mrozowjj wrote:
So I watched your videos of the Torus ship. I'm going to say this and hope it doesn't offend, as a suggestion for future videos could you explain why you are doing what you are doing? In the video when the mantis beam aboard your ship you start moving people here and there and without the rational as to why you are doing that it's hard to really learn how to suck less at this game.
I only got boarded twice in the series and they were both in the 2nd video. The second one was obvious (they were in guns, I sent my guys in guns), so I assume you had questions about the first one. I will preface this by saying holy cow. There was no good way to fight that battle.
I sent my 2 mantises into the O2 room because it was under attack.
Then there were 5 mantises on my ship which is BS and holy crap (did I say holy crap yet?). I then sent both mantises and the 2 engi into the drone control because of 2 reasons: there were 3 mantises in there, and there were only 3 mantises in there. 4 of our guys on 3 of theirs is good, even if 2 of our guys are engis. It's not ideal by any means but I was going with what I had.
Then they took out my medbay which meant no medbots, and I therefore ran away. I essentialy gave up and let the mantises obliterate my ship. Eventually I got things under control however and kicked their butts.
My Videos - MY MOD HUB
Simo-V - The Potential - Automated Scout - "Low O2" Icons
The Black Opal - The Asteroid - The Enforcer - The Pyro
Hi there! This is my first post, but I've put a ton of hours into this game, and I have about 15 wins on normal, so I may have a few insights. Here are some things I've discovered along the way that improved my play:
As you discovered, you want to drag your feet through each sector as much as possible. If things are going well, you're earning more scrap in every battle than you spent in hull damage, missiles, etc.
Don't repair your hull too much or too soon. Obviously you don't want to die, but you'd rather buy things that stop you from taking damage in the first place. I usually spend much of the game at 30-40% hull, and I pretty much only repair when I can get it for 2 scrap per point, or when I REALLY need it. When I do repair, I usually stop at about 50%.
Look closely at the weapons on the enemy ships. You can tell what kind of weapons they have by the shapes (you'll figure them out pretty quickly, or you could look them up on the wiki) and how close they are to firing by the red/green lights on them. Noticing this his helped me improve my defense immensely. For example, if you see the enemy doesn't have any missiles, don't activate your defense drone--put that power into, say, the engines.
Level 2 doors are very good for managing boarding parties. If you're outmatched in combat, keep venting the rooms the boarders are in and try to guide them to the medbay.
Don't rely on missile weapons for damage, because you'll inevitably run out of ammo. They are good for taking out shields, helm, or medbay, but bombs are better, since defense drones can't shoot them down.
Two weak weapons are usually better than one strong one. Running out of slots for them is usually not a problem.
Fire your shots all at once, for the best possible shield penetration. If using burst weapons with beam weapons, pause as soon as you hit the last shield bubble, then fire the beam weapon. If using an anti-ship drone, fire your shots right after the drone hits the shield.
It's been mentioned, but power juggling is very important. taking power out of oxygen is the most obvious, but there are lots of other opportunities. For example, you don't need to keep your defense drone powered all the time--just wait until right after the enemy launches a missile. You can run an anti-ship drone and a defense drone on the same 2 units of power with a little micro. You can keep your engines unpowered until right after an enemy fires a shot. You can take power out of the shields if the enemy lasers aren't going to fire for a few seconds (watch the lights!). Cloaking and teleporters don't need power until you use them. In practice, what this all usually means for me is that the moment the enemy fires a volley, I steal power from all non-critical systems and dump in in the engines, then I pull it back right afterward.
Get to know the boss fight. I don't want to spoil too much for you, but it helps a lot to know that any crew killed in one stage will stay dead for the next stages. If you kill all the crew, an AI takes over, so you might want to leave at least one guy alive.
itg wrote:Hi there! This is my first post, but I've put a ton of hours into this game, and I have about 15 wins on normal, so I may have a few insights. Here are some things I've discovered along the way that improved my play:
As you discovered, you want to drag your feet through each sector as much as possible. If things are going well, you're earning more scrap in every battle than you spent in hull damage, missiles, etc.
Don't repair your hull too much or too soon. Obviously you don't want to die, but you'd rather buy things that stop you from taking damage in the first place. I usually spend much of the game at 30-40% hull, and I pretty much only repair when I can get it for 2 scrap per point, or when I REALLY need it. When I do repair, I usually stop at about 50%.
Look closely at the weapons on the enemy ships. You can tell what kind of weapons they have by the shapes (you'll figure them out pretty quickly, or you could look them up on the wiki) and how close they are to firing by the red/green lights on them. Noticing this his helped me improve my defense immensely. For example, if you see the enemy doesn't have any missiles, don't activate your defense drone--put that power into, say, the engines.
Level 2 doors are very good for managing boarding parties. If you're outmatched in combat, keep venting the rooms the boarders are in and try to guide them to the medbay.
Don't rely on missile weapons for damage, because you'll inevitably run out of ammo. They are good for taking out shields, helm, or medbay, but bombs are better, since defense drones can't shoot them down.
Two weak weapons are usually better than one strong one. Running out of slots for them is usually not a problem.
Fire your shots all at once, for the best possible shield penetration. If using burst weapons with beam weapons, pause as soon as you hit the last shield bubble, then fire the beam weapon. If using an anti-ship drone, fire your shots right after the drone hits the shield.
It's been mentioned, but power juggling is very important. taking power out of oxygen is the most obvious, but there are lots of other opportunities. For example, you don't need to keep your defense drone powered all the time--just wait until right after the enemy launches a missile. You can run an anti-ship drone and a defense drone on the same 2 units of power with a little micro. You can keep your engines unpowered until right after an enemy fires a shot. You can take power out of the shields if the enemy lasers aren't going to fire for a few seconds (watch the lights!). Cloaking and teleporters don't need power until you use them. In practice, what this all usually means for me is that the moment the enemy fires a volley, I steal power from all non-critical systems and dump in in the engines, then I pull it back right afterward.
Get to know the boss fight. I don't want to spoil too much for you, but it helps a lot to know that any crew killed in one stage will stay dead for the next stages. If you kill all the crew, an AI takes over, so you might want to leave at least one guy alive.
Very solid advice!
Although, running around at 30-40% hull strength would freak me out! lol
I'd also add that in most cases (and especially towards the end), the NUMBER of shots you can volley over at the other guy is sometimes more important than the amount of damage those shots are capable of doing. Because, shields are dropped per shot absorbed, even if it's a 1-damage laser or a 2 damage one. The goal needs to be obtaining enough shots per volley to take down enemy shields AND damage systems. Relying on bombs/missiles to do so will prove a dangerous game, because the ammo is expensive and there are often better options for dropping shield layers (Burst Lasers are awesome for this, as are Ion Cannons with recharge boost mod).
Also-also: PAUSE OFTEN. Figure out what's going on, organize your thoughts and regroup!
