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[Girlinhat]

Took my first turn on the FFA.  This is going to be a WEIRD game.  It seems we all coincidentally arrived with the same ship designs - of the 4 players, there's only one small fabber.

[Draxis]

So we did - I guess all the problems with the fighters in Foxtrot led to a certain distrust of them.  I designed my ship expecting a lot more missiles and fighters - in fact it looks like most people did - so we'll se how this goes.

SJ, thanks for fixing the setup.  To clarify, where is the GAM to upload supposed to come from? 

Edit:    I wasn't expecting that much success in with those torpedoes, or much at all really.

[SuicideJunkie]

I see:
1) Shields + turbolasers
2) Shields + disruptors
3) Armor umbrella + deflectors + disruptors
4) Armor ring + deflectors + disruptors

They all seem quite unique to me


For THANCS, you don't need to upload a GAM to start the game (and should not try).
You instead upload the turn zero master PLR  (player number 0 = admin) and that generates turn 1 for you.

[USEC_OFFICER]

of the 4 players, there's only one small fabber.

I, uh... kinda thought that we needed fabbers to repair our equipment. Oh well, it's a bit late now (besides, I can barely afford to power it as things stand).

So we did - I guess all the problems with the fighters in Foxtrot led to a certain distrust of them.

I liked some of the laser fighter designs that people had, but overall I think that the firepower to cost ratio of the fighters is too low to be worth it. Given the small budget, a single powerful cruiser seemed like the best investment.

Edit:    I wasn't expecting that much success in with those torpedoes, or much at all really.

You can say that again. I had to do a double-take before I realized where Girlinhat's ships had gone. At least foxtrot has reached the endgame now.

3) Armor umbrella + deflectors + disruptors

I keep on confusing deflectors for shields, to be honest. Oh well, I still have a trick or two up my sleeve...

EDIT: Girlinhat is the only person I fear in the 1v1v1v1 game. Draxis was worse power issues than I do, and Ekolis isn't packing enough usable heat. Girlinhat has tons of long-range firepower, and more than enough battery power to back it up. Her ship can also perform a 180 whenever she wants to, so you can ambush it from behind either. This is going to be interesting...

[Girlinhat]

I accidentally designed my ship as a capital fighter.  It has the cost, size, firepower, and shielding of a capital ship, but has the flight profile of a fighter.  The only thing it lacks (which I thought I'd changed, but apparently not saved) are side thrusters.  I could have also fit in a recycler or two, but didn't feel it was really worth anything big.

This is a battleship.  It is made to engage and crush an enemy force.  It is not a campaign ship.  It cannot produce or replace parts or fighters.

SJ: How about a Microfab?  It only stocks up to, say, $2,050, so you could be able to produce a laser and some bolts, or some light drones.

[SuicideJunkie]

A smaller, cheaper fab to fill in the job that the old small fab had would be a good idea.
I'll have to run the numbers and fit the curve, but I suspect it will end up around $2k-4k storage, $40/turn and 150 e/turn.

My initial analysis:
Girlinhat
++ 200 peak DPS (116 sustained)
+ Full shield coverage of everything that matters from every direction
+ Reinforced shielding protecting the guns
+ Maximum turn rate
- Below average acceleration relative to the other ships
- Below average durability (though shields will regen)

Ed
+ Almost full shield coverage
+ Most maneuverable ship in the game
+ Fastest straight line acceleration in the game (4.24)
+ Experienced captain
- Engines and capacitors are somewhat exposed to hits from all directions
- Guns are spread to all arcs, but multiple targets to give them a chance to fire simultaneously is unlikely
- 44 peak DPS (22 sustained)
- Below average durability (though shields will regen)

Dessard
+ 5/6 armor coverage plus deflectors and emissive - Toughest ship in the game.
+ Some strafe drive for good maneuverability
+ Four missiles including 2 EMP warheads for a tactical strike
+ Forward emissive armor makes the ship immune to its own missiles for short range attacks.
+ Double CnC for extra repair speed
+ Aft clamp allows scavenging for energy boosts from debris capacitors
- Missiles are slower than most ships, so surprise will be required for their use.
- 56 peak DPS (36 sustained)

USEC:
+ 106 peak DPS (58 sustained)
+ Small Fabber will allow upgrades and surprise missile construction, and salvaging of debris.
+ Massive armor umbrella provides excellent protection from the front.
+ Heavy reverse drive should allow it to keep enemies in front of it
-- No protection on 5/6 angles.


Girlinhat is the leading contender in my mind.  It will be critical to strike with her excellent burst firepower and then dodge back out of range to let the shields recharge.
USEC will be the clear winner long term, if his ship survives long enough.  Staying back, and putting some funds to forward-side shielding to protect the aft engines will be important.  Losing them will destroy his turn rate and allow the ship to be wiped out from behind.
Ed needs to use his maneuverability to get in close, stay out of enemy fire arcs and blast away.  The spread weapons will help with that since he won't need to guess the angle perfectly but his enemies will.
The gaps in his shielding will likely be his undoing.
Dessard's strategy will be more difficult.  The EMP missiles can be a great asset, since they can be detonated before launch (and recharged/reused multiple times) as an area denial field for the shielded ships of Ed and Girlinhat; if they get too close, they lose their shields and get hammered by heavy disruptors while Dessard still has armor protection.  Heavy disruptors may be able to pierce the enemy shields and should take good chunks out of armor, but the return fire will be withering.

In case you want to bet some quatloos on the outcome; I'm going to guess odds of:
Girlinhat: 2:3  (40%)
Ed:  1:3      (25%)
USEC:  1:4 (20%)
Dessard:  3:17  (15%)

[Girlinhat]

These are better odds than I usually go into combat with.  Maybe I should handicap myself...

Also worth noting that my vessel can't really run on full power constantly, especially not firing weapons or soaking hits.

[SuicideJunkie]

I wouldn't worry.  If you start doing too well, the others will probably gang up on you a bit

[ekolis]

SJ gave USEC more credit than I would have. I was like, WTF?! Defenses on only one arc, leaving the rest of the ship unprotected??? But then, his ship is a Starfox boss - max thrust in reverse should keep us on the far side of his armor!

[Girlinhat]

SJ gave USEC more credit than I would have. I was like, WTF?! Defenses on only one arc, leaving the rest of the ship unprotected??? But then, his ship is a Starfox boss - max thrust in reverse should keep us on the far side of his armor!

Are the maps limited in size as they appear to be?

[Draxis]

SJ mentioned them being bounded by double floats (64-bit numbers), so it probably won't be significant.

[SuicideJunkie]

The bounding hex of the universe is determined by the live ships within it, and the maximum size of that is effectively infinite.
The map of the universe is only slightly bigger than it looks, with debris that is more than 20 or so hexes beyond the visible map edge evaporating into kill score points.

Note; if there is debris that you want to capture, but it is sailing off into the deep black, you can keep it alive by launching a little probe/missile/beacon to match speeds with it and keep stretching the universe to include the debris until you can catch it with a scavenger ship.

If the debris is very far away but *approaching* the visible universe, then it will also remain in existence.

[Girlinhat]

Reminds me of a story.  In it, they had debris catchers that consisted of very small 'lampreys' .  They had small, highly efficient engines, and would go forth, latch onto a vessel or debris, and then just spend hours decelerating it, to bring it back towards a salvage ship.

A cockpit or two, a small engine, and an explosive bolt could be used to go fetch debris, return it slowly, and repair it by degrees.

[Draxis]

Explosive bolts can't grab things.

[SuicideJunkie]

I go with crabs as my scavenging sea life

3-wide body of hull2 segments, with a pair of clamps and large thrusters all over.  Forward thrusters are splayed to NE and NW, since any north thrusters will be blocked by the debris being collected.