FTL

Tamren wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

I think the Hull Repair Drone is a bit of a waste. He only repairs a little bit of hull damage and then uses up a Drone Part. Drone Recovery Arm doesn't seem to work with it either.

LIKE HELL IT ISN'T!. Don't you realize that the hull repair drone is the only way to fix the ship outside of the store and random events? All you need is 10 drone parts and you can repair your ship up to full anywhere and anytime.

Yeah, it could be a waste; it's situational. It could also save your ass. If you need an emergency hull repair Hull Repair Drone might be the only way to get it. And if you find yourself in the situation where you have the Drone System but you still have lots of extra Drone Parts (e.g. you have the Drone Recovery Arm), then Hull Repair Drone is a good way to cash out those extra Parts.

bighoppa wrote:

Finally beat the flagship last night on easy with the Engie ship. I never found a store or got an event that gave me another crew member, but I did end up with the fabled dual ion blaster mk2 combined with L2 defense and attack drones. It was so easy I wondered why I had so much trouble the other dozen times I fought the flagship. Next up I'll have to try this 'boarding' everyone is raving about. Teleporters are just so expensive!

I had this setup going, but drained life-support to power it and then forgot Everyone suffocated.

Tamren wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

I think the Hull Repair Drone is a bit of a waste. He only repairs a little bit of hull damage and then uses up a Drone Part. Drone Recovery Arm doesn't seem to work with it either.

LIKE HELL IT ISN'T!. Don't you realize that the hull repair drone is the only way to fix the ship outside of the store and random events? All you need is 10 drone parts and you can repair your ship up to full anywhere and anytime.

I would have killed for one in a recent game. I went about 4 sectors without running into a store or event to repair.

I much prefer the Hull Repair Arm, which takes 15% of your scrap but repairs your hull.

Argh! I've had long stream of failed Normal games using the Kestrel. Just last game I reached zone 5 but I had not gotten a single new weapon in the entire game OR even had a chance to buy one at the store. It got to the point where I was running into ships with more shields than I could deal with period and I had to restart.

Also anti-personnel beams are awesome! Get one and it renders boarding parties obsolete.

Yeah, the Hull Repair drone can be very useful. On ships with limited drone slots, like the Kestrel, I usually keep it in inventory, and swap it in for a quick heal between battles if things aren't going well. I don't think it's worth using up a slot during battles, only between fights.

You do get quite a bit more scrap for killing the crew than you do for destroying the ship. I'm going to spoiler-tag everything else here, because I get into some very specific boarding strategies.

Spoiler:

Upthread, I was thinking the scrap gained from an intact ship was like twice as much, but I've come to the conclusion that this was me misreading the increasing scrap totals as the game progresses. Rather, it seems to be about 50% more scrap, frequently quite a bit more fuel, and the possibility of occasionally getting a prisoner or a weapon. It's probably not more than a 10% chance for a special item, maybe even 5%, but it does happen.

Certain special encounters will go much better if you kill the crew instead of exploding the ship.

It can take a lot longer to take out a ship this way.... simply blowing up a ship is easy, but capturing it takes finesse.

If you have double ion cannon IIs, you can disable their weapons and shields, and then dedicate one cannon to keeping the O2 offline, while you switch the other around between shields and weapons. If they don't have an insanely high dodge, this will let you sit there in near-perfect safety while the enemy crew suffocates. And, with this method, you use no resources, just ion cannon rounds, which are infinite. This is pure win, but it takes patience. It's super helpful to have the Fast Reload augment... the extra 15% firing speed on those already-fast cannons is a big deal.

There is a small Slug ship with an O2 generator and an engine that can't be reached from the main ship area, so disabling the O2, and either weathering the attacks, or disabling the weapons, will give you a crew-death kill. Once you knock out that generator, they're dead, it's just a matter of time.

If you use a level 3 teleporter, and you only teleport into a 1x2 room, I don't think there's any way that your men can be killed by the enemy forces before your TP recharges, allowing you to either reinforce in a nearby room (if the fight is going well) or to pull them out (if it isn't.)

However, this leads me to the non-spoilered suggestion of:

Remember, don't shoot your elite boarding party. This is bad.

troubleshot wrote:

Good advice DanB.

Also, I'm yet to try boarding. Interested in the whole wiping a ship out by other means. Am I right in the understanding that if everyone on board and enemy ship is dead then the battle ends and you garner more than the usual scrap reward? Any other goodies gained this way? Weapons, drones etc?

I rescued an extra crew member after boarding one of the black market arms dealer ships the other day. I think you can get extra equipment from blowing up enemy ships, but I doubt you can get more crew.

I've been using the same routine to board enemy ships over and over again:

Spoiler:

1. Teleport to the helm to reduce the enemy ship's dodge. Teleport your boarders away to heal as needed.
2. Disable shields, weapons and medical bay. Cloak or deploy anti-missile drones as needed.
3. Finish off the crew. Rinse and repeat.

I'd like to vary how I fight enemies, but there isn't much incentive to do this when boarding gives more scrap and extra bonuses to boot.

More lessons learned while trying to board enemy ships:

- Teleporter level 2 is a vast improvement over level 1; you can retrieve crew that would have died otherwise.

- Make sure your crew are standing still when you teleport them. If they have move orders and are bashing down a door, they don't count as being in the room for teleporter purposes.

- If you're boarding a ship that's trying to flee, make absolutely sure it doesn't.

- Boarding enemy ships in asteroid fields and solar flares is doable, but it isn't a good idea.

- Consider disabling the enemy medical bay (ion blasts are suitable).

Itsatrap wrote:

- If you're boarding a ship that's trying to flee, make absolutely sure it doesn't.

That's awesome.

Malor wrote:

Remember, don't shoot your elite boarding party. This is bad.

I didn't bother shooting the boarding party, I just blew up the ship they were on. Ooops!

Itsatrap wrote:

- Boarding enemy ships in asteroid fields and solar flares is doable, but it isn't a good idea.

Solar flares yes, asteroids no as much. With asteroids around you just need to ensure they have intact shields while your men are over there.

Demiurge wrote:
Itsatrap wrote:

- If you're boarding a ship that's trying to flee, make absolutely sure it doesn't.

That's awesome.

Even the boss. Bye bye mantises.

:O

Malor wrote:
Spoiler:

If you have double ion cannon IIs, you can disable their weapons and shields, and then dedicate one cannon to keeping the O2 offline, while you switch the other around between shields and weapons. If they don't have an insanely high dodge, this will let you sit there in near-perfect safety while the enemy crew suffocates. And, with this method, you use no resources, just ion cannon rounds, which are infinite. This is pure win, but it takes patience. It's super helpful to have the Fast Reload augment... the extra 15% firing speed on those already-fast cannons is a big deal.

How does this work? You would still need to damage the enemy hull to create an O2 leak in the first place. In the early game I always steal power from O2 and Medical to power my weapons and drones. There's only a problem if my rooms are already low in O2 or there is a leak or fire.

I got to the big boss...and of course lost big time...
Ah well, one more time I guess.

Warning: do not fire up FTL "just for a quick few minutes of play" in the morning when you should be getting ready for work.

Nevin73 wrote:

I much prefer the Hull Repair Arm, which takes 15% of your scrap but repairs your hull.

Yuck, I really don't like that one.

My worst boarding crew death was when I forgot to turn off my

Spoiler:

brand new Artillery beam on the first run with the Rebel Cruiser

I had just sent my crew over for a second strike after recalling hem to heal up. The enemy crew was almost dead when I sent them, then the weapon went off, did a good 4 points of damage and set fires everywhere. All of the enemy was dead, I couldn't control their doors, and my boarders wouldn't fight the fires. Three three remaining hull points slowly degraded while the fire swept through the ship. I sent the boarders to the farthest corner to wait it out, but the ship fell apart around them right before the teleporter refreshed.

Yonder wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

I much prefer the Hull Repair Arm, which takes 15% of your scrap but repairs your hull.

Yuck, I really don't like that one.

My worst boarding crew death was when I forgot to turn off my

Spoiler:

brand new Artillery beam on the first run with the Rebel Cruiser

I had just sent my crew over for a second strike after recalling hem to heal up. The enemy crew was almost dead when I sent them, then the weapon went off, did a good 4 points of damage and set fires everywhere. All of the enemy was dead, I couldn't control their doors, and my boarders wouldn't fight the fires. Three three remaining hull points slowly degraded while the fire swept through the ship. I sent the boarders to the farthest corner to wait it out, but the ship fell apart around them right before the teleporter refreshed.

were they wearing red shirts?

Delerat wrote:

How does this work? You would still need to damage the enemy hull to create an O2 leak in the first place. In the early game I always steal power from O2 and Medical to power my weapons and drones. There's only a problem if my rooms are already low in O2 or there is a leak or fire.

The loss adds up REAL fast because O2 drains evenly from all rooms the moment the oxygen system is turned off. It's very deadly because if you get it to the point that crew start taking damage from lack of oxygen there is no safe room on the ship anymore except maybe the medbay. If the crew have been wounded FROM lack of oxygen, it's already too late! Even if you turn on the oxygen right there and then they will suffocate by the time O2 levels stabilize again.

Just ended another fine Normal game in a Kestral. Got to system 7 before I went down in flames. Apart from the lack of hitpoints my ship was a BEAST. One burst laser II backed up with TWO hull laser IIs. I could burst fire 9 shots and if they didn't have any shields I could target an empty room and deal a ridiculous 15 damage in one salvo. I would have stomped the boss if I had made it that far, but constant fighting wore me down and I died looking for repairs.

Made it to

Spoiler:

stage 2

of the boss as an Engi on easy. I miscalculated between bits, and jumped right into him, instead of going to a repair station, and started the fight with 5 hull. I was rocking maxed out cloak, stealth weaponry, the starting Ion Cannon & a heavy Ion Cannon, as well as an attack droid I and an attack droid II.

Tamren wrote:
Delerat wrote:

How does this work? You would still need to damage the enemy hull to create an O2 leak in the first place. In the early game I always steal power from O2 and Medical to power my weapons and drones. There's only a problem if my rooms are already low in O2 or there is a leak or fire.

The loss adds up REAL fast because O2 drains evenly from all rooms the moment the oxygen system is turned off. It's very deadly because if you get it to the point that crew start taking damage from lack of oxygen there is no safe room on the ship anymore except maybe the medbay. If the crew have been wounded FROM lack of oxygen, it's already too late! Even if you turn on the oxygen right there and then they will suffocate by the time O2 levels stabilize again.

Just ended another fine Normal game in a Kestral. Got to system 7 before I went down in flames. Apart from the lack of hitpoints my ship was a BEAST. One burst laser II backed up with TWO hull laser IIs. I could burst fire 9 shots and if they didn't have any shields I could target an empty room and deal a ridiculous 15 damage in one salvo. I would have stomped the boss if I had made it that far, but constant fighting wore me down and I died looking for repairs.

That seems weird that it works differently than on your own ship then. Unless there's a difference between disabling and unpowered(there shouldn't be). Like I said, early on I take all the power out of my O2 and put it in my engines and weapons, only putting it back if I get a breach.

EDIT: Nevermind. You're right. I guess the fights don't last long enough for me to completely run out by the time I power it again.

I find that I don't get enough scraps to do it all. Now I have to think and thinker and balance. Oh wait, that's the challenge!

In the start I tend to put most of my upgrading in the engines and extra power to increase my dodge rate. It's been working pretty well, especially because it's so cheap. Also I designate each crew member with a position so they level faster, including repairs. I will leave damaged areas broken in early easy battles so that after the battle my repairer can level up repair extremely fast.

Another tactic is to upgrade your weapons and/or drones more than you actually use so that when they get damaged you don't lose any functionality.

I tried out the Engi ship today, on Easy since I'm not very familiar with it. The run could have gone better, but as far as equipment goes I had everything I wanted. Ion blast I&II, and a Glaive beam, the BIG one! That thing is a monster, 3 damage and the beam sweep is enough to hit 3 rooms. At the same time I was running an attack drone II and a defense drone II. The power drain from maxing out drones and weapons at the same time is pretty harsh. I never had the chance to get level 4 shields and I could barely break even with two zoltan crew.

I'm not liking level 2 drones all that much. If you have the choice get two attack drone Is instead of one II. Defense drones shoot down missiles pretty well, but the level IIs can shoot down lasers as well, and they tend to get very distracted. If missile defence is your goal get two level II defence drones, the screen they put up is impenetrable.

Oh my goodness I'm so powerful it's unbelievable.
Burst Laser II, Heavy Laser II, Heavy Laser, Heavy Laser. Due to my preloader they are all hot the second I land. I'm in the Osprey with a fully upgraded Artillery beam, full shields with Two recharge rate augmenters.

I am at the last stage, so I don't need to board anymore, and honestly with all the weaponry it's a liability. Trying to decide whether I should put that energy (and maybe one shield slot) towards an Anti-Ship Drone II or just two more dots of maneuverability.

Edit: NOOOOO. So close. I didn't have enough beam defense, and the third stage slimly, slimly beat me. Well. Sort of.

When my ship blew up the Flagship was near death, and what's more important it had a crew of 1 half injured human. I had a nearly full health, fully skilled duo of a Rockman and Mantis on board. I really should have been able to play through until their deaths, or rather their nearly certain triumphant return to the Federation base with the Rebels own Flagship. Dammit.

Boarding Drones are brutal. I can't tell you how many times I've made it to the end of Normal only to have those guys tear my ship apart. Automatic breach and enough HP to outmatch a Rock or Mantis. I wish they'd all burn in Robot hell.

At least I've learned my lesson, need to start sending out boarding parties of my own. Or better yet, unleash the fury of Boarding Drones upon all the Rebel scum throughout the quadrant. They shall all know my wrath or my name isn't Capt. Reginald Maloy Jerkface of the HMS Poopie-Pants.

Played the Rock ship for the first time on Easy to see what's what. This thing is powerful! I set a new high score. The ship starts with two launchers and it is possible to do a missile heavy playthrough. To conserve ammo I ended up doing a ton of boarding actions and I only ran out at the very very end against the boss. Luckily I still had a Burst Laser III and a Hull Laser 2 to fall back on. Pegasus Launchers and Breach Missiles are very very good. But they take 3 power to use, so you have to base your weapon build around them instead of tacking them on like you could with an Artemis.

Maybe I suck at games but...

Spoiler:

finally after 23 hours I have beat the flagship on normal. But who cares! I love this game I can dedicate 40 more to normal! I'm so glad I backed this Kickstarter project.

Crockpot wrote:

Maybe I suck at games but...

Spoiler:

finally after 23 hours I have beat the flagship on normal. But who cares! I love this game I can dedicate 40 more to normal! I'm so glad I backed this Kickstarter project.

Don't feel too bad.

Spoiler:

I'm at 48. Haven't beaten Normal yet, but not for lack of trying.

MikeSands wrote:

Warning: do not fire up FTL "just for a quick few minutes of play" in the morning when you should be getting ready for work.

I had to run to catch my train to work today for this very reason.

Btw, I dont understand the unlock for the Kestrel re: Having all Systems and Sub Systems installed. Can anyone explain this.

Two days ago I beat the final boss with the Kestrel on Easy and have been playing on Normal since, but getting thoroughly whooped. I think I might have to roll back to Easy for a while so my spirit doesn't get completely broken by this game.

troubleshot wrote:

Btw, I dont understand the unlock for the Kestrel re: Having all Systems and Sub Systems installed. Can anyone explain this.

For a Kestrel, you will need to purchase: Cloaking, Crew Teleporter, and Drone Control.