There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

General discussion about the game.
Gorgolax
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:32 am

There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby Gorgolax » Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:50 am

I can accept horrible loss and ignoble failure. I do plenty of failing in real life and know how that goes. But a stalemate pisses me off incredibly! And it has happened in FTL on quite a few occasions.

I have one more achievement to get -- Kill 15 Rock ships with a Crystal ship. So I am playing The Beavis (Crystal A), have a nice playthrough, end up trying 2 Halberd beams alongsige Flak I and Breach II used alternately as the situation dictates and Hacking 3 for main shield removal. It works quite well until I reach the Rebel Flagship.

Zero turns till the base is destroyed, so I cannot jump away. Hacking drone lands on my Weapons... Hacking plus Cloaking equals I never ever have my Halberds or Breach fill all the way.

Gosh bloody buns fudging darn it! I have like 30 drone parts and a Repair Drone. The ship rarely hits. I can keep this going for hours but never hit the damn Flagship! And this is not the first time it happened similarly. What the shit? Stalemates suck! Kill me or die! It makes me so angry to get into a stalemate in video games. ARG!

So there should really be some sort of an anti-stalemate algorithm in FTL. Like all your crew going berserk after 10 minutes or the enemy crew deciding they love you or something... NO STALEMATES!
shadowcrust
Posts: 328
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Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby shadowcrust » Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:16 pm

Something is missing in this story - what happened to your own Hacking? If you put it on enemy shields as usual, then you can still fire the Flak I and eventually win that fight.

If you hacked something else, then I'd say it's a self-inflicted loss on your side, not a stalemate - this can be confirmed by jumping out of the fight and receiving the message.
Mommothazaz123
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 4:28 am

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby Mommothazaz123 » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:14 am

If you hadn't hacked shields, you could have hacked hacking and made the boss relocate his hacking drone.
No1451
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Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:14 am

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby No1451 » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:51 am

There's a way around this. Just don't build a gimmick ship, always have some sort of fallback to take out the flagship
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5thHorseman
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Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby 5thHorseman » Fri Jul 04, 2014 5:28 am

Also, if you've no counter to the flagship hacking your shields, don't dawdle and let it get down to the final jump before you engage. Go early so you can jump away and back.

Yeah I'm sorry but this isn't a stalemate. You lost. It's sad but you got bested. Learn from it and try again.
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Gorgolax
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:32 am

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby Gorgolax » Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:47 am

I fired my Hacking drone at the shields so it was too late to hack the Hacking system. It was a self-inflicted situation in that it could have been avoided with some foresight. And given long enoughI could have probably chipped away with my Flak even as the filthy heathenous crew repaired whatever damage I did. So I guess it's not a true stalemate but a situation that was just taking way too long to resolve for my liking. But a near balance of my offense and enemy defense has happened to me on many occasions and I hate it! I just wanted to whine a bit. Cheese, please!
shadowcrust
Posts: 328
Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:43 pm

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby shadowcrust » Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:24 am

Haha, I like your curses! And I'm sure it relieves you if I admit that I snickered evilly when I read your story ;-)

And with 30 drones pieces, a Hull Repair drone (that's what you had, right?) and a Flak I, I guess this fight would have been won with a nicely gleaming, perfect hull in less than 10 minutes - still an eternity, but personally I dig those almost stalemated fights - two monitors help here, you can for example browse the forums while your pew pew lasers do all the work.
slattikarma
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Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:56 am

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby slattikarma » Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:53 am

I actually had my first proper stalemate where I had no option but to restart the game.

I had a ship with no weapons (I think it was Mantis B or Crystal B) ... and I had teleported my entire crew onto the slug ship that has an isolated oxygen and engine room which are not connected by any doors. This was on 'Hard' mode on AE where there is a slug by itself in the isolated engine room.

As I was killing the crew in the main section of the ship, a missile took out my teleporter.

I killed the slugs in the main part of the ship, but then I was stuck forever... as my teleporter was broken and I was unable to access the engine room in order to kill the final enemy slug, in order to trigger the 'shuttle back to your ship' scenario.

I guess this was an unintended stalemate bug?

----------------------------------

My second 'almost' stalemate was I made it all the way to the Flagship with no weapons (I was playing Crystal B and I was trying to unlock the 'no buying at stores' achievement). By no weapons, I mean the only weapons I had been gifted along the way was 'chain ion, ion blast, and heal bomb'. Grrrr.

I thought I was screwed, but I managed to defeat the flagship three times by killing all the crew and then continually destroying rooms while the auto-computer repaired them. I had to sacrifice a guy for each stage... and it took ages, but there you go. Flagship destroyed with no offensive weapon or drone.
Mommothazaz123
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 4:28 am

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby Mommothazaz123 » Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:26 am

Speaking of near-stalemates, I ran out of fuel once. Then I encountered an enemy. With a Glaive Beam. Can you guess where this is going? Yep. I had two shields. :cry:
Gorgolax
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Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:32 am

Re: There needs to be an anti-stalemate device.

Postby Gorgolax » Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:25 pm

Okay, so I hereby revise my position upon the so overly emotional sounding situation that I posted upon originally.

I could have most likely defeated the Rebel Flagship using Hacking and Flak I. I was sufficiently displeased by not being able to fire the longer charging but more destructive (and satisfying) weapons (2 Halberds and Breach II Bomb) due to the ship's swashbuckling Hack 'N Cloak technique to properly utilise my Flak I and Hacking to win. Instead I went back to the Hangar and announced to the minor portion of the Universe that reads these things that I have failed and whined about it.

Melt your eyes, filthy heathens! Or don't. I do not actually wish such things upon anyone (currently). But who cares about that?

About building gimmick ships and trying to have back-up options before fighting the Flagship... I have 300+ hours on this game (a good chunk of them spent playing Magic with a friend with FTL minimised). I do not claim to be good, but I usually win on Normal and purposefully make potentially sub-optimal decisions for research and entertainment (like getting 2 Halberds). So building gimmick ships is acceptable in my flight plan. Bitching about their results should not be (unless it's funny).

I enjoyed the near and true stalemate stor(y)ies. Thanks! I kind of want to seek the Perfect Stalemate as a personal achievement now. Quite likely, all of the offense/defense balance scenarioes I kind of generally referenced and which I perceived as a stalemates could have been ended with at least someone's shameful defeat eventually.

Ah well. We shall see.

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-Toodles!
Last edited by Gorgolax on Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.