Why is it that my Slug crewmembers count drones as lifeforms when showing the position of enemies using their telepathic abilities? Whenever I have no sensors or only one rank of sensors (or they are damaged, whatever) I can locate all enemies as they move about either ship as red dots, this being the unique utility of the Slug race while in combat.

I also however see drones that operate onboard the ship in this manner, this doesn't seem right as they are clearly inorganic, they have no brain waves. Unlike the crew races (Even if they aren't too far removed from Engi) they do not take fire (I know Rockmen exist) or oxygen damage and what should be the dividing factor the 'Anti-Bio Beam' doesn't affect them. This can be annoying and often a repair drone will make me target my Bio Beam at the wrong target prolonging a fight and possibly making me pay an extra couple of hull damage or losing the enemy ship through fleeing or fire damage.

Is this an oversight or bug? Is it supposed to help players from a gameplay perspective, allowing them to see what the enemy has with Slugs instead of sensors? Is there some lore reason?

How can I avoid this issue of beaming or setting fire to these mechanised-brain-owners, am I forced to upgrade sensors to level 2 even though the Slug ships seem to leave this out on purpose?

(Freaking Cyborgs)

  • I fairly sure that every Drone Parts package includes a brain-in-a-jar. :-P Oct 9 '12 at 22:10

As you noted, if it picks up Engi, fluffwise there's no reason they shouldn't pick up drones. This game doesn't try very hard to make biological sense; don't get caught up on it.

Gameplaywise, while it may feel misleading to lase an enemy to find him completely freaking unharmed, it's more misleading, and more dangerous, to teleport into a ship and be caught unaware by more bodies than were on your sensors.

  • 3
    Although that would be awesome... "Hah hah, we've beamed over to this near-empty ship, now our forces will..." BEEP WHIRR BZZZ "So, we're going to go..."
    – deworde
    Oct 10 '12 at 8:19

Slug crew sense sentient beings no matter if theyre made of flesh, rock, crystal or technology, that includes high-tech drones and Engi as well as rock men.

They will probably sense the enemy ship's AI, too, and they would sense beings of pure energy and ghosts, if they existed, but not holographic projections or dumb fighting drones from our 2012 age.

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