Difference between revisions of "Eluder"

Latest revision as of 19:15, 12 June 2018

Starship Databank Entry from Star Control I, still showing the title of Discriminator.

The multi-colored Spathi Eluder, formerly known as the Discriminator, remains the bulk of the Spathi fleet even 20 years after the War. Its construction, though seemingly chaotic, is carefully designed to mimic its crew's natural attributes: paranoia, elusiveness, and cowardice. From the outside, the Eluder consists of many bubble-shaped, solid-colored cabins joined together by smaller gray corridors. The intention of having so many large seemingly crew-filled projections is partly to obfuscate enemy into targeting the decoy cabins and to direct enemy fire away from the sections where the crew resides. However, in-game, enemy weapons incapacitate the same amount of crew no matter where the Eluder is damaged.

Propulsion[edit]

The Eluder is one of the fastest ships in our region of space. The rapid acceleration and turning rate of this ship led Human servicemen to nickname it the "space jitterbug" during the Ur-Quan Slave War.¹ It is capable of an impressive maximum speed as well. The Eluder's powerful propulsion system is not intended for speeding into battle, but rather for speeding away from it. From this perspective, the Eluder performs admirably.

Armament[edit]

Primary[edit]

The Eluder's primary weapon consists of a repeating forward mounted gun² which can fire off low impact projectiles over a short distance. This gun is widely considered to be inferior to the Eluder's other armament, but it does have advantages over it: The projectiles fire in rapid succession and travel at a high velocity, allowing them to hit targets the Spathi's secondary weapon might be ill-suited against. Each projectile inflicts one damage upon contact.

Secondary[edit]

The secondary weapon epitomizes the Spathi approach to war. The Backwards Utilizing Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.) is a medium range, low impact homing missile with moderate speed and maneuverability. Fired from the rear of the craft, B.U.T.T. missiles are the favored weapon of the Spathi military due to their effectiveness during evasion and retreat. Each missile inflicts two damage upon contact.

As with the Mycon Podship's plasmoid, this weapon can damage the Eluder if fired while the ship's aft is pointed directly away from the enemy ship. B.U.T.T. missiles can also occasionally strike and neutralize each other.

Tactical Overview[edit]

The Eluder has fantastic durability and speed, but lacks in firepower. In addition to the ship's low impact weaponry, the Eluder's energy banks are small and slow to recover. These vessels are not at all suited for frontal assault due to these deficiencies. The defensive nature of this ship often leads to protracted engagements.

This ship is at its best when it is running away from a pursuing enemy while lobbing torpedoes backward. Spathi torpedoes have a lower velocity and higher duration than the average projectile, making them more heavily influenced by the Relativity Effect. In practical terms this means that torpedoes are especially useful against pursuing enemies, while typically unable to reach retreating enemies. The tracking system on these torpedoes is not perfect, but tremendous mobility is required to outmaneuver them.

Some adversaries will not pursue a Spathi Eluder at all. If their weapon range is longer, they won't need to. A tactic that often works well against slow enemies that will not pursue is to race ahead of the enemy ship and drop B.U.T.Ts in their flight path before they can veer away. Evasive enemies with high acceleration and turning speed are difficult to overtake, in which case the forward gun often works better.

The Eluder is effective at taking down Slylandro Probes during the single player campaign. If the player carefully maintains distance, they can bombard the Probe with B.U.T.T. missiles until it is destroyed.

Minutiae[edit]

The rumored Black Spathi Squadron Eluders are painted black with red stripes rather than the usual gaudy color scheme.

Known Ships[edit]

StarRunner

Notes and references[edit]

¹Star Control manual, p. 24.

²This may be the weapon Commander Hayes refers to when he describes the Spathi as a "cowardly, mobile clam armed with a howitzer."

3DO	Spathi Eluder

Basic stats

Crew: 30	Value: 18 pts
Battery: 10	Batt. Regeneration: 0.091 units/frame

Armament

Primary: Forward Mounted Gun	Secondary: B.U.T.T. Missiles
Refire delay: 0 frames	Refire delay: 7 frames
Energy use: 2 units	Energy use: 3 units

Propulsion

Max speed: 48 world units/frame	Turn rate: 0.5 facings/frame
Acceleration: 6 units/frame	Mass: 7

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 __NOTOC__
+[[Image:Star_control_i_spathi_discriminator_databank.png|thumb|306px|Starship Databank Entry from [[Star Control I]], still showing the title of Discriminator.]]
+The multi-colored [[Spathi]] '''Eluder''', formerly known as the '''Discriminator''', remains the bulk of the Spathi fleet even 20 years after the War. Its construction, though seemingly chaotic, is carefully designed to mimic its crew's natural attributes: paranoia, elusiveness, and cowardice. From the outside, the Eluder consists of many bubble-shaped, solid-colored cabins joined together by smaller gray corridors. The intention of having so many large seemingly crew-filled projections is partly to obfuscate enemy into targeting the decoy cabins and to direct enemy fire away from the sections where the crew resides. However, in-game, enemy weapons incapacitate the same amount of crew no matter where the Eluder is damaged.
-==Overview==
+==Propulsion==
-The multi-colored [[Spathi]] '''Eluder''', formerly known as the [[Discriminator]], remains bulk of the [[Spathi]] fleet even 20 years after the War. Its construction, though seemingly chaotic, is carefully designed to mimic its crew's natural attributes: paranoia, elusiveness, and cowardice.
+The Eluder is one of the fastest ships in our region of space. The rapid acceleration and turning rate of this ship led [[Human]] servicemen to nickname it the "space jitterbug" during the [[Ur-Quan Slave War]].{{ref|1}} It is capable of an impressive maximum speed as well. The Eluder's powerful propulsion system is not intended for speeding into battle, but rather for speeding away from it. From this perspective, the Eluder performs admirably.
-==Speed and control==
-The Eluder is one of the fastest ships in the galaxy, both in top speed and acceleration, and has a turning radius an [[Arilou Lalee'lay]] would be jealous of. Though agility would be a mighty boon for most brute-force fighter ships, the Eluder is anything but brute... or a force... or even a fighter, for that matter. The fact is the thrusters primary use isn't for speeding into battle, but rather for speeding away from it! From this perspective, the Eluder performs admirably! The helm of the Eluder is quite large and is typically manned by two Spathi at once, but in times of emergency (mainly when he's the only crew member left) the captain usually whips into a adrenaline-filled panicked frenzy and finds the ability to man both halves of the helm nearly simultaneously by himself!
 ==Armament==
 ===Primary===
-The Eluder's main weaponary consists of a quick-firing, short-range, low-impact plasma pellet. Great for sneak attacks and guerilla tactics or just to finish off a severely-handicapped adversary (which are the only direct attacks a [[Spathi]] would consider), the plasma pellet is otherwise limited in its usefulness.
+The Eluder's primary weapon consists of a repeating forward mounted gun{{ref|2}} which can fire off low impact projectiles over a short distance. This gun is widely considered to be inferior to the Eluder's other armament, but it does have advantages over it: The projectiles fire in rapid succession and travel at a high velocity, allowing them to hit targets the Spathi's secondary weapon might be ill-suited against. Each projectile inflicts one damage upon contact.
 ===Secondary===
-The secondary weaponry epitomizes the essence of true [[Spathi]]-ness due to its ability to do the most damage while the Eluder is in full retreat! The Backwards Utility Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.) is a medium-range, low-impact conventional space torpedo with a good automated guidance system and moderate speed and manuevering. Fired from the rear of the craft, B.U.T.T. missiles do most of the dirty work in the dogfights as Eluders make their way away from the fray. Enemy captains foolish enough to think it can run down an Eluder usually end up learning a fatal lesson in space warfare.
+The secondary weapon epitomizes the Spathi approach to war. The Backwards Utilizing Tracking Torpedo (B.U.T.T.) is a medium range, low impact homing missile with moderate speed and maneuverability. Fired from the rear of the craft, B.U.T.T. missiles are the favored weapon of the Spathi military due to their effectiveness during evasion and retreat. Each missile inflicts two damage upon contact.
+As with the [[Mycon]] [[Podship]]'s plasmoid, this weapon can damage the Eluder if fired while the ship's aft is pointed directly away from the enemy ship. B.U.T.T. missiles can also occasionally strike and neutralize each other.
+==Tactical Overview==
+* The Eluder has fantastic durability and speed, but lacks in firepower. In addition to the ship's low impact weaponry, the Eluder's energy banks are small and slow to recover. These vessels are not at all suited for frontal assault due to these deficiencies. The defensive nature of this ship often leads to protracted engagements.
+* This ship is at its best when it is running away from a pursuing enemy while lobbing torpedoes backward. Spathi torpedoes have a lower velocity and higher duration than the average projectile, making them more heavily influenced by the [[Relativity Effect]]. In practical terms this means that torpedoes are especially useful against pursuing enemies, while typically unable to reach retreating enemies. The tracking system on these torpedoes is not perfect, but tremendous mobility is required to outmaneuver them.
+* Some adversaries will not pursue a Spathi Eluder at all. If their weapon range is longer, they won't need to. A tactic that often works well against slow enemies that will not pursue is to race ahead of the enemy ship and drop B.U.T.Ts in their flight path before they can veer away. Evasive enemies with high acceleration and turning speed are difficult to overtake, in which case the forward gun often works better.
+* The Eluder is effective at taking down [[Slylandro]] [[Probe]]s during the single player campaign. If the player carefully maintains distance, they can bombard the Probe with B.U.T.T. missiles until it is destroyed.
-==Ship layout and design==
+==Minutiae==
-From the outside, the Eluder consists of many bubble-shaped, solid-colored cabins joined together by smaller white corridors. The intention of having so many large seemingly crew-filled projections is in part to obfuscate enemy into targeting the decoy cabins and to direct enemy fire away from the main bridge. However, in practice, enemy weapons seem to incapacitate the same amount of crew no matter where the Eluder is damaged. This is most likely due to the fact that even in the safety of a large starship, the crew is bound to hide in every nook, cranny, and hole the ship has to offer in the case of direct combat. And, unfortunate for the [[Spathi]], there are many of these crannies throughout the ship as it was [[Spathi]] engineers who designed it to begin with, making the deceptively non-crew-filled decoy cabins actually full of petrified crew members. To make matters worse, even the crew itself can be confused by the ship layout. In fact, the random cabin configuration has fooled many a green-eared [[Spathi]] captain who haven't grown used to the ship's odd design, especially as they're slinking away from the bridge during particularly nasty, or even mildly "scary," dogfights.
-==Miscellaneous==
+* The rumored [[Black Spathi Squadron]] Eluders are painted black with red stripes rather than the usual gaudy color scheme.
-===Rumors===
-A small note should be added that it may be possible that perhaps a few jet-black Eluders exist. The legends of the [[Black Spathi Squandron]], lead by a small band of courageous, brave [[Spathi]] rebels, who attempt to lead its brethren to freedom, have been passed down for several generations. However, the credibility of this legend is dubious at best seeing as how even the most courageous [[Spathi]] in the known universe are little short of "completely terrified."
-=== Tactical Overview (Added by Moon Shadow) ===
+==Known Ships==
+*[[StarRunner]]
-You are not part of the [[Black Spathi Squadron]]. You should not be brave. Oh no! An Eluder is a coward’s ship, designed by a coward, built by cowards and flown by cowards. There are only two types of Eluder Captains: The Brave Dead and The Living Cowards. Never meet face-to-face with a foe. The Eluder will never be able to Hammer, Pummel, Blow or Smite an enemy. The Eluder always wears the down. The effective Spathi tactic is showing them your butt and then giving them you BUTTs.
+==Notes and references==
+{{note|1}}''[[Star Control]] manual, p. 24.''
+{{note|2}}''This may be the weapon Commander [[Hayes]] refers to when he describes the Spathi as a "cowardly, mobile clam armed with a howitzer."''
-Strong Against: Hooray! The Eluder is capable of wearing down the [[Kzer-Za]] [[Dreadnought]] easily. When facing (Or running away from) a [[Kohr-Ah]] [[Marauder]] there is the “Plibnik Maneuver” – run away in a straight course, sidestepping spinning wheels and whenever you go beyond BUTT range, make a complete circle (Turn+Acceleration) to allow her to return into range before continuing in the former course. [[Mycon]] [[Podship]]s have a hard time handling the Eluder, especially if you can force them to swallow their own Plasmoids.
+{{ShipBox|image=Eluder_icon.png|link=eluder|race=[[Spathi]]|crew=30|value=18|batt=10|regen=0.091|primary=Forward Mounted Gun|prim-cost=2|prim-rate=0|secondary=B.U.T.T. Missiles|sec-cost=3|sec-rate=7|speed=48|turn=0.5|accel=6|mass=7}}
-Weak Against: Smack!  Fast ships such as the [[Pkunk]] [[Fury]] and [[Slylandro]] [[Probe]] and naturally the [[Chmmr]] [[Avatar]] who's zap-sats turn the the BUTTs completely useless.
+[[Category:Ships]]
+[[Category:Spathi]]