Appeal of the Stealth Cruiser type A?

[MC3craze]

I don't think the ship's other systems are good enough to make up for the lack of shields and mediocre weapons. Sure you get great engines and a cloak, but the venting pattern and starting crew is really poor. In addition, your weapons are quickly outclassed, not much leeway when compared to a ship like the kestrel. Which can in theory go without weapon upgrades until sector 5.

I despise the ship, and only used it enough to unlock the stealth B (which I think is actually viable.)

[Agg Shell]

i think the weapon set is actualy fairly decent. 2 shots for 1 power and about 3 damage from a low power beam is good. sure you might need weapon upgrades sooner than other ships, but hey, it's ftl. I mean, i beat the game with no other weapon upgrades other than burst mk. 2. Also, you can sell the titanium system casing for an extra 50 scrap towards your shields system. infact, i like it better than the type B, because w/ the type B 1 shot towards the weapons and you're screwed. type A lets you disable at least 2~3 systems fairy soon. but we all have our own way of playing FTL, and i can't force you to like the type A.
...
or can i?

[Dralax]

Main appeals:
- long range scanners
- titanium casing = free 50 scrap
- very power-effective weapons so you can add any new ones easily.
- cloak + fast weapons = very little damage taken in early sectors

If you think the venting is bad go play Slug A. Or pretty much any Type A ship other than the Rock Cruiser.

Regarding Stealth B: it sounds great on paper but in reality you don't really need that much firepower 95% of the time and the long reloading time and high power consumption leaves you very vulnerable. Oh, and with only Glaive you will be doing less damage than Type A vs shield 2 enemies so going without weapon upgrades isn't exactly viable.

[UltraMantis]

Main appeals:
- long range scanners
- titanium casing = free 50 scrap
- very power-effective weapons so you can add any new ones easily.
- cloak + fast weapons = very little damage taken in early sectors

Pretty much this. Im not so sure about damage taken, it can be tough against Zoltan supershields and other ships with mini-beams. But the offensive potential of fast weapons capable of knocking out multiple systems in one go coupled with the cloak that gives you a first strike, priceless.

The weakness of the Nesasio is having only 3 weapons, which becomes important later. Having to find a proper shield stripping weapon is also a liability. Any ion weapon is your best friend in this case. Dual lasers can be swapped for anything, but i would hold onto the mini-beam unless i could replace it either with a Halberd or Pike beam. Any other beam is not nearly as usefull, though you may disagree.

It's my favourite ship alongside the Vortex, so i'm biased.

[MC3craze]

Main appeals:
- long range scanners
- titanium casing = free 50 scrap
- very power-effective weapons so you can add any new ones easily.
- cloak + fast weapons = very little damage taken in early sectors

If you think the venting is bad go play Slug A. Or pretty much any Type A ship other than the Rock Cruiser.

Regarding Stealth B: it sounds great on paper but in reality you don't really need that much firepower 95% of the time and the long reloading time and high power consumption leaves you very vulnerable. Oh, and with only Glaive you will be doing less damage than Type A vs shield 2 enemies so going without weapon upgrades isn't exactly viable.

It's not much more vulnerable than you might think; mostly cloak timing from my experience, even easier with the lvl 3 cloak. It's also not really a matter of needing that kind of firepower, it's simply fun to just obliterate enemies before they say it coming. Weapon upgrades are also not too difficult. Since you start with such a high level weapon control, you can use decent faster firing weapons until you have enough scrap to run the glaive and a shield popper simultaneously.

[Dralax]

It's not much more vulnerable than you might think; mostly cloak timing from my experience, even easier with the lvl 3 cloak.

No amount of cloak timing will help you vs drones or if you get unlucky hit to the weapons/cloak or if you don't knock at least the weapon system with your first hit.

Weapon upgrades are also not too difficult. Since you start with such a high level weapon control, you can use decent faster firing weapons until you have enough scrap to run the glaive and a shield popper simultaneously.

How often do you actually get enough weapons to replace the glaive beam entirely and not enough scrap to simply upgrade the weapons system??

Dual lasers can be swapped for anything, but i would hold onto the mini-beam

That's quite interesting because for me it's the other way around: mini-beam is the first to go. Having two shots that can knock shields and can be directed into a single room easily beats those 1-2 extra hull damage that you get out of mini-beam.

[MC3craze]

No amount of cloak timing will help you vs drones or if you get unlucky hit to the weapons/cloak or if you don't knock at least the weapon system with your first hit.

The stealth cruiser type A suffers froom those very same issues.

How often do you actually get enough weapons to replace the glaive beam entirely and not enough scrap to simply upgrade the weapons system??

Quite often actually, I buy a cheap weapon like a burst laser Mk1 and wait until I have enough money to upgrade weapon control.

[Dralax]

The stealth cruiser type A suffers froom those very same issues.

No it doesn't. That's the entire point. Versus drones you can get one volley out before your cloak runs out and early on that's enough to knock the system down. Taking damage to weapons is less critical as you lose much less time and even with only 1 power you can still deal 1 dmg/10s vs shields 1 opponent to keep their weapons down.

[MC3craze]

The stealth cruiser type A suffers froom those very same issues.

No it doesn't. That's the entire point. Versus drones you can get one volley out before your cloak runs out and early on that's enough to knock the system down. Taking damage to weapons is less critical as you lose much less time and even with only 1 power you can still deal 1 dmg/10s vs shields 1 opponent to keep their weapons down.

The cloak lasts only 5 seconds, it takes 10 to get your dual shot charged up. That's 5 seconds where you can by damaged by a drone. Both ships have trouble with automated drones, much like the Zoltan B.

[Dralax]

I'm talking about early-mid game, with cloak 3 but no shields yet. Even with cloak 3 Stealth B will take damage from drones. Stealth A won't.