The difficulty curve needs work

[Gorlom]

The dev posted this message in a thread on getsatisfaction

Yes, like others have said, the drones are a temporary burst and disappear after 2-3 shots. If you have a cloaking system and use it right before the 'power surge' goes off, you can negate all damage that they do (since drones don't even fire if you're cloaked). Having enough shields or engines is another method, you can easily withstand a power surge taking 0-3 damage if you have 4 shields + medium engines or 3 shields + high engines. It is the hardest part of the boss but by no means is it unbeatable.

We also have had complaints that even normal mode is too easy and we need to add a hard mode (although I think they're nuts, lol. i mean, cough cough).

The game is designed to be extremely hard (even on easy) and by nature won't appeal to everyone.

Welcome to roguelikes.

[Tenchuu]

No, I'm sorry, the idea that people just need to man up when they're dealing with randomly generated events is ridiculous. "Use stealth!" OK, what if you have a run where you never see stealth tech? What if you have the same with missiles? What if you just happen to not run across those encounters? Have boarding parties? I never saw enough crew to do it. I've played through it 6 times so far, once on normal, the rest on easy, and every time it's been a smash on the last level. This isn't a matter of "well, it's a tough game for tough players." You don't design a game like that unless you're purposefully pushing a segment of your customers out of buying. Frankly, if I'd known that I'd be spending time and time again on a mission that's totally random and will punish me even if I'm completely decked out, just not in the right areas, I probably wouldn't have bought it. The whole point of having adjustable difficulty is to allow players to set the scale themselves. It's not somehow "elite" if you don't make your game accessible to all players. It just makes it frustrating and loses the company money. At the very least some of these events could be set to happen during the game, so you're guaranteed access to stealth or to boarding parties or something. As it is it's just feeling like a two hour coin toss.

[Wordsmith]

No, I'm sorry, the idea that people just need to man up when they're dealing with randomly generated events is ridiculous. "Use stealth!" OK, what if you have a run where you never see stealth tech?

Stealth is handy, but not necessary. Hence it being such a rare thing to find, and so expensive. It's a bonus that helps. It doesn't win battles on its own. You are not punished for not having stealth. You are rewarded for spending the time and energy to get it.

What if you have the same with missiles?

If you have no shield-ignoring weapons, you are a dumb.

That's about all that can be said. Most of the ships start with some way to get around enemy shields. The ones that don't generally have another gimmick to give them an edge, but they should still get at least a basic missile or bomb weapon by the end of the game. If you don't pick it up, it's your fault. The odds of never finding so much as a Hermes through all eight sectors are astronomically low. I've never had a game where I wasn't given some answer to high-shield enemies. If you didn't find one, odds are you didn't look hard enough. And if you had the opportunity to get one and didn't, that's also your fault.

Anybody playing FTL for any length of time will rapidly pick up on the fact that having the capability to get around enemy shields, whether through missiles, high rate-of-fire weapons, ion blasts, or boarding parties is absolutely mandatory, and the game gives you ample opportunity to pick up the ability to do so. A lot of ships have it handed to them. If, at the end of the game, you can't get through the enemy shields, it's your fault, not the game's.

[RynCage]

The game needs better pacing. 80% of the difficulty is just in the boss.
Thats boring.

[Marbozir]

The game needs better pacing. 80% of the difficulty is just in the boss.
Thats boring.

I wouldn't go that far, but the difficulty difference between the boss and anything before the boss is massive. I had some games (on Normal) with REALLY bad luck which resulted in really poorly upgraded ship, and still managed to get to sector 8 with that... and then I obviously got totally demolished.

[Durus]

If the final sector is that bad, you're missing some element to your strategy.
The final boss took me 5-6 attempts to get through. Probably 2 attempts per stage. This is on easy mind you.
Of all the runs I've done I only reach the boss every 3rd run due to bad luck, bad decisions or just general bad.
There's a bit of learning curve and strategy involved in each stage of the boss fight which I won't explain as it may ruin it. But suffice to say I've beaten the boss in a variety of ships using a variety of weapons. There has been a few constants to my strategies but I'm not sure if they are actually required, or if I just haven't worked out an alternative.
I think i'm up to 40-50 hours played now.

[PhilBlunt]

It may be quite easy to get to the boss on the easy difficulty, but then you have an idea of the strategy to utilize next time you get to him. Then you implement said strategy and as you try again. Repeat until success. Personally, I have more fun in the beginning part of the game anyway and look forward to some sort of "never-ending" game-type where each sector more difficult than the last until you have your "perfect" ship and run into an AI twice as bad ass as the boss on sector 47. I do agree with the difficulty wall on easy, but I took it as a challenge.

It's like the Megaman series on the NES, or just about any game on the NES for that matter. You run into the end boss the first time and get shit all over. FUCK YOU! Start over and do it again!

[Marbozir]

Hm, I mostly play on Normal, only tried Easy once or twice, but I found that the increased scrap rewards on Easy make a pretty big difference compared to Normal.