FTL - Faster Than Light

[Molach]

Here's my thought for how we could end this after playing through sector 5.
Each Commander selects a save, individually. Then makes the jump, individually, to his individually chosen sector. Then fly through sector 6, which will be different for each individual, and then jump on directly and engage the rebel flagship. Still individually, of course.

Alternative is select one save to bring forward again, have players do the same sector 6 all round, pick our own favourite of those to bring down rebel flabship. Might be a bit more boring to watch similar ships fight, I think if we split after sector 5 we get greater variety.

Sector 5

My path:


Buy a power bar, for good luck.

A (Distress)
Ship in asteroid field. I find a mysterious ship with a stasis chamber on board. However an asteroid is on collision course. I decide to be a jerk, and grab the weapon, leaving the damaged stasis pod/crystal alien to die. Sorry, too late in the game and too low odds of getting even a crystal crewman out of this. Even though Crystal is veery nice in the final fight. Get a Pegasus missile, 3 power-but-dual-firing-2-damage launcher. Also some scrap.




B
-Aaaargh! It’s the notorious pirate-hunter Commander Molach! He is chasing us, captain!
-Offer him a slave for peace.
-He didn’t accept! Their Mantis and Rockman are now beaming back, they have shot up the medbay, we can’t heal. The Horror…the horror…. …
-…..

Nice haul! Rock crewman.
Buy engine upgrade and another power bar. 45% dodge, next one only gives +3% some maybe gonna stop there. Weapons upgrades next.

C
Automated scout. I attempt to download the data stores – but activate it. Other option was gain 28 scrap. It was unshielded, uncloaked. Missile managed to hit shields, but no other damage. Of course. Got 42 scrap and 1 fuel instead.


D (Distress)
Give 2 fuel, receive 55 scrap. Okay.

E Pirate in asteroid field.


Armed to the teeth, and cloak too. Thank Bog for good dodge, but in the end decide to take his offer of surrender – gave me 8 missiles (!) and 26 scrap. No boarding possible, cloaking + 3 mantis crewmen I would probably lose my team.

F
Forgot to take pictures. Attacked a pirate, decided to teleport over, but messed up a bit. Also he did hurt me some with double-trouble lasers. Got decent loot, and scrap from civilian ship they just liquidated, and decided to buy shields and power bars. Made a mistake when I beamed them home, only got the mantis home, rock stayed. Ran from room to room, chased by a ship-security mantis. Luckily I damaged weapon bay, which led the enemy mantis to run and repair the damage. Teleport room managed to recharge just in time to bring the rock home. Whew. About 60 loot.

G
Nothing. Or rather, a pirate who made a harmless comment on how nice my ship looked.

H
Mercenary ship. I make a grave blunder – they had no medbay, and human/zoltan crew. I thought easy pickings – but teleported into weapons room. When My weapons powered up, I realized they had lvl 2 doors and that I was stuck. I fired at helm, maybe they would go repair it – nope. Bottom line, he got off a completely 100%-avoidable missile, hit me for 4 damage (AFTER last crew was killed, it was mid-air while I killed them). At least my Murdering Mantis got a level.

I
Federation ship needs escort. Yup, that’s me. Quest added next sector. I gain 3 fuel.

J
Pirate wants a fight.


2 human crew, no medbay. You almost deserve my sympathy, but today I’m mr. Vengeance. Teleport into cockpit, target weapons at his (weapons). 2 missiles, 50 scrap.

I then notice that I can’t make the jump to the store. Niiiice. Rebels will overrun it.

K Exit beacon.
Mercenary fighter. I pay him 17 scrap to delay rebels. He does so. Store is STILL OPEN HAHAHAHAAAAA.

L
Store.
Main thing was to patch my old hull up. But can you say JACKPOT. I can. Jackpot.

M
Pirate in asteroid field. Fun fight. For me. Not for him. Take out weapons, then piloting, setting off a fire, then asteroid takes out medbay. I teleport into it, catching a near-dead engi, then the half-burnt mantis and other engi. 62 scrap.

K
Back to exit. Ready to Leave.

Stats:

Scrap: 62
Hull: 30 -spotless!
Fuel: 14
Missiles: 24
Drone schematics: 14

Number of crew & race: 2 humans, zoltan, mantis and 3 Rocks
Crew skills: Pilot, shield, weaps, engi Golden. Mantis boarder almost gold, rock boarder is a pacifist who refuses to kill. Apparently.
Upgrades:
-shields: 8
-engines: 5
-oxygen: 1
-weapons: 5
-medbay: 1
-piloting: 1
-sensors: 2
-doors: 2
Reactor: 18 (19 with Zoltan charge)
Weapons: Burst Laser II, Burst Laser II, Burst Laser I, Artemis.
Drones: Current N/A
Augmentations: Scrap recovery arm.

[slowcheetah]

Sector 5

Faster than light-Sector 5




1) Hit up the distress signal. I got the crystal ship stasis pod. I don’t actually have the crystal ship so I grabbed the pod, the event threw some scrap into the bargain as well.
2) Slavers- Surrendering crew is NOT an option. Particularly when I can grab their ship with a shiny new teleporter. I shrugged off their boarding party, and then shot the medbay a couple of times (to weaken the folks repairing). My manits and rock then charged onto their ship and dismembered the rest of their crew. We got some fuel, scrap and a newly minted mantis for our troubles. I bought a couple more power bars and upgrade the engines.
3) Civilians being chased by pirates. Time to introduce the marauders to mantis justice. On second thoughts, 5 crew (including two mantis), a missile, BL3 and another laser. This guy is pretty badass. I was forced to destroy him with weaponry rather than allow my mantis to enjoy the carvery.
4) Triple shielded slug assault in an asteroid field with some serious firepower. Getting through their shields will be interesting. I took out their shields and an asteroid actually breached the room. After that it was just mopup. No way was I sending troops into a deshielded ship in an asteroid field.
5) Distress call, an Engi ship needs fuel. We have loads so I gave them two. They paid us a cool 27.5 scrap per fuel.
6) Autoscout with no shields. It died.
7) Repair station. I was in yellow so I repaired twenty damage for 40 scrap.
8) Whoops.
9) Federation scout. Two human crew, no medbay. They met mantis justice.
10) Asteroids for mining + Scrap recovery arm =gold. I bought level 4 shields.
11) Slaver scum. Destroy medbay. Mantis justice. I had a choice for my new crew member, Engi, Mantis or Rock. I went for another bug.
12) Mercenary. Mantis Justice.




I doubt that's the best sector. I took a stupid route and wasn't as aggressive as I could of been with the teleport.

[slowcheetah]

Here's my thought for how we could end this after playing through sector 5.
Each Commander selects a save, individually. Then makes the jump, individually, to his individually chosen sector. Then fly through sector 6, which will be different for each individual, and then jump on directly and engage the rebel flagship. Still individually, of course.

Alternative is select one save to bring forward again, have players do the same sector 6 all round, pick our own favourite of those to bring down rebel flabship. Might be a bit more boring to watch similar ships fight, I think if we split after sector 5 we get greater variety.

Isn't the flagship in sector 8? Means we still have 6+7 to get through. I'm happy to continue with our individual saves until the endzone though, it would give the battle more variety.

I'd suggest we simply continue with our own saves from here. Reading the reports I think their is a strongest save (Molach) and with the weapons you've accrued pretty much everyones flagship battle will be pretty similar.

[Brackard]

There are 8 sectors. I have no issue any way we want to go with it. However, if we do go our separate ways, we need to do so now to give people a time to adapt to their personal play style for the finish.

If we do this again, and I hope we do, I think we'll need to try this a bit differently:

A specific ship with certain parameters (if needed), and go from there and see how each game plays out.

[Molach]

Ah - I'm 1 sector too soon then.

Anyway, just thought it would be more fun for whoever reads this to have some diversity. But on the other hand, we're on a mission to save the federation here, so we can keep our own enjoyment foremost in mind.

I vote Brackard's save. I've played some similar games to my save (with the extra laser) a couple times already, and can't see how I would lose that. However drones I rarely use, so wanna see how that plays out.
.

(I might re-vote if another save drops in, but for now that is my choice)

And sectors. Choice is zoltan homeworlds + another green sector. Or one more pirate controlled one, followed by another red sector. I flip a coin on random.org: Zoltan homeworlds.

[slowcheetah]

Ah - I'm 1 sector too soon then.

Anyway, just thought it would be more fun for whoever reads this to have some diversity. But on the other hand, we're on a mission to save the federation here, so we can keep our own enjoyment foremost in mind.

I vote Brackard's save. I've played some similar games to my save (with the extra laser) a couple times already, and can't see how I would lose that. However drones I rarely use, so wanna see how that plays out.
.

(I might re-vote if another save drops in, but for now that is my choice)

And sectors. Choice is zoltan homeworlds + another green sector. Or one more pirate controlled one, followed by another red sector. I flip a coin on random.org: Zoltan homeworlds.

I'm in agreement here. I've only ever done drones on the Torus really. Brackard's save
Zoltan homeworlds is fine by me as well. So we start Brackards in the Zoltan and then shoot all the way through to the finish?

[Brackard]

Sector 6 - Zoltan attached.

[Molach]

I think it will be most fun to play though the rest, but nice to take a pitstop an upload saves after 6 - so we can do a what-if later on if we want.

[Brackard]

Sounds like a plan to me.

[Molach]

Sector 6

Okay. Sector 6, ready to rumble.


236 scrap. Buy 2 shields, up to full, and 2 power bars.

A
Long fight, take surrender because I got stealth weapons upgrade from them.

B (Distress)
Pirate trap! Oh no – wait a sec. TWO zoltan crew, no medbay, no zoltan shields…okay. My mantis kill both before the missile has time to fire.


C Mantis scout + boarding party.
Lost half my hull trying to board him. Missile kept hitting me. Bad play, but I got an engi from it. But I also lose a mantis boarder somehow. I think a missile hit him while he was low on health.

D
Some crazy zoltans talking about peace. I hear them out, get a quest marker

E Store
Nothing good

F Store
Buy drone recovery arm and repair arm, sell scrap recovery arm (!). Weapons for sale, but no drones.

G Quest
Sweet-talk the zoltans. They give me a breach missile and scrap.

H
Zoltan life-raft floating in space. He wants me to retake his ship. And he wants it intact. Right, mr. kravstor.


Piece of cake, just need the shield down
I get 63 scrap and…repair arm. Cool. I then get a never-seen message saying that I already have this and they cannot stack, and so it is broken down into scrap (+21).

I
Mantis pirates. Tough fight, no cap. Saving up scrap for now.

J
Nothing.

K
Exit.

A bad run. No drones to be found, and low powered lasers are just not good enough. I had trouble penetrating shields, not enough firepower to take down enemy weapons as well as medbay, so my boarders ended up without much to do.