FTL: Limited Information (Federation Victory!)

[Enter]

We can make like 1/3 or 1/2 a sector if we don't get more fuel.

just destroy more ships and take their fuel

[the worst]

OK am I grabbing the hull repair drone? if I don't hear otherwise by the morning I'll do it. (please don't move on til I report back)

[Enter]

OK am I grabbing the hull repair drone? if I don't hear otherwise by the morning I'll do it. (please don't move on til I report back)

move on now, aye!

[callforjudgement]

Just waiting for a decision on this, then we can move on.

[callforjudgement]

I apologise for the relative quietness in this thread. Things have been happening in PTs, but it's the nature of the game that sometimes everything happening is non-public.

[Enter]

It's not ur fault
or even necessarily a bad thing
ha! is fun game! <3

[the worst]

You've been really on top of it - please don't feel bad for quietness here!

@Vars I've allocated control of the repair drones to you. You will have access to our drone components until we're down to our last few (those last few are mine, and are obviously for emergencies. Hull repairs on the fly are a luxury; winning battles is a necessity).

[Varsoon]

I got us some more power
So we can fuel our ambitions.
I also got us some literal fuel.

[callforjudgement]

Looking out the windows, we see a set of repair drones mend the structure of our ship.

Everyone seems to have finished shopping by now, so it's time to move on.

[callforjudgement]

Jump 71

Satellite fleet (n)

. The set of ships which are not really part of a power's military, but which have some sympathy towards them and a non-aggression agreement in place, both ways. Members of a satellite fleet will sometimes help their allied military on larger operations, or do some law enforcement on the side, for suitable pay.

We encounter a small ship here; it's much smaller than ours, and is marked as a Federation ally. They aren't really part of our military, but we're on good terms with them.

They're short on ammunition to keep their Pulse Bomb running. That's a type of ammunition we have, too, so we could strike a deal if necessary; they have plenty of fuel and are offering us 9 jumps' worth of fuel, but want 3 shots' worth of ammo in return. A good deal?

(Iconeum has control over the ammo supply, so can veto this. If he doesn't express an opinion, I'll let Enter as the captain accept or reject it. Anyone should feel free to contribute opinions as to whether we should accept it, though.)

[Varsoon]

That'd set us on fuel for a long time.

[the worst]

I'm in favour as long as your weapon strategy doesn't mean on missiles too heavily.

[Iconeum]

We'd not be crippled if our Pulse Bomb runs out of ammo, but we aren't very deep on ammo either.

Seeing we just stocked up on ammo and fuel, is there much reason for this trade to happen?
I'm don't mind either option here.

[the worst]

It's 150% on shop value in the base game so likely a good value trade, basically.

I swing slightly towards YEAH but I'm fine either way as well.

[Iconeum]

No experience in this game unfortunately (though that might change soon), I reckon we currently have enough ammo for a few battles only.
If we'd run out of ammo, there is other weaponry installed that doesn't cost ammo but is also less effective.

I'm leaning conservative here, but it's up to you guys

Edited out numbers — callforjudgement

[the worst]

I believe in you spyconeum!

[Enter]

I'd rather win battles then have fule
because we can get fuel from winning battles

[Varsoon]

Yeah so long as we win fights we should be fine on fuel
This would just be a fairly cheap trade that would mean we wouldn't ever have to worry about fuel, even if we hit someone who needs a bunch for a quest.

[callforjudgement]

If there's no decision soon, I'll go with Enter's opinion and move on.

[callforjudgement]

Sadly, we don't have ammo to spare. So we can't help them.

[callforjudgement]

Jump 72

Energy shield (n)

. A technology pioneered by the Zoltans; energy shields block almost any sort of incoming attack. However, they are disrupted easily and, unlike regular shields, are almost impossible to bring back up after disruption.

There's a pirate transport here, smuggling some sort of valuables or other; the nebula means we can't scan it to find out what, but we don't really care, we're obviously going to attack it anyway.

Both our ships have the same basic strategy – aim to laser down the enemy shields and hit with a beam through the gap – but they both struggle to hit often enough to actually get through all the shield layers at once. We both have trump cards, though. Their Energy Shield doesn't help them much: it's outside their regular shields, so our laser and beam quickly take care of it. Our Artillery Beam, on the other hand, goes right through their shields, and as soon as it takes out their shield generator they pretty much have no hope to survive.

It turns out that they had black-market weapons on board; none of them fit our ship, but we should be able to trade them, along with the scrap we gather from their broken ship, for ⛯49 worth of things that do.

[callforjudgement]

Jump 73

Shamming (v)

. A scam is a trade which relies on the other person's ignorance or greed to give them something worthless in exchange for something valuable. A sham goes beyond that: you get them to give you something valuable, and then leave without fulfilling your side of the bargain.

There's allegedly a weapons trader here, but their offer doesn't sound too convincing (they're charging a lot of scrap for whatever it is they're selling, and don't want to tell us what it is). We're not nearly that naive, and they're pointing weapons at us, so we just attack. I didn't put this up to a vote because it's fairly obvious what the recommendation of the FTL veterans would be on this one.

We deploy a drone to shoot down their missiles, leaving them unable to hurt us; they try teleporting a crewmember over, but Enter keeps everyone updated on where he is, and Varsoon has no trouble dispatching him. Meanwhile, they seem unable to dodge our shots, and it doesn't take long for our beams to take them out.

We recover ⛯32 and some much-needed fuel and ammo. Oddly, they didn't seem to be carrying any weapons in their cargo bay. What sort of weapons trader was that?

[callforjudgement]

Jump 74

Cloaking field (n)

. Cloaking fields are protective devices preventing ships being seen: this makes it impossible to get weapon locks on them (in turn, meaning that weapons will normally miss when fired), and is obviously very useful for stealth purposes. The vast majority of cloaking devices cannot maintain a cloaking field for very long, however.

There's an automated Rebel scout here; we never find out why. Nonetheless, apparently it decided to attack us, rather than hiding in the nebula. It's very defensively-oriented, with a cloaking device and three shield barriers, but as its weapons can't pierce our shields, this fight is only ever going to go one way. More scrap (⛯34) and fuel is always nice.

[callforjudgement]

Jump 75

Nebula anxiety (n)

. A mental state often brought about by prolonged exposure to nebulas, similar to hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation. The inability to see or sense anything outside the ship leads to constant paranoia about what must presumably be out there, when frequently, there's nothing there at all.

Maybe there's something here, but if there is, you can't detect or locate it. For all we know, this area is completely empty and barren, with nothing to look at other than the swirls of the nebula. Even if it isn't, it may as well be; nothing happens all jumpcycle, so we get set to leave.

[callforjudgement]

Jump 76

Outrange post (n)

. The sort of settlement that pops up just outside the borders of a civilised area; these are often aiming to sell illicit goods (either because the goods themselves are banned, or simply because the merchant wants to avoid taxes). It's common for mercenaries to wait at these, especially those who can't get entry permits, looking to get hired onto a ship's crew and gain entry that way.

It's the Long-Range Beacon, and the border of Federation-controlled space; we haven't reached the High Command yet, but we've reached the borders of their central empire, which is large enough to span multiple sectors. Obviously, we'll be heading right for the centre, but perhaps we want to do some shopping first?

Some of the people here are looking to be hired onto a ship; perhaps they can't get into Federation space any other way. If we want extra crew, we could pay one of them to work aboard our ship:
- Human, experienced in piloting and shield operation (⛯35)
- Human, experienced in weaponry (⛯35)
- Slug, very experienced pilot (⛯45)

Of course, there's also a selection of other possible goods to be bought, as usual. I'll post details in people's PTs.