The Vortex...

[MushrooMars]

Aside from getting an unbelievably lucky system (encounter nothing but unshielded ships with crap weapons, free scrap, useful stores), has anyone had ANY luck with this ship?

It's like the polar opposite of The Torus, it has no unique Enhancements, weapons with terrible synergy, useless drones, and no bloody shield OR cloak.

Edit: This ship should be renamed 'hardmode'.

[Fangz]

Check this one out.

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3505

[Moosicorn]

This was my 1st ship I won the game with so it's good or Mabye I got lucky

[MushrooMars]

This was my 1st ship I won the game with so it's good or Mabye I got lucky

I dunno man, I can't get past sector 2 with this thing on normal. With any other ship I get to at least sector 5-8, then usually get flored by the Rebel Fleet or an enemy Cruiser hiding in an Ion Storm.

[mqstout]

So far, I've beat the game with Kestrel/Firetail, Nessasio/DA-SR, Osprey and Torus -- but I can't make any headway against the boss with the Vortex, even though my current high score was a Vortex.

[doomeater54]

while the vortex is one of my favorite ships in turns of designee it is also one of the worst ships I personality think it should eather get

A. better weapons
or
B. more shields / engins at the start

[xdiesp]

Heres a basic trick with drones not everyone might know: suppose you have 4 energy in the system, then Defense II and Attack II drones which would require 8 energy to be active at the same time. You can still use both in the same fight, build them both and care to reroute power from one to the other whenever the enemy shoots.

[icepick]

It's a hard ship to start with. Designed that way I think.

Just choose your battles carefully until you can get better weapons (I usually do in the first sector).

You will get screwed by random events more often though. It's just one of those ships.

[Hustle Butt]

I've done a lot of thinking about the Vortex, and all the problems with it seem to boil down to one thing.

This ship is a bit of a gimmick. It plays with the idea of having a robotic crew, however, with the way drones work as of yet, this is a pretty useless gimmick.

I've done a LOT of thinking about the Vortex, and I believe its problems could be resolved by adding a new drone to the game and using two or three of them for starting drones.

This drone would be the robotic counterpart to a crew member. (Think Data.)

Requires 2 power to function. Must be given instructions by the player.
+ Can man systems.
+ Can work/repair in oxygenless rooms.
+ Can be rebuilt if destroyed.
- Slower move speed.
- Lower health.
- Can NOT gain experience.

These drones would perform all the basic tasks that regular crew members would do. I believe this would be balenced because of their not being able to level up, but they can be replaced just like any other drone. This would merit a much different style of play when it comes to managing crew actions.

[doomeater54]

one tactic I have been using on the vortex is to upgrade door systems then open the air lock to all rooms I don't have crew in this make the ant personal drone a LOT more effective an borders a suffocating and taking damage from the drone. O2 gets hit? you drones can repair it. Get more crew? close the doors and make him man a station.