AE, is NORMAL way harder?

[eskimo68]

Been enjoying FTL for ages and breezed through every ship on Easy and then Normal (in addition to doing all the challenges) prior to the 1.5 upgrade. Ok, breezed is a bit thick, it took me about two years playing once per week . No savescumming and always fight to the end nethack style. A few of the ships on normal took 30+ tries after all.

Last Summer I had all ships done and upgraded to 1.5.

BOOM.

After 30+ wins in the previous version I can't beat the damn thing on Normal. Ok, this is after 30 or so tries with the initial new ships. Sure I can get to the last sector but invariably I always have some horrible shortcoming like weapons only being two 2x lasers and that's it . And the only cloaking I've seen in the entire game has been when I had 149 cash etc.

Earlier it took 2-5h to play a session through (I'm a crazy optimizer and enjoy playing like that ). Now it takes 5-6h to get to the last sector and get beaten to a pulp by the 2nd boss at the latest.

Huh? I doubt I suck this badly. I also doubt the game is only winnable by forcing you to use at least one AE content addition.

What I do notice though is that the game seems *way more* optimized. You can almost (skip the word almost BTW ) guarantee anything you want to buy in a shop having a price tag +1 over what you have (also if you sell "less valuable items). Every time you get scrap you can just see that 9 ending (or sometimes a 4).

Well, thinking the first 100h without a win on Normal is not worth it if I intend to beat every ship on every level I downgraded to Easy. With less damage I have more money and beat the game at least 75% of the time (3 out of 4 so far). Less of a challenge but I rather see the new stuff than spend my life suffering. I guess I'll finish everything off and then try Normal or even Hard. More likely FTL 2.0 though .

The "free" new C ships are horrible to play with and the other C ships are more balanced?

Just bad luck? I do remember a lot of tries with one of the original ships on normal when I never got past sector 1 (IIRC it was no shields and a beam drone hitting your engines first no matter how you tried to escape, every damn time - must have been the first time I was frustrated enough to write in an FTL forum lol).

I kinda feels like a design flaw if Easy is the fun way to play, Normal really is Hard and Hard then is insane. I usually play all games on a medium setting not to have a too easy ride. Being a perfectionist and restarting if things aren't perfect playing most games on a Hard level would drive me insane .

But ok, today the noobs need Easy to survive at all. So maybe I should think of Easy/Normal/Hard being Normal/Value for money/Insane.

[stylesrj]

After 30+ wins in the previous version I can't beat the damn thing on Normal. Ok, this is after 30 or so tries with the initial new ships. Sure I can get to the last sector but invariably I always have some horrible shortcoming like weapons only being two 2x lasers and that's it . And the only cloaking I've seen in the entire game has been when I had 149 cash etc.

Ah the RNG makes fools of us all.
But seriously, you do need to change your gameplan if you are to beat Normal or even Hard in AE. If you see a Flak I in stories, purchase it as quickly as possible. That's a cheaper Burst Laser II with some accuracy issues, but at least it's faster.

AE is different but it shouldn't be that much difficult that you can't win a couple of times.

The "free" new C ships are horrible to play with and the other C ships are more balanced?

I agree. A lot of the new ships suck. Except for the Slug C. That ship is awesome.
I recommend you don't try those new ships if you're looking for an easy win (except Slug C. I managed to scrape a Hard victory out of that one)

I kinda feels like a design flaw if Easy is the fun way to play, Normal really is Hard and Hard then is insane. I usually play all games on a medium setting not to have a too easy ride. Being a perfectionist and restarting if things aren't perfect playing most games on a Hard level would drive me insane .

That's 90% of my Crystal B games on Normal and Hard. Especially Sector 1. How many Federation bases have fallen in how many parallel universes because I didn't like the next beacon leading me to a pulsar or solar flare?

But honestly, you can't play AE like the old days. You need to step up your game and learn how to effectively use the new systems. Mind Control is useful, don't throw a Hacking Drone on every ship you see and if you can, get Lanius crew, but if you have a choice between an Abandoned Sector for Sector 7 or an Engi sector or something, choose it. Abandoned Sectors become extremely hostile in later parts of the game (and the Lanius use all AE content).

Also, Clone Bay is your friend but don't buy it ASAP. Wait until midway in the game or you get a reconstructive teleporter. Remember to have fun too

[5thHorseman]

I essentially agree with stylesrj. The game isn't HARDER per-se (well maybe a little) but it's assuredly DIFFERENT. You're suffering from "It worked before, it should work now" syndrome. For Normal mode I had to tweak my upgrade time tables and prioritize certain things over others.

Wait until you try Hard mode. I had to throw my time tables out the window and go completely against everything I'd learned in previous games to get even a mildly respectable win ratio.

[eskimo68]

Ok, thanks for answering my rant .

I've changed my style a bit since hacking often is way too powerful. Targeting shields or weapons depending on what kind of ship you are running... too useful. Except against defense drones where you usually end up in the toilet unless at least something else is potent enough.

Mind control I'm not too fond of. Yes, it messes around with the enemy but I think my favourite use is taking back my own crew to have less distractions.

Definitely shifting towards using the clone bay. I hate losing even a single point of experience but once you are maxed it's just a small temporary loss.

And in 35 games I saw the vulcan laser or whatever for the first time. Ok, this one is way too powerful. If I liked the 5 shot laser in the old game this one is just crazy. Cloaking is almost a distraction. And I never use autofire but with this one I pretty much have to. With all the oops moments that come with it.

But I've seen reverting to my most basic strategy seems to work best.

"Save scrap EVEN if destroyed. Better to die rich than suffer poor."

If I get bumped I'll start again with a clean conscience. If not, once I have enough scrap I always keep a safe buffer. FTL simply cannot screw you with shop prices if you have enough scrap. And shops are guaranteed with the odd map where they are stuck in dead ends.
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[stylesrj]

Mind control I'm not too fond of. Yes, it messes around with the enemy but I think my favourite use is taking back my own crew to have less distractions.

I'm not as fond of it now myself since the iPad version updated it. So even if you put no power into Mind Control, if it gets hacked, it'll still control someone. I just thought it was something Captain's Edition did to make it less viable but it's actually a feature by the looks of it.

The only benefit now to powering down mind control during a hacking scenario is that you save those power bars for something else. Otherwise it's a permanent loss of power.

Definitely shifting towards using the clone bay. I hate losing even a single point of experience but once you are maxed it's just a small temporary loss.

Unless it's Shields. But then again why is your Shields Zoltan/Engi (it will be one of those) out in combat for that to be an issue?

And in 35 games I saw the vulcan laser or whatever for the first time. Ok, this one is way too powerful. If I liked the 5 shot laser in the old game this one is just crazy. Cloaking is almost a distraction. And I never use autofire but with this one I pretty much have to. With all the oops moments that come with it.

Vulcan is cool if high-risk at low Weapons levels. I'm a huge fan of the Flak I. Sure it's inaccurate but 3 projectiles for only 2 power and it's more common and cheaper than a Burst Laser 2? Sign me up!

If I get bumped I'll start again with a clean conscience. If not, once I have enough scrap I always keep a safe buffer. FTL simply cannot screw you with shop prices if you have enough scrap. And shops are guaranteed with the odd map where they are stuck in dead ends.
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I think they fixed the problem where sectors got too unreasonable with stranded beacons Never encountered them myself but I think only Abandoned Sectors are real jerks in terms if beacon placement but that makes sense. The Lanius probably ate all the good ones.

[brrrmanza]

You know, I thought that AE was harder initially. It just has some different aspects (as other folks mentioned) that take a little practice to effectively use. One major tough part of Normal mode is the fact that more ships have clone/med bays much sooner and more commonly throughout the starting sectors.

Honestly, I was hatin' on a lot of the C layouts, also... and I know this might generate some flak... But, I just WHOOPED my record with the Fregatidae on Normal! I played one game and was beaten to a pulp in Sector 1 (auto-scouts, no weapons/boarders only, and sslloowwww artillery). I came back with a vengeance and just destroyed everything in my path. The Teleporter had me turning down additional crew members very early (full roster).

I also just had my first victory (ever) with The Shrike on Normal. It is now my 5th place bestie. The kicker here, is that I only found one store with any decent weapons (I love Ion Bomb against Boss 3), but I got busy and exited, and forgot I was at a store when I returned and jumped away...
I made it thru the game with the Adv. Flak, Swarm Missles. That's IT!! I even paid for the Swarm. I only got one weapon drop, stupid repair bomb, and didn't even get to sell it since I got it too late in sector 7... I had a Rockman/Mantis tele combo, with Human/Engi backup (if nec). I max'd everything except weapons & sensors and had about 100 scrap at Boss 1. Nothing to spend it on. Augments: Reconstructive Teleport, Backup DNA, Scrap Arm. My 8th System was Cloaking.


I honestly felt like the biggest difficulty change up was the first 2 rounds of the boss. On Easy, it was usually challenging. When I started going Normal only a few months back, I found rd 1 & 2 very easy... Maybe it was just me.

And as for Clone Bay... I get that ASAP on most ships. I don't mind losing EXP--I can't stand losing crew. They're vital and all, but on certain ships, losing a crew member very early/to a weak enemy is overly frustrating and can make for a very tough run for a few sectors (until you replace), or it makes for a nasty Game Over when you get particularly bad luck... I think Clone Bay is my single favorite AE feature. Initially, I hated and avoided it. I felt losing a crew member during random events was part of the experience, and the CB cheapened it... CB + Backup DNA FTW

BTW, Carnelian destroys. It's amazing right off the shelf. Getting a weapon fast is the only issue. Or upgrading Piloting and boarding with all 3 Crystal men. I've also had some very good luck with the Tetragon (only Engi I play anymore) . Cerenkov was tough. It took awhile to get the Victory on Normal... I am still working on Simo H... So many good runs cut down in their prime.... I'm not big on Ariolimax. And all of the rock ships are tough to acclimate--I don't have a Normal Victory on one yet... I think I know where I'm going to be focusing the next few runs...

Oh yeah, and this is my first post. I've been playing for about 1.5 years.

[stylesrj]

And as for Clone Bay... I get that ASAP on most ships. I don't mind losing EXP--I can't stand losing crew. They're vital and all, but on certain ships, losing a crew member very early/to a weak enemy is overly frustrating and can make for a very tough run for a few sectors (until you replace), or it makes for a nasty Game Over when you get particularly bad luck... I think Clone Bay is my single favorite AE feature. Initially, I hated and avoided it. I felt losing a crew member during random events was part of the experience, and the CB cheapened it... CB + Backup DNA FTW

I used to think like that myself. But for dedicated boarding ships, I like to keep it for a few sectors until I get a reconstructive teleporter, then I swap medbay out for a Clone Bay.

While losing to a weak enemy early on is frustrating and that Zoltan Weapons License event with 6(!) Zoltans boarding you (Medbay won't save you if you kill them all too quickly) is BS, the medbay means you can get your crew healed and back into action before the next jump.

That means they won't die to the first swipe of an Engi's fist, then you wait for them to come back in the Clone Bay only to then have it destroyed by a missile strike and your crew dies for good.

There are many uses for a Clone Bay but I wouldn't swap it out ASAP. It's not the XP penalties that get me, it's the revive time and health restoration after each jump. The better health your crew is in, the better they'll be at fending off boarders and destroying the enemy Weapons system.

[r543]

I know that feeling, I was able to play the game somewhat well on easy before AE, but AE changed that up by a lot, the normal sectors and ships were fine, but the final boss....

You don't need one of the new modules to win, but if you don't get one you need luck with the hacking module(it needs to get on something "useless", O2 or doors don't hurt that much, and cloaking isn't too bad because the Flagship only uses the hacking when it cloaks(and you aren't going to use the cloak at that point), teleporter is more annoying but doesn't hurt too much. If it picks a important module, jump away and try again, at first I thought that the Flagship would have 1 set module that it always hacks on that ship but it looks like it's random.

If you got hacking, instead of Drones or Cloak(getting it instead of the teleporter is not worth it), you can use that

The second phase didn't change that much, it's almost the same.

Now, for the 3rd phase, in most runs you would have almost won if you reached this, or if you didn't have trouble with the other 2 phases this one would be no problem. In AE this one can be difficult and destroy you in no time even if you did good and took no hit in the 2 fights before that.

The Mind Control can be very annoying, again it's luck based and I really recommend to put a Slug member in the Piloting system, they are immune to Mind Control so you will never have 0% evasion. If one of your members(which isn't important, like for example one in the door/sensor room) is mind controlled, send in a weak attacker(anything but a mantis, engi works too) to keep them from destroying the system, you can wait a bit and let them attack the system, but stop them from doing that after 75% of the bar is red. This should give you enough time for the mind control to wear off, other than the added Mind Control, it's not too much different, but it can really mess up your runs on the last fight.

Hacking(to remove the Mind Control) or using your own Mind Control against it works too, if you get them instead of a normal system that is.

A alternative to the default strategy is to use the "leave the crew in the 3 shot heavy laser alive and finish off everyone else", you might remember that this was the ultimate boarding back in the old FTL editions and they wanted to nerf that, but to be honest, this strategy works well, almost too well against the new Flagship, use the hacking on the medbay to block the doors while you break it, then defeat the crew and you can offline any of the systems quickly. The same can be done with a crystal or with the shield systems, if you have a clone bay and a teleporter+somewhat good boarding crew, you should do this all the time, it's the last battle, so loosing some skill isn't too bad and not having the risk to loose your crew members forever is great in this final fight.

Speaking of the Clone Bay, it's a great addition because you can risk way more things, micro healing between jumps is also neat because you no longer need to wait for everyone to heal up. But it lacks the healing against boarding/getting boarded, after a fight you most likely only have like 25 hp left, at that point it's better to open up the airlocks to create a new fresh clone with skill, without taking risk after the battle instead of going into the next battle and having to worry about taking the clone bay online. The teleport healing fixes this "issue", and makes it one of the best setup for boarding. Even without that it's useful, but I'd try to keep the medbay and then maybe switch it for a clone bay late game, because that's where it will be the most useful.

This doesn't mean that it's way harder, had a very good run yesterday(using Rock C), and destoryed the Flagship in no time. But it can still end fights quickly with bad luck(had a Stealth C run where I got 2 Flak 2's today, phase 1 and 2 were easy and I took almost no damage, phase 3 destroyed everything very quicky).

Some of the C Layouts are gimmicky, but there are some decent ones, like Mantis C, which combines the boarding help of A and the mass boarding of B, or the Slug C, you finally get the hacking that they kept using in the text events. The Lanius ships are also nice, won the game in AE with the B Layout of it, get a second or third flak 1 and you are good to go on weapons.

Which ones do you mean with "free" ? I could post a little help guide if you wanted.

I sometimes wish that there was a option to play without the AE update, like to have everything back from the pre AE update, including skins and having the AE content completely off. AE isn't bad and it's fun with it's new content but sometimes you really wish the old FTL back for some things.

[brrrmanza]

There are many uses for a Clone Bay but I wouldn't swap it out ASAP. It's not the XP penalties that get me, it's the revive time and health restoration after each jump. The better health your crew is in, the better they'll be at fending off boarders and destroying the enemy Weapons system.

I opt for doors (or send a runner to the doors to lock it up) and preoccupy boarders while I open the airlocks to suffocate the intruders. I will let boarders go to about 90% damage on single power rooms, and if in a pinch, I'll let them damage a cell or two (but not enough to break the system and cause hull dmg).

Honestly, It's a hinderance at times, but if they're at 1/2 health or under, I kill them off. It takes time for them to clone, but that's why I don't play fullscreen and just hop onto interwebs or something. I feel that the medbay's heal rate at lvl 1 is just as slow and tedious... I really dig the C ships (and others) that come with a Clone Bay so I don't have to seek it out. Reconstructive Teleport is fantastic, easily one of the best aug's... but, again, I'll clone my crew if I don't have it. So long as it's only boarders you do this to often, then they're usually getting 2+ kills, and losing 1 kill EXP, so they slowly lvl up.

Hacking, I'm not entirely sold on. I've missed out on a lot of the Blue Text for Hacking, but, on ships that use Drones, I think it's tough to keep enough drones in play without the Drone Recovery Aug. (which, I'd rather use for something better). Hacking can be especially powerful, I know, but it's most useful when the ships are really strong and you can't get through the shields/weapons swift enough to prevent hull damage... My reason for avoiding Hacking is usually that whatever I've hacked, I usually end up breaking the system and my drone part/system is no longer useful. Personal preference, but I'd rather have Pegasus, Breach II or Swarm with Explosive Replicator over Hacking.

One of my favorite weapons is the Anti-Bio Beam. So fun to evaporate the enemy. In early sectors the Slug Cruiser tends to take a beating due to charge time... Does anyone find the Ion Intruder especially useful?

I take it back... The best features of AE are: Save anywhere (not just when Safe) & Home Stations