Subset Games Forum

Okay guys, I would like to share some things about ships I think are overrated and underrated and the like. This is a general ships topic, but mainly to compare them to A. Other ships and B. What people think of any ship in general. All opinions are welcome, and please don't argue. I will be happy to hear all criticism, positive or negative, but no berating without reason. If this topic becomes semi-popular (one post per day or so) I will check back here often and reply to all.

Okay, now what I think:

Overrated: Federation Cruiser

Okay, I'll be honest, I don't really know what the general consensus on this ship, and even though so many of my highscores are with this ship, it has one deal-breaker: No stealth. This is awful, because there is no way to beat the boss without good ol' stealth 1 (Although I have like 1 win in that ship somehow) Also, one game I went super defensive, no weapons, just full artillery beam, only to realize with complete and utter dismay that you can't puncture the bosses' zoltan shield before it recharges on stage 3.

Underrated: Stealth Ship

Okay, Stealth Ships A and B. I will say A is the better one, but if you can change B into a "Regular Ship" with shields and all by sector 2 (Ik, early), then that Glaive Beam can be sweet. I just really like the combo of mini beam + dual lasers, two very good weapons for one power, and takes down most things easily near the beginning. I have been very successful with A, getting to Sector 8 my 1st play through, and losing to the boss because I was looking' for a shop desperately for stage 2, and he neared the base, and I lost. In all that game, I never purchased shields. Just some nice weapons, full engines and level 3 cloaking (Used level 1 during Boss fight obviously).


Amazing Ship:

I love Zoltan B. All you need are Beams and the Ions to win, and the 4 weapons slot lets you get another. Plus, Zoltan shields gives you enough time to take down their shields with the ion switch method (link: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4643). Plus, I had my best run EVER in FTL in this thing (which I somehow didn't even get top 5 highscore on... *Sigh) Anyways, Double Ions are insane, and just go for an alpha struck to win it on! Article on mah amazin' Zoltan B run here: (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5478)

Fed A is for a firepower-heavy start (between the burst laser and the arty beam, you can fight early opponents decently well, and you can keep the burst laser for the endgame so that's one less weapon to buy), /and/ your crew gives you good boarding chances as soon as you find a teleporter (so earlier profit) as well as opening more blue options.

Lack of cloak hurts against the boss, but it's not *necessary*, if you have good shield/engines and hopefully a defense drone and/or a shield recharger plus good offense to shorten the battle (incl boarders to hit the triple missile launcher).

Sharpieman20 wrote:Okay, I'll be honest, I don't really know what the general consensus on this ship, and even though so many of my highscores are with this ship, it has one deal-breaker: No stealth. This is awful, because there is no way to beat the boss without good ol' stealth 1 (Although I have like 1 win in that ship somehow) Also, one game I went super defensive, no weapons, just full artillery beam, only to realize with complete and utter dismay that you can't puncture the bosses' zoltan shield before it recharges on stage 3.

I've defeated the boss with no stealth, a few times. Once with the Fed cruiser. I didn't have any teleporter and only a system repair drone, too. What I did have was lots of ions, maxed engine, and maxed shield. Ion cannons do bunches of damage to that green super shield stuff. I just played defensive and let the arty beam do the work for me. The worst stage for this build was the first, when it has all its weapons active.

kinda misnamed post, since stealth A is often hailed as one of the best and fed cruiser is rarely ranked among the top ships.

zoltan B is pretty great, my personal favorite ship (or perhaps tied with engi A, i can't get enough of that medibot dispersal)

I would say that the stealth B is actually highly underrated. If you can get the third level of cloak, you can dodge their first shots and the glaive beam will be charged by the time the stealth ends. If you can get shields and another weapon, you've got a powerful ship.

On the other hand Zoltan B is underrated for a reason, you wont make it out of sector 1 normally if the enemy has laser drones. Infact unless your really lucky you probably wont get out of your first battle without losing tons of health.

YES ZOLTAN B IS BEST!


Infact Zoltan ship B log:
1) Made it to secotr 8. Third highest score
2) Lost in battle 1-Enemy had beam drone and lots of missiles. Was blown up before I could ionize the weapons.
3) Lost after battle 1- airlocks jammed open, could not repair because the door controls in the bloody airlock.
4) Had to leave midway through battle 4, but 3 intruders were onboard, and enemy had anti-ship and mini beam, so my bets would of been a loss as there was no longer enough power for the weapons and the shield was down nearly immediately.



5) Beat the rebels for the first time!

P.S. I beat it without any stealth, so maybe you were wrong with your 'Cant beat without stealth' rule.

Sharpieman20 wrote:Okay guys, I would like to share some things about ships I think are overrated and underrated and the like. This is a general ships topic, but mainly to compare them to A. Other ships and B. What people think of any ship in general. All opinions are welcome, and please don't argue. I will be happy to hear all criticism, positive or negative, but no berating without reason. If this topic becomes semi-popular (one post per day or so) I will check back here often and reply to all.

Okay, now what I think:

Overrated: Federation Cruiser

Okay, I'll be honest, I don't really know what the general consensus on this ship, and even though so many of my highscores are with this ship, it has one deal-breaker: No stealth. This is awful, because there is no way to beat the boss without good ol' stealth 1 (Although I have like 1 win in that ship somehow) Also, one game I went super defensive, no weapons, just full artillery beam, only to realize with complete and utter dismay that you can't puncture the bosses' zoltan shield before it recharges on stage 3.

Underrated: Stealth Ship

Okay, Stealth Ships A and B. I will say A is the better one, but if you can change B into a "Regular Ship" with shields and all by sector 2 (Ik, early), then that Glaive Beam can be sweet. I just really like the combo of mini beam + dual lasers, two very good weapons for one power, and takes down most things easily near the beginning. I have been very successful with A, getting to Sector 8 my 1st play through, and losing to the boss because I was looking' for a shop desperately for stage 2, and he neared the base, and I lost. In all that game, I never purchased shields. Just some nice weapons, full engines and level 3 cloaking (Used level 1 during Boss fight obviously).


Amazing Ship:

I love Zoltan B. All you need are Beams and the Ions to win, and the 4 weapons slot lets you get another. Plus, Zoltan shields gives you enough time to take down their shields with the ion switch method (link: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4643). Plus, I had my best run EVER in FTL in this thing (which I somehow didn't even get top 5 highscore on... *Sigh) Anyways, Double Ions are insane, and just go for an alpha struck to win it on! Article on mah amazin' Zoltan B run here: (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5478)

One can certainly beat the boss without stealth on Normal

Just unlocked Zoltan B, gonna give it a spin later today.

In a way I kind of feel the Crystal A is a bit overrated. It is a nice ship, but still not among my top. Crystal B however is nice, I love my 3 crystal man boarding team. I think I still like the Mantis B more though.

I'm gonna have to say The Torus is overrated in my book. I'm not going to deny that it is a good ship, but I suppose I just don't like ion weapons, aside from the ion bomb. I normally have an issue with enemies taking out my weapons, like most people, but I'm even more annoyed by it when my plan of attack is a snowball effect that can be disrupted and needs to start all over.