Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

FTL: Faster Than Light - Advanced Edition

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,980
Keep trying to get back into this but every time I start a few games on hard with the new content I just rapidly get a crewmember eaten by either a new event or new ending to a previous event. And on hard losing a crewmember early (losing anything early) just fucks you super hard. There also seem to be way way less chances of getting free crew than before, which really fucks ships that don't start with alien crew, because it's having alien crew that makes 80% of the events profitable.
 

Gozma

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
2,951
You rarely get free crew without risking crew, except in the case where you kill everyone on the opposing ship instead of blowing it up. You can play with one of the "C" ships or the Lanius ship; they generally start with clone bays that let you risk crew in CYOAs and get the crewman back if he dies.

I find hard difficulty too unfun with anything but the killer ships that can crush the first two sectors without taking more than ten or so hull points of damage. I get this old "I'm too sick of this Roguelike" feeling trying to play hard when something like getting a Burst Laser II for free in the first sector makes me want to restart because playing after getting such an unrepresentative lucky break is pointless.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,980
Well so far I'm like -4 for 5 on bringing people back from planets, and I've lost people to simply exploring asteroid fields too. I already don't bother with stuff like spiders or plagues without the right crew, so... the only other option is to just not do any of them, which kind of kills the fun.
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,023
Well so far I'm like -4 for 5 on bringing people back from planets, and I've lost people to simply exploring asteroid fields too. I already don't bother with stuff like spiders or plagues without the right crew, so... the only other option is to just not do any of them, which kind of kills the fun.

Hey. There is one guy here which has 50%+ success rate ...




... with save scumming.
 
Unwanted
Shitposter
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
3,390
Location
Nazi death cult center of jew medicine avoidance
Ok...for fuck's sake why cant I beat this game? It would be OK but it's super lolrandom at times, and it's just crushing how you inevitably get into an impossible circumstance. The Rock guys and their damned mining ships get me if nothing else will.

So far I think I only ever got to sector 6. What am I missing?

I will get shields up to three and sometimes some great weapons. Usually I miss out on putting much into engines. Is that the problem? I see some people talking about killing crew, any pointers for trying that way? My main problem is I hardly get any good weapons, or if I do I have to spend all my scrap on making them usable (enough power). At a certain point I get to long fights after which I won't get any money left over after repairs to continue and then it's over. This game makes me insane.
 

Absalom

Guest
Ok...for fuck's sake why cant I beat this game? It would be OK but it's super lolrandom at times, and it's just crushing how you inevitably get into an impossible circumstance. The Rock guys and their damned mining ships get me if nothing else will.

So far I think I only ever got to sector 6. What am I missing?

I will get shields up to three and sometimes some great weapons. Usually I miss out on putting much into engines. Is that the problem? I see some people talking about killing crew, any pointers for trying that way? My main problem is I hardly get any good weapons, or if I do I have to spend all my scrap on making them usable (enough power). At a certain point I get to long fights after which I won't get any money left over after repairs to continue and then it's over. This game makes me insane.
Evasion (from upgraded engine) works on nearly everything. Also level 3 shields before sector 6? Dunno man. Killing crew takes a specialized loadout, fire weapons, boarding, etc. As for LOLRANDOM that really only makes a difference when you're playing one of the weaker ships (Stealth B for lyfe.) It would be much easier if you'd post a video of you playing.



(So we can all point and laugh and your mistakes :smug:)
 

Gozma

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
2,951
Pause a lot to make sure all your shots impact at the same time so you don't have 4 different weapons hitting at different times allowing shields to recharge in between.

Look at the guns on enemy ships. You should be able to recognize what they have and make decisions like, "Alright this guy has a burst laser 3, I need to get a missile through to his weapon system to knock that out."

Use multishot weapons like burst lasers/flak cannons to drop their shields, then follow up with a beam while their shields are down. Something like 2-3 flak Is/burst laser IIs plus a hull beam or pike is a stereotypical good endgame offense.

Second shield bubble is a good deal early on. Evasion is pretty good but I never end up buying much more than ~3 pips until very late on most ships.

The best subsystems are cloaking and hacking by a large margin. They let you get by with far worse general offense and defense and let you avoid wear and tear from nasty enemy loadouts. Teleporter is good (it got heavily nerfed in AE) but requires a large investment. Drones and Mind Control are good on ships that start with them but I rarely buy them.

Edit - Also, door improvements are a great investment. Having level 3-4 doors can let you nullify a lot of enemy boarding by forcing them to stand in one airless room after another trying to pound through the doors, and enemy boarding is the trigger for a lot of "everything is fucked!!111" death spirals
 
Last edited:

cvv

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
18,071
Location
Kingdom of Bohemia
Codex+ Now Streaming!
Ok...for fuck's sake why cant I beat this game?
.
.
So far I think I only ever got to sector 6. What am I missing?

You're missing lots and lots of crushing defeats by the Flagship ;)

But seriously, it took me around 20 attempts to beat the game before I switched to Easy...and got crushed some more. There's just a lot of learning involved in this game. Once you learn it reasonably well the RNG will have a lot less pawah over you.

Btw I found the Engie ships pretty difficult even on Easy but once I finished the game with one of those the subsequent ships in line were much easier. Especially the Federation and Mantis cruisers are just a breeze.
 

UglyBastard

Arcane
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
821
Which ship are you using? The starting ships like Kestrel and Engi-A are very good and can get about 80%+ winrate on Normal (if you know what you are doing). 99.5% on easy. Some of the more obscure ships rely on a perfect start and you might need to replay the first 1-2 sectors a lot.

Teleporter is actually the strongest system in the game in my opinion (if you have the setup and crew for it). It can completely bypass the defenses of almost any ships (exceptions are Autoscouts, which need a higher level teleporter and Zoltan shields) and, more importantly, yields more rewards than blasting enemy ships apart. You will often get bonus scrap or new crew members for boarding. It is also very powerful against the final boss. It's pretty cheap as well (75 scrap) and can be picked up along the line to make occasional use of it. I encourage upgrading sensors to rank 2 to see what you are jumping in when boarding. Also turn off autofire on your weapons or you will eventually blow your own crew up. Learning the boarding playstyle is one of the most benefiicial things you can do in the game.

You should aquire a countermeasure against rockets in the midgame, they bypass your shields and can fuck you over badly if they hit critical systems. Defense Drones MkI are an excellent hardcounter and come pretty naturally when you play Engi-A (Engi-B is a joke). They are the best defense against rockets but a drone system is pretty expensive if you don't already have one. Don't bother with Defense Drone MkII, it can also shoot lasers down which sounds awesome but is terrible because it will focus on useless lasers while the rockets keep getting through.
Another good option is stealth, a very strong system that is also exceptionally useful against the final boss. It gives you a huge dodge bonus, activate it when the enemy rockets are in the air and they will miss and their cooldown will be locked until you uncloak.
If you have no access to either, upgrade your engines (you should aim at 20% engines in the midgame and then leave it alone until lategame, the cost/benefit ratio gets worse) and/or try to burst them down/sabotage them with hacking. Evasion is very useful and neglecting the engines can bite you in the ass in multiple ways (slower FTL charge when you need escape, rockets hitting you way more often, thus increasing the chance of being critically screwed and using money for unnecessary repairs).

Also try to aquire a shield bypassing mechanism to end battles quickly and avoid hull damage. I'm not a huge fan of rocket weaponry but bombs are pretty awesome, they cannot be droned down and make good use of your ammo. Smallbomb and Ionbomb are especially powerful, they cost only 1 energy to maintain but can critically weaken the enemy shields for your lasers to punch through. Always time your lasers to shoot simultaneously to crack enemy shields and "overload" their defense drones. Pause often to coordinate your attacks and micromanage your crew.
 

Gozma

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
2,951
Teleporter was much better before AE because they significantly nerfed the extra scrap/loot you get from boarding kills - I think they also lowered the rate you get free weapons/systems from it too. IME the bonus it still gives pretty much exactly matches how much extra damage you take while a couple of your yellow melee mantes kill everyone. On hard difficulty the teleporter is also much less of a slam dunk on the flagship because two of the weapon rooms connect to the whole ship, so you can't trivially neuter the flagship with boarding anymore (you can still do a teleporter strategy, but not with random throwaway crew and a level 1 'porter). It's still good and you still want it if you happen to have a couple mantes but it's not like "buy it in the first sector no question" anymore.
 

UglyBastard

Arcane
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
821
Sure, but it's still a fun, rewarding and powerful playstyle and if you want to beat the game consistently you will have to master it eventually. If used properly, it definitely gives you benefits over just destroying every ship you meet.
It's also a really great way to dismantle Engi or Zoltan leviathan class destroyer ships which would be a major pain in the ass to shoot down but are only piloted by some weaksauce crew that can be dispatched in seconds.

I think Shitlord is a good bit away from beating the game on hard, besides it is still very useful there, just a bit more complicated to set a foothold in the Flagship up. It's still extremely beneficial when you got rid of the crew and can disable systems at will.

If you happen to have the right dudes to teleport in, you might as well go for it.
 
Unwanted
Shitposter
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
3,390
Location
Nazi death cult center of jew medicine avoidance
I finally switched down to easy and managed to beat the game.

I think the random stuff is a real big issue, because for some games I just never have any crew, while on others I get to 8 right away. Sometimes I just don't find any weapons until I am way too late or only in the first sector where I have no money. I hardly ever see the beam type ones you describe. But I did get one in the easy game along with breach bomb. That was a really great combo.

For example I got beat on sector 6 on normal. I had a bomb, charged laser, flak mark I and the starting laser for the kestrel, plus level 3 shields. I still got my ass easily kicked and had a lot of trouble before I actually died. If I play as engi I can never get a good freaking drone. If I play the kestrel I always have a ton of useless drones!

I did find your advice helpful, though. I don't just fire right away and hope for the best, but try to sync up all my attacks until the shields are down at least.
 

UglyBastard

Arcane
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
821
Your weapon loadout sounds pretty good actually, probably an issue of not timing it right. The starting laser on Kestrel A (Burst Laser MkII) is the best laser and probably the best weapon overall in the game, and combos well with a Flak and a bomb.
With such a setup you would probably bomb the shields, then fire the Flak to weaken them further and snipe the system of your choice with the laser a second after the flak pellets' impact (usually shields, sometimes weapons if they have heavy weaponry you need to disable immediatel). That should be enough to easily dispatch three shield bubbles and even kill four bubbles with a bit of patience.

Your problem probably lies in a weak defense, so that your plan can be easily foiled by disabled systems and you soon begin to struggle. Also, some battles are simply not worth fighting through, mostly because of heavy rocketry oder powerful synced lasers. It's nice to have a backup plan for those encounters or they can be VERY costly or simply lose you the game.
Upgraded engines are very good in such cases, as they let your FTL drive charge considerably faster and at the same time mitigate the damage intake while trying to get away. If you have shit engines, you are forced to sit through the encounter and take massive damage. Cloaking is another very useful system, you can dodge the first missile salvo with a well timed cloak, disable their weapon recharge for a while and let your FTL charge while being hidden. Hacking can buy you time as well and is a very powerful offensive tool in both boarding and gunship playstyles.

The key to victory is often to explore as many beacons as humanly possible. A good escape mechanism lets you abuse this even further. For example you can explore 2-3 nodes more than you would be able to otherwise and then cheese your way through the rebel fleet to the exit beacon with cloak, considerably increasing your resource intake. Especially in the harder modes, you need to grab every resource you can.
Also, choose your jump choices wisely. It's probably pretty useless to visit a shop at the first sector because you couldn't afford any good stuff there anyway and it would waste your precious jump. Rather avoid the shop if you are not searching for something specific (a weapon, a certain system, fuel, repairs) and instead take some nodes that have a chance to gain you supplies.
It is often beneficial to choose routes through nebulas because you can jump to a lot more nodes in nebulas as the fleet is delayed (very much in non-nebula sectors, a bit in full-nebula-sectors). They have a lower encounter chance as well but more jumps usually pay off in the end.

Also choose your sectors to jump to wisely. Homeworlds often have high value quests that yield powerful rewards if you can solve them (and unlock other ships), so taking the homeworld node is worth it most of the time. For example, Zoltan homeworlds are especially valuable because they have a very high reward quest that doesn't involve any fighting at all (only careful choice of dialogue).
Green sectors usually have more stores and more benign encounters, if you are struggling or searching for something specific, the green sector is probably the better choice. If you have a well equipped ship and you are looking for trouble (aka combat rewards), choose the red ones. Mantis sectors feature a lot of boarding encounters, so you should not choose them if you are not equipped to repel boarders. Rock sectors often feature missile weapon enemies, so if you have no way of deflecting missiles it could get rather costly. Rebel controlled and pirate sectors feature a lot of generic combat encounters. The rebel stronghold has a "secret" miniboss fight that can be pretty rewarding and fun if you have a decent ship.

Engi A has about everything you need to get to sector 3 without a single usable drop and comes equipped with some of the most useful drones and weapons right away. Defense drone MkI is the best defensive drone in the game (low energy cost, fights specifically missiles), laser drones are generally more useful than beam drones because they help you to actually push through and the upgraded Ion Blast can take down up to 3 bubbles of shields on it's own (with patience, 2 bubbles pretty effortlessly). It's actually one of the most forgiving ships in the gaming. The biggest weakness is probably being boarded by a lot of scumbags, but there are cheeses to live through most of it.
When you are being boarded with no good crew, gather them in the medbay and vent the rest of the ship. The boarders will take damage while trying to get to the last oxygen filled room in the ship and then have to fight your guys in the medbay, making even heavily outnumbered encounters survivable. When you struggle with boarders, consider getting a timely door system upgrade. It helps tremendously with delaying boarders and softening them up with low oxygen before they reach you.
 

Ashery

Prophet
Joined
May 24, 2008
Messages
1,337
Evasion is pretty good but I never end up buying much more than ~3 pips until very late on most ships.

D:

I'd revoke Abs's brofist if I could.

I generally try to keep engines one "wave" of upgrades behind shields (Second bubble -> Rank four engines -> Third bubble -> Rank six engines -> Depends on loadout), but this is a general guideline and not a hardfast rule.

I encourage upgrading sensors to rank 2 to see what you are jumping in when boarding.

This is old advice from the original version; now all you need to do is man the sensors before boarding.

On hard difficulty the teleporter is also much less of a slam dunk on the flagship because two of the weapon rooms connect to the whole ship, so you can't trivially neuter the flagship with boarding anymore (you can still do a teleporter strategy, but not with random throwaway crew and a level 1 'porter). It's still good and you still want it if you happen to have a couple mantes but it's not like "buy it in the first sector no question" anymore.

It still allows you to neutralize the ion and beam while you focus weapons on culling crew and keeping the missile launcher suppressed.
 

Gozma

Arcane
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
2,951
I haven't played in months; I can't remember the point where evasion starts getting seriously expensive and it starts being a better call to hold scrap to buy cloaking/hacking. But there is definitely a point where 5% evasion and slightly faster engine charge is not worth not being able to buy hacking or cloaking at the next shop. And then once you have cloaking or hacking you have the means to stop that ship with a 4 damage missile and two burst laser 2s from getting to take a chunk out of your ass and with slight bad luck put you in a death spiral.

Also "late" to me is just after 4-5 sectors when you've picked up some crap and gone through enough stores that you've fallen into the "normal FTL experience" instead of dealing with the peculiarities of your initial ship loadout.
 

agentorange

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Messages
5,256
Location
rpghq (cant read codex pms cuz of fag 2fa)
Codex 2012
sUrvBhG.jpg


I beat FTL.

DarkUnderlord please sticky this so everyone knows.
 

Gunnar

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 10, 2016
Messages
819
Well done!

:australia:

Now unlock all the special ships :obviously:
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom