Stealth OP?

[Ir0n_Revverb]

Enemy stealth ships seem way too overpowered, I've lost all of my good runs right when I meet them. They go into stealth before I can get my first volley off, destroy my weapons, and then I have to rely on my missile launcher only to try and hit them. They always either quickly repair the Stealth System or go into Stealth AFTER the attack goes out, so I've wasted my charge and I get no hit. But I can just have another missile ready to go when they drop out of the ten or so seconds of Stealth, right?

Your weapons stop charging while they're stealthed.

Your Weapons.

Stop Charging.

When They.

Are Stealthed.


WHAT


THE


♥♥♥♥


I can take that you can't attack and target them... but why the almightly holy hell do your weapons freeze up and stop working? You should be able to pummel into the little ♥♥♥♥♥ with fully charged weapons the moment they drop out of stealth.

♥♥♥♥ stealth fighters. The moment you run into one it's game over.

Fix this game.

[m'boy are you fat]

Maybe, if you see that a ship has cloaking, you should let your weapons sit until they've stopped cloaking, then fire weapons at them.

[Bwixie]

the mad ravings of a noob

[Ir0n_Revverb]

Originally posted by Inexorability:

Maybe, if you see that a ship has cloaking, you should let your weapons sit until they've stopped cloaking, then fire weapons at them.

Apparently not.

We're just going to assume they've left and stop charging weapons.

For the tenth time.

[Ir0n_Revverb]

Originally posted by BaronBrixius:

the mad ravings of a noob

Then, almighty champion, explain how to not get completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over my a reusable get-out-of-jail-free card.

[m'boy are you fat]

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Originally posted by Inexorability:

Maybe, if you see that a ship has cloaking, you should let your weapons sit until they've stopped cloaking, then fire weapons at them.

Apparently not.

We're just going to assume they've left and stop charging weapons.

For the tenth time.

Is there a problem with that, gameplay-wise?

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Originally posted by BaronBrixius:

the mad ravings of a noob

Then, almighty champion, explain how to not get completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over my a reusable get-out-of-jail-free card.

By timing your shots to coincide with them getting out of their cloak, or by using your own cloaking system when they fire at you.

[Ir0n_Revverb]

Is there any way to make your own shots more accurate? Almost all of the very few shots I can actually get off just end up missing. It's like fighting a Pokemon with maxed Evasion, it's worth celebrating when you attack actually connects.

[Bwixie]

destroying the piloting system usually guarantees the next shot will hit, but if you want to make sure go ahead and destroy the engines too.

[mkzzz12]

Mind control on the pilot will lower evasion for a moment, hacking on pilot disables it for the duration, hacking on shields and beams on engines (or piloting if you can guarantee destruction, that is 3 damage points) lower evasion significantly. Boarding can sometimes distract the pilot and manning crew well enough.

But even without all that, if your volley is solid, you will get through. Any complaints about enemy evasion usually mean the player barely has enough shots to get through the shields at all, just assume you'll miss one third of your shots, and you'll do plenty of damage.

Stealth halts weapon charge the same for you and enemies, there are many ways to work around it, and it is very powerful for the player, as well. You may want to stay out of slug and rock sectors if your ship can't deal with enemy stealth, they're the ones to most commonly have it.

[alangriffith]

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Originally posted by Inexorability:

Maybe, if you see that a ship has cloaking, you should let your weapons sit until they've stopped cloaking, then fire weapons at them.

Apparently not.

We're just going to assume they've left and stop charging weapons.

For the tenth time.

Then after they finish cloaking, and your weapons charge, do not fire (turn off autofire) until they cloak again, and then fire manually when they decloak and their cloaking system is on cooldown.

Manual firing, and timing. Basic FTL tactics (also using the spacebar to pause).

[Ir0n_Revverb]

Originally posted by alangriffith:

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Apparently not.

We're just going to assume they've left and stop charging weapons.

For the tenth time.

Then after they finish cloaking, and your weapons charge, do not fire (turn off autofire) until they cloak again, and then fire manually when they decloak and their cloaking system is on cooldown.

Manual firing, and timing. Basic FTL tactics (also using the spacebar to pause).

Just checked, I've only just now seen the autofire button.

[Bwixie]

i dont even use autofire, ever xd

[Skinny Pete]

Have a nice hot cup of git gud.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Board 'em!

Your Mantis can still murder them even when they're cloaked. Boarders low on health & they're cloaking? Run around like a headless chicken - that's why I use Mantis and not Rock boarders, because you can just abuse the AI & take very little damage for an extended period of time.

Get cloaking of your own if you need it.

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Is there any way to make your own shots more accurate? Almost all of the very few shots I can actually get off just end up missing. It's like fighting a Pokemon with maxed Evasion, it's worth celebrating when you attack actually connects.

Yup - hack the helm.

They go into stealth before I can get my first volley off, destroy my weapons,

Now that's just gitting gud - get more shields, more engines, more Def Drones - the chance you'll take a hit to weapons is really low. And you can usually repair it immediately if you have some Engi aboard.

[Ir0n_Revverb]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Board 'em!

Your Mantis can still murder them even when they're cloaked. Boarders low on health & they're cloaking? Run around like a headless chicken - that's why I use Mantis and not Rock boarders, because you can just abuse the AI & take very little damage for an extended period of time.

Get cloaking of your own if you need it.

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Is there any way to make your own shots more accurate? Almost all of the very few shots I can actually get off just end up missing. It's like fighting a Pokemon with maxed Evasion, it's worth celebrating when you attack actually connects.

Yup - hack the helm.

They go into stealth before I can get my first volley off, destroy my weapons,

Now that's just gitting gud - get more shields, more engines, more Def Drones - the chance you'll take a hit to weapons is really low. And you can usually repair it immediately if you have some Engi aboard.

Still on the Krestal, haven't had a chance to get any of the other ships besides the Engi one - apparently RNG really, really hates me.

I'd love to board them and kill them, I really would, but I can't exectly do that. Even if I spend the extra scrap, the Krestal crew are a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and can't fight for ♥♥♥♥ (Found that out early) and I can hardly spare any scrap to get a Mantis or Rock crew member aside the teleporter module. Even when I do find a slaver, I typically get humans from them. Wonderful.

Can I ask why Stealth is this good? I can handle the get-out-of-jail-free card thing it has going on, where you can sit and repair all your systems during stealth... but why can the stealthed ship power up their weapons and the defending ship is stuck in apparent stasis? You'd might as well call it some kind of combat time machine if not for the fact that your own crew can make repairs during the downtime as well. There seems to be no logical point to your weapons freezing up without a target, especially since they power up in the expanse of space, without any target in front of you anyways??????

And... oh, god. WHY with the dodge bonus? I've actually recently been able to get a lot of volleys off at enemy ships when they drop out of Stealth, only to have the entire screen covered in "MISS" text. What are you supposed to do about missing? Why does having a super advanced gunner not give you any sort of aim bonus?

Honestly, I'm kind of feeling like there's too many flat-out BS things going on in this game for me to enjoy it. Around the 5th sector, I start running into enemy ships with 3 or 4 shields that either dodge or block every shot I throw out, and have my own weapon systems constantly bombarded until I'm just another scrap to be collected. I've tried to milk every sector for as much scrap as I can before the fleet catches me, but I'm still hardly able to upgrade my systems enough to break down these higher-levels ships.

I'm just kind of stuck with the Krestal. Everyone seems to be saying online that boarding is the way to go, or use your own stealth, but I'm not at that point, and I'm honestly not sure that I'd like to continue getting ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over until RNG finally grants me a break and gives me a ship unlock quest.


tl;dr, Stealth seems innately broken for something that seems to show up on every other enemy, power creep ramps up way too fast. I seem to not be sucking off the RNG gods well enough.

[alangriffith]

Originally posted by Ir0n_Revverb「Scalie Lover」:

Still on the Krestal, haven't had a chance to get any of the other ships besides the Engi one - apparently RNG really, really hates me.

I'd love to board them and kill them, I really would, but I can't exectly do that. Even if I spend the extra scrap, the Krestal crew are a bunch of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and can't fight for ♥♥♥♥ (Found that out early) and I can hardly spare any scrap to get a Mantis or Rock crew member aside the teleporter module. Even when I do find a slaver, I typically get humans from them. Wonderful.

If you are palying on normal difficulty, drop to easy (I have over 100 hours exclusively playing easy, you don't lose any features and it doesn't make things a pushover. FTL is a hard game, so normal mode is pretty much 'hard mode' equivalent for most games).
If you are already playing on easy, you should get more than enough scrap to buy boarding and mantis/rock by mid-game. However to get there you do have to win battles in early game, including against cloaked enemies.

Can I ask why Stealth is this good? I can handle the get-out-of-jail-free card thing it has going on, where you can sit and repair all your systems during stealth... but why can the stealthed ship power up their weapons and the defending ship is stuck in apparent stasis? You'd might as well call it some kind of combat time machine if not for the fact that your own crew can make repairs during the downtime as well. There seems to be no logical point to your weapons freezing up without a target, especially since they power up in the expanse of space, without any target in front of you anyways??????

Stealth isn't your problem (see below) but if you actually want to know, here isd the answer:
In-game explanation? Just call it 'weapon jamming' instead of cloaking. Cloaking prevents your weapons charging or targetting.
Out of game explanation - Cloaking would be near-useless on AI ships if it didn't stop weapon charging, as a manual firer can just hold a charged volley until the ship decloaks, at which point you hit the just as hard as if they never cloaked in the first place. Meanwhile the same cloaking would be overpowered on your PC ship, as the AI always fires when weapons are charged, so would waste entire volleys on your cloaked ship if their weapons charge didn't pause.

And... oh, god. WHY with the dodge bonus? I've actually recently been able to get a lot of volleys off at enemy ships when they drop out of Stealth, only to have the entire screen covered in "MISS" text. What are you supposed to do about missing? Why does having a super advanced gunner not give you any sort of aim bonus?

The AI ships get exactly the same evade chance as you do for the same engine level and manned/skilled pilot and engine crew. Some late enemies do have high engines and evasion, and sometimes you (or they) just get unlucky with the RNG. The key is to outlast their ship, or be able to run if you can't. So buy engines as a priority to increase both charge time to escape and your own evasion. Also shields at 2 bubbles will make you immune to some early game ships, and when you get those you can cease fire and let them shoot you for ages until your pilot, engine and shield recharge crewmembers have levelled to full skill, which will increase your evasion and shield recharge for the rest of the game (I generally don't do this, but its a tactic that can help until you get a better handle on strategy).

Honestly, I'm kind of feeling like there's too many flat-out BS things going on in this game for me to enjoy it. Around the 5th sector, I start running into enemy ships with 3 or 4 shields that either dodge or block every shot I throw out, and have my own weapon systems constantly bombarded until I'm just another scrap to be collected. I've tried to milk every sector for as much scrap as I can before the fleet catches me, but I'm still hardly able to upgrade my systems enough to break down these higher-levels ships.

See, you complain about stealth being overpowered but now you are talking about ship strength (of shields and presumably weapons, since they are getting through your own shields, or firing enoguh missiles fast enough to cripple you). It sounds to me like stealth isn't the problem (and to me and most others it doesn't seem overpowered, late-game ships that screw me over are generally just packing so many shields+defence drone I can't harm them, or so many weapons I die first. I sometimes welcome cloaking because a ship with cloaking generally has lower shields or fewer weapons than an equal-sector ship without).

The problem to me sounds like the game as a whole is too difficulty for you. There are 3 solutions to this:

1) lower difficulty (if you are not already on easy).
2) learn strategies to play better - there are plenty of guides and links to videoes on here, or you can search youtube.
3) stop playing because this isn't your type of game.

Complaining on this forum is none of these, especially when you are blaming the game/RNG, which makes game fans defensive and unlikely to offer you constructive help. Complaining particularly about one mechanic (stealth) which doesn't seem to be the root of your problem means any constructive suggestions you do get won;t be helpful (as you've seen, people suggesting boarding or other ships when your real problem is not having the victories/scrap to afford boarding or unlock other ships - which can be done through victories, not just unlock quests).

TLDR: Stealth isn;t your problem, the game is. Lower difficulty to Easy if not already on it, look up general FTL strategies on here or online to improve your play. Continuing this complaining thread will not get you help. If you don;t want help, and just don't like the game, then stop playing it.