Game over

[shadowcrust]

I've first played the game in May 2013 and I've played it a lot since then. I only played on Normal difficulty. I unlocked all ships, defeated the flagship with all ship types, unlocked all ship achievements and all general achievements. I've won the game in 76 out of 270 runs and with seven ships, I've won with the first flight (Slug A+B, Mantis A+B, Crystal A+B, Rock B). I've maximised all systems several times and I've defeated the flagship many times without receiving any hull damage. I've survived some hopeless situations and was defeated high on my horse at other times. I've found the Hidden Sector about 8 times and may have encountered all types of events in the game, at least I haven't seen a new event for some time.

Finally, I have set out for a personal achievement of obtaining victories with more than 5000 points with every ship type, which I just completed with the two ships I most often failed before, the Stealth B and the Engi B.

I here present you my new high score list, including the three highest scores on Normal difficulty that I'm aware of (but lacking any competitors, it is a bit like winning women's ski jumping):



I've had quite a good run with the Vortex, so I did a couple of extra rounds, where I (finally) noticed that the visited beacons of the rebel territory always spawn the exact same type of ship - can come in handy when you want to avoid a specific kind of ship, like an elite fighter with three small missile launchers or three Burst Lasers Mk II.

And now I'm taking a break - at least until AE comes out.

[shadowcrust]

Replying to my self-congratulatory post with a short addendum. Showing off, I want to revive a long-lost tradition of comparing general stats, not only the overall high scores. The last posts of this important topic I've seen are from April last year.

Behold this awesome object of art (which can even be undulating, if you print it out and flap it a little)! I think on most monitors you might want to right-click the image and selecte View Image to see all its glory.



I'm sure I've seen screenshots with more scap collected, but I don't think I've seen more than 19 hired crew members, although it shouldn't be too hard if you're unscrupulous enough... can you beat 122 visited beacons? With a certain constellation of sectors and some luck it should be possible.

[5thHorseman]

I'm sure I've seen screenshots with more scap collected, but I don't think I've seen more than 19 hired crew members, although it shouldn't be too hard if you're unscrupulous enough... can you beat 122 visited beacons? With a certain constellation of sectors and some luck it should be possible.

Here's the screen from my final youtube video before I lost my save file a couple weeks ago. 23 crew hired, 2917 scrap, 118 beacons, 66 ships defeated. So you beat me in beacons and scrap

[shadowcrust]

Woah, that sucks - not your scores, but losing the precious stats file... maybe I should backup mine. On the other hand, now you can experience how fast you can overcome all challenges of the game as a skilled player (have you unlocked all ships already?), and you'll have the best win:lose ratio in history.

23 crew members is impressive - did you get them all in events or did you kill some of your crew off to buy more? I don't have the heart (and, usually, the scrap) to kill some to buy more, although I have once killed the whole crew besides the captain of the Gila Monster, so I could get all Mantis ship achievements in one run. I killed all the flagship crew besides their captain, and suffocated all my own crew besides my captain. Then I boarded the flagship with my last crew member Hector, killed their captain on their ship - and didn't get the achievement, as apparently the game doesn't recognise the flagship as a proper ship, I don't know. Very sad closing credits. I still feel guilty and also bereft of this mini achievement to get all ship achievements in the first flight.

[5thHorseman]

Woah, that sucks - not your scores, but losing the precious stats file... maybe I should backup mine. On the other hand, now you can experience how fast you can overcome all challenges of the game as a skilled player (have you unlocked all ships already?), and you'll have the best win:lose ratio in history.

Yeah, luckily I was planning on starting over when AE comes out anyway, and I don't play for the stats so much as the fun of it so meh, numbers. I just unlocked all the ships with a hack and kept playing like I always do.

23 crew members is impressive - did you get them all in events or did you kill some of your crew off to buy more?

Honestly? I don't remember the circumstances. I expect it was a crazy run, though I for sure didn't do it on purpose, as I said I don't really care about the numbers.

[shadowcrust]

Screeeeeeeeeee! It's all about the numbers! Well, for me in the beginning it was about winning the game, then it was about adventure and getting all the ships (took me about 40 attempts to get the Mantis ship, because upgrading non-essential systems is not what I usually do before I have too much scrap, and the Mantis cruiser quest doesn't give you obvious hints that you need upgraded systems), and then it was about getting a better high score, then it was about getting all the achievements and then it was about getting the One High Score.

I think the game is designed to care about numbers, that's the sole purpose of the dedicated Stats page and invites comparing (showing off) numbers to other people. While personal achievements are well and bon, you can't compare them easily if they are not expressed in numbers, ike beating the game without weapons and without teleporters, or not pressing pause, or not going to the toilet during a whole gaming session

[itg]

Stats are all well and good to a point, but I think your mega-high-score runs prove how silly they can be. Don't get me wrong, scoring upwards of 40,000 is impressive, but at that point the game is just about your tolerance for tedium. If I understand the process, you could have scored 80,000 with the exact same ship if you wanted to burn twice as much time, and if you didn't farm the rebels it probably would have scored under 6,000.

Much more interesting, in my opinion, are things like no-shields runs. That's something that would take skill without the endless grind. Can't say I've done much of that kind of thing myself, although I did do a Slug B no-medbay run once. Not by choice, mind you, but I did it.

[shadowcrust]

The developers left open a loophole when they decided to grant score points for defeated Elite Fighters. If they wouldn't grant those points, then it would be the better decision to just jump away instead of fighting the Elite Fighter, but currently the brave fight is rewarded. What the developers probably didn't foresee is that you can exploit these additional score points to the point where the other contributing score points become almost meaningless, but only, because the game also replenishes all beacons with new Elite Fighters! Is that a bug or a feature? Hard to tell. Maybe it's a bit like defeating the Beast of 1000 Eyes in Wizardry 7 (now if that doesn't make for an obscure reference!), which was also not thought to be possible by the developers, but sufficiently motivated players succeeded nonetheless.

Anyway, game mechanics are there to be exploited, and this is what some people, including me (ingame, mind you), do. However, it is not that easy to exploit, you need some kind of strategy, insights into game mechanics and a fair bit of luck as well, not to mention the iron will Surprisingly, only very few people have actually ventured into maximising the score, either because they are not interested or because it's actually quite hard to do.

Still, I'm actually wondering why not more people compete for the highest score (currently: one player), as it is the first thing you see when you defeat the flagship and win the game, and it is the number that remains most prominently on your ship screen - so of course the score is important.

[5thHorseman]

Still, I'm actually wondering why not more people compete for the highest score (currently: one player), as it is the first thing you see when you defeat the flagship and win the game, and it is the number that remains most prominently on your ship screen - so of course the score is important.

I really cared about the score until I learned how it was calculated. Now, I'm happy when its high but 5 seconds later I don't remember it. I also am happy when I see a stat yellow in the final screen but - again - after it's gone I don't care.

I don't play the game for a good score. I don't play it to beat the boss or unlock anything (I already have unlocked everything except the boarding drone one. I hate playing with those things so never bothered to do the ridiculous set-up to achieve it). I do it because every single game is a new story with new characters and I can't wait to see what shenanigans they get into.

[itg]

The developers left open a loophole when they decided to grant score points for defeated Elite Fighters. If they wouldn't grant those points, then it would be the better decision to just jump away instead of fighting the Elite Fighter, but currently the brave fight is rewarded. What the developers probably didn't foresee is that you can exploit these additional score points to the point where the other contributing score points become almost meaningless, but only, because the game also replenishes all beacons with new Elite Fighters! Is that a bug or a feature? Hard to tell. Maybe it's a bit like defeating the Beast of 1000 Eyes in Wizardry 7 (now if that doesn't make for an obscure reference!), which was also not thought to be possible by the developers, but sufficiently motivated players succeeded nonetheless.

Anyway, game mechanics are there to be exploited, and this is what some people, including me (ingame, mind you), do. However, it is not that easy to exploit, you need some kind of strategy, insights into game mechanics and a fair bit of luck as well, not to mention the iron will Surprisingly, only very few people have actually ventured into maximising the score, either because they are not interested or because it's actually quite hard to do.

Still, I'm actually wondering why not more people compete for the highest score (currently: one player), as it is the first thing you see when you defeat the flagship and win the game, and it is the number that remains most prominently on your ship screen - so of course the score is important.

I'm all for exploiting game mechanics--seriously, you should see the things I've done in Dwarf Fortress--but this is one case where I wish the designers had closed the loophole. It cheapens "normal" high scores (which don't mean that much either, but still), and I wouldn't enjoy the endless grind necessary to get a farmed high score. I've no doubt this is why you haven't had much competition.