FTL

[Sno]

Any tips for using the Federation B? I'm having trouble.

I usually dump the crappy missile launcher as soon as possible for another damage-dealing weapon with an energy cost of 1 or 2. In AE, a flak cannon would probably be ideal. Hang onto the dual laser though, it functions precisely the same as the level 1 burst laser, but with one less energy cost. (Just thinking here, the flak cannon's cooldown matches that of the dual lasers, you'd be able to deal five points of damage every ten seconds, that's tremendous early on. That could easily carry you, almost by itself, into the late sectors.)

Then get the artillery up, the shield up, and a drone control system with a level 1 defense drone for any enemies bringing missile launchers to a fight. Then max out the artillery the rest of the way and everything else after that is just gravy. (Also consider upgrading your doors, and don't ignore your engine but don't feel like you need to focus on it. Sell missiles whenever you can, unless you end up using another missile launcher.)

That's more or less the foundation of how i played with the Nisos, those things not particularly in that order, and it usually went quite well.

Now, Federation C, that's a brutal start. I've been having trouble with that. I wanted to try it out since it has a different artillery weapon from the other two layouts, but it's rough getting started with that thing.

[Codicier]

I've been doing a little research to find out if transferring your profile (unlocked ships etc), from the pc version to the ipad is possible & it seems that it is. however I'm still cautious since i've never messed around with altering stuff on a ipad so wondered if anyone here has tried it & can confirm it worked for them or not?

 

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/163020/can-you-transfer-your-saved-game-from-the-pc-version-of-ftl-to-the-ipad

[Sno]

I just had a normal difficulty victory with the Tektite, the C variant of the Rock Cruiser.

By the end, i had three shields, two mark 1 flak cannons, the mark 1 heavy crystal cannon, a firebomb, mark 2 defense drone, and a hull repair drone. (Drone system wasn't upgraded enough to use both simultaneously, since i was just using hull repair to patch up my ship between phases of the flagship.)

Somehow the only crew member i picked up along the way was a Zoltan that i stuck on my shield console, so just barely a four man crew counting the two rockmen and the one crystal being the ship variant starts with.

[Hermie]

I'm starting to remember why I stopped playing FTL the first time. The rebel flagship is just so different from all other enemies, and operates kinda unfairly. I wish they had reworked it together with the new stuff, but instead I fall into the same pattern: Have a really good run, only to be crushed at the end.

 

I wish there was an endless mode that ramped up the difficulty instead of this smackdown at the end. It demotivates me, and it looks like the only way to beat it is to try to build for it from the start, but the only way to test your build is by going allll the way through the game.

 

Maybe it gets better once I unlock more that the first two ships?

[Brannigan]

Part of it may be that I havent played in forever, but im finding that the flagship is much more difficult now. Whenever I get to it I last less than 30 seconds regardless of well prepared I am.

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm starting to remember why I stopped playing FTL the first time. The rebel flagship is just so different from all other enemies, and operates kinda unfairly. I wish they had reworked it together with the new stuff, but instead I fall into the same pattern: Have a really good run, only to be crushed at the end.

 

I wish there was an endless mode that ramped up the difficulty instead of this smackdown at the end. It demotivates me, and it looks like the only way to beat it is to try to build for it from the start, but the only way to test your build is by going allll the way through the game.

 

I would love that so much.  By far the most fun is the trip to the flagship.  I like trying wacky combinations of things, but I often quit once I reach the last stand because I know these won't work on the flagship.  I can have a near perfect run with a full crew, tons of upgrades, and lots of tech/weapons but it won't mean a damn thing because the flagship makes everything irrelevant.  I really dislike having to make builds specifically designed to defeat the flagship from the start because it's much less interesting than just going with what the game presents you along the way.  Unfortunately I've found that's the only way I can win.

[Hermie]

I would love that so much.  By far the most fun is the trip to the flagship.  I like trying wacky combinations of things, but I often quit once I reach the last stand because I know these won't work on the flagship.  I can have a near perfect run with a full crew, tons of upgrades, and lots of tech/weapons but it won't mean a damn thing because the flagship makes everything irrelevant.  I really dislike having to make builds specifically designed to defeat the flagship from the start because it's much less interesting than just going with what the game presents you along the way.  Unfortunately I've found that's the only way I can win.

 

Exactly, it feels contrary to the design philosophy of: Here's a starter set, now try to build a configuration based on what the dice throws at you.

 

 

As I recall, this criticism was brought up when the game was first released too. Does anyone know if the developers have addressed it in any way?

[tberton]

There's a mod that adds an Endless Mode, but it also adds a whole lot of stuff that I don't want. Here it is: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3542

[SecretAsianMan]

I was actually going to look for a mod like that.  I'll probably check it out tonight.  Thanks!

[Sno]

I think an endless mode would kind of break the game, honestly. I don't think the way the game is balanced could sustain out much further than when it already ends.

 

One of the important things to understand about the flagship battle in the final sector is that you can actually take some time to explore the sector between phases of the fight, since the flagship actually has to sit on the base for a consecutive three jumps to win, so you do have some time to go repair and resupply. (Avoid those overrun nodes, they're hellish. Definitely take advantage of those repair and rearm sites while you can though, there's also always a store in the final sector.)

I also strongly recommend getting the hull repair drone at some point during your run. Probably 2/3rd's of the games i've won, it's been because i've been able to use that to patch up my hull between phases of the fight.

[Bjorn]

I also strongly recommend getting the hull repair drone at some point during your run. Probably 2/3rd's of the games i've won, it's been because i've been able to use that to patch up my hull between phases of the fight.

 

The drone system is probably the tool that I use the least.  I always end up thinking that the investment cost for ships that don't start with drones just ends up being too high.  That probably isn't true, but it's the way I've ended up thinking about drones.

 

It does feel like I'm hitting a lot more missiles in AE though, so a defense drone could be worth its weight in gold.

[tberton]

I feel like offensive drones have become far less useful with the introduction of the Anti-Combat Drone.

[Sno]

I wouldn't dare doing a run without a defense drone to fend off missiles. Missiles hurt in FTL, especially in the flagship fight, that burst-fire missile launcher should be the first thing you try to take out.

From the player standpoint, bombs are more useful since they're applicable in more situations. You run into too many ships with defense drones for missiles to be particularly useful, especially late-game. (Unless you have the pegasus/swarm missiles.)

 

Against the player though, the sheer amount of damage missiles do your hull, while also causing breaches and fires and massive system damage? I think defense drones are required gear.

Mark 2 defense drones have a cheaper energy cost in AE too, which makes them hard to ignore. They have a faster firing rate and block energy weapons in addition to missiles. (However, keep in mind that the drone being occupied more frequently makes it easier for missiles to slip through. Sometimes it's better to just stay at the mark 1 defense drone and let your shields deal with energy weapons.)

As for combat drones, i've never really used them. They're useful/threatening early on when shields aren't upgraded, but they fall off quickly around the mid game, they're just not a reliable source of the coordinated fire necessary to punch through shields. There now being a way to further negate their utility seems kind of silly. (If i were to use combat drones, i'd probably use a build focused on emp and bombs to take down shields quickly and keep them down, but with the way you can now defend against combat drones specifically, i don't see the point in a build like this.)

Still on the topic of drones, I have had mixed success with boarding drones.

Also, the new super shield drone seems like it would be best paired up with a Zoltan ship.

[SecretAsianMan]

I like the drones in theory but in practice they never work for me.  Probably because I don't have direct control over them so trying to time things like attacking when the shields are down is tricky at best.  I think the defense drones are great but I hate getting a drone system for a single drone and passing up something like cloaking or hacking.

[sclpls]

Yeah defense drones and/or a souped up cloaking system are pretty crucial to victory against the flagship in my experience.

[SecretAsianMan]

I will further say that the defensive drones do seem to be quite a bit more powerful than before.  The only ships (besides the flagship) that regularly stymie me are the Engi ones that have a ton of drones protecting them.  Those battles tend to end in stalemates because I'm strong enough to defend against their weapons, but I can't get any shots/missiles/combat drones/hacking drones past their gauntlet.

[Sno]

In the flagship battle, the cloaking system helps out a lot for surviving the burst attacks it does in its second and third phases, but i've beaten the flagship without a cloaking system, so i don't find it as essential as defense drones.

If your build hasn't ended up with enough raw damage from standard weapons to reliably break through shields, try to have something that ignores both shields and drone defenses. Teleporters, mind control, and bombs are the main ones. I don't like being reliant on missiles or drones to help me deal damage, given the ease with which they're countered. (Keep in mind that this includes hacking drones, they can be shot down.)

If you're careful with timing different attacks, you can sometimes sneak a drone/missile past a defense drone, but it often just ends up being a huge waste of resources. (However, I do like the pegasus/swarm missiles, which burst-fire missiles to overwhelm defense drones, and do so with no extra ammo cost.)

[Bjorn]

With AE, I've actually been moving away from using Cloak, except on the Stealth Cruiser of course.  With it's high initial purchase (highest in game?), and a 230 total scrap upgrade cost, I can take 2 different systems up to level 2 for the same cost.  I've found the utility of having some combination of Hacking/Teleport/Mind Control to be more valuable than Cloaking.  Or an early investment in shields/engines. 

 

Sure if I hit sector 6 or 7 and I have the spare slot for it, I'll pick it up.  But I don't view it as being necessary the way I used to.  I'm much more likely to skip picking it up early on even if I can afford it. 

[Sno]

Another piece of advice for the flagship: Fire weapons, in my experience, cripple it quite effectively. There's loads of space for fires to start, and if you can take out the door controls, they'll quickly spread out of control. Another bonus here is that you'll likely have all of its crew dead before the third phase starts, preventing those crew from swarming your ship in that third phase.

Firebombs are awesome.

[Cleinhun]

The problem with that is if you forget to leave 1 guy alive the AI takes over and it repairs the missile launcher that they otherwise couldn't repair. God I hate that so much.

[SecretAsianMan]

I never unlocked all the ships so I'm working on trying to do that.  I got close to getting the crystal one last night but I didn't get any Rock homeworld sectors.  I also tried to beat the flagship with a pair of flak guns (mark I and II), mind control, a combat drone, and a defense drone II.  The defense drone carried me to phase 3 of the fight, but the flak guns were just too inaccurate to finish the job.

 

I also tried out the endless mod for a bit.  It makes some events completely pointless, such as any that delay the rebel fleet, and takes the tension out of the fights where a rebel ship tried to jump away and warn the fleet, but otherwise it's fun.  I had a few bad starts so I didn't get very far to see how the endgame changes but the freedom to not worry about a flagship defeating build from the beginning was refreshing.

[fondue]

The problem with that is if you forget to leave 1 guy alive the AI takes over and it repairs the missile launcher that they otherwise couldn't repair. God I hate that so much.

Avoid taking out the beam - with only that, they are ineffective

[SecretAsianMan]

Ugh, I am so annoyed at myself.  I had an awesome setup going.  Zoltan ship with 3 shields, teleporter with 2 Lanius crew and reconstructive teleport, hacking, a flak gun, a vulcan laser, and a bunch of scrap left to upgrade with.  I was feeling pretty good about my odds against the flagship.  As I reached the exit to sector 7, I fought a rebel ship.  I took it out easily, too easily in fact.  I forgot that I had a med bay instead of a cloning bay and lost both of my Lanius when the ship exploded.  After that, everything fell apart.

[TurboPubx-16]

I beat the original release eight times on normal, is the expansion supposed to be harder? I'm still stuck on the Kestral A. 

The charge weapons make sense to me, but I haven't found a good justification for the chain weapons. Seems like if you got three chain weapons and stealth to counteract that initial wait you could be very powerful, but just having one means (using the laser as an example): volley 1 takes longer than it would with the normal equivalent; volley 2 is easily synchronized; volley 3+ the chain weapon is wasting half of its charges. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Edit: I just died in sector five. I jumped into an asteroid field where an automated ship had a pair of anti-ship drones, MKs I and II. This game refuses to play fair. I think I'm done. Stealth was never offered to me, nor were the sensors that would have warned me that it was an asteroid field. I am not getting the sense that I can plan ahead unless I learn every system and every relationship between them, which I don't have the time or inclination to do. One thing in particular that irks me is the travel time of projectiles once they have been fired. I cannot possibly keep in my head the speed of a laser vs a flak shot vs an ion etc. Weapons look like they will synchronize well on paper but in practice it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right.

[tberton]

The synchronization of the chains is only an issue for certain loadouts. If you're using all lasers, or lasers plus missiles/bombs to take out shields, it doesn't matter when the recharge is. Also, the Vulcanizer's fastest speed is 1 second, which is faster than shields recharge, so you just leave it on auto-fire (haven't had a chance to try that yet, but it seems like fun). The Chain Ion works differently too: instead of reducing the charge time with each shot, it increases the Ion strength.