Obituary: captain Raymond Gerald

[redartrats]

Captain Raymond Gerald was a Cadar bounty hunter on Crazy difficulty, with a high Pilot / high Strength/Warrior build. He started his career on board the Picky Beggar. His early days were not very outstanding, choosing to avoid assassination contracts and playing delivery boy for better survival chances until about lvl 15 or so, when he had gained enough confidence to take advantage of spy/solar wars. He did, however, stick to the Picky Beggar until about lvl 15, which earned him the Hardcore Ultra award. Then he worked to gain positive rep with all factions so that faction pirates would get off his neck (for the time being anyway). In mid-game, he slowly shifted towards shooting down all hostile ships, indy or otherwise, thus earning the Doom Reaper and Elite Privateer awards. In 257.50AE he visited his homeworld and earned the Birthright award.

After having gained a considerable fortune, he bought a Dragon Cruiser and decided to become an Alien hunter.  He discovered that the most effective way to find Aliens was to listen for rumors of Alien attacks in deep space, especially those that are close to civilised space, and most ideally, in green space, and then fly into and out of that sector repeatedly.  His ship's log reveals that he began his foray into the Alien-hunting biz at around 320AE:

324.12AE: Defeated a Narvidian Harvester.
353.25AE: Defeated a Xytox Carrier.
376.40AE: Defeated a Sidtax Alien.
379.36AE: Defeated a Narvidian Predator.

During this time he decided to earn the Blackheart award by using Steel Song and Rychart as scapegoat factions. After earning the award, he took advantage of spy/solar wars to get rep with all factions back up to about 1000+ or so. In the meantime, his Alien hunting continued:

484.27AE: Narvidian Stalker.
488.49AE: Nyktos Alien.
488.49AE: Narvidian Carrier.
490.13AE: Vicessita Carrier.
490.38AE: Xrangg Alien.
512.32AE: Vicessita Alien.
532.50AE: Sidtax Alien.
533.32AE: Xebolits Alien.
534.15AE: Vicessita Alien.
535.12AE: Narvidian Hive.
538.32AE: Sidtax Carrier.
592.38AE: Nyktos Alien.
592.46AE: Zenga Alien.
593.41AE: Red Zorga Alien.
594.5AE: Knife Alien.
594.19AE: Narvidian Predator.
595.34AE: Narvidian Predator.
598.3AE: Narvidian Predator.
599.44AE: Heela Alien.
600.46AE: Narvidian Stalker.
601.21AE: Narvidian Harvester.
602.45AE: Jyeeta Alien.
604.6AE: Narvidian Hunter.
604.17AE: Krangg Alien.
606.48AE: Heela Alien.
607.5AE: Zorga Alien.
613.51AE: Zorga Alien.
615.51AE: Narvidian Hive.
621.31AE: Zorga Alien.
623.37AE: Narvidian Hunter.
626.22AE: Heela Alien.
628.14AE: Narvidian Predator.
633.36AE: Xytox Alien.
634.48AE: Knife Alien.
648.51AE: Ajannik Alien.
650.5AE: Vicessita Carrier.
653.25AE: Knife Alien.
655.34AE: Xytox Alien.
656.4AE: Zenga Alien.
658.1AE: Nyktos Alien.
659.0AE: Zenga Alien.
660.20AE: Xrangg Alien.
661.8AE: Jyeetax Alien.
665.7AE: Xytox Carrier.
669.27AE: Xytox Alien.
670.27AE: Ajannik Alien.

Then one fateful day in 674.43AE, when he was lvl 80, he encountered a lvl 240 Narvidian Hive. This time it was unlike the others: the enemy had 1000 crew and the initial boarding onslaught did not significantly thin down their numbers. The captain fought valiantly alongside his crew, but the Narvidians got the upper hand, and pretty soon the captain was the last man left standing on board the Dragon Cruiser, while the enemy still had 641 crew left. He did not survive the merciless Narvidians, who wounded and eventually brutally murdered him. He went down valiantly fighting against them to his last breath.

In his lifetime, the captain earned a long string of awards:

- Solar celebration
- Birthright
- Fist of Shalun
- Hand of Law
- Paragon Warmaster
- Vanguard Warmaster
- Warmaster
- Rich Trader
- Wealthy Trader
- Affluent Trader
- Emerging Trader
- Aspiring Trader
- Star Paragon
- Star Prince
- Star Lord
- Star Commander
- Star Captain
- Alien Flagship
- Elite Space Hive
- Space Hive Vet
- Alien Killer II
- Alien Killer I
- Elite Privateer
- Ultra Privateer
- Master Privateer
- Doom Reaper III
- Doom Reaper II
- Doom Reaper I
- Syndicate Hero
- Clan Hero
- Golden Age
- Triple Syn
- Triple Clan
- Big Tent
- Hardcore Ultra
- Hardcore Captain
- Century Award
- Dark Nemesis
- Hero of the Stars
- Thousand Suns

Upon his death he had $23,003,621 credits to his name in the central database and 6572 experience as a bounty hunter.

R.I.P., captain Raymond Gerald.

[fallen]

RIP Captain. Amazing tale of heroism and coming up from the bottom. Epic play!

Shared on a few places, to help the legend of Captain Raymond Gerald grow!

[Cory Trese]

WOW, amazing game report. Will have to think about ST2's ability to generate these obituaries

[redartrats]

Thanks!

Is there a way to export the ship's log in text format? Or is it in an accessible format somewhere in the filesystem (on Android)? That would have helped greatly in creating the obituary.

[poryg]

The amount of encountered aliens is so inspiring! In terms of difficulty play. Maybe I should decrease the difficulty from impossible to insane

[Cory Trese]

Jul 7, 2016 11:50:48 GMT -5 redartrats said:

Thanks!

Is there a way to export the ship's log in text format? Or is it in an accessible format somewhere in the filesystem (on Android)? That would have helped greatly in creating the obituary.

Not at this time and no. We will try to find budget to add something like that for ST2.

[redartrats]

Jul 7, 2016 12:23:54 GMT -5 poryg said:

The amount of encountered aliens is so inspiring! In terms of difficulty play. Maybe I should decrease the difficulty from impossible to insane

I found that of all the different methods of finding Aliens that I've tried -- patrolling dead planets, patrolling Alien rumors, flying aimlessly around the Hyperion Demonic Nebula -- the most effective way of finding lots of Aliens is to listen for an Alien rumor, preferably one that's close to a planet where you can refuel, and ideally one that's actually in green space, and then move into/out of that sector repeatedly.

It's strange, because from my understanding of how the game should work, it should not make a difference whether you move into the sector or patrol in it (right, Cory?), but somehow, when I try to patrol the sector I just end up spending lots of WF and finding nothing. But when I move in and out of the sector repeatedly, for some reason the rate of encounters increase, and of course that implies that the rate of Alien encounters will also increase.  Furthermore, if the sector is in green space, I can actually trawl for Aliens much longer per full tank of WF, because my ship has low fuel consumption in green space, whereas patrolling will drain the tank pretty quickly. Having said that, though, captain Raymond Gerald did find lots of Aliens in red space with Alien rumors too, with the same method, whereas patrolling usually turns up nothing.  Why, I have no idea.

[Cory Trese]

Depends a lot on your build. If you're not built for positive encounter rate, then using your negative encounter rate via moving is going to generate a higher hit percentage.

However, negative encounter rate use will generate lower XP, worse encounters, cost more Turns and in the case of hitting Rumors, uses up about 200% of the Fuel on a ship assuming a smooth averaged fuel use rate.

[redartrats]

Hmm. I guess I still haven't fully come to grips with the more subtle aspects of the game such as influencing the encounter rate. I had stealth 3, which is pretty low for a lvl 80 captain, but other than that I didn't really go out of my way to increase encounters, e.g. by increasing my ship signature with upgrades. I did have Pilot at 160 -- mostly so I can pick my battles (flee if I know the enemy is too powerful), and also be able to catch elusive Assassination targets who may be on faster ships than mine -- does that decrease the encounter rate?

[Cory Trese]

Yeah, with 3 Stealth on Level 80 and a high turn rate, you'll find the Patrol button almost useless. Everyone and anyone you're looking for will easily be able to avoid you.

[redartrats]

Hmm. I've never thought of it this way before... so stealth is not only for avoiding enemies, but also for finding them (by sneaking up on them undetected). Mind boggled. Now I've to start thinking about whether it's more advantageous to do a stealth build to find Aliens, or to make myself a big red flashing "shoot me" sign with almost no stealth to lure them in...

[poryg]

My huge stealth builds had quite a blast with patrolling, on one tank I found two space hives while patrolling a dead planet... They were two much for me though

[redartrats]

Hmm. I'll have to try that, then. Originally I was going by the alien hunting guide on this forum that recommended low stealth. I suppose that is another way of doing things, but with stealth I guess you get to pick your battles rather than chancing upon them.

[qbspy]

May he rest in peace.

[poryg]

Jul 9, 2016 17:07:41 GMT -5 redartrats said:

Hmm. I'll have to try that, then. Originally I was going by the alien hunting guide on this forum that recommended low stealth. I suppose that is another way of doing things, but with stealth I guess you get to pick your battles rather than chancing upon them.

The best is, you literally choose your battle with a stealth build. If an alien is a too huge level, you can just retreat.