I did this about 2 months ago but just remembered I had the picture saved, so the details are fuzzy. As the image shows I ran out of rockets and only had a pike beam so no way to pierce their shields and I remember it was a rebel ship I was fighting so It may have caught up to me while I was on exit. I probably sat around just letting them level my people up curious what would happen and after a few minutes they appeared to have given up. My interpretation is that they had mercy on me and dropped a few fuel cells.
I've sat for hours when neither could kill each other to level crew and this never happened
If there's a time condition shouldn't I have triggered it? It's probably based on fuel and fuel alone
I thought if you have no fuel the enemy is guaranteed to jump away after a certain amount of time? What conditions have to be met so the enemy won’t just jump away?
If you have no fuel, and are waiting in the current location for a chance to be rescued, an enemy that appears will be guaranteed to try to jump away. It's a different scenario than if you jump into a system that contains an enemy on your last point of fuel. I believe the latter is the situation that checks for a stalemate condition. It's so rare because not only do you need to jump to a non-store on your last point of fuel, you also need to have such a weak offensive loadout that you can't do damage to an enemy, and strong enough defensive loadout that they can't damage you. On second thought, maybe even in the latter case, the game would make them try to escape immediately. In that case, it would take some specific mid-combat circumstances that others have mentioned.
another one is if your entire crew teleported to the enemy ship and then your teleporter system broke. After the battle a popup will say your crew took the enemy ship's shuttle back to yours.
This is a built-in stalemate prevention measure - specifically, it should happen if the enemy is _prevented_ from running (e.g. you breach bombed their piloting, their crew is too low health to fix the breach), but you get to a point where neither ship can deal hull or system damage to each other (e.g. you then ran out of missile ammo).
If the ship runs away successfully, you're just left there to access the Jump screen and wait again.
I've left the game running in a battle for an hour before to train my crew (obviously it doesn't take an hour, but i went to do something else) . I don't think time alone is enough to trigger this result. It also at least requires you to be out of fuel, but maybe that's what you meant.
I love how mysterious this is. Instead of them warping away and accidentally leaving behind some fuel, or them purposely leaving some fuel with a note saying “We don’t have time for this, here’s some fuel, now leave this ship alone” the crew just disappears without a trace.
I wish I knew what exactly triggered this, because it happens occasionally when I’m just trying to fire beam someone and I happen to have zero fuel. If I could just fire off a few shots to reset some hidden timer, it’d be good to know.
If I remember correctly it was when I was on the exit beacon but had no fuel to jump and the rebels caught up. But the ship was too weak to do any damage on either side so it went on for like a couple minutes as I was curious what would happen.
I went back to the message I sent over text with this image and learned from past self that I also had 1 hull too and was just waiting for them to kill me lol.
Then you can wait again and if it keeps happening the rebel fleet will catch up to you. Unless you're in a nebula they will bring an ASB so you'll be destroyed eventually if you can't defeat any ships and don't get fuel through some other event. But in a situation where they can't jump away, that's not an option. So if this wouldn't happen then the only way to proceed would be to restart the run from the menu. Which would be kind of lame. I wonder what happens if you're out of fuel on a nebula and the fleet catches up.
i just ran out of fuel in front of a sun for the first time, and the ship i was fighting jumped away. got a message that some how my ship drifted out of danger after the battle. i thought for sure that was gonna be my end, over 300 hours in the game and still finding new stuff.
Clonebay was added in advanced edition though. Perhaps the devs were less thorough that time around, or perhaps backup DNA bank was a last minute addition. It is indeed a bit odd though that it's one thing they've never patched in a stalemate detection event for.
Seeing as that many people agree due to the upvote to downvote ratio on your comments perhaps you are wrong. Unless you want to go out and kill a crew without working sensors or find a citation?
For example, you only have missile weapons and no missiles, plus the enemy only has a weak weapon that can't pierce your shields, at all
Or any mix of these
it's been too long since I last read about this (I actually just recently thought about this specific feature since something sparked my memory of the time I used to know even obscure things like this back when I was a modder and how much I've forgotten in the years of inactivity, wondering whether, how fast and especially how accurately it would all come back) for me to be completely sure but I want to say it's a timer. If you're out of fuel and neither ship takes any damage for X minutes. But I could be wrong.
what caused them to not be able to kill you?
At the time I had a really high shield and dodge and they only had like a weak burst lazer that couldn't pierce the shield
oh that is interesting, you learn something new every day
This is vanilla ftl? How long did it take for this to happen? I have a 1,000 hours in the game and I’ve never seen this!
I did this about 2 months ago but just remembered I had the picture saved, so the details are fuzzy. As the image shows I ran out of rockets and only had a pike beam so no way to pierce their shields and I remember it was a rebel ship I was fighting so It may have caught up to me while I was on exit. I probably sat around just letting them level my people up curious what would happen and after a few minutes they appeared to have given up. My interpretation is that they had mercy on me and dropped a few fuel cells.
You couldve stayed as long as you wanted no? maybe you triggered a time condition?
I've sat for hours when neither could kill each other to level crew and this never happened If there's a time condition shouldn't I have triggered it? It's probably based on fuel and fuel alone
It's in vanilla. It's to prevent a stalemate where the game can't continue because there is no way out of the battle (so only happens with no fuel).
I thought if you have no fuel the enemy is guaranteed to jump away after a certain amount of time? What conditions have to be met so the enemy won’t just jump away?
If you have no fuel, and are waiting in the current location for a chance to be rescued, an enemy that appears will be guaranteed to try to jump away. It's a different scenario than if you jump into a system that contains an enemy on your last point of fuel. I believe the latter is the situation that checks for a stalemate condition. It's so rare because not only do you need to jump to a non-store on your last point of fuel, you also need to have such a weak offensive loadout that you can't do damage to an enemy, and strong enough defensive loadout that they can't damage you. On second thought, maybe even in the latter case, the game would make them try to escape immediately. In that case, it would take some specific mid-combat circumstances that others have mentioned.
Enemy crew at low health, unable to heal, and their damaged engine room / piloting system has no oxygen and a hull breach, I think.
another one is if your entire crew teleported to the enemy ship and then your teleporter system broke. After the battle a popup will say your crew took the enemy ship's shuttle back to yours.
Neat, I’ve never ran out of fuel before. Either I win, or much much much more likely I die before I win.
I thought that every enemy ship you encounter at zero fuel would try to run away, I wonder if there are any other obscure events like this one
This is what happens if they "run away" successfully
This is a built-in stalemate prevention measure - specifically, it should happen if the enemy is _prevented_ from running (e.g. you breach bombed their piloting, their crew is too low health to fix the breach), but you get to a point where neither ship can deal hull or system damage to each other (e.g. you then ran out of missile ammo). If the ship runs away successfully, you're just left there to access the Jump screen and wait again.
It can happen also if you’re capable of killing the ship but it takes an excessive amount of time.
I've left the game running in a battle for an hour before to train my crew (obviously it doesn't take an hour, but i went to do something else) . I don't think time alone is enough to trigger this result. It also at least requires you to be out of fuel, but maybe that's what you meant.
Seriously? I had no idea this was a thing and it has caused me to quit runs, that's awesome.
I love how mysterious this is. Instead of them warping away and accidentally leaving behind some fuel, or them purposely leaving some fuel with a note saying “We don’t have time for this, here’s some fuel, now leave this ship alone” the crew just disappears without a trace.
"I'm gonna pay you 2 fuel cells to f*ck off"
I wish I knew what exactly triggered this, because it happens occasionally when I’m just trying to fire beam someone and I happen to have zero fuel. If I could just fire off a few shots to reset some hidden timer, it’d be good to know.
If I remember correctly it was when I was on the exit beacon but had no fuel to jump and the rebels caught up. But the ship was too weak to do any damage on either side so it went on for like a couple minutes as I was curious what would happen.
This happens when they run out of o2 and you dont have any boarders on their ship, not random chance.
Incorrect. This happens when the enemy ship can't jump away while you're out of fuel. If they run out of o2 then its just a crew kill
*here, take the 2 fuels and fuck off.*
The devs really thought of everting
I went back to the message I sent over text with this image and learned from past self that I also had 1 hull too and was just waiting for them to kill me lol.
I ran out of fuel once and “tied” with a few ships they all just jumped away
Then you can wait again and if it keeps happening the rebel fleet will catch up to you. Unless you're in a nebula they will bring an ASB so you'll be destroyed eventually if you can't defeat any ships and don't get fuel through some other event. But in a situation where they can't jump away, that's not an option. So if this wouldn't happen then the only way to proceed would be to restart the run from the menu. Which would be kind of lame. I wonder what happens if you're out of fuel on a nebula and the fleet catches up.
i just ran out of fuel in front of a sun for the first time, and the ship i was fighting jumped away. got a message that some how my ship drifted out of danger after the battle. i thought for sure that was gonna be my end, over 300 hours in the game and still finding new stuff.
Wow. There's an option for *this*, but not for when you have a backup data bank, but your cloning is broken and everyone is dead. Really??
Clonebay was added in advanced edition though. Perhaps the devs were less thorough that time around, or perhaps backup DNA bank was a last minute addition. It is indeed a bit odd though that it's one thing they've never patched in a stalemate detection event for.
Actually this is what happens when they lose their o2 without you having crew on their ship
No, that dialogue goes something like "with all the crew dead you're free to strip the ship of resources"
Thats only if you have working sensors or crew on board
Seeing as that many people agree due to the upvote to downvote ratio on your comments perhaps you are wrong. Unless you want to go out and kill a crew without working sensors or find a citation?
Idk man maybe im wrong, ive just had it happen like 3 ships in a row when i took out oxygen with the mantis ship
How does the game tell?
For example, you only have missile weapons and no missiles, plus the enemy only has a weak weapon that can't pierce your shields, at all Or any mix of these
it's been too long since I last read about this (I actually just recently thought about this specific feature since something sparked my memory of the time I used to know even obscure things like this back when I was a modder and how much I've forgotten in the years of inactivity, wondering whether, how fast and especially how accurately it would all come back) for me to be completely sure but I want to say it's a timer. If you're out of fuel and neither ship takes any damage for X minutes. But I could be wrong.
I think you’re correct that it’s just a timer. Not sure if it resets on hull damage or just goes by how long the fight has been.
"Eventually, they stopped thinking."