Captain's edition...worth installing?

[Riversub]

What do you think? I've defeated the game in hard mode many times, unlocked all of the ships (including finding the crystal ship ) and completed all of the achievements I'm interested in.

Does CE offer any new story elements or provide a more "star trek" or exploration vibe? Can you select a single ship and build it into an unstoppable monster that is a joy to play :-)?

I've read the wiki but just wanted to get the opinions of those who are playing it.

[Caulder]

eh i like it the best way to describe it is it pushes the game engine to the edge of what it can do and then some its good but i would segest you play it your self as you may like or hate the new mechanics and if you want to slowly build your ship into an uber on play deepspace version also the slugs artillury weapon is so broken on sure just give them a weapon that STUNS THE ENTIRE CREW OF THE ENEMY SHIP PERMENTLY is clearly fair and balanced

[DarkTwinge]

Captain's Edition adds a huge amount of new content to the game and explores almost everything you can do with modding in this game. The downside is that it is solidly lacking in polish and balance. If it's a good fit for you depends on what you're looking for from your gameplay experience.

[Biohazard063]

I'm agreeing with twinge on most of it.
CE definitley shifts the difficulty of the game.
As example :
It adds tons of new weapons, but that makes the familiar weapons appear less frequent. Meaning it will be a tad harder to find a good weapons set up and often leaves you with something you had to cobble together.

My personal opinion is that I really like CE and would never play the game without it anymore.
It makes you think again in this game.

[anarcher]

Originally posted by Caulder:

eh i like it the best way to describe it is it pushes the game engine to the edge of what it can do and then some its good but i would segest you play it your self as you may like or hate the new mechanics and if you want to slowly build your ship into an uber on play deepspace version also the slugs artillury weapon is so broken on sure just give them a weapon that STUNS THE ENTIRE CREW OF THE ENEMY SHIP PERMENTLY is clearly fair and balanced

It doesn't actually stun the entire crew, flagship being the most obvious example. It fires a LOT of 5-shield piercing instant-hit no-damage stun shots in a huge flak pattern, but some of them will miss a previously stunned crew once in a while. It is fairly powerful nevertheless, when combined with fire/breach weapons or boarding.

[Biohazard063]

Originally posted by anarcher:

It doesn't actually stun the entire crew, flagship being the most obvious example. It fires a LOT of 5-shield piercing instant-hit no-damage stun shots in a huge flak pattern, but some of them will miss a previously stunned crew once in a while. It is fairly powerful nevertheless, when combined with fire/breach weapons or boarding.

That and you need to remember that in order to be able to do that, you need to buy the artillery system for the slugship, and level it to 4. For a total cost of :
System : 150
Level 2 : 30
Level 3 : 50
Level 4 :80
Total = 310 scrap + the power for it.

Combine that with the fact that on later ships, it's really rare for ships to not have at least level 2 piloting means it's not the greatest weapon anyway as you can also stun your own crew.

[Rosy the Rascal]

Captain's Edition adds much more flavor to the game with its various new enemy ship classes, methods of acquiring scrap (trading, pirating, truce-breaking, etc.), new weapons and drones, more unique sectors (most of them are just old sectors renamed, but some of them are entirely new like Hazard, Quarantine, AI, Auto), new beacon locations (like the inside of a massive ship-building facility, space station, black hole, acid clouds, etc.), and a huge amount of proactivity you can partake in at empty beacons (talking to crewmen, building new gear, creating trading goods, reusing fuel, laying down mines to delay the Rebel Fleet, etc.), and much more.

Most ships have been tweaked to be better than they were previously (Engi B can create AI crewmen at empty beacons, the drone augment is now 100% speed rather than 25%, and the ion weapon has been replaced by an effector weapon which charges faster) while others were downgraded a bit (Kestral A's Burst Laser Mark 2 and Artemis have been replaced with a Dual Laser and Dual Missile Launcher [forgot the name} which take 4 power altogether instead of 3 previously). New augmentations and redone old augmentations create more unique roles for each ship (as ones you can buy or acquire later that are either balanced or better than before).

Perhaps my favorite change is that you get a better idea of each of the different races' cultures through new events or dialogue from crewmen. In direct gameplay however, it is best emphasized by playing each race's ships via their unique augments. For instance, the Zoltan Shield augmentation allows Zoltan ships a second offer when debating whether or not to accept an enemy's surrender. These second offers can be incredible or just as good as the first offer, depending on what you want. Mantis ships (with Mantis Pheromones) have no qualms with commiting acts of piracy or taking slaves, allowing you to net extra goodies and crew where it would otherwise be risky to try. These coincide with what we know about the Zoltan and Mantis races respectively.

There are even unique perks you gain depending on what actions you take. Engaging in piracy grants you a reputation in Pirate sectors, offering you benefits or even new choices at shops.

One major compliant I have regarding Captain's Edition is that finding new weapons in stores for later sectors is much more difficult due to the sheer variety of items introduced. You can end up visiting 9 shops by sector 5 and not find any weapons, leaving you ill-equipped. Half of the gear you find is situational or easily outclassed. It can be frustrating to have all the systems you want but no proper weapons to capitalize on them in future battles.

TLDRBFI: Captain's Edition makes plenty of changes that stay true to the original game and give it a breath of fresh air. I would definitely recommend trying it.

[Lazogna]

If you are played out on vanilla ftl then absolutely. It isn't perfect but it extends gameplay so much that it's a no-brainer.
I doubt I will ever go back to vanilla ftl now that I have it, HOWEVER, I wouldn't recommend using it until you have chops at the vanilla game. A new player would find the learning curve for CE to be less than fun.

Adding the endless space mod further changes up gameplay. You can crawl through space forever, but the longer you wait to jump to the next sector the harder the enemies will be when you get there. It takes away some of the challenge of the pursuing fleet and the end boss fight but adds danger to regular enemies and mini bosses.
So yeah. Get it.

[anarcher]

endless space has some insanely dangerous sector entry events, which i'd count as boss fights for the sector you just long-jumped out of.