The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

What do you think the most boring possible matchup is?

I was thinking Utwig vs Spathi, but I'm not really experienced in these matters.

Arilou vs Chmmr. A stalemate until either the Arilou teleport into something or the Chmmr make a mistake and collide with the planet.

Speaking of Melee, is there still a change to do PvP via internet?

Thraddash v. anyone (and vice versa in PvP)

Shofixti vs Anyone.

I disagree. Shofixti is interesting because you have to move in without getting destroyed and blow yourself up to inflict maximum damage. It ends relatively quickly as long as the guy using the Shofixti is playing the way he should.

Mmrnmhrm, for whoever is the other player (unless they have a really fast ship).

I thought we are speaking about PvE (vs CPU).

Something I've been wondering about are the gravity whips. I'm not familiar with them but I see them mentioned here a lot. Would it be possible for the Chmmr to use a gravity whip to catch up with the Arilou? I guess it can teleport away but that would deplete its batteries.

Batteries are rarely a decisive factor in UQM battles (the one exception is Druuge). However, everyone knows that Arilou stands almost no chance defeating a Chmmr. It's actually kind of better to just charge in and shoot than to keep running away and hoping you get lucky, because that way you'll inflict some damage, whereas otherwise you will likely just be picked apart by the Zapsats.

Yep, join the channel #uqm-arena on freenode. There's also a web frontend if you are not familiar with IRC, at http://irc.uqm.stack.nl/irc.cgi (http://irc.uqm.stack.nl/irc.cgi)

Utwig begs to differ.

Oh yeah, I forgot about them. :)

And I suppose batteries could also arguably be a decisive factor for Ur-Quan, Kohr-Ah, VUX, Mycon, and perhaps even Chenjesu, Umgah, and Melnorme.

Perhaps there should be a new version of netmelee, where each player has 1 AI ally. This will "force the issue" and prevent any boring stalemates. Battle will be fast-paced because you have to inflict maximum damage in the shortest time period to save your ally or exploit enemy's vulnerabilities.

Arilou teleporters dont actually use that much power. It's this combined with its immunity to the tractor beam (thank you inertial nullifier) that would make it a stalemate with a human pilot.


EDIT: I'll also add the Avatar vs. Probe to the list. Like the Skiff, the Probe has a short range weapon and is immune to the tractor beam. Combine that with it being the fastest ship in the game and always on the move, there's no way even a gravity whip assisted Avatar can ever catch it unless the Probe's pilot allows it to.

Technically, I think the Pkunk Fury is faster, but you're point still stands.

I agree that many of your matches are boring as you have written them. I'm still not sure if we are talking about pvp or pve in this thread, but all of aforementioned matches are solved with the etiquette rule: "faster ship takes the initiative". Slylandro vs Chmmr? Slylandro attacks. Arilou vs Chmmr? Arilou attacks.

Anyway, even with this rule there are some horribly boring matches. From what I've seen:

Yehat vs. Spathi: This match is horrible. Spathi is on the offensive, but attacking is absurdly difficult. This one takes ages.
Almost any match with an Arilou in it: Chain teleporting.
Earthling mirror: This is something which I hate. The match is based upon hitting your opponent with missiles so that they can only block one of them. Getting hit involves using tactics which often are related to the close up camera. One of them is firing so that the enemy Earthling zaps an asteroid coming from outside the camera, thus rendering the PDL useless for a small moment. Other is firing through the "back" of the screen. How I play this? PDL charge.
Spathi vs Supox: I don't remember ever playing this. I opened my UQM super melee menu to see which ships would ring a bell as "boring ships", and this match seems like it might take a while. Not sure how it would go.

How does Spathi vs Yehat compare to Spathi vs Utwig?

With Spathi vs Utwig, you can at least turn around and try to wear down the shields with erratic use of the front gun, or by staying at the edge of range and baiting them into shielding inappropriately. With Yehat, there isn't even that.

Mycon vs. Mycon

The most boring battle? Spathi vs Spathi takes the cake.

Yehat vs Vux is also incredibly annoying in the hands of good players. I've spent many long battles with this matchup on the genesis.

Basically, the Intruder must evasively attempt to limpet in an "s" pattern, and the Terminator is just slow enough not to be able to cut the oblique angle of a properly flown Vux without getting hit by said limpet, but the Terminator is fast enough to avoid getting hit if it doesn't try and close the distance.

That one limpet hit vs getting to close range unhindered as the Yehat is what decides the outcome of the battle.... and it can take a ridiculous amount of time when the Intruder and Terminator both fly evasively.

An asteroid hit on the Vux (that is meaningful) is also rare, as the "S" pattern usually means you are hit into the direction you are turning into anyways, and thus are still protected by outbound limpets already on their way to the Terminator.