Subset Games Forum

mine would be more like loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss,RAGEQUIT,sleep, loss, loss, loss, what, I won??? loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, loss

shadowcrust wrote:I made the Red-Tail into a boarding ship, only to meet mostly cloaking Auto Scouts and oxygen-less (mostly also cloaking) Lanius bombers from then on... in hindsight, I shouldn't have chosen two abandoned sectors and nebulas

Seriously. Every time I accidentally hit a lanius sector with a boarding ship I groan inside.

That said, Lanius A as a boarding ship with the two lanius as the boarders? ALWAYS A HOOT

I fucking hate this game so much.

Another series of screenshots, but I've got a story to tell as well.

The Vortex, after using its ion weapon against a haywire defense satellite, jumped at the second beacon into a monster of Auto Assault (now called Auto Hacker), which first event-hacked my shields (it's a little hard to see at forum resolution, but the uppermost shield bar is blue) and the ship-hacked my cockpit (sorry for double-posting this picture, but it was too hilarious).



It hit my cockpit for two flames with the Artemis and the weapon room with the Basic Laser. Thanks to the Repair Drones, damage was somewhat mitigated and I turned out victorious, but with 10 hull damage received.



Next fight was taking its toll as well, 5 more hull damage (forgot which ship the fight was against). Then a slaver, hurray! However, it didn't want to surrender and offer me a slave, so I destroyed it and still had only one crew. Bought a human at a store, and then I got a lucky streak. Was offered another human for surrender, got an Engi from the horsies, and two Smith Mantis (I don't tell the events, but you get a Mantis named Smith if successful). Got the full crew complement by about sector 4 or 5. By then I had a Flak I and a Hull Laser I, and I passed up two possibilities (had enough scrap, though) to buy a Breach II. Then I had the chance to sell my Heavy Laser for a Hull Laser II, but passed up on that as well ("will get another opportunity"). Didn't get another opportunity, so that was my flagship loadout as well. Got a cloak and hacking, then it went downhill. In sector 5, I missed to get a Zoltan shield. Lost my two Mantis to very strong boarding Mantis (sector 7), one because I didn't pay attention how superfast it was killed (the attacking Mantis was almost one third health still), the other one was sniped by a Burst Laser Mk III on its way to the medbay (wasn't paying attention to that as well). Had no chance to replace the missing crew anymore before the flagship battle. Had to run from Mantis bombers equipped with a Chain Ion (three in a row were equipped with that abomination) and didn't make much scrap at all in sector 6 and 7, a couple of ships jumped away pretty much nanoseconds before they were destroyed. Hardly was able to upgrade shields to level 4 before the final battle, and to maximise hacking.

Flagship battle was easier than expected, it hacked my hacking and I hacked its shields, phase I over. Boarding drone in phase II was a bit of a pain, but I hacked again shields, phase II over. Repaired 4 or 5 hull damage with Hull Repair drone, into phase III. Had no sensors and no slug, so I didn't know how much crew to expect from the flagship. Turns out I had killed all crew but two, was boarded by one and my captain (of course) was mindcontrolled. Still not too bad, but my weapons were bad enough that I had to gnaw on two Zoltan shields, but emerged victorious with the sixth flawless victory (again thanks to the very nice Hull Repair drone).





Was a good run, although I was quite annoyed at myself when I lost my two nice Mantis - but who needs Mantis when you got hacking?

Vortex: loss (by planetary surface investigation after three jumps in old AE profile), win (1/2) (old and new AE profiles combined, in case you wonder about the last image)

So... how can I too achieve these crazy win rates? Looks like many of these wins have flak cannons or vulcan, how do you manage to find ideal weapon setups every game? That's where I struggle most, grabbing a cloak and still having scrap at the right time for weapons. What to skip and what not to skip?

MightyThor2000 wrote:So... how can I too achieve these crazy win rates? Looks like many of these wins have flak cannons or vulcan, how do you manage to find ideal weapon setups every game? That's where I struggle most, grabbing a cloak and still having scrap at the right time for weapons. What to skip and what not to skip?

Sometimes you get those, sometimes you don't. You generally don't see the screenshots of the win with a dual laser, a hull missile, a heavy laser, and a heavy ion, as they're not very spectacular.

Knowing which events pop out which options, and for which upgrades, helps a lot. Upgrading piloting and sensors may seem like a waste of scrap, but can regularly score you some free stuff in asteroid fields and nebula. Teleporters are great for scrounging up new crew.

The choices you make for which sector you're about to jump into make a huge difference. If you've spare scrap and you're cruising for a weapon, it's generally appropriate to hit a green sector. If you're good on weapons/boarding then maybe you want to hit that red sector. Boarding ship? Avoid those lanius sectors. See a Zoltan Homeworld? Definitely hit that, as you've a decent chance of finding the zoltan quest, and a 50/50 chance of getting the zoltan shield, which makes things a lot easier. After you get 2 bubbles of shields and 4 engines and a couple decent weapons, it generally behooves you to save scrap around for things like a cloak.

How you jump around the sector requires some strategy. If you don't have Adv Sensors (which are awesome) you need to do a sort of zig-zag where you maximize your ability to 'see' distress and stores. That isn't to say you should go to all the distress and stores (it depends on your ship/crew complement and spare scrap/items), but it helps to be cognizant of what's around you. Also, if you see a shop in your sector nodes, don't jump straight to it. Try to map a path AROUND it so the last jump you do is to that shop, and then out to a fresh node away from the rebel fleet. This way you've got 2-3 nodes worth of scrap saved up for that shop.

To a large extent, most of the game revolves around damage avoidance combined with effectively disabling the enemy ship in a consistent fashion. To this end, certain items (like defense drones) can save you a lot of scrap in the long run. A scrappy saved is a scrappy earned.

MightyThor2000 wrote:So... how can I too achieve these crazy win rates? Looks like many of these wins have flak cannons or vulcan, how do you manage to find ideal weapon setups every game? That's where I struggle most, grabbing a cloak and still having scrap at the right time for weapons. What to skip and what not to skip?

Adapt to what you get dropped or can buy. Look at the screenshots without Vulcan and without Flak (although Flaks are very common and fit into pretty much any setup), you can win the game with a huge variety of weapon setups. There is no "ideal" weapon setup (well, maybe there is, but you don't need it), there is a "working" weapon setup.

Close! Main goal other than winning was getting the blue options achievement, and while I managed to have 5 different crew members already in sector 1 (Human, Slug, Zoltan, Rock and Mantis) and was getting to each and every distress beacon, I managed to get zero (0) blue options for my crew... in sector 5 my Rock was eaten by spiders (bon appetit), and I had to buy four more crew, no more volunteers wanted to join, I guess my bad reputation is preceding me.

Couldn't afford a cloak when I could buy one, and when I had enough scrap, I couldn't find a ship selling one anymore, so I took Drone Control in the last sector 7 shop.

Had a nice encounter in Slug Home Worlds, where some ships with Glaive Beam lurked. One had a Ion Blast as well, so I deactivated my three shields to not give the Beam something to chew. Ion Blast landed exactly in the shield room, and during the ionisation the Glaive Beam struck for 3x 3 damage instead of 3x 1 damage... brilliant move.

In the last stand, I had to jump through an overtaken beacon to reach the Base, and I had five engines and fully trained engineer and pilot. Charged the FTL as fast as possible, but still got struck by the ASB half a second before I could jump, so at least in sector 8 five engines + trained crew is not enough to ensure no damage from the ASB.

First two flagships were alright (again forgot to activate my anti-drone drone, I think I won't buy one of these anymore), the third one was tough, as five crew boarded and my shield Mantis was turned - my shields were down to 2 before I could thwart them. Made the mistake to hack Mind Control instead of something more useful in my panic and had to endure a second Zoltan shield, but still worked out, if only very narrowly.

Nisos: win (1/1)

Overall this profile: 13/23, all AE profiles: 19/33

Another installment in our favorite series of flagship goes BOOOM!



This time it was actually way too easy, everything fell into place. I got a Halberd Beam in sector 1, and then I got another Halberd Beam, I think in sector 2. Hacking only in sector 5, and cloak and mind control in sector 7. I should have made it an all beam ship and one-shot the flagships, but I spent the scrap for the 8th weapon level on other stuff and the scarcity of ships at beacons became apparent in the low level of scrap I had, eventhough I only once paid for (five) hull repair during the whole game.

Flagship was down before it even started.

Noether: win (1/1)

Six ship win streak.

I like Zoltan A and B. People bag on them for some reason, but they always seem solid to me.