The advent carriers are still worth building. Bombers seem stronger than before but it could just be the ease of fielding more.

I was concerned at first but I think I dig it. I haven't played multi yet but aside from some cap ships, everything seems useful.

Yeah, it usually comes down to carriers for me as well.  But you have to back the carriers up with something.

Flak does kill fighters and thin out their numbers, but you have to build a heck of a lot of it.  The problem I have with Flak is it is almost useless once there are no more strikecraft to kill, and it can't kill the carriers themselves.  I have asked people a few times since 1.095 if they wanted to test out the ships with me, and no one has, so I'm just not certain if an effective flak strategy exists.  Flak is pretty good at suppressing carriers that are trying to rebuild their squadrons.

We'll find out though, now that everyone is playing.

Oh, one side note of this is that all of the various anti strikecraft capship abilities are much more valuable now when fighting a carrier user.

I've been in a huge FFA teamlocked game for about 3 hours.  And so far I've noticed that the AI will focus fire on my poor Akkan Battlecruiser.  It never did anything to them.  Lost it three times over but currently the Hernandez is doing fine. 

But I don't know if its an AI thing or if they realize the potential which exists in the Akkan with its passive buffs, Armistice, and Ion Bolt.

Someone would have to analyze your replays to see exactly what is happening.  Are you playing against Hard or Unfair AI's?  The Unfair AI has a huge economic starting advantage.

Does the 1.1 patch which favors strike craft also fix that annoying tactic of "Every single fighter target the same bomber"? I hate it when I have enough fighters to annihilate a Kol but instead of spreading out that firepower to take out many bombers at once, they instead focus it onto a single bomber as if it needed to take 2000 DPS...

Carriers are definatley what I saw against the AI.  I guess that makes the flak units useful, which they weren't before the patch.  LRMs are still effective, but not as overwhelming as before.  Overall I like the new patch. I need to play vasari next, and see how they changed, the AI massed more stuff than I was used to seeing before, and that is a good thing.

I have to give the stardock guys thier props.  Sins  ran much smoother during zoom in and out movement, the audio seemed a little cleaner too, and I really like the new Blackmarker UI.

Actually, the flak frigates all got nerfed. Their base DPS got cut by 43%.

Combined arms seems to be much more important than before.  You can counter carrier spam with flak spam (though you need 2:1 numbers now), so the carriers need support to beat the flak.  The flak needs support to beat the carrier support, etc.  Result is far less mindless spam than before; no more sending 50 LRMs to attack and going to the washroom during the battle.  And no more countering 10 carriers with 4 flak.

Anti strike craft abiltiies are less of the joke now too.  It can also pay to try and catch your opponent in a 'no strike craft' sector.  Hopefully the expansions will allow for building more tactical structures in non-planet sectors, so you can really sucker punch someone who made nothing but carriers.

The last two games I've played, I've rushed out cruisers and both my opponents tried tos spam LRM's and the odd cobalt/deceptor(dunno if that's the right name for the advent equivalent)... If anything it should be the other way around!

Fighters kill LRM's

Cobalts are half decent at killing light carriers

So why are people still spamming LRM's?  Use LRMs when you have something to defend them with! ie Flak frigates

With that said though, I really enjoy the new 1.1 version. It gives the need for well rounded fleets. I don't think carriers are OP or need a better counter, for the cost (resources and fleet cap). Capital ships, heavy cruisers and even attack frigates are good at killing the carriers, mix those with flak frigates and I would argue pound for pound it's reasonably possible to stop a carrier spam. Stopping a spam of any kind is actually much easier to perform.

 The 1.1 patch will change sins form a "follow a strict build order and click as fast as possible" to a "outmaneuvre and tactically strike the opponent". Before Entrenchment is put in, hit and runs will be a very effective way to widdle away at the enemy. We might see less mass fleets and more small fleet engagements. That will depend on how well people perform at hit and runs and if it becomes a common tactic.

Entrenchment will probably eliminate that tactic though with Flak Gaus guns and Battlestations. This will probably bring back the large fleet engagements. It might, however, create a common scenario where the start of the game will be about hitting economic productiong before the enemy can get a battlestation operational and the end of the game will be about massing fleets to bring down the new powerful defenses. I'd be most worried that Entrenchment will actually slow games down and drag them on longer than they already are.

Back to 1.1, has anyone tried using the Akkan's computer ability with flak frigates? (increased range and chance to hit). I'm thinking if you mix an Akkan with 10 Flak frigates, they'd be quite effective against a fleet of carriers. Level two ability gets 10% range and 8% chance to hit? I'm thinking that would equate to 8% more damage against fighters/bombers and giving a much larger area  of cover. I think I'll try it out my next match if someone sends too many carriers.

Someone can correct me on this, because I don't play the AI much except when people drop.  I don't think Hard and Unfair AI's are smarter?  They just have more money to spend.

Yeah, my understanding is the next hotfix patch should take care of it, which the devs are working on feverishly to get to us.  This isn't really pertaining to 1.1 strategies, but 1.1 bugs.