Boss Rush!

Various custom ship tournaments go here, along with old encounters.

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Lloyd16
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Post by Lloyd16 »

same reason why i always seem to die last. speed. I think team beta wins
antisocialmunky
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Post by antisocialmunky »

Can you run one of Alpha vs Beta?
Don’t worry it has airbags.
Ixranin
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Post by Ixranin »

Ninteen45 wrote:Why do I die first all the time?
Your answer would be... your ship lacked any proper defenses. Most motherships/bosses have a very high DPS, and you'll certainly die trying to stand infront of one without a good:
-Armor Arrangement
-Deflector System
-HP Reinforcement

For example, when you were saying that you couldn't fix your ship, I started to revise it. This is what it looked like: (Note I didn't finish revising it since you did end up fixing your ship.)

Image -> Image

Also see the Firehawk:

Image -> Image
antisocialmunky wrote:Can you run one of Alpha vs Beta?
Well, it wasn't part of the plan, but I can see. I wouldn't be surprised if it just ends up with all of Team Alpha chasing the Plea for Death while Team Beta picks them off though.
Hege
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Post by Hege »

Oh man... Our team fails at this tourny here... :[
I hope for a miracle when it comes to fighting Neon Light Illusion..


Also, I'm curious, whats the plan with the ??? boss?
Are you gona make team Beta fight it any time soon or what?
[img]http://i35.tinypic.com/ddoxt0.gif[/img]
Venator
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Post by Venator »

About what I expected from our trainwreck of a team, unfortunately...

Nice to see that my tank held up when it actually got into position.
[url=http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921][img]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c348/DraTuicichNovae/AESig.png[/img][/url]
antisocialmunky
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Post by antisocialmunky »

Hege wrote:Oh man... Our team fails at this tourny here... :[
I hope for a miracle when it comes to fighting Neon Light Illusion..


Also, I'm curious, whats the plan with the ??? boss?
Are you gona make team Beta fight it any time soon or what?
Team Alpha AND Team Beta if beta can't kill it.
Don’t worry it has airbags.
Ixranin
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Post by Ixranin »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Vpe_qRtis

While Beta knocked off more of the NLI's armor, Alpha actually managed to expose and hit the core. Unfortunately, too much of the fleet was already gone by that time.
Lloyd16
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Post by Lloyd16 »

wow. we did something right :?
Venator
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Post by Venator »

Not a bad showing given how poorly we did in the others. As before, the NLI just "woke up" at one point and went berserk with Pulsars.

I have a feeling that my triple-aegis battleship had it's AI out too far, so it wasn't actually providing cover. It did take a somewhat absurd volume of fire towards the end though.

Also, the timing of the music (so one ship exploded right when it came to the climactic finish) was pretty cool :D.
[url=http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2921][img]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c348/DraTuicichNovae/AESig.png[/img][/url]
Lord-General Thunder
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Post by Lord-General Thunder »

Ixranin wrote:
antisocialmunky wrote:PS. Ix, are you going to be around this nov/dec/jan? This tourney was just awesome and it would be cool if you had time to do another one.
Probably. I can see some improvements in the point system to be made, and I've thought of some possible designs. What I worry about though is that the number of people who participate in tournaments seems pretty low these days.
Hey, I'd join again.

Hell, I'll hold the tourney if nobody else will. :P
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mtheminja
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Post by mtheminja »

Well, I'm planning on holding a tourney soon that should stir things up a bit...
Ixranin
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Post by Ixranin »

After much delay, sorry. I've simply been losing interest in BSF lately. Here's the final fight for Team Alpha:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bziyVSvndAg

And here're all the bosses:

Image

=== Ancient Guardian ===

HP: 2200
Speed: 0.40
Turning: 0.35
AI Range: 357
Accel: 0.01
Number of sections: 69
Total HP: 131103.32
Number of weapons: 135
Number of modules: 3

Basic Concept: I wanted a heavy ship which would be slow and clunky, yet have a way of repelling flanking attackers. The result was the tail, and the front was designed somewhat with a Horseshoe Crab in mind. It was also meant to be Lancet resistant, to the point where it wouldn't be defeated by the winning team from Endless Infinity's tournament, and thus lots of the weapons had a fairly high amount of HP. The range of weapons also had to be increased to compensate for the horrible speed at which it would be able to chase long-range player ships.
Testing Changes: Ancient Guardian probably saw the highest increase in weaponry of any of the ships after I'd tested it. The rear Weasels were given clips and side Weasels were added, Drivers were added, more Gattling Blasters, more Plasmas, more Particle Guns, and the Flaks on the tail were upgraded. Originally the PD-distraction weapon on the back was a Repeater, but I ended up changing it to Missile due to Missiles having a higher PD priority.
Results: Probably one of the better balanced bosses that resulted from this. Some of its weapons certainly seem threatening, but in the end, none of them turned out to be overly deadly. Even the powerful Flaks on the tail were able to be taken care of without Lancets. Probably the one thing I'd think should've been changed was the HP, as it was high enough to drag on the battle for quite a while.
-Team Alpha: Team Alpha lacked enough firepower to put a dent in its armor until the very end when Lloyd's ship was able to fire its Dusks. Due to the nature of the team, it's hard to rate the Ancient Guardian with them.
-Team Beta: Team Beta on the other hand, had lots of projectile firepower and was able to overwhelm the Ancient Guardian's defenses. It repelled the close-range flanking attackers as planned and was eventually subdued. Any good boss should take down a couple ships with it, so it did its job without looking overpowering in the process.

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=== Stranger Aeons ===

HP: 1900
Speed: 0.01
Turning: 0.52
AI Range: 350
Accel: 0.02
Number of sections: 63
Total HP: 95627.31
Number of weapons: 127
Number of modules: 6

Basic Concept: It was originally supposed to be a space station, presenting a challenge by facing weapons in every direction and not locking onto the player's tank ship due to only following a slow rotation. This wasn't originally intended to be a Legion ship either.
Testing Changes: Several changes were made after some testing: Tachyons were added, a boss-grade Dusk was added, the Gattling Blasters, and finally the three hyper Point Beams. The Point Beams were one of the three responses to finding the bosses could be wiped by weapon spam, and I gave them 1 HP and put them on the edge so that a beamer or Lancet hit would knock them off immediately.
Results: Both teams fell to this boss, which was mainly the result of poor team planning. While the boss packs some punch, it's actually probably less damaging then the Ancient Guardian. I'm not sure what changes, if any, would be made to it. The easiest way to take it down is to use Lancets to knock out the 3 Deflectors, and the rest is just chewing it up.
-Team Alpha: Team Alpha's timing was poor, but Venator's ship showed that the boss is fairly easy to tank. If only he'd had a Grav Beam, then his ship probably could've tanked it for a much longer time, possibly forever.
-Team Beta: Beta did a fairly good job of damaging it, but they lost a lot of time since they didn't really have anything to knock off the Point Beams. Had the Boxale been a mid-range tank rather then a suicide ship, then its Lancets probably would have done the job. Also the Plea for Death, normally invicible with its deflector set-up, found itself at the mercy of the Stranger Aeon's Demeters.

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=== Berdysz ===

HP: (F)590 / (N)720 / (B)760
Speed: (F)1.90 / (N)1.55 / (B)1.11
Turning: (F)0.72 / (N)0.45 / (B)0.45
AI Range: 354
Accel: 0.04
Number of sections: 50
Total HP: (F)37885.43 / (N)43305.95 / (B)44450.72
Number of weapons: (F)44 / (N)46 / (B)47
Number of modules: 4

Basic Concept: The first boss I made, and a fairly simple concept: Fighting three "mini-bosses" at once. They would use a wide starting position in an attempt to surround the players, and stick to Terran weapons with Blasters, Beamers, and Missiles being their main weapons.
Testing Changes: They saw a lot of decreases to their HP during testing. I also discovered that with them all on Normal AI and with the same stats, it was extremely easy to round them up into a clump and wail on them. I broke them up into three seperate ships, each using a different AI and having slightly different stats/weapons. (The Broadside Berdysz's AI generally fails though, as seen in the battle vs. Team Beta.)
Results: The strength of the Berdysz relies a lot on how their AI acts, and... BSF AI wasn't quite up to the task. I think what I should have done was to make the three ships more unique compared to each other, rather then the nearly identical ones I used. Their HP might be a little high too, and the skeleton could probably have been removed.
-Team Alpha: Team Alpha had ships of more varied sizes, causing the Berdysz to split up. Fortunately for Alpha, they picked off the flanking Berdysz, giving the Abalone time to hold off the other two, but eventually the other two Berdsyz split up and flanked it. Venator's ship gathered them back up, but they split up again after Lloyd's ship damaged them enough, allowing them to flank the final two ships of Team Alpha.
-Team Beta: The huge size of the Plea for Death drew in all the Berdysz and allowed the rest of the team to easily flank them, exposing the Berdysz' greatest weakness. From there, it was just a matter of picking them apart.

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=== Burst Out ===

HP: 750
Speed: 4.70
Turning: 2.10
AI Range: 350
Accel: 0.08
Description:
Number of sections: 28
Total HP: 22603.78
Number of weapons: 51
Number of modules: 5

Basic Concept: Generally bosses are large and slow moving, so the fast moving Burst Out throws a wrench in the normal plans for fighting bosses. The boss is meant to be somewhat easy to tank, with the main challenge being figuring out how the fleet is going to damage the fast-moving boss.
Testing Changes: The HP was decreased, the Dieterling was removed, added Weasels facing forwards and backwards, increased the regen on the Platformer, and added the two Sidewinder Storm guns.
Results: Team Beta wiped the floor with Burst Out, yet the boss did the same back to Team Alpha. In the end, I'm not really sure if anything about this boss should be changed or not.
-Team Alpha: Burst Out barged right into the center of Team Alpha and quickly targeted and destroyed the Abalone and Hive, which were Alpha's two larger ships. Venator's ship was the perfect tank for Burst Out, and they could've circled forever, but some odd AI behavior caused the Burst Out to switch targets to the Larva, resulting in the battle being a loss rather then draw.
-Team Beta: It looks like one way to solve the hitting the boss issue is to use a ship with odd movement like Team Beta's Plea for Death. This was also the only boss where Point Beams made an effective defense, as it didn't fire many projectiles backwards.

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=== Neon Light Illusion ===

HP: 1420
Speed: 2.12
Turning: 0.90
AI Range: 357
Accel: 0.03
Description:
Number of sections: 74
Total HP: 51425.66
Number of weapons: 31
Number of modules: 33

Basic Concept: Dunno how to explain.
Testing Changes: Lowered HP by a lot, but added more weapons. Added a Swarm of Demeters as an opening punch, and a handful of point defenses. Restructed the outside shell so half of it didn't explode all at once when one piece was broken, and lowered the HP of internal pieces.
Results: I should've been more picky as to which weapons were going to be boosted and which weren't, rather then having almost all of them on the Booster section. Another change I'd make is to reduce the number of internal sections, especially the skeleton, to try to put more focus on the external bubble of armor. The Driver fired too fast too.
-Team Alpha: With fewer Plasmas, Team Alpha didn't knock off the shields as quickly. This was both a pro and a con, allowing Team Alpha to focus their firepower on one area without boosting the NLI too much, but also meaning they'd be wasting shots hitting the shields. It takes a daring fleet to take down the NLI, as often the easiest way to damage it is when it's facing straight towards you, rather then you chasing the Aegised tail, and Alpha was able to do some of this. In the end though, the fleet wasn't coherent enough to break the NLI.
-Team Beta: On the other side, Beta had a lot more Plasmas, so they quickly knocked off most of the NLI's shields. The result was highly powered-up NLI which spent all its time showing the flanking-based team its Aegised tail, causing them to waste a lot of shots. The high AI-range of the Plea for Death also caused the NLI to turn its shorter-ranged Tachyon on lesser-protected ships rather then the fully-shielded tank.

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=== G.T. ===

HP: 900
Speed: 1.60
Turning: 0.80
AI Range: 350
Accel: 0.06
Description:
Number of sections: 95
Total HP: 63364.79
Number of weapons: 167
Number of modules: 20

Basic Concept: Guns. Lots of guns. This ship was built to be similar to the previous Mothership 2, where it simply had a lot of weapons on it and the best bet for removing them was Lancets, and also featured the original Mothership's massive Tachyon array. It was actually a bit of a curious test to see how much people shyed away from Lancets after they decided Endless Infinity's tournament.
Testing Changes: Lowered HP by a lot, added some more guns, and made it a Flak whore after discovering it could be defeated by weapon spam.
Results: The Flak was overboard, and the HP was probably a little too high, but the ship was otherwise pretty close to the intended purpose. It may have been better to remove the forward Railguns too, to raise the possibility of a Deflector-based ship tanking it.
-Team Alpha: Team Alpha had more Lancets, but 4/6 of them were mounted on two ships which died quite quickly. They did have beam weapons and hard to intercept weapons, but not enough to do any real damage to the GT.
-Team Beta: Team Beta's heavy reliance on projectiles with 100% interceptability and lack of Lancets allowed this boss to chew them up. They had no good way to pierce the GT's defenses and knock off the offending Flak Guns.

=== The Bosses === (Note: I corrected several mistakes with the G.T. that I didn't notice until after the tournament.)

Random:
Burst Out, Neon Light Illusion, G.T., and the base for Ancient Defender.

Sinmara: The original Burst Out. The booster set-up was reused on the Ancient Defender.
Image

Nehonojia: The original Ancient Defender, featuring a ton of Aegis.
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Iron Hammer: Funky ship that was between the Nehonojia and Ancient Defender.
No picture available.

The Stone-Like: Similar to Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, the team would have to survive its onslaught for several minutes to win.
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The Pirate Fleet: A whole mass of random pirate ships that simply swarmed the player.
No picture available.

-Kimera III: The original G.T.
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Jafo
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Post by Jafo »

Thank you for running a great tournament! I really enjoyed reading your analysis of your ships and the teams, and look forward to trying out your bosses which I just downloaded.
Master Chief
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Post by Master Chief »

Congratulations on a job well done, Ixranin. :)
[b]GONE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE[/b]
lightstriker
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Post by lightstriker »

what ended up happening with the ??? boss by the way?

and thank you very much for running this and doing as much work as you did, it was really fun (despite my various "technical difficulties" :D)
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