FTL

Jiminy. Sometimes it's just f***ing mean.

2 jumps away from heading into the final system, my ninja 2-star Rockman fighter gets killed by a random event, leaving my teleport-heavy strategy up sh*t creek, and distinctly paddle-less. My Engi ship couldn't even dent the first stage of the boss. On Easy.

Tsk.

Got to get back to playing this again, still haven't made it past the second stage of the boss fight.

This made me unspeakably happy: getting both Bruce Geryk and Nick Breckon on my crew:

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/595882322498071164/FCA79F4CD4AAE378E18D2D5053277CEAD997A950/)

Unfortunately they all perished in an ambush three turns later. I blame our newest crew member, Breckon. f*ck that Engi.

You know until 5 minutes ago I used to to think the Engi B ship was the worst in the game. I still do, but I know now that if you tough things out and gather enough equipment it can become a monster like any other ship. Not only did I just beat the game with it (on Easy) but I broke my all time score record with 5118 (299 better than the previous best) and also beat the previous record for scrap gathered/jumps/jumps survived!

Learned a really tough lesson though. About 2 jumps away from the last zone I lost my zoltan shield expert because I didn't pull him out of a melee fight soon enough. Two boarders teleported in, but he had a rockman backing him up for just this situation. I also brought in my mantis boarding team into the room and I figured the boarders wouldn't last long enough. I was wrong, I noticed too late that my zoltan was dying and I tried to pull him out but he took one last hit to the back in the doorway and died.

But I soon had my revenge on the rebels because I got to the boss and just flattened it. I had three Hull Smashing lasers (I,II,II) which is also the maximum you can mount with 8 power. Hull smashing lasers are probably the best laser weapon in the game. Unlike regular lasers they can cause breaches, and hit empty rooms for double damage! A I II and II combine to fire 8 shots for a possible total of 16 damage, which is nuts. Even 4 Burst Laser IIs (also an awesome weapon) can't match that.

FINALLY beat the game (on Easy) last night! Took I think 26 attempts. Used the Red Tail. Bought an Ion Blast II which just brutalizes shields with a shot every 4 seconds. I actually kept the 3 base lasers after that. Additionally had an Anti-Ship Drone I and a Beam Drone I. Had 2 mantis boarders with a level 1 teleporter and level 1 cloak, and I got enough scrap to get a level 4 shield after two jumps toward the boss ship in The Last Stand. I only lost like 3 bars of hull in the fight against the boss. The only real danger was losing my mantis boarders as the ship was going down too fast. I had to shut off my drones and stop my weapons and wait and hope a fire wouldn't take the ship out with them on it.

Sweet! Congrats Tamren and cheeba!

Now its time to start unlocking the rest of the ships, trying Normal, or installing some bad-ass mods (like the one that turns the game into an endless quest!)

I finally beat the final boss last night as well and while the game declared me victorious, it seemed totally fitting that my ship simultaneously was destroyed by their final salvo.
At least Chewbacca lived long enough to see the award ceremony.

Argh! Still no Crystal ship for me. The problem is that the Rock Homeworlds don't show up consistently, and the prerequisites depend on random encounters. On the plus side, I'm getting very good at killing the final boss.

Itsatrap wrote:

Argh! Still no Crystal ship for me. The problem is that the Rock Homeworlds don't show up consistently, and the prerequisites depend on random encounters. On the plus side, I'm getting very good at killing the final boss.

What I've noticed with the quests, is that if there's not enough stars left in your current system, they'll continue into your next system jump.

With the random events, however, there's no guarantee. Get the Pod for the Crystal ship, good luck getting the Rock Homeworlds to finish it. I almost always get into a fight with the named Mantis ship when I don't have a Lvl 2 med bay, or my own Mantis crewmember.

So, it looks like there is a pretty major update coming in early 2014.

FTL: Advanced Edition and FTL on iPad

FTL: AE is a free expansion for all PC platforms. It will contain tons of changes, including:

New ship systems that greatly alter gameplay.
New sector and new events created with the help of Tom Jubert and guest writer, Chris Avellone.
New weapons, drones, equipment, enemy ships, and hostile environments.
Lots of smaller improvements such as the ability to assign crew stations for quick management.
Additionally, the entire original game and Advanced Edition update will be playable on iPad. We spent a considerable amount of time to get the iPad version as fun as possible and are happy to say it has exceeded our expectations.

Source. There's a trailer as well.

athros wrote:

So, it looks like there is a pretty major update coming in early 2014.

FTL: Advanced Edition and FTL on iPad

FTL: AE is a free expansion for all PC platforms. It will contain tons of changes, including:

New ship systems that greatly alter gameplay.
New sector and new events created with the help of Tom Jubert and guest writer, Chris Avellone.
New weapons, drones, equipment, enemy ships, and hostile environments.
Lots of smaller improvements such as the ability to assign crew stations for quick management.
Additionally, the entire original game and Advanced Edition update will be playable on iPad. We spent a considerable amount of time to get the iPad version as fun as possible and are happy to say it has exceeded our expectations.

Source. There's a trailer as well.

Well that's just great. I won't be able to carry my ipad around anymore because I won't be able to stop playing FTL.

This is great! I still play this from time to time. Looking forward to the update!

I might just pick this up again for iPad, it's always seemed like the perfect game for that platform.

Super, super excited for the iPad release.

Never a mention about an Android version.

Edwin wrote:

Never a mention about an Android version.

I dug around their forums and it doesn't look like their is an offical word. There is a 10 page thread about it but as with so many forums it is mostly people being .....less then helpful....

Anyway, I hope it comes out for Android.

I have been waiting for iPad since they was a Kickstarter! Finally!!

Ah, sh*t, there goes my social life.

OH SNAP! SO EXCITE!

Mmmm I should play some more again.

Here is some more detailed info from the FTL website about the update:

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.

Oh sh*t! FTL was #2 on my 2012 GOTY list, so this is great news! Is it 2014 yet?

Hard to believe they're just giving all this new content away for free to vanilla owners. I would gladly pay another $10 for the Advanced Edition. If they ever release an Android version, I'll definitely double dip.

FTL wrote:

- a free expansion
- special guest writer Chris Avellone (of Planescape fame)
- we’ve continued to polish FTL and add some of the most requested small features
- FTL vanilla will still be available. All of the new content can be disabled

This is gaming perfection. I do not own enough hats to properly tip them for you, good sirs.

farley3k wrote:
Edwin wrote:

Never a mention about an Android version.

I dug around their forums and it doesn't look like their is an offical word. There is a 10 page thread about it but as with so many forums it is mostly people being .....less then helpful....

Anyway, I hope it comes out for Android.

There was an official word, and it didn't look super encouraging for android. I will go and look for it.

Also: Wooooo for new content!

edit: Found it

FTL for Ipad:
We’re also very excited to announce that FTL is coming to the iPad! We’ve redesigned the FTL interface to be optimal for touch devices. It plays beautifully on both the full size iPads (2nd generation or later) and the iPad minis. And of course it will include all of the new additions of the FTL: Advanced Edition expansion.
But many of you might be asking “What about Android (or Surface, etc.)!?” For now, the answer is that we hope to get it on all tablet devices but do not know for sure. When we first released FTL, we did so on three operating systems simultaneously and it was a gargantuan task for a two man studio to accomplish. Learning from the difficulties of the past, we’re trying to preserve our sanity by focusing on one system at a time. Expanding tablet support will be our next highest priority, but we don’t want to make any promises (or rejections) until we’re 100% sure of the outcome.
Similarly, some people might be asking “What about phones!?” Unfortunately, FTL will not be coming to phones. From repeated testing, we have determined that it’s just not possible to achieve the quality of gameplay we want on such limited screen space.

Man these guys were so quiet for so long. When FTL came out I was really hoping these guys would update the crap out of it on a weekly/monthly basis, really treat it as the start of something huge but it just went dark. Im glad to see them add to it but I'd rather see them take the mechanics of the game into a new fiction, especially something more sand-boxy.

Here is an analysis of some of the changes from a Reddit thread:

So from closely examining this trailer, this is what I've managed to discover so far:
Mantis is actively manning Door Controls
Human is actuvely manning Sensors
Medbay icon is changed, room looks different
Chain Laser, potentially a weapon that fires more shots if given extra time to charge, extra info is a clock with a +1 by it
Flak Cannon, appears to be an AoE missile weapon
Ion Stunner
Charge Ion, potentially a weapon that deals more Ion damage if given time to charge, extra info is a gauge with three segments
New gauge underneath Shields that denotes recharge time
Drone that clamps to a room and effects it, most likely halving the strength of the subsystem
New subsystem, possibly Hacking-related
Drone that breaches a room, then deals 3 ion damage to the effected room and stuns enemy crew
Charge Laser
Drone, called Shield
New enemy: Federation Outrider - same layout as Federation Scout, Door Control replaced by new Hacking control
New environmental hazard: similar to a solar flare but the warning reads Ion Pulse Imminent
New skin for human male, dark skin
Mantis and Rockmen have multiple different shades of colour
New system, icon is a swirly thing, possibly Mind-Control?
Kestrel was attacked by an energy shot that couldn't have come from the Elite fighters weapons... Rebel cruisers opening fire?

I'm so totally getting the iPad version when it comes out. Utterly non negotiable.

Wohoo! Glad to see those guys are still alive and doing stuff! Haven't heard a peep out of them since the FTL lego stuff.

Tamren wrote:

Wohoo! Glad to see those guys are still alive and doing stuff! Haven't heard a peep out of them since the FTL lego stuff.

I didn't know about this FTL LEGO set! Pretty damned cool: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/35223

T-Prime wrote:
Tamren wrote:

Wohoo! Glad to see those guys are still alive and doing stuff! Haven't heard a peep out of them since the FTL lego stuff.

I didn't know about this FTL LEGO set! Pretty damned cool: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/35223

I want them to be connected, but then break apart in the same chunks as they do in their 'onscreen counterparts' when destroyed...