The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Another challenge:
How little can you spend and still win UQM?  Losing "found" ships like fwiffo, your 1st cruiser, etc. in battle is not considered an expense, but if you sell them for their RUs, then use the RUs for something, you need to itemize it.  :-/  Even Melnorme Credit needs to be itemized, although you can use a different column.
In this game, the only mining that will be of any use will be the initial radioactives...

Extra twist:
You can use the RU's gained from selling found ships to offset buying something with RU's from found ships.  Example:  You sell your earthling cruiser;  you now have 1100 RU that you can use to offset expendatures of 1100 RUs you spent from selling fwiffo  (esentially 2 for 1 RU use, but only from found/gift ships). This twist is intended to make it easier to spend some money, but also encourage selling off the only few precious ships you're likely to have.

Time is not a factor (unless your vessal moves so slow that the Kohr-Ah win).

I think the fastest game will tend to be the cheapest.

Also, if you pull the Druuge fuel trick, you have only really spent the burvix caster... so if you re-spend the RU from that on something else, does that count?

Wait a moment, are you counting net outgoes or gross? I don't get the bit with found ships if it's the latter, and if it's the former, well, normal mining games will have a massive profit, not a loss.

It's gross expendatures, so profit is worthless in this challenge; it's all about how much you spend (which is why I said mining is worthless).  Tricking the Druuge into giving you fuel doesn't add to the "spent total" but if you converted the fuel into RUs, and spend those RUs on anything other than fuel, then that adds to your "spent total".  Also, keep in mind that any fuel pods purchased for the Druuge trick need to be added to the "spent total."

Faster is cheaper?  Hmmm.  You have to spend a lot of money to get more thrusters...

The Extra Twist is for people who find the original challenge too restrictive (but it still encourages people to be thrifty).  For this example I'll use an earthling cruiser and an arilou skiff:

Jimmy starts with (1230 net RU, 0 RU from found ships, 30 spent RU, 0 spent from found ships)

Jimmy sells his earthling cruiser (2330 net RU, 1100 RU from found ships, 30 spent RU, 0 spent from found ships)

Jimmy sells his skiff (3930 net RU, 2700 RU from found ships, 30 spent RU, 0 spent from found ships)

Jimmy buys 2 thruster modules, and deducts the RUs from his  "from found ships" field (2930 net RU, 1700 RU from found ships, 30 spent RU, 1000 spent from found ships) (1030 total spent RU)

Jimmy uses the "Extra twist" rule to deduct 1000 RU from his "RU from found ships" field, making it just like any other RU: worthless.  In turn, he removes 1000 RU from his "spent from found ships" field, lowering his gross expendature (impossible, but true!  There's got to be a net in there somewhere ::) )  (2930 net RU, 700 RU from found ships, 30 spent RU, 0 spent from found ships) (30 total spent RU)

Now, Jimmy has two new thrusters for his flagship without raising his score, but he also lost two ships... it's a trade-off.

How about take this from the other side and say you should do it with the fewest possible total resources?  Screw all this with deducting incomes from outgoes etc. Just measure the amount of RU you rake in, and try to minimize that.

You can count 'found ships' in this income or not, whatever

Lets see... I think you can finish the game with 0 RU spent, or even a profit(!). You have 500 bios minimum to buy fuel (Umgah task) and ofcourse you can sell the Skiff ships, the Fury ships, Fwiffo and the starting Cruiser too. Ofcourse the Umgah ships too and ofcourse... the final part! The Terminators ships! If I am correct, the rebellion isn't over until you finish the game, right? So lets see, you go into Yehat space without escorts and you get 12 terminators. 12 * 2400 RU = 28800. Do it several times and your "debt" is erased and you get a profit! So after this long post I came to the conclusion:
If you want to do it in the cheapest way, don't buy anything from the melnorme, just use RU and your "debt" will be erased from the brand new Terminators fleet you sell.

Deep Jiffa = Winner!

I think Deep Jiffa has the idea.  Remember you can only erase the debt from "found ship RUs", not from spent melnorme credit or from spent RUs that are obtained from minerals, or battle salvage.

I suppose you could sell fwiffo and the earthling cruiser, go pick up some pkunk ships, sell them, go get arilou gifts, maybe umgah ships...  But at some point, you _might_ have to buy fuel with something other than "found ship" RUs.

One thing I negelected to mention as a monetary system:  crew... since that's technically barter and not expenditure, I'll allow it.  So, the evil stingy Captain can refuel at the druuge with the crew he obtains from the gift ships...   8)

Yes I remember, I "found" Terminators in Yehat space and went to get 28800 RU in starbase.

Um, but at that part of the game, where you get the Terminators before the Samatra, you have unlimited RU, don't you? Selling anything has no effect at that point.

No, that's not the part he's talking about. If you start the revolution then hang out in the dominantly rebel area, you can ask for ships, and they will give you a few.

And, Unlimited RU is worthless in this challenge.   :)  Even infinitely wealthy people can be misers.

Anyone here has better offer...?
Going once
Going twice...
*silence in the room as a mystrious man moves like he is raising his hand*

To be continiued after the commercial break.