FTL: Faster Than Light

ED E

Hey all,

Am I the only one playing this? Unlocked earlier today(or I should say yesterday at this late hour) and I'm sort of hooked, but man do I suck. But thats kind of the point.

Kept a "Captains Log"

Journey 1 - Sector 1 - Score 141
Journey 2 - Sector 2 - Score 356
Journey 3 - Sector 2 - Score 587
Journey 4 - Sector 3 - Score 815
Journey 5 - Sector 2 - Score 443
Journey 6 - Sector 3 - Score 518
Journey 7 - Sector 4 - Score 1023

As you can see, I need some tips. Anyone got any? Last attempt I got my shields up to 2 early enough, but then ran into an enemy with a tri laser and ran out of missiles. By by me.

So, am I alone?
ED-E

degrassinoel

Bought it last night too, great little game.


I managed to get a score of 3963 and died on the finale, twice!

The way i worked it was in the kestrel, the first shop i came across i sold the artemis missile system and bought an ion burst cannon. When you individually target shields with the ion and burst cannon weapons system they cant do anything back to you in early levels, just watch out for asteroid fields/solar flares and boarders. The rest paid for itself.

Nifty game, well worth the 9quid

pixelburp

Been tracking this games progress for some time, so between it & Black Mesa out, that's the weekend gone Picked it up this morning and looking forward to giving it a spin

Maximilian

Really didn't know what to expect from this. Played it around 8:00 last night, next thing it was 3 a.m.

Fantastic game. Actually reminds me of Rogue a lot. It has that same difficulty and randomness.

Oh, and "Easy" difficulty mode my ass

Best 9 euro or whatever I've spent this year.

Niska

Beentracking it since Kickstarter - picked it up from GOG last night.

Fun little game - first run through all my crew died to boarders in Sector 2.

If it wasn't for sleep and work would be playing it now...

ED E

Maximilian wrote: »

Oh, and "Easy" difficulty mode my ass

This is a good point, have people been using easy? I've only done normals.

Maximilian

Easy seems to equate to less brutal

Genghiz Cohen

I want this.
But...

Max Payne.
Dust 516
Mechwarrior
DayZ
Black Mesa
Witcher 1&2
All the STALKER games + mods

/firstWorldProblems

The Gnome

Had my eye on this since I first heard of it, great little game. I spent about 8 hours on it yesterday and finally managed to defeat the rebels with only one hull point left and most of my crew dead... and that was on easy.

Looking forward to unlocking more ship types. I've got the Engi torus and the Federation cruiser at the moment with the Engi one seemingly the best starter. The cruiser has some sort of special weapon but I've no idea how to use it.

seraphimvc

Watched TB's WTF is FTL and want it so badly now! If i couldn't trade one soon for my Torchlight1 i'll just get one directly!

pixelburp

Yikes but this game is as tough as nails. I've lost so many ships & crew-members from utterly random occurrences, yet the frustration is offset by the desire to just have one more go Love the inship mechanics and the frantic juggling of (often onfire) systems as your ass is pounded by a rebel ship. Love putting out fires or repelling borders by opening the airlocks hehe.

My one complaint is that the chasing Rebels make it all feel like a rush.

ED E

The Gnome wrote: »

Looking forward to unlocking more ship types. I've got the Engi torus and the Federation cruiser at the moment with the Engi one seemingly the best starter. The cruiser has some sort of special weapon but I've no idea how to use it.

Have the engi too, but dont like it. Why'd you think its the best starter?

The Gnome

The ion gun and drone combo seems to make short work of nearly everything, with it's 4 second reload it's handy to swap between enemy shields and weapons while your drone goes to town. The medical nanobots aren't too bad either.

Just came out of a normal playthrough there, had the engi cruiser with 2 ion guns and two ianti-ship drones and once I got the shields to level 3 I was fairly unstoppable... until I met the Slugs and their god damned system disabler and boarding drone combo.

marshbaboon

Distraught at the loss of his closest friends, and trusted officers Captain Picard Makes his way to the nearest airlock to greet the void as the ship burns.

The door controls take a hit & go offline.

Picard burns to death.


Fire & mantis boarding parties have been killing me more than anything else.

ED E

marshbaboon wrote: »

Fire & mantis boarding parties have been killing me more than anything else.

The mantis are right c#nts.

The Gnome

marshbaboon wrote: »

Fire & mantis boarding parties have been killing me more than anything else.

Improved blast doors sort them right out, worth it if you're stuck travelling through Mantis controlled space.

marshbaboon

I made the mistake of not getting level 3 blast doors. They cut right through the level 2 ones in seconds. Been getting 4 of the bastards at once.

ED E

Lost a crew member early, down to two, still pushed on to sector three, double shields and a nice new cannon. Then the police boarding crew of four hit, boom. No more me. That was with level 2 doors, level three will be early on my list this time.

Just started "journey 10". Update: Just lost another crew member in sector 1. FFS, never letting them go off ship ever again.

danthefan

If your crew die can you get more?

Bought it but only had time to play for about 10 mins.

ED E

danthefan wrote: »

If your crew die can you get more?

Bought it but only had time to play for about 10 mins.

Yes. You sometimes pick some up free(said events can also take one, so be careful) or you can hire new ones at shops.

marshbaboon

Just killed the flagship there this morning. Bloody hell it's a tough fight. If you have the wrong combination of weapons the fight is impossible to win.

Only scraped through it, survived with 3 hull points, half the ship pressurised with hull breaches, half on fire.

It's a pain in the arse if you have missiles and no bombs, makes the fight more or less impossible to win.

ED E

Anyone else find it impossible to suffocate intruders? I can vent fires, and my own lads, but boarders of any race take no damage when I open the blast doors to the great unknown.

The Gnome

I've definitely suffocated intruders, rebels seem to die the quickest, rocks the slowest I think.

ED E

The Gnome wrote: »

I've definitely suffocated intruders, rebels seem to die the quickest, rocks the slowest I think.

Last play though it worked. Hmmm. Also, Fire beam or w/e its called is a godsend. Knock their shields down then wahey, everything is on fire.

The Gnome

ED E wrote: »

Last play though it worked. Hmmm. Also, Fire beam or w/e its called is a godsend. Knock their shields down then wahey, everything is on fire.

Yeah, the Fire beam is great especially if you have Boarding drones. The enemy crew don't know what to do!

humanji

The game needs a "Ramming Speed!" button for when you're about to die, but want to go out with a bang.

I'm loving this at the moment. But am always completely destroyed by the rebel mothership at the end. I haven't been able to make the slightest dent in the shields.

I wonder what plans the developers have for the game. Hopefully they won't just leave it as is and will expand on some of it's features.

seraphimvc

HELL YES down to hell you evil rebel flagship boss!!!! and that was in easy mode lol

this game is so good. zalton ship layout B ftw

btw i really think going easy mode to unlock those ships is the way to play game. normal mode too hard Q_Q

picture of my weapons/crews/upgrades if anyone was interested, abit of spoiler in it:

http://i.imgur.com/ybpdv.jpg

ED E

I've hit the git twice but never have any hull left for the third round.

Really need to get a defence drone for those missiles.

marshbaboon

-***SPOILERS***-


The rebel flagships weapons are separate from the rest of the crew. If you use a boarding party, or bombs to destroy them they can't be repaired. Take out the missile launcher, and then the ion cannon.

If you're able to kill all the crew in phase one apart from the guy on the right manning the beam weapon it makes the fight so much easier.

If the crew is dead in phase one, then in phase 2 and 3 you'll be able to use boarding parties to destroy the shields & drone control from within with no opposition.

Just make sure not to kill the guy on the beam weapon, or the ship turns AI in phase 1 and auto repairs all systems.

Edit: Derp! didn't even think to add a spoiler tag. My bad!

Genghiz Cohen

Spoiler!

ED E

It seems the modders have already found a way to disable the rebel fleet. Once I've beaten the game I'll have to give that a shot.

Gunmonkey

I just want a mod that has an audiofile of Cpt Picard going "Red Alert, shields up!" everytime you get into a battle.

marshbaboon

Gunmonkey wrote: »

I just want a mod that has an audiofile of Cpt Picard going "Red Alert, shields up!" everytime you get into a battle.

You need to be able to rename all crew that come onboard too, not just the ones at the start. I sent spock to die in the engine room during the last battle... seemed fitting.

Man I'd really love an elite/x3 style game with this kind of ship and crew control.

Kiith

Great game...but wtf? Was going really well on my 3rd playthrough, and then half my crew just died for no reason at the start of a fight. Only got hit once and it didn't do any damage to my hull :mad: Really annoying.

Kiith

Nm, im an idiot and didn't close my outer doors after a fire.

Bloody hell though, it can be a tough game at times. Normal is pretty damn hard.

ED E

Just made an attempt on the boss.

Config:
Ion Blaster
Burst Laser
Fire Beam

Anti Ship Drone
Defence Drone

Couldnt damage the git this time. Fought, jumped, fought, jumped, shopped, jumped and gave up and opened the air locks.

Needed boarding drones, but never got any. I suppose a crew teleporter woulad have done, had plenty of cash.

marshbaboon

I think the unidentified cruiser is the secret to killing the boss on normal mode.

ShooterSF

*Looks at clock* Well that's addictive.

pixelburp

I find I die usually around the stage 5/6 mark - how are you guys staying alive so long, and managing to kit out your ships with so much?

Kiith

pixelburp wrote: »

I find I die usually around the stage 5/6 mark - how are you guys staying alive so long, and managing to kit out your ships with so much?

I think it's a lot down to luck. Had a few runs last night, and when i managed to find a few extra crew members, and a decent weapon/drone, then it wasn't too bad. But i got to stage 4 with only 2 crew members and no decent drops. Got easily killed. The last stage is a total bitch though. Was doing really well up to then, and was getting hammered during the last stage.

It's a great game, if a little short. Would be nice for some variations on the events that can occur too. For less then a tenner, it's great though.

humanji

pixelburp wrote: »

I find I die usually around the stage 5/6 mark - how are you guys staying alive so long, and managing to kit out your ships with so much?

As Kiith says, it's mostly blind luck. I've gotten to the end with a next to no upgrades and two crew left (and got destroyed at the final boss) and I've had a ship nearly fully kitted out with loads of crew and got blown away long before I got near the end.

I've decided that I was never meant to finish this game, so am just trying to see what interesting ways I have to die and making up little stories about them to keep myself amused.

ED E

SPOILERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZVvjXpc5QQ&feature=youtu.be
Me vs the boss, as mentioned above.


Regarding generally dying/not getting to eight, few things:

• Be aggressive in 1 and 2, you should be able to win against all scouts, so make some cash. If you see a fighter bomber sheild up and jump
• Skim around just in front of the fleet, hitting as many points as possible, earning is important
• As Kestrel target weapons with everything, as Engi(Torus) go for those sheilds
• Always attack slavers
• Never take the crazy guy on the planet all alone.

Banjo

Christ that was good!
Only had a lunch time to play it, took 3 plays to get past my second encounter in Sector 1 but I think I'm getting the hang of it. On to Sector 2 now. Might go back and try it on Easy though if all goes badly.

For those starting out, when they say that a Nebula will disrupt your sensors, they mean inside the ship as well as outside! Thought I was doing really well despite solar flares and close battle with a vicious pirate, then wandered in to the engine room to figure out why my Jump wasn't coming online, found that 80% of the ship was on fire... Then my "open door" policy - which was great for recruitment and putting fires out - backfired spectacularly.

Really hope they expand on this with the ability to run different types of mission (exploration, trade, passenger runs, bountyhunting etc), explore the galaxy in peace (or at least in war but on your own terms ) and maybe even "away team" style ground/station/ship exploration...

marshbaboon

humanji wrote: »

As Kiith says, it's mostly blind luck. I've gotten to the end with a next to no upgrades and two crew left (and got destroyed at the final boss) and I've had a ship nearly fully kitted out with loads of crew and got blown away long before I got near the end.

I've decided that I was never meant to finish this game, so am just trying to see what interesting ways I have to die and making up little stories about them to keep myself amused.

If you treat it as a series of random fights you'll nearly always be destroyed. I'm able to make it to the final boss and destroy it more or less every time now after playing on easy for a while. Just takes a little planning in advance.

Kiith

Had a good run in the Engi ship last night. Got to the last stage, but stupidily jumped too far away and didn't get to fight the mothership. Dad manage to unlock the Stealth and Zoltan cruisers though. Will try it in the Zoltan ship tonight.

ShooterSF

Finally won on easy last night with the b version of Kestral. I think before this one I never had a idea what I wanted to do with the ship and ust added things because they were available but this time she was streamlined. Everything on the ship was critical to the success

Gunmonkey

Finished it on easy with the Kestrel too, Ion cannon to the shields, burst MkII to weaken it and then a Glaive to cleave through sections of the ship with and a MkII drone for extra pewpew. Have to say Drones are dead handy, must try the Engi ship sometime.

ShooterSF

Ah I went very streamlined! 2 Blast mk 2s and 2 basic ones, full cloaking, stealth guns, improved weapon cooling thingy. Then just upped my shields,engines and blast doors to max. I was hitting most things with a volley of 8 lasers twice before they could respond usually taking shields and weapons down and then just cleaning up.

ED E

Just teleported my slug back on board from a airless ship with 1hp remaining, Y SO SLOW SCOTTY?

Hawke

Really enjoying this game. Soundtrack is amazing.

Zulu

Damn you all! Bloody hooked.

I'd been playing normal for the past two days & switched to easy last night. Now I dunno if I just got a good run, but there's a huge difference between easy & normal.

Bloody great games though.