[z64555]

Gunnery Control Log:
Ship Status: 79%
Systems: Low O₂

[O₂ mask hissing can be heard]
-hssk- We managed to scrap by our teeth that time. -hssk- My accuracy with the weaponry is sub optimal, and should -hssk- start practicing more in the simulator during whatever downtime -hssk- that I get.

We managed to put the fire out by venting much of the oxygen in the aft section, but -hssk- the doors stuck open when we tried to re-pressure the area. -hssk- We're now low on oxygen, but I think we still have some in reserve.-hssssk-

Gods, headdie didn't last long in that station. -hssk- And Sparda didn't bring a good O₂ mask into the fire on the one after that, the poor bastards.

-hssk-We mustn't give up...

-hssk-Resting now to conserve O₂. Hopefully that new neural interface won't mess up the simulations while I'm under.

[NGTM-1R]

And what sucks the most is the randomness of the items you get. You can end up with weapons that suck so much against the boss you simply cannot win the game.

Roguelikes are not designed to be balanced. Merely supposedly winnable.

[TrashMan]

And what sucks the most is the randomness of the items you get. You can end up with weapons that suck so much against the boss you simply cannot win the game.

Roguelikes are not designed to be balanced. Merely supposedly winnable.

Am I supposed to like that?

Have an Ion Blaster aimed at their drone controller - it wont stop him from launching those swarms but as long as the system ionized the drones will go out one by one

that's assuming your'e lucky enough to get an Ion Blaster.

What happens if oyu got mostly missile weapons? And the enemy flagship has 2 defense drones? you are frakked.

[Patriot]

2 words


MOAR DAKKA!!!

[NGTM-1R]

The stealth cruiser is...well I'm not really happy I unlocked it yet. Some of the achievements seem frothingly optimistic, too.

[0rph3u5]

And what sucks the most is the randomness of the items you get. You can end up with weapons that suck so much against the boss you simply cannot win the game.

Roguelikes are not designed to be balanced. Merely supposedly winnable.

Am I supposed to like that?

Have an Ion Blaster aimed at their drone controller - it wont stop him from launching those swarms but as long as the system ionized the drones will go out one by one

that's assuming your'e lucky enough to get an Ion Blaster.

What happens if oyu got mostly missile weapons? And the enemy flagship has 2 defense drones? you are frakked.

Koba Yashi Maru, my friend ...

EDIT: That is: Accept that you have lost, analyse how you played and try again ... It's not like a playthrough takes you several days (it's 2,5 houres max for me) so you can easily go back to square one and start over (maybe with a playthrough just to unlock a new layout)

Also, once again the Solstice was lost with all hands during the last stand (crappy placement of the repair stations made it possible)

[crizza]

Captains Log:
Enginer Chaos mutters something about a Doctor Disaster to support him, while the enemy ship trys to get through our shields.
While Engi Noemi can fix all the systems, I watch the cruiser with my two fellow rock crew mates getting smaller. Too bad the poor bastards don't realize we run out of fuel and missile and the Ion blaster cannot the destroy the enemy, but he can't pierce our shield.
Anyway, maybe they are still there if we return with another ship...if our shuttle makes it home...


thats the problem with the rock cruiser...I got heavy missiles, which are nice cause the bypass shields...but as soon as defense drones are involved, scrap them...they can even intercept ion blaster...

[TrashMan]

Koba Yashi Maru, my friend ...

EDIT: That is: Accept that you have lost, analyse how you played and try again ... It's not like a playthrough takes you several days (it's 2,5 houres max for me) so you can easily go back to square one and start over (maybe with a playthrough just to unlock a new layout)

When life gives you lemons, take those lemons and showe them down lifes throat.

I just modded the game to facilite better scrap income and an improved starting ship. (2x burst laser III's niggaz!)
Kobayashi Maru indeed.

[Scourge of Ages]

The only time I made it all the way to sector 8 so far, it was in a Kestrel with which I was lucky enough to find: a second burst laser II and a fire bomb launcher (deadly combination), and chanced upon a store selling a stealth system and the stealth weapons augmentation and I actually had enough scrap to buy them both!

It let me rip right through to the end, but I lost most of my crew to the second phase of the boss battle, and I couldn't catch the boss again before he finished the game.

[crizza]

Koba Yashi Maru, my friend ...

EDIT: That is: Accept that you have lost, analyse how you played and try again ... It's not like a playthrough takes you several days (it's 2,5 houres max for me) so you can easily go back to square one and start over (maybe with a playthrough just to unlock a new layout)

When life gives you lemons, take those lemons and showe them down lifes throat.

I just modded the game to facilite better scrap income and an improved starting ship. (2x burst laser III's niggaz!)
Kobayashi Maru indeed.

And how do you do such things?

[FireSpawn]

Koba Yashi Maru, my friend ...

EDIT: That is: Accept that you have lost, analyse how you played and try again ... It's not like a playthrough takes you several days (it's 2,5 houres max for me) so you can easily go back to square one and start over (maybe with a playthrough just to unlock a new layout)

When life gives you lemons, take those lemons and showe them down lifes throat.

I just modded the game to facilite better scrap income and an improved starting ship. (2x burst laser III's niggaz!)
Kobayashi Maru indeed.

And how do you do such things?

Make a lemon powered doomsday device powerful enough to rip a hole through spacetime all the way back to the cold war, and make snake kill Ocelot while he's unconscious. The ensuing time paradox will break reality.

[Alex Heartnet]

Don't upgrade shields! Upgrade engines!

Fully upgraded engines give you a 50% dodge chance if both engines and bridge are manned ... allowing you to dodge missiles and bombs which go through shields

One level of cloak is also enough to dodge missiles.  The moment you see the missile launch, pause the game and activate your cloak.

Alternatively, a Defense Drone Mark I will shoot down missiles most of the time.

The AI doesn't use bombs to their full potential, so those don't bother me as much as missile do.

If you don't upgrade your shields, then you will be in a world of hurt within an asteroid field or if you go up against a foe armed with beams, heavy lasers, or hull lasers (note that stronger beam types can pierce through 1 shield).  I don't usually invest in engines as a priority because dodging gives less consistent results.

Of course, redundant systems is good if you have the scrap for it.

[crizza]

THe system overload of the mothership is mean...just when I thought "you suck asshole, the GTD Hope got you!" the ship jumped...and the I was shot to pieces by drones and missile spam...guess I need drones on the next run...

[NGTM-1R]

This close. I realized a shot too late I needed to manually manage my beam fire while letting everything else autofire, or I might have had the freaking flagship in the bag.

If I'd had another ion gun or burst laser, dammit dammit dammit.

[FireSpawn]

I just (Read: Started 4 hours ago) finished my third unsuccessful playthrough. But in my defence, I reached the Flagship without losing a single member of my crew and had enough energy and drones to lay some serious smackdown on it.....Only it missile spammed my shield and engines with enough ordnance to completely negate my defence drone. I also forgot to equip my antiship MK2.
So yeah....Engi bomber kicks ass! Or maybe my uncommonly good luck for that particular playthrough?

[Alex Heartnet]

The Indus jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire.





We’re hit!  Door control systems are offline!





Torpedo hit on deck 4.  Life support non-operational.





Firing burst laser…No joy!  No joy!  Z64555, go and fix the O2 systems.





The ship’s on fire again, and with the door systems offline we can’t open the airlock to vent it into space.





Scotty is tossed out of his comfortable captain’s chair as an asteroid impacts the bridge.





The ship’s on fire, everything’s burning, weapons are offline, and that last missile just hit the engine room.  Forget about destroying the attack drone – let’s just focus on getting out of here.





That last hit just took out our shield array!





With our shields online, the ship is at the complete mercy of the asteroid field – which is none at all.





At this point, many people would just hit the escape button and restart the adventure.  However, I refuse to give up.  It’s not over until it’s over!  Everyone, get the engines repaired!





Those onboard fires might very easily turn out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Right now the only systems that matter on the ship are the bridge and the engine room.






Dying this early necessitates another playthrough…











----------------------------------------------------------------


Now, I made a number of mistakes in this run, and it wasn’t just me derping hard and venting the ship into space!  I could not of anticipated the mutant space virus, and without longrange sensors I had no way of knowing I was about to jump into an asteroid field, but there was still a number of things I could of done differently to avoid dying.

I can think of no less then 4 major mistakes (not minor ones!) I made that were avoidable without 20-20 hindsight.  What I could of down differently:

1. Instead of sending in my crew to put out the fire on the station, I could have instead tried to dock with the station.  In that case, I would have taken hull damage if things went wrong, but at least my crew would be safe.

2. Upgrading the shield system before heading into the asteroid belt.  I had enough scrap to do so, and this is usually one of the first things you want to upgrade.

3. Alternatively, upgrading weapon systems, so I can at least make use of the Pegasus Missile.

4. Targeting the shields of the drones in the asteroid belt, rather then the weapons.  Without shields the drone would have gotten picked apart by rocks.

Time for a second playthrough, methinks.  This one on Easy, with the Type A Kestrel Cruiser, with the goal of making it to the end and beating the final boss.

Remember the Type A Kestrel starts out with a crew of 3 humans.  Someone else besides Scotty can get to be captain this time.

[FireSpawn]

I put myself forward for the great responsibility of leading this crew into a senseless and horrible death. 

[Alex Heartnet]

When life gives you lemons, take those lemons and showe them down lifes throat.

I just modded the game to facilite better scrap income and an improved starting ship. (2x burst laser III's niggaz!)
Kobayashi Maru indeed.

Someone should mod in a cloning device for the player ship.  It'll be hilarious if nothing else, plus you'll be able to make copies of your best foot soldiers    Would have to be balanced somehow though - maybe powering the cloning device would require a significant amount of fuel, which is definitely something you would think twice about using up.

Additionally, scientists have pointed out that a star trek-style teleporter could be used as a cloning device, as there is nothing stopping you from creating multiple copies of the troops you just beamed down.  I'm picturing a ship augment that changes the teleporter's behavior so that it beams copies of your troops into the enemy ship, but won't let you beam them back.  That way the clone(s) go down with the enemy ship, while the original is safe aboard your own ship.

A teleporter could certainly be employed defensively - quickly getting key personnel out of danger - but unfortunately the ships in FTL are too small for this to be viable.  This sort of thing would better suit a less combat oriented game.

[NGTM-1R]

Signing up to man the guns on our glorious Kestrel. Though really, it ought to be "weapons".

[z64555]

Gunnery Control Log (last)
Indus Status report 1%
Systems: 2%

Oh no, not again. -zzzzrk-


OOC: Well that was fun while it lasted. Ah well, that's what redshirts are for.