FTL: Limited Information: PvtUrist's Private Topic

[callforjudgement]

Access to this topic:

PvtUrist (player)
callforjudgement (moderator)
Iconeum (replacement for PvtUrist)

[callforjudgement]

Welcome to FTL: Limited Information! This thread allows me to privately give you information, and allows you to take game actions. I'll only accept actions posted in this private topic. You may also use it for your own thoughts about the game. It will become public when the game ends. It might be shown to your replacement, if you need to be replaced.

You

may not

copy-and-paste from here to the game thread. You may paraphrase, but

please do not use numbers when doing so

.

Here is information about the character you're playing in the game:

Rock

You are a

Rock

, a member of a highly organised traditional society. The Rock religion preaches stoicism, obedience to superiors, and wariness of outsiders, helping the Rock society exist largely in harmony, except for all those people who don't have the same views. As such, Rocks who have reassuringly high loyalty tendencies, but worryingly high levels of curiosity, are often sent to join the Federation and help keep invaders away from Rock territory; and you are one of them.

You recently found out about the source of the Rebellion: an AI that has made its home in the Rebel Flagship. Unfortunately, the crew who discovered that were wiped out, and only just managed to relay the message to the few remaining Federation employees at your base. The last order you received was to make sure that the information remained in Federation hands, asking you to take the information, and your ship, to another Federation base, warning that the Rebels are very likely to try to stop you.

Being made of rock, your body doesn't have many weak points; you are immune to burns, and will resist ⅓ of the damage you take from any other source. However, due to your bulk, it will take you a long time to move around the ship; if you try to change station under time pressure, it will be a while before you can do anything at your destination.

Your

primary objective

is to take your ship – and your information – to a Federation base, and await further orders. The nearest Federation base that you know of is in the same sector as your own base, located near the Long-Range Beacon.
Your

secondary objective

is to avoid drawing attention that would help enable the Rebels to find you; one of the main risks to your mission is that the Rebels kill you to stop your information falling into the hands of the Federation High Command. It will be scored as follows:
-

+180 points

for every Long-Range Jump made by the ship (which will greatly expand the area that the Rebels will have to search in).
-

−10 points

for every FTL beacon visited by the ship (which will give more people a chance to observe your position); note that this is a score penalty, not a bonus.

[PvtUrist]

stoicism

omg yes

interesting secondary objective, looking fowards to this

[callforjudgement]

You're welcome.

There's a decision to make in the main game thread, about which parts of the ship each player will be responsible for; you might want to discuss what decision should be made with the other players.

[callforjudgement]

Weapon Power Relays

The ship has four weapon mounts; only two are currently in use.

This ship's weapon power relays are capable of supplying up to 3MW of power to weaponry mounted on the outside of the ship. This is enough to power either of the ship's weapons, but not both at once.

As a weapons operator, you can decide which of the weapons to power, and where to aim them. Additionally, you can specify how to time weapon shots (e.g. to synchronize them with something that disrupts shields). Staying in the weapons room will help the weapons form target locks more quickly, increasing their firing rate.

Micromanaging weapon targets for every battle would quickly become very slow. As such, let me know in this PT what rules I should follow to determine weapon targets; which weapon should I use, and which of the enemy ship's systems or crew should I prioritise damaging first? You can change these rules at any time, and if they appear to be struggling, I'll pause the game to ask you whether you wish to make changes.

Burst Laser II

This ship's primary lethal weapon is a Burst Laser II, designed for circumstances where you wish to damage or destroy an enemy ship.

This is a burst laser weapon; it fires 3 laser shots every 12 seconds. It requires 3MW of power to operate (it is capable of firing a partial burst if you request it to, but it will still draw 3MW of power). All 3 shots must be aimed at the same target. If a shot hits enemy shields, the shields will be briefly disrupted (allowing the rest of the burst through) but the shot itself will dissipate. Shots deal 1 system damage, 1 hull damage, 15 crew damage, and occasionally start fires.

The Burst Laser II is not permanently attached to the ship. If you wish to barter with it, you could likely exchange it for goods worth ⛯32.

EMP Ion

The EMP Ion is designed for encounters where you wish to disable rather than destroy an enemy ship, e.g. law enforcement against civilian ships.

The weapon consumes 3MW of power, can be fired once every 9 seconds, and has two modes of operation:

• When hitting enemy shields, the enemy shield generator will be both damaged and ionized, taking 1 system damage and losing 1MW of power for 5 seconds. This mode occasionally stuns enemy shield operators, but has no other special effects.
  
• When hitting the enemy ship directly, the weapon will cause system and ion damage to the hit room, as above. Additionally, it sometimes stuns enemy crews, and (in this mode only) often starts fires.

The EMP Ion does not directly deal any damage to a ship's hull or to crew it hits. Against enemy ships with inadequate weapons, and an inability to repair the shields quickly enough, it can allow the ship to be captured via disabling the enemy shields and then (if the enemy refuses to surrender) burning out the ship interior.

The EMP Ion is not permanently attached to the ship. If you wish to barter with it, you could likely exchange it for goods worth ⛯35.

Artillery Beam

The Federation's signature weapon, the Artillery Beam is used to break stalemates when fighting against defensive ships.

The Artillery Beam will fire after being continuously powered for 50 seconds. It cannot be manually aimed, and will target enemy rooms at random. It usually hits several rooms, dealing 1 hull and 1 system damage to each of them; notably, it is not stopped by enemy shields, and will deal full damage regardless of how many shield layers the enemy uses.

The Artillery Beam is permanently built into the ship. As such, it cannot be sold, but takes its power from the ship's reactor directly rather than needing the use of the weapon power relays, and does not require a weapon mount. It requires 1MW of power to charge.

[PvtUrist]

Against enemies that will damage us (1 shield layer vs 2 laser/1 laser 1 beam/1 missile, etc), keep the enemy's weaponry system down with Burst II, then Weaponry > Shields > Piloting > Engines.

Against enemies that may damage us and isn't AI/Lanius (1 shield layer vs 1 laser 1 bomb, for example), EMP Ion enemy Piloting > Medbay > Weaponry > Engines, if enemy has Clonebay, EMP Ion it only when an enemy crew dies.

Against enemies that can't damage us, Piloting > Medbay > Oxygen > Engines if not fighting AI/Lanius

[PvtUrist]

btw remember to turn off the Artilery when crew culling

also always bully the friendly engi

[callforjudgement]

Got it. I'll ask for more information if an AI or Lanius ship comes up (or if the strategy seems to not be working).

[callforjudgement]

Just to clarify: I aimed at the enemy weapons as requested, didn't do much damage (there were a lot of missed shots), missed the second volley entirely and the enemy ship was fully repaired. They were ready to jump away before the Artillery could fire, so I had to jump away myself.

[PvtUrist]

ok, Piloting > Weaponry (to enough damage so that the enemy can't deal reliable damage to us) > Engines > Shields for enemies that are running.

For enemies with 2 shields, EMP Ion until one hits, then switch to Burst II. Ion again if the enemy's 2 shields are up.

[callforjudgement]

Got it.

[callforjudgement]

You hear screams from just behind you. It seems like the asteroid hit the ship bridge, right next to where you are at the moment.

[PvtUrist]

Switch to Ion for the remainder of this fight

Go to the bridge. If nothing or breach, go back to weaponry. If fire, extinguish fire and then back to weaponry.

[callforjudgement]

OK. Turns out it's a fire.

[callforjudgement]

You extinguished the fire; Enter helped, but had to leave the room after a while. I'm taking you back to weapons as you requested.

[callforjudgement]

They're trying to surrender (details in the main thread). Do you want to power down the weapons, or keep firing?

[PvtUrist]

keep firing

[PvtUrist]

give all my scraps to Mr Tech Teh Wors

[PvtUrist]

give all my scraps to Mr Tech Teh Wors X2

[callforjudgement]

OK, that's ⛯12½, you now have 0.

[callforjudgement]

Looks like one of the weapon power relays got taken down by an enemy shot; they're only capable of supplying 2MW to our main weaponry, so they're both down right now. You might want to call for help in-thread, or fix them yourself.

[callforjudgement]

the worst fixed them, so I finished off the battle.

[callforjudgement]

Weapons-related purchases at this beacon:
Weapon power relay: costs ⛯45, allows an additional 1MW of power to be routed to the main weapons (cannot be sold)
Lensing system: costs ⛯30, increases artillery recharge rate by 20% but doubles artillery power usage (cannot be sold, but can be switched off)
Weapon stealth unit: costs ⛯50, causes weapon fire to not disrupt cloaking fields; requires a small machinery room
Healing burst: costs ⛯40, requires ammo, charges in 5 seconds, heals crew; uses 1MW of power
Burst Laser II: costs ⛯65, identical to our current Burst Laser II (e.g. it uses 3MW of power)
Chain Laser: costs ⛯65, time between bursts 19…14…9…4…4…4… seconds, fires two shots per burst, 1 damage, uses 2MW of power

You have ⛯7. (You can also sell the EMP or Burst Laser II, if necessary.)

[PvtUrist]

give all my scraps to Mr Tech Teh Wors X3

[callforjudgement]

Primary objective updated

: Take your ship's information to the Federation High Command.