/v/ - Video Games

>>13536811

preinstalled on every windows computer since 95?

>>13536811

Impossible to win?

>>13536786

Your chances of losing due to RNG in FTL are very low. People have won like 40 games in a row on hard mode with a variety of ships. Those who complain about RNG need to stop sucking dick at the game.

>>13537077

>Freecell

>Difficult or impossible

Filtered

I seriously hope you guys play with the C&C weapons pack mod.

>>13537077

I bet you're the kind of guy that posts "I used to play minesweeper when the dial-up bugged out, even though I never understood the rules XD"

>>13536786

Challenging yourself in a disfavorable run is part of the fun. Roguelikes always depend on luck, sometime along the way you'll find something to blame

>>13537377

So far the only time I've been able to win was with 2 Flaks and a Halberd

>>13537810

To be fair, it's hard not to win with 2 Flaks and a Halberd.

Flaks are probably the best guns in the game. It used to be Burst Mk.II's before the expansion. (The saying went something like this: "The best complement to a Mk.II is another Mk.II. The best complement to two Mk.II's is yet another Mk.II. The best complement to three Mk.II is yet another Mk.II again."). But now flaks have them beat. Especially that nifty little thing the Cruos gets.

So how is the mod scene with FTL? I know about the captain's edition, but are there any other neat mods that don't break the game?

>>13539245

This is a quality shitpost

>>13537128

Funny how I just lost entirely to it though.

>Zoltan A

>Take only like 3 hull damage by sector 3

>Intruder random event in nebula sector

>4 warp in into medbay

>By the time the pilot gets there, medbay is down

>My 3 zoltans are predictably getting rekt by their 2 mantis 1 human team

>Meanwhile, their OTHER human has destroyed O2

>shuffle zoltans trying to lure them out, they die trying to repair medbay

>rockman suffocates halfway from engines to O2

But yeah I know

<you didn't upgrade medbay past 2 in detriment of everything else: git gud

<you didn't hire more non-zoltans on the only store that offered crewmen way back on the first store, when your only other options were engis: git gud

<you didn't choose a non-nebula sector where intruder events are more common despite the fact that this run all available sector 3s were nebula sectors: git gud

<you didn't gamble on a few events with potentially negative outcomes that most likely would have ended your run back then, but could have given you scrap advantage so that this situation could have been mitigated with upgrades you would have only considered a sector or two further:git gud

>>13537377

FTL's rng IS shit though. Xcom gives you significantly more leeway to fuck up on your own if you neglect area control, for example. In many roguelikes you can research what kind of enemies are in a given area and what are their strengths, so you can prepare gear to mitigate them. Even if you find yourself in a shit situation, you can gamble on a teleport or similar to get you out of there. FTL will every so often just put you in situations you aren't prepared for. Your two options for that are preparing for everything (and dying in sector 7-8 because you can't afford better shields and weapon systems) or praying the RNG will randomly hand you the weapons and upgrades that optimize your ship.

>>13539342

>>By the time the pilot gets there, medbay is down

Confirmed for shit player. Generally, you should aggressively vent your ship. Specifically, run around with every door open, and as soon as they spawn, disable O2 and lock the door, so it doesn't regenerate. This is ESPECIALLY true with Zoltan A, since your guys are providing power instead of moving around.

Additionally, you can hop a crew in and out of medbay and an adjacent room with boarders and they'll alternate between shooting him and pathing to the door. I've killed 4 people with one crew and O2 damage doing just this.

tldr: RNG didn't fuck you, literally get good

>>13539356

>you should aggressively vent your ship.

Which i did. Not like it made any difference since medbay was where the intruders warped in. Yeah sure should have maxed medbay in sector 3.

>Additionally, you can hop a crew in and out of medbay and an adjacent room with boarders and they'll alternate between shooting him and pathing to the door. I've killed 4 people with one crew and O2 damage doing just this.

Because zoltans with 70 max HP will outlive O2 damage and attacks from humans and mantis with 100 max HP that are only taking O2 damage.

>>13537128

>Those who complain about RNG need to stop sucking dick at the game.

Do explain how to stop your gun from missing 80% of the time in the first 2 battles.

That's how my last game went before I stopped playing. Everything burning and breaking and oxygen generator constantly down while my guns and rockets just do not hit anything.

>TFW no mods that actually add and not replace ships, and no mods to add new Ayy Lmao races

>TFW still haven't unlcoekd fucking Crystals God Damn

>>13537128

>Your chances to losing to rng is low

Your chances of losing to rng is always 50/50, that's why it's fucking called RNG

At least when you play roguelikes like Binding of Issac etc skill can make up for shitty item rolls

Skill isn't going to help you when every encounter you have is PIRATES NEAR SUN PIRATES NEAR SUN PIRATES NEAR SUN PIRATES PLASMA STORM PIRATES NEAR SUN

Then you've reached sector 5 and you have literally no credits to your name because you spent every last fucking cent on repairs and you still don't have shields or anything else worth a fuck and the game rapes the shit out of you

But RNG is balanced right?

And that's all FTL boils down to, a very pretty and interactive quarter flipping simulator

Ladies and gentlemen, take your bets!

i played this game for 30 hours and still couldnt beat it. i gotta get good

RNG is part of the fun. The only real issue with RNG is that you unlock the Crystal Cruiser through some RIDICULOUS BULLSHIT RNG. But you can manage to get it otherwise, it just takes forever.

>>13537377

>Not Breach Bomb 2

That weapon is way too good. I've *accidentally* killed crews with it.

>>13536743

I like the game until the final boss. Then it's just sheer bullshit. You NEED level 3 cloaking to survive until the last phase, but also enough firepower to consistently damage the flagship. And if you don't have a drone or two blocking shots, you're going to have to manage fires, breeches, or ionized systems, but usually all 3 at the same time.

If any in the thread have some tips I would welcome them. I've gotten to the third phase of the flagship a few times but never beaten it

>>13539342

tbh you probably could have won just by having one of your zoltans stand next to the door controls, which gets you free doors 2 and would allow you to cycle airlocks to asphyxiate invaders to death. All you would need to fight is the guy in oxygen.

>>13540410

>Your chances of losing to rng is always 50/50

ALWAYS 50/50?

>>13540463

>You NEED level 3 cloaking

I often don't even get cloaking, and even then you just need level 1 to dodge the power surges.

>>13537377

All of the beams are pretty decent if you can get shields down.

>>13537377

>>will just fucking kill you if you arrive at the boss without cloak and shrap

What? All I need to beat the boss is hacking 2 and some kind of half-assed weapon setup.

>>13540503

I call bullshit. You need cloaking, I'll say you can get by with level 2, but level 1 doesn't give your weapons enough time to charge.

>>13540463

Biggest tip for the endgame is to buffer systems. Especially weapons. This means taking weapons to 10 even if you only use 8 or 9 power, this way 1 or 2 damage won't reset your weapons charging and cause a death spiral of you not being able to shoot the enemy back and disable their weapons.

>>13540532

>not realizing that the weapons shoot on the third phase regardless if anyone is inside or not

>>13540525

Do you go the entire game without upgrading your fucking shields or engines? Because you're just flat out fucking wrong.

>>13540540

>not realizing you have two whole other phases to kick shit in and conserve resources

>>13540525

You don't need to charge your weapons during cloak though. You don't even need cloaking at all, just tank a small bit of damage like someone who isn't a baby.

>>13540541

Nope. I lost a run with fully upgraded shields, engines, lvl 3 cloak, lvl 3 hack, 2 flak guns and a leto. That's when I uninstalled the game

>>13540546

>tank the power surge and weapons systems for 3 phases without cloaking

>it's just a bit of damage

Confirmed for talking out of your ass

>>13540492

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>just get mantises

nigger how

where the fuck do you find all those scraps to get the mantises in the first place

>>13540558

You have yet to prove how you don't need cloaking, or post some of your high scores if you're so good.

I'll wait.

>>13540564

>needing anything to kick ass

>>13540561

>what is evasion

>what is having high DPS to take enemies down quickly.

>>13540577

>just evade 300 million shots at once, nbd if ur a pro like me

>git gud lul

Confirmed again for talking out of your ass

>>13540549

The saddest part is that level 3 cloak is probably WORSE than level one against the boss. Level 1 cloak recharges at the speed needed to dodge the power surge attacks. If you use level 2 or 3 cloaking, you'll still be recharging when the next surge comes. And if you lost with fully upgraded shields and engines, then you seriously just blow ass at making decisions, because holy shit, you can afk and let the game play out, and you'd still survive for a few minutes.

>>13540587

>he thinks I'll read his nonsense without a highscore attached

le lol

>>13540584

You got me, if you roll the literal best weapon in the game, you can get by without cloaking. Bravo.

>>13540593

Okay, here's someone beating the final boss without any weapons. What now?

>>13540583

It's 10 shots. You can have level 4 shields and over 50% dodge rate. On average you'll take 1 damage, and you can kill the flagship before it fires a second time unless you have very poor weapons.

>>13540593

And time to filter, because you clearly have no intent to actually discuss the game, just to try and make your anal devastation feel better by convincing yourself the game is bad.

>>13540566

I literally wouldn't have thought that was possible. I guess I've never tried to just brute force the final boss beore by splooging it with damage. I always try to tactically take it out system by system. Getting firebombs and setting the ship on fire is the most satisfying thing you can do.

>>13540599

>final stage

>only one enemy crew

Not impressed that's cheesy as fuck

>>13536786

>oh wait, I just described all roguelikes

You've never played a single roguelike in your entire life. You've been lied to.

>>13540653

If you had the ability to read, you'd have noticed this:

https://imgur.com/a/seo5D

>>13540651

I've played at least two rogue likes, thank you

>>13540636

Are you really complaining that he used strategy to win the game?

>>13540653

The weapon doors only show up on hard mode. He might be playing on normal

>>13540628

>he still won't post a highscore

Damn, at least I can admit I'm bad at the game

>>13540640

>>13540666

Did he take them out with only 1 crew member and no weapons before softening it up to the point where it cannot do nothing already?

He's pretty much just slowly smacking down room by room a cripple that can't do shit at that point, I'd be impressed if he got him to that point with no weapons and only 1 crew member in the earlier stages that'd be amazing, but this is like tying up someone's arm and legs and then letting a 5 years old kid finish him off with a gun, there's no challenge there.

>>13540681

Yes, he did. He took out the weapons, then used Crystal Cody to lock down each of the rooms in the rest of the ship so he could beat everyone else to death.

>itt: the predictable virgin vs. the chad rng

>>13540690

Yeah, in my experience the glaive beam is schmuck bait. It seems great but usually the amount of power needed to use it is too taxing, at least for most of the game. Upgrading your weapons just to 4 power is costly, and instead of having multiple weapons that can do different shit, you get one weapon that takes way too long to charge. Though in the video, he had the preigniter which would have made it worth immediately as soon as he had that combo.

Personally I've found that crew teleporters are easily the best thing in the game. As long as you aren't a retard and get them killed, being able to even distract the enemy crew while you fuck them up is invaluable. I wish setting fires was a better strategy, it's way too fun but the payout is never as good as other things.

>>13540666

Or he might not be playing on normal.

>>13540690

>4 People can't even warp into the medbay, as only three people fit in there.

So maybe it was only 3 and the 4th warped in O2. I actually don't know. It was a nebula sector.

>No way they could have destroyed the medbay with your pilot sitting right next to it.

It wasn't right next to it. It was initially piloting, because you kind of need to do that to jump sectors. I paused to send each member roughly into interior rooms and then paused to send them to the medbay when the damage indicator confirmed it, it still wasn't fast enough.

>Also git gud at micromanaging your crew like the other anon said, this should not have been a problem for you.

I agree, intruder events should not be a problem, or at least less of a problem, with Zoltan shields, but they are because reasons.

>>13540690

>Anon… Did you play the tutorial?

Yes, but you clearly did not read my post.

>>13540716

Your statement is rendered invalid by this guy winning 39 games in a row. These are all on hard mode, it shouldn't even be possible to lose due to RNG on easy/medium.

>>13540731

Even if you have the power and scrap for it, it takes so long to charge too. I usually just stick with low power cost effective weapons like Flak I and Burst Laser II. Hacking can always take care of the flagship's shields.

Fire weapons are my all time favorite though.

>>13540759

>Your statement is rendered invalid by this guy winning 39 games in a row.

>This guy won X times in a row, hence he will win the X+1th time as well

Gambler's fallacy is a bitch.

>>13540756

But how do you die in the first two battles? I actually don't understand. Unless you mean it happened once or twice total. Because sure, sometimes the AI will randomly nail your weapons or something with the first salvo and turn it into a despair spiral, but that shit just is not common at all.

>>13540759

>Fire weapons are my all time favorite though.

I hate that they're random though. Burning a ship into a charcoal husk is the best, but fire beam will randomly not set the rooms on fire you wanted it to, and the firebomb will sometimes only set 1 fire, which is useless if they have more than one crew member. Plus, you get much more consistent results with breaching. I can't remember, are there and ships that start with fire weapons?

>>13540731

Glaive is great with infernal pre-igniter though, which is what the video had.

>>13540796

>You have to hit the center of the squares that rooms are made of in order to start a fire in that square

Oooooooh shit. I always thought that it would randomly decide if it was going to start a fire.

>>13540780

>But how do you die in the first two battles?

Exactly as I said; my weapons constantly failing to hit. I got to the last boss several times before that game.

Of course it doesn't happen often, but this whole "lol you just need to git gud" thing is bullshit when it comes to this game. You can get better at everything, but sometimes the RNG in this game will just not let you win.

I Love ftl, love captains mod even more.

Endless loot (randomized loot drops)

And randomized flagship are fun mods.

Sort of wish there was simpler "create your own ship" mod.

How can you even find two vulcans in one round and have enough power to drive both of them while powering all the other shit too, i bet the flagship wrecked your shit before you had a chance

>>13541282

If you can't win with two vulcans then you're just a shitter my dude

>>13541144

>Any starting conditions

This makes it fucking fun. It forces unusual and sub-optimal playstyles you would never use otherwise

>>13539481

All you had to do was lock them in medbay while draining the air from the nearest airlock. If you were retarded not to upgrade your doors before sector 2 it's your own fault. I rarely ever actually fight intruders on my ship because of this.

>>13540410

>Skill isn't going to help you when every encounter you have is PIRATES NEAR SUN PIRATES NEAR SUN PIRATES NEAR SUN PIRATES PLASMA STORM PIRATES NEAR SUN

>He doesn't run away after the 3rd time if his recources are running low

>He didn't get a far ranged sensor to prevent this if it was a problem

Also

>Implying 4 sun events are even in the same map

This literally never fucking happens. Sun events are usually limited to 2 per map if that. And even then your more likely to get a rock ship than a pirate.

>Then you've reached sector 5 and you have literally no credits to your name because you spent every last fucking cent on repairs

Don't get fucking hit retard.

>>13542930

Well most mps are new ships, some pretty fun gimmicks.

Captains edition mod is basically ftl2.

We are talking a TON of interesting weapons, missiles that can't be shot down, scatter lasers/missles that only damage hull, slow projectile flame casters.

Trading system, buy trade goods in the form of augments, each system type sells different goods and pays extra for a few select type. Buy luxury goodsat a civilian sector and sell those shinies in a pirate system for a big payoff!

Way more roleplay interactions. If you have a race specific augment you'll get specific options. Piloting a slug cruiser? You get no penalty from attacking an enemy that surrendered, playing as a zoltan ship? You can allow enemies to surrender according to the general system law (more bonuses, negotiate better deals with slave traders ect)

More system types and tons of new events.

Combat and roleplay augs.

A fleshed out time system. At empty nodes you have a plethora of options depending what you have on deck. You only get one per empty node. Have a mine layer weapon? Drop a few to slow the rebel advance, got a repair kit? Spend some time doing cheap repairs. Maybe chat up one of your crew, might just be lore or mauve a mission/event (gamble for scrap with a slug!)

Point is, check it out.

Flag ship randomiser does just that. You get a secret document at the beginning that tells you what the boss will have, you can great your run to counter him.

One of my flagships had a heavy ion, a flak ion, a flame laser, and a regular laser. it was a slaughter(for me)

>>13544006

I'm getting around to modding the game now. Took me less than 10 minutes. if you're at all experienced with load orders and mod runners it's a breeze.

>>13544006

What's the specific name of this mod(s)?

>>13544334

He said it right there, Captain's Edition.

Anyone make interesting ships with the customizable ship mod?

>>13544334

Open up faggot. 2 seconds on google. https://subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15663

Several hours of entertainment. I'm currently playing Infinite with Mantis B and having a good time. I'll post some screenshots as I go along. and hopefully I'll escape playing easy, I don't usually play it and have done Hard runs, but I've been to stressed recently to play anything else

I found that the best build was starting with an artillery beam and just focus on acquiring defence drones/upgrading your defences. That way you can play the long game and fuck up all your opposition. I haven't defeated the flagship though, because when it fucks off I didn't wait around in the same sector, which I probably should have done because I had to fuck off sharpish from a OOPS THERES THE REBEL FLEET event (and I had to save my drone parts so I got raped by missiles) and then I came back to fight the last iteration of the boss, only to get raped because I was on 13 hp.

>>13540796

>Killing the Rebel Flagship crew

>Not just leaving one guy alive and shooting things on opposite ends of the ship to make him run back and forth

My biggest problem is that when the huge update came out that added all the shit, it make the base game extremely hard, even if you turned off all the new content, the random encounters would remain making the game a lot harder.

>>13554183

>Not draining the ship of all oxygen and disabling everything except the medbay, forcing him to stay in there to not die as the shit breaks apart around him

>>13541144

Unironically this.

>>13536786

I'll admit that I cheat, mostly unlocking more power and shields to help through the first few zones. Tend to do better after that.

>>13540463

I have LV 4 shields and I find they help. The laser on the federation ship is a massive cannon that helps against the boss.

>>13540772

git gud

>>13554541

>spoonfeeding people how to git gud

There's people on this site who play FTL and don't even know how to volley correctly. It's not worth the effort sharing anything about the game outside of mid-high concept advice to other mid-high level players.

Reinstalled it because I felt like getting fucked in the ass by RNG. The new advanced edition/hard mode feels a bit more balanced than vanilla. While I still get fucked over, I tend to be a lot more successful until something really retarded happens. Remember to turn your o2 back on once you leave a plasma storm.

>>13540501

The chance of anything is always 50/50

>>13554754

>I really like FTL but am bad and appreciate advice.

What do you usually liked to do when playing?

>>13554777

>Remember to turn your o2 back on once you leave a plasma storm.

Every fucking time. I've lost an ship to that on accident.

>>13554738

Yea but this shit is basic. Part of why FTL's fun is finding strategy's on your own. If I wanted the fundamentals of a game broken down for me I'de just google it.

>>13554754

Learn how to volley then we'll talk.

>>13537128

The problem is that it's not necessarily RNG past a certain point, is it? Play enough times and you know that the first few jumps will only contain a certain number of configurations, and within them only certain things will attack you, maybe even specific maps will always have specific locations on them. Then you memorize all the 'random' events, which all have limited outcomes. You learn to recognize which ones immediately result in bullshit like loss of scrap or instant dead crewmates, and which ones give you free shit, and you use that knowledge the completely mitigate several of the key features of the game.

From there, you make all the optimized choices, upgrading the right things in a certain order, buying the right weapons and upgrades at the right time, with certain variations depending on your seed.. and then you just do the singular right things that work the best.

>>13554947

I don't know what you mean by volleying, I assume just queuing up attacks to break through multiple shields and deal damage?

>>13555236

Correct.

Abuse the space bar. See their projectile leave the screen? You can have full power elsewhere and see where the projectile is going to hit, then pause a few frames before it impacts, pull all the power out of something like O2 or Medbay, assign it to engines for stacked dodge chance, and then putting the power back after the attack.

Another robust tactic is to pull it from your shields as each layer gets broken.

>Enemy fires three lasers

>Two shield bubbles

>First shield bubble pops

>Immediately pause, put +2 power in engines, hopefully you'll dodge the next few hits, if not, power the shields back up

It can make a difference in some encounters, especially if you have a shitty ship that has no power

>>13555269

That is some serious abuse of RTwP but nice.

>>13554273

>not burning the entire ship until it melts

>>13554754

The best advice i got when i was starting was to immediately upgrade my shield

Also you can pause and give orders if you hit space, a lot of people seem to miss this

>>13555486

that includes you my projecting friend

>>13555486

>Well the most popular mod by far is one that takes away the advancing rebel fleet

Here? No.

>This should tell you everything you need to know about the playerbase, including the ones in this thread.

If you're going to make fun of crybabies ITT remember to not actually be one yourself.

<Just fucking kill all but one of the flagship crew like you did in the last thirty games anon, god you suck

You don't always have teleporters available. And even then you can absolutely beat the game by killing all of the crew. It's only a little bit harder.

>all the rest

The other anon said it. Quit projecting the shitty mods you use.

>>13555359

This. For all people having issues in early sectors, get level 2 shields asap. For only 50 scrap a lot of early sector ships won't even be able to damage you anymore. Exceptions to this are special ships like the Stealth one and ships that can't kill early game ships well with the default loadout.

I still haven't beaten the game on Hard even after beating it on Normal on every ship (both normal and advanced content). I've tried tons of tactics but nothing seems to stick, there's just too little scrap to upgrade something that's necessary when suddenly a four shield enemy with 40% evasion and drones comes to say hello in the middle of a nebula/asteroid field.

>>13555657

>>13555491

That's another thing I've noticed. Every single apologist for this game uses some variation of "no u" whenever anything that might remotely hurt their feelings is posted. What exactly is going on that they take all criticism from everyone so personally?is it the same thing as the Star Citizen community? Is there something wrong with scifi fags in general?

>>13557063

RNG hits me hard pretty much every time I've tried on Hard and shops have no weapons/no good weapons.

But I'll try again tonight since Cuphead is pissing me off.

>>13557063

>not upgrading level 2 sensors before hitting nebula

It's like you hate scrap

>>13557318

The trick to hard is always hitting as many stores as possible while having ~90 scrap in the bank so you can buy the good stuff if it shows up.

The other trick (mostly for the shitty ships) is knowing when you can go for a crew kill by asphyxiation, which can give free crew/weapons/augments that bail you out of the shit early weapon setups if you get lucky.

>>13559074

The ost is tight as fuck, to the point where I have trouble picking favourites

In the end I'll have to pick the engi ones I think

>>13556898

I don't mind critasism, it's just fundamentally wrong and made up.

>>13559097

>engi

>not lanius

>>13557502

>didn't have weapons good enough to fight anyone with two shields yet

You had a Leto. The fuck are you talking about?

Also you're almost always given the choice to ignore events. If your ships not doing well then fucking ignore it. Same goes for enemy ships that might have you outclassed.

>>13559141

>Not Rockmen

>>13536811

Even if you understood the mechanics, the game is still mostly luck.

this game on the switch yet?

>>13557585

I know there's some events that require lvl 2 sensors, but I usually just can't find the room to upgrade sensors early in the hopes of getting a small event chance when playing hardmode. I'll need every bit of scrap I can get in combat ability to cleanly get through the early sectors.

>>13557502

This is one of those ships where you don't need to upgrade to level 2 shields early, because you have the insanely powerful Zoltan shield. Make sure you hit the enemy shields first with the Halberd Beam, that way their shields will drop on the first tick of damage, causing you to do full damage on the next ticks. Try to get a better weapon than the Leto to strip off their shields, make sure you actively search for shops.

>>13559151

>Also you're almost always given the choice to ignore events. If your ships not doing well then fucking ignore it

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

Yeah sure m8 it's not about RNG at all. And as for the Leto, the enemy sent an attack drone into the weapon room, and I only had three Zoltans so even taking away the helm to fight it would've been useless. I just waited and hoped for the engines to come but alas no such luck. I'll try again today.

>>13561865

Since i don't usually upgrade engine in the first jumps, i often move the engine guy to sensors and he also handles doors.

Later when i upgrade engines around sector 4 i just move him to engines. By then i probably can get either one of those upgraded or extra crew.

At any point of this routine if i encounter a chance to farm exp. points for the pilot i also send this guy to engines to max his level too.

>>13561578

Of course, everything is randomly generated.

Luck plays a negligible factor in whether or not you are able to win or lose, though.

>>13562116

>almost always

Do you read what you quote?

Also the bottom option only deals 5 damage if it also avoids the battle and gives you an above-average scrap reward. That's usually a good deal, it's only a net negative on hard in the early game.

>>13563537

Notice how he mentions XP farming? If you come across an enemy that can't get through your shields you can train but engines and pilot to max while you just sit there and let them shoot you. Not sure why he feels he needs sensors or doors early on though.

>>13563558

Shields too for that matter

>>13562116

Wow almost like the game is putting you in a confrontation. Notice the ALMOST in almost always in that sentence? The difference is you're never going to be given these situations upon every jump. And even if it did you're often rewarded with more scrap than usual in those events.

>And as for the Leto, the enemy sent an attack drone into the weapon room,

Which would be about when you should have said fuck it and ran, which you did fair enough, but not without dealing with the enemies drone first. Attack drones go first actually as well and there's no way you couldn't put 1 Zoltan in there to distracted him long enough to put a missile right into the enemies drone control. That or you could have taken down whatever was the most immediate threat towards damaging you with a Leto. Basically the rule is to deal with the most pressing threat while keeping an eye on everything else while retreating. If you can't do that don't blame it on RNG.

>>13562660

>I move him from one of the most benificial positions to one of the fucking least

There's a reason the Vanilla game will opt to put a crew member in the engine room before the shields as default. Dodge will always be more effective than tanking damage since there's more than enough weapons in the game that can lay down suppression fire to whittle down your shields. Shit and I'm not even mentioning Ion tech.

>>13564106

sure i mean that 5% extra evasion helps a lot

I regret seeing this thread, this game is a repetitive as fuck time vampire and takes a lot of to learn everything and getgud.

>>13537180

Some specific card patterns are impossible to solve though.

>>13565276

It does actually. It's an extra 1/20'th dodge chance and if your crew member levels up on it it's an extra 5%. If you're going to bitch about getting shit on by RNG you should probabably stop being retarded and play the build you have the way it was intended. The Evasion helps way more so than relying on shields anyway and cameras are almost entirely useless unless you're going for crew kills.

Basically shields shouldn't be your primary line of defense. Dodging should. And shields are there for when dodging fails, not the other way around.

>>13566465

If you needed someone else to show you how to git gud, you didn't git gud. All you're doing is having someone better than you play the game through you, while you watch and pat yourself on the back. If you can't figure it out yourself, you don't deserve to know.

>>13566642

>You don't deserve to have fun in this game you bought because being better at videogames than the filthy cassuls is the only thing that makes my dick feel big

Whatever you say, mister hardcore man :^)

>>13566651

I'm not saying don't have fun. Hell, I want you to have as much fun as you possibly can. I just object to the idea that blindly following instructions from someone who knows what they're doing will make you better at something. If you're only enjoying yourself when you succeed, then put a bit more effort into it. "Playing" a game by running through a little checklist of what other people do is barely a stone's throw away from just watching a let's play on youtube.

>>13566675

Obviously copying some strat from a wiki word for word and thinking you're good is pretentious to say the least but this whole attitude /v/ seems to have of "figure it all out on your own or get fucked, casual" is something I don't subscribe to, especially when it comes to something like FTL where not knowing certain things means you don't have the required skill to adapt to the RNG which mean you're basically at the mercy of it. At that point it just becomes a flashy overlong game of space dice.

>>13566691

>especially when it comes to something like FTL where not knowing certain things

Then figure them out. You're supposed to develop the knowledge as you play by learning what's effective and what's not. The game doesn't spell out the rules for you. It expects you to explore them in order to learn their nuances. So at the end of the day you're either bitching that the game isn't spelling it out for you, or you can't handle the fact that people refuse to spoonfeed you on how to play the game. Jesus fuck why is it so hard to overcome a challenge for you fags?

>>13566744

Way to miss the fucking point. If someone for example doesn't know that the fire beam only ignites fires if it crosses the center of a tile and only skims the edges of most rooms as they've been conditioned to do with other beam weapons they're gonna think the fire beam is a shit weapon and ditch what could've been a gamechanger otherwise, and you're acting as if telling someone that is spoonfeeding when all it is is giving someone small but helpful hints to use the tools at their disposal more effectively. You're not handing them a fucking strategy guide and telling them step by step how to win the game by telling them how the fire beam works. "If x happens to you then do y and z" and "if weapon x does y it doesn't z" are very different things.

So how many times on average do you win while playing on Hard? Best I've gotten in the last 10 tries was sector 6. Even with a good weapon set, all it takes is one hazard area and an enemy with 2-3 shields and 2–4 weapons and that's it, you're done.

What would you say is the best ship for a non-Advanced content Hard run?

>>13567755

No idea, I haven't played that much games so I don't really have a good sample size. Still in the process of unlocking all ships. It hugely depends on the ship type too. Some ships like Engi B or Stealth B are much harder, while I find ships like Fed A, Zoltan A/B and Lanius A very easy to win with. Overall, I'd say maybe 50%? If some hazards and powerful enemies stop you, you're doing something fundamentally wrong like targeting the wrong enemy systems or not volleying your weapons.

No idea what ship is the easiest to win with in non-ae, I always play advanced edition.

>>13567918

Well I'll bite the bullet and try AE as well on Hard. I just kind of felt like it would be "wrong" to beat Hard on AE since it also adds good weapons for you like flak.

>>13568227

I don't think it should feel wrong for you to beat hard on ae first, because hard mode is designed for ae. Before ae released there was no hardmode, only easy and normal. Also don't forget enemies will have all ae content as well.

>>13568297

I mean I've beat the game with every ship on Normal and with AE. Hard is just too much it seems, sucks all the fun out of the game.

>>13568581

And I've put hundreds if not thousands of hours into this game in the past five years, I love it. I don't know what's going on but Hard just fucks me over.

>>13568581

>>13568588

Well if hard is no fun at all for you then I'd say stick to playing a difficulty that's fun for you. Having fun while playing games is important, after all.

Just don't say it's RNG screwing you over in hardmode, because it really usually isn't.

If you really want to beat hardmode though, you could try watching someone else play through a few runs and see what they do.

>>13567755

When you find yourself in an unwinnable situation do you prioritize getting your FTL up and jumping away? Or do you stay and fight a battle where you lose more resources fighting then you gain after the encounter is over?

>>13568750

Of course fun is the fucking priority, but losing and learning is fun too in the end. I just want to understand what I may be doing wrong if so many are clearing advancedHard like it's nothing and for me it seems suddenly like a great leap.

>>13568755

I only ever run if I absolutely have to, but in matches like that it's usually always too late to recover in the coming travels since you get fucked up enough to either search for a shop to use scrap to recover so much you lose what you wanted to buy/upgrade in the first place or you fly into something that kills you.

And no I'm not blaming RNG other than for the few fucked up choice situations where there's no escape from chance. As I've said, I love this game.

>>13568767

And there is your problem. Don't be afraid of running. Engines increase the ftl recharge rate. Lets say you have a fight you can run and will take 2 to 5 dmg (loose 6 to 15 scrap in repair), you can stay and fight where you take 15 to 25 dmg (loose 45 to 75 scrap in repair) damage and get low rewards (25 to 40 scrap and 2 to 4 misc. resources). By fighting you loose 5 to 50 scrap where as by running your maximum loss is much smaller. You need to learn when to cut your losses and run.

>>13568854

Maybe that is a completely new strategy in Hard mode, but then again with limited jumps and RUNNING you lose scrap as well and a jump. It's very tricky.

>>13565649

It finally has an endless mode? Vanilla is serious trash.

>>13568879

Mods maybe, not in original or AE.

>>13540460

>missile based weapons

they're good as a side weapon that can deal some extra damage here and there if you need an extra punch but I never rely on them because they have finite resources, and unlike. Plus if you stockpile missiles you can get a random

>>13540463

>level 3 cloaking

actually this will fuck you over during the second stage. The power surge that the flagship doesn't stop when you're cloaking, it will still charge. You need level 2 cloaking for the 10 seconds of drone attacks, then it gives you enough time to recharge before the next surge. If you use a level 3 cloak then it won't recharge in time for the next wave of drones.

During the third stage, you only need level 1 cloaking because the attack is very short and takes only a couple of seconds. Again using level 3 cloaking will screw you over. Overall you mileage may vary on whether cloaking is worth upgrading to level 3 considering it doesn't have much use during the final boss battle.

>>13568767

If you're having trouble with Hard then try doing it first with the best ships and then working your way down to the shittier ships. Excluding the Crystal B and Lanius B, which are the god-tier special ships which are practically broken in how easy they make the game which is fair because they're the special reward for those who've mastered most of the game, the best of the normal ships are the Mantis B if you like the boarding style of gameplay and the Zoltan A and Kestral B if you like the gunship style, these ships are really good and you can reliably win most games with them.

>>13568861

You don't jump and run every single encounter, just if you're put up against a losing scenario or take an unlucky hit then its more advantageous to run and live to fight again rather than tough out the fight and take a ton of damage which you'll have to repair at a store.

>>13568879

The game is balanced around you exploring 8 sectors to grind and upgrade to be able to take on the final boss, endless wouldn't be fun because eventually you'd just max out your ship, the point of the game isn't to get the best ship possible, the point is to get an imperfect ship and work around its flaws to still achieve victory.

>>13568964

So Zoltan A on Hard it is. I'll try to beat that on Hard until I make it god damn it.

this game is only fun on easy mode. otherwise you never have enough scrap to do anything unless you cheese the game

>>13569118

that was hard difficulty btw

>>13568964

I don't care about a dumb final boss, I want to navigate deep space and shit.

>>13569126

Then play a space exploration game like the X series, Endless Sky, Elite: Dangerous, Rebel Galaxy or Wing Commander: Privateer. FTL isn't that kind of game.

>>13569126

Then go play Captain's Edition, faggot.

>>13569141

But those games don't have fun mechanics like FTL does.

>>13569172

GO PLAY FUCKING CAPTAIN'S EDITION THEN

>>13569179

There is no mastery, winning Freecell is an algorithm. Literally a computer's job.

>>13569272

Actually, it has been mathematically proven that not every game of Freecell is winnable. Unfortunately.

Incidentally, most Freecell applications use the same game RNG algorithm that came with the Win16 version of the game because of the wide amount of analysis that has been done on it, so this gives them a huge amount of data about "their" game too.

What hasn't been figured out is how to tell if a game is winnable based on its initial state; they still have to simulate every move to determine that

>>13567124

>If someone for example doesn't know that the fire beam only ignites fires if it crosses the center of a tile and only skims the edges of most rooms as they've been conditioned to do with other beam weapons they're gonna think the fire beam is a shit weapon and ditch what could've been a gamechanger otherwise

Then maybe you should fucking play the game and figure it out? If you have the attention span of a rodent and drop a new item the first time you use it you're obviously bitching about nothing.

>and you're acting as if telling someone that is spoonfeeding when all it is is giving someone small but helpful hints to use the tools at their disposal more effectively.

Not knowing that engines usually take priority over shields isn't a "small helpful hint" it's extremely helpful and can change the game for you. Anybody with half a brain could come to that conclusion. I did on the first hour I played the game.

>You're not handing them a fucking strategy guide and telling them step by step how to win the game by telling them how the fire beam works.

You wish don't you? I've already been over this. Everything you're bitching about in this post is fundamental shit that isn't hard to learn. Play the fucking game and quit bitching.

>>13569441

>not knowing that engines usually take priority over shields isn't a "small helpful hint"

Take a good look at who you're talking to next time because I never even fucking mentioned that

>>13567755

>So how many times on average do you win while playing on Hard?

If I can survive long enough to get a 2nd shield bubble, probably 66%-75%.

>What would you say is the best ship for a non-Advanced content Hard run?

Not sure on the differences between advanced and non-advanced (I always play advanced), but Zoltan A is amazing. Completely effortless to pass at least the first two sectors and the Halberd is a game-winner paired with literally anything that can take down shields (get Hacking/Burst 2/Flak 1 if you can).

>>13569453

And I never insinuated you did. You replied to my post replying to the other anon implying the stuff I said wasn't fundamental.

>>13569497

>and is only really relevant for missile weapons which can penetrate shields

And most enemies past the first sector. Ever dealt with Ion's, flak, rapid fire lasers? Same principle. Having faster sheild recharge wont save you if you're to retarded to understand that before taking shield damage you should be able to dodge before that.

>for which cloaking and defense drones are more reliable than engines for countering them

Neither of which are always available. Especially cloak which is one of the most expensive addition slots in the game. Not only that cloak is dependent on the ship your using and its built. Engines are always necessary though up to the end of the game. And even then cloaking has a cool down and even level 4 shield wont last you forever in that time span if you have less than %15 dodge. Defense drones are often prone to missing as well and can't handle most weapons outside of single shot missile launchers anyway. Which means you better pray that the enemy doesn't have more than 1 missile launcher (as rockmen often do) or a double shot launcher (as the Flagship and later enemies do).

>You'll want to upgrade your engines a little but realistically on most runs you'll only be only be able to upgrade to level 4, that gives you a 40% evade with both fully leveled up crew and then combined with the cloaking it gives you 100% evade

We're discussing manning your engines over your shield or cameras. Even then level 4 doesn't offer 40% dodge. It offers 20% plus an extra 5-10% if its manned unless you count 2 bars as 1 for some reason.

>then combined with the cloaking it gives you 100% evade

Cloaking gives you 100% evade regardless. If you have %40 engines then you forgot my intiial argument. If you're going to choose between manning the cameras, shield or engines, it's engines 99% of the time.

>and if you're micro managing effectively enough you shouldn't even have engines turned on at all if nobody is firing at you

Same can be said for shields. And you have to have them on before being fired at anyway so either you have lvl 3 sensors to see their charge or your looking at the weapon lights.

>Having level 8 shields, giving you 4 layers of protection against the majority of weapons in the game is way more useful then a 20% boost to the chance it could possibly miss.

Try fighting the final phase of the Flagship then telling me that. 4 layers of shields helps a bunch and I'm not arguing against its use. But Engines are insanely cheap early game to upgrade and that dodge factor still counts for more. I've beaten the game plenty of times with level 1 shields. I've never beat the game with level 2 engines.

>Upgrading shields to get that second layer is almost always the first thing I do when I get 50 scrap because it protects you against the vast majority of ships

In the first sector maybe. Barring the fact that you're left in a bad situation when it comes to missiles and you wouldn't have either cloaking or drones in that first area.

> If you spent 15+30 scrap to get the engines up from level 2 to level 4 instead you'd only be gaining a small increase in the chance to miss and wouldn't even becomes effective until your crew level up

If your argument is that shields are better for the first sector you're not really making a very good one. it's the first sector. You could beat that shit without either shields or engines. When it comes to later game though shields are only so helpful when compared to engines.

>So therefore, you can see that shields take priority over engines because you'll be upgrading them first to be most effective.

Not really no. You'll more often be depending on dodge than you will shield into later game. Try turrning your engines down to 2 bars with a level 4 shield in each fight and tell me how far you get. I can guarantee max engines with lvl 1 shield would be more efficient.

>>13569406

>What hasn't been figured out is how to tell if a game is winnable based on its initial state; they still have to simulate every move to determine that

That is interesting anon.

>>13569441

Shit, i ve been using the fire beam wrong all this time, and still think its great and not too hard to pull

>>13569607

I've never said don't upgrade engines, I've said that they're not as important as shields, which should be upgraded first in preparation for the next tier of difficulty that enemy ships possess because they're a reliable method of blocking most shots.

>And most enemies past the first sector. Ever dealt with Ion's, flak, rapid fire lasers? Same principle. Having faster shield recharge wont save you if you're to retarded to understand that before taking shield damage you should be able to dodge before that.

You want to have both evade and shield, I'm not saying turn off engines and only rely on shields just that shields are far more reliable than rolling the dice with engines to take hits that would otherwise be blocked. With with max shields 99% of weapons will not be able to penetrate. Flak, ion and fast lasers all have to go through the layers of the shield, if it makes it easier for them to get through then it just leaves your ship open to attacks that wouldn't have taken place. The flak cannon II and Burst Laser III (and debateably an Ion Blast 2 but it takes so long by the time its gotten through all 8 layers you're able to volley your weapons and probably take it out) are the only weapons that can penetrate 4 layers solo, and by the time they show up you should have 3 or 4 layers of shields with a leveled up crew and other means of evading their attacks, which does include upgraded engines.

>And even then cloaking has a cool down and even level 4 shield wont last you forever in that time span if you have less than %15 dodge. Defense drones are often prone to missing as well and can't handle most weapons outside of single shot missile launchers anyway.

If you're cloaking effectively then you'll be recharged by the time they fire next, or have charged your weapons and taken most of their weapons offline.

By the time those weapons have showed up, your crew will have leveled up which will improve your evade rating higher than upgraded engines.

Engines are prone to not evading because its just a dice roll whether to dodge or not, whereas I've had entire runs where defense drones never fail me, and Defense Drone II can shoot at all projectiles and much faster.

>We're discussing manning your engines over your shield or cameras. Even then level 4 doesn't offer 40% dodge. It offers 20% plus an extra 5-10% if its manned unless you count 2 bars as 1 for some reason.

first of all manning cameras is extremely low priority and anybody suggesting that over shields or engines is baiting. And just because its more beneficial to have someone manning engines than shields doesn't mean that shields aren't more useful for upgrading first given how much they block non-missile weapons shots.

>Cloaking gives you 100% evade regardless. If you have %40 engines then you forgot my intiial argument. If you're going to choose between manning the cameras, shield or engines, it's engines 99% of the time.

You clearly do not understand how the game's mechanics work as it clearly states that Cloaking adds 60% to your evade in the system description under the ship's menu. See the embedded video, it goes up from 15% evade to 75% evade, not 100%. So if you're upgrading to 60% evade and then also getting a cloak you're just wasting scrap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAot1C6We5E

(cont…)

>>13569991

rip sluggu

and btw I am going to attempt another shieldless run with the Stealth A because I know its possible, I just shielded at the wrong time and got destroyed by the drone surge, the point is that if I had shields that wouldn't have happened and its random depending on where the drones hit you anyway, if they take out your stealth or weapons your fucked because you can't stealth until the surge or you go from full health to destroyed in under a second. I think I'll try getting an antidrone next time.

>>13569974

>I've never said don't upgrade engines, I've said that they're not as important as shields, which should be upgraded first in preparation for the next tier of difficulty that enemy ships possess because they're a reliable method of blocking most shots.

And increasing dodge isn't? I'm not arguing shields are useful but enemies begin to make them useless the later you get into the game. A good Engi ship will fuck you up because of this.

>are far more reliable than rolling the dice with engines to take hits that would otherwise be blocked.

It's not rolling the dice if you're given the option to increase dodge chance is it?

>With with max shields 99% of weapons will not be able to penetrate

Until they do. Most ships use barrage methods and that's why you get fucked later on.

>Flak, ion and fast lasers all have to go through the layers of the shield

And it's literally the easiest shit. Especially with Flak. All you do is fire once and the shields are gone, allowing you or the enemy to lay fire all over the place while you wait for them to recharge. Flak's are shield busters, that's what they're for. Ion's are almost worse. They make your shields useless. You ever feel that relief you have when you see an Ion charge miss you? That's because you engines saved you from that shit. Fast lasers will destroy your shields if the enemy has more than a few of them man. Ever gone up against a Vulcan? There's a reason you take their weapons out the second you see that shit.

>The flak cannon II and Burst Laser III (and maybe an Ion Blast 2 but it takes so long by the time its gotten through all 8 layers you're able to volley your weapons and probably take it out) are the only weapons that can penetrate 4 layers solo,

There's also enemy drones, enemy missiles and several other weapons you missed like the chain Ion or Stun Ion. If you don't have popper dodge your not going to be able to tank damage. You just can't. You're in more of a pickle during Asteroid events as well as those will be a constant drain on shields.

>If you're cloaking effectively then you'll be recharged by the time they fire next

Not level 1 cloak. You need a good engine or solid shields otherwise and either won't be very obtainable early game if you bought a cloaking device since they're so expensive.

>or have charged your weapons and taken most of their weapons offline.

Betting every round that you can take their weapons offline within the first volley isn't a very effective way at consistently staying alive. There's a lot of enemies that can prove counter productive towards your weapons or attack method. In any case why are you even arguing about cloak in the first place? It has nothing to do with shields and only helps my argument because it adds to your evade chance, which is the bottom line of the issue.

>By the time those weapons have showed up, your crew will have leveled up which will improve your evade rating higher than upgraded engines.

Well they both improve, but a crew member can only add 10% evade and leveling up the engines is one of the cheapest purchases in the game so I find that unlikely.

>Engines are prone to not evading because its just a dice roll whether to dodge or not, whereas I've had entire runs where defense drones never fail me, and Defense Drone II can shoot at all projectiles and much faster.

Complete bull. Engines aren't "prone" to not evading. The statistics are right there in the top left of the screen and they can be improved. And you're lying through your teeth if you're going to tell me that defense drones even level II's don't miss on an often occasion. Ever get hacked? See how effective the drones are against them. They miss roughly 40% of the time on those and even more often if the enemy has more than 1 missile or projectile. And don't get me started on Flak. Defense drones help but they're by no means absolutely dependable.

>And just because its more beneficial to have someone manning engines than shields doesn't mean that shields aren't more useful for upgrading first given how much they block non-missile weapons shots.

For early game neither matters. Level 2 shields might put you ahead of the game for the first sector and maybe the second but a constant >50% dodge chance is fucking god tier and even you have to admit that shit beats lvl 4 shields to shit. It makes the final Flasgship super a fucking joke where as they would destroy lvl 4 shields with no engines.

>You clearly do not understand how the game's mechanics work as it clearly states that Cloaking adds 60% to your evade in the system description under the ship's menu

Huh. Well I usually had high engines when I got Cloak so it's kinda moot isn't it?

1/2?

>>13570264

>So if you're upgrading to 60% evade and then also getting a cloak you're just wasting scrap.

Actually you're just having extra security outside of cloak. If it's as you say and you can just get back into cloak before the enemy fires at you shields are useless aren't they?

>If you're dumb enough to rely solely on missiles and not swap them out before the end of the first or second sectors you deserve to die.

I'm talking about getting shit on by missiles. Even a 25% dodge chance is more useful against them in early game.

>And taking the odd hit from a lone missile is a better alternative than taking multiple hits from lasers, ion and flak because you didn't have that shield that would have blocked them

The funny thing is that if you have bad engines all 3 of those things will fuck your shit up. Especially Flak and Ion. Are you joking right now? Do you just exclusively use Cloaking so your perception on this is skewed? Flak will objectively fuck you up if you have shit engines.

>screenshots or it didn't happen,

Google any run without shields. I've been doing exclusively Mantis ships on this version of FTL and my old play history is on Steam which I dropped years ago.

I tried a shieldless run on hard and got btfo on the second stage of the flagship because the enemy drones could just take me out almost instantly

I never said Sheildless did I? I said level 1 shields mainly because of lasers and certain other situations. Beating the Flagship with level 1 shields is possible though. Even without Cloak. You just focus fire on the Ion and Missiles then break it down from there. Also

>so engines clearly don't help that much compared to having shields, which I won almost effortlessly.

>those pics

>all of them use cloak

>all of them use the function that makes your evade chance skyrocket

>"bbut engines are useless!"

Post pic of you doing this without Cloaking and then we'll talk. I don't have any pics right now but if I feel like playing the game to get them I'll post them. Otherwise your argument that engines are useless but using an ability that mimics high level engines is a pretty shit tier argument.

>Beat the game hard multiple times because 2 bars + fully maxed out crews give you 30% evade already,

Without Cloak I imagine?

>that extra 10% does not make that much of a difference compared to using that energy elsewhere

It's an extra 10'th. Once you get to 50% you have half a chance of getting hit. It makes a difference, give it a try.

>I'd much rather depower those engine bars and use it for something else like hacking that can get me through their shields and take their weapons offline before they even hit.

As you do when your cloak is enabled right?

>You're also supposed to micro your engines effectively so that you're not wasting energy powering them if there's nothing to dodge.

I know. But often the context is that you'll need your engines online more often than not in many fights because enemies often barrage fire. And if a missile is fired before those engines are on you're going to get hit. I'm pretty sure the hit chance is determined when the missile or weapon is fires, not when it lands. Which doesn't give you much time to hack the enemy ship now does it?

>Shields take time to charge, while engines are instantaneous to turn on and off.

Goes back to what I said about chance dependent on firing. And by your own argument of crewmembers leveling up by that point the charge time should be nothing to worry about by that point.

>Therefore its more imperative to have shields on because of their recharge time.

Actually no you just enable them as they go. If all your shields are down you keep it on level 1. Once it gets to level 1 you enable level 2 and so on. It's no more complicated than with the engines.

>And none of these wins had more than 4 engines upgraded in the first place because

in all occasions you use them you have cloak. Try playing without Cloak for once and tell me how easy it is.

>when shields are much more effective at blocking lasers and ions than having a dice roll dictate whether I block the shot or no

>shields are more effective against Ions

>literally the weapon meant to take out shields is weak to shields

Ok we're done here. Bottom line is shields are useful. Especially later game. But max engines nearly break the game with most ships. Especially with battery charger.

anyone got the linux version of FTL?

>>13570289

Vulcan isn't that good tbh.

>>13570266

alright you raise some interesting points, but in response to this thread when I boot up the game next time I will try some runs where I only go to around 2 or 3 shields but max my engine and see if there's any truth to these claims.

>>13570727

I'll likely be doing vice versa. I wanna see if I can do a few tank runs with Rockmen. I might try Stealth ship but it's going to be a bit before I pull myself away from Mantis and Slug ships. Teleporters+Clonebay will forever remain OP.

>>13570682

>Isn't that good

Yea nah. It's one of the most OP weapons in the game. Relying on it to charge is the only weakness which is pretty easy to negate by removing the enemies weapon with a missile or bomb transporter. CE has the "Light Vulcan" which penetrates shields up to lvl 2 and does damage towards crew. It's so broken I think I might ban myself from using it from now on.

>>13571883

It's good for newbs since it auto-wins battles, but better weapon setups win it faster with less damage. Flak/Halberd is way better. By the time Vulcan fires once Flak/Halberd has disabled 3-4 systems.

>>13536786

>Implying winning is the only way to enjoy and experience vidya

I fucking love RNG shit. It makes it more exciting. Fuck that "muh equality" bullshit. Throw me some random shit and lets see if I can play the system

>>13572776

well of course its better it takes more energy and weapon slots.

>>13574943

>boot up pokemon

>crit

>crit

>crit

>miss

>freeze

yeah fuck rng

>>13571883

>It's good for newbs since it auto-wins battles

So basically it's exceptionally OP.

>but better weapon setups win it faster with less damage.

Really depends on your built tbh.

>Flak/Halberd is way better.

Same could be said about Glave beam really. But there's no denying Vulcan will tear shit up.

>By the time Vulcan fires once Flak/Halberd has disabled 3-4 systems.

Depends on the Flak. Mark I misses often and often wont take down shields later game. Vulcan is reliable to fuck shit up, not the best weapon for some ships but obviously a solid weapon. To say it's not that good is kinda bullshit.

I wish there was more to this game. Lots of noobs who complain about muh rpg haven't played this game enough. There is a standard procedure to the game you can follow to win the game more often than you lose.

Like 2 shields points ASAP to be immune to damage for the first 1-2 sectors. Or figuring out how to use door controls, plus oxygen to deal with enemy boarding no problems 99% of the time.

But after you know this and are confident enough to beat the boss most of the time and know how super overpowered certain builds with preign are, the game just feels shallow and there isn't much to do. I mean you can perfect the technique like the guy who can do a 40 win streak, but at this point you are really milking it for all that it's worth. You basically look up every event in a spreadsheet, you get extremely autistic about exactly having a certain amount of scrap so you can always buy shit, etc

I have played a bit of Captain's Edition and I think it loses a bit of its charme by having so many completly randomized weapons as opposed to the stuff you always exactly knew what it was and what it does and what it was worth compared to the other options.

>>13569552

>managed to convince dirtytabs to make comics catering to my fetish

nice

>>13583626

The game gets decent if you start going for ship unlocks for the achievements. If it gets boring the ship variety will certainly help.

>I have played a bit of Captain's Edition and I think it loses a bit of its charme by having so many completly randomized weapons as opposed to the stuff you always exactly knew what it was and what it does and what it was worth compared to the other options.

So basically just like you were during the original game? Once you learn them it's the same situation as it was with Vanilla. Only now you have more options.

>>13571883

>So basically it's exceptionally OP.

No, because you actually need to survive a long time. Building a ship that can survive a long time is much more expensive than building a ship that bursts the enemy's weapon systems down before they fire.

>Depends on the Flak. Mark I misses often and often wont take down shields later game. Vulcan is reliable to fuck shit up, not the best weapon for some ships but obviously a solid weapon. To say it's not that good is kinda bullshit.

>what is hacking

>>13568964

>the best of the normal ships are the Mantis B if you like the boarding style of gameplay and the Zoltan A and Kestral B if you like the gunship style, these ships are really good and you can reliably win most games with them.

The rock ship has always been my most consistently successful ship, and I usually board. Haven't gotten Mantis B yet, but Mantis A seems kind of shitty so far.

>>13586454

>No, because you actually need to survive a long time

Relative to most battles with many ships not really. As long as you have decent engines and a good shield you can turtle while chipping at the enemy for a while provided you know what you're doing.

>Building a ship that can survive a long time is much more expensive than building a ship that bursts the enemy's weapon systems down before they fire.

Well it depends on your ship doesn't it? Both methods work. And the Vulcan is absolutely efficient at what it does and it's often the only weapon you'll need in many battles. Compare that to 2 weapons that are dependent on each other and you can see where issues might rise

>what is hacking

>what is this mechanic that's completely seperate from the context of the discussion

Hacking's unreliable when the enemy has defense drones. So relying on it in an Engi controlled sector isn't a good idea. And it's dependent on the chance that your timing is correct and that no other variables occur during the drain. The only thing you're dependent on with the Vulcan is your weapons systems. There's power in using multiple tools to get the job done quicker but you also spread yourself thin, and if one of those components doesn't work your in a good amount of trouble.

>>13586479

If you go Mantis B all you need is clone bay and more Mantis or Rockmen to win. It's OP as fuck. Especially later when you have an entire ship of Mantis and 1 Engie to deal repairs. There's literally no ship in the game that can defend against 4 mantis in their ship at once. Stack that with the completely reliable enemy crew AI and a solid shot to their weapons systems and you can't lose.

>>13586700

Trying to unlock Mantis B is a BITCH so far. Can't go one fight without losing like 50% hull points.

>>13586700

>Hacking's unreliable when the enemy has defense drones.

>2017

>still not knowing how to get your hacking drone past defense drones.

>And it's dependent on the chance that your timing is correct and that no other variables occur during the drain.

What? How would you fuck up your own timing? What other variable can occur other than Stealth?

>The only thing you're dependent on with the Vulcan is your weapons systems.

You're dependent on all of your defensive systems working properly since if you take any damage to weapons it resets everything. Bombs/EMP can destroy Vulcan's potential, and even if everything works its slow as hell. Good luck if your weapons get hacked.

So apparently a mind controlled enemy counts as your own when your units are getting returned from by having your teleporter hacked. You can kill the entire crew of the flagship one by one like this if he hacks your teleporter and you have both of these systems.

>>13587156

>Future year

Wastes his drones on enemies with attack drones

>What? How would you fuck up your own timing? What other variable can occur other than Stealth? A lucky shot, an Ion hit, asteroid, an enemy with a good arsenal. It seems unlikely you'd think but if you're relying on multiple systems the chances tat one of them will get broken increases.

>You're dependent on all of your defensive systems working properly since if you take any damage to weapons it resets everything

Those are fundamental. I'm talking about using other systems such as hacking.

>Bombs/EMP can destroy Vulcan's potential

>Good luck if your weapons get hacked.

Same can be said for every weapon. If you're not retarded and time your shots a Vulcan can be fairly devastating mid charge. Vulcan's OP man. about half a dozen of my wins on hard say so. Dunno why you can't accept that.

>>13588426

>Wastes his drones on enemies with attack drones

How are attack drones relevant?

>Those are fundamental. I'm talking about using other systems such as hacking.

>press hack

>shoot when shields are down.

>whoa so hard to time

>Same can be said for every weapon. Vulcan's OP man.

For most weapons it's a short interruption, 5s or so. Vulcan sets you back 30s.

>If you're not retarded and time your shots a Vulcan can be fairly devastating mid charge.

>fairly devastating

>1 damage

>can't even get through shields

Yeah no. Before its fully charged the Vulcan is worse than any other decent weapon.

>about half a dozen of my wins on hard say so.

It's not hard to win FTL. But no one good at the game considers Vulcan a great weapon to go for. If you get one free then that's great, but it's a waste to buy in shops.

>>13592305

>How are attack drones relevant?

from* attack drones.

>press hack

>shoot when shields are down.

>whoa so hard to time

Until hacking gets shot up. You're missing my primary point which is the more systems you use the higher chance something will fuck up.

>For most weapons it's a short interruption, 5s or so. Vulcan sets you back 30s.

>Most weapons

>5 secs

Most weapons are between 8 and 22. Later game you'll usually have at least 1 weapon that will take more than 20 seconds to charge unless you go for something a little peculiar. But even Flak's take around 15 to 22 seconds to fire.

>Yeah no. Before its fully charged the Vulcan is worse than any other decent weapon.

>he doesn't use Vulcan to take down a shield while using other weapons

It's useful to break shields and only gets progressively more useful as the fight goes on. You keep saying it's not effective till its final phase but even mid way its cool down is around 6-12 seconds, which is damn good on its own.

>But no one good at the game considers Vulcan a great weapon to go for.

Speak for yourself. Anybody who knows their shit knows that the game is over once you find a Vulcan.

>but it's a waste to buy in shops.

Considering it turns the Flagship into Swiss I'm inclined to disagree.

>>13586700

Clone bays suck for boarding ships because you can't level up your crew to the max, if you get four Mantis boarding crew fully leveled up then they can kill basically everything within a few seconds and you can teleport them back to heal really quick if you upgrade teleporter just once.

>>13566465

>memorize which events fuck you with the wrong choices

>memorize which events you should avoid immediately

>don't waste your scrap on dumb shit

>buy the good weapons

>???

>autism.

>>13606140

>Mass_Effect_3.PNG

>>13605257

It's 4 mantis. It doesn't matter if they kill the enemies faster since that shit recks just about anything. Plus you don't hope for them to die and if you're good with enemy crew AI you can keep your Mantis alive regardless. It's actually a longer process to kill enemy crew if you have to teleport your crew back and forth so they can heal up. Rather it's better if you just put the ones that are near dead into an empty room on the enemy ship where they won't be bothered while you teleport more of your crew onto their ship. Upgrading a Mantises fighting ability is just redundant.

>>13611601

RIP

>>13611601

upgrade your medbay

>>13570266

you re still trying to downplay shields, when you rely on them for most of the first 3 sectors unless you constantly run from battles where you can't supress enemy fire which will eventually make you lose for not upgrading, and if all your games rely on supressing enemy fire until you have like 35 - 40 % evasion you are just doing a luck based run, it's one of many ways of playing the game but not the only one, so fuck you evasion man

>>13609660

The bonus from leveling up your crew is definitely worth it dude, at max level they'll each get a 20% boost for attack, therefore if you get all four in the same room attacking one enemy they'll do a total of 80% extra damage than if they were all unskilled and basically acts as if a whole extra mantis is doing damage, you can actually kill enemies so fast that they die before they get out of the room as they leave for the medbay, and they can barely do damage to you because your guys will drain their health from full to near dead in literally under a couple of seconds.

If you don't have healing then your Mantis crew won't be at full health when you start a match, thus negating any saved time from healing because they'll die earlier and won't kill the enemy crew, so you'll have to leave them to die at the end of every jump just to ensure they're at full health.

With max leveled up you can kill the enemy crew fast enough without needing to teleport back. I just did a Mantis B run with medbay and managed to kill the entire crew of pretty much every ship in one teleport over there aside from one or two times later on, which I still managed to win because of fully upgraded teleporter + medbay being super quick.

And top of all that, replacing the medbay with cloning bay costs 50 scrap which could go to better use early game, such as upgrading engines to level 3, upgrading shields to level 4, upgrading teleporter, oxygen, medbay, going towards a new system etc. unless you're starting with a C type ship that all come with cloning bays at the start.

>>13611804

>therefore if you get all four in the same room attacking one enemy they'll do a total of 80% extra damage than if they were all unskilled and basically acts as if a whole extra mantis is doing damage

Again you're missing the fact that it's still 4 mantis in a room. You're already at 400%. 80% helps but the overwhelming majority of damage is from the Mantis.

>you can actually kill enemies so fast that they die before they get out of the room as they leave for the medbay,

I can do that to. Even without Mantis. You just leave crewmates in rooms on the way to medbay who are taking a breather. It's not hard either because the injured enemy crew is guaranteed to never hurt you on their way.

> and they can barely do damage to you because your guys will drain their health from full to near dead in literally under a couple of seconds

4 mantis dude. It's the same principle.

>If you don't have healing then your Mantis crew won't be at full health when you start a match, thus negating any saved time from healing because they'll die earlier and won't kill the enemy crew, so you'll have to leave them to die at the end of every jump just to ensure they're at full health.

That's the beauty of the clone bay. You just suffocate your crew members and bring them back at full HP. If you're smart enough to plan this well enough and not do it to often your crews fighting skill will still go up over time, faster than you think if you get into a Rock sector. Also by the time the enemy crew is able to kill one of your guys in a room full of mantis you still have 3 more mantis and (most likely) another one ready to go if you're smart. If you have to use medbay in the middle of a fight you're in fact wasting time.

>With max leveled up you can kill the enemy crew fast enough without needing to teleport back.

You're still running the risk of the enemy ship being destroyed. Often boarding the enemy ship is useless if they have a medbay unless you use weapons or something else to take it out. Mainly because the enemy not being able to escape in time isn't something that's consistently done depending on the ships room layout. You can say "most" of them did but wouldn't it just be easier to

>I just did a Mantis B run with medbay and managed to kill the entire crew of pretty much every ship in one teleport over there aside from one or two times later on

You can do the same thing with Clonebay really. Even with less HP your mantis will never die unless they're against Rock or other Mantis. And even then if you have clone bay to level 2 even they should never be below half HP at any given time outside of the before the next jump when you've won.

>which I still managed to win because of fully upgraded teleporter + medbay being super quick.

In those situations it's definitely better to have a clone bay though. Less time wasted.

>And top of all that, replacing the medbay with cloning bay costs 50 scrap which could go to better use early game, such as upgrading engines to level 3, upgrading shields to level 4, upgrading teleporter, oxygen, medbay, going towards a new system etc.

Since scrap rewards increase over time it's really not that much of a penalty at all. You can easily get through early game in FTL with no upgrades at all. And the extra scrap received from not blowing the ships up is more than enough incentive to purchase a clone bay. Besides that the only real thing worth getting for your ship early game is extra engine or an early lvl2 shield. And often you can afford both assuming you aren't shit.

>>13611674

I went over how shields early game are better but engines play into end game on a more important role.

>and if all your games rely on supressing enemy fire until you have like 35 - 40 % evasion you are just doing a luck based run

"suppressing enemy fire" can be done in multiple ways. Comparing that to shields isn't really a good argument. And it's not a "luck based run" if you can directly influence the luck is it?

>it's one of many ways of playing the game but not the only one, so fuck you evasion man

If you want to post a video of you beating the game with low engines with no stealth be my guest. I'de like to see you during Phase 3 of the Flagship most importantly.

>>13612119

>You just leave crewmates in rooms on the way to medbay who are taking a breather. It's not hard either because the injured enemy crew is guaranteed to never hurt you on their way.

Not if the room your Mantis crew are in is right next to the medbay, which if you've maxed out can then kill them.

>That's the beauty of the clone bay. You just suffocate your crew members and bring them back at full HP. If you're smart enough to plan this well enough and not do it to often your crews fighting skill will still go up over time, faster than you think if you get into a Rock sector.

then if you're killing them so fast that they don't die in your first encounter then you may as well just have a medbay instead so you can get the bonus upgrade.

>Also by the time the enemy crew is able to kill one of your guys in a room full of mantis you still have 3 more mantis and (most likely) another one ready to go if you're smart. If you have to use medbay in the middle of a fight you're in fact wasting time.

If you're microing your crew well enough you're easily able to reposition the placements your mantis so that the enemy is fighting the mantis with the most health

There's nothing to your strategy that says the cloning bay is better than the medbay, just that 4 mantis are incredibly strong and can defeat most enemies.

>You're still running the risk of the enemy ship being destroyed

Not if you're not firing weapons into it.

>Even with less HP your mantis will never die unless they're against Rock or other Mantis

If they're fully maxed out then they won't die against mantis and rock. Also you're forgetting that the enemy crew are often levelled up too during the later stages, so your crew needs to be levelled up to compensate

>In those situations it's definitely better to have a clone bay though. Less time wasted.

You still have to wait for the crew to clone back so the time saved is something like 5 seconds total, basically not worth it, and you won't need to since 4 mantis full maxed out are the strongest crew in the entire game and can defeat every enemy.

>You can easily get through early game in FTL with no upgrades at all

Then you'll be underleveled for sector 3 and soon die when enemy ships start getting stronger and on the way you'll be taking unnessesary hits from lasers and beams that would've blocked by a second shield layer or missiles that would've been dodged with higher engines, since the point of upgrading early is that you're ahead of the upgrade curve, not below it.

Its basically a waste of 50 scrap (which is a substantial amount early game when each encounter only gives 10-20 scrap) and sacficing a significant attack bonus so you can play with slightly less microing of your crew. If you're playing at a high level you can micro your crew around the enemy.ships effectively and can take them out even if they have medbay and cloning, because 4 mantis are just that strong.

>>13615131

>Not if the room your Mantis crew are in is right next to the medbay, which if you've maxed out can then kill them.

Medbay is almost always seperate from any key rooms. And even then If an enemy is running to medbay they're obviously not in good shape. If they stopped it would just mean instant death before they dealt more than 5% damage. Obviously I'm smart enough to use this tactic a bit after that.

>then if you're killing them so fast that they don't die in your first encounter then you may as well just have a medbay instead so you can get the bonus upgrade.

It's faster to teleport out than it is to teleport in than out. Much faster actually. Even with improved medbay and transporter.

>If you're microing your crew well enough you're easily able to reposition the placements your mantis so that the enemy is fighting the mantis with the most health

I can do the same thing without a medbay.

>There's nothing to your strategy that says the cloning bay is better than the medbay, just that 4 mantis are incredibly strong and can defeat most enemies.

There's nothing in the strategy that does much to help Medbay either. It uses an extra teleporter charge and puts your crew in more immediate danger. A single mistake can pretty much fuck you for a good chunk of the game. I don't mind a challenge but I'm only human. Often something unpredictable may happen that will kill my crew member in an unexptected way. Like a stray meteor or an exploding Zoltan.

>Not if you're not firing weapons into it.

Weapons are often a good way to render the enemy ship less hostile. Even if you kill the enemy crew quickly it's not guarantee a few of their shots might not penetrate your defenses. That or maybe I'm using a weapon that damages enemy crew but requires there be no shield. There's no harm in both laying down a boarding party as well as pressure fire so long as you're doing it appropriately. Problem is it can occasionally not work out fully.

>If they're fully maxed out then they won't die against mantis and rock.

If they're outnumbered they will.

1/2

>>13615218

>Also you're forgetting that the enemy crew are often leveled up too during the later stages, so your crew needs to be leveled up to compensate.

By that point you are. It's like I said, when you have clone bay you don't die constantly. Only somewhat often. Your skills will still improve just more slowly. Though if all your crew is doing is fighting it's relatively not that large of a punishment. They will always deal more XP than loss of XP by a considerable amount.

>You still have to wait for the crew to clone back so the time saved is something like 5 seconds total

In a game that's all about timing that's kinda important. Those 5 seconds could be what you need to take out the enemies weapons before they lay down their missiles.

>and you won't need to since 4 mantis full maxed out are the strongest crew in the entire game and can defeat every enemy.

Enemies aren't always the issue. And even if they were they still need HP. The only time you would ever be in danger in the game is if there were 4 mantis that were a higher level than you. Besides this never happening a clone bay would solve this easily as all you would have to do is focus on killing 2 of them at a time and rotating your Mantis. It's slightly slower than 4 at once but still efficient and you're not at a loss for resources when defending yourself against the ship outside of manning bonus. Which is usually why I keep an engie or 2 on board to govern piloting and weapons/engine or shield.

>Then you'll be underleveled for sector 3 and soon die when enemy ships start getting stronger and on the way you'll be taking unnessesary hits from lasers and beams that would've blocked by a second shield layer or missiles that would've been dodged with higher engines, since the point of upgrading early is that you're ahead of the upgrade curve, not below it.

By sector 3 50 scrap isn't much. Assuming you've been doing well you should have both a clone bay and an improved ship. Shit 50 scrap by that point is what you should have in case you want an extra augment or weapon or something.

>Its basically a waste of 50 scrap (which is a substantial amount early game when each encounter only gives 10-20 scrap)

Assuming early game is sector 1 and 2 it's again not needed. By sector 3 you earn more than enough scrap. I just consider buying a clone bay early a future investment that pays off.

>and sacrificing a significant attack bonus

less than 1/5th isn't significant when you're already 50% stronger than every race in the game.

>If you're playing at a high level you can micro your crew around the enemy.ships effectively and can take them out even if they have medbay and cloning, because 4 mantis are just that strong.

It's also a lot of micro managing for the same effect as having a clone bay really. There's nothing that impedes high level play in late game. If you're good enough you probably find a technique that gave your crew 50% less damage in three times the time spent.

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