FTL

According to Steam I have sunk 87 hours into FTL on my computer. In all that time I haven't managed to unlock the Crystal ship. Earlier today I played my second game on the iPad, and I managed to get the thing easily...

Finally got a win (six tries) last night using the Engi A (easy). Was a bit the reverse of some of my other plays, where I cruised fairly easily to sector 8 and then got smashed. (I think I'm finally getting the hang of the new Adv. Ed. systems.) This time I got a lot of bad rolls on Stores and salvage and was just kind of limping along w/a very pedestrian build. At one point I was down to about 10% of hull and only a bit of fuel, but I managed to moving forward, finally landing a cloak and getting some great loot in sector 7. I ended up having a relatively easy time of it on the Boss ship. Still didn't avoid the Hack -- had a defense 2 drone that stopped just one spike before they managed to latch one on to my cloak. That is soooo much less intrusive than on the weapons.

I think if they're going to patch something with the Hacking system, it really should be the loss of weapon charges. If a Hack drone hits the cloak I can just wait for a break in its disabling capabilities and activate the cloak, much as other systems are immediately accessible in-between hacks. Annoying, but you can work around them. If you're relying on 10-second or more charges for weapons you pretty much lose the ability to fire entirely. Brutal.

Anyway, it was fun, in phase 3, having the Boss try to mind control a guy only to have me mind control him right back. That and a anti-personnel drone made short work of their boarding actions.

Vargen wrote:

According to Steam I have sunk 87 hours into FTL on my computer. In all that time I haven't managed to unlock the Crystal ship. Earlier today I played my second game on the iPad, and I managed to get the thing easily...

So what you need to do is sellotape your ipad onto your computer monitor. Ta da, crystal ship on the PC!

Vargen wrote:

According to Steam I have sunk 87 hours into FTL on my computer. In all that time I haven't managed to unlock the Crystal ship. Earlier today I played my second game on the iPad, and I managed to get the thing easily...

I have over 180 hours and haven't managed to get it.

Got my first win with the AE content, with the Zoltan B. Not having a Defense Drone going into the boss wasn't as big a handicap as I feared; my Evade was high enough to dodge most of the missiles, I had Level 2 doors plus one level for manning the system so the boarding drones couldn't do much damage before my boarding party got back to deal with them, and I lucked out and all that got hacked was my O2 system, which was Level 2 and so able to get back to 100% between hacks.

Standard 2x Mantis boarding strategy took him down pretty easy. Hacked his mind control system during Stage 3 and let him have it.

Edit: Zoltan C is interesting. Starts out with only 2 power, plus 4 Zoltan crewers for 6 total, but it also starts with a fully upgraded (4 bar) battery backup. Ion Charger + Beam Drone for offense.

Starting with a drone system is always nice. So far the early strategy seems to be to pour everything into offense and try to get some damage in, then use the battery backup to boost engines and shields as soon as the Zoltan Shield goes down.

I played with the Zoltan C some yesterday, and it was fun, albeit not super effective. Basically you have a small window of time to take out enemy ships (while the battery is active). If you can't manage that, things go to crap real quickly, at least until you get your reactor upgraded. Also reactor upgrades for the first several bars are more expensive than normal.

I was interested in trying the exploding zoltan boarding strategy with this ship, but I didn't have a whole lot of luck with it.

Aha! Beat the boss on AE Easy with the Kestrel Cruiser, finally. I think mind control is something I'm going to get whenever possible. That plus hacking is an amazing combo. Echoing what someone said above, most of the time I'd hack weapons, but sometimes hacking a strategic room in the middle of a ship can effectively cut off movement for those within.

Plus getting lucky and picking up a Zoltan shield really helped with defenses this round.

Pocket gamer has a bit of a guide up for us newbies.

The most important thing I read

But here's a crucial piece of information about which you aren't told in the tutorial: there's no advantage to racing ahead of the rebel fleet.

You see, it moves at the same steady pace behind you across each sector (slower in nebulas). And you always have the same grace period without it sniffing at your tail after you enter a new sector.

So, don't run. Keep ahead of its advance. Other than that, dawdle. Zig-zag back and forth across the map, and try to judge how you can get in as many encounters as you can while staying just in front of that menacing red curve.

Maybe everyone knew that but I assumed that like many games if I went faster there would be less enemies or at least they would be weaker.

Yeah, Farley, that's a crucial point to success in FTL. Every jump point is an opportunity to accrue scrap (or things worth scrap). True, some places may end up costing you more than you gain (if you take too much hull damage, etc.). In those instances, the better you get at recognizing that scenario, cutting losses, and jumping out as quickly as possible, the better you'll position yourself. But ultimately, the more places you go, the better your chance to maximize scrap and then use it on stuff that will help you survive.

Ideally you end every sector with the exit in the danger zone just ahead of the rebel fleet.

T-Prime wrote:

Plus getting lucky and picking up a Zoltan shield really helped with defenses this round.

Is that new for AE? Can't say I remember every having that on any ship but the Zoltan ones.

Stele wrote:
T-Prime wrote:

Plus getting lucky and picking up a Zoltan shield really helped with defenses this round.

Is that new for AE? Can't say I remember every having that on any ship but the Zoltan ones. :?

I believe so. There's a quest that gives it to you now.

ubrakto wrote:

Yeah, Farley, that's a crucial point to success in FTL. Every jump point is an opportunity to accrue scrap (or things worth scrap). True, some places may end up costing you more than you gain (if you take too much hull damage, etc.). In those instances, the better you get at recognizing that scenario, cutting losses, and jumping out as quickly as possible, the better you'll position yourself. But ultimately, the more places you go, the better your chance to maximize scrap and then use it on stuff that will help you survive.

This is why I'm starting to believe the decoy beacon that delays the Rebel Fleet by one jump per sector might just be one of the best upgrades you can get. I dismissed it until I was handed one, and then I realized what a difference it made. My recent Crystal-Ship-unlocking run was probably partially due to having a bit of extra time to explore and find the star systems that I needed...

hbi2k wrote:
Stele wrote:
T-Prime wrote:

Plus getting lucky and picking up a Zoltan shield really helped with defenses this round.

Is that new for AE? Can't say I remember every having that on any ship but the Zoltan ones. :?

I believe so. There's a quest that gives it to you now.

I swear I was able to pick up a Zoltan shield through a quest in the vanilla game.

T-Prime wrote:
hbi2k wrote:
Stele wrote:
T-Prime wrote:

Plus getting lucky and picking up a Zoltan shield really helped with defenses this round.

Is that new for AE? Can't say I remember every having that on any ship but the Zoltan ones. :?

I believe so. There's a quest that gives it to you now.

I swear I was able to pick up a Zoltan shield through a quest in the vanilla game.

I couldn't tell you for sure. IIRC I had a mod installed that made all of the ship-unique augments rarely appear in shops.

EvilDead wrote:
Vargen wrote:

According to Steam I have sunk 87 hours into FTL on my computer. In all that time I haven't managed to unlock the Crystal ship. Earlier today I played my second game on the iPad, and I managed to get the thing easily...

I have over 180 hours and haven't managed to get it.

I also now have over 80 hours and have not come close to unlocking it using the random events method. I've heard of some people claiming to have unlocked it in as little as 20 hours or so. On the flip side, the Twitch streamer I previously linked to that was playing AE a day early with the dev on skype, LethalFrag, played vanilla FTL for over 300 hours without unlocking the Crystal ship, at which point he downloaded a save file with it unlocked.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Anti-drone drones aren't as useful because they only take 1 power to run. I kinda think they're useless.

I guess you've never had to fend off a fire drone in an ion storm then, the cheap power use becomes a big selling point.

I think of them as cheap insurance, I rarely actually use them even if the enemy has drones unless the danger is great enough. But they can help out in certain events because they count as defence drones.

T-Prime wrote:

I swear I was able to pick up a Zoltan shield through a quest in the vanilla game.

That is correct, most ships in the game are unlocked through quests and these only show up in special sectors like "Rebel Stronghold" or "Zoltan Homeworlds. When you complete one of these "story" quests you unlock one of the ships and get a bunch of rewards which generally includes an augment. This augment can be one of the ship/race specific ones like the Zoltan shield. There is no unlock quest for the Engi Cruiser, but you can still get the medbot dispersal from a random event.

So when you come across these sectors it can be worth picking them, the distribution of random events and locations is roughly the same as in other sectors. But these special areas are the only place to find the story quests which can help you a lot in the final fight.

MeatMan wrote:

On the flip side, the Twitch streamer I previously linked to that was playing AE a day early with the dev on skype, LethalFrag, played vanilla FTL for over 300 hours without unlocking the Crystal ship, at which point he downloaded a save file with it unlocked.

Ouch. I can't remember how many hours it took me to get my crystal ship, but I tried doing it with the rock ship specifically to get the achievement. I think it took me over 10 tries, but less than 20. When I finally got it the stars kind of aligned in my favour. I got the pod early on, unlocked it in sector 6 and found the rock homeworlds in sector 7.

Now that the rock ship C apparently starts with a crystal crewman it should be much easier for people to get. Just plan ahead and try to travel through as many red sectors as possible because the rock homeworld is always a red dot.

Finally got a couple of wins again on Normal with the new content. One with Stealth A and one with Zoltan B. Both were based off of solid fundamentals, rather than anything fancy - well-matched, efficient weapons and lot of defences. In the Zoltan game the real lucky break was getting a pair of Burst Mark II lasers which pair real well with the dinky ion cannons you start with. Between those and all the evasion, the boss phases were barely getting through my Zoltan shield by the time I was taking them down.

Even though I haven't won yet in Advanced mode, I'm willing to forgive all because "Reconstructive Teleport" with a cloning bay is like the greatest thing -- ever.

LilCodger wrote:

Even though I haven't won yet in Advanced mode, I'm willing to forgive all because "Reconstructive Teleport" with a cloning bay is like the greatest thing -- ever.

Yep. It's so good, it's almost unfair, even without a clone bay.

4dSwissCheese wrote:

In the Zoltan game the real lucky break was getting a pair of Burst Mark II lasers which pair real well with the dinky ion cannons you start with.

That was probably my favoritest setup in the vanilla. In the AE I've somehow not yet found a Burst Mark II, even in a store.

Ugh, I'm stuck on the first stage of the boss. I've destroyed all his weapons with away teams, but I have nothing that can touch his shields. My away teams are ganged on by his crew which easily heal in the medbay. My boarding drone is stuck in a weapon bay so he's no help. I only have 2 heavy lasers so I can't penetrate his shields. Bad luck on weapon drops.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Ugh, I'm stuck on the first stage of the boss. I've destroyed all his weapons with away teams, but I have nothing that can touch his shields. My away teams are ganged on by his crew which easily heal in the medbay. My boarding drone is stuck in a weapon bay so he's no help. I only have 2 heavy lasers so I can't penetrate his shields. Bad luck on weapon drops.

You are probably screwed, but you could try teleporting as many of your crew over as possible and lining the path between the medbay and the shield room with people to pick off those who run to heal. This tactic works best with a clone bay and upgraded teleporters.

Sadly, I had no clone bay. I ended up opening up my airlocks and surrendering to the void.

Jump and come back? That will let you redeploy the boarding drone, although if you are fighting at the base you can only do that once.

Tamren wrote:

Jump and come back? That will let you redeploy the boarding drone, although if you are fighting at the base you can only do that once.

Unless you fight it away from your base the first wave.

I had to do this tonight, and the 2nd time it hacked my med bay. I was able to ignore that. But I took a bit too much damage at the start before I could jump away, and he eventually wore me down at the start of phase 3.

sorry double post

LOL I had never had this happen before:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/l1oHdOT.png)

FYI: Yes, it does count as a win.

Man I had the 3rd stage of the boss down to 2 points of hull. I needed maybe 5 more seconds but rampant fire burned out my last hull point.

On that same run I unlocked the rock ship, the lanius ship, the stealth cruiser and the mantis ship. I'd call that a great run still.