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

[Kartoffelr]

Oh i will try the challenge, don't worry.

It was just a huge, sudden increase in the difficulty. I killed multiple rebel cruisers in sector 5-7 (both Quest and Rebel fleet advance), i cracked two of these rock asteroid outposts in that match and thought like "oh wow, this is going great! i had some luck with weapons, but still" and then...
I think with the changes in the federation cruisers they could be the new most easy setup. Just keep the artillery beam alive and you beat stage one in this two minutes.

Boarding was a pretty easy way before, i agree. But wouldn't it be better to counter this with more crew or some security drones in the ship instead of artillery?

[Mr. Mister]

Hit-and-run is now a tactically valid strategy against the flagship then!

[ikeelyou300]

The artillery cannot be destroyed. It is "encased" and "hidden". The best way to avoid the artillery would be to use all your engines. It takes about 3 minutes I think for one artillery barrage to hit you, but maybe it is a bit much to have all 4 shots hit you at the same time. 4 shots*3 damage=half your hull gone if you don't destroy the boss in 3 minutes and instant death in 4.

Honestly I like the fact that the boss cannot be disabled by boarding on the first stage anymore because the boarding strategy itself was "overpowered" IMO and what everyone would always fall back on. And all the boarding ships are OP. Perhaps the boss should only fire 2 shots every 60 seconds?

The boarding strategy should still be a good way to weaken the boss and disable his annoying missile barrage, but now you have to at least kill it relatively quickly because it will not be completely powerless. On stage 2 and 3 it has the alternate drone and super laser barrage, but on the first stage it had nothing so I think the artillery works to counter that, but it shouldn't make people super frustrated.

EDIT: At least the artillery is working now after a whole bunch of tweaks. I'm glad Sleeper didn't abandon the idea. No one noticed anything "weird" with the flagship?

EDIT 2:

Well, this boarding tactic has been established among experienced players as a kind of standard way of dealing with the flagship. The whole fight is often criticized for being to static and in the end posing little thread if you know what you are doing. The artillery and the changes in phase III are there to force the player into a more dynamic play style. You can still go for the boarding tactic in phase two of course, also in phase one, if your are ready to take the damage.

The flagship is still much more static than most enemies and you will realize that it is quite beatable. But you will have to adjust to the new challenges it offers.

I didn't see this before. Just wanted to say Bravo! As long as your goal is to make the Boss Fight less static, I'm all for whatever you do!!!

[Estel]

I think current count of artillery shots is pretty OK, even though the encased and hidden weapon room is indeed something I've missed.

TONS of times I found myself in situation (when I ended up with less powerful ship), that neither me or flagship was able to gain upper hand - he was disabled and couldn't even touch me, but I wasn't able to do hull damage or kill all crew and blow it from inside. There was nothing to gain from running, too. The only way to get out of lockout, was to either teleport my crew and die, or run and let it catch rebel base. "Static" boss in vanilla stage one is, in fact, quite underrated.

Now, at least, either I have power to win, or die without lockout frustration

/Estel

[The Captain]

Holy shit, I just encountered nanobots for the first time! Nasty fuckers.

"The AI warship that is standing guard .... The Rebels are not foolish enough to send maned* crafts** ... But their automated crafts** can deal even less effective*** with the nanites." - 1) manned; 2) "ships" I think is a better word; 3) are even less effective at dealing.

Next (used cloak option): " You hope that even the nano-bots* will .... It seems to work,** the AI ship simply jumps away after finishing it's*** salvage operation." - 1) nanobots; 2) insert "as" after comma (if there's room, if not, replace comma with semicolon); 3) its.

[Sleeper Service]

Holy shit, I just encountered nanobots for the first time! Nasty fuckers.

Yep, usually it's the best to avoid the clouds entirely.

/Edit: Just learned that the artillery timing is still not working as intended. Will be fixed in the next version.

[rex4]

Me I did beat the boss rather easily since I had luck to get powerful weapons so I was hit just once by artillery. It forces to defeat it quickly since artillery remove hull whatever you do, but after all after beating the boss multiple times no much people want a fight that last a long time I guess.

[Kartoffelr]

@Sleeper:

I just had this idea:
Would it be possible to give the flagship A.I. avatar NPCs in fight #3 if you manage to kill its entire crew in part 2?

"An advanced A.I. has taken control" - it would be logical if it would generate a new crew of A.I. avatars as a last effort.

[Mr. Mister]

More interestingly: can you spawn intruders mid-fight with a low-health trigger event?

Imagine getting boarded by ten AI Avatars at the last stage when the flagship has six health remaining.

[slowriderxcorps]

More interestingly: can you spawn intruders mid-fight with a low-health trigger event?

Imagine getting boarded by ten AI Avatars at the last stage when the flagship has six health remaining.

I don't recall the flagship having any references in the xml data to where that could be implemented to the final fight, sadly. Doesn't mean it's not been proved completely impossible with other ships, however.