Gliptal wrote:It doesn't help the fact that even low tier batteries deal quite some damage, and that your only defence against them is evasion (hardly over 30/35% on the first sectors).
Not entirely true - swarms were always imperceptible by tier 2 defense drones, and since few major versions, they're shot down by any defense drone. While I agree that they may seems a little more "anti-player" (as they're doing more hull damage - the one that you need to repair - as opposed to system damage which is "free" to repair), but they're much less dangerous on tactical level (at least if you're not too frightened by their impact sound
), due to their low system damage.
The effect is, that they make initial sectors a little (just tiny bit) harder, but completely lose importance in later sectors (many times, you *will* be happy to see them over dual or triple missiles, or the single, 4 system+hull damage ones). They may bite you and may contribute to hull-starving, but will hardly contribute to you losing single fight entirely.
Gliptal wrote:I don't know exactly how enemy loadouts are laid out, but it seems like swarm batteries are given some type of "0 cost" and thus get added to loadouts that already match the sector general difficulty.
There is no such thing as treating them like 0-cost weapon for enemies, AFAIK. Once, game seen them as laser weapons, which could result in them spawning in place of some lasers or alongside already powerful normal-rocket battery. Sleepy fixed it, so i Guess your enemy just was meant to have 3 weapons (remember, enemies with 2 weapons are standard for that sector, but in every sector, you have chance to meet unusually weak enemy - one shield/weapon less, most of the times - or unusually strong one, augmented by additional shield bubble/weapon).
BTW, same feelings toward CE greatness here - I just wouldn't be able to play FTL without it. It's a core component, for me.
Gliptal wrote:Or am I just no good enough?
Why, maybe just a little not experienced enough
CE's point about "harsher universe" isn't just marketing-speech bullet point, it's really a little harder than vanilla FTL (but also, much, much more richer). Many things require few...tens (was tempted to write "hundreds" here
) of playthroughs to get hang of and adapt. Lets see recently added hyperspace travel - many people think it makes their playthroughs harder, and I must admit that it made me run out of fuel few times initially, but I already incorporated it into my strategy and I use it to my great advantage (single fuel per additional beacon visited per sector is really beneficial, if you know how to manage your engine upgrades and fuel stock!).
The point is, with enough experience, you will adapt to everything and learn to use it to your advantage, no worries.
/Estel
