Advanced Edition: First impressions thread

[karadoc]

My first impressions are that the new content is excellent. The game's balance seems to be better, and the new stuff adds some strategic depth and variety. I'm pretty happy with it.

However, I think some of the user-interface could do with some polish. Some of the new on-screen information makes the game look a bit cluttered to me. The multiple tabs in shops is unintuitive and a bit cumbersome. And it's pretty bad that there is no feedback to tell the player why their mind-control didn't work when used on slugmen. These are just minor things though. I happy with AE.

[Reptile]

I only played 3 games so far, so here are my impressions:
The first game was with the federation cruiser because its one of my favorite ships. It didnt go very well but I tried some of the new things.The new weapons are kinda meh. I really like the Flak cannon or whatever the name is, but otherwise it seems like th rest are mostly downgrades. Unfortunately I got killed in the 2nd sector so I didnt see much of the new stuff.

The second game was with the Lanius, it was somehow unlocked already. It was really fun. The hacking is superb and kind of op. With good timing hacking can make your life sooo much easier. Unfortunately the AI doesnt seem to be good with it at all. Most of the times it just hacked completely random rooms, like doors, sensors, but never the important stuff. The clone bay is kind of cool, but I havent gotten to a point whre I really used it. I did pretty good, but I ran out of fuel and the rebel fleet catched up with me and I was instantly dead. It's insanely powerfull. If you arent in the greatest of conditions you are dead. The planet canons are insane. So always try to yvoid it. But it was a good run, I love the Lanius.

Third game aws with the Mantis ship because It for some reason I dont understand unlocked even though I didnt have it unlocked. AT this point I strated to appriciate the new stuff even more. The save crew postion is SO USEFULL. I bumped into the pulsar (even though its not really a pulsar from scientific point of view) and its a nice twist on the battle. Some of the new events are really cool, but 2 stand out for me: First one was the Engi virus one, wher you get insanely overpowered Engi form it with every skill maxed out The second one was the federation cruiser unlock where you fight the unfinished rebel flagship for some cool rewards. It was a good run but it was ended by the boss because of few stupid mistakes. So yeah cool new features and tons of new stuff. Liked all of it. Oh and the music is AWESOME!

TL;DR: the expansion is awsome and FREEEEE.

[JonasTheRoman]

Unfortunately the AI doesn't seem to be good with it at all.

They actually hacked my helm often, which can be pretty nasty.
Also, I feel their ion bombs prioritize targets better, since they seem to target less empty rooms. Often they also ionized my weapons, which happened to me not very often before and is very awful.

[Bloody_Lemon]

Repair Arm does not rob you if you are on full hull (I got it in first sector).

I must say I was disappointed by Shield Overcharge Drone which was awesome on principle, but kinda useless on practice.

I haven't unlocked most C layouts, but Engi C is very good. Defense Scrambler is crazy effective to allow your hacking for all ships and hacking is just too good. I'm constantly finding out new strategies you can use with it and it's getting more and more awesome in my eyes. Mostly thanks to door-locking mechanism.

Just recently tried suffocating with hacking and it's glorious. Level 3 drains 60% of O2, then you shoot O2 to disable it and crew wastes time to break in to fix. You wait for them to fix it and drain again. Fun!

Next things to try with hacking:
1) boarding flagship with 4-crew teleporter, forcing 4 rebels into med-bay to heal and hacking med-bay to kill them off
2) Fire bombs + hacking!

Weapons-wise:
I haven't yet tried Vulcan (too expensive for Hard and takes too much power).
Charge lasers are awful, Chain laser is good.
Swarm is freaking awesome.
Flak is good with other weapons. 2 Flak II are great and very cheap.
Others - meh.

What are you guys thinking about the repair bomb? Useful or total garbage?

[vontasben]

Can't decide which is my favourite new thing;

1)Vulcan cannons and weapon pre-igniter
2)Return to stations

Both are totally awesome, for very different reasons

[aaaaaa50]

I'm surprised to find that Charge Lasers are actually good. They do take extra time to charge up to full, but the time it takes to fire a single laser repeatedly on autofire is actually very fast. (I think 6s for level one and 5s for level 2.) This means you can build up a big volley to take down an enemy's shields and then quickly pummel their systems down to flat. I could actually see myself taking a Charge Laser 2 over a Burst Laser 2 if my defenses are decent and I can spare the extra power bar.

[Reptile]

OK, so I had a fourth run with Federation B and I have actually beaten the game with it. I ended up with fully upgraded Artillery Beam, 3 Flak Guns and a Dual laser for insane firepower. Also I kind of take back what I said about the AI and hacking. If I didnt have this much firepower I would ahve been dead because AI was smart and hacked my doors so all doors were insta locked. Then It hit my engines and set them on fire. With the doors locked my Zoltan didnt stand a chance against the fire and died. Then the fire spread to the room next door which was Doors with an engi inside. So he was fighting the fire and then he hit the door room with a rocket and it created a breach. So my engi died of suffocation. HAcking stopped I started to flood all the rooms on fire and boom another rocket to the doors and doors are down so I ended up with 4 rooms without oxygen with no chance of stopping the oxygen flooding. So I rushed with 2 engis to fix the door room. I was in there fixing it and boom, doors hacked again. So the 2 engis were now dying of suffocation. Fortunately fixed it in time and destroyed the boss in the meantime. Damn it was scary seeing all these people die. So yeah hacking doors is actually usefull. Not as hacking weapons but still.

EDIT: So i tried the Federation C ship and it has to be one of the worst ships in the game. It doesnt make any sense to me. You are defensless in the beggining with zero attack. Your only weapon is the Artillery Flak gun which is pretty good but it takes 50 seconds for it to fire. 50 seconds in which you are just stting there doing nothing. It has a teleporter but no boarding crew, only 1 mantis. If it had 2 mantises or a rock then i could call it a boarding ship but its not a boarding ship in any way.So it's basically like the Crystal ship just much much worse. I have no idea how to play with it. I barely got to the second sector and then got destroyed in an asteroid field.

[Twinge]

EDIT: So i tried the Federation C ship and it has to be one of the worst ships in the game. It doesnt make any sense to me. You are defensless in the beggining with zero attack. Your only weapon is the Artillery Flak gun. It has a teleporter but no boarding crew, only 1 mantis.

Teleporters should be thought of as weapons because they effectively are. You have a perfectly solid boarding party - Mantis + Human does great work as a boarding duo, and Zoltans aren't far behind (they have 85 effective combat strength compared to a Human's 100 because of their explosive properties). Boarding is also easier with Clone Bay, and your augment helps you board against auto drones and Lanius ships as needed.

[5thHorseman]

Yeah the Fed C is unique. It takes an entirely different strategy than the other ships, which is a welcome sight and not something to decry. But it's hard

I only played it a few times while testing (It was one of the last ships to be finished) but I remember trying the Zoltan zerg rush and not finding it as useful as sending down the human and mantis and using the zoltans in their more traditional role: as power.

[Mendel]

I find the zoltans work great for boarding with fed c. I keep the human and the mantis as pilot and engineer operator/emergency defence/repairmen. Zoltans go to enemy ship, explode, pop back in clone bay, rinse and repeat.
By their second or third clone, they should have the enemy crew killed if they dont have med bay. if they do have med bay then hack it.

I even use the the zoltans to board the airless automated ships, they break their weapons and shields, pop back up in clone bay right after suffocating. very useful.