FTL (Faster Than Light)

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NastyNative

Gawd
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
522
I have not seen a post on this game its AMAZING.

Unlimited space travel.
You Captain a ship with a crew.
The Crew has to do everything from
putting out fires to repairing the ship to defending it from
enemys that board your ship.

Its very addictive and the best I have done was when I picked up
2 lazer weapons since the missles get expensive.

Please post great tactics, I played this game pretty muc the entire weekend!
 
There was a thread on this a while ago.

but yes it is awesome, and very addicting.

i just recently beat it on easy, and it was very satisfying
 
how the hell did you beat it.

I was playing last nite and I got super far and I ended up in a corner of a galaxy that was
@ war and I had this HUGE ship attack me. I didnt stand a freaking chance.

The enemy ship had like 4 missle bays and a bunch of lazer bays.
He basically PWN me with half of his weapons.

What is a good strategy?
I cant seem to be able to upgrade fast enough to keep up with the enemy.
How many crew members do you usually roll w/?b
 
Yea, there was a previous thread, but it devolved into people complaining about the difficulty.

As for tactics, I have tried a few, but I think they boil down to a couple distinct ones:

Ion-based (knock out shields and systems and let some laser-based weapon system do the rest)
Droid based- usually in tandem with ion
Board-based- Accumulate a crew of rocks and mantis and send them over to kill everything.
Mass-laser based- multiple burst lasers, usually with a missile.

This, at least, for the first two ships you can get.
 
The way i was able to beat the last boss was with missiles and boarders here is what my setup was.

4 shields
max engines
x2 burst laser 1's
the missile system that fires 2 missiles
The missile system that does 3 damage
Boarding system with 2 rock guys

round one i used the missiles and rock guys to take out his weapons then took out his shields.

round two i only took out his missile system left the others. then kept his drone system down (this only stops the boarders not the drone swarm) and his med bay. then i sent my rocks in to clean up.

round 3 is cake the super weapon takes your shields out but if you take out his other guns he is rather harmless.
 
Thanks for the help.

I have not been upgrading my shields which I gotta figure out how.
Boarding sounds fun I need to check all of this out.

Also thanks for the post of people playing!

Although some games it doesnt matter how good you are it just seems
like your doomed from the beginning!
I played for like 5 hrs with out seeing a store with weapons!
 
TED said:
Oh? I hit the boss and thats it... can you continue afterwards/before?
Click to expand...

No, once you beat the game that is it. Even before that I wouldn't say that it's unlimited, there's a limited amount of stars & sectors, plus you're time limited because the rebel fleet advances.

I managed to beat it a couple of times finally on easy, but only after trying out the mod that disables the rebel fleet advancement. That alone actually makes it ridiculously easy, because you can visit every single location and take your time, so by the time you hit Sector 4 you're pretty well fully equipped. I'm going to go back to try it again on Easy now but without the mod.

I would say that the Cloaking upgrade is probably the single most useful and helpful item out there. Couple that with stealth-weapons and weapon pre-igniter and enemies are really easy.

The last game I won with the alternate Kestrel loadout, the "Red-Tail" which starts you off with 4 basic lasers. By the time I got to the end, I had a Burst Laser Mk3, a Burst Laser Mk1, and 2 Heavy Lasers. There were a couple ships I was able to blow up immediately because I had the weapon pre-igniter as well. I didn't even have to use any drones, missiles, or Ion weapons the entire time.

There were a couple of times I lost my boarding parties (I like to use 2 Mantis because of their combat damage bonus) which had maxed out combat skills.

Also, you get extra resources when you wipe out the enemy crew. This can be easy to manage with ion weapons because you can just keep their Oxygen system disabled long enough to suffocate them, or hurt their crew with a few well placed shots before teleporting your boarding party over to finish them off. It would be really cool if you could hack into enemy systems such as their doors to give you control, and you could then space the enemy crew. The enemy AI also doesn't know how to handle fires that well, it doesn't ever open up the doors to vent oxygen to put out the fires. I've even seen them abandon fighting fires for seemingly no reason and ends up with them spreading out of control and destroying the ship in the process.
 
If you have fire bombs and rock crew it works well for boarding. Rock guys are immune to fire so fire bomb a room and beam the rock guys in to it. They are all kinds of fucked.
 
WarningFromSpace said:
Keep dying around 3rd galaxy, steadily improving. Really like the game but it's hard even on ez.
Click to expand...

Take more time in the very early sectors. Stay until the last possible moment you can. I find the best strategy for me on easy was always to upgrade my shields first and then spend the remaining scrap on whatever I want. Oh, and always either buy a slave or attack the slaver and let them go when they offer you a slave. Having a large crew is extremely valuable in FTL.
 
A couple of tricks that have worked for me so far.

There is an upgrade which is like 30 scraps and it scans the space around you and
informs you on enemyship locations.

Always Destroy the enemy ship instead of giving into their bribes , because you always end up
getting more scraps and things. The only time I give into their bribes is when I attack a slave ship
and they offer me a slave or Im stuck in an storm and I just wanna get the hell out of there.

Shield should be upgraded ASAP. you need 2 bars for the second shield to work.

Put out fires by opening the doors and depriving the fires from oxygen. This was a huge help
since I was used to sending in my crew members.

This trick only works at the beginning of the game.
Launch your Laser burst @ the shield but dont activate the missle.
Watch the Laser bar go up 3 times then pause the game and
launch your missle @ his weapon system.
This causes the burst to get rid of the shield it might even
damage it, Following closely is the missle which will
do massive damage to their weapons system if you time
it right!
 
NastyNative said:
This trick only works at the beginning of the game.
Launch your Laser burst @ the shield but dont activate the missle.
Watch the Laser bar go up 3 times then pause the game and
launch your missle @ his weapon system.
This causes the burst to get rid of the shield it might even
damage it, Following closely is the missle which will
do massive damage to their weapons system if you time
it right!
Click to expand...

Missiles ignore shields anyway (except I believe the Zoltan's "overcharged" shields) so it can be a good idea to target their shield subsystem before firing other weapons.
 
NastyNative said:
A couple of tricks that have worked for me so far.

There is an upgrade which is like 30 scraps and it scans the space around you and
informs you on enemyship locations.

Always Destroy the enemy ship instead of giving into their bribes , because you always end up
getting more scraps and things. The only time I give into their bribes is when I attack a slave ship
and they offer me a slave or Im stuck in an storm and I just wanna get the hell out of there.

Shield should be upgraded ASAP. you need 2 bars for the second shield to work.

Put out fires by opening the doors and depriving the fires from oxygen. This was a huge help
since I was used to sending in my crew members.

This trick only works at the beginning of the game.
Launch your Laser burst @ the shield but dont activate the missle.
Watch the Laser bar go up 3 times then pause the game and
launch your missle @ his weapon system.
This causes the burst to get rid of the shield it might even
damage it, Following closely is the missle which will
do massive damage to their weapons system if you time
it right!
Click to expand...

Not so on scrap. It's random. You may recieve only scrap (and a low amount) no missles or fuel.

Missles go straight thru shields! Firing it immediately is a good way to knock out a key system. (weapons, shield, etc) Try to conserve them afterward because it's easy to use a lot of them if left on auto
 
weebling1 said:
Not so on scrap. It's random. You may recieve only scrap (and a low amount) no missles or fuel.

Missles go straight thru shields! Firing it immediately is a good way to knock out a key system. (weapons, shield, etc) Try to conserve them afterward because it's easy to use a lot of them if left on auto
Click to expand...

My main beef with the game is that missiles are in too few supply while being supremely effective. They are the best weapons in the game but I hardly use them because there are SO FEW given out on normal. I'd rather the effectiveness of missiles be toned down and the loot amount be turned up for missiles. I also wish there was the option to sell more things at the shops because often times I would gladly sell drone parts or missiles. It would be cool to sell crew members off as well, haha.
 
If you conserve missiles and buy them when ever you can have a decent supply, i had around 35 going into the last sector. but they really are not meant to be a main weapon. you need to be strategic when using them.
 
shifty68 said:
If you conserve missiles and buy them when ever you can have a decent supply, i had around 35 going into the last sector. but they really are not meant to be a main weapon. you need to be strategic when using them.
Click to expand...

Agreed, they're in short supply because of their effectiveness. Save them in fights against weaker enemies, and ideally when you do need them try not to use more than 1 so you have plenty for later.
 
missile to there shield then hit turn off your missiles and use your main guns to hit there wpeopn system.
or if your a boarding ship use you missile to take out there med bay then send your guys in to kill there guys
 
NastyNative said:
Always Destroy the enemy ship instead of giving into their bribes , because you always end up
getting more scraps and things. The only time I give into their bribes is when I attack a slave ship
and they offer me a slave or Im stuck in an storm and I just wanna get the hell out of there.
Click to expand...

If they offer a bunch of missiles or drones, it may be better than the scrap you receive from destroying them.
 
I'm LOVING this game. Getting frustrated with being boarded though. There aren't enough defenses for that and I can't find any way to easily hire new crew members.
 
Maximus825 said:
I'm LOVING this game. Getting frustrated with being boarded though. There aren't enough defenses for that and I can't find any way to easily hire new crew members.
Click to expand...

Make them suck vacuum. Upgraded doors help, and fighting in your medbay is almost a sure win.
 
BladeVenom said:
Make them suck vacuum. Upgraded doors help, and fighting in your medbay is almost a sure win.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. Some of those bastards are fast though and eat through doors like they're not even there.
 
Found out about this game a week before launch. Bought it day of and have been playing it ever since. Beat it on easy that weekend, normal last week.

Tips I Use:
* If by a sun, vent empty parts of the ship of O2 except where your crew is, the med bay, and the O2 room. Helps keep the fires down.
* Upgraded doors + Venting O2 help fend off boarding parties. If the doors are failing too quickly, upgrade them again.
* Cloak isn't necessary, but helps a lot. Same with teleporter. Less so with drones. You will need at LEAST one of those to beat the boss, tho.
* Never, ever help with giant spiders. Screw those damn spiders!
 
I just got this game, its alot of fun to manage a battle and gain/lose from random events.

However it can easily lead to frustration as the game's mechanics depend heavily on random events to determine the fate of your progress.

While you can be a pro at taking down enemy ships in the easy sectors, if you don't get that important upgrade, or hire new crew members. Your fate is pretty much sealed once you progress to a more difficult sector, there is no backtracking. I think mods will make this a much better game, however it's core game is only for those who wish to sacrifice alot of time for fruitless endeavors.
 
There's a mod that removes the fleet. I think that makes the game quite a bit more fun.
 
What's the strategy to beat the big ship (at the end) the second time (when it uses drones) ?
 
you2 said:
What's the strategy to beat the big ship (at the end) the second time (when it uses drones) ?
Click to expand...

There are like 9. A popular one is to specialize in boarding parties and drop a bunch of rockmen into their drone room and cloak room.
 
you2 said:
What's the strategy to beat the big ship (at the end) the second time (when it uses drones) ?
Click to expand...

When he launches a special drone wave, put one energy into cloak, and cloak. That lasts the same amount of time as a drone wave, and recharges just in time for a second wave.
 
Got the disable Fleet mod and high res backgrounds mod which made the game much more fun and playable. I can explore freely at my leisure and do what I want while enjoying some new eye candy. I can';t believe how much time I've spent playing FTL i thought it was going to be a couple of hours at most but it's been over 12 by now.
 
Game is on sale on Steam atm Get it with the music for $6.98. totally worth it. I like it. You think it is simple and oh boy it isn't.
 
Was looking through the resource files, I think this might be a bug (v1.03.1):

Code: 
<augBlueprint name="DRONE_SPEED">
    <title>Drone Reactor Booster</title>
    <desc>Your ship board drones have their movement speed increased by 50 percent.</desc>
    <cost>50</cost>
    <bp>9</bp>
    <rarity>0</rarity>
    <value>0.25</value>
    <stackable>false</stackable>
</augBlueprint>

Note the value of 0.25 instead of 0.5.

More:

Code: 
<augBlueprint name="ION_ARMOR">
    <title>Reverse Ion Field</title>
    <desc>Protects your ship from ion damage, giving a 20 percent chance to negate it entirely.</desc>
    <cost>60</cost>
    <bp>8</bp>
    <rarity>2</rarity>
    <stackable>true</stackable>
    <value>0.15</value>
</augBlueprint>

(EDIT: reported to their forums just in case)
 
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I bought this about a week ago. Whilst its a good game I prefer one that I can invest a bit more time in. When a game can last no more than 5 minutes due to purely random events I find it hard to wonder whether it warrants my time to invest.

It's no Eve Online that's for sure.

I do like the retro look though.
 
Once you get the hang of things, a full game can easily take a couple hours to get to the very end. Then you get to go through again to try out other ships and configurations. Sometimes the randomness can screw you over early though, but that's what comes with it being a rogue-like.
 
Metacritic reviews say that the game relies too much on luck. Do you have to play until you get a lucky break?
 
Bad luck can kick your butt. However, skill and planning are just as important. The mods will make it even more interesting. I love the core idea. It needs to be expanded upon. Well worth the money.

There is an imperial star destroyer mod btw. With sound.
 
I haven't been this addicted to a game like this in a long time. It kicks my ass every time, and I come back for more like some bondage whore :D
 
I don't get it. I've watched a few YouTube videos and it doesn't look like any fun. Hrm. How much is it? perhaps I'll try it out...
 
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