Alright, on to the Rock, Crystal, Fed Cruiser, Fed Red-Tail (forget name), Pirate Battleship, and Stealth Cruiser fights.
- Rock: I'm surprised the Rock Cruiser uses laser spam while the Mantis goes with the missiles; I would've expected it to be the other way around. Also, the Mantises generally don't have that good weapons anyway, since their main strength is in boarding chaos. That said, the Rock ship is a solid fight and one I've lost to. It pretty much demands you have high evade. Even if you disable the weapons system early, you won't get rid of the resulting boarders before it re-enables those systems unless you're lucky. The Rock Cruiser and Elite version's strength is prolonging the fight, and this is where you'd expect lasers to shine the most. So I suppose it is a good design decision after all (whereas regular Rock ships allow you to wait it out while they burn up missiles, then throw full power into weapons). Personally, I think this fight would be cooler if it took place in an asteroid belt; it would make the lasers a little more daunting, especially if you're relying on a Defense Drone II to protect you.
- Crystal: I'm sorry, but the Crystal weapons just aren't that good at the high end. If you really wanted the Crystal Cruiser to be threatening, you'd make the Crystal drones about 50% faster; they really shouldn't be that much slower than the regular Anti-Ship drones. It will annihilate you if you don't have 4 shields, of course, but this is something you should know going into the fight anyway. The AI random-room use of Lockdown bombs could be enhanced if you also had other bombs creating havoc that needed to be patched up. Otherwise, it is a minimal threat when you can keep your shields up. The Crystal weapons are really quite trivial once you've damaged the weapon system at least once so the burst weapons don't fire simultaneously. If any one boss were to have 5 shields, I'd expect Crystal to be the one; this would give it superior all-around defense (since its crew is already hardy and breach-resistant). It could use a little more hull strength, too. Then, this fight would be drawn-out and analogous to the Rock fight, if a little easier with shield-piercing attacks.
- Fed Cruiser: A good example of a gimmick fight--Zoltan Shields plus Advanced Def Drone equals much frustration! The Elite Fed Cruiser's system-shorting ability is really terrifying (and I wish FTL would patch it so the system-disabling remains in effect when you return to a fled fight!), further forcing a time crunch. This helps to make up for the ship's lack of Artillery Beam or any crew specialties--in fact, its weapons are generally underwhelming, and this is fine. The whole point is that the situation is unfair and you have to end it fast. Since it pretty much can't be done without laser spam or bombs, it's not the ship that's terrifying so much as the situation. Well played.
- Fed Red-Tail (I haven't fought the Kestrel yet): I like the fact that it has a diverse crew and a variety of weapons. It's sort of a hodge-podge, not particularly threatening when you have max-level shields and engines but will cause a bevy of problems if either is lacking or gets disabled during boarding. Actually, this ship would do pretty well with a boarding drone. It's not the strategy I use when I pilot the Red-Tail, of course, but it would increase the chance of losing that delicate balance of evade protection and putting you in real danger. Otherwise, this fight is a joke and probably the easiest of the Cruiser fights (next to the Stealth Cruiser).
- Stealth Cruiser: I hear tell that this one may have been nerfed as well... Perhaps the nerfing was in escape time. I nearly beat it on my first try, well before maxing systems, not even knowing what to expect. Also, I'm surprised this ship doesn't have max engines; I don't think any ship in the game does, and if any boss were to have it I'd expect it to be this one. Perhaps it would only have 2 shield strength to compensate. Still, this boss is trivial once you cripple the piloting room. If you have two Crystal boarders and/or a bomb, it's a piece of cake. Something that I think would offset the lower risk of hull damage would be if it had a bigger crew than the other Cruisers (11-12). This would make capturing the ship without destroying it or losing crew a bit more challenging without imposing a super-strict time limit. That said, the time limit is probably a little too lenient and should be brought back down a little bit.
- Pirate Battleship: ZOMG HARD! It's got the best of everything, the most reactor power of anything in the game besides the real final boss, and no faults. Besides the Elite Mantis Cruiser (obviously), it's the only ship I won't consider boarding because of the absolute priority of killing it hard and fast. The only way I could imagine crew-killing this beast is with two Ion Bombs and two Anti-Bio Beams (A Fire Drone might help). If you wanted to make it even more terrifying, have it kill engine strength as its gimmick and force you to take some hits. It doesn't use ion weapons, however; so keeping your shields up isn't quite as tricky as with some other fights. If you wanted to make it a real juggernaut, give it an ion drone. Alternatively, an Advanced Beam Drone would force you to time cloaking with its volleys impeccably, since it will do concentrated strikes after it cloaks.
...A side note: Why does the Elite Mantis Cruiser have two Anti-Personnel Drones? Its crew would seem more than capable of deleting your Boarding Drones, especially with its 4-capacity (cheater!) Medbay.
Also...I've found this item in my journeys, called a Wxxxx Gxxxxxxxx (won't spoil it). I haven't figured out what it does, and its description is a placeholder. Is this a work in progress? Does it tie in with the "wait in line" quest?
