FTL - a spaceship Rogue-like

Of course, that doesn't help much when dealing with a high evasion ship with a cloaking device (which is what the flagship is) but at least you've got a chance of breaking through, whereas you need two weapons minimum to get past it with any other style of weapon.

I only ever use boarding parties in hopes of getting the final Rock achievement, so it doesn't mean anything to me.

Edit: Wait, that came out wrong.

I only use boarding parties. Period.

It's because I've been using the Rock ships constantly in hopes of that secret sector achievement.

edited 20th Nov '14 1:31:03 PM by ekimmak

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

This is the opposite of me, who prefers the boarding strategy (brings the scrap in!), including for the flagship.

This may be the reason I have never won with a Federation Cruiser^note Other than accidentally blowing up the flagship with my crew inside, twice! since it has one less equipment slot available, and the artillery beam sucks for a boarding strategy.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

Which is probably the fact why the Fed C is a weird ship.

Give me cute or give me...something?

The game acknowledges that by pointing out how suicidal you have to be to crew that ship.

Federeation C looks like it's set up for losses.

It's weird and that's all I can really say about it.

I won a game with it recently but I got really lucky with some of the stuff I got and still almost lost to the flagship.

...am I thinking myself, or when I'm in hard mode, if you have appropriate equipment to counter phase 2 and 3, then phase 1 ends up being the deadliest phase?

Give me cute or give me...something?

Well, yeah, I guess Phase 2 is relatively simple if you have cloaking, and Phase 3 is relatively simple if you have Mind Control, a bunch of ions, beams, a Zoltan Shield Bypass unit or something - but Phase 1's hacking suffers the same problem that all enemy hacking does in this game, which is that it targets a random system. So even if you don't have the Defense Drone or Anti-Drone to protect yourself from hacking, there is still that base chance that it'll hack something relatively harmless like the sensors, medbay, doors or backup battery or something.

My worst times with Phase 1 have been when they've hacked my weapons or shields - even when they hack engines/piloting it isn't usually that big of a concern.

I remember having a nasty stalemate where the enemy flagship synced up their cloak and hacking so that I could never shoot the enemy. It was an aggravating failure.

"If you have any beefs with Santa, do remember to SETTLE IT IN SMASH!" Quote by Edveed

Hence why I rely on Crew Teleporter for my offence. I have much harder times when they hack my Shields.

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

If the flagship hacks my shields or weapons, I just jump out and then try again.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

When it does that, I usually just hack their hacking system and turn mine on every time they activate theirs.

I find hacking their shields or medbay (depending on my exact layout/strategy) far too useful to do that. Hacking's way overpowered, lol.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Oh, it's extremely useful, but I don't like backing down, so if I'm stuck counter-hacking, their medbay just becomes firebomb central. Then again, I always save up a whole bunch of missile ammo just for the flagship so that I can support bomb spam against it.

---

That said, there is a loadout I want to try to pull off - Fed Cruiser C with four flak 1s (two flak 2s would be a semi-acceptable substitute). Just unleash a never-ending hail of flak at everything.

And on my first try I get... a whole bunch of good lasers (2 burst 1, 2 chain, and one burst 2).

edited 27th Nov '14 12:58:20 PM by Balmung

The FUCK??? Sector 3...first jump...WHAM! Ship with 3 shield block! And now I'm nearly dead. Man, starting with Stealth A sucks sometimes...(only has 1 shield and all that...it's expensive to buy, man)

edited 27th Nov '14 8:27:45 PM by onyhow

Give me cute or give me...something?

This happens most commonly on Hard mode, but I think it's still possible on Normal mode. If you don't have the weapons (or teleporter) to pierce those, better hope you have good engines (and piloting 2) so you can run away easier.

^ Well I do play on hard...oh, and now I play another Stealth A on hard...the game decide it want to fuck me over, so in sector 1 nearly every ship I'm fighting have drones...

Give me cute or give me...something?

I got all the way to the Flagship on my first try with Stealth A, thanks to rounding up enough scrap early on to get the shield system.

And when I got to the flagship, I couldn't do a damn thing to it, because I had no missiles left, and the only non-missile weapon I had was a Flak I which is useless against a 4-shielder. And I lost my only good boarders early on because the flagship's doors were holding them in. I ended up suiciding.

edited 29th Nov '14 8:38:10 PM by Twentington

My most recent run suddenly made me realize how long its been since I actually encountered the Flagship, and how super long its been since I reached the second phase. Then I again, my playing of this game is very off and on, so length of time for me is a bit inflated.

edited 29th Nov '14 10:08:39 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Yay, after all the bullshit the game pull me through, my current Hard mode Stealth A run is going smoothly! Namely: at the end of sector 5 I got: 3 shield block, 4 engine block, lv 2 stealth, 2 defense drone (and controller, only 2 bar tho), and Burst Laser II, Dual Laser, and Flak I! Sold the Long Range Scanner and the Titanium Casing tho, now has Lifeform scanner and the Zoltan Shield Bypass...I don't know why I still keep the last one considering I'm not doing boardings and have no bombs...

...oh, does Zoltan Shield Bypass work with Hacking?

edited 1st Dec '14 1:49:24 AM by onyhow

Give me cute or give me...something?

I've used the bypass often enough to answer that no, it doesn't. Hacking drones are physically sent, not teleported.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

^ Thanks.

Oh well, beat the final boss. My Virus Engi nearly got killed due to combination of boarders and mind control...turns out your own mind control prioritize taking enemy over over taking back your guys...

Also got a LOT of upgrades (4 shield block, 6 engine bar)...especially weird consider Hard + didn't board enemies...maybe it has to do with my guns only take 5 energy total...

edited 1st Dec '14 8:56:04 AM by onyhow

Give me cute or give me...something?

I just finally, finally, won a game (Easy) with a Federation cruiser: Federation A, Teleporter, Hacking, Zoltan shield, zoltan shield bypass, long-ranged scanner and a Level Grinded crew with three mantises, a rock, two Engi and two humans. Never actually used the artillery beam (except when finishing off the flagship after meleeing its shield generator).

By the end I had all four levels of shield, and full engines. This allowed me to survive the flagship's later phases without a cloak.

Flagship 1 hacked my teleporter, so I hacked its hacking instead of the usual medbay. But it was just as good, because that transformed its left wing into an inescapable prison where the main deck's crew went to die.

Also, apparently the zoltan shield prevents mind control, because the Flagship 3 didn't attempt to MC my guys until my shield was down (while I was bashing its with an Ion Blast II so I could hack its mind control). I was waiting for it to my one of my crew, because I remember all too well the time it MC'd one of my mantis boarders in the missile room, where none could escape before one killed the other.

Edit: Score: 3093.

edited 2nd Dec '14 1:11:03 PM by Medinoc

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

I fear I've gotten so used to the Zoltan Shield that my game when not having one has seriously suffered.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.