FTL

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Writer at Rock Paper Shotgun bills this as the Star Trek game he's always wanted: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...

I saw a lot of activity on Twitter today about the fact that the game is actually being kickstarted: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/... They've already received 4 times their goal with 31 days to go.

After having played a half hour of the game it's hard to fully place it. It's a RTS game with RPG skill advancement. Also, it has a definite TBS aspect in that you can choose when to jump to the next zone (which results in choosing when to encounter the next RTS fight).

Here is the website for the game: http://www.ftlgame.com/

Also, if this in anyway interests you, you can play a 30 minute trial of the game through Onlive for the next 2 weeks through the IGF promotion they are running: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

I've played the trial about half a dozen times now, and I love it. After the trial ends I'm very likely to kick into their starter (is that the proper wordage?).

I would describe it as like Strange Adventures in Infinite Space with much better combat and an RPG-like upgrade system. The list of proposed updates in the kick starter page looks great, too.

I haven't played it yet, but I pitched in on the Kickstarter based on the RPS article and the PC Gamer article from last month. Looking forward to it.

I've not played the OnLive version -- don't want to for some reason -- but I'll wait for the beta I get from funding Kickstarter.

I love the premise. It's basically the boardgame BattleStations, which I adore. I funded the project and am really looking forward to seeing the evolution of the game.

Sounds perfect. I was a big fan of EGA Trek as a little kid, and this sounds like it adds a lot to that formula.

$10 pledged.

Last I looked it's made 450% of what they wanted in pledges. Geezus...

Veloxi wrote:

I've not played the OnLive version -- don't want to for some reason -- but I'll wait for the beta I get from funding Kickstarter. ;)

Just waiting for the full experience or afraid of Onlive?

I saw a lot of interesting folks yesterday tweeting their excitement for the game- they clearly got the attention they were hoping for.

I went ahead and did the basic pledge. Looks pretty fun, though I'm willing to wait for the finished product. The whole single encounter per system mechanic had a very Weird Worlds vibe, which is an admittedly good thing.

Yeah, they got my money even before I found this thread. The comments just make me even more psyched about it.
--
TAZ

I signed up for OnLive to play the demo and it confirmed two things for me : 1) I can't wait for this game and 2) Onlive is terrible. By 15 minutes into the demo the mouse was so laggy I could barely click the right buttons.

I got through one and a half systems, fought some mundane enemies and a couple nasty ones, helped out a ship without fuel and traded away some big guns for some extra shields. Fought fires, vented the atmosphere to put fires out and sent a crew member through the wrong door, firing her out into space.

Lots of fun.

Weird- I wonder if it's just a matter of where you are. I've played 4 different IGF demos now and I haven't experience any lag issues. That sucks that it was not a pleasant play experience for you.

2) Onlive is terrible.

Yeah, that was pretty obviously going to be the case, despite the cheerleading we had for them from some quarters here.

I like the idea of the game, but that trailer is so insanely fast-paced that I'm not sure it'll be very enjoyable.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Fought fires, vented the atmosphere to put fires out and sent a crew member through the wrong door, firing her out into space.

Sounds like I am going to buy this thing now.

Malor wrote:

I like the idea of the game, but that trailer is so insanely fast-paced that I'm not sure it'll be very enjoyable.

It feels like that at first, but you can pause and assign various things at any time to slow it down. After a while, fights against basic enemies will be pretty rote.

Malor wrote:
2) Onlive is terrible.

Yeah, that was pretty obviously going to be the case, despite the cheerleading we had for them from some quarters here.

Except for when it's not, as mentioned by me in the post directly below the one you quoted. I'm not a cheerleader for OnLive other than I'm really stoked that they're doing this with IGF- it's giving me experience with games that I wouldn't have fooled with otherwise. It may well be that most people have laggy experiences- I'd honestly be interested if that is the case.

OnLive was perfectly fine, except for the parts where it was terrible. If the first 10-12 minutes experience was the norm I'd consider playing TBS on there. People playing NBA games there clearly have way better speeds that I do.

Malor : As Mixolyde says you can pause whenever you want and issue orders in pause mode. Here's a ten minute youtube of me largely going "WTF? Pause!" as I move across one system. I screw things up there, like sending my guys into a fire, not noticing when my guns have cycled and are ready to fire and having to read tooltips extensively, but the pause makes it largely painless.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

OnLive was perfectly fine, except for the parts where it was terrible. If the first 10-12 minutes experience was the norm I'd consider playing TBS on there. People playing NBA games there clearly have way better speeds that I do.

Malor : As Mixolyde says you can pause whenever you want and issue orders in pause mode. Here's a ten minute youtube of me largely going "WTF? Pause!" as I move across one system. I screw things up there, like sending my guys into a fire, not noticing when my guns have cycled and are ready to fire and having to read tooltips extensively, but the pause makes it largely painless.

I really think's incredibly short-sighted that weapons don't automatically keep firing at their previous target. WTF?

I tried to sign up for OnLive but they said my connection wasn't good enough.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I tried to sign up for OnLive but they said my connection wasn't good enough.

Lame. You, not them.

Hey it looks like someone managed to beat the "impossible" boss in the demo:

Nice work!

For those of you who donated at the $25 level the beta is out today and it is super fun.

EriktheRed wrote:

For those of you who donated at the $25 level the beta is out today and it is super fun.

And super hard. I've been playing for 3 hours at Normal and have not made it past the 3rd sector.

Got lucky and managed to get to the 4th Sector on my first try and unlocked the Engi ship. Died almost straight away on my 2nd jump due to Mantis boarding parties and too little crew to fight them off. Biggest mistake was not paying attention and having two crew members die due to lack of O2 while repairing stuff after putting out a fire.

Awesome game, doesn't feel like a beta at all.

This sounds like Space Alert.

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic384313_md.jpg)

I regret not getting in on this Kickstarter.

imbiginjapan wrote:

This sounds like Space Alert.

IMAGE(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic384313_md.jpg)

That's basically why I backed it. I have this interest in doomed space ships where everything is going to hell in a metal can. Unfortunately my board game group has been scared of Space Alert so FTL will have to make do.

Is it possible to run the game in fullscreen mode yet? I booted it last night to see if it ran and couldn't find much in the way of options, which I expected given "beta" status and a version number of 0.14.

shoptroll wrote:

That's basically why I backed it. I have this interest in doomed space ships where everything is going to hell in a metal can. Unfortunately my board game group has been scared of Space Alert so FTL will have to make do.

Is it possible to run the game in fullscreen mode yet? I booted it last night to see if it ran and couldn't find much in the way of options, which I expected given "beta" status and a version number of 0.14.

There is an options screen with a fullscreen option (or so the forums say). You access it by hitting escape while in-game.

I played for a couple hours last night and had a blast. I've yet to do as well as I did on my very first run, however, when I got to the 2nd to last system in the Kestrel. I also managed to unlock one new ship somehow, the Engi ship. It starts out with a couple Ion Cannons and an attack drone, so playing it is quite a bit different than the Kestrel.

I learned an important lesson last night, as well. I had a ship with 8 crew on it, and I decided that it would be a good time to experiment with using the teleporter to board enemy ships. I figured the best kind of ship to board would be an unmanned ship, since I would not have to deal with actually fighting people. It turns out that unmanned ships do not have any oxygen on them. Unfortunately the cooldown on my transporter was longer than amount of time my crewmen could hold their breaths. God rest their poor pixelated souls.

EriktheRed wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

That's basically why I backed it. I have this interest in doomed space ships where everything is going to hell in a metal can. Unfortunately my board game group has been scared of Space Alert so FTL will have to make do.

Is it possible to run the game in fullscreen mode yet? I booted it last night to see if it ran and couldn't find much in the way of options, which I expected given "beta" status and a version number of 0.14.

There is an options screen with a fullscreen option (or so the forums say). You access it by hitting escape while in-game.

I played for a couple hours last night and had a blast. I've yet to do as well as I did on my very first run, however, when I got to the 2nd to last system in the Kestrel. I also managed to unlock one new ship somehow, the Engi ship. It starts out with a couple Ion Cannons and an attack drone, so playing it is quite a bit different than the Kestrel.

I learned an important lesson last night, as well. I had a ship with 8 crew on it, and I decided that it would be a good time to experiment with using the teleporter to board enemy ships. I figured the best kind of ship to board would be an unmanned ship, since I would not have to deal with actually fighting people. It turns out that unmanned ships do not have any oxygen on them. Unfortunately the cooldown on my transporter was longer than amount of time my crewmen could hold their breaths. God rest their poor pixelated souls.

I can't wait to dive in this weekend!

It does share some touchstones with Red Alert, but it more resembles a real time electronic version of Battlestations to my eyes.

EDIT: The unlocking of new ships via milestones sounds very Binding of Isaac-esque.

EriktheRed wrote:

It turns out that unmanned ships do not have any oxygen on them.

That's something I wouldn't have spent 2 seconds thinking about before sending my crew to their deaths.

But logically, if it's completely automated, who needs O2? Very nice touch by the devs.

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