Weapon Pre-igniter augmentation should be debuffed?

[Madhax]

ah! the boarding drone. but that costs 3 energy and a boarding bay. ofc if mantis ship is already equipped.
Im just to addicted to lockdown to do boarding without

Yeah, his strategy was mostly for use with the Mantis B cruiser.

Of course, if you're using the Crystal B, you could always just take them down to 1 hull, let their weapons come back, and drop your shields. Crystal Vengeance should finish them nicely.

[SushaBrancaleone]

and then have to repair?

i focus most of the starting game on accumulating scrap and not recieving damage to not have to waste scrap.

why would i want to do that???

[Madhax]

and then have to repair?

i focus most of the starting game on accumulating scrap and not recieving damage to not have to waste scrap.

why would i want to do that???

Depends on the situation. If you're defending a colony, for example, taking a couple of hits in the crystal cruiser is nothing compared to the double reward of destroying the AI ship and getting a reward from the colony. Same with a storage cache scenario. It might not be worth it if you're simply encountering a random AI scout.

It's a possible strategy, not a foolproof plan. I was just pointing it out.

[SushaBrancaleone]

by that point of the game (when rewards are that... rewarding), I usually already have one or 2 ranged weapons and i just use those to take AI ships and zoltans down.

[Fangz]

and forget about auto-scouts at least in the first two sectors.

I can't believe how everybody keeps thinking of AI ships as unboardable. In fact, they are EASIEST ones to board, as there's no one to oppose you. You just keep cycling your crew in and out their weapon bay with lvl2 teleporter, the AI keeps repairing it, you keep damaging it to red (taking 1 hull every time) and when it's at 1 hull left, you send it the drone to finish it.
AI ship is best thing Mantis B player can encounter early, because it's basically free combat XP.
I'm not even talking about crystal folks - with their 125 hlt and 50% suffocation resist it's too easy to be any fun.

I don't think AI ships are unboardable. I didn't say that. That's why I said "in the first two sectors", because that would require at least teleporter lv2 and I don't invest on tp upgrades early on because I don't think tp lv2 is really needed until sector 3 - except against...auto scouts.

In fact, they are EASIEST ones to board, as there's no one to oppose you. You just keep cycling your crew in and out their weapon bay with lvl2 teleporter

Not true. Are you trying to say that the crew cycling process which takes management and some degree of attention is easier than just throwing your 4 man boarding team into a ship with no med bay and a 2 men crew and just wait for them to finish the enemy crew off?

In the first process (AI ship boarding) you need to keep track of stuff, the second is just sit and wait. So, AI ships are not AT ALL the easiest ships to board.

[Madhax]

by that point of the game (when rewards are that... rewarding), I usually already have one or 2 ranged weapons and i just use those to take AI ships and zoltans down.

What point in the game? Finding outposts/colonies under attack is a common random event, and can happen in zone 1. Same for caches.

[Agent_L]

Of course, if you're using the Crystal B, you could always just take them down to 1 hull, let their weapons come back, and drop your shields. Crystal Vengeance should finish them nicely.

That's brilliant. Never thought of that.
1 point of hull cost you only 2 scrap (in early sectors), compared to 6 for missile and 8 for a drone.
It never occurred to me to use Crystal Vengeance offensively.
/edit: now I realized it's only 10% chance of shard, not 100%...

In fact, they are EASIEST ones to board, as there's no one to oppose you. You just keep cycling your crew in and out their weapon bay with lvl2 teleporter

Not true. Are you trying to say that the crew cycling process which takes management and some degree of attention is easier than just throwing your 4 man boarding team into a ship with no med bay and a 2 men crew and just wait for them to finish the enemy crew off?

In the first process (AI ship boarding) you need to keep track of stuff, the second is just sit and wait. So, AI ships are not AT ALL the easiest ships to board.

Yes. I'm saying that boarding an AI ship is always the same. All dangers are predicable and calculable with 100% accuracy. Taking all those factors under consideration is easy. Your away team will rip through enemy weapons system and disable it without any distractions.

On the other hand, boarding is every time a bit different. You can't say how many crew the enemy have or what race they are, because Mantis B starts without sensors. You have only 2 Mantii, and they may have 3. Your soldiers will be occupied in combat and enemy guns will keep firing all the time. You may rip through 2man Engi and Zoltan crew before second volley, or you may break your teeth on 3 Rockmen or Mantii, have to run around to buy more time, TP back, heal, board again. All under enemy fire.

Management when facing passive enemy like lack of oxygen is always easier than when facing one actively chasing you around enemy deck.

[Teboga]

I don't think it should be nerfed, as the Pre Igniter is very expensive and it is only overpowered combined with a handfull of events. One would need to be very lucky in order to get a broken build using this augment.

For example, the first time I finished the game in Normal mode was with a Zoltan ship where I ran into a MK III laser. Combine that with the standrad Halberd beam and a Missle and you have a pretty strong offensive.

This build became broken when I managed to get Cloak and the Weapon Pre Igniter. Add to these 2 the standard Zoltan Super Shield and I was able to fire 3 volleys before the enemy could board or damage my ship. And there is NO ship that can survive a potential 42 damage volley. Not to mention that even if they are still alive after the 3rd volley, they are just sitting ducks at this point.

But then again this is the only scenario where the augmentation is overpowered.

[mqstout]

Do the enemy ever spawn with augmentations? Including this one? If not, I wonder, "Why not?" It'd be nice to see some sneak attacks back -- that aren't just Slugs disabling random systems before the fight.

[Madhax]

Do the enemy ever spawn with augmentations? Including this one? If not, I wonder, "Why not?" It'd be nice to see some sneak attacks back -- that aren't just Slugs disabling random systems before the fight.

The way I see it, this game has plenty of "screw you" moments, but they're all "fair", more or less. No challenge in FTL is completely insurmountable.

Letting enemies spawn with pre-igniters, however, could potentially create a situation where the player can't possibly overcome an encounter. If the enemy ship has a pre-igniter and weaponry identified in this thread as pairing well with the augmentation, then the player is screwed. For example, if a Sector 7 ship has a MKIII burst laser and a glaive beam pre-ignited, there's really nothing you can do to avoid being cut in half in the blink of an eye.

EDIT: Actually, the computer would mis-use the above combo. Maybe two MKIII bursts, or a handful of breach missiles. You get my point.