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[MasterShizzle]

I read "Artemis Missile", but my brain just says "19 extra scrap".

I never use missiles with the Kestrel A. It's such a well-rounded ship anyway that you won't need anything but lasers and one or two ancillary systems to back them up. If you find a second Burst Mk II, then you can coast on those for the rest of the game and just focus on defense. With two Burst Mk IIs and a drone system, you can beat the final boss easily. With just your starting laser and a teleporter/decent crew, you can board ships and farm extra scrap from everyone and have level 4 shields before sector 5. Same deal if you get an Ion Blast, just take out their shields and keep ions on their O2 system. Missiles are a perfectly viable way to go, but I usually can't afford to do missiles AND drones. Not on Normal, anyway.

The Kestrel is a great ship, and IMO the Red Tail is even better. They're like a blank canvas on which you can paint anything you like. The Engi A is awesome from the start, which makes up for the Engi B being so horrible. I LOVE the Fed cruiser. The artillery beam is stupid good once you upgrade it, and it's a guaranteed source of damage that you don't have to babysit. Get something to pop weapons systems or keep people from fleeing, and then just turtle up and wait. With artillery upgrades and a Defensive Drone II you can almost auto-win every battle.

[Sirus]

Even using only one or two missiles per fight, I would still run out/ be forced to flee. If none of your encounters drop missiles, or if the critical shield-weakening missile fails to hit the target and forces you to fire another, you're gonna run out PDQ.

Oddly enough, it's only the Kestral that has this problem. Even on the Rock Cruiser I always had enough missiles to spare; those losses were due to other circumstances

[Jim Groovester]

Ohh the unwinnable situation was simple... I ran into a ship that was maxed out and that had all missle systems (and not bad ones either, these are the good ones) and all of those missles hit (which is twilight zone badluck) and they all hit in critical spots and they ALL started fires.

No defense drones? No cloak? No high evade? No crew to rapidly repair the important systems?

Then you shouldn't have stuck around to fight it out, you should've been putting full power to the engines and jumping the hell away.

[lemon10]

The least helpful upgrade, in terms of just outright "what it does", however is PROBABLY level 3 sensors. I can't think of many situations where it would be helpful.

Level 3 sensors is actually pretty nice, knowing how much longer exactly it will take before your borders/fires do another damage (or until they repair it back up to full), and always knowing exactly how much health a sheild has can be pretty helpful.

Its not exactly cost effective, or really a good investment most of the time, but it can be a situationally good upgrade.

[Sirus]

Ohh the unwinnable situation was simple... I ran into a ship that was maxed out and that had all missle systems (and not bad ones either, these are the good ones) and all of those missles hit (which is twilight zone badluck) and they all hit in critical spots and they ALL started fires.

No defense drones? No cloak? No high evade? No crew to rapidly repair the important systems?

Then you shouldn't have stuck around to fight it out, you should've been putting full power to the engines and jumping the hell away.

None of those things guarantee your safety, you know. I've been hit multiple times during a single cloak before (90% evasion), and defense drones can miss.

[Neonivek]

As well I had high dodge and a crew. It was just a fantastically unlucky volley.

I've been hit multiple times during a single cloak before (90% evasion)

Not to mention because ships don't have momentum it could always hit your cockpit, cloak, or whatever your main system for dodge is and disable it causing all the shots that lagged behind to hit.

I am also convinced that Enri B actually used to be an overpowered ship. It would make total sense, just imagine if Heavy Ion did, lets say, 5 Ion Damage and not 2. Suddenly it seems like a much better ship doesn't it? They just didn't change it afterwords.

[monk12]

I'm really not a fan of missile systems- they just don't stand up well in later systems where Defense Drones are a hard counter, and bombs of various descriptions may not deal hull damage, but they can absolutely wreck systems which lets all my other weapons deal hull damage. Plus, the runs I have to rely on a missile strategy for any length of time I find I have to accept more surrender options because they are the only way to keep my ship in ammo without relying on shops, and accepting surrenders means less scrap overall.

Also, I just described this game to my sister, and she said "Oh, so you're playing the Reavers from Firefly." I am sad because it is true.

[Neonivek]

Honestly Monk12... You are right but you have to get the good ones and you absolutely cannot rely entirely on them.

Since missles are more efficient the better a missle you get. My favorite is Pegasus.

[Micro102]

Nonesense. Just get a bunch of double missile launchers and shoot 6 at a time. They can't block all of them

[Neonivek]

Nonesense. Just get a bunch of double missile launchers and shoot 6 at a time. They can't block all of them

If you have a maxed out weapon system, dang!

[monk12]

Not to mention that would chew through missiles like candy. Which is not to say it wouldn't be ENTERTAINING

[GlyphGryph]

Ha! Defense Drones Don't Do D'anything!

Also, when people say "missiles", I always assume they mean missiles in general, bombs included. Obviously you want to switch from a missile system to a bomb system fairly soon, unless you're playing with a pretty interesting ship design.

I tend to think the investment of occasionally having to purchase a few missiles is worth disabling the enemies weapon systems before they can get a single shot it, if it comes down to that. Or, if I've got enough lasers, insuring they will all hit, penetrate the shield, and get a guaranteed weapon knock-down.

I tend to play strike ships - if the enemy has managed to fire on me (while uncloaked), I've done something wrong. Even my boarder-based ships tend to focus on quickly disabling enemy systems. (I really wish I had the crystal ship )

[Neonivek]

I actually had a system where I could have fought scout ships forever essentially...

and since they always drop fuel I wonder if I should have grinded them for experience.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I tend to play strike ships - if the enemy has managed to fire on me (while uncloaked), I've done something wrong. Even my boarder-based ships tend to focus on quickly disabling enemy systems. (I really wish I had the crystal ship )

I never seem to have the time to blow up systems before the enemy crew dogpile my boarders. Normally I just kill the medbay with a bomb and go on a murder spree while cloaking around missiles.

[monk12]

Aw yeah, finally broke 6k points.

Spoiler: AW YEAH (click to show/hide)

Two Halberd Beams, an Ion Bomb and a Weapon Pre-Igniter are a beautiful thing, especially when you can fall back on three expert Mantis boarders. I had to, actually, since I ran out of missiles by the third phase, but they managed to kill off the main crew fast enough to offset their cycling advantage and take down the shields. Long, tough fight, but it was totally worth it for that score.

Still need two really good runs to knock that damned No-Victory off the leaderboard, though.