Now in unfallen with a name, figured out a better plan for getting data too. Didn't realize until that last nightmare clear that tractor beam gave full map slower pull at lvl 6(?), but getting that makes things much easier, safer and cheaper then just getting large collection fields and manual collecting until its maxed, even if reaching the big pull is more difficult for early-mid lvls, so you still want 1-3 collection fields, but it's much nicer once you do get it.
Jeesh! WELL DONE, mate! :) Yea, I just yesterday pondered that there's actually quite a bit of strategy involved in this game. All of the ults have their uses, but also "traps" of a sort sometimes. Overall I'm playing my games with passives, mostly. At least heavy priorisation towards them in early game.
But yea, Orbital shields are a must, it seems. With ult it's kinda like flak but better. but you need to get lucky. One may need a bit of both soon after 5 minutes.
How did you manage the teleporters? Max shield -> kickback + explosion?
For the most part, I deal with teleporters with really awkward, jerky movement that idk how to explain. I can say that I think when I don't have to get data, I mostly just click up-right-down-up repeating, not completely sure that's what I do because I do it rather fast but it works for the most part, either way want lots of shield and imperfect speed.
Killing them, I feel like the main reason my opinion on orbitals has gone up is because I feel like they're good specifically for them, although I could be mistaken, it's impossible to tell frankly. I'm personally not too bothered by bullets in general(because mostly they don't feel like they deal much damage and aren't hard to dodge unless there's a lot(typically a damage problem), which is admittedly a bad attitude), but just 2 flak feels like enough to deal with most all bullets anyways.
Ahhh yes! I actually know exactly the movement that you mean! You just cant stop movin' or you die, but too long straight to any direction leads to a death. It's just jerking random movements.
I've tried now with cryo + orbital + point defense (+ rail gun for bosses like you said), and it's proving to be surprisingly good. Unstable core, of course, is a prio always - sometimes even when on critical hull.