Sick of Kestrel layout 1

[Tmonster]

I've played dozens of games of FTL and this is my complaint: you don't get enough ships to start with. I mean enough so that you don't get bored. Sure, I got the Torus but it's not my thing. I've been actively gunning for the Slug or Zoltan ships but I haven't even gotten the events in dozens of games, let alone fulfilled the requirements. Any tips on getting them?

[Zaffre]

Just keep playing. You'll find something. The Kestrel might get boring, but it starts with the Burst Laser II which has the best damage/energy ratio in the game and a decent missile launcher. You'll find something eventually. There's a helpful guide by Ohm that tells how you unlock every ship which can be found here.

[TheKillerNacho]

Hey there!

If you're sick of Layout A, have you tried to clear the Krestel's ship achievements? If you clear two of them (which is by-far easier than unlocking ships), you can get Layout B, the Red-Tail (which is an interesting ship to me because it starts with four lasers!).

If you just keep playing for the fun of it, eventually you will find the events you need to unlock new ships. Although I agree one doesn't unlock ships fast enough. The benefit to this is by unlocking ships one at a time, you can fully explore the ship.

Alternately, if you're a type of person who doesn't care about "cheating", there is this thread, which contains a download for a save file with all the ships unlocked:
http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2110

Hope this helps.

[Derakon]

IMO, cheat. The ship unlock system is pretty stupid.

Otherwise, at least play on easy -- the ships stay unlocked regardless of difficulty, and it takes less time to play through on easy than it does on normal.

[jmanV]

i agree that reaching the ships you WANT is quite hard. Personally, i found the Torus easier to use and quite fun. Got up to sector 8 first playthrough with it, only to get shot out of the sky by the boss .

i went Kestrel>>>Torus>>>Zoltan Cruiser (which was luck)

all i can say is, if and when you reach a home-world sector, try and stay in it as long as possible to get the maximum probability to get the event. that or you can try getting achievements to get different layouts

[Icehawk78]

I like the game and especially actually do like the "do in-game stuff to unlock new ships" aspect of the game, but I'd agree that having a handful (ie 1-2 more) of additional starting ships wouldn't be too bad; possibly just a few more spread out, with an unlock at 3, 5, and 7 (rather than just at 5). I assume the main issue with this would be making enough *distinct* ships, along with having the B-layout of each ship be unlockable only via ship-specific achievements (ie they'd have to either come up with a whole new set of achievements for each ship, and a whole new layout for each ship, on top of already designing two brand new ships, which I can certainly understand being rather difficult).

I'm hoping a future update will allow the unlocking of ships without B-layouts, in which case, you'd simply be able to mod in a few bonus ships without having to override the default ships.

And for the person who recommended using someone else's save file, there's instead an application out right now which will allow you to modify your profile directly and unlock the ships on your own, without overriding your profile with someone else's.

[TheKillerNacho]

I like the game and especially actually do like the "do in-game stuff to unlock new ships" aspect of the game, but I'd agree that having a handful (ie 1-2 more) of additional starting ships wouldn't be too bad; possibly just a few more spread out, with an unlock at 3, 5, and 7 (rather than just at 5). I assume the main issue with this would be making enough *distinct* ships, along with having the B-layout of each ship be unlockable only via ship-specific achievements (ie they'd have to either come up with a whole new set of achievements for each ship, and a whole new layout for each ship, on top of already designing two brand new ships, which I can certainly understand being rather difficult).

I'm hoping a future update will allow the unlocking of ships without B-layouts, in which case, you'd simply be able to mod in a few bonus ships without having to override the default ships.

And for the person who recommended using someone else's save file, there's instead an application out right now which will allow you to modify your profile directly and unlock the ships on your own, without overriding your profile with someone else's.

Do you have a link to this ... ?

[Agent_L]

oh, get on with it!
You got the Kestrel. You got the Torus. After beating the boss, you get the Osprey. That's 3 ships, all of them you can unlock B layouts.

If you can't beat the boss with Kestrel or Torus, other ships won't help. They're just different starting points, by the final battle they'll be all built in a same way - your way.

Play on easy. Grind ship achievements (like the asteroid-shop trick). "Cheat" with save&restore. Learn how to hexedit savegame into 4x burst laser II.

Everything YOU do will be better than having it done by someone else.

[Gorlom]

Do you have a link to this ... ?

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2877

Bumped that thread for your convenience.

[Hissatsu]

Actually Kestrel A is like THE best ship for me, because... i love the overpowerdness of Burst II lasers. It is THE best weapon in the game, with 3 shots for 2 energy (well technically dual lasers is even better with 2 shots for 1 energy but since you can have 4 slots max, burst II is better).

I have just finally just succeeded in acquiring four of those at normal playthrough, and it was HILARIOUS. I didnt get pre-igniter, but managed to get 3x 15% recharge speed, and Boss died before it even had a chance to power surge! This was SO much fun, because the overpoweredness is over the roof.

Still, if you dont like it, first unlock federation cruiser by beating the game (on easy if normal is too hard for you yet). If you dont like that either - try unlocking zoltan or stealth ships, as those are the easiest ones to get (for zoltan just meet an event in zoltan homeworlds sector, and for stealth make sure to have engi on your ship and meet event in engi homeworls, always going for the path with max green dots, easy). Then, you really have a diverse choice of five ships. Try doing achievements on them to get alternate layout (you may like alternate zoltan, stealth or federation cruiser better than standart ones, but torus alternate is not very attractive). Then, each playthrough, try to get the remaining ones (visit rock homeworlds, mantis homeworlds and slug nebulas whenever you have chance).

I would advise against using editor to unlock ships, because there is a good feeling of accomplishment from getting them yourselves. But if you insist, yeah there is a tool available for it.