Is anything weak to hi-cap ships?

[Vacuity]

Starting another game, I looked at the bonus ships available and realised that, as always, I was essentially discounting the swarmer-style ships from the get go.

Tachyon Microfighters?  Well, if the AI unlocks Spire Stealth Battleships they might be useful, otherwise, meh.
Anti-Armor?  Way too fragile unless you've got enough other tougher ships to use as a distraction.  Really not useful in the early game.
Laser Gatlings?  In principle, they have high cap firepower, but it gets divided into so many shots, and the hull bonuses are so minor that it only seems really useful against other light ships.
Etherjets?  Well, actually, I've never tried them properly, maybe these are useful?
Space Planes?  Rather like the Tachyon microfighters and Anti-Armor, their real strengths seem rather too situational.
Autocannon Minipods?  Fragile and require micromanaging.  Of questionable usefulness in the early game.


And just in case someone mentions them, I don't count them in the same category as they're a 'melee' ship, but it has a high cap, so...
Cutlasses?  Yes, they have uses, not as good as viral shredders or vampire claws, but still potentially useful.  And also younglings and railpods have distinct and noticeable uses and strengths.  I don't go particularly out of my way to pick them up, but I don't consider them a waste either.

Then look at it from the other way around; what is weak to these ships?  What has problems dealing with massive swarms of fragile ships?  Artillery Golems, yes.  What else?  Anything?  Why would I ever say "Oh, yes, I really want Autocannon Minipods rather than Protector Starships/MLRS/Teleporting Leeches."  In all honesty, I don't even like Teleporting Leeches that much, but my goodness they have real uses, particularly when you need to take down a Wrath Lance.

[alocritani]

Space Planes?  Rather like the Tachyon microfighters and Anti-Armor, their real strengths seem rather too situational.

I use them, if available, to destroy tachyon guard posts: immunity to mines helps if wormhole is mined, cloaking helps them reaching the tachyon emitter unnoticed, radar dampening helps them to escape. They are faster than fighters, too.

Autocannon Minipods?  Fragile and require micromanaging.  Of questionable usefulness in the early game.

I mostly use them for their armor-removing ability, mixing them with my fleet

[Vacuity]

"Good at taking out Tachyon Guard Posts" I'll presume you mean Tachyon Guardians?  Even so, that's what I described as rather niche.  I mean, there are lots of ships that can do that job nicely but be useful in many other ways, any teleporting ship for a start.

And if you'll forgive the criticism, mixing Autocannon Minipods into your fleetball seems like something of a waste; they'll die relatively quickly and easily, and they should be focus-firing on high armour targets, not just shooting at whatever comes closest.

[zoutzakje]

space planes are actually pretty powerful nowadays and i find them generally useful. In the past they were utterly useless even when cloaked (IMO), then they got a huge buff and now they're pretty sweet. They'll put up a good fight.
In my current game i leeched a full caps of mk I and II space planes from a wave. I had to destroy an alarm post and a warp gate on a planet. Unfortunately they were covered by a gravity command station, a mk III fort, and some nasty guardians. But nothing with tachyon. So I selected my space planes, put them on " pause mode" so that they wouldn't start shooting at stuff and got them right next to my targets. Unpause and kill the alarm and warp gate. The mk III fort blasted on them but they actually lived long enough to take out a couple of the guardians too. In the past they wouldn't last 2 seconds.
This is just an example but there are many cases were they can come in real handy.

I have found no real use for microfighters, gatlings, jets or minipods so far (other than keeping the ships that really matter alive longer), but anti-armors have saved my life a number of times. It's been too long to come up with an example but I know they have.

[Vacuity]

Anti Armor can be useful later on, once you've got other stuff to stand in front of them, but as a starting bonus ship I find them more of a liability than a help as they'll run my economy into the ground trying to replace the losses.

Space Planes, well, maybe they have uses that other stealth ships can't quite fulfil, but I'd still rather have stealth battleships for most jobs like that.

[Bognor]

Space Planes' range exceeds their radar dampening.  So apparently they can take down just about any guard post or otherwise stationary target with utter impunity.

[Draco18s]

Space Planes' range exceeds their radar dampening.  So apparently they can take down just about any guard post or otherwise stationary target with utter impunity.

Most ships with radar dampening are like that, IIRC.

[Vacuity]

Most ships with radar dampening are like that, IIRC.

Some certainly aren't.  All right, I'm willing to give Space Planes a try, rather than pass over them for something bigger all else being roughly equal.

Tachyon Microfighters?  Laser Gatlings?  Autocannon Minipods?  Anyone able to chime in for their usefulness?

[Kahuna]

Tachyon Microfighters?  Laser Gatlings?  Autocannon Minipods?  Anyone able to chime in for their usefulness?

Underpowered garbage.
Though Autocannons can be nasty if AIs have them since they have damage multipliers vs Turrets and Structural.
EDIT: I still remember how I was almost killed by a wave of ~8500 Autocannons. That was just a normal (mono) wave.

[TechSY730]

I would take issue with the "garbage" part, but they certainly are underpowered.

High cap ships can be good against ships with a low rate of fire if you know how to bait shots properly. You can even work around the "overkill refund" if you know what you are doing.
Also, several high cap ships get some nifty bonuses (like autocannon minipods) or properties (like space planes, infiltrators, and autocannon minipods). But yea, high cap ships are usually more niche than something you would normally choose straight up.

Plus there is the classic "cannon fodder" technique (sending the high caps in to take alpha strike damage first, abusing overkill to reduce how much you would lose in terms of total cost, or simply "clogging" the AIs "target list")

Oh yea, and high-cap ships are great for the "space dock machine gun" technique (space dock on loop build rallied to go to an enemy planet, preferably with engineer assistance), though neinzul ships are arguably better for that as neinzul ships tend to be a bit cheaper.

[Draco18s]

Most ships with radar dampening are like that, IIRC.

Some certainly aren't.

I did say "most."  Siege Towers though could probably use a change to have better radar dampening.  They're basically worthless right now.  They have no speed, no range, no reload speed, and are rather squishy (their raw HP number is high, but when they take enemy fire, they tend to crumple quickly).

SSB on the other hand have other things going for them.

[Vacuity]

High cap ships can be good against ships with a low rate of fire if you know how to bait shots properly. You can even work around the "overkill refund" if you know what you are doing.

Would you care to help me out because I don't find these ships particularly useful except in specific niches as I stated?  Other than things like artillery golems, what has trouble with them?  I would appreciate it, it's not like I can always avoid picking up Autocannon Minipods, even if it's only via reclamation, and I'd prefer them to be more useful than they are to me at present.

I did say "most."

My apologies, I wasn't intending to argue that what you stated was untrue, but when it comes to mobile ships that can be used in combat and have radar dampening, the player doesn't really have all that many options.  A lot of radar dampened "ships" are either static (fortresses, guard posts, and so on) and/or AI only (some of the guardians as I remember, I know the Raider does).

And I agree about the Siege Towers as well, they really need something to buff them a bit (or everything else gets nerfed, relatively).

[Bognor]

Tachyon Microfighters?  Laser Gatlings?  Autocannon Minipods?  Anyone able to chime in for their usefulness?

Interesting.  There have been 13 bonus fleet ships with higher caps than fighters.  Of the 13, 1 is quite new (Railpods), and 8 9 have been buffed as a result of buff polls (Etherjets, Attractor Drones, Cutlasses, Space Planes, Infiltrators, Anti-Armors, Raiders, Teleport Raiders, Raptors - Raptors are no longer high-cap ships).  That leaves 4 3 old, unbuffed high cap ships, and you've named every one of them.

^{(Edited after I realised Etherjets have been buffed)}

[Kahuna]

jets

Mark I EtherJets do 637440 dps with damage multipliers and have 9936000 cap health. They have damage multipliers vs Polycrystal and Light so just get Mark IV Bombers and EtherJets and you have a strong fleet. They also have damage multiplier vs Heavy which is really good since Hybrids and many Core Guard Posts have Heavy hull. In other words their stats seem really good. They do a lot of damage and they're not that fragile either. Though any cap health under 10 million is a bit low.. but since they have Refractive Hull type there aren't that many counters to them. Missile Frigates and a couple of other ships which the AI might not even unlock.

[Draco18s]

but when it comes to mobile ships that can be used in combat and have radar dampening, the player doesn't really have all that many options

This is true, I was just stating the general rule of thumb behind the design of the attribute.

Sort of like how "ships with regeneration are immune to repair."  This is true for ever unit except two that I know of.