FTL - New Kind of Roguelike in SPACE! [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 09:00 AM

FTL (Faster Then Light) is a spaceship simulation roguelike.As ship Captain jump around randomly generated Galaxy in a Space ship with crew. Explore jump beacons which lead to events or random hostile encounters and escape Rebel fleet. Upgrade your ship from debris of enemy ships and event loot. Unlock new ships with ingame events or by winning/surviving the game. Goal is survive trip through 7 sectors to final sector with Boss.

Official trailer (http://vimeo.com/47066972)

Homepage (http://www.ftlgame.com)

Official release date is September 14th but every 10+$ FTL Kickstarter supporter already got Steam Beta key yesterday.

This is a true roguelike with permadeath. if your ship explodes or all crewmember dies its gameover.

My first attempt lasted 4 jumps. Encountered Automated drone ship with 2 laser guns and beam drone. First salve from guns got through my shield and damaged my engines then beam drone took out my lifesupport. Without working engines i couldnt charge FTL drive to escape and situation only got worse from there as more of ships systems were damaged while i couldnt damage drone ship enough to stop from firing at me or run away. :smallbiggrin:

Later encounters are even better. Hostile encounters are random but game generates harder encounters each sector. You have to deal with hostile boarders, ship fires, hull breaches and repairing damaged system sometimes simultaneously (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97rlWirpz54&feature=plcp)

If you have any question about game i will try to answer them.
If you are also FTL kickstarter backer feel free to post your ingame stories here :smallbiggrin:

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 09:17 AM

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 09:26 AM

This looks... actually pretty fun. Harsh, but fun. Really gives a feeling of the dangers related with space travel exploration.

I might pay attention to this game, thanks for letting me know it exists! :smalltongue:

Hope i didnt scared you. Truth is this game isnt actualy that hard if you have some luck and when you know what to do i already unlocked 3 new ships/variants and won 2 times.

Also you can play on easy difficulty but thats not for me. :smallwink:

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 09:30 AM

Dude, it's a roguelike, or at least you sold it as. The ship already sailed regarding its harshness :smallbiggrin:

Truth is this game isnt actualy that hard if you have some luck and when you know what to do

That's pretty much every single frikkin' roguelike, eh?

I want to know a few things:

1- The game is still in beta, right?
2- How much do you expect the game still to change until release?
3- Is there any story, or it's like Angband and you just explore to the edge of the galaxy?

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 10:13 AM

That's pretty much every single frikkin' roguelike, eh?

Exactly but on top of that game is realtime with pause so add some micromanagement skills from RTS on top of standard roguelike strategy. There is number of things you have to watch simultaneously in heat of battle like guns reloading times, your shields,health of crewmembers if they are in danger, relocating power from system to system. FTL engine, crew teleporter and cloacking system also have recharge times after use.
Im bad at all this micromanagement but you can pause game anytime so i pause very often. Justin (dev) stated that one full session is around 90 min but my two wins took around 2.5-3hours.

1- The game is still in beta, right?
2- How much do you expect the game still to change until release?
3- Is there any story, or it's like Angband and you just explore to the edge of the galaxy?

1 - Yes still in Beta latest build came out today
2 - not much its mostly bug fixes maybe they add a few new random events but thats it.
3 - Story is you are a courrier of the Federation trying to deliver very important intel to Federation highcommand. Federation highcommand is 8 sectors away.You must survive to the exit of sector and choose next sector to explore. Federation enemies are the Rebels. Rebel fleet will show up soon after you enter each sector and try to catch up with you.

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 10:24 AM

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 10:36 AM

Wait, 8 sectors? So the game is limited to 8 jumps?!

Seems to be rather shortish games, right? something like 2-3 hours/game? Have I understood you well?

For the record, I really am interested in the game and will most likely buy it in the next week. I just love space exploration, and commanding an actual starship and not merely an oversized Space Fighter appeals to me. Randomnized map is the true representation of space exploration.

Each sector has random number of jump beacons spread randomly on map there are like 25-30 beacons in each sector FTL engines have a set jump range so you cant randomly jump to each beacon only to those in range. there is a jump beacon with EXIT mark on it thats your target. usualy there are several routes to exit but since beacons are placed randomly sometimes there is only one way to exit. Btw you cant explore each beacon since rebel fleet shows up soon and slowly engulfs the whole sector so some planing is in order.Resource managment comes in to play too each jump cost 1 fuel if you run out of fuel you can only send a distress signal and wait what happens :smallbiggrin:

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 10:44 AM

Ooooohhh.. nice! Thanks for the explanation!

Can you change ship in-game, or it's like selecting a class in a roguelike, you select it at gamestart for playstyle, difficulty, etc...?

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 11:00 AM

Ooooohhh.. nice! Thanks for the explanation!

Can you change ship in-game, or it's like selecting a class in a roguelike, you select it at gamestart for playstyle, difficulty, etc...?

Its like selecting class in a rogue like there are 9 different ships each comes with 2 variants. They are quite unique they can have 1-4 crewmembers and different systems installed and crew of different races each race has different bonuses except humans they have none (except they are cheapest to hire thanks to that)

You start only one type of ship at start and you have to unlock the rest. Either to geting achievments (1st you get for surviving till sector 5 another for winning the game) or getting them from ingame events. B variants of ships you get for getting 2 of 3 ship specific achievments. So you have to play with A variants to get them.

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 11:19 AM

Thanks a lot for all the answers and input. Are you part of the project? ;-)

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 11:55 AM

Thanks a lot for all the answers and input. Are you part of the project? ;-)

No im only a 10$ FTL KS backer got the game only yesterday. I was itching to play it for months. When FTL kickstarter started in Feb/march devs released open alpha test on Desura but it was open for only very short time and i didnt knew about FTL kickstarter till it was over. But i watched some vids from that time and also some players from closed Beta. This game is fun as much fun to watch as it is fun to play if you dont mind few spoilers. :smallwink: (mostly end boss fight since all other ships are randomly generated)

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 12:41 PM

Hey, I tried to find a place to buy the game, but I guess it's only people who purchased the kickstarter earlier who have access to the Beta, right?

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 02:58 PM

Yes Beta is only for Kickstarter backers. Game will be available on Steam and their Homepage. Beta is only for Windows and Mac but final game will be released on Linux too.

Just had a bit unlucky run with my new drone ship Torrus. Didnt find my favorite defence drone except one defence drone mkII in first shop but mkII so early is too expensive and i couldnt afford it. Later i got two events which have the chance to give you good drones but they are risky and unfortunately both time i lost crewmember instead. Encountered quite a few missile ships in sector 5 and i should have skipped last encounter i was very close to finaly disabling hostile ship unfortunately all his missiles hit. Missile ships are piece of cake with defence drone but much more dangerous without especialy when you cant disable missile launchers fast.

On the plus side i got one of ship specific achievments to unlock type B variant.

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 03:05 PM

What are the ship variants you have experienced so far?

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 03:43 PM

What are the ship variants you have experienced so far?

Starter ship Kestrel its very balanced starter ship equiped with very good burst laser mk II and cheap missile launcher has 3 human crewmembers.

Type B of Kestrel is caller Red Tail starts with 4 cheap guns and 4 crewmembers not only humans.

Torrus (drone ship) is engi cruiser equiped with good ion cannon (ion weapons only temporaly disable ship systems but do no damage to systems or ship) and ship atack drone mkI 3 crew member mostly engi (good at repairing systems bad at hand to hand combat) This ship unlocks when you first get to sector 5.

Osprey is modern Federation cruiser equiped with burst laser mkII and special artilery system thats unique to this ship (perhaps type B also has it too but im not sure) Artilery acts like beam weapon except it ignores shields but unlike beam it has automatic targeting system and charges very slowly unless you upgrade it. 4 member crew. This ship is unlocked when you win the game first time.

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 04:45 PM

Weezer

2012-09-04, 05:58 PM

This sounds really interesting, I'll keep an eye on this for when it releases on the 14th

Sprinter

2012-09-04, 09:19 PM

Instead of going into detailed names, can you just tell me the sort of ships?

Like, what are drones? Special crew members to help you operate it? Only certain sorts of ships have it?

What other sort of ships are there? Are there blockade runner ships, super-fast? :smallbiggrin: Gunboats? Troop Transports?

there are many kind of drones they can be sorted into two general types internal and external. Internal are robot like they operate inside ship. External are circular and they are orbiting your or enemy ships either helping you or try to kill enemy ships. Drones require drone control system and are fully automated.

Drone ships start with drone control system unlike other ships where you have to buy drone control system in shops in order to use drones. they also have slots for 3 drones while other ships can have only 2 drones at the same time. Drones are also using Drone part resource every time you activate them.

Drone control system doesnt need crew member to operate only piloting system need crew member to operate. There are 3 basic system (weapons, engines, shield) where crew member is only optional. They work better with crew members but will work without crew too.

There are some other ship types i havent unlocked yet stealth ship starts with cloaking system while other ships have shields.

Mantis Cruiser its closest thing to troop transporter in FTL. Except of troops its filled with angry insectlike mantis crew (extra melee damage but slow at repairing) and has crew teleporter system from start unlike other ships.

Rock Cruiser is latest ship i unlocked. Its a missile ship which can be problem since missiles are limited resource like drone parts and fuel. It has 3 Rockman crew (50% more HP immune to fire but they are moving slowly)

Slug Cruiser no idea what this ship is like. But slugs have telepathy they know where the crew is on enemy ship.

Zoltar Cruiser. Zoltar ships have extra shield layer that blocks even teleport and missiles/bombs however once its gone it doesnt regenerate like normal shield until end of combat.

Unknown Cruiser is last ship added in recent Beta versions. No idea what systems it has. Only clue devs left it can be unlocked in secret sector that contains new alien race unfortunately these aliens dont travel outside of this new sector or atleast i havent met them yet.

Cikomyr

2012-09-04, 09:34 PM

Can you capture ships?

factotum

2012-09-05, 01:52 AM

Can you capture ships?

How would that actually work? The trailer seems to indicate you're flying a single ship, so would you expect to just swap from your old one into your new capture?

Sprinter

2012-09-05, 03:51 AM

Can you capture ships?

Yes you can board hostile ships kill the crew which will change status of ship from hostile to neutral. But you cant drive that ship.

Capturing ship will give you more resources/scrap and sometimes loot a weapon too. If it was a slaver ship you have chance to get former slave joining your crew.

Sprinter

2012-09-05, 04:12 AM

How would that actually work? The trailer seems to indicate you're flying a single ship, so would you expect to just swap from your old one into your new capture?

It works by killing the crew instead of ship. There are actualy several weapons ingame that are designed to kill the crew like fire bomb/fire beam, anti bio beam (event/unique) others are for support boarding crew members by healing them like bio beam ,bio bomb. Bombs can target your own ship usefull against hostile boarders too.

Yes you have to fly your chosen ship till the end no swapping possible.

Kizor

2012-09-07, 03:25 PM

This is exciting! FTL doesn't have a demo, but it used to have one (don't ask - I don't know) with a 30-minute limit and I got hours of gameplay out of the thing.

FTL looked straightforward, though this was back around February or March. You'd jump around the map from beacon to beacon, shooting people or trying to survive for long enough to charge your engines and escape.

There was a fair amount of variation: sometimes you'd shoot people near a sun and your stuff would periodically catch fire, sometimes you'd be in an asteroid thicket that would bombard you, sometimes the people would be a robot ship and have no crew or life support, sometimes you were extorted or (IIRC) even paid to avoid a battle. There were some events, like the option to send a guy on a dangerous salvage operation, distress beacons and even the rare quest. Mostly it was about shooting.

Combat was delightful, and Sprinter's done a fine job of describing it. Any game where decompressing parts of your own ship is a tactic gets bonus points for me.

Shooting people would get you money, which conveniently enough was scrap. You could also get things like weapons and free hull repairs by grateful shipwrights. Scrap could be used for upgrades to your ship's systems, such as strengthening your shields, reinforcing your doors, or increasing your ship's dodge chance with a pilot at the helm and giving it a small dodge chance when unpiloted. Occasionally you'd meet a merchant, and could trade scrap for repairs, fuel, missiles, drones, systems, or weapons. The map would be gradually covered by a rebel armada, and eventually you'd have to flee to the exit and jump to the next sector with its own map. Basically you'd build a scoutship into a massive juggernaut.

This could be great!

GloatingSwine

2012-09-08, 11:56 AM

Snowstorm

2012-09-10, 09:38 AM

Anyone who wants a bit more information on this game, there's a video first impressions from Totalbiscuit Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-SnIhpCm5w&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video)

I'm pretty much sold, so I'll be picking it up on GoG as soon as it's out.

I'd Kickstarted the game, but put it on the back burner during much of the Beta. TB's showcase of it forced me to pull it out, and I've put a good chunk of time into it since then. I love it!

I've made it several times to the end with the starter ship, but only managed a complete win with an Engy cruiser. Ion Bomb to short out the shields, Heavy Laser to disable weapons, a cutting-beam drone to slice bits off, and a MkII Defense drone.

My one complaint is that the latest build seems to have buffed enemy defense drones to silly levels; considering they can now intercept your energy weapons in addition to missiles.

Sprinter

2012-09-11, 04:54 AM

I'd Kickstarted the game, but put it on the back burner during much of the Beta. TB's showcase of it forced me to pull it out, and I've put a good chunk of time into it since then. I love it!

You had early Beta access ? How you did resist temptation not to play :smallbiggrin:

I've made it several times to the end with the starter ship, but only managed a complete win with an Engy cruiser. Ion Bomb to short out the shields, Heavy Laser to disable weapons, a cutting-beam drone to slice bits off, and a MkII Defense drone

Interesting build i personaly prefer burst lasers or burst lasers + beam weapon combo on final boss. Usualy i dont relly on missiles/bombs. If ion bomb can dissable full shields i will try it out on boss too

My one complaint is that the latest build seems to have buffed enemy defense drones to silly levels; considering they can now intercept your energy weapons in addition to missiles.

Dont think so Defence MKII drone could always intercept laser weapons while MK I cant. Difference between MK I and MK II is hard to see ingame MK II has bit more ornate outside ring.
Infact i think they nerfed defence drone a bit in latest build. They miss incomming missille bit more often then before.

What was definitely beefed up in latest build are automatic ships they still have low hull HP but now they have upgraded weapons and shield and power grid beyond other ships ingame. Last time i even met automatic bomber with 5 points of shield. Another had two MK II atack drones, hermes missile and heavy laser! And beefed up power grid makes encounters with Automatic ships in ion storm a real nightmare sometimes. Half of my loses in this build are thanks to AI ships in ion storm including last one where i ended up dead from nearly full hp in a minute.

Snowstorm

2012-09-11, 10:33 AM

Interesting build i personaly prefer burst lasers or burst lasers + beam weapon combo on final boss. Usualy i dont relly on missiles/bombs. If ion bomb can dissable full shields i will try it out on boss too

In general, I have a bloody terrible time finding the items I want, and have to go with what I've scraped together. :P

Also, regarding the defensive drones; if I hover over the enemy drone it tells me it's a Mk1, but it's still shooting down my lasers. Fighting several late-game enemies with a defensive drone and 3 shields... I was unable to score any meaningful hits with a 3x burst laser, a 2x burst laser, and a missile system that shot two missiles at once. Enough of those 7 shots would get intercepted that between the 3 shields and misses, nothing would get through.

Sprinter

2012-09-11, 01:15 PM

In general, I have a bloody terrible time finding the items I want, and have to go with what I've scraped together. :P

Also, regarding the defensive drones; if I hover over the enemy drone it tells me it's a Mk1, but it's still shooting down my lasers. Fighting several late-game enemies with a defensive drone and 3 shields... I was unable to score any meaningful hits with a 3x burst laser, a 2x burst laser, and a missile system that shot two missiles at once. Enough of those 7 shots would get intercepted that between the 3 shields and misses, nothing would get through.

Thats interesting i never saw defence drone MK I shooting lasers and i use them way more then MK IIs. MK II is fine but 2 power bar MK I is easier to manage then 4 power bar MK II also MK II drone seems to sometimes prioritize incomming lasers over missiles.

Also if you have problems defence drones MK II try to wait till all your weapons can fire then pause the game and fire all at once. This is alpha strike will overhelm defence drone and shields also. helps killing ship and targeted systems fast.

Snowstorm

2012-09-11, 02:39 PM

Also if you have problems defence drones MK II try to wait till all your weapons can fire then pause the game and fire all at once. This is alpha strike will overhelm defence drone and shields also. helps killing ship and targeted systems fast.

That *is* what I was doing. I had to jump out of several identical fights during that particular game.

Their defensive drones will even shoot down *my* drones. :P

Ah, well; off to play with the artillery cruiser.

Sprinter

2012-09-11, 03:24 PM

That *is* what I was doing. I had to jump out of several identical fights during that particular game.

Their defensive drones will even shoot down *my* drones. :P

Ah, well; off to play with the artillery cruiser.

Oh ok i wasnt sure you know about it :). This happens in late game when they have high evasion on top of shields and defensive drones.I try atleast 2-3 strikes on shield first but when i cant lower them usualy its better just to run. :)

I saw that too but it happens only by mistake they dont actively hunt my drones. My drones get killed more often when they are circling in front of enemy guns.

Arty ships are nice i got the highest scores with them. Artilery is a good alternate weapons system that ignores shields but reloads very slowly. Not upgraded charges so slowly enemy is usualy dead before its ready.

I just unlocked zoltar cruiser. Im curious how ship full of walking batteries performs. Never had more then 1-2 zoltar on board before. :)

Sprinter

2012-09-14, 10:04 AM

FTL is officialy out now!

Available on oficial site or GOG. Steam release is scheduled later today.

Also one of the kickstarter supporter Darthcaboose will be giving away two copies of FTL while streaming FTL on twitch TV later today.

Rules of giveway and link to his stream is here (http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1893).

I also recommend watching his steam if you have problem winning game as he is best FTL player i know off.

*edit* Justin one of the FTL devs offered few more steam keys for giveaway. :smallcool:

Cikomyr

2012-09-14, 11:57 AM

Giveaway...? :smallredface:

Sprinter

2012-09-14, 12:17 PM

Giveaway...? :smallredface:

Did i type it wrong ? English is not my first language :)

Cikomyr

2012-09-14, 12:22 PM

Did i type it wrong ? English is not my first language :)

Oh.. well.. You know... I was curious about if you had any idea to whom you were planning to give it to? :smallwink:

Sprinter

2012-09-14, 12:46 PM

Oh.. well.. You know... I was curious about if you had any idea to whom you were planning to give it to? :smallwink:

No im not Darthcaboose and event didnt event start yet. i probably wont be around since im in Euro timezone and this will start at 3am here. :)

Cikomyr

2012-09-14, 12:48 PM

No im not Darthcaboose and event didnt event start yet. i probably wont be around since im in Euro timezone and this will start at 3am here. :)

Ohhh..

NEvermind then. I'll just buy the game. 20$ ain't that much to pay for that kind of original game design.

Sprinter

2012-09-14, 12:51 PM

Ohhh..

NEvermind then. I'll just buy the game. 20$ ain't that much to pay for that kind of original game design.

normal price is 10$ and this week only 9$. :smallwink:

Forbiddenwar

2012-09-14, 02:22 PM

Also one of the kickstarter supporter Darthcaboose will be giving away two copies of FTL while streaming FTL on twitch TV later today.

Rules of giveway and link to his stream is here (http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1893).

When he says "tomorrow" and the day of the posting is Friday, does he mean Friday (A.K.A later today) or Saturday?

Edit. Never mind I see it's friday. Hope I can tune it. TB's video was great.

Cikomyr

2012-09-14, 08:53 PM

That's a pretty nifty game there..

My most powerful ship as of yet is a Zoltan Cruiser. As opposed to my previous ships, it's not a 1-trick poney.

First of all, I got the classic Zoltan Shield, which makes it invincible for the first 5 hits.

My main armament is a Halberd Beam weapon and a Hull Cutter, 2 power beam weapons that wreak havoc on subsystem and hull integrity. They get neutralized pretty easily by shields.

Which is why I have a nice Breacher Mk II, which seems to be able to teleport a bomb directly into a room to cause a hull breach and 3 points of system damage. So... I target the shields rather nastily there.

Finally, in case they have drones or anything that is causing me too much problems, I also have 2 powerful Mantis Crewmembers that I picked up and which I carefully trained in Hand to Hand combat, + a Mk2 Teleporter to send them to neutralise quickly shield or drone systems. If they are onboard, I have an Ion Cannon that I use to take out subsystem without endangering their lives...

THAT GAME IS FUN!!! :smallbiggrin:

Edit: I apparently provoked Murphy with my bragging, who decided to send a super-Zoltan cruiser my way who killed a third of my crew, took out 80% of my hit points and started a fire that devastated my entire ship except for a few key compartment.

Luckily, my life support system was untouched so I ran behind closed doors and vented. Still ended up with 80% of my subsystems destroyed.

ex cathedra

2012-09-14, 09:41 PM

This game is pretty much as swell as I thought it'd be. I got to the sixth or seventh cluster on my first run, but my second (as the Engi cruiser) was cut short by a "four people board your ship" random event. Engis... don't handle that well.

Iskandar

2012-09-15, 11:09 AM

Eh, handling that event is simple enough. Open your ship to space, EXCEPT your med bay (clicking the "open all door buttons" twice is the easiest way, then manually close the med bay doors), run your crew to the med bay, and hunker down there. The attackers will then have a choice, either fight you in your med bay (where you will get healed as you fight back), or suffocate.

If you have more crew than will fit, simply seal the extra in a non system room not in the path of the attackers.

Doesn't work quite as well in a battle with another ship, but you can still use a variant of this to herd boarders away from critical components if you don't have enough defenders.

Sprinter

2012-09-15, 01:42 PM

Long post .

Halbeard beam is amazingly great weapon i remember one particular run where i had just two weapons burst laser MK III and halbeard and all the pirate ship encounters had special blue option where they were surrendering without a fight. :smallbiggrin:

I particularly remember that run because was the only run where boss beat me. :smalltongue:

This game is pretty much as swell as I thought it'd be. I got to the sixth or seventh cluster on my first run, but my second (as the Engi cruiser) was cut short by a "four people board your ship" random event. Engis... don't handle that well.

Blast doors are recommended as early upgrade on all engi/zoltar ships. With blast doors boarders cant run freely on your ship. Trap them behind blast doors open airlocks and watch them sufocate. :smallbiggrin:

Just had an amazing first run with newly unlocked stealth ship. First beacon beat some pirates they send me glaive beam + scraps surrender offer . Im like this great i will need 150 the scraps to buy shield system and i have like 70+ after fisrt beacon this is gona be easy. I got the shield but after sector 4 i started loosing crew members and whats worse there were no crew members to hire even i shops.I end up with just two crewmembers left by the time i got to last sector. I even found a shop near boss but again no crew. I remembered my lowest crew win against boss was 5 crew before and i remembered it was quite close with many situations where the ship was almost dead. Im like no way i cant boss with just two. Well its possible with some luck (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=96419521)

Cikomyr

2012-09-15, 02:51 PM

Drasius

2012-09-15, 03:02 PM

Lots of both fun and frustration to be had here. Definately worth the $10.

psilontech

2012-09-15, 03:31 PM

Boarding parties are almost ALWAYS my downfall in the end.

Blast Doors? Check!
Venting atmosphere? Check!
Anti-Personnel Defensive Drone(When Available)? Check!
Mantis Crew Member(When Available)? Check!
Surviving with Mantis shock-troopers in my base, killing my d00dz? Nope.

Still only have the starting and Engi ships unlocked after being so close to unlocking others. I had the pirateship down to three hulls before I went down the one time I encountered it. Boarding party killed me the one time I managed to not only find
the damaged cryostasis pod, but also find the necessary science outpost to revive crystal bro AND be heading into rock-controlled space!

A very fun game, but also very frustrating. Sat down with it last night for the first time and before I knew it it was 3:30 AM and I had work in 4 hours.

Cikomyr

2012-09-15, 03:40 PM

LoneStarNorth

2012-09-15, 03:46 PM

Anyone beat that end boss yet? I've fought him three times and got beat in different ways. All three with the Kestrel.

The first time I was just underequiped. That boss ship is a real beast with all four weaposn shooting at once. I didn't last very long.

Second try, my shields were good enough to block all incoming fire after i used missiles to take out two of the guns. However, once I ran out of missiles, I didn't have enough firepower to get through the shields. Also I found out the hard way that if you leave and come back, the ship gets fully repaired and regains all lost crew :smallmad:

Third attempt, I had good shields, plentiful missiles, and two good laser weapons. I defeated the ship without any real trouble, only to learn that the boss has multiple phases. And the second one uses more drones than I can count to rip my ship into tiny pieces, shields be damned.

Advice on beating this jerk would be appreciated.

Sprinter

2012-09-15, 04:55 PM

I get back what I said. Halberd ain't that good. I just lost a game where I had a GLAIVE weapon!! :smallbiggrin:

3 points of damage/room. I practically 1-shot most ennemies.

With 2 ion cannons and 1 Bomb teleporter, I almost took out the 2nd Capital ship. Darn this thing is tough.

Problem with glaive and why i dont use it is the charging time. by the time its ready to fire enemy ship is firing second or third volley. Unless you have weapon pre igniter its not worth it imho.

Advice on beating this jerk would be appreciated.

Use crew teleporter to kill the super weapons. They are in separate section of ship with one crewmember each not accesible by the rest of crew. Killing the crewman will stop him from repairing the super weapon. Boarding is the best way to make this happen and this will make 1st wawe a joke.

2nd wawe teleporter to disable superweapons again, use defence drone or alternatively hit drone subsystem to stop boaring drone. Maxed cloacking device will help against power surge aka drone swarm, alternatively you need 4 shields and high evasion 45% or more.

3rd wawe Use Crew teleporter ... you know the drill. use ion weapons or atack drone against super shield is recommended but eventualy anything will do the job. Watch for power surges use cloack when they happen. Hit boss with all you got this is last wawe. If you got here already there is high chance of success as this wawe isnt that hard as last one just kill him fast to avoid complications :).

*edit* Last wawe is easier when you kill alot of crew before this wawe because all spare crewmember except the pilot will come over slowly boarding your ship. Also another general tip for boss dont kill all the crew bad things happens if you do.

*edit more tips for boss*

Rustic Dude

2012-09-15, 05:28 PM

Use crew teleporter to kill the super weapons. They are in separate section of ship with one crewmember each not accesible by the rest of crew. Killing the crewman will stop him from repairing the super weapon. Boarding is the best way to make this happen and this will make 1st wawe a joke.

2nd wawe teleporter to disable superweapons again, use defence drone or alternatively hit drone subsystem to stop boaring drone. Maxed cloacking device will help against power surge aka drone swarm, alternatively you need 4 shields and high evasion 45% or more.

3rd wawe Use Crew teleporter ... you know the drill. use ion weapons or atack drone against super shield is recommended but eventualy anything will do the job. Watch for power surges use cloack when they happen. Hit boss with all you got this is last wawe. If you got here already there is high chance of success as this wawe isnt that hard as last one just kill him fast to avoid complications :).

Well, now I know some things that fail in my runs: the cloaking system and teleport evade me. And I can't fight against that thing of a flagship without sneaky things like that.

Cikomyr

2012-09-15, 05:33 PM

I WON!! :smallbiggrin:

With an Engi cruiser! At the end, I had 2x Burst Laser (Mk I and Mk II), a Halberd and 2 Mk1 Attack Drones.

Let loose the Attack Drones immediately. These simply wear down an enemy's shield like there is no tomorrow. Make your Mk II burst laser go at the enemy's shield generator nonstop. Have the Halberd target as many rooms as possible, if possible the shield and a weapon. Or the Drone Control Area.

As for the Mk I burst laser, set it to attack either the Drone Control area, the shield generator or a weapon emplacement that your Halberd it touching. The point is to focus fire on key emplacement and keep pounding at them. If you disable the right ones, the ennemy can't stand against your for very long.

I was busy fighting off intruders and fire, and I didn't even noticed I killed the enemy ship!! :smallbiggrin:

Archonic Energy

2012-09-16, 06:12 AM

Well, now I know some things that fail in my runs: the cloaking system and teleport evade me. And I can't fight against that thing of a flagship without sneaky things like that.

erm yes you can.

though i do owe part of my victory to the smart bomb...

Cikomyr

2012-09-16, 08:38 AM

And mine to Attack Drones

Nadevoc

2012-09-16, 02:13 PM

Huh. I purchased this through Steam, and my antivirus software keeps flagging it for some reason. :-/

EDIT: Apparently a known issue. Something about Steam's wrapper and the game's code combining to set off one of the antivirus' analyses...

factotum

2012-09-16, 03:26 PM

Furthest I've got so far is phase 2 of the boss, although I've managed to unlock two additional vessels (Zoltan and Engi cruisers) and I've also unlocked the second type for the Zoltan...I actually like that one, dual Ion Blasters and a Pike Beam pretty much annihilate anything up to Sector 5 without trouble! Only problem is it takes 100 scrap to upgrade it to have a single shield...

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-16, 05:08 PM

Got a win in, as the default layout Engi.

Gear:
Ion Burst II (the starting gun), 2x Heavy Ion II
2x Anti-Ship Attack Drone I, 1x Defense Drone II
Shield strength of only 2, didn't have enough power for more, between guns and drones.
Fairly sizable crew, assorted types.
Don't recall my third aug, had the starting engi medical nanite thing, plus the drone thingy that gives you your components back if your drones are intact post-combat.

Strat:

All phases: Ion Burst at shields to keep them locked down, drones out to do their dronish things.
Phase one: heavy ions on ion and missile superweapons.
Phase two: heavy ions on drone controller and missile superweapon.
Phase three: heavy ions on teleporter and missile superweapon.

hobbitkniver

2012-09-16, 08:30 PM

I couldn't believe that their wasn't a thread for this, but I was searching "Faster than Light"...

but foolishness aside, I've been stuck at the end.

I make it to the second phase of the rebel flagship every single game I play, but I can't manage to take it on and I die there every single time. So when I got to that point, I stopped playing so that I could figure out how to beat it before I get murdered and have to redo it. In this run, I've just got the basic Krestel ship (I've also unlocked the stealth ship, and both setups of the engi ship).

I can't manage to penetrate his level four shields with my energy weapons and I can't use missiles because of the drone that shoots them down. I've still got full hull and four shield, but no cloaking. Am I doing something wrong or do I just need better weapons before I get to this point?

ex cathedra

2012-09-16, 08:41 PM

You do need a certain amount of weapons to handle it, but there's a variety of viable options.
Final boss strategy stuff:

Also, Cloaking is immensely powerful against all of his forms, especially if you don't have defensive drones. Rank 1 cloak completely evades his three missile volley, and rank 2 cloak evades both Stage 2 Drone Swarm and Stage 3 Laser Barrage.

Anyways, missiles are fine as long as you have some way of getting them past the drone. If you have a way of firing two missiles-- or a good deal of lasers and missiles-- simultaneously you should be able to get past the drone long enough to do significant damage to his weapons or shields. It can only shoot down a certain amount of lasers and missiles in any given period of time. The Pegasus missile weapon comes in handy since it fires two missiles per volley.

Other ways of reliably getting past the shield include Ion weapon spam (use every chance you get to level your gunner and decrease your weapon cooldown if you rely on Ion damage) or anti-ship drones. My last successful win involved the Torus pretty much AFKing in its Cloak while 3x Anti-Ship drones wrecked the Flagship.

I've yet to have a game go in such a way that teleporting my crewmembers offensively is a great strategy, but I mostly play on the Noether and Torus at the moment, and it isn't really their specialty. I think that teleporters are really strong against the Flagship, though.

MLai

2012-09-16, 09:51 PM

Considering purchase, have questions:

1. How do you repair your hull life meter in this game? In "WTF IS" Youtube vid, I never see the blogger repair his hull in 30 mins of play.
2. After you defeat whatever enemy/problem at your jump point, can you take all the time you please to just loiter there and fix everything wrong on your ship? Or does the rebel fleet behind you pursue you in "real time" not in turn count? Or does the game not allow you to do that, period?

Gamerlord

2012-09-16, 09:55 PM

ex cathedra

2012-09-16, 10:12 PM

Considering purchase, have questions:
2. After you defeat whatever enemy/problem at your jump point, can you take all the time you please to just loiter there and fix everything wrong on your ship?

Yes. There's no "clock" between nodes*.

*Disregarding potential disasters regarding your crew burning alive or asphyxiating.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-16, 10:22 PM

Just hit win two, managed it on my first ever run with the stealth ship. It's an interesting experience starting out with no shield system, trying to scrape up enough scrap to get it from a trader in between shelling out for repairs.

Cikomyr

2012-09-16, 11:46 PM

Just beat it with the Federation Cruiser.

Neat. I had quite the crack armament.

2x MkII Burst Lasers (3 shots, 12 seconds recharge)
1x Ion Cannon (1 shot, 2 damage, 13 seconds recharge)
1x S. Bomb (1 teleport missile, 12 seconds recharge)

Add the fully upgraded Artillery beam (a shot every 20 seconds), and a Beam Drone, I cut to pieces without much problem the final ship. A powerful MkIV shield with boosters made me almost invulnerable, a crew of 4 Engies, 2 Mantis, 1 Rock, 1 Human allowed me to repair anything with incredible speed!

Funniest game I had so far. I wish there was a survival mode. Like, just facing tougher and tougher capital ships until you can't fight anymore.

Cogwheel

2012-09-17, 12:58 AM

Beat the final boss with no crew lost for the whole game, little phase 1 damage and no phase 3 damage.

Ion Burst 2 x2 + Reload Speed Booster + Maxed weapon skill = Hey look nothing on your ship works.

My only weapon, RNG being what it is, was a single Mk 1 Anti-Ship Drone.

factotum

2012-09-17, 01:00 AM

There is a significant exception to the rule of no "clock" between nodes: systems where you're close enough to the star to be affected by solar flares. The flares keep happening even after the enemy ship is down, and every time they hit fires get started somewhere on your ship--you really don't want to hang around!

(True story: had just defeated an enemy in a solar flare system but he'd taken out my engines and O2, and both locations were on fire due to flares. I managed to eventually get them repaired but by then I had fires throughout half the ship, so I chose to jump to another location in the hope I'd have breathing space to put the fires out. That other location was *also* a flare star with a pirate in orbit...needless to say, it was Game Over quite quickly after that!).

Asteroid fields also have this effect, incidentally, but you really don't need to worry about asteroid impacts once you have level 2 shields.

Cogwheel

2012-09-17, 01:21 AM

Asteroid fields also have this effect, incidentally, but you really don't need to worry about asteroid impacts once you have level 2 shields.

I wonder if you can use this to farm shield skill.

Sprinter

2012-09-17, 02:41 AM

I wonder if you can use this to farm shield skill.

It was possible in late betas but now as soon as hostile ship dies skill training stops.

Random rambling:

Stealth ship type B must be hardest ship to unlock won 2 times with stealth ship and still dont have any of the 3 ship specific achievments unlocked.

Anyone unlocked type B yet? am i just unlucky? Some tips how to unlock type B Stealth ship would be great. :smallbiggrin:

Talesin

2012-09-17, 05:16 AM

I picked this up yesterday and i'm having a ton of fun with it. I've probably done about 10 run throughs, getting to the end sector on about my 3rd try but I ended up fighting a ship on my way to the flagship and I got wrecked.

I killed the flagship with my most recent attempt, using the Kestral class ship, and actually found it pretty damn easy. I had 2 mk2 burst lasers, the missle launcher you get at the start and an ion attack thing in addition to 2 attack drones, mk1 I think. I'd upgraded my shields up to level 3 and had about a 40% evasion chance so in terms of ship to ship combat it was pretty easy.

The thing I am so bad at is getting my own crew members killed. I lost my amazing pilot in one of the random events, but luckily gained another crew member so I just replaced him. I lost my weapons gunner, who had done the first level of upgrades, after I started a battle then unplugged my headset from the back of my computer and when I looked back at the screen I had 2 mantis' attacking my weapons room and he was dead.

Lost my shield guy to basically the same problem, not paying attention after someone boarded.

My strat is basically take out the weapons as early as possible then go for the shields unless the opposing ship has something that needs to be attacked, like several drones.

Overall I think the game is really fun and considering how awful I was when I had a go with the engi ship it has some replayability and given the random nature of the galaxy + the random events/drops you'll get a different playthrough every time.

Looking forward to having a go when i'm home from work!

Zzouzeizeski

2012-09-17, 05:26 AM

Ah, I got this game the second it was released and enjoyed it for about 13 hours straight. I'm particularly fond of disabling an enemy's weapons and shielding systems and then toying with them for awhile before I finally finish them off. The game's a real breath of fresh air, especially since the only other space roguelike I know if is Transcendence and that's been incomplete for years.

Funniest game I had so far. I wish there was a survival mode. Like, just facing tougher and tougher capital ships until you can't fight anymore.

I'd like a free mode myself, where you get a chance to really explore the various systems without any pressure, and throwing in various enemy capital ships for the various factions.

Chen

2012-09-17, 07:42 AM

Gamerlord

2012-09-17, 07:46 AM

Got a few questions:

1) How exactly does crew training work? I haven't manually done anything with regards to it as far as I know. Do people need to be in the appropriate rooms or something?

2) How do you vent the atmosphere on the ship? I noticed that as a suggestion for dealing with boarding parties (which kick the crap out of me) but I don't know how to actually do it.

3) Along the same lines, is there a way to barricade doors or keep them locked or something? I haven't really found much use in the open/close door commands.
1: The crew gains training by performing a specific task over and over again. If someone is repairing a room, they will get better at repairing stuff. If they are manning the engines, they will gain engine training.
2:First, you need door control to be working (In my experience, that is one of the first things the boarding parties go for) then all you need to do is right click on the airlock, then right click on the proper doors to vent the rooms you want to vent. This can also be pretty handy for dealing with fires near the airlocks if you don't want to risk your crew.
3: You can upgrade the doors in the upgrade tab.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-17, 08:19 AM

It was possible in late betas but now as soon as hostile ship dies skill training stops.

Random rambling:

Stealth ship type B must be hardest ship to unlock won 2 times with stealth ship and still dont have any of the 3 ship specific achievments unlocked.

Anyone unlocked type B yet? am i just unlucky? Some tips how to unlock type B Stealth ship would be great. :smallbiggrin:

I unlocked stealth b with my first ever stealth run, via the "don't jump to systems with hazards" achievement and the "cloakevade at least 9 damage" achievement (achieved against the flagship)

Sprinter

2012-09-17, 08:53 AM

I unlocked stealth b with my first ever stealth run, via the "don't jump to systems with hazards" achievement and the "cloakevade at least 9 damage" achievement (achieved against the flagship)

Thats odd i won twice against flagship both of times i used cloak extensively i thought third wawe would unlock this achievment but got nothing. (when you got only 2 crewmembers left you try to avoid as much damage as possible as repairing in fight isnt really an option)

Avoiding hazard need alot luck too 2nd win there was asteroid field i couldnt bypass just few beacons before last stand...

factotum

2012-09-17, 09:36 AM

3) Along the same lines, is there a way to barricade doors or keep them locked or something? I haven't really found much use in the open/close door commands.

You need the Blast Doors upgrade to prevent enemies opening the door--admittedly, they'll just blast through them eventually, but if you've evacuated the area by opening the airlocks then they'll be taking damage all the time they're standing there shooting at the door, making them easier to kill.

The other advantage of evacuating the area is that the invaders will not waste time trying to blast your systems, they'll head for the nearest area with oxygen and try to get in there.

Biggest disadvantage is if you happen to lose your O2 system while most of your ship is in vacuum--best hope you have a couple of Engi on hand if you want them to be able to repair the system fast enough to not die!

Cikomyr

2012-09-17, 09:47 AM

Also, a good trick is to know your ship's layout well, and find ways to vacuum all the rooms AHEAD of the boarders as well as the rooms behind them. Then close the door ahead of them when they managed to breach.

You will really ruin their days, and like it been said, they won't attack your subsystem. Try to make them reach your sickbay, and make your stand there. With a lvl 1 sick bay, you can easily win against odds of 1:2.

Maxymiuk

2012-09-17, 09:55 AM

Cikomyr

2012-09-17, 09:59 AM

Got this game 2 days ago. Convinced the RNG is mocking me. I either get loads of crew, but no weapons and end up getting shot apart in later systems, or loads of weapons and no crew, and then I die to boarding parties.

The RNG is testing you! :smallamused: It seeks great potential in you, and want to see you prove yourself! :smallbiggrin:

Rustic Dude

2012-09-17, 10:21 AM

Well, I've beaten it. Finally the RNG smiled at me. Maybe a bit too much, because I only lost 1/5 of my hull through the whole three fights.

I had everything(Using the Engi cruiser):

-Ion Blast II
-Burst laser
-Fire Bomb

-2 Attack Drones I
-1 Defense Drone I

-Maxed shields.
-Maxed cloak.
-Teleport and enough crew to use it.

-Stealth Weapons
-Weapon autoloader

The Ion Blast, the Laser and the Attack Drones killed the shield quickly, while the away team destroyed the missile weapon placement. Once donde that, used the laser and the drones to kill it. Activated the cloak whenever there was a power surge warning, and killed the Drone Control after the shields were down.

Now I'm off to try the "funny" looking cruiser

Cikomyr

2012-09-17, 10:35 AM

The Federation Cruiser, you mean?

A key advantage to this baby is its artillery beam. It really wreaks havoc in any enemy ship, so it's definetly worth the 4x upgrades + 4 energy you send in it.

Thing is, you have to manage your survival long enough to have the thing actually shoot. So shields become a premium upgrade choice. Shields and Defense drones to neutralize missiles.

Saithis Bladewing

2012-09-17, 11:15 AM

I need to get money to get this game so baaad.

psilontech

2012-09-17, 02:57 PM

YESSSSS!

Finally beat the final boss (on easy)!

Engi Ship. Starting Ion Gun, 2x Anti-Ship Drones, Heavy Laser, Heavy Laser II.
Max Shields, Engines at evasion 25 (Or the one above, depending if I was using my med-bay or not)! Two rockmen working security for boarders while the auto-doc healed them from the effects of hard vacuum and enemy fire.

Ion weapon on shields every encounter. Two Anti-Ship Drones always up.
Encounter 1: Both Heavy lasers on weapons, priority on the missile launcher of DOOM.
Encounter 2: Heavy Laser II on drone control, Heavy Laser I on weapons, Missile priority. Rerouting power from Medical and O2 to engines when the power-surge hits.
Encounter 3: HL II on Teleporter, HL I on Missiles.

Walked away with something along the lines of four hull left.
No Redshirt Left Behind, Blastophobia awards.

Edit:
Explore AS MUCH AS YOU CAN without being caught by the rebel fleet. Ended up with the Stealth Cruiser and TONS of scrap because I wandered around aimlessly, avoiding the exit until the last possible moment.

ex cathedra

2012-09-17, 06:36 PM

It was possible in late betas but now as soon as hostile ship dies skill training stops.

You can, however, power-level shields in almost any situation in which you can power-level weapons. You gain shield XP every time your shield recharges. That is to say, as long as you're in combat, it doesn't matter if your shield recharged because you took damage or if it recharged because you manually de-powered and re-powered your own shield. :smallwink:

Stealth ship type B must be hardest ship to unlock won 2 times with stealth ship and still dont have any of the 3 ship specific achievments unlocked.

Anyone unlocked type B yet? am i just unlucky? Some tips how to unlock type B Stealth ship would be great. :smallbiggrin:

Compared to the hidden ship, I'm not convinced. You can get the 9 damage evaded achievement with a bit of patience and timing at the end of the game by (spoiler ->) using it to dodge a stage 3 power surge and missile volley at the same time. also maybe a laser volley and missile volely, but I'm not sure if that's 9, and at least you have advanced sensors for the no-suns/no-asteroids achievement. Bird of Prey requires a pretty good set-up but it's by no means impossible. If I had ever bothered to repair my hull to max (I had forgotten about the achievement ;_;) I would have earned it several times on my Stealth ship victory run.

Of course, in that game I had a Glaive Beam and Burst Laser Mk III running at the same time, which is kind of absurdly unlikely to happen in almost any other run. It's not often that you get not only the two best weapons in the game but the resources to use them both simultaneously.

Sprinter

2012-09-18, 03:56 AM

Compared to the hidden ship, I'm not convinced.

I was talking only about type B not new classes unlocking.

You can get the 9 damage evaded achievement with a bit of patience and timing at the end of the game

I got that achievment finaly on my 15th win 3rd with stealth ship. In previous wins i tried exatly that but either power surge hit my atack drones or i didnt have 100% evade after cloaking and some of projectiles (7 from surge + 3 missiles) hit me.

by and at least you have advanced sensors for the no-suns/no-asteroids achievement.

This requires alot of luck some sectors have only 1 road to exit and if those nodes have asteroid/sun or ion storm there is no way to get this achievment.

Bird of Prey requires a pretty good set-up but it's by no means impossible. If I had ever bothered to repair my hull to max (I had forgotten about the achievement ;_;) I would have earned it several times on my Stealth ship victory run.

I was wondering why i didnt got this achievment but rarely have full hp because thats waste of scraps unless some random event repairs me or i have tons of hull drones to spare. Killing whole ship in one cloaking isnt problem atleast for me.

Of course, in that game I had a Glaive Beam and Burst Laser Mk III running at the same time, which is kind of absurdly unlikely to happen in almost any other run. It's not often that you get not only the two best weapons in the game but the resources to use them both simultaneously.

Last win i had burst laser MK III and halbeard beam which is my favorite for boss. More efficient then glaive + MK III as both weapons have almost same charging time.

MLai

2012-09-18, 05:38 AM

Is this roguelike game easy?
Cuz you guys are making it sound like a cakewalk.
Or are y'all just that h4rdc0re? :smallsmile:

Rustic Dude

2012-09-18, 06:14 AM

Well, we're only talking about the good runs. :smalltongue:

Then you get stomped at sector 1 or 2 because the RNG decides so.

factotum

2012-09-18, 07:02 AM

Is this roguelike game easy?
Cuz you guys are making it sound like a cakewalk.
Or are y'all just that h4rdc0re? :smallsmile:

When talking about beating the boss easily they're not mentioning the 537 other occasions where they didn't even reach the boss and the 22 instances where it squashed them like a bug without even slowing down... :smallwink:

Sprinter

2012-09-18, 07:28 AM

Is this roguelike game easy?
Cuz you guys are making it sound like a cakewalk.
Or are y'all just that h4rdc0re? :smallsmile:

That depends on who you ask.

Looking at threads over at main game forums with titles like "Can you beat this game???" and there is another 7 pages long thread where people whine about randomness and how great the game would be with guaranteed weapon drops like in Binding of Isaac and how unfair is the fact you cant beat boss with starter weapons!!!

On the other hand there are Darthcaboose streams where he is training engi crewmembers as expert melee combatants and mantis as repair masters or challenge run without pausing the game (well he actualy didnt win this challenge)

When talking about beating the boss easily they're not mentioning the 537 other occasions where they didn't even reach the boss and the 22 instances where it squashed them like a bug without even slowing down... :smallwink:

Sure there even occasions where you get killed just few beacons from start but personaly i dont have problem with boss my score with him is 15:1 and that one time it was totally my fault too.

Weezer

2012-09-18, 07:48 AM

Is this roguelike game easy?
Cuz you guys are making it sound like a cakewalk.
Or are y'all just that h4rdc0re? :smallsmile:

I'd say easier than most roguelikes, if only due to how short it is. The longer a roguelike is, the higher your chance of unavoidable death becomes.

Rustic Dude

2012-09-18, 08:02 AM

Okay, first run with the Osprey and I've beaten the boss. Bless that artillery beam, I just turtled and launched small bombs due to my lack of decent weaponry and it just tore it apart.

Tome

2012-09-18, 09:25 AM

Picked up this game myself. It's pretty fun.

Haven't managed to get past the boss' second stage yet though.

Cikomyr

2012-09-18, 09:37 AM

Is this roguelike game easy?
Cuz you guys are making it sound like a cakewalk.
Or are y'all just that h4rdc0re? :smallsmile:

Please note that my only victories were on easy.

And strangely enough, only when I am actively trying to get an achievement. Like the Federation Cruiser's "don't upgrade weapons" or the Engi Ship "have 3 drones operational"

psilontech

2012-09-18, 11:38 AM

Same here, haven't even come close to a 'Normal' difficulty victory.

Brumski

2012-09-18, 12:27 PM

I'm loving this game

I haven't gotten past the second phase of the boss just yet, I'm more obsessed with unlocking all the ships anyway. Got the Zoltan (A & B, now) luckily early and just got the Stealth last night, was so excited cause I already had the damaged stasis pod and was in a Zoltan sector and thought I might get two unlocks in one go (three if it would have managed a final victory) but alas I did not find the research center or whatever the wiki says you need to find. And the slug cruiser jumped away from me once even though I thought I had ionized his engines.

One run I was really going for the final kill, using the Engi (A) cruiser cause it has the Ion MkII which I figured is hardest to get in game, and that I would find decent beams/lasers along the way, and had saved over 60 missiles by the end. 2nd to last sector that's when I found out the other ship can still jump away even though they are fighting your boarding party in their pilot section, so bye bye awesome Mantis/Rock team. And I never saw any weapon to use my missiles with by the end :smallfurious: Ended up in a stalemate with the flagship, I destroyed his guns but I couldn't do any other damage to him so I just called it.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-18, 12:33 PM

So you know the Engi B, how it has a single guy and some drones? I decided to run with that concept, see how far I could get my crazy space hermit. No purchasing crew, no accepting slaves in exchange for not killing slavers. Just one crazy guy in a cockpit with the rest of his ship unmonitored and open to space.
http://imageshack.us/a/img39/2258/2012091800005b.jpg

Brumski

2012-09-18, 01:38 PM

That's hilarious

LoneStarNorth

2012-09-18, 04:35 PM

FINALLY BEAT THAT JERK END BOSS!

I used layout B of the starter ship. First phase, I took out the entire crew with a pair of fire bombs and a single boarder working on the weapons one at a time. After the entire crew was dead, I sent two boarders to wail on the shield generator and slowly destroyed the ship with attack drones and a basic laser. Unfortunately, the ship blew up very suddenly thanks to those drones and I lost two crewmen.

Second phase, I sent my last non-vital crew member to keep the shields down and went in with my four basic lasers firing, plus two drones. I lost a lot of hull strength because I hadn't managed to get a cloaking device. This time I saved the boarder.

Third phase, same strategy. I got all the way down to a single hit point and only got the boss' missiles offline just in time. A very narrow victory. And, once again, I managed to save my brave shieldbuster from oblivion.

I gotta say, my half dozen attempts against this boss left me pretty frustrated, but that just made beating him all the sweeter. I also unlocked the stealth ship, so I'm gonna try it out next.

AmberVael

2012-09-18, 05:07 PM

Is this roguelike game easy?

"Roguelike" and "easy" are mutually exclusive descriptors. :smalltongue:

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with this game. Haven't beat the boss yet, but note that I've always played on normal difficulty.
So far I have the starter ship (Kestrel), Engi ship (Torus), its secondary layout, and the stealth ship.

Torus is my favorite so far, I think. It seems easier to keep drones in stock than missiles, and that starter ion cannon is mean stuff. Add in that augment they start off with, and it is a pretty nice machine.
I've made it to the last sector twice, and with the Torus I took out the flagship shields (dual ion cannons is hilarious) multiple times, but due to their cloaking I just couldn't keep them down.

I may try an Easy run now, just to see how it goes.

psilontech

2012-09-18, 09:16 PM

Because of NEO's post, I decided to unlock and play the Type B Engie ship and by God, it's hilarious.

'Captain' Crazy Hobo of the mobile-home 'HMS GET OUT OF MY HOUSE'.

One room (Pilot Seat) pressurized, the rest vented to space. Crazy Hobo's house, held together with duct tape and trash bags races across the galaxy to deliver the technical documents he discovered one day in the trash, fueled only by cheap whiskey and pills he finds on the corpses that keep showing up in his living room.

Warping to the last stand to deliver the documents as a good citizen of the Federation, he is somehow gangpressed into taking it down solo. Well, he's pretty sure that's what happened, he was pretty wasted for the entirety of that conversation.

TechnoScrabble

2012-09-18, 09:18 PM

Just started playing, got halfway across the galaxy in the starter ship with nothing but the starting gear and a breach bomb I found and used all my scrap for repair and upgrades before dying. Trying an engi ship now.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-18, 09:40 PM

Time for a moment of silence for the fallen. I went into the final battle less than optimally prepared.
http://imageshack.us/a/img207/8173/2012091800010.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img571/7500/2012091800013.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img33/4517/2012091800015.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img13/9740/2012091800016.jpg

Goodbye Pipaluk, Jon, and Arries. I will never forget your sacrifices.

psilontech

2012-09-18, 10:59 PM

MLai

2012-09-18, 11:39 PM

Question:

What's the difference between the various difficulty modes? Just how much damage the enemy does, or do they do different things/ have different weapons/ etc?

Sean Mirrsen

2012-09-19, 01:23 AM

Question:

What's the difference between the various difficulty modes? Just how much damage the enemy does, or do they do different things/ have different weapons/ etc?Well, there's only the two difficulty modes. And the difference between them is clearly written in the button tooltip. You get higher scrap rewards, and less monstrous enemies. (i.e. less likely to meet someone quad-wielding Burst Lasers MkII... funny thing is, that happened to me in the "you see a cargo ship fitted for trade not combat" event) Everything else remains the same.

Sprinter

2012-09-19, 03:34 AM

The Rebel Flagship taken down by an Ion Bomb and three Mantis boarders? Nice!

One must wonder why the entire Federation fleet was so terrified of the thing. :smalltongue:

Which ship is that, by the way?

That was type B mantis cruiser called The Bassilisk it starts with 4 place crew teleporter but only 2 crewmembers, no weapons, drone system with boarding and anti personal drone. guaranteed to get you Trusty Autopilot achievment if you didnt get it with type A already. :smallbiggrin:

Time for a moment of silence for the fallen. I went into the final battle less than optimally prepared.

Just wonder why you didnt use all that scrap to upgrade engines or was it aditional challenge? :smalltongue:

Grif

2012-09-19, 07:24 AM

I turned down the difficulty back to Easy after many frustating and ultimately fail runs on Normal.

I got to the Flagship Phase II on my first run. (With no particularly notable weapons. Only had Heavy Laser II, Burst Laser II and Artemis.)

Suddenly I realised Easy is really so much more playable than Normal. (Increased scrap reward really makes a difference here, as well as tamer enemies. You can really curbstomp any enemy in S1 till 3, whereas in Normal even in S2 the enemies can surprise you with a good selection of weapons.)

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-19, 09:09 AM

Just wonder why you didnt use all that scrap to upgrade engines or was it aditional challenge? :smalltongue:

Wasn't a challenge so much as I had enough shield to stop anything other than crazy multi burst laser opponents, defense drones for missiles, and most ships don't have enough crew to last that long against a boarding party of 4 mantids, so it was never an issue. Also I'd have to take power from other things to juice the engines, I had free bars, but that's because none of those screenshots are with both drones active at once, because it's easy to not notice when a stray shot pops one.

Sean Mirrsen

2012-09-19, 01:43 PM

Wasn't a challenge so much as I had enough shield to stop anything other than crazy multi burst laser opponents, defense drones for missiles, and most ships don't have enough crew to last that long against a boarding party of 4 mantids, so it was never an issue. Also I'd have to take power from other things to juice the engines, I had free bars, but that's because none of those screenshots are with both drones active at once, because it's easy to not notice when a stray shot pops one.
But leaving unused scrap for the final battle is ridiculous. Even if you don't have enough power, upgrading the systems will mean that any stray shots hitting you will be less likely to require immediate repairs to the system. It's why you should purchase an upgrade for the cockpit even if you never have the pilot leave it in combat - a stray shot will take a bar off, but the system will still work.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-19, 01:52 PM

It's why you should purchase an upgrade for the cockpit even if you never have the pilot leave it in combat - a stray shot will take a bar off, but the system will still work.

Funnily enough, unless you buy all the way to level 3, this accomplishes nothing, because even though the 1 damage shot didn't fully disable the system, the pilot will stop flying the ship to fix it.

Brumski

2012-09-19, 02:54 PM

Had an interesting first run with the Stealth ship last night. Was very frustrating initially to not have shields, couldn't get enough scrap til sector 3 or 4, I've never spent so much scrap on repairs. I did get the Heavy Laser II, which bumped up my firepower decently early, and the Ion Blast II not long after that, which served me (with the beginning Dual Laser) til the end.

Managed to get the Slug cruiser unlocked along the way, got to the flagship with my usual Rock/Mantis boarding party, fully upgraded cloak, 3 shields and two Anti-ship drones. With that I also got my first win against the flagship, getting the "dodge 9? damage in one cloak" achievement during the 3rd phase power surge, unlocking layout B.

Playing with the Artillery ship for a bit got me that second layout also.

So many ships to try now, and I can't really play for the rest of the week:smallfrown:

factotum

2012-09-19, 03:35 PM

Aaargh. Hate flare stars *so much*. Just unlocked the Type B Kestrel and decided to take it for a spin, and get attacked by a pirate near a flare star...first flare sets fires off in the cockpit, O2 and first aid room, and things rapidly get out of control. I manage to jump out to a safe location, but I'm short on oxygen and my crew are all near death. Unfortunately for me a flare that fired off literally as I was jumping away set a fire in my repaired O2 unit and it goes pop again; my crew all die before I can get it repaired, game over.

psilontech

2012-09-19, 04:22 PM

Just finished a match in the Zoltan Cruiser. Ended up in an Ion-Storm where somehow the ship's AI decided to cut power to O2 without me noticing.

A long fight later and I notice the medical chimes going off for the entirety of my crew. Confused, I noticed my O2 was at 0% before sending someone into the room to see what the hell was going on. FINALLY noticed the life-support system was offline just in time to see everyone drop over dead.

/facepalm

MLai

2012-09-19, 11:20 PM

Just finished a match in the Zoltan Cruiser. Ended up in an Ion-Storm where somehow the ship's AI decided to cut power to O2 without me noticing.
FINALLY noticed the life-support system was offline just in time to see everyone drop over dead.
Skynet event in the middle of an ion storm. :smallbiggrin:

psilontech

2012-09-19, 11:30 PM

Allright, one more thing.

Once again in the Zoltan Cruiser. I keep getting free, awesome weapons to the point of where I can't upgrade my weapons platform enough to utilize them!

Glaive Beam, Halberd Beam, Pike Beam, Burst Laser III, Hull Laser II, Heavy Ion, and my trusty Leto.

I need the Heavy Ion and Leto to get through enemy shields enough for the beams to do their damage. That's three power and two of four slots. The sheer damage output of the Glaive beam makes me salivate, so that's another four power. Burst Laser III is pretty effective at doing terrible things to shields, but takes longer to power up than some other things AND it takes a lot of energy to use.

This is the first time I've come across this problem. It's usually NOT having the necessary weapons that hurts me! :smallbiggrin:

Nadevoc

2012-09-19, 11:50 PM

Finally managed a win (on Easy >.>)! Used the Kestrel and got lucky enough to find a Glaive Beam. Weapon Preigniter with a combo of Burst Laser II and a bomb (Small Bomb? Something like that) let me drop the shields of anything I came across long enough to rake it with the Glaive Beam for massive damage. The end cruiser actually didn't even really pose much of a challenge. Weapon Preigniter is really, really good. Glaive Beam is really, really good (if you have something else do hit the shields first). Combined, they're brutal.

Also, Rocks have the best animation. Especially their fire extinguishing animation. But both times I've gotten the event for the Rock Cruiser, it's died to the solar flares >.> (Okay, yes, I helped because I was hitting their weapons and whatnot, but still... I stopped attacking, then like fifteen seconds later, it dies. Annoying. But I got the Zoltan and Fed Cruisers last run, so I still have some shiny new ships to try.)

factotum

2012-09-20, 01:49 AM

Just finished a match in the Zoltan Cruiser. Ended up in an Ion-Storm where somehow the ship's AI decided to cut power to O2 without me noticing.

That happens a lot...the AI seems to prioritise the engines over the crew's ability to breathe for some reason. (You feel like taking a hammer to the computer core in the ship to explain to it that no, the fleshy meatbag things *are* critical parts of the ship's function and being alive beats a 10-15% dodge chance! :smallsmile:).

Murska

2012-09-20, 05:21 AM

Well, without engines you can't leave the plasma storm.

I've, to my shame, once died after jumping away from the plasma storm to not realizing that the oxygen system was still offline. :smalltongue:

Archonic Energy

2012-09-20, 05:45 AM

That happens a lot...the AI seems to prioritise the engines over the crew's ability to breathe for some reason. (You feel like taking a hammer to the computer core in the ship to explain to it that no, the fleshy meatbag things *are* critical parts of the ship's function and being alive beats a 10-15% dodge chance! :smallsmile:).

Paraphrasing Zaphod:

Computer, if you don't turn on the O2 pretty damn pronto, I shall go straight to your major data banks with a very large axe and give you a reprogramming you will never forget. Capisco? ... Okay. Get the axe.

factotum

2012-09-20, 06:26 AM

Well, without engines you can't leave the plasma storm.

However, if there's nothing else in the plasma storm with you, you can divert power from weapons to engines. If there IS something else in there with you, you are far more likely to be trying to destroy it than to jump away, because you'll take a lot of damage while waiting for your engines to charge. In either case, diverting power away from O2 is not a good move.

Nadevoc

2012-09-20, 09:28 AM

I generally kill O2 before engines, because I like being able to evade. Then I rely on being able to clear whatever encounter there is fast enough that I don't run out of oxygen. If I can't manage it, I'll divert power from something else to O2. But really, the oxygen system doesn't need to be running all the time.

Murska

2012-09-20, 09:36 AM

However, if there's nothing else in the plasma storm with you, you can divert power from weapons to engines. If there IS something else in there with you, you are far more likely to be trying to destroy it than to jump away, because you'll take a lot of damage while waiting for your engines to charge. In either case, diverting power away from O2 is not a good move.

Assuming you have enough power for piloting, engines and oxygen at the same time.

factotum

2012-09-20, 11:01 AM

Assuming you have enough power for piloting, engines and oxygen at the same time.

That's a grand total of 3 energy units. Are there any starter ships with less than 6?

Eurus

2012-09-20, 12:01 PM

Man. I'm having an extremely hard time figuring out how to beat the boss. I never seem to have enough defenses and firepower to crack it. I take it defense drones are pretty much a necessity?

Cogwheel

2012-09-20, 12:17 PM

Man. I'm having an extremely hard time figuring out how to beat the boss. I never seem to have enough defenses and firepower to crack it. I take it defense drones are pretty much a necessity?

The trick is in not letting it fire missiles, I find. Ion? Ion works if you have a steady flow of it. Boarders. In fact, if you have mark 2 Breach Bombs, those do a lovely job as well.

Really, just cripple it as much as you can. That's a lot of what it comes down to, I find.

Lost Demiurge

2012-09-20, 01:05 PM

I had my first win yesterday! Well, on EASY, mind, but that's fine. I'll get better as I go!

I also unlocked the stealth ship that run, and ALMOST got the zoltan cruiser. It was a good run!

I started with the red-tail, and grabbed the boarding teleporter early on. Lucked into a rock crewman, and hired another at a store, and the first 5 sectors were lootapalooza thanks to my ace rockin' team! Then I lost them... it was a choice of letting them die taking out the helm and scuttle my chance at the stealth cruiser (since the rebel fleet was gonna engulf that area ahead of schedule if the automated drone got away) or saving them. Goodbye Mike. Goodbye Stalic. You will be missed!

On the plus side, shortly afterwards I was able to recruit two mantises, and they filled in the niche nicely!

I also had enough scrap to grab the basics... Drones, cloaking device, and four really nice weapons. A burst laser III was a lucky find, as well as a halberd beam. But I also grabbed two hermes missile launchers for the end fight, and I'm glad I did!

Add-ons were... Long-range scanners, pre-igniter, and drone recovery arm. I was stockpiling missiles and drones for the endfight, too.

I ROCKED the flagship. In the first stage, I used the hermes + a pre-igniter and popped out two ship assault I drones. Beamed the mantii over to take out the missile launcher of DOOM, and focused on keeping the shields down. It died fast! Had to switch the drones off at one point to teleport my away crew back.

The second stage was trickier... Especially since I'd switched to beams against it. (Had to. It had defense drones.) Still, the same tactics worked just fine. Had a panic moment when a lucky, early missile knocked out my teleporter, and I had to frantically defend while focusing fire on their shields and weapons, but once things were back I was able to selectively cripple weapons, cloak the drone swarm, and inflict a fair amount of damage. The breaching drones were annoying, but with strengthened doors I ended up ignoring the ones that landed in non-vital areas and that worked surprisingly well.

Got through it at half hull. After closing the breaches and repairing, I jumped to a repair beacon... Only to find out that I'd misread the screen, and jumped to the place the flagship was going!

I thought I was dead. Fortunately, switching back to missiles and keeping the drones going did the trick. Once their missile launcher was out, good shields, average engines, and pinpoint cloaking kept me alive. Was actually pretty easy.

Now when I get the chance, I'll have the stealth ship AND the fed cruiser to try out! Quite happy, overall.

Once I've unlocked all the optional ships, I'll muster up my courage and try playing on Normal... :D

AmberVael

2012-09-20, 01:14 PM

I just made the most amazing ship I have ever made in this game.

I beat all three stages of the boss without going to a repair place. I beat the first two stages without taking any hull damage, or even losing all my shields. I beat the last stage and only took three hull damage in the fight.

I was using the Zoltan ship. Here was the loadout:

All four shields, fully powered.
Five power to the engines.
Maxed cloak device, full power.
Maxed weapon systems at full power, with the following weapons (in this order):
Halberd Beam, Ion Bomb, Pike Beam, Burst Laser II

Augments:
Zoltan Shield
Weapon Pre-Igniter
Stealth Weapons

Crew:
2 Zoltan (who manned pilot and weaponry, the former of which was silly, in retrospect, but he did start there, so he was the best at it by far).
2 Mantis (generally they were just there to fight boarders... only one person tried, and they failed miserably)
2 Engi (one on engines, one for general repair)
2 Slugs (one on shields, the other for... well, whatever he was needed for)

This thing tore ships apart all the way to the end. The trick was to use the ion bomb and burst lasers to take out the shields immediately, and while shields were down, destroy everything with the two beams. Given the strength of the ion bomb, and repeated fire of the burst laser, this could take a ship with four shields down to zero in an instant... and since I had the pre-igniter, it happened immediately. They likely lost their shields and weapons before they could retaliate- and if they didn't? I just popped my max cloak and blasted at their shields, while my stealth weapon augment allowed me to stay fully cloaked. Generally a second sweep of the beams was enough to take anything hardier out.

Cloak, good dodge chance, and the Zoltan shield basically protected me from anything thrown at me. Even missiles shatter against the shield, and if it went down, cloak boosted me up to over 100% evasion... so it was really only the flagship that stood a chance. But even it wasn't enough.

I do feel compelled to note that this was on Easy difficulty. It would have been much harder to complete this ship on Normal. But yikes, this thing was vicious. I love the Ion Bomb now, and have a whole new appreciation for beam weaponry.

SuperMuldoon

2012-09-20, 01:25 PM

Beat the game the other day for the first time (man its a hard hard game!). My layout was the Engi ship Torus with defense drone, anti ship drone and beam drone. Had cloak and teleporter too. Used a strategy I saw on the official forums. Basically beamed in my 2 mantis assault crew to take out the weapons (minus their burst laser thing, the inside left weapon) and then went around their ship killing everyone and leaving that laser crewman alive. I then finished first phase at my leisure.

Second phase I beamed in my guys to kill off the weapons again, and then take out their drone and shields. When the power surge warning comes out I get ready to cloak - and hit it once the swarm of drones comes out. Rinse and repeat.

Final phase, same thing. Cloak when it fires its 'power surge' lasers so they miss, and take out its systems. Since you killed all the crew except that one guy, what is normally a boarding phase is now much easier. If you kill all the crew the ship turns into an AI controlled, which makes it a much tougher fight.

Gonna try some new strategies with the new ships I've unlocked!

Eurus

2012-09-20, 01:31 PM

The trick is in not letting it fire missiles, I find. Ion? Ion works if you have a steady flow of it. Boarders. In fact, if you have mark 2 Breach Bombs, those do a lovely job as well.

Really, just cripple it as much as you can. That's a lot of what it comes down to, I find.

Finally beat it. On easy, mind you, but baby steps. Had an Engi cruiser with two Burst Laser I, and an Anti-Ship Drone I and II. Didn't seem like it'd be enough, but I managed to wear it down. Lost three crew members in the process -- I had a bad habit of forgetting to recall my boarding parties when the ship changed forms -- but it worked. Pretty much just had to shoot the missile room to death with my lasers/boarding party.

MachineWraith

2012-09-20, 01:54 PM

Were I not entirely broke, this game would be my first purchase. Alas, I spent the last of my spendin' cash on the Reaper minis on Kickstarter, and am waiting on a direct deposit paycheck (that was supposed to go through on the 15th :smallmad:)

ex cathedra

2012-09-20, 02:59 PM

I just made the most amazing ship I have ever made in this game.

I also got my first victory on one of the Zoltan Cruisers; I think it was Layout B, the Noether. Yeah, I totally agree, and I think it might be because Zoltan Shield + >50% evade chance + stealth just makes you ridiculously hard to damage.

And, as it happens, I also had stealth weapons on that playthrough.

Cikomyr

2012-09-20, 03:26 PM

Just won my very first game with the Kestrel!

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp86/SolkaTruesilver/WeaponLoadout_zpsa07b0188.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp86/SolkaTruesilver/Upgrades_zpsbf438e63.jpg

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp86/SolkaTruesilver/Crew_zps8839e266.jpg

It's funny, I often manage to win games I get achievement with. In that case, it was "United Federation", with crewmen of all species.

The Fire Beam is soooo bad. I sometimes would end up crippling ships' weaponry and set them on fire, and then stop my weapons to just let the fire run.. and run... and run....

And watch...

http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp86/SolkaTruesilver/RebelOnFire_zps641cbc42.jpg

Zanfib

2012-09-20, 09:39 PM

Some people just want to watch ships burn.

iyaerP

2012-09-21, 10:28 AM

So I bought this the other day and spent the last two days playing nothing else.

So far have unlocked the Torus A&B, the Stealth ship (that I can't use to save my life), the Federation cruiser A&B, both of which rock the house, and the super secret special ??? ship.

Crystal rock ship. Obtained via stasis pod event quest chain. Also, the weapons that you aquire in the process of doing said mission are gamebreakingly good. The only reason I didn't beat the Flagship that run is because all repair nodes were overrun by rebels, so I couldn't heal up from my measly 8 hp before facing him for phase 3, and I died to super-beam. Regardless, I haven't actually had a chance to USE the crystal ship yet as getting it was my last run before bed last night and I am at work now.

Only one victory so far, but I have managed to face and fail at the flagship at least 6 out of my 20-something times, twice I even managed to get that far on normal. Once with the kestral, once with the Fed Cruiser.

I tried the mad hobo run, but died to boarders in the cabin, and with an engie crew-man....... yeah, we all know how that fight ends.

Badgerish

2012-09-23, 10:27 AM

Unlocked the Rock, Engi-B (got all 3 achievements) and Federation cruisers all in the same run! (on easy, but hey)

Loving this game, although I wish it was a little more open/lass random (e.g. having more options for configeration at the start. unlocking ships does this, I suppose)

Go, Mantis boarding party!

Grif

2012-09-23, 10:31 AM

Is it my incredibly bad luck, or is Anti-Ship or Beam Drone Mk II even available? Do they even exist? I have yet to see them on my 20 odd playthough. :smallannoyed:

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-23, 10:35 AM

Is it my incredibly bad luck, or is Anti-Ship or Beam Drone Mk II even available? Do they even exist? I have yet to see them on my 20 odd playthough. :smallannoyed:

anti-ship IIs exist, no clue if there's a II on beam drones.

iyaerP

2012-09-23, 10:39 AM

So last night I did the Crazy Hermit run. I was amazed and quite pleased to get all the way to the rebel flagship where I ultimately died having dealt...... ZERO DAMAGE! The biggest problem was having NO guns other than the starting two up until one sector before the finale, I picked up a halbard beam that I was never able to power because I didn't have enough scrap because I couldn't kill anything because I had no FRACKING GUNS. Oh, and I had a beam drone, but those are pretty much just trash anyway.

Had a couple close calls with mantis and rebel boarders, but thankfully, airlock shenannegins pulled me through.

I don't think I would have made it nearly as far as I did without maxxing out shields and cloaking device, but I never saw any weapons for sale when I could afford them and not fuel/repairs, and only that one drop at the very end. Still, was a good run even if not technically successful.

pics below

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/577842195739884127/C9C0CA205739E163F95A03AF8A97E3C698556731/
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/577842195739886849/8173AAB144810B5D5CDF03D892D17B5A5F2DE191/

hobbitkniver

2012-09-23, 10:41 AM

Finally beat the game with the Kestrel. They weren't kidding when they said Easy mode was easier.

Grif

2012-09-23, 10:49 AM

Eurus

2012-09-23, 04:48 PM

Is it my incredibly bad luck, or is Anti-Ship or Beam Drone Mk II even available? Do they even exist? I have yet to see them on my 20 odd playthough. :smallannoyed:

I got an anti-ship II the other day, but oddly it didn't seem that much different than a I. A little better, yeah, but for twice the power consumption I expected something a little more impressive.

Cogwheel

2012-09-23, 08:51 PM

I got an anti-ship II the other day, but oddly it didn't seem that much different than a I. A little better, yeah, but for twice the power consumption I expected something a little more impressive.

While it doesn't hit any harder, I find that it fires much faster.

thegurullamen

2012-09-23, 11:35 PM

Semi-successful day. Beat game on easy, unlocked kes b, fed, stealth and zoltan ships. Almost got the rock ship, but those stubborn jerks died to fires caused by the flares--hard to warp away when your engines have been melted by constant fire. Found the crystal pod twice, never got it to the zoltans in time. And I don't use the teleporter, so unlocking mantiss is going to be difficult.

Most recent run was with the fed. Was going well until I hit the nebula with the slugs with the inhibitors. Chose to lose oxygen (since shields and weapons were both necessary for me to win), but that ship must have had a 100% evade rate. Never did any damage to it and it crippled my engines until my crew that wasn't on life support asphyxiated. Human died bringing the engines back up and another died manning the airless helm and piloting the ship out of there with one hp--only for the ship to be boarded by slugs at the next beacon. And they landed on the opposite end of the ship from my half-dead mantiss--across an airless corridor.

"Our ship was destroyed, so we're taking yours!" they said, taking aim and firing. I could only watch in horror as they blew up my sensors, taking out the ship's last hp and killing us all. Slugs. Such stupid sons of--

Cogwheel

2012-09-24, 07:57 AM

http://oi48.tinypic.com/1zzq4pu.jpg

http://oi50.tinypic.com/nzvys.jpg

http://oi47.tinypic.com/2zs2ych.jpg

http://oi48.tinypic.com/m8lf7l.jpg

Ho hum.

Volatar

2012-09-24, 08:19 AM

snip

Ho hum.

And you didn't even need to eject the warp core to do it.

factotum

2012-09-24, 10:26 AM

How on earth did you manage to get so many fires burning on the thing when you don't have any dedicated fire-starting weapons?

Rustic Dude

2012-09-24, 11:05 AM

Crew killed because of breaches on the hull + Heavy laser(It has a chance to start some fires)=Infernoship

Also, congratulations Cogwheel. That is some happy crazy space hermit.

BRC

2012-09-24, 11:26 AM

The Space Hermit LIVES!

I won for the first time last night with the Engi Ship. I mainly used an Anti-ship Drone I and a Defense Mk II, with a system repair drone on standby. Weapons were the Ion Mk II, a Burst Laser II, and a Breach Bomb.

Between the Ion and the Lasers, I could keep their shields down, letting the AS drone do it's work. Breach Bomb handled those systems that especially bugged me. The Defense Drone (Mk II defense drone is a wonderful thing) and three layers of shielding meant basically nothing could touch me except borders, and the Engi Ship's layout combined with fully upgraded blast doors and a two-man one-mantis security team handled that (Venting the atmosphere is a wonderful thing).

Cogwheel

2012-09-24, 11:26 AM

Crew killed because of breaches on the hull + Heavy laser(It has a chance to start some fires)=Infernoship

Also, congratulations Cogwheel. That is some happy crazy space hermit.

Actually I wiped the entire crew save Laser Guy with sniping at the end of phase 2. Only reason phase 3 was even remotely doable.

Sprinter

2012-09-25, 05:14 AM

How on earth did you manage to get so many fires burning on the thing when you don't have any dedicated fire-starting weapons?

Fire spreads by itself without crew to put it out it only signifies how long it took him to kill the flagship.

Actually I wiped the entire crew save Laser Guy with sniping at the end of phase 2. Only reason phase 3 was even remotely doable.

Congrats! That was a smart tactics too. No evasion since he cant get to piloting and also no AI auto-repairing everything.

Had a challenging run with type B stealth ship took me over dosen times to actualy win with this ship on normal. No shields and Glaive beam takes too long to charge more then twice as long as your cloaking lasts. Hardest ship type to win on normal by now and im only missing slug and secrit ships now. Eventualy i swapped the glaive beam for burst laser mk III and halbeard <3 this combo.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/918989594570431387/9935FE3249EF94D47DFBEB0EDF93D6FD96396712/

shadow_archmagi

2012-09-25, 08:22 AM

Sprinter

2012-09-25, 09:43 AM

Had by first Normal win on my 37th playthrough, using the Kestrel.

Burst Laser 2, Halberd Beam, Fire-Starter, and Ion gun.

Ion plus burst laser is just enough to drop four shields if nobody misses (or if the anti-ship drone can be bothered to help) which opens up a chance for the halberd and fires to start, and then after that they don't generally get back up to four shields.

Congrats Kestrel is well armed starting ship think only red tail (type B) is better but other people prefer engi cruiser Torrus.

With halberd you can actualy start firing even if there is one miss as it does damage through one point of shield. Which is very OP. only glaive beam can go through 2 points of shields but its charge time is 25s which makes it actualy worse weapon as it gives crew chance to repair damaged systems back to operatonal before it fires again.

shadow_archmagi

2012-09-25, 04:46 PM

Congrats Kestrel is well armed starting ship think only red tail (type B) is better but other people prefer engi cruiser Torrus.

With halberd you can actualy start firing even if there is one miss as it does damage through one point of shield. Which is very OP. only glaive beam can go through 2 points of shields but its charge time is 25s which makes it actualy worse weapon as it gives crew chance to repair damaged systems back to operatonal before it fires again.

Oh, yeah, I was totally doing that. Heck, any ship with a decent evade chance WOULD generally only lose three shields to the bombardment, so I'd have to halberd their shield generator down before I could firebeam.

iyaerP

2012-09-26, 06:40 AM

Actually I wiped the entire crew save Laser Guy with sniping at the end of phase 2. Only reason phase 3 was even remotely doable.

See, the time I tried to do that, he mysteriously died between phases 2 and three, and phase 3 was AI ship. And I think the one I left alive was the beam laser guy. The rest I killed with my crystalman boarders. That fight ended up being my second win ever. I still only have two, but now my win:loss ratio is merely 1:15 rather than 1:25.

Cogwheel

2012-09-26, 06:53 AM

That explains it. Beam and drone bay are the two things it loses between phase 2 and 3, so the room he was in no longer existed.

iyaerP

2012-09-26, 07:19 AM

I don't see what the fuss about the AI-controlled version of the boss is anyway. I had less problems with it than with the normal version to be honest. Of course, the ship I was fighting the boss with had a maxxed out all systems except for drones. Didn't have those, but still, seeing as the first system I got was teleporter, and crystal boarders make just about any fight a joke, I was drowning in scrap by the end, and had gotten to cherrypick my weapons. I ended up fighting with the starting two crystal guns, a burst laser II, and the Pegasus missile launcher. I think. I didn't take a screenshot of that run for some reason.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-26, 10:00 AM

I don't see what the fuss about the AI-controlled version of the boss is anyway.
The fuss about AI-controlled flagship is that it self-repairs, so you have to keep tagging the shields/missile turret to keep it disabled. Leave a single guy in the laser turret alive, and they stay dead.

Chen

2012-09-26, 10:17 AM

The fuss about AI-controlled flagship is that it self-repairs, so you have to keep tagging the shields/missile turret to keep it disabled. Leave a single guy in the laser turret alive, and they stay dead.

Except, as mentioned in phase 3 that means the AI takes over since the laser pod gets destroyed. Frankly its easier to leave the main crew alive, take out all the weapon pods and just target the drone control in phase 2 and whatever you want in phase 3 to win.

NEO|Phyte

2012-09-26, 10:25 AM

Except, as mentioned in phase 3 that means the AI takes over since the laser pod gets destroyed. Frankly its easier to leave the main crew alive, take out all the weapon pods and just target the drone control in phase 2 and whatever you want in phase 3 to win.

The laser turret, not the beam turret. Laser is middle left, and thus stays until the end.

Tome

2012-09-26, 10:42 AM

Whoo! Got my first victory.

I used the Engi ship and picked up a teleporter and cloak. My weapons were... not significant. Burst Laser I, Fire Beam and the starting Ion gun. Two Anti-Ship I drones and one Defence II.

I opened by turtling up and sending my boarding party to silence the missile launcher, then had them steadily take out all of the gunners save the the centre-left one with the laser. I left him alive so the AI wouldn't take over. At that point, I just had to murder the rest of the crew and finish the blasted thing off - the starting ion gun on it's own can, with a decent operator, fire fast enough to bring down the shields if they're unmanned.

The second stage went similar, leaving the remaining crewman alive. I did use the cloak to dodge the power surges though. Same for the third stage.

Turtle-and-board appears to be a pretty decent tactic. :smallbiggrin:

iyaerP

2012-09-26, 10:52 AM

Yeah, the starting engi ion gun is literally one of the best in the game. Super short cooldown means that once you target their shields, they will never come back up unless you have a horrible string of misses.

DemonicAngel

2012-09-26, 03:43 PM

so I just lost, but I see it as a win. fgot to the second stage (finally) on easy. and unlocked two new ships, the stealth and the mantis one. two really god points, i believe.

so yeah. this game's awesome!

hobbitkniver

2012-09-26, 05:38 PM

I got my second win today with the Kestrel and I remembered to take a screenshot this time, but when I looked at the screenshot, it showed me my desktop as if FTL was minimized. I'm not sure why it did this, is anyone else having this problem?

iyaerP

2012-09-26, 05:52 PM

I don't know where you downloaded the game from, but if you are launching thru steam, always use F12 for screenshots. Saves to your harddrive AND the steam cloud.

hobbitkniver

2012-09-26, 08:18 PM

I got my third win just now with the Kestrel again. I never realized how easy it was if you just stack burst lasers.

Eurus

2012-09-26, 09:28 PM

I got my third win just now with the Kestrel again. I never realized how easy it was if you just stack burst lasers.

Yeah, it's kind of hilarious how effective burst lasers can be. My only wins have still been combining burst lasers + attack drones for moar dakka.

hobbitkniver

2012-09-26, 09:31 PM

Yeah, it's kind of hilarious how effective burst lasers can be. My only wins have still been combining burst lasers + attack drones for moar dakka.

I find it's better to play the whole game planning for the end. Stacking burst laser and cloaking seems to do it for me.

Skios

2012-09-28, 01:57 PM

I had an incredible run with the Engi ship today, right up until I had to fight the flagship. I stacked three anti-ship drones on top of a fully upgraded shield, a stage two cloak and stage two doors. The few seconds of relief that the cloak bought me was incredibly useful, as it was usually just enough time to get my shields back up and reposition my crew as the situation dictated. I was also amazed at how good my build was at handling boarding parties, on top of the usual Engi upgrade that heals them throughout the ship. Most of the times I killed them off simply by opening the airlocks and forcing them to struggle through my blast doors. Plugging away at enemy shields with my ion cannon to clear a path for my drones worked pretty well right up until the flagship, where my inability to focus my offence ended up killing me.

BobVosh

2012-09-29, 08:08 AM

I think I have a problem. 38 hours of this game. And I just can't unlock the rocks or mystery ship >.<

hobbitkniver

2012-09-29, 08:51 AM

I think I have a problem. 38 hours of this game. And I just can't unlock the rocks or mystery ship >.<

I know what you mean. The first few runs I had I almost got the mystery ship, but I haven't been able to even start it since then.

BobVosh

2012-09-29, 09:24 AM

Heh, I've gotten the pod a lot. In fact one run I even had 3 of the dang things.

MachineWraith

2012-09-29, 03:23 PM

So I unlocked the Crystalline Cruiser earlier today, and on my first run with it, made it to the boss without ever having been taken to even 75% damage. I had maxed dodge chance, a fully upgraded cloak, max shields, a repair arm, heavy blast doors... you name it, I probably had it.

Except weapons. I never lucked into a weapon as a reward and never found a store that was selling weapons when I had scrap. A few times I thought, "I'll save my scrap for the next store," but when I found the next store, no weapons for sale. If I didn't spend the scrap, I fell behind defensively, so I'd spend it, then find a weapons store.

End result, I took on the final boss with my two starter weapons, and thus was completely unable to damage it, ever.

Bad freaking luck (and planning) :smallmad:

TechnoScrabble

2012-09-29, 07:56 PM

I just had a run with an all mantis and rock crew on board the Basilisk, wound up finding a breach launcher, a pegasus launcher, and a hull missile, and didn't use any of them until the final stage of the boss fight, after my 3 mantis/1 rockman/ 1 boarding drone killed all the crew.

It was AWESOME.

Sprinter

2012-10-01, 05:24 AM

Btw none mentioned it yet but patfinding can be now enabled in Options (its disabled by default).You need to have FTL version 1.2+. Steam has autoupdate. but you have to redownload non steam versions.

I think I have a problem. 38 hours of this game. And I just can't unlock the rocks or mystery ship >.<

Well thats not only your problem i am at 100+ hours now with 22 wins still have to unlock slug and secrit ship. I was actualy close to unlocking slug ship few times but i didnt read spoilers. ( Choose wrong answers but next time i get it) :smallbiggrin:

Brumski

2012-10-01, 11:51 AM

I think I have a problem. 38 hours of this game. And I just can't unlock the rocks or mystery ship >.<

Those are the two I'm still missing also, after...IDK, alot of playing. Got the pod twice, and the crystal crewman once.

SlyJohnny

2012-10-01, 12:35 PM

You guys that are having problems:

1) Don't rush for the exit. There's no bonus for outrunning the fleet, it resets each sector. Stay and explore to the last possible moment. If the fleet catches you at the jump point, it's probably not the end of the world, but you WILL die if you rush through from sector to sector without being as prepared as you can be.

2) Oxygen isn't really that important. Yes, I know that breathing is habit-forming, but it takes a long ass time for 100% oxygen to deplete and for rooms to start to lose oxygen. If your weapons and your oxygen room are both broken, consider repairing the weapons now so that you can survive to fix the life support later.

3) If you're having problems with boarders, fight in the med bay. Persuade them to come to med bay by opening the other rooms to vacuum. Vacuum is also a good solution to fire; you should use vacuum to handle any fire larger than one square. Try not to open the whole ship into space, either, just the minimum number of sections you need to persuade the boarders to come fight you in med bay. You'll feel like an idiot when fire destroys your door controls before being vented into space, and then your crew asphyxiates before they can fix them and seal the ship again.

4) If you're STILL having problem with fires and boarders, upgrade your doors.

5) Be prepared to run away. More importantly, be prepared to run away before it becomes necessary. You don't have to kill EVERY ship you come accross. If you run into a ship that has a loadout that makes you go "...awww, crap, really?" then it's probably not worth it; let it slide.

psilontech

2012-10-01, 01:46 PM

I've absolutely fallen in love with the B-Variant Mantis Cruiser and its four-person teleporter.
You have to get a ~little~ lucky to pick up crew and a few decent weapons, but when you hit the jackpot it's easy street all the way to the boss.

3x Mantis and one Crystal boarding party all popping into whatever 4x room I can find generally decimates the entire crew before they can get a second volley of weapons fire off. Sitting pretty on a breach bomb just in case they have a medical facility aboard.

Found two Heavy Laser II and a Burst Laser I AND a weapon preigniter.

All I need to do is max out my reactor and engines and I think I'm ready for boss time with two jumps to go till the last stand.

*Edit: Beat all three forms of the final boss, taking a grand total of three hull damage.
/sigh
Time to move on to normal and stop being a little girl.

BobVosh

2012-10-06, 06:50 AM

Mantis type B is superb. Probably my favorite configuration, mainly due to extra scrap for boarding.

Kizor

2012-10-07, 02:39 AM

Welp. My type B Kestrel, Vacuum Exposure, just topped the high score list but still lost. I bought a mark 2 defense drone instead of upgrading my cloak. Timing my cloaks was absolutely paramount, so I promptly blew it and the flagship's droneswarm tore me apart.

The defense drone is glorious against the flagship, though. It fires on incoming lasers and ion blasts as well as missiles, blunting the tip of incoming salvoes in a game that's all about peak power and overwhelming defenses. It's easily worth another layer of shields.

Key words being "against the flagship." The drone doesn't prioritize missiles over ions, and people have been saying the mark II's more trouble than it's worth.

psilontech

2012-10-07, 08:59 AM

BobVosh

2012-10-07, 03:39 PM

Or powering another mark 1 def drone. Against the boss I am very fond of having 2 mark 1 drones.

Archonic Energy

2012-10-08, 04:32 AM

I've never much cared for the Def. Drone MK II, myself. End-game time those two extra points of energy compared to the Mk. I could be doing something very important. Jumping Cloak up to level three, maxing out standard evasion, getting shields up to four, or really several vitally important systems.

oxygen...
I must admit that medi bay and O2 are the first things I turn off when I NEED more power.
I figure that if I survive I'll turn them back on and if I don't then we won't need them.

The Succubus

2012-10-08, 05:05 AM

How do I unlock the Slug, Mantis and Rock ships? I've only managed to get the Kestrel, Basic Engi ship and Basic Zoltan ship.

Archonic Energy

2012-10-08, 05:13 AM

How do I unlock the Slug, Mantis and Rock ships? I've only managed to get the Kestrel, Basic Engi ship and Basic Zoltan ship.
special events that use a slug/mantis/rock crewmember... it'll happen.

i'm waiting to get this pod person out...

polity4life

2012-10-08, 06:12 AM

Sprinter

2012-10-08, 07:16 AM

How do I unlock the Slug, Mantis and Rock ships? I've only managed to get the Kestrel, Basic Engi ship and Basic Zoltan ship.

After unlocking and winning with both slug ships i got them all except secrit ship. All 3 ships can be unlocked only by triggering special events on respective homeworlds. You should check red/purple dots on map looking for homeworlds. Mantis / Rock = red Slug homeworld nebula = purple.

For more hints check spoiler

Slug ship unlock is pretty tricky. First you need find ship encounter in slug home nebula. Make sure you beat them enough so they offer what is in store as surrender (killing crew wont trigger surender option so dont do it). If this is the right encounter they will offer you experimental weapon (anti-bio beam) Take the other offer instead they will tell you place where slug ship prototype is. (quest marker in next sector) Make sure you have either slug crew member or improved sensors before you get there (2 bars are enough). When entering beacon with quest marker take the option to tail them. Then choose the blue option (sensors/slug crew). You get to final combat with slug ship. Ship will try to get away destroy it or kill the crew to get the slug Cruiser.

Mantis ship needs some prep work. You need to have crew teleporter (slug type B starts with one but its a challenging ship and without med bay. Med bay cost only 60 scrap compared to 75 for teleporter) and upgraded med bay (2 bars are enough)

On mantis homeworld search for encounter with pirate with long name starting wth K (his name on mantis cruiser descryption in ships list). Hail him. When combat starts kill the crew fast. Do not to destroy the ship! Take the blue option (teleporter needed) then another one (advanced med bay). If you didn it correctly mantis Cruiser is unlocked.

Rock Ship is easiest of these 3 ships. On Rock homeworld search for encounter where captain of ship ask you what are you willing to do. Reply Were going to safe them or die trying. Quest marker will be added on map it will be an encounter with same ship close to the sun. You must stay here until they jump away (dont kill them) . You will get another quest marker in next sector just fly there to get the ship and free rock plating augument for current ship (if rock homeworld is in sector 7 you are out of luck )

special events that use a slug/mantis/rock crewmember... it'll happen.

i'm waiting to get this pod person out...

Actualy none of them require slug/mantis/rock crewmember. Atleast i didnt have slug or rock crew while unlocking them.

psilontech

2012-10-08, 08:57 AM

http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Ships

Info on how to get all the ships.

hobbitkniver

2012-10-08, 09:05 AM

This game boned me pretty bad on my best run yet. I had the Kestral type A, my one of two ship options since I can't unlock any others, and I took down phase 1 of the capital ship. During phase 2, the game crashed. I thought I would have to go back to where I left off a couple systems back, but nope! The entire game was gone.

Now I have had such a remarkable stretch of awful luck that I don't even want to touch the game for some time. It's a shame too since it was so fun.

Yeah, I've had similar problems. It treats it as if you committed suicide so that you can't just close the game when you start to lose. I think it's kind of a weird paranoia on the part of the devs. If I really wanted to cheat, theres better and more efficient ways.

BobVosh

2012-10-08, 09:46 PM

Yeah, I've had similar problems. It treats it as if you committed suicide so that you can't just close the game when you start to lose. I think it's kind of a weird paranoia on the part of the devs. If I really wanted to cheat, theres better and more efficient ways.

It isn't really paranoia, it is just how roguelikes are. Permadeath is kind of a big thing for them.

hobbitkniver

2012-10-08, 10:29 PM

It isn't really paranoia, it is just how roguelikes are. Permadeath is kind of a big thing for them.

But really, if they cared that much about it, why did they make it so easy to cheat in other ways?

Xiander

2012-10-09, 02:43 AM

I am really having a blast with this game.

I beat it one time on easy with the kestrel. and two times on hard, with different versions of the Zoltan ship (zoltan shields really rock).

Now I am failing miserably with the stealth ship... I need shields to function.

Sprinter

2012-10-09, 03:19 AM

But really, if they cared that much about it, why did they make it so easy to cheat in other ways?

If you refer to save+quit feature it was added in just one month before release. Devs didnt planed any saving features but after 2 months of peoples constant nagging (most people dont have 2-3 hours uninterupted time to finish game) they added save+quit and if this game wasnt kickstarted there would be no way to save game at all.

BobVosh

2012-10-09, 05:38 AM

I just had the most lonely guy win the game. Zolton type 2 ship, lost 2 zoltans early game vs sun (stupid things go through zolton shields). Sector 2 I get a rock who mans the weapons. Sector 3 my rock dies killing off the last of a mantis boarding crew.

Sector 3-7 I never get a crew member. Most of the time I have my only person in shields with a fully upgraded autopilot. (zoltan, needed the energy bonus) I actually won with only that guy. (2 burst 2 lasers, pike beam, and ion blast 1, 2 defense 1 drones)

Most of the game I had to cower behind fully upgraded doors with no oxygen to kill boarders. I can't believe he never died, only guy I have had at least 1 star in 4 skills. (Repairs, 2 star shields, pilot, weapons)

hobbitkniver

2012-10-09, 04:10 PM

If you refer to save+quit feature it was added in just one month before release. Devs didnt planed any saving features but after 2 months of peoples constant nagging (most people dont have 2-3 hours uninterupted time to finish game) they added save+quit and if this game wasnt kickstarted there would be no way to save game at all.

No, I'm referring to the fact that your saves are really easy to access if you want to cheat.

1. Play the game and then use the "save and quit".
2. Copy the saves into a different folder.
3. Oh no, I have died!
4. Paste them back into the folder you got them from.

After that, it'll be at exactly the point where you were when you copied the saves. If you want to cheat, go right ahead. Aside from the fact that many trainers exist as well.

factotum

2012-10-10, 01:36 AM

That's plain old save-scumming and has been a recognised method of cheating in Roguelikes pretty much as long as they've existed...it's nothing new to FTL.

Totally Guy

2012-10-10, 07:57 AM

I downloaded the game at the weekend. I'm pretty impressed with it! I've been playing in easy mode and after 15 plays I've made it to the boss twice. Both times I beat the first boss stage only to be killed by the second.

Only unlocked the engi torus so far. But I can't seem to do well with it. All of a sudden I have to keep running away from everything.

The guys that made this game totally get it. The game has pausing free and useful. The game drives you forward with the encroach of baddies so the pressure ramps up right. You get all time you need to repair rooms after an encounter so you get a cycle of tension and release. And the "delete-your-save" thing means you've got to play the hand you get dealt.

psilontech

2012-10-10, 08:13 AM

I downloaded the game at the weekend. I'm pretty impressed with it! I've been playing in easy mode and after 15 plays I've made it to the boss twice. Both times I beat the first boss stage only to be killed by the second.

A cloak or an obscenely high base evasion score is required for both Stage II and III. Power-wise, the cloak is generally more power-efficient for the power surges, but the engines are better or dodging less terrifying things.

Only unlocked the engi torus so far. But I can't seem to do well with it. All of a sudden I have to keep running away from everything.

Deploy your anti-ship drone. Set your ion cannon to auto-fire and alternate between taking out enemy shields (so your drone can do hull damage) and enemy weapons.

The Succubus

2012-10-10, 08:48 AM

Eurus

2012-10-10, 09:17 AM

That's plain old save-scumming and has been a recognised method of cheating in Roguelikes pretty much as long as they've existed...it's nothing new to FTL.

Right. So the idea is that it's kind of dumb to not have crash-save measures in the first place, because anyone who would close out of their session and reload to avoid a losing battle could do the same thing anyway by save-scumming.

factotum

2012-10-10, 09:39 AM

What makes you think there *are* crash-save measures? What might have happened is that the game crashed while updating the save and thus corrupted it beyond recovery. I'm pretty sure I had the game crash on me while in the final sector and I only lost about 2 jumps' worth of progress.

Thiyr

2012-10-11, 02:30 AM

One of my favourite tactics at the moment is getting the Rock Cruiser and a teleporter as soon as humanly (or rockly) possible. If I manage to get it in sector 1, I can pound my way through the crews on early ships and get mountains of scrap. Then I just pump shields and look for breach/ion/ fire bombs. Extra points in teleport and med bay also make the "avalanche" tactic more viable.

I like doing the same on pretty much any ship with ion weapons from the get go (used to do it with the torus ASAP, now I do it with zoltan B). Enough ion weaponry and a boarding crew makes short work of anything that needs a crew, and keeping one normal weapon as backup for drones is nice as well (after i've farmed up combat levels on the drone, that is. level 2 tele will get most crew in and out fast enough that they don't die and gain 1xp per trip at no risk.)

The Succubus

2012-10-18, 08:55 AM

DAAAAMN YOOOOU FLAGSHIP! *shakes fist*

Almost got my very first kill - a type B rock cruiser with Burst III and two Burst II lasers, Defence Drone II and a hefty amount of shielding. Reached Phase 3 when my ship started getting boarded. Kept pounding away while my crew fought tooth and nail to keep the little b******s back. Flagship down to 3 hull points, one more volley would have done it and then....

Boom.

I was a very sad panda. :smallfrown:

psilontech

2012-10-19, 12:42 AM

Anyone using or looking forward to any interesting mods?

Tebryn

2012-10-19, 02:16 AM

Anyone using or looking forward to any interesting mods?

I wasn't aware that was even going to be a thing?

The Succubus

2012-10-19, 06:15 AM

Sprinter

2012-10-19, 09:00 AM

Yay! Federation Cruiser unlocked at last!

Funnily enough, I actually did this using the intial starting ship rather than any of the ones I had unlocked so far. My current goals are:

* Unlock Crystal ship
* Unlock Mantis ship
* Unlock Slug ship
* Get further than Sector 3 with the Stealth

With regards to that last one - anyone have any ideas about how to make it effective?

My strategy for stealth ship is :
1, collect atleast 100 scrap as fast as possible.
2, find shop sell titan case augument for 50 scrap
3, buy shield for 150 scrap.
its not as easy as it sounds and yes you need to do it before sector 3.

nhbdy

2012-10-21, 03:56 PM

Soralin

2012-10-21, 06:52 PM

So got into this game recently and from what I've read, my strategy to pump the reactor to keep all the things powered at once seems to be unoptimized (based on what others have posted) and thus I was wondering what sort of "power debt" is acceptable, and what people like to prioritize?
Generally I leave the medbay unpowered when I'm not using it. You can pull a bit of power off of the engines if you need it, or the oxygen if you just need something temporarily. Crew teleport can share power with other stuff when it's not needed. Other than those, I typically try to keep enough power around to keep all of the stuff that I'm going to be running all the time, powered.

factotum

2012-10-22, 01:32 AM

Plus, if you're in severe power debt to start with, you are REALLY going to suffer if you jump into an ion storm nebula. The most I'll do is leave the medbay unpowered and have the engines 1 unit off maximum.

Sprinter

2012-10-22, 05:04 AM

If you want to play on Normal then you always have to count with some power debt. I leave medbay unpowered unless there is boarding party on my ship or some of my crew members are seriously wounded. I even turn the oxygen off at start of battle. Most of times its not a problem since it takes few minutes to drop bellow 25% but fire and hull breaches drain oxygen fast.

Switching power bars when needed between engines and shield (in fight against missile ship shields are useless and if you have enough shield to tank whatever lasers they have you dont need much engine power.

Combinations of diferent weapons are more tricky but you can add more evasion after they shoot a missile at you because it takes them a few seconds to reach your ship.

I even turn off weapons in later sectors when i have cloaking, teleport and drones. For example if im boarding enemy ship and want to kill crew i usualy disable enemy medbay (if they have one) turn off weapon turn on teleport send in boarding party. Also if i need to power cloaking i borrow some bars from engines with experienced crew cloaking has nearly 100% evade even on low engine power.

nhbdy

2012-10-22, 01:40 PM

Woo! Got my first win today, great run. Was a torus that by the end had the following setup:

Weapons: Ion blast II, Ion blast I, Pike
Shields: max
Teleporter: 2
Cloak: 3
Drones: anti-ship I, anti personnel I, system repair I
Engines: 5
Augments: engi med bay, stealth weapons, and the one that buffs reload, forgot the name

Also unlocked layout B and the slug ship this playthrough, man this game is awesome

On the flagship things got interesting, as I only had one boarder (due to me boarding a mantis ship and losing my previous team... yeah not one of my brighter moments) who was a rock... I'm just glad that the flagship's design actually works against it in that sense as it allows just one boarder to disable their weapon systems!