Went to play a game in a newly unlocked ship. Man, what a run in the Vortex! I'm loving this ship, it's completely insane. The game decided to be a bit mad as well.
First i get a Burst Laser MkII as a gift at the very second beacon, increasing the rather meek starting firepower considerably. Then i suffer constant damage as every single enemy without fail packs a missile launcher of some kind. Most of the time i'm flying a completely airless ship
only the Helm gets air. Repair drones buzz around, and very kindly they don't waste any supplies and even heal up in the Drone control when there is nothing to repair. I'd like to slap them a bit as their repair priorities are just as mental as the current playthrough.I buy some engine upgrades to help dodge incoming fire and gain a hope of fleeing in time. Happily i scavenge the first sector and even manage to increase several skills for my lone wolf crewmember (Piloting obviously, but also some gunnery and repairs), and then i find a research station about to blow up. Heroically my Engi rescues a fellow Engi but tragically dies in the process. ohnoes. Engi down, Engi up. But a complete rookie of course.
No time for sad faces because the next store sells... wait for it... a second Burst Laser MkII! Now this rusted heap can pack a wallop! I sold the rest of the junk (Ion Blast, Heavy Laser, Breach Missile) to repair the ship and am now sitting pretty in a ship that's kinda fast, poorly shielded, but well armed. All that's missing is a Shield operater and moar shield upgrades, but the way the game has turned out so far, anything is possible.
As long as it happens before sector 4 apparently, as the very last battle produces the Shield operator. Unfortunately he jumped ship from a Rebel patrol vessel and joined up during a meteor shower that was so ridiculously biased you could have bet your life on it. Every single one missed the enemy and their Burst MkI, ?? Missile and freaking Mini-Beam bludgeoned my hull before i could fire more than one burst...
There's some conspiracy involving the magnetic properties of Engi hulls and ferrous rocks, but i'm to dissapointed to consider it. What a fun ride that was to end so abruptly. It's only going to take 1263 further attempts before i score a pair of BL2s early in the Vortex.
Game 2
Next attempt in the Vortex ended surprisingly well. I was taking constant damage and had very average
equipment, yet somehow made it to the end of sector 7 where things changed dramatically. The Vortex became completely unstoppable, and took a total of 3HP damage before securing victory. Gratuitous fortune made available a cloaking device right in the middle of the last stand, and with that to help against the surges, there was no doubt left whatsoever.
It's a strange feeling to take a handicapped ship through so much trouble and score a victory in the end. Very unexpected.
The weapon loadout was Burst MkIII, Heavy Ion, Hull Beam, Defense MkI, Attack MkI(unused). Hardly magical weapons, but they did the job. The ship was some way off from being completely upgraded but it didn't make much difference. A lvl3 teleport + lvl2 medbay helped a 2 Mantis strike team destroy the Mothership's weapons very quickly, and once that was taken care of it was just a matter of downing shields to let the Hull beam through. Seriously easy. This time, the defense drone shot down all incoming boarding drones.
The crew was a dream team. 2 Engi (Gunner, Shield), Rock pilot (yes yes yes yes), 2 Mantis as mentioned, a Zoltan engineer, plus a hunam+slug team as jacks-of-all-trades.
