How do you pick your extra systems?

[Artemis]

It used to be a simple case of get transporter, cloaking, drones and keep a single drone around for anti-missile duty but now there are lots of options. I'm using the Lanius B right now and I can't decide what to put in my last slot. Obviously I'm boarding so I feel like I want more in the way of defensive systems so I'll get a drone system with not much thought. However I'm curious how other people decide what to fill out their slots with now that Mind Control and Hacking exists.

[David]

I used to just grab teleporter and cloaking pre-AE. I'm never certain on what to pick.. I hate just taking the same things over and over- feels too easy, but if you play all of the ships you'll end up using different systems anyway because they start with them.

Generally I'll grab Hacking & Cloaking. I find every subsystem useful- I don't know if it's just me, or it's Hard difficulty, but a Defense Drone I doesn't seem to cut it for me, lasers can be just as much a threat, or more, as missiles.

[Kaerius]

My mainstay now is drones+cloak+hacking, or drones+cloak on a boarding ship, but hacking is certainly a viable alternative to drones.

Mind control is the least useful system, even though it's more useful for boarders than others, it can't compete with cloaking, drones, or hacking. For the flagship, on ships that start with mind control(thus you're stuck with it), I mainly use it to counter the flagship's mind control. Mind you it does make it a bit easier to wipe out enemy crews, so you can get extra scrap and loot out of it, still doesn't seem worth it.

[David]

One thing to think about is the cost of a system too. Drone Control and Cloaking are the most expensive (drone costs much more to max out, and drone schematics are free scrap if you don't take it), Teleporter, Hacking and Mind Control are relatively cheaper.

If I took Mind Control, I'd probably pair it with Hacking or Teleporter. Taking out the enemy ships evasion and shields at the same time is great, as is getting the enemy to fight itself while you join in.

[Artemis]

I feel like Transporters are critical for beating the final boss but then I've always used transporters to take out the big weapons on it so I'm sure if you get lucky in other ways you can skip the transporter.

[TehJumpingJawa]

Kaerius eredeti hozzászólása:

My mainstay now is drones+cloak+hacking, or drones+cloak on a boarding ship, but hacking is certainly a viable alternative to drones.

Mind control is the least useful system, even though it's more useful for boarders than others, it can't compete with cloaking, drones, or hacking. For the flagship, on ships that start with mind control(thus you're stuck with it), I mainly use it to counter the flagship's mind control. Mind you it does make it a bit easier to wipe out enemy crews, so you can get extra scrap and loot out of it, still doesn't seem worth it.

Whaaaa?
Negating most/all of the enemy's dodge ability by mind controlling their pilot is the most ludicrously OP ability in AE.
It doesn't cost drones, it's instantaneous, it costs only 1 power (0 with battery), it's only hard countered by pilotless ships, and soft countered by the seldom seen helm upgrades.

Mind control's ability to aid with boarding/counter boarding, delay ftl retreat, and completely negate opposing mind control are just 2ndary bonuses.

In terms of general utility, I rate mind control well ahead of hacking, and slightly better than cloaking.

[Kaerius]

TehJumpingJawa eredeti hozzászólása:

In terms of general utility, I rate mind control well ahead of hacking, and slightly better than cloaking.

I'm of the exact opposite opinion here. I consider the boarding/counter-boarding benefits fairly negligable, negating mind control unnecessary(it's more of an annoyance than a danger), and it being almost a one-trick-pony of mind controlling the pilot to drop evasion.

Hacking on the other hand is a hard counter for boarding ships(hack teleporter to send all boarders back to their ship, though it doesn't work for event boarding), can also shut down evasion(hack helm or engines), can cut off a central part of the ship to prevent crew from getting to systems to repair them, can almost completely stop them from shooting at you(especially paired with cloak), drop enemy shields completely, to let your weapons/drones hit with full effect anywhere, or even asphyxiate enemy crew by hacking their O2 if you're patient. It does have a weakness against defense drones(but there's an augment for that), but it's far more versatile than mind control, with greater power and utility(droping enemy shields is of course the most common use, mainly because it's so very powerful, lovely to make short work of the federation flagship, though the 2nd phase needs something to distract the defense drone first).

Cloak has minimal uses, you dodge attacks with it and prevent enemies from targeting you with weapons/teleporters for the duration. It's very good though, evading missiles is great for regular encounters, but it's practically invaluable for the flagship fight, especially the third phase laser barrage. I'll take it over mind control every single time, without any hesitation.

[gambit]

I... ahem, I throw a dice.
Still 3 ships to beat with on normal.
After that I'll try hard.

[Basement cat]

I donno about you but upgraded pilot ships and drones are pretty much everywhere in later sectors. Drone espeically are super dodgy. Mindcontrol-to-drop-evade is pretty much useless when you needed it the most.

Hacking is far more flexiable, even if it cost a drone. Its counter -defense drones- is far more rare then encountering drone or upgraded pilot ships.

I won't blow scarp on mindcontrol unless I am a boarding ship. Even then I probably will take hacking first then mindcontrol because hacking medbay is so damn good when boarding.

[FDru]

If you're playing on Hard, then Hacking is one of the best things you can have. It allows you to drop any number of shields, which makes many weapon options viable that normally wouldn't be. It also makes it very difficult for the enemy crew to repair the missiles on the flagship since most would need to break through 2 separate doors to reach it (and it makes those that do get through easy pickings since it's harder for them to run back to the med bay).

Mind Control is a total no-brainer with boarding heavy strategies, since having your boarders mind-controlled at a bad time can end your run. Turning enemies into extra boarders is just an added perk.

Cloaking is still awesome, and is the best defensive option there is for the flagship. Drones are the runner up, and you should probably have one of these in every run if at all possible.

For me, usually, Cloaking is a priority. If my strategy revolves around lasers or beams then Hacking would be priority #2. Mind Control is generally nice but I can do without, unless I'm boarding then Mind Control is basically mandatory.

[Pixel Peeper]

I usually pick Mind Control first. It's cheap and incredibly useful. I tend to give it lower priority if I'm using beams though, since one of Mind Control's best features (nullifying enemy Evasion) is far less useful then.

Cloaking and a Teleporter are both great for the Flagship, so they're nice choices.

Drones can be nice too if you happen to get the right schematics, but that's too luck-dependent for my tastes, plus it's one more resource to worry about (Drone Parts).

[Smashing]

I find hacking outclasses mind control. This is especially true with the Lanius boarding strategies, which I've started to enjoy. Because 2 Lanius suck the air out of a room very quickly and can be cloned, you teleport them into a room, wait for the enemy to enter it and just fire the hacking module at that room. It locks the doors so they can't escape and you are guarenteed to kill them.

Hacking also has the ability to shut down shields and weapons, which mind control doesn't. It's far more versatile. If my ship is a boarding ship I tend to go for teleport, hacking and cloak/drones whilst if it is a ship relying on firepower I go for hacking, cloak and drones/mind control.

[Δ]

I usually go for the guns first. Dual/burst lasers and flaks. Then teleport, clone bay and drones.
Teleport for grabbing vast amounts of material (don't actually know if that's the case), clonebay + backup dna for for boardings and sometimes freeing power to other use. I usually gather pre-ignition/faster reload etc to final sector.
Few runs ago I played with The Fregatidae (has Flak Artillery), then I got 2 more Flak I and 1 Flak II plus Burst Laser as backup, if losing 2 blocks on guns.. Add teleport and drones with shield and its pretty much a game.