Crusher's Type C(hallenge) Ships

[5thHorseman]

I gave the Mantis C another try, and either I got really lucky or I've been really unlucky up until now. It wasn't easy, but I beat the final boss.

it seems the main difference was that I got more crew this time. In fact, I was choking them out on purpose I had so many guys. 6 isn't too bad but 7 is impossible to shuffle while doing other things.

It was still pretty dodgy until (and even after) I got my first shield, but once I got the medbay up things looked better. It helped that I found the crystal sector for sure.

[Crusher]

Well done. I've been trying to record a playthrough of my own, but I'm finding that my computer is too slow to play the game and record at the same time. Oh well.

[aaaaaa50]

Have you tried The Amber Shard? It's kinda combination of your first two ships here (Sarcough and Singularity) only it's been out for longer.

[Jerjare]

I had an idea for a super stripped down Zoltan ship that lacks door control, medbay, weapons, but has drone control, stealth, and teleporter. I don't know how to mod, anyone want to take a crack at it? It would be pretty fun to kill ships with Zoltan boarders

[Crusher]

I have not tried The Amber Shard out yet, but it does seem interesting. I'm putting finishing touches on my Zoltan Type C (a design I had before your suggestion Jerjare, sorry), but once I have that up I want to give The Amber Shard a shot.

[Crusher]

Just uploaded my Zoltan Type C, The Annihilator. The gimmick is that it comes with no reactor power, only 4 Zoltan. It also comes with a custom, two shield piercing beam, the phase beam. The first couple sectors are rough as you try to get your reactor going and around sector 5 it can get challenging again as the phase beam ceases to be an efficient source of damage. Enjoy!

Have people, other than 5thHorseman, been able to win with either of the other two ships?

[aaaaaa50]

Jeez, you need feedback. Well, I tried the Singularity for a bit, and I hate to say it but while it was great, the Amber Shard that I mentioned earlier is also a boarding drone ship and is actually much more difficult. The Singularity's bomb is very powerful against crew. It was, however, significantly more fun to totally frag enemy crew with the Singularity than the Amber Shard. I only used the SIngularity for a couple sectors, but it's totally a ship that can win the game, and I might do my next FTL run with it.

I won with the Annihilator in my last game (on normal). Spending the entire first sector upgrading the reactor actually made me behind the usual upgrade advancement for the entire game, and that made the early sectors much more fun to stumble through. I'm a little disappointed that you didn't try messing with the ship's layout to make Zoltan shuffling easier or harder. What I'm actually most impressed by, though, is the Phase Beam. Instead of being a weapon that feels powerful, it's a weapon that feels useful. I was actually still using it through sixth sector, when I replaced it with a lucky Ion Blast 2. Even though it does small damage and can't cripple hardened systems, the two shield piercing let me succeed with a really crappy weapon selection. (I was using the Balanced Arsenal mod, and I got stuck with a small effector and an Artillery Laser. Later, I got another Artillery Laser. )

Keep up with it, I had more fun with the Annihilator in that run than the Zoltan A or B combined! Also, all you silent lurkers should give Crusher your feedback. We're only gonna get all nine ships done if we feed enough love into this thread.

[Crusher]

Thanks for your feedback aaaaaa50. You're totally right about shuffling up the layout of the Annihilator. I'm going to do that, though at the moment I don't really know exactly what impact I want the layout to have. The sadistic part of me wants to make it a pain, but the delayed upgrades already make this a challenging ship throughout the game. A poor layout might be too much.

As for The Singularity, in playtesting I found that it was very strong early, but struggled in the mid to late game as drone parts/missiles started to run out. If you are buying them at every store, then your upgrades get delayed instead, so either way problems start to arrise at this point in the game. I gave the Amber Shard a shot and found it to be a lot of fun. It's also a pretty challenging ship for some of the same reasons as The Singularity and The Sarcosuchus. Once I learned to be a more careful about keeping my Crystal crew alive, I was successful (teleporting for instance is risky even though it's powerful).

[Crusher]

Just update the initial post with Krakatoa, the Rock type C. It is a fire boarding ship. Enjoy!

[aaaaaa50]

I have had the worst luck with the Krakatoa. Five runs and I've yet to make it past third sector without being blown to bits, having my entire ship engulfed in flames, or once being boarded 4 jumps straight with level one doors. I kinda like the fire artillery, saved my ass lots of times when the missile missed, but I'm unsure if upgrading it would actually make it work faster or not. So far I've not spent any scrap on it and I'm wondering if that's why I keep getting smashed. (I'd suggest changing the description text for the upgrade box either way please.)

And the backstory is pretty hardcore.