FTL: Faster Than Light

[Bonesjones]

I played it when it first came out and a couple of years later. It always felt half thought and incomplete.

 

[mrs thickness]

youtube recommended me an iceberg video about this game and the people who manage to winstreak consistently on hard, and watching their gameplay and the explanations of their thought processes made it seem not particularly fun. i'm not really interested in constantly micromanaging and shuffling around the miniscule amount of reactor points you start off with to maximize the scrap economy, nor am i interested in doing it with oxygen allocation on the ship to...manipulate the ai's targeting preferences, iirc? there's a lot of weird unintuitive stuff like that which adds up in a pretty significant way. plus you get notably more scrap for crew kills, so if you're playing optimally there's a whole lot of playing with your food and sitting around waiting for them to die

FTL is one of those games that i boot up every few years thinking ahhh yeah i love that game i should git gud, then miss every single shot while the other ship nails all of them, and then alt f4

 

[TheArtilleryman]

Beat flagship with Zoltan A today, once again using weapon preignitor. I'm noticing a pattern.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

Turns out the secret to winning with Engi A is saying fuck drones and finding 2 flak cannons instead. (Though hull repair drone saved the run a couple of times).

Edit: I'm being unfair to drones, they are fantastic utility, defence 1 kept hacking and breaching drones off my ass for most of stage 2, and hull repair just allows healing whenever you like as long as you have the parts, it even works out cheaper than buying repairs. Using them as your primary offence however like Engi A's starting build suggests is a fools errand.

Another edit:

Neat strategy guide on the best meta options for each ship

I'm generally of the opinion of "fuck the meta" in single player games but it is very useful to know the high percentage approaches in this one... I agree with everyone here the fagship forcing certain tactics is number 1 bullshit. Still, one must imagine Sisyphus happy.
My approach is to achieve crew killing capability early even if it means a pricey weapon that's not great for fagship: it'll pay for itself with crew kills and allow an upgrade well before you get there. Anti-bio beam, fire bomb, tele + mantis/rock, etc.

 

[geckogoy]

You know I decided I really like the game mechanics but I am rather sad that it was worked into a game that is rather excessively tryhardy (at least if you dont like failing every time at the end)

It seems like the basic mechanics could be used for a lot of different games, like a mini eve-like or just an rpg or something

 

[TheArtilleryman]

I've got it. I've cracked the meta.

In order to win at FTL, you have to be Jewish.

You have to be as much of a ruthless miser with your scrap as is possible.

You got cloaking? No need for an extra energy bar just yet, shut down your oxygen system and use that to cloak as needed, you should have it back before your crew suffocates.

You have zoltan shield? Well then you don't really need to power your shields for the first volley or 2 in most fights.


Do not upgrade ANYTHING needlessly ahead of time. Hold your scrap, wait until you actually need the upgrade before you get it. Many other opportunities will present themselves before that time comes, some perhaps more appropriate for your build.

Just be a stingy motherfucker. And don't be afraid to shut off oxygen now and again if it means saving the extra scrap that would have went to the reactor instead helping you get an early god tier weapon/item/module.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

playing the MV mod trying to get to the nexus, just realized just realized everyone else just cheats their way through everything. i was led to believe i could crew kill the fucker only to find out that was a lie. i'm somehow supposed to have proper weapons set up too despite Hekar selling the worst weapons. its all fucking rigged man

 

[TheArtilleryman]

playing the MV mod trying to get to the nexus, just realized just realized everyone else just cheats their way through everything. i was led to believe i could crew kill the fucker only to find out that was a lie. i'm somehow supposed to have proper weapons set up too despite Hekar selling the worst weapons. its all fucking rigged man

Whats that mod like? I've yet to try any.

 

[Cucktry Roads]

Something I always remember about FTL is that at one point they did that advanced edition update to add a bunch of new shit (like the cloning chamber and hacking) And all that update did was make the game harder because it deluded the pool of weapons and especially events you would get to give you garbage, making the game extremely hard. Reminds me of Ballionaire in recent times where the meta is to never unlocked any new tiles since all the tile do is give you inferior content to the base starting stuff.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

Whats that mod like? I've yet to try any.

its amazing, they added roughly 10x the content. it makes the original feel like a demo, so much content has been added that its almost shocking that they didn't try and negotiate it as a sequel paid title. the original is so lifeless whereas this has so many new races and items and tactics, shit like teleporting and drones aren't completely fucking useless now.

the writing is amazing too, they genuinely make it feel like a fleshed out world with all the races having at least two different ideologies and like 50 unique crew members with their own quests and its crazy how quickly time just flies on a run.

they do make the "base" game a fuck load easier but if you reach the flagship you did it wrong. there's like 9 different endings, and the more you unlock the more cool shit you get.

Like the thing i'm complaining about, basically if you defeat this one enemy you unlock this new area for the rest of the game, meaning you can go back and unlock more shit like a thing that allows you to teleport to any sector, which renders the RNG bullshit completely meaningless but you'll need that because you're meant to use that to help you defeat a new boss.

there are about 6 different end bosses and the flagship is the easiest one by a mile. the biggest complaint is that it does feel like the difficulty curve trends downwards, like after you defeat a boss you unlock something so fucking amazing it renders a good chunk of the game meaningless until you find and have to take on the new boss.

like at this point scrap isn't a big worry, there's multiple methods to get infinite scrap once you reach a certain level and my biggest problem is not having the shit i need to unlock whatever to get to the boss and properly get through its bullshit, the problem is that the people i looked up all cheated to win, like moding in some ultimate weapon that makes the game super easy.

the worst part being that this is probably the most difficult part of the whole game, because after this you get the super items that basically mean you can get any item you need out of thin air, which you'll need because you're expect to start doing no damage runs.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

ok these guys can go fuck themselves, somehow half the shit they said works sylvan has immunity to, its fucking bullshit.

edit:i fucking did it, literally the most nerve wracking thing i've ever done, its fucking crazy