The Basilisk is useless

[Vajrajina]

I think there should be an achievement for getting out from sector 1 with it on advanced mode, normal. Even if I do manage to hit sector 2 I just quickly die afterwards. I mean...anything with a medbay just kills you and that's not even a huge thing to have.

[Vajrajina]

I just got lucky and made it to the 2nd sector with an engi and a rockman addition to my crew. Guess what? First ship I board, my mantis dies to enemy mantis. Yeah right. So useful.

Next game: Asteroid field, 2nd sector, a simple auto-scout with a missile launcher got me. Nothing else, just that. Hit the shield room, set it on fire, shields went down, o2 room went down, engines went down, driver room went down. GG

[Ray Robertson]

Out of the last 5 games I played with the Basilisk on AE normal I won 3 times and lost once because I failed to count the flagship jumps correctly and reached the base too late and it hacked weapons, I cannot exactly remember up to which sector I got in the other game. I think it was past sector 2 though.

It is a difficult ship, I agree, but 4 out of 5 reaching the Flagship makes it maybe not terrible and I am not the best player in the world.

[Vajrajina]

Ooookay, so I just made it to the 8th sector. It is actually the first time in normal I did this!!!

Maybe it's not so bad once you get over the initial weaknesses. hmm. I'll open another thread about this.

[stylesrj]

Save your hate for the Simo-H. THAT is a useless ship. So is the Cerenkov. Also useless.

[The Captain]

... the Cerenkov. Also useless.

So useless, it was my first win on Hard.

[Ray Robertson]

In my last 3 games with the Simo-H, I've won 3 times. First on Hard mode and then 2 wins on Normal. It is the only ship in the game I have never lost with. So, technically, for me at least, it is the best ship in the game.

[stylesrj]

Good to know some people can win the game on Hard with those ships, but the rest of us see them as for sadomasochists

Or it could just be I'm more of a Shrike/Carnelian person.

[r543]

It isn't that bad. I wouldn't call normal "normal", it's a higher "hard" difficulty, so you should only try it if you know the game well and know what you need to do.

AE made boarding a bit harder but it's still possible and a good strategy.

I think there should be an achievement for getting out from sector 1 with it on advanced mode, normal. Even if I do manage to hit sector 2 I just quickly die afterwards. I mean...anything with a medbay just kills you and that's not even a huge thing to have.

Maybe the Boarding Drone could help a bit to make the crew do other things or block the way to the medbay. If there is no good way to defeat the enemy crew then jump away, I know it's bad that you don't get scrap but you don't want to lose your crew in battle. Boarding gives you some extra scrap so it shouldn't be a big deal unless you want to go for highscores.

I just got lucky and made it to the 2nd sector with an engi and a rockman addition to my crew. Guess what? First ship I board, my mantis dies to enemy mantis. Yeah right. So useful.

Next game: Asteroid field, 2nd sector, a simple auto-scout with a missile launcher got me. Nothing else, just that. Hit the shield room, set it on fire, shields went down, o2 room went down, engines went down, driver room went down. GG

You have sensors already installed on the ship, by sending one crew to the sensor room you could quicky check what's inside the other ship. If it's too dangerous you could've used the 4 man teleporter to send the rockman and 2 mantis or switch crew while fighting(pause the game, move both out of the room, move both back into the room so that the high HP one melee fights the enemy and the low hp one shoots it for extra damage.

The defense drone does give you a nice rocket protection against most ships(unless they fire multiple rockets at the same time), so it's worth keeping.

The ship takes some time to get used to the boarding strategy, so doing some runs on easy isn't a bad idea, once you have mastered it you can move to normal or even hard.

I find the A version of the Mantis Cruiser better, you only get a 2 man teleporter(which surprised me at first because I thought that all boarding ships need a 4 man one), but nice weapons to take out medbays, a engi to fix stuff and an extra mantis for piloting. #1 and #2 of my Highscore list are from the Mantis A, it's a great ship.

Save your hate for the Simo-H. THAT is a useless ship. So is the Cerenkov. Also useless.

I found the Simo-H interesting, it can be very gimmicky and not work well at times but it's still a solid ship. Both Drones get very useful in the endgame. It's one of my favorites but that's probably because I like the Stealth Cruisers.

The Cerenkov was the first ship where I had a somewhat good run in AE(the Flagship didn't hack anything important), but does have it's disadvantages. I think that this is the only C ship where you want to switch out the clone bay because it's so far away from the other parts of the ship, so if one of the big rocket launchers hits it it's GG.

[stylesrj]

I find the A version of the Mantis Cruiser better, you only get a 2 man teleporter(which surprised me at first because I thought that all boarding ships need a 4 man one), but nice weapons to take out medbays, a engi to fix stuff and an extra mantis for piloting. #1 and #2 of my Highscore list are from the Mantis A, it's a great ship.

The Shrike only has a 2-man teleporter. But that comes with Mind Control.

I'm not a big fan of the Mantis A or C. I prefer C over A but the Basilisk is the best Mantis ship, once you get started. Of course you can always fall victim to the FJZCWMCAM (First Jump Zoltan Cruiser With Mind Control And Missiles) or the FJASWMCASFH (First Jump Automated Ship With Mind Control And Solar Flare Hazard) but that can happen to any boarding ship. Reload and try again.

I'm starting to hate docking with stations myself. My Engies keep getting torn apart by crazed cannibals. Guys, they're robots! You can't eat them! What are you? Crazy?