Love the game, hate the random

[Elhazzared]

Yes you're not going to get one ship that will kill in one single fight, it's nearly impossible, however it's mightly possible to take a load of damage in a single fight, maybe as far as half your hull but heck, even if i took like 6 or 7 damage in a fight early on, I'd immediatly deem it as utherly unacceptable. In fact same goes for any ship. Lots of damage in a fight early on is unacceptable, that shouldn't be happening unless you're screwing up major time and many times it happens simply due to RNG which stealth ships are especially prone to.

Not getting a load of scrap is pretty damn possible and a real problem, the lack of shops offering good stuff is also a problem and while yes, you can get a teleporter and invade, there tends to be a problem if you for some reason can't shut down the enemy weapons because your starting crew will take some time to kill the enemy crew and you can take a lot of damage in the process. Also you're sayign that your starting weapons are good for up to sector 4 or 5. I strongly disagree with this statement. Your starting weapons are good for the first two sectors, no more, no less. the moment the enemy starts having 2 shields and higher dodge chances there are very high possibilities that one shot misses and the beam can't do work. This is also further complemented with the beam doing only one damage so even assuming all hits, you will deactivate just one weapon and temporarly, meanwhile you're being hit by other weapon, possibly also drones. Again it's not that a fight will kill you, but you're granted to start taking damage every fight and how much depends on what you're fighting.

Lastly I'm not saying that you're lucky 90% of the times. What I'm saying is that those runs you've posted up so far are good runs, good scrap drops, fights almost every beacon and not on the side where you have to take a lot of damage. Also while you say 90% I'm sorry but I still reserve my doubt about you only losing 1 out of 10 runs you make... In some other ships I'd belive it, like the kestrel and even then I'm not sure I'd say 90%, probably more like 70% cause really, all it takes is one bad encounter to ruin a run.

[Nevill]

The only ship I considered highly luck-dependent is Stealth_B.

And I don't know why there's a lengthy argument about how many jumps you can do safely per sector when you can just use the average number of beacons explored in a normal run (~90-110) and divide it by 8— simple!

That's not fair, bringing facts into the argument between opinions!

As for luck, mantis cruiser fares badly against Zoltan ships. Engines 2 aren't charging fast enough to jump out of there without sustaining some serious damage, and a basic laser isn't eating that super shield fast enough. either. The Basilisk is even worse in that regard, but at least it gets missile immunity.

there tends to be a problem if you for some reason can't shut down the enemy weapons because your starting crew will take some time to kill the enemy crew and you can take a lot of damage in the process

There is no such problem. First, you disable their weapons, then you board. It isn't safe otherwise. By boarding, you prevent their weapons from being repaired. It is a simple and very effective synergy.

Unless you can't disable their weapons, but that means you can't get past their shields, and thus have much bigger problems to worry about.

Also you're sayign that your starting weapons are good for up to sector 4 or 5. I strongly disagree with this statement.

No, I said 3-4. You can get enemies with 3 tiered shields by the 4th sectors, especially in a Slug sector. One of my runs, I had only an anti-ship drone MkI and starting weapons against Slug ships, and each of their ships had 3 shields. I coud only do 1 damage with a beam, and only if all of my shots connected. I made it past the sector by utilising boarding and cloaking, and the next, 5th, sector had mantis ships with only 2 shields, making things trivial.

2 tiered shields are easier to overcome with a dual laser, than 3 tiered shields with a DL and a drone. Not easy, just easier.

[BKT]

When the situation went south but you're still alive, repeat this mantra: NEVER GIVE UP!

I NEVER find the mantis ships a luck-based ship at all— ever. The above mantra works particularly well in mantis ships, in fact!

[Elhazzared]

It's true, but it's the only problem, some automated ships are also a problem, the ones without doors at least... However I find mantis cruisers to be less prone to RNG because they have 2 shields and anti missile capabillities. This means than even most times you find a zoltan early on or even an auto-drone which you can't board you can just tank it, not really taking any sort of damage and then warp out. So while my problem is just a jump where i will get nothing, but I'll also hardly take any kind of damage, you're is that you can take damage. Any scrap I might lose from one or two jumps, I largely compensate for the fact that I win by boarding and gain extra scrap in every fight and a higher likelyhood of getting extra crew members... Obviously it hurts not having a single weapon here. The lack of having a way to get through zoltan shields or overcoming medbays early on are definitly a problem, but overall is a great ship that can most of the times get to the end with large amounts of scrap to spare.

[Nevill]

Also while you say 90% I'm sorry but I still reserve my doubt about you only losing 1 out of 10 runs you make... In some other ships I'd belive it, like the kestrel and even then I'm not sure I'd say 90%, probably more like 70% cause really, all it takes is one bad encounter to ruin a run.

I'm not saying I win the game 90% of the time. I already counted, and posted, it's 80%. I am not picking screenshots from good runs, I just play the game and post what I encounter.

Even the runs I lose, I lose much further in the game, so I am pretty confident that certain bad events at the start can't ruin you. How acceptable you find them, that's another story - it is a matter of opinion, and can not be the point of discussion.

However I find mantis cruisers to be less prone to RNG because they have 2 shields and anti missile capabillities. This means than even most times you find a zoltan early on or even an auto-drone which you can't board you can just tank it, not really taking any sort of damage and then warp out.

I was talking mostly about Mantis A. Mantis B can tank it no problem, sure.

But yes, not even 5 shots from a Zoltan can kill you in one go. The mantra might work.

[Elhazzared]

Well if you find it ok to just go on wasting lots of scrap to repair a ship time and time again because you have a bad start then alright, sure you can push foward but taking into consideration that even good runs have a possibillity of being ruined if you don't have a decent arment for the boss, a bad run is more prone to not only dying in the way, but not to get the said arment because of the lack of scrap to buy it if it shows up... But well indeed that is a thing for each player. Personally I don't like to go through the pain of a game when thing start bad and from there on I only expect suffering and nothing more the further I go, I'd rather cut my losses, start a new run in which I might have fun.

And yes, the mantis A is a bit weaker... Quite frankly I don't understand why a basic laser and not a dual laser but hey, you get what you get.

[Nevill]

Well if you find it ok to just go on wasting lots of scrap to repair a ship time and time again because you have a bad start then alright, sure you can push foward but taking into consideration that even good runs have a possibillity of being ruined if you don't have a decent arment for the boss, a bad run is more prone to not only dying in the way, but not to get the said arment because of the lack of scrap to buy it if it shows up...

You only need 4 lasers and a beam to kill the boss (I've done it with nothing more that a BL MkI on top of starting weapons), and you get 3/5 of that right off the bat. No, weapons are not a problem.

And this heated discussion started by me saying that Stealth A can aquire a bit of scrap to spare because it doesn't need much in way of upgrades in the first sectors. On good runs, this scrap pays for awesome weapons and augments. On bad runs it pays repair bills.

Personally I don't like to go through the pain of a game when thing start bad and from there on I only expect suffering and nothing more the further I go, I'd rather cut my losses, start a new run in which I might have fun.

Ah, but those turn into the most memorable runs. The extremely successful - lucky - runs aren't of much interest to me. If I think I'll manage it in any case, I just drop the game and start a new one. When you've got the ultimate gear, the only thing left to do is grinding your way to victory, and where is the fun in that? Now, getting there is another business.

[Twinge]

The Basilisk is even worse in that regard, but at least it gets missile immunity.

One small note here - Defense Drones aren't immunity on most ships due to the game coding and ship shape. DDs have a difficult time shooting down missiles on the far right of the screen, so on the Basilisk your two right-most rooms are especially likely to be hit by missiles that will make it past the Defense Drone -- you'll only shoot down between 90% and 95% if incoming fire (92% in 200 trials). The Engi Cruisers are the only ships small enough for the DDs to work nearly all of the time (99.5% in 200 trials).

[Elhazzared]

Well for you maybe. You may get like, one or two runs where you turn a bad start into a memorable run, in my case I've found out most of the times that a bad start is playing catch up and usually never really being able to. A game that will drag on with me just spending most of my scrap on repairs after repairs and never being able to get anything good for a break is just being dicked by the game to the point where it is no fun... I enjoy a challenge, just not straight up masochism... A game doesn't has to get me an awesome start, it just has to give me an average one for me to continue. Although to be fairly honest. These days my plays of FTL are either complete no matter how good or bad they turn to be for my let's play on youtube, or they are usually quick runs to try and get the crystal cruiser which illuded me so far.

And yes, defense drones aren't guaranteed 100% defense byt they are for the most part going to shot down everything. My main problem with defense drones is how incredibly stupid they are... Like if you get 2 out, they'll both fire at one missile instead of just one which would have more success defense chances. this makes it absolutly useless to use 2 defense drones against the mothership which bothers me to no end.

[UltraMantis]

I still belive that random elements break surewin "lazy" strategies and that's a great thing. It's also almost impossible to decide in the hangar what sort of build you want, it will allways have to depend on how things go. I understand the frustration randomness can cause but have to agree that it's not worth debating too deeply or trying to convert people to your belief.

About the Nesasio running out of steam later on... it has happened to me quite regularly but i mentioned that i play that ship without a shield so i need very high crunch power if i want to live in sectors 5 and 6. Sectors 1 and 2 are a cakewalk allways, sector 3 can go badly and beyond that it gets very difficult if all the stores decide to sell crew and drones. The Mini-Beam clobbers ships beautifully ( <3 Mini-Beam ) but something is desperatly needed to punch 3 layer shields. I once reached the boss with starting weapons it went about as well as you can imagine. I had to run away from all enemies in sectors 6 and 7.

But usually finding at least one decent weap is likely, esp. if you attack everything aggressively. And it's hands down my favorite ship. But silly stores can happen.