Information FTL: Faster Than Light Released

[LibertyRansom]

Anyone know if there's a way to attack ships after they become neutral? Say I buy a slave from the slave trader. Now the other ship is sitting there on screen. Can I engage or is my only option to jump? Thanks!

 

[Grimlorn]

Anyone know if there's a way to attack ships after they become neutral? Say I buy a slave from the slave trader. Now the other ship is sitting there on screen. Can I engage or is my only option to jump? Thanks!

There doesn't appear to be any way for it. I've had ships fall apart after accepting surrender and I couldn't get their scrap. But it's kind of good because it forces you to make a decision. You can't just attack the slaver ship, get a slave, then destroy the ship for scrap and weapons.

 

[J_C]

God I suck at this game.

all the storyshit larp cancer killed every braincell, if ever they lived at your place - decline
its saying a lot about "computer "gaming"" if a man (i assume, you are not 13... mentally...) cant beat a cheapass puzzle
i hate you




game is irredeemable garbage, illusions of choice, larp fest
just jumped into sector 7 on "normal" (on first attempt, no counting name rerolls for a russian terrorsquad, thats as far as i can larp without killing myself), doing better than on "easy"
"normal" means less scrabs and better equiped enemies, it doesnt matter though if they dont get to shoot............................
enemies also evade much better so i contemplated for a moment a change of strategy, like shooting the cockpit or something, but hey, why change a working, superior tactic? ftl is a shit game
same build kinda creep'ed on me, by just being the most efficient
vitaly, my elite gunner got killed by slugs! in microcombat without me even noticing...





13+ hours wasted, fuck me sideways, never again gonna play shitty crap on release
unins000.exe

 

[Jaesun]

Joined: Monday
Posts: 25

 

[Juggie]

I played 18 hours of this game and while I like some of the ideas, the actual implementation is rather lacking.

I'm not a roguelike veteran - I only played NetHack and Dungeons of Dredmor before this so I don't know if this is a standard within the genre, but for me this game relies too much on random factor. I came up with couple of working builds for my ships, but most of the time I'm unable to follow them since I can't find any of the weapons/drones/augmentations/crew members used in those builds. The shops often don't even have the category of items that I'm looking for. Also I often can't find a decent weapon at all. It happened to me a couple of times that I reached sector five or six without getting a new weapon (I don't count shitty 1 damage bombs and heavy lasers as decent weapons) and it's kinda hard to kill the enemy ships with the starter weapon alone once you start meeting those 3 shield ones armed with couple of rocket launchers.

Another issue is the sector map, random events at beacons, their options and outcomes. First of all you can't tell what you'll find at any beacon unless you have the augment (scanner or something). The augment costs about 50s, takes an augment slot and you still have to find it in shop and even with it you still only get some basic info like possibility of a ship at the beacon. Another thing - sometimes you can't tell if you'll be able to jump between two beacons unless you jump to one of them first. This can lead to being locked in a part of sector with the only way back through red territory. These two problems kill any strategy at the sector map. As for the random encounters - these is possibly one of the worst options/outcomes system I've ever seen. There's practically nothing more involved than a roll of a die. The options are ok, but the outcomes tied to them are terrible. Most options seem to have 2-3 outcomes: one being positive, one negative and maybe a neutral one. Sometimes there are 2 positive or two negative outcomes. That's all nice, but they are chosen at random. There are no skillchecks (or some equivalent for this game) involved. And if you're thinking about those teal options then well, I don't get those very often, some events don't seem to have those at all and even they can fail (random factor again). Also the difference between getting the positive one and getting the negative one is sometimes too big, i.e.: you can gain one crew member or lose one - that's difference of 2 crew members which is quite a lot if you have fewer than 4. Not to mention that some outcomes are retarded (if you read through the texts). Another thing is that you can't really recover from loses properly. Every choice is gamble, there's no playing safe. Sure you can choose the "leave it alone" kind of option (sometimes), but you won't gain shit from that and it won't help you recover. In this kind of model 3 consecutive negative outcomes can ruin a good going game (which actually happens to me most of the time).

Another issue is the combat and AI. The AI is dumb. It's pretty much non-existant. It targets empty rooms with weapons, it uses beam weapons when you have shields up and targets it at empty spaces, it uses the crew for suboptimal tasks (once they suffocated because they didn't bother to repair oxygen room at all), it uses stealth on cooldown, can't use airlocks, etc. Basically the game keeps trowing powerful ships at you to compensate for the lack of AI. Now I know that's what most of the games do anyway, but why praise the game to heaven if the AI is this dumb? Actually it seems that the AI actually doesn't target anything at all and every projectile has a random target. This can be seen from how their 3-shot lasers work - every shot targets different room (player can't do that as far as I know). The combat itself is pretty dumb too. As stated previously in this thread it's absolutely obvious that targeting weapon control room is the key to success. While it might take a while, this is the optimal strategy for 90% of fights. The combat is also quite imbalanced: missiles being the most powerful, which is offset by requiring the missile resource. That could work for the player, but the each enemy seem to have large number of missiles (10 or something). Unless you take them out this can cause severe hull damage and there's basically no early game counter (cloaks are too expensive and avoidance chances are low). Since the loot you get from enemy ships is almost completely random you get about 1 missile per encounter. If you use more you'll have to buy them and they surely aren't cheap. This makes the combat very asymmetric and it's not a good thing in my eyes.

Finally couple of smaller issues: crew skills are crude, hit/evade chances are crude - could use more complex targeting/evasion system, easy difficulty is way too easy, some systems are easily exploitable, etc.

Overall I understand it had low budget and therefore it's understandable that it's simple, but still I find the game way too simple and random for my liking - I had hoped for something more tactical. Also I'm not saying the game's bad, just that it was overpraised in this thread.

 

[felipepepe]

for me this game relies too much on random factor. I came up with couple of working builds for my ships, but most of the time I'm unable to follow them since I can't find any of the weapons/drones/augmentations/crew members used in those builds.

That's exactly the point, the randomness ensures that every playthrough is different; it would be a very boring and easy game if every playthrough was just you making your perfect build and trying your luck against the boss. Lack of resources and sudden setbacks forces you to play smart.

There are no skillchecks (or some equivalent for this game) involved.

Of course they are, I've seen engines, shield and clocking devices skill check, not to mention different outcomes depending on the races you have on board and even on the weapons you own. They are rare for you take some time to gather the skills/itens/crew, but playing with ships like the steath ship or the federation one ensures loads of skill checks from the start.

Another thing - sometimes you can't tell if you'll be able to jump between two beacons unless you jump to one of them first.

This annoys "visually", for it seems stupid not to make the jump, but it's the space equivalent of using a key to open a locked dor that leads to nowhere, it's just one of those random factors that roguelikes throw at you to challenge you.

No one here it's saying it's the best thing ever, just that is a great roguelike, much like Binding of Isaac, that has tons of replayability, fun stuff to do and we'rew having a great time playing it.

 

[Juggie]

That's exactly the point, the randomness ensures that every playthrough is different; it would be a very boring and easy game if every playthrough was just you making your perfect build and trying your luck against the boss. Lack of resources and sudden setbacks forces you to play smart.

Yea I like new stuff happening in each playthrough except they overdid this. I remember NetHack levels being randomly generated, but you could actually use some strategy instead of gamble your way through the game. I'm certainly not saying that I want to follow perfect strategy to the letter, I want to have options that's all. This game's not about options tho, it's about luck.

Of course they are, I've seen engines, shield and clocking devices skill check, not to mention different outcomes depending on the races you have on board and even on the weapons you own. They are rare for you take some time to gather the skills/itens/crew, but playing with ships like the steath of the federation one ensures loads of skill checks from the start.

I found about 10 different special options in about 6 different events. That's not much considering there's probably about 30 different events and only a tiny part of the available races/weapons/drones/augments/upgrades actually enable those options.

This annoys "visually", for it seems stupid not to make the jump, but it's the space equivalent of using a key to open a locked dor that leads to nowhere, it's just one of those random factors that roguelikes throw at you to challenge you.

From my observations the only factor that decides whether you can jump between two beacons is their relative distance.

I guess I just don't like the genre if the random factor is ok.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

This is awesome game! If you have any troubles head to the official forums, they have tons of info there (including how to get all the ships). Loosing is really fun

There are some folks even working on mods - data packer/unpacker is ready and first silly stuff (like OP ships) is done.

 

[J_C]

This is awesome game, and I don't even played rougelikes in the past. But I adore this one. Fun, addictive, worth every cent.

 

[felipepepe]

This game's not about options tho, it's about luck.

Is about surviving and eventually beating the game with the resources you where given. Stuff like starting the game with the stealth ship would be no challenge if you knew that shields are for sale in every store. If you don't find the shields, either you keep searching for them desperatly and blame the game, or at some point change your tactics to play without them...

That's a huge part of the fun in the game, seeing how far can you go with retarded builds or massive bad luck. "OMG, I reached sector 8 with just one crew member and no shields!", that's what keep this game interesting.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I can understand how the randomness can be off putting if you've never played (or never liked) nethack or oregon trail. Winning every game is impossible.

However, people who are really good at those games can adopt to different strategies once they get an assessment of what they have and what they can get.

I don't know yet if that is possible yet in this game, but I am enjoying the hell out of it as it.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Ugh. I will say this, that Torus Engi ship is a piece of junk.

 

[JrK]

I just beat the boss (easy mode though) with the engi ship. Key to engi ship is to utilize the ions you were given. Try to find an array of three ion guns, that way you can shut EVERY ship down in 3 volleys. This also works for the boss. You need something to take down the ships though, so the engi ship works extremely well with attack droids or teleporting crew.

I took the boss down by first focusing on shields, and teleporting guys into the rocket launcher. Then I took down the ion gun with teleportees. You can safely take them down with teleporting crew because those parts are shut off from the rest of the ship and there's only one guy in each. The other two guns are irrelevant; they won't pierce even lvl3 shields (which you should have by now!).

At that point (shields disabled, rocket launcher down) the boss cannot hurt you any more. Proceed to teleport guys into a 2x1 room, aim one ion at their medic bay, and start taking crew out. Teleport your guys back when they get hurt, play conservatively. If crew is on board while it cloaks, they cannot teleport back. Eventually the entire crew will die, but keep the guys in the beam and laser weapons alive, they cannot go anywhere, and them being alive means the ship will not start repairing itself.

At that point you can just take down everything either with crew or with droids. LVL2 and 3 are then much much easier because you can teleport your guys in straight away without fear or reprisal. Having a defense I drone to stop the boarding drones, and cloak to avoid the pulse weapon is gravy.

 

[felipepepe]

Just loss 2 mantis crew menbers due teleporting then inside a drone ship and forgetting there's no O2 there.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I just beat the boss (easy mode though) with the engi ship. Key to engi ship is to utilize the ions you were given. Try to find an array of three ion guns, that way you can shut EVERY ship down in 3 volleys. This also works for the boss. You need something to take down the ships though, so the engi ship works extremely well with attack droids or teleporting crew.

I took the boss down by first focusing on shields, and teleporting guys into the rocket launcher. Then I took down the ion gun with teleportees. You can safely take them down with teleporting crew because those parts are shut off from the rest of the ship and there's only one guy in each. The other two guns are irrelevant; they won't pierce even lvl3 shields (which you should have by now!).

At that point (shields disabled, rocket launcher down) the boss cannot hurt you any more. Proceed to teleport guys into a 2x1 room, aim one ion at their medic bay, and start taking crew out. Teleport your guys back when they get hurt, play conservatively. If crew is on board while it cloaks, they cannot teleport back. Eventually the entire crew will die, but keep the guys in the beam and laser weapons alive, they cannot go anywhere, and them being alive means the ship will not start repairing itself.

At that point you can just take down everything either with crew or with droids. LVL2 and 3 are then much much easier because you can teleport your guys in straight away without fear or reprisal. Having a defense I drone to stop the boarding drones, and cloak to avoid the pulse weapon is gravy.

If you kill the crew in Phase 1, does it end or does it jump out and go to Phase 2?

I do know that if a ship jumps out with your crew on board, they are lost.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Just loss 2 mantis crew menbers due teleporting then inside a drone ship and forgetting there's no O2 there.

hahahahahaha!

I got some questions. In boarding actions, there appear to be two phases, hand to hand combat and hand held laser/ranged combat. Is there a difference? IE. do the mantis only get bonuses in hand to hand/grappling, or just boarding actions in general?

Does any of that carry over to ship to ship combat?


Also, I managed to get a crystal crew member and he told me about a wormhole, but I couldn't find it. I think it was for a ship unlock.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

If you kill the crew in Phase 1, does it end or does it jump out and go to Phase 2?

I do know that if a ship jumps out with your crew on board, they are lost.

If you kill all the final boss crew you get a message that an advanced AI takes over the command. Everything works pretty much the same afterwards, except no-one will board you.

 

[felipepepe]

I think the combat animations are purely cosmetic, there should be no difference in hth or gun combat skills....

 

[felipepepe]

Double K.O.!

 

[Volrath]

I just never seem to get enough scrap to get the ship and guns I want.

 

[odrzut]

This is so much fun. But I can't beat it. And I won't decline to easy.

I've once got all the way to the boss, but without any real weapons (I've sold artemis missile to buy beam weapon that sucked..). Also - did you knew that after pressing "open all doors in ship" button once it changes to "open all doors, also these to open space". Because I've lost 3 members of crew to learn this.

 

[tuluse]

The third phase he uses some Babylon 5 style beam laser that will hit almost everything if you can't shut him down.

FTL does not appear to have a built in screenshot key, which means I need a third party app. If I get FRAPs, are the screenshots from that going to watermark or put some sort of garbage on it if I use the demo version?

I am reading the Let's Play tutorial, I was just looking for some more info.

Does Alt+Print Screen not work?

 

[Grimlorn]

Ugh. I will say this, that Torus Engi ship is a piece of junk.

No way it's awesome. The first time I made it to the boss was with that ship.

I just died in the first sector with the Federation ship. I went up against a Zoltan ship which took awhile to get it's shields down so it got me down to about 80% first. Then I went against a drone rebel ship with a shield and drones. He also jammed my shields. So the drone just tore through my hull easily while he fired his weapons at me. Didn't last long.

 

[felipepepe]

Ugh. I will say this, that Torus Engi ship is a piece of junk.

No way it's awesome. The first time I made it to the boss was with that ship.

It sucks, but the second layout of thet ship is really cool, going full solo into space! And it's very easy to get too.

 

[kazgar]

Just loss 2 mantis crew menbers due teleporting then inside a drone ship and forgetting there's no O2 there.

It's even a starting game tip!

As for killing all the crew on the boss, sounds like the tip may be to keep one alive. the Advanced AI can actually repair more systems faster than the human crew can (much like the drone ai) so keeping one alive allows you to work on damaging multiple systems/hull and he won't be able to keep up.