FTL Captain's Edition 1.308/Inf 1.301b/EL 1.308

[Mr. Mister]

Oh, and three engine is enough to avoid the rebel cruiser PDS, in contrast with what you said.

[jep]

Actually, while I had the order right, what I screwed up was that I was using "High-res background graphics" instead of BPaB. Got that sorted out, thanks.

The problem with the stronger ships was just bad luck that I encountered three of them in a row, each time attempting to jump away from the one before. I had yet to run into any stores selling any good weapons that would help me make a dent in 2+ shield bubbles. So while normally it would have just been a matter of holding on until jumping away, each time I jumped it just put me in more danger. And these weren't regular two bubble ships, they were the big rebel warships. Just bad luck, though. Not suggesting a change to the game or anything.

I'm not sure what to make of the three engine comment, though. By avoid do you mean evade? What really dug my grave were the swarm missiles on the second ship. I was already needing some hull patching going into the first ship which dented me a bit then the second one really thrashed me. The third one just finished me off (might have had damaged shields by that point as well).

[Mr. Mister]

Oh, that wasn't meant for you. I was saying that with three engine bars you can already jump away from a rebel target spotter before the PDS fire reaches you.

[jep]

Oh, right, PDS = Planetary Defense System. Gotcha.

Just wanted to note that I LOVE that and some of the other CE additions. Fantastic juicy scifi stuff!

[Fangz]

Great work! Thank you for making this mod. Also thanks for completely destroying my so beloved stats.

[Mr. Mister]

Oh, right, PDS = Planetary Defense System. Gotcha.

Actually, it's Point, not Planetary. PDS is the one you encounter if the rebel fleet catches up to you and decides to send a spotter ship.

Sleppy said that it's supposed to be more dangerous than planetary defense systems, in that it reaches you quickier (makes sense, since it's other ships instead of a planet), so you need more engines to charge the FTL drive before the impact. However, it seems to take the same time as planetary artillery systems (or, at least, way longer than what Sleepy said he intended).

[Awelgat]

Can you post the link you are going to, Awelgat? The link in the first thread that is labeled "Download Version 1.069" goes to:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/722 ... 01.069.ftl
As you can see from the URL, it's definitely an .ftl file and it worked like a charm for me once I downloaded Slipstream (as per the instructions in the first post), put that .ftl in the mods dir and ran modman.

I used the same link that you just provided except I clicked on it from the front page of the mod. Your link still gives me the same result with no .ftl. I get a few other files: audio, data, fonts, img, and mod-appendix.

Here's the link just so you have it and I also have already downloaded slipstream and I am using it to run two other minor mods to the game.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/722 ... 01.069.ftl

[Sleeper Service]

Actually all the PDS events, planetary or fleet, have slightly randomized fire patterns. The PDS can fire big burst that hit you late, or small ones that hit you earlier. Configurations in between are also possible. The slowest PDS charge time for fleet is about the quickest that planet PDS can have.

So sometimes it should be possible to escape the fleet PDS with 3 engines, sometimes it might not.

[ikeelyou300]

First off I would just like to congratulate you on this amazing mod. It is really "our" mod, the FtL players, I'm so amazed that so many different people's events and work can come together to make a mod that fits into the universe of the vanilla game and is somewhat balanced. Keep up the good work, I think this mod may have inspired the Advanced Edition update.

Anyway, I have some requests/ideas that I would love to see. Regarding the final boss I know that you are still trying to get your own tweaks to work, but I would like it if the boss could be more random, because currently no matter what you do she's always the same the next go around. For example sometimes you had to fight her in a nebula, sun, or ion storm or sometimes she would send mantis/rock mercenaries to board you, sometimes she might use different types of drones on not necessarily always the second stage, sometimes she would use the new weapons like the hacking weapons that were added in... You get the idea. I'm not sure if you have plans on diversifying or expanding the final boss, but it is the biggest request I have because the captains edition mod always seems to bring such a unique experience each time... Until the end, which is relatively the same as vanilla.

I don't really want a "harder" experience, because it's pretty hard, just a "different" experience each time. Personally also I think she could use more crew so you can't kill them all off as easily on the first round, I think the forward weapons should be connected to the main ship, and maybe just maybe a fourth stage or she should start off with 6 medium/low power weapons in the beginning and have 4-3 heavy weapons at the end so she doesn't just have 2 weapons that can easily be shut off by boarding.

So that's my rant about that, I love what you've done with the other events so far. Those damn scatter missiles and Planetary Defenses actually make running a viable option, and more enemies with lvl 2 doors make me think twice about boarding everyone. That is what I think is so great about this mod, the diversity. I wish it were possible to make the game longer so we could run into more events each game. Perhaps one day there will be an add-on that allows this mod to be used with the infinite space mod after you beat the final boss. I can only dream... So anyway everyone that's my tangent, I love this game, thanks for reading.

[jep]

Speaking of making running an option, I had a further thought along this line. Forgive me if it's already been mentioned (or even if it's already implemented!)

What if choosing to engage an enemy would make the rebel fleet advance more than running (when it's a choice from the menu)? That way it's an actual cost/benefit calculation rather than just "yeah, I can take these guys so I might as well get the scrap." It could be a fairly small amount, but enough that you have to take it into consideration. Might even be another even smaller amount when you choose to refuse a surrender and continue a battle. Again, it'd give you more of a calculation to do on whether it's worth letting the almost-dead ship go.

Of course, this would probably require slight rebalancing/nerfing of regular fleet movement. Because jumping away will mean forgoing scrap and you might need to stop more later to make sure you have enough to get necessary upgrades.

I assume something like this is possible, even if you don't like the idea. It'd be pretty much the same technique as the trade system uses to advance the fleet.