Here's the Blood and Steel season 3 runner up; the Arbalest
Despite Raiben 's vile slander, this is not actually a swarmboat, the swarmers are just for support or in case some crazy person *COUGH* Tshara *COUGH* decides to litter the battlefield with hundreds of drones.
The main weapon is a logic chaingun designed to beat docked hulls by firing a grid of weak punchthrough bullets in front of a stronger ion bullet to shave away the armor then knock out the shields under. It was the gun that brought down vanu, not the swarmers since they can't even beat his regen.
The ship is packed with a bunch of tech developed after last year's failure: Logic controls for controlling power drain from weapons without toggling them on/off constantly, a self-destruct button for blowing up the ion effect on the cannon so you do more hull damage (This got confused with me taking hull damage in the third match :p ) and a subsystem based design for better power efficiency.
The ship was made in a week though, and it shows in the haphazard internal layout. The ship is very prone to losing important logic and computer blocks, and i was extremely lucky in the fight against vanu where he only shot out my radar jammer, swarmer controller, scanner computer and overdrive computer; 5 blocks off and i would've lost control of the gun and lost. (In my defense, the penetration on his turret is nuts!)
It also leaves the interior horribly unfinished. I'd like to finish the ship up since there's not that much missing, but i've got post BnS creativity overload and can't stop starting new ships so it might be a while
but hey, it's not like you're paying me...
This version is the tournament version with only text on display modules changed; they were pretty unreadable or poorly labeled so i just moved some text around, no blocks removed or added.
Quick guide on how to setup the ship as well as using it's systems:
Screenshots:
earlier version with turrets (removed for mass)
Have fun and don't worry about AI ships; If you can beat their shield regen you can usually beat them. :p
Despite Raiben 's vile slander, this is not actually a swarmboat, the swarmers are just for support or in case some crazy person *COUGH* Tshara *COUGH* decides to litter the battlefield with hundreds of drones.
The main weapon is a logic chaingun designed to beat docked hulls by firing a grid of weak punchthrough bullets in front of a stronger ion bullet to shave away the armor then knock out the shields under. It was the gun that brought down vanu, not the swarmers since they can't even beat his regen.
The ship is packed with a bunch of tech developed after last year's failure: Logic controls for controlling power drain from weapons without toggling them on/off constantly, a self-destruct button for blowing up the ion effect on the cannon so you do more hull damage (This got confused with me taking hull damage in the third match :p ) and a subsystem based design for better power efficiency.
The ship was made in a week though, and it shows in the haphazard internal layout. The ship is very prone to losing important logic and computer blocks, and i was extremely lucky in the fight against vanu where he only shot out my radar jammer, swarmer controller, scanner computer and overdrive computer; 5 blocks off and i would've lost control of the gun and lost. (In my defense, the penetration on his turret is nuts!)
It also leaves the interior horribly unfinished. I'd like to finish the ship up since there's not that much missing, but i've got post BnS creativity overload and can't stop starting new ships so it might be a while
but hey, it's not like you're paying me...This version is the tournament version with only text on display modules changed; they were pretty unreadable or poorly labeled so i just moved some text around, no blocks removed or added.
- 12.000 Mass
- 1.880.000 Shield HP
- 40.500 Shield Regen
- 23.230 Thrust
- 270k DPS anti docked hull chaingun (150k dps in anti-hull mode)
- ~140k DPS high-speed swarmer spammer (280k max, but missiles are typically around 50% effective damage)
- Scanner
- Jammer
- Ion Effect
- Overdrive effect
- EMP effect
- Omnidirectional AMS batteries
- HUD additions for monitoring subsystem power and shields
Quick guide on how to setup the ship as well as using it's systems:
- Pre-flight setup
First make sure the cannon doesn't have AI active, it turns on for some reason. There is an AI module in the control room (See pic below) or you can just disable docked AI.
If you forget this the cannon will think it's a turret and start shooting on its own, draining too much power and overloading the ship.
Next enable the defensive EMP effect on the docked hull module. From here you can just press down to move to the shield module and-
Enable Ion effect on the shield module, then press down and-
Enable Overdrive and Radar Jammer on the drive module.
As with all ships you have to set thrust ratios. I recommend 20% rotational with all else even, although you can go for more rotational against slower ships.
If you forget this the cannon will think it's a turret and start shooting on its own, draining too much power and overloading the ship.
Next enable the defensive EMP effect on the docked hull module. From here you can just press down to move to the shield module and-
Enable Ion effect on the shield module, then press down and-
Enable Overdrive and Radar Jammer on the drive module.
As with all ships you have to set thrust ratios. I recommend 20% rotational with all else even, although you can go for more rotational against slower ships.
- Cannon Usage
Cannon is toggled on/off with the first button on the hotbar labelled "AP Ion Repeater".
Since the cannon is docked you wont get notifications when it hits anything; you can enable to tracer in slot 10 to get notifications instead. The tracer is almost harmless, but its still a good idea to turn it off when not using the ship.
You can toggle the secondary effect, which disables the ion part of the gun to reduce power drain in case of damage or EMP with the "AP Ion Full Power" button.
There is also the "Ion Burnout" option, which will self-destruct all the ion computers connected to the gun, disabling the ion effect and switching the cannon into pure anti-hull mode, good for finishing off opponents with downed or weak shields, but it can't be reversed without going to a shipyard.
Since the cannon is docked you wont get notifications when it hits anything; you can enable to tracer in slot 10 to get notifications instead. The tracer is almost harmless, but its still a good idea to turn it off when not using the ship.
You can toggle the secondary effect, which disables the ion part of the gun to reduce power drain in case of damage or EMP with the "AP Ion Full Power" button.
There is also the "Ion Burnout" option, which will self-destruct all the ion computers connected to the gun, disabling the ion effect and switching the cannon into pure anti-hull mode, good for finishing off opponents with downed or weak shields, but it can't be reversed without going to a shipyard.
- Swarmer Usage
Swarmers have three settings, toggled like radio buttons; 50%, 100% and off. Use lower settings against EMP weapons or in case of damage.
- AMS
The ship's AMS coverage is intended for high speed strafing. It's blind directly behind and infront so keep moving side to side or up and down to let homing missiles chase the ship into the best firing arcs.
AMS batteries are guided by the central turret and will auto-position for best coverage against large lock-on or swarmer volleys.
AMS batteries are guided by the central turret and will auto-position for best coverage against large lock-on or swarmer volleys.
- EMP Defense
The ship is designed with EMP mitigation in mind; watch the PWR values on the HUD (Top one is shield, bottom is armor) If they hit 0 disable the swarmer. The cannon is unprotected and will lead to power failure for the drive if hit with emp weapons, just disable full power for the cannon and avoid running radar jammer.
Screenshots:
earlier version with turrets (removed for mass)
Have fun and don't worry about AI ships; If you can beat their shield regen you can usually beat them. :p
