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FTL |OT| Stories of the Space Oregon Trail

Jintor

Member
Do the random events change based on your sector? I've been dying in sector 3 or 4 just about every game, and I feel like I've seen just about every type of node event.

Of course. Rock events in rock sectors, mantis events in mantis sectors, etc


Also thanks for the ego boost Jintor, I was already feeling bad about having needed 20 hours for my first victory and only having won twice when everybody I tend to IRC with had already beaten the boss on the first day.

orz
 

Mindlog

Member
If it helps any I just had my unbeaten streak broken.
I was trying to beat it with my Stealth Ship. My ship was too badly damaged to beat Boss Phase II. Another dead (other) rockman without getting the ship too. Urg.
 

Makonero

Member
Final boss. Beat the first phase. Beat the second. My hull is quite damaged. 3 leaps til the boss wins. No repairs in sight.

Six hit points left on the boss.


Hull destroyed.



I may have woken up my roommates with my scream of manly anguish.
 
How the heck do I handle intruders? Once they board the ship, all my crew dies. I try to open the doors to let the oxygen out, but the intruders don't die fast enough, get through the blast doors, and still kill everyone. I have started to get ok at the game except when intruders board my ship, I just die. Any advice? any good tips for newbies? I can't get passed sector 5 on easy :(
 

Saprol

Member
How the heck do I handle intruders? Once they board the ship, all my crew dies. I try to open the doors to let the oxygen out, but the intruders don't die fast enough, get through the blast doors, and still kill everyone.

Try fighting them in your medibay or cycling crew members in/out of combat to heal. Keeping non-essential rooms devoid of oxygen is a way to whittle at their health a little. It's also kind of pointless without blast doors because otherwise they aren't impeded at all from moving.
 

sixghost

Member
How the heck do I handle intruders? Once they board the ship, all my crew dies. I try to open the doors to let the oxygen out, but the intruders don't die fast enough, get through the blast doors, and still kill everyone. I have started to get ok at the game except when intruders board my ship, I just die. Any advice? any good tips for newbies? I can't get passed sector 5 on easy :(
Are you having trouble with mantis, or just regular invaders?

If you outnumber the invaders, try to force the fight into a room that let's you take advantage of the numbers. If the intruders are in a room with only 2 spaces, only two of your guys will be able to fight at once. Fighting in a room with 3 or 4 spaces lets you attack with more of your guys at once. That best place to fight is obviously the medbay. Other than that, just micro your guys, and pause a lot. When crew members get low on health, pull them out and either send them back to their post, or to the medbay.

Don't be afraid to pull everyone off their posts to deal with the intruders, even the pilot if things look bad enough.
 
How the heck do I handle intruders? Once they board the ship, all my crew dies. I try to open the doors to let the oxygen out, but the intruders don't die fast enough, get through the blast doors, and still kill everyone. I have started to get ok at the game except when intruders board my ship, I just die. Any advice? any good tips for newbies? I can't get passed sector 5 on easy :(
Upgrading your doors helps a lot, then you can really play around oxygen deprivation since they'll be hindered moving. Make sure to depower your oxygen to really get full effect on that. Otherwise as in the post above, try to micro your crew to harass them while running back the injured ones to heal in the medbay. Also, security drones, if you have a drone bay.

But then again, I've never made it past Sector 5 haha. I love this game though. I can't wait for the lucky run that gets me to the end.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
In answer to your question Toma, I believe that the computer that made the game crawl was a OptiPlex 780.

Thanks for looking that up. Those things can even have a quad core processor Oo Due to their mini-PC nature, they dont have a dedicated graphics card, but I would have assumed that the processor would be able to handle that game. Weird. Maybe its an issue with that specific pc configuration, who knows how its configured. I mean, if its even running alright on an older macbook..
 

Deraldin

Unconfirmed Member
Final boss. Beat the first phase. Beat the second. My hull is quite damaged. 3 leaps til the boss wins. No repairs in sight.

Six hit points left on the boss.


Hull destroyed.



I may have woken up my roommates with my scream of manly anguish.

Final boss. Stage 1 beaten. I'm at 70% hull.

"Captain, looking at the star charts, it looks like we should be able to make the nearest repair base in two, three jumps tops."
"Very good. The rebels don't have any repair facilities in this sector so we'll head back for a quick patch job and then catch up with them."

One jump later the navigator is summarily executed for his incompetence. The system we jumped into was a dead end. The repair base was actually 6 jumps away, back through the boss. We took some damage from a rebel fighter while trying to catch up with the flagship, but nothing major. We didn't bother to stick around to fight him. We warped off to meet the command ship.

Our mantis boarding party managed to take out the missile launcher but then had to wait for the teleporter to charge back up in order to get the drone control. The drone swarm was released while they were in the process of disabling the room. Unfortunately they weren't able to get it down quick enough to spare us a lot of damage. By the time it was down, we were left with only 5 hull points, but we managed the rest of that fight without taking any more damage. We lost contact with the nearest repair base, not that it mattered. We would never have been able to get through the rebel ships that were blanketing the sector by this point. We had to press on and hope we could finish off the rebel flagship. We warped in for the final confrontation.

"Sir, our mantis boarding crew have just beamed back. They report that the enemy missile launcher has been taken offline and the enemy crew is dead, but somehow the ship is still functional!"
"Damn! There's nothing we can do about it now. Focus all weapons on the enemy shield generators. We need to take those down if we'll have any chance of finishing them off."

We took two hits from missiles that ignored our shields before the launcher went down for good. The enemy shields were overloaded with a combination of burst lasers and an ion bomb. This allowed our pike beam to rake down the middle of the enemy ship in conjunction with the artillery laser. The rebel flagship is down to 2 health to our 1.

"Sir! We're reading a massive energy spike from the enemy reactor! They've got some kind of hidden super weapon!"
"Full power to engines and forward shields! This is going to be a close one!"

The ship shudders as our crack pilot watches for any sign of the coming apocalypse from the crippled rebel ship. Hands fly across the consoles in the weapons room as one of our engineer crew members tries to speed up the power generation in the capacitors for the burst lasers. The second engineer is under a console in the shield room hastily rewiring circuits trying to bypass the damaged sections while calmly explaining other repairs to a slug and a rockman who had been pulled off security detail. Suddenly sparks are flying from every console in the room and the slug gets a nasty shock.

"Captain. Hit by ion pulse. Shields inoperative."

There is no time to think about anything else at this point because the rebel flagship spews hot plasma from every opening. It's a truly massive barrage of weapons fire. Crew members are jostled about their rooms as the inertial dampeners can't entirely compensate for the maneuvers the pilot is pulling off to avoid those bright lances of death streaking our way.

The gauges in the weapon room are filling up.

95%...
96%...

The engineer is holding tight to his console, ready to trigger weapons as soon as the charge is built...

97%...
98%...

With one last maneuver the pilot dodges another shot, but can't avoid the very last blast of the barrage. It hits dead center in the Federation cruiser. There are no important systems there, but it shears clean through the supporting superstructure in that area and the ship finally gives up. It can't take the punishment any more and with a last gasp as it vents atmosphere from a thousand places at once the hull cracks as the ship tears itself apart...


>_<
 
Got to sector 3. Got boarded by some bug looking fuckers, and I sent all my guys in the room, and they all died.

I'm feeling like the tutorial forgot to teach me something.

Mantis are the combat specialist race.
To mitigate boarding risks, upgrade doors and when boarders beam onto your ship, try to seal them off from crew/systems and vent the O2 out of the rooms they're in.
 

Blizzard

Banned
It makes my new Macbook air's fan go fucking nuts, but it runs fine. I was curious why that was though when other games don't push it like this?
That's probably because they didn't put vsync or a framerate limit in the game, so it runs at like 500 fps. There are some utilities that can limit that on Windows, but I'm not sure about Mac.
 

Mindlog

Member
It sounds like they're going to be adding options to limit framerate soon.

I will beat the final boss with a Stealth Cruiser.
Oh, yes.
 
It sounds like they're going to be adding options to limit framerate soon.

That's probably because they didn't put vsync or a framerate limit in the game, so it runs at like 500 fps. There are some utilities that can limit that on Windows, but I'm not sure about Mac.
Awesome, good to know. Will be playing this in class much more often when it doesn't suddenly sound like I'm blasting into space myself.
 

Agkel

Member
So ummm... You guys know how I said I wouldn't be playing this again after beating it? Well... 'nuff said!

*hangs head in shame*
 

KDR_11k

Member
The drone swarm was released while they were in the process of disabling the room. Unfortunately they weren't able to get it down quick enough to spare us a lot of damage.

The drone room only controls normal drones, not the special attack ("power surge detected")

"Captain. Hit by ion pulse. Shields inoperative."

Where did you get an ion pulse from in phase 3? The ion weapon breaks off after phase 1.
 

Agkel

Member
Also, dont judge me for save scumming at most twice per game run :) :) :)

*I highly recommend you guys do it too. I normally do mid point and right before the last sector but if I die twice overall in a run I start again from scratch and put away the scummed save files in an archive folder for my own personal history :D

*edit: Question, will the drone control system item that is sold at the stores give me access to drones; much like the shields gave me shields I didnt begin with? Im currently on a stealth ship.

*edit2: Thx Deraldin! If I had known on my previous victory run, I had some really amazing drones I ended up having to sell because I didnt know that buying drone control would have given me access to them.
Also, on the save scumming, I write a short captain's log on each jump I make, that way I can remember how awesome or awful that crew had it. I love the idea of reading these after a long period of time of not playing and having access to the save files of all my crews :)
 

Deraldin

Unconfirmed Member
The drone room only controls normal drones, not the special attack ("power surge detected")



Where did you get an ion pulse from in phase 3? The ion weapon breaks off after phase 1.

Does it really? I could have sworn killing the drone room made the drone swarm die off faster. Maybe I'm imagining things. Like the phantom ion pulse. >_> I do remember that something took down my shields because I didn't have any when the big attack came.

Agkel: The drone control system let's you control drones. It does not give you any drones if you do not already have them.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Also, dont judge me for save scumming at most twice per game run :) :) :)

*I highly recommend you guys do it too. I normally do mid point and right before the last sector but if I die twice overall in a run I start again from scratch and put away the scummed save files in an archive folder for my own personal history :D

Eh, I think most people prefer that this game has this ultimate death rogue like feeling to it. I mean, I am not judging that you love to midsave, but for others its about "what happens, happens" and the best way to deal with it.

Glad you found back to it though. Fantastic game.
 

Man

Member
Oh yeah. Bested the game on Easy! Now back to Normal...

Had the Engi ship with Mark 2 Heavy Laser and Mark 2 Ion cannon.
2x Mark 1 Attack drones.
Full shield. Cloaking. Rockman + Mantis as main anti-intruders.

Goty.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Oh yeah. Bested the game on Easy! Now back to Normal...

Had the Engi ship with Mark 2 Heavy Laser and Mark 2 Ion cannon.
2x Mark 1 Attack drones.
Full shield. Cloaking. Rockman + Mantis as main anti-intruders.

Goty.

I approve of that edit.
 

Agkel

Member
Eh, I think most people prefer that this game has this ultimate death rogue like feeling to it. I mean, I am not judging that you love to midsave, but for others its about "what happens, happens" and the best way to deal with it.

Glad you found back to it though. Fantastic game.

You are correct, I should have been more specific and said "people that hate losing progression like me, yada yada..." That way you get a second chance if something incredibly stupid happens and you lose bcs of it.

I understand it is not the way it is intended to be played but it really does make me enjoy the game much more, but I only allow myself to restore save once per run. I do like the thrill of everything is on the line here. (Plus I love the idea of squad archives)

And yes after beating it yesterday I thought I was over it, like I was w/ D3 but man, short after the uni today, my head was spinning with all these things I wanted to try in game. This is definitely goty contender for me.
 

Haunted

Member
The only time I used saves was to experiment with various tactics against the rebel flagship, so I could beat it "properly" later on. :)

Got to sector 3. Got boarded by some bug looking fuckers, and I sent all my guys in the room, and they all died.

I'm feeling like the tutorial forgot to teach me something.
It's super important to realise the strengths and weaknesses of the various alien races.

Mantises do double damage in combat.


I've unlocked two new layouts, the federation cruiser and the Zoltan ship and it's really cool how the different start configurations affect your play. Like the characters in Isaac, they're all fairly balanced, just different. Good stuff.
 
Some things I've been playing around with to improve my micro management of the ship.

If the enemy ship has nasty energy weapons and an ion cannon, it can be better to drop your shield for the ion blast, and raise it immediately afterwards. If he ions your O2 or your medbay, and your shield comes back before that pike beam rips you apart that's a worthy tradeoff.

Don't pull your pilot unless your engines are knocked out and cannot dodge

If you don't have enough power to pump engines, and the guy is about to drop a missile on you, just drop your shields and power up your engine to try and make em miss.

If you can't seem to hit the other ship, target a burst at their cockpit before launching your slow/expensive weapons. That way you can guarantee a hit with that firebomb/breac missile/hermes.

In star fights, evacuate all unnecessary oxygen immediately, that way fires can't stay around. IF you have someone to spare, stick em in the O2 or door room
 

fallout

Member
I think people are really robbing themselves of a great experience by save scumming, but hey ... whatever floats your Kestrel.
 

Man

Member
2327949-tID6F_super.jpg
Perfect.
 

AtlusAram

Atlus USA Developer
I'd named characters after myself and my brother (and left the third guy with the generic game-provided name, considering him a "red uniform" character). Through 3 sectors, my brother and I ran the bejeezus out of that ship, plowing through one hostile scenario after another.

Ultimately, in the aftermath of a battle with pirates, he perished in the efforts to put the extensive fires out.

It's just me and some alien now.

...I don't trust him.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I think people are really robbing themselves of a great experience by save scumming, but hey ... whatever floats your Kestrel.


Personally I have no intention of cheating like that. The journey is fun enough in this game to warrant constant replay for me, even after horrible deaths. One of the ways FTL reminds me of Binding of Isaac, which is another game I can play over and over again.


I'd named characters after myself and my brother (and left the third guy with the generic game-provided name, considering him a "red uniform" character). Through 3 sectors, my brother and I ran the bejeezus out of that ship, plowing through one hostile scenario after another.

I've taken to naming my ships and crews in themes, especially the crews to remind me of which stations they belong to. Like, one of my ships was named the Icarus II (like in Sunshine) and my pilot was Mace, while my engineer was Kappa, and my weapons expert was Kaneda. Another game, my ship was the USS Reliant from Star Trek, and my pilot was Sulu, my engineer was Scotty, and my weapons guy was Chekov. Helps me keep all the crew where they are supposed to be, lol.
 

daevv

Member
That picture is awesome!

I just unlocked Layout B for the first ship. It took some time to get to 1 hull then find a store to heal but the new ship looks good. I'll have to wait till after work tonight to give it a spin. Best thing I've seen so far is its starts with 4 crew!
 
That picture is awesome!

I just unlocked Layout B for the first ship. It took some time to get to 1 hull then find a store to heal but the new ship looks good. I'll have to wait till after work tonight to give it a spin. Best thing I've seen so far is its starts with 4 crew!

That ship is badass. You are good with the default weapons till about the 4th or 5th quandrant.

Got to stage 2 of the final boss on normal in the Osprey, picked up two achievements (4 blue events and didn't upgrade weapons until zone 5). Early on I went big on defense, Engines up to 4 and shields up to level 2. This let me stay in fights long enough that my beam could charge. In sectors 6 and 7 I was cruising, I had a heavy laser, default blaster and a breach bomb, and the Ospreys weapon was down to a 20 second charge. At this point I started hoarding scrap, trying to save up for a cloaking device, but I didn't see one in the 6 stores I checked. BOOOO. Because of this scrap stock, I avoided pumping reactors, and I got in over my head in an Ion storm, lost 4 of my 6 crew, and about 3/4 of my hull. Fixing it cost me all of that nice scrap stock.

When I got to the boss, I had full engines, but only three shield, and my engineer guy had died so I had a fresh face. My dogde was bout 40%, not terrible, but without that 4th shield I was hurting.

First phase went down easy. I knocked out the missile launcher, at this point he was useless. Went for the second stage, and he immediately hit my shield room with a boarding drone. Despite my best effort, with no one on engines or weapons I couldn't get him down before that drone wittled away a shield, then by the second or third drone burst I was just done.

Such an intense run.
 

Harlock

Member
Just now I see that GOG don´t have the Mac or Linux version. If you have PC and Mac, buy the Steam version.

GOG needs support Mac/Linux if going to sell new games.
 

AtlusAram

Atlus USA Developer
Just now I see that GOG don´t have the Mac or Linux version. If you have PC and Mac, buy the Steam version.

GOG needs support Mac/Linux if going to sell new games.

I disagree. Buy directly from the developers and you'll get access to all three platforms, via a Humble link, PLUS a Steam code you can redeem (that has PC AND Mac, being that it's cross-play). I was surprised to find that you can now create a Humble account (I'm told this was possible as of the 5th bundle) that lets you tie all your Humble purchases together, which for me also includes FTL and Legend of Grimrock. It's super convenient, and again, you get a Steam code as well!

I'm pretty sure the devs get the most money this way, too.

http://www.ftlgame.com/
 

microtubule

Member
FTL Beta Patch on Steam

Changelog 1.02

Compatibility Changes:
Older laptops experiencing "overly pixelated" or distorted images should now function
MacBooks with ATI X1600 video cards will potentially function both in fullscreen and windowed. I do not have access to a MacBook with that video card, so if you're experiencing that problem please update me!
Mac OS X version now implements Left-Ctrl+Left-Click to be equivalent to Right-Click

Fullscreen Changes:
Fullscreen stretch now works differently and should be more effective at properly "stretching" to fill your screen
Monitors that support 2560x1440 should be properly scaling and look much better (I'm jealous)
Monitors with resolutions less than 1280x720 may now function in Fullscreen Stretched depending on your OpenGL support
A more elaborate manual mode is available for tweaking your desired resolution effect within settings.ini

Additional Video Settings:
V-Sync can be activated within options mode. Depending on your system, you still might need to force it on or off from your video card control panel as well.
Frame limiting is also available from the options. Between the two (V-Sync vs. Frame Limiting), pick the one that works best for you to balance performance and cpu use.

Other Bugs:
Start Crash Fix: Sometimes unidentified USB devices could cause FTL to fail to start
Removed bugged weapon from the secret sector
Moving crewmembers will still teleport assuming they are in the room of their final destination
Killing the crew of an enemy ship will count as defeating it for stats
Selling the Zoltan Energy shield will no longer be bugged
Federation Ship will properly unlock on victory (and will unlock retroactively for those that experienced this bug)
Secret Cruiser Type B stealth imagery has been fixed
Fixed situation where a defense drone could become permanently powered
Energy Shield can no longer be damaged while jumping, preventing it from properly recharging
Fixed: Ion Storm and Nebula effects would disappear at beacons where you leave behind an enemy
Saving in sector maps can no longer sometimes cause you to skip a sector
Excess error message repeats removed
Typos corrected in tooltips/weapons/events
 
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