[Alex Heartnet]

Wit the amount of scrap we have, it might be worth visiting the store.  At the very least we can get our ship repaired and refueled.







I decide to hire a crewmember and repair the ship over installing a drone bay in the disused hangar.









Unfortunately, the game won’t let you rename crew members that you hire or rescue!  So anyway, this is Dekker.  Be nice to the new guy.







At this point, there really isn’t anywhere else to go other then the exit beacon.







Ooh, derelict station!  Maybe there’s something we can salvage from it.

yay i'm not dead yet

Good grief.  Let’s just get out of here.





Let’s jump to the rebel-controlled system!  That sounds reasonable.







Dekker takes Headdie’s place as Chief Engineer.





The eternal question.  Upgrade the ship system’s now, or save up for when I reach a shop?






Scotty sets course towards a distress signal.









Oohh, this is a good weapon.  That we currently can’t use, I may add, because it requires three points of energy!







Must answer all the distress signals…





Now, if our Rockman was still alive, there would be a special blue option to send him in to put out the fire, as Rockman cannot take damage from fire.  Unfortunately, we lost Headdie from the mutant space virus in the last system…





I dunno, which is worse?  Burning to death, or dying of asphyxiation?  SpardaSon gets to experience both at the same time.

[Scotty]

Announcement: Until further notice, no crewmember is to leave the ship for any reason.  All shuttles will be locked down, and boarding parties will not be formed unless in the case of extreme emergency.

OOC: two in three systems is a mite too many when there are only five of us.

[Ravenholme]

Dropping like flies!

*straightens his Rebel Commodore's Cap*

At this rate, we won't have to kill those bloody fed scouts, space is going to do the work for us.

[headdie]

Well I wore that red shirt for a reason lol

[NGTM-1R]

This game would be vastly more fun as an open-world thing rather than with the time limit.

[Ravenholme]

This game would be vastly more fun as an open-world thing rather than with the time limit.

I have to agree with that - like a vastly improved version of Strange Adventures in Infinite Space (Though I think even that had a timelimit)

I kinda hope he'll implement a campaign like that at some point, much more freeform.

[Scotty]

If it's moddable, I forsee such a mod emerging fairly soon.

[Mongoose]

Headdie has died of Space Dysentery.

[headdie]

Headdie has died of Space Dysentery.

yep turned me inside out

[Alex Heartnet]

Oh yay!  An asteroid belt!  Just what I need!







Asteroid belts are very Fun.  Rocks are going to start pelting the shields of both ships.  If the shields are down for any reason, the rocks are going to impact the hull instead.  Also, that scout is arming three different weapons, including a missile launcher…





We haven’t even gotten a shot off yet and already the ship has taken significant damage.







The initial laser salvo takes out most of the attack ship’s weapons.  Unfortunately, an asteroid just took out our engine array…





And now the ship’s on fire!  Oh joy!









Putting out the quickly-spreading fire is a lost cause.  Instead, let’s vent the engine room into space.





Z64555, meanwhile, is successful at taking out the assault ship’s weapons.





That last asteroid hit just took out the door controls.  Now we can’t close the airlock back up!





The artillery beam scores a glancing hit on the drone ship for minor damage.







The assault ship’s missile launcher is back online!  Fire a cannon salvo at the gunnery control!  And don’t miss this time.







With the door control system fixed, we can remotely operate the doors on the ship again.  Opening all the doors on the ship is a good way to equalize oxygen levels in all compartments.





Direct hit!  The Auto-Assault is no more.







It is only at this point that I realize that I left the airlocks open and the whole crew is about to asphyxiate due to my own incompetence!!





Close the airlocks!  Close them NOW!!





Everyone into the medbay!







Disaster averted.  Whew.  Now let’s get that engine array fixed and get out of here.

[Ravenholme]

This is why I tend to invest in the infrastructure to support a level 2 shield (4 shield power bars) as soon as I can (Assuming your starting ship has shields)

[crizza]

Woah, that was close mate
But since you got that ship, you finished the game at least once, I'm still stuck with the Kestrel and an Engi ship.
As of now, I got lvl 2 shields, the burst laser and a hermes, till I get enough energy for both weapons, I micromanage them...Hermes to take out the shields, laser for the weapons...my pilot is an engi...should never do away missions without blue options^^

[Ravenholme]

Woah, that was close mate
But since you got that ship, you finished the game at least once, I'm still stuck with the Kestrel and an Engi ship.
As of now, I got lvl 2 shields, the burst laser and a hermes, till I get enough energy for both weapons, I micromanage them...Hermes to take out the shields, laser for the weapons...my pilot is an engi...should never do away missions without blue options^^

I find the Engi ship really helped me get through my first run, I lucked out and got two attack drones and a defence drone, a decent crew (with plenty of mantises - important for the final fight) and full shields, plus several ions. That was a pretty much indestructible ship for taking out the Flagship. I suggest that the Torus might be easier than the Kestrel for your first victory. The Kestrel is versatile, but I find that can often cause problems getting it properly kitted out.

[crizza]

Woah, that was close mate
But since you got that ship, you finished the game at least once, I'm still stuck with the Kestrel and an Engi ship.
As of now, I got lvl 2 shields, the burst laser and a hermes, till I get enough energy for both weapons, I micromanage them...Hermes to take out the shields, laser for the weapons...my pilot is an engi...should never do away missions without blue options^^

I find the Engi ship really helped me get through my first run, I lucked out and got two attack drones and a defence drone, a decent crew (with plenty of mantises - important for the final fight) and full shields, plus several ions. That was a pretty much indestructible ship for taking out the Flagship. I suggest that the Torus might be easier than the Kestrel for your first victory. The Kestrel is versatile, but I find that can often cause problems getting it properly kitted out.

Realy? Started the Engi ship, got an Ion cannon, and some drones...but not the energy to power both, so I could choose: disable shield with one shot (they recharge as fast as the disruptor) or use a attack drone(same here)
Right now I have the rock cruiser...a missile centered ship...got to buy some laser canons.

Holy crap, I got Butters, seems he doesn't wanna be Dr. Chaos anymore^^
Oh... and Noemi Laporte as well...

[NGTM-1R]

I'm trying to decide if there's a good reason not to get the best O2 possible, and then leave the ship normally mostly vented to space except where members of the crew are.

[crizza]

Thats a tricky one mate.
If I would do this on my rock cruiser, the O2 wouldn't be able to get to the habitated compartments or am I missing something?

[Alex Heartnet]

Keep in mind that without blast doors, boarders can and will happily open the sliding doors on your ship with the push of a button.  Flushing them out of the airlock just won't work without blast doors.

The late-game is just nasty on Normal.  I managed to get to the final boss on Normal using the Engi Ship.  I just could not gain any new crewmembers on this particular run, and by Sector 6 I was spending most of my scrap on hull repairs just so I could stay alive.  My ship got torn apart in each and every battle.  One encounter in particular pitted my crew of 2 Engi, one Human, and one Anti-Personnel drone against 6 Mantis teleported in from the enemy ship - the anti-personnel drone was of no help at all.

There is always a good reason not to get the best O2 Possible.  The opportunity cost of that scrap not being spent towards something else.

[NGTM-1R]

While my deaths have been many and varied so far (I just got taken down by Solar Flares, there aren't enough facepalms in the world), and though they account for a minimum of them, I really find boarding parties, especially ones that happen without an enemy ship so there's no possibility of getting anything in return, to be the most annoying thing in the game.

[TrashMan]

Guh..I hate the enemy flagship fight. Fought him twice with a decenty upgraded ship (24 reactor bars, 6 weapons energy, 3 shild layers) and I can win the first fight...but the second one?

I get DROWNED in drones...despite having a Defense Drone Mk2..

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.

[0rph3u5]

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

I get DROWNED in drones...despite having a Defense Drone Mk2..

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

Going to start my ... 26th run with the Kestrel B now - all other ships I've got so (Kestrel A, Egni A & B, Rock A, Zoltan A) far failed me somewhere mid game (I hate plasma storms ...)