How do you unlock Federation cruiser

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BattleHawk
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 10:18 pm

How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby BattleHawk » Tue May 13, 2014 10:10 pm

I was wondering how you unlock the Federation cruiser you used to just beat the game on easy or normal but how do you do it now, is a quest for it please help

And I know you can use the engi cruiser to unlock it but I can't beat the game In it.
project_mercy
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:31 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby project_mercy » Tue May 13, 2014 10:54 pm

There is a quest to unlock it, and it involves the Rebels. The wiki has more information if you're looking for a spoiler.

That said, Engi A (The Torus) is one of the strongest starting ships in the game. Ion Blast II and a combat drone are pretty deadly. While it consumes drone parts to start with, it's not nearly as consumable sensitive as some of the other ships. The Ion Blast II fires fast enough you can knock down the shields, then keep weapons AND shields ioned (by cycling between them) while the combat drone destroys the other ship. You should give it a try. I would say it's in the Top 5 ships, even with all the AE ships (which I find to mostly be terrible)

To some extent, that's one of the amusing parts of this game. You would normally assume that your starting ship, The Kestrel, was average or cruddy, and the ships you unlock are great. But it's pretty much the other way around. Most of the extra ships and variants you unlock are pretty terrible. Some are really really terrible.
BattleHawk
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 10:18 pm

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby BattleHawk » Tue May 13, 2014 11:09 pm

Honestly I don't like the engi cruiser type a it is really hard for me to play with because I don't like drones an ion weaponry
Dirka
Posts: 135
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:44 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby Dirka » Wed May 14, 2014 11:48 am

project_mercy wrote:You would normally assume that your starting ship, The Kestrel, was average or cruddy, and the ships you unlock are great. But it's pretty much the other way around. Most of the extra ships and variants you unlock are pretty terrible. Some are really really terrible.


I wouldn't exactly use the word terrible. The Kestrel is nice because it adapts well to most playstyle and situations, and its starting weapons are awesome. The "terribe" ships tend to be more specific in their strenghts and weaknesses, in what they can and can't handle, but they also bring interesting things to the table. With the right techniques, pretty much every ship can be made to work. Some (Bulwark, Stormwalker) are more RNG-dependend than others, but the only real outlier is the Vortex, which pretty much forces you to replace almost your entire kit.


BattleHawk wrote:Honestly I don't like the engi cruiser type a it is really hard for me to play with because I don't like drones an ion weaponry


That's a rather big part of the game you're excluding there. Making do with whatever you get is pretty much at the core of the game, and sometimes your only way to do damage will be drones, which have great DPS by the way. A pre-installed drone system also opens up many other options, letting you use Defense Drones, Overchargers and others right away, and sometimes you even get schematics for free. There are a few ways the game can ruin your day (Anti-Drones, no Drone Parts in drops, no Weapons in shops), but the AE content, especially Hack and MC, helps ease the RNG pain.

Ions are a fantastic way to disable shields and systems, and next to the Ion Bomb the Mk II is the best of the bunch. If you're having trouble, simply set it to autofire at shields, and when they are down have your drone tear them a new one. Even without support weaponry, the Ion II is usually enough to take down any number of shields, barring too many misses. An experienced gunner helps on that front.

The Torus is really quite good, give it another shot and it may surprise you.
project_mercy
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:31 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby project_mercy » Wed May 14, 2014 5:35 pm

Dirka wrote:I wouldn't exactly use the word terrible. The Kestrel is nice because it adapts well to most playstyle and situations, and its starting weapons are awesome. The "terribe" ships tend to be more specific in their strenghts and weaknesses, in what they can and can't handle, but they also bring interesting things to the table. With the right techniques, pretty much every ship can be made to work. Some (Bulwark, Stormwalker) are more RNG-dependend than others, but the only real outlier is the Vortex, which pretty much forces you to replace almost your entire kit.


You misread what I said, or maybe I wasn't clear enough. I didn't say the Kestrel was terrible, in fact I said the exact opposite. It's one of the best ships, for the reasons listed. To reiterate, "You would assume that the first ship you start with in the game was average or common and the ships you unlocked would be more specialized and better in a certain situations; but in fact many of the ships you unlock are just worse."

To a large extent, you can value a ship's starting "quality" by a combination of
  • Does it have weapons/drones that cause damage and are useful all the way through the game, and can hold you until sector 5 or 6 in case you don't find any others or any ammo
  • Does it have a teleporter? (extra points if 4x teleporter)
  • Does it have shields? (extra points for 2-bubble shields)

With honorable mentions for "does it have a cloak or zoltan shield?" and I would personally put a bonus in for "does it have a medbay (extra points for 3-spot medbay)" because I detest clone bays.
Dirka
Posts: 135
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:44 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby Dirka » Wed May 14, 2014 6:34 pm

project_mercy wrote:You misread what I said, or maybe I wasn't clear enough.


Ditto 8-) Note how I, too, juxtaposed the Kestrel and "terrible."

But let's not derail this thread any further.

I already had an lengthy argument typed up and ready to go, and then I realized I was doing this:

Image

Let's just play FTL instead. Deal? ;)
MightyThor2000
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2013 4:11 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby MightyThor2000 » Thu May 15, 2014 3:04 pm

It's a random event, nothing special about it in the sense that it's only one part and straightforward as in I believe all decisions made complete the quest, not like the mantis one or the rock one or others where you have to do specific actions.

I too felt the engi was pretty weak because of it's heavy reliance on drones. It's a really good ship when fighting enemies with 1 or 2 shields but it felt pretty weak by sector 6 ish and needs a lot of upgrades to handle the boss but most ships do. If you can find a combat 2 drone and a defense 2 drone plus another burst laser or some missiles you will be in good shape. And the engi augment to heal your guys is amazing. It's definitely not the strongest ship but it's far from the worst too.

I think the federation cruiser is honestly the strongest ship out there. The type A has a burst laser you can use til the end and the artillery beam means you can build the ship in a myriad of ways- you can go all defense and let the beam kill the boss or you can go offense where the beam adds even more punch or a mix.
English Narwhal
Posts: 402
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2013 9:12 pm

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby English Narwhal » Thu May 15, 2014 3:24 pm

MightyThor2000 wrote:I think the federation cruiser is honestly the strongest ship out there. The type A has a burst laser you can use til the end and the artillery beam means you can build the ship in a myriad of ways- you can go all defense and let the beam kill the boss or you can go offense where the beam adds even more punch or a mix.


The Fed A is one of the best ships out there- you can get it via the quest or the 'Ship Unlock Chain'- I don't know how the Chain works because I started AE with all Type A's unlocked in the chain.
The best ship out there, possibly, is the Crystal B. That thing just... melts... everything. A four person teleporter, three person medbay, cloaking, shields, and three crystal crew is a recipe for OP-ness.
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project_mercy
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:31 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby project_mercy » Thu May 15, 2014 4:18 pm

I actually dislike the federation cruiser. The beam is basically a total waste. It consumes a system slot you could do something useful with. The beam itself rarely lines up to hit more than 3-4 rooms, putting it about as effective as a small beam. It rarely provides any damage at a useful point unless you fully upgrade it, at which point you've spent 250 scrap (for weapon and energy) which basically costs like a glaive beam you can't aim, but does the damage of a small beam.

I might not dislike it if it did one of the following:
  • Just hit every single room on the other ship, irrespective of position
  • Powered up like a normal weapon and let you target it like a beam
  • Had a smaller beam but did more damage, like a halberd beam
  • Just make it equivalent in damage/size of the beam for that same energy output. so 1 pip is small, 2 pip is pike, 3 pip is halberd, 4 pip is glaive.
MightyThor2000
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2013 4:11 am

Re: How do you unlock Federation cruiser

Postby MightyThor2000 » Thu May 15, 2014 6:24 pm

I don't have all the variants unlocked and don't have the crystal ships unlocked so I'm basically comparing variant A of all the other ships, but I disagree on not liking the artillery beam. Why it's way better than a glaive is it goes through shields. And it hits way more than a small beam, I've hit 5 rooms before on an AI drone ship for the beam achievement. Fully upgraded it fires as fast as a pegusus launcher and does equal damage that can't miss. Beef up your defense drones and shields and just let it do it's thing.