So I got FTL: Faster Than Light

[Altorin]

Yeah, I'm not playing on easy, but other than high scrap the luck on events is still the same. So I'm just going to keep trying I suppose. Easy only gives you more scrap so I think I'll stick to normal.

yeah, but scrap is everything in this game. It makes or breaks it.

the games harsh edges get softened when you play it on easy. Really, easy should have been normal and normal should have been hard the difference that scrap makes. The game's not a guaranteed win on Easy, but at least you can get your key systems operational before it's too late.

but whatever, keep playing on normal if that's important to you. That's the only reason to do it, personal pride in beating it on a harder setting. Playing on easy will allow you to learn the ins and outs of the game, allow you to see what you're up against (I can assure you when you hit the final boss, even on easy that thing will kill you the first time you fight it), and allow you to maybe unlock some other ships.

 

[Inkidu]

Yeah, I'm not playing on easy, but other than high scrap the luck on events is still the same. So I'm just going to keep trying I suppose. Easy only gives you more scrap so I think I'll stick to normal.

yeah, but scrap is everything in this game. It makes or breaks it.

the games harsh edges get softened when you play it on easy. Really, easy should have been normal and normal should have been hard the difference that scrap makes. The game's not a guaranteed win on Easy, but at least you can get your key systems operational before it's too late.

but whatever, keep playing on normal if that's important to you. That's the only reason to do it, personal pride in beating it on a harder setting. Playing on easy will allow you to learn the ins and outs of the game, allow you to see what you're up against (I can assure you when you hit the final boss, even on easy that thing will kill you the first time you fight it), and allow you to maybe unlock some other ships.

Yeah, but I made it all the way to sector five on normal, so I'm hoping something just clicks I suppose. I don't think the Kestral is bad, but it is average. It can be tailored to just about any play style, but it lends itself to none.

 

[Altorin]

All I've got is the starter ship and the Engi cruiser. Has anyone beat it with the starter ship or do they just unlock something else.

Though no doubt I'll beat it. The way luck is a factor there is one statistical probability where unless I just let them shoot me down I'll win.

I've seen my friend play a few rounds in the engi cruiser A and B. Looks very stable with a Defense Drone I, 1 in Cloak and 3/4 in shields (and then whatever offensive methods you prefer; boarding drones recommended).

I prefer to use ships that utilize boarding parties all game because plundering intact ships means more scrap from the very start, plus you've already got hard-as-nails troopers when you get boarded yourself! But yeah, it has been proven to me that Engi can finish pretty reliably.

I've never finished in the starter ship though. Anyone who can do that reliably I'd like to hear from. Give strategy pls.

it's easy enough to finish it with the Kestrel B.. The Kestrel B's strong initial weapons loadout allows you to focus on defense with your initial scrap, giving a smoother ride overall. The Kestrel A just starts with such a bad weapon loadout and requires such an investment in scrap over so many systems to be viable.. it's easy to have a fault start that leads to a fault ending... I think any ship with a crew teleporter, a decent missile launcher, 4 shields and a decently upgraded engine can handle the last boss... it's just getting to that point that's just like EGH

 

[endtherapture]

The only aspect of the game that I do feel that way about is in regards to unlocking other ships because not only do the events to unlock them happen only in certain sectors, some require specific things on your ship to do. Let me give an example with unlocking the Mantis ship.

Requirements

1. Be in the Mantis Homeworlds

2. Have a teleporter

3. Have a level 2 or higher med bay

4. Encounter the thief KazaaakplethKilik

5. Don't destroy his ship but instead just kill the crew

6. Check the ship for survivors

7. Bring KazaaakplethKilik (Who you find still alive on the ship) to your medbay to save him.

These are a lot of things that need to happen in order for you to get the ship. If you didn't know that this is how you unlock it then it could take you forever to unlock the ship. And there are lots of unique events in the game already so there's no way to know that the KazaaakplethKilik one is special.

But as to the actual fighting mechanics and such, I don't agree, I've found myself in control of the situations I find myself in most of the time.

I stopped playing FTL becuase I wanted to unlock more ships but couldn't unlock more than the first two because of RNG conspiring against me and there's only so much you can do with 2 ships.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

I think FTL definitely relies on luck too much. I mean, to beat the final boss, you basically need enough crew, a teleporter and/or boarding drones, breaching missiles and/or heavy burst lasers, high shields, and enough power. And you can totally get to the final sector without getting many of those just based on being unlucky. The rest of the game is pretty fair in that regard, but the final boss is a giant "fuck you" to the player.

Actually, all you need is a Defense Drone, Level 3 shields, and some thing able to pierce the shields (laser spam is the easiest way, but boarding or a powerful beam also works although slow). You'd want all stations manned, so about 4 crew although you could get by with 3. Cloaking or an Upgraded Engine is helpful to dodge the special attacks in the later phases.

If you grab Boarding, you can completely remove the final boss's ability to attack via killing the crew manning the weps and then destroying them.

If you're using the Cockship (I have no fucking clue what it's actually called) you get the shield-bypassing artillery beam which basically makes the final boss a pushover.

FTL is fairly easy if you know what works.

I stopped playing FTL becuase I wanted to unlock more ships but couldn't unlock more than the first two because of RNG conspiring against me and there's only so much you can do with 2 ships.

<a href=http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2110&f=7>Use a completed save to unlock all ships. Don't feel bad about it, the requirements are bullshit anyways.

And as a general piece of advice for everybody in the thread: Defense drones and armored doors are your friends.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Part of what you might perceive in combat as the RNG is actually much to do with strategy. Its a mix of allocation of resources, your crew skill and your weapon timing. Best bet to do the most damage and to avoid damage is to upgrade your ships navigation, have a designated pilot to gain maximum skill (and keep them healthy, use the pause button during fire breakouts and also use the door controls to your advantage to put out fires) and weapons and shields officers also designated to gain max skill. Secondly do not auto-fire weapons, but rather manual target and time your shots so they go off concurrently, rather than when their timer goes off. And have a hierarchy of what enemy systems to target (eg shields with energy weapons or missiles, weapons with a secondary shot until they're disabled or drones depending on which is more damaging to you, then as they're repairing damaged systems take out life support so they will have to drop repairs on one thing to tackle that, keep them on their toes). And also engines or flight control if they're harder to hit or running away. Also upgrade sensors so you can see the enemy crew in their ship. It took me a long while to get it down but now I've got a good system for battering an enemy ship down without taking much damage. I haven't beat the final boss mostly because I have been trying to unlock other ships and whatnot. I also have got greedy and screwed myself over trying to min/max my crew/ship before taking on the boss and forgetting to stock up and heal up before the battle.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

For myself, final boss was easy to beat with stealth + all power from shield to engine = 90%~100% dodge.

Something that is pretty hard comes in a form of a ship in a first sector with 3 weapons, 2 of them being missile weapons which will probably hit your control room or engine room before your FTL engine recharges.

Edit: Which is a reason why I think FTL is Frothing bollock RNG milkshake.

 

[DjinnFor]

More at, yes. Completely at, no.

Your ability to take on the boss at the end is either 100% the result of lucking into the right encounters (lots of scrap, the right weapons and drones, etc.) or cheesing via a ship with an early teleporter (which you must unlock via pure luck).

You're most certainly not entirely at the whim of the RNG, though. If FTL has a problem, it is that it is a somewhat tactically shallow game with a fairly clear set of good decisions and bad decisions in terms of how you kit out your ship and deal with encounters.

That's what makes it luck based. Once you figure out the optimal pattern of play, whether you win or lose is completely out of your control unless you deliberately play sub-optimally. If you're playing more-or-less optimally and you're not beating the final boss the majority of the time, the game is, necessarily, luck based.

 

[Xariat]

Hmmm I disagree.

At first the game seems very merciless and luck-based, but when you get into it a little and get to try every random event (there aren't that many) a few times to learn the possible outcomes it's possible to start making tactics.

Sure there are luck-based elements, like what weapons it is possible for you to get, you have to rely on shops or weapon drops from events to get something viable for the end-game. But there are tactics for getting to sector 7 or winning almost(!) every single time you play it, and it's quite basic too.
I'm sure you've heard it from plenty of people plenty of times, but just keep shields up to par with enemies, get stealth, get crew teleporter + mantis or rock crew members, upgrade your doors and sensors and so on and so on. This is all of course based on those RNGods you keep talking about, but you can plan your jumps, decide what to upgrade and when, upgrade things you know will give you blue text events, get crew members for blue text events, and so on to influence the run.

Bottom line, it's not a 100% luck based game, an experienced player will get further than a complete newbie every single time simply by knowing the mechanics and possibilities in the game.

 

[GloatingSwine]

All I've got is the starter ship and the Engi cruiser. Has anyone beat it with the starter ship or do they just unlock something else.

Though no doubt I'll beat it. The way luck is a factor there is one statistical probability where unless I just let them shoot me down I'll win.

The starter ship is actually totally practical to win the game with. The Burst Laser 2 weapon it starts you with is one of the most effective and energy economical weapons. (3 hits for 2 energy, and the hits are targeted so you can target systems specifically)

If you get two of those you'll brutalise every enemy up to at least sector 5 or so, and my first win was three of them and the starter missile, which could tear things to bits in no time flat.

 

[michael87cn]

Yeah it's basically a piece of garbage as a game. You don't really play it so much as watch it unfold.

You'd have the same success playing a card game with the faces flipped down. "Hmm, what's this card? Oh, not the card I needed..." But, I guess some people like that kind of thing.

Another example of how hype and publicity can make a game financially successful, and sway reviews and opinions, while still sucking balls as an actual game.

 

[O maestre]

There is a very steep learning curve to FTL it is practically a wall. The first sector has you at the mercy of the RNG but after that your decisions are what matter. Believe the game gets fun once you acknowledge that death in the early stage is a part of it.

I've managed to beat the game a couple of times, especially with the Osprey

Yeah it's basically a piece of garbage as a game. You don't really play it so much as watch it unfold.

You'd have the same success playing a card game with the faces flipped down. "Hmm, what's this card? Oh, not the card I needed..." But, I guess some people like that kind of thing.

Another example of how hype and publicity can make a game financially successful, and sway reviews and opinions, while still sucking balls as an actual game.

Would it sway your mind at all to the fact that a lot of people genuinely enjoy this game. Also the fact that I have not been able to find anything like it at all, my only problem with it is that I can't get it for my android phone. If you are into space and rogue-like games, they don't come any better than FTL.

FTL is indie, how much hype and publicity did it manage to generate on its own? As far as I know FTL's fame is mostly word of mouth.

You might not like it, but it doesn't make it a bad game.

 

[O maestre]

More at, yes. Completely at, no.

Your ability to take on the boss at the end is either 100% the result of lucking into the right encounters (lots of scrap, the right weapons and drones, etc.) or cheesing via a ship with an early teleporter (which you must unlock via pure luck).

You're most certainly not entirely at the whim of the RNG, though. If FTL has a problem, it is that it is a somewhat tactically shallow game with a fairly clear set of good decisions and bad decisions in terms of how you kit out your ship and deal with encounters.

That's what makes it luck based. Once you figure out the optimal pattern of play, whether you win or lose is completely out of your control unless you deliberately play sub-optimally. If you're playing more-or-less optimally and you're not beating the final boss the majority of the time, the game is, necessarily, luck based.

well if the RNG wasn't an element in the gameplay it wouldn't be a roguelike. You could say the same about any game of the genre. However it is not all luck based, once you find a style of play for each ship that has the highest chance of getting through regardless of encounters.

 

[captainballsack]

I remember having discussions like this about XCOM. It seems like any time a RNG is involved at all, certain individuals perceive the game as suddenly being "entirely luck based". It either needs to be a binary set of decisions with guaranteed results, like a puzzle game, or it's all a vortex of luck and mad gambling and there's zero skill or tactical decision making involved.

It is possible that my curt tone reveals how I feel about this particular argument.

Yes, there is an element of luck in FTL. Yes, random chance can bone you, and yes, you can luck out and your luck can snowball.

No, you are not at "the utter and complete mercy of the RNG".

I agree here. If it was entirely based on luck, I would have had better playthroughs of the game.

I fucking suck at FTL, and that definitely affects my progress. The RNG is just another variable to consider; it is a large one, yes, but it is one that you can be prepared for. FTL is all about adapting.

 

[lunavixen]

FTL is largely based on RNG in places, but trying to use all lasers to beat the game isn't the most sound tactic, bombs work better, especially fire ones in conjunction with lasers. That being said, the game is not exclusively luck based, there is skill involved.

snip

I unlocked all the ships without a save file.

snip

I've finished with the Kestral A, I use a combination of bombs and lasers, with a defense drone (and if I have it, a boarding party). I stockpiled missiles right throughout the game, came to the final battle with about 60.

My general ship specs were (roughly):
~ Lv 3 shield (so 6 points)
~ Armoured doors (max)
~ Lv 2 sensors
~ 4 points in drones, 1 defense and a hull repair drone (or a second defense if I couldn't get a hull repair), don't bother with MKII defense drones, they try and shoot down lasers as well instead of focusing on missiles, MKI is fine
~ Lv 2 med bay and O2
~ about 7 or 8 points in weapons (I cycled as I took systems offline)
~ As close to max Engine as I could get
~ Lv 2 Stealth
~ Lv 1 Teleporter (I didn't use boarding parties as much as I do now)

Weapons:
~ Fire Bomb (2 energy)
~ Breach I or small bomb (2 and 1 energy respectively)
~ 2 laser weapons (both heavy and burst work though burst 2 if quite economical)

Now, for tactics:
- Get the missile launcher offline ASAP in every section of the boss fight (kill crew member and destroy system, because it's isolated, it can't be repaired), bombs or teleported crew work great.
- If you can, take out the stealth system and medbay (fire bomb in the medbay, keeps the crew busy while you kill stragglers if you're using boarding parties or boarding drones), try and keep the medbay offline so the enemy crew can't heal (at least until they're dead).
- Leave the isolated crew member in the laser section alive so the AI doesn't take over (the one directly left of the shields), but kill the rest of the crew so they can't repair, killing them in the first section is the easiest.
- make sure you have at least 1 defense drone active at all times (especially important in the second section) so it can kill missiles and boarding drones.
- If you're not using boarding (or don't have a boarding drone), in the second section, use firebombs in both the drones and the medbay, it'll gradually kill the crew while keeping the drones offline.
- If you have a stealth system, activate it right after the surge launches, it should cause everything to miss you

LEAVE THEIR O2 ONLINE, you need to keep one of the isolated crew members alive (the AI is harder to beat).

Hope it helps

 

[Inkidu]

Actually now it's getting boring. I've played so many losing games I think I've seen just about all the standard random events. I mean I've seen a few for ship unlocks no doubt (but never completed them died before that). Honestly, I just had one of my best run throughs of the game and I really feel I was just lucky. I got all the defensive upgrades, was taking ships, but I'm in the starter so I can only field two boarders. I needed better weapons, but none of the very, very few stores offered up anything that was really next level and I lost (because the scratch damage finally got me, again no stores). So the feeling that I was winning and losing by luck has not abated. It's predominantly governed more by luck than skill, and it really doesn't give me the satisfaction I get when playing other roguelikes.

You know good roguelikes are supposed to resist learning how the random elements break, but all the people here are saying, "Hey once you know how to beat the game you can beat the game." I think good roguelikes don't do that. I think it uses a higher degree of luck as fake difficulty.

Also, I tried running away. I died tired. Just like I thought other than two scenarios you just end up with less scrap, health, and resources. Running away is just going to kill you slowly unless you know there's a store and you've got scrap. However, that'll probably come back to bite you late game anyway. So running away is generally going to get you kill more likely than it will help you win the game.

EDIT: Honestly, I think FTL is a good example of random not equaling variety. Just because they play out differently doesn't mean you've not seen it before.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It's predominantly governed more by luck than skill, and it really doesn't give me the satisfaction I get when playing other roguelikes.

Well, gosh. Maybe the rest of us are wrong, and your copy of the game is just broken. =P

 

[Inkidu]

It's predominantly governed more by luck than skill, and it really doesn't give me the satisfaction I get when playing other roguelikes.

Well, gosh. Maybe the rest of us are wrong, and your copy of the game is just broken. =P

If you can't accept a valid criticism of the game then go somewhere else.