Zoltans = worst crews?

General discussion about the game.
zequeins
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:06 am

Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby zequeins » Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:49 pm

Whenever I get a Zoltan crewmember, I always feel they're pretty useless all around. Oh sure they power up your system, 2 Zoltans make sure you always have at least 1 layer of Shield. But that's the point, they're practically only good for sitting around the ship; They make poor fighters (even an Engi can be a temporary tank without Medbay), they make poor repairmen (since often the rooms needing repairs are on fire or in vacuum)... basically their 30% hp penalty is too much price to pay for whatever ability they bring on the table.

Or have I been using them wrongly?
spacecadet13
Posts: 126
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby spacecadet13 » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:07 pm

I love getting Zoltans, if there is a choice in a store or after boarding a pirate, I'll take the Zoltan's every time. Sure, you can't use them for much else than manning a station, but the extra power they give you means you have more options with regards to shield levels, drones and cloaking, especially if you've maxed out your weapons and are using 8 bars on that. Two zoltans on the crew can mean you can deploy either the fourth shield level or an extra defence or attack drone in addition to being able to cloak, which can make the difference between victory or defeat, especially against the boss.

That said, a crew composed ENTIRELY of Zoltans is gonna have some serious issues with boarders, boarding drones, breech bombs/missles and fires. With the help of a rock/mantis or crystal though, a crew composed MOSTLY of Zoltans is seriously kick-ass.
EdenNov
Posts: 82
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 7:36 pm

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby EdenNov » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:50 pm

The best use of Zoltans is to man a system (not the helm) with them, so that the engi/mantis/rock will be free to do its business.
They are definitely my favorite species.
Fun fact #1-you can negate ion damage by having enough Zoltans in the ionized room (worked for shields, haven't checked other rooms).
Fun fact #2-you can get that extra bar of power for a system in cooldown by having your Zoltan stand there, using all your available power bars, and then moving him out of that room (1 extra power bar for every Zoltan you own).
FDru
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:08 pm

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby FDru » Mon Nov 19, 2012 10:05 pm

I like them so long as I have at least 1 Engi and a couple of other races to fend off boarders. For boarding strategies they obviously kind of suck, but even then having 1 or 2 doesn't hurt.
hybridfive
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:43 pm

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby hybridfive » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:36 am

zequeins wrote:tey make poor fighters (even an Engi can be a temporary tank without Medbay)
...
Or have I been using them wrongly?


You might not have learned how to shuffle your crewmembers within a room. That's pretty critical to utilizing their limited health. In many cases, particularly with Rebel Elite Fighters and all Mantis ships, you get boarded by two enemies. You want to have two regular (non-Zoltan) crew members matched up against those two enemies, in a four-person room (or the medbay, obviously), and then have the Zoltan be the third man in. That way, he won't take any damage, and will alternate fire between the two enemies. At that point, his low health is not an issue, and his normal DPS makes him better than the Engi.

If you're fighting two on two, the Engi is better, but when you have numbers and understand the micromanagement, the Zoltan is better. If you want to practice the technique, the best way to learn it is on Cruiser B. You start with a Zoltan and two regular fighters. You can't consistently rely on the two-man medbay to save you. So you either learn to use the technique very quickly or you lose.
Hoa_Binh
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:32 am

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby Hoa_Binh » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:19 am

I like them and like most other crew members they are good for some things but bad for some other.

I wouldn't want a crew mostly of Zoltans but I always try to have one or two. A broad spectrum is the way to go, some of each sort :)
aaOzymandias
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:10 pm

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby aaOzymandias » Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:24 pm

I recently had a 7 Zoltan crew, was pretty darn fun with all that extra power. Stashed 4 of em in my shield room for ion immunity :)
Aerowind
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 1:11 pm

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby Aerowind » Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:27 pm

I hate when people complain about boarding. Level 2 doors will allow you to avoid any and all fights with boarders without ever having to directly fight them. Start venting all empty rooms as soon as you notice they have a teleporter. As soon as they board, lock all the doors then cut the O2. Bam, dead boarders. They will refuse to target your systems if the room is airless, so you don't even need to worry about them knocking anything out. Just don't forget to turn your O2 back on after they kick it. If you're running all Zoltan, then go ahead and upgrade to level 3 doors if you're worried. Nothing can get through those monsters. Consider an upgraded med bay as well if you're worried about losing power to oxygen.

Boarding drones are a much larger problem, but seeing as how you're never really boarded by multiple boarding drones, it's manageable. Everything else should be child's play considering the ridiculous power advantage an all Zoltan crew will give you.
SleepyMage
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:38 am

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby SleepyMage » Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:16 am

Aerowind wrote:I hate when people complain about boarding. Level 2 doors will allow you to avoid any and all fights with boarders without ever having to directly fight them. Start venting all empty rooms as soon as you notice they have a teleporter. As soon as they board, lock all the doors then cut the O2. Bam, dead boarders. They will refuse to target your systems if the room is airless, so you don't even need to worry about them knocking anything out. Just don't forget to turn your O2 back on after they kick it. If you're running all Zoltan, then go ahead and upgrade to level 3 doors if you're worried. Nothing can get through those monsters. Consider an upgraded med bay as well if you're worried about losing power to oxygen.

Boarding drones are a much larger problem, but seeing as how you're never really boarded by multiple boarding drones, it's manageable. Everything else should be child's play considering the ridiculous power advantage an all Zoltan crew will give you.


Eh, if it were that simple every time there indeed would be no reason to fear boarding. However, I still hate boarding for a few situations which the luck is in the enemy's favor: Two mantis board straight into the door control room, door controls are damaged by the enemy, an event at an enemy ship who already has a teleporter puts up to six boarders on at once in different places, etc. Using oxygen and doors solves most things, but not everything.

As for the original topic, I agree that I dislike Zoltan the most as crew members. If all of my slots are filled and they are just acting as batteries with legs then they are wonderful!Having them as actual members on board sucks because they are weaker than everyone else and you cannot actually use their powers to your advantage due to the duties that crew should have: repairing, fighting, going to the medbay for healing, leaving their respective room because it's on fire, etc. Any reason that they leave a powered room for makes them worth less than humans due to low health.

Though, if you have like seven Zoltan or some other weird abundance that makes up for their weakness then they are fun to use.
VanguardOfValor
Posts: 205
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:24 am

Re: Zoltans = worst crews?

Postby VanguardOfValor » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:04 am

Like has been mentioned, I think Zoltan are fantastic as long as you have the crew to support them - but then again, that goes for most races. Only having 3 engi would make you incredibly weak against borders, only having 3 mantis would make it incredibly hard to repair yoru ship in a fight, etc...

The extra power zoltan provide let you spend money on more important things in the early game and let you get more than the max upgrades in the late game, as well as helping you bypass ion damage if you can power your system entirely via zoltan.

One of my most successful crew setups that used the zoltan was in the Mantis B, where I had a 4-mantis boarding party and anti-boarder defense, two engis to man the helm and the engines, and two zoltan to man the weapons and shields. The engi could handle any repairs, and the mantis took care of any boarders, so my zoltan were great for powering me up.
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