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FTL: Advanced Edition |OT|: Now on iPad (and free update on PC!)
- Thread starter chickdigger802
- Start date
KojiKnight
Member
You lucked out... I've had it happen the other way around (the boss died a split second AFTER me) and it counted as a loss -_-
MacGurcules
Member
Aw, I want a Pliny.
You might've been looking at a charge weapon.
You gotta remember that after a certain point, you may as well expect every enemy crewman to be maxed out in whatever station he's manning as well as at least leveled in repair and fighting. With a re-loader on top of that... they're built to sling more fire at you.
Also, it pays to destroy the helm of a ship. I always see people targeting shields first. That's fine. Most of the time. But if you can land one missile to the helm then that ship's evasion immediately becomes 0 AND the enemy has to move hands from shields, weapons, etc to handle the damage and repairs. That's when you do your damage. It doesn't even take a full volley. One missile. Helm down. Other weapons on standby. Second missile to shield room. Open up.
At least if that's your common build. I'm just leaning away from straight firepower right now because its pretty resource heavy and requires a lot of luck when it comes to weapon availability.
Timing has become more important too imo. Before your weapon charges all seemed to sync up rather nicely but with charge weapons and flak delivery, you really have to focus in on when your shots are expected to hit the target. Its also why the sensor improvements can be so helpful. Being able to line up timed impacts with ion lock/*stun precisely can change entire builds.
I try and not rely on missiles. My luck is terrible, there have been a great many times where I have missed with missiles 6 times. I know because I counted how many times I missed. I'd rather rely on attacks that don't have a chance to miss, boarders, beams, mind control and hacking. It works well enough and I don't get that frustrated.
Weltall Zero
Member
I barely ever use missiles, so I tend to finish runs with lots of them (my Normal Lanius victory ended with over 50 of them, even though I sold lots at every event I could). Targetting the cockpit is not a bad strategy, but it's not as overpowered as you make it sound, because:
1) If the cockpit is level 1, they'll take very little time to repair it no matter how much damage you've done to it (especially since there's already a crewmember in there), making missiles somewhat wasted there. Sometimes they can repair it between volleys.
2) If it's above 1, then you need more than 1 damage to drop it to 0% dodge, as there's autopilot (and it's been buffed now). Also, there's a special rule for cockpits that makes it so that even if the crewmember there is repairing it, he/she still provides some extra dodge.
It's still good, especially for ships with a lot of dodge. It's particularly good with automated ships, since they tend to have a lot of dodge, and they repair much slower.
KojiKnight
Member
I do wish manning weapons provided an accuracy bonus over a recharging bonus. Always have.
Your weapons systems might also get hit my enemy missiles, your weapons crewmember mind controlled or your weapons systems hacked, in which case the fight just got harder. If the boss latches a hacking drone on to your weapons system you might as well jump out because you can't gather enough firepower to fire a volley.
Anything is better than just sitting in space and whiffing while the enemy gets to unload everything without a care in the world. Even if all you have is crappy, 1-damage Leto missiles, all you need is one to hit and enough firepower behind it to hit whatever else you need to.
And going from a manned helm to an unmanned, damaged one is still a substantial hit to dodge chance.
If you're going down the road of straight force on force gameplay, dealing with dodge chance has to be something you're ready for.
Haunted
Member
Wait, did the credits screen say you had any crew members still alive?
Then use hacking or mind control to ensure that first missile hits. A fast firing Ion weapon can help too.
A ship relying on autopilot still gets an evasion penalty. If you want another option, you can also attack engines. There's more of a gradient, but more of the evasion percentage is tied up there too. It'll drop down even further if there's a person manning it, because they have to stop manning it in order to repair (or sit out an Ion attack).
Layers upon layers of options. But if you don't have some type of countermeasure for hacking, a boarding drone, and mind control, you're going to have a rough time on the final fight. It's just how it's designed (kick in the teeth difficult).
I JUST unlocked the Rock Cruiser yesterday and I've been playing since release. Only the 2nd time I've even triggered the event.
KojiKnight
Member
Funny, Rock was the second one I unlocked this time (started from scratch because my saves got deleted at some point). Still haven't figured out where the Federation ship is hiding...
Weltall Zero
Member
I've not only yet to unlock Rock B, I haven't got a single Rock achievement. And it's not for lack of trying. The "kill an enemy on fire" didn't seem to trigger for me even though I did just that, and there's not a lot of ships with drones in early sectors. Worst of all, the Rock A is my least favorite ship in the entire game from those I've unlocked, as I hate missiles...
Getting the whole crystal event to trigger early enough in the game to actually complete the quest is just lol
fortunately there's a new way to unlock it now
Two more Bs left to unlock, Rock and Mantis (need one achievement each). Plus Crystal of course. I've gotten the damn quest (the stasis pod) like 3-5 times today, but i miss the goddamn follow-ups.
The Rock Cruiser A is not bad but you need to get missile augments/stuff early or switch to energy weapons early (dual Swarm missiles are funny though).
But the Mantis Cruiser A... now that one is horrible. So very, very luck dependent early on. It is bad in combat and its small Teleport makes it weak for boarding actions too. Ugh. At least getting that Battle Royale achievement isn't too hard (though it is one of those achievements that make people play to get the achievement, not play properly).
The Rock Cruiser A is not bad but you need to get missile augments/stuff early or switch to energy weapons early (dual Swarm missiles are funny though).
But the Mantis Cruiser A... now that one is horrible. So very, very luck dependent early on. It is bad in combat and its small Teleport makes it weak for boarding actions too. Ugh. At least getting that Battle Royale achievement isn't too hard (though it is one of those achievements that make people play to get the achievement, not play properly).
Green Biker Dude
Banned
does this now use steam cloud to store the save game? cause it was really annoying that it didn't. i don't care about achievements a whole lot but if they were gonna have them, it should've also integrated with the steam ones
KojiKnight
Member
The fire ones takes forever because it's hard as hell to get a teleporter and a weapon that creates fire... worse is that the enemies run from rooms where there is fire if they are near death.... and to keep lighting every room on fire you risk blowing up the ships. I finally got rock B and C, but damn was it tough.
The ships with defenses aren't too bad if you have a couple swarm missiles. Use those to target his drone control and you'll get the achievement pretty easy. It's all about FINDING those swarm missiles though.
Kind of sad the weapon pre-igniter only handles 1 charge level on charged weapons.
Weltall Zero
Member
Oh, really? That's great news. When did they add it?
old manatee
Banned
Mind control to the helm right before I launch my weapons is one of my favorite strategies right now. I just leave 1 point in it and keep the helm shut down while I target the shields and then the weapons.
A level 1 mind control will lead to the death of him/her on filled ships. A level 3 mind control will lead to heavily damaging crew (if they have a med bay it's unlikely they'll kill anyone) but it's great for when you're boarding the enemy and need an extra body. Mind control is great.
Chrono Helix
Member
It doesn't seem to do so automatically if you move from a PC to a Mac.
Finally got to the last part of the slug cruiser chain. It got away. 
Should have gone for the cockpit and boarded instead of trying to kill the engines.
Should have gone for the cockpit and boarded instead of trying to kill the engines.Hmm. I like this.
And seriously, mind control + teleport is amazing. I got to the point on the mantis ship where i was teleporting mind controlled enemies back onto my ship to repair systems for me! While suffocating them.
Awesome.
Yup.
For those that already know the ending to hard mode the video I was talking about is "FTL:AE - Shieldless Stealth A - HARD MODE " on Youtube. Great demo of using abilities at level 1 to get the most out of them. I'm just trying to get into my old top 5 score list with a hard run mode.
Hey dudes, just started playing on the iPad version this week.
Was this build honestly not good enough to win, or was my strategy (what I was targeting, not using correct weapons, etc.) to blame?
http://imgur.com/hhQ65IF
I seriously thought this was the run, then proceeded to get smoked
Even then, still having a lot of fun unlocking the different ships. Totally worth the $10.
Was this build honestly not good enough to win, or was my strategy (what I was targeting, not using correct weapons, etc.) to blame?
http://imgur.com/hhQ65IF
I seriously thought this was the run, then proceeded to get smoked
by the second boss ship in the last area. I took that screenshot as the first ship was exploding because I thought I had finally won a game...lol.
Even then, still having a lot of fun unlocking the different ships. Totally worth the $10.
You ran out of missiles didn't you? Without enough firepower to breach shields, or something that can circumvent shields you couldn't do much with that Halberd Beam, right?
Yeah, I repaired and got a few more missiles but still ran out. I wasn't doing much with the missiles I had. I think I got one real hit in while getting lit up lol. Plus at that time I didn't know the halberd was so effective once shields are down. I can do damage with halberd if there's only one shield left, right?
If I had enough missiles and targeted the shield + cloaked, could I have got it done with the halberd? Didn't really feel like it. Had the ability where you can attack while cloaked and the green shields, too. Eesh.
I guess don't really want to know how to win, just whether it was feasable to win if I played better or "try something else" haha.
If you had infinite missiles you might've, but you might've still got overwhelmed. Hard to say, it depends on what the AI would do and what they target.
Yeah, my suspicion is that even if I knew exactly what to target I was going to get overwhelmed with what I had. I blew through
the first boss ship (is this a spoiler? haha) without taking a hit, too!
Guess I'll rethink my approach now that I know what I'm up against.
Agreed. I see the boss died with three shield bubbles up. That strat would take many many many more missiles. Possibly somewhere north of 75 during the first phase. I actually plan on trying a missile run next time I find the Explosive Replicator Augment early.
Possible, but difficult sounds about right :]
Was this on normal or hard difficulty? It doesn't look like that ship has enough scrap on it. Most of the systems are at level one and defenses are really low. One tip with that ship is to upgrade the engines early. That end-game engine level is something I normally hit much earlier. Complimenting that Zoltan Shield with evasion has a domino effect in saving you money to get more upgrades for everything else.
And now it hits me! Did you buy a lot of missiles and drones at shops? If the answer is yes then play again doing everything the same, but avoiding those two systems. I think you'll win.
It was actually easy mode, haha! I dunno how you guys do it. Guess I'll get better as I go through trial and error. I tend to treat engines as an afterthought, so that's interesting to hear.
If that looks like low scrap I must've wasted it somewhere, because I definitely visited as many places as possible. I don't remember how I spent it, exactly. 150 for the cloaking at a shop if I'm remembering, plus a few of those weapons.
Need to beat the game with an Engi to unlock the 3rd ship (got the 4th through a quest blindly, haha). Which is the best base type? Unlocked all 3.
All Bs unlocked, now all i need are Cs and Crystal Cruiser.
Rock B looks interesting...
I think all Engi ships are pretty good but they require unconventional playstyle (IMO at least, i don't use much drones).
EDIT Holy shit, Rock C!
Rock B looks interesting...
I think all Engi ships are pretty good but they require unconventional playstyle (IMO at least, i don't use much drones).
EDIT Holy shit, Rock C!
Semi-Crystal Cruiser!
Finally got around to playing this yesterday after a few technical problems, turns out the drm-free version and steam version use the same folder to store saves so I was able to keep my progress between version. Would have been a pain to try unlocking the crystal ship again.
The augmentation that lets you teleport and hack through zoltan shields is so good.Apart from the lanius the now exploding zoltan can also make for a nice suicide boarding party if you have a cloning bay.
I've found that you pretty much have to hack the hacking module of the rebel flagship or he'll keep one of your module locked down in permanence and cloak between hacks so you'll die pretty easily (underestimated it and died because he kept hacking my weapons).
Also love the hacking module against ships with medbays. When you hack it it drains the life of enemies inside the room instead of healing them.
The augmentation that lets you teleport and hack through zoltan shields is so good.Apart from the lanius the now exploding zoltan can also make for a nice suicide boarding party if you have a cloning bay.
I've found that you pretty much have to hack the hacking module of the rebel flagship or he'll keep one of your module locked down in permanence and cloak between hacks so you'll die pretty easily (underestimated it and died because he kept hacking my weapons).
Also love the hacking module against ships with medbays. When you hack it it drains the life of enemies inside the room instead of healing them.
Weltall Zero
Member
I personally think that build would have probably died horribly even in the hands of an expert (perhaps not if it was someone truly hardcore like those guys doing no-pause runs with all ships on normal/hard). It's seriously lacking on both offense (over reliance on missile weapons) and defense (two shields is seriously a no-go at that point; three is usually enough with good enough engines, though).
My guess is that you spent a lot of scrap on repairs, and possibly drones and missiles as well. FTL as a game tends to have a rather steep slippery slope where, if you're doing good, you get excess scrap to enhance your ship, therefore doing even better, and conversely, if you're doing badly, you have to spend all scrap in repairs and ammo, therefore you get more and more behind on the power curve. That's often enough to reach the flagship (which I guess is why all the C unlocks have as a requirement reaching sector 8, not beating the game), but the flagship is another story entirely (especially now that's been buffed).
The good news is that as one becomes better at the game, it starts having a huge impact on the outcome, since the curve is less pronounced. Eventually you reach the other part of the curve and dominate a large number of runs. I myself still have to get used to all the new stuff and particularly the Flagship enhancements.
Oh, you might want to upgrade the O2 generator before facing the flagship. If it had hacked it, you would have probably died there and then (when it's hacked it actually removes oxygen from your ship).
That sounds awesome lol
I was running the Mantis B earlier and its a breeze early on. I finally got the auto-pilot achievement too. The fact that it's loaded with drones early allows for all sorts of a fuckery though. I've lucked into 4 mantis bros, and ion intruder boarder, and mind control in the first 3 sectors along with flak 1 and medbombs.
Breeze. The game is a breeze.
I've never thought about teleporting mind controlled crew off of the enemy ship to repair my own ship while suffocating. That's so savage and grimey.
So. Playing with the Stealth B.
A lot of enemy intruders in my ship, weapons gone, can't do anything. So i jump away... and get more intruders from an event. Oh, well. I open all airlocks, run an Engi to medbay and close its door. A moment later, he is the only survivor. However, the ship doesn't have working life support, and the medbay doesn't have enough air, so the Engi is healed as fast as it suffocates, so its health is stuck at 21. I cannot go an repair the life support...
EDIT my friend commented that most people either win or lose but i, on the other hand, found a third way...
A lot of enemy intruders in my ship, weapons gone, can't do anything. So i jump away... and get more intruders from an event. Oh, well. I open all airlocks, run an Engi to medbay and close its door. A moment later, he is the only survivor. However, the ship doesn't have working life support, and the medbay doesn't have enough air, so the Engi is healed as fast as it suffocates, so its health is stuck at 21. I cannot go an repair the life support...
Mass Effect 2: Normandy SR-2. Remember what happens to it? The Stealth B (DA-SR12) is quite like Normandy SR-2...
and what happened to me, is almost like what happened to the Normandy when the Collectors attacked.
EDIT my friend commented that most people either win or lose but i, on the other hand, found a third way...
So, here's something I've been wondering about for quite a while (sorry if it's been asked before): are some events (lone madman on a planet, space spider of doom, six-legged beings) completely random, or is there some hidden factors at play (number of people on deck, etc.). I'm talking about normal, "white" choices here, not the blue, special ones.
Speaking about the lone madman, can something good come out of bringing him aboard? I've tried it once and never have since, heh.
Speaking about the lone madman, can something good come out of bringing him aboard? I've tried it once and never have since, heh.
MacGurcules
Member
You can pull apart the game files and see the options available for each encounter. I believe they're mostly random. One possibility of the madman is that he'll join your crew. Another option involves bringing him back to his family for a standard reward.
Ah, that's nice to know. Thanks!
Pound_lb003
Member
So, I haven't fired it up post update, is everyone agreed it's worth going back to?
Are there any changes to overall design? To make things a little less frustrating?
Aww, you changed your avatar
Honestly you have/had the coolest name and avatar.
Are there any changes to overall design? To make things a little less frustrating?
Aww, you changed your avatar
Honestly you have/had the coolest name and avatar.
Aww, you changed your avatar
Honestly you have/had the coolest name and avatar.
This one? Didn't know someone liked it, but thanks! Jodorowsky's Dune art is really great, though.
edit: Wow, terrible way to start the new page. So... mind control + a really good boarding crew is pretty OP, right?
vpance
Member
Took a few tries, but I finally beat Advanced mode with the starter ship layout with 2 HP to spare! Mind control and defense drone saved my ass a bunch of times. They kept throwing ion guns and drone related parts at me so the build direction was obvious. I think they nerfed the 4 sec reloading ion gun with 3 power requirement but I worked it in with the tons of scrap I was gaining. Final loadout: ion gun, ion stunner, heavy laser, burst laser mk ii, combat drone, defense drone.
Edit: Also had a stacked crew. 2 humans, 1 rockman, 4 engis and 1 slug dude with a crazy 30% Shield boost!
Edit: Also had a stacked crew. 2 humans, 1 rockman, 4 engis and 1 slug dude with a crazy 30% Shield boost!