Subset Games Forum

But then you never explain why you would want autofire on. In order to focus fire on a system and take it down, you want all your weapons to fire at the same time, which means having autofire off

Ah-hah, this is a common misconception! You can have autofire turned on and your weapons will not fire until you give them a target! My recommended technique is to un-target things and let your weapons charge. They won't fire without a target; so it is safe to leave autofire toggled on. With this method you Pause, Target, Unpause - and your weapons will all fire at once the moment you unpause.

I have found that its really easy to get caught up in a battle with autofire turned off and waste many seconds with your weapons not firing. Leaving autofire on means that if you forget to clear the target after each firing, your weapons will still ping away at the enemy. Since you're likely to have some combination of Ion and Missiles (in addition to lasers), this means that you'll at least be harassing the enemy (damaging hull or ionizing shields) even if you aren't maximizing your fire. And once you get their shields down with a few well-timed volleys, having your weapons firing consistently (leaving a target locked-on and leaving autofire on) is the fastest way to destroy the ship - you don't need to fire in volleys (in fact, you often want the weaps cycling as fast as absolutely possible so you can keep their weapons and shields offline - autofire is better at this than you are).

So IMHO its "safer" to leave autofire on, and use your targeting (as well as the pause key) to get your weapons to fire as a volley when you need it. Try the steps exactly as I've written them, and you'll see what I mean.

--Noel

Nice guide, I particularly like the opening statement about adapting your strategy to the situation. Getting the best out of what you've got, that's the best piece of advice i'd give to anyone in FTL

Also a side note about Hull dmg.
There is a Hull Repair Drone in the Game. I found it in twice games now. During the Fight i keep it in bay, after the fight i used to fix dmg with it. I was able to fix the dmg done by the Rebel Flagship in my second run quite well.

Spazticus wrote:...In my experience, Defense Drones and Anti-Ship Drones don't get destroyed...

They can be shot down accidentally by laser fire and rarely missiles, if they get in the way. Only a problem if you're very low on replacements.

That makes sense. I suppose I've been fortunate in that regard - that said, I've usually made it a point to have the Drone Recovery Arm by the end of Sector 2. Because of that, it's probably happened, and I probably never noticed the loss. Then again, when you have 30+ drones in reserve, the loss of one or two isn't worrisome.

Vincinzerei wrote:Also a side note about Hull dmg.
There is a Hull Repair Drone in the Game. I found it in twice games now. During the Fight i keep it in bay, after the fight i used to fix dmg with it. I was able to fix the dmg done by the Rebel Flagship in my second run quite well.

Vin -

This is a bit off the original topic (maybe a "Guide to Drones" needs to be made)... But a lot of FTL comes down to economics. Ask yourself "Is the cost of this really worth what I'm paying?" (not just in scrap, but also in terms of energy, parts/consumables, etc).

Sometimes the repair drone is worth it; but often times it is not (if you have better uses for the drone parts - such as a defense drone to prevent getting damaged in the first place). Like a lot of FTL, its very situation-dependent.

--Noel

one important note on the defense drone:
after you launched the defense drone, you can save the 2 power for running the defense drone and use it for something else, only briefly repowering the defense drone after a missile has been launched. if youre quick enough, the defense drone gets back online and shoots down the missile, as soon as the laser from the drone is out to intercept the missile, you can again shut down the drone and reroute its power to shields, med, oxygen, whatever.

as NWade said, the hull repair drone is situational. in later sectors, 3-5 repairs mean 12-20 scrap, whereas drones are still 8 scrap.

in early sectors, where repairs are still 2 scrap, it is often not worth deploying a defense drone, as it is worth 8 scrap. 2-3 hits from the 1 damage launcher is only 4-6 scraps in repairs. and often enough, especially with cloak, you can knock out their weapons or ship even before that. you might also get a lucky evade. be aware thought that the leto(1damage) and the artemis(2damage) look identical.

the AIs weapons are powered from left to right on their ship, meaning the right most weapon will be shut down first. this is useful if you want to estimate how quickly you can knock out a launcher and wether its worth launching a def drone.

the Scientist wrote:the AIs weapons are powered from left to right on their ship, meaning the right most weapon will be shut down first.

Brilliant observation! I had suspected this; but hadn't paid super-close attention or tested it. I'll add this tid-bit to the original post.

Thanks!

--Noel

Defense Drones Mark II are no good for missile defense as they often get distrated by shooting down laser attacks and let the missile through. Stick with Mark I.

The Scientist - I did some more experimentation today and unfortunately it turns out that enemy ships do *not* always lose weapons in a consistent order, when their weapon room is damaged (drat).

--Noel