How To Survive Nukes: Don't Let Them Launch XD
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Welcome to Episode 9 of my Cosmoteer Let's Play! Ever wanted to manage your own starship? How about building and upgrading it too? And what about more than one ship, your own fleet even? Cosmoteer has it all and more!
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3rd party music attribution:
Music from filmmusic.io
By Kevin Macleod (incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (creativecommons...)
End screen background music - "Frost Waltz"
End screen & character art:
Jackie Musto - www.kayandp.com/
I like to think that instead of the ship just magically floating backwards it’s actually some crew with fire extinguishers on the outside of the ship propelling it backwards.
That's beautiful
As absurd as it seems, if we could safely expose a portion of our body to space, anything we expel away from us would propel us.
Thus, a bunch of crew could line up along the aft, drop trow and moon the enemy, flatulate in their general direction, and it would actually propel the ship away. Albeit at a VERY slow trajectory, but it would generate thrust.
Wall guarding Frenchmen in particular would do a great job at this, heh.
@@danielhomant2832 There's a LoveDeathRobots episode where an astronaut gets separated from her ship and she - after some additional steps - throws away one of her arms to get back to the ship.
Brutal, but effective.
Well, the ships probably have built-in gyro devices and/or RCS thrusters, which game simply doesn't display, but is left up to imagination.
In a past changelog it was mentioned that cockpits have thrust equal to one small thruster
I've played the game a long time ago.
As somebody who lives where there are fire ants, and has fallen/rolled through a fire ant hill... Can confirm that "Fire Ant" is a great name for a fighter.
I envy your ability to manage more than one craft. My brain gives up after that.
slow motion really helps
One big ship. Easier to manage. I’ve always been bad at micromanaging though and its gotten worse with age.
I haven't been watching with full attention but I don't think the firefly has actually done anything helpful yet. Unfortunately that was my experience with multiple ships too
@@benja_mint With multiple ships, it's all about "specializing" them. If I ever employ "fighters", it's largely for "distraction" purposes or to target rear thrusters of bigger ships. The "distraction" helps to turn stations to expose their most vulnerable bits so my big weapons can get easy wins. The "target rear thrusters" of ships is helpful for immobilizing or outright destroying larger ships so you can maneuver better with your big ship.
If you're just looking for sheer damage output, then I wouldn't use "fighters". I'd just make copies of your big ship. If you're going to make copies of your big ship, then I would just create two other massive ships specialized for building those big ships: A Miner. A storage ship. You can typically just jack some space stations and retrofit them as ships for the purposes of mining and and storage. This allows you to build copies of your big ship.
@@XxTaiMTxX yep at some point i got further in the game and learned the same thing. two copies of my main ship worked super well right up to level ~18 but anything small/medium just died straight away or didnt do enough damage to be worth the micromanagement
Wonderful, as ever. I especially love the names you've chosen.
I'd love to see a little "defender" class ship that was just shields and point defense. Send him up into battle to take the brunt of the weapons fire. You could call it the pillbug or isopod. No idea if such an idea would work, though.
You can save fleet formations, and I was thinking the same thing! A couple smaller "destroyer" sized craft to flank the Scarab with nothing but a large complement of point defense, some armor and shields. The fleet orders could have them take up positions outside of the arc of the beam, but let them intercept a lot of fire. Definitely give them lots of thrusters so they can be nimble forward and backwards
Could also just call it Roach or Cockroach
@@wombatgirl997 yes though the other name that would be possible is waterbear (waterbear might be convincing enough ad an insect because illustrations and microscopic views of it shoe it with 6 leg like things)
Solenopsis Invicta... now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Since Robocraft is how I found this channel more than 8 years ago, I APPROVE!
A fun little tip when designing ships, is that you can use the 2*1 faded diagonals to make it look like the ship has a slope on it. If you want a sharper slope, the corner fade also works. I love doing the painting. I'm currently on my third system in my own playthrough, with three ships and painting the ships is one of my favourite things to spend my time on. I'm currently struggling with crew capacity, as I can't hire any more crew and I need about 15 more in order to get all of my fleet fully capable
Yeah crew is my biggest struggle too.
@@Aavak Admittedly I always use the setting that gives you 33% more crew, under the advanced options tab. You can actually change it mid game!
@@firninarcheron1462 That sounds extremely helpful but personally I would feel like it's cheating if I did that in my main game, but I may try that in a side save just for fun. Thank u for pointing that out.
Next time you plan to dismantle a ship, don't do it via mining laser because you're losing massive amounts of resources. Dekonstruct the ship in the build menu and leave nothing but the bridge and an airlock for the captain, only than abandon the ship.
I think we all feel nostalgic for old Robocraft from time to time.
Every time you highlight a group of blocks and then use the cut command, it makes me want to tell you "If you just left click on it to pick it up it'd be easier" lol
And now you have!
Thanks for choosing the name.
I found you can click on the ship's direction markers while zoomed in to select another of your ships.
Speaking of Robocraft, this series and game itself is bringing back a lot of those same feelings i had for Robocraft when it first launched (cant say the same for today) always cant wait for the next episode.
@@wombatgirl997 Alright, which one of us is the clone? Because that was also my favourite gameplay (minus the flipping because heavy boi)
Hyped to see something like a missile/torpedo boat. Such a great series!
I'd like to suggest for your next diagonal ship to place the forward thrusters towards the front of the ship and the reverse thrusters towards the rear of the ship (all facing outwards) so that the ship can essentially rotate in place and have full thrust while allowing them to be protected by armor on the front and rear, where they're generally more likely to be attacked from. Plus it'd make it easier to create more pleasing shapes for the fore and aft of the ship since you wouldn't need them to have a super vulnerable rear end full of thrusters and such.
So, giant inward facing contained thrust bloom in an X config? Could be iconic if nothing else... 😎
@@nazaxprime "All facing outwards"
@@zarnox3071 Well, where's the fun in that?
:P
So, if the engine is facing outward, the exhaust is facing inward. Note that the fwd thrusters placement at the front means they must exhaust to the rear, and the rear... Well, I think you see the connundrum? Also, can't have them armored with the exhaust exposed. 🤔
Source: The NDI Tech that put the F14 fleet to bed for the USN.
😂
@@nazaxprime I think by "facing outward" they meant "exaust facing outward". But I can be wrong.
P.S.: I aswell do have a cursed letters on my keyboard: И, Я, З, Ь
Something I've noticed. Thrusters only work about 50% for diagonal ships. It makes sense since they are thrusting at a 45% angle of their trajectory. Much better for maneuvering since the thrust is split between forwards and sideways. Only problem is you need double the thrusters anyway to get the same speed.
With regards to the hyperdrive, I always put a small 2x2 storage next to each drive dedicated for hyperium storage also the closer it is to 100% the more hyperium you save with each jump.
Recommendation: Split the Scarab in half vertically, and add enough space down the central firing column line to have a second beam exit from a secondary prism, and have two ion beams that are each just 175% damage (total 350% damage) instead of merging those two to end up with one beam of 306% damage.
Indeed, I hold the same sentiment regarding beam stacking.
@@nazaxprime He's upgraded to two 306% beams merging into one right now, but has plans to split them into two 306% beams, which is even better, so I think you'll enjoy watching further!
@@KainYusanagi good to hear. Before focus crystals, I would concentrate beams by placing one in front of another with just enough offset to provide clearance... Those were the days. 😎
The personell routing and space requirements were difficult, but worth the trouble, even if it required piloting micromanaging. Now, I'll likely rebuild it, but it's so much better having beam tracking, I doubt it will be much more than meme worthy. 😆
Just fyi if you accidentally split a enemy ship in half you can transfer crew to both halves and repair them. It gives you two new ships. This is very nice of one of your ships gets split in half, just repair both and magically have 2 ships.
as much as i love the laser beam scarab, a ship with a railgun or missiles would also be very cool. the railgun looks amazing as well, the shots look like straight from command and conquer tiberian sun, and i love those visuals very much
Thanks for shouting me out, honestly didn't expect that and it made my day.
More than welcome :)
Shoutouts from our very dapper Aavak are always nice!
I agree with missile ship because having a flyby ship that hits with missiles could soften up targets for the scarab after the fireant lowers the Shields or possibly a good sized ship that has cannons all to one side to basically side fire into enemy ships and bases while it goes around them hitting from all sides. I suggest putting booster thrusters in place of the ones on the fire ant in the back to get it at great speeds while using the small corner thrusters to give the needed backwards thrust and turning.
@Aavak scammer sending messages and acting as if they are you here
Consider ways to shift the reverse thrust on your diagonal ship on the same engine room as your normal thrust. Get the bonus and free up forward space for armor or weapons
I've been playing the game for a while now and I've done the same as Aavak. I've got the main ship with all the weapons, a mining transport ship, and I've got 2 fighters. I find enemies go for the big main ship leaving my fighters alone which I use to get round behind them to take out weakly defended cockpits. I'm thinking of a scout next. Tiny but able to outrun anything, used for exploring.
Daaaaaamn!!! That mirror mode tip just blew my mind!
Glad the boost thrusters worked out! I liked how you used them.
Something to consider about using only boost to reverse, it will give you higher top speed but not average speed as taking all regular engines away could significantly increase the time before they come back online after boost ends.
You could put a reactor on each side next to engines and a bunk dedicated to powering the engine room to help with this (so crew wait there then bring power decently fast (but not as fast as if they were already doing it)).
What's mostly happening now I think is power is still being delivered during boost to run the other thrusters, but when boost ends and the guy drops it off the power goes into the boost thruster instead (engine room distributes power to thrusters with lowest power level 1st). So, your boosters can quickly repower and warm up normally.
If you take away the normal thrusters, worst case the crew tops up the other thrusters that aren't really used to go backwards during the boost then go back to their bunk or to another job, boost ends, then crew has to walk to reactor, charge power pack, walk to the engine room and finally drop of the power which could be a considerable delay where you're dead in the water so to speak and danger is inexorably drawing closer!
Depends on what you're trying to fly away from too. If it's a ship with a lot of boost thrusters to quickly close more boost will help you, but I suspect such ships might catch you anyway. If it's just a ship with can sustain high speed I think you won't be able to keep your distance with all boost for long.
You could also try replacing the large thruster with a huge one to or that and also add a 2nd boost so there's 3 big engines!
If you're gonna kite with the Scarab I think an EMP missile on the side or back would be a nice addition to give it a way to penetrate shields. Also, perhaps railgun instead like someone suggested (if you can afford the parts), or split it, don't combine the ions for more dmg (also suggested) and put a reactor on each side instead.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good Luck!
I really like your ship designs. Very practical and pretty.
nostalgia robocraft... good nostalgia right there
Just when I think the day can’t get any better, cosmoteer from Avaak drops!
oh man, the Solenopsis Invicta tickled a special nostalgic nerve for me. Robocraft was when I subscribed to the channel, and it was worth every minute since.
Hey Aavak. I just wanted to say thank you so much for picking "Hercules" as the name for the DPR2. I've only just recently found your channel, and I already adore you and your content, and the community that comes with.
Welcome to the channel ^^
I hope you're ready to discover and binge watch a lot of Aavak's older series!
@@BalthazarB2 Oh I am.
Oh this is an absolute tease! I am at work and can't watch yet, so this will have to be a treat for later. The sound of nukes entice me to watch!
17:54 You could also - if you wanna get really fancy - use one disrupter to shoot at each of the lasers and use your lasers to shoot at the bridge. Just click on the weapon you want to target with and you can do independent targeting.
If you press alt whilst mousing over the conveyer belts it shows the speed stats
The Dapper-4 reminds me a lot of the F-117 Nighthawk
Lots of action this episode, that's nice! A piece of advice: maybe a shield in the fire ant would increase its survivality, and since its only steel and coils, it wouldn't be costly to repair even if it went down.
I love how the minimalist approach in the fire ant made it really cheap to repair, that's the bonus of small ships! Though I'm not really sure its weapon sistems are what is needed to be useful... I suggest maybe a single heavy blaster, since it's in its nature to attack from behind or the sides, and that weapon lets it punch through the side armor and into the cockpit or reactor more easily.
That said, great video! Loving the series so far :D
There is still room for another DAPR, meant to fill in the often ignored SCOUT role. An unarmed, lightly armored but FaAsFu ship doing over 110m/s, absurdly maneuverable. Don't think i need to describe what the role of a scout ship is, i don't think? But in this case, it will outrun anything, or bait something into the jaws of "yup, bad day for you", like the AI does.
A ship like this is very, very useful in draining missile stations ammo stock, if convenient cover is not available.
I've been fiddling with changing flight direction on certain ship designs, instead of having forward and reverse thrusters. Saves on cost and weight. Makes it possible to build a ship with absurd armor on one end for ramming and firepower on the other end, for example, for whatever use that may have.
Loving the series, btw :)
youre uploading so fast i cant find the time to watch your videos!
I'm loving this series! Your commentary is both educational and entertaining, once I finally get a new PC I'm definitely buying this game based strictly on your playthrough.
Robocraft -instant nostalgia. I played it back before steam. I had fun but havnt played it of late. They are apprently making a robocraft2
i have notice sometimes the neutral ships have some crew that you can recruit even if the stations are fame locked. might be worth it to check them whenever you have the time
Two thumbs up! Great video. Thanks!
You're very welcome :)
I am quite worried that you are going to run into a problem where your ships are becoming under armed in comparison to the competition. The Fire Ant is effectively useless being armed with only 2 disrupters which cannot put out any meaningful damage in a reasonable amount of time, and the scarab is finding difficulty in taking out ships with shields quickly. IMO the scarab is way too large to be fielding only 4 ion beam emitters (ESPECIALLY considering they are all being routed through 1 prism, reducing their total output to 2.7x ). I would suggest widening the barrel and maybe adding a couple more ion beams or maybe implementing a railgun or something.
All in all though, your series is amazing and you are doing a great job!!! keep it up :)
@Aavak I've known (and played for a while) Cosmoteer a good few years back iirc, and now was positively surprised to see it has grown quite a community. Don't know if you knew it even has PvP tournaments, but if you want to get your mind blown, check it out, that's spectacular! And bring along some strong tea, should you decide to.
Hey Aavark love the series,
just so you know when your in design, instead of discarding it you can go to the menu ( next to the ship editor text ) and you can save the ship design for later, like you did in the last episode
10:59
Man that was prime comedy there, can't make that up
I think the engines connected to engine rooms do need doors, because currently if a fire starts in one of those doorless engines, your crew won’t be able to extinguish it
On the other hand doors do let fires spread through...
Been enjoying this series quite a bit. The game reminds me of Reassembly.
And if you're feeling nostalgic for Robocraft, there's always RC15. Well, as long as there is a big enough playerbase there will always be RC15, though I believe you've already been spoken to about it.
31:10 "our first shielded opponent" right after he showed himself destroying the shielded pirate base
if you ever decide to make a swarm of relatively small ships, you should make sure to have them use flak and point defense, while armour and shields only really help the ship they're attached to, flak and PD increase survivability regardless of what ship they're attached to.
Absolutely love you and your videos, they always manage to brighten my day
Great episode Aavak! I was thinking you would need some more firepower as the episode was ending, then you said missile ship. Sounds interesting.
But a fair number of enemy ships have had flak cannons so effectiveness might vary.
Cheers for the continuation of this Cosmoteer content!
Aavak.
Big ship.
Big cannon.
Big boom.
you could make a Fireant v2 that stays near the scarab and is just full of point defence and flack canons so the only purpuse would be to defend.
All thrusters have just about 5% thrust side-to-side. This explains Fireant's "magical properties".
I love the KSP music in the outro. Thats awesome.
Been playing the demo along with this series. Can't wait to see what else gets added from the roadplan.
Seeing the 'Fire Ant' in action, you should make a couple 'Worker Ants' 2-3 large storages and a skeleton crew to run the ship, that way they can ferry materials to be sold or from the Hercules to the fighting fleet while it's off salvaging
If you hold alt over the people movers it will show you the percentages of speed bonus or decrease when moving certain directions. with: 200% across: 75% against: 25%
Oooh! Thanks for that tip, don't know why I didn't think about it XD
@@Aavak there's quite a few things about this game that aren't told to you such as the mirror mode changes and the map marker that are a huge help!
Excellent paint job with the quasi 3d.
Thanks for your diagonals design tips in your last video, I actually managed pull off a career mode shipwright starter ship with both mining laser and hyperdrive on it, all while still able to can fly around decently.
Loving it! The missile ship sounds grand, please keep it up!
Edit: if you want to make a new ship you can make one by clicking the last button in the top leaft row!
Definitely think the fire ant needs to be updated to be a little more single combat capable after this episode. If only because it seems like the missions your getting are likely going to involve fighting ships either of the two ships would take heavy damage against fighting alone. Not entirely sure how you'll manage it on your current crew restrictions though, since clearly you have the resources.
I might suggest giving the fire ant a small railgun instead of missiles. Would be really good for ships that are slow/have all their defences in front.
Hey Aavak! Your videos are awesome. If you can, I’d like to see a little time lapse of salvaging big ships whenever you do that, I imagine them looking similar to what you did with the timelapses in factory town. If it’s too time consuming I understand but I think it would be quite satisfying :>
Also, to let you know what was causing your fighter’s backward magic thrust, all thrusters have something like 5% thrust that acts sideways from the direction of thrust, so sideways thrusters can thrust forward and backward to a limited degree.
I'll see what I can do :)
if i remember correctly, you can use the small view of other ships on the top right to give it commands the same as if you move your camera there, so just zooming out and using that should be easier than just switching between crafts every time you want to mine something with the dpr2. the same can be done with targeting on enemy ships, using that little window to target a specific block and not having to move the camera
Seems like the fireant is ineffective. The enemy ships often die before it engages, or it takes the focus and gets wrecked.
You could make a ship where you use the side to fight instead of the front so you could have mor fire power and more armor maybe you use some canons to love your vids
One thing you could do to significantly increase your damage is to keep your ion beams separated into 2 beams with 2 ions each. This will increase you damage from 306.25% to 350%. This would require a larger barrel but with time I do think the Scarab will need to use this technique to keep scaling above the ships you face.
Beautiful looking ships!
I think the scarab would he fine if you added disruptors to it and let it get closer in those ship to ship fights and just snipe bases like you have been.
4:23 whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? you can right click that ! i never did, thats why I never did vertical ships, oh man! ..
as the title says, i must say it is 100% true, i encountered in one of my saves a pirate base with nukes and before i got into range i ordered my missile launchers to attack every nuclear missile launcher they have and it worked
Would've loved seeing Fighter get turned into a second Fire Ant.. but we'll see how the rest of the episode goes!
I believe you can give ships the default to strafe around a target by right-clicking it, then dragging the line left or right
God... imagine the fire ant... WITH BOOSTERS. NYOOOOOOOOOOM!
I think the Scarab would benefit from some additional weapon systems beyond just the single ion beam. Maybe some proper cannons, or possibly a second ion beam?
I just finished watching the last video so I hopped onto this video lol continue the good work
love the series and i dont know if its something you would like but in settings under advanced game settings you can adjust how many crew you can get with fame
Well, Aavak, since you plan to move onto higher level sectors, and seem keen on building up a fleet, you may want to consider another ship type.
Which would some form of missile boat support ship, and nukes definitely do wonders, alongside the potential of EMP missiles.
I personaly suggest perhaps a ship with broadside missiles, would be cool to see you desing one.
Whoever told you diagonal ships don't benefit from forward thrusters lied or are passing on bad advice. Simple as that. Largest benefits to diagonal ships is engine optimization via engine rooms and the ability to stack weapons slightly more efficiently.
2:07
well if your feeling nostalgic for robocraft, you could be happy to know they are making a second one.
I’m just sleepy but I needs to watch!
So the fire ant's issue definitely seems to be related to the fact that (assuming the game simulates this) rotational thrust is more effective the more tangent the thrusters are to the center of mass they are. e.g. on a normal/non-diagonal ship, you want your wing maneuvering thrusters facing forward/reverse, and your nose/tail maneuvering thrusters orienting left/right. Imagine drawing a line directly through the thruster long ways: you want that line as far from the center of the ship as practicality allows.
The fire ant in particular appears to have its thrust more closely aligned to the center of mass than the other two ships just owing to the diagonal layout's limitations, which might be why it's having more trouble maneuvering than them.
Yeah, this seems to be an ongoing problem for the craft as is.
EMP missiles might be the way to go against enemy shields
Yeah, I was thinking one of these would go well on the side or maybe back of the scarab if it's going to be kiting so it has a way to break shields.
Yeah and ditch the fighter
When building you can right click a part to pick it so you don't have to go to a specific menu.
Don't know if you've already seen this suggestion but i heard that although the laser crystals are most efficient in pairs, it's still better in the long run to aim for getting multiple beam outputs as a firing pair of 2 beams with 2 lasers feeding into each does more total damage then 1 beam with 4 lasers feeding into it.
My suggestions would be to add more emmitters to your ion beam, My current ship runs 8, and dont go for the regular missiles, try the EMP ones, they drop sheilds fast and counter other ship systems too, making a hard nut easier to crack. :)
The fire ant is very inefficient I think you should grow the scarab instead perhaps emp missiles (but you know ammo(or just leaving them off most the time)) moreover the energy storage near the engine room in the scarab has a hard time not being empty might be undercrewed
I noticed that Aavak likes to use the Fire Ant in Knife-fight range alot, and it leads to small collitions and at least 1 case of friendly fire
Consider making a point defence gun fighter. Good at not taking hits from anything heavier than a laser bolt, needs no gunner and massed PD fire is nothing to sneeze at. That one ship with 4 PDs (Marigold I believe) caught me early game with my pants down and cut me into not-so-spaceworthy ribbons. With Scarab pulling the agro, you could get close enough with it to inflict bodily harm. The PD won't fire upon ships unless you tell it to in the settings of the gun, I recommend setting it to shoot at everything as, if memory serves, it still prioritizes defence over offence. Speaking of gun settings, multi-barreled guns (the deck cannon and the heavy laser) can be switched between simultaneous and sequenced fire if you plan on using them. Also, mining lasers can and will safely deconstruct explosive modules if you get them in range of your target. Could be funny to pair that with tractor beams to pull them (or yourself) closer.
Now ain't that a block of text, damn...
Yes, missiles for sure, but let us think reponceably, recycle those Nukes maybe? ;)
No waste in space!
To help with the cost of fuel, using more FTL drives allows you to be more “efficient”.
Essentially, the more percentage that a ship has (0-100%), the less fuel is consumed (which is why the fighter is so cheap for jumps but the Hercules costs so much besides the size difference).
EDIT: I don’t recall if this exploit still occurs, but certain setups allow Boost Thrusters to infinitely boost instead of brief moments. However, using engine rooms to fuel the boost thrusters means you only have the short bursts.
The smaller build as flanker needs better weaponry. It's currently tickles thus is useless. It can't even kill exposed cockpit, you would be able to loot slot healthier. I gave mine ion beam. Though I currently have wierd strathegy as I keep obtaining random wrecked ships and currently I have 7 of em. But it's admiral difficulty so I am overcoming the hard start.
I may be missing something, but wouldnt it be more sensible to upgrade the Scarab (which is due a BIG update), rather than make the Fire Ant or any other smaller ship given enemies are rapidly growing? The Scarab is kind of lagging behind.
Like, the way I see it, having a civilian use ship and a military dreadnought would be easier to manage than a fleet? At least it feels like fleet management is not that good in this game yet.
Praising the algorithm! I'm wondering how it would work to have a fighter sized ship with something like a single rail gun or the top mounted deck cannon, something that's really just a gun with engines. You see how well those pirate ships can arm themselves on a tiny power plant by relying on guns over lasers. Noisy Cricket would technically still count as an insect!
You could just duplicate the scarab and have two large ships operating independently.
The crewlimit imposed by fame would limit you to two ships smaller then the scarab though.
Biggest issue with the fire ant seems to be that it is combat ineffective. She doesn’t really deal damage as is, as disrupters are more support weapons rather than damage dealers. They would be great on a ship that’s designed to get right in the enemies face and brawl as secondary armament. But I feel a larger diagonal ship is perfect for this as it can bring more weapons to bear with a smaller silhouette. Shields would be tricky to place to make look good (but after seeing your paint jobs I’m convinced you will manage to find a way) That being said a form over function version could have 2 flanking either side of the scarab with medium range weapons with point defense to picket and help deal with ships that have gotten to close. Could also have them asymmetrical so the side that’s facing the “corridor” has a flak battery to help save some crew and space. Or missile launchers on the other side. The more I think about the more I’m convinced it’d be effective.
Hercules is by far a much more fitting name since it's humble roly poly days.
I know I said I wouldn't call it by anything else, but Hercules is a fine fine name. 😄
I would love a phoenix themed ship.
I think that you might need another destroyer class/beetle class ship or two more ants/corvettes for the ramp up in difficulty. Either that, or go full hog and start designing a battleship. A few cruisers/missile destroyers or a dedicated mobile flak battery might also be an option
For the Fire ant to be combat effective in higher level areas it seems like it would be best to either give it EMP missiles or bigger guns. It seems to me that the Scarab is falling behind with it's single ion beam, so it seems like the best course of action is to give it either another ion or give it auxiliary heavy weaponry like deck guns or heavy lasers.