Strategizery!

[Chief]

Sharing strategy is a good way to increase our enjoyment of the game, and allow the devs to understand how we play. Lets start.

So, I used to think, oh I'll just fire at the shields, then fire at the weapons, then boom goes the enemy ship! This works for the first few systems, but eventually I noticed 25% of my shots or so missing. My shiny new blasters were missing!

So I started adopting a new plan when I noticed I had accumulated many lots of missiles through my travels. I aimed my Artemis missile launcher at the enemy's engines, and then suddenly all of my shots were hitting. Except my missiles kept missing the initial shot. So I bought one of those new-fangled fancy shmancy teleporting bombs. They seemed to have much better accuracy.

Too long; Didn't read:
Weapon pre-ignitor
Teleporting bomb that does systems damage
Lots of lasers (x2 Blaster II, and a Pike beam for me)
Bomb the enemy's engine room, then fire lasers at the shields, then beam the hull.

~Chief

[VladePsyker]

Heh trust me even the fancy bombs can miss, My Ion Bomb decided to up and MISS 3 times in a row against the End Boss, needless to say the writing was pretty much on the wall at that point

[ohmylemons]

I prefer to hit the bridge (where the pilot sits), as it goes into red much quicker than the engines. For longer fights I prioritize that and the shields, then go for weapons.

Another method I employ is pausing before I'm about to be hit by a barrage and redistribute my power to engines. Once one of my shields goes down, I can pump two more points to engines. Redistributing power like this lets me save scrap that I would have to spend on upgrading power a bunch.

[Enkido]

One of my favourite anti boarding technique

- gather your crew in the medbay
- vent everything else
- kill them all

[temporal]

I prefer to hit the bridge (where the pilot sits), as it goes into red much quicker than the engines. For longer fights I prioritize that and the shields, then go for weapons.

Another method I employ is pausing before I'm about to be hit by a barrage and redistribute my power to engines. Once one of my shields goes down, I can pump two more points to engines. Redistributing power like this lets me save scrap that I would have to spend on upgrading power a bunch.

Cool idea, I will have to try that! It seems like this strategy is hinted at from the start, since your engines on the Kestrel and Taurus always start with that 1 extra empty bar.

Do you still get the blue text engines dialogue options if you don't have them fully powered?

[kshh]

Another strategy for later sectors when you start increasingly missing shots:

teleport a boarding party right onto their bridge just before firing your first salvo. This will occupy the pilot which sets evasion to 0.
Once your boarders health gets low teleport them back out. In many cases the pilot(if he's still alive) will actually abandon the bridge at this point to help repair one of the vital systems.

This makes the teleporter a very useful, multi-functional device.

[DocGratis]

teleport a boarding party right onto their bridge just before firing your first salvo. This will occupy the pilot which sets evasion to 0.

Not sure if it is the same for NPC ships, but the new build makes the pilot count as piloting as long as they are in the cockpit..
http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=462
:Tuning:
-It now counts your pilot as "piloting" as long as he's in the room, no matter what he is doing. This way dodging is possible if your piloting is partially damaged and makes evasion more useful.

[kshh]

Oh... if that's true for NPCs as well.. that would be a bummer..
I thought it was a really useful strategy in the first build.

[LukaCola]

One of my favourite anti boarding technique

- gather your crew in the medbay
- vent everything else
- kill them all

Then they destroy the life support and you all choke to death...

[aviphysics]

Oh... if that's true for NPCs as well.. that would be a bummer..
I thought it was a really useful strategy in the first build.

I had the enemy jump out while I was fighting his pilot. This seems to indicate that the ship still counts as piloted. Pretty annoying IMO.

Gonna post this on getsatisfaction to see if they are willing to change it or maybe make it an option. Seems pretty silly to me that a crew member can fight and man a system at the same time.

BTW love the thread. Wish I had a good strategy to contribute, still figuring the game out myself.