Stopped the video just to say exactly same thing. Also, some keywords, financial advice, trading, crypto, markets and money, since those apparently make youtube pay creators more.
Definitely keep the ship, what would be even cooler would be to core out the prisms and put the old raven inside the core and connect it with something like struts and corridors!
@Viktor Andersson Convert the Raven into the command module for Dragon, you mean. Dragon is a good step up in size for a flying creature, don't you think?
I hecking love long form series. I hecking love how i get to know how each ship functions, seeing the process of the ship being made and having a better understanding of why you position it how you do in fights. And i hecking love learning about the progression of the game with long form series content. Keep it up Lathman
Additionally, imagine if that type of content didn't exist, and the devs were balancing their games mostly on the "shorts" which often consist of some minor and super situational gimmicks, rather than seeing someone doing a long-term playthrough while only abusing the ion beams and their formerly superior to anything else range. Yes, I know that the devs use other forms of feedback. I was talking if they used shorts instead of these videos that I am sure they check out from time to time, especially when they blow up.
Please come out with another episode of this!! I always get so into these series and then they stop. I would also love to see a FULL campaign of from the depths until you are the only one left. Keep up the hard work!!!
PLEASE convert the Sol Absentia! I remember you corrupting and converting crafts in From The Depths and that was absolutely AMAZING. I love the styles you use when you corrupt things, and I think it'd be incredible if you did it here too!
I have to say, thank you for introducing me to so many different cool games, got hooked on Cosmoteer and although it's been difficult, it's been loads of fun, your content is always amazing to watch
The railguns usually don’t take a lot of energy, it’s just that when it’s so long I takes time for the crew to get there so it powers down before they get there. And when it powers down the reload restarts. Having a small reactor and 1 crew quarter per 4-6 of the accelerator segments works good in my experience, spread evenly along the length of the raliguns on one side
I feel that what you can do in regards to the Raven, is modify the Sol Absentia to be purely a missile ship but have it be "altered" to fit with the Slanesh theme, and maybe even have the Raven sort of "fused" to it to make it be more obvious that they are the same ship, just merged.
Keep it up with the long form series! All the details give me a better understanding of what's going on and only help me better appreciate everything you're doing. Also, I LOVE the intros - every new video holds a tiny surprise in the form of a mild insult :D
A Slaanesh craft with a sizeable payload, makes sense. Also, it was formerly a normal craft before being corrupted? Very Thematic. "I am Rylanor, ancient of rites, beloved by all, I reject you: now and forever."
I’ll admit that it took a bit for my fried attention span at first, since I was used to more fast-paced videos. But I’m glad I adjusted, this is good content, of a style that’s sadly been disincentivized the past years on TH-cam.
love this series! a few things, the ion beams of the malal's wrath more or less makes the corrupter pointless, and I think the six extra beams on the front are pointless as well.
Cannons in a /\ formation like on a StarDestroyer, lets you strike targets off to the side better, with out 3 of them fireing into the back of the outer 2 cannons.
I would have suggested a \/ formation. It lets you overlap them more while firing straight forwards (or if you don't overlap them, you'll get a slightly wider cone before they start obscuring each other). But in sideways engagements both designs allow at least half of the guns to engage. And both of our suggestions suffer from the same problem we're intending to fix, which still happens while the enemy is in line with one of the 2 rows of cannons. For that reason, I think a shallower angle would be better (pushing that problem further from the direction you expect the enemy to be and towards the sides). The best arrangement might be a combination of our designs; 2 or more rows, staggered like my suggestion (avoids obstruction between the 2 rows for a wider angle), but with an outwards slant of the 2 or more guns within each row like in your suggestion (since you don't want cannons too close in a shallow row anyways). The following is drawn flying towards the left: / / \ \ Perfectly straight sideways still suffers from the rows being obstructed by their mirror image (but half of the guns are guaranteed to fire). Sideways and forwards suffers from the front row on the close side obstructing the one behind it, and the target being in line with the rows on the far side (but half of the near side guns are guaranteed to fire, and 1 of the far side ones per row). And the other way around for sideways and slightly back.
The primary advantage that railguns have is their range - they out-range every other weapon available aside from guided munitions like missiles and nukes. You use them like a sniper up on the hill a half mile away, rather than like spiked knuckles as you're doing now. Ideally, you want your railgun ship to have enough backwards thrust to keep up with (or beat) the fastest ships so you can maintain range - One method would be to have your railgun firing "Backwards", and spin your sniper around to "run" while you pinpoint shoot your target. Then all you have to worry about is getting the gun loaded and the rails powered - I believe it's something like 4 railgun sections per small reactor.
I absolutely adore the idea of taking your captured ship tearing out the old weapons putting in multiple batteries of missiles maybe working on the defense some and making a retrofitted version
Nice video Lathrix About the railguns, I vaguely remember something about each rail section needs energy supplied by a crew member, so that may be why it didn't fire like you thought it would. That was a while ago, so maybe things have changes since then or I'm just incorrect.
Totally convert it! Slannesh would totally approve of converting the enemy to see the light of excess! Also I love your long form content. You are by far my favorite content creator. I love this series. I started watching you with your FTD content tho and really miss it. Maybe after this series is done you can go back to doing your FTD series?
as someone who sits at their computer for most of the day and late into the night. i enjoy longer videos and find shorts lacking in content and never really find them grabbing my attention or intrest like a good long video
Lathrix you need to know this : Ion prisms are more explosive the more powerful the beams fired through are Nukes do not track they will aim themselves then accelerate (even if they are stopped close to the ship their explosive radius is 11 tiles) The brand new tractor beams that pull resources in can take resources out of the sun so put them on sun-divers Edit : the smaller bases that dont have missions give reputation (some of them have nukes so be careful)
I'd love to see a version of the plague guard as well, maybe some sort of craft that's intended to broadside enemies, those sorts of callbacks are always super cool
Thank you for the long video. I've loved watching your videos ever since you started with FTD, (and back then some robocraft vids, shomofo says hi). Just something about your videos, chaotic creativity, a smooth and soothing voice. I usually watch right before i got to hit the bed. And you were my main source of staying awake during 2 years of night shifts at work. Keep doing your own style and please do not lower into the pits of hell called shorts. ♡
A potentially amusing Nurgle craft could be a big, heavily armored/shielded, mining brawler. Sure, mining lasers are NOT at all the best weapon you can use, but put enough of them on a ship, and they could hilariously salvage other, still living ships, to win fights. Or distract them long enough to get popped by the heavier hitters. Maybe with some tractor beams to help keep them in close/hold them for the others to chew on.
Keeping that ship would be so epic! Maybe you could add a raven symbol to it, or even attach the raven itself like a sort of upgrade to it, a reward for its hard work!
Railguns pair really well with missiles because both are long range weapons and synergize with each other and with the idea of more backwards thrust than forward. Deckcannons pair horribly with them because they are extremely close range weapons. They do however pair well with ion beams because ion beams get a damage bonus the closer they are to their target.
I remember in one of your From the Depths campaigns you “Khorneified” a lot of the vehicles you captured and they looked pretty cool. Doing something similar to the vessel you captured at the end of this video would be neat
I like long yt videos and series. And I have to say from the channels that I followed for cosmoteer you're the only one who has continued his series. So thanks and keep it up. Ow and keep the ship, never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it still has all its legs attached
The thing about captured ships is that all their parts contain something like 30% ish less materials (actual amount may be wrong, but it is less), which makes them a nightmare to modify. They also tend to be WAAAY over crewed in my opinion. You can make a much better and more efficient missile ship if you start from scratch and just scrap the one you just caught. An idea you could run is to just make a "murder of crows." Essentially improve the raven for efficiency without making it much larger, and then run like 2-4 of them in a "flock"
The Sol Absentia Is one of my favorite looking ships in this game. It looks like a cathedral. So the obvious choice is to turn it into a twisted, mangled cathedral to Nurgle
I think you should use the captured ship as your missile craft. And if you want since your ships are using ion emitters, have the missile ship also have ion emitters.
Absolutely keep the captured ship. You could gut the ions and internal shielding, using much of that extra space for missile storage. It also comes with a bunch of point defence, so it can help counter enemy missiles.
#OpenDnD (I know for a fact you like P&P) make my day! Edit: 5:35 Tanky, non-symmetrical ship with all different weapons 10:00 massive armor with tiny-shields in the back; they start absorbing shots after the first few layers 13:09 in the back is room for one mining-laser with dunno 4 storages, that can hold enough scrap to guarantee repair, on opportunity add two tiny corridor to the sides for point-defense
Another suggestion: Nukes, much less range than normal missiles, painfull to reload, and slow, but they are often more destructive than a railgun hit. Did I mention you can have like 20 of them pre-loaded?
Lathrix just gets too good at most games, and steamrolls. It's just a challenge as to how hard he can steamroll. Except in games where he has to fight against other people's creations, like in Reassembly. Awesome series BTW. Would love to see another season of it, with newer mods.
Always love your content and this game in particular it's one of the only ship building games I can actually get into since it doesn't have a massive learning curve
What happened to this series? I loved it, why did you stop at 9 episodes? I hope you start posting Cosmoteer again soon. Love your videos btw, keep up the long video, long series format pls
Transform the ship into the missile craft, it already has the space for it and I doubt it'll cost much to do it. All the ship needs is a tail and bigger wings. Also love your content, you introduced me to my favorite game Avorion and I just simply adore the game. I would love to see you play the game again since much has changed about it.
One thing worth considering might be forcing yourself into the Empire's territory so that all the pirates are Empire Level 16 ships, as those are far and away some of the most difficult in the game mostly because they use Nukes like nobody's buisness.
Good job setting up the new ion prisms, I personally would have had the final merge point a bit farther back so that the beams can still fire straight forward at full strength if the aiming prisms are taken out, but that's more a matter of personal preference. Regarding the very front of the design, you might want to consider disruptors or heavy laser blasters rather than basic ion beams, as they'll achieve a similar result at a far lower energy cost. Alternatively, a handful of purely defensive flak batteries could help quite a bit at keeping the front ion prisms alive, although if you really want to make the ship a tough frontline brawler there's an argument to be made for just stripping out the ion weapons entirely in favor of more armor, point defense/flak, and/or broader shielding.
if a ship has no thrusters its yours, it gets abandoned by the crew and left dead in the water, also i think you should upgrade the new craft, the raven assimilating and consuming its well earned cheeky little kill to become actually able to stand toe to toe with the main hitters would be cool, like killing a high level boss through excessive dodge rolling at level 1
We can win the war on shorts. Nobody likes the shorts. We love your content and long seres they are just more satisfying to watch your progression
Stopped the video just to say exactly same thing. Also, some keywords, financial advice, trading, crypto, markets and money, since those apparently make youtube pay creators more.
A reply for the algorithm
@@thelvadam3870 Reply for the reply god? Questions for the question throne?
I like the shorts…but I only watch a couple while I’m looking for a longer video
@@joshlewis8860 yup same here
Definitely keep the ship, what would be even cooler would be to core out the prisms and put the old raven inside the core and connect it with something like struts and corridors!
this
you are a mad genius
Assimilation Successful!
Convert the raven into the command module of Sol?
@Viktor Andersson Convert the Raven into the command module for Dragon, you mean. Dragon is a good step up in size for a flying creature, don't you think?
Yes, please make the ship from this captured one.
Wonderful video as always! Keep it up, you're awesome!
+1
The Nurgle Corpes hulk. Swarms of pestilent flies erupt from hideous growth along it's back...
So like, a missile ship.
@@Notsoshady4891 thats a really good idea
The raven deserves it's spoils of war
I hecking love long form series. I hecking love how i get to know how each ship functions, seeing the process of the ship being made and having a better understanding of why you position it how you do in fights. And i hecking love learning about the progression of the game with long form series content. Keep it up Lathman
Additionally, imagine if that type of content didn't exist, and the devs were balancing their games mostly on the "shorts" which often consist of some minor and super situational gimmicks, rather than seeing someone doing a long-term playthrough while only abusing the ion beams and their formerly superior to anything else range.
Yes, I know that the devs use other forms of feedback. I was talking if they used shorts instead of these videos that I am sure they check out from time to time, especially when they blow up.
Yeah, this but formulated worse...
Please come out with another episode of this!! I always get so into these series and then they stop. I would also love to see a FULL campaign of from the depths until you are the only one left. Keep up the hard work!!!
PLEASE convert the Sol Absentia! I remember you corrupting and converting crafts in From The Depths and that was absolutely AMAZING. I love the styles you use when you corrupt things, and I think it'd be incredible if you did it here too!
Came in with a plan, came out with utter chaos, a fitting tribute to Malal.
I have to say, thank you for introducing me to so many different cool games, got hooked on Cosmoteer and although it's been difficult, it's been loads of fun, your content is always amazing to watch
The railguns usually don’t take a lot of energy, it’s just that when it’s so long I takes time for the crew to get there so it powers down before they get there. And when it powers down the reload restarts. Having a small reactor and 1 crew quarter per 4-6 of the accelerator segments works good in my experience, spread evenly along the length of the raliguns on one side
I feel that what you can do in regards to the Raven, is modify the Sol Absentia to be purely a missile ship but have it be "altered" to fit with the Slanesh theme, and maybe even have the Raven sort of "fused" to it to make it be more obvious that they are the same ship, just merged.
Yaaas
turn the raven into the bird head. make it the control center so it is like it slotted into the other ship and took over control.
@@gabrielhenson5751 or make it so that it is in the center of the Sol Absentia
Keep it up with the long form series! All the details give me a better understanding of what's going on and only help me better appreciate everything you're doing. Also, I LOVE the intros - every new video holds a tiny surprise in the form of a mild insult :D
loving everything you are doing with this series!! hope life is going well
Cosmoteer is pretty cool too, but we need more Terra Tech!!!
A Slaanesh craft with a sizeable payload, makes sense. Also, it was formerly a normal craft before being corrupted? Very Thematic.
"I am Rylanor, ancient of rites, beloved by all, I reject you: now and forever."
1. Love this series
2. Saw your FTD stuff on twitter. Can't wait for that either.
3. Praise be unto the Missiles.
I’d love to see more form this series although idk what happened 6 mo ago that made you stop but this is amazing
3:25 never change lathrix, never change
I’ll admit that it took a bit for my fried attention span at first, since I was used to more fast-paced videos. But I’m glad I adjusted, this is good content, of a style that’s sadly been disincentivized the past years on TH-cam.
Please no shorts!
I love the proper 30-45 min series with lots of episodes.
Please and thank you! 😅🤣
A reply for the algorithm
@@thelvadam3870 Indeed. Thank you! 😂
Fantastic content! Definitely convert the captured ship!💜
Please keep with these long form play through's. They're so good and your commentary is impressive.
Yes! Give the Sol to Slaanesh! That's so in character for them
Going to say what everyone else has been saying: long form videos are really nice, keep making them! We will prevail over the shorts!
love this series!
a few things, the ion beams of the malal's wrath more or less makes the corrupter pointless, and I think the six extra beams on the front are pointless as well.
The real question is if the khorne flakes are still getting milk
I am still supporting the khorne flakes with milk. They are happy
Blood for the blood god, milk for Khorne flakes!
Long form content is so much nicer than shorts, this is my favorite series on youtube at the moment
SHILL SHILL SHILL SHILL *makes it rain monopoly money*
Cannons in a /\ formation like on a StarDestroyer, lets you strike targets off to the side better, with out 3 of them fireing into the back of the outer 2 cannons.
I would have suggested a \/ formation. It lets you overlap them more while firing straight forwards (or if you don't overlap them, you'll get a slightly wider cone before they start obscuring each other).
But in sideways engagements both designs allow at least half of the guns to engage. And both of our suggestions suffer from the same problem we're intending to fix, which still happens while the enemy is in line with one of the 2 rows of cannons. For that reason, I think a shallower angle would be better (pushing that problem further from the direction you expect the enemy to be and towards the sides).
The best arrangement might be a combination of our designs; 2 or more rows, staggered like my suggestion (avoids obstruction between the 2 rows for a wider angle), but with an outwards slant of the 2 or more guns within each row like in your suggestion (since you don't want cannons too close in a shallow row anyways). The following is drawn flying towards the left:
/
/
\
\
Perfectly straight sideways still suffers from the rows being obstructed by their mirror image (but half of the guns are guaranteed to fire).
Sideways and forwards suffers from the front row on the close side obstructing the one behind it, and the target being in line with the rows on the far side (but half of the near side guns are guaranteed to fire, and 1 of the far side ones per row). And the other way around for sideways and slightly back.
God I love this game
I absolutely love the Idea of the Raven Nesting in the Corpse of its defeated Enemy to Hatch its next Generation!
yeah baby! looking forward to setting my spawn to sleep and watching this
Convert the enemy! Corrupt the ship!
i vote convert, i love it when you go all scraper and retrofit enemy ships. how you tweak them can be rather interesting.
Convert the Sol into a Nurgle craft, as it has been "corrupted" by Nurgle's plagues
29:02 RENAME THE RAVEN „SILVER KNIGHT“ and let Slaneesh be the bigger bird-type ship
New lathrix video. I'm here now. I am Very happy.
29:25 YES, DO IT!
im so glad i discovered ur channel years ago! its been one ive consistently come back to for great vids and series keep it up lathrix :D
The primary advantage that railguns have is their range - they out-range every other weapon available aside from guided munitions like missiles and nukes. You use them like a sniper up on the hill a half mile away, rather than like spiked knuckles as you're doing now. Ideally, you want your railgun ship to have enough backwards thrust to keep up with (or beat) the fastest ships so you can maintain range - One method would be to have your railgun firing "Backwards", and spin your sniper around to "run" while you pinpoint shoot your target.
Then all you have to worry about is getting the gun loaded and the rails powered - I believe it's something like 4 railgun sections per small reactor.
Yes you need to gift the Sol Absentia to the Ravens. It has been earned.
Lathrix content is always something I wish to see continued
Ah, sweet succulent long form content
Definitely retrofit the Sol Absentia
Looked like a stingray (the first outline)
I absolutely adore the idea of taking your captured ship tearing out the old weapons putting in multiple batteries of missiles maybe working on the defense some and making a retrofitted version
who needs the home page when you're subscribed to people like you!
Nice video Lathrix
About the railguns, I vaguely remember something about each rail section needs energy supplied by a crew member, so that may be why it didn't fire like you thought it would.
That was a while ago, so maybe things have changes since then or I'm just incorrect.
I love this series! Amazing content I wouldn't change a thing!
Totally convert it! Slannesh would totally approve of converting the enemy to see the light of excess!
Also I love your long form content. You are by far my favorite content creator. I love this series.
I started watching you with your FTD content tho and really miss it. Maybe after this series is done you can go back to doing your FTD series?
as someone who sits at their computer for most of the day and late into the night. i enjoy longer videos and find shorts lacking in content and never really find them grabbing my attention or intrest like a good long video
Yes. Just assimilate the ship.
Corrupt the ship into the golry of the Chaos gods.
I call him mashed potato
I have a difficult time concentrating on short form content so your war on shorts is deeply appreciated
Lathrix you need to know this :
Ion prisms are more explosive the more powerful the beams fired through are
Nukes do not track they will aim themselves then accelerate (even if they are stopped close to the ship their explosive radius is 11 tiles)
The brand new tractor beams that pull resources in can take resources out of the sun so put them on sun-divers
Edit : the smaller bases that dont have missions give reputation (some of them have nukes so be careful)
i love the idea of a parasite taking over the ship and turning it into a missile craft. Obviously that has to be the best choice
I think you should give that ship to the ravens, but I also think a true railgun and flak ship would be a LOT of fun.
You should turn the sol into a craft FOR THE EMPEROR
thats powerfull
I'd love to see a version of the plague guard as well, maybe some sort of craft that's intended to broadside enemies, those sorts of callbacks are always super cool
Thank you for the long video. I've loved watching your videos ever since you started with FTD, (and back then some robocraft vids, shomofo says hi). Just something about your videos, chaotic creativity, a smooth and soothing voice. I usually watch right before i got to hit the bed. And you were my main source of staying awake during 2 years of night shifts at work. Keep doing your own style and please do not lower into the pits of hell called shorts. ♡
Thank you for the long content 😊
A potentially amusing Nurgle craft could be a big, heavily armored/shielded, mining brawler. Sure, mining lasers are NOT at all the best weapon you can use, but put enough of them on a ship, and they could hilariously salvage other, still living ships, to win fights. Or distract them long enough to get popped by the heavier hitters. Maybe with some tractor beams to help keep them in close/hold them for the others to chew on.
Keeping that ship would be so epic! Maybe you could add a raven symbol to it, or even attach the raven itself like a sort of upgrade to it, a reward for its hard work!
Long form is superior to shorts, the war shall be ours. Convert the captured craft, converting and corrupting is the true chaos way.
Yknow I adore videos where you're just having fun playing the game, and damn I'm liking this game.
From what I heard, laser prism explode when they get destroyed.
The more powerful the laser, the bigger the boom.
Railguns pair really well with missiles because both are long range weapons and synergize with each other and with the idea of more backwards thrust than forward.
Deckcannons pair horribly with them because they are extremely close range weapons. They do however pair well with ion beams because ion beams get a damage bonus the closer they are to their target.
i don't watch a lot of series but your airships and this one are the exception
I remember in one of your From the Depths campaigns you “Khorneified” a lot of the vehicles you captured and they looked pretty cool. Doing something similar to the vessel you captured at the end of this video would be neat
This game is so fun. Your videos are much appreciated.
I like long yt videos and series. And I have to say from the channels that I followed for cosmoteer you're the only one who has continued his series. So thanks and keep it up. Ow and keep the ship, never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it still has all its legs attached
The thing about captured ships is that all their parts contain something like 30% ish less materials (actual amount may be wrong, but it is less), which makes them a nightmare to modify. They also tend to be WAAAY over crewed in my opinion. You can make a much better and more efficient missile ship if you start from scratch and just scrap the one you just caught.
An idea you could run is to just make a "murder of crows." Essentially improve the raven for efficiency without making it much larger, and then run like 2-4 of them in a "flock"
The Sol Absentia Is one of my favorite looking ships in this game. It looks like a cathedral. So the obvious choice is to turn it into a twisted, mangled cathedral to Nurgle
I think you should use the captured ship as your missile craft. And if you want since your ships are using ion emitters, have the missile ship also have ion emitters.
I agree ,lathland can you continue this series
I like the idea of refitting the stolen craft as a gift to the raven. It did get the kill, I think it deserves it
Converting the Sol Absentia sounds like a great idea.
Absolutely keep the captured ship. You could gut the ions and internal shielding, using much of that extra space for missile storage. It also comes with a bunch of point defence, so it can help counter enemy missiles.
#OpenDnD (I know for a fact you like P&P) make my day!
Edit: 5:35 Tanky, non-symmetrical ship with all different weapons
10:00 massive armor with tiny-shields in the back; they start absorbing shots after the first few layers
13:09 in the back is room for one mining-laser with dunno 4 storages, that can hold enough scrap to guarantee repair, on opportunity add two tiny corridor to the sides for point-defense
I just saw that the little lasers are weakening the shields 14:30
Another suggestion: Nukes, much less range than normal missiles, painfull to reload, and slow, but they are often more destructive than a railgun hit.
Did I mention you can have like 20 of them pre-loaded?
At the end, YES! Convert the Vega, bring back the corruption thingy from From the Depths!
Lathrix just gets too good at most games, and steamrolls. It's just a challenge as to how hard he can steamroll.
Except in games where he has to fight against other people's creations, like in Reassembly.
Awesome series BTW. Would love to see another season of it, with newer mods.
I absolutely love this series
I was thinking the same thing as making the captured craft into the next Raven, I love your stuff keep up the good work
you can add the mesh tiles in front of the beams on the ship, it will shoot over them, but it will protect them from damge
Always love your content and this game in particular it's one of the only ship building games I can actually get into since it doesn't have a massive learning curve
Adding a comment to help future lathrix
I say we convert the ship, and use the raven(s) as scouts/drones for the main missile ship. we could even call it the nest! but that's up to you
covert it, brain wash the ship and make it your own.
Instead of converting I really want to see excessive amounts of missiles on the side of the craft. For the explosions!!!
❤
I'd just like to say I absolutely love the design of the new malals wrath. Also yeah, I believe you should keep the new craft and birdify it
What happened to this series? I loved it, why did you stop at 9 episodes? I hope you start posting Cosmoteer again soon. Love your videos btw, keep up the long video, long series format pls
Lathrix. You're still the same of I've loved since 7 years ago 🤣🤣 pure chaos
The game is a great use of the USA's Frontier supercomputer, which has over 8.7 MILLION CPU cores optimized for high-performance computing.
Transform the ship into the missile craft, it already has the space for it and I doubt it'll cost much to do it. All the ship needs is a tail and bigger wings.
Also love your content, you introduced me to my favorite game Avorion and I just simply adore the game. I would love to see you play the game again since much has changed about it.
Would love to see you continue this series some more
One thing worth considering might be forcing yourself into the Empire's territory so that all the pirates are Empire Level 16 ships, as those are far and away some of the most difficult in the game mostly because they use Nukes like nobody's buisness.
Good job setting up the new ion prisms, I personally would have had the final merge point a bit farther back so that the beams can still fire straight forward at full strength if the aiming prisms are taken out, but that's more a matter of personal preference. Regarding the very front of the design, you might want to consider disruptors or heavy laser blasters rather than basic ion beams, as they'll achieve a similar result at a far lower energy cost. Alternatively, a handful of purely defensive flak batteries could help quite a bit at keeping the front ion prisms alive, although if you really want to make the ship a tough frontline brawler there's an argument to be made for just stripping out the ion weapons entirely in favor of more armor, point defense/flak, and/or broader shielding.
if a ship has no thrusters its yours, it gets abandoned by the crew and left dead in the water, also i think you should upgrade the new craft, the raven assimilating and consuming its well earned cheeky little kill to become actually able to stand toe to toe with the main hitters would be cool, like killing a high level boss through excessive dodge rolling at level 1