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FTL |OT| Stories of the Space Oregon Trail

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Getting to 2 shields is usually the highest priority on any ship for me. That way 90% of the enemies wont be able to damage you in the first 2 sectors, which means you have all the time in the world to use slower/less effective weapons. Also means that you wont have to spend half of your scraps income for repairs. For the other 10% you can use the missile weapon.

Just went home on my lunch break and confirmed this works great! Thanks.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Just went home on my lunch break and confirmed this works great! Thanks.

np :)

The usefulness of the shields is also the reason why playing the stealth ship can be so damn hard. No shield at all? Wtf.
 

Blizzard

Banned
The tutorial recommends that you move on to Easy, but I'd recommend that people skip straight to Normal. There's a reason you get an achievement for reaching Sector 5. It can be a genuinely difficult thing to do on Normal. Easy makes it seem like the point of the game is choosing how to spec up your ship, when it's really about clinging desperately to life.
I disagree with this, ESPECIALLY for new people. I only ever got to the final sector once, "easy" or not. I don't see a point in frustrating new people more than they are already going to be frustrated. :p

The reliance on missiles makes this game so unbalanced.

I played 3 times in a row and all 3 times I die due to running out of missiles with no hope of finding more... and I constantly bought missiles at stores and collected every chance I could.

It's poor game design when you give me no way to win a fight.

I enjoyed it, but ya... tweak the numbers yo.
You may just have been unlucky, and/or using missiles too much...I think I've seen other poster(s) have tons of missiles.

That said, the game IS very dependent on luck. I keep finding myself comparing it to Nethack, a classic roguelike with which I used to be quite familiar. In Nethack there are lots of random things, but you can have a greater degree of control over them in general...even though if you decide to go through the mines before you have poison resistance, there's a slight chance that you could just abruptly hit a deadly poison trap and instantly die, for example.
 

marrec

Banned
You may just have been unlucky, and/or using missiles too much...I think I've seen other poster(s) have tons of missiles.

That said, the game IS very dependent on luck. I keep finding myself comparing it to Nethack, a classic roguelike with which I used to be quite familiar. In Nethack there are lots of random things, but you can have a greater degree of control over them in general...even though if you decide to go through the mines before you have poison resistance, there's a slight chance that you could just abruptly hit a deadly poison trap and instantly die, for example.

There is a degree of control in FTL as well. It's not completely luck dependent and skill at resource use is I think the main deciding factor of if you're going to do well or not.
 

Blizzard

Banned
There is a degree of control in FTL as well. It's not completely luck dependent and skill at resource use is I think the main deciding factor of if you're going to do well or not.
Oh of course; I don't think anyone is saying it's completely luck-based, or completely skill-based. Being flexible may be a big part of doing well, and some things didn't even occur to me when I started (like flying with half the ship vented as a defense against boarders).

The only question is whether ENOUGH of it is skill-based, and that's where opinions will differ. I suspect if more options were added, some people might complain it was too easy, but balance is probably always a tough thing to do.

One ideal solution might be if mod support gets in eventually, so people can use different options. I think someone already mentioned using a mod that makes the rebel fleet chase you more slowly in some cases, giving you more time to gather resources.
 

kiyomi

Member
Pah! Real commanders don't use autofire!




real commanders don't send humans in to fight massive fires single handedly, but that's beside the point.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Heh, first game, high scroe 281, Sector 3, on Normal. Dunno if that's high, probably not.
Died while trying my luck at piracy, the "transport" shipt blasted my Kestrel.

Cool little game. Hopefully it will get mod support, definetly could be expanded a lot, i think.
Would prefer more realism, larger crews and such.

Fun and unique, i think. Rogue-likes are not a new but in space?
 
Just tried using the Engi ship that I first unlocked.

Destroyed at the first battle. Hmm..

It's all about the drones :)
For sector 1&2, Use ion cannons to target shields (autofire recommended) and your anti ship drone to attack. Your given two engi crew members who can repair at 2x the normal rate (or is it 1.5x?), so you want to use the human as your pilot and have the engies on weapons and shield or engines so you can pull them for repairs. Hold on to that ion cannon, but don't invest too in missile weapons, stick with lasers, ion, and drones.

Engi is geared for drones. Drone parts are expensive, so if you come across the augmentation that salvages any non-destroyed drone, TAKE IT (I forget what its called).
 

marrec

Banned
Oh of course; I don't think anyone is saying it's completely luck-based, or completely skill-based. Being flexible may be a big part of doing well, and some things didn't even occur to me when I started (like flying with half the ship vented as a defense against boarders).

The only question is whether ENOUGH of it is skill-based, and that's where opinions will differ. I suspect if more options were added, some people might complain it was too easy, but balance is probably always a tough thing to do.

One ideal solution might be if mod support gets in eventually, so people can use different options. I think someone already mentioned using a mod that makes the rebel fleet chase you more slowly in some cases, giving you more time to gather resources.

That is the question, I think enough of it is skill based that you can and do improve with every run. If it was completely luck based it may as well be a slot machine, but just like with Isaac (I know, I bring it up a lot when talking about FTL) the luck based item/resource finds make for what can be a more enjoyable experience because it's not always going to be a series of the same moves made to accomplish the same goals.

I normally try to have someone manning the Weapons, Engine, and Piloting at the start, but depending on what the first jump beings I'll have to use the skills gained from previous games to make the right decision going forward. That single decision could lead me to my ruin 5 sectors from now. More so than most games, your decision have influence on how long you're going to last.

Of course, just like with any 'roguelike' you're going to get screwed by the RNG every so often and just run out of fuel within a few sectors. But that luck based event will affect how you play going forward.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
That is the question, I think enough of it is skill based that you can and do improve with every run. If it was completely luck based it may as well be a slot machine, but just like with Isaac (I know, I bring it up a lot when talking about FTL) the luck based item/resource finds make for what can be a more enjoyable experience because it's not always going to be a series of the same moves made to accomplish the same goals.

I normally try to have someone manning the Weapons, Engine, and Piloting at the start, but depending on what the first jump beings I'll have to use the skills gained from previous games to make the right decision going forward. That single decision could lead me to my ruin 5 sectors from now. More so than most games, your decision have influence on how long you're going to last.

Of course, just like with any 'roguelike' you're going to get screwed by the RNG every so often and just run out of fuel within a few sectors. But that luck based event will affect how you play going forward.

Fully agree, I definitely wouldnt say that too much luck is involved with this game.
 

Ainaurdur

Member
I jumped in a couple days ago when I was reading the other thread. Been trying to play on Normal, don't want to start out soft and allow myself to be comfortable in weakness.

So far I think the farthest I have made it was sector 3. Seem to have trouble balancing repairs with being invaded. I realized last night that I have not been pausing nearly enough to micromanage mid-battle. And scraps, always wanting more. Got the salvage arm augment once, but died right after I bought it.

I know each death helps to learn something new to hopefully do better the next time around, but it is still painful every time a ship goes down!
 

Jintor

Member
Let me tell you something. I have nearly 85 hours invested in FTL. I have a floating junkyard of hulks out there somewhere, drifting in the void. I have lost ships to solar flares, lasers, rampaging bugs and asteroids; I have lost them to missiles and space madness, to ion storms and rebels alike. Every ship I have lost has taught me something. That something is that no matter what you do, sometimes you get a really shit hand and die to some goddamn piece of crap hunk of junk that just happens to be perfectly equipped to screw you over hardcore.

But, you know. You keep fightin'. You keep fightin' that fight.
 

Hambone

Member
The game has just been frustrating me to no end. I can't seem to make through Sector 2 with out dying. After many failed attempts on Normal, I tried Easy and still die.

I noticed, in the OP, a link for newbs, so I'll check it out later when I'm home. I really want to like this game, but my frustrations are growing larger than my fun.

If enemies board my ship, is it possible to open the air locks than shut down power to the doors, so they can't get to my crew? Every time I get boarded I try to vent the O2, but they slaughter my crew before anything happens.
 

Mikeside

Member
Let me tell you something. I have nearly 85 hours invested in FTL. I have a floating junkyard of hulks out there somewhere, drifting in the void. I have lost ships to solar flares, lasers, rampaging bugs and asteroids; I have lost them to missiles and space madness, to ion storms and rebels alike. Every ship I have lost has taught me something. That something is that no matter what you do, sometimes you get a really shit hand and die to some goddamn piece of crap hunk of junk that just happens to be perfectly equipped to screw you over hardcore.

But, you know. You keep fightin'. You keep fightin' that fight.

Browncoats, unite!
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
My favorite part of this game so far is how different the play styles are of the different ship designs.

I'm loving the stealth ship A but only when playing on normal. Easy seems to give the enemies significantly less missile weapons making shields much more valuable. But on normal stealth dodging missiles is very powerful. If an early enemy has attack drones though... game over.

I don't really 'get' drones other than the attack ones at all so Engi B seems like by far the worst ship I've unlocked so far.

The one part of the game I don't like though are the random events. They aren't meaty enough to really be engaging and interesting. A lot of them seem to basically amount to "Do you want to gamble a crew member yes/no". And they are small enough in number that you will hit repeats fairly soon and its quickly gotten to the point that I don't read the text any more. I just skim the answers and know which one I want.

Better events would be a bit more robust with more options. Something to leave me thinking, "huh, I wonder what would have happened if..." that makes me want to actually see that event come up a 2nd and 3rd time so that I can actually try something new.

I also think it would be good if it showed you (at least some of) the potential blue options that you don't have access to but are unpickable. Or at least hinted at, "man, we might have been to help out if we had a ___ drone." Something that might cause me to pick up an upgrade next time that I would otherwise skip because I want to see how it will play out in events.

But I like the rest of the game enough to overlook the weak events.

edit:
also the stealth system should instant recharge if you are completely out of danger. Waiting for that to recharge before jumping is annoying.
 

Jintor

Member
If enemies board my ship, is it possible to open the air locks than shut down power to the doors, so they can't get to my crew? Every time I get boarded I try to vent the O2, but they slaughter my crew before anything happens.

Spend the 20 scrap to upgrade to blast doors, they are invaluable for fire and boarders
 

marrec

Banned
The game has just been frustrating me to no end. I can't seem to make through Sector 2 with out dying. After many failed attempts on Normal, I tried Easy and still die.

I noticed, in the OP, a link for newbs, so I'll check it out later when I'm home. I really want to like this game, but my frustrations are growing larger than my fun.

If enemies board my ship, is it possible to open the air locks than shut down power to the doors, so they can't get to my crew? Every time I get boarded I try to vent the O2, but they slaughter my crew before anything happens.

Have you been making liberal use of both the Pause button and Autofire?

Let me tell you something. I have nearly 85 hours invested in FTL. I have a floating junkyard of hulks out there somewhere, drifting in the void. I have lost ships to solar flares, lasers, rampaging bugs and asteroids; I have lost them to missiles and space madness, to ion storms and rebels alike. Every ship I have lost has taught me something. That something is that no matter what you do, sometimes you get a really shit hand and die to some goddamn piece of crap hunk of junk that just happens to be perfectly equipped to screw you over hardcore.

But, you know. You keep fightin'. You keep fightin' that fight.

Sometimes this game can shift your priorities so fucking hard. When I start out I want to make it to Sector 9 and fight the big bad guy with his overpowered amount of rockets and drones and nothing is going to stop me. Then 2 sectors in I'm just looking for some way to fucking get fuel so I don't end up drifting forever in the void of space. Or I end up with just one guy piloting the ship and the enemy boards.

The little goals like killing those dudes on your ship or finding enough fuel for 5 more jumps really shine in this game.
 

kiyomi

Member
Sometimes this game can shift your priorities so fucking hard. When I start out I want to make it to Sector 9 and fight the big bad guy with his overpowered amount of rockets and drones and nothing is going to stop me. Then 2 sectors in I'm just looking for some way to fucking get fuel so I don't end up drifting forever in the void of space. Or I end up with just one guy piloting the ship and the enemy boards.

The little goals like killing those dudes on your ship or finding enough fuel for 5 more jumps really shine in this game.
Yeah, I know that feel.

One minute you're out on a grand, galactic voyage, the next, you're agonising over which path you want your last remaining member to take so that he can avoid being suffocated.

It's those little 'crisis moments' that make the game so much fun.
 

Sajjaja

Member
Yeah, I know that feel.

One minute you're out on a grand, galactic voyage, the next, you're agonising over which path you want your last remaining member to take so that he can avoid being suffocated.

It's those little 'crisis moments' that make the game so much fun.

Or heart wrenching :(

Boss question:
How come when I destroy his drone control he can still use his drones? That's a load of bullshit...
 
If enemies board my ship, is it possible to open the air locks than shut down power to the doors, so they can't get to my crew? Every time I get boarded I try to vent the O2, but they slaughter my crew before anything happens.

Definitely get the doors upgrade for the blast doors. Intruders have to break them down to proceed. On top of that, always keep the ship vented of O2 except for system areas you are occupying. If you're lucky they'll jump in blind right into vacuum. By they time they get into the unvented rooms (if they're that lucky) they'll be on their last legs and your guys can just mop up.
 

hswbaz

Neo Member
This OT single-handedly peaked my interest for this game, subbed for later. For now I have a couple of questions about this game.

1. Would you say this would be a good game to run on a laptop or will it require a dedicated PC? (saw the minimum specs, not worried about those but some games just are better on a gaming PC)

2. Would you say that this requires a mouse or would the touchpad and a lot of pausing work without detracting from the experience?
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
This OT single-handedly peaked my interest for this game, subbed for later. For now I have a couple of questions about this game.

1. Would you say this would be a good game to run on a laptop or will it require a dedicated PC? (saw the minimum specs, not worried about those but some games just are better on a gaming PC)

2. Would you say that this requires a mouse or would the touchpad and a lot of pausing work without detracting from the experience?

1. perfectly fine on lower end machines, since most is turn/text based anyway.

2. Played half of my game time with a touchpad and didnt have any issues. Its also perfectly fine to play for 15 minutes, do other stuff for a while, then get back for a few discoveries.

Perfect for that style of play.
 

Mr. F

Banned
This OT single-handedly peaked my interest for this game, subbed for later. For now I have a couple of questions about this game.

1. Would you say this would be a good game to run on a laptop or will it require a dedicated PC? (saw the minimum specs, not worried about those but some games just are better on a gaming PC)

2. Would you say that this requires a mouse or would the touchpad and a lot of pausing work without detracting from the experience?

1. If it's better on a gaming PC I wouldn't have guessed it - runs perfectly on my MacBook.

2. I think it's fine on trackpad, didn't have a mouse on hand when I played last night and it wasn't a hassle at all. The nature of the game (frequent pausing) means that you're okay not having the speed/accuracy of a mouse. But in the end I guess it would depend on your trackpad.

Edit: beaten.

Maybe I missed it, but there aren't leaderboards are there? That would be a great addition, I'd love to see how my friends have been faring.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
1. If it's better on a gaming PC I wouldn't have guessed it - runs perfectly on my MacBook.

2. I think it's fine on trackpad, didn't have a mouse on hand when I played last night and it wasn't a hassle at all. The nature of the game (frequent pausing) means that you're okay not having the speed/accuracy of a mouse. But in the end I guess it would depend on your trackpad.

Edit: beaten.

Maybe I missed it, but there aren't leaderboards are there? That would be a great addition, I'd love to see how my friends have been faring.

One of the major missing features. Steam friends leaderboard would be ace, especially a leaderboard for "games without saving" since you cant cheat those.
 

marrec

Banned
1. If it's better on a gaming PC I wouldn't have guessed it - runs perfectly on my MacBook.

2. I think it's fine on trackpad, didn't have a mouse on hand when I played last night and it wasn't a hassle at all. The nature of the game (frequent pausing) means that you're okay not having the speed/accuracy of a mouse. But in the end I guess it would depend on your trackpad.

Edit: beaten.

Maybe I missed it, but there aren't leaderboards are there? That would be a great addition, I'd love to see how my friends have been faring.

I will say that on my machine it seems that there is an issue with too high FPS that sets my CPU to CRAZY.
 

daevv

Member
Not sure if asked as I'm on my phone right now and it's hard to check other pages. How to you add members to your crew? Only way I have is by accepting a pirate slave (Mantis named Brian lol) in exchange for not destroying them. Thx.

Awesome game btw!
 

marrec

Banned
Not sure if asked as I'm on my phone right now and it's hard to check other pages. How to you add members to your crew? Only way I have is by accepting a pirate slave (Mantis named Brian lol) in exchange for not destroying them. Thx.

Awesome game btw!

There are multiple ways:

Buy crew from shops.

Accept slaves.

Rescue dudes from ships.

Rescue dudes from planets.

Any others?
 

Blizzard

Banned
Second game, again on normal, 1655 points, sector 6.
Giant space spiders ate one of my crew :/
I'll have you know giant space spiders are no joke. (and stuff like this has made me selfish so I prefer not go gamble crew members as earlier mentioned)
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
There are multiple ways:

Buy crew from shops.

Accept slaves.

Rescue dudes from ships.

Rescue dudes from planets.

Any others?

Basically:
Buy crew from shops.
Accept slaves.
From Random Events

Several different random events, but thats what it boils down to.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Buying on their official site would have got you both a Steam key and DRM free version. The best of both worlds

Well i bought the game already on Steam, i'm not going to buy it again... Not a big deal really, i'm practically always connected to internet and Steam gives me automatic updates.
Hmm. This reminds me, i need to check if offline mode works on this computer, didn't work on my previous laptop ever.

I recommend that buying the game from the official site and getting both versions should be mentioned on bold in the OP.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Does it only control the deployment of drones, maybe?

Nah, usually it stops all drones in their tracks once its being put offline. No clue why its different in the boss encounter.

Well i bought the game already on Steam, i'm not going to buy it again... Not a big deal really, i'm practically always connected to internet and Steam gives me automatic updates.
Hmm. This reminds me, i need to check if offline mode works on this computer, didn't work on my previous laptop ever.

I recommend that buying the game from the official site and getting both versions should be mentioned on bold in the OP.

Done.
Also: You can even play it when Steam is offline, you dont even need to be in "offline mode". Starting the game will work fine. You can start it anytime from the steam install folder too.
 

marrec

Banned
Basically:
Buy crew from shops.
Accept slaves.
From Random Events

Several different random events, but thats what it boils down to.

Ya I'm sure there are random events I haven't encountered yet that allow me to bolster my crew with more expendable people. As long as my original three don't have to die. D:
 

Servbot #42

Unconfirmed Member
This game is really great, micro managing your ship when it all goes bad is truly awesome. I can enever get past sector 6 tough.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
This game is really great, micro managing your ship when it all goes bad is truly awesome. I can enever get past sector 6 tough.

Try unlocking other ships/layouts. Some make it easier than others.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Done.
Also: You can even play it when Steam is offline, you dont even need to be in "offline mode". Starting the game will work fine. You can start it anytime from the steam install folder too.

Eh? This doesn't have Steam, uh, DRM?
Regardless, i need to make sure i can play other games without internet connection, for some reason i never could play Steam games when offline on the old laptop for some reason. Or i could do that for a couple of times and never tried again...

Noticed people are modding the game already, wonder if the devs will take the hint and add proper modding support. Would love to fly a Millenium Falcon or other famous ships, without having to replace existing ships.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I just realized I spoiled myself having not fought the boss, from a post above:

I would have hoped that disabling the drone control system would disable drones, so I guess it's good I know that doesn't work before I try fighting the boss. :p

Also the person I gifted the game to already beat it, crazy.

Eh? This doesn't have Steam, uh, DRM?
Regardless, i need to make sure i can play other games without internet connection, for some reason i never could play Steam games when offline on the old laptop for some reason. Or i could do that for a couple of times and never tried again...

Noticed people are modding the game already, wonder if the devs will take the hint and add proper modding support. Would love to fly a Millenium Falcon or other famous ships, without having to replace existing ships.
I think Skyrim used to be that way before they changed it, you could run it without Steam. A few other games probably are too.

And FTL has DRM-free versions for Windows/Mac/Linux so it's not too surprising it doesn't require Steam I suppose.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Missiles usually arent meant to be used in every battle, btw.

I learned that last night on my 4th playthrough. I kept running out of missiles, so I started using them conservatively and it worked really well. That run ended in Sector 5 again. I immediately started another new game, this time with the Engi ship, and wow that attack drone paired with the ion cannon does a good job! Played non stop and got all the way to Sector 7 on this one, which was Mantis space. My resources and hull strength slowly dwindled and I lost my ship within two jumps of the exit.

This game is so much fun. Can't wait to start another new run tonight and see how far I get. I'm learning little things on every run and slowly getting better and better. Still on Easy and I'll most likely be there for a very long time, lol.
 

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
Noticed people are modding the game already, wonder if the devs will take the hint and add proper modding support. Would love to fly a Millenium Falcon or other famous ships, without having to replace existing ships.

They know even since before the launch. They posted in their FAQ that they are looking at modding possibilities post launch.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Okay, the Rock Cruiser isn't the ship for me. Don't like the reliance on missiles from start. Also the Rocks are darn slow.
Let's try that Engi Cruiser...
 

Madouu

Member
A score of about 3200 on my fifth run on normal, I'm proud! Level 2 shields as first upgrade + scrap collector improvement very early on help a ton with the first sectors. At sector 4/5 though, my weapons were lacking, and by the time I got to the flagship I just got destroyed since I wasted most of my scrap on repairs rather than upgrades.

Fun game!
 
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