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FTL: Faster Than Light
Topic Started: 8 Apr 2015, 11:16 PM (752 Views)
KyngzIndeyen
Who here plays FTL: Faster Than Light?

For those of you who don't know, it's a pausable real-time strategy game by indie developer Subset Games, which was released on 14th September 2012. A free expansion, called the 'Advanced Edition', was subsequently added on 3rd April 2014. It's often described as a 'roguelike', although this description isn't entirely accurate: it features procedurally-generated maps and perma-death, but doesn't really have anything else in common with other games of the genre.

The player controls a single spaceship and its crew, whose task is to deliver vital information to an allied Galactic Federation fleet, while being chased by a large rebel force. This journey takes the ship through eight different 'sectors', each populated by a specific race or faction. Within each sector, the player will find stores (to repair and enhance their ship); distress signals from ships that require some form of help; environmental hazards such as nebulae and asteroid fields; and, most importantly, rebel/pirate ships (which can - and will - engage their ship in combat). Defeating these ships will earn rewards: most commonly, this will come in the form of 'scrap' (the game universe's currency), but extra weapons and crew members can rarely be picked up from these battles too. However, if every crew member dies, or if the ship's hull is destroyed, then the game is lost and the player must re-start from the beginning!

I've been playing quite a lot of this game lately, usually when I feel like a challenge but don't have time for something more substantial (e.g. Civilization V or a Paradox grand strategy game). So far, I've beaten it on Normal difficulty with four ships (Stealth A, Zoltan B, Mantis A, Slug A) out of 28 - and I'm hoping to beat it with the rest soon!
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The
I've seen this game before, and have always wanted to get it, yet I've never remembered. It seems a great concept.

Also, nice post ^_^
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Former Named Director
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KyngzIndeyen
Thanks :) !

The only thing I would say is that if you don't like losing, then don't get this game. Because you will lose at this. A lot :P .
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flying cat
Thats true it sounds complicated. But also a really good concept which would be interesting to try out.
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Elected Staff
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I imagine it's easier to understand this game if you've played it before, rather than just reading about it. Anyway, I need a new game and I think this might be it, thanks :)
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KyngzIndeyen
Well, after six months of trying, I finally unlocked every ship in the game. The last one I unlocked was the Carnelian (Crystal B) - which is the most difficult to unlock, but also the best in the game, so I guess that's fair :P .

[edit_reason]Added link[/edit_reason]
Edited by KyngzIndeyen, 8 Jun 2015, 06:56 AM.
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flying cat
Nice job!
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Elected Staff
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KyngzIndeyen
Thanks :D !

Well, I was feeling utterly masochistic yesterday, so I decided to take the Engi B (one of the worst ships in the game) for a spin on Hard difficulty. The trouble with this ship is that it's very sensitive to getting hit in the wrong place at the wrong time: a single hit to the weapons room, for example, can easily spiral out of control. This is exactly what happened on my first three attempts, which all ended swiftly in a frustrating, but predictable, fashion.

On my fourth attempt, I had a welcome break of luck at the end of the first sector, when I picked up a free Ion Blast weapon! This combined very well with my starting Heavy Ion and Heavy Laser: the two ion weapons would fire repeatedly on the enemy's shields (thus keeping them disabled forever), which would leave my fast-firing Heavy Laser free to whack the other parts of their ship. Things soon got even better, when I saved up enough scrap to buy a Defense Drone (to shoot down enemy missiles), Long-Ranged Scanners (which would tell me in advance what was in each beacon), and more crew (which the Engi B needs desperately: it's the only ship in the game to start out with only one crew member!)

My weapons setup served me well through the mid-game, but I knew that it wasn't going to cut it in the late-game: ships with Cloaking would start appearing, and then the ion weapons would be unable to keep the shields down, which would in turn stop the Heavy Laser from dealing any damage. Therefore, I saved up some scrap, found a store, and replaced my two ion weapons with a Flak I and a Burst Laser II: these are both fast-firing, three-shot weapons, which pair very well with one another.

So, here's the state of play at the end of the fourth sector:

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(Click to enlarge)

I don't want to speak too soon - but this game is actually looking winnable :D ! [edit_reason]Messed up the link[/edit_reason]
Edited by KyngzIndeyen, 21 Jun 2015, 11:15 AM.
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