I had a game where targeting roms were rare as well. With corporate command installed and going fairly thoroughly through all systems before St. Kats, I ended up with only one targeting rom. The fact that installed roms don't carry over to new ships means I had to waste a tradepost order on targeting roms. I would also like to note by the time I left the pre-St. Kats area I had 26 autopilot roms. George. Why.
I love every change I've noticed so far. Trading is so much better. I was amassing the largest army of zoanthropes as I could, given I didn't have brutally slaughter every one them thanks to the new friendly fire system. At least until a lumiere destroyer came along and with a single thera shell crushed all my hopes and dreams, crashing my game in the process.
Onto the minotaur, I love the ship, but it really brings nothing new given it focuses on turrets. I don't know about anyone else, but I
always play through with turrets because they're just so effective and low risk. All that considered the EI500 is still the best ship because of all the flexibility the device slots give(
fight me).
I have my own idea for the minotaur, if you'd like. Turn it into a total brawling ship.
Step one: tilt armor from this
![Picture1.png](./download/file.php?id=1435)
- Picture1.png (199.86 KiB) Viewed 252189 times
to this, which would make it a bit more survivable when bearing down on targets
![Picture2.png](./download/file.php?id=1436)
- Picture2.png (213.62 KiB) Viewed 252189 times
Step two: give it a passive which make it so external devices don't get damaged. Then it can have horns without fear of breaking them!
![Picture3.png](./download/file.php?id=1437)
- Picture3.png (142.17 KiB) Viewed 252189 times
After that you can keep or get rid of the linked fire turret, but regardless, these changes combined with the massive armor would make it a bit more practical to go charging head on into that Ares shipyard like you always wanted to. I would also suggest making the standard (blue) minotaur a starter ship, but with lower base stats (beyond just gear) than the Minotaur M, and adding some low level side mounted weapons (laser, kinetic, particle, blast). It was kind of disappointing to find out the only stat advantage the M has over the standard is a cooler paint job.
Anyway, I hope this was helpful and not just annoying. It amazes me that even after playing this game for like... what... 15 years, I still have fun each time. You truly have something special here George. Keep up the good work!