Game News FTL to get free "Advanced Edition" update, with Chris Avellone writing!

[Infinitron]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Faster Than Light; Subset Games

It's been quite a while since we last posted about FTL: Faster Than Light, the spaceship simulation roguelike that was among the first successful indie game Kickstarters way back in February 2012. Today, the FTL team announced the upcoming release of "FTL: Advanced Edition", which will be a free update for those who own the original game. And guess who else is involved?

We’ve been working hard over the summer and are excited to finally officially announce a free expansion, FTL: Advanced Edition! FTL: AE is a huge content addition that includes new weapons, drones, augments, systems, enemies, and more. Here are some details on just a few of the additions visible in the trailer:

• Mind Control System: Temporarily turn enemies into allies. Force a boarder to repair the damage they just did, or have the enemy pilot sabotage their own helm.
• Hacking System: Lockdown and disrupt enemy systems. Unique effects for each system, ranging from forcing a teleporter remove boarders to making the medbay damage instead of heal.
• New Sector and Events: Our writer Tom Jubert has returned along with special guest writer Chris Avellone (of Planescape fame), who managed to find some time for us between his work on Project Eternity and Wasteland 2. They’ve been helping us add a new sector and scatter new events throughout the rest of the game.
• New Weapons and Effects: Many new weapons that take advantage of new mechanics: overcharging to increase the number of volleys, stun effects to freeze crew, and area effect targeting, to name a few.
• And more systems, drones, augments, enemy ships, enemy layouts, and hostile environments. All of which we’ll be sure to talk about more in the coming weeks!

In addition to new content, we’ve continued to polish FTL and add some of the most requested small features. As a few examples: you’ll be able to save your crew positions and send them back to battle-stations, save and quit during combat, and find more items for purchase in stores.

For the purists out there, FTL vanilla will still be available. All of the new content can be disabled from within the hangar before starting a new game.​

Awwwww hell yeah. FTL: Advanced Edition is planned for release in early 2014.

 

[Jasede]

Perfect, just what the game needed.

 

[Zed]

Very cool.

 

[SuicideBunny]

who in their right mind would want to disable something that adds more events?

 

[cherry blossom]

Now it only needs a story, crew personalities and TB combat.

 

[cherry blossom]

who in their right mind would want to disable something that adds more events?

"More stuff" doesn't always equate to better and going by gaming examples, it is more often a change for the worse so I can understand.

It is a fantastic gesture to go to the trouble of making an on/off switch for it.

 

[SuicideBunny]

more events is something ftl badly needs, though. best option would be if you could disable different categories of new content individually, assuming those new events aren't all linked to the new stuff.

 

[Mrowak]

As much as I appreciate the gesture, I'd prefer those guys worked on a proper sequel or even a different title altogether.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

I could definitely be persuaded to go back to this game with a content update.

An ideal next game from these guys would be an EV Nova type game with the systems they've implemented in FTL. They might want to do something new at that point though.

 

[himmy]

FTL defending its title as the Kickstarter project which, to this point, delivered the most.

 

[cherry blossom]

That honour belongs to Conquistador as far as I am concerned. I wonder what those guys are doing now.

FTL, however, is the better managed and presented project with a tighter focus, no doubt. Conquistador has too many amateur design decisions in comparison. All the sadder that they refuse to acknowledge the many little problems here and there.

 

[Awakened_Yeti]

word

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

He should devote more time to the PE and Torment instead of this.

 

[Midair]

He should make an IceBlink module.

 

[Agesilaus]

Wow, Chris Avellone is getting involved, thanks for giving me another reason to leave the FTL install in my recycle bin

 

[OSK]

I'm curious as to how Avellone got involved with the project.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

My problem with FTL was one of balance. I loved the game concept and execution, except for the fact that there was always the pressure of FORWARDFORWARDSCHNELLSCHNELL which meant on-the-fly decisions, which while often delivered me to the end game also meant that I was rarely, if ever, ready for the endboss. In fact, the best results I got to gear up for the endboss involved killing EVERYTHING I encounterd. The salvage from my defeated enemies was more than enough to keep me going, and it was on one such run that I got the farthest to beating the end boss. Trying to be a pacifist Federashun-style captain could net me good crew members, but rarely enough weapons and shields to survive for long.

I hope that this update addresses the balance issue, at least, making more builds and playstyles viable.

 

[Shadenuat]

I'd play it again only with autosave at each new sector and option to build your own ships. Rushing highly random rogue is only fun for a few times.

 

[wesmo]

Just got over this crack 55hrs logged in steam and now this comes out... Looks like an unproductive early 2014. Thank god there is no android version...

 

[Metro]

Enraged it doesn't make use of Steam's cloud saving. My old profile/unlocks/progress died with my old computer.

 

[Gragt]

Enraged it doesn't make use of Steam's cloud saving. My old profile/unlocks/progress died with my old computer.

Funny, I got my version from GOG and my profile was transfered from my desktop to my laptop without any action on my part. Dropbox did this all automatically and in a transparent manner. I guess that Steam needs more improvements than cards to be actually useful.

Spoiler

 

[Metro]

Yes, dropbox did it automatically~

 

[Gragt]

Yes, dropbox did it automatically~

As a matter of fact, yes.

Spoiler

 

[SuicideBunny]

Now it only needs a story, crew personalities and TB combat.

and doomed interspecies romance

i'd play that..

 

[Scroo]

Cool. Might be a good reason to play it again.