I will note in the NK ratings - even the SELT!! has a better record than the Fed and it is horrible.

And the NEO is dead last. 3 FX p1's please.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 03:57 pm: Edit

One thing about the ships is you have to keep in mind the technology. A Seltroian with drone racks is a non-starter, as is a Federation with 360 degree Photons or a Hydran with FX hellebores. Other data applies. Andromedan PA Panels cannot hold more energy just because it is a tournament, Nor can any empire fire its phasers sooner than eight impulses on subsequent turns.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 04:24 pm: Edit

Are there any Seltorians with FA+R PC's? I do not know.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 04:25 pm: Edit

Are there Tholians that have FX p1's?

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 05:03 pm: Edit

There are no Seltorians with FA/L or FA/R PCs.

There are certainly Tholians with FX P1s (PC hulls, DN hulls), but no Neo Tholians with FX P1s (the rear hull gets in the way).

Like, one of the things we have always had to work with is that TPTB are not willing to (as SPP indicates above) just, like, invent new rules just for the tournament. So the Seltorians aren't gonna get 8 impulse delay PCs or FX (or whatever) PCs or whatever.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Some Archeo-Tholians have FX phaser-1s (PC, DD, CW, DN; and their derivatives) but I don't believe any Neo-Tholians have FX phaser-1s.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - 11:01 am: Edit

Spartan over MadJack

I lost power here and lost everything I had but it does not matter. Geof played great in his best ship and I played poorly in my worst ship. I always struggle fighting ISC's and Geof is probably the best I have ever played. I really didn't want to play another Lyran anyway.

Good luck with your next Lyran Geof!

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, August 29, 2024 - 03:56 am: Edit

Thanks Jack, it was a tough battle, as usual!

Von_Nasty ... I'm ready to start scheduling for our matchup, I sent email to jhornborg@gmail.com from kuraaku7@yahoo.com ... I hope I'm not caught in a spam filter!

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 07:47 am: Edit

2.4 Kingzila RKR over CrashandBurn Fed

Turn 4 or 5 the Fed was able to get a range 8 shot with 1 photon hit & 6 p1. Turn 10 Fed was able to get a range 4 shot with no phaser support and one photon down with 1 hit again.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 09:30 am: Edit

Should have just rolled that first salvo before playing and then went out and gotten a pizza.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 11:26 am: Edit

On August 27, 2024 - 05:03 PM, Peter Bakija posted a comment to the effect that TPTB aren't going to invent new rules just for the tournament. I believe (though since I don't play tournament SFB, I might be misremembering), that at least on one occasion the have done exactly that.

If I am not misremembering, in tournament SFB web generators and snares are hit on "drone"; and thus provide "padding" for the far more important web casters. That is not the case with "standard" SFB. Those systems are fit on "flag bridge" and provide no padding for web casters.

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 06:17 pm: Edit

Catching up on and commenting on some of the proposed Tournament Ship changes

Orion - Is the thought that the current Orion is too good?

ISC - There was a time when this ship had an extra LS and RS p3 and that was deemed to good... two more FH phaser 1s seems a bit much. The ISC problem IMHO is that mizia kills it with two drone and two torp hits leaving it with either a PPD or a single g torp. Also it doesnt have alot of drone/plasma defense out shield 3,4,5 and this doesnt help. Not sure what the solution is other than going back to rear torps are hit on torp only.

Seltorian... 12 p1's! No padding but think you will find everyone playing this as a phaser boat and have it ruining the tournament.

LDR - Maybe add a 360 p1 instead of two p1... or heck even a 360 p3... this pads the gat when shot from the rear.

Hydran - going from 1 to 2 360 phaser 1s - worth a shot if the ship is underperforming... another out of the box idea would be to add a couple hit points to each stinger.

Andro - I dont know enough to judge

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 06:33 pm: Edit

Talking about top performers. The ISC is a top 4 or 5 ship. Why does it need anything done to it?

I vote we make it worse if anything, not better. Joking.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 08:29 pm: Edit

ISC is fine.

Orion is fine.

Hydran is fine.

LDR is probably a little weak, but adding more P1s is excessive.

Seltorian is not good, but I have written essays about how the issue is the whole basic technology base of the ship, and no amount of minor tweaking is going to make it significantly better.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 08:57 pm: Edit

I like Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) idea of adding like 2 hit points to the ftrs

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 09:12 pm: Edit

I am looking back at my NK results post from like a week ago. It may be true that hypothetically the ATH is strong. And maybe it is fantastic if Paul Scott is flying it...but... the NK results do not support that it is great or anything.

Ace vs Ace - the ATH ship is ranked 10th.

All players versus All players the ATH is ranked 16th.

This is across literally over 700 games. I don't think that the ATH should get upgraded. I am just saying I don't think it's anything but average at best in the hands of most players and that generally it isn't one of the best ships at all.

Web ships aren't dominating any tournaments anymore, if they ever did. Has anyone but Paul Scott and Tom Carrol had much success in them? We have had 1 Web ship make it to a final of a Sapphire tourney.

Which leads me to the Neo-Tholian. I am once again suggesting that the Neo-Tholian is the one ship that could use a minor upgrade to get it out of the basement and create a web ship that more people can handle. I have played it a few times lately and can see the potential. It's also a ship that might get in the way of plasma ships winning nearly all the Sapphire tournaments. How many in a row is it now?

I made my suggestion - all it needs IMHO is the 3 FH phasers to be extended to FX. That will make the ship better without doing anything else. It doesn't need power or more weapons. It doesn't need two shuttle bays or anything. It just needs more fire power out the 3/5.

Does anyone else have ideas on how to improve the Neo?

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Saturday, August 31, 2024 - 10:14 pm: Edit

I like the idea of 12 point fighters too but do not know if there is such thing as a 12 point fighter that exists. Assuming the TPTB wouldn't allow it if there isn't a 12 point fighter. I actually like this idea better than adding phasers to the ship.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 11:25 am: Edit

When it comes to the Andromedan Tournament Cruiser. It does not need more ability to do damage. It needs the ability to keep it speed up. So I think the solution is to give it back some of the power that it original had back in the day. I suggest changing the 2 APR into 4 AWR.

This is my suggestion because the issue is that the current power configuration of the Andromedan relies on the more battery power to be available to keep up the speed. So when the number of batteries was reduced from 6 to 3 without giving the Andromedan a power upgrade it reduced it ability to keep up the speed. A speed is the only defense against the seeking weapons that are flying around the board for an Andromedan.

At the moment, the Andromedan quickly loses speed because the batteries are drained pretty quickly in respect to what might be needed on an as needed basis. For example, raising the PA Panels from Standard to Reinforced, That requires 3 points of energy, so I need to keep 3 points of energy in the batteries. That allows me save energy on the allocation to keep up my speed. So unless, I am about to do a panel dump I need to have 3 points of power in reserve at all times. So the capacity of the batteries is really 12 points to start not 15.

Note: I have an additional suggestion to help the defense of the Andromedan slightly and that is to add a mini EM Module to the ship. But that is a discussion for another time.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 12:02 pm: Edit

On the Seltorian, I have a crazy idea. It is close to the 10 phaser Sectarian. Ok, the ship I am thinking about does have 10 P1s. But it has only 2 PC cannons. That is basing the Seltorian Tournament on the Selector CF (i.e. the Fast Cruiser). More power less punch when it comes to the PCs and only 2 WBs instead of the 3 at the moment.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 12:08 pm: Edit

Paul's thoughts also bring to mind maybe why plasma ships are crushing it lately. No Andro to beat every one of them.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzila) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 04:34 pm: Edit

Won
Gorn 5
Shark 3
RKR 2
RFH 1
Kli 1
Wax 1
Orion 1
ISC 1

2nd place
ISC 3
WBS 2
HYD 2
WAX 2
Orion 1
LYR 1
Fed 1
Thn 1
Kzinti 1
RFH 1

After looking over all the 1st & 2nd place ship – Plasma has won 9 of the 16. My suggestion is to take away the Fakes for all plasmas. It will make the games go faster.

Ships that need help
Ando, Seltorian, Kzinti, Both tholians, Hyd, LDR.
Kzinti give it back its 4th type 4
Ando – no idea
Seltorian – no idea
Archeo – give 2 more power & NEO – make FH p1 FX
LDR – Make FA p1 FX
Eagle – make all p1 FX
HYD – make fighters have 12 hit points.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 05:26 pm: Edit

I also think the Gorn and KR won both the Crown Tournaments. So, BP have won 11 out of the last 18 events.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 05:51 pm: Edit

Seth is right, without fakes the games will be shorter but I don't really support that idea. That is a very big change.

If we are going to make changes - I think it is time to put a time limit on the cloaking device for all games. The tournament was balanced for games that last 2-3 hours. Just because we have the freedom to play forever online doesn't mean we should have too. It also doesn't mean the ships that can cloak are still balanced as they once were. We have a lot of 9 hour games going on with the KR and FH. KR's cloaking most turns and wearing out weasels for 14 turns doesn't make sense to me. It never would have happened at Origins.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 06:56 pm: Edit

...and that wasn't even me!

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Monday, September 02, 2024 - 01:41 pm: Edit

Fakes? If you are using a fake you are playing wrong. The only way to launch a torp is as an EPT!
Gregg