I think it would be cool to see the champions revamped.
At it stands I pretty much exclusively use Neinzul models come mid / late game. They are the fastest ship, have radar damp, can self sustain, and can easily dive very deep if needed. When the AI is running around with a 2-3K special forces fleet, there is no other ship that can do any where near as much against the AI.
It feels like the other 3 ships have higher damage at the cost of virtually no utility and no survivability. But even that damage bonus is kinda lost on the Neinzul when you realize it has awesome attack bonuses (against ships like the Zenith Med frigate, Grav ripper and other tanky ships the ai sometimes spams). Then also consider the nanosubverter clears waves faster than most other weapons anyway.
So I feel like the other ships need a niche. Or perhaps some new champion models introduced. But this might just be the way I play the game. In the early game, all the champion ships feel similar in power.
That's interesting! I've never used Neinzul. I usually go for a carrier-type champion (Hangars...so many hangars!) or spire lances. Spire Lances especially seem really overpowered for nebulas and raids against AI buildings. It's fun to hear that other people think that a ship I hardly care about is the strongest ^^
Its a case where the utility of the Nienzul hull doesn't make it self stand out until you think about how best to use it. A Spire Battleship Champ with photon lances/plasma siege cannons can dish out a metric ton of damage, and can still mount several shields as well, making it among the tankiest of champs with some of the best single target damage. A Zenith Champ makes the "best" carrier type as it can mount the most drone bays of any given hull. A Human champ can mount the most small mounts and is "best" at clearing out waves or large numbers of fleetships as it can mount enough mods to basically have a damage bonus against anything but Command Grade (Do Bomber drones get command grade bonuses? If so then Humans have that covered too)
Now, as for the Nienzul champ, it does not perform as well in nebula as the others. (Even the human hull is better in most cases) But outside of the nebula, where its various utility powers that none of the other hulls have actually work best, it becomes an entirely different creature. Cloaking alone can be powerful but it gets Vampireisim as well, meaning that it doesn't need to mount a shield is most cases as it needs to simply power down, recloak and go find something to leach HP from. Combined with its radar dampening for a unit that can get close enough to deal its damage to its target almost no matter what. As the only hull that can mount the deadly Insanity Inducers it can become a botnet golem with regenerating HP and its own squadron of drones to deal with things immune to reclamation. And it still has its main gun as well. If you go with Nanosuberters over Insanity Inducers then it can lead the charge and start replacing losses in its attack force with the AI's own units. All of these things make the Nienzul champ one of the best at raiding AI world or going deep into AI space to take out things like Data Centers or AI Command stations and freeing Spire Civilian Leaders. Prior to the OMD change it was pretty close to impossible for the AI to stop a Nienzul champ from doing whatever it wanted. Since OMDs ignore shields and can now oneshot even a Shadow Battleship, they are the only thing a Cruiser or better Nienzul needs to fear. However, unless OMDs are immune to Radar Dampening, (which I am not sure of right now. Posting from work and cant check) then even those aren't too terrible of a threat to the Nienzul champ.
Now certainly its not going to be the champ you clear out nebula with. And if you have golems bearing down on you it would be better to go with another champ. (Spire is my favorite for that. Because baring an Avenger or better I don't think anything can 1v1 a Spire Chap at BB grade.) This leads a lot of players thinking that the Nienzul hulls are useless. It doesn't seem to be that good at first when you get it because everything else is better at what you are trying to do with a champ. But once you are done with the nebula, or are have Cruisers and are going to be a while before you go after the next nebula, you can use that "useless" champ to do things than none of the others would even think to try.
I did use spire (when I can get the plasma or sometimes even just the photon lances). And it was cheesy (could just zerg bases in nebula's and win). But throughout one of my games I didn't unlock the spire ship till fairly late, and got the Neinzul very early. With that in mind I finished nearly every nebula with the Neinzul. One thing it has which is stupidly useful in most nebula's is the mobile repair station. For example, during the ravenous shadow, with a few Missile tubes mounted on the heavy slots and dropping a few repairs to heal the friendly ships near me, I cleared the scenario without taking any damage to any of the bases (something I have only ever come close to doing with the Spire + cheese). I still think the spire is great for nebula's, but the Neinzul isn't even bad and can get through most of them easily.
As for clearing waves and fighting stuff head on, I still find I use the Neinzul exclusivity late mid / late game. As I mentioned it might be my playstyle, but when you have 300-400 AIP and a 2k (mostly spires, zenith's and core ships) special forces fleet running around, the only thing that can even damage it is the Neinzul with missiles (because missiles are 16000 range and the ship has 10000 radar damp). All other ships I try against those really strong Ai fleets simply die in 10-20 seconds (they literally kill the shadow shields in a few seconds). And if I am trying to avoid said fleets (which is usually a more realistic option, Neinzul wins again).
On a smaller level (and in my case early game), there are those differences you mention. But once I start hitting Cruiser and beyond, and start hitting big enemy fleets, I can't see any point to using the other ships (and this period is typically my lengthiest bit). Though even in games where I play very tactically, hit specific enemy planets, and keep ai prog very low, the ability to raid is the strongest tool and the Neinzul excels at that anyway. Heck even with avengers on, the Neinzul solo'd one over about 4 hops with just missile pods on its heavy slots.
I guess I would just like to see all 4 ships remain relevant, and with their own specific niches come mid / late game (though point taken about the spire, I did forgo that, and it does have a strong niche when used against the nebula's and high hp heavy targets)
