Subset Games Forum

I started this thing up to see exactly why people call it "the worst ship in the game". The thing works efficiently for the first 2 sectors, but now I've hit the first 2-shield auto-ship. Fortunately, I had just bought an Automated Reloader in the last store with some of my 180 scrap. (You ain't getting nowhere without a weapon, forget anything else but 2 shields.) Turns out thought that that isn't enough. Okay, put the Engi on the weapons. Not ideal but let's give it a shot.

The shield comes back up literally a second before the ion connects. This WILL work, but I'll need to level up the Engi's weapon skill. With a Heavy Ion. Blargh. At least the drone is an ion and beam one that can't hurt me through my 2 shields, but this is going to be a long haul.

"The worst ship in the game"?!
Hell, the Vortex is the ship that I've beat the game with for the first time. On normal, I might add (so many people here are complaining about easy being too hard )
I say, this ship is awesome.

yeah, the vortex sucks

If you find another weapon, I imagine it could be quite effective. Using a Heavy Ion like an Ion Blast is relatively effective. Unfortunately, after getting all this to work, I shortly afterward had to tank Hermes Missiles, and that left me crippled enough that I shortly died afterward.

I don't think it's a terrible ship (I've had equal trouble getting Shivan off the ground), but the Vortex trades away a lot for the Drone Reactor Booster, which quite frankly isn't worth no sensors, one crew member, and no Engi Med-Bots. All the sacrifice for a unique augment that gets replaced by crew members... I don't mind the system repair drone, but I think that at the very least this ship should have a Defense Drone I instead of a second sys repair.

(Course, if you take the Vortex as a challenge, then I suppose it does that job well. I think I like Slug A/B and Shivan though better as challenges. Can't speak for Stealth B, it's the only B I don't have other than the Crystal ship. Those ships have flavor, though; the Vortex is just tough.)


EDIT: On the other hand, I use Doctor Who with the Engi ships. I used "the Doctor" for the human on the "TARDIS" (Torus), and it's a blast playing the Master on the Time Vortex. Well, you have to get something out of the ship.

Yes the Vortex is one of the hardest ship in FTL , BUT she is not crap!!
If you know how to handle the Vortex, she will be a good challenge for your own skill.

Todes_Schnitzel wrote:Yes the Vortex is one of the hardest ship in FTL , BUT she is not crap!!

Quoted for truth. The fun way to die in FTL is to die in this.

What's funny about all this, is that this is my complaints on the first run. The second run, had crazy luck. First store in Sector 1 had a Defense Drone I. Store in Sector 2 had Burst II. Another store in Sector 6 gave me another Burst II. There was even a thought in my head while hovering over the second Burst II that went "this is silly. If I pick this up, the Vortex will become generic LaserSpam(TM) ship" and thought about keeping the Heavy Ion with my first Burst II and Hull Beam. There was the other thought that went "2x Burst IIs don't happen often, just take it!" that won. Then, Sector 7 had a Halberd Beam. I was like, "Alright, THIS is my final setup. There's no way this could possibly get better."

Wrong. The Last Stand had a store (already "!") that also had a Burst II. Now, the Halberd was probably better than another Burst II, but I figured "I will never have 3 Burst IIs again. Time for lols". And yeah, 3x Burst IIs wreck everything.

One other thing worth noting was in Sector 4, a nebula sector: I got caught in a dead end (I play with beacon paths off), and backtracked through 7 Rebel fleet/ion storm beacons to reach the exit. Part of me thinks my weapon luck is because I made such a monumental error.

This is silly. I've never beat the game on Normal with the Kestrel or Fed Cruiser A, but I've won with Stealth A, Zoltan B, Mantis B, Rock A, Engi B and Slug A.

the thing i HATE about the vortex is, the weapons. if it gave a ion blast, not a heavy one, i would like it so much more. the difference between charge times is way to much, and both shots have to hit to do anything.

The thing about the vortex that gets me is the stupid layout. One crew with O2 right next to an airlock, and a whole ship away from the medbay.

I like to fly it with all the rooms but the shield room, medbay, and door control vented until I get another crewmember.

Observato wrote:....First store in Sector 1 had a Defense Drone I. Store in Sector 2 had Burst II. Another store in Sector 6 gave me another Burst II. There was even a thought in my head while hovering over the second Burst II that went "this is silly. If I pick this up, the Vortex will become generic LaserSpam(TM) ship" and thought about keeping the Heavy Ion with my first Burst II and Hull Beam. There was the other thought that went "2x Burst IIs don't happen often, just take it!" that won. Then, Sector 7 had a Halberd Beam. I was like, "Alright, THIS is my final setup. There's no way this could possibly get better."

Wrong. The Last Stand had a store (already "!") that also had a Burst II. Now, the Halberd was probably better than another Burst II, but I figured "I will never have 3 Burst IIs again. Time for lols". And yeah, 3x Burst IIs wreck everything...

Sounds like you had one of these.