Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

FTL: Faster Than Light - Advanced Edition

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
We can only hope it won't be shit like hats.
 

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,465
Location
Dragodol
Torus is piss easy, 1 defence drone level 2 is great, I guess 2 defence drones level 2 will make you almost invulnerable to anything but bombs and beams.
finally made up with damn torus.. didn't use defense drones, instead i used 2 anti-ship lvl 1 and 1 boarding drone. 2 ion guns and pike beam.

evV5M.jpg

Now the Ospray turn:love:
 

kazgar

Arcane
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Messages
2,164
Location
Upside Down
I never seem to be able to capture a weapon from killing the enemy crew.
This should be patched I think. The whole ship is practically intact, it shouldn't be too hard to dismantle the weapons and grab whatever you want.

Picked up two last night in a run, sold em through, it does happen.

Federation cruiser is pretty rad, unlocked type b last night in a winning run. Was touch and go during phase 2 as the drone rape caused me grief, but the artillery beam is really useful. (to the point I only had the original laser and a small bomb as other weapons, focused on boarding and evasion otherwise)
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
8,036
Location
NZ
This gameplay combined with the more free roaming approach and storyline of Transcendence would be brilliant.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I like how this game punished the game for being very careless.

AH well, unlocked Type B Kestrel. 4 Laser Cannons? Not bad, but not as good as Type A, I'm afraid.
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
I like how this game punished the game for being very careless.

AH well, unlocked Type B Kestrel. 4 Laser Cannons? Not bad, but not as good as Type A, I'm afraid.
I dunno, it starts with 4 level of weapons and having 4 weapons is more versatile since you can target different systems. Also has bigger and more varied crew (zoltan and mantis) and the ship layout allows for easier venting. Not to mention having 4 relatively fast weapons allows your gunner to gain exp so much faster.
 
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
400
Location
Nazi Germany
Dead State Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
I had such a good win ratio. Then I got the Stealth Cruiser...
I'm also really butthurt about the randomization. Haven't seen the Mantis homeworld, even though I'm always heading towards the biggest concentration of red dots when I have a Mantis in my crew.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Stealth Cruiser is actually very reaction based.
You can't just take initiative until you unlock the shield upgrade.
Basically, the cloak serves as a 'temporary god mode' with 60% evasion + base engine you're looking at 75% evasion rate early game.
Abuse this - > when the enemy fires, Cloak. Watch them miss everything - wait till all weapons are ready, then start the counter attack.
Respond with a dual laser salvo to take out the shield.
WHEN their shield goes down use the can opener laser on their weapons.
Repeat till you win.
 

Grimlorn

Arcane
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
10,248
I like how this game punished the game for being very careless.

AH well, unlocked Type B Kestrel. 4 Laser Cannons? Not bad, but not as good as Type A, I'm afraid.
I dunno, it starts with 4 level of weapons and having 4 weapons is more versatile since you can target different systems. Also has bigger and more varied crew (zoltan and mantis) and the ship layout allows for easier venting. Not to mention having 4 relatively fast weapons allows your gunner to gain exp so much faster.
I thought it was good too, but you have to find better weapons (usually a laser and missle) by sector 3 or 4. Otherwise it gets to the point where you're having problems getting past shields.

I feel like a dumbass at this game. I've made it to the boss once on normal with the Red Tail.
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
Well sure you do have to find better weapons, but that's true for all ships.
 

Commander Xbox

Learned
Joined
Apr 25, 2011
Messages
277
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKK

got to the last fight with a zoltan cruiser + 3 shields + full engine, 5 shot burst laser, pegasus missile launcher and halberd beam and still got fucked over, ive come to the conclusion after 7 failed boss fights either cloak or a repair drone is mandatory to beat it
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
without teleport to disable the gun, your defensive ability (esp. without cloak) is going to be destroyed pretty quick.
Stage I is pretty much a walkover once you disabled their guns and they're just awaiting to be destroyed.
 
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
400
Location
Nazi Germany
Dead State Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
Fuck, almost unlocked the secret ship with the Rock Cruiser, already got the Crystal crew member, then picked the route with red sectors 6 and 7 instead of the one with only a red sector 6. Turned out to be rebel and pirate sectors.
:rage:
The Rock Cruiser was pretty much my easiest win so far, I only visited 80 systems and got 17xx scrap and still had an amazing ship (Hull Laser, Burst Laser I and III, Defense Drone II, maxed out reactor and every single subsystem at least at lvl 2). Rock plating apparently saves you a shit ton of repairs.
Probably going back to the Stealth Cruiser, even though you can get screwed over so easily. On my first jump ever with that ship I had to choose between solar flare or asteroid belt. Next try two ships with fucking beam drones in a row. You have to run away more often than with every other ship I've played yet and still get damaged a lot. My third try got me to sector 5 at least, where I died because my equipment was too bad due to all the repairs.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKK

got to the last fight with a zoltan cruiser + 3 shields + full engine, 5 shot burst laser, pegasus missile launcher and halberd beam and still got fucked over, ive come to the conclusion after 7 failed boss fights either cloak or a repair drone is mandatory to beat it
I've never even tried to take him on with only 3 shields. I think teleporter is much more important (to take out the missile launcher asap) than cloak and the defense drone is amazing against those phase 2 boarding drones who can fuck you over horribly.
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
without teleport to disable the gun, your defensive ability (esp. without cloak) is going to be destroyed pretty quick.
Stage I is pretty much a walkover once you disabled their guns and they're just awaiting to be destroyed.
Whoa, Guild Wars 2 went from 4/5 to 3/5 in just about an hour, what happened?
 

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,465
Location
Dragodol
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKK

got to the last fight with a zoltan cruiser + 3 shields + full engine, 5 shot burst laser, pegasus missile launcher and halberd beam and still got fucked over, ive come to the conclusion after 7 failed boss fights either cloak or a repair drone is mandatory to beat it

yep.. Teleporter is mandatory for better Scrap value and Cloak for final boss weapon system. someone mentioned that 2 "Defense 2" drones are enough for final boss but i never tried.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
without teleport to disable the gun, your defensive ability (esp. without cloak) is going to be destroyed pretty quick.
Stage I is pretty much a walkover once you disabled their guns and they're just awaiting to be destroyed.
Whoa, Guild Wars 2 went from 4/5 to 3/5 in just about an hour, what happened?

clicked the wrong rating :P
 

Grimlorn

Arcane
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
10,248
zl9fa1.png

Finally beat Normal.
Ion gun, Pike Beam, Breach Missle, Breach II Bomb, 2 lvl 1 defense drones.
Had almost no trouble with the boss fight. He barely did damage the first 2 phases, repaired to max, then only went down to 70% in the third phase.
His defense drone was taking out my missles but my bomb was getting through which got his shields down. It seems like you really need a bomb for him.

Another thing I noticed was I got a lot more scrap than I usually get. I usually only get 10-20 but this time I was getting about 30-40. And the only thing I did differently was spend my scrap more. I'm usually always carrying 100-200 so I don't know if that makes a difference or I just got lucky or what really. I didn't even have the scrap augment.
 

sea

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
5,698
I like this game, but the more I play it, the more I only like it in theory. The idea of a Star Trek-ish roguelike is basically awesome, but I feel the devs kinda dropped the ball in some places.

  1. Not enough content. It's unfair to compare the game directly to X or Y, but even so, it has way fewer ships, random encounters, races, sector types, anomalies, star system conditions, etc. than it should. Though you will see new stuff with every game, 90% of it is the same old, same old. This leads to gameplay getting repetitive. Unfortunately I feel this was done intentionally to milk the game via DLC, except you get way less with FTL than you do with say, The Binding of Isaac or Dungeons of Dredmor.
  2. Lack of diplomacy skills of any sort is annoying. There should be a trade-off between different offensive, defensive and diplomatic stuff. Maybe universal translator upgrades, lie detectors, etc. could give you a greater percentage chance of avoiding fights and getting positive outcomes.
  3. Similarly, combat encounters are too common, and forcing you into combat with the flagship at the end is stupid. It basically means you have to grind and gear up for the endgame enemies, rather than use another strategy. This to me is a big deal as it really just means that loading up on guns, shields etc. is the only way to play effectively.
  4. Drones are overpowered compared to guns. They attack much faster and you can launch several at once. Guns can be improved via crew but even then they tend to fire much slower and don't do significantly more damage. Plus, they're far harder to come across in my experience.
  5. Enemies should not be able to beam through (full) shields. Aside from being a sci-fi faux pas, it also makes it way too easy for enemies to board your ship and later in the game, you will end up with enemies boarding like 5 dudes immediately when a battle starts, hitting you with missiles, ion blasts etc. all at the same time. Of course, it's impractical for the player to do this because the player needs those crew to win, while enemies can be as suicidal as they want. You don't gain access to upgrades or new crew fast enough to counter this most of the time, and there is basically no protection against it. I'd like to see it where at the very least you have to get shields down to 50% to beam someone through, if not down entirely. The only problem with this is that when shields are down, the ship is vulnerable... meaning there is no practical reason to send troops over at that point. Maybe there should be a sub-system that needs to be taken out before you can beam people... sensors perhaps?
  6. The game is almost *too* random. Sometimes you find tons and tons of supplies and sometimes you find almost none. Sometimes you find amazing upgrades early and sometimes you find nothing at all worthwhile for several sectors. Sometimes you get tons of stores everywhere and sometimes you get nothing. There should be a happy medium that helps ensure you will have at least a chance of success later on without just having to grind. This would work if there wasn't the constant time pressure, but because there is, the game is far less forgiving of "mistakes" like simply taking the wrong route through a sector, and backtracking is impossible.
  7. Moar guns, moar often. I routinely find myself with basically no guns and not enough scrap to buy them when I do come across them. The default pea-shooters are vaguely effective but once you hit sector 4-5, the enemies start to outpace you and at that point you are dead.
  8. There need to be more difficulty modes that are better balanced. Easy mode is too easy. Normal mode is often extremely punishing. I think normal should be the new hard mode, a new normal should be added that bridges the gap better, and there should also be an insane mode for those who want an incredible, near-insurmountable challenge (because let's face it, challenge is basically all this game has going for it).
The more I play, the more I wonder if it'd be a better idea to just dump every single piece of scrap into shields and engines and run away from everything. I'm still having fun but I don't think I will be playing this game for months like I have some other similar ones. That said, I also have not played much on easy mode (is everyone here doing that?) and so I might gain more appreciation for the game the more I play it.

Also, lol fail. Very first jump = fighting an enemy in a nebula with an energy storm. Did not have enough power to run any of my systems, had to reload. :(
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,837
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
You have some points sea, but I think complaining about lack of diplomacy is somewhat weird. It's a roguelikelike, meant to be combat heavy. If you're having problems with invaders boarding you, upgrade your doors and trap them in oxygenless rooms. And the enemies pretty much always teleport out when they reach low health, so its not so suicidal. And afaik, no enemies have teleporter rooms larger than 2, so the only time you can have 4 or more invaders is if you get really unlucky and get random event boarders + enemy ship with teleporter.

But yes, the game really lacks variety. In theory 9 ships each with 2 variants is a lot. But they all play pretty much the same so you barely notice what ship you play with half the time. And when it comes to enemy ships, the only real difference I feel is if they have a teleporter/boarding drone or not.
 

sea

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
5,698
I guess my point with diplomacy is that I'd like to see it be more than just a die roll whether you get some bonus resources or not. It's just one reason the game feels repetitive - tactics in combat are almost always identical, there are few considerations to make in disabling sub-systems, etc. It definitely gets challenging and I appreciate the depth that comes with the extremely tough fights later on, I just wish it wasn't the only valid way to play.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
sea

:bro:

Thanks for your thoughts about it, confirms me that I'll wait out a few patches or DLC before buying to get more content.
 

Renegen

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
4,062
The game doesn't have as much content or complexity as it could but I actually think the combat is quite diverse and people just don't experiment. For example here someone recommended when playing with stealth ship to go for shields first. Actually I go for weapons first and can go through entire sectors with very little damage. But my strategy was adapted to the stealth ship. I also played a lot with the stealth ship to know that since they can only pack 3 weapons, one of them must be a missile. Theoretically the stores are very sparse, but when I start playing as the stealth ship I know on sector 1 to get any missile that goes my way. If you expect by sector 6 to have a fancy for missiles and the 2 stores available disappoint you, well it's random. But if you understand your ship very well, you usually get exactly what you need. Another strategy I found quite viable was to go for the engines first if you have a low firepower ship at your disposal.

Basically if all people do is target shields and then complain the game is too difficult, well maybe there's a connection between the two. You need to understand your ship better. The variety of play styles depends mostly on what ship you start with, not what you spec into. This may come as a surprise to the new way of thinking about games: you are a blank state and the game should satisfy your every whim, but why should the Engi ship be a laser power house, or the cloak ship able to win through attrition? You're probably playing with the Kestrel, and you should focus on learning what makes it tick. The starting equipment is an idea of what direction to go. Don't experiment with everything the game gives you but instead just focus on having the best Kestrel. Then, play a different ship for a different play style.
 

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,465
Location
Dragodol
The game doesn't have as much content or complexity as it could but I actually think the combat is quite diverse and people just don't experiment. For example here someone recommended when playing with stealth ship to go for shields first. Actually I go for weapons first and can go through entire sectors with very little damage. But my strategy was adapted to the stealth ship. I also played a lot with the stealth ship to know that since they can only pack 3 weapons, one of them must be a missile. Theoretically the stores are very sparse, but when I start playing as the stealth ship I know on sector 1 to get any missile that goes my way. If you expect by sector 6 to have a fancy for missiles and the 2 stores available disappoint you, well it's random. But if you understand your ship very well, you usually get exactly what you need. Another strategy I found quite viable was to go for the engines first if you have a low firepower ship at your disposal.

Basically if all people do is target shields and then complain the game is too difficult, well maybe there's a connection between the two. You need to understand your ship better. The variety of play styles depends mostly on what ship you start with, not what you spec into. This may come as a surprise to the new way of thinking about games: you are a blank state and the game should satisfy your every whim, but why should the Engi ship be a laser power house, or the cloak ship able to win through attrition? You're probably playing with the Kestrel, and you should focus on learning what makes it tick. The starting equipment is an idea of what direction to go. Don't experiment with everything the game gives you but instead just focus on having the best Kestrel. Then, play a different ship for a different play style.

yes.. the people, my self as, tend to play using the same style or most effective known.. still game lacks combat styles or simply i played it zilion times and now all feel same to me no matter what i try..

the only thing that i really bothers me is that game is too short no matter how many quests i do. and the quests are pretty much all the same with rare different outcome, i wonder what would be if they implement some larger text quests like ones in space rangers.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom