FTL: Faster Than Light - Advanced Edition

[PocketMine]

I don't really like the way they have done the final boss.
It's not (only) because he's difficult, or because the RNG can easily fuck you over (although that contributes a fair bit), but because learning how to effectively fight him is tedious.
You make an error or the RNG hates you - restart the game, play through all the sectors again, new fight against the boss, screw it up again, wash, rinse, repeat...

I know that the ironman, rogue-like-ish nature of the game doesn't leave many options there, but still...
Given it's the final fight and by far the most difficult, too, it would be nice to have some way to repair a bit during phases, or some kind of second chance at the fight if you screw up (at some cost).
Maybe some store to do some (limited) swapping of equipment if you end up with a sub-optimal loadout.
Or some single-use specials you can collect in the game that will then grant some temporary boost to your ship.

Edit: And what's worse, with AE he has gotten even more dangerous, esp in phase 3. I can make it through the first two just fine most of the time, but 3 always most of the time wrecks me within a few minutes.
The supershields (which sometimes recharge) mean you need a lot of firepower to reach his systems while he does massive damage to me and his mind control is trolling me.
Also the rebel fleet is taking control of sector 8 much too fast, imho - I can barely visit one or two special beacons (repair or the very, very rare store) before I have to reach the base to fight the boss.

Flagship is the only ship that has exatly same stats/weapons/crew every time you meet it. That means you dont have to die to learn how to fight Flagship. Just watch someone else fight like i did.
Before advanced edition i killed boss 34 times of 36 tries on Normal. One defeat was totaly my fault the other was bad RNG.

Advanced edition Flagship has more evasion and new systems adding more RNG. If your ship is Flaship ready you have atleast 80% chance to win on Normal.

 

[Gord]

Flagship is the only ship that has exatly same stats/weapons/crew every time you meet it. That means you dont have to die to learn how to fight Flagship. Just watch someone else fight like i did.
Before advanced edition i killed boss 34 times of 36 tries on Normal. One defeat was totaly my fault the other was bad RNG.

Advanced edition Flagship has more evasion and new systems adding more RNG. If your ship is Flaship ready you have atleast 80% chance to win on Normal.

It's not exactly great design having to rely on guides to win it, though. But yes, that's what I did, too.

I guess I'm not so happy about the "flagship ready" thing here. Say you don't find the necessary stuff to get to the point of it being flagship ready. You can still have a ship that makes it quite well through sectors 1-7, but will get beaten up in the boss fight. There's just some disconnection between the game in sectors 1-7 and the game in the last fight that I feel is not resolved very well.

 

[PocketMine]

It's not exactly great design having to rely on guides to win it, though. But yes, that's what I did, too.

Im sure i would win even without guides after a couple of unsuccesfull tries its just a shortcut against frustrations you mentioned.

I guess I'm not so happy about the "flagship ready" thing here. Say you don't find the necessary stuff to get to the point of it being flagship ready. You can still have a ship that makes it quite well through sectors 1-7, but will get beaten up in the boss fight. There's just some disconnection between the game in sectors 1-7 and the game in the last fight that I feel is not resolved very well.

If you dont rush for exit and take some time to explore each sector you end up between 1800-2200 scraps each run on Normal. if you dont waste too much scraps on repair and upgrade your ship optimaly 1800 scraps is enough to get Flaship ready each time on Normal.

There are exceptions. Like one run with stealh ship A where i couldnt find any shops selling crew members and end up facing Flaship with only 2 crewmembers alive still i somehow won that thanks to lucky RNG at boss.

 

[Gord]

If you dont rush for exit and take some time to explore each sector you end up between 1800-2200 scraps each run on Normal. if you dont waste too much scraps on repair and upgrade your ship optimaly 1800 scraps is enough to get Flaship ready each time on Normal.

There are exceptions. Like one run with stealh ship A where i couldnt find any shops selling crew members and end up facing Flaship with only 2 crewmembers alive still i somehow won that thanks to lucky RNG at boss.

That's pretty much a given, yes, and about the first thing I had to learn in FTL. Take your time, try to maximise scrap gain.
It doesn't help when the RNG trolls you and gives you only crap at stores, though.

 

[PocketMine]

That's pretty much a given, yes, and about the first thing I had to learn in FTL. Take your time, try to maximise scrap gain.
It doesn't help when the RNG trolls you and gives you only crap at stores, though.

Learn boarding strategies (like how to swap crewmember without leaving the room, etc). Higher chance of weapons/drone/crewmember as reward also get more scraps this way.

Learn how to use "crap". At first i only used burst lasers and considered rest weapons as crap. later i learned how to use beam weapons, ion weapons, missiles and bombs altough i use missiles and bombs only when nothing else is available coz ammo is limited. usualy its not a problem.

 

[Gord]

Boarding is nice, but:
You have to encounter an teleporter in a store + have the scraps to afford it at the time
Esp. in AE, there are other systems you might want to get - teleporter fills up a slot on your ship

Anyway, my last win was achieved without having bought a teleporter. If you encounter good enough weapons, it's hardly needed even with the boss, although it makes some things easier.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Just got back to playing FTL since a while.

After a couple of shit runs to get me going, I reached the boss. This is only the second or third time I manage to reach him, and of course I didn't know you had to beat him more than once. After he fled, I went after him but I guess I fucked up cause I've encountered a different ship that wrecked me.

Seems to me like RNG has gotten more unforgiving with the expansion. At least I unlocked the Stealth ship.

Lol bro, you don't have to go after him, he will come back because he needs to attack the "base". If anything, try to get hull repaired between boss battles.

 

[PocketMine]

Boarding is nice, but:
You have to encounter an teleporter in a store + have the scraps to afford it at the time
Esp. in AE, there are other systems you might want to get - teleporter fills up a slot on your ship

Anyway, my last win was achieved without having bought a teleporter. If you encounter good enough weapons, it's hardly needed even with the boss, although it makes some things easier.

My last win with RROD was also without teleporter. Lack of crew, slow firing weapons and low evasion were my priorities later i opted for cloaking device as its better against Flagship.

Phase 3 was the hardest mindcontrol of my pilot just before missile and superweapon barrage left half of my ship damaged and on fire. But by that time his shield room was on fire which later disabled mindcontrol too. Last remaining crew member in canon room couldnt do anything.

Unlocked

 

[Damned Registrations]

I forget, if you retreat from the boss and re-engage, does it retain the damage you've done to that phase? I seem to recall trying this long ago but can't remember if it worked.

 

[tindrli]

I never tried that before

 

[Ashery]

I guess I'm not so happy about the "flagship ready" thing here. Say you don't find the necessary stuff to get to the point of it being flagship ready. You can still have a ship that makes it quite well through sectors 1-7, but will get beaten up in the boss fight. There's just some disconnection between the game in sectors 1-7 and the game in the last fight that I feel is not resolved very well.

On easy there's a substantial jump in difficulty, but that jump is reduced significantly when you go to the higher difficulties as the regular ships get more powerful while the flagship remains the same.

I forget, if you retreat from the boss and re-engage, does it retain the damage you've done to that phase? I seem to recall trying this long ago but can't remember if it worked.

99% sure that it repairs itself.

 

[DwarvenFood]

I had a good run with the Rockship, sporting ion, heavy laser, fire bomb and halberd, and as backup attack drone and mind control.

Noticed the weak point in Rockship's design, flagship hacked my door systems, and fires had broken out. The O2 room is left of the door system, and not accessible from other directions. It was burning.

I could not get to the O2 on time, and meanwhile I could not extinguish the numerous fires without vacuuming areas (thus making suffocation even more imminent). I would have possibly beaten the flagship, if I had an automatic fire suppression system. I do see the merit in upgrading engines on par with shields, I barely got hit by any missiles, and 3 shield bubbles was enough most of the time.

 

[tindrli]

I had a good run with the Rockship, sporting ion, heavy laser, fire bomb and halberd, and as backup attack drone and mind control.

Noticed the weak point in Rockship's design, flagship hacked my door systems, and fires had broken out. The O2 room is left of the door system, and not accessible from other directions. It was burning.

I could not get to the O2 on time, and meanwhile I could not extinguish the numerous fires without vacuuming areas (thus making suffocation even more imminent). I would have possibly beaten the flagship, if I had an automatic fire suppression system. I do see the merit in upgrading engines on par with shields, I barely got hit by any missiles, and 3 shield bubbles was enough most of the time.

it was just a bad luck bro.. as well bad luck coz you must have missed his hack control room several times as well

 

[DwarvenFood]

I had a good run with the Rockship, sporting ion, heavy laser, fire bomb and halberd, and as backup attack drone and mind control.

Noticed the weak point in Rockship's design, flagship hacked my door systems, and fires had broken out. The O2 room is left of the door system, and not accessible from other directions. It was burning.

I could not get to the O2 on time, and meanwhile I could not extinguish the numerous fires without vacuuming areas (thus making suffocation even more imminent). I would have possibly beaten the flagship, if I had an automatic fire suppression system. I do see the merit in upgrading engines on par with shields, I barely got hit by any missiles, and 3 shield bubbles was enough most of the time.

it was just a bad luck bro.. as well bad luck coz you must have missed his hack control room several times as well

Yeah to be honest I focused more on the shields and pilot in the beginning, and later on it was too late.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=257131901&tscn=1399407062

 

[PocketMine]

Send Rockmans into fire they dont get fire damage at all. Engi can extinguish fires faster then other races but take fire damage \.

Rockman can survive longer without 02 thanks to extra hp they are good for repairing rooms without 02 i even use them as boarders against drone ships they survive just enough for unupgraded teleport to recharge.

 

[tindrli]

Send Rockmans into fire they dont get fire damage at all. Engi can extinguish fires faster then other races but take fire damage \.

Rockman can survive longer without 02 thanks to extra hp they are good for repairing rooms without 02 i even use them as boarders against drone ships they survive just enough for unupgraded teleport to recharge.

WHY WOULD SOMEONE BOARD DRONE SHIP??? there is noone to kill anyway

 

[Gord]

Disabling systems of course. Although that only makes sense if the Drone ships shields and/or evasion are too strong to effectively destroy systems with your ships weapons.

 

[PocketMine]

Right dear Watson. Ususaly i want to prevent damage to my ship sent Rockmans after weapons (especialy missiles when i dont have defence drone) or drones systems.

Drone ships have fewer systems then other ships but those systems are beefed up more this means higher evasion, more weapons and shields on average
Drone ships can have rarely 5 shields or have no shields at all

 

[Black]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...57-FTL-Faster-Than-Light-Exploding-Spaceships

 

[tindrli]

doing a play through slug cruiser now and Bros, Anti Bio Beam is beautiful

 

[Whisky]

YES! I got to the final sector in the Engi B, unlocking the C model. I have NO REASON TO EVER USE THE ENGI B EVER AGAIN! Life is good!

Also, I finally got the Zoltan Cruiser, which I previously did not get because the quest bugged up.

 

[tindrli]

just got killed with rock cruiser..seems like combination of FLAK 2 and claive beam is too slow for 3rd boss. couldnt pass his super shield effectively

 

[AlexOfSpades]

Doing a Kestrel Run to see if i can beat the Flagship with it. All going smoothly: We've got cloaking, hacking and drone system on. Flak 2, Stun Bomb, Glaive Beam and a Burst Laser 2 as loadout. Flagship is FUCKED. I'll just use the cloaking to avoid his missiles... right?

Wrong. Weapons room hacked. We couldn't fire a single shot throughout the whole fight. Jump away and back to reset the fight... weapons room hacked again. Fuck ny life. Rest easy, crew of the Valkyrie ship, Kestrel model.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You could have just hacked his hacking system.

 

[Renegen]

Defense drone 2 is even more effective.