Subset Games Forum

This is getting funny. My last two games I couldn't even make it across the first map. I picked a fight with one ship - I had three turns of lasers (9 shots)and got maybe 2 hits on their weapons out of it. Meanwhile by that point they had fires in my oxygen room, an empty room and had knocked out my oxygen, doors and weapons. I fixed the doors, put out the fires and then they finished me since my weapons were still hardly connecting.

Its sounds like you got really bad luck... Have you upgraded your engines

I once almost die at my second jump using a ship that I considered invincible— Rock B

It's an auto assault ship armed with 3 weapons and near the sun, and my shot from a super awesome Heavy pierce laser aimed at weapon system missed 5 times in a row... Lost 75% of my hull in that 1 battle.

Another similar and a very interesting incident involved Engi_A : 2 Nebula in a row with Ion storm in sector 1, and, amazingly, enemy ship in both nebula were basically identical : Rebel rigger with Leto missile and a beam drone.

... I got 5 power to work with

It's almost like a stealth ship with an enemy beam drone hound over your ship;— without an ability to cloak and a gun that you can't actually aim, and you have to do this 2 time in a rows...

Funny that both runs turned out to be quite a successful run in the end.

So, I'm not much more than a beginner, but in about a week or two of playing, I got almost all the way to the boss fight only once. It does sound like you're having a run of bad RNG. Here's a few things I've learned:

1. When playing with The Kestrel, use your first shot (missile) to hit the enemy's shields (it ignores shields), then your second shot (laser) to hit the weapons. This often damages both the shields and weapons in one volley, and and sometimes has allowed me to keep their weapons completely disabled for the entire fight.
2. The Med Bay is the best place to fight boarders. In some circumstances, I've just sent my guys there and let them wait for the enemy boarding party to get there. I've never lost a fight in the Med Bay.
3. When dealing with boarders outside of the Med Bay, pause and rotate battling crew members to and from the Med Bay instead of letting them die. I've survived many a boarding party with several systems disabled (not weapons) because I sent injured crew to the Med Bay for 10-15 seconds, and then back to battle. I always make keeping crew members alive a higher priority than either killing boarders or protecting systems from damage.
4. Send as many crew members as you can into battle. Don't be afraid to leave the helm unmanned to deal with them. Especially when dealing with Mantis or Rock invaders. Be prepared to rotate crew out of battle several times to deal with Rock invaders.
5. At the beginning, pick one crew member to stay in weapons, one at shields, and one at the helm. Then pay attention whenever you have to send them to repair other systems, and make sure you send them back to the same station (weapons, shields or helm) after every battle. They gain experience manning those stations, and you get recharge bonuses for both weapons and shields for having them level up at those stations. If you can put Engi crew members by shields and weapons, you'll be in better shape because they repair things faster.
6. I very rarely have to disable stations to divert power, except in battle sometimes due to damaged systems. I didn't realize the first few play-throughs that I could increase the fusion power to allow the ship to power more systems at the same time.
7. If you've found a store but don't have any scrap, try to find a circuitous route that will let you visit 2 or 3 jump points before the store. It's better than jumping to the store, and then trying to jump 2 or 3 other places, and then back to the store.
8. Don't spend too much on upgrades before you have additional equipment that requires it. There's nothing like upgrading your ship, and then visiting a store to find out that you could have hired more crew, or bought weapon pre-charging "if only...."
9. I've survived almost every game with one shield through the 2nd sector.
10. Be careful when you send a boarding party of your own, that you don't have a weapon targeted on the enemy vessel. It really sucks to blow up your own crew members.
11. Weapon targeting is about the only thing I do during battle without pausing, even if it's just for 5 seconds to tell a crewman to go repair the O2.

Very good tips there. I'd argue about 6, as rerouting power is a good way to use systems you normally could not be able to use if you dont have enough scrap for both system and reactor upgrades.

You don't need evasion when the enemy weapons are down.
You don't need engines for FTL recharge if you don't plan on fleeing. Kill their guns and switch off the engine.
You don't need shields at all if you're up against missiles.
You don't need a defense drone if they don't have a missile.
You don't need oxygen all the time really...

It may be inpractical to have a ship that cannot power all it's system and weapons at once, but it's a cheaper way to have more systems available for specific scenarios. If all you want to do is flee, power down weapons and pump everything into engines/defense.

The reverse is also true sometimes. Having an overabundance of power can be handy when you happen to jump into a nebula storm.

Very good tips from Idlewilder and UltraMantis, I suggest reading the above two posts thouroughly.

Anytime you are boarded you should pause immediately. Take time to come up with a strategy to deal with them. The details will depend on situation, but the first few steps are always the same:
(1) pause
(2) power down oxygen and power up med bay
(3) determine which parts of the ship to vent to get the boarders where you want them, then set doors accordingly
(4) order crew to the rooms you have determined the fight will take place in
(5) unpause
As the fight progresses, pause often and reevalute the situation. Listen carefully for the siren warning you of low crew health.

Obviously the med bay is the best room to fight in, but that is not always possible. Make sure there is air in any rooms between the fight and the med bay.

Specific situations:
--- Random event, not fighting a ship:
This is easiest. Leave oxygen only in med bay and if needed to accomodate extra crew, one additional room on the other side of the med bay from the boarders.

--- At sun:
Same as above but try to keep the pilot manned if possible to jump away from the sun quickly. You will have to make a decision on the threat posed by the boarders vs. the threat posed by the sun. Note that venting most of the ship helps with both the boarders and the fires the sun will start.

-- While fighting a ship
Evaluate the threat level of the enemy ship. If it can hurt you (missiles, bombs, too much laser, etc.) damage its weapons any way you can. This is no time to conserve missiles, you need to buy time. Meanwhile, on your ship, the goals are the same as for the other situations, just a bit more complicated. If you can keep the pilot manned the ship fight will go better and you may preserve the option to run away. If you can keep the weapons manned (at least until your first volley) you will take less damage.

-- in a nebula
The twist here is that you first need to figure out where the boarders are. If a red fist does not appear above any of your systems, unpause briefly. Watch all your doors for one to flash red (if upgraded) or open (if not upgraded). This tells you about where they are so you can make your plan.

Be careful, pause a lot, use your doors/airlocks well, take the time to come up with a cohesive strategy for each boarding event, and make sure to cycle crew between the fight and the med bay. Pay attention to how the boarders react to what you do with your doors and crew and you will learn to get out of some very nasy boarding situations without loss of crew.

When you get good at this you will find Mantis sectors to be very lucrative. Their ships are usually not very well equipped for the sector number, and once you deal with the boarders you have an easy fight. I have had very good luck going into Mantis sectors even with Engi and Zoltan ships.

It helps to have a vague plan, or sense of how your ship build should go. You can't plan specific weapons or equipment, but you can plan for upgrades. You can also know in advance how much firepower you will need by a certain sector, and as that sector approaches, focus more on obtaining it.

My basic plan is for a "normal" ship (one based primarily on weapons and shields) is:

Secor 1: Save 50 scrap. Immediatly upon obtaining 50 scrap, upgrade to L2 shields. Then save to upgrade the reactor until you no longer need to power down O2 to power all shields, engines, and weapons. Skip stores unless you are desperate for repairs because you don't have enough spare scrap to buy anything.

Sector 2: Can my ship's weapons hurt a ship with 2 shields? If not my primary objective is to obtain a weapon that can. Come sector 3 all enemies will have 2 shields so we need to prepare for this. Secondary objective is drone control for missile defence. If I have lots of scrap but can't find drone control I will sometimes purchase a teleporter here (depending on crew) or upgrade engines.

Sectors 3 and 4: We need to start planning now to be able to take on ships with 3 shields. A few enemies may have 3 shields in sector 4, but come sector 5, most enemies will. Make sure to keep 100 or so scrap in the bank so if you see a weapon that will boost you to 3 shield killing power you can buy it. If you don't have drone control yet, try to reserve enough scrap for a weapon and drone control. Other objectives by the end of sector 4 are L4 engines and L3 shields. Ideally, I go into sector 5 able to hurt 3 shield ships, 3 shields on my ship, L4 engines, and a defence drone.

Sector 5: First priority is to meet whichever goals from sector 4 I haven't met yet . There is usually at least one of these. Next, it's time to come up with an end game strategy. I evaluate my build and determine what i need to compliment it with. If I need more things from stores I aggressively look for stores. If not, I just collect as much scrap as possible. I always try to plan in sector 5 how I will take down ships with 4 shields which will show up in sector 7, and it is not too early to start thinking about the Boss. The plan should incorporate as much current equipment as possible, as refitting the entire ship is very risky and expensive. Work with what you have.

Sector 6: I try to realize the build I planned in sector 5. Shop if necessary, else just farm scrap. Prioritize dealing with enemies with 4 shields over boss fighting, as ships in sector 7 will have 4 shields. I also try to get 4 shields on my ship sometime in sector 6 or 7.

Sector 7: Now it's time to seriously think about the Boss fight. Plan for each phase seperatly if you have to. For instance, a Fire Bomb is great in phase 1 for helping to kill crew, but an Ion Bomb is much better in phase 3 for taking down the Zoltan shield. I often switch weapons between Boss phases. If I don't have 4 shields yet, that is a high priority.

Last Stand: Fighting here is dangerous. If you don't think you can take the Boss you will usually have trouble with the other ships in this sector too. Unless you are really desperate, just go straight to the Boss incorporating as many Repair systems in your path as possible to boost your stores of missiles and drones. This is not the time to take risks. This is the time to execute your plan against a known foe.

A few other tips:
(1) Long Range Scanners. Buy it if you see it. It is the best 30 scrap you will ever spend. Let's you avoid hazards and reduces wasted jumps. I consider all other Augments just luxury, but I will make compremises to my overall game plan to get the Scanners.

(2) If you use drones for offense, a Drone Recovery Arm is essential.

(3) Play with other ships to familiarize yourself with other weapons/strategies. Learn how to use every available weapon so you know how to use whatever you find. Play the Engi A ship to learn how to use Ions and Drones. Play the Mantis ship to learn how to use the teleporter. Play Stealth A to learn how to use the cloak.

Most important tip is probably to synchronize all of your shots if the enemy has his shields up. Obviously you want to fire everything at once so you gain maximum shield penetration and cause maximum damage.

If the enemy has many weapons or missles I go for the weapons first, even if I know that their shields will recharge again until my next barrage of projectiles are ready. If the weapons on my enemy ship look managable I often go for their shields first. Cloaking works like a charm with this, as your weapons charge up while your enemie's DON'T!

In later sectors you usually have enemies with many shield levels so wait until your weapon that takes longest to charge is finished and then fire it along with all the other weapons (best way is to use the hotkeys 1-4). Careful though because some projectiles travel slower than others so pay attention to how long the shots travel.

Everything else equal, use bombs over missles because the latter can get intercepted by defense drones. It's good practice to save up your missles for later stages but try to always have the option to fire one if your enemy has big-ass shields.

Enemies that seem to have high evasive stats can be taken care of by targeting the engines or the pilot room.

With your goals of how much scrap/equipment you want in mind, how quickly do you try to get across a sector? It seems like I may be going way too quickly and being progressively more underpowered as I try to blast along.

ElectricBlue wrote:With your goals of how much scrap/equipment you want in mind, how quickly do you try to get across a sector? It seems like I may be going way too quickly and being progressively more underpowered as I try to blast along.

The best thing to do is the stay in a sector as long as possible. Try your best to jump out of the sector on the last possible jump. That way you get the most scrap and find the most stores to have good equipment.