Upgrade the engines early in the game: Faster FTL = more time per sector, and increased dodge cannot be overestimated. Keep piloting and engines manned at all times!
So I upgraded my engines from L2 to L5 by saving up and didn't see a change in how far the enemy advances each turn. Am I reading this wrong, or is the quoted statement incorrect? If it is correct, then engines would be the most important element in the game as it would mean you get to explore more stars in every sector each game.
Upgrade the engines early in the game: Faster FTL = more time per sector, and increased dodge cannot be overestimated. Keep piloting and engines manned at all times!
So I upgraded my engines from L2 to L5 by saving up and didn't see a change in how far the enemy advances each turn. Am I reading this wrong, or is the quoted statement incorrect? If it is correct, then engines would be the most important element in the game as it would mean you get to explore more stars in every sector each game.
No, it doesn't. Federation ships that jump away to report your position, nebula nodes outside nebula sectors, hired mercenaries/rebels surrendering and coerced into distracting the rebel fleet and turning on the distress beacon all affect the rebel fleets progress (might have missed something) But engines doesn't. upgrading engines affects your evasion/dodge and how fast your FTL drive recharges (allowing you to flee from encounters with powerful enemies)
The rebel fleet does not progress based on how long time you spend at a node/event/encounter.
I think someone is trolling the FTL wikies. Someone found some entry about stealth shipss having the effects of an augmentation that doesn't show up in the inventory. which as far as I know is totally bogus.
I guess game mechanics wise it would be impossible to balance, because more jumps = more scrap. If they did make you faster, it would take away a lot of choice for the early game, because better engines would be by far the best option to get.
Fluff-wise, the FTL drive seems to be a jump drive, not warp or hyperdrive. So it makes sense that better engines only charge your jump battery quicker.
I've tested the idea that the stealth ship has a secret Stealth Weapons Augmentation with a variety of weapon types and all of them, consistantly have broken cloaking. Not saying it never happens, no way to know that ... perhaps a bug or urban myth?
As an aside, the stealth ship with stealth weapons, auto reloader and weapons pre-igniter augments is utterly awesome
Jiks wrote:I've tested the idea that the stealth ship has a secret Stealth Weapons Augmentation with a variety of weapon types and all of them, consistantly have broken cloaking. Not saying it never happens, no way to know that ... perhaps a bug or urban myth?
As an aside, the stealth ship with stealth weapons, auto reloader and weapons pre-igniter augments is utterly awesome
I think the confusion stems from how weapons/stealth interact - beam weapons don't seem to impact it whatsoever, and with fully maxed stealth, firing a laser once near the beginning of your stealth won't drop you out of stealth - but if you look at your "countdown" timer, it often jumps down in a larger chunk (but not running out).
This is obviously most apparent in the stealth ship, where you're more likely to upgrade your stealth early enough to not likely have something like an Ion Blast II (where you'd fire enough to be more likely to notice the drop in time that you're stealthed). It also only cuts the stealth time down when shots themselves are fired - so if you've just about charged your dual laser and the enemy fires a salvo, it may help to stutter-unpause to advance a few ticks (ie pause the game, then double-tab the spacebar to unpause for a split second) and hope to be able to fire your lasers before the enemy lasers/missiles are close enough to your ship to require the cloak. It's a delicate balance, but can often be the difference between taking no damage at all, and getting whittled down early on.
The augment exists! I bought the augment before buying the stealth module. It's cool to shoot while stealth, but the stealth doesn't really last long anyway so I I haven't bought again. I'd much rather teleport my guys over and let them slug it out.
Why would people think the augment is a secret? I'm sure the people able to mod the game can see the code.
Runnyriver wrote:The augment exists! I bought the augment before buying the stealth module. It's cool to shoot while stealth, but the stealth doesn't really last long anyway so I I haven't bought again. I'd much rather teleport my guys over and let them slug it out.
Why would people think the augment is a secret? I'm sure the people able to mod the game can see the code.
Runnyriver: you misunderstand. The rumor is not that the augment exists, we all know it does. The confusion concerns a rumor that a specific ship uses the bonus from the augmentation without having the augmentation in the inventory.
This rumor is not true however (some misunderstanding or something). The stealth ship does not have bonuses beyond what is present in the ships inventory.
The devs has said that they have tried to be very open with mechanics and doesn't want to hide bonuses like that.
I haven't really tested it, but I think it might be possible that weapons that are targetted on the enemy ship before you engage stealth don't drop you out of stealth. I haven't gotten a stealth augment recently. If I do, I'll update this.
I think people skim read the engine upgrade help, and misunderstand what it says.
The confusion concerns a rumor that a specific ship uses the bonus from the augmentation without having the augmentation in the inventory. 
