Subset Games Forum

Designed for underwater demolition work, Charybdis' only strength is its powerful, custom Scylla drone.

Download of Charybdis 1.4 here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ab27fdhm9c0gpoa/Charybdis+1.4.ftl

This ship replaces Engi B, and is similar to it in several respects. The difference is that Engi B has a tough start leading to a half-assed gunship lategame (at least in my experience). This ship has a tough start leading to a badass drone carrier lategame, just like Engi ships are meant to be.

The Scylla Drone is simply a Pre-AE-nerf Combat II drone. I restored its stats to Pre-AE levels using the comments left in the .xml file (the tooltip is a nod to this). It can reliably pierce one layer of shields and will manage two okay if the enemy has low evasion. It can also sometimes move fast enough to avoid Anti-Drone Drones, though I wouldn't try that too often.

HANGAR VIEW:


IN SPACE:


A typical first-sector encounter:


I've playtested the ship on Normal and won with it, but I haven't tried it on Hard - this is only because I can't win with anything but Crystal B on hard yet. It's probably just as viable as the normal Engi B on hard, though. If anyone wants to test that conjecture, I'd be grateful!

It does NOT have functioning gibs yet. Is there a gibs tutorial somewhere?
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BACKSTORY:

"Inquiry: Why is vessel named Charybdis?" the Engi asked.

"It's, uh, a mythology reference I think," the human replied. "It was a compromise between the Engi designers and the Human purchasers. You guys like naming ships after circular things. We like references. Charybdis was a whirlpool in mythology, so it's the best of both worlds."

The Engi nodded. "This seems appropriate. The designation then refers also to our underwater location, correct?"

"Yup. It's pretty clever," the human agreed, powering down the shields and engines. Water flowed into the ship's many airlocks/ballast tanks as it sank below the waves. Three bars of power were freed up to join the one already sitting dormant in the reactor. Only the life support system remained active on the ship. "Prepare to deploy Scylla."

"Scylla deployed," the Engi said almost immediately. The drone hummed with power as it activated, its overclocked thrusters forcing it through the water like a wrecking ball. In no time, it had reduced a troublesome rock formation to a pile of bubbling slag, which slowly dripped away onto the seafloor. The area cleared would serve as the foundation for a Federation mining rig.

"Job is completed with 98.5% efficacy. Retrieving Scylla," the Engi said, powering the engines back up. The ship's drone recovery arm latched onto the precious Scylla drone and pulled it back into the cargo hold. "Inquiry: coordinates of our next assignment?"

The human looked at the comms array as the ship rose up out of the water. "It's... hmm, that's weird. I could have sworn we were doing three more jobs like this around the planet, but now it's summoning us to the nearest military hangar. They say we've got some plans to deliver, on a trip through hostile space!"

"Observation: our ship lacks sufficient reactor power to field both offensive and defensive systems."

"Yeah, they thought about that too - it says we should prepare a room for a brand-new back-up battery!"

The engi calculated for a brief moment. "The assignment will still be risky."

"Of course it will. But that doesn't matter - we've got to save the Federation!"

A fast Combat Drone, Recovery Arm and limited parts. Sounds like a ship to test drive.

It does NOT have functioning gibs yet. Is there a gibs tutorial somewhere?

Superluminal allows the adding of gibs, but you have to make them yourself, which shouldn't be too hard. Either you repaint the gibs in the colour of the ship or you take the ship itself, put it over the gibs and cut out the bits that don't fit. It works on most ships except the Federation Cruisers which are deceptive blighters.

The main problem I have with ship gibs is setting which way they go, how much they spin and how fast. I'd throw in some random values and then remark how it looks awful.