Indie FTL : Faster Than Light

[Hendo]

There isn't a thread for this, right?

http://youtu.be/NpEEknM68KI

Well, I suck at this.

Found my first enemy ship outside of the tutorial, destroyed it quite happily but in the process they damaged my engine room which I found was on fire. I didn't find out it was on fire until I sent my 3 crew members in to fix it.

I watched them burn.

[Sly Reflex]

I am saving this for the indie thread.

[radiofloyd]

I am saving this for the indie thread.

We could have it as our game for February? Might as well now that this thread exists.

My experience is the exact same. I played the tutorial when i bought it. A month later, ventured out on my own and couldn't figure out how to put out fires. I've a feeling it was covered in the tutorial though. Definitely a game to play on easy for a while i think! To understand all the systems first anyway.

Another indie game with a great theme tune.

[Hendo]

Yeah I'm playing on easy. Fuck knows what it's like on hard.

Fires are covered in the tutorial - you have to open doors to the outside so the fire has no oxygen and will burn itself out. Obviously you don't want crew members around so you have to contain them and open doors that won't affect them.

I've made some progress on my second bash - had a couple of crew died and was left with one guy who made his way round, killing pirate ships, taking on slave ships which finally gave me a second crew member. Unfortunately there's a big wave of hostile ships behind you which if you don't take care will spread and over take the map. If what killed me hadn't, then they would.

In the end I got killed as I fought a pirate ship (and won) but it was next to a solar planet and every so often a solar flare would emit from it. This burned part of the ship until eventually the whole thing was on fire and we exploded.

The music is good - just remembered I bought the pack with the soundtrack. Where will I find the music? Can't see it anywhere in the Steam program folder.

Never mind, found it.

[Sly Reflex]

Next month is FTL month then.

[radiofloyd]

Yeah I'm playing on easy. Fuck knows what it's like on hard.

Fires are covered in the tutorial - you have to open doors to the outside so the fire has no oxygen and will burn itself out. Obviously you don't want crew members around so you have to contain them and open doors that won't affect them.

I've made some progress on my second bash - had a couple of crew died and was left with one guy who made his way round, killing pirate ships, taking on slave ships which finally gave me a second crew member. Unfortunately there's a big wave of hostile ships behind you which if you don't take care will spread and over take the map. If what killed me hadn't, then they would.

In the end I got killed as I fought a pirate ship (and won) but it was next to a solar planet and every so often a solar flare would emit from it. This burned part of the ship until eventually the whole thing was on fire and we exploded.

The music is good - just remembered I bought the pack with the soundtrack. Where will I find the music? Can't see it anywhere in the Steam program folder.

You looking in the program files/steam/steamapps/common/ folder?

[Hendo]

Got it now, yeah. Had to do a Google as I was looking in the wrong folder.

[Hendo]

Worth watching that GB quick look after you've gone through the tutorial.

Things I have learnt from it:

Weapons recharge faster when there is someone in that room. Same goes for shields and someone in the cockpit will make it easier to dodge fire.

You level up your crew in various skills so try to keep the same guy in weapons and not move them around too much.

[radiofloyd]

Played this for a bit tonight. Going well in my current session so I saved and quit! I'm in Sector 2, picked up a fourth crew member (a mantis, with combat bonuses) so now I have someone in the four main rooms (pilot, shields, engine, weapons) so I don't have to move them around much except for repairs. You gotta love roguelikes.

-

[Hendo]

Am I right in thinking that all crew members you get at the beginning are a blank slate? They don't specialise in any one thing until you level them up in whatever? So then the mantis you picked up may be good at weapons but the humans you start with are empty.

[radiofloyd]

Am I right in thinking that all crew members you get at the beginning are a blank slate? They don't specialise in any one thing until you level them up in whatever? So then the mantis you picked up may be good at weapons but the humans you start with are empty.

Yep, although I don't think he needs to be in the weapons room for his combat bonuses to kick in. I stuck him in there anyway! Starting team definitely don't have any perks from what I can see.

[radiofloyd]

Reached sector 4 there. in bad shape haha! Final score of 672. Unlocked a new ship though, the Zoltan Cruiser.

It's stats are the same as the Kestrel Cruiser except it has one less point in engines and one more point in doors. Which is an improvement really, considering it gives you the blast doors perk and it only costs 10 scrap to increase engines to where it was anyway. Also comes with a Zoltan Shield augmentation. Slightly different starting weapons but no great difference.

[radiofloyd]

Going well in my current run, in sector 4 again which is a civilian zone this time. Got 5 squad members including an Engi (double repair speed) and Rockman (immune to fire), as well as the long range scanner augmentation. I have a system repair drone but i need to buy the drone control system first...

[halfagogo]

been listening to the giant bomb team talking about this loads for what seems like months.

would love this on xbla.

[radiofloyd]

I'm just going to ramble on because it's interesting...

I got my first achievement in the game there for reaching sector 5 (and unlocking the Engi ship). The three ships I have so far are very different. I think I'm going to stick with the first ship, the Kestrel. The Zoltan ship has a terrible layout, rooms are too far apart and the outer doors are poorly located for quenching fires. The Engi ship is very defensive, very drone-oriented. Engi characters have double repair speed and can extinguish fires themselves. But it is a rubbish ship offensively and if you can't win battles you are relying on non-combat encounters to earn scrap...makes for a difficult early-game.

The Kestrel is the best all rounder. Good layout and good offensively. I think your first priority should always be a drone control system (80 scrap) which comes with a system repair drone. Second priority is build your team. At least have someone in the rooms that gain a boost from being manned, then medical bay and 02 room for damage limitation. Crew members cost (at the beginning of the game at least) around 40-50 scrap, but often slavers will offer them for free. It seems like it's far more beneficial to accept every bribe and hand-out that comes your way rather than being high and mighty about it. Not a game to play the "good guy". The more crew members, the more people you have in a shoot-out when your ship gets boarded.

Some more points:

On the whole, I think it's better to travel to distress signals rather than ignore them. Sure every second one is a trap, but you get a lot of good stuff from them too and chances are if you travel to a blank planet you will wind up in a battle anyway.

You don't need to win fights, you just need to survive long enough to charge your FTL guage. You will be hideously over-powered in a lot of fights.

Finally...all preparations aside. Luck is at least 50% of this game (probably more like 99%).

Edit: Had my best session yet there, 1350 points, sector 7. Killed by the rebel fleet. I've had a complete change of heart about priorities. My new priority list:

1. Pump up the stats of your ship. The system repair drone is useful but not as useful as having a ship that can survive longer. Every extra point in one of the main systems will require an extra unit of power, but not for subsystems.

2. Then get a drone control system and system repair drone.

3.Then add more crew members. Hardly necessary to buy them, you'll gifted them in the course of exploring anyway.

You can be fairly strategic in battles. If an enemy is deploying a drone, target it's drone room first. If it's protected by a lot of shields, hit the shields first. Once a room goes red it's non-functional, same as for your ship (until repaired). Disable them where they can hurt you most.

Don't let yourself get caught by the rebel fleet. Especially not if you get dragged into two fights in a row, it's the surest way to die...

[Hendo]

Excellent tips there, and congrats in doing so well.

I haven't fired it up in a couple of days but I am finding the soundtrack very relaxing, especially moments like this when you can't sleep.

[radiofloyd]

Excellent tips there, and congrats in doing so well.

I haven't fired it up in a couple of days but I am finding the soundtrack very relaxing, especially moments like this when you can't sleep.

Well...I just made it to Sector 8 to take on the Rebel boss ship. Got absolutely creamed.

[Craymen Edge]

I've only played the once so far. I made about three jumps, then someone knocked out my O2 and all my guys asphyxiated.

[Hendo]

I got a few games in earlier. I got my furthest in one but then got pummeled by a ship whilst getting solar fires rained on me so ended pretty badly.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with upgrading the equipment. You can try and put loads of points into your shield but you still have to also put points into your ship overall to be able to power it?

[radiofloyd]

I got a few games in earlier. I got my furthest in one but then got pummeled by a ship whilst getting solar fires rained on me so ended pretty badly.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with upgrading the equipment. You can try and put loads of points into your shield but you still have to also put points into your ship overall to be able to power it?

Yeah, for the main systems. When you increase shields by a point, you increase the power capacity of shields by one. But that doesn't mean anything unless you give it one more unit of power to fill that slot, so you need to buy units of power too.

BIG UPDATE

Hehe. Ok I had my best run yet there. Just under 2500 points. I just realised something major about the game which I had not understood before. You can fire all your weapons simultaneously (as long as you have enough power to have them all activated together!). This makes a huge difference as far as combat goes, d'oh! Unfortunately in my run i got saddled with 1 laser weapon and 3 missile weapons. Since missiles are finite it would be much better to have 2 of each, or 3 laser weapons and 1 missile. Would take experimentation i guess.

My new and improvement priority list:

1. Increase shields (and power) so that you have 2 shield bars.

2. Buy/salvage 4 weapons asap and increase weapons (and power) so that you can activate them all together. At least 2 laser weapons. With this fire power you can target multiple systems together and basically render the enemy helpless.

3. Increase engines to the same level as shields, increase doors and piloting subsystems to the max.

4. Purchase a drone control system (which will come with one system repair drone) and increase power so that you can activate it. If you get lucky, you might get a second system repair drone in the course of exploring. Increase drones (and power) so that you can activate it.

5. Purchase the cloaking system and improve it if you still haven't fought the first boss...

In shorthand - 2 shield bars, 4 weapons activated simultaneously, increase engines, doors (max), piloting (max), sys repair drone (x2 if possible) and finally cloaking.

Don't bother buying crew members, you'll get them.

My general advice for playing the game:

Explore every planet you can before moving on, don't rush to the exit if you have 6 moves left. You need all the resources you can find, there's no benefit to advancing faster.

With four weapons you can target all the rooms you want. I tend to always target weapons and shields first. If you get a warning that an enemy is trying to escape, shoot their engine and pilot so that their FTL won't charge.

Don't bother opening outer doors to extinguish fires. Send people in there to quench them, much quicker. Any room that needs repairing, send all the people you can spare in, two people repair faster than one, etc.

Anyway, in this run I reached the boss again. Unfortunately I got fucked over in the sector as i was moving towards the boss, drones disabled, cloaking disabled, fires everywhere, ship invaded, so I reached him in crap shape. In the end i couldn't cope with the hull damage he was dishing out and he killed me. I think it's the right strategy though. Had i reached him with my drones intact and 4 weapons blazing to go, it could have been a good fight.