Concerning Champion Abilities

[Wingflier]

I'm a bit confused by this.

I was initially really excited about the prospect of champion abilities, but I've tried now over 8 different ships or so, and I've only seen 2 abilities so far, the projected shadow shield and the tachyon pulse emitter.

Are these the only 2 abilities there are?  Am I missing something?  I guess I thought it would be a bit more elaborate than that (like different abilities across races, or abilities you could level up etc.)

[Cinth]

Check the Neinzul Hulls.

[chemical_art]

There are 4 iirc and 2 are exclusive to Nenzul hulls

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, I'd wanted to add more, and likely will at some point, but ran out of time.  The projected shield one is so incredibly useful right now you probably won't hurt for something to spend capacitor on, though.

[Spikey00]

I felt that was one of the more significant issues I'm having with champions right now on my first whole playthrough; ideally I want champions to not simply be just another ship, which sadly wasn't the case in my experience.  I played a glass cannon spire ship outfitted with beams and one forcefield module for nebula missions specifically to wait until it gathered enough energy for 4-6 forcefields before soloing a starbase with my hands on ctrl+q... it was effective and all I did, but consequently it didn't feel visceral or engaging.  As a ship in the fleet, it was basically another starship that was really disposable; I feel champions really need to be distinguished from an FRD-able ship with modules, but of course striking the balance of being not too overpowering or overly-demanding of micro.

And curious, but are the [possible] upcoming missions going to be all "defend the base" situations? 

[keith.lamothe]

And curious, but are the [possible] upcoming missions going to be all "defend the base" situations?

"Absence of allied base" has its advantages for a loss condition, though I can think of a few others, so I don't think all future ones will have to be "defend the base"