Sleeper Service wrote:Alright, nebula mass reduction is scheduled.
Are you sure it's a good idea? I have been to AI sector half a dozen times, and I never encountered too much nanoclouds. It feel absolutely right, IMO - even original reporter suspected, that this might have been his bad luck on sector layout.
BTW - I think that new hazards are *awesome*. The "placeholder" station in radiated zone was one of the biggest surprises in FTL I had in ages (alongside goodies in AI overrun sector), and I absolutely, completely *love* how those things force me to consider doing different ship upgrades, than I was used to. IMO, it feel very balanced, and, for once, I'm, sometimes, buying medbay lvl3, life support level lvl3, etc - IIRC, I *never* did it before, unless in sector 8 when I was having excess scrap and nothing to spend it on (it was long ago, before CE added so much cool stuff to buy/produce/obtain

). Heck, last game, after one Slug ship disabled few bars of my max upgraded engines *and* 1 bar of cockpit - which was my only one bar, so it rendered *whole* engines useless - I started upgrading helm. And that speaks something, as it was most useless thing to spend scrap on, before.
Speaking of which - AI overrun sector is indeed absolute pinnacle in terms of climax and being flavor-heavy. I had a run through it, that felt like whole campaign on it's own. I ventured into nanoclouds - first it was only hazard, without any enemies. Then, on next jump, AI ship controlling nanobots popped in, with event text stating that "nanocloud might track my exact position between every jump". Wow, it felt like being connected with me venturing deeper into nanocloud, even though I know it isn't possible by engine. Then, on next jump, AI decided to surround my ship with with makeshift teleporting devices, announcing way via my own intercom "We're coming" (event text series during this one is one of the best in whole game, IMO, I literally felt those lights going out and fighting deadly holograms appearing from out of nowhere with ifra-red vision goggles on. Heck yeah, System Shock!). By kindness of RG, on the very *last* nebulae'ized beacon, AI announced in Shodan'esque, that "it was amusing to watch me going through their sector, but I've gone far enough", and decided to shot makeshift artillery. After getting rid of AI spotter, I got text that we're leaving, not wanting to see what AI decide to throw on us now - just when I was indeed leaving nanoclouds! It was awesome.
BTW, meeting hippies AIs smoking weed and relaxing was another favorite WTF moment. Sleeper will know what even I have in mind. It was great break from the "so serious" tension. Which reminds me - I've meet some rebels in AI sector, too, thinking "how the hell they have survived AIs". It doesn't feel off - after all, they could be lucky or tough enough - but, it might be good idea to create some events, where we meet rebels actually harassed by AI, or result of those (just like we see AI eating away Zoltan ship - it would be cool to meet rebel cruiser or even squadron of those, decimated by AI, which equal probability to fight one of cruisers or one of AI ships, depending on luck or equipment we have - it could affect which party notices us).
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Now, as promised, huge bug jar - bon appetite. Order is as I encountered and written it, so serious things will be mixed with minor or bug-or-feature? ones.
Tested version:
1.096b1. Vanilla event, where we meet station "
hit hard by the war" and in need of drones (where we can sell them) can't be attacked pirate way. It also could contain a nice placeholder neutral station

. (Severity: Minor).
2. The "legendary" quest, where we're hired to check delivery convoy that is weeks late - one of the possible outcomes, is to see pirate attacking crippled convoy. If we defeat pirate, we get scrap from it, and even text state, that convoy give us reward, too - although, no 2nd reward is given. Unless higher reward is already implemented to pirate's "corpse"? (Severity: Medium).
3. I have been through dozens of "boarded without enemy ship" events, and none of them gave me any reward. Maybe I've messed something, and it wasn't implemented yet? Anyway, here is list of some of them (stopped noting, when I got the feeling that it doesn't work at all): (Severity: Medium or "Feature not implemented yet")
a) Mantises invading us during "
your world suddenly changed" and "derelict mantis ship encountered" events.
b) Sensors jammed as "
part of boarding operation"
// EditI've actually run into situation, where reward for defeating boarders *worked*:
http://s30.postimg.org/shgqizlj4/teleport.jpg...so I assume that this report is valid, after all.
4. Dual laser II is actually a *downgrade* from dual laser I. Unless description lies. (Severity: Medium)
5. The event, when "
young mantis in charred uniform" teleport to us, seeking asylum - having slug on board *doesn't* allow to check his mind and determine intentions. (Severity: Medium)
6. The Fed sector quest (obtained when playing Fed cruiser or having long-range scanners and choosing to help them), after beating rebel cruiser and seeing rebels on the run - reward is more likely "standard" for defeating a single ship on a given sector number. It could get boosted, as this lead cruiser really got some punch. Same for 2nd part of the quest, when we arrive on abandoned battlefield, and fight lone (yet quite powerful) cruiser - after defeating it, event text state, that we're "
gathering remains of many ships". I know that there must be some balance, but reward feels like standard one for defeating a single ship, again - it's quite anti-climatix, reward could get boosted, even if only for not being so immersion-breaking

(Severity: Feature enhancement)
7. Vanilla event when someone want to trade drones for fuel - we can't pirate him, also no placeholder neutral ship (trader appear and can be pirated in other events, so it could get fixed for consistency). (Severity: Minor)
8. Inside industrial sector, there was a beacon when event text explicitly stated, that particle density clogged my engines *and* sensor. Neither one was affected. Maybe it's intended, as none was upgrade very high at this time. (Severity: Medium or "It's a feature")
9. You may want to check stats of "Big bomb" vs "breach bomb" (lowest tier one) - Big Bomb is breach bomb clone, except that it's much worse. I know some things are just better than others, but big bomb is tier 2 and more expensive - it's shame that it's so useless, now. I thing that it could have more distinct characteristic, than being a weaker sister of weakest breach bomb, "Big bomb" name means something

(Severity: Feature enhancement)
10. Zoltan's sectors appear as red (hostile) in sector's map. (Severity: Minor?)
11. Heavy Ion Drone - I know, I was the one that reported it being severely OP for the first time (and indeed, it was). But, currently, the drone is nerfed too much. High power requirement is OK, but the drone's speed is a joke - it's clearly the slowest drone in galaxy. I've hit situations, where I spent whole lvl3 cloak *and* got shot 5 times by hull ripper II drone, before damn Heavy Ion made *first* shot! Most of the time, it seemed that it's not going to shot during this millennium. I know, that it's low speed is intended as way to prevent Ion chaining (and making it OP again), so I have 2 ideas how to fix it:
a) Less favorable (IMO) - boosting it speed a little, to make it that generally doesn't chain, but can do sometimes, if randomization between shots get very favorable for us. Could be hard to tweak it, one would need to hind a sweet spot, where it it "just" at the edge of chaining.
b) My favorite idea - it is Heavy Ion, after all. We have Heavy Ion weapon, that suffered from the same problem, and got property of doing 1 system damage on hits, as addition to Ion damage. So, why Heavy Ion Drone couldn't get the same? It could retain it's pathetic speed - at least, now it would be worth waiting for.
(Severity: Feature enhancement)
12. One of the guns of this Corvette is "floating" in space: (Severity: Minor'ish minor)
http://s9.postimg.org/einl0vwkt/gibs.jpg13. There is lacking "Zoltan'ish negotiations boost" for pirate event in nebula:
http://s30.postimg.org/3v9wxbgsf/zoltan_negotiation2.jpg14. Negotiating here seems off. The same problem is valid for all AI ships, including every one in AI Overrun sector:
http://s29.postimg.org/lt05hm379/negotiating_ai.jpg15. Zoltans negotiating higher surrender still feels quite UP:
http://postimg.org/image/tv3jqv4x5/Leaving the augment aside (it's RG thing), even the bare scrap is 50% worse than "white" option. Maybe its just RG thing too (generated best possible outcome for white and worst possible for blue, for example) - it's a pity, that the same RG result can't be applied to both white and blue option (so, it would be low for both, but still better for blue, or superb for both, yet even more superb for blue). (Severity: Medium or Wontfix)
16. Not necessary a bug report, and I'm not even entirely sure, if it should be fixed, but...
http://s23.postimg.org/x8k7crzru/r_drone_carrier.jpg... this ship seems quite too powerful for sector 2 (notice it's drones *and* weapons). Still, I managed to win this (with 1 hull point), and I don't have anything against meeting opponent that I have to RUN! from, once in a while. So, as said, I'm not even sure if I want to see this one nerfed or not

Maybe it could get limited, somehow, to have only support laser weapons, without powerful focus Beam (the smaller one would still fit) or heavy rocket artilleries? After all, he should be focused on drones, yep? Now it seems that it's sole weapon loadout could serve as armament on it's own. (Severity: Fix or not to fix?)
Cheers,
/Estel
// EditSleeper Service, what is your view on CE's player ships loadout, after latest change? Do you think that it is core part of CE, and is balanced enough to be considered a "canon" part of the experience, with vanilla loadout being "off" and possibly unbalancing? Or, like with earlier releases, modified player's ship loadouts are a spin-off that can be unbalancing, and vanilla loadouts are the "preferred" thing for balance purposes?