Special Abilities

Aside from being the only race to possess the gravitonic accelerator technology the Privateers have only two other special advantages. One is the Rob Ship mission and the other is the ability to fine tune their beam weapons.

Increased Killing Power

The Privateers have developed a way to fine tune their beam weapons. By placing a gamma ray induction module in their beam weapons the Privateers have caused their beam weapons to deliver three times the amount of gamma radiation that they normally do. This means that the kill power of the beam weapon (Table 2.2 pg. 23) is tripled. This makes it much easier for the Privateers to kill the crew of an enemy starship and capture it. You can not change this, as it is not configurable.

The Rob Ship Mission

The Rob Ship mission of the Privateers is a very powerful weapon. This mission not only steals the cargo from an enemy starship it also steals its fuel. This means that it is conceivable for the Privateers to be able to rob all of the fuel from an enemy starship and then tow that starship to their starbase so that it will surrender.

How to Initiate a Rob Ship Mission

For the Rob Ship mission to be effective the Privateer starship must be in the same point in space as the enemy starship you wish to rob. Once you are in the same position as the enemy starship (usually you do this while cloaked) you uncloak and rob their cargo and fuel. You will only steal as much cargo and fuel as you have room for on your starship. The Rob Ship goes before any other primary mission or movement.

To uncloak and rob (or just to rob) you need to go to the main starship screen. To get to the starship screen you press the [F1] key from anywhere in the game, and then select the starship you wish to Rob and press the [ENTER] key.

At the starship screen you press the [M] key and this brings up the special mission menu. Look at the menu and press the number that corresponds with the Rob Ship mission ([9]). Remember that you will not remain cloaked while performing this Rob Ship mission, so if you do not Rob all of the fuel off of the enemy starship they will be able to attack you (if they have the KILL mission selected or have Privateers set as the primary enemy. Remember that cloaking starships will not remain cloaked while doing the Rob mission. Remember, the Rob Ship mission has a configurable fail rate that is set from the HCONFIG.EXE program. The advisable setting is from 1%-5%.

Note: The Privateers Rob Ship mission has been improved. See VGA Planets Host Ver. 3.2 Area at the back of this manual for the specific changes and improvements.

The Privateer Bands Fleet

The Privateer Bands fleet is comprised mostly of very small starships. They have stolen a few starship designs from the Feds, Bird Man and Fascists to compliment their own designs. The fleet is most effective at stealing unescorted freighters and occasionally a large warship. The Privateer Bands make very good use of minerals due to the diminutive size of the starships in their fleet. Like many other races the Privateer Bands favor the torpedo as a weapon of choice.

Other Special Abilities of the Privateer Bands

Raceplus

The Privateer’s new mission, Crew Replacement, is race specific to the Dwarfstar Transport. This mission compliments the Privateer’s 3.2 host ability of capturing vessels in space. This mission allows them to restock ship crews in space by transferring clans from the Dwarfstar to any other vessel.

To perform this mission all you need to a Dwarfstar a ship requiring crew and some clans. To execute the mission you need to have the Dwarfstar with clans on board. The Dwarfstar positions itself under the ship needing crew and sets its mission to intercept the ship that needs crew. Then you transfer the clans to the target ship you are intercepting. To start the transfer you need to set a friendly code of TCC. The clans will beam over and each clan will become one crew person. As soon as the transfer is done, the program will automatically cause your Dwarfstar to reset its mission to CLOAK. There is not limit to the amount of clans that can be transferred, except that you can not exceed the ships max. crew limit.

Gryphon & Jupiter

Remote ID.

Exactly the same as Birdman feature; see Birds for details.

Lady Royale Gambling supervessel.

The Royale can now go to planets of other races and perform its gambling function there, with one exception: the proceeds go to the Privateers, not the planet’s owner. The colonists beam up in the beginning of the turn and return in the end; they do not pay taxes and are not present to work at the factories and mines. The Royale would need the fc of “GXX” and warp 0. The Royale cannot be towed or attempt to leave the planet: if the colonists find out the ship is no longer at the planet, they will revolt and destroy the Lady Royale. Warning: do not try to attempt the gambling mission during the ion storm. The storm may pull the Royale off the planet. The owner of the planet may institute martial law on the planet; With the FC of “xML”, where x is any character, the police and special forces would prevent the citizens from leaving. However, this would drop their happiness level by (25%) due to lost civil liberties.

NOTE: the planet cannot be takenby ground assault or space assault during the time the colonists gamble. Otherwise, the returning colonists would announce what was done to them and the invading colonists would join the colony of the old race! for Example, a Lizard colony has a Royale in orbit. On the same turn, a Fascist takes over the planet with ground assault. When the Lizard colonists return, the colony ownership would go back to Lizards, with all the Fascist troops joining the Lizard government.

Red Wind fighter steal.

The Red Wind class ship that belongs to either Birds or Privateers can broadcast subspace messages to enemy fighter carriers at the same location describing the beauty of the pirate way of life. This may convince a random number of fighter pilots up to (30%) to desert and join the Privateer Red Wind, or (20%) to join the Birdman Red Wind fighter team. Multiple ships can steal fighters; however, the number of fighters stolen does NOT increase with the number of ships. Rather, only the capacity of fighters that can be taken away is increased. Red Winds will not steal fighters from allies. The fighters that do not find enough space will return to their “home” carrier. Stolen fighters are taken aboard Red Winds in ID number order. Cloaked carriers may not be robbed, however the Red Wind may be cloaked while robbing. Carriers on SuperSpy MAY be robbed, even if they can cloak. The Red Wind must have fuel and use the FC “SFx”, where x is any alphanumeric character (to prevent matching FC on combat ships). The mission is done during the AUXBC phase: after movement, but before combat.

NOTE: this ability cannot be given away in a team game.

Nemesis & Jupiter

Cloak-tow.

It is widely known that the towing of ships while cloaked is not allowed because of extreme power requirements. However, the captains of Meteor Class Blockade Runners with Transwarp Drives have an option of foregoing the ship’s safety levels and attempting a cloaked-tow. Because the safeties were compromised, the ship’s engines can burn out and degrade to lower tech drives. The default degrade is 0, but all hosts are strongly encouraged to change this if they feel it gives way to Privateers abusing the ability.

To cloak-tow a ship, set the FC to “CLT”, warp factor to 9, a waypoint of less than 160 ly away, and mission to tow. You will also need extreme amounts of fuel, so be sure to carry at least 120 kt of Neutronium (depending on the towee’s mass, shape, and crew; ranges from 50 for a lowly probe to 160 for a Gorbie) when attempting a cloaked-tow. The formula for fuel burn is: round(40*ln((hull mass+cargo)/10)); this formula is further adjusted by enemy crew experience levels and the MBR’s fuel and cargo.

In addition, when cloak-towing, the tower will avoid all mine and web mine fields laid by the towee’s race. This is because the IFF indicators of the mines pick up a friendly transponder signal of the towed ship but no unfriendly signal from the tower (because it’s cloaked) and do not explode.

Anti-Genesis Device.

Some time ago, a privateer ship has robbed and captured a Federation starship on a Genesis mission, and the Genesis Device itself has fallen prey to Privateers. The Privateer scientists were able to understand its functions and reverse-engineer it. Now, they have constructed their own version of the device and called it the Anti-Genesis. As much as the Federation wanted to make planets fit for life, the Privateers want to spoil them to make them unfit for enemies. The Anti-Genesis will plant the amorphous life-forms on the planet and disrupt its temperature, however the Privateers were not able to overcome the original’s limitations. So, the Anti-Genesis can only be used over planets that are un-owned and un-populated by any native life-form. Any Privateer ship can use the device, the only requirements are warp 0 and a FC of “-@x”, where x is the temperature desired for the planet. If x is 1, the planet will turn into a freezing tundra, and if x is 9, it will turn into a hot desert. Anything in between 1 and 9 will result in the planet retaining its temperature. For example, FC of “-@1” will seed the planet with amorphs and decrease its temperature to 0 degrees.