FTL: The Game

[njvack]

If you're in the mood for a completely different roguelike (and are willing to pay $10 to a couple dudes), FTL is really really good (so far, at least). It's a randomly-generated space exploration/combat game, and it's rather unlike anything else I've played.

They have a couple interesting mechanics that keep you moving without letting you explore everything -- movement costs fuel (which is quite finite in some games) and there's an encroaching rebel force that starts to take over the parts of the sector you're in. At the same time, there's the standard roguelike "exploration is how you get more powerful" system; the conflict there is interesting.

Combat is fun and tense (it's realtime, but you can pause to issue commands) -- watching your weapons charge, hoping they do so before the enemy's shield generator comes back up, is great. I haven't even gotten drones up and working, or started teleporting my crew to enemy ships, but it'll come...

My one sadness is that they seem to have beat me to the term "roguelike-like."

Definitely worth checking out.

[Grimm]

I just saw costik's review of that the other day. Looks goooood. Reminds me of Traveller deck plans, which I used to salivate over. I'll be dropping a tenner on it eventually.

[varsovie]

Just lost a day this weekend on it.

My only concern it's that it's not all that fair, you rely a lot on what you get, and it's possible e.g. that you don't find any way to upgrade you damage output and then fight a loosing battle at the end.

But it's a great deal of fun, with the pause it's like turn based and even if every combats are 1 vs 1, the numbers of systems and options and hazards make this game strangely multitasking.

[njvack]

My only concern it's that it's not all that fair, you rely a lot on what you get, and it's possible e.g. that you don't find any way to upgrade you damage output and then fight a loosing battle at the end.

It is a roguelike, after all

But yeah: there seems to be a lot more swing to it than Crawl -- some games really don't give you much to work with. I'm quite sure there are fights you simply can't win or escape, with no opportunity to have prepared. Those are pretty rare, though.

It'll be interesting to see if they tweak the randomness in the coming months.

[Davion Fuxa]

I gave FTL a gander but decided not to buy it after watching a few other people play it. For the most part, the game is unique - but it lacks depth.

My main problems with it is that there isn't enough Event Cards/different types of sectors and this really cuts into everything you can find and explore. One of the great things about Rogue-likes is that the randomness combined with the uncertainty with what will happen creates a fun experience as your explore through the game. However, after a while you can become certain of what effects each event card holds and the lack of new things to explore sort of diminishes the experience.

I don't think it's a bad game, but eventually I think the game play will just become redundant. This might change though if the developers do more work on the game and add more settings, features, details, or what not.

[varsovie]

I don't think it's a bad game, but eventually I think the game play will just become redundant. This might change though if the developers do more work on the game and add more settings, features, details, or what not.

I agree, I've done more than 50 game, at least one win with every ship )4) I've unlocked. A lot of event are commons, and those commons have 2 or 3 choice (unless you have a particular item, or crew and that's not guarantee *RNG), when you choose there is only 2 or three different consequences (usually good, bad and nothing), and that's random. Usually the choice is "do you want more scraps but risk losing a crew or gain a crew but risk loosing some hull".

Now the rarer (and fun) choices appears under some conditions, but if I want to unlock eg. the slug ship, I must during my game get to their homeworld (not guarantee one is generated), then get to the good sector to activate the mini Quest (not guarantee) and then have the right equipment or luck to beat the quest, and that if you don't die in the process.

So I really think about downloading the *savefile* to unlock everything, because I love the combat systems and every ship plays differently, but my God it's a pain in the * to unlock.

Pro tip to developers, unlockable content shouldn't be more than what is available at the start (except for tutorial purpose).

[mumra]

I've been playing this as well. Had a binge a couple of weeks ago then amusingly was just having another go after seeing a tips video on Youtube, then saw this thread

I definitely have some gripes with the game, but on the other hand there really are some things they got right. On the surface it sometimes looks like it might not have much depth, but once you get a little way in you start getting confronted with some really tough to call choices. There's actually a huge amount of variety in how you kit out and upgrade both your ship and crew. At first you feel completely at the mercy of the RNG but gradually you figure out ways to normalise that. And just like Crawl, remember that you mostly have the option to run away from a fight ... so long as you can power up your FTL drive that is

The game I just played I finally started getting a decent boarding crew together and it's a lot of fun, and the rewards are much better for capturing rather than destroying a ship. Died in the end mainly due to some bad choices refitting my ship. By far the biggest problem I've found so far is that the weapons you start with seem to actually be some of the best in many regards; you'll see some much more expensive stuff at shops that looks way better but it's often a disaster trying to switch.

Some other things I think would vastly add to the game:

• Being able to customise your ship a little at the start of the game, i.e. specify which types of room go where
• Sending crew into bases/space stations and getting basically a mini dungeon exploration game (yeah this would be a huge extra feature, but it starts feeling really claustrophobic after a while stuck on that one ship!)
• Less spoilery encounters - when I get one of the multiple choice storylines I tend to look it up on the FTL wiki to see what choices might give what rewards (there are some cases where this is especially bad, e.g. the quests to get certain extra ships unlocked)
• More varied content and encounters in general
• Balancing - some situations are simply massive death traps that you can do very little about; in particular the nebulae with electrical storms that knock out half your ship's power, and the unstable suns that constantly set fire to you. Since both these events always feature an enemy ship as well it can really ruin your day. They can be mitigated or avoided with the right ship upgrades or augments but resources are scarce and I'm usually too busy making sure I've got the kit to not die to standard encounters. Then there are certain augments that seem ludicrously OP - e.g. the "Weapons Pre-Igniter" which means you pretty much never have to wait for your weapons to charge for the first volley - completely trivialises a huge number of encounters since you can knock out their weapons with a well-placed missile before they can even do anything!

On the other hand there is still plenty more to explore in terms of strategy and tactics so these things aren't so bad right now. Although I really hope the developers are still planning to tweak things and add some new stuff (but I haven't seen any actual indication of that on their website).

By the way that tips video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZAD6Mcuv9o - some pretty handy stuff right there (might contain some spoilers).

Some quick advice from my experience so far:

• Try to knock out their weapons systems before you do anything else. You want to take as little damage as possible in every fight, otherwise you end up in "repair spiral" where more and more scrap is sunk into repairs and you can't actually afford any upgrades.
• Get a decent boarding party together as early as possible, you need all the resources you can harvest; and having the crew teleporter and upgraded scanners (which you want) gives you additional options in a few story encounters.
• Don't upgrade systems too early; because of the randomness it's very hard to predict which upgrades will serve you best depending on which gear becomes available!
• Play on Easy for a while - my pride made me want to just play on Normal, but Easy is still actually tougher than 99% of games out there

[varsovie]

Some quick advice from my experience so far:

• Try to knock out their weapons systems before you do anything else. You want to take as little damage as possible in every fight, otherwise you end up in "repair spiral" where more and more scrap is sunk into repairs and you can't actually afford any upgrades.
• Get a decent boarding party together as early as possible, you need all the resources you can harvest; and having the crew teleporter and upgraded scanners (which you want) gives you additional options in a few story encounters.
• Don't upgrade systems too early; because of the randomness it's very hard to predict which upgrades will serve you best depending on which gear becomes available!
• Play on Easy for a while - my pride made me want to just play on Normal, but Easy is still actually tougher than 99% of games out there

Knock shield first if you have bad DPS or only lasers.
No need of a boarding party, start fires, target their crew, EMP their O2 room...
True, but a couple of point in power is always good if you have to much scrap.
Never play easy, learn by pain.

Of the best tip ever, rely on divers crew over your equipment, you have a limit on the max of power, but one species gives you more, your radar can be shut down, but the Slug is telepathic... And they can also act in random events, more often than not guaranteeing a good outcome.

[Galefury]

My one sadness is that they seem to have beat me to the term "roguelike-like."

Rock Paper Shotgun has been using that term for quite a while. At the very least to describe Binding of Isaac, possibly earlier.

[njvack]

Heh. Isaac and Diablo are the games I would have applied the term to

[gloorx]

I find it funny that some people have a strong opinion on the game without ever trying it.

[*] Balancing - some situations are simply massive death traps that you can do very little about; in particular the nebulae with electrical storms that knock out half your ship's power

A _deathtrap_? First, nobody forces you to fly into nebulae if you cannot handle the storms. Second, it's often a _huge_ advantage over the enemy because the AI cannot deal with the lack of power properly.

Call it a challenge.

FTL is not really a roguelike though. Well, maybe if you call a game that is controlled mainly by random numbers and not design.

[mumra]

Knock shield first if you have bad DPS or only lasers.

Even that's too generalised - if you have enough lasers you might still be able to shut down some weapons with your first volley. Taking no damage is better than taking none, even if it the fight takes longer. Of course later in the game priorities change - they might have drones, you might have shields / cloak to mitigate their weapon damage; you might even wanna take out their cockpit / engines to stop dodging. And beam weapons can be ludicrous if you can dent their shields a bit (One game I acquired both Glaive Beam and Pre-Igniter in the first sector and tore through pretty much everything without taking a hit up to about S5...)

No need of a boarding party, start fires, target their crew, EMP their O2 room...

Just unlocked the Slug vessel, Anti-Bio beam is a lot of fun

True, but a couple of point in power is always good if you have to much scrap.

I try to hoard my scrap until I have at least 120 in case I see the Pre-Igniter or other game-changing upgrade. You don't really need any extra power for quite a while since you can juggle things a lot - e.g. you don't need the medbay powered most of the time and you can temporarily switch off O2 if you want a boost to the engines.

Never play easy, learn by pain.

That's all well and good if you're into self-punishment and have plenty of time to spare But the game takes a while to play because a lot of times you're just waiting for weapons to charge. Sometimes it would be I wish there was a fast forward button. Anyway you can get stuff unlocked and get a feel for different strategies on easy then go for a normal run for ego purposes. I never play anything on easy but I've made an exception here...

Of the best tip ever, rely on divers crew over your equipment, you have a limit on the max of power, but one species gives you more, your radar can be shut down, but the Slug is telepathic... And they can also act in random events, more often than not guaranteeing a good outcome.

This is very true, my last good run I ended up with one of every crew type (finally unlocking the Kestrel B layout). The extra power is extremely handy as are the other strengths of different crew types. Died to final battle second stage, but I was taking everything to pieces up until then.

[ebarrett]

"FTL or how I learned to stop worring and love the small bomb"

[Davion Fuxa]

I figure instead of noting FTL in the other thread I'll bump this one. I recently bought FTL when it was on sale for $6 from Gog.com. Watching it and playing it are quite different in my opinion so I'm going to revise my initial standing for the game.

The game is also a great deal about decision making - which keeps the game from mostly getting redundant too quickly. There is no doubt that the game itself lacks depth but this is made up for in how you can build your ship and play towards the boss. I'm not totally up for saying that it is worth $10, but if your bored I would definitely consider it a decent recommendation to try out in an attempt to tied you over until something else comes along.

[Grimm]

an attempt to tide you over

ftfy
tied is a past participle for god's sake

[ClawlessVictory]

I was horribly addicted to this game for a time, dumped a ton of hours into it, beat it 3 or so times. Unlocked most of the ships, and then suddenly I stopped playing it. Haven't played it in a couple of weeks. I still love it, but I think there should be more variety, I don't know, it just seems to be missing something. Maybe I just played it so much that I'm burned out...

[varsovie]

I was horribly addicted to this game for a time, dumped a ton of hours into it, beat it 3 or so times. Unlocked most of the ships, and then suddenly I stopped playing it. Haven't played it in a couple of weeks. I still love it, but I think there should be more variety, I don't know, it just seems to be missing something. Maybe I just played it so much that I'm burned out...

Same here. The game need more variety in commons events, and more fairness too.

[ClawlessVictory]

I was horribly addicted to this game for a time, dumped a ton of hours into it, beat it 3 or so times. Unlocked most of the ships, and then suddenly I stopped playing it. Haven't played it in a couple of weeks. I still love it, but I think there should be more variety, I don't know, it just seems to be missing something. Maybe I just played it so much that I'm burned out...

Same here. The game need more variety in commons events, and more fairness too.

Right, there's just too much that's out of your hands, especially the equipment you need to defeat the last boss. You have to get very lucky and collect the best equipment to stand a chance, and once you have the necessary gear, the boss is a cinch.