[Starsector Mods][0.95.1a] Apex Design Collective v1.1.0

Pros:
– Excellent mount types and coverage
– Very flexible fitting options
– Extremely durable
– Remote support systems that can buff or repair allies
– High-end weapons and strikecraft
– Good flux dissipation

Cons:
– Individual ships are relatively expensive and can thus be outnumbered and flanked
– Slow (except specialized pursuit ships)
– Fewer weapon slots than average
– Poor anti-fighter PD
– Mediocre shields, incompatible with Heavy Armor

Fighting the Collective’s fleets can be a daunting task for the unprepared. They lack any sort of “filler” weapons or ships- no Mules or Hounds to pad out their fleet sizes. Furthermore, they excel at attrition, since a ship you fail to kill will likely be repaired by its allies, while any damage your ships take will be permanent. The best way to beat them is flanking, kiting, and peeling off individual ships that you can kill until their fleet is small enough to destroy directly.

This rapidly changed following the Collapse. With security forces focusing on the immediate threats of raiders, local radicals managed to pull off a general strike, demanding democratic government, better pay, and safer working conditions. The Corporation, of course, responded with violence, and the Vela Labor Wars began. A bloody, decades-long conflict, the labor wars resulted in most of the Corporation’s masters being exiled (or executed). By the time the 14th Battlegroup rolled into the Persean Sector, the brand-new Collective was well-armed and heavily experienced in guerilla war, making any attempted enforcement of the Diktat of Hegemony on the Vela system deeply unattractive.

Tri-Tachyon did not feel quite the same way as the Hegemony, particularly after Collective warships enforced a blockade in support of striking miners on Tibicena. While Tri-Tachyon lacked the stomach for a ground invasion, they were more than happy to raid convoys and outposts, and the resulting conflict has simmered for nearly a century and a half.

Today, with their revolutionary struggle quite a few generations behind them, the Collective is a bit less aggressive. Outside of their long-standing feud with Tri-Tachyon, they prefer to fund and arm like-minded groups rather than take direct military action, though they do not shy away from flexing their large and advanced fleet.

Source
Available here.