FUI
Federation of Unarmed Independents
(foo·ee)
Published FUI Works
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Why Trading Sucks, a
Beginner’s Guide
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The Insane Captain's Handbook to Demo Ship Design
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FUI Links
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Frequent Questions
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What is FUI?
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You’re all Insane!
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You’re aware that trading returns are awful now, right?
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Isn’t starting or joining a young alliance a good way of getting yourself
killed?
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What are your member requirements?
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What’s to keep ideas from leaking out?
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I’m interested in membership, but how do I know that
these strategies are any good before selling my weaponry?
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What’s with the name?
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Just gathering energy is boring, so what is there to do in the
late game besides constructing a warship that can beat all comers?
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Like what?
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Contact FUI Collectively
Contact Reasonable Man
A. - FUI is a collection of ship captains
focused on having more fun and improving our level of strategic thinking by deliberately
taking on the challenge of carrying no weaponry on our ships. To that end, members share ideas and
resources that aren’t available elsewhere, and which may be of unique value to us.
A. - Perhaps, but we strive to prove
that our tactics are not. We believe
that there are optimal energy making strategies available besides blowing up
aliens and other players, some of which may even result in higher average
returns. As far as not being gobbled up
to fuel someone else’s expansion, there are ways to avoid or not be
significantly harmed by any given combat, some of which function better for a
lack of any weaponry.
Q. - You’re aware that trading returns
are awful now, right?
A. - Yes.
One estimate is that an average trading run now nets ~$250 on a per-turn
basis, making it totally inadequate as a primary source of income. Welcome to the post-Jeremy era. It’s not bad, just very different. We think that difference is an opportunity
unlike any since TBG’s early days to invent totally new ways of playing.
Q. - Isn’t starting or joining a young
alliance a good way of getting yourself killed?
A. - Honesty being the best policy, the
answer is yes. However, do you find
yourself feeling threatened by the existence of an organization dedicated to
not carrying weaponry? If so, please
seek professional help. Anyone who
declared war on us would be mercilessly mocked in the SST for years to
come. There are also ways of ignoring
hostile ships more effective than hiding or going on holiday, available to
those clever enough to figure them out.
Q. - What are
your member requirements?
A. - Be a ship captain without weaponry.
Stay an active part of our internal discussions and efforts. Share
information of particular value. Members are not required to
identify themselves to the world, and members may opt to use some other
innovative internal precautions against various issues if they wish.
The FUI public essay series will enlighten the entire TBG
community in various tactics including some of the advantages of
weaponless design, meaning that a lack of weaponry will not necessarily
identify members of the public as members of FUI.
Q. - What’s to keep ideas from leaking out?
A. - Since we focus on constantly improving, leaks wouldn’t be a disaster so
much as they would create a healthy challenge.
However, the no weaponry requirement alone would constitute a major
commitment from most vessels and therefore an invested interest worth protecting. For
very
new captains we may assemble some sort of trial period where we suggest
particular strategies before giving them access to the full archive. It would give them and us a chance to try
each other out. It should be noted,
particularly for new captains, that we do not mind a single weaponry
module used for training the two related weaponry skill points or for a planned trade.
Q. - I’m interested
in membership, but how do I know that your strategies are any good before
selling my weaponry?
A. - Watch
the scores of our public members. Since
we focus on energy income per turn as a major success metric, we suspect that
you might be seeing FUI in the top 20 soon.
More importantly, figure out how a newly started ship might get into the
top 20 in as many turns. If you find
yourself making a spreadsheet and coming up with crazy ideas that just might be
workable, you might like our discussion group.
A. - It is a pun that makes us laugh, of course. It also pays homage to FIST, who first piloted the concept of deliberately making TBG a more interesting game through group action.
Q. - Just gathering energy is boring, so what is there to do in the late game besides constructing a warship that can beat all comers?
A. - We believe that
this question strikes at the heart of TBG's current stasis.
Simply surviving in the galaxy after having taken on a deliberate
handicap is one challenge, of course, but there are also other
challenges to conquered. Some of the possible options are
ambitious enough to potentially alter TBG as much as FIST did in its
day, or more.
Q. - Like what?
A. - That would be telling.