Boarding defence | FTL tips

[@nopenope6150]

'There's no reason that Stealth B is up on the screen right now except to serve as a general purpose symbol of warning and dread' ~Mike Hopely, 2021

[@tehrik0020]

Engis: canonically weak to boarding strategies due to poor physical prowess, often enslaved by the Mantises due to this exploitable fault of their race. Maxim: "I'm not trapped in a ship with eight Mantises, you are trapped in a ship with me!"

[@mikehopley]

Maxim is the Jet Li of Engis

[@AKheon]

@@mikehopley To me it looks more like he is the Kevin McCallister of the Engis.

[@bronzedivision]

There are so many 'expert' FTL KZbinrs who ONLY EVER use venting and maybe venting + medbay and it's utterly infuriating to me. WHY don't you defend your ship? It's faster! Comparing you to them is like a sword master to a kid with a stick.

[@mikehopley]

Yeah, the "vent whole ship" thing is surprisingly popular. There are definitely times it's fine, but you see so many "Help what now?" posts where people have soft-locked themselves. I guess the main thing is being aware of the tactical options, so hopefully this video helps there.

[@epicsandvich014]

I remember seeing this as one of the first videos of yours I watched when I was almost entirely brand new to FTL with almost zero experience and this just made my brain implode. I now use tactics like this semi-frequently and I love it. I’m super thankful that you made this video, this was basically the turning point in my FTL journey as I began gaining knowledge.

[@mikehopley]

Awesome, thank you! I have thought that maybe I should've split this one into two videos, as the Engi B stuff is really technical and specific -- I wouldn't normally approach boarding defence in that way, I just wanted to know if I could handle it.

[@S4LtyTrIcKs]

Well this is a big change from the 5 second KZbin tips videos :), both equally helpful

[@nigahiga878]

32:40 bravo, 1 point of hull damage, that's an amazing understanding of the boarding AI decision making patterns

[@mikehopley]

Thank you!

[@Wyvernnnn]

No improved doors, no drones, no crew, a shit layout, 8 mantises, crewmate of the weakest race, no improved medbay, and not even improved o2? "Now I'll do it with no sensors but I'll speed it up"

[@mikehopley]

Definitely not something I'd want to do with a ship fight too! BTW the speed-up was done in video editing, I just didn't want the video to drag on forever.

[@brianfox340]

I had NO idea how bad I was at this game.

[@mikehopley]

You're probably NOT bad at the game. It just has a very high skill ceiling, and there's a lot to learn if you are interested in it. =)

[@RackaGack]

Now you just have to do it no pause :)

[@mikehopley]

Oh god no

[@haasithgarapati8261]

Hey Mike. Thanks for your FTL tips they are super useful! I also read your ship guide and found it to be quite helpful with ship specific strategies. One common thing I noticed is that you always suggest buying shields-4 as fast as possible; why is that?

[@mikehopley]

Hi, glad my guides have helped! Getting the second shield bubble makes you a lot safer. It can save repair costs, but more importantly it can stop you dying to a really bad fight. This is important for winning very consistently. That being said, there are definitely circumstances / ships where I would delay the shield upgrades a little -- as noted in the guide.

[@haasithgarapati8261]

@@mikehopley Oh ok that makes sense. I never thought about powerful shields acting as a way to also save money; that's a great way of thinking! I always chose to upgrade my engines first since they were cheaper and easier to power up, but I realize now that shields are just more reliable and can help you in a grave situation. Thanks for the insight!

[@mikehopley]

@@haasithgarapati8261 You're welcome! Another thing to consider is that with 2 shields, you will almost certainly find a fight in sector 1 or 2 where the enemy does not have enough shots to hurt you. Then you can just sit there and "train" your crew, which is equivalent to 2 engine levels plus power, for free (about 90 scrap value).

[@arslanrasit]

This is not fun. This is madness

[@ArmageddonChess]

THIS WAS SOOO USEFUL THANK YOU SOOO MUCHHHH YOU ARE THE BEST MIKE i also use ur shield mod it replaced vanilla shields its an amazing mod

[@mikehopley]

You're welcome, glad it's useful!

[@igordabkowski4009]

Speaking of your shield mod, I can't quite get it to work with A+, have you tried using them both? I think A+ has its own "high-res shields" mod integrated

[@mikehopley]

@@igordabkowski4009 I haven't tried. Version 1.1 and upwards of my mod have better compatibility with other mods. You could try loading the shields mod after Arsenal+. But Arsenal+ changes ships quite a lot, including their layout / size IIRC. So it might not work well.

[@igordabkowski4009]

​@@mikehopley It must be this, since I tried loading your mod and A+ only in both loading orders, and it is always overwritten. Shame, but at least your videos are informative even for a fellow FTL veteran, keep up the good work!

[@mikehopley]

@@igordabkowski4009 Yeah, it's not really possible to make all mods compatible unfortunately. I don't know whether A+ is still being actively developed, but they are very welcome to use / repurpose my shield graphics if they want -- pretty sure Bamalf knows this too.

[@josearmandozapatacortes1462]

WOWWWW awsome techniques! I love this game xd hi from mexico!

[@alex_zetsu]

Well, that's a lot more sophisticated than my strategy. I just buy Medbay-2 and then while the pilot and weapons guy stick to their stations, I occupy the boarders with a mix of venting and fighting, using the increased healing speed of the Medbay to allow for a speedy rotation.

[@mikehopley]

Yes, you can do that. I don't like spending 35 scrap on something I don't need. You can also rotate crew even with a level 1 medbay. The idea of the video is to show people what can be done, when your options are limited.

[@rashadmoves]

this video is a masterpiece

[@mikehopley]

Too kind, thank you!

[@RackaGack]

Also great video!

[@mikehopley]

Thanks!

[@user-25352]

what I don't get is why enemy doors also take less to break on harder difficulties... is it because boarding is less OP there?

[@mikehopley]

I think it's a side-effect of making your ship harder to defend against boarders.

[@user-25352]

@@mikehopley I've kinda meant "why they did not fix this side effect" but I guess with amount of bugs FTL have it's the least of our worries :)

[@mikehopley]

@@user-25352 I don't think it's a bug, I think it's intentional. An important design principle of FTL is that the same "rules" apply to enemy ships as the player's ship. There are very few exceptions, and they are all deliberate compromises for practicality (enemies don't need sensors, asteroid frequency is based on your shield system levels...) and to avoid making the game miserable for the player (two-power enemy Artemis, enemies cannot abduct your crew with TP + MC, enemy burst weapons split their targeting...).

[@user-25352]

@@mikehopley well, consistency is already violated with a physical stat (door durability) being different between difficulties. So lack of consistency between player ship and enemy ship could still be implemented. But, if we are into more consistency, good solution would probably be spawning a bit more boarders on higher difficulties (like 4-5 mantis where easy would give 3), this would still make doors last less while consistently keeping their absolute durability the same between difficulties and player/enemy.

[@mikehopley]

@@user-25352 Not necessarily. More boarders will often mean they attack different doors. And it doesn't work for regular enemies boarding you with a teleporter, as they are still limited to two tiles unless you also change the enemy ship designs. I think Subset's approach is characteristically elegant.