Carnelian - set to darn right impossible on normal?

[eskimo68]

After about two years of playing I've finally got to the LAST ship in the original version (two kids, do the math ). For the record, I've played every ship on basic and then every one on normal. Soon I can update to the new stuff, or so I thought

Carnelian which was a nice ship on basic as long as you didn't get too unlucky seems darn right impossible on Normal.

After 4 games I've just quit disgusted at the end of sector 1 in each and every one and I've *never* quit before (I play this like Nethack).

For the first 3 runs I NEVER saw ANY event and there's not much to do with 10 credits in a shop. Each and every ship I encountered was either an auto-assault or had Zoltan shielding. Sacrificing a crew member is not fun and hoping the 10% Vengeance will give you a lucky break before you take too much damage is like watching grass grow.

I've tried restarting the game (not rebooting the computer but I will try that too soon ) but it's not helpful.

I was betting there is some sick "Last Ship" setting making this last attempt crazy but during my 4th play I actually managed to see one event I could not reach and at the end of the sector I even found one ship that I could attack (drones and crew like mad) and one ship that bribed me off. Wow.

But still, we are talking about 60-80-100 jumps in 4 games with "impossible" ships and solar flares being massive if you end up near a sun(like 4 rooms hit).

The gambler in me just started puking because of the probabilities so I ended up here asking what's possibly going on since I couldn't find any rational explanation on Google.

FTL version 103.3

Disclaimer: I'm not drunk. I wish I was actually

[Leylite]

Yup, you've discovered the one weakness of the Crystal B - running into a lot of auto-ships or Zoltans in the early game. It's still not too bad, though, since you have shields and cloak, so you can usually run away from them without taking too much damage.

Even if Sector 1 goes lousy... you don't get very much scrap from Sector 1, so it's still sometimes worthwhile to go to a more favorable Sector 2 (e.g. a Slug nebula or Rebel sector if possible, Mantis and Rock are less nice but still workable), and that way run into fewer ships.

Once you get any kind of weapon, and get your defenses up, the Crystal B is the best boarding ship in the game and will typically just streamroll the last few sectors (including the Flagship). Relatively speaking, of course: FTL never rolls over and plays dead!

[eskimo68]

I knew the weakness, I just hadn't seen the computer roll triple 6 80 times before

As a side note, I didn't quit the last game where I had managed to scrape together 31 scrap at the exit beacon of S1. Continued that just for fun and then I got more normal ships. Now at sector 5 with my single heavy laser.

FTL must be the best value for money I've made in the last three years. Unless it's Elven wars collection for 5 bucks which satisfied my Panzer General needs for two years as well.

[LostAlone]

It may not be clear to you right now - But the carnelian is perhaps the single best ship in the game. Like many of the weirder (and more busted) ships in the game the challenge comes from having a weaker early game, and specific weaknesses to specific things. Being able to send two or three crystal boarders onto any ship in sector one or two means a quick, effective kill and you being more scrap than would normally be the case. But the downside is sometimes you are going to have to run away.

There are going to be lots of restarts, and I know that kinda sucks, but once you get to the later sectors you'll see the Crystal B wreck the hell out of everything - It's worth remembering that right out of the gate you have very nearly everything you need to kill the flagship; the only additions you must pick up is some way to handle the super shield on part 3.

[stylesrj]

There will definitely be a lot of resets with that ship. Especially on Hard Mode - your first encounter could be a supernova with an automated scout with missiles... and Mind Control.