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[Neonivek]

The game did indeed get harder.

For example some automated ships heal now, some ships get their special abilities, as well some of the new ship abilities are REALLY powerful depending on where they hit...

I wouldn't say the game got significantly harder, but it is quite noticeable.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I could have sworn that easy got way easier.

[GlyphGryph]

I'm gonna with it seeming harder at first because woah, surprises, did not expect that, did not realize that would work that way, crap crap crap.

But then, a lot of changes made it quite explicitly easier (significantly larger stores, for example, lots more potential weapon strats and synergies the AI can't abuse nearly as well as the player, if they even bother to try).

I think in the end it's either going to be a wash or easier on average - just three playthroughs in, I'm starting to see how much more powerful the player has gotten compared to the enemies.

[Rolan7]

I thought automated ships always healed, it seems faster though... Or I might be totally misremembering, as I hadn't played in a while.  Also I was playing as mantis, with a total dependence on boarders, so of course the automated ships would seem more difficult.

I had some difficulty with the number of new mechanics available to me and the enemies.  Since the mechanics have informative tooltips and are fairly simple tools with complex interactions, it's the good kind of mechanic overload.

The hacking device seems like a definite weapon in our favor.  Can't miss (though defense drones shoot it), and can shut down the enemy engines?  Or *reverse their medbay*??  At level 3 the hacked medbay killed humans from near-full health (on the flagship, might be based on medbay level).  Definitely benefits from the ability to actually aim at priority targets.

[Neonivek]

I actually really like the mind control device. Though to admit I tend to use it to take out the Cockpit.

[GreatJustice]

Well, I tried a game as the Mantis B, and while enemies were certainly stronger, the ol' Basilisk is still as overpowered as ever, and it's only more effective with a clone bay and Lanius crew. The only issue is enemy clonebays, but with sufficient numbers or a disabling shot, even those are easily dealt with.

Also, the Mantis C looks very nice, featuring an upgraded clonebay, a stun bomb, a lockdown bomb, and a Lanius crewmember. It doesn't have the double shields of the Basilisk, but it does have the double teleporter, so I can see it being ludicrously effective.

[Arcvasti]

Flak cannon + Glaive Beam + 100% evade with Cloaking = AWESOME

Thats really all there is to say on the matter.

[GlyphGryph]

I really want to get a stealth B with a powerful flak cannon and mind control and just say "Shield? We don't need no stinkin' shields!"

INSTA GIB

(Mind control the pilot, reduce enemy evade to 0 before launching volley)

[Arcvasti]

I really want to get a stealth B with a powerful flak cannon and mind control and just say "Shield? We don't need no stinkin' shields!"

INSTA GIB

(Mind control the pilot, reduce enemy evade to 0 before launching volley)

I did that just last game. With hacking instead of mind control. It worked really well, until the rebel flagship set my weapons on fire and trapped my only engi in the door room while I burned. I didn't know the AI was that smart...

[Arcvasti]

The Basilisk is OP? My experience is that it's shit.

Its a pretty good ship. Maybe more so now that you can murderize ships with medbays easier with hacking modules. Mantis boarders are pretty nice as long as you avoid Zoltan and Auto-scouts. Just hope you get a few Engi to put out fires and such and you'll probably be fine. Boarding focussed ships get WAY more scrap when they sucessfully kill the crew, so thats a plus. All in all, I wouldn't describe it as OP, but its definitely not shit either.

On a similar note, I unlocked Stealth Cruiser type C. What am I supposed to do with this?
It has basically no redeeming features I can think of. No shields, no stealth, a mediocre load-out of weapons and only a pathetic shield overcharger drone to stop you from dying to the first ship you meet. I haven't really tried it out, so maybe I'll change my mind, but I'm sort of annoyed I spent an hour and a half unlocking that thing.

[Silfurdreki]

I swear the AI knows. Every time I play the mantis ships, all I get is loads of AI drones and Zoltan ships. Conversely, when it's the stealth cruiser, everyone has beams or beam drones. Beam drones wreck the stealth cruiser so badly.

[Leafsnail]

The thing that makes Mantis B so good is the fact that it has amazing defenses.  It can easily survive almost any encounter for several sectors without upgrades.

[Nighthawk]

Soo... enemy ship with 3 layers of shielding, and an anti-missle drone. I had no fuel left to run, no transporters to invade, no EMP guns to disable shielding... they were literally unbeatable.

Damn it, FTL.

[GreatJustice]

The thing that makes Mantis B so good is the fact that it has amazing defenses.  It can easily survive almost any encounter for several sectors without upgrades.

This. Pretty much everything you encounter initially is either easy scrap (a rebel/pirate ship), boring scrap (auto-ships with connected rooms), or easily evadable (Zoltans, auto-ships without connected rooms). Since you get more scrap from boarding, and you also vastly increase the odds of getting special benefits like free weapons, you tend to snowball to the point where you have the firepower of a Kestrel B in addition to an elite boarding crew and strong defenses.

[Neonivek]

Soo... enemy ship with 3 layers of shielding, and an anti-missle drone. I had no fuel left to run, no transporters to invade, no EMP guns to disable shielding... they were literally unbeatable.

Damn it, FTL.

Basically playing FTL is always be one step ahead of the curve.