Post your Highscore

[T-hawk]

While not strictly "cheating", this certainly falls under the category of exploiting in my mind. The rebel fleet is supposed to be a deterrent to lingering in the sector, not an incentive to do so. Although this did occur to me as something potentially usable as a means to artificially inflate your score, it seems to me that it doesn't really get you anything for doing so. Nothing aside from lessening the feeling of achievement you get from a new high score off of a legitimate run.

Well, sure, there's no comparison between that and a run without intentionally farming for score. But just building a ship powerful enough to make the farming possible is an interesting challenge in itself. And there's the question of where to draw the line on farming. Is it okay to fight a few extra rebel ships? None at all? What if you inadvertently go into a dead end and have to backtrack several jumps to the exit?

Anyway, I scored 6112 without any shenanigans - only ever fought Rebel fleet ships at exit nodes right before jumping, about 5 total. Mantis B and boarded everything, of course. Got a Burst Laser II quickly, early enough that I didn't have to run from any automated ships. Four nebula sectors along the way for extra jumps and enemies. Got two Scrap Recovery Arms by sector 4, plus the other important augmentation: Long Ranged Scanners. With that, I was able to focus on only nodes with enemy ships and mostly avoid jumping to empty nodes. Really helped in sector 8 where I got three kills besides the flagship, each for big payouts of 70+ plus the 20% bonus. I actually maxed out the ship, literally all systems maxed.

[hybridfive]

Well, sure, there's no comparison between that and a run without intentionally farming for score. But just building a ship powerful enough to make the farming possible is an interesting challenge in itself. And there's the question of where to draw the line on farming. Is it okay to fight a few extra rebel ships? None at all? What if you inadvertently go into a dead end and have to backtrack several jumps to the exit?

I have the same opinion about drawing the line. If you consider fighting extra rebel ships to be a capital sin, you have two problems.

First, you're submitting your high score to another random factor in an already random game: placement of beacon. Anyone who has played enough of this game knows that there are sectors where the exit beacon is practically in the middle of the map, and other sectors where it's in the corner. Do you want a good run in terms of events / rewards to be lessened by having shorter sectors?

Secondly, there's no doubt that quests and distresses can give better scrap rewards than normal beacons. There are times where you legitimately acquired too many quests / distresses, and need to let the fleet overrun the beacon in order to complete all of your objectives. I consider it the right tactical decision to complete a quest, then fight a couple rebels in order to get out once you're done. But that's technically also farming those ships.

I personally think that if you find fighting the same rebel elite fighter two hundred times, then it counts for you. That's just not something I would enjoy doing. But then, my good scores come from Crystal ships, tend to be more tedious because of the precise timing required.

Me: 6397: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =100834126

[T-hawk]

Pushed it to 7018, without intentional farming.



3065 scrap collected, which should be a record, and that's always legit as scrap can't be farmed. (By the way, I tested, and the scrap listed for scoring does not include any bonus from Scrap Recovery Arms. It also doesn't include sales at stores.)

My rule regarding farming was that any jump into Rebel territory must be a jump towards the exit. So I would feel free to clean out the far corners of each sector, then would usually fight just one or two extra ships in returning to the exit. In total I killed 11 Rebel fleet ships (the unlootable ones), including one in sector 8 on the way to the flagship.

The trick was to get Long-Ranged Scanners at the start of the game. I restarted repeatedly until there was a store immediately adjacent with the item. (Sold Mantis Pheromones to afford it.) With that, you can make sure almost every jump goes to fight an enemy ship, avoiding empty beacons. The other trick was to travel only to hostile or nebula sectors for more enemies or jumps; I had such a path through the galaxy with no friendly sectors.

The fights were usual Mantis B tactics, boarding everything, relying on the shields and defense drone to avoid damage. My first upgrade was teleporter level 2, so that we could teleport to and damage automated ships, saving the boarding drone for the last point of damage. Had to run from two Zoltan-shielded ships in sector 1, but then started finding weapons and never ran again.

Finally, sector 8 served me a brilliant map, where I got to fight 7 normal ships before starting on the flagship. That's a huge swing, over 500 scrap from the fights and 175 from the ship kills.

I think I'm done with FTL now.

[hybridfive]

Pushed it to 7018, without intentional farming.

...snip...

The trick was to get Long-Ranged Scanners at the start of the game. I restarted repeatedly until there was a store immediately adjacent with the item. (Sold Mantis Pheromones to afford it.)

I don't see the difference between farming game openings and farming ships. That's true of any new system, augment, or upgrade, but that's more true of Scanners. You said specifically that your intention was to

make sure almost every jump goes to fight an enemy ship

How is that not the same thing? You're changing your behavior from normal game-play, by not advancing towards your win condition.

...I'm starting to think that High Score is not actually the best measure of who is good at this game.

[Fangz]

Bah.

[Number43]

I tested and was surprised to find that if you open the airlocks and all doors to kill yourself at the start without a single jump, your score is 10, rather than 0.

[Sharpieman20]

My top 5:

1. Name: The Unlocker
Ship: Federation Cruiser A
Sector: 8
Difficulty: Easy
Victory?: No

SCORE: 3905

2. Name: The Osprey
Ship: Federation Cruiser A
Sector: 8
Difficulty: Easy
Victory?: No

SCORE: 3852

3.Name: The Unlocker
Ship: Red-Tail (Kestrel Cruiser B)
Sector: 8
Difficulty: Easy
Victory?: No

SCORE: 3605

4. Name: The Osprey
Ship: Federation Cruiser A
Sector: 8
Difficulty: Easy
Victory?: Yes

SCORE: 3504

5.Name: Red-Tail
Ship: Red-Tail (Duh...) (Kestrel Cruiser B)
Sector: 8
Difficulty: Easy
Victory?: Yes

SCORE: 3366

Don't make fun of me for all easy. I am gonna play normal once I unlock everything. Although, I have 4 victories and only 2 are in the top 5, weird... They should add like 500 points for winning'. Do they have that?

[rectina]

What's your top score with the different ships?

[T-hawk]

I tested and was surprised to find that if you open the airlocks and all doors to kill yourself at the start without a single jump, your score is 10, rather than 0.

10 points per beacon. You get credit for the starting beacon. (Not the 10 starting scrap.)

[T-hawk]

I don't see the difference between farming game openings and farming ships. That's true of any new system, augment, or upgrade, but that's more true of Scanners. You said specifically that your intention was to "make sure almost every jump goes to fight an enemy ship". How is that not the same thing? You're changing your behavior from normal game-play, by not advancing towards your win condition.

It's not farming because it can just come up randomly without any extra effort. I'm just saving time on helping the randomness along. Why does it matter if I restarted a few times to get the scanners quickly? What if I instead played the restarted games all the way through? Then you wouldn't call it farming. So why would you want me to waste twenty hours playing out pointless games for the same end result?

Anyway, I'm also convinced that getting the scanners and fighting as many lootable ships as possible IS good for normal game-play. It DOES advance towards the win condition, since all the extra scrap and loot and crew gets your ship upgraded bigger and faster, staying ahead of the power curve of enemy ships. I'm talking like level 3 shields in sector 2, level 4 shields in sector 5, a full 4-Mantis boarding crew by sector 4, stuff that the contemporary AI ships can't come close to matching. And upgrading every single system to max power before fighting the boss. That IS good game-play, making your ship as powerful as possible and virtually unbeatable.