It's Possible! All Ships Beaten on Normal!

[shadowcrust]

I don't agree with that, especially because I read somewhere the developers wanted to make a difficult game and shot for a 10% win rate initially (I'm assuming that's on normal).

That's why there are complaints that the game is actually too easy, as you can win (way) more than 10% also on Hard, see e.g. here.

So I find it hard to believe anyone is getting much more than 50/50 on normal.

Pre-AE, but still relevant. In short, it was agreed that between 90 and 99.8% of all games can be won on Normal (Classic FTL).

[project_mercy]

I win about 50% on hard. I haven't tried normal since AE, but I imagine it would be a higher. That percent changes somewhat based on the ship, the 50% is choosing "random ship" when I start, so you end up hitting the Stealth B or Slug B and the numbers go down. Lanius B or Crystal B and obviously the numbers go up.

I'm sure the roguelike people are annoyed by it. I personally prefer succeeding, but I was never a huge roguelike fan.

Honestly though, I would say at least half the time I lose, I would probably have also lost on normal, and that's because I just didn't find any weapons or teleporter, and I'm stuck in sector 5/6 having to just keep jumping away from things I can't damage (thereby robbing you of scrap). This is more an AE issue than a difficulty issue. I'm not sure if you can play hard with classic FTL? But if you could, I suspect the 50% would go up, as the shops and weapon drops aren't so diluted with quirky(less useful) things.

I'm hoping as more people play AE the poor design of the shops will come to light and Mathew will do something about it. I wish the difficulty on "hard" mode had something more to do with whether there are shops with guns in them. Most of the games I fail are basically me just quitting. It's not a fiery death. It's not spectacular. It's just sitting there jumping sector after sector with ships you can't damage and there is nothing you can do about it, and there's nothing in the future you can do about it. "I'm bored and this is a total waste of my time" should not be a regular sentiment in a game.

[MightyThor2000]

Half those games have vulcans or flak cannons, easy win weapons against the flagship. Is the new strat to max engines and jump around to every store? I don't get how people get all those ideal weapons, that's why I said it seems very RNG based.

[project_mercy]

I generally avoid Vulcans. The Flagship is the only point they're nice. Otherwise they're not really tactical enough to be useful. It's just a chunk of scrap I would rather use on something more useful. I've held a few around in storage in case I ran across something better.

I do generally end up with a Flak I on most ships, but since they're "common" in game uniqueness it's not that rare. That doesn't mean I find it in sector 1 though, I've bought plenty of them in 6-7 (or 8 once). Flak is fine for taking down shields, but it's not that great for disabling systems or doing actual hull damage. Too spotty. I avoid Flak IIs unless I just didn't find anything better, or I have a pre-ignitor. I don't feel they're worth it.

I would say if I "aim" for any weapon on every game, it's probably a Halberd Beam. Those things are cash money. Drop the shields on the flagship and you can rock a 2-damage 4-room shot across the missile launcher, shields, and piloting (this is on Hard where the missile is connected to the main ship).

[project_mercy]

So, The FTL RNG gods decided to prove a point on this.

Here's a screenshot (or two) of a Win/Flagship kill on Hard with Stealth A (The Nessario). I have the starting two weapons, and a Flak I, and a Combat Drone 1. That's it.

You may ask yourself, "Project Mercy, why would you use such terrible weapons?!?!" and I would answer "because that is the grand sum total of all damaging items to be had in this run." A shortage of green sectors, and a shortage of fuel to scout the ones I had (including having to fight off the rebel fleet at 0 fuel THREE TIMES. Yes AE, I really detest your inability to put weapons in shops.

Anyway:



Augments were a Scrap Recovery Arm and Long-Range Scanners (the titanium casing got vendored at the first store)



The point here being, you don't need some massive setup to win. Just some luck and some tactics. A cloak helps a ton too if you don't have a weapon advantage.

[itg]

Wait, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. You won despite bad luck, and then you claim the point is that you need luck (and some tactics) to win?

Nice job on the game, by the way.

[shadowcrust]

You won despite bad luck, and then you claim the point is that you need luck (and some tactics) to win?

It could have been worse, you definitely need the luck not to have more bad luck to win.

[project_mercy]

Wait, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. You won despite bad luck, and then you claim the point is that you need luck (and some tactics) to win?

I was addressing and countering MightyThor2000 previous few statements about how a Flagship kill requires luck in finding some ultimate weapon combos. It does involve some luck finding SOME weapons at all, but it doesn't mean it requires a Vulcan or dual Flak IIs to beat the flagship. It just takes enough to drop 4 shields and do damage.

But yes, it does take some luck to win. I'm not saying the game is purely about luck, there's an immense amount of strategy and tactics to it, but the RNG has the final say. This isn't exactly true with every ship, but it's definitely true with some of the weaker ones, like Slug B, and it's been exacerbated by AE, because the shops have been diluted with less useful stuff, and a lot of the events that coughed up items/weapons have been diluted with events that require something for a positive effect. In classic, I'd probably run into a free weapon/drone in every other sector. I don't think I've seen "Omg a weapon is just floating in space!" in probably my last 10 games.