Faster Than Light

Antarius_sl said:

Some ships are just easier to play than others too..

The engi ship (The Torus) is basically afk auto-attack to win... (upgrade your shields to max, pray for a drone recovery arm, max your drones, (1 attack, 1 defense for missiles, boarding drone can help too), Slowly build up your crew, free energy is best, but sensor crew and a mantis to repel invaders can help. The starting ion weapon + any missile launcher (or a bomb) to take out their weapons early... and then you just slowly wittle the enemy down while being invincible. (for extra OP'ness equip the module that heals your crew everywhere)

But you're also just playing slots... sometimes things line up and you get the drops you need, when you need them... sometimes you don't.

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Very much this some ships are just a lot easier to win with than others. If you want a challange take the slug plan b ship. It is a boarding ship that lacks a medical bay or any real useful offensive weaponry. I have won with it but its a damn challange and you really need to get a bit lucky off the bat finding a shop with a medical bay upgrade or eventually you run out of missiles and are just screwed.

So I was finally able to beat the game with the Kestrel on easy yesterday. As much as I want to feel all proud about it (okay, I kind of do in a way since it was frustrating me quite a bit), I can't help but feel luck is a huge factor in beating the game. Learning what to upgrade quickly, how many ships you run into, how much scrap you get, and those very nasty "kill a random crewman" events can all make or break your game very quickly. On several occasions I had boarders show up in my Medical bay, after magically disabling it, and basically kill my crew off. Thats frustrating. That said, there are also some very good things to help push the odds in your favor.

All in all a decent game for the $2.50 I paid for it during the Steam sale. Just don't go into it thinking you are going to walk all over everything, even on the "easy" setting.

Trying the Engi ship now. Got a recovery arm pretty fast, but the scrap coming in seems very light compared to my winning game.

Just like any other game that relies on random events, you can get fucked on the second map or cruise your way to victory with 300 scrap. It's fun for a while, but once you see through the illusion it becomes boring.

Any way you cut it I appreciate the feedback and help from everyone. The really nice thing about the game is that even a winning game only takes a couple of hours, which is rare in todays games.

Deathwing_sl said:

Still wondering why a genre like this exists. Might as well call it "are you going to get kicked in the balls?".

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Because people like the thrill of beating the odds - see any Diablo style game with hardcore mode.

FTL is some of the best 9 dollars worth of gaming I can think of. If you like rogue like games at all this game is very enjoyable pretty well balanced and fun. And yes as in any game like this there is a chance you will simply get screwed from time to time but the more you play the more you learn ways of mitigating that. Some ship plans need more luck than others like if you take the federation ship you unlock for beating the game on any mode if you max out its artillery beam that alone is enough to kill just about everything including the end guy regardless of whatever other gear you may have. So on the needs luck spectrum the fed ship is probably the lowest baring mistakes on the players part there is no reason they should not be able to win every game with it if they understand the mechanics of the game at all. On the far other end of the luck spectrum I think the ship that is probably the hardest to win with is the deck plan B slug ship. It is a pure boarding layout ship that starts with no medbays or sensors and three slug crewmen to start with who while are okay at boarding actions are not great. Early on if you play that ship mantis ships and unmanned drones are insanely hard for that ship to deal with baring luck and getting a decent energy weapon and or med bay unlocked FAST.

I've beaten the game with every ship (a+b) on normal.... and I can reliably win with this same strat -> rush teleporter, either get shield 2 and try a teleporter early in system 2 or with a stronger starting vessel rush tele in system 1. Then focus on defense. With the high rewards from capturing ships, and the low repair costs from good D, you should out level most ships and it snowballs from there. The only difference is some of the more esoteric starting ship designs like the stealth B... but that usually only lasts a few systems.

Oh, and I abuse the fuck out of boarding AI, and pausing to micro the ship battles.

Advanced Edition content patch released, new ship, hard mode, as if normal wasn't balls hard enough on some ships.



FTL: Advanced Edition is available!

FTL: AE is free expansion to FTL which includes a new alien race along with new events, weapons, playable ships, drones, and more! It also adds additional musical tracks by Ben Prunty, and events by Tom Jubert and guest writer Chris Avellone.

If you own FTL on Steam it should automatically update the game to the newest version, v1.5.4. If you instead own a DRM-Free version of FTL, you need to re-download the game from the original location and then re-install it. The following link has more information about updating DRM-Free versions - Update Instructions [/]http://www.ftlgame.com]

Additionally, FTL has also been released on iPad! It is the complete game (same as PC) and includes the new AE content. It costs $10 in the US Store and is available on the App Store worldwide. Note: FTL purchases on computer cannot be transferred or redeemed on iPad.

Love this game, but I kinda suck at it. Hard mode will probably result in my laptop getting tossed out the window.

The update really makes some awesome changes to the UI alone. Definitely worth a dust off and more play than it ever was.

First game over: 4 zoltan borders in a room, I have 4 crew fighting them. Zoltan bomb the room, killing everyone in it...

I've had a lot of issue with my crew getting demolished by the scrap gun or whatever the fuck that thing is, I haven't seen one in a store yet. I keep losing my crew long before my ship is in danger of perishing. There is a great deal more crew murdering weapons in the game.

Dunno if it's possible to defeat the flag ship without a cloaking device now unless your ship is balls tough. They now have access to the rocket launcher system, so no more just boarding and taking it out slowly. Only managed to do phase 1, hacking drone doesn't work on phase 2 so that one's a gimmick you shouldn't buy anyways. It probably won't work on phase 3 either.

Awesome softcrash

Have a Clone Bay and Backup DNA Bank.
Get in a fight. Have your Clone Bay and O2 knocked out.
You defeat the enemy ship, despite your crew dying.
Clone Bay is off-line. DNA Bank saves crew member's data.
...
Ship is floating airless through space with the preserved DNA of a crew who is waiting for someone to fix the Clone Bank so they can get back to work saving the Federation.

Normal feels a bit easier now, I played the DA-SR 12 and I never had a victory on normal, at least on my work laptop, can't check my home pc atm, now first try it worked.

Glaive beam + Flak cannon 1 destroys everything with just two shields in a single blast, final score 5320, ship almost completely upgraded with additional drone control (5pt, def drone and beam drone), hacking bay 3, cloak 3, shield 8 weapon 8.

Anti-Drone Augment is very strong.

Odd Stealth Cruiser 3 doesn't have cloaking. Oh well.