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[Sindain]

So was just playing the Fregatidae (Fed Cruiser C) on normal and ran into probably some of the worst luck I've ever seen on the final boss.

Walked in fully decked out and confident. 4 shields, 5th level engines, fully powered artillery flak, flak 1, flak 2, hull beam, & a ion bomb to tie it up. Drone control as my last subsystem.

Then the first multi missile barrage fired and, through 45% dodge and a defense drone, all 3 shots hit. First shot hit and crippled my cockpit (which was also being hacked). Second shot hit and set fire to my shields room. After that, with 0% dodge and 3 (soon to be 2) shields the flagship proceed to bend me over and beat me like the red-headed stepchild.

Barely managed to bring things back under control and beat the first stage with three hit-points remaining. Unfortunately I had already used or lost all the repair stations. I went on to do a rather impressive 0 damage run of the 2nd stage, but on the third stage the flagship possessed my pilot. With my dodge crippled (down to 15%) from the fighting I had no chance of living through the multi-missle or super attack, and indeed I didn't.

[BFEL]

Y'know what FTL needs? A pvp mode where instead of the flagship, the final boss is another player in whatever hellish build they developed.

[sambojin]

It would be kind of fun. Have an option to upload your ship just before the first boss battle and let people fight against it on their runs.

It might not be as good as you are with it (AI RNG herpa-derp and all that), but god it'd make a lot of end battles harder. Maybe pick from a list at the beginning of the run of one of the top 100 run-ending ships. Or just a random pick from any uploaded ship that did beat all three stages of the boss, and give them badass points for ending runs afterwards. For, ummm, points. That are badass.

It'd make pure sense plot-wise (only you know the design layout of the big bad, and have to confront them with that knowledge eventually).

You'd know what you're fighting, so could design around it, but the top 100 would be pretty badass anyway. Or just the "only just made it, RNG is my bitch" ships. There'd be a heap of variety, and you could look at the plans whenever you wanted. Such a variety of challenges, you'd sort of do runs just to see if you could design around a never ending series of end-game challenges.

The evil ion. Oh, the Zoltanity!

ps. Does anyone else think that flak I is just an overcosted burst laser? Even a two shot burst is usually better than three flak pebbles. Most 2 or three shot weapons are really, even chargers or chain equivalents. Flak I just isn't very good, unless there's absolutely nothing better at around 2-3 power bars available to you. Anything really. Missiles, beams, ions, bombs included. Flak II is a totally different story though.

[EnigmaticHat]

Flak is what I would refer to as a disabler weapon.  You put it first in a volley to disable shields.  The part where it can do damage to the enemy ship is primarily a secondary feature.  So yeah, it is a poor man's Burst II, but... like a third of the weapons in the game are a poor man's Burst II, doesn't make 'em useless.

A firing order of something like Flak I > Burst Laser II > Heavy Laser I would be a nice, power efficient way to make Flak I work without much luck at all.

[sambojin]

Herpa-derp'ed that Engi-A run. Got Mantis'ed. Didn't use oxygen, or mind control, or crew grouping. Derp! No, I didn't even power on the medbay until I wondered why most people died.

(this is the reason why FTL is such a good game. So many thingies, so obvious in retrospect, so many ways to derp when you should have won. Even with WTF moments).

[beorn080]

I always loved flak 1 over burst 2. I've rarely found Burst 2's, but flak 1s are fairly common, and 2/3/4 of them are rather hilarious, even if not the most effective thing. They seem to hit against dodgy opponents more, IF the circle is entirely over hitable targets. Also, they are just a hair faster to charge then Burst 2s.

Also, preignitors are a weird augment. They are amazing against most ships, but against the Flagship, almost anything else is more useful, due to the amount of hull it has.

[Arcvasti]

Flak 1 is amazing with beams. Something that I've noticed is that the Burst Laser 2 seems to have a larger interval between each shot, whereas the Flak 1 has all of its shots happen at once. That gives you a longer window of time to hit ships while their shields are down, which matters a lot. Plus, Burst Laser 2's are basically the poor man's Dual Lasers, so there are better options.

[beorn080]

Oh, for the flagship, if it hacks piloting or engines, just jump. Losing that evade will almost always get you slaughtered.

[EnigmaticHat]

Plus, Burst Laser 2's are basically the poor man's Dual Lasers, so there are better options.

Dual lasers aren't very slot efficient.  They don't appear in shops, and most of the ships that get them only have 3 weapons slots.  In practice its almost always better to have a Burst II.

[sambojin]

You know how you love a soundtrack so much you begin to hate it (and/or worship it as the meaning of life?). Arrrggghhhh. It's stuck in my head. And now I'm going to play the game again. Help me!

This is like that brain-eating space spider thing, isn't it? I know I shouldn't, but I always do.

[EnigmaticHat]

What's great about FTL is that they have two tracks for every song, exploration and combat.  Its such a simple device, but it adds so much to the game.  I've never heard of anyone else doing it that way.

[Nighthawk]

What's great about FTL is that they have two tracks for every song, exploration and combat.  Its such a simple device, but it adds so much to the game.  I've never heard of anyone else doing it that way.

I can think of a few games, actually, if you're interested.

Fire Emblem Awakening is the most prominent example, doing it almost exactly the same way. Regular versions of the song play while viewing the battle map, and then when a unit is attacking, it switches to the Ablaze/Galvanized version.

The recent Triforce Heroes also has a fun musical trick where depending on how the differently colored Links are stacked up when carrying each-other, the music changes.

Oh, and Mario games have had a running trend of changing the music slightly (typically adding a little drum) when you hop on Yoshi.


It's an addition that I think is becoming a little more popular in recent years, and I, for one, am happy to see it, because you're right - it's really quite cool.

[sambojin]

Wow, the Fire Beam. I forgot how good it was, even though it's bad on damage.

Not only is it a mini-stun (they can't repair until the fires are put out), a mini-bio-beam (it does normal damage and whatever fire damage), but it also does normal damage to 3-5 rooms. Perfect length.

Slow recharge, but so effective on the Kestral A. Artemis the shields, burst II the shields, beam and laugh. I'm going for the crew achievement, so I've got bonus sensor room staff, but damn. As soon as those shields go down, nothing is coming up again. I've totally underrated this thing.

[BigFatStupidHead]

Wow, the Fire Beam. I forgot how good it was, even though it's bad on damage.

Not only is it a mini-stun (they can't repair until the fires are put out), a mini-bio-beam (it does normal damage and whatever fire damage), but it also does normal damage to 3-5 rooms. Perfect length.

Slow recharge, but so effective on the Kestral A. Artemis the shields, burst II the shields, beam and laugh. I'm going for the crew achievement, so I've got bonus sensor room staff, but damn. As soon as those shields go down, nothing is coming up again. I've totally underrated this thing.

Thanks for that! I am inspired to take the Shivan out for a spin now. Burn baby burn!

[Neonivek]

There are, I think, two races that are pretty much immune to it (one definitely)

But given that the Fire Laser works even against the last boss... it is a definite plus.