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[Arcvasti]

Presumably long enough to jump out. Also you had mantis vs. zoltan - even with a medbay, enough time should have made  a boarding victory easy.

Zoltan explode now. It makes them more dangerous. One of the most annoying features they've introduced for boarding focussed shios. I found that out after losing both of my mantis on Basilisk to a boarding party of Zoltan in the 2nd sector. Don't underestimate the explosion damage. Ever.

[Leafsnail]

Also above post ninjaed what I was gonna say about stealth B. I think another level in stealth to avoid even quick beam weapons is important to grab asap, and that shields are only really important later on.

Are they really?  Even with level 3 cloaking you're going to take a beating from any beams or drones you find (with beam drones just being the worst of it).  And if your weapon gets hit you basically have to run (better hope all that stuff that's getting through doesn't hit your pilot too!).

And the thing is the offense isn't even that great, even if it is awesome early on.  It's good against ships with 0 or 1 shield, lame against ships with 2 shields and useless against ships with three.  It also falls to pieces the moment anything so much as glances at your weapon room.

I mean I guess it might be possible to win this on Hard, it just seems like it's gonna be an enormous uphill struggle.

[Arcvasti]

And the thing is the offense isn't even that great, even if it is awesome early on.  It's good against ships with 0 or 1 shield, lame against ships with 2 shields and useless against ships with three.

The thing with the Glaive beam is you don't have to have a good weapon drop like a burst laser II or III or something else with high damage to sucees, you already start with one. You just need something to drop the shields like flak or ion weapons. Then you can do a lot of un-evadable damage to a decent area once they're lowered. Plus there are ways to mitigate its ungodly large charging time.[EX: Weapons Pre-Igniter, Automated Re-Loader]

It also falls to pieces if anything glances at your weapon room.

No argument here. Sort of an occupational hazard if you use weapons. Especially ones with large charging times.

Stealth Cruiser isn't for everyone, but I absolutely love it. Even its type C, which is sort of pathetic.

[WealthyRadish]

I remember the pure stealth strategy before the update being essentially reliant on getting the weapon pre-ignitor augmentation, but it's a lot less likely now with all the junk augmentations floating around.

This is a cool update, and they really did add a ton of stuff, but I wish there were more events. It was disappointing to see that there were only a few new ones added relating to the new species. I think FTL would be better if the journey was longer and more gradual, with more non-combat events. Maybe there's a mod that does that, I don't know.

[Leafsnail]

No argument here. Sort of an occupational hazard if you use weapons. Especially ones with large charging times.

Well it's only a real problem if a) the weapon has a long charging time b) it has high power usage and c) it's your only source of damage.  Most other ships can recover from being hit in the weapons room.

That said, I guess Hacking could act as a second cloak.  With level 3 hacking and cloaks you get basically 30 seconds free, which would be enough to fire off the beam...

[EnigmaticHat]

There's a new drone that gives you a super shield layer every few seconds.  I didn't have enough drone parts get much use out of it, but it seems interesting.  On one hand it can absorb missiles, save you from a few beam hits in between enemy weapon charges, and charge up your shields while they're being drained or hacked.  On the other hand in the lategame there are so many various projectiles flying around that the super shield tends to be destroyed the moment its created, and the drone itself can be hit same as any other.

[Leafsnail]

As I said, though, my engine and bridge kept being hit. It was rare for the enemy to target anything else.

So in other words you could have kept your defense drone up the whole time and prevented most of the damage?

[Mr Space Cat]

I don't think the drone targets flak. Even if it does, the flak comes in one big bunch, so it's less likely for the drone to blast it all in time with its fire rate. Unless you have multiple defense drones. Or multiple mk2 defense drones.

-------

Spoiler: In which I talk about this awesome run I'm having. (click to show/hide)

In other news, I got a zoltan type A cruiser with zoltan shield, stealth, that laser that can cut through 1 shield layer, an ion bomb to remove shields on demand, a hull smashing laser for extra attacks, and a mk1 flak canon. I managed to fight (stall until I could jump) my way through a whole star system of rebel ships because I took a wrong turn and had to backtrack early on through the encroaching rebel fleet. I only took damage from an occasional anti-ship canon.

The burst damage is crazy on this thing. I can cloak after jumping to charge weapons, launch flak and smash lasers to down shields, then immediately deal 6 or so damage with the laser while the enemy's shields are weak. Then keep the pressure up with flak and smashers until the laser is recharged or the cloak is back up. The ion bomb is a hugely helpful emergency button. I've also got a big stock of missiles and a flame drone for extra pressure.

I could actually kill the flagship for once. Maybe. Hopefully. I've got stealth for once, so that should help me even the odds.

...and yeah, I'm playing on easy. I want to unlock ships before moving on to harder difficulties. I only got the kestrel, engi, and zoltan so far.

[Leafsnail]

I'm pretty sure they do, at least enemy drones always seemed to fire at them.

[My Name is Immaterial]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHJdghfslkjlndfsakjdkjldkjlfdakjldsacl,mzxsdm,lzcxedfmk,zxcm,lkxzcDSFlmk,D Z lk,SD X lk,

Mantis ship.
Get to sector 8 with a 2 man teleport squad.
Bring flagship down to almost dead first phase.
Send over squad.
Flagship jumps, with squad on board.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHJdghfslkjlndfsakjdkjldkjlfdakjldsacl,mzxsdm,lzcxedfmk,zxcm,lkxzcDSFlmk,D Z lk,SD X lk,

[GlyphGryph]

Challenge Run
PRISON SHIP: Capture an enemy unit with Mind Control in Sector 1, and carry that unit all the way to Sector 8.'

I'mma gonna do it!

Step 1 Achieved:
Basilisk with Mind Control (and Reconstructive Teleport to boot) by end of Sector one.

Step 2 Achieved:
Acquired "Prisoner"

And... Failure, when I realize that I can't win with a Boarding Ship when I need to kill *everyone* to end the battle. Whoops. >_<

[Leafsnail]

Yeah you probably want one of the Kestrals for that, or maybe Engi A.

[Thexor]

There's a new drone that gives you a super shield layer every few seconds.  I didn't have enough drone parts get much use out of it, but it seems interesting.  On one hand it can absorb missiles, save you from a few beam hits in between enemy weapon charges, and charge up your shields while they're being drained or hacked.  On the other hand in the lategame there are so many various projectiles flying around that the super shield tends to be destroyed the moment its created, and the drone itself can be hit same as any other.

Thought I'd chime in to say: it's situational, but awesome. I abused it during the third flagship phase (on Easy, because I was feeling wimpy) with pretty reasonable results (my first attempt, without using the drone, nearly got me killed; my second attempt, with 5 hull remaining, was a near-flawless victory).

* The Overshield Drone keeps working while you're cloaked. Dodge a volley of attacks, and you get twice as many overshield charges for the next volley.

* The overshield blocks, among other things, mind control. Use Cloak and evasion to keep it active, and you can minimize or even prevent MC attacks. (Does not protect your boarders on the enemy ship, though!) Should also prevent teleporting (though the shield won't be active for the first teleport wave).

[GlyphGryph]

* The overshield blocks, among other things, mind control. Use Cloak and evasion to keep it active, and you can minimize or even prevent MC attacks. (Does not protect your boarders on the enemy ship, though!) Should also prevent teleporting (though the shield won't be active for the first teleport wave).

It will if you start with a cloak.

[Darkmere]

After a few false starts (betrayed by the Fed Cruiser!), I finally managed a win, but I had to resort to the Basilisk to do so. I'm rusty and the new stuff is pretty rough to get used to. I got to the Flagship with a Flak and a Flak II, but they opened with a hack to my weapons systems, so I never got a shot off.

I managed to clear their crew regardless, by sending in my 4-mantis team and mind controlling the first guy to walk into the enemy med bay. The other wounded turned on him(*) and finished him off for me, then I'd retreat with my reconstruction teleporter and try again. When it was down to two crew, I controlled the pilot and 'ported into the medbay while those two fought it out, and by the time MC wore off I had damaged the medbay to rank 2 or something, so I could actually kill the crew. It was pretty satisfying.

* - Due to this strategy, I'd actually say upgrading the mind control device could be detrimental instead of just dubious.

Flak is ridiculously strong, as are the other new techs, but then again so was cloaking, drones, and the pre-igniter. So I guess it all works out.