Good evening, brave warriors. In answer to Blackdog's question about the version of EVO being used for the challenge: I assumed that most people would be playing the newest version of EVO, so I am also playing 1.0.2 to keep it fair. Yes, I know that this version has a number of changes which make this challenge more difficult... the decreased shields for fighters and the fact that as your CR gets better so does the AI are two of the more evil ones.
I continue to be pleased by the responses here. The current list of challengers as I have it is: Samurai, Allenthar, Opalius, VoinianAmbassador, slksc, StarStrafer, Giule, iMox, Kalle Koskinen, and Stud Beefpile, and the certifiably crazy Strict players JediBrass, Great White Godfather, Ubermann, kiwi_a2, and myself. Deepest apologies if I've missed anyone.
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I've discovered a nice trick for using the Crescent fighter that doesn't involve Monty Python and would seem to be completely fair.
StarStrafer - I have a pretty good idea what you're referring to here. Yes, it is completely fair, but I wouldn't post it just yet. The idea is to give people a chance to learn for themselves how to use the advantages of a fighter. Congrats on the Dread. I think you're the first to report bringing it down. Bring your fighter by the dock, and we'll paint a Dread on the side of your cockpit.
Great White - Yeah, small ships don't give you much time to eject. It's happened to me before, too. Teaches you to be quick on the 'command-E.'
Stud - Glad you decided to jump in after so much consideration. Seems like you're pretty concerned about cash flow, though. Keep in mind, 4 rush deliveries for SC equals a new UE fighter. Also my guess is that the UE Destroyer you saw that screwed you up so bad was John Cook, the barbarian accountant. He's evil. I have only seen him early in the game, like when I'm in a shuttle, and he shows up in UE space & will always attack the player. By contrast, if you don't start anything with the Incontrovertible, it won't harm you.
JediBrass - I'll look forward to the plug.
Well, now for an update on my status in the Challenge (as if any of you have read this far in my post). I decided to work on my CR as soon as I could get some cannons. I flew to my favorite proving ground (the DSN just "west" of Bakka), and took out a Frigate... in my shuttlecraft. So my CR jumped to Above Ave & I thought I could get defector mission. Instead I made quite a bit of cash before finally getting offered it, because it took over an hour of flying missions and checking bars before it came up. I zipped over to Pax and promptly got blown out of the sky on my way back out of the system. Twice. Then I remembered something about Strict: you lose the slight speed advantage you get when you're playing regular. By the time I was offered the mission again, I had bought a Crescent Fighter to tool around in, and I jogged past the defenders with no more problems. Then I switched to a UE Fighter to work some more on my CR. I had to sacrifice one fighter to practice, but killed two more Frigates with my next one, so I'm up to Dangerous. Currently, I'm chillin' in UE space looking for the last of the Paaren Station missions.
And I didn't get to play this weekend, so all this was last night.
I wanted to close with something for the people making fun of the Krait. According to Shayborg, "the madly skilled pilot Ankh Starrunner is reputed to have killed the dreadnought in a krait," so maybe it's worth trying. I think that would be harder than killing the Dread in a shuttle since there's less room for error.
Apologies for the length of this post, but as the person issuing the Challenge I had quite a bit to respond to, especially since I was offline this weekend.
Continued luck in your quests,
Paradigm
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