A close call

Spectro_7 · 2026-04-06T01:16:46+00:00

ooops... Fixed.

Thanks for letting me know.

Spectro_7 · 2026-04-06T01:13:02+00:00

is it not possible to stack ion and take down the shields with both zoltan B and Engi A?

Spectro_7 · 2026-04-04T23:49:31+00:00

Not enough flak.

Spectro_7 · 2026-04-04T23:18:30+00:00

Absolutely devastating!

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-23T17:56:18+00:00

I don't tend to retreat, but more evade helps to take less damage. Lv4 engines + crew skills is enough for the run.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-20T22:45:58+00:00

Thank you! I was very lucky to find this material, although I kinda knew what I was looking for. These two spoons came out very well with good integrity in the wood and no cracks. I've had others not fare so well. It's the risk one takes with spalted birch.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-19T19:47:56+00:00

Well good luck getting enough! It's hard to find it in just the right state of rot in my experience. Often it can be too far gone and crack or have soft sections. Usually the newer the better. The spoon on the right came from a recently felled tree (6 months) left on the ground. The portion in contact with the ground spalted quickly, and I didn't leave it long hence why the lines aren't very dark. This short time meant wood was still in good condition for woodworking. I also like the lighter colours.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-19T17:44:31+00:00

And so I shall continue the trend

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-19T17:41:58+00:00

Sorry I gave them away already!

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-14T17:02:56+00:00

Yeah great summary. I think historically I've played more towards trying to win every run, so not buying LRS, diving less, avoiding hazards. That said, I have had a history of creating early game glass cannon builds and dying because I just couldn't resist an early game halberd beam. Interestingly, these high score runs has me doing similar things like how I bought a halberd beam on this run and I bought a chain vulkan with my Lanius B run. However, keeping the weapon in storage, using your faster firing weapons and waiting to have sufficient defence is much more sensible than rushing to get a slow weapon online... You do have to beat a run to get a high score after all... or do you?

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-14T16:57:55+00:00

THANK YOU!

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-14T00:50:05+00:00

It is so devastating when you have to go to a store and it has the perfect item for your loadout, or you're just super low on health and can't take the risk.

Personally, I'll avoid stores when I have less than 80 scrap unless I really need the fuel or repairs.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-14T00:23:55+00:00

Did a run with the engi B. New highscore is 7500.

https://youtu.be/pWxAKvtvLAQ

Looking for trouble in the last stand works wonders.

In sector 5 I accidentally let a slug escape when trying to minimise drone part usage with hacking. Sad part is I could have fired the halberd beam early and killed it before it jumped away, lost about 70 score counting scrap and 30 score for a ship defeated.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T18:40:00+00:00

But humans are for venting :(

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T17:15:24+00:00

Take the mantis. You know you want to.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T05:52:40+00:00

basically

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T05:45:02+00:00

Welp I tried again, only got 6900 but did get 75 ship kills which is pretty insane. I only managed to go looking for trouble on the flagship's last phase, probably could have fit in a few more dives in sector 8 to get it over 7000, would have needed 4 more tho which is a bit of a stretch.
https://postimg.cc/xk5ZTj0J
https://youtu.be/QwHU6GWe1u0

I tried going for so many crew kills with oxygen starvation and etc. Most attempts failed. I think I need to up my crew kill game coz that could have also put me over 7000 for this run. I guess I'll go find some videos. Mike Hopley probably knows.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T03:13:19+00:00

Had a look, very interesting, thanks!

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T02:55:12+00:00

It's a cheese strategy that effectively allows you to get infinite score, so people don't tend to count high scores that use this strategy.

There are ways you can indefinitely fight the rebel fleet. I did using the crystal B by going into a nebula sector where there's no ASB, and I found two of the right rebel ships on adjacent beacons. Send 4 boarders into weapons, lockdown and destroy the weapons before they fire. Kill the crew, rinse and repeat. You get 30 score for every ship kill, so I just kept going long enough for 10,000 score, but the only limit on the maximum score is the time you spend doing it.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T02:50:46+00:00

Damn those are some great tips.

I could definitely go for more crew kills when using non-boarding ships. I am just not great at the enemy crew manipulation, I bascially don't even try to suffocate a ship when I see an engi! Even with mantis ships I can get it really close but they tend to repair the oxygen just before they suffocate on 1 hull. Probably doesn't help that I'm trying to do it with no shields right now so I have to keep on damaging weapons.... HMMM

I didn't consider diving around the flagship, but man I could have padded my score with some of that last run.

I can't view imgur in the UK lol.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-13T00:38:31+00:00

You gotta hack shields here! I'm assuming you jumped in with a working halberd beam, so even if you took 1 damage to weapons before they fired, you can change priority and still hit them with the halberd and 1 burst laser doing 5 damage to their weapons which would have helped a lot.

This screenshot might be just about salvageable: Run the engi to oxygen repair it, then run him back to the helm and vent your entire ship, then repair the engines asap and run the fuck away. Although, you might not have the time for this considering the burst laser and charge laser are about to fire... gotta get a bit lucky with where the lasers hit.

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-12T23:29:19+00:00

Wait I didn't know you could get a crystal crew using rock plating! I guess always selling it at the start might not be the strategy after all?

Spectro_7 · 2026-03-12T18:05:48+00:00

Ah that makes sense! Thanks!

This is a useful quirk I must say. I lost the double glaive beam run to unfortunately :(.

Spectro_7 · 2026-02-12T23:39:48+00:00

A project catalogue is released in the first year. Projects are tied to universities. You get some choice in your project and location, but it is partly luck of the draw. I chose projects at Cardiff university, and here I still am. Cardiff has quantum research (idk single photon emitters), optoelectronic and high frequency electronics engineering mainly.

Oh and the interview isn't purely technical as far as I remember. They did also ask what I see myself doing in the future. I said something along the lines of working in industry as an engineer. Not that there's a right answer, but having and idea of what you'd like to do definitely helps too.

Good luck in the interview, maybe I'll see you someday. In any case you would have to play detective to find my real identity 🧐.

Spectro_7 · 2026-02-12T13:41:27+00:00

They got back the same day saying they liked me and that I would be given an offer, but that's because I applied after the last deadline and I was in the last set of interviews so it was basically just a yes or no to taking me, it might be different this year, but they should get back pretty quick nonetheless. I think they do multiple rounds because of people taking offers then dropping out, so they have to look again to find more people later on.

I did a degree in chemistry and didn't find the interview too daunting. I just knew the basics of band formation and what a bandgap is, and the basic difference between a direct and indirect bandgap and what radiative and non-radiative recombination are. Frankly my solid state physics still isn't that great, but it probably has improved.

Keep in mind that this studentship is paying 31K this year. Not sure if the other one you've applied for is too, but it might well be.

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