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The only time I played this ship, I didn't realize I had the battery for quite some time. I hid behind the Zoltan shield and ran my pilot around, and prioritized buying power. It went pretty well, as frankly most of my Zoltan runs do. A Zoltan shield is an enormous advantage and is in my opinion tied with the Weapon Pre-Ignitor for best Augment. I'd have definitely grabbed the scrap recovery arm, but the choice is simply that between two slightly different curves; the scrap arm curve is a little more difficult in the early sectors but ends with your ship more powerful overall. The curve you chose will let you become more powerful sooner yet, all else equal, will give you less scrap overall. At the end of the day, though, the RNG is god inasmuch as it's entirely possible to never be able to put together a set of equipment to deal with the end boss. The flip side of this coin is that you can simply be handed a piece of equipment that can sway things in your favour just as strongly as that extra scrap from the arm. Every once in a while you just end up getting a Chain Vulcan, Glaive Beam, or Hull Repair Drone, etc. from a random encounter.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:34
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udQ21ohEhvE New video is up. There's a lot of points that deserve consideration here. In my opinion, I maybe should have gotten the chain laser, but I've always had bad luck buying that weapon as a stop-gap for something better - its just not a very good weapon to help overcome 2 shields. Suppose my first ion hits, and the enemy is down to one shield. For the chain laser to work now, it has to hit twice in a row. If the enemy has two, unmanned engine power (in sector 3 that would be extremely low) then there is an 85% chance each shot will hit. That's good for one shot, but for two shots that is 72%, so about 1/4 of my volleys will not do any damage, and that is also assuming that the ion weapon keeps the first shield layer down every time. In the meantime, my beam drone is typically too stupid or I don't have good enough timing to shoot the chain laser just right for the beam drone to work. Something like a burst laser 2 or a Flak 1 would have been a lot more obvious of a choice but they were never offered. I simply have bad luck (bad probabilities?) every time I get a chain laser as a 'desperation' purchase, so its only worth while if you have other weapons that have multiple shots. Stacking chain lasers, for example, would be very good. In all my practice runs, I've had the best results just getting another ion weapon from somewhere - this isn't particularly rare as some sort of ion weapon is pretty common. In this run I admit I was getting a little too narrow minded. This might be a frustrating run for some. But there is a method to my madness. The scrap recovery arm would have been a 'good' purchase, but I've never found them to make or break my runs. This game tends to get mad at me with the Zoltan C and if I purchase a scrap recovery arm it will shortly later offer me an unpurchaseable ion weapon. This is also why I didn't get the drone recovery arm, which in my opinion, would have been a much better purchase. ProfessorBooty fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Aug 19, 2014 |
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Aug 19, 2014 19:16
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The ion augment is one of the best ones possible for zoltan shield havers. You now resist 50% ion damage from all sources, neutron stars included.
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Aug 19, 2014 19:41
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Is there an achievement for killing a late-game enemy without losing your Zoltan Shield?
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Aug 22, 2014 03:32
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Nope just any ship.
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Aug 22, 2014 05:11
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Glazius posted:Is there an achievement for killing a late-game enemy without losing your Zoltan Shield? Yes, it's called "taking zero hull damage".
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Aug 22, 2014 05:16
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You inspired me ProfessorBooty, I got my first win (only on easy) with the Zoltan C last night. I ended with 2 flak I, 1 burst laser I and the starting ion charge. I also got the 29 power achievement in that run. It was very close against the flagship, but felt pretty good when I blew those bastards apart. Great videos guys, looking forward to more.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:54
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFYJlRfa2co - Part 3. The way I see it I'm going to complete 3 more runs: There will be the Mantis C (as a relative palette cleanser), the Engi B, and then a hard mode run. I would like the thread to choose what I fly for the hard mode run, but I'll have one caveat: No Crystal B (too 'easy'). I think it would be pretty fun to try it with the Stealth B, but it'll be the thread's choice. When I record this, I'm not sure if I'll hit my head against the wall with the ship until I win, or if I'll cycle through ships, so I would like folks to choose two different ships, and then when I get around to the run I'll think of some way of sorting and prioritizing them. With that in mind, I have 5 ship names left. It would be a shame if I ran out of ships while doing this. If you name the ship you get to be the captain!
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Aug 22, 2014 16:21
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Why, the Lying Bastard, of course!
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Aug 22, 2014 18:54
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Rappaport posted:Why, the Lying Bastard, of course! That's a good name for a Mantis B run. "No weapons on our ship, officer. Just some anti-asteroid drones." 
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Aug 22, 2014 19:52
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Why didn't you fix the hull at all at that last store? 
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Aug 22, 2014 21:42
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Because I'm a dummy. I ask myself that - I blame the Ship's Advisor.
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Aug 22, 2014 21:45
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For the hard mode run, I think the Stealth B would get a lot of amusing early deaths before pulling out an underdog win. Plus I just love that glaive beam. Second choice would be Lanius A. Just because.
Tuxedo Ted fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Aug 22, 2014 |
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Aug 22, 2014 23:33
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Ship names: Prometheus for the Rock B Hard mode ships?: the Red-Tail or the Rock A/B
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Aug 22, 2014 23:59
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I am really worried about your damage output, especially when it comes to the flagship. But I suppose I'll see how you pull it off in the end.
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Aug 24, 2014 23:11
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Sectors 7 and 8! Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oisCNs4cWLI Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWpCexDXA8g I split this into two parts because of the ridiculous length. Next up will be the Mantis C. I still would like more votes for the hard mode run but I suppose if I don't get many I'll just choose from the list I have  .I know its kind of frustrating how I was scrimping so much in this ship. There was a reason to begin with but it did get a little ridiculous in the beginning of sector seven. I think its a valid strategy to save up scrap in sectors 1 and 2 though, as most the encounters are set up so a ship can survive without upgrades, barring nasty luck. Either way I appreciate the feedback and discussion.
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Aug 26, 2014 14:23
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Yay, we won. To answer your question, I feel stopping and thinking is an important part of this game, so it's cool showing that off, as long as you discuss what you're thinking. Having said that, there were just a few times (maybe once in each video of the run) when I thought 'get on with it already'. In those cases you basically had to make a decision between a few things, and after discussing the pros and cons you spent what seemed like a relatively long time just looking at the ship/shop screen without saying anything (new). I don't really mind that very much, I think the videos are fun the way they are now, but you asked for feedback, so... yeah.
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Aug 26, 2014 22:34
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Pausing the game, forming a plan, and double-checking every single thing on both the player ship and the enemy ship is what the game is all about. Missing that boarders pried a door open on the player ship, or knowing that the beam drone started a fire on the enemy ship, can make a huge difference.quote:most the encounters are set up so a ship can survive without upgrades, barring nasty luck. By contrast, I try to upgrade the ship as much as possible in Sectors 1 and 2, and only start actively looking for weapons in sectors 2 and 3. In Hard mode, most ships will get absolutely destroyed in their starting states, because all it takes is one damage to the shields to shut them off completely, or a fire in piloting, and suddenly a routine encounter causes a grievous amount of damage. Of course, with a Zoltan ship there's less worries, but I still always fly in fear of some hotshot pirate or Rebel rigger with a weapon loadout super-strong for its power cost. Heavy Lasers and Small Bombs are scary! -- Anyway, I'll request a Slug A run for Hard mode, because it's kind of an underpowered ship, but disintegrating enemy crew will never ever get old. I'll name it The Reclaimer. Leylite fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 01:04
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Carbon dioxide posted:I don't really mind that very much, I think the videos are fun the way they are now, but you asked for feedback, so... yeah. It's cool, I asked for it My brain behaves in a way not unlike a broken record at times. Do you think some annotations on youtube to skip past superfluous discussion might help? I'll also reign in my tendency to derail the action unnecessarily.
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Aug 27, 2014 13:30
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I vote against annotations watching videos is a passive experience, annotations to skip bits as the expected behavior would be irritating to me, Id suggest you just edit out long lulls.
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Aug 27, 2014 17:21
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Thanks for the ride you guys! I'm having a great time over here, so no pressure on my account. When you'll need someone to go over there and pinch them in the cheek and knock their lights out, you have my number. Until then I'll be chillin with my space rye, moon boots up, chewing my proton stogie to shreds with my mandibles. e: annotations; nah, not on my account. You doin good bro.
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Aug 27, 2014 23:10
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No annotations. I had MSI afterburner up, and it has a FPS counter, and I started up FTL and on the menus the counter jumped to >800 fps and in game it is >300 fps. Any AAA game I try the counter with gives me a 30 or 60 fps. So, would someone be so kind as to confirm/deny this crazy FPS for me?
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Aug 28, 2014 04:04
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Leylite posted:
I second this.
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Aug 28, 2014 04:39
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I'll tighten up the editing from here on out, then. When I run the game in windows with the FRAPs frame counter it was giving me 500 - 800 FPS. Pretty smooth I guess?
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Aug 28, 2014 04:42
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Cool, thanks. I forgot to mention that I am running it in windowed mode.
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Aug 28, 2014 04:51
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Major_JF posted:I had MSI afterburner up, and it has a FPS counter, and I started up FTL and on the menus the counter jumped to >800 fps and in game it is >300 fps. Any AAA game I try the counter with gives me a 30 or 60 fps. I have no idea what this MSI Afterburner thing is supposed to do, but if it's measuring the FPS of the game, then it may be that FTL was written to do updates as fast as possible instead of, say, trying to limit itself to only updating at at most 60FPS or something. Most properly-written games will cap the effective FPS, and if your computer is capable of going faster, they'll just sleep the extra time away so your CPU isn't tied up 100% of the time.
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Aug 28, 2014 04:55
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MSI Afterburner is a free overclocking/monitor tool that also happens to have a screen capture feature. It wasn't putting my video card at 100% either just around 60% so... What I think is going on is that it is basically doing a progressive scan trick where it only has to update the pixels that need to be updated. Since the number of pixels that need to be edited are limited to the people, weapons and drones, the amount of work that has to be done is next to nothing. They might have done that to lower the needed specs a little bit.
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Aug 28, 2014 05:45
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Ok in regards to the annotations/editing, what I was trying to say was I'm fine with the current setup. Edit or no, as suits your fancy.
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Aug 28, 2014 09:13
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I like the indecision so I can get all hot and bothered at my screen while watching. "PUT THE PIKE BEAM IN PLEASE DO IT JESUS WHY ARE YOU DELAYING ITS OBJECTIVELY THE BEST WEAPON YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME AND JUST WON YOU THE RUN". Don't change a thing. Thanks for showing off the power of ion. I usually find myself trying to get into one of the better weapons when on a ship with a funny loadout like that and end up with a fairly standard array of weaponry. I did get ill when you were hoping for a fourth ion weapon when your damage output was "a beam drone".
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Aug 28, 2014 15:42
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Arzakon posted:Thanks for showing off the power of ion. I usually find myself trying to get into one of the better weapons when on a ship with a funny loadout like that and end up with a fairly standard array of weaponry. I did get ill when you were hoping for a fourth ion weapon when your damage output was "a beam drone". One of my best runs with the Zoltan C was four ion weapons and a beam drone, and that was it  . With four ion weapons you can completely tie up the end boss without worrying about taking much damage, letting the beam drone just slowly do its thing.
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Aug 28, 2014 16:04
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Yeah, I've never committed to an ion/drone build before, so it was a very interesting run to watch. I'm still never, ever, playing the Zoltan C though.
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Aug 28, 2014 16:07
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Pretty sure my best ion-focused run was two Ion blast II's and a stun ion, but that's only because it was on easy and I had all of those sorted by sector two. About half the ships I encountered in the first half of the game I just asphyxiated by keeping their shields, weapons, and oxygen ion'd and alt-tabbing out to do something else while they very, very slowly lost air. I never seem to have much luck with ion in my normal runs. I understand its function, but then I end up running into sector five ships with four shields and %50 dodge and I just die to missiles to my engine room anyways.
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Aug 28, 2014 17:02
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I've learned a lot about the game watching all of the videos in this LP. You guys know your stuff! I've trounced the Flagship several times but not with a ship like the Zoltan Cruiser - I've got a new found respect for Ion weapons. Plus if you need any more names for crew, feel free to throw me in where ever you need.
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Aug 28, 2014 21:30
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I'm mostly surprised at how little damage you ended up taking even without being able to totally shut down the weapons.
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Aug 28, 2014 23:46
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I liked how it wasn't till after you bought "unlucky" drone parts that the game gives you stuff.
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Aug 29, 2014 00:42
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Woohoo! And I stuck to engines for pretty much the whole trip. Sounds about right...
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Aug 29, 2014 01:48
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Wow, that Pike Beam was like manna from heaven.
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Aug 29, 2014 03:23
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I'll get behind a Slug A run for Hard Mode; if you can get a good crew-killing setup going you'll have a much easier time of it. I play a lot of Captain's Edition, which gives you the hard flagship even on easy, so let me tell you in advance a decent build to take it down. It's a little specific, so I'll spoiler it to err on the side of discretion. You'll want hacking and mind control, and ideally a weapon that causes hull breaches or fire. Hack shields to seal off the doors to the dangerous weapons, and use mind control to start fistfights in the shield room. Deploy your fire/breach weapon against both the shields and the missile room. The dudes will prioritize fisticuffs over repairing damage, so you can keep a dangerous system (in my experience usually missiles and shields) down. If you can get them to fight in a room that's on fire and with sealed doors, you can absolutely gently caress them over. Being able to hack the shields can help if you simply don't have the throw weight to take them down otherwise. Don't worry about the defense drone in the second stage, you can spam pause to wait for it to shoot, depower the hacking drone (stopping it and spoiling the drone's shot) for the briefest of intervals, and land it about 75% of the time. If you kill all the crew, the AI's crippling weakness is a fire in the forward section of the ship. That's by far not the only strategy for the hard-mode boss, especially with the ever-present possibility of simply being handed a game-winning item, it's just one I find works, and can usually be set up.
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Aug 29, 2014 08:07
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Glazius posted:Wow, that Pike Beam was like manna from heaven. Yeah it's absolutely offensive the number of ones that get blasted off in every hit. e: vvv YES! It's go time! I'm super psyched! Let's parlay like it's 9999! Karate Bastard fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Aug 29, 2014 |
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Aug 29, 2014 13:35
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ZHOJu5lKc The Blindfire! I tried editing this video a little further and managed to trim a couple minutes out. I think we were enjoying the conversation a bit much so in the future I'm going to be a little more clear on taking breaks and being more efficient in general. The more heavily edited version is here (still processing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG8Rp8J5SXI The Mantis C is like the B but with much less defensive capabilities. It used to be a frustrating ship for me, but I don't mind it so much anymore, and its default regeneration is via clone bay which improves things quite a bit.
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Aug 29, 2014 13:53
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