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[Sirus]

First run with a Mantis ship just decided to screw me over in the worst way. I'm in the seventh sector with an efficient, brutal boarding party. I've just gained the upper hand against another mantis ship with dual ion bombs, breach missiles, and burst lasers. My team is rampaging around the hole-filled enemy ship, hunting the final crew member currently fixing the shields in a futile attempt to defend itself. Just as they burst into the shield room, a frightened, half-dead Engi inside...

The enemy ship blows up from fire damage, taking my two max-skill Mantises along with it. The timing was so perfect, I can only assume that the poor bastard Engi managed to trigger a self-destruct sequence of some kind rather than be ripped apart by two killer bugs.

Now my boarding party is two no-skill Rocks that had previously been my fire-fighting team. This is gonna suck...

[Dermonster]

>Start a new game of FTL on infinite space

>Spend ALL MY MONEY on full artillery beam.

>Immediantly get a free weapon pre-igniter on beacon three.

>Wat

>Oh fuck yes.

[sluissa]

Part of the point of the infinite space mod is to teach you to run sometimes. In the base game you NEED every bit of scrap you can get to prepare for the final boss. But with infinite space, you don't have that time crunch and can potentially check out every beacon in a sector and make several trips to a shop to repair if needed. Yeah, even running is tough sometimes, but investing heavily in engines isn't a bad idea either.

[GlyphGryph]

I switched to Stealth B. Suddenly Infinite Space doesn't seem so hard anymore. Mwahaha.

Oh, GlaiveBeam+Minibeam+BreachMissile Combo, is there anything you can't do? (Well, assuming the missile hits, anyway...)

Probably going to switch the minibeam and missiles for burst lasers at first opportunity though. Mmm... and attack drones, gotta get an attack drone...

[Sirus]

Why attack drones? I'd much rather have defense drones to deal with those pesky missiles and boarding drones. Get a Defense II drone, and it'll shoot down just about anything!

[GlyphGryph]

You clearly do not understand how I play the Stealth B.

Well, technically, how I play most of my most enjoyable builds.

Cripple the enemy asap, and you don't HAVE to worry about defense.

Assume I get a pre-igniter, 2 burst laser IIs, and two attack drones, my standard Stealth Ship loadout (or something like it anyway)

The battle plan:
The battle starts, against an enemy with 5 shield and 50% evasion. I deploy drones, and fire volley for a concentrated 8 damage. Half of that will be avoided, on average, leaving one shield.

My glaive beam carves through the shield, dealing 2 damage to their weapons, 2 damage to their shield room, and 2 damage to their engines. And probably some to somewhere else. 1 point of shield is now down from damage.

I wait.

They fire, I cloak, avoiding their attacks. (I may eat a few minor attacks on my shield if they have a big weapon charging up)

When charged, I fire again. 8 damage, now versus 4 shield and reduced evade. We'll say 5 shots hit, and 1 does damage.

Now my glaive beam cuts through a completely unshielded target, dealing 12 damage, knocking down another point of shield, disabling their evade and most of the weapons.

Since my cloak is on cooldown, we have now started the "regular" battle.

Assuming they are even still alive.

[Sirus]

Assuming you even get the pre-ignitor. I think I've only ever gotten it three times, and only once did I beat the game with it. It's ridiculously rare and I would never base my strategy around it.

So of course, in my last two runs I found it in stores in Sector 1 before I had the scrap to afford it. Seriously, two consecutive runs with the Mantis A, each time the first store I find has it, but I can't afford it.

[kcwong]

Why attack drones? I'd much rather have defense drones to deal with those pesky missiles and boarding drones. Get a Defense II drone, and it'll shoot down just about anything!

Defense I drone is usually better... Defense II will waste a shot on a blaster (which your shield will block), and let a missile through before it can recharge. Plus less scraps and power needed.

A single defense I drone is quite sufficient to get you through the boss fight, with or without cloaking.

Assuming you even get the pre-ignitor. I think I've only ever gotten it three times, and only once did I beat the game with it. It's ridiculously rare and I would never base my strategy around it.

I see the pre-ignitor sometimes. Usually in sector 1, while I only have 80 scraps on hand for a crew teleporter or drone control. And then never see it again for the rest of the game.

[sluissa]

Last few games it seemed like I found the pre-ignitor every time... but it was in sector 1 each time... I did manage to scrounge up enough scrap for it a couple of times though. Left me without extra shields for a while, but with the pre-ignitor, most of the sector one and two ships couldn't get a shot off anyway.

I'm guessing the chances of it being in sector 1 are significantly higher than later sectors.

[GlyphGryph]

Also seconding the fact that Defense 1 is hands-down superior to Defense 2 for the reasons given above.

[Sirus]

But a Defense II fires much more quickly than a Defense I. Unless both projectiles fly in at the exact same time, you've got good odds that the drone will shoot down both the blaster and the missile. When it comes to things like the final boss's triple missile weapon, a Defense II has a much better chance of negating the attack entirely.

Of course it's a bigger investment. That's the price of better defense, whether you're building shields, engines, or drones.

[ragnar119]

Any news from devs, what are the thoughts on expansion, will there ever be one?

[GlyphGryph]

Unless both projectiles fly in at the exact same time, you've got good odds that the drone will shoot down both the blaster and the missile.

Except, of course, that both of them flying in at exactly the same time is pretty much normal. And an Attack 2 drone would greatly increase the chances of not having to run that risk at all. (I've found the best way to defeat the boss is to disable him ASAP. It's not uncommon for me to take no damage at all during the boss fights)

And ragnar, closing thing to an expansion is the (awesome) Infinite Space mod, at least that I've heard about.

[Micro102]

2 defense I drones are bound to be better then 1 defense II drones. Thing is, they take up an extra drone slot.

[Mephisto]

I just bought FTL a few days ago when it was on sale on Steam. I got to sector 6 or 7 on my first game.

Now that I've got Infinite Space, I'm lucky to get to 3. It's great.