AI doesn't play by the rules.

[SebTheSamMarten]

Title says it all. The AI straight up doesn't play by the rules that you do. They can use systems that are completely broken (for instance, FTL warping while their navigation is 0'd out, or dodging attacks... again while Navigation is out, meaning they should have 0% dodge), have WAY more weapons/drones than what even a fully upgraded reactor could afford (The freakin' flagship had, no lie, 9 beam drones active at once. While having level 4 shields. While having 3 4-cost weapons. While having a 15 second cloak that they could use even while it was ion'd 9 times and red.), and even somehow keeping a high-cost rocket system operational even though their weapons system has been ion'd 6 times and is bouncing between red and orange.

Cloak is a big one that I see happen very frequently. I'll ion it, destroy it, whatever, and they'll still use it anyway. The only systems they seem to actually play 'fair' by are shields and weapons. Everything else just feels like it doesn't matter to focus because they'll still use it anyway.

I get the flagship is supposed to be the Big Bad and thus giving them some rule bending to make them indisputably the biggest threat is whatever. To a degree. The fact you have to fight the damn thing thrice while it's breaking all of these rules is even worse.

The thin line between 'difficulty' and '♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pretending to be difficulty' is getting real frayed here.

[Mike]

That is an insane display of technical knowledge and weapon micro. I don't know if I'm up for strategies where the margin for error is like 0.3 seconds lol.

Thank you!

The 0.3 second Heavy Laser margin there is just a forcing optimisation. Mostly it's just a bit of fun and novelty for me. Without it, they get to cloak for 10 seconds but they'll still have no shields for nearly 15 seconds after that, even if you miss all your shots.

You could also play this fight just fine by letting them cloak before you do anything, and then unloading.

[SimpletonAnt]

Nah I agree with op this game is absurdly unfair especially in its final boss. I literally haven't beaten this game once either on my old DRM free copy or on my steam copy. The final boss literally doesn't care. I can beat the first time fighting it with little issue. But phase 2 is cancerous. I had max level cloaking, max level shields, near max level engines, max level engine crewman and pilot for over 50% evasion, flak, gatling lasers, and a beam weapon, and literally none of it mattered because this stupid ******* ship just has too high of evasion so the flak and gatling can't pierce the shields so the laser can do its thing and try and knock out any systems at all. All while these 12 drones spin around me ripping my shield apart and I keep getting boarded by the stupid drone that punches a hole in your hull. Missiles are punching holes in my ship, the drone is punching holes in my ship, the drones are ripping my shields and hull apart, and my cloak can only stall for so long even at max rank. And I'm on ****** easy. God forbid this game be beatable without an actual godroll run. You need the Fates of Ancient Greece, a blessing from the Christian God directly, and god knows how many artifacts of myth to beat this game on anything higher. Lady luck herself would have to be playing the game for you to have the slightest of chances
Edit. I had weapon-preignitor aug, the +15% shield regen aug, and the weapon autoreloader aug

[ressenmacher]

Originally posted by SimpletonAnt:

none of it mattered because this stupid ******* ship just has too high of evasion so the flak and gatling can't pierce the shields so the laser can do its thing and try and knock out any systems at all.

The Flagship has a base evasion of 25% when manned in phase 2. If your goal was to strip shields and then burn it up with a beam weapon, 4 projectiles (I assume by "gatling laser" you mean the Vulcan?) against 25% evasion means each volley only has a ~30% chance to open the Flagship for a beam swipe, and any damage to the weapons totally removes your ability to deal damage.

I think the Vulcan is the problem here. It eats up 4 power and system levels for one projectile and even with preigniter and autoloader only gets online after about 20 seconds have passed. If the gameplan was to strip shields and burn the flagship up with beams, you generally want to be looking at either hacking or big projectile volleys.

Originally posted by SimpletonAnt:

and my cloak can only stall for so long even at max rank.

You want to use the cloak just before the first round of missiles hit you. This will dodge the missiles AND the drone swarm power surge. You can stall out the first missiles + power surge and the second power surge this way - if the Flagship's offense is still active a full minute into the fight that's a sign your offense is weak.

Originally posted by SimpletonAnt:

And I'm on ****** easy. God forbid this game be beatable without an actual godroll run. You need the Fates of Ancient Greece, a blessing from the Christian God directly, and god knows how many artifacts of myth to beat this game on anything higher. Lady luck herself would have to be playing the game for you to have the slightest of chances
Edit. I had weapon-preignitor aug, the +15% shield regen aug, and the weapon autoreloader aug

The best players maintain winrates above 95%, and generally speaking the consensus is that the early game is most dangerous (particularly sectors 1 and 4). It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose, but the huge majority of losses are preventable and occur due to macro level mismanagement - particularly routing errors and suboptimal spending.

Originally posted by SimpletonAnt:

near max level engines

This is inefficient, especially if you're also running cloaking. With a fully skilled crew you don't generally want to go past engines 4 or 5 unless you're swimming in scrap with nothing better to spend on. 260 scrap + reactor cost to run it for 10% more evasion when cloak isn't up is not a worthwhile investment.

[Mike]

Originally posted by ressenmacher:

You want to use the cloak just before the first round of missiles hit you. This will dodge the missiles AND the drone swarm power surge. You can stall out the first missiles + power surge and the second power surge this way

Plenty of good advice there, but this part is not quite right.

Power surge timing varies randomly every surge, between 20 and 30 seconds. You can cloak the missiles and the first surge, but you need level 3 cloaking for that to be reliable, and even then the tail end of the surge might catch you (which is probably fine).

The next surge timer starts at the start of the previous one, and each surge lasts around 6-7 seconds as the drones position for two shots. As a result, cloaking the first surge will often expose you to the second one.

[ressenmacher]

Originally posted by Mike:

Power surge timing varies randomly every surge, between 20 and 30 seconds. You can cloak the missiles and the first surge, but you need level 3 cloaking for that to be reliable, and even then the tail end of the surge might catch you (which is probably fine).

The next surge timer starts at the start of the previous one, and each surge lasts around 6-7 seconds as the drones position for two shots. As a result, cloaking the first surge will often expose you to the second one.

Thanks for the correction - I thought it started counting down after the drones dispersed.

[SebTheSamMarten]

Originally posted by ressenmacher:

Originally posted by SimpletonAnt:

near max level engines

This is inefficient, especially if you're also running cloaking. With a fully skilled crew you don't generally want to go past engines 4 or 5 unless you're swimming in scrap with nothing better to spend on. 260 scrap + reactor cost to run it for 10% more evasion when cloak isn't up is not a worthwhile investment.

I'd argue, since they said they are playing on Easy, that having maxed engines is nearly an every-run sort of deal, since even partially optimal pathing will drown you in scrap (provided you don't get instantly killed by a single event that you can't handle, likes a sector 1 boarding party when you are playing as slugs).

The vast majority of my runs will make it to the flagship, and then fail on the second section as well, simply because the drones are so heavily punishing while RNG is eternally not in my favor.

[ahsido1]

I'm glad for all the people breaking it down and explaining everything because all I could hope to come up with is "None of that's ever happened to me."

[GOOSEONTHELOOSE]

If I may.

Another piece of advice that I haven't seen mentioned previously is















git gud

[Aepoh]

Originally posted by GOOSEONTHELOOSE:

If I may.

Another piece of advice that I haven't seen mentioned previously is















git gud

You mayn’t. You get no awards, no points.

[SebTheSamMarten]

Originally posted by GOOSEONTHELOOSE:

git gud

I have a many good hours in Dark Souls and other such games. (Even played King's Field, the original Japan-only one.) Git Gud only makes sense in the context where your skill is directly what is being tested. Not a string of 'calculated risks' and straight up RNG.

You can't 'gud' gamba. :v

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by SimpletonAnt:

Nah I agree with op this game is absurdly unfair especially in its final boss. I literally haven't beaten this game once either on my old DRM free copy or on my steam copy.

Try not sucking.

[Aepoh]

Originally posted by SebTheSamMarten:

Originally posted by GOOSEONTHELOOSE:

git gud

I have a many good hours in Dark Souls and other such games. (Even played King's Field, the original Japan-only one.) Git Gud only makes sense in the context where your skill is directly what is being tested. Not a string of 'calculated risks' and straight up RNG.

You can't 'gud' gamba. :v

FTL is a skill-less game. What is being tested is your tactics and your decision making.

[Howard Roark]

Originally posted by Aepoh:

Originally posted by SebTheSamMarten:

I have a many good hours in Dark Souls and other such games. (Even played King's Field, the original Japan-only one.) Git Gud only makes sense in the context where your skill is directly what is being tested. Not a string of 'calculated risks' and straight up RNG.

You can't 'gud' gamba. :v

FTL is a skill-less game. What is being tested is your tactics and your decision making.

But isn't that a still a skill? That's like saying Chess is a skill-less game because it's all about tactics and knowledge of the various phases.

I'd argue that the primary skill of FTL is risk mitigation and management. There is a lot of randomness in the game and the primary skill is in reducing that. Cloaking and Hacking eliminate RNG. Boarding is also RNG free. Then there is risk management, how much exposure do you allow yourself to RNG and where and when do you spend to mitigate it. Do you risk your clone bay being taken off line at a critical moment, or buy DNA backup to be safe? How many weapons do you need to reliably get through enemy shield?

Those seem like skills to me, but I guess it depends upon one's definition of skill.

[Aepoh]

Originally posted by Howard Roark:

Originally posted by Aepoh:

FTL is a skill-less game. What is being tested is your tactics and your decision making.

But isn't that a still a skill? That's like saying Chess is a skill-less game because it's all about tactics and knowledge of the various phases.

I'd argue that the primary skill of FTL is risk mitigation and management. There is a lot of randomness in the game and the primary skill is in reducing that. Cloaking and Hacking eliminate RNG. Boarding is also RNG free. Then there is risk management, how much exposure do you allow yourself to RNG and where and when do you spend to mitigate it. Do you risk your clone bay being taken off line at a critical moment, or buy DNA backup to be safe? How many weapons do you need to reliably get through enemy shield?

Those seem like skills to me, but I guess it depends upon one's definition of skill.

What I mean to say is that unlike dark souls there is little to no execution skill in FTL. You have as much time as you reasonably need to make your decisions, much like a turn based game like chess.

[Antorius]

What I mean to say is that unlike dark souls there is little to no execution skill in FTL. You have as much time as you reasonably need to make your decisions, much like a turn based game like chess.

Not saying it's at the level of Dark Souls, of course, but I think there is some mechanical skill in FTL like micro-pausing, rapidly swapping crew member positions in a two-square room, kiting defenders with your boarders, getting the timing just right when flashing Shields or Drone Control, etc. You could also try playing without pausing and seeing how smooth your execution is. :)