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Kanam wrote on 2012-09-15 04:42
What is FTL?
From their
FAQ
What is FTL?
FTL is a spaceship simulation roguelike-like. Its aim is to recreate the atmosphere of running a spaceship exploring the galaxy (like Firefly/Star Trek/BSG etc.) In any given episode of those classic shows, the captain is always yelling “Reroute power to shields!†or giving commands to the engineer now that their Warp Core is on fire. We wanted that experience, as opposed to the “dog fighting in space†that most videogames focus on. We wanted a game where we had to manage the crew, fix the engines, reroute power to shields, target the enemy life support, and then figure out how to repel the boarders that just transported over!
I purchased this game today and it's awesome. I wasted so many hours playing it. It's not for people who are afraid of losing because you will lose and restart, A LOT. Heck I haven't even beaten the game on easy yet...
There's tons of replay value due to unlockable stuff and due to the genre; 8 ship you can unlock with 2 different model each (each model play differently) for a total of 18 ships.
Some video
[SPOILER="Spoiler"][video=youtube;Q4imWvoqxmc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4imWvoqxmc[/video]
[video=youtube;P-SnIhpCm5w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-SnIhpCm5w[/video]
[video=youtube;3c_QY0dnI-M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c_QY0dnI-M[/video][/SPOILER]
If you want to check the game it's currently 8.99 until September 21 and then it'll be 9.99.
Main page
Steam Page
GOG Page
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Bakuryu wrote on 2012-09-15 13:03
Yeppers FTL is an excellent game, recommended.
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Chockeh wrote on 2012-09-16 02:25
...TB needs to make a mini-series of FTL.
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TLCBonaparte wrote on 2012-09-21 03:22
Getting Crystal Ship is almost impossible must meet the right events and also in the right world sequence :(
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RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-09-24 15:16
Been playing this for the past few days. It's pretty good. I haven't played on easy, only on normal, and I made it to sector 5 or 6 several times now. Unlocked a couple ships too. Really, it's gonna take a while. I think I should try to unlock the B type of the first ship to have the best shot at beating the game right now.
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Kueh wrote on 2012-09-24 15:31
This game is so much fun, but Tatsu and I have similar opinions on where it fails.
First of all, the aspect of randomness. It's one of the main reason I keep playing, since it really does at tons of replay value, but I think that over-arching patterns should not be random. The galaxy map should be more detailed because, really, there's no difference between the red and green sectors, and the purple sectors are basically only different because you don't have sensors. With that in mind, there's no point in being able to see the whole map and make strategic choices about which trash sectors to go to.
"Do I want to go to this unexplored nebula? If I do, I can't go to the Rock home worlds, but I will be able to go to the Mantis Home worlds."
Getting the build you want for a ship is utterly random, as there's no way to do something like, for example, go to a sector that has high rates of dropping missile using weapons, or a beam weapon sector. That means that being able to beat the boss is also random.
The overall timing of the game is inconvenient. The rebel fleet doesn't really have to start showing up after the third jump for me to feel the sense of urgency of the fleet's approach. In fact, because the fleet is constantly on my tail, I've grown less afraid of it, and I often find myself doing a thing where I just stop caring about how many turns I have before the sector is taken, and I just go to maximize my beacon encounter rate, often taking me away from the long distance beacon, and then fighting my way to the exit.
Since players are constantly forced to move on very quickly, doing quests is sometimes detrimental, since the only way to do it would mean not hitting a number of other beacons. Also, it makes players often unable to gauge the effectiveness and growth of their builds, and it's not until you get some overpowered weapon that you really feel your resource management paying off.
You can't sell things that actually end up holding you down. Upgrades you take are permanent, and a useless crew member has to be held onto. It doesn't have to be selling them into slavery, but you have to pay the crew, no? So dismissing them should grant you the use of the payment that otherwise would have gone to them. In a game where taking power out of systems you aren't using and putting them into ones you are, why can't you cannibalize upgrades you've made into less scrap than it took to make them and put those resources into more useful areas?
Overall, an excellent game, but whether or not I'd say it's worth the price would depend on the person I'm recommending it to.
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RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-09-24 15:58
Eh. The randomness is what makes the game challenging, and in fact what makes nearly all roguelikes challenging.
You don't have to pay your crew. There are no drawbacks to having them and even if you don't want them, you can use them to repair and fight stuff. Or just open the doors and let them asphyxiate if you really hate them, totally up to you.
And I think part of the point is getting to as many points as you can before moving on.
There are plenty of stores to buy things from, but yeah, there's some randomness involved. If you really want to, you can save and reload the store over and over. I've never saved and it feels shitty to me to do so in a game like this, but it's an option.
Quests are nice because they give free stuff.
You can sell most things, just not the upgrades with the green bars. Anything you equip, you can sell.
I like the nebula because it slows everything down, lol, meaning more points to make more scrap. I'm not 100% sure what the red sectors do, but it probably means more fighting.
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Kueh wrote on 2012-09-24 16:12
No, I meant that, if you were really a pilot, and were really running a ship, you'd be paying your crew mates. I've played the game, in case that wasn't clear, so I know you don't actually give them anything. I was just suggesting a bit of background as to why you might get money for getting rid of crew without having to sell them to slavers. And you don't have to be so cruel as to space them, you can just open the crew menu and dismiss them.
I haven't tried reloading, but I don't think it works that way. Saving in this game is pausing the play session, and loading the save, I think, deletes the save file. So I don't think you can actually try the same sector, or any part of the game, over and over again in the same run.
And quests ARE nice, which is why it sucks to have to not do them because the only way to reach the quest beacon is to avoid 5-6 other beacons.
I know one can't sell the upgrades, which is why I said one should be able to. It only makes sense, given the theme of power management in the ship.
The reason one chooses a nebula should be greater than you liking it better than the other option. You're given the whole galaxy map, and yet it plays no significance because the layout of the map is unimportant due to the randomness factor. There's no strategic making of choices like, "I can choose a nebula or a civilian sector. I want to go to the nebula because I like having more time, but the civilian sector leads to two home world sectors that the nebula doesn't have."
Randomness is fun, but exploring the consequence of choice is even more so.
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RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-09-24 16:26
Dunno, just saw that save scumming the shop was possible on GameFAQs, haven't tried it.
It's not just about me liking it, it's the fact that it offers a strategic advantage with the right stuff because you can travel to more points and get more scrap before having to leave. However, it tends to be more dangerous because sometimes your power goes down which can be pretty deadly. Just a risk/reward thing. Even though there's still randomness, the point is to go with whatever has the best odds, or push for luck if necessary.
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Kueh wrote on 2012-09-24 16:29
But it really just comes down to you liking the strategic advantage of a nebula more than you like the advantage of a green sector. It's a resource investment risk/reward thing more than it is a strategic choice.
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RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-09-24 17:25
What would you consider strategy, then? These kinds of choices seem pretty strategic.
And I'm in a nebula sector right now... turns out it doesn't slow them down there, for some reason.
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Kueh wrote on 2012-09-24 17:34
"I can choose a nebula or a civilian sector. I want to go to the nebula because I like having more time, but the civilian sector leads to two home world sectors that the nebula doesn't have."
Would be strategic.
Also, it does slow, it's just that nebulas in nebula sectors are 50% less effective than nebulas in non-nebula sectors.
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RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-09-24 17:59
Oh.
Ugh, I just died in a stalemate in sector 8 or something due to bad luck. Couldn't find any weapons all game so I ended up having 3 shields and a fully upgraded engine, but the starter weapons, lol! Eventually ran out of both fuel and missiles, and sat there with 80 scrap in a battle where both sides were unkillable. I couldn't penetrate his three shields with my one laser that fires three times, and he couldn't penetrate my three shields with his lasers. He had no missiles, only a normal laser a bunch of those ones that cut through multiple rooms. I had to power off my engines and shields and lose the game to have the score save.