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

[stylesrj]

Sacrifice a Zoltan for fuel?
That sounds like something a pirate would do. Sure it might be a desperate situation, but so was raiding that cargo vessel yet I get punished for attacking civvies even though that damned trading vessel (third one in a row too!) wouldn't answer my hails unless I had sacrificed an augment slot for some cheap cargo.

If we're going down that path, how about sacrificing an Engi for hull repairs?

You would have to change the possible reward of talking to your Zoltan crewmember and getting free fuel though. Wouldn't make to much sense otherwise.
Probably make it so the clonebay can't bring him back.

Nah it makes sense. They're willingly offering up energy for the ship's FTL drive. The power of love and loyalty always provides 300% more power than desperation. Think of the FTL fuel recycler. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel to get more fuel. Your crew is haggard and exhausted from the chase and the lack of fuel has put them on edge.

Give the Zoltan time to rest and they'll provide more fuel in a friendly social event.

Also, why can't the Clone Bay bring them back? Maybe in the Minor Fail, the Clone Bay works whereas the Major Fail means there's nothing left to recover (unless you have a backup DNA bank?)

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Ok, speaking of the Backup DNA Bank, can that augment have some more use in events? Like during a Quarantine Zone or other events involving medical problems? After all, if something goes wrong, you have a massive bank of backups to work with to find the clone that doesn't have the disease.

[Sleeper Service]

Sacrifice a Zoltan for fuel?
That sounds like something a pirate would do.

The idea was that they offer to die voluntarily, to sacrifice themselves for the mission and all. The reward would have been rather high (10-20 fuel). But yeah, I realized there is little reason why you couldn't just clone them (damn you AE!), so this probably won't happen after all. Merging an Engi with you hull though... "Your clone-bay obviously won't review your crewmen, as it is still alive as part of your plating."

Ok, speaking of the Backup DNA Bank, can that augment have some more use in events? Like during a Quarantine Zone or other events involving medical problems? After all, if something goes wrong, you have a massive bank of backups to work with to find the clone that doesn't have the disease.

Yeah, that might be something to look into.

[stylesrj]

And on the subject of drone parts and delaying ships, etc...

Right but I'm pretty sure the player will wonder why he can't do this in any fight then. Why couldn't he? I'm not arguing so much on a lore basis here anyway.

What about using the Drones or Mines to neutralise artillery ships? You sacrifice several drone parts or missiles to "take the hits" and so you only encounter an artillery spotter using its regular guns? Why wouldn't it run away? Because it thinks its still going to hit you with its big guns.

I think what Biohazard's main concern is that if you run out of fuel in the middle of the fleet, even in Sector 1, unless you have a godly ship, chances are you're going to die horribly. Because unlike vanilla where you have a passable chance at destroying a Rebel Elite, you're going to encounter the RSS "BS Loadout" or the "We're Gonna Git Ya!" which has three layers of shield, a 5-year cloak (15 seconds), Clone Bay, Battery, Hacking and Mind Control. And two missile weapons and lots of fast-firing lasers.

So yeah, I think it's perfectly reasonable to take away some of my precious Drone Parts is in order to avoid dying a most painful death. Especially in Infinite Space where by chance you encountered several boarding events in a row, then a Slug WHO WON'T STOP CHUCKLING (Can we please get an option to blast his butt?), followed by a Mantis ship (which has no fuel for some reason) then your untimely death to the Rebel Cruiser that catches up.

EDIT: By the way, can those Rebel ship names be added to the list of possible Cruiser encounters? I'd (not) like to see an RSS BS Loadout armed with only big missiles.

[steamtex]

words about that laughing little bastard

In FTL Captains Edition (version) .ftl

In Data

In events_fuel.xml.append

add the following:

Code: Select all

<event name="FUEL_ON_SLUG_CHUCKLE">
   <text>A poorly armed Slug ship cruises by and offers assistance. Their captain seems to be chuckling to himself, perhaps at the prices he's charging.</text>
   <ship load="JELLY" hostile="false" />
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Pay 15 scrap for 5 fuel.</text>
      <event load="FUEL_ON_SLUG_CHUCKLE_LIST" />
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Ignore the offer.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You know better than to do business with a Slugman who seems like he knows something you don't. He jumps off with another chuckle.</text>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true">
      <text>Attack.</text>
      <event>
         <text>You know better than to allow scum like this to continue their ploy. Battle stations!</text>
         <ship hostile="true" />
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="slug">
      <text>(Slug Crew) Have your Slug make the purchase.</text>
      <event>
         <text>As soon as he sees your crewmember the Slug stops his incessant chuckling. The exchange appears to go smoothly although you wonder what mental battles are telepathically occurring between the two Slugs.</text>
         <item_modify>
            <item type="scrap" min="-15" max="-15" />
            <item type="fuel" min="5" max="5" />
         </item_modify>
      </event>
   </choice>
</event>

Patch into game. Done.

[Sleeper Service]

Right, I think your main problem here is that you ran out of fuel in the first place. The most straight forward way to avoid that painful death is to not run out of fuel in CE. Your naming suggestions as well as the Slug attack option have been implemented, to cheer you up the next time.

[stylesrj]

Right, I think your main problem here is that you ran out of fuel in the first place. The most straight forward way to avoid that painful death is to not run out of fuel in CE. Your naming suggestions as well as the Slug attack option have been implemented, to cheer you up the next time.

Thanks. Can there be an option for advanced engines or something (or a Teleport Disruptor) to deliver payback if you were silly enough to accept the Slug's offer?

(Teleport Disruptor) Something doesn't feel right about this Slug's deal.
Your instincts are right. The Slug attempted to steal from your cargo hold with micro-teleporters.
Fight the Slug ship with a Slug intruder.

(Advanced Engines) After them!
You squeeze enough energy from your engines to catch up to the Slugs and take several shots at them. Your opening barrage slows them down but they'll get away if you don't finish the job!
Fight the Slug ship. (With slightly damaged engines and they charge FTL)

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

And yeah I know I'm not supposed to run out of fuel, but the RNG can be against you severely in Infinite. Especially with all the boarding parties.

[Estel]

On a slightly different note: I considered whether Zoltans might offer to sacrifice themselves by being turned into fuel when you run out.

That could be interesting, especially considering the "social" outcome of conversing with Zoltans, that can, already, give some fuel, at the price of shortening Zoltan's lifespan by few decades. Albeit I think that 10-20 fuel is too high - 8-12 sounds more balanced (12 fuel is 36 scrap, Zoltan cost 50-60 scrap - we should be "losing scrap" considering that it is "easy" way of running from situation where we just screw things up and ended without fuel).

Albeit, with all this "use rocks to plumb breaches in hull and Engis as a plating" we're entering a grotesque side of the Force, a little. The Zoltan thing seems to work in-lore, the engi might too, but - considering nano-bomb repairs 1 hull - I don't see engi repairing more than 1-2 hull (with his low mass of nanobots), which would be useless thing, anyway.

For me it seems more obvious that a few drones would have an easier time distracting an enemy ship rather than an entire fleet.
I guess we all have our different views about this sort of stuff...

Simple answer - balance reasons, It would just be too OP to have possibility to run from rebel fleet/any ship at the cost of few drone parts, as additional benefit of (already quite powerful) drone control. Heck, it could even be abused to "squeeze" one or more beacons from every sector, just by meeting rebel fleet at exit, and running, for low cost. CE's rebel fleet, finally, achieved such menacing firepower, that I stopped to "farm" their cruisers in sector 1-5 (on Hard), deciding that it is not worth the risk - aka, balance of the threat finally achieved sane value, in-lore. Having easy escape would sure destroy this feeling of dread, again.
---

On a side note - I'm all against "easy ways" to run from situations, where we screw up (out of fuel), like ones proposed in last post. If existing at all, it should be costly and punishing. CE, finally, taught us to care about fuel (like, at all - before hyperspace, i almost NEVER bought any fuel in store), let's not destroy it.
---

As for Hyperspace Admirals, I also haven't ignore the sign about it - albeit, I must admit, that I got it earlier, due to being Patreon supporter. I'm really excited about it, and keeping my thumbs for you, guys! Actually, I'm wondering how you could make world more aware about the awesome project, without "Early access" or other nonsense. Considering the quality of CE (and the awesomely useful random weapons, starting ships, and flagship), I guess it's going to be a real blast, world deserve to know !

On the other hand, I'm sad that I don't have any qualities that would allow me to submit application to the team Well, will be happy to bugtest during beta, anyway!

/Estel

[stylesrj]

On a side note - I'm all against "easy ways" to run from situations, where we screw up (out of fuel), like ones proposed in last post. If existing at all, it should be costly and punishing. CE, finally, taught us to care about fuel (like, at all - before hyperspace, i almost NEVER bought any fuel in store), let's not destroy it.

After running out of fuel a lot in Vanilla FTL, I learned quickly to buy all the fuel I could in stores, all the way until Sector 7 where I had 20-30 units spare.

The only time I run out of fuel in-game is when events conspire not to give me any (like automated ships while I have only a boarding crew, Mantis ships, boarding events). And in CE Infinite, you will encounter droughts of fuel that will not be entirely your fault.

[R4V3-0N]

Didn't make much bug reports for CE but I noticed under the blue option at an empty beacon for the zoltan cruiser (I specificlly used the type B but I assume all 3 types work here..) that it says " 1. (Zoltan ship) Upgrade you teleporter devices..." ... I think it meant your....

[Biohazard063]

Right but I'm pretty sure the player will wonder why he can't do this in any fight then. Why couldn't he? I'm not arguing so much on a lore basis here anyway. The delay option exists because I wanted to provide a not-so-straight-forward way for the player to turn drone parts into resources (time). Because that was an often requested features and I found the delay scenario was an interesting way to put that in. (Mine layers create a similar options for missiles.) However I'm not sure why merely having combat drones equipped should enable the player to trade drone parts for easy escapes. It could be interesting, but I'm not sure why drones need that additional perk. The delay scenario on the other hand answered a clear design problem: players often said they want to be able to turn their consumables into resources, but had few ways to actually do that. CE introduced ways, with downsides however to keep things tight.

The main issue with the current trade off time vs. drone parts, is when you get the option to do it ,it means you already have a combat drone equipped. Since you need it equipped in order for the option to pop-up. That means you probably want to use your drone parts for what they were initially intended : In combat.
So one extra jump when you're not in danger will usually not be as beneficial. On the other hand, if you're caught by the rebel fleet and manage to win the fight, being able to delay them then, could mean the difference between escaping to another beacon that has been overtaken or "safety". A choice most people will be glad to sacrifice 3 drone parts over. In the end, you're still only using them to delay the rebel fleet. You're just in the thick of it whilst doing it. Should lore be of importance, you can always go with :
"You upload your jump signature to your drones and send them out in different directions, that should keep the fleet busy whilst you get out of here."
The whole distracting a single ship just popped in my mind because of that one event where you can actually do that.
I believe (because I looked it up...) it's called "AUTO_DEFENSE_RADAR".
We can leave that out.

Going back to trading drone parts for running :
Drone parts are still quite valuable. And giving up three can be costly. Unlike mine launchers, they also don't require the investment of getting drone control.
Sure this doesn't mean anything if you start of with drone controll, but then again, every ship starts with weapons (usually...). And depending on the amount of weapon slots you have, you can just keep it in a weapons slot and never use it in combat.
And face it, most people when they get drone control, it's not for offensive purposes unless they are forced to take that route.
Again, the whole re-roll the fight only popped in because I got that event. The main idea I wanted to pitch was being able to delay the fleet after winning a fight against it.