Resolution Options (And Missiles!!!)

[Zetal]

Hey,

I started playing FTL fairly recently (a few days ago) and have refused to play on Easy. I still haven't beaten it. (aarrgh D:) But! I will keep trying.
On to the primary purpose of the topic, however, I would love to play FTL on my netbook. It's resolution, however, is not large enough. Are there any plans to make FTL available on smaller resolutions?


A secondary purpose is really just to complain about missiles. Man, do I hate missiles. I get level four shields by sector 4 or so, but missiles! Oh well, you're dead. Boy, it sure is a shame you weren't lucky enough to find a Defense II drone by now! Gaaaahh. Made it to the final boss, and started gradually chipping away without taking any damage, but missiles.
Missssiiiiilllleeessss! D:<

[FreedomFighter]

i stop my shield at Lv3 because that's enough, upgrade engine to improve chance to dodge and find some weapon.
you have Lv4 shield and enemy counter that with missile, nothing you can complain about that.
best way to counter the missile is use Mantis boarding party or take their weapon system down asap.

[BobVosh]

Defense Drones Mark I is better, as Mark II will shoot at lasers so won't necessarily shoot at missiles if it is still recharging. Also cloaking is another great way around missiles, it adds a huge bonus to evasion.

As for Resolution I don't think they have any plans currently, unfortunately.

[UglyMug]

Against missiles you want Defense Drones, Better Engines, and Cloaking (if you hit cloak right after the missile has been fired you'll dodge it).

As far as the boss in general there's two ways to handle it:

Raw Overwhelming Offense:

You want Lasers, Ions, and Beams (damage beams, not fire or Bio) for weapons. No Missiles, No Bombs. Attack Drones, preferably two, a Beam drone can also work. Cloak is also useful. Several Zoltrans to increase max power are also good. Lvl 3 Shields, maxxed engines. Goal here is burning down the boss as fast as possible. Teleporter is not needed, the boss will be going down too quick and you'll need the power elsewhere. Take down the helm, then work on shields. Done right, you'll only take about 2, maybe 3 salvos from the missle pod before the boss bites it. One of which you can cloak through. And most of which you'll dodge anyways.

Boarding:

Teleport two guys over to the Missile Pod, and two over to the ion cannon. Have them kill the guy and wreck the system. Bring them back and then start taking down guys in the main body of the ship. You want a missle or bomb to throw into their medbay to take it out. Be careful though, the ship has cloak and lvl3 blast doors. It's easy for a boarding team to get trapped and get guys killed. Luckily you're only fighting humans. LEAVE ONE GUY ALIVE. If you kill everyone on the ship, the boss will switch into AI mode and start auto-repairing and making it much tougher.

Despite what everyone is about to tell you, method one (raw overwhelming offense) is more reliable. If you focus on that you can normally kill the boss in phase 2 before the first powersurge, and in phase two before the second. A boarding focus will normally eat at least 2 powersurges in both phases. Partially since they'll be running a defense drone (instead of 2nd attack) in phase two to keep Boarding Drones off their nuts because their away teams will be away instead of keeping extra crew on the ship to fight them off, partially since they'll be diverting power to the teleporter, and partially since boarders tend to favor missiles and bombs, which are good for disabling specific systems but inefficient for raw damage.

[Agent_L]

I (...) have refused to play on Easy. I still haven't beaten it.

Then I'm refusing to tell you how to run the game on a netbook.

[UltraMantis]

Hey,

I started playing FTL fairly recently (a few days ago) and have refused to play on Easy. I still haven't beaten it. (aarrgh D:) But! I will keep trying.
On to the primary purpose of the topic, however, I would love to play FTL on my netbook. It's resolution, however, is not large enough. Are there any plans to make FTL available on smaller resolutions?


A secondary purpose is really just to complain about missiles. Man, do I hate missiles. I get level four shields by sector 4 or so, but missiles! Oh well, you're dead. Boy, it sure is a shame you weren't lucky enough to find a Defense II drone by now! Gaaaahh. Made it to the final boss, and started gradually chipping away without taking any damage, but missiles.
Missssiiiiilllleeessss! D:<

Welcome to the forum, you'll find plenty of tips (and sploliers) if you check the topics. Search is a bit useless atm though.

I'm pretty sure there will be no lower resolutions. I'm not a developer so i can't say for sure.

As for missiles, well there's three ways to defeat missiles. One is to improve your engines which will give you a better evasion. If you have a crewmember manning the engines you also get a bonus from his skill, and a bonus from pilot's skill as well. So upgrade those engines, and wait for your Helm/Engines people to improve and you'll be dodging missiles like a boss.

Second option is to invest in drone sytems and get two MkI defense drones. They are generally considered superior to MkII because they dont waste time stopping incoming lasers that can be soaked up by the shields anyway. MkI will stop a missile, asteroid or boarding drone, and i highly recommend you try a pair and see how they perform.

Final option is to install a cloaking device. While you're cloaked you get an extra 60% evasion bonus so you should avoid nearly anything if your normal evasion is near 30-35% While cloaked, enemy weapons don't recharge either so you can buy yourself a little bit of peace.

Enjoy the game and good luck.

[Zetal]

I'd take anything I could get but honestly the chances I'd ever find one at a store for however much scrap I have on me, or, even more unlikely, finding one as a reward in a battle are very low. I got really, really lucky to even find the Mark II defense drone.

Any tips on how to find equipment you really want? The playstyle I wanted to pursue was very little weapons, but heavy on boarding and evasion/shields. Maybe with a cloak? Is that possible with the ships I have? (Kestrel, Cloaking Ship, and Engi ship)

[Zetal]

Hey guys, I finally beat it! (Engi Ship on Normal! Woohoo!) Although it was a really long, arduous final fight, haha. Barely came out on top, and only then because I was lucky enough to find a Crystal crew member, who could lock down the enemy rooms when I was boarding, so I just killed them all off one by one. =P



Thanks for the advice guys! I managed to get my hands on a defence drone this playthrough, and somehow had enough scrap for a max'd teleporter, lvl 3 shields, and 45% evasion! Whew! (Not to mention a Glaive Beam, although that turned out to be a waste, since I never even used it once!)

[UltraMantis]

The playstyle I wanted to pursue was very little weapons, but heavy on boarding and evasion/shields. Maybe with a cloak? Is that possible with the ships I have? (Kestrel, Cloaking Ship, and Engi ship)

Yes, No and Maybe, in that order. The Kestrel is versatile and can play any style. Stealth Cruiser is very very vulnerable and usually benefits more from heavy offense than boarding. Boarding does kill fast and earnes a lot of loot, but the Cloak gives you a fantastic first strike that's a shame to waste. Get some nice re-loaders or pre-igniter and leave the boarding style to better suited ships. The Torus is great for stripping shields or disableing systems, so either weapons or boarding work fine. Depends on the weapons or crewmembers you find in stores.

Why don't you try a boarding style with the Kestrel (since it's pretty versatile) and hit evey Red sector in the hope of finding the Mantis Homeworld. If you find a special encounter there i think you will be well pleased.

BTW, you should also have the Federation Cruiser, but it's not recommended you board with it unless you can remember to disable it's support weapon.

...somehow had enough scrap for a max'd teleporter, lvl 3 shields, and 45% evasion! Whew! (Not to mention a Glaive Beam, although that turned out to be a waste, since I never even used it once!)

Wow, a Glaive is a terrible thing to waste, but as powerfull as it is, it's not the only or "right" way to play.

You must have noticed that rewards increase in the later sectors, so don't worry too much if you dont have enough scrap for system or reactor upgrades in the early sectors.

[Fangz]

I get level four shields by sector 4 or so

That's exactly what you are doing wrong.

If you have 4 bubbles by sector 4 or so, it's very likely that you are investing all your scrap on shields right from the start and neglecting other important stuff like important upgrades (engines, especially), weapons and other means of defense/offense like crew teleporter, cloaking device and drone control.

Getting to 4 shield bubbles for a ship that starts with 1 by default costs a total of 480 scrap (shield upgrades - 50 + 100 + 180) + reactor upgrades (20+20/25+25/30+30). This amounts to roughly 1/4 of the total scrap you're going to have by the time you reach sector 8 (given that you're not playing with a boarding oriented ship like Mantis B, which is gonna yield a lot more scrap than regular ships).

Consider the following situation: enemy ship has Dual Lasers and Burst Laser III. You have 4 shield bubbles and basic engine (15% evasion if manned).

If the enemy ship fires his BL III (5 shots volley) it will much probably hit all 5 shots, taking down your shields and causing 1 damage to a system or empty room. Even if it misses 1 shot, it will leave the doors momentarily open for its Dual Laser to rip your ship apart (+ 2 damage). Total damage = 3

Now consider the same enemy ship but now you have 3 bubbles and improved engines (45% if manned by a golden rank officer). The enemy ship will miss roughly 1 at every 2 shots.

If the enemy ship fires his Burst Laser III, 2 or 3 (tops) shots will hit. If it shoots the Dual Lasers right away while your shields are down, it will miss 1 shot and hit 1. If it misses 3 shots from the Burst Laser you would take no damage at all. Total damage = 1

Sure chances vary, but all in all improved engines + 3 bubbles is way more effective than 4 bubbles and bad/average engines (note that this is true even though I didn't include enemy missiles in the equation, against which engine helps and shields don't).

I have defeated the final boss (on normal) several times with 3 bubbles. Only put 4 bubbles if you happen to have extra scrap, otherwise go for engines/weapons/cloaking/crew tp.

Good hunting :)

EDIT: Didn't notice your last post. My bad. Good job!