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A race in VGA Planets. Crystal people are another race of thieves, although more of defensive type, where Privateers go offensive. Crystallines' main feature (and actually basically the only) is web mines, a type of mine fields that doesn't damage the ship (well, damage done is very minor, usually only minor enough to break the cloaking device), but instead drains its fuel and stops it from moving. Crystalline will sit back, lay their webs, wait for people to get stuck on them and then, like spiders, grab the helpless victims and steal their ships. Usually attempts to rescue will end up as more victims, unless they have brain (and technology) to destroy the field before entering it.
Little hint:Before entering (enemy) web mine field, calculate your chances of getting through and expected place of stopping. Assuming the default hitting chance per ly value of p=0.05:
Chances to hit survive a trip of a light years long inside web mine field: (1-p)^a
Expected number of light years you will pass before hitting a mine first time in a web mine field trip (assuming that field will continue indefinitely, or, until you hit a mine): 1/p = 20 light years. This means that on average your trip to minefield will meet its first obstacle at 20 light years. Note: Here's a table of expected light years passed per turn at different warps, if you're attempting to travel in a mine field:
Warp Travel-rate in a mine field (average) Travel-rate in space (ac
1 0.05 1
2 0.45185 4
3 1.72276 9
4 4.15544 16
5 7.51746 25
6 11.16436 36
7 14.41136 49
8 16.84797 64
9 18.41535 81
(ask how I got these numbers and I'll make a node about it)
Specialties:
- Can lay web mine fields
- Can tow capture - taking a fuelless enemy ship in tow transfers the ownership to Crystallines.
- Can't clone, just like Privateers