What DID you do??

[Cheetahcrome]

i think the mods are a good idea, but i have tried the Captain's edition several times with different ships. and i find it to unbalanced. if you do not get a viable second weapon to fire with you are very unlikely to get to sector 5 or 6. The new weapons and drones are cool but the drones are overpowered and light weapons are useless unless they are the only ones you get to fill out the slots. i have only played easy and have only got to sector 7 once. i lost track of games i played (over 50 with mod) over 200 without mod. i would try normal but scrap is hard to come by. The trade is cool but there seems to be a minor gliche with it. it tells me sell for 35 and i only get 23 or 27 depending which augment i have. i am still trying to unlock the rock ship and crystal(maybe in another 300-400 games sigh!!). i find this game very frustrating with too many no win situations. yes you can jump away but then you lose scrap. This game is is cool for it's simplicity, but the random aspect is frustrating. one bad dice roll and it's over. for all the modders out there good effort as a gamer you need to tweek some of the mods. for instance the weapons that show up in a store. there should be a progression of better weapons the higher the sector the better the weapon, or at least a useful weapon that you can use. with so many new weapons/drones the odds of you getting the right ones for the right ship are slim to none. And 9 times out of ten slim has left town. The balance of the game is out of kilter. The mods make the game in my opinion about 80% harder to finish. some people may like this, but how long do you bang your head against the wall. i do love slipstream mod manager. at least i can play the vanilla version and get a few wins in and try with the more difficult ships eng a and b are the tough ones i think. i have not tried with the slug a ship a few times and find i need a new strategy. Knowing the fact that random luck is a factor, It is the only reason i keep playing. It's like going to a casino and playing slots (one more spin, one more spin) the addiction is like heroin.

[agigabyte]

Download somewhat OP ships, or become amazing at the game.

[Twinge]

Most mods are very unbalanced, and most make it easier for the player. Changing things like how stuff appears in stores is impossible to do with mods.

For the vanilla game on Normal difficulty, good enough play will overcome virtually any amount of bad luck - the game can consistently be won.

[Omen267901]

Most mods are very unbalanced, and most make it easier for the player. Changing things like how stuff appears in stores is impossible to do with mods.

For the vanilla game on Normal difficulty, good enough play will overcome virtually any amount of bad luck - the game can consistently be won.

This basically sums it up. Most mods either make the game far harder or far easier. CE is one of the few mods that is actually extremely well balanced. It doesn't make the game impossible, but does add some degree of difficulty to where luck is actually required. Also, if you think some things are unbalanced, you can try one of the rebalancing mods like Twinge's or smPK. If you find it too hard, play on easy and/or download a ship that has really good weapons or fits your playstyle very well. If you find it too easy, play on normal and/or download some challenge ships. Also, I've beaten CE twice on easy now, (I'm new to CE) and I've found that practice makes perfect. I can consistently get to 5-6, and with the Zoltan cruiser and Kestrel I can win semi-consistently (Zoltan depends on my luck with boarder events).

[Nevill]

This basically sums it up. Most mods either make the game far harder or far easier. CE is one of the few mods that is actually extremely well balanced.

This have been my experience with the mod so far. I can win vanilla game without much trouble, but in CE I am fighting tooth and nail for my victories, utilising every trick I know. So far, every game I've played (~15 in total, ~4 wins, all normal), I had something to even the odds by sector 3, when shields go up a tier. I can consistently make it to sector 6, at which point the weaker builds start to die. But then again, 15 games are nothing, the ratio will probably improve with time.

I've seen people, even those who are good at this game, dismiss certain opportunities as unviable. Vanguard of Valor comes to mind with his recent playthrough of the mod on Youtube - the man did almost every known challenge, but still have almost lost the run because he refused to buy certain combat drones he considered useless and ignored the Crew Teleporter while desperately searching for an extra weapon to bypass enemy shields. CE does not forgive these mistakes.

I have not found CE much different from vanilla in terms of luck, but it does make its effects more pronounced. In vanilla, you were bound to find an overpowered weapon if you searched for it hard enough. Here, the sheer abundance of stuff does not guarantee you that you'll find something that will carry you through the game. You are forced to compensate with constant boarding and/or drone support to make it anywhere.

Overall, it is a great mod that let me re-live the time I first played FTL and had to feel my way towards victory, without changing too much about the gaming process itself.

The trade is cool but there seems to be a minor gliche with it. it tells me sell for 35 and i only get 23 or 27 depending which augment i have

Do you sell the augment itself in the store? After you receive the initial payment, the augment does not leave your inventory, you have to sell it manually.

and light weapons are useless unless they are the only ones you get to fill out the slots.

They can cause breaches, preventing system repairs, and are also great when combined with boarding parties.

[A Flaming Pineapple]

Yeah, I got CE to add some new stuff to the game since i could consistently beat it. But I didnt know CE made it THAT much more difficult. A Teleporter is pretty much needed, and with all the stuff the mod adds, it can sometimes be damn near impossible to find one in a shop because theyll be forced out by drones or augments, and that happens with good weapons too such as the burst laser mk 2. A lot of the weapons I find personally, are cool, but in actual combat are not very good, such as the maul beam or scatter lasers. For those of you FTL pros out there, are there any tips that you guys have? Like maybe what weapons/augmenst to skip and which ones to pick up?

[Nevill]

The only weapon I can't find any use for, whatsoever, is the Auto Laser. It hogs power, but it can only be useful when enemy shields are down... at which point any other weapon would suit just fine. And it can't keep the shields down as well as an Ion Blast II can.

A lot of 'Heavy' drones have speeds too low to be of much use, but as they are, essentially, a support weapon anyway, it isn't that big of a deal.

Other than that, I don't have many gripes with what is available at stores.

[Sleeper Service]

Well I'm always happy to implement your feedback. Maybe Omen267901 can elaborate where exactly CE is more luck dependant than vanilla. And maybe Twinge can explain what exactly balance means to him.

But yeah, I largely agree with what Nevilla wrote. Basically a lot of the claims here are claims that are frequently made about vanilla FTL as well. I actually believe that the mod is quite balanced and in no real way unfair. It is designed to be more harsh and punishing than vanilla though. Probably most of all it requires the player to learn how things work again. I'd argue that CE can become quite manageable with enough experience, just like vanilla FTL. That's demonstrated by some let's players as well.

[The Captain]

...A lot of the weapons I find personally, are cool, but in actual combat are not very good, such as the maul beam or scatter lasers. For those of you FTL pros out there, are there any tips that you guys have? Like maybe what weapons/augmenst to skip and which ones to pick up?

Wat? The maul beam does 4 damage, and it's a beam - how is that not good? Sure, it only affects one room, requires 4 power and is slow, but if you have minimal ability to knock down shields, the maul beam is doing damage. The more shields you can knock down, the more maul beam damage that will get through.

I like the ion field augment, as I sometimes seem to have not such good luck getting the kind of weapons I like, so the enemy having less shields from the start is a good thing. I don't think I've used the ammo manufacturer since it was tweaked, but making ammo is cheaper than buying. The FTL fuel recycler can come in handy. The internal effector is quite nice, giving you a choice of which system to hack - that gives you a lot of flexibility.

Personally, I don't like the weapons that only do hull damage or have reduced system damage. I might use one if I acquire it, but it's probably going to end up getting sold, and I don't tend to buy them in stores, hoping I'll get something better. I want to take systems down, whether it's weapons, so the enemy can't damage me as much, or shields so my other weapons can do something. I'm also not that fond of the auto lasers, as I've never had an auto reloader with them, so I prefer to have more shots rather than one faster shot.

In vanilla I tend to avoid missiles, but I like the variety of missile weapons in CE - well, more when I have them, not when they're shooting at me. Having a burst missile means some damage might get through, even when facing defense drones. Missile swarms can't be shot down except by an advanced defense drone. And the Ifrit Missile shoots 4 cloaked missiles, getting past basic defense drones!

Oh, I also like the heavy ion weapons that also do a bit of system damage. Effectors are nice as well - although a little slow, they don't have an ion ball that can be shot down.

[Omen267901]

Well I'm always happy to implement your feedback. Maybe Omen267901 can elaborate where exactly CE is more luck dependant than vanilla. And maybe Twinge can explain what exactly balance means to him.

But yeah, I largely agree with what Nevilla wrote. Basically a lot of the claims here are claims that are frequently made about vanilla FTL as well. I actually believe that the mod is quite balanced and in no real way unfair. It is designed to be more harsh and punishing than vanilla though. Probably most of all it requires the player to learn how things work again. I'd argue that CE can become quite manageable with enough experience, just like vanilla FTL. That's demonstrated by some let's players as well.

I agree with this as well. And for how i think CE is more luck based, on a basic level it's because CE adds so much stuff that it is harder to find what you want. And it is true that CE is much more punishing. Not taking something because you've never used it and therefore think it's useless can kill you easily. For example, I had never used Effectors before, and when I got one in a run, I decided to use it. I won because of the Effector. If I hadn't of taken it, I would have lost. CE requires you to re-learn how to play each ship, because of how much it changes. Also, I disagree that you need a teleporter. I've done really well even without a teleporter, mainly because in my game mantis seem to be non-existent in shops and events.