Potential Bug: Boarding in the final battle [Spoilers]

[talhydras]

So I had a high level teleporter and a high level medbay and figured I'd sequentially disarm the first stage of the final boss - as his weapon turrets are sealed rooms and thus vulnerable to double mantis. Then I figured I'd see if anything special happened when I killed the ship.

I do not know if this is intended or not - but upon killing the final crewmember of the Rebel mothership, it FTLs away which automatically kills your prize crew (in my case four mantises). When next encountered it has regenerated a new crewmember. If this is intended behaviour, it would be nice if there was some text details indicating that a dead-man switch FTLs it to the nearest Rebel resupply base where your prize crew is defeated.

If I make a humble suggestion, a special endgame scenario for capturing the final ship would be really cool

I'd also suggest an auto-FTL countdown so you have a chance to retrieve some of your boarding party before they're instagibbed if that turns out to not be the way you guys want to go.

[VladePsyker]

Or knowing what you know now just pull your crew out before that happens

half the fun of the end boss is not knowing all the nasty surprises when you first encounter it.

[DeltaOmega]

Or knowing what you know now just pull your crew out before that happens

funny when every encounter earlier where you murder every crew member ends in victory that you realise that this single encounter will screw you. Also no personnel replacements in the end unless you are lucky to have that one store open and that it would sell crew.

[VladePsyker]

Or knowing what you know now just pull your crew out before that happens

funny when every encounter earlier where you murder every crew member ends in victory that you realise that this single encounter will screw you. Also no personnel replacements in the end unless you are lucky to have that one store open and that it would sell crew.

I did it myself (lost 2 mantis) first time I got there but never did it again I love that this game is unforgiving in the extreme, warpout with your crew is just another nasty surprise that makes this game so fun and yet so frustrating if would be less of a game without it

[talhydras]

Actually if my memory serves me it's instantaneous - the second the last enemy crewmember lost health, my four boarding guys disappeared from the roster on the left side of the screen, the Mothership's wing blew off, and it FTLed away to be full healed and have a free extra crewmember put on.

I'm all for challenge and surprise too, I just think that in this case it is rather counter intuitive that every single other ship in the game can be captured intact except this one. If its intended for the player to use his teleporter to board and cripple but specifically NOT to capture the enemy mothership, there should be some explanation or indication. I would have been fine, for instance, if I'd just beaten up the shield system and cherry-tapped the hulk but there's nothing in the entire game to imply that that's the strategy you should use. That there's different (and often better) rewards for capturing other ships intact reinforces the approach that backfires horribly in the final scenario.

If random enemy ships occasionally had deadman switches then this behavior in the final battle would be a feature. It's still a surprise because it warps out and repairs for Round 2 - where I imagine common mooks would just self destruct or something. I dunno, I don't really see why shafting the player the first time they get a boarding ship to the final battle is awesome :/

[Justin]

The boss should not instantly jump away if you kill all its crew. That was either a coincidence/bad timing or a bug (let us know if it keeps happening).

I'd like to put in some sort of small buffer to allow you to pull your people back when its about to jump if possible (but if it's on cooldown you're still screwed), but letting the AI take over is going to stay in the game. It may seem like trying to take the ship by killing the crew is underpowered, but it does at least help. It reduces a lot of the threat of the 3rd round and it means their systems do not get the bonuses from being manned by people. Still room for improvement, of course.

[VladePsyker]

I'll confirm it is an instantaneous warpout in fact the side that breaks off is still breaking off as the ship warps away

[talhydras]

The boss should not instantly jump away if you kill all its crew. That was either a coincidence/bad timing or a bug (let us know if it keeps happening).

I'd like to put in some sort of small buffer to allow you to pull your people back when its about to jump if possible (but if it's on cooldown you're still screwed), but letting the AI take over is going to stay in the game. It may seem like trying to take the ship by killing the crew is underpowered, but it does at least help. It reduces a lot of the threat of the 3rd round and it means their systems do not get the bonuses from being manned by people. Still room for improvement, of course.

AHA! I see what you mean about the AI taking over - this time through, I killed the final crewmember in the last stage with the laser spam and got a message about an advanced AI system taking control of the ship. Very cool!

[kshh]

+ 1 on this being bad

losing is fun when you know why you lose. I.e. the rules stay consistent, but stuff gets harder. Changing the rules suddenly without warning is terrible game design and no fun at all, so I'm glad justin says it's not intended behaviour.