Blade
The Supox Blade is defined by, more than anything else, its versatility. It is a fast ship to be sure, but it lacks the sheer blinding speed demonstrated by a few of the other known spacecraft. Nevertheless, the Blade's unique propulsion system does allow it to outmaneuver adversaries in a more subtle, elegant fashion. The ship's narrow outline makes it somewhat difficult to hit from the front. Its repeating mid-range weapon is moderately effective against almost any space borne threat. The durability of this ship is below average, much the same as most other spacecraft that depend upon superior mobility to carry the day. This lack of durability led to high Supox casualties during the Supox and Utwig offensive against the Kohr-Ah, in which the Supox later saw limited success through joint operations with the Utwig.
Propulsion
The Blade is fast and agile, though not to an extreme. Its secondary function allows the ship to perform unusual maneuvers.
Armament
Primary
The Blade's only form of attack consists of a corrosive glob1 which inflicts a slight amount of damage per round. This is compensated for by a high rate of fire. Furthermore, the glob weapon's rate of fire will continue at a decent (although diminished) clip even after the ship's battery has been depleted. This weapon has roughly medium range and high velocity, allowing the Blade to maintain some distance between itself and its opponent while attacking.
Secondary
The Blade is outfitted with an advanced maneuvering system that enables it to accelerate sideways or in reverse. Lateral thrust and reverse thrust are not a burden on the ship's battery. This is possibly because they both use the same power source as the ship's standard propulsion. Despite the absence of battery drain, this system can be somewhat unintuitive. Practice is recommended for any aspiring Blade pilot.
Tactical Overview
- Although the Blade was designed to outmaneuver its enemies, a good Supox pilot must rely upon finesse more so than reflexes to accomplish this. The glob weapon does not require much focus to use effectively. Consequently, most of a Blade pilot's attention should be paid towards movement. Multi-directional thrust may be the Blade's specialty, but enemies with long range weapon systems will force it to go on the offensive, which in turn calls for forward mobility first and foremost.
- Lateral thrust, being particularly unintuitive, may prove dangerous to its pilot. Pilots in doubt of their ability to take advantage of this should therefore avoid using it entirely. Sideways movement is best used to sidestep incoming fire while advancing towards an enemy, or to shift position slightly for the purpose of lining up the glob weapon with a target.
- Reverse thrust is best used to accelerate away from an opponent while facing towards them. This is most beneficial while the enemy is in hot pursuit to best take advantage of the Relativity Effect when firing the glob weapon.
Known Ships
Notes and references
- 1The primary weapon has no definitive name. The Supox refer to it a single time as a "glob weapon", the 3DO ship video calls the projectiles "toxic globules", and the source code refers to each of the projectiles as a "gob".
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