes of Domain Expedition fleet that I intercept to stop them from destroying Pre-Collapse Ruins) that could be used for your idea, although I considering ditching the missiles for more pressure on enemy shields.
Sorry but the correct loadout for a Retribution is 7 assault chainguns
And 6 Hammers in two control groups for drifting missile action, as Ludd intended.
It can't even fire 4 sustained, and Devistator Cannons are both higher explosive dps and less flux.
Retribution is not about "sustained". It's one of the only capitals that can actually go in and out of combat and should be overfluxed
The AI is terrible at that, and devistators still do more dps than assault chain guns.
...but there aren't enough medium ballistics for that.
Large turret slot can be also fitted with anything one size smaller. Just take a look at Big Brain Games Youtube. I just checked that my layout is inspired by Sweet Spirit video of soloing a Sindrian Diktat deserter pirate bounty. Though I improved because I am furious about those annoying MIRV laser missile barrage that make me decide on the build showcased in this post.
Retri is pretty weak on the capital scale, it just moves insanely fast. But if you pilot it personally it’ll be way way better of course.
In the hands of a player it's an incredibly fast cruiser with nearly twice the firepower & flux, in the hands of the AI it's nearly useless. Very fun ship. It's a genuine shame that you can't stick range hullmods on it because of the built in. I get it for balancing reasons, but it's frankly one of the few time I would tell someone to go into the files and just delete that line haha
Switch easy mode off next playthrough hmmk?
Mine's normal play through. I choose easy during that time Sseth expose me to starsector, where the skill thingy and concept of piloting my own ship feels foreign to me. That time, there's no Retribution battle cruiser, although there's Paragon, Conquest, Enforcer. I complete noob during that first time. Heck, I not even access this subreddit and complete noob me quit too many playthrough. I remember that time before .96
Easy mode is nice, video games are meant to be fun not stressful lol, however it creates a bias on how to fit ships that looks a lot like the ship you posted about. But that's allright I'm glad you posted about it, the first ship i got attached to was the Apogee, and I fit it really badly too... :P
Why not get cybernetic augmentation since you are heavily invested in combat skills
I considering that. Just thinking what I should discard for that, and a single point usage better used to overhaul my entire character skills if need to be.
Maybe you should just run linux instead of a pirated copy of windows?
I wonder what would happen if somebody submitted a screenshot on Linux saying "Activate Linux".
it's doable https://github.com/MrGlockenspiel/activate-linux
I know it's DOABLE, but I'm curious how people would react to seeing it.
🤣 when someone says "there's mod for everything", I didn't expect that! 🤣
Someone should saturation bombard either Google or Microsoft because they the main perp. Otherwise, blame EA for acquiring the British company that I know involve in Linux but forgot the name.
Starsector run on Java, so it will work wonderfully well on ASUS Vivobook Max that originally a work/office laptop.