April 14th, 2014, 11:49
(This post was last modified: April 14th, 2014, 11:50 by T-hawk.)
Posts: 6,699
Threads: 131
Joined: Mar 2004
(April 14th, 2014, 10:26)WilliamLP Wrote: Oh and if you can get Long Range Scanners, buy that up immediately.
Absolutely. I haven't played the advanced version, but in the original, Long Range Scanners was secretly the critical upgrade. You WANT to fight more enemy ships, ideally with every jump. If you know what you're doing, the average net profit per encounter is positive, so you want more encounters. (If you don't know how to make a net profit, you're not winning the game anyway.) Just 2-3 extra fights per sector thanks to Long-Range Scanners makes for a serious snowball, upgrading defenses sooner so that you take less damage and later encounters are even more profitable.
And yes, the missile defense drone is the next most important item.
Posts: 8,293
Threads: 83
Joined: Oct 2009
Got really close to beating normal on Kestrel layout B. But they got my stealth on phase 3 and I had to eat the superattacks. Didn't last long enough 
Posts: 2,265
Threads: 54
Joined: Aug 2011
just won with Zoltan C ... quite an interesting experience ... ended up downgrading my Ion charger to a Ion Blast, and ran around with a Glaive Beam and a Flak II, while having two combat drones popping the shields, hardest point were actually when i got attacked by a Mantis cruiser that managed to knock out my Oxygen, and boarded me with 2 Mantis, while the envioment kept spamming fires
Posts: 3,199
Threads: 11
Joined: Jan 2010
(April 14th, 2014, 12:58)Sian Wrote: just won with Zoltan C ... quite an interesting experience ... ended up downgrading my Ion charger to a Ion Blast, and ran around with a Glaive Beam and a Flak II, while having two combat drones popping the shields, hardest point were actually when i got attacked by a Mantis cruiser that managed to knock out my Oxygen, and boarded me with 2 Mantis, while the envioment kept spamming fires
That sounds like a really fun combo! Did you get the pre-igniter with that? I haven't had much of a chance to use the beam weapons yet. I usually feel like the priority is finding more ways to penetrate shields before they would be viable.
I feel like the charge weapons are a bit underpowered. E.g. 2 power for 1 ion damage every 6 seconds for the ion charger vs 1 power for 1 ion damage every 8 seconds for the ion blast is quite a bit better per power point. And weapon power seems to be nearly always the bottleneck over weapon bay slots. Similarly the charge lasers seem worse than their counterparts (Burst Laser I and III, let alone the extremly efficient II.)
I do really like the Chain Ion though, that spins up to 4 ion damage per shot.
My most fun build, that I barely won with, was the Slug A where I tried to keep the theme and try to kill crew at range using the Anti Bio Beam as much as posible. Later my setup was ion damage to set up the Fire Beam (replacing the Anti Bio Beam), with a beam drone for DPS against automated ships. The Fire Beam is surprisingly powerful if you micro it. In one of the boss phases I think I had every square on fire except for the isolated weapon chambers.
April 14th, 2014, 13:25
(This post was last modified: April 14th, 2014, 13:28 by Dantski.)
Posts: 1,834
Threads: 34
Joined: Feb 2006
Quite embarrassed that it took 5 attempts to win with the default Lanius ship on easy. I wanted to unlock the B layout so immediately killed off my human crewmember and lowered the overall Oxygen level to 0%. Unfortunately I couldn't find a Lanius sector or any Lanius crew at stores so I ran through the game with just 2 crewmembers (one pilot and the other mainly on engines/repairing). The main problem was boarding drones since I couldn't get rid of them quickly so I ended up upgrading doors all the way to slow its path of destruction. As is usual lately, the flagship gave me problems as it evaded 50% of my laser shots regularly (feels like they improved its evasion).
All 4 previous runs I either ran out of fuel or didn't realize that the sectors jump points were too spread apart for multiple routes. In my 4th run I had 5 events asking me to give fuel to people over 4 sectors! I had to turn the last 2 down.
I agree with upgrading shields to L2 ASAP, you simply take too much damage on sector 1+2 with L1 shields on Normal and above. Its also a massive diceroll on what drone you get for free with the drone control, sometimes its the defence drone and other times its a system repair drone.
"We are open to all opinions as long as they are the same as ours."
Posts: 3,199
Threads: 11
Joined: Jan 2010
Yeah, I try to buy fuel now all the way up to 15-20 whenever I find a store. I've run out too many times.
They definitely buffed the difficulty of the final boss. This game has to be a contender for the hardest easy mode ever.
Posts: 4,443
Threads: 45
Joined: Nov 2009
I tend to prioritize dodge > shield because missiles are the most frequent game ender for me.
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
Posts: 2,265
Threads: 54
Joined: Aug 2011
(April 14th, 2014, 13:23)WilliamLP Wrote: (April 14th, 2014, 12:58)Sian Wrote: just won with Zoltan C ... quite an interesting experience ... ended up downgrading my Ion charger to a Ion Blast, and ran around with a Glaive Beam and a Flak II, while having two combat drones popping the shields, hardest point were actually when i got attacked by a Mantis cruiser that managed to knock out my Oxygen, and boarded me with 2 Mantis, while the envioment kept spamming fires
That sounds like a really fun combo! Did you get the pre-igniter with that? I haven't had much of a chance to use the beam weapons yet. I usually feel like the priority is finding more ways to penetrate shields before they would be viable.
No, didn't get Pre-igniter ... would have loved having it, but between Battery Recharger, Drone Recovery Arm and Zoltan Shield ... not like i had bad Augmentations ... sure, the ability to knock out shields is important, but between my drones, the ion blast and sending a hacker at the opponent shield system, it wasn't a issue, and when you can knock shields out Beams are contending as the strongest damage dealers, both per second and per power used, Flak is the only thing that might be up there, but it feels more inconsistent in how efficient a shot is.
Quote:I feel like the charge weapons are a bit underpowered. E.g. 2 power for 1 ion damage every 6 seconds for the ion charger vs 1 power for 1 ion damage every 8 seconds for the ion blast is quite a bit better per power point. And weapon power seems to be nearly always the bottleneck over weapon bay slots. Similarly the charge lasers seem worse than their counterparts (Burst Laser I and III, let alone the extremly efficient II.)
Argeed
Posts: 4,443
Threads: 45
Joined: Nov 2009
I got 2 Flak 1's, it was a slaughter as the shield died immediately even on the momma ship.
I didn't expect to beat stage 3 without any damage on hard.
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
April 16th, 2014, 08:21
(This post was last modified: April 16th, 2014, 08:24 by Jowy.)
Posts: 8,293
Threads: 83
Joined: Oct 2009
I was having a fantastic run with Engi ship layout B! Then, this happens:
There is a 50% chance that a crew member will be killed by the event. It's completely random. I have ONE crew member.
WHEW. That was intense. Teh urn is still alive!
|
