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This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:42 am
by RichBits
Were my words after the 5th (?) attempt on normal difficulty after more than five hours of playing it. Sure unlocking ships is fun. Sure combat can be exciting. Fortunate drops?; Great!

My only request is that the developers should include an optional setting to auto-save the game for the beginning of every sector for noobs like me who don't have a week to throw away on failed attempts. All advice for me to save-scum my games goes to testify towards the fact that it should be in there for just that reason.

Looking forward to sensible replies and well wishes. Ta.

Rich.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:46 am
by GrumpyGamerLP
I suck at this game but I enjoy playing it. I just play to see how far I can get and see if I can beat my high score.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:53 am
by BobVosh
I still haven't beaten it and I'm clocking in at 25 hours according to steam. On easy. (Admittedly I played it almost exactly the wrong way to beat it at first with trying to rush to the end)

However this game is amazing and I can't stop playing it.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 6:06 am
by ice
I really feel bad because I've barely played at normal at all.

Sure, normal and easy are like "It's really really hard and you're going to die" and "It's really really hard and you're going to die sooner", but easy is twice the time you get to play and progress and have fun, while normal makes me saddi because I can never really manage to survive for long enough to like it.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 6:09 am
by PirateCat
ice wrote:I really feel bad because I've barely played at normal at all.

Sure, normal and easy are like "It's really really hard and you're going to die" and "It's really really hard and you're going to die sooner", but easy is twice the time you get to play and progress and have fun, while normal makes me saddi because I can never really manage to survive for long enough to like it.


I think of it more as Easy being your training. Once I can at least get to the boss every time in easy I'll be ready to play normal exclusively, instead of my current attempts at it.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:47 am
by Rodrigo
I can routinely get to the end boss on easy, and pretty regularly on normal, but haven't made it past the second phase of the final battle. It's unfortunate that it scales so vertically, and I'm already finding myself getting bored with the half-hour or more of repetition just to try something different at the end.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 2:51 am
by Drasha
Maybe you should try some thing different at the start. I died multiple times on the boss but then I changed my early - mid game strategy to focus more on boarding and won on my first play through with that strategy.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:46 am
by Zaffre
It's a roguelike; you're made to die and the developers are evil. As the Dwarf Fortress fans say: "Losing is fun". It's made to frustrate you so when you finally beat that boss you feel amazing and just do a fist pump. It's one of those "fuck yeah" moments, where all you can do it grit your teeth and say "Fuck YEAH!" And boy did I say that when I landed that final shot on the Flagship.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:59 am
by Donavan
I'm sorry but i don't see how you can play that long and still haven't beaten the game...My first play through lasted about half an hour and i died. I bet this game my second play through i would say somewhere around an hour and a half of game play. Since then i have rarely lost a play through. There are those times when i unlocked a new ship and would lose because I wasn't used to it but i mean this game is not that hard.

Re: This game is too frustrating.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:08 am
by fischbs
I like this game's difficulty. It's not "illogically hard"; It doesn't necessarily just destroy you out of nowhere. Almost always it's something you can deal with to some level, you just have to make good decisions. One wrong decision can break you under certain circumstances though, so it's important that you recognize when those circumstances occur so you can be conservative and safe in your decision making.

The perma-death makes the consequences in this game actually matter, and in turn adds a real weight behind decision making. Do I stick my neck out for a survivor when it could easily go pear-shaped and claim the life of a crew member -- a member who's specialization is critical in surviving my next fight? Games like GTA can be abused to no end by reloading at the last checkpoint. Get arrested? Shot? Fail a mission? Lose all your cool shit? Just reload your game. Money means nothing. In games like Dark Souls and FTL? If you get killed you lose all your souls and humanity. It's punishing, but perfectly so in a game like FTL that is centered around making good decisions as a ship captain.

I like to name my starting crew after friends or family so that losing them makes me hurt inside. Is that survivor out there worth my mother's life?