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

[spudcosmic]

After a couple of games learning about new weapons, events and generally having fun bad things happen, I arrived to the flagship In Zoltan A and had a long optional dialogue of blue events. I still had to fight despite the Rebel general admitting we were stronger than him, but talking the final boss down would be awesome if it is possible.

It actually is. Depends on your upgrades and crew, maybe you where just a few blue options away.

I've never had more than one blue option on that darn event.

[MightyKebab]

After a couple of games learning about new weapons, events and generally having fun bad things happen, I arrived to the flagship In Zoltan A and had a long optional dialogue of blue events. I still had to fight despite the Rebel general admitting we were stronger than him, but talking the final boss down would be awesome if it is possible.

It actually is. Depends on your upgrades and crew, maybe you where just a few blue options away.

I've never had more than one blue option on that darn event.

Fully upgrade your weapons, shields, engines, medbay and get a zoltan, human, slug/mantis crew and see the epicness in what Sleeper has created.


On another note, Sleeper, are you still working on the Piracy/Privateer License Augment or is it just on hold/scrapped? I'd very much like to see it in game, With a more finalized concept. It could perhaps legally allow you to attack civilian ships during wartime, but not destroy them? You coud just weaken them and shoot them 'till they have weak hull points and they'd surrender? You could also kill their crew instead. It's a bit extreme, but for balance issues mostly. If the ship was destroyed, or you had opened fire even after surrender or if you had enslaved someone to work under your cause, it would be agains't the Federation rules and the license wouldn't allow you to commit it. The price would mostly be around 10-20 in stores as it really doesn't do much besides being a dummy augment that gives you some advantages as a non-hostile ship's commander if encountered the right events.

[Russian Rockman]

I like the idea of a Piracy License, but I also feel like it takes away some of the uniqueness of the specific faction ships. I also find it a bit strange because you can already pirate Rebel cargo ships, but pirating you Engi allies? I've never heard of something like that before.

Oh and um, since were talking about the awesome Zoltan "alternate ending" I have a suggestion. I'm not sure entirely how this might work, but do you think that talking down the flagship could be witnessed by the rest of the Rebel fleet, causing them to stand down, but the flagship commander refuses to stop without a fight so you have to continue fighting him for the victory. Maybe then you could even receive some help from the Rebel fleet or at least not be harassed by them.

You could receive the Bonus scrap and maybe some other contextual thing that gives you an advantage event-wise when fighting the Flagship.

I mean I'm fine with accepting that I have to jump away and back again and beat him and just imagine my victory, but that's just a thought.

[Sleeper Service]

On another note, Sleeper, are you still working on the Piracy/Privateer License Augment or is it just on hold/scrapped? I'd very much like to see it in game, With a more finalized concept. It could perhaps legally allow you to attack civilian ships during wartime, but not destroy them? You could just weaken them and shoot them 'till they have weak hull points and they'd surrender?

It's still planned and IMO making it work like you suggested would turn it into a really unique thing. Its also totally feasible and I really like the idea that the "Requisition License" just legitimizes demanding goods from people and does not allow you to straight out murder them. I'm pretty sure forceful requisition of goods and money from people is something that actually happens in wartime now and then. This would also preserve the uniqueness of the factions ships to some extend.

Oh and um, since were talking about the awesome Zoltan "alternate ending" I have a suggestion. I'm not sure entirely how this might work, but do you think that talking down the flagship could be witnessed by the rest of the Rebel fleet, causing them to stand down, but the flagship commander refuses to stop without a fight so you have to continue fighting him for the victory. Maybe then you could even receive some help from the Rebel fleet or at least not be harassed by them.

I find this hard to convey to the player in a believable way. You basically got your victory already, I just can't give you a win screen It's up to you if you want to still fight the flagship instead of finishing the game and saving your score. If you do this I don't consider it cannon events I guess. This was always just designed as a secret peacefull ending for invested players and I feel it would be less meaningful if you still have to fight anyway.

[fedaykin]

After a couple of games learning about new weapons, events and generally having fun bad things happen, I arrived to the flagship In Zoltan A and had a long optional dialogue of blue events. I still had to fight despite the Rebel general admitting we were stronger than him, but talking the final boss down would be awesome if it is possible.

It actually is. Depends on your upgrades and crew, maybe you where just a few blue options away.

Nice. I'll be going for that, especially since I just showed up in sector 8 a Rock B which "could easily defeat the flagship" only for all manner of new hell to break loose. Up to the end of phase 2, with, cloaking teleport, defence drone and a couple of ions + titan launcher to take the shields down for the artillery laser, I think I took maybe 5/6 hull loss total from the fleet bombardment and seemed to be on course for an easy victory.

However, Phase 3 in an asteroid field, disabling my doors with a Rebel Marine Squad creating holograms and invading (in Shields naturally) at the same time just as I'd barely beaten back the normal rebel crew was completely overwhelming. I didn't manage to damage him down fast enough and my "easily winning" ship got smashed.

The final boss is back!

[Russian Rockman]

Tis a great mod
But have you considered add a C.E that returns Rebel Flagship to normal? I mean original one, with 3th form still has its oxygen and living crews. I can barely get on that ship by teleporting without air though.
Anyway can you indicate a way to defeat it? A tip maybe?

Simple. Try and destroy it without relying on boarding.

[spudcosmic]

Tis a great mod
But have you considered add a C.E that returns Rebel Flagship to normal? I mean original one, with 3th form still has its oxygen and living crews. I can barely get on that ship by teleporting without air though.
Anyway can you indicate a way to defeat it? A tip maybe?

Simple. Try and destroy it without relying on boarding.

I don't know, I think that ruling out an entire strategy isn't very fun. I know boarding can be overpowered, but I think the solution to that doesn't have to be making boarding impossible. I always thought that if you go a crew killing ship, whether it be with boarding or with anti crew weapons, you should be able to beat the boss with that strategy. So here's my idea:

Stage one: Standard human crews. Shouldn't be too hard to defeat. When you kill all the crew something different happens though. With all the crew dead you have time to send a shuttle over to the flagship to set charges. This sets the flagships heath to zero. The flagship's auto pilot detects defeat and jumps away.

Stage two: The troopships in the rebels fleet send some more troops over to the flagship after seeing it vacant after jumping. They load a bit more just to be safe and also bring aboard two antipersonnel drones to help. It will be a bit harder to board now. After killing the crew you set charges again and the ship jumps away.

Stage three: After seeing their ship emptied again the rebels recruit rockman and mantis prisoners to put aboard their flagship, as well as some ai and more rebel marines. Also with the chance the rebel ship disables one of your systems, better hope it isn't the medbay if you're a boarding ship. This stage also has level three doors and three antipersonnel drones, so it will be a extreem challenge to board it to death, but if your ship is a made to be a master boarding ship you might be able to do it.

If anything here is impossible to do maybe it will be something to consider after AE is out.

[fedaykin]

Seriously though, the changes to the boss are excellent IMO. To have a predictable, easy final boss was somehow not in the spirit of the brutal roguelike, so to have it randomly disable your systems, fight in hazards, send in boarders immune to suffocation and generally be a lot more random and nasty is perfect. Even very strong ships can now have trouble, depending on what it does.


I just lost to it in phase 3 with a Slug A(with my drone system disabled!-an ion drone and a defence), very carefully leaving 1 rebel alive in the triple laser system and sending in boarders to wreck its shields. It turned off oxygen killing both my men (only had level 1 teleport) and his and went into AI mode, leaving a hopeless barrage of leto and lasers to deal with while my systems were reeling from the marine attack.

I suppose the really key change is that you cannot rely on suffocation for the marine attack, which unfortunately means that the traditional defence against borders for low crew ships is useless. Of course, you could still somehow use self-targeting bombs/antipersonnel drones and whatnot to win the battle with just 1 guy, or have enough firepower to end it before you are overrun.

[Sleeper Service]

I don't know, I think that ruling out an entire strategy isn't very fun. I know boarding can be overpowered, but I think the solution to that doesn't have to be making boarding impossible. I always thought that if you go a crew killing ship, whether it be with boarding or with anti crew weapons, you should be able to beat the boss with that strategy.

Vanilla just let you run around on the emptied flagship freely, that was definitely turning the balance into the complete opposite direction and made boarding a free win ticket. CE turns this around a little, but your dedicated boarding ship should have considerable upgrade advantages when reaching the fight.

Overall, a ship fully dedicated to boarding can still effectively fight the boss, as long as it is able to render some degree of fire support for its boarders (which it has to anyway, even in vanilla, due to supershield). If you manage to deal enough damage to the backup drone system the boss will loose all its internal drones, leaving your infantry free to run amok aboard the enemy ship, just like in vanilla. If you decimated the crew in the initial phases you also get a time window with oxygen where you are less pressured. Even when the boss has depleted its oxygen, your ship fully dedicated to barding will have a lvl three teleporter, which allows you to still chip away at the enemy systems with hit and run tack ticks. Just watch your timing, because of the super shield. The boss will also run out of drones eventually. So overall, after your elite boarding infantry fended of the AIs, the fight will eventually calm down and give you more room for proper boarding maneuvers.

I suppose the really key change is that you cannot rely on suffocation for the marine attack, which unfortunately means that the traditional defence against borders for low crew ships is useless. Of course, you could still somehow use self-targeting bombs/antipersonnel drones and whatnot to win the battle with just 1 guy, or have enough firepower to end it before you are overrun.

Yeah, but to some extend the combat avatars are still more of a scarecrow. They die extremely fast against skilled fighters. And as mentioned, some bombs can clear out an entire room full of avatars with a single payload. It gets stressful if they team up with the enemy crew that beamed over beforehand. Taking care of these guys quickly has its advantages as the fight progresses.

[DoryDAs]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the place to report this but..

Im getting crashes with this mod. They happen when jumping to a new sector, or between beacons. Very frustrating ! Does not happen in Vanilla.

D