FTL Captain's Edition 1.308/Inf 1.301b/EL 1.308

[fedaykin]

Sounds all pretty reasonable, I'll look into that.

Yeah, the Fed cruisers both have a pretty hard starts in CE. I find early defensive upgrades almost mandatory for these ships. If you can get a drone system and second shield layer by sector two then things should start to go more smoothly- I often try to throw in a early artillery upgrade as well, to play out their main advantage consistently. Like in vanilla, the Fed cruisers can become pretty powerful in late game, so once you reach your third or fourth artillery bar, things usually start to go down the drain for the enemies. I find it unnecessary to make a deliberate transition to boarding with this ship, unless the run offers it easily. I'd say the ships play most effective as what they are designed to be: Artillery Cruisers.

I would disagree that the Nisos has a hard start, because of its capacity to deal damage very quickly. Situations that the Osprey performs very badly in, such as Rebel Transport Ships fleeing or enemy missile weapons are easily dealt with by Nisos' 5 second missile launcher (+ manned bonus of course) to enemy weapons or cockpit respectively. The Nisos is a much stronger ship because it takes so long before the Osprey can do anything, leading to unavoidable hull damage and ships running away. It may not be optimal, but the Nisos can even save scrap straight away to buy a drone system/weapons, because your weapons are so reliable, whereas the Osprey will get wrecked without urgent upgrades. Frankly, the new Nisos is 1 or even 2 tiers above the Osprey.

I also think going for 2 shields with the osprey quickly can be a mistake because of the % chance of catastrophe vs enemy missiles. Whereas a Nisos doesn't have to be afraid with it's quick damage, the Osprey has a non trivial chance of getting badly damaged vs enemies with missiles, hence why I think going immediately for 4 engines may be the best way to make this ship viable. It does have a lot of potential, but very careful early play is needed.

My thanks again as well for all for the interesting balance work as well as the huge amount of new content. Coming up with new strategies for the changed ships has been a lot of fun. Really a superb mod.

[Estel]

Also remember, that CE's ship loadouts are just a "showcase", and you can always use vanilla loadouts. I always use them, and I too find adjusting to new environment very fun (despite, that starting loadouts of my ships isn't changed - unless specification of weapon itself changed, which happened few times). Also, vanilla loadouts still seem to be a little more balanced.

Unless when they aren't (Vortex...) - thats why I hope that one day, we will get canon non-showcase CE's modified loadout - staying close to vanilla, but fixing obvious lack of balance, preferably, by using custom CE's stuff.

/Estel

[Estel]

Small report, as a result of today's session:

Bugs"

1. This event lack option for Zoltan'ish negotiations of best offer (I think that it would be absolutely OK to have blue option here, considering how reasonable and non-hostile our "trading" partner seems):
http://s28.postimg.org/skh76n4iz/engi_no_return.jpg
(Severity: Minor

2. This may be a tough one to catch... On Rebel sector, at one beacon, I was repairing my ship via Hull Repair Kit, using the slowest, most efficient method. It made fleet advance on me like hell - for sure more than one normal advance, so I guess that it was, as it should, 2x delay.

Now, after just next jump, I meet standard AI satellite (event text with "i'm one of 527 identically produced..." or so), that I did blow without any problems - it tried to detonate itself, but I've destroyed it before it could (and it's piloting system was totally blown up even before, anyway). When i wanted to jump forward, I noticed that fleet advanced on me 2x *again*, for no reason.

Now, I have no idea if this buggy fleet advance was caused as repeated penalty for repairing earlier, or some buggy result of AI station trying to ignite FTL (maybe something bugged it to act like running scout, something related to new blow-up timer implementation?). Thats why report of this simple situation is so verbose - I didn't wanted to skip any detail, that might be important.
(Severity: Medium)

Suggestions:

1. Actually, I was up to suggest it looong time ago, but always forget... You know the situation, when shot fired by enemy hit your attacking or defense drone, killing it instantly, and you have to re-deploy it? It always irritated me, that when we hit *enemy* drone, it totally ignores it. IDK if it got too much HP, or if it's fixable at all, but it seems of - not only because something else happens to "identical" player drones, but also because such drone is hit by projectile +/- it's size, and should disintegrate. Heck, it looks even more silly, when drone blocks artillery/Ares/some-big-swarm-i-can't-remember-name-of, and just shrugs it, keeping attack procedure.

BTW, if it *is8 possible to be fixed at all, and if HP of drones is adjustable just like for projectiles, it could be nice to differentiate it a little, to - most drones should go away even if hit by 1 damage laser/rocket, but the "Heavy" variant could require 2 damage points (two hits with normal laser, or one hit with heavy, etc).

BTW, this way - considering that enemies have finite number of drones - timing own shots to kill some perky drone could, finally, be another manual tactic for experts or those desperate situations

/Estel

[RAD-82]

1. Actually, I was up to suggest it looong time ago, but always forget... You know the situation, when shot fired by enemy hit your attacking or defense drone, killing it instantly, and you have to re-deploy it? It always irritated me, that when we hit *enemy* drone, it totally ignores it. IDK if it got too much HP, or if it's fixable at all, but it seems of - not only because something else happens to "identical" player drones, but also because such drone is hit by projectile +/- it's size, and should disintegrate. Heck, it looks even more silly, when drone blocks artillery/Ares/some-big-swarm-i-can't-remember-name-of, and just shrugs it, keeping attack procedure.

You aren't paying close enough attention to the sounds. You do destroy the drone, but the enemy just re-deploys it right away. It just seems like it is the same drone.

[The Captain]

Well, it's been a while since I fought the boss without a cloak (don't play Fed cruisers much). Godzilla, Mantis A, encountered cloaking in a couple early stores when I couldn't afford it, and then in the mid to late game every store I went to had no cloak.

It wasn't such a bad run, as far as boarding went: a Mantis hatched a son, and I ended up with 5 Mantises, rotating them until all had 2* combat. (A Rock and 2 Engis rounded out my crew.)

But my weapons were only adequate - Big Bomb, Heavy Laser Mk II, and Basic Laser (only 3 shots! ) - I wondered if I could deal with the boss in all its CE-ness. I acquired a couple of the lesser missile weapons which do mostly hull damage - nothing I wanted to use in place of the Big Bomb. If I ever saw a Burst Laser Mk I it was early, and I couldn't afford it. I did decide not to buy an Artillery Laser (Mk II?) late in the game, as I still had hopes of finding cloaking. I did not find the store in sector 8 - it was probably that lone corner beacon.

As my weapons loadout took time to whittle down the boss, I did have time to take out 3 of 4 boss weapons guys and then the main body crew. That meant I had to take the artillery strike. One of them hit weapons, but 2 Engis make for quick repairs. I was able to get weapons back online to finish off round 1. I had to get my Mantis weapons office to the medbay plenty quick, though.

The second round took me down to close to 50% HP, but my boarders had free run of the ship. I was even able to jump to a repair shop (still with tag) before the final round.

Boss hacked my engines from L7 to L3, but I decided to stick it out and see how I did. Max shields helped, and my Defense Drone Mk I did a pretty good job. I won with 17 HP.

[Sleeper Service]

Sounds like an exiting boss fight. A nice example showing that cloak is not mandatory for he boss fight and can be offset by some other things. I'm often surprised how effective concentrated missile fire can be in disabling and suppressing the boss weapons in the first phases. Same goes for suppressing the drone surge in phase two by wailing away at the boss drones system. The worst layout I successfully fought the boss with was this one. I got destroyed in phase three cause I could not effectively overcome the boss dodge and the mine layer drone wasn't dealing damage fast enough. Missile and mine drones are quite effective against the boss.

You do destroy the drone, but the enemy just re-deploys it right away. It just seems like it is the same drone.

Yep, that is what is happening there and I can't really do anything about that. But lets see how AE changes drone combat. I doubt this will remain like it is now, because there are these plans for drones that can shoot down other drones...

[Estel]

Small report:

1. While playing infinite, one have to decide - upon reaching exit beacon - if to catapult itself close to Federation base, or escape into deep space. Choosing Deep Space bring us immediately into DS, while spending 10 fuel relay allow us to jump somewhere else in *current* sector, then return back, and continue jumping.

Hoever, if we feed fuel to reactor, then jump somewhere, and back when rebel fleet is already @ exit beacon, we're presented with same choice again - we need to either spend *another* 10 fuel, or jump into deep space.

Normally, it would be a problem, as we could just avoid spending (wasting) fuel 1st time, if we want to explore some beacons after the exit one. Hoever, there is no "stay here" option, so we're *forced* to either jump into deep space, or closer to federation base. It proves troublesome, when we want to see some important beacons, that are - physically - based after "exit" beacon. ON some sectors, it may be even impossible to "circle" it around - exit beacon may be only one link to those other beacons.

My suggestion - add 3th option, that allow us to ignore long-range beacon alltogether and continue - but *only* for the variant where fleet isn't at the top of us, already. For the "rebel fleet is here" event, lore text clearly suggest that it's our last chance to escape into Deep Space or closer to Fed base, so it's "now or never".
(Severity: Medium)

2. There is this event, where one-man shuttle heads in our direction, and we can shot it down or wait. For the first time, I decided to shot it down (had full crew), and frankly, I was just expecting some scrap from the wreckage - but, instead, rebel fighter jumped in, thanking me for scrapping some "engi refugees" and giving me reward. I really think that this event could use a possibility to attack rebel ship after receiving reward, anyway

If balance is a concern here (although, AIUI, it is not only possible outcome of decision to shot it down, and, there are many events, when we can get reward twice, for risking to fight enemy ship - like, pirate pursuing a civilian, on approach to attack refueling station etc), the attacking ship could become more powerful (higher risk) - like, some corvette or Destroyer. It would, then, become a nice lore-friendly and natural use for those class of ships (the most underused thing in CE, I think - I hardly meet them outside "fleet is on you" events. sometimes in eight sector, VERY rarely on fed vs rebs sectors).

/Estel

[dalolorn]

Small report:

1. While playing infinite, one have to decide - upon reaching exit beacon - if to catapult itself close to Federation base, or escape into deep space. Choosing Deep Space bring us immediately into DS, while spending 10 fuel relay allow us to jump somewhere else in *current* sector, then return back, and continue jumping.

Hoever, if we feed fuel to reactor, then jump somewhere, and back when rebel fleet is already @ exit beacon, we're presented with same choice again - we need to either spend *another* 10 fuel, or jump into deep space.

Normally, it would be a problem, as we could just avoid spending (wasting) fuel 1st time, if we want to explore some beacons after the exit one. Hoever, there is no "stay here" option, so we're *forced* to either jump into deep space, or closer to federation base. It proves troublesome, when we want to see some important beacons, that are - physically - based after "exit" beacon. ON some sectors, it may be even impossible to "circle" it around - exit beacon may be only one link to those other beacons.

My suggestion - add 3th option, that allow us to ignore long-range beacon alltogether and continue - but *only* for the variant where fleet isn't at the top of us, already. For the "rebel fleet is here" event, lore text clearly suggest that it's our last chance to escape into Deep Space or closer to Fed base, so it's "now or never".
(Severity: Medium)

/Estel

Based on my understanding of how the event works, this is not possible. CE:I relies on that event choice to make sure returning to normal sectors costs you more than going further into deep space. Sleeper can't directly alter the price of making that jump, which is why the event exists in its current form.

If your suggestion was implemented, you might as well do away with the "spend fuel to return to normal progression" option, because it's (albeit unintentionally on your side) a way to bypass the high price tag. And I'm not as coherent as I usually am...

[Sleeper Service]

Based on my understanding of how the event works, this is not possible. CE:I relies on that event choice to make sure returning to normal sectors costs you more than going further into deep space. Sleeper can't directly alter the price of making that jump, which is why the event exists in its current form.

If your suggestion was implemented, you might as well do away with the "spend fuel to return to normal progression" option, because it's (albeit unintentionally on your side) a way to bypass the high price tag.

Yep, exactly. There is no way around the problem Estel described apart from removing the fuel cost for traveling towards the Fed base altogether. Because the player can not be prevented from jumping to the next sector if you take the "stay here" option. I guess you just forfeit your fuel if you decide to jump towards the Fed base and then use the jump relay just to go to a nearby beacon.

There is this event, where one-man shuttle heads in our direction, and we can shot it down or wait. For the first time, I decided to shot it down (had full crew), and frankly, I was just expecting some scrap from the wreckage - but, instead, rebel fighter jumped in, thanking me for scrapping some "engi refugees" and giving me reward. I really think that this event could use a possibility to attack rebel ship after receiving reward, anyway

I guess these events where cut originally cause they where not fully fleshed out. I'll consider putting that in.

I'm OK with the amount of Rebel gunboats one can encounter though. I like that some ships remain a more rare sight cause it keeps them special. On my runs I usually encounter one or two of them in Rebel and Federation sectors anyway, so they don't seem that rare to me personally.

[Sothe101]

Would you mind if I did a Let's Play featuring your mod? I'll give you full credit as well as a link in the description of course.