Game News FTL Pre-Beta Gameplay Video

[Zed]

Tags: Faster Than Light; Subset Games

The Faster Than Light (FTL) guys have posted a final pre-beta gameplay video of their spaceship simulation roguelike-like.

This video shows off a nearly content complete version of the game including new sectors, races, weapons and strategies. We're almost ready to launch our closed beta so this will probably be the last "pre-beta" video.​

Watch it on Vimeo here.
It's nearly 10 minutes long and shows many aspects of the game. If you want to know more about FTL, you should read the Codex interview and have a peek at their website.

 

[Jaedar]

This game looks cool.

 

[Berekän]

Hope this time there's a proper demo, I really want to get my hands on this

 

[Overboard]

Looks very good indeed. Oh and fighting the Mantis? As long as romancing Zev becomes an option.

 

[Ulminati]

Hope this time there's a proper demo, I really want to get my hands on this

Those of us who weren't massive jews and pledged on kickstarter will get the beta soon

 

[Berekän]

Hope this time there's a proper demo, I really want to get my hands on this

Those of us who weren't massive jews and pledged on kickstarter will get the beta soon

So, what you're saying is that I should be able to get it from TPB soon

 

[Ulminati]

Hope this time there's a proper demo, I really want to get my hands on this

Those of us who weren't massive jews and pledged on kickstarter will get the beta soon

So, what you're saying is that I should be able to get it from TPB soon

Well it'll be steam-only with some sort of online verification check. By the time the l33t d00dz crack it, the beta will have moved a couple of versions up judging from the # of features they show in each successive video.

Also, fuck you for even implying you'd pirate an indie dev who tries to bring something new to the table. Your ilk is the reason all we get is bland multimillion dollar "blockbuster" carbon copies these days.

 

[Morkar Left]

What's about this game? It looks like you're the whole time only focused on ordering your pixelcrew around the shipmap. Is it a decent spacesim or is that all you practically do?

 

[Ulminati]

What's about this game? It looks like you're the whole time only focused on ordering your pixelcrew around the shipmap. Is it a decent spacesim or is that all you practically do?

You order your crew around, toggle shit on and off to make sure critical subsystems have power, vent sections of the ship into cold unforgiving vacuum while frantically repairing others. You aim your weapons and make sure the correct firing priority is set up. You upgrade your ship to be better, then fly to a new sector and get blown up by pirates.

Basically a roguelike. In space. Watch the videos, they give a pretty good idea of what to expect.

 

[Berekän]

Hope this time there's a proper demo, I really want to get my hands on this

Those of us who weren't massive jews and pledged on kickstarter will get the beta soon

So, what you're saying is that I should be able to get it from TPB soon

Well it'll be steam-only with some sort of online verification check. By the time the l33t d00dz crack it, the beta will have moved a couple of versions up judging from the # of features they show in each successive video.

Also, fuck you for even implying you'd pirate an indie dev who tries to bring something new to the table. Your ilk is the reason all we get is bland multimillion dollar "blockbuster" carbon copies these days.

Implying I actually do anything to support the "blockbuster carbon copies".

 

[Ulminati]

Berekän steals from rich and poor alike. Truly he is the jewest of jews.

 

[circ]

Nice. Venting the ship of atmosphere to get rid of boarders. Don't think I've seen that in a game before.

Ship graphics - except for the ship detail view and some other ships and the nice UI - are pretty amateurish, which would be fine if it didn't look like clip-art. Hopefully rectified.
But it doesn't look all that interesting, and this is already a beta.

 

[Ulminati]

Nice. Venting the ship of atmosphere to get rid of boarders. Don't think I've seen that in a game before.

Some weapons (such as the boarding drone they just demoed) will puncture the hull as well. It's also a ghetto solution for putting out fires if your crew sucks at it. Just be aware that further punctures may lead you to flushing more of your ship than you intended and force your crew to brave the unforgiving blackness of open space to reestablish life support.

Ship graphics - except for the ship detail view and some other ships and the nice UI - are pretty amateurish, which would be fine if it didn't look like clip-art. Hopefully rectified.

What you see is what you get. It looks slightly better in screenshots since the vimeo video blurst the crisp lines slightly. Don't expect large leaps in GFX fidelity, this is the look they're going for. Graphixwhore.

But it doesn't look all that interesting, and this is already a beta.

It's a niche product targetted at a niche audience. (Roguelike-fans who also like spaceships and don't mind real-time). I played the mini-preview they had up a few months ago and was very entertained.

 

[Morkar Left]

Can't watch this vid at work but I watched some others before. It seems like you always have this topdown screen of your ship and the topdown screen of an enemy. Am I right that ordering your crew around to fix things in the ship before its getting blast up is the maingameplay?

I'm looking for something like Starflight, Escape Velocity, Ascii Sector, RL Prospector, Space Rangers 2 etc. Somehow this games doesn't look at all for me like this type of game (Space exploration, trading etc.)

 

[Ulminati]

Can't watch this vid at work but I watched some others before. It seems like you always have this topdown screen of your ship and the topdown screen of an enemy. Am I right that ordering your crew around to fix things in the ship before its getting blast up is the maingameplay?

I'm looking for something like Starflight, Escape Velocity, Ascii Sector, RL Prospector, Space Rangers 2 etc. Somehow this games doesn't look at all for me like this type of game (Space exploration, trading etc.)

Yes and no. The focus isn't on piloting your ship beyond choosing what system to jump to. It's juggling power allocation to subsystems, boarding/repelling boarders, managing time-limited systems such as cloaking, selecting and targetting weapons, prioritizing repairs and deciding which upgrades to get + finding random loot. All of the systems are individually simplistic. But since you typicalyl have to do all of it at the same time the net result is satisfyingly hectic.

It's possible they'll implement trading - the devs did talk about wanting to include a cargo hold, specialized crew (marines) and vacuum suits that'd let people operate in areas open to space but with a reduced efficiency. But at this point all of that is outside of the scope of the game they promised to deliver.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I'm looking for something like Starflight, Escape Velocity, Ascii Sector, RL Prospector, Space Rangers 2 etc. Somehow this games doesn't look at all for me like this type of game (Space exploration, trading etc.)

No, this is a completely different kind of game, focused entirely on the inner workings of your ship, including its crew, systems, subsystems, weapons, etc. You do trade, but only to be able to upgrade your ship, and you only explore the galaxy by jumping from sector to sector and taking part in various text and combat events that pop up. You would be wrong to expect the traditional spacesim gameplay from this game -- again, because it is focused on what is going on inside a ship under attack, not outside it. The idea is that the inside should get your full attention, and so the game abstracts from everything else.

Edit: beaten.

 

[circ]

Yeah, I was mistakenly expecting something like Starflight/Sundog seeing the video preview before hitting play. Oh well.

 

[Morkar Left]

Thanks to both of you. I find the shipsystem management and commanding your peeps around intriguing. But I would have liked to see it as an additional gameplay aspect in a topdown-spacesim rather than as the entire focus of the game. This way it sounds more like a rt puzzle action game. Which isn't bad but unfortunately not my cup of tea.

 

[Oriental European]

Sorry, i've had my share of text events in Space Rangers. Ugh.

 

[Roderick]

This game looks cool.

 

[CWagner]

Also, fuck you for even implying you'd pirate an indie dev who tries to bring something new to the table. Your ilk is the reason all we get is bland multimillion dollar "blockbuster" carbon copies these days.

Yeah, I can't imagine the amount of money they'll lose from someone pirating a beta. I guess it''ll be roughly $10.000 per Person.

Talking to trolls aside I think the game looks awesome I'll have to see how it feels but it seems like a must-play for me so far