Idea: Making the Last Stand Better Designed

[spacecadet13]

I like the sound of most of that, except for the weaker boss bit - a more varied boss, definately, but weaker, uh uh. Once you've beaten it enough times, (and there are multiple ways to beat it) you know what works and what to expect, it actually becomes the least challenging part of the game - getting to it is usually much harder. A weaker one would be a huge anti climax, and flat out boring. A boss with a variety of abilities, layout, crew etc, so that you didn't know exactly what you were facing each stage and had to adjust your strategy 'on the fly' - AWESOME! - Especially if after you won the first and second stage battle a Federation supply convoy comes by, repairs some of your damage and offers different weapons/augments/crew? Then, even if you weren't perfectly prepared for the first battle, and took some serious damage, you'd get the chance to improve what you had and still have chance against whatever came next?

[Crusher]

Perhaps you decipher some of the plans for the Rebel flagship on the way, so every couple sectors you get a little bit of information about what a stage of the Rebel flagship will be like this game. Thus you can specifically (though maybe only partially) prepare for the boss while still having it be somewhat random. This might also help explain that bizarre moment where you warn the Federation and they say, "okay, you go fight the biggest, most advanced ship in the enemy fleet with your cobbled together space junk.". Instead that encounter might instead have you saying, "We've analyzed the plans for the Rebel flagship and we've modified our ship to exploit its weaknesses. We'll fight the Rebel flagship while you prepare the base to engage the rest of the fleet."

[Satonakaja]

I'm certainly surprised to see this thread on the front page again!

Anyway, everyone has made good points and I see many people do like the idea. I don't think I was clear in the first post, but I didn't necessarily want to make the Flagship weaker. In a way, it would be stronger as it would have all its abilities immediately, and unpredictable ones at that. There would be however the strategic option to go on sidequests (the battle beacons) in an attempt to weaken it. Weakening the boss would be a challenge on its own, involving a miniboss fight that may leave your ship hurting or low on consumables. "I'm low on missiles, at half hull and too far from repair beacons: do I risk fighting a miniboss or just brave the flagship at full strength?" And even then, most of the "weaknesses" I presented still require the player to do something to exploit it: destroy the drone control to stop the drone power surge, for example. The point is (with the longer time limit) to force the player to make strategic choices that would provide the player a hectic and fulfilling last sector.

Deciphering the plans for the Rebel flagship as in the last post would also be a good thing; if anything it would spare new players the "WHAT THE HELL MAN HOW CAN IT USE DRONES WITHOUT A WORKING DRONE CONTROL" feeling I got on my first flagship battle. :p

EDIT: And yes, I did refer to Iji there.

[Wariamu]

I think saying the boss is easy because you've beaten it a few times, you know it now by heart and you know multiple tactics to beat it is wrong in my opinion. If you know nothing of the boss in your first encounter with it, you still have to be a champ to beat it on first try.

What I meant by weaker is: since you can't know what the boss will be like exactly, it makes it stronger in a way because you don't know what you're up to. So, to counter balance that, it should be a tad bit less powerful equipment wise.

[Sleeper Service]

On jumping to one of these, the player would enter an encounter with a rebel cruiser, which would act as a kind of miniboss somewhere between the level of random encounters like fighters and such and the flagship.

Just want to humbly point out that my FTL Captains Edition mod is already going into that direction. Among many other things it modifies hostile beacons during the last stand have something around a 50% chance to let you encounter a gunboat, capital ship or Rebel occupied space station.

Most of the stuff you brainstormed on her is pretty cool, but I guess its unlikely that we get all what we dream of from the def team. You might want to check the modding section of the forum from time to time, to see what people already made possible with mods. See the specially the master mod list for a good overview.