ZimmTech: Pirate Fleet Competition [Awards Announced]

[jzimmerman4]

Finally got some compatible recording software so I should be able to create videos on the fleets now! Just need to figure out how to make an intro now..

 

[StormWing0]

Good luck, meantime I'm busy tearing my first ship apart and trying again.

 

[sayerulz]

I suppose I might put some stuff together. Old military craft refitted for civilian use, then re-refitted by pirates, freighters with guns added, outdated fighters..... That is the sort of stuff I will go for.

 

[jzimmerman4]

I suppose I might put some stuff together. Old military craft refitted for civilian use, then re-refitted by pirates, freighters with guns added, outdated fighters..... That is the sort of stuff I will go for.

Sounds awesome, excited to see what you put together!

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I only have one Pirate ship that I completed last Saturday and had a play with my builds this morning.
I'm actually building Trading Guild and Pirate ships with classes that compliment each other.
The only issue I'm finding is time to get stuff done.
Here's a link to

Sounds almost like something I would want to run into! Haha


Sweet man! Cant wait to see them.


We would love to see your ships submitted in the contest once you get them built!

My Pirate Build so far...

I'm actually building Trading Guild and Pirate ships with classes that compliment each other. This is in the

hope that one day I will be able to apply separate ships to each TG/Pirate faction.

Over the last couple months I've been planning several builds and only started these two particular ships 3 weeks ago. Finding time has been my main issue in getting these completed.

I first focus my build on the Trading Guild version and then I modify the build for a Pirate version. I do it this way to make it look like the Pirates have either stolen TG ships or plans and modified them for their purpose. Kind of like what we see in movies where pirates often change the look of comondared sailing vessels for their purpose.

However, I do have 3 Pirate designs that I am building to not resemble its TG counterpart, but it will have roughly the same mass and be compareble in battle worthyness. I hope I can get all these done in time.

Here's a link to a video I made this morning of me just having a play around. I was going to try putting my

prototypes into cargo pods to spawn on my server. Sorry, no commentary or voice over to put you to sleep from me

on this one.


I only have this one Pirate ship that I completed last Saturday, but have not completely decided on its final look. I changed the spikey edges on the sides a bit.

I have to be honest about these particular builds. I built them using an existing Isanth, where I dismantled

half of the ship and build my design. This allowed me to purposefully build it roughly the same size. Sadly, my weapons skills are not that great, so my designs have only simple cannons and missiles. However, these ships have cruise control. So, you can pretty much muck around inside the ship or do some building while flying to some distant place. :D

I have yet to test them in combat with existing Isanths to see how they fare. They'll probably get smashed, but

hey I don't want them to be invincible.

Oh yeah, these ships are built to dock with my stations and other ships. Which is why they have the hatches rear and bottom built that way.

 

[StormWing0]

lol just noticed something when using crystal composite, alloyed metal mesh, and capsules as the main blocks outside of needed systems. If I keep building with them I'll end up with a ship that has the block count of a titan but the mass of a frigate. In any event just one more thing I figured I'd note since some here went over the mass limit and well those blocks I'm using have between 0.01 and 0.10 mass. It might help.

Also just letting the competition runner know this too just in case a mass limit might not be enough.

 

[jzimmerman4]

lol just noticed something when using crystal composite, alloyed metal mesh, and capsules as the main blocks outside of needed systems. If I keep building with them I'll end up with a ship that has the block count of a titan but the mass of a frigate. In any event just one more thing I figured I'd note since some here went over the mass limit and well those blocks I'm using have between 0.01 and 0.10 mass. It might help.

Also just letting the competition runner know this too just in case a mass limit might not be enough.

Since those kind of blocks dont add to armor hp and arnt very strong I am not too concerned about there use but we will have to test this for the next competition, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Raisinbat]

Is this a redo of the old pirate wave competition? Sounds like the same thing, might dust off my old wave for this one

http://starmadedock.net/content/preserver-alliance-pirate-pack.2632/

Fighters shouldnt be much trouble to update, but drone corvette would benefit massively from rails, shield drain corvette doesn't work anymore and last one got too large for 1000 mass as well :x

 

[StormWing0]

Since those kind of blocks dont add to armor hp and arnt very strong I am not too concerned about there use but we will have to test this for the next competition, thanks for the heads up!

Well seeing as it'd be kinda funny to see people going after these things the only threatening ones are a drone and a turret ship since they are the only ones that actively attack players by hunting them. The rest are more likely to either run away or prevent chasing the others. These Loot Pinatas are more mental torture than they are anything else. :P

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Finally got some compatible recording software so I should be able to create videos on the fleets now! Just need to figure out how to make an intro now..

Oh hey, I use Camtasia for my videdo capture and compositing. I always record my narrated audio separate to the game recording and then merge them together to publish. It's really handy, although I'm no pro movie maker. The cool thing with Camtasia is it's free to try and cheap to buy.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

I'm up next!

The following 4 ships cover a mass range of 180 to 1600.

From smallest to largest:

- Shrike starfighter (bottom left)
Despite its 1005 blocks, this little fighter is not to be underestimated. Covered in advanced armor and equipped with a pretty strong shield (5096) for its small size, it can withstand an amazing amount of damage, and use its lock-on missiles and cutting beam to dish some out on its own with surgical accuracy.

- Shrike-2 starfighter (top middle)
Being the bigger brother of the standard Shrike, this 288 mass fighter can prove to be a lot more than simple nuisance. While also boasting a lot of advanced armor, it backs it up for even more, 7070 shields. Its offensive capabilities include a twin continous beam laser and 4 lock-on missiles.

- Myrmidon heavy fighter(bottom right)
Stepping it up, comes the pirate refit of the Myrmidon, clocking in at 855 total mass. The ship doesn't only have an over 2.0 thrust/mass ratio, but also comes with 40 thousand shields, 4 anti-missile turrets and standard armor. For offense, it uses twin punch-through autocannons and 4 lock-on missiles.

- Pillager heavy bomber(left-most)
Heaviest of this pirate fleet, at 1582 mass, the Pillager is the law-abiding citizen's nightmare. With its 122 thousand shields it's by far the thougest of the 4, and has 3 different weapon systems at its disposal: twin explosive autocannons, lock-on missiles and a fast-firing plasma bomb launcher, capable of terrifying amounts of destruction against slow, unarmored targets - like mining vessels and freighters, for example.
Worst of all, Pillagers have 2 thrust/mass ratio and equip one of the brand-new jump inhibitors as well, making running away from them a very difficult task to accomplish.

More detailed stats and the ship pack available at the following link: LINK

Alright, I updated the pack. Pillager was replaced by the Cutthroat heavy fighter, still a little bit over 10K blocks, couldn't help it without breaking the whole ship. It lost the plasma bomb launcher and got its missile launchers reworked into a much more streamlined version with 50% Beam support. Also has 2 extra storage rooms for pillaged goods.
As 5th design, the Harrasser, a sniper version of the Myrmidon, was added, equipped with twin long-range railguns, long-range lock-on missiles and a rotating radar dish to increase sensors range (also equipped with an active scanner) The distinguishing feature aside the dish is the different colored and shaped railgun that replaced the rapidfire autocannons. Link is still the same.

 

[Winterhome]

I'm entering.

I'll be updating this post as I add more pirates.

Spoiler: The Torchbug

482 mass, not too difficult to kill, but a few steps up from an Isanth in difficulty.

Beware its ionic venom.

18.7k shields, some fairly hefty guns for its size, but nothing you can't handle as a newbie.

 

[StormWing0]

I have a question about what's a drone and what's a discarded part of the ship when it comes to modular designs. The Loot Pinata Jump Jammer I'm working on releases several mines around it that do the same thing however those mines cannot act on their own without a signal sent from the main ship. Are these mines drones or detached parts of the ship at this point? The jump inhibitors on them can only be activated from the main body so if someone breaks them off before the launch on their own they'd be just a drifting part of the ship.


The whole reason I'm asking is because there are 2 other fairly large Loot Pinatas that shed like Huskies releasing docked fragments of the ship as a means of keeping the player busy.

 

[jzimmerman4]

Alright, I updated the pack. Pillager was replaced by the Cutthroat heavy fighter, still a little bit over 10K blocks, couldn't help it without breaking the whole ship. It lost the plasma bomb launcher and got its missile launchers reworked into a much more streamlined version with 50% Beam support. Also has 2 extra storage rooms for pillaged goods.
As 5th design, the Harrasser, a sniper version of the Myrmidon, was added, equipped with twin long-range railguns, long-range lock-on missiles and a rotating radar dish to increase sensors range (also equipped with an active scanner) The distinguishing feature aside the dish is the different colored and shaped railgun that replaced the rapidfire autocannons. Link is still the same.

Awesome! I will check them out and hopefully film them tomorrow!
edit: looks like the download wasnt updated with the new ships

I have a question about what's a drone and what's a discarded part of the ship when it comes to modular designs. The Loot Pinata Jump Jammer I'm working on releases several mines around it that do the same thing however those mines cannot act on their own without a signal sent from the main ship. Are these mines drones or detached parts of the ship at this point? The jump inhibitors on them can only be activated from the main body so if someone breaks them off before the launch on their own they'd be just a drifting part of the ship.


The whole reason I'm asking is because there are 2 other fairly large Loot Pinatas that shed like Huskies releasing docked fragments of the ship as a means of keeping the player busy.

I do not see a problem here, sounds like a rather nifty idea to me!

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I think you answered your own question (mines), but because they're remotely controlled I would still consider them drones.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

Awesome! I will check them out and hopefully film them tomorrow!
edit: looks like the download wasnt updated with the new ships

Fixed. Forgot to edit version string when posting the update

 

[Ithirahad]

Roughed in my first ship's hull and systems last night and did some battle testing. Why is cannon-cannon so much stronger than beam-cannon?

A bug. Beams don't even hit/do damage like 75% of the time if you're more than 500m or so away.

 

[StormWing0]

I think you answered your own question (mines), but because they're remotely controlled I would still consider them drones.

Technically they are logic controlled not AI controlled so that's why I asked. :P And the main ship has to live long enough to deploy them but outside of cutting off docking with the main ship and jamming the jump drives of the enemy they just sit there.

 

[Winterhome]

Technically they are logic controlled not AI controlled so that's why I asked. :p And the main ship has to live long enough to deploy them but outside of cutting off docking with the main ship and jamming the jump drives of the enemy they just sit there.

...you're doing something similar to what I'm doing too? Awesome :D
Logic pirate split-up swarm builders unite \o/

 

[StormWing0]

I'm running into the usual mass bugs of either the catalog displaying wrong mass or the nav menu, or build menu displaying wrong mass so I'm having issues making sure the mass of these things is correct.