Sunder is all you need, Starsector

HIL just melts them, forgot to use special ability even.
I have mods installed (most what you see is ship and weapon pack) but it is vanilla build,
see it here: • Sunder
This is very weird layout but it somehow works, very well i would say considering it was first try.
Ship and weapon pack: fractalsoftwor...

[@5RndsFFE]

Swap reapers for flare launchers and worry even less about missiles, also use your high energy focus. This only worked on this battle because for the AI it counts as a station defense battle and they won’t stray far from the survey ship.

[@Kuba_K]

Wanted to keep this build vanilla, flares would be nice though, and I forgot to use special ability until the end, i was wondering why ai is less agressive than usual, this explains a lot

[@5RndsFFE]

@@Kuba_K My bad, I forgot flares are modded 😅. Yeah if you try this in a Probe battle with those drones you’ll find that you will get swamped, where as in a station battle the AI will try to hold the line parallel to the station.

[@jehovasabettor9080]

Ha! I've been wondering why the enemy didn't swarm the Sunder as they tend to do. It is a bit too slow to kite properly.

[@Mecceldorf]

Almost sentimental how the rampart immediately charges at you with all piss and vinegar once the mothership is down, becoming the final boss. And they say robots don’t feel.

[@Kuba_K]

Im going to pin that because some people are asking about weird ai, hope you dont mind

[@overdramaticpan]

god i love domain ships they're just 2x4s with engines on the back and 50 different types of guns on the front

[@meltinggoo3272]

My brother in Ludd, you've thrown away 900 heavy machinery. I'm crying and shidding right know

[@theworldendedin2012]

This is like in those kung fu scenes where the hero is outnumbered 100 to 1 and owns them all as they only attack 1 or 2 at a time

[@Kuba_K]

And final ship going from regular fighter to boss battle just because he was last

[@mathekieft5289]

Yeah, high intensity lasers are very strong versus explorium ships, i never tried just using 1 ship, but taking a medium inportance hardest type bounty against these and just bringing a 5 hil radiant is definatly something worth trying

[@phalamy9180]

Btw. If you wanna use automated ships but you don't want to go for a [Redacted] ship, you can go for those massive wall ships you see in the video. They have insane frontal firepower and are only 30 dp. With a fully integrated alpha core they can genuinly gun down Onsaughts in face to face combat. Hell if you build them right they can solo Paragons! It's literally called a "Wall-class Drone" and comes from the mod "Ship/Weapons Pack" A good tactic for building then is to put a makeshift shield generator in their middle section. Because almost all of its guns are on the wingsections, the middle section doesn't actually need much Flux, and since the middle section is naturally focused by enemies and is the only vital part for the ship to live, even the weak makeshift shield makes it 100% more survivable.

[@glennjanot8128]

How many flux vents and capacitors did you add to the ship? Interesting to see two lasers firing constantly and the flux going down ^^

[@Kuba_K]

19 and 0, if you want to check full build and skills link is in description

[@HalIOfFamer]

Lasters are very efficient

[@potatoesstarch2376]

... the ai fired a mirv at your claws. Damn that last one was PISSED

[@PasDeBrasFR]

Unshielded toasters don't count as enemies at this point my dude.

[@Kuba_K]

Thats why i put them on thumbnail, this is more or less just HIL against shieldless ships showcase

[@lukedufaur5368]

I have to wonder whose idea it was to make the High Energy Laser blue instead of an evil red colour. It should definitely be red.

[@kadingirlycaon6682]

I'd try this out with an Odyssey, 2 HIL and a Hurricane gives it enough firepower to shoot down Survey ships with absolute ease. Also being the fastest Capital with decent flux stats you're pretty safe from harm with proper positioning.

[@Kuba_K]

You can use Apogees too, with omen escort since they are slow

[@JustOneEarth]

Odyssey is my favorite vanilla capital for all of these reasons.

[@Maethendias]

high intensity is literally a derelict hardcounter its so funny

[@kiraaurlius3022]

This is less of a Sunder showcase and more of a High Intensity Laser vs shieldless ships showcase. Deadass I feel like this Sunder might have problem with any ships with shield cause I don't see any kinetic weapons on it, could be wrong.

[@Kuba_K]

Well thats why i put them on the thumbnail, but you are right that laser is most effective against derelic drones and maybe some low tech stuff

[@kiraaurlius3022]

@@Kuba_K yeah, sorry for going on a tangent. I guess it's traditional by now in starsector community to be criticize at every build they see on the internet lol. Everyone is a veteran scientist in this game apparently lol

[@andreykutsyh9581]

i tried to do a similar thing with a hyperion with 3 ion pulsars and i managed to get everything but 1 of the huge wide ships. it couldnt kill me due to lacking weapons at the back but i eventually ran out of CR and everything failed leading to a sad death

[@Lesson333]

I never understood why the automated defense ships have no shields... Were shields not a thing back then?

[@Vsolid]

I think the idea is they were meant to be cheaply produced and disposable

[@tereninsecundus6084]

Both - Explorarium drones are very, very old tech, think early Domain low-tech age. Same reason many low-tech ships still in service don't have shields or is equipped with an early low-quality one, ant TPC's on Onslaughts are very early-stage energy weapons. These drones are dangerous, but still mass-produced from automated survey-vessels from a much earlier time... hence also the Gamma-level AI cores. Relics from a long-passed age, indeed.

[@Wolf-Nyan]

Neat to see two wall drones in one fight. My ENTIRE sector had zero (only 2 motherships as well). A shame too since I was looking to see if I could use it as I was doing a drone ship run. Ended up discovering ramparts are actually.. really good..? Gamma, polarized, impact, damage con. S-Mod heavy armor, add armored weapon mounts. 2,000 base armor + the -25% from skill and whatever the polarized % is. Makes them quite tanky. Squall + 2 hespeastus/heavy auto worked well enough but I’m sure there are better loadouts for them. Those 4 angry bricks stayed with me as my frontline ships all campaign, even standing up to hegemony kill-fleets

[@Kuba_K]

I heard wall class is very good, i need to recover and try it too. For ramparts, idk maybe they got buffed but last time when i recovered them they were pretty weak, dominator did better in everything, Squalls are no comparsion to 3x Sabots, and dominator has shields and more pd so its much more tanky

[@Wolf-Nyan]

@@Kuba_K oh yeah dominator is definitely better, I was just surprised how well they did considering I went into the drone run going “this is going to go absolutely horrible until I get remnant stuff”.

[@Kuba_K]

@@Wolf-Nyan I checked on the wiki, apparentely rampart is for 15 dp now, pretty sure it was for 25, but now it is actually really good, you can deploy omen escort for extra pd and you will still have some dp to spare

[@Wolf-Nyan]

@@Kuba_K yeah, 15DP when I used them. For the price and what they can wield, not that bad. don’t gotta worry toooo much about flux either since none of it is going to shields. the rest of them are pretty ehhh though it feels. All PD and made of paper (rip berserker. All those guns but dies immediately). Sentry is nice, 3 small missile ankle biter for 3DP. Enough OP for 3 salamanders, some torpedoes… or two antimatter SRMs. (Or just 3 harpoons/Sabots like a sane person) downside is the 50 supply recovery cost of one dies, and they die if looked at wrong.

[@BobfromSydney]

Which version is this? I'm feeling sad inside whenever I see 9 sub-munitions come out of the MIRV.

[@Kuba_K]

0.95.1 i think

[@brother_van3409]

Where do I purchase this game and is it worth getting into if I love RTS?

[@Kuba_K]

You can buy it on official site: fractalsoftworks.com/ its not much of rts, ai will handle itself its more about fleet management and explorarion, you can always use someones key to try it out, but its definitely worth buying to support developer since game is great

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

You can try it out for free wink wink. It is very cool and you can choose after playing if it is a studio you would like to support. I warn you it can be really addictive.

[@mosesracal6758]

If you download via the alternative download link, it doesnt require a CD key. Great game and great developers, worth trying and worth buying

[@TheyCalledMeT]

@@JohnSmith-ox3gy the price is so low .. there's no risk in simply buying it directly, 15 bucks iirc

[@grahamelliott9506]

sunder is OP its also like... the only ship besides a monitor that I feel I can pilot and it not be worse than the AI piloting my ship :3

[@Kuba_K]

Sunder is great fire support ship, i wouldnt say op but definitely very good one

[@pasttenseofdraw5791]

What builds you like for ai sunders?

[@grahamelliott9506]

@@pasttenseofdraw5791 high intensity and grav beams with salamander x2 as a damage suppliment with utility - at about a 2:1 ratio with tachyon grav fits ... i prefer to control the tachyon grav setup myself so I can selectively EMP targets as the AI isn't too worried about strategic value of doing that, but will still use it somewhat effectively if you give it one or two fits like this i'm torn between harpoons or more salamanders in the second setup ; either works fine, but you can force salamanders linked auto-fire and get good mileage where you rely on harpoons to be used and timed effectively, double salamander setup lets the sunder do exactly what it should which is sit back and apply constant damage at range both fits get the beam weapon range upgrade mod, and a gunnery perk captain if possible, and link/auto all beams together.. use energy weapon specialty on blaster / pulse fits (like frigs and some cruisers) you use these sunders as escorts for powerful brawlers or anchors, or just a front line that can survive and rotate with each other - or just have the sunders be your core back line supporting a survivable front line : can be frigs and/or cruisers up front, you can even hop in a monitor and tank it yourself if you don't have a good front line built up yet

[@Aereto]

@@pasttenseofdraw5791 Currently in use: SO Sunder with Autopulse Laser and Ion Pulser as a burst kill platform to support LP Brawlers and Lashers, used only for Officers with Energy Weapon Mastery, Gunnery Implants, Helmsmanship, Target Analysis, and Combat Endurance. Maxed capacitors as SO doubles vent rate, and instead trying to handle both its weapon fire and incoming fire. With Coordinated Maneuvers and Wolfpack Tactics, I only need Sunder per flabk as they are built to be glass cannons when 2 LP Brawlers and Lashers with Officers are the combat regulars while multiple Monitors with Support Doctrine usually arrive last to relieve overextending ships and give enemy ships something to shoot at. I command an Astral supporting a Support Doctrine Paragon in the center to establish space control and either use Hammer and Anvil to send the Paragon straight into the highest threat among capitals while the flanks cut down ships that broke off from the cluster while securing flanks to avoid the center from being surrounded. It is built with Operations Center, ECM Package and Nav Relays to provide redundant support and keep fleet buffs at cap if either flanks take casualties. Great in bounty hunting except for the most numerous due to reduced operating time, only as good as lower end of High danger Ordos in consistent results, but can take on an Ordo with 2 Radiants with good tactics but unlikely to be done without casualties. 3 is pushing it as all 3 task groups are stretched too thin and liable to be picked off by one or two Radiants that are not under pressure.

[@crimsonlanceman7882]

i like the converted hangar claw. Very bold and creative

[@KFishproductionII]

I play with 5 ramparts, and sunders tend to wreck them, so I support them with a swarm of vanguards Sunders tend to wreck them as well, but they cant handle more than one at a time.

[@DraconiusDragora]

I have not seen the A.I that passive, usually I just get charged and blown up XD

[@kingfishcl8083]

Sunder is all you need... against unshielded remnant trash okkkkkk 🗑

[@Kuba_K]

You literaly can see it on the thumbnail

[@bombidil3]

I couldn't imagine what it would feel like as one of the crew. Makes me think that I would love a Battlestar Galactica-like book or TV series following the crew of a ship set in the Starsector universe.

[@tylertheultimatebadass87]

Man, at the end I was like "Turn around! TURN AROUND!" Fortunately those Mjolnirs didn't tear you up

[@Lunar137]

I love how 2 of the AI is just a giant f*cking wall of guns!

[@hanfei6871]

Domain ships are just meat for energy ships... satisfying EMP hits

[@Samwise_01]

Havent played in a while but next to the oddysey the sunder was definitely one of my favorite ships to pilot

[@hideshisface1886]

Sunder is good - fast, agile, immense firepower. Good player ship candidate - but AI is a bit dodgy with it - it is a bit too fragile for AI use, at least from my experience - unless you assign every Sunder a monitor escort - at which point, they become far more viable.

[@jonber9411]

If i tell my monitors to escort, they linger behind the ship escorted. If i tell them to engage they will not close distance. Do i need to assign officer with aggressive skill set to force them to tank? I gave them some simple 400-600 range weapons.

[@hideshisface1886]

@@jonber9411 Aggressive commander always helps if you want a ship to be close to the enemy - and close range weapons. Basic AI is generally very careful and hates exposing itself to more fire than it needs to, even in ships designed for it - it will generally try to sit at maximum range of the longest ranged weapons it has at its disposal. And for monitors - it is often best to leave them with no weapons except built-in flaks, mostly for flux reasons. Escorted ship should ideally have better range for it to work - so if you go with sunder - main weapon such as Tachyon Lance is probably your best bet. Also - do not count on it working perfectly - AI is still very prone to being distracted. Honestly, that is why I started using fleet made mostly of Eagles and Falcons - AI actually works pretty well with them with long range loadout - don't expect fast fights with this, but they usually WILL whittle enemy down... eventually. That is why I usually throw an Eradicator and pair of Herons to deliver the punch if needed and force the enemy out of stalemate.

[@jonber9411]

@@hideshisface1886 Thanks for the clarification. I started to think i was incompetent. I noticed the same about Eagles and Falcons. Generally i find the AI to handle somewhat beefier destroyers or lighter cruisers with a good mix of long range weapons the best. I play it modded, but i right now try to fight with vanilla ships from low to mid tier. Sometimes when i want to try to keep my bigger ships in force together, and not stray of alone i tried using escort between them. But most often, the ships escorting even if equipped with long range, lingers behind. Its quite frustrating. Also bigger ships sometimes tend to be the most suicidal, rushing into an arc of enemy ships with burn, gunz ablaze only to realize the inc fire to intense and starting to back off. All of the sudden you biggest ship has lost half health and sits back venting. The AI is very clunky. But i guess it simulates somewhat good, the difficulty of controlling a fleet. The eradicator is a ship i have yet to try, i will look into using them as mainstay? Replacing hammerheads?

[@hideshisface1886]

@@jonber9411 Starting from the back. I use Eradicators as sort of hammer of my fleet... they are more than tough enough to work as anvil as well. It tend to gravitate towards midline ships, but for Eradicators, I make an exception. Basically - it is almost as well armoured as Champion, and it is fast and very well armed. You have 3 medium ballistic and something like 7 small ballistic hardpoints (with 3 of them in a front arc) and 5 missile hardpoints. So you have decent freedom in how to outfit that beast. Basically - what I personally do with Eradicators is 3 railguns in frontal arc to mess up enemy shields. 1 Hypervelocity driver in medium slot for even more anti-shield power. 2 heavy maulers against hull. Some cheapo point defense. And missile slots with whatever I can fit - I like some salamanders and harpoons. This setup keeps enemy very nicely suppressed, while still having enough anti-armour firepower to wreck ships with shields down. You can also go with 3 railguns and 3 heavy mortars - cheap setup, but works well and has very consistent range - good at exploiting gaps. Or you can go with safety overrides - assault chainguns and needlers - this thing will wreck faces, but will also die a lot, so you will need perks to keep it healthy. Or a fleet made completely out of them. As for Eagle - 2 hypervelocity drivers, 1 heavy mauler and 2 graviton beams and 1 ion beam tends to do the trick. Does not allow anything get into range with its shield intact - and if it gets brave - it will get chipped away by beams - with enough weapons disabled by ion beam that Eagle's own shield will hold long enough. As for keeping AI together - instead of giving them order to attack, try to give them order to hold certain position - that should, for the most part keep them tethered in relatively coherent formation and will avoid overextending, until you feel you tipped the scales in your favour enough to give "all in" order. AI is generally quite aggressive, so it will come to you.

[@jadenikole]

Cool video but the domain drones are so weak I think someone could probably solo what you just did with a kite if you gave them long enough. probably run out of CR first

[@Kuba_K]

Nah not this one, they have to much firepower and range to get close, it could be possible with tempest or idk afflictor, but still you would run out of cr

[@YGG44]

The ai busy spreading out capturing capture points while they could easily won if they all go together 😂

[@Kuba_K]

thats ai for you

[@atransarcticfox]

domain era ships are proof that quality > quantity

[@odstwingman]

What mod gives you the visual effects on destroyed ships and shield impacts?

[@Kuba_K]

Graphic lib

[@TheyCalledMeT]

huh, what visual effect exactly are you talking about? i play vanilla rn and didn't really notice edit: oh this one? 10:13

[@Kuba_K]

@@TheyCalledMeT yes, it changes explosion, no more flashbangs :), and it adds some cool visual effects to shields and damaged ships

[@johnqsmith7253]

This is more a tale of a 1000 range 500 dps laser than a specific ship. Sunders are awful. A hammerhead could do all this and have better PD and shielding, and actually be able to deal with shields, since if any of these ships had shields this Sunder wouldn't have a counterplay

[@Kuba_K]

Nah, it has too little dps to do this, and sunder is only destroyer capable of mounting HIL

[@Cx10110100]

needlers can get through shields though (and deter fighter-bombers)

[@HalIOfFamer]

This but dire wolf destroyer from some mod

[@kalgeriax1016]

Damn how people so good in Sunder, here I am can't even fight because my shield gets overload.

[@gnarrlly]

thats insane good job man

[@digitalizedmind6784]

next time someone defends shield shunt send them this video

[@Pilvenuga]

Shield Shunt has its uses against [Redacted]: as long as you have enough PD to deal with Reaper Torpedoes, an S-modded Shield Shunt gives you a good armor buffer on heavily armored ships, while freeing up flux use for weapons to break the enemy shields. It's not like your ships will be winning the flux battle vs them when shielded.

[@xzardas541]

Fancy shmancy laser weapons, real men do it with 5 mauler Enforcer.

[@TheyCalledMeT]

dang your fighters die like flies and barely have some action, really woth taking them with you?

[@Kuba_K]

Idk i was just trying out this layout, i didnt expect it to actually work first try

[@midnightdragon67]

Thanks I'm stealing that build

[@Kuba_K]

No reason to do so though, it was just made with whatever i had in cargo, it can really be done better if you have right weapons

[@LordDivine1]

Awesome :)

[@archiethedog4515]

lol dude that last ship was PISSED

[@Stonecargo21]

I wonder how well the AI plays if I put a cautious officer in it

[@motog6436]

Got a bit cocky at the end there

[@Kuba_K]

yup

[@DCdabest]

Big Laser on Little ship

[@anthonychehab1847]

Good job dude what's what i call elite

[@johngojcevic8731]

Why claws though?

[@Kuba_K]

additional stuff for missiles to focus on, also some emp

[@jamesmortimer4016]

What´s wrong with the AI? It´s like they don´t even want to shoot at you

[@Kuba_K]

Idk, they didnt shot me because they were out of range, and someone said they were so passive because they tried to stay close to mothership

[@elias5804]

Now do it with a kite

[@Kuba_K]

Well, this might be doable actually

[@MrAbraham119]

Name that ship chocolate cuz it darn sure aint vanilla

[@Kuba_K]

It is???

[@pasttenseofdraw5791]

What're some good builds for ai sunders

[@Kuba_K]

Autofit is ok

[@CD-vb9fi]

Y you no use High Energy Focus? You are using energy weapons... it would have made it quicker!

[@Kuba_K]

Yes i forgot agout it, that was first try i wanted to see if its even possible

[@CD-vb9fi]

@@Kuba_K Yep, you definitely left a smoldering hole in those ships...

[@juniormint5065]

I just notice the enemy ships don’t use shields. I know the ai are a lot more persistent in hit and run when they can hide behind shielding

[@Kuba_K]

They dont have shields

[@juniormint5065]

Yes I know they don’t have them. The point is that without shields the ai spends more time trying to protect themselves plus they are more vulnerable to burst attacks. A shield would give them a good buffer at least and make the ai group up more persistently

[@gamerplays5131]

@@juniormint5065 They have a.i. cores installed in them, A.I. officers are hyper aggressive and don't care about safety and will try to dish out damage whenever possible.

[@juniormint5065]

That’s my point. Makes them easy to pick off

[@klortoly497]

Ok, now try paragon

[@Kuba_K]

Nah

[@johngojcevic8731]

Do you have shuttles for the support fighters?

[@Kuba_K]

What shuttles?

[@johngojcevic8731]

@@Kuba_K recovery shuttles. Obviously your rich enough to handle fighter pilot losses, so maybe not

[@Kuba_K]

@@johngojcevic8731 oh those, no i didnt have them usually i try to go with bombers or fighters without pilot, and here it would cost too much op to put it on sunder

[@joykillz7431]

Damn, are the blokes you engaged with even comparable?

[@Kuba_K]

Idk its like pirate armada maybe

[@joykillz7431]

@@Kuba_K Man, the moment you blew three ships with that dinky lookin corvette lookin ship, (No idea as to if thats what it is or not) I just knew you probably had them outclassed tech wise.

[@xzardas541]

derelics are THE weakest enemy in the game, no shield, slow, with mostly basic crappy weapons, they only pose danger to realy slow ships.

[@joykillz7431]

@@xzardas541 so essentially all you need are some decently shielded corvettes with a few weapons of moderate power and they're done.

[@xzardas541]

@@joykillz7431 I was clearing them with bunch of tempests. Derelicts have decent armor and all weapons set forward so if retarded corvete decides to atack big ones from the front it may die to firepower but anything fast with decent shield like tempest or wolf should have no problem.

[@hal900x]

Explorium is from a mod?

[@Kuba_K]

No but this wide ship from 1:25 is, and its only non vanilla ship there + some weapons ai is using

[@hal900x]

@@Kuba_K Then I guess I need to progress the main story more instead of just expanding my empire.