I still do it fairly often. Not as much as I used to, but it still happens. I don't accidentally send them onto drones, though. The lack oxygen is pretty apparent. Forgetting to turn off weapons? Guilty.
Just had another level 2 boarding party die. Because I sent them over to a ship in an asteroid field after I crippled said ship's shields.
Yes, I did it occasionally at first. I rarely do it now. I felt I did get better at watching out for them over time.
My first win was about 8 or 9 attempts in, on Easy, using the Torus ( Engi ship ). Finished the fight off with 2 Ion II's, 1 regular Ion, a defense I drone and 2 attack I drones. The last phase was a final hit scenario where if he'd gotten off another barrage he would have won, so very close. I didn't know to target the missile launcher ( or even which one WAS the missile launcher ) at the time, so I just ended up tanking all of the ones which got through my defense drone. Now that I've managed to unlock every ship but the Crystal Cruiser ( I really don't know if I'll ever bother getting this one ) i'm still fairly certain that the Kestrel layout B is the best ship to run with. Excellent starting guns that can easily carry you to sector 5 without an upgrade. I usually spend absolutely nothing until I find a store with a Crew Teleporter, as that really just seems to be a game winner with how much more scrap/crew you can get by disabling ships instead of outright destroying them. Thought I would really like the mantis B layout, given how great boarding is, but I just can't get used to starting with no guns and then typically finding nothing useful until sector 4 or 5, where I've gotten much less scrap than I would have with the Kestrel B or Mantis A layout. It also seems like the game senses I have no weapons and purposely loads up ships with medbays even on sector 1, where there is no way to defeat them without some form of bomb or gun.
I've lost enough boarding parties that I now have some personal rules I use. Sure, there are exceptions, but generally: 1. No boarding in asteroid fields. 2. No boarding the main body of the flagship during the first stage.
After 20+ playthroughs I finally unlock a fourth ship, after the Engi cruiser and the Federation cruiser when I get the Rockman ship. Then I use that ship and on the very next playthrough unlock both the Zoltan ship and the Slug ship. Random number generator working in my favour, for once.
I just grabbed this today, it's merciless but crazy addictive. My attempt was a legit clusterfuck on the first jump (solar flares and a fighter with drones), and on the second attempt I died on the second jump. Third attempt and I've gotten through two whole sectors so far without nearly as many problems as I had in the first two turns of the previous attempts. .
I just unlocked the Crystal Cruiser ship. Apparently it's a pain to unlock but my last playthrough literally threw it into my lap. I hit all the right events in a row. Pretty sweet. Still need to unlock the Slug ship and Zoltan ship and get the type B for Mantis and Rock ships. Then I will have them all. Mwhahahahaha.
I like the Slug ship a lot but it wastes even more missiles than the Rock ship if you try to depopulate enemy ships before you get a transporter.
I'm totally with Blackadar on this one. And I don't agree with some of the responses that it is some inherent moral necessity for roguelikes to have excessively variable difficulty. There's nothing in the wikipedia article that would back up that claim at least. Like I've said before and I will say again despite knowing that you'll all disagree with me, I consider FTL to have some serious design flaws that are masquerading as "roguelike design features." For me, FTL does way too much to present itself as a more typical space action game. When I played FTL I did NOT want to die. That is a huge difference from, say, Brogue. In Brogue I had no interest in the question of whether I died or not because it was a *good* roguelike. In a good roguelike you're happy to die because dying opens up the way to a different experience. At the end of the day, FTL is a brilliant game, it's just deeply flawed in my opinion. And yes, it is overrated. I'm happy I bought it and I'm happy I played it but I'll never pick it up again. It's no more than a 5/10 for me. I truly hope the designers keep it up and I hope they release more games with the flair and personality of FTL but without the annoying genre confusion. If they want to make roguelikes, make it fun to die not aggravating. If they want to make an action game, put in a traditional save.
I got like 20 hours and loved it, but I'm probably not going back for the same reasons you're stating.
Agree with you guys, excellent game mechanics but the rigid design kills the replay-ability. Once you figure out the right builds for the final fight, it renders the entire game trivial or impossible if you have a bad run. Still, I think I would buy any DLC or expansion packs for it on day one and I'm honestly surprised that we haven't heard anything else from the designers since FTL's release.
People play games for a variety of reasons. One of them is to win. Winning in a rogue like "opens up the way to a different experience" just as much as losing does (in Desktop Dungeons, Winning is a much bigger part of accessing different experience than you normally see, as a win always opens up something new). There's no doubt that defeats, for genre fans anyway, are bittersweet. See the preponderance of "(YASD) I accidentally ate The One Ring instead of wearing it!" posts in various usenet groups back in the day. But there were also plenty of "Thought I was closing in on my first win, then Cthulhu happened :(" posts as well. Winning is very clearly part of the experience. I'm not trying to jump on you here, but "in a good rogue like you are happy to die" is an absurd statement. You look forward to more gameplay in games you like and you don't look forward to it in games you don't. That has nothing to do with specific games but with the people playing them. FTL does have design flaws, no question. 1. There is a difficulty spike at the last boss. 2. FTL certainly has replayability, however it has a couple of factors that harm it's replayability somewhat. Many rogue likes offer game play variety in replays via things like races and classes. Desktop Dungeons adds all sorts of special challenge dungeons. FTL's unlockable ships are very interesting but the gameplay variety they offer isn't nearly as high as you'd see in many other genre examples. The bigger issue however is the fact that for the special encounters, the risk factor is too high to even try them unless you have a blue option. You can succeed most or all of them without blue choices but the odds are shit. The decision here is always obvious. "Sticking to the whites" is not even like gambling to open a really OOD vault or dipping into a higher level area. I have 150 hours with the game according to steam; I certainly wouldn't say it has no replayability. But mileage will vary, as it always does. I think the game could have had better replayability. Stuff like the rail gun is interesting; I wish more ships (or their variants) had unique systems. 3. In many rogue likes, character progression is split between gear upgrades and leveling. The ratio varies from one game to the next; Desktop dungeons barely uses gear while Brogue has nominal leveling. ADOM, various *Bands, and TOME are sort of classic in that both aspects of very important (a nod to the pre-digital roots of RPGs in general, really). Leaning heavily on gear, as FTL does, is not a bad thing (Brogue does it). However, if you were to play through FTL and never use a store the odds of winning would be complete and total shit. It's possible to get good upgrades via events and occasionally from combats. It's rare to have this happen twice in a play through. "Leveling" - improving your systems and of course crew leveling - will increase your power but it's all defensive. Super high dodge and 4 points of shields in the late sectors doesn't do you much good with only 3-4 damage capacity per volley. Even if you do win, it'll take forever. Even if you're at ~5 damage you won't beat the last boss. The store issue is problematic; you both have to roll the inventories right (finding nice upgrades like Mk 1-2 blasters, small bombs, quality augments, the right drones if you are so inclined), you have to find the stores (not always possible), and you have to find them at the right time. Your damage output is about 95% gear dependent, and "drops" are all but non existent. 4. I think it's possible for a game to be generated as either unwinnable, though I think it's highly unusual. This is no fun, though. Flaws, yes, but these aren't "masquerading" as anything. These are just flaws. They don't make the game "not a roguelike" or "a fake roguelike" or anything, really.
I just did this and killed the two Mantises in my crew that I'd hired specifically to act as a boarding party, on my first time boarding anything. Whoops!
It gets easier. A lot of the game is simply learning which options to click and which to not click. As Peacedog states a few posts up, generally if a blue option isn't available it isn't worth the risk. There are exceptions to the rule, though, and you will learn them as you continue playing. On the topic of random weapon drops: They are indeed pretty rare, but it is a great feeling when you get the perfect drop. Like the time I found a Glaive Beam floating in space at the exit from Sector 1, on my type B Stealth Ship which already had one Glaive Beam. Coupled with the Weapon Pre-Igniter I had picked up from a shop, nothing was lasting more than 10 seconds into the fight, up until sector 7 or so where 3-4 shield ships became the norm.
So much of it is blind luck in terms of the encounters with enemy ships, environmental things like solar flares, the equipment you find or crew members you get, etc. Maybe you aren't actually awful! I'm right at the end of sector 7 on my latest run, getting ready to tackle the Flagship for the first time. Since I just lost my boarders, I'm not sure how successful that's going to be, but at least I have a cloaking device and a firebomb. I also recently got the Pegasus missile launcher, but it doesn't seem much of an upgrade over the Artemis given that it has a 20-second charge time. I love the Pre-Igniter, Anti-Ship drone, and upgraded Cloaking system. It's basically one big trollface whenever I warp into a location with an enemy. (Until they board my ship, in which case there's more fire and crying and stuff.)
One thing you should learn quickly is to put off store visits for as long as you can so you'll maximize your scrap for purchases. Being just short of what you need for a nice weapon or component sucks, and so does backtracking. Plan your route and only hit the store when your next move is much deeper into the sector or you need immediate fuel or repairs. I also buy all the fuel I can in the early stores. Fuel is cheap, you don't know how long it'll be until the next store, and there are a lot of stranded ship events. Knowing what to upgrade and and prioritize is also something you'll work out. Shields 2 is usually one of my first upgrades, then Engines 2, but I also take Doors 2 pretty early for boarder and fire control. If I get Teleporters early, Sensors 2. Of course, you also need the power upgrades to make most of them work, so don't skimp on that.
I do have Shields up to 3, Engines to 4 or so, Doors at 2, Sensors at 2, and almost enough power to run everything but both drones in my Drone Bay. I do have to toggle weapons a bit, but I can power three of the four I have at a time. Actually, weapons are probably my biggest concern. I'm still using the Artemis Missile and the Burst Laser II that you start with in the Kestrel, along with a Heavy Laser I and a Fire Bomb. It's probably too late to do any upgrading (do you start the final battle as soon as you jump to sector 8?) so I'll make the best of it, but generally that's been the one thing I haven't run into much is weapon upgrades.
Sector 8 starts with you meeting up the fleet, getting repairs, and then you have to fly out and find the Rebel battleship, most likely fighting a few ordinary rebel ships on the way. You're extremely unlikely to get a weapon upgrade in Sector 8 as there are no stores unless you get lucky and scavenge one from a boarded rebel ship.
Burst Laser II is pretty much the best bang-for-your-buck weapon you can get. 2 power for 3 shots, get 2 or 3 of them and you're golden. Just finished my latest run with the fed cruiser with 3 Burst II's and 1 Hull Laser 1. Would've gone for a fourth Burst II had I been lucky enough to get one. Combined with the maxed out Artillery Laser, the boss ship melted. He never even got off a drone burst on the second phase.
I wouldn't even bother powering the missile for the final fight because it will get shot down. Make sure you slot it last so if you get weapon damage, it goes to the unpowered Artemis. The Fire Bomb is good, though. In the flagship fights, two missiles fired at the same time will make sure one gets through, but one missile is pointless unless it's a Pegasus. Even Small Bombs tend to be much more useful than any missiles.
I think I passed on another Burst Laser early on, before I recognized it as being a valuable weapon of which I might want two. (I kept expecting these to be the throwaway starter weapons that I'd quickly upgrade, until I did some reading.) I've never seen a Hull Laser or Artillery Laser. I did see a couple Pike Beams, but passed on them as the whole "useless against shields" thing seemed to imply that they'd need a specific loadout to be useful. Good to know. What's the priority target for the Fire Bomb? The Drone Control? The Weapons room to knock out the Flagship's missile burst, or will Cloaking handle that?
Target the triple missile launcher first. There is no overall weapons control for the flagsjip, it's compartmentalized by weapon. Once that's burning, I'd switch to his shields so the lasers can do some damage.
The Artillery Laser is a system installed only on the Fed Cruiser, which you get after defeating the flagship for the first time. It takes the place of the Cloaking system, unfortunately. It requires being powered ( up to 4 bars, as I recall ) and when at max level fires off a laser that cuts across the entire enemy ship for 1 damage per room, and ignores shields, every 20 seconds. And yeah, with the Beam type weapons you need a specific loadout to take down the shields first, and then hit them with the Beam for maximum damage.
Depending on how hard a time you have getting past the shields, like maybe you need to make 4/5 shots just to get one point of damage, then I'd recommend fire bombing the med bay to make sure the guys putting out fires in the shield room can't heal up.
Yeah, thanks. You guys weren't kidding about that being a ridiculously gimmicky, arbitrary encounter that forces you to build toward it for the whole game.
Actually, you can find stores in Sector 8. I have, several times - you just frequently don't have the time or ability to look around to find those stores, because you're on a pretty strict clock. Something else to be aware of - boarding can make this a much easier fight for you. If you look at the weapon rooms of the Flagship, you'll notice that they are not connected to the rest of the ship. This means that once they have been damaged, they cannot be repaired. So if you teleport two boarders over to the weapon room, they can kill the crewman, destroy the system, and teleport back. That weapon is now destroyed until the next stage of the fight.
Got to sector 8 (on Easy) for the first time last night using the Zoltan cruiser, which is consequently by far my favourite ship so far. The Zoltan shield is useful, especially combined with a cloak to wait out long weapon charge times. The Halberd beam is fun to use, although becomes next to useless once enemy shields get to three and four. If I could get a good way to take down the shields temporarily it'd be lethal. By sector 8 I had three shields (in addition to the Zoltan), one off max engines, a Burst Laser Mk 3, A heavy Laser Mk 2, a level 2 cloak, a level 1 defense drone, maxed out blast doors, a teleporter, an anti personnel drone, I even had upgrades to my med bay and oxygen supply, not to mention fully trained officers on shields, engines and piloting, giving me an evade percent of like 50%. None of it saved me from the bosses second phase, with the drone spam; I tried to target the drone control room but couldn't penetrate the shields enough, and the one human I sent into it as a boarder couldn't do anything useful either. I think I learnt a lot from the playthrough, though, and I know where my weaknesses are as a player: I massively underuse missiles, I am rubbish at dealing with enemy boarders and even worse at boarding myself; I should be pausing the game a lot more, I shouldn't be using autofire on my laser weapons but instead should be co-ordinating them so they fire at the same time to deal with shields. Although that last one does bother me slightly as an interface issue; I'd love to be able to tell autofire to link weapons so they fire only at the same time. I guess as it is there's areal benefit to having several of the same weapon, just so they co-ordinate on charge times.
And then you can have the incalculable joy of seeing your boarders evaporate into thin air from phase 1 to 2! Seriously, don't let them linger.
Arrrggh SCREW YOU PHASE 2 SCREW YOU WITH A RUSTY SPOON This beautiful ship was also overwhelmed by drones. Largely because that fucker of an ion bomb misses more than half the time, against 4 shields even concentrated laser fire is pretty useless, and on the second try when I swapped in the Pegasus, all that could do was keep the drone control centre lightly damaged, which isn;t enough to stop those frakking droneswarms that are basically instantly crippling if you aren't stealthed at the exact right moment. I had a two-person Rock away team with decent fighting stats (the guys in the weapons bay) but they had to spend time chasing after the anti personnel drones they teleported on board. I tried to use my maxed-out cloak to dodge the mega drone waves, but it seemed the drone waves recharged faster than my cloak did. I even maxed out my engines after those screenshots were taken... no dice. Not sure if the defence drone (either 1 or 2, I tried both) are worth the power investment during phase 2? Ugh.
Also, argh boarding IS SO HARD TO DO. I had a couple of earlier boarding staff that, had they lasted to the end, might well have been able to do the busioness (one was a Mantis) but only the Rock ones were survivable enough to go the distance. The HP and fire immunity is super nice both for boarding and being general fixits/guards, but ARGH SO SLOW. The Kestrel feels poorly laid out for boarding actions, the med bay ends up miles away from the teleporter.
You really want a good weapons officer for the final battle. They're easy to train up, and I swap them out when they max out to make sure I have spares. With a gold weapons officer, you'll hit with those bombs much more reliably. More critical than weapons may be a good engineer & pilot. There's a synergy there because dodging missiles gives both of those stations skill increases. Training these guys is a very slow process, so protect them. With skill at these stations maxed out, you can dodge most of the flagship's missiles. You can mitigate the lack of a good crewmember with a defense drone or cloak (which you have), but a skilled crew is much more reliable. Defense Drones only shoot missiles that are going to actually hit your ship, and they kill the boarding robots in Phase 2, so they're good to have, but a skilled pilot and engineer will severely limit the number of missiles that are going to hit and maximize the drone's effectiveness. With a cloak, you can dodge all three missiles (cloak right as they get near your ship), and also the energy spike barrage in Phase 3. Boarding robots will just float around until your cloak runs out, so it's only a delay for them. A skilled crew may be the one thing that makes this fight easy for veterans and nearly impossible for new players.
