My critique of this ship can be found in the thread "Orion Blues" and FireSkull's Orion thread in the WCU forum has a lot of ideas (&counterarguments) of how to improve this controversial ride.
The ff. settings in vegastrike.config file can be adjusted to give you an edge without breaking the game balance (and ruining your enjoyment of the game):
<var name="print_ship_type" value="true"/>
<var name="print_faction" value="true"/>
Setting the print_faction setting to true will show you to which faction that targetted Talon ship belongs to - is it Retro or Militia ? Default setting for this is false.
Works with bases,refinaries and other objects too. I have a pretty bad rep with the militia right now and knowing that the installation in front is owned by them is quite useful.
(note: I'm using the complete PR 1.2 not a patched PR 1.1 )
<var name="radarRange" value="15000" />
<var name="drawLineToTarget" value="true" />
Setting the drawLineToTarget to true does what it says, it draws a line from your cockpit window edge to the target and keeps it there. Useful for tracking a distant enemy which is closely entangled with friendlies. Also valuable for fight which take place in clutter (ie. asteroid fields).
For your intermediate radar use the Hunter model, the B&S one doesn't lock onto the target for me. The radar lockon feature plus the drawLine capability means that you won't lose track of the target for long.
<var name="ai_pilot_when_in_turret" value="false"/>
Setting this to true turns the ai dogfight pilot on when you jump into the turret. Your ship will start jinking and evading at this point.
It's not really useful right now because it's not a toggle - you can't switch it on/off during the game. But if it does become a switch then you can use this (while in the turret) when taking too much damage from enemies at your six.
The Orion will turn faster if you use the Shelton slide/release manuever, use this technique in dogfights instead of the normal turn.
When fighting Gothris (tough bastards), burn to get speed and use the Shelton slide to keep facing them. These tend to circle around (fast!) trying to get at your back/blind side. Catch incoming beams and missiles with your left/right shields.
When caught by hostiles while preparing for a jump, spin your ship (Shelton again) to distribute damage till the 10 second Jump cycle completes.
I've gone back to mesons because neutrons take too much out of my Level 2 reactor. It's also impossible to hit a Gothri/Talon running at full speed across you with < 100 ms/sec bolts unless you're damn good. Being able to do this will be critical in escort missions.
My rear turret meson guns definitely consume a *lot* more energy than my hull pair so a 2/3 shield setting (current shield is Level 2) if you want a long burst.
Go for the Afterburner enhancer instead of the Cargo one - this ride isn't built for trading..missions/contracts are the way to go.
That's it - veteran pilots of the Orion will surely have more tips to add, I don't claim to belong to that category
