FWIW, FTL’s creators call it a roguelike-like, not a roguelike.
I think my affair with this game is over. It involves too much re-rolling until you get winning circumstances instead of being able to make a win happen. If people want to check out a roguelike with legs, try Tales of Maj’Eyal. Solid game, that.
That pretty much describes my experience with every roguelike game I’ve ever played - “Ooops. You hit a lich unexpectedly and it blinded you and summoned a ton of crap, game over.” “Ooops, you never really got a decent weapon, game over.”, “Ooops, that potion was really bad.” “Ooops, no food drops” etc. You’re pretty much at the mercy of the RNG as a function of being in a roguelike game.
Also, based on my impressions from playing for a few days, while it might not be possible to always “make a win happen” being good at the game is prerequisite for winning. My first few games on Normal, I was lucky to make it to sector 3 or 4 (this is AFTER playing through on easy a few times, so it’s not like I was ignorant of how the game worked) but after more practice, getting to sector 7 or 8 is common. In fact, I find that before getting to that point, I die more of stupid mistakes than I do of the RNG. YMMV though.
I just got it last night, and played a couple of games on Easy, but I’m really enjoying it. Definitely worth $10 (9 with current discount I think).
Cloaking device seems to be well worth the cost. And the attack drones are quite good as well. I’ve only unlocked one other ship so far- the Engi doughnut-looking ship, which has very useful med-nanibots, so my crew heals no matter which room they’re in.
Aspect of both do fit it and are missing. It just struck me that rogue-like doesn’t actually inform most people about what the game is like because of how obscure Rogue and the game it inspires are. Oregon Trail, on the other hand, is more well known thanks to a generation playing the game in school. It’s all about the Random Generation, either way.
It’s a fun little game. I can’t see playing it for long periods at a time but for a quick 1/2 hour here or there it’s a winner.
If you have a look through the FTL forums there are a few mods that slow down the rebel fleet and give you a bit more time to explore/fight/equip etc.
Oddly, I feel the reverse - lots of people are familiar with the roguelike genre, but only people from the very specific era where Oregon Trail was played in schools would recognize OT.
Like me; I never played Oregon Trail, or even as far as I can recall heard of it before someone posted a thread recently asking for games like it. Roguelikes I knew though and have played, including one named Rogue (not the original though).
Rock Paper Shotgun is doing a diary of playing FTL. Two entries so far (the first one is at the bottom of the page).
I just won for the first time (on the Easy level). The ship you get after winning (Federation Cruiser) is pretty cool!
Love this game. Bought a copy for my best friend, too.
If you’re just getting into it, major important hint, if you haven’t been told already; you cannot slide in to the end of the game by avoiding fights and getting to the finish line with a beat-to-shit ship. You need to be able to kick some huge ass. So clear a lot of systems, as many as possible; stay ahead of the Rebels but don’t take the quickest path through or you won’t be prepared enough to win the game.
Incidentally, I’ll pay another $10 if they’d port this to the iPad, where I think it’d actually be better.
Some strategy rules I’ve adopted, bearing in mind I haven’t yet had the patience to unlock the level 2 Kestrel:
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Always man the shields.
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Always keep the same people at their jobs, esp. weapons control.
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Target weapons systems first (and then drone control, if they have it.) If they can’t shoot, you can take your time and just use energy weapons to kill them, rather than wasting munitions.
3A. Remember that you can pre-target any weapon before it is charged. DO THIS. Every fraction of a second counts. -
Theois has it right; if they board you, which does suck, retreat everyone to the med bay except your pilot and vent everything else on the ship. (Open all doors, then close in your crew.) It’s not ideal if they spend much time breaking up your weapons systems, but it’s the best shot you have. Later on you might have a few Rock crewmen, which would enable you to fight any boarding party anywhere, but until then fight in the hospital and empty the rest of the ship of air.
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Take the honorable choice most of the time. The game generally rewards altruism. Not always, it’s a chance, but you need the rewards to have any chance.
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Pick up extra crew.
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Don’t buy weapons or drone schematics. You’ll find them. Weapons and drones are expensive to power; let them come to you and spend your scrap on the power and system upgrades.
Someone on another board posted this image about FTL, which I found amusing.
Hm, well, that was disappointing.
I got to the final confrontation with a Kestrel that was about as bombed to the gills as possible; I had every energy point allocated to something. Four weapons with a super fast reload, defense drone, and lots of upgrades all over the ship. You couldn’t have stuffed more onto there. And the flagship just ripped me apart. I lasted a minute longer than my first time meeting it, but I had no chance.
Which raises the interesting question as to whether the game can actually be won with the Kestrel, or whether you have to game it to not try to win, but to get the “acheivements” to unlock other ships, to actually win.
I’ve got every ship unlocked but one (the mystery ship) and the best one in terms of success rate, by far, is still the Kestrel. Either variant is nicely well-rounded, very strong in the early game, and has none of the sometimes huge weaknesses that define the other ships. You really can’t go wrong with it.
Anyhoo, basic spoilers for the flagship:
The trick with the Flagship isn’t killing it: it’s no more durable than any other 4-shield ship and all the standard offense combos work just fine on it. The trick is surviving its high offense. You’ll want 3-strength shields and at least two out of the following: 45% or more evade, a defense drone, a crew teleporter with 2-man boarding team and/or max cloak. To avoid spoiling too much else, I won’t elaborate on what goes where and how.
Just beat the flagship for the first time. I used the Kestrel (heavily armed with burst lasers) and a teleporter, using an away team of a Rock man and the mystery race, which I just found for the first time in this particular game. I can’t understate what help this new crew member was.
Oddly, after my very first death to the flagship, I basically don’t have trouble with it at all. I even beat it with ships that I honestly feel have no business doing so.
Things that help:
#1) Boarding. You don’t even need GOOD boarding, you just need 2 random crew members (that are ideally not engie or zoltan. They don’t need to be GOOD boarders, they just need to not suck).
#2) Enough firepower of some sort to get some sort of damage through 4 levels of shields. This can be bombs, good missiles, lots of lasers, ion weapons, whatever. I say “good missiles” because you -do- have to be able to overwhelm a defense drone.
#3) Defense drone. Doesn’t have to be a rank 2; Rank 1 is generally sufficient to ward off some missiles and the boarding drones.
#4) Maxed shields. Honestly, you want this anyway.
#5) Cloaking is very helpful but not crucial.
#6) It’s useful to kill most if not all the crew.
I remain a little mystified by how people have so much trouble winning boarding actions. The number of boarding actions I’ve lost is so low that it always surprises me when a boarding action is a legitimate threat (Though once I think I got boarded by like 6 enemies, in some sort of evil scripted event where a crate I opened was full of enemies AND then some more beamed on immediately. That was bad.). It’s super rare that boarders outnumber your crew, so all that’s required is some careful micromanagement. Meet them in whatever room you want (though the closer to the medbay the better) - I usually just engage them in whatever room they attack first. Throw in a number of crew equal to the number of boarders. You probably won’t win, so pull your lads back and run them to the medbay when they get down to around 25% (and don’t pull them all at once - pull them as they hit 25%. Use pause if you have to.). Let them heal to ~75% and send them back in. The boarders will just sit in the room poking the system while you heal. If it’s a subsystem, they might destroy it and go somewhere else, but if it’s a real system, they probably won’t take more than a bar or two off it before you get healed and come back for more.
The only time I do the “vent the ship and fight in the medbay” thing is if I really AM outnumbered, or if my crews’ fighting capabilities are really bad (lots of engies or zoltan.)
Every time I see this thread, I think it’s about a remake of this.
I find it strange that people keep suggesting this. I’ve not found defense drones to be worth the cost of the scrap. (Anti-ship, anti-personnel, system repair, and hull repair all have uses, and beam isn’t too bad if you can keep the enemy’s shields down, but defense? Blugh.)