Return to Nisos

[hybridfive]

In FTL regular edition, I only played Cruiser B once. The first time I played it, the run was so ridiculously lucky that I vowed never to play it again. It started off with the Slug blue option to telepathically communicate with the six-legged insects, getting a free Engi, then a distress beacon with a blue Engi option. I also found a free Burst III.

Needless to say, I was quite hesitant to come back to the ship in order to unlock Cruiser C. I didn't know how many times I would have to fail until I got it. I feared that my high score page would return to something more normal looking, instead of the current cheese-stands-alone single score.

Within the second sector, I knew that my run wasn't going to be like last time. Specifically, my Slugman Fudgy was fighting with a Rock boarder, in the shield station(aka really close to the medbay), then drops from ~40hp to dead under the impact of a Hermes missile.

Having two crew slowly causes me to adapt my game plan over the next couple sectors. The Nisos layout is complex enough that I wanted the two crew-members to be near each other in case of borders. It's also much easier to vent the aft rather than the fore. That forced my position choice to be Human Stellan Skars on piloting, Zoltan Ghox on Engines.

This worked for about half the game. I managed to avoid any sectors that would be predominantly boarder-oriented, and generally used caution. My weapons were relatively weak: I found a Chain Laser and a Charge Laser, which do not really work well together, in addition to the average starting components. Mostly, I was relying on defense plus artillery beam to get the job done. I would use missiles sparingly, as an attempt to first strike ships with larger missiles. It wasn't amazing, but it was passable.

Then, late in sector 5, disaster struck. I was in a Rebel sector, and went up against a Rigger with a really solid combo: Boarding Drone + Ion Intruder + Hacking module on the camera. My normal plan of vent and group isn't going to work. Because of hacking, I can't see where the Ion Intruder is, to know to avoid it. He is randomly wandering the area around the cockpit, shutting off oxygen, piloting, and worst, the artillery beam. The boarding drone hits the medbay first, and the combination of his damage and the lack of oxygen is enough to overcome the medbay healing, meaning it's a losing bout. I have to let the medbay go, then watch him break through doors towards the middle of the ship, near the cockpit. I decide to make my stand on the artillery beam room with both pilot and engineer. Only the engineer lives. He fixes the beam to full, which is enough finish the battle.

Now, Ghox is alone. Both his engine skills and his energy capacitance are wasted because he's forced to pilot. The goal has changed from win the game to make it to sector 8 alive. I attempt to find the least confrontational path to the beacon, which includes visiting stores with no scrap, and spending a lot of time in nebula.

Then, a critical decision before the beacon in sector 6. A distress beacon. It's probably not a trap, right? I decide to visit it, and it's a Madman, which leads to another decision. Double down. Turns out that not only is Charlie the Mantis completely sane, he's also a fully trained pilot. He must have been flying recreationally when the rebellion started, and got shot down over this planet. Things are looking up, but it's still straight to beacon.

In sector 7, possibly the craziest thing happens. I'm a little fuzzy on the details because it was a new event. I think it was something about prison escapees. It started off with 3 mantis intruders appearing aboard, in the shield bay. The enemy ship is a mantis as well, which adds 2 in the neck. I vent the entire thing, and preemptively vent parts of aft sections of the ship as well, and cross my fingers. I only have doors 2. 5 mantises blow through a single door really quickly. After they blow through the door to 02, I figure out to move Ghox to the door system. Thankfully, once they get past the door exiting the beam room, they inexplicably split up. I'm able to let two into piloting without affecting the three headed elsewhere. Those three have one more door to go, and don't make it. The ship itself wasn't a problem, as they didn't chew through all of the artillery beam, just slowed it down 10 seconds.

The problem is, they DID chew through 02. Most of my ship is vented. The only rooms with oxygen left are sensors, the room where drones go, engines and doors. Both crew members already took some damage from deprivation. It's unlikely that they can fix the system without then dying. Thankfully, I passed a store two beacons back. I backtrack through old beacons, sell a weapon, and hire an Engi, Gumpo. He's able to fix the engine, while the other two wait it out in the med bay. I can only imagine what that transaction was like.

Turns out, he's also a shield technician. So winning the game is sort of back on. After a couple of test fights with the new unit, I get surrendered a small bomb, and it's really back on. I got a little lucky that the Hacking drone in phase I didn't hit anything terribly critical. I switched Gumpo to piloting to combat the boarding drone, but also get a little lucky there, and am able to skirmish with it in the empty section on the left of the ship. Phase III is the easiest, because I can adjust my beam to go off right when the super shield goes down.

So I'm 2 for 2 with Cruiser B. My reward was the PoS that is Cruiser C and pride. I feel like pride is probably more valuable. Man does the Fregatidae suck.

[META_mahn]

aah, the old small bomb turnaround. I miss those days back in normal FTL when you got a small bomb, it was GG.