AAR: My Odd Adventure (Non-RP)

[ExplorerBob]

Originally Posted by Lost In Space

The time trapper is great and all, but the player should suffer some kind of setback/punishment for choosing to go for the extra years. Right now it's a free ticket that removes any tension from the deadline.

That may be, and I tried to figure out a way to balance it out.

If it's any consolation, you can look back at Odd Adventures 001, which I think has the original Time Trapper...that one allows you to wish for any object, as many times as you want, so you can outfit your entire fleet with nova cannons, etc., just so long as whatever you ask for isn't a unique object.

In other words, it's like the Timeless Bauble (that you got it from), only you can use it as many times as you want and it has no negative side effects. The new Time Trapper is pretty spiffy, but it can't match that.

I try to use diplomatic avenue first, but often it's simply too boring, and will often just go against other races early on. I never use the hyperdrive unless I'm absolutely stuck. I practically gave up on the mirror since it's too easy to abuse (move opponents and get the items.) I abuse the Klakar every chance I get, and recently started to call them in battle at the brink of victory, just to magically expand their cargo hold.

See, I don't believe in just killing off potential allies...except for the Tchoraks, anyway. I play a nicer style of WW.

On the other side of things, though, I have no qualms about abusing the mirror or the hyperdrive...that doesn't mean, though, that I don't want to nerf them. For each new rendition of OA, I've tried to weaken the hyperdrive to an appropriate level. Likewise, I want to nerf the mirror as soon as I can figure out a good way to do it.

I always organize my fleet's formation for every battle, and will hide the weak ships behind the leader for extra support. For the Urluquai, I form a tight triangle, and hope that the leader is facing the right way. Else, I quickly turn the ships at the start and move the leader to the front, and get moving towards an early target.

My formations vary a bit; I don't always make major changes to them, but usually I'll slide my ships around to coordinate their weapons for the most efficient damage against the enemy -- like an old-timey phalanx. Likewise, I have sometimes stationed long-range ships behind close-range, heavily-shielded combat ships.

The Zorg warping ships can be dealt with by forming a tight triangle at the bottom of the screen, farthest from the enemy, to maximize preparation time. You then point each ship in a different direction. They usually materialize in your dead angles. Once the small fleet is annihilated the rest is an easy kill.

The problem is that you don't get much time to do it with, and they're pretty well-defended against most of the low-end weapons you get... plus they're the "good guys" anyway, so I generally avoid fighting them if I can.

I never bothered peeking into the game's configuration files, so I took quite a while before figuring the original WW's quirky weapon balance. Even today, I just go according to experience, and by my reading on this forum.

Well, in stock WW, chainguns and nept railguns are king. The only weapons I would consider a clear gain on those two are the particle vortex cannon, the nova cannon, and the multi-missile launcher.

Odd Adventures is actually easier, in a way. I've worked to make sure most weapons correspond to their price, so you can generally get an idea for what's better just by virtue of that. Common sense.

Cloaking is usually an opportunity for rear-ramming opponents, if I can get to them fast enough. The Tan-Ru ships seem to be made of glass.

I generally only ram ships that I don't think I can beat in close combat, like the Yellow Kawangi. The rest of the time it's easier to just wear them down with my main guns; cloak and uncloak until the job gets done.

Laser beams can be used to scan for cloaked Urluquais, or destroying missiles.

Right; I've done both of these in the past, especially the former.

Missiles can be manually aimed at small ships.

I think I might've done that before, but it's been a while; it's certainly not a reliable weapon for defense, anyway.

The game's AI is so easy to mislead. It will always go after your small ship if you "go fishing" with it. Handy when confronting a Garthan fleet.

Do that all the time.

The PVC is almighty, of course, but it takes most of the fun out of battles.

Eh, not for me, but I'm more willing to accept an easy win than you are, I guess.

As far as the Kawangi go, I can only think of one really nice battle I had with them, and that was just because of context.

I was flying around in my Corvette -- it might've been stock, Drives 'R Us, or an earlier version of Odd Adventures. Anyway, I saw the Yellow Kawangi were on the move, and began to get concerned, especially since I couldn't find the Limited Vacuum Collapser anywhere.

I picked up an uber-shield (probably the meson), and a cloak along the lines, so I felt a little more optimistic about my chances, but not a lot... then, as I was continuing my search for the LVC, I stumbled into a Zorg system.

It was a Zorg system, but there were two ships on the radar signature; one Zorg corvette, and one Kawangi Nova Ship. The Zorg greeted me with this now famous line:
"Although our adversaries' negative waves convey ill intentions, our auguries portend victory. Will you join us in celebration as we confront them?"

Normally, I wouldn't have risked it, but with my equipment, the proximity of the Kawangi to Hope, and the Zorg, something in me clicked and I entered the battle.

My Zorg allies were almost immediately blown away by a force equal to that of a thousand hydrogen bombs, but the Kawangi didn't notice my corvette, shrouded in the night, as it approached them. When we rammed them from behind, the ensuing force, as their shield collapsed, and ours struggled to maintain its integrity, was terrific. Finally the hull of the Yellow Kawangi Menace exploded outwards...and my ship faded back into visibility, as every single system on the ship (except for our backup life support) had failed as a result of this titanic effort.

I was surprised that the Zorg prediction actually came true, but it did, and it made for a very memorable event in an otherwise unmemorable game.

Other than that, though, most of my direct battles with the Kawangi haven't been notable, because they're usually too powerful to just stop and have it out with them, like you would with the Ravians or Primordious. If they had any real weaknesses, it would probably be more interesting, but as it is the only thing that comes close is their lack of a long-range weapon, and the missiles in the game aren't strong enough to take them down right now...so.