The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I remember once discussing what ships were the toughest to fly and/or use effectively. These ships generally involve a lot of skill and practice on the part of the player. However, the payoff for mastering these ships is usually pretty high. I thought it might be interesting to make a list and rank such ships. So below is my top five list:

5. Druuge – Ultimate sharpshooter’s ship. Takes a lot of practice (especially for those high-speed shots), but is very tough in the right hands.

4. Melnorme – Very powerful weapon rewards those who aim well. I rank it above the Druuge because of its unique method of firing its weapon: you release the Fire key instead of pressing it. Can be a bit confusing at first.

3. Slylandro – Probably the quirkiest ship in the game. Its also quite large, so you really have to know what you’re doing or you might jink into incoming fire by accident. Deadly when mastered.

2. Umgah – The fastest ship in the game - using its special ability, of course. The trick is to somehow get close enough and not get blasted. It’s a lot tougher then it sounds and takes a lot of practice. Surprisingly effective against certain ships with enough practice, however.

1. Supox – Very tough to fly! More often then not, the lateral movements will kill you if you don’t know what you are doing. And somehow during all that dancing around, you have to orient your bow towards the enemy to get a few shots off. At least with other finesse ships, they generally have auto-tracking weapons. Not here. Still, the potential is there for an excellent ship with enough practice.

Interestingly, there is only one SC1 ship here. Honorable mentions: Pkunk, Arilou, Androsynth.

Don't agree? Have your own list? Tell me about it!

I completely agree.

Supox as #1? Supox isn't a high skill ship, it's just crap. Those others are good calls, although I've never been a fan of Stara's hat trick with the Umgah simply because I've never seen anyone else be able to do it.


Androsynth doesn't take a whole lot of skill to use so I'm not sure why you'd mention it. This topic boils down to "snipey ships" and "dodgy ships", which I happen to agree with. Even slow ships take skill, though. Until EP perfected Chmmr, I thought it was expensive crap.

The onl one I disagree with from your detaild list is the Supox. I find the blade
a fairly easy ship to fly. Perhaps not to master, but it's a godo ship even in my
novice hands.

For me, I think one of the harder ones to master is the Pkunk. Sure, it's fast,
but tying to get close and aim careful is trickier.

Druuge don't generally require sharpshooting skill. Their most notable advantage is the combination of long range and an easy way to flee, meaning that in a lot of matchups, the game will go on indefinitely until the Druuge scores its hits, and thus sharpshooting is unnecessary: Utwig, Melnorme, Syreen, VUX, Ilwrath, ZFP, Shofixti. (Ur-Quan, Yehat, Spathi, and Supox too, but they rarely show up because they're so bad.)

Sharpshooting and other strategy is important against Kohr-Ah, Chmmr, Mmrnmhrm, Earthling, Umgah. (and Chenjesu.) They're there, but they're a minorit. The rest of the matchups are psychological games or a guaranteed loss for Druuge.
Even less than Druuge. Melnorme live by being faster than the enemy, and for the snap shots, they reward luck rather than skill. They have skill-testing fights against Kohr-Ah, Mmrnmrhm, Umgah (and Supox.)
Quirkiest? I'll have to go with Umgah.
Also because it has 1 mass.
No it isn't Tiberian played Supox with superhuman skill and it still wasn't worth the 16 points on his fleet.

It's a skill ship in that it takes immense skill to play it worth about 12 points, I suppose...

My list contains way more SC1 ships than yours:

5. Ilwrath
"What the hell?" you say? The ship has extremely high acceleration but very low max speed and low range. On the other hand, its acceleration makes it the best ship in the game at gravity whipping, and by hiding behind the planet until the enemy approaches and then whipping out, it can squeeze in at least a little damage against almost any ship. It's my pet ship, like Tiberian's Supox and Stara's Umgah. I use it to kill Earthling or finish weakened ships.

4. Slylandro
For a long time, I wasn't able to play Slylandro worth much. Then, one day, I pulled out a Slylandro against someone and flew it perfectly. Ever since then, I've been good with the ship. I have no idea why this happened.

3. Umgah
You need precise aim and a good understanding of the game's physics to fly this one... I can't comment much since this is the one ship on my list that I'm not actually very skilled with.

2. Mmrnmhrm
This ship is seriously weird. Unlike the others, the skill it takes seems rather intuitive after you learn it, but really, the entire way the ship moves and operates makes no sense at all. It is seriously threatened by the oddest of ships: Supox, Spathi, Mycon... and those are some of its most strategic fights, too (pity they hardly ever come up.) The mechanics of the transform effect take a lot of getting used to as well.

1. Syreen
The one ship that I wish was in my fleet but isn't. My rule of thumb was "It's a skill ship if it's definitely not worth it if you don't have the necessary skills", but Syreen makes it because even though it's useful as it is, its effectiveness fluctuates to ridiculously high if you're both skilled and lucky. Shiver hates it. :P

Honorable mentions: Yehat, Supox, Spathi (they take a lot of skill, but they're still awful.)

Incorrect. I've carped about it, but I don't hate the ship or I wouldn't use it.

guess you've changed since June...

[Jun 29 17:02:26] <Shiver->   I hate Syreen.

I beg to differ. I almost always miss the target in Blazer form. :(

So you big dogs of melee, does anyone actually use the Umgah? I mean use it well, not just picking it as a token ship or what not?

Stara does. I believe I could learn to use it well (not as well as Stara, but at least for as much as it costs), but it doesn't fit on my current team very well anyway.

Eater of Ham agrees!

Supox is the kind of ship that can be used to perform audience-friendly moves which do the player no real good in the end. Countless times I have killed over 20 Kohr-ah crewmen with Supox but not once have I been able to actually bring the bastard down. The ship has infinite potential but it takes too much concentration and flawless play. I only use it because it is fun.

The difference between Slylandro and Supox is that Slylandro can bring many victories. It is a little easier to fly but it also has infinite potential.

Oh, how I envy those who can actually hit the enemy as Melnorme... It sure makes a nasty ship when the captain doesn't miss - as does Druuge.

Umgah is a ship that I couldn't use to beat my grandma but I have also seen "someone" kill my *everything* with it when I was already almost doing my victory dance.

I'm surprised ZFP isn't on here as that ship requires some serious skill to use it right without becoming toast due to stray shots.

The ZFP is one of my fav ships. It makes me feel skilled sometimes, even though I'm probably not. (Try my melee challenge; Good cyborgs: 1 Arilou skiff, 1 Utwig Jugger, 1 Mycon Podship. Human control: 1 ZFP Stinger.)

Hmmmm i remember the endless Melee and from my experiance.

My Top 4 ships to Humiliate your foes

1: Arilou (I have personally taken 2 or more Ur-Quan Dreadnoughts in a row while never taking a scratch)

2: Umgah (More then one player i know has thrown down their head when a space pickle zooms up their side and gets a full run with the particle field)

3: Shofixti (like the Arilou if your quick you can take hit and run, even Dreadnoughts, takes a hell of a long time and some stunt pilot maneuvers to doge but can be done.)

4: Mrrnnhrmmm (Those light missiles given time and staying out of reach can take most anything in long drawn out melee)

1) Arilou Skiff
With practice can avoid nearly every enemy shot
2) Supox Blade
If piloted well can destroy almost everything
3) Utwig Jugger
If the pilot is skilled almost every attack is avoidable
4)Pkunk
Deadly in skilled hands
5)ZFP
Lethal even when facing the strongest ships