FTL

troubleshot wrote:

Whoops. I didn't get the unlock, so I'm guessing either adding power to my Artillery beam or something else put me out of the running. Oh well. Next go around I guess.

Adding points to the artillery beam is fine. Just don't add points to the weapon system.

It fires plenty fast once you sink a couple upgrades into it. Comparable to the high-tier missile or beam weapons in terms of charge rate and damage. When I get a chance I think I will try to make a "turtle" ship that maximizes defense and relies specifically on the beam to deal damage. Max shields, max engines, dual defensive drones... It should work since the beam pierces shields.

Itsatrap wrote:
troubleshot wrote:

Whoops. I didn't get the unlock, so I'm guessing either adding power to my Artillery beam or something else put me out of the running. Oh well. Next go around I guess.

Adding points to the artillery beam is fine. Just don't add points to the weapon system.

Ahhh, I didn't put points in either system, but got blown to bits by Sector 3. Most fights would be lucky to see the beam fire once. I thought they meant you couldn't put any points in either system (beam or "regular" weapons).

The stealth ship B is pretty wild. Starts right off the bat with one of the biggest beam guns in the game. The trick is waiting for the damn thing to charge.

Unlocked the Fed Cruiser B last night but I'm not sure what's unique about it yet.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

The stealth ship B is pretty wild. Starts right off the bat with one of the biggest beam guns in the game. The trick is waiting for the damn thing to charge.

Unlocked the Fed Cruiser B last night but I'm not sure what's unique about it yet.

Well it starts with different crew members, a more upgraded artillery beam, the sh*ttiest missile weapon, and a bad layout.

Crimeny wrote:

Spoiler!

Holy crap! I never noticed that before! The only times I have triggered that have been moments before the battle was won. But damn.

I think what I am not liking, is all the randomness. Figured out how to go about, but the game doesn't always let you execute it that way. You need a bunch of luck as well, so it seems. But, still playing it!

Sparhawk wrote:

I think what I am not liking, is all the randomness. Figured out how to go about, but the game doesn't always let you execute it that way. You need a bunch of luck as well, so it seems. But, still playing it!

Yes. Last night I was thinking that you really need to just click Restart if anything really bad happens in the first couple of sectors (lose a crewmember, lose a bunch of scrap, etc).

Sparhawk wrote:

I think what I am not liking, is all the randomness. Figured out how to go about, but the game doesn't always let you execute it that way. You need a bunch of luck as well, so it seems. But, still playing it!

We'll see what the long-tail looks like in a few weeks, but it's mostly the randomness that's going to keep me playing. I feel like if were more set in stone, the desire to restart a session right away would be much lower, since I'd have to remember, "Oh, in Sector 5, I'm going to need to do X and have Y upgraded to here." Which is too meta for me. I feel immersed in the game with each jump as I'm wondering what the heck I'm going to find.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Sparhawk wrote:

I think what I am not liking, is all the randomness. Figured out how to go about, but the game doesn't always let you execute it that way. You need a bunch of luck as well, so it seems. But, still playing it!

Yes. Last night I was thinking that you really need to just click Restart if anything really bad happens in the first couple of sectors (lose a crewmember, lose a bunch of scrap, etc).

The random element to roguelikes can be frustrating when the setup is just terrible (I got that a lot in Desktop Dungeons), but it's also the best thing about the genre, I think. Keeps things fresh and interesting for far longer, as you're not simply replaying something you've finished and know how to beat - it challenges and surprises you each and every time, allowing for endless tales to be told about your exploits. Love it, but can totally see why it might get frustrating sometimes.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Sparhawk wrote:

I think what I am not liking, is all the randomness. Figured out how to go about, but the game doesn't always let you execute it that way. You need a bunch of luck as well, so it seems. But, still playing it!

Yes. Last night I was thinking that you really need to just click Restart if anything really bad happens in the first couple of sectors (lose a crewmember, lose a bunch of scrap, etc).

I'm used to this now. If you want to get anywhere on Normal you need to have a good start. A strong start means you can take a few hits later on and stay in the game. If you have a bad start there won't BE a later because the first disaster that strikes will be the last.

Randomness works both ways though. I've had mediocre ships that looked like they had no win potential, run across a great weapon or a good string of scrap finds and this completely turns them around. I never restart, even after having a really bad first sector. I play a lot of roguelikes, so I guess I like and am used to hopeless odds and miracle comebacks.

I had an amazing Kestrel easy run last night. I recruited two mantises very early in the game and decided to save up for a teleporter. I then watched as my giant bug strike squad massacred the crews of every ship I came across. The amount of scrap you get from an in-tact ship is crazy. I had bought damn near every ship upgrade by the end of the game.

The only flaw I had on this run was the amazing lack of weapons available from stores or drops. That lack of firepower ultimately did me in on the final boss when I realized something far too late...

Spoiler:

Once you kill the crew of the flagship the ship's AI kicks in and begins to repair every busted system on the ship at the same time. Those fours guns that I had my strike squad meticulously take out one by one were back to full strength about 15-20 seconds after the last crewman had died. My pathetic guns stood no chance.

EriktheRed wrote:

Randomness works both ways though. I've had mediocre ships that looked like they had no win potential, run across a great weapon or a good string of scrap finds and this completely turns them around. I never restart, even after having a really bad first sector. I play a lot of roguelikes, so I guess I like and am used to hopeless odds and miracle comebacks.

Exactly - while sometimes you just get dealt a terrible hand and just die, a moment where you recover and bring the pain has to be a great gaming experience. Reminds me of this:

I agree that the randomness is a huge part of the game and it makes it what it is. I love Texas Hold'm Poker. Just not always the hand I get dealt though
And love the Weapon pre-igniter!

Is there any good defense against a mantis boarding team? 2 Mantis's (Manti?) completely destroyed my ship from the inside. Also, does opening the doors potentially kill boarding parties as well? I tried to move all my crew to one part of the ship and blow all the rest of the doors open to try to suffocate the Mantis invaders but they eventually got to my room and appeared to be at near full health.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Is there any good defense against a mantis boarding team? 2 Mantis's (Manti?) completely destroyed my ship from the inside. Also, does opening the doors potentially kill boarding parties as well? I tried to move all my crew to one part of the ship and blow all the rest of the doors open to try to suffocate the Mantis invaders but they eventually got to my room and appeared to be at near full health.

Venting the rooms should work, but you need upgraded doors so that they suffocate before they can bust through and kill your crew.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Is there any good defense against a mantis boarding team? 2 Mantis's (Manti?) completely destroyed my ship from the inside. Also, does opening the doors potentially kill boarding parties as well? I tried to move all my crew to one part of the ship and blow all the rest of the doors open to try to suffocate the Mantis invaders but they eventually got to my room and appeared to be at near full health.

You can reinforce the doors. Then open other doors to suffocate.
Some weapons can be aimed at your own vessel as well. Anti bio weapons will help then.
Then there is the nano tech health repair bots. Healing your crew wherever they are on board. Should help quite a bit as well.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Is there any good defense against a mantis boarding team? 2 Mantis's (Manti?) completely destroyed my ship from the inside. Also, does opening the doors potentially kill boarding parties as well? I tried to move all my crew to one part of the ship and blow all the rest of the doors open to try to suffocate the Mantis invaders but they eventually got to my room and appeared to be at near full health.

Upgrade your doors so they take longer to force open, anti-personnel drones if you've got em, make the attackers suck vacuum if you can, send your crew to defend and return them to the medbay as needed. Best thing you can do is draw the attackers into the medbay and fight them there. Blowing the airlocks can work, but only if the attackers are close to an airlock. Otherwise it might take to long to depressurize all the rooms.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Is there any good defense against a mantis boarding team? 2 Mantis's (Manti?) completely destroyed my ship from the inside. Also, does opening the doors potentially kill boarding parties as well? I tried to move all my crew to one part of the ship and blow all the rest of the doors open to try to suffocate the Mantis invaders but they eventually got to my room and appeared to be at near full health.

Upgrade your doors. 20 scrap and it greatly increases your survivability against boarding parties and fires. Its really powerful when traveling through a pirate or Mantis sector. Just turn off the O2 in adjacent / important corridors & rooms and watch them die. I'll actually vacuum half the ship right off the bat when I jump near a sun to stave off fires. An upgrade in O2 is helpful to refill the ship. Open interior doors to speed up the process.

Just bought this when I saw it had 10% off.

Still not finished anything i got in the Steam sale. But, y'know.

Seemed like a lot going on in the tutorial so I was glad when it encouraged you to pause to direct things where you want them to go. Do you find yourself doing that a lot as the game goes on?

Crhis wrote:

Seemed like a lot going on in the tutorial so I was glad when it encouraged you to pause to direct things where you want them to go. Do you find yourself doing that a lot as the game goes on?

Constantly. Pause is my bestest friend ever.

Crhis wrote:

Do you find yourself doing that a lot as the game goes on?

Yes, I pause the game all the time. Pretty much anytime I want to click on anything, I pause first.

The first thing I do when combat starts is hit pause. Then I can target at my leisure. I also use autofire a lot, especially on ions/lasers. I also pause when damaged so I can direct repairs. Seems like there should be a cheevo for going through the entire game without pausing, that would be intense.

padriec wrote:

The first thing I do when combat starts is hit pause. Then I can target at my leisure. I also use autofire a lot, especially on ions/lasers. I also pause when damaged so I can direct repairs. Seems like there should be a cheevo for going through the entire game without pausing, that would be intense.

I use some weapons on autofire, and others I keep under close control. Manually firing them when the shields are down.
Pausing is a must in this game. Lost many crew members when I was just auto rolling it.

Sparhawk wrote:
padriec wrote:

The first thing I do when combat starts is hit pause. Then I can target at my leisure. I also use autofire a lot, especially on ions/lasers. I also pause when damaged so I can direct repairs. Seems like there should be a cheevo for going through the entire game without pausing, that would be intense.

I use some weapons on autofire, and others I keep under close control. Manually firing them when the shields are down.
Pausing is a must in this game. Lost many crew members when I was just auto rolling it.

Can he get an amen?

Depressurizing against boarders doesn't work very well. Either you need to vent oxygen to half or your entire ship. Or you need to get level 3 blast doors. The level 2 upgrade will hold them for only a couple seconds, especially mantises who burn right through them.

Tamren wrote:

Depressurizing against boarders doesn't work very well. Either you need to vent oxygen to half or your entire ship. Or you need to get level 3 blast doors. The level 2 upgrade will hold them for only a couple seconds, especially mantises who burn right through them.

Depends on how many doors they have to burn through or if they stop to attack systems.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Tamren wrote:

Depressurizing against boarders doesn't work very well. Either you need to vent oxygen to half or your entire ship. Or you need to get level 3 blast doors. The level 2 upgrade will hold them for only a couple seconds, especially mantises who burn right through them.

Depends on how many doors they have to burn through or if they stop to attack systems.

And when you have only 3 crew and a bunch of things are on fire...

Gotta try something.

Tamren wrote:

Depressurizing against boarders doesn't work very well. Either you need to vent oxygen to half or your entire ship. Or you need to get level 3 blast doors. The level 2 upgrade will hold them for only a couple seconds, especially mantises who burn right through them.

I actually find it useful if your aim is to weaken them for the fight with your crew, instead of killing them outright.

CY wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Sparhawk wrote:

I think what I am not liking, is all the randomness. Figured out how to go about, but the game doesn't always let you execute it that way. You need a bunch of luck as well, so it seems. But, still playing it!

Yes. Last night I was thinking that you really need to just click Restart if anything really bad happens in the first couple of sectors (lose a crewmember, lose a bunch of scrap, etc).

The random element to roguelikes can be frustrating when the setup is just terrible (I got that a lot in Desktop Dungeons), but it's also the best thing about the genre, I think. Keeps things fresh and interesting for far longer, as you're not simply replaying something you've finished and know how to beat - it challenges and surprises you each and every time, allowing for endless tales to be told about your exploits. Love it, but can totally see why it might get frustrating sometimes.

There are two layers of random to FTL. There is the random encounters you're thrown into which is normal for a roguelike. Then there are the event choices which have random results. Do I search this ship? It could be good or bad. It feels like they need a few more steps in the decision making to at least blur the line between action and result, that or present the odds in a more upfront manner. The decision making in events can be simplified to blackjack, do I hit or stay? Take a gamble or play it safe.

That being said I can't stop playing this game.