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[BFEL]

Slight update on my horror situation: My ship can now power all three weapons at once

Spoiler: Fully Loaded (click to show/hide)

Granted I'm still not sure how winnable this is, but hey, the vets main concerns have been addressed.

[EnigmaticHat]

It's different every time, since I keep trying different stuff. I haven't been lucky enough to be able to get my hands on multiple Ion weapons (except my last run, but I was forced to neglect some defensive capabilities, and ran into like two shops that would have been better off selling me socks leaving me with little in the way of augmentations as well), but other than that I've been able to attempt a wide variety of methods. I don't want to attribute all my losing to bad luck since I can usually see where I screwed up, but things have just not been falling into place for me.

The thing about this game is that bad luck doesn't make the game hard, it makes it impossible.

If you keep encountering enemies with missiles, and no shops sell any decent weapons, you ARE fucked.

You know, about a year ago I tried to see what percentage of normal runs I could win as the Kestral.

It was WELL over 50%.  And I think I could have gotten it higher with enough dedication.  Seriously, the key to FTL is that its only greatly luck based when you're losing.  If you're ahead of the curve you have ways of managing.  So playing with a solid, versatile ship there should only be like 5% of the runs where the game just said "fuck you".

I think I've just had the single most unlucky FTL game of my entire life.  It was Slug C on hard.  I sold everything on my ship (which isn't saying much, Slug C's useful assets are systems not equpiment) for a Flak 2 in sector 2.  What happens after that, do you think?

Everything hit my weapons bay.  Every.  Single.  Thing.  Not literally of course, but I think more than half the missiles fired at me past that point hit the weapons bay, it was truly ridiculous.  It got to the point where I could call it, not because I actually had any predictive powers but because my ship was fucking cursed.

For example, this.  I was playing as Slug C, which has only a chain laser.  I felt I needed to upgrade my weapons and the only available option was a flak 2 that I couldn't power, so I had to sell everything to get it.  I was putting myself in a position where luck could ruin me, because I felt it was my best option.  This, in turn, was because I was playing a ship that needed hacking to kill a two shield layer ship, which is a bad place to be in.

The Kestral, on the other hand, can reliably kill 3 shield layer ships from the start.  With a second laser or beam weapon of any kind it can kill 4 shield layer ships.  There is no excuse to do badly with that layout in the first or second sectors, which means you have two freebie sectors to prepare yourself to face the rest of the game.

[GlyphGryph]

You don't even need to do that.

You just need to travel to and from the med bay.

Remember that you can actually heal upwards of 8 people in even a small medbay at the same time, so long as it has two doors!

If you've got a medbay, there's no reason to ever die to boarders.

[BFEL]

You don't even need to do that.

You just need to travel to and from the med bay.

Remember that you can actually heal upwards of 8 people in even a small medbay at the same time, so long as it has two doors!

If you've got a medbay, there's no reason to ever die to boarders.

I....WHAT?

[Leafsnail]

Granted I'm still not sure how winnable this is, but hey, the vets main concerns have been addressed.

Your weapons look completely fine.  The BLII and the flak can drop the shields (admittedly it might take a few goes), then the halberd beam can sweep across them for huge damage.  The only issue is that you probably want another shield level.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I'm pondering whether the rebel flagship is flawed game design. There are strategies and systems that tear apart normal AI combat encounters which are near completely useless against the flagship (e.g. boarding heavy). Even worse it creates scenarios where the player is performing extremely well but since they didn't get a key system to crack through the mega shields or a cloak to survive through the drone rush they can no longer achieve a "win state", regardless of player skill.

To me that could be what causes a lot of the frustration and claims of the game being too RNG focused. Other Rogue-like-likes/Rouge-lites (e.g. Spelunky or Binding of Isaac) have the "normal" victory state of average difficulty (finishing the main storyline) while offering more challenging optional content. In these games you can still go for a "win" even if the RNG has completely fucked you over but it allows you to push on if the RNG has been kind enough to you.
I think in this aspect it would have made a lot more sense for victory to be declared for the player if they get to the federation base at the end of sector 8. The player can then decide if they want to try and take on the rebel flagship by themselves for the "good ending".

I also never quite got why the Federation expected a ship that had been through hell and back, endlessly hounded by a whole enemy fleet to suddenly turn around and be totally cool with attacking the biggest baddest spaceship in the universe. That's Byzantium level of incompetence right there.

[Neonivek]

It is poor game design period without real debate.

The trick to a game like this (any game that calls itself a roguelike) is that the skills, tricks, and strategies you learn along the way all contribute to learning how to beat the game.

Add in that many of the ships have "implied strategies" and how the Rebel ship teaches you to essentially boil everything down to single strategies regardless to how your ship starts out.

It doesn't ruin the game... but still... It turns the game into "You better use these two to three strategies".

[GlyphGryph]

I....WHAT?

Friendly units heal so long as they are in the room, whether or not they are on a healing square. You can put two/three people in the room normally, and then have the others just walk back and forth while they heal.

[BFEL]

I also never quite got why the Federation expected a ship that had been through hell and back, endlessly hounded by a whole enemy fleet to suddenly turn around and be totally cool with attacking the biggest baddest spaceship in the universe. That's Byzantium level of incompetence right there.

I've actually been pondering many plot points in the game. I mean, how nice can the "Federation" be if the amount of people rebelling against it so hilariously outnumber its own number of ships/civvies? I mean until the endgame you don't ONCE see a Federation ship, and when you DO see them, they all task what basically amounts to a scout with destroying the enemy flagship??!

And what of the "Federation Saving" information that you are delivering? Oh, just that THAT FLAGSHIP EXISTS. WHUT. That isn't game-changing information, that is some straight bullshit.
You know what I think you were really delivering? Encoded plans for the "Federation" to build the Death Star. Because you actually work for the Empire and the whole game takes place on the frontier of its actual influence. The Empire fully expects you to fail against the Flagship, thereby guaranteeing you never realize how thoroughly you have fucked the galaxy.

Anyway, update on my progress to fuck the galaxy!:

Spoiler: Our First Few Exchanges (click to show/hide)

GODDAMMIT!

Spoiler: AND THEN I INSTANTLY LOST (click to show/hide)

WHY IS O2 DEPRIVATION SO GODDAMN EFFECTIVE AGAINST ME, BUT IT NEVER, EVER EVER SO MUCH AS AFFECTS THE GODDAMN ENEMIES?!!!?!?!?!?!

[Neonivek]

You should have immediately repaired those breaches.

[Fikes]

They won... with a door hack drone. That is amazing.

I will agree with the people that said the game kinda boils down to a few facts to win. For example, I don't pass up defense drones or burst weapons and I try to get a cloak by the last boss.

Boarding parties are actually a huge help on the flagship and I generally try and get a teleporter as well, just so I can jump in and take out the missile system.

I don't really feel like this cheapens the game, in all games there is a "best" way.

[Leafsnail]

I'm pondering whether the rebel flagship is flawed game design. There are strategies and systems that tear apart normal AI combat encounters which are near completely useless against the flagship (e.g. boarding heavy).

Boarding is a great strategy to use against the flagship, providing you have literally any weapon capable of dealing hull damage.  Heck for a long time all of my victories were boarding-based.

Of course you need a way to get through the medbay, but that applies equally to most other ships late in the game.  Auto-ships are the real hoser for most boarding based strategies.

It doesn't ruin the game... but still... It turns the game into "You better use these two to three strategies".

Can you list the two to three strategies which you think are viable?

I've actually been pondering many plot points in the game. I mean, how nice can the "Federation" be if the amount of people rebelling against it so hilariously outnumber its own number of ships/civvies? I mean until the endgame you don't ONCE see a Federation ship, and when you DO see them, they all task what basically amounts to a scout with destroying the enemy flagship??!

That's because you spend basically the entire game moving through non-federation territory.  I imagine that once you get past the federation base you start to see actual federation controlled stuff.

The morality of the federation is left ambiguous.  There are certainly some events where you treat people cruelly.

And what of the "Federation Saving" information that you are delivering? Oh, just that THAT FLAGSHIP EXISTS. WHUT. That isn't game-changing information, that is some straight bullshit.
You know what I think you were really delivering? Encoded plans for the "Federation" to build the Death Star. Because you actually work for the Empire and the whole game takes place on the frontier of its actual influence. The Empire fully expects you to fail against the Flagship, thereby guaranteeing you never realize how thoroughly you have fucked the galaxy.

In the dialogue you point out that the "weakness" of the fleet is the flagship.  I think this means that what you're pointing out is the significance of the ship - that is, if it's destroyed, the rebel fleet will be badly hindered.  My favourite theory is that the flagship remotely controls all the drones - so by destroying it you cripple the rebel fleet and cause them to rout.

GODDAMMIT!

Spoiler: AND THEN I INSTANTLY LOST (click to show/hide)

WHY IS O2 DEPRIVATION SO GODDAMN EFFECTIVE AGAINST ME, BUT IT NEVER, EVER EVER SO MUCH AS AFFECTS THE GODDAMN ENEMIES?!!!?!?!?!?!

Could it be something to do with the fact that you opened all the internal doors on your ship while you presumably still had a hull breach?  There's basically no way an oxygen death is going to be quick unless you do that.

[Darkmere]

My personal favorite theory is you're coming from an infiltration mission into rebel holdings and have retrieved a hard counter to the flagship's AI, which is the *actual* threat it poses to the base. The stolen software you have is a copy/derivation of the flagship's operating system linked to some kind of dead-man's switch (this is why you can't run the ship without crew, it shuts down and wipes the system to prevent a second Skynet scenario, while the flagship's version doesn't have that and risks the ship going rogue if you kill all its crew). There's not time to upload it to other ships by the time you make it to Last Stand, so your ship has to be the one to save the day. It also explains why the flagship auto-kills every space it jumps to on the way to base, the super AI shuts down Fed ships at range and moves on while rebels clean up with no fuss.

WHY IS O2 DEPRIVATION SO GODDAMN EFFECTIVE AGAINST ME, BUT IT NEVER, EVER EVER SO MUCH AS AFFECTS THE GODDAMN ENEMIES?!!!?!?!?!?!

It's very high on the AI's repair priority list, almost to the point that they'll pull the pilot to repair it. AI ships don't have player budget constraints, so they almost always have 2 or 3 points in O2. If you want an asphyxiate kill, you have to secure it with boarders (lanius) or do a multi-part incapacitation of O2 and medical bays (forget cloning bays). Fire and rockmen work for the latter, as does exploiting the mantis' glacial repair rates. Without boarders or a very specific setup, it's usually untenable.

[Neonivek]

Can you list the two to three strategies which you think are viable?

You need specific weapon combinations. (regardless of what you start with, you need specific weapons)

Then you need a disabling strategy.

Then you need a defensive strategy.

The 2-3.

Your starting ship ONLY determines which of the 3 you start with...

---

You are right Cloak is near vital. The ONLY time you can skimp out on Cloak is if you have overwhelming firepower... but it is still risky.

[BFEL]

Spoiler: Well, maybe not INSTANTLY (click to show/hide)

Yeah, I actually beat the first two stages and then everyone suffocated because they hit my oxygen again. Seriously, WTH?

And yeah, I did do the door opening with hull breaches. Though the second time I didn't KNOW I had breaches, in my defense.