Forsaken Tournament Changes & Aegis Hull

(quick update - it looks like they might have updated the Aegis description for some new capabilities... I'll try to catch up.

Update 2: The additional ability for the Aegis is a friendly field with 40 range that gives Fire Extinguishing (like Frostburn) and a 40% defense boost (all damage types) to your ships.  This is really good.  I'll update the article soon... sorry for publishing with incomplete info!

Update 3: There was another update that added countermeasure accuracy to the hull.  I'm going to do a new article on the Aegis instead of updating this one - I'll include a couple builds that I compare to the alternatives.)

The Forsaken Arena Tournament is described here: https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/550199 

I'm not going to repeat all the prize lists. There are ship build tokens added to the bracket (normal / elite) prizes, and ship repair tokens added to the prizes from racking up wins.  Grease Monkeys is still a prize at 50 wins. Check out the Kixeye post for details.

If you are on track to win a ship build token (or any other token that you already have), make sure you are not maxed out on your tokens.  Each token has a maximum number of tokens that you can hold.  You will see this in your token list.  For example, in the picture below, I can hold 7 more 1 hour ship build tokens (5 / 12), but no more 12 hour ship build tokens (1 / 1).  If I were on track to win a 12 hour ship build token, I would want to spend the one I have before winning another.  I have heard of a few players "losing" tokens in this manner.

Changes to the Arena Tournament

When using Repair Insurance, there is no Uranium back from a win.

Under the previous system, a 100% win rate resulted in a 120% Uranium return.  Which means that the average player, with a 50% win rate, would have expected a 60% uranium return.  So that player would see their uranium costs go from 40% of their Repair Insurance Uranium cost to 100% of their Repair Insurance Uranium Cost... a 2.5x increase to the average player.  A worse than average player would see their Uranium costs go up less, since they win less. A better then average player would see their Uranium costs go up even more than 2.5x (a player that would win 5/6 of their matches used to break even).

And just in case you were wondering, the Uranium Prize pool is unchanged (10% of insurance cost goes in the pot).

If players opt to use Repair Insurance, they will also gain a 2x bonus to Veterancy Experience Points during matches. However, if a player opts not to purchase Repair insurance, they will gain a 2x bonus to Tournament points instead.

So a player who risks their fleet will get double tournament points.  My only observation here is that if a player plans to coin arena repairs, that can get very expensive very quickly.

The Aegis Hull:

In classical mythology, the Aegis was a powerful and fearsome shield used by Athena.  In real life, the Aegis Combat System is an electronically scanned array radar system along with defensive (like the Phalanx anti-missile gun) and offensive weapons used by the US Navy (and more recently other allied navies).

In Battle Pirates, the Aegis is a useless piece of junk.

This hull has no offensive bonuses other than the improved anti-mortar range.  It has a high max weight and lots of armor slots, but only 3 special and 4 weapon slots.  Its resistances are OK (missing ballistic), but its evade starts at zero.  

I just don't understand what this hull would be useful for.  With its armor slots and weight, it might be usable as a tank, but its low resistances compared to the Reaver hulls would limit it there (at least it doesn't have a 150% repair bonus).  As a countermeasure ship, it doesn't have enough weapon slots - I'd rather use a retrofitted Battlecruiser with its accuracy bonus (or a retrofitted Vindicator with more weapons slots and an accuracy bonus). As a sub spotter, it has thermal imaging but it isn't particularly fast or able to stand up to torpedo fire.  With any sort of weapon, I'd rather use a hull that buffed that weapon.  What makes this hull worth over 9 days to build (empty)???

Now there is also a variant ship model for the Aegis available at 250 wins, and I think it looks decent.  I generally respect the whale coiners - they support the game with their wallets... Who am I to argue how someone wants to spend their disposable income?  But to get 250 wins, a player will probably need to use their full warehouse capacity of Uranium (at least).  Basically if I see someone running around with a skinned Aegis I will know that they spent their butt off for junk.

(Sorry - this all needs revision since the blueprint has been updated twice.  Look for another article coming soon.)

I certainly don't plan to participate much in this Forsaken Arena tournament (I'll get in a bracket and maybe use my free matches) - but it has gotten more expensive, and the prize is just not worth it.  I'll save my Uranium for retrofits, and I recommend you do the same.