Support NeoGAF

[Tomat]

Well I stopped playing this now. I love the mechanics, but I just failed my 5th playthrough on easy just before the final boss, and every time that happens I consider the 2 hours playtime before wasted and just get angry. I don't feel I actually enjoy playing the game anymore, it's just the empty drive to actually beat it, and when I fail I get way too frustrated.

So maybe it's just not for me.

That's kind of the problem I'm having with the game so far. Not that I die a lot, but that when I died, it's like I don't even have a chance. That's not "troll" gameplay like everyone says it is.

FTL is still fun and I do like it, but when the game stomps you, it just fucking stomps you like you never had a chance to beat it in the first place which is silly.

 

[Neuromancer]

I got to the flagship and got decimated. =(

 

[ZZMitch]

On my first game (easy). Made it to the 5th Sector... and unlocked a new ship! Unfortunately I spent too much time worrying about ship upgrades and not enough time worrying about fuel and missile levels. I am now out of both! I can't move so I guess my ship and crew is doomed unless some other ship comes along before the rebel fleet heh.

Amazing game, I couldn't stop playing. Glad I made the purchase. In other news, it's 5:45am I have an exam on Monday I need to study for and I hate myself.

 

[Tomat]

Ok whatever, I like this game. Scrambling to command your crew during fights is a ton of fun.

 

[ZZMitch]

And I'm dead! That was awesome. I ended up having to wait and put on my distress beacon. A rebel fighter found me and an intense battle ensued. It was actually pretty one sided because I had no missiles to take out their shields so my hull lazer wasn't very effective. They also teled some guys in and caused some mayhem, but I killed them. Unfortunately my shields couldn't hold up to their constant barrage and they whittled me down until I was dead!

The first game went pretty well I feel, didn't lose any crew members until that battle and made it to the 5th sector.

What a game. This will for sure be the type of game I play every month or so and just have a blast. Thanks Neogaf for letting me know about this one!

 

[sonicmj1]

Man, it fucking sucks losing right at the end of the game.

I had a pretty awesome run going, I took down two stages of the last boss, then I ran back to repair, got fully restocked, and jumped to the base. The boss is one jump in front of me. What do I do?

I click on Jump, click on the node that says "Rebel Flagship", and then reach my destination; a Game Over screen, because the Flagship is at my base.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

 

[ZenaxPure]

Decided to pick it up because I always thought it looked interesting, wasn't expecting to do a 6 hour play session with it though. It just got it hooks into me and wouldn't let go. A bit premature probably but this has already gone near the top of my list for goty. Have already had so many amazing moments. Only reason I stopped playing was because I had to go into town haha.

 

[dubc35]

I picked this up a couple days ago. I haven't had too much time with it though. It makes my laptop run thermonuclear hot, usually to the point of a auto-power down. I searched online and it it looks like forcing v-sync on should help, however it doesn't in my case. I think my laptop needs a good physical cleaning (it's turbo old) but it should be able to run the game pretty easily IMO. I've tried running it using only the integrated Intel graphics card and it runs but is super hot as well.

sony vaio zgn-520n
core 2 duo, 2.26GHz
4GB ram
GeForce 9300M GS

 

[Toma]

Haha awesome to read new peoples impression on the game

 

[Desaan]

If you didn't buy this game - Fuck You!
If you didn't buy this game when it was on sale - Double Fuck You!

I played it 10 hours straight yesterday, I've bought AAA games and played them less than that. Indie GOTY!

 

[balddemon]

fuckkkkkk
i'm at the mothership but have no missiles so i can't win. sold my burst laser to buy some but they all missed. fuck my life time to start over.

endgame spoilers (do we need to mark these still?)
edit:

Spoiler

started over with the engi ship, much easier this time. made it to the 3rd phase of the mothership and that super thing destroyed me. only had 2 health left maybe i'll try the zoltan ship next time, though i like drones. they take a lot of power though, i had all 25 power bars and full shields but could only afford 1 drone. i used anti ship II

 

[nubbe]

This game...

This image is teh truth

Everything is going awesome, next second hell fire rains down ... MAYDAY MAYDAY

 

[balddemon]

This game...

This image is teh truth

Everything is going awesome, next second hell fire rains down ... MAYDAY MAYDAY

haha the first time i saw that image i didnt' understand it. then i played FTL..and now i understand.

 

[HamPster PamPster]

haha the first time i saw that image i didnt' understand it. then i played FTL..and now i understand.

Ha, same. I played FTL for the first time this weekend. My steam counter says 15 minutes played and that image is exactly what happened :lol

 

[BruiserBear]

I've seen people mention an iPad version of this game. Is that a rumor, or has the developer confirmed it's in the works?

 

[not psycho]

Yes! Beat it on normal. Kind of ridiculous at the end, since I had Breach II Bombs (one of the best weapons in the game) and hoarded 53 missiles. I was just killing the enemy crew with bombs since I didn't have very strong boarders (only good enough for isolated crew).

Zoltan A made it much easier. Starting off with Halberd Beam, Leto Missile, and Zoltan Shield, you are pretty overpowered until enemies start having more shields. Especially if you buy stealth, since it makes the Zoltan shield even better. Since you start powerful, you don't miss out on scrap and you build up missiles. And the Halberd Beam can be useful all the way through.

Incredibly fun game. There is one thing I would change though, you should be able to choose which crew get sent on away missions (the story ones like spiders). Not out of balance issues, but because it would add to the immersion. Why would I send a weak Zoltan on an away mission, when I need him to power my ship? (and no, it wasn't spiders this time, I made that mistake enough already)

 

[Neuromancer]

This game is so fucked up. After making it all the way to Federation space with the important data (which we are never privy to unless I missed something), they patch us up a little and then send us to fight the rebel flagship ALONE?!?!?!

Pretty assy

 

[Drkirby]

Is there a way to tell the Repair bot what to fix first? Like, I would appreciate you fix my Oxygen before the entire crew died.

 

[sonicmj1]

Well, I beat the game on Easy yesterday. Good to get that off my back after those times bombing out just before the finish line. I'd gotten more scrap in other runs, but I had better weaponry and strategy this time around.

I went back again for normal today, and it's a very different experience from easy. Encounters get tough very early on. While I could get away without upgrading anything in the first few sectors of easy (except for maybe doors or a point in engines), ships start hitting too hard for that almost immediately. And the amount of scrap you have to work with is miniscule.

I think it can be conquered, and I'm interested in trying out new ships, but given how things can spiral out of control, I don't know how anyone gets to the end of normal. Too many things can go wrong.

 

[Danj]

This game is so fucked up. After making it all the way to Federation space with the important data (which we are never privy to unless I missed something), they patch us up a little and then send us to fight the rebel flagship ALONE?!?!?!

Pretty assy

It's still possible with the right mix of weapons, equipment and strategy. You definitely need a teleporter though.

 

[fallout]

It's still possible with the right mix of weapons, equipment and strategy. You definitely need a teleporter though.

No, you don't.

 

[Parallacs]

Haha awesome to read new peoples impression on the game

Between this and SpaceChem, I dig your passion for awesome games.


I bought this on Thursday and it took me 20 hours to finally beat it on easy. The funny thing is I got to phase 2 of the boss on my very first run and then spent the next 20 runs failing. I was terrible but improved by learning from my mistakes. I finished off the boss last night without taking more than two hull damage (I accidentally killed all of the humans on phase one when fire spread to the O2 section). I replayed it on normal and beat it within three tries.

Here are some pitfalls that made me suck:
-I always took risks with distress signals. I would usually lose one of my three man crew in the first sector and then limp through the game.
-I usually bought slaves. I realized later that you almost always get one for free by attacking the ship.
-I always skipped the teleporter. I thought combat was a waste of time. I feel now it is the single best upgrade.
-I always skipped the cloak. The savings on hull damage will pay for the cloak after a number of battles. Just click it when you hear a missile fire.
-I would forget to turn back on my O2 after an Ion Storm. I would get to the next jump and see all three of my characters die at the same moment. I may have done this twice.
-I invested way too much on beam weapons. I really think they are underpowered in late game. You need to put too many other weapons into taking down the shields. I can see how they would be devestating with the right setup.
-I would spend too much on ship upgrades early. Making shops too expensive when good stuff came up.
-I spent too much upgrading my engines. Even with diminishing returns, I thought 3% dodge was mandatory. Stop at four.

Some must haves/dos (In my opinion):
+Weapon Pre-ignitor
+Drone Recovery Arm (With Boarding, Defense 1, and Hull Repair)
+Scrap Recovery Arm (In the first half of the game)
+Fire Bombs (I took down all three phases of the boss with just two of this weapon)
+Burst Laser II (If you have two of them, you can finish most of the game and not use any missiles)
+Cloaking 2, Teleporter 2, Door 2, Sensors 2
+Don't do distress signals that risk your crew, ever. You can get crew by attacking or boarding slavers, shops, or blue options.

 

[MThanded]

I love this game. Only played a few times but the time I spent with it I loved it. Hope to play a lot more in the coming days.

 

[Drkirby]

Damn it, the final boss ship fully heals when you leave the screen. Oh well, next time.

 

[balddemon]

what drones would you guys recommend? also does anyone else occasionally have the problem of not having enough power bars, even when you have all 25...

 

[fallout]

also does anyone else occasionally have the problem of not having enough power bars, even when you have all 25...

Rerouting power on the fly can mitigate against this. E.g., if you aren't leaking O2, pull excess power away from the O2 station.

 

[Majukun]

what drones would you guys recommend? also does anyone else occasionally have the problem of not having enough power bars, even when you have all 25...

actually,i don't recommend any of them.Drones are too pricey to use..you have to

1)have the drone parts
2)purchase the system
3)purchase the drones blueprints
4)buy updates for the system if you want more than one
5)buy the energy for the system

all the other systems are equally valid without being so incredibly expensive in both scrap and time

 

[sangreal]

drones are awesome if you have the drone recovery arm

 

[willooi]

what drones would you guys recommend? also does anyone else occasionally have the problem of not having enough power bars, even when you have all 25...

I had a defense drone, anti-ship, and anti-personnel on one run which helped immensely. They didn't all run at once, mind you, and once I had shields up to the max it wasn't necessary to keep the defense drone running.

Anti-ship is the one I'd go for, if you had to pick just one.

I always run out of power, and usually drop engines down to 1 bar, turn off the medbay, and only activate whatever drones or whatnot that i'm certain about using.

 

[Neuromancer]

Oh man the Crystal Cruiser is such a pain in the ass to get.

 

[Toma]

Between this and SpaceChem, I dig your passion for awesome games.

Grab a friend and the Frozen Synapse double pack. Learn to play together and feel like tactical masterminds.

 

[balddemon]

yeah the price is the only thing stopping me from getting drones every time. the drone recovery arm is pretty nice though, not gonna lie.

 

[Celegus]

I made it to the final area on my first run on easy, and got promptly massacred as expected. I still have a lot left to learn, what upgrades are useful/highest priority, etc but it was pretty fun. Combat seems repetetive though, the only thing that really worked was concentrating on blowing their shields and then attacking weapons or whatever.

 

[McNum]

Just bought the game thanks to the sale on the FTL website. Tipped a little extra, though. $5 was almost too cheap... Cool idea with being able to leave a tip.

Anyway... HELP? I bought this game kind of on a whim and I was wondering if there are any hints or hard learned tips you could give a newbie?

 

[Celegus]

Just bought the game thanks to the sale on the FTL website. Tipped a little extra, though. $5 was almost too cheap... Cool idea with being able to leave a tip.

Anyway... HELP? I bought this game kind of on a whim and I was wondering if there are any hints or hard learned tips you could give a newbie?

I'm a newbie as well, but doing the tutorial, playing one game on my own, and then reading the tips on the first post of this thread makes me feel fairly comfortable. I think it's one of those things where learning on your own is half the fun though.

 

[McNum]

Yeah, I already got my first game over.

I kind of saw it coming, too. I lost a crewmember to an event in the first sector and then got boarded by a random encounter in the second. There were no survivors.

Things I learned:
- Crew are important!
- Suffocating enemies to death is slow.
- Not all random events are nice...
-

Spoiler

Don't power off the medbay in a fight...

Oops.

Ah well, I'll just have to give it another go.

 

[MarkMclovin]

Got the game today from GoG amd downloaded it to my works laptop, which is far weaker than this. It plays fine on that. Just downloaded it on this laptop and it's completely unplayable. CPU goes through the roof, and even the mouse stutters all over the place :/

EDIT - Updating drivers just in case.

 

[So Many Bullets]

Start a quick round before bed on easy last night. Make my first jump in to a nebula for the slowed pursuit cover. It's an ion storm and I have no engines. Two Mantises are on board and whaling away at my door controls. They blow the doors and head for the cockpit.


I'm too tired for this shit.

/close Steam

 

[McNum]

Well, I keep getting owned on Easy. Good fun.

Somehow my O2 system got depowered, so everyone suffocated to death. I have no idea how that happened. GAME OVER!

Made it to sector 4, then some Zoltan jerk in an asteroid field decided that my ship would look much better in pieces. I disagreed, but he wasn't having any of that. GAME OVER! Also, I want a Zoltan shield. Those look nice.

I need to get some better weapons, but I never have enough scrap... Would love to swap out the missile launcher for something that uses less ammo. Would save quite a bit of scrap if I didn't have to reload that as often. I only really know how to start up more or less properly. Immediately throw 20 scrap at the better doors and assign the initial three crew to Helm, Weapons and Engines. A fourth member will go to Shields eventually.

Ah well, I'll give it another go later... Need to plan a little, I think.

 

[Mazre]

Awesome to see lots of new people giving the game a shot, great to see that it definitely has some legs.

I'm a newbie as well, but doing the tutorial, playing one game on my own, and then reading the tips on the first post of this thread makes me feel fairly comfortable. I think it's one of those things where learning on your own is half the fun though.

Learning as you go and discovering new wrinkles/tactics are certainly one of the joys of the game.

Well, I keep getting owned on Easy. Good fun.

Somehow my O2 system got depowered, so everyone suffocated to death. I have no idea how that happened. GAME OVER!

Made it to sector 4, then some Zoltan jerk in an asteroid field decided that my ship would look much better in pieces. I disagreed, but he wasn't having any of that. GAME OVER! Also, I want a Zoltan shield. Those look nice.

I need to get some better weapons, but I never have enough scrap... Would love to swap out the missile launcher for something that uses less ammo. Would save quite a bit of scrap if I didn't have to reload that as often. I only really know how to start up more or less properly. Immediately throw 20 scrap at the better doors and assign the initial three crew to Helm, Weapons and Engines. A fourth member will go to Shields eventually.

Ah well, I'll give it another go later... Need to plan a little, I think.

O2 could've been a few things:
Flew into an ion storm limiting your total power.
Damaged and then power something else, forget to reroute after repair.
Ion Weapons (unlikely as PC doesn't tend to focus fire strategically)
Forgetfulness (so many lost crews)

Re: Missiles
Powerful but limited, definitely important to learn when it's wise to use them and when it's wise to save them.

 

[fallout]

I always felt that the game could use little notifications that would pop-up somewhere on-screen to let you know when critical systems lost power. Things like: "Captain! Life support is down!" or "Fires reported in the engine room and med bay!"

Of course, I don't think it would necessarily help all that much ... would simply be a nice touch. In most cases, I'm paying attention and/or humping the space bar. If it ever happens that I'm not ... it's probably a lost cause at that point, anyway.

 

[McNum]

Well, well, well. Made it to the final boss. On easy, with the default ship.

Note, I said to the final boss. How am I supposed to fight THAT?! I really need to find out what weapons beat shields easily. My double Burst Laser II had pretty much taken out anything else the game threw at me, but not that. I managed to get it down to a third life, but by then I was covered in flames, venting air and running away scared. None of the rematches went any better... The last one pretty much was over before it started. Direct hit to engines and shields. No defense, no running away.

Maybe I need a better battleplan, but "target shields, then weapons and engines" seemed to have worked pretty well for the first 7 sectors...

I'm sure if I get a lucky run with more Burst Lasers, I'd be able to fight that thing. Burst Lasers are good. Should probably also have upgraded my shields to four.

 

[balddemon]

here's what i got right before the final boss. pretty sure i'm gonna lose cuz i couldn't find an upgrade for my drone sooo

edit: yeah i got my shit rocked.
need more missile launchers.

 

[Majukun]

Well, well, well. Made it to the final boss. On easy, with the default ship.

Note, I said to the final boss. How am I supposed to fight THAT?! I really need to find out what weapons beat shields easily. My double Burst Laser II had pretty much taken out anything else the game threw at me, but not that. I managed to get it down to a third life, but by then I was covered in flames, venting air and running away scared. None of the rematches went any better... The last one pretty much was over before it started. Direct hit to engines and shields. No defense, no running away.

Maybe I need a better battleplan, but "target shields, then weapons and engines" seemed to have worked pretty well for the first 7 sectors...

I'm sure if I get a lucky run with more Burst Lasers, I'd be able to fight that thing. Burst Lasers are good. Should probably also have upgraded my shields to four.

you definitely need to prepare a plan if you want to defeat the mothership,basically the entire game is just a preparation for that final fight,so you have to purchase your upgrades thinking about how that would help you in the fight against that gargantuan ship


there are many possible strategies,some better than the others,but definitely you can't approach it like you approach every other ship in the game,you have to prepare a battle plan.

also (don't read if you don't wanna any spoilers on the last fight)

Spoiler

the mothership has three stages,so you have to defeat it three times in a row

 

[McNum]

I'm trying to think up ways to harm that thing for a later go, but there's a certain saying that I might go for: "If in doubt, use fire." I'm pretty sure i could use some Ion weapon to stun the shields and then start a lot of fires with the right weapons. And if that doesn't work, then hey, I still get to set something big on ire in the game. That's not a downside.

Also need to decide if I'm going at it with the default ship or the Engi one I unlocked for

Spoiler

getting to sector 5

. Ship-wide medbay sounds interesting for a unique ability. Might also spring for a cloaking device next time. I love being sneaky. And the stealthy ships i fought were annoying to fight.

 

[Majukun]

I'm trying to think up ways to harm that thing for a later go, but there's a certain saying that I might go for: "If in doubt, use fire." I'm pretty sure i could use some Ion weapon to stun the shields and then start a lot of fires with the right weapons. And if that doesn't work, then hey, I still get to set something big on ire in the game. That's not a downside.

Also need to decide if I'm going at it with the default ship or the Engi one I unlocked for

Spoiler

getting to sector 5

. Ship-wide medbay sounds interesting for a unique ability.

finding your strategy is part of the fun of the game,good luck.

and don't worry,we all had the same problems before,i still haven't beat the game on normal,only at easy

 

[Tomat]

This game is INCREDIBLE when you can get a good crew size.

Too bad every time I get more than 3 members, everything goes wrong instantly, lol.

 

[McNum]

What do you do with a large crew, anyway? I mean a crewman on helm, shields, engine, and weapons and you're set. Do you train the others as backups? Or is it for raiding?

 

[Majukun]

What do you do with a large crew, anyway? I mean a crewman on helm, shields, engine, and weapons and you're set. Do you train the others as backups? Or is it for raiding?

a big crew can be used for two things

creating a boarding team,charged to both defense and offense (mantis and rockmen are the best)
creating a "repair" team (usually engi are the best) that will help repairing the damaged systems in battle

you can also use the zoltan as human batteries

using them as backup it's pointless because they will not have the same experience on a system ..only thing i can think of,is that you may need to put someone on the helm even without experience,because the dodge bonus applies only if someone is in the cockpit,otherwise you can upgrade the system to give you some dodge chance even is the system is unmanned,but it will always be inferior.

 

[sonicmj1]

I beat the game on normal with the Federation ship. Made me feel pretty awesome. By the end I was getting almost as much scrap as I would on an easy run.

An important turning point for me was figuring out that, for long-term survival, it's usually most important to make sure weapons are at a level where they can't hurt you as soon as possible.

here's what i got right before the final boss. pretty sure i'm gonna lose cuz i couldn't find an upgrade for my drone sooo

edit: yeah i got my shit rocked.
need more missile launchers.

I think it's possible to beat the final boss with that ship (as long as you use all that scrap you have for a few engine upgrades and stuff). It'd be incredibly time consuming, but not impossible.

There'd be two keys to victory, which I'll spoiler in case you don't want to know.

1.

Spoiler

The weapon areas are completely cut off from the rest of the ship. This makes them great to take out with either fire or a boarding party. As long as the guy manning them is dead, they won't get repaired once they're damaged enough. Prioritize missiles, since you don't have a defense drone.

2.

Spoiler

Start fires everywhere. The AI is bad at responding to them, so if you get them to start spreading in enough locations, you can sometimes do lasting damage in ways that you'd never be able to do otherwise. Bomb shields, bomb the medbay, bomb the oxygen... as many things as you can hit. I don't know if it's even possible to work through 4 levels of shields with just an ion blast and an anti-ship drone, so that'd be your only choice, at least until the fire started damaging their shields.

It would be very difficult, and you might fail in the end, but it'd at least be a fight.