X-Verse Fleet Fest I

[GCU Grey Area]

Not the #DECA : its ingame price is 7Mcr.
The Hyperion is overpriced anyway, so would proabably be OK.
ATF ships have ridiculously good value for money, so probably no to fighters. Battleships, maybe.
The Truelight Seeker may be... interesting in action, to say the least. Don't know whether it should be allowed though.
Advanced ships should probably be allowed, but that's down to TJ to decide.

Agree on the #DECA - though would be nice to include it (so anyone building an all-Aldrin fleet could have a carrier) but it would be essential for the organsiers to decide on a suitably exorbitant price tag to use instead of the in-game one.

Regarding ATF fighters, remember there are no cheap weapon options for these ships - a single Thor for example needs 10 EMPCs to fully arm which adds well over 3 million to the base cost of each ship - could easily end up costing significantly more than an equivalent Commonwealth M3, depending on how it was armed (10 HEPTs for example are around 1.4 million).

[Master of the Blade]

When I said ATF fighters have ridiculously good value for money, I was also counting the fact that they're as fast as most M4s, as well shielded as bombers, and really quite small. They'd eat anything costing a similar amount. For example, in one of my games running the ATF shipyard sciript, my wing of just 10 Thors with only 2 EMPCs each managed to completely destroy a Pirate corvette fleet of the same/similar number. IIRC, there were about 12 mixed Pirate corvettes. That was what I meant.

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

Sorry - can't remember who made the offer, but someone has already offered to provide a spreadsheet containing prices based on the current specified web site. I think something like that should be used next time. Makes life a lot easier for everyone. Well, everyone except the person who has to put it together, but I'm sure there'll be no problem getting a volunteer for that, if the current volunteer changes his mind...

*cough*

Actually both ashkrowe and I have offered, so I've sent a PM to ashkrowe offering to collaborate on this one. I'm planning to include an Excel-based fleet calculator as well so it's easy peasy to design a fleet.

The real question is which ships should I include? I agree with GCU Grey Area that most of the unbuyable ships make the game more fun, but there may still be contested points. Should ATF ships be allowed? The Hyperion? Also plotships like the #deca?

Since I suspect no two XFF competitions will be 100% alike in regards to rules and what's allowed/not allowed. My suggestion would be to add in all ships, weapons, & missiles that way if a future XFF changes something you don't have to continuously edit, adjust, and update the calculator for each XFF competition.


I'll be updating the Fleet Log shortly to include Aro's fleet since I ran out of time yesterday. If anyone else has done any last minute changes to their fleet in regards to ship numbers (+/-) let me know.


Edit: Aro's fleet has been added. It's good to see that the Tiger is now making an appearence. And personally I don't want to go up against Aro's ships.....5 M7's, my fleet would probably get ripped apart in very short order.

[Cpt.Jericho]

Maybe, but Aro's fleet is actually heavy guns only without fighter support worth to mention. Your's might be lighter, but offers also a lot of firepower and M6 can dodge IBLs.
But whatever outcome: This would be an eyecatcher! So many PALCs - that's GOT to look groovy!!

edit:
Oh, and le Baron has updated his fleet: No more MDs but PRGs. Well, I think that could be interesting - if the game doesn't crash.

more edit:
Spychotic failed to give his fleet a proper name. Now, which name shall we give it? Maybe A.U.R.A.?

All
Underdeveloped
Rural
Aliens

[Triaxx2]

Since the opinion appears to be that I'm going to get toasted, if someone wants to try and fight their way into my spot I'm good with that.

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

Spychotic failed to give his fleet a proper name.

Here's MSC's contribution

I'd say call it the MSC fleet.

Since the opinion appears to be that I'm going to get toasted, if someone wants to try and fight their way into my spot I'm good with that.

While you may get toasted depending on which fleet/s you face, I think your ships could put up a good fight, IMO.

[Cpt.Jericho]

I'd say call it the MSC fleet.

Fair enough, but what exactly does MSC mean?
Manhandled
Simians
Complaining

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Deathmatch Map has been updated.

-Battle now takes place in Oranos orbit, with a big fiery doom planet hanging around that probably isn't usually there.
-Main sun brightness turned down slightly: just trust me on this.
-Added four "stadium lights" in a ring around the battlefield's ecliptic. We shall no longer have illumination problems.
-Changed music track to Mars orbit music, because it's awesome.



EDIT

If you want me to build a good handful of other awesome deathmatch arenas, the basic structure of them has already been assembled - that being the stadium lights and the nav beacons. All that's left to do is build pretty backgrounds. There's a whole bunch of pretty backgrounds and such that I could play with...

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

If I may make a suggestion on the music, Where Hope Dies. And having multiple backgrounds would be cool, that way battles can take place in various "Arena's".


On the subject of fleet alteration (haven't checked every fleet throughly) but Sticks' fleet needs a fix, he has 19 fighters but the Osaka's can't carry them.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Re: music, Where Hope Dies is AMAZING. Fantastic track, and just epic enough for our purposes. If TJ turned all music OFF during the actual fight but added the music to the recording during post-processing, that could work... just changing the tracks present in his X3 music folder would work, sort of, but there would be the switch from the sector music track to the battle music track that you'd have to deal with.

Shameless self-plug, though - we could also use some of my X music.

Re: sector, I'll make a handful of other arenas tonight. Someone should probably test out my current setup, to see if we like the Stadium Lights idea.

[Cpt.Jericho]

@Tenlar:
The music would work ingame if the all files (sectormusic and all combatmusicfiles would be identical). I also think that the new arena is way too bright with all those secondary lights + that red lava planet is inside the rings of Uranus.

@Deadbeat_Spinn:
The deadline is over. If Sticks has spent too much money he should not be able to alter his ships loadout anymore; all he should be able to is to choose the fighters staying behind. At least that's my opinion.

edit: Looking at Sticks fleet that would mean ALL fighters, tehe; well the docking bay cap wasn't decided yesterday. As well as the deadline.

[imperium3]

Where Hope Dies is an amazing track and should definitely be used.

We should aim to use a variety though, else it'll get boring quickly. Also it might be a good idea to save a couple of genuinely epic soundtracks for the semifinal/final.

Like the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Requiem, maybe?

Some other suggestions:

-Tenlar's music, particularly "The Thin Line between Bravery and Madness"

-Some music from the game, such as "Earth Orbit Battle"

-The ever-popular Requiem for a Tower

-Duel of the Fates. 'Nuff said.

Also @CJ Didn't Technojerk say he would contact the owners of any illegal fleets and give them a chance to correct them? (Apologies TJ if I am wrong) So Sticks may be OK if he fixes his fleet. If not, well, we have an extra fleet anyway

[Merdocharr]

Tenlar, I'm getting a flight school sabre spawned on the new deathmatch arena. It might lure some of the xenon ships away from the battle or participate if it has guns installed.

[Cpt.Jericho]

Erm, I didn't mean to call "Disqualify him!". Just that everybody here tried his/her best to tweak their own fleet to meet the deadline. I think it's only fair to point out that Sticks has no docking bays for the fighters and the docking bay rule is 12 days old.
Since the rest of Sticks fleet is OK I would not diqualify him, but yet, he can't be allowed to take them into battle without the necessary bays; that would be unfair to all those massive fighter fleets that had to take their own taxis with them.

Tenlar, I can see that sabre, too and it will certainly attract the attention of the Xenon-fleet even if it had no guns + is that not one of the many indestructable ships?

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Re: secondary lights, they're easy enough to turn down. I originally had them all at full blast and... yeah, that was pretty bright. But I'll turn them all down a ways. Actually, most of the brightness is coming from the primary sun that was there before.

Re: the lava planet, it's actually not possible to put it outside of the rings - the rings are not physical, they're a part of the backdrop. I could remove the lava planet if it's too weird... or I could bump it up to around Phi = 11*Pi/6 so it doesn't intersect the rings.

Re: the flight school sabre. Uh... crap. I dunno why that's happening. Do the scripting guys have an idea?...

Re: music - a few other ideas.

The Imperial March, as covered by Epica.
Definitely the Earth Orbit battle (which in my iTunes is named Battle Against the Beast)
One Winged Angel.

[EmperorJon]

Probably because it recognises that there needs to be a Flight School in your start sector. Just use a quick script to blow it before beginning the match.

[Cpt.Jericho]

Impirial March would sound great - but since it is copyrighted I'd rather leave it where it is. A: George Lucas might be upset (and we really don't want HIM upset). B: It would be illegal in many countries (and that would make Egosoft probably upset - which we don't want either) to use a copyrighted song without payment.

As for sector lights: The secondary make it look a bit to artificial. Might be better to turn them so low that the hulls can just be seen. Too bad, there doesn't seem an ambient light function in X.

it would be cool to get the lava planet out of the rings. I didn't object it's existence only it's location

Good idea to blow the flightschool up via script - there has to be first blood

[GCU Grey Area]

When I said ATF fighters have ridiculously good value for money, I was also counting the fact that they're as fast as most M4s, as well shielded as bombers, and really quite small. They'd eat anything costing a similar amount.

I'm not so sure about that - I reckon the prices balance when the cost of guns is considered.

ATF fighters are good ships, but for the less than the price of a single fully armed Thor (about 6 million) you could afford a pair of PAC armed Mamba Vanguards (about 2.5 each). MVs are roughly the same speed (only 3m/s slower) &, while each one only has 40% of the Thor's shielding, there are two of them - which would win? 1 Thor with 10 EMPCs or 2 MVs with 16 PACs between them? Might be interesting to find out in a future XFF.

Alternatively, for not much more, those 2 MVs could be armed with 16 mass drivers & suddenly all that heavy shielding on the Thor count for nothing...

[Cpt.Jericho]

Only MDs cost more than 3 times of a PAC + ammo. Nevertheless I agree: The ATF can be countered. Especially the capships. The PSPs are in my opinion no good in AI hands. Low fire frequency, slow bullets, mediocre range. Without charging those are more likely to be as GCs. Anyway, there'll be time enough to discuss that.

[Stealth Hunter]

I figured I could also throw in some suggestions for the music in anticipation of XFF I.

- RA2 - Hell March
- SupCom OST - One planet at a time
- SupCom OST - UEF theme
- Veigar - Dominions Reign (Short but epic...)