Star Control Discussion Board

Using the gravity whip, this is easy to achieve, even without using the tractor beam of an Avatar.

Especially dangerous trick when flying the Podship or the Cruiser.
Both ships can harm themselves using their primary weapon (as can the Eluder B.U.T.T., but that tracking torpedo is utilized backwards, so in most cases this isn't that harmful).

Okay, with the Cruiser I had the case of me flying into the just spawned missile only once.
But Podship captains know how dangerous it is to fly fast and not turning the ship before firing.

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“NNNNggggghhhhh!!!!!! You are *frumple*! You are silly!! Is this happy? NO!!! I cannot *spit* words with *Cows*! There is no demanding! We will *dance* now for several *pieces*.” ― Orz



RESULTS: Chmmr wins with 8 Avatars remaining!
Approximate battle time: 10 minutes

ANALYSIS: This one was a peculiar battle and rather difficult to describe from front to back since it took on many different shapes, but most of the dynamics and execution centered around the tractor beam usage on the Orz, but at full thrust they could stay out of reach and target their Howitzer Cannon and inflict damage on the Avatar’s hull, sometimes taking out a ZapSat in the process:



Curiously, this process actually worked against the Orz whenever the Chmmr occasionally released their tractor’s hold, since the Orz would react by turning to face the Avatar and attempt a strafing run, at which time the Chmmr would reengage the beam, pulling the Nemesis in and quickly to its death. The Orz had few chances to deploy their marines, but one time they got bolder when 2 ZapSats were gone and released a pair of brave marines, one of which got killed serving unknowingly as a decoy while the other made it aboard to finish off the Avatar.
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“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” ― Khan Noonien Singh

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“Ah! It is the alien from the Chenjesu's Alliance!” ― Zoq
“Just look at those weapon pods on his ship.” ― Pik



RESULTS: Chmmr wins with all 14 Avatars remaining! (11-13 crew losses; I couldn’t count the little green dots in time before it went to the victory screen!)
Approximate battle time: 4 minutes

ANALYSIS: Let’s see if the ZFP folks can figure out a little math problem and determine how many Stingers it would take to destroy one Avatar…

Zoq ― “The Stingers seem to be getting blasted apart at a geometric rate. A whole fleet of our Stingers could barely take down the Avatar’s crew from 42 down to about 30, give or take 1 Chmmr.”
Fot ― “…”
Pik ― “AIEE! That means if it takes 14 Stingers to take down around 28% of the Chmmr’s crew… then that would mean… ah… wait a minute… let me calculate… uh… That means, it would take… A WHOLE MESS OF THOSE THINGS!”
Fot ― “…”

Thanks guys. I think we’re done here.
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_________________
“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” ― Khan Noonien Singh

Orz's AI is atrocious. I'm surprised it did that well.

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“AVATAR BATTLESHIPS ARE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE THAN OUR BROODHOME OR X-FORM VESSELS.” ― Chmmr



RESULTS: Chmmr wins with 12 remaining Avatars!
Approximate battle time: 4 minutes
D.O.G.I.s deployed: 18
D.O.G.I.s destroyed 3 seconds after deployment: 18

ANALYSIS: Using DOGIs is this match-up was utterly stupid by the “Chenborg”; it must be some kind of hard-coding that basically requires the computer to unleash a DOGI whenever it’s at full strength, much in the same way a Mycon will automatically regenerate its crew under the similar conditions -- even if it’s just one crew member, or even if there’s an Arilou or Yehat right on top of them.

Their sudden depletion of energy, compounded by their slow movement, left them vulnerable to a direct assault of lasers, and although they could retaliate, they couldn’t implement their defensive crystal shard explosion maneuver due to their lack of battery juice, but were instead forced into a compromise of awaiting the recharge to release each single crystal blast at full force to the avatar’s hull or the intercepting path of a ZapSat, but they could usually only dish out 1 or 2 strikes at the most before they were obliterated by the swift laser fire.
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_________________
“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” ― Khan Noonien Singh

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“A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.” ― Trinity, “The Matrix”



RESULTS: Chmmr win with 12 Avatars remaining!
Approximate battle time: 3 minutes
Glory Devices used: 11
Deaths caused by Divine Wind: 2
Avatar Terawatt Laser kills: 3

ANALYSIS: The Scouts were highly vulnerable to the pull of the tractor beam, but this put them in position for blowing themselves up before the Chmmr did the job for them. A few times though the Shofixti farted around and actually acted as if their puny little darts would penetrate the Chmmr’s ZapSat defenses, and the Avatar punished their oversight with a laser to the Scout’s hull that did them in thrice before they could pull down the bomb handle.
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_________________
“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” ― Khan Noonien Singh

[edit:removed the quote of the post directly above. Seems quite superfluous to quote it here again]
Pointwise, it is not that unbalanced..... Once the Chmmr win by 10 points (-crew cost), once the Shofixti win by 20 points (+crew cost if the last Avatar survived the Divine Wind).
Which, in a series of only 2, averages to a slight cost advantage for the Shofixti.

And apparently, the home team made the win... However weird that is in a game where such things should not have an influence.

I even switches sides when conducting the simulations, replacing the Scouts with Avatars and vice versa, just for consistency’s sake.

(From Re: The Shofixti Scout)

You’re welcome!

In my Avatar vs. Scout simulations, there were 3 basic scenarios that would play out:

1 – Scout would arrive from far-range. Avatar would activate its tractor beam, pulling the scout towards it at great speed. Scout would trigger glory device upon reaching optimal close-range.
2 – Scout would approach from medium-range to short-range, fire a few shots, all of which would get blocked, and then retreat. The sequence would repeat until the scout entered the blast radius, and then they’d trigger the glory device, but sometimes not in optimal range.
3 – Scout would perform scenario 2, but during its retreat it would enter range of the terawatt cannon, and then would get destroyed by its laser before they could trigger the glory device.

Scenario 1 was a win for the Shofixti, and this could happen several times in a row, which would go through scouts rather quickly, but with severe attrition to the avatar. Scenario 2 happened most often, and still favored the Shofixti most of the time. Scenario 3 was rare, around 10-15% chance of occurring, and was the best means the Chmmr had at gaining a points advantage, instead of depending on the Shofixti to use their bombs incorrectly. Therefore, I can conclude that the Shofixti would gain the upper-hand in the long run, since they can break even at 6 scouts per avatar but had the potential of destroying one at 5 or 4 or even as few as 3 scouts in an ideal circumstance.
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_________________
“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” ― Khan Noonien Singh

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“WE ARE FREE! YOU HAVE FLOODED OUR SYNTHESIS MECHANISMS WITH A WEALTH OF RADIANT ENERGY. WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO TAKE DECADES HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IN SECONDS. THE PROCESS IS INCOMPLETE, YET WE HAVE EMERGED. WE ARE THE CHMMR.” - Chmmr



(image of the battle (not really, it's really oldlaptop's avatar!))


RESULTS: Chmmr (2nd set) wins with 2 remaining Avatars! (13th ship down to 4 crew)
Approximate battle time: 6 minutes

ANALYSIS: Yep, you guessed it -- this battle was pretty much just a bunch of trading laser hits and seeing who’d be fortunate enough to get in the better licks. Usually, one ship would gain a slight advantage and destroy the former with barely any crew left hanging on, so the follow-up foe would finish it off. The 2nd fleet of Avatars gained an additional advantage when the first had some “planetary difficulties” which proved to be the deciding factor for the final outcome.
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_________________
“He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him! I’ll chase him ’round the moons of Nibia and ’round the Antares maelstrom and ’round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” ― Khan Noonien Singh

BTW, have you ever tried to find the maximum speed the zapsats can fly?
Using the gravity whip, the Avatar itself can fly faster than its ZapSats.

There's no real tactical use for that, though....