FTL - Faster Than Light

[Sotha]

Got a hint from a pal about an indie game called FTL - Faster Than Light and decided to get it from steam.

 

The game is about getting a starship, chased by rebels, from one end of the galaxy to another. It is one of those games with the ingenious structure: the basic principle is relatively simple but in order to survive the player needs to make meaningful strategical decisions.

 

In this game it is about balancing your ship's systems, making the correct decisions in combat and various other special situations the game throws at the player. When in combat, you need to think carefully what systems to attack and with what weapons. The game also has a RPG-like stats for the ships system / crew abilities, so you need to make important decisions which system to upgrade: improve the engines for better evasion or improve the shields for damage deflection upon attacks that hit you. On the bottom of it all, the player needs to carefully balance the power allocation in to the different ship systems. There are no no-brainer decisions: using always the same procedure will not work. It all comes down to the circumstances and thinking how to get this particular situation resolved. The game uses permadeath, so you cannot save/load to win. This is great and makes the game far more interesting and exciting. Each game is unique as all the encounters are random and the galaxy is randomized upon each new game.

 

One example of my yesterday night's game:

I did not improve my ships door systems, but I focused on engines and shields to make me difficult to hit/damage in combat. This worked well and I made nice progress, destroying multiple enemy ships without much hassle.

 

Then I entered a nebula which distorts the sensors and you cannot see what happens in the compartments of you ships that do not have a crew member in it. Suddenly, my vessel was boarded by intruders. There were too many of them for my crew to beat in open combat, so in desperation I ordered the crew to one section of the ship and vented the other half of the ship into space, hoping the lack of O2 will subdue to enemies enough so that my crew that win them in direct combat. After venting the ship, to my horror, the intruders marched directly to the life-support section of the ship and started to break it down.

 

I had no choice but to order my crew to attack the intruders immediately and there was a big fight in the life-support section of the ship. I lost half of my crew but the enemies were finally killed, but the life-support was destroyed as well. Since half of the ship was already vented to space and the life-support was destroyed and few other compartments were ablaze, my last crewman died of lack of oxygen while trying to desperately fix the destroyed LS system. I suppose if I had invested some points to additional crew members or improved door systems I would have gotten out of this situation quite easily. Also I think I should have, instead of venting the ship, tried to have the big fight to happen in the medibay where my crew would have been automatically healed. Don't know, but obviously my poor decisions led me to this demise.

 

I hope the indie world brings more of this kind of interesting games. This game is very difficult but with the difficulty comes challenge and great satisfaction of success. Modern casual gaming never offers these things anymore.

 

Here is a video I checked before making my purchase decision. Don't mind the annoying too-fast-talking-and-screaming guy but focus on the game underneath.

[demagogue]

I watched a playthrough of this for a couple of sessions (the Yogscast one). Looked pretty cool. A nice little replayable strategy game.

[Sotha]

My second FTL ship went really well: got a good start and had a crew of 6, reasonably good weapons. Made it all the way to the end, won

 

the first battle against the boss starship. Then I was forced to attack the ship again too fast, before I had time to do any repairs. One can easily guess how that ended up: I had to FTL away with 2 hull points left and then the mothership got to its destination and game over.

 

 

Next time, I really should save some scrap for better weaponry.

[7upMan]

Sotha, did you by chance had a look at this Kickstarter project: Limit Theory is basically a spiritual successor to the Elite series, with the exception that everything except sound and music is created procedurally. That being said, the developer has successfully experimented with procedurally generated music before and might include it as a stretch goal.

 

Here is a short trailer video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7suG__lR40&feature=plcp

[ungoliant]

just bought this game the other day. Playstyles based on ship type vary dramatically. I'm running Slug Cruiser Type B right now in normal (read: really hard) mode. 3 slug crew, a crew-healing teleporter "bomb" (it costs missles every use), a transporter pad, and no med-bay. Its insanity.

[Sotha]

Wow! How did you get that unlocked already?

 

I've played a multiple games already and I have the Kestrel with the original layout. I recently got unlocked the Engi ship, but I have not yet tested it. I want to succeed better with the Kestrel first before learning to operate drones.

 

In my game I need to complete achievements in order to get new vessels.

[ungoliant]

Slug ship was the 2nd ship I unlocked, I must of got hella lucky. Then I focused all my efforts at getting 2 of the slug ship achievements to unlock type B.

 

So far I've unlocked 3 ships, and man, Zoltan type A is overpowered as hell. At least, in the early game. I like it better than type B. freakin Halberd beam can 1 shot almost everything in the first 3 sectors.

[Sotha]

Oh, okay. That's actually a good idea, maybe I should check the requirements for the achievements and play a few games totally aimed to accomplish few of the achievements. Heh.. I always played to the best of my ability to get to the end boss. Which thus far always crushed me.

[Sotha]

The engi vessel is truly remarkable ship!

Tested it out yesterday and made it easily all the way to the finish and lost to the boss basically because of foolish decisions: I did not know I cannot revisit the repair stations and squandered the repairs.

 

The engi ship was very much easier compared to the kestrel. In the end I had two ion guns and a burst laser II plus attack and boarding drones. All fights were easy because the rapid firing ion guns disabled the shields allowing the autonomous drones to destroy the enemies. The tougher enemies were helpless against the boarding drones.

 

I swam in scrap metal and could buy a lot of stuff in every shop. Usually with Kestrel there is always some hull damage coming from almost every fight and because of the constant need to repair you'll never have much extra-scrap. Also drones beat missiles any day since it takes only 1 drone part to activate the drone for the *whole* fight compared to expending a missile upon every shot. One should always install the drone system if possible, I'm starting to believe.

[ungoliant]

Was playing some more with the boarding-party slugship on normal. @#(%ing rebel scout jumped to lightspeed while all my crew was onboard their ship. game over.

[Sotha]

Omg! I did not even know that was possible.

 

I won today! Normal difficulty I piloted the Kestrel all the way to the boss fight and beat the big baddie. I used burst laser 1 and 2 for main offense. Double small bomb launchers were my weapon of choice for disabling the enemy shields and keeping them down. I also had two defense drones to fend off any missiles. Good fight, when the boss came down, I had something like 1/5 hull left.

 

Oh, how sweet the victory tastes when the game is so difficult!

 

After winning I wanted to try the Osprey I unlocked and got my ass handed to me in a doggybag already in the first sector. The artillery beam is waaaay tooooo slowwww. If you win with one ship, you are still a novice with another one....

[Sotha]

Anyone still playing this gem? I picked it up today after a pause of playing other games and TDM mapping. I decided to take the challenge of beating the game in normal difficulty with the Osprey. And I succeeded!

 

Osprey is notoriously difficult in the beginning, as the artillery beam takes forever to charge and basically your taking free hits while you wait the weapon to fire... But once you get the artillery beam upgraded to max, it rips the enemies in pieces as it fully penetrates the shields and cannot be dodged.

 

Still without drones the end boss was very challenging. As you can see from the screenie, I took the baddie out just in time: half of my ship ablaze, a few holes in the hull, life support broken, no door control to quench the fires and the crew almost dead. Phew!

 

[ungoliant]

Yeah, I've played some recently. I've beaten the game on Normal twice now, once with Kestrel type B, and once with Slugship type B, which only starts with a healing bomb and artemis missile. That run somehow ended up being the best run of my career, with a score of 4242, and the end boss was cake. Cloak/teleporter combo is imho the best endgame solution. Screw the drones unless you are lucky enough to get a boarding drone, which I've only seen once in my entire FTL career(?!)

 

About Osprey: have you managed to get a weapon pre-igniter on one yet? i've tried a bunch and never got one. Could totally rape the whole game with that, if it applies to the artillery.

 

I've unlocked everything now except Rock and Crystal cruisers. I finally unlocked the Mantis ship, and it is HORRIBLE HORRIBLE awful. I hate it. Slugships so much better. Maybe things will turn around when I unlock type B Mantis.

[Sotha]

I've completed the game with Kestrel, Torus and Osprey.

 

Torus was the easiest as I managed to get really good gear. Twin ion guns, two defense drone, attack drone and a boarding drone. Add a crew teleporter to that and I could capture enemy ships intact for tons of scrap. The boss was destroyed easily as I could disable any system at will, boarding drone wrecked havoc inside and the attack drone. Oh, that was a great game!

 

I love drones. I always worry when I see the enemy ship has a rocket or bomb launcher as it means they can do damage. If you have a defense drone.. rockets are useless against you. I even had two in operation at the same time. No rocket damage for me. High shields. Nothing could penetrate my defenses! Also the boarding drone and the attack drone are very evil tools.

 

About Osprey: have you managed to get a weapon pre-igniter on one yet? i've tried a bunch and never got one. Could totally rape the whole game with that, if it applies to the artillery.

 

I've never had that augmentation. I usually use scrap for ship improvement, repairs, missiles and fuel. I never seem to have enough really to buy an augmentation. I think I only bought drone recovery arm, which was great for Torus as it relies on drones.

 

On unlock side, I'm a bit poor: I only have Kestrel, Osprey, Torus and Vortex (Torus variant). I probably should focus the next few games on unlocks...

[Sotha]

Aww, man! What a disappointment! I had unlocked the Stealth Cruiser previously and gave it a spin after getting gruesomely killed with it multiple times. This time, I decided, I'm gonna win!

 

Now, the game went great. I played carefully and chose my fights well. I made it easily to the very end. Had to escape a few fights, but nothing special. Boss fight first part was a breeze. Then came the drone part. The boss could hardly damage me with 3 shields, max cloak and a defence drone. Every time they shot a missile volley, I just cloaked.

 

Then disaster stroke. I had dual lasers, burst laser mk 1 and a hull breach missile. Most of the enemies I met were easy to destroy with this combo. The boss had one defence drone in the drone phase. This means I had 4 laser bolts. The enemy had 4 shields. That means I get the enemy shields down with a lucky combo, but can never cause any damage.

 

I ended up in a nasty stalemate: I could get enemy shields down but could not inflict damage. All I needed was one more laser bolt. The defence drone beat my missle and I could not get the defence drone out of the picture because I could not get past the enemy shields.

 

The boss could not inflict any damage to me either. I had to jump away and try to get a lucky store or something. No. Lost the game when the boss reached my fleet. Gah.

 

The first problem with the stealth cruiser is mere survival. 150 is expensive for shields, but it is a must that it is the first thing you buy.

The second problem is that it only has 3 weapon slots. It is just insanely difficult to get the thing into the condition it will have decent shield penetration. The thing needs boarding teleporter along with two mantis. Or if I had small bomb I would have won easily.

 

Next time I'm gonna get it. Gotta save for shields. Gotta save for boarding teleporter or bomb launchers. Entering The Last Stand with total laser bolts less than 5 and no boarding teleporter or bombs equals defeat. In the worst case a really annoying defeat through stalemate and boss jump.

[Baal]

It's on sale on GOG.com for $3.99 (only for a day). Unfortunately only Windows and Mac, no Linuxversion.

 

Edit: It's also available here: http://www.ftlgame.com/. The same offer, but for all platforms.

[Sotha]

I got it off steam and when I tested out the linux version of steam, the game did download and start just fine on the linux side too.

 

This game is remarkable piece of work and an excellent buy even for the full price.

[simplen00b]

Just a heads-up - GOG has currently got this on a weekend sale for $4.99: http://www.gog.com/g...ster_than_light

[Kvorning]

Spent hours playing this little game, it's absolutely fantastic, especially for an indie! Took me about 50 games before I finally beat the boss Very addicting.

 

Hope the guys behind it get to make more fantastic games of same caliber.

[ungoliant]

Got back into the game recently. Finally unlocked the rock cruiser, only need crystal now.

So my biggest finding with the rock cruiser is that the fire beam KICKS ASS. I finally got one of the hardest achievements, "some people just like to watch ships burn". The Type B ship starts off with a Fire Bomb and a shield piercing laser(not beam), and a large stock of missiles, which is basically a free ride through Sector 2 even in "Normal" mode, which is a big economic boon.

Also you start with 3 rock crew, which is, quite frankly, the best starting lineup in the game. The extra health lets them fight on par with a mantis, no repair nerf, and they are immune to fire. 3 of them.

 

So about that fire beam. Priority 1 is purchase a Crew Teleporter for 75 scrap at the earliest convenience, which is pretty easy since you can freeroll through sector 2 without a ship upgrade (except maybe a weapon slot). With the fire bomb you can now start wreaking havoc while you wait to find a fire beam, at which point, its pretty much game over as soon as you find some kind of shield-busting laser like burst II, and even then maybe you don't need it if you can destroy the shields from the inside. The key here is to use fire from the fire bomb / fire beam as an insertion point for your 2 rock crew. Your crew never puts out enemy ship fires, and is invincible to flame. Enemy crew always fight your crew before putting out fires. So they spread faster, and makes it almost impossible to defeat your boarding party. So usually, situationally dependent, i start a fire in either shields or weapons, insert crew, and wait for that system to be destroyed. Shields and weapons rooms are always 4 squares, so if you can defend the room, when its said and done, you've got 4 fire squares and 2 rock crew in the most important room on their ship. At any point when their shields are down, continue to punish with firebeam to spread more fires, especially to things like medbay. avoid arson in the oxygen room, it will put out your fires, and enemy crew will rush to fix the 02 as soon as its clear of flame, essentially putting out all that beautiful fire.

 

Once you get some nice lasers, a fire beam, and a crew teleporter, the game almost plays itself until the last boss, but its sure as hell fun to watch.

[Sotha]

Sounds like a very cool tactic with those rockmen.

 

I never liked boarding with them, because they are hideously slow, but your point about fire makes perfect sense. You probably get the extra-salvage if you kill the entire enemy crew even if their whole ship is on fire. Handy!

 

Gotta reserve some time to play this again... Been a while since I last had the chance.

[ungoliant]

You probably get the extra-salvage if you kill the entire enemy crew even if their whole ship is on fire. Handy!

exactly right. the only ships i destroyed were the stupid cylon auto-scouts. However, with lv3 teleporter, you have enough time to get in and out and destroy 1 system with melee before they asphyxiate. nice for those 3-shield scout douchebags since their evade is high as hell.

 

Also, i didn't mention it, but I was lucky enough in my last run to pick up a crystal crew member who was a backup boarder, and would seal off their medbay so they couldn't get into it

[Diego]

I love this game!

here's a fun poem made by Yahtzee:

[Sotha]

Holy carp!

 

All steam owners of FTL have received FTL: advanced edition.

 

It adds a lot of stuff and kickass music tracks.

 

Mind control systems turns allies temporarily into enemies, a nuisance. Forces you to carefully distract the crew member without killing him and preventing him to break systems.

A crew member gets fried in the medibay while healing because a Hacking droid electrocutes the whole room.

Resurrection bay is a new alernative for the medibay. It brings back dead crew after a while. Makes boarding operations very tricky.

Bunch of new weapons, like the Stun-everyone-in-the-room Ion gun, some kind of fragment cannon, and more!

 

I used to have a decent chance to win with the Kestrel but now? No.

 

Went to the big boss fight with pimped up Kestrel. Maximum shields. Almost maxed out engines. Experienced crew. Boarding teleporter (level 2). Two pairs of boarding troops (2xmantis, 2xhumans)! All weapon slots full of guns. I won the first round, but was brutally butchered in the second one. Couldn't even punch through the shields. Missile launcher was blocked by defence droid and 5 laser shots + 1 stunner ion blast simply did not hit well enough to break anything. Note to self: always, ALWAYS get bombs, rather than missiles.

 

 

Go try with advanced edition content ON. It is awesome! It is !FUN!

 

Awesome game. Here comes sleep deprivation again...

[At0mic]

Not just Steam owners - everyone gets the FTL: Advanced edition regardless of where they bought it (Steam, GOG, Humble Store).

 

FTL is such a love/hate game for me. It's the type of game which is really aggravating when you die, because it's difficult to know whether it was an "unfair" death due to the random number generator that determines everything deciding to ruin your game, or whether it's because you yourself made the wrong decisions and hadn't prepared to be flexible enough to handle whatever could be thrown at you. I don't mind a death if it was simply because I made a shit decision that got my ship and crew horribly murdered, but if I get boarded with 4 mantis, my medibay is knocked out and half the ship is on fire due to a single encounter, it's enough to make you go AAGGGGG!! and rage quit. But if you win, it's ohhh soooo satisfying.

 

FTL is weird like that.