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<!--
title: The Stupid Compendium
description: A Collection of All Things SMR
published: 1
date: 2022-06-17T00:38:48.765Z
tags:
editor: ckeditor
dateCreated: 2022-06-11T14:25:21.892Z
-->
<h6>Rev. 20220615, current as of game 146</h6>
<h1>Foreword</h1>
<p>The following is a collection of notes that I do not consider tested rigorously enough to publish as a matter of fact. This piece is born out of want for entertainment as much as to make information available. The intended audience is anyone with at least some game experience. It's going to be full of opinionated arguments and occasional jackassery. That said, I encourage anyone to test these conclusions. The ultimate goal of all of this trial, error, and observation is to build a body of knowledge such that game mechanics may be further understood and better wielded.</p>
<p>I'd like to thank my children for making this possible. I would never find the time to do things like this if they existed. And I'd like to thank me for never making that mistake. I sincerely deserve a significant pay raise for such deft decision making under years of pressure from moronic authority figures. And I'd also like to thank the longest standing and wisest influence in my life. His book, an endless fountain of knowledge. His teachings, my bedrock. His love and sacrifice for humanity has truly saved us all. On behalf of people everywhere, thank you Red. Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati.</p>
<p>:people_hugging::wood:</p>
<p>stupidnewbie</p>
<h1>Alignment Notes</h1>
<p>Deputizing as a green agent gives you access to the best mine clearing ships and an excellent anti-shield weapon. This is a big edge when attacking an enemy planet galaxy. And the HHG allows for much better armament for dealing with enemy ships.</p>
<p>Becoming a red smuggler gives you access to somewhat better trade routes and an excellent PR/PB weapon. Sometimes the illegal goods aren't worth much, sometimes they are a big advantage. And the Nuke deals unparalleled damage against fixed targets</p>
<p>In case this need be said: The FU and DC, at 1660 and 1500 hit points, are not suitable raiding vessels. If you use them to fire on ports and planets, you will be promptly returned to your racial HQ in an escape pod. It will be expensive. People will laugh. Those two ships are hunting vessels large enough to take out any ship in the game under the correct circumstances.</p>
<p>Either way you chose, you're going to gain access to one of the two best hunting ships in the game. So always choose one of them.</p>
<p>Green is stronger all around. A jump drive is much stronger than a cloak. Mine clearing is much cheaper than mine laying. Red is only stronger if you're going to be a pure trader.</p>
<p>And, always remember, it's much easier to subtract alignment by shooting ports. Adding alignment is tricky.</p>
<h1>Game Play Notes</h1>
<h2>The Insurance Scam</h2>
<p>Insurance scams are profitable when humans have a port, banks, and access to CD's within a few sectors of fed. Or if you're Ik'Thorne and have a port and bank near fed. The procedure is:</p>
<ol>
<li>buy 1 CD</li>
<li>put all money in bank</li>
<li>drop newbie protection</li>
<li>fire at port</li>
</ol>
<p>Each time you die with 0 credits, you pocket an extra 100k. Of which, 95k goes in the bank. It's 10.5 deaths per million.</p>
<p>There's a break over point where it's more profitable to go trade. It's probably about 15 turns per death cycle and varies wildly with the map.</p>
<p>it is also possible, but slightly less profitable, with any race if certain weapon shops are near fed</p>
<p>Overall, this is very tedious to do. But can generate a few million credits within an hour of a game opening. Per player pulling the scam.</p>
<h2><br>Race Change Hijinks</h2>
<p>The racial change mechanic can be gamed. The help of an alliance is needed for it to be truly effective.</p>
<ol>
<li>start as Alskant</li>
<li>have your alliance share maps and give you funds to buy a trip maker</li>
<li>go out and trade the highest profit routes you can find</li>
<li>dump the profits back in to the AA</li>
<li>before your 2 day timer is up, switch to a useful race</li>
</ol>
<p>This can kick start an alliance but it stunts the trader that does it. They lose their XP on the race change.</p>
<p>If you've got a big Alskant route, say 5x or better with mid tier or better goods, you can make a lot of cash doing this.</p>
<h2><br>Economic Warfare</h2>
<p>Ports can be force fed to upgrade. The process is to buy goods for 1,000 credits each. It's least annoying to do with a PSF buying cargo for 500,000 credits each time. Anything over 1k per good is not counted towards port upgrades UNLESS the port offers to sell the goods for more than that. </p>
<h1>Operation Notes</h1>
<h2>The Human Factor</h2>
<p>Alliance warfare, ultimately, is a cultural war. Yes, there's strategy. There's tactics, number crunching, and raw talent which give outcome to individual events. But the overall war is won by growing and maintaining an active group.</p>
<p>The primary quality of an alliance who will gain and hold territory is player activity. It's above any measure of skill or wisdom. Not to say a savvy crew won't deploy a few overly effective tactics and have a few celebrated battles. But the more numerous, more active alliance will win the war. </p>
<p>The larger, more active group runs more ops, funds more miners, and keeps more people moving to where the fight is. There's very little contest. In a game of holding turf, he who can keep the cash flowing the longest, he who can put the most ships in sector, will gain ground.</p>
<p>Yes, that was repetitious. It is no oversight. I cannot stress enough how overbearing player activity is on conflicts between alliances.</p>
<p>The human factor of this game is wild. People who play the game band together around common causes. You've got people staunchly in one camp or another. People are sometimes seen as heroes or villains. Echo chambers form around alliances. You could probably write an entire dissertation for a social science field just watching player interaction here.</p>
<h2>Cash Flow</h2>
<p>The scale at which fleet battles consume vessels and mines is amazing. Single fights sometimes cost hundreds of millions of credits. In a busy game, that happens a couple times a week. </p>
<p>Where does it all come from? The answer is very simple. Ports.</p>
<p>SMR games, from an alliance perspective, happen in phases roughly like so:</p>
<ol>
<li>Scout galaxy</li>
<li>Do Salvene quests</li>
<li>Trade to at least level 15 or 20 (somewhere around here XP gains diminish rapidly)</li>
<li>Blow up every single port you can and take all the money. We're talking tens of millions of credits per port. A skilled crew of 10 will pull in hundreds of millions of credits per operation.</li>
<li>Use that money to build planets and mine them in. This is where an alliance leaves fed, claims territory, and attempts to defend it.</li>
<li>Use any extra money to blow up other alliances mines, planets, and ships. This will pressure an alliance back to fed.</li>
</ol>
<p>If the miners can't be fed enough money, if there isn't enough to replace fallen raiders, if your operations are dominated by port raid to replenish funds, your group will capitulate and return to fed. Keeping the money flowing is the second most important tidbit after player activity.</p>
<h2>Strategy</h2>
<ul>
<li>Always watch the clock</li>
</ul>
<p>Keep track of enemy operation times and population at those times. You want to know when the coast is most clear for your own attacks. You want to know when you need defenders online. Timing and availability are a huge factor in how successful operations will be. The more you outnumber them, the more things tend to go your way.</p>
<ul>
<li>Mines are a ripe target</li>
</ul>
<p>Spending an entire operation clearing enemy mines can be a good thing. It forces them to stop, reseed, and re-lay mines if they want to maintain their territory; which is horrifical expensive in terms of money and turns. That re-laying expense then pressures the alliance to raid ports instead of attacking your territory. This reduces defensive pressure on your group and allows you to devote more operations to clearing their freshly laid mines.</p>
<p>All that said, don't be surprised if seasoned operators respond to mine clearing with mine clearing.</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep them guessing your location</li>
</ul>
<p>Don't just shack up on your strongest planet all the time. Especially when they're making headway into your space. Sometimes, the effective choice is not to land at all.</p>
<p>Whatever you chose, the goal is to surprise your opponent. You want that fear and uncertainty in play as 15 ships spill off a planet. You want to make them spend turns checking every corner of the galaxy for a hidden fleet. Any risk is better than another group know exactly the path they must carve and exactly the fight they must take.</p>
<ul>
<li>Bonders, when busted, often become a point of focus</li>
</ul>
<p>It's always a good idea to bust the bonders. Level 28.67 planets. If you get one with cash in it you force your opponent to run a defensive operation. Even if you can't make off with the money, you dictate their target away from your space. Maybe you can even recycle the bond so they can't get the money out in time either.</p>
<p>On the defensive side, always keep an eye on your bond timers. If you know the enemy is coming, it's often best to re-bond what's there so it can't be taken out for another cycle. </p>
<h2>Tactics</h2>
<ul>
<li>The larger mass of vessels usually wins</li>
</ul>
<p>Stay grouped. Stay together. People who get curious and wander off to look around tend to die.</p>
<p>You can move as a group by calling out in voice chat. You can also call out a point on the game clock and the next sector and sync everyone up that way.</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep everyone landing on one planet</li>
</ul>
<p>This goes hand in hand with the larger mass of vessels. Yes, doing this means a successful bust pods everyone. It also drastically improves your odds of podding all of them.</p>
<ul>
<li>Harassment can be very effective</li>
</ul>
<p>Defenders will sometimes buzz around repair locations in order to keep attackers nervous. This is exceptionally dangerous for defenders. Even if you're comfortable in a fight, be ready to lose your ship doing this.</p>
<p>That said, people will very often overreact to harassment. Attackers will stop at the uno and spend turns/time shooting at a lone defender. Worse yet, engaging with them 1v1. This does nothing to achieve operational goals. Unless the defender is mining the uno, it is rarely worth it to engage them.</p>
<ul>
<li>Shoot the enemy drones</li>
</ul>
<p>This does two things: removes seeds and reduces information flowing to your opponent. Shoot them on sight, right up front.</p>
<ul>
<li>Target the mines furthest from the CA and closest to the Uno</li>
</ul>
<p>These mines are, from a turn perspective, most expensive to lay and cheapest to clear. It's usually easier to run a HBC out of turns than to run an alliance out of cash.</p>
<ul>
<li>Protoplanets</li>
</ul>
<p>These suckers, when built and armed correctly, are lethal. You've got 20 HHG/Nuke, +50% accuracy bonus, and 1000 drones firing at 5 ships. That's up to 7k damage spread out among about 10k worth of ship hit points. A well built protoplanet is every bit as deadly as a terran. (FYI - the real fight in taking a Terran is dealing with the 20 ships that spill out)</p>
<p>Here's part of the magic. Don't build bunkers on a bonder. The last useful thing on a protoplanet is armor. Armor doesn't get touched until the drones are dead; which means the planet has no teeth. A correctly built bonder has all its generators, hangars, weapon mounts, and radar stations. But only 1 bunker.</p>
<p>And here's the rest. Stack up HHG's. At least 13 of them. Somebody who stayed awake during stats can figure out the optimal point for your expected attackers. You want to strip all their shields away. Then soften the armor with some nukes. Then the drones let loose. That's how you send people back to fed.</p>
<h1>Racial Notes</h1>
<p>Always remember, the most significant part of race selection is access to raiders. The best hunting ships are neutral. Neutral traders do 90% of the job Alskant ships do. Neutral utility ships get the job done fine. There are 0 neutral raiding ships. That's the gap you're filling with this choice.</p>
<h2>Alskant</h2>
<p>This race has three powerful things. Strongest first:</p>
<ul>
<li>Relations bonus</li>
</ul>
<p>Starting with +250 across the board means nobody can close their ports to you. This means, if you're careful, you can always access the weapons and ports of each race.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Trip-Maker</li>
</ul>
<p>A day 1 trader with 2820 trade power. This ship is excellent for getting out of the gate faster than other races. Which is an advantage you will be poised to hang on to</p>
<ul>
<li>The Deep-Spacer</li>
</ul>
<p>A jump trader with 2400 power, 750 hit points, carries all 3 forces, and has 3 hard points. It's a versatile beast.</p>
<p>This is the strongest all around trade ship in the game. And it's very good for tending planets.</p>
<p><br>And they have one overwhelming disappointment:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Trade-Master</li>
</ul>
<p>This ship, billed as a raider, is absolutely not a raider. 1500 hit points, 155 DPS, 1800 trade power, and 675 mine power. It's a 6 of all trades. Not even a DCS will save it. 250 turret damage means 1667 drones will kill it. L9 ports usually have that many drones for the first couple shots. The only way this ship survives is if all the turrets miss it. Which is not something anyone should rely on. </p>
<p>Its most effective function is planet tending. Using the ATM to haul drones around saves an ITMS from having to do it. The ITMS can then show up to an op to soak damage.</p>
<p>The Trade-Master mostly exists to shine a light on the absence of a neutral raiding ship. Neutral has the top hunting ships, traders that haul 90% of what Skant traders do, decent miners, decent drone haulers, and not a single raiding ship.</p>
<p><br>Alskant are a good choice for solo play. This way a player reaps their trading and relations benefits but does not lose out on operations. Outside of that, you're better off picking a different race and getting access to a real raider. <br> </p>
<h2>Creonti</h2>
<p>Nobody ever regrets playing Creo.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Devastator</li>
</ul>
<p>All hail the Devastator. Seriously. It's the best op ship. If you are raiding a port, busting a planet, or in fleet combat you want to fly a dev.</p>
<p>It's cheap to buy. It's cheap to repair. The 300 shields give it excellent survivability against planets. 2 turret strikes and 1799 drones? no problem!</p>
<p>The only time it's a liability is if somebody stops and swaps their guns to a HHG + all armor weapons. That's the only way another non-dev is a threat to a dev.</p>
<p>The dev recently lost a hardpoint in the name of balance. That's OK. 8 guns, 7 guns, 6 guns, it doesn't matter. I'd still happily bring this to an op with 5 hard points.</p>
<p>The low speed is also negligible. This ship keeps people alive in a game where death costs are severe. Operations revolve around the pace this beast sets.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Leviathan</li>
</ul>
<p>This is the strongest non Alskant racial trader. 1680 trade power. 800 hit points. scouts and mines. Cheap, safe, and effective. (Note to self: condom joke here)</p>
<ul>
<li>Weapons</li>
</ul>
<p>The <strong><u>CBD</u></strong> is a 2.5% damage boost over BMTL. This does not translate well to mines because it's 10 damage out of sync.</p>
<p>The <strong><u>Shield Sucker</u></strong> is a decent stopgap weapon if you can't get Thevian or Nijarin peace. HHG+CSS+ASD is 246 shield DPS with a reasonable mix of chip and burst.<br> </p>
<p>Why the strongest combat race is the also 2nd strongest trade race and has solid weapons I don't know. But why fight the system when you can roll with it? Play Creo.<br> </p>
<h2>Human</h2>
<p>A mining race with a poor mans Fed Ult.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Border Cruiser</li>
</ul>
<p>Oh, how I love mines. They're the most obnoxious game mechanic. Absurdly expensive to deploy. Simple, but incredibly slow and annoying to remove.</p>
<p>They shut down trade routes. They absolutely consume newbie turns. They make buying weapons outright infuriating.</p>
<p>They're such an imposing game mechanic that CA placement is one of the chief considerations when you're designing a map. Seriously. You have to place them with respect to surrounding uno access, max force time on galaxies, distance from racial/federal space, and maybe a more depending on the map.</p>
<p>And did I mention how incredibly expensive they are? A HBC might drop 20-30M worth of mines each day.</p>
<p>The whole concept is absurd. And useful. Because they are ultimately what holds turf. They keep the ports and planets of your alliance safe.</p>
<p>1200 mining power. And a jump drive for a 20% efficiency increase on those long trips. The HBC stands above all else when hauling mines.</p>
<ul>
<li>The <s>Poor Mans Fed Ult</s> Destroyer</li>
</ul>
<p>The damage output is quite good; alongside a DC at roughly 299 DPS. And jump tech is probably the best tech all around.</p>
<p>It's flimsy because it's only got 1800 hit points. Well, 1850 with the current tweak in place.</p>
<p>And it's flimsy because it's about 40% shields. Which is close to where people commonly balance their weapons because they look at the shield/armor damage on the display which has no regard for accuracy. That and good shield weapons are unicorns in this game.</p>
<p>The FU is highly regarded where the destroyer is mildly despised because</p>
<ul>
<li>additional speed and firepower, plus having scouts, make the FU a great hunting ship</li>
<li>going down to 1660 hit points and a monumental increase in cost clear up any confusion in the ship list - the FU is not a raiding vessel</li>
<li>the federal 1/2 force damage multiplier helps survivability and gives the FU a clear op niche as a mine clearer</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You play Human to drop tens of thousands of mines. The trade ships are crap. They have one solid weapon, the HPT, and the rest are garbage. The raider is lackluster. It's all about the mines.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Ik'Thorne</h2>
<p>Planet stockers.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Mother Ship</li>
</ul>
<p>The ITMS crossed the road without shields. It hit 3 mines. /13 became a pod. Everyone laughed as 2M credits in drones couldn't stop 60 damage.</p>
<p>Best to avoid ship to ship combat with this thing. MR penalties to drones are steep. And combat drones die half way through a fight which makes it hard to take out the enemy vessel.</p>
<p>One tidbit I nearly forgot: the MS is the most expensive ship to use in the game. Yeah, sure, that FU costs 50 mil up front. But this sucker eats 2M credits every time the drones die. These are the worst raider to PR in because they eat the profits.</p>
<p>There is one place where the MS is very powerful. Defending a planet bust.</p>
<p>As the attackers shoot the planets, the MS can top the drones off. This empties the drones off the MS and will double or triple the pods the attacker has to eat.</p>
<p>When the planet gets low on drones, the MS can pull 400 drones off the planet. This causes the players to spill off much earlier than expected.</p>
<p>Other ships can do this but nothing does it like a MS can.</p>
<p>And there's one other spot where the MS usually performs well: fleet combat.</p>
<p>Drone damage is concentrated, does not care what it hits, and rolls over when the shield breaks. Plus 2250 hit points to pod is a good thing to have when there's 10 ships firing at you.</p>
<ul>
<li>Weapons</li>
</ul>
<p>Pre power 1 nerf, their <strong><u>RFC</u></strong> was a sweet machine. Now it goes in a bag, gets lit on fire, and put on someone's door step.</p>
<p>The <strong><u>Cluster Missile</u></strong> is an overlooked gem. It's a solid 7% DPS gain over the commonly used TL. Sure, the burst is lower. But how much damage are you going to give up on the off chance you might one shot something? 4.5 DPS is 1-2% of your overall armor DPS. That's for each one you've got equipped.</p>
<p>The other two are crap. One is split damage and the other is 92% acc which will cap out </p>
<p>The funny thing about Ik weapons is they don't use them. ITAC takes a P5 and P4, MS takes a P5, and the rest of the ships are non combat. This race is out there developing weapons and didn't bother to make anything they might use. The oldest race in the game by lore, IIRC, and they've not had the sense to say “Hey, my drones always fire last! In their least effective order for some reason! Why don't I make a unique Nijarin like power 4/5 weapon that's badass at stripping shields?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Ik'Thorne race is an interesting concept turned in to drone ferries by game mechanics. It's incredibly frustrating to watch and even more so to play. Every alliance needs one or two of these to move drones about. Beyond that, they are expensive and inefficient ships to have around.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Nijarin</h2>
<p>Best guns you can get.</p>
<ul>
<li>Weapons</li>
</ul>
<p>These things have a great mentality. If their shields are up, hit them hard. If their shields are down, chip the armor.</p>
<p>This is a great mentality to mix with neutral weapons who collectively think "WE MUST DESTROY ONLY ARMOR!"</p>
<p>Or to not be mixed at all. You can load a ship up with only Nijarin weapons and perform very well under most circumstances.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Fury</li>
</ul>
<p>This ship is probably the most efficient way to extract cash from ports. It's just tough enough to take down level 9 ports safely. Plus it's reasonably fast and has good firepower.</p>
<p>1575 hit points plus a DCS means it takes 2100 drones to kill it outright. But then we run in to the nemesis of the DCS - normal weapons fire. And I call it normal because it's everywhere.</p>
<p>1 planet or 2 port turrets, which commonly hit a ship in an op, bring that down to 1767 drones to death. Probably fine for a port, sketchy for a planet. A second planetary turret brings that down to 1434 drones to death. Hello Nijarin beacon!</p>
<p>Environmental survivability is similar to an EoS or TAC. They're beefier than the small raiders but they die routinely to large ports or planets.</p>
<p>in PvP combat this ship is flimsy. The only thing giving it a chance is a high shield ratio, 55.5%, which will keep it standing longer than it otherwise would.</p>
<p>One other noteworthy thing, the DCS provides a damage AND turn cost bonus to clearing forces. This thing is second only to a FU when it comes to clearing mines.<br> </p>
<p>Play Nij to beat the environment. Forces, ports, planets. They are also one of the best races to go evil with. Their hunters are interesting but neutral hunters always have you covered. Their trader is not worth buying.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Salvene</h2>
<p>It's an illusion! Designed explicitly to get italic players killed.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Eater of Souls</li>
</ul>
<p>1050 shields! That's the headline.</p>
<p>Remember, earlier in this rambling mess, I mentioned people tend to balance their weapons around 40% shield DPS? That's going to put shield damage per shot around 200. Which means 5 or 6 shots go by before the EoS shields break. See the problem?</p>
<p>An invading op is targeting forces made of 100% armor. They do not want to deal with ships that have 1050 shields while clearing mines. Add in some mines for seeding and you've got yourself the strongest defensive ship around.</p>
<p>As an added bonus, the high shield ratio strongly contrasts the much more dangerous devastators. They make a good team as it penalized people for weighting their guns too far in to armor or shields.</p>
<p>The EoS can be frustrating though. The ship usually feels very tough. But sometimes people land good shield hits. And sometimes you take a good hit in an op and it's only 2000 hit points. Things go sideways quickly.</p>
<p>The IG provides one advantage against anyone who knows better. It's an extra mental load to track how injured an EoS is. You can't just look at the /3. You have to scan the damn thing if you don't remember. Which isn't much of a bonus. But I do believe it helps. Definitely so when fighting in front on an uno.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Drudge</li>
</ul>
<p>It's a beefy MV with a slight ding to trade power</p>
<p>I prefer a MV because trading without scouts is dangerous. But the drudge is accessible.</p>
<p>I don't buy the IG if money is short. They can see your XP moving. They know you're trading. IG tech on a trade ship is just for laughs.</p>
<ul>
<li>Weapons</li>
</ul>
<p>A lot of people who played back when prize the <strong><u>SEMFC</u></strong>. It's not a good weapon. The damage is too impure, too balanced. I don't know why we sought after it so much. It just became popular.</p>
<p>The <strong><u>Flux Resonator</u></strong> and <strong><u>Frag Missile</u></strong> are, on the other hand, overlooked gems. People tend to overlook the value of chip damage. When you've got a HHG firing at 35%, what happens when you're shooting something with 50 shields left? All your other guns wait on that hit to cycle back around. Not to mention the ++ versions of these weapons deal more DPS than pure P4 weapons.<br> </p>
<p>Salvene are a decent all around race. They're best chosen if your alliance is defending territory. Pair them with humans and watch your attackers hate life.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Thevian</h2>
<p>We disperse the shields!</p>
<ul>
<li>The Assault Craft</li>
</ul>
<p>It's kind of a disappointment. </p>
<p>Speed just isn't that valuable on a raider. You're just going to be waiting for the devs to hit max turns. People are only going to have time in their lives to run an op once or twice a week anyway. And everyone can only save up the same number of turns. Doesn't matter if that represents 36 or 63 hours worth of idle time.</p>
<p>The addition of 5 scouts has made it a much stronger defender.</p>
<p>The TAC is large enough it USUALLY doesn't die. L9 ports and big planets are definitely a risk though.<br> </p>
<ul>
<li>The Carapace</li>
</ul>
<p>1100 mine power is 2nd to the HBC.</p>
<ul>
<li>Weapons</li>
</ul>
<p>The <strong><u>TSD</u></strong> is probably the best weapon in the game. The accuracy is in a sweet spot where it's useful at low and high levels. And it fills that void in the neutral weapons.</p>
<p>And the <i><u>Assault Laser</u></i> is probably the worst. If the 20 shield damage were removed from the weapon, it would actually do more damage against ports and planets.<br> </p>
<p>Thevian are probably my favorite race. I think it's just the way luck panned out I had some good games with them. Or maybe their ships/weapons nudged me in to making better decisions that I never understood. Who knows.</p>
<p>Anymore, I play Thevian so I can go evil without hating life. And then I trade to high XP so I can cloak. Then I die to a port because the TAC only has 1900 hit points. And I go back to Creo.<br> </p>
<h2>WQ Human</h2>
<p>An entire race of red headed step children!</p>
<ul>
<li>The Dark Mirage</li>
</ul>
<p>This is a poor mans DC. They actually come off the same assembly line. It's just the Monday models are all marked DM instead of DC. </p>
<p>It's got 90% of the damage output, 90% of the speed, and the guy who was supposed to add scouts is sleeping off his hangover. It's all good though, they threw in some extra shields and armor to make up for it. Not enough to keep you alive in ops though. Those things aren't free.</p>
<p>Discounted to 10M credits, there's a couple days at the start of each game where this thing COULD be quite dangerous. Beyond that, hunting is better done in a DC or FU.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I need to waste some space here to talk about how objectively terrible the rest of the WQ ships are. Not like ha ha I don't like these ships. They're just genuinely bad at the jobs they're meant for. Buying any WQ ship except the DM will put you further behind at whatever you're trying to do than if you bought a neutral ship. <br> </p>
<ul>
<li>The Negotiator</li>
</ul>
<p>the cheapest ship in the game marked as "Trader". So we shouldn't expect much, right? That bar can go lower!</p>
<p>For 155k of your hard earned credits you get a whopping 440 trade power! That's 100 less than the Slip Freighter you get for free at the same shop!</p>
<p>I know what you're thinking. There's got to be a catch. And you're right. It also carried less forces than the Slip Freighter!</p>
<p>And, as an added bonus, it's the only WQ ship you pay for that cannot equip a cloak!</p>
<ul>
<li>The Resistance</li>
</ul>
<p>This fine piece of machinery is the least expensive cloaking hunter in the game at 1.1M credits. Let's see how it stacks up!</p>
<p>2 hard points will provide for up to 92 DPS. But wait, there's more! 10 combat drones will get us all the way up to 98 damage per shot! And you'll ride in comfort surrounded by all of 580 hit points. </p>
<p>Let's see how that stacks up against an early game trader of similar cost. A MV, at 825k, is sporting 620 hit points. The resistance will take it down in 7 shots on average! The poor souls only have 2.8 seconds to react!</p>
<p>Oh, shit. The MV actually has better firepower too. That trader could just buy some guns, pod the Resistance, and go on trading. Why does this ship exist? I don't know... </p>
<ul>
<li>The Rogue</li>
</ul>
<p>Here we have a second hunter, this one priced at 2M credits. And they really beefed up defenses at /12!</p>
<p>And it's only got 2 hard points. You can't pod something that's just going to fly away at its leisure. Maybe buy a medium cruiser?</p>
<ul>
<li>The Blockade Runner</li>
</ul>
<p>At last, the trade ship so desperately needed by a race whose technology runs purely on XP!</p>
<p>We have here a whopping 1575 trade power. That's 45 more than a MV! Nearly a 3% increase!</p>
<p>All of this for the low cost of... 5.1M credits??? 6M credits is where all the end game traders are. Spend the 6M and get 2200-2500 trade power. Never buy a Blockade Runner.</p>
<ul>
<li>Weapons</li>
</ul>
<p>I nearly forgot to make mention of the <strong><u>WQSV</u></strong>. It's a poor mans HHG and they're meant to be used in a similar fashion. You need them to connect on the opening shot. And you need to back them up with a chip shield weapon like an <strong><u>ASD</u></strong>. </p>
<p>I heavily favor TSD's over these because of their low accuracy. It's very simple: I hate racing to read the weapon results and watch ship health. I'm lazy and it's annoying to do. Use them if you will, I won't think less of you. Just that you're working too hard.</p>
<p>The rest of WQ weapons are crap. That flechette thing is a reasonable trade ship weapon. But the neutral <strong><u>LJTL</u></strong> is better so it doesn't need to exist.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>WQ ship design is just deranged. All of these ships are meant to be multi-purpose. Hunters with terrible firepower and decent trade power. Traders with terrible trade power and a couple extra hard points. Meanwhile, the opportunity cost of changing ships in this game is very low which leaves no reason to split the difference like that.</p>
<h1>Ship Notes</h1>
<p>This chart contains the 21 ships players normally buy later in the game. If you're after a ship not on this list, you're doing something uncommon. You're either filling some niche too specialized for me to mention here or following a disappointing course of action.</p>
<p>You may wonder why this is such a small portion of the 73 ships on the list. Some of it's probably just me. But you don't see much outside this list in an active game. I'm pretty sure it's a matter of how the game progression is scaled. In any given game, every non-italic begins with a couple hundred K in their pocket. They go to do the Salvene mission. Now they're over half a million. Trade for 20 minutes and they're ready to move to a merchant vessel, leviathan, drudge, etc. Day 1, just mucking around, a competent player is wielding 1500 trade power. From that point, it's maybe 2 days trade to 6M credits and an end game trader. And when you put smart players together in alliance they're going to pool resources have their best traders in an ACV the 2nd day of a new game. A week in to a new game, people are ready to crack ports open. Money is no longer an object and the strongest combat vessel is what you want. The cost of the ships, the difference in costs between tier of ships, and the power of ships is a completely jumbled mess.</p>
<p>But I digress! This list is quite different than the in game ship list. Though I did derive this list from there. A few definitions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hit Points = Shields + Armor + (Drones x 3). This is the primary indicator of how well a ship absorbs damage.</li>
<li>DPS is a baseline number I computed from a mix of weapon mechanics, weapons calculations, and some good old trial & error. This is an estimate of the ships destructive power.</li>
<li>Trade Power = Speed x Cargo. It's a measure of how capable a trade vessel is.</li>
<li>Mining Power = Speed x Mines. It's a measure of how capable a mining vessel is.</li>
<li>CD Power = Speed x Combat Drones. It's a measure of how able a vessel is in terms of stocking planets and filling forces with drones.</li>
</ul>
<figure class="table">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Ship Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Race</strong></td>
<td><strong>Class</strong></td>
<td><strong>Cost</strong></td>
<td><strong>Hit Points</strong></td>
<td><strong>DPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>Trade Power</strong></td>
<td><strong>Mining Power</strong></td>
<td><strong>CD Power</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Federal Ultimatum</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Hunter</td>
<td>38675738</td>
<td>1660</td>
<td>346</td>
<td>960</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>960</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Death Cruiser</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Hunter</td>
<td>25890100</td>
<td>1500</td>
<td>299</td>
<td>900</td>
<td>900</td>
<td>900</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Border Cruiser</td>
<td>Human</td>
<td>Miner</td>
<td>6887432</td>
<td>1295</td>
<td>193</td>
<td>960</td>
<td>1200</td>
<td>320</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Carapace</td>
<td>Thevian</td>
<td>Miner</td>
<td>6045094</td>
<td>1300</td>
<td>202</td>
<td>330</td>
<td>1100</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Battle Cruiser</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Miner</td>
<td>3628134</td>
<td>1250</td>
<td>249</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>700</td>
<td>525</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Devastator</td>
<td>Creonti</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>11559082</td>
<td>2100</td>
<td>270</td>
<td>270</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mother Ship</td>
<td>Ik'Thorne</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>10432759</td>
<td>2250</td>
<td>252</td>
<td>720</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>2400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Eater of Souls</td>
<td>Salvene</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>13306175</td>
<td>2000</td>
<td>236</td>
<td>210</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fury</td>
<td>Nijarin</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>14724001</td>
<td>1575</td>
<td>270</td>
<td>720</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assault Craft</td>
<td>Thevian</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>12789862</td>
<td>1900</td>
<td>236</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Destroyer</td>
<td>Human</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>13719505</td>
<td>1850</td>
<td>299</td>
<td>630</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>700</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dark Mirage</td>
<td>WQ Human</td>
<td>Raider</td>
<td>10088764</td>
<td>1850</td>
<td>268</td>
<td>540</td>
<td>270</td>
<td>450</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Freighter</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>5791393</td>
<td>600</td>
<td>52</td>
<td>2500</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Deep-Spacer</td>
<td>Alskant</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>5721889</td>
<td>750</td>
<td>164</td>
<td>2400</td>
<td>200</td>
<td>400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Planetary Trader</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>5983335</td>
<td>760</td>
<td>98</td>
<td>2400</td>
<td>120</td>
<td>80</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Advanced Courier Vessel</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>5560740</td>
<td>500</td>
<td>92</td>
<td>2350</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Planetary Freighter</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>6115028</td>
<td>1350</td>
<td>52</td>
<td>2250</td>
<td>75</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Deal-Maker</td>
<td>Alskant</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>5727059</td>
<td>540</td>
<td>111</td>
<td>2200</td>
<td>165</td>
<td>330</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Inter-Stellar Trader</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>5914159</td>
<td>670</td>
<td>102</td>
<td>2100</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>105</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Stellar Freighter</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Trader</td>
<td>7008455</td>
<td>650</td>
<td>52</td>
<td>2025</td>
<td>135</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Medium Carrier</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>Utility</td>
<td>1630523</td>
<td>1150</td>
<td>178</td>
<td>800</td>
<td>400</td>
<td>1600</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
<h1>Weapon Notes</h1>
<h2>20 is the Favorite Number of Mines</h2>
<p>When arming to clear forces, pay attention to the armor damage numbers on your weapons. If they're not divisible by 20, they lose efficiency. For example:</p>
<p>NCM does 175 damage at 46% acc. It destroys 8 mines and 15 damage is wasted. That's 0.46*8=3.68 mines killed per shot.</p>
<p>BMTL does 200 damage at 38% acc. That's 10 mines even with no waste. 0.38*10=3.8 mines killed per shot.</p>
<p>Under normal circumstances, the NCM is 3% more efficient than a BMTL. When clearing mines, the BMTL is 3% more efficient.</p>
<h2>Purity of Damage</h2>
<p>Pure damage is much more valuable. HHGs or Nukes build more effective load outs than PPLs. BMTL, CBD, TSD, NCM over HPL.</p>
<p>Pure damage means the entirety of your armor battery fires on the shot the shields break. Compared to a ship which is all pulse lasers where the shield and armor weapons are the same. When each hit exhausts a portion of the entirety, you lose out.</p>
<p>On average, the ship with pure damage gets an extra half a shot in. And extra shots are big where battles only take 5 or 10 shots total.</p>
<h2>Shield Piercing</h2>
<p>Environmental targets fail to fully deflect pure armor damage. This makes them incredible susceptible to it.</p>
<p>Forces, obviously, because they are 100% armor. But ports and planets also because the armor weapons pierce their shields. Against a port, for example:</p>
<p>A HHG deals 105 DPS while the shields are up. Once they drop, it deals nothing. Ports are about 40% shields so a HHG will average about 42 DPS.</p>
<p>If a nuke were simply bouncing off the shields, it would deal its 105 DPS 60% of the time for 63 DPS average.</p>
<p>In practice, a nuke deals 20% of its 105 DPS for the 40% of the time shields are up. That's an extra 0.4x21DPS. A nuke average 71.4 DPS.</p>
<p>Because of this mechanic, weighing your weapons to deal some 65-75% armor DPS will give you a substantial damage bonus against ports and planets.</p>
<h2>Weapons List - Improved</h2>
<p>There are 20 weapons I consider to be desirable. Some of the others are circumstantially useful. For example, a little junior torpedo has excellent mine per shot numbers and permits your trade vessel to consistently take out full stacks of scouts. But this bit is combat oriented and these are ideal to turn ships into pods. The fields I have computed are as follows:</p>
<p>Shield DPS = Shield Damage Per Shot = Shield Damage x Accuracy / 100</p>
<p>Armor DPS = Armor Damage Per Shot = Armor Damage x Accuracy / 100</p>
<p>Burst = Maximum Burst Damage = Max(Shield Damage, Armor Damage)</p>
<figure class="table">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Weapon Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Race</strong></td>
<td><strong>Power Level</strong></td>
<td><strong>Shield DPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>Armor DPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>Burst</strong></td>
<td><strong>Shield</strong><br><strong>Damage</strong></td>
<td><strong>Armor</strong><br><strong>Damage</strong></td>
<td><strong>Accuracy</strong><br><strong>(%)</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nuke</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>105.0</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Holy Hand Grenade</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>105.0</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Planetary Pulse Laser</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>52.5</td>
<td>52.5</td>
<td>150</td>
<td>150</td>
<td>150</td>
<td>35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Thevian Shield Disperser</td>
<td>Thevian</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>80.5</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>46</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WQ Human Shield Vaporizer</td>
<td>WQ Human</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>80.0</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Creonti "Big Daddy"</td>
<td>Creonti</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>80.0</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Big Momma Torpedo Launcher</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>76.0</td>
<td>200</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>200</td>
<td>38</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nijarin Claymore Missile</td>
<td>Nijarin</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>80.5</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>46</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Photon Torpedo</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>69.7</td>
<td>170</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>170</td>
<td>41</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Human Photon Torpedo</td>
<td>Human</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>73.1</td>
<td>170</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>170</td>
<td>43</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Creonti Mole Missile</td>
<td>Creonti</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>74.8</td>
<td>110</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>110</td>
<td>68</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Creonti Shield Sucker</td>
<td>Creonti</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>74.8</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>110</td>
<td>110</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>68</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nijarin Ion Phaser Beam</td>
<td>Nijarin</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>61.6</td>
<td>13.2</td>
<td>140</td>
<td>140</td>
<td>30</td>
<td>44</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Salvene Flux Resonator</td>
<td>Salvene</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>69.0</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>69</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Salvene Frag Missile</td>
<td>Salvene</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>69.0</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>69</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ik-Thorne Cluster Missile</td>
<td>Ik'Thorne</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>69.3</td>
<td>110</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>110</td>
<td>63</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Projectile Cannon Lvl 4</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>66.3</td>
<td>125</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>125</td>
<td>53</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Projectile Cannon Lvl 3</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>67.0</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>67</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Advanced Shield Disruptor</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>67.0</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>67</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Torpedo Launcher</td>
<td>Neutral</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>64.8</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>37</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
<p>This is the list I look over when selecting weapons for a fight. Burst is an important consideration when you need to one shot a trade ship. Otherwise, DPS is the primary consideration.</p>
<p>Take note: there are no power 1 weapons on that list. Reason is they are hardpoint inefficient. They deal such poor DPS that their power efficiency can't return it upgrading the other hardpoints. Even in their ++ form, most of them are completely useless.</p>
<p>One other fun note: Racial weapons, often prized by many, are usually no more than a couple percent more effective than their neutral counterparts. CBD and HPT just aren't worth that much effort fighting over.</p>
<p>These weapon numbers get transferred to an arming spreadsheet. Which, just for fun, looks something like this…</p>
<figure class="table">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Weapon Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Shield</strong><br><strong>Damage</strong></td>
<td><strong>Armour</strong><br><strong>Damage</strong></td>
<td><strong>Accuracy</strong><br><strong>(%)</strong></td>
<td><strong>Power</strong></td>
<td><strong>Burst</strong></td>
<td><strong>SDPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>ADPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>AVG</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Holy Hand Grenade</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>35</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>105</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>52.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Thevian Shield Disperser</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>46</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>80.5</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>40.25</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Thevian Shield Disperser</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>46</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>80.5</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>40.25</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Torpedo Launcher</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>37</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>64.75</td>
<td>32.38</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Torpedo Launcher</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>37</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>175</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>64.75</td>
<td>32.38</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Photon Torpedo</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>170</td>
<td>41</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>170</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>69.7</td>
<td>34.85</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Creonti "Big Daddy"</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>32</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>80</td>
<td>40</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td>650</td>
<td>770</td>
<td>39.14</td>
<td>24</td>
<td>1420</td>
<td>266</td>
<td>279.2</td>
<td>272.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td>0.49</td>
<td>0.51</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
<p>The bottom row is added or averaged amounts. The very bottom two decimals are the ratio of shield and armor DPS.</p>
<p>And that's how I squeeze damage out of these ships. Out of whatever weapons I have available, seek the maximum DPS while maintaining a ratio appropriate for what I'm shooting. If you know a better way to do it, I hope you'll spell it out some day.</p>
<h2>Weapons List - Full Table and ++</h2>
<p>For sake of laziness…</p>
<figure class="table">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Weapon Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>enh shield dmg</strong></td>
<td><strong>Shield</strong><br><strong>Damage</strong></td>
<td><strong>enh armor dmg</strong></td>
<td><strong>Armour</strong><br><strong>Damage</strong></td>
<td><strong>enh acc</strong></td>
<td><strong>Accuracy</strong><br><strong>(%)</strong></td>
<td><strong>Power</strong></td>
<td><strong>Burst Dmg</strong></td>
<td><strong>SDPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>enh SDPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>ADPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>enh ADPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>AVG DPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>AVG EDPS</strong></td>
<td><strong>EDPS % change</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Holy Hand Grenade</td>
<td>315</td>
<td>300</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>39</td>
<td>35</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>315</td>
<td>105.0</td>
<td>122.9</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>0.0</td>
<td>52.5</td>
<td>61.4</td>
<td>1.17</td>
</tr>