Trade War Vets: Exploration

Travelling around the Universe in your Freighter in early game is a way to get points for being the first at a port.

You also locate a number of possible home bases and mark your territory with a toll fighter.

‘Fig Clouding’ is one of those old obsolete strategies which slaps ‘Over Fifty’ on you.

In Ancient Days, a player would let out hundreds of figs, parking one in every Sector he travelled.

Some begged tolls, some were Defensive.

It is a useless, silly strategy.

Firstly, it’s based on an erroneous equation;

“It is far cheaper to pay a 5c toll than buy a 189c fighter.”

Trade War Vets know that collecting tolls is not the purpose of a fighter, that’s a bye product. Players park fighters in a Sector so they can Transwarp there.

Destroying their fig means they can’t Twarp to that Sector.

Hence, in low turn games, it costs them far more than 189c to replace the fighter, and you lose less than the cost of buying a new one.

By destroying that fighter you have increased the number of turns your enemy must spend to reach that Sector.

Secondly, parking too many figs is annoying. Players will pay a 5c toll as they move through ‘neutral space’ now and then, so the player who has a fig here and five hops away another one, will probably keep those figs.

Players who park Offensive/Defensive figs as barriers, beg you to blow them, and you will.

In ancient days, when there was one BBS running with Tradewars and everyone was on that one BBS, fig clouds would end the game of the poor soul who gets podded.

He has no fighters, he can’t get home, he can’t beam, he’s stuck.

Alas.

Today, however, with so many Servers, and proxies, it is knee jerk to logs on under another nick, joins a Corp created for the purpose, load up on figs, and spend turns taking out every single Defensive fig of his opponent.

He tows his dual to the Star Dock, (if he has cash in the Bank) or to the Home Sector.

Once the ‘real’ character is safe, Dual goes out, trades, buys figs and takes out every Fogger he can find until he’s out of turns, drags home and logs off.

It cost the podded player ZERO to take out those fighters because the dual started with X fighters, traded and got credits to buy more fighters. At the end of the day, Fogger is down 100+ figs or more. Figs he paid for.

Thirdly, Figs can be booby trapped.

You bobby trap them by paying the Toll, then letting out a number of Armid Mines.

If you want to pod the player, think in the 100s. If you want to damage him, think in the 50s.

If you want to be annoying, think 30.

The player will Twarp in, be damaged by mines, (or podded).

Leaving a fig here to mark a potential home sector, or over there so you can T-Warp is fine. But Fig Fogging went out with BBS.