FTL: Faster Than Light - Advanced Edition

[Damned Registrations]

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.

I dunno, I think this was handled somewhat well. Although theres nothing that is exclusively used for text options, lots of stuff you wouldn't otherwise use can be worth keeping around because of the benefits they give there. A beam or ion weapon might be of no use to me in battle, but worth buying or hanging on to because of the extra options it gives me in certain encounters. You can definitely get by with a lot fewer combat encounters with long range scanners and a wide range of equipment to get the most out of the other nodes.

I do wish escaping from fights was easier though, because it requires a sort of nethackish 'ascension kit' where you can't possibly get through the later sectors without a way to bring down level 4 shields, fight ships that can't be boarded, and some sort of defenses against powerful missiles and beam weapons. I would prefer if encounters you couldn't handle were things you were meant to avoid, rather than die to as some sort of gear check when your gear was doled out randomly in a limited fashion.

 

[RK47]

the rock ship unlock ...

Hmm.... how do I play this guy?

First run with this ship ended with 4 dudes beaming in and taking out my life support and door controls - the three rock dudes can't repair and kill the boarders fast enough before they die from lack of air.

This ship :

 

[Jaedar]

3 rock dudes> 4 human invaders.

It is a pretty hard ship though. Layout isn't the best, especially not for your slow ass rockpeople. And if you don't find some decent laser weapons quickly you'll run out of missiles by sector 2. Honestly, the only reason to run it is that it increases the odds of unlocking the secret ship.

 

[good little toastboy]

I think it's a brilliant ship, rock plating is awesome, it has shit loads of empty rooms which is awesome, the teleporter is right next to the med bay. The missiles actually last longer than one would think as the hull missile does 4 damage. You can kill everything with 2-3 shots, by the time I got down to 10 missiles I always got a decent laser. Played it twice, two wins. With blast doors you can drain oxygen out of the door control before they destroy it, which lets them panic instead of attacking it. This makes boarding enemies a threat in only 1/18 cases. Also won my first game with the Stealth ship right after complaining about it even though I only gathered 1400 scrap the whole run. Dual laser, burst laser II and mini beam was enough to kill everything.

 

[Malakal]

Reached boss final form and ran out of missiles. Was a sure win too if I had some since shields 4 cloaking ion weapon greater fire bomb burst lasers and artemis missiles are a good combo and I also had 2 drones up. Cant win the final sector with under 30 missiles on the Kestral unless you find some good beams...

 

[Grimlorn]

Beat it with the federation cruiser on normal. It's funny because I gimped myself to get the achievements to unlock type B, by using just the artillery beam to kill a ship without taking damage and not upgrading any weapons until sector 5.

Found no bombs or missles but made it work with 2 burst lasers lvl 2 and 1 halberd beam. Artillery beam is also amazing too. Had that maxed out. And then 2 defense drones lvl 1. Didn't really use drones until end of sector 7. lvl 2 burst lasers are so good if you have 2.

 

[Destroid]

Quite enjoying it so far. Perhaps a little too random, since your ability to flee is quite limited, even with engine upgrades. Normal is pretty damn difficult, I've only made it to the boss once in about 8 games and I was in no shape to fight by that stage.

 

[Raghar]

Burst LASER L3 is quite bad. 4 energy units means it has equal requirenments as two L2, and it has only 5 blasts, in addition these L2 recharge faster.

@sea
This game isn't designed on diplomacy, it has been designed to beat enemies, until it would have high end equipment to be able to take on last boss.

 

[kazgar]

Picked up a boarding drone the other day in a good run, but was so busy playing around with it and trying to take out a opposition ships medic bay so he could kill dudes, i stopped paying attention to their missiles raping my hull, and then the next thing my ship was breaking up, ooops. Was in the final sector as well.

glorious.

 

[RK47]

They need to make rocks not needing oxygen - they're fucking rocks.

 

[Grimlorn]

They need to make rocks not needing oxygen - they're fucking rocks.

Same with Zoltan. They're just beings of energy right?

 

[Black]

And engies, since they're robots.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

And engi are cyborgs so I'm pretty sure they breathe metal.

And slugs don't breathe. Have you ever seen lungs on a slug? I thought not. And there's no salt in space so vacuum isn't a problem.

Edit: Goddamn you Black

 

[Grimlorn]

So I guess the guy who built this game was just trying to cater to the human crowd by making all the other races need oxygen. Stupid humans. They're just a bunch of assholes anyway. Anytime a human joins my crew I vent them into space.

 

[Black]

Humans aren't assholes. They're just common and uninteresting.

 

[kazgar]

By the time I get to a point of having enough crew to consider replacing the humans, its usually mid to late game and they're all got +10% recharge or extra evasion and not sure if I want to lose those bonuses.

choices and consequences!

 

[Malakal]

Humans are quite good actually, one of the better races. They are faster than rocks and fight better than engi so when you get boarded they can keep up fighting the good fight, also repair better than mantis. Overall I would place them just under zoltan and rock.

 

[Jaedar]

Zoltans are crap. One missile in the same room as them and they're dead.

 

[Renegen]

And engi are cyborgs so I'm pretty sure they breathe metal.

And slugs don't breathe. Have you ever seen lungs on a slug? I thought not. And there's no salt in space so vacuum isn't a problem.

Edit: Goddamn you Black

Well this has escalated quickly but google tells me slugs have breathing holes.

 

[odrzut]

Either engi don't need oxygen after all, or I've found a bug. I've used boarding drone, killed most (all?) of the crew, destroyed their O2 and they have breach in weapons room. I wait 10 minutes already and nothing happens - I've disabled boarding drone not to destroy the ship, cause I want to get more scrap. WTF?

EDIT: OK, I know what happened. I've disabled medic room and somebody died and I've got my scrap. So apparently when you're at medic room not having oxygen won't kill you.

 

[Destroid]

So I guess the guy who built this game was just trying to cater to the human crowd by making all the other races need oxygen. Stupid humans. They're just a bunch of assholes anyway. Anytime a human joins my crew I vent them into space.

There should be an achievement for this.


And man do I love beams. I thought they sucked at first, but I've seen the light!

 

[sea]

EDIT: OK, I know what happened. I've disabled medic room and somebody died and I've got my scrap. So apparently when you're at medic room not having oxygen won't kill you.

In my experience, the healing from the med bay works as fast/faster than oxygen depletion.

 

[felipepepe]

I wish you could play with a unamanned drone ship or a race that doesn't need Oxigen.... guess that's what the DLC willl be about.

 

[Jaedar]

EDIT: OK, I know what happened. I've disabled medic room and somebody died and I've got my scrap. So apparently when you're at medic room not having oxygen won't kill you.

In my experience, the healing from the med bay works as fast/faster than oxygen depletion.

If its upgraded, it certainly does.

 

[Livonya]

Still loving this game.

I only play on "normal" which is damn hard. The slightest mistake can be certain death.

I just unlocked the Stealth ship yesterday. Played for nearly 10 hours yesterday (was feeling sick, so was perfect waste of time). I only managed to get to the final boss one time during that time, and I lost when the enemy flag ship got too close to the base.

My ship sort of sucked anyway, so not sure if I could have beat the boss.... but I unlocked the stealth ship on that play through so I considered it a decent consolation prize.

Just a damn fine game, especially considering that the game only costs $10.

Anyone that says that the ships are all the same is crazy. Some ships are gruesomely difficult. Perhaps on "easy" all the ships play the same, but on "normal" the starting ships make a MASSIVE difference. MASSIVE.