Well (like many others) I'm loving the game. My best run so far has been with the Kestral and I got to sector 6 and then promptly died to a very well-armed, Slug Assault ship that also had a cloak and 3 layers of shields.

I would love to know exactly how to unlock the other ships. Does anyone have that info yet?

Spoiler*

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=779

Thanks. :)

I was expecting this game to be pretty cool, but it's actually even more awesome then I expected. :D Most recently I died right at the beginning of Sector 5. Now I'm starting again with the Engi ship. Having a Drone at the beginning is handy, the Ion weapon is cool, and it has a unique ability that slowly heals your dudes even outside of the medbay.

Argh, just died right at the end after a really awesome run in the Kestrel.

I had 8 crewmembers (3 human, 1 engi, 2 rock and 2 mantis), 2 burst mkII lasers, 1 artemis, 1 heavy laser mkI, defence and anti-ship drones (both mkI) and a drone recovery arm, a teleporter, a weapon pre-igniter (amazing device). There's some other cool stuff I'm probably forgetting now, I was seriously kitted out! I was absolutely heartbroken to see my ship break apart like that.

Sounds like the rescue system from the DS version of Shiren the Wanderer.

Holy crap! I just got a weapons pre-igniter as a "please don't kill us!" reward from a rebel fighter on my first jump.

My last one started with an enemy that shut down my engines by hacking, had missiles, and destroyed my weapons system at the very beginning of the fight.
I've yet to get very far. Third system is the furthest I've got, I think.

/edit: for clarification, that was my first jump

The weapon pre-igniter is really powerful and fun to use. However, getting a scrap recovery arm very early in the game is even better, I think.

It's worthwhile then? I've had opportunity to buy it before but opted for something else because 10% didn't sound like it'd make much difference.

EDIT: Oh yes, I save scummed after this first jump acquisition of the pre-igniter. Not to actually cheat, but for posterity!

Yes, in my opinion the scrap recovery arm is one of the most valuable augmentations in the game if you can get your hands on it early enough. I think it costs only 50 scrap and pays for itself quickly. Having a lot of scrap is absolutely essential for upgrading your ship in the late game (so that you have a fighting chance against the boss), and the recovery arm will really help you with that.

I suppose, yes. A quick bit of mental arithmetic says it should have paid for itself after 500 scrap.

According to the helpful FTL statistics I collected roughly 2,000 scrap per victorious run. That actually makes the recovery arm a little less useful than I thought, but still it's clearly profitable to buy one early on.

Just a little follow up to that game. It was going so well until I let the flagship get too close to the base... a lesson about procrastination learned there.