Is the petition still going on? I tried to add an entry, only to be met with a blank page.

From a storytelling perspective, I most appreciate the Orz. It's a testament to TFB that a race of goofy race of parrotfish-looking things left me too frightened to sleep for a few nights (Poor Bukowski). It's frustrating as hell that the Arilou never gave more answers about the Orz and other interdimensional Lovecraftian horrors, but I imagine they wanted to set up a plot point for a sequel.

Just because of their awful 3DO voice, I find the Utwig intolerable. I actually don't much care for the Spathi either. On top of their cowardice, they're extremely petty and self-centered.

My signature contains the best Pokemon never made.

Laser damage is definitely proportionate to the number of projectiles. Including the ship itself, I see potential for a maximum of 16 damage against a Kohr-Ah ship in one shot.

I think this trick works best against Pkunk opponents if they spin while firing at you. I tried a couple of rounds against an AI Pkunk attacking in a straightforward manner, and was easily slaughtered both times.

True, this would be worthless against an actual Kohr-Ah opponent, I just used the Kohr-Ah ship to highlight the phenomenon. In practice, this actually works against the Pkunk ship's attacks, as its weapon fires a stream for several seconds, and its attack pattern is extremely predictable. What led me to notice the effect in the first place was the seemingly impossible speed at which I sometimes shot down the attacking Pkunk when it was at full health.

OSX version of UQM 0.6.1, apparently.

The damage pips hit the ship too, as far as I can tell. I have a screenshot of the second volley here (omg totally shopped).

I think having the Marauder moving might make more lasers connect, I'm not sure. We could try reproducing this over a net game, but I think the lag would be prohibitive.

I'm uploading a video to YouTube right now, I'll post it when it shows up. Yeah, this tactic doesn't justify rushing in right next to your enemy, it's just a neat way to dish out some damage before you're torn apart, if they're already closing in.

EDIT Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zE1z6Mf2pY

The Cruiser's PDL is generally impractically weak against ships. However, because the laser fires as many beams as nearby targets, the overall damage can be pretty high. If the targets are close enough together, the beams seem to overlap, dealing multiple points of damage to a target. This can be exploited against ships that fire multiple projectiles at once, by using the PDL just as the other ship fires. This can let you do things like two-shot a Pkunk Fury, or in the most extreme case, cripple a Kohr-Ah ship as it uses its FRIED (in tests, I've chopped a Marauder's crew in half with as few as two PDL shots following a FRIED).

I also waited around for weeks in an effort to see the Mycon and Syreen going at it, and never even saw a Mycon ship enter the system. I felt betrayed when Talana shared tales of the brutal battle that never was. 

Yeah, I suppose... It just always struck me as interesting that the Orz highlights the VUX as one of very few of the 'current' races they have encountered (the only other I recall is the Arilou). Probably just a result of proximity; the only other nearby race is the Spathi, and they wouldn't go out of their way to provoke the Orz with questions.

In SC2 when you question the Orz about their sudden arrival, they (the Orz) briefly mention their distinctly hostile-sounding relationship with the VUX.

I, myself pushed the *fingers* into the *new town* and there are so many *campers*.
First the VUX, but they are such *silly cows*
they ask so much about the Androsynth we must *dance* with them.

The VUX are clearly not an amiable race, and it may simply be the case that their confrontational nature instantly caused problems with the Orz. However, in reference Captain Rand's infamous Insult, VUX translation technology is often hinted at as being notably advanced. Perhaps this may have allowed the VUX to see past the confusing Orz speech patterns, to something that the VUX clearly found sinister. Unfortunately, none of the VUX dialogue shows any mention of the Orz, so I can't confirm this idea.