Clonebay or medbay ?

[Biohazard063]

For me it seems highly, highly situational...
I prefer boarding, and in order to do that properly it seems like a medbay is more preferable.
Then again, if you get the augment that heals them with a teleport a clone bay seems to be the better option in case things go south...
Clone bays also seem the way to go with random events where you could end up loosing a crewmember. But not being able to actively heal seems to have its downsides as well when being boarded, fires and it does have some blue options when upgraded.
I usualy have my mind made up pretty quickly in this game but his one...

What do you prefer and why?

[Gekkibi]

You're absolutely right, it's highly situational.
For boarding cloning bay makes it less riskier. You don't even have to care to beam them back to your ship if low on health. For the classic medbay final fight medbay is naturally better. However, if s*** hits the fan and you have cloning bay, just open every single door... And speaking of doors: you can "exploit" cloning bay by killing badly damaged crewmembers so that they get their health back. My opinion is that upgrading cloning bay just to get better passive healing rate is not justified.

Cloning bay is a little bit better, but not better enough that I buy a cloning bay if I started with medbay. It's not better enough that I don't buy medbay with a Slug B if I find that first...

[DariusOne]

Outside of the random events I prefer medbay in every case so far. Having crew at random healths for multiple jumps feels too risky to me given that their regeneration takes time if things go a bit wrong and loosing the clone bay can really quickly cause a massive problem mid-fight as well. Granted from what I have used the clone bay those problems have been really rare, but the risks are still a bit too major for me, and losing of skills is kinda the final nail in that coffin. As far as random events go saving crew is great and all, but coming from vanilla managing the amount of crew is easy enough without it.

That said I have not tried the healing teleport augment coupled with clone bay, which on paper sounds excellent.

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

I would spring for Medbay in most situations except boarding heavy strategies, where my boarders can fight to the last hit point, and by the time they respawn the teleporter will already be cycled through the cooldown, so they can beam right on over again.

Maybe I'm too stuck in my ways, but I find the ability to control healing to outweigh the benefits cloning brings.

[Sebenza]

I clearly prefer the medbay. It allows for better micromanagement during fights (e.g. people fighting in shifts, healing between them), and can heal your crew before you do the next jump. Of course, I have to avoid crew endangering events like spiders and fires, but that's not much of a problem. Avoiding these, I usually manage to keep all my crew alive and face the boss with a decently sized and well trained crew. It allows me to preserve and train the crew's skills way better than I could dream of when using a clone bay. Even when it comes to boarding enemies I'd go with the medbay (level 2 teleporter will do just fine when timely retreats are necessary).

Honestly, I don't see the appeal of the cloning bay, except for some gimmicky playstyles like zoltan bombing. Medbay allows for more in-depth, micromanagement focused strategies, normally with much better results.

[Adeon]

I'm quite certain that Al Qaeda would prefer the clone bay.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Adeon:

I'm quite certain that Al Qaeda would prefer the clone bay.

If you want to go off-topic then I'd say humankind would quite certainly prefer a cloning bay...

[Quazimortal]

I've had really great runs using both so I think the answer 'it is highly situational' is probably the most accurate answer anyone can give.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Refusenik:

Clonebays can be a little obnoxious at times. I've had a combination ABS + boarders x4 where the first artillery strike hit my clonebay mid-respawn and killed 2/3rds of the crew.

Oh ya, speaking of environmental hazards... Ion pulse knocked down my cloning bay when one of my crewman died a second or so earlier. That sucked somewhat. :) Only proves that cloning bay is not 100% get-out-of-jail-free -card...

[Quazimortal]

The DNA Bank is a must have to make a late game cloning bay truly worth using.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Quazimortal:

The DNA Bank is a must have to make a late game cloning bay truly worth using.

I disagree. The only good thing is that it guarantees you can't lose any crewmembers, no matter what (well, except random events that kill a crewmember even if you have a cloning bay). You don't have to keep power in cloning bay until you get a warning that you haven't powered your cloning bay. Sure, RNG can make your cloning bay damaged, but it's easily fixed, and the probability that you lose a crewman during repairs is quite slim, especially if you take damaged cloning bay into concideration. In my opinion it's not worth 40 scrap and one augmentation slot...

[Quazimortal]

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

Originally posted by Quazimortal:

The DNA Bank is a must have to make a late game cloning bay truly worth using.

I disagree. The only good thing is that it guarantees you can't lose any crewmembers, no matter what (well, except random events that kill a crewmember even if you have a cloning bay). You don't have to keep power in cloning bay until you get a warning that you haven't powered your cloning bay. Sure, RNG can make your cloning bay damaged, but it's easily fixed, and the probability that you lose a crewman during repairs is quite slim, especially if you take damaged cloning bay into concideration. In my opinion it's not worth 40 scrap and one augmentation slot...

And yet that DNA Bank would have saved the crewman you just said died due to RNG. The RNG danger of a cloning bay is completely removed when you have it which is what I was referring to. Didn't think I had to spell it out so clearly but I guess that's what I get.

IMO it's ALWAYS worth the 40 scrap and augmentation slot.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Quazimortal:

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

I disagree. The only good thing is that it guarantees you can't lose any crewmembers, no matter what (well, except random events that kill a crewmember even if you have a cloning bay). You don't have to keep power in cloning bay until you get a warning that you haven't powered your cloning bay. Sure, RNG can make your cloning bay damaged, but it's easily fixed, and the probability that you lose a crewman during repairs is quite slim, especially if you take damaged cloning bay into concideration. In my opinion it's not worth 40 scrap and one augmentation slot...

And yet that DNA Bank would have saved the crewman you just said died due to RNG. The RNG danger of a cloning bay is completely removed when you have it which is what I was referring to. Didn't think I had to spell it out so clearly but I guess that's what I get.

IMO it's ALWAYS worth the 40 scrap and augmentation slot.

True, it would have saved him. Is it worth 40 scrap and one augmentation slot? I'd say the chance that you encounter ion storm AND your crewmember dies AND ion pulse take down your cloning bay before the cloning is done is pretty slim chance. Happened to me exactly once. Spending 40 scrap to prevent this situation is not justified. Of course it's a matter of opinion... You think differently than I do, and that's fine.

[Quazimortal]

A random ion storm isn't the only thing that can take down your cloning bay, there are quite a lot of instances where it can happen. Hell, I've run into around 6 or 8 totally different situations where either having a DNA Bank would have saved one or more crewman or did save one or more crewman.

Mind you I play almost exclusively on Easy difficulty so the odds of those random occurances happening only increase the harder you make it. This is the reason I think the DNA Bank is always worth it.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Quazimortal:

A random ion storm isn't the only thing that can take down your cloning bay, there are quite a lot of instances where it can happen. Hell, I've run into around 6 or 8 totally different situations where either having a DNA Bank would have saved one or more crewman or did save one or more crewman.

Mind you I play almost exclusively on Easy difficulty so the odds of those random occurances happening only increase the harder you make it. This is the reason I think the DNA Bank is always worth it.

But note that you can minimize this happening if you take the risk into concideration. The problem with ion pulse is that it hits a random system (something I didn't take into concideration. That death would have been avoided if I didn't fight to the death. It was a mistake on my part). True, enemy weapons hit random systems at well, but you can do a pretty easy risk assessment. How often can they get past your shields?

[Quazimortal]

My hull gets hit often enough I suppose. Are you saying your ships almost never get their hull hit? I honestly find that hard to believe but I guess anything is possible in FTL.