My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

General discussion about the game.
ziame
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:56 am

My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby ziame » Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:22 pm

Hi!

I don't know whether or not the devs read this things, but here's one hoping so.

IMO, the game is just plain great. Really. Mind you, I hate most of the indie games - not on principle, they just don't appeal to me (only other Indie's i liked were Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft).

The pacing is great, the story is well thought out and enjoyable, combat is fun, everything is cool!
Aside from a few... well, design choices.

I think the game suffers from two things mostly - thus why I call them design choices.

No-save policy - well, you know what I mean, the game is hardcore-only, you live or die permanently. I think it's not cool to include ONLY hardcore. It would be great if the game had some sort of saves - if only to find out how events would end, how the battle would go. Some players would probably savescumm the hell out of the game, but well - who cares?

8 sectors - that's a biggie imo. Even on normal, the game just... ends. It feels like a demo for a game, instead of a full-blown title. And it feels wrong. I would just love if the Devs (<3) would implement some kind of a bigger 'galaxy', with, like 100 random sectors, with some areas controlled by engies, some by federation, some by rebels, some being nebulas - a full scale free-roam. You could change the plot a bit, so instead of running the hell away, you'd gather support for federation from zoltans, rocks etc.

That are two things I think the game just plainly needs changed. I wouldn't play another game were those changes to happen.


Gameplay-wise I think the game is plainly perfect - apart from hand-to-hand combat. You have what you get, and there's no way to change your crewmen - apart from exping, but that's not what I'd want. It would be quite awesome if Devs (<3) implemented a fourth subsystem - armoury. For example:

Code: Select all

No armoury - no bonuses
1st level - firemen gear - +25% to fire extinguishing; +25% resistance to fire; +25% resistance to suffocation (only on ship)
2nd level - policemen gear - +25% hand-to-hand damage; +25% resistance to HtH damage; + (above)
3rd level - space marine gear - +50% hand to hand damage; +50% resistance to HtH damage; +50% resistance to fire


Well, don't have time to write more. Devs (<3) keep up the good work! :>
UltraMantis
Posts: 2141
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:17 pm

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby UltraMantis » Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:41 pm

You can save. Press Esc then choose Save+Quit from the menu.

Tutorial should have mentioned this. Not enough players press Esc.
Report spam using the handy Report Button Mod.
Gorlom
Posts: 519
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:06 am

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby Gorlom » Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:50 pm

UltraMantis wrote:You can save. Press Esc then choose Save+Quit from the menu.

Tutorial should have mentioned this. Not enough players press Esc.

I think he wants a permanent save. he could always find the save file in my documents/my games/FasterThanLight and then duplicate the continue.sav file so that he can savescumm.
Baby Fark McGee-zax
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:21 pm

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby Baby Fark McGee-zax » Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:45 pm

ziame wrote:I would just love if the Devs (<3) would implement some kind of a bigger 'galaxy', with, like 100 random sectors, with some areas controlled by engies, some by federation, some by rebels, some being nebulas - a full scale free-roam. You could change the plot a bit, so instead of running the hell away, you'd gather support for federation from zoltans, rocks etc.


This sounds like FTL 2 to me. An awesome idea.
Trainzack
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:48 pm

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby Trainzack » Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:50 pm

I honestly like the lack of saves, but I would like to see a fuller, free roam kind of game.
jamotide
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 9:35 am

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby jamotide » Sun Sep 23, 2012 5:01 pm

Baby Fark McGee-zax wrote:This sounds like FTL 2 to me. An awesome idea.


Thats what I thought, that might be pretty awesome. Kind of like the Starfleet Command series,but good.
My tumblr about stocks, trading and so on: http://fritzmeisterzor.tumblr.com/
ziame
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:56 am

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby ziame » Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:40 pm

UltraMantis wrote:You can save. Press Esc then choose Save+Quit from the menu.
Tutorial should have mentioned this. Not enough players press Esc.

I love how you assumed I'm retarded. I meant normal save I can return to, if I screw up somewhere, or want to try something new without losing everything. And I said that in the OP.


Gorlom wrote:I think he wants a permanent save. he could always find the save file in my documents/my games/FasterThanLight and then duplicate the continue.sav file so that he can savescumm.

I also love how you assumed I want to cheat the game lol. No offense taken and none intended I hope :]

Trainzack wrote:I honestly like the lack of saves, but I would like to see a fuller, free roam kind of game.

I would prefer having the option of playing with or without saves. Like Minecraft has (the Hardcore mode). The second part of your post is what I meant by bigger galaxy.

Baby Fark McGee-zax wrote: This sounds like FTL 2 to me. An awesome idea.

I think it will happen soon enough, thanks to modders and/or Devs (<3). It should definitely be a part of a potential sequel, but the option in itself isn't that complicated to do - and thus shouldn't be constrained to next establishment of the series.


Thank you all for your replies.
Alblaka
Posts: 98
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:41 pm

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby Alblaka » Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:58 pm

ziame wrote:
UltraMantis wrote:You can save. Press Esc then choose Save+Quit from the menu.
Tutorial should have mentioned this. Not enough players press Esc.

I love how you assumed I'm retarded. I meant normal save I can return to, if I screw up somewhere, or want to try something new without losing everything. And I said that in the OP.


Btw, you can simply make a copy of your profile's save file after SAVE+EXIT and then resume playing. If something happens you can't stand, copy the backup back into it's original location and restart the game from that spot again.

But as one of the Tip's reads: Loosing is half the fun ^^
Greetz,
Alblaka
PirateCat
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:45 am

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby PirateCat » Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:09 pm

ziame wrote:No-save policy - well, you know what I mean, the game is hardcore-only, you live or die permanently. I think it's not cool to include ONLY hardcore. It would be great if the game had some sort of saves - if only to find out how events would end, how the battle would go. Some players would probably savescumm the hell out of the game, but well - who cares?

What I really love about all these threads are how many people got a game that calls itself a "Space Ship Simulation Real-Time Rogue-Like" then complain that its a roguelike. Roguelikes don't allow multiple saves. Part of the genre. And before that gets called "bad game design" it isn't, its a different school of game design. It ties in with the score aspect of the game, as well. We have scores. I think I've even seen a score comparison thread. Just like most roguelikes give you a score or just keep track of how many moves you survive. And I would care about someone savescuming and then posting their score in a score comparison thread when the rest of us play the game as designed. Besides the whole point of putting the design in the game is so you have to live with your decisions and not just reload every time something bad happens.

8 sectors - that's a biggie imo. Even on normal, the game just... ends. It feels like a demo for a game, instead of a full-blown title. And it feels wrong. I would just love if the Devs (<3) would implement some kind of a bigger 'galaxy', with, like 100 random sectors, with some areas controlled by engies, some by federation, some by rebels, some being nebulas - a full scale free-roam. You could change the plot a bit, so instead of running the hell away, you'd gather support for federation from zoltans, rocks etc.

You could, but some of the appeal is that its a coffee break roguelike. Its nice to have a game you can start up when you only have an hour or two to kill, and you might have a chance at beating it. Besides, the kind people who made this game, are selling it for $10. You can't expect an over 9000 hour epic for $10. Hell, I feel this game is a steal for the price.

That are two things I think the game just plainly needs changed. I wouldn't play another game were those changes to happen.

There are plenty of other genres that offer games with saves and long stories in huge worlds, why not go play one of those games? This game, as it stands, isn't perfect, but that's only because it could use a little tweaking, it, however, doesn't need the major overhaul of saves and longer story.
ziame
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:56 am

Re: My thoughts on FTL - Faster than Light

Postby ziame » Sun Sep 23, 2012 9:19 pm

PirateCat wrote:snippety about roguelike


I don't see how having AN OPTION of saving deters from your OPTION of not-saving. I mean, you can play it with saves, you can play with no saves. As long as you get an option - everyone is satisfied. And at least I didn't state anywhere that I like the game for being roguelike. I tend not to categorise games.

PirateCat wrote:snippety about length

Again, why not an option for game length? short - 8 sectors; long - 20 sectors; unlimited - till you die. Funny thing about options - you can choose whatever you like. And "9000 hour epic"? Really? Where did I state I want, I don't know, full voice acting, cut scenes and full-blown story-mode? I've just put up one of possible options of tying up why would the ship we guide be fyling across the galaxy. As far as I know, and as far as I care, this type of game is about journey, not the destination - and the journey is quite short, thus why my proposal.

Also, about the price? I would gladly fork out another 20$ for an unlimited mode. As it is it provides so many hours of fun I could really pay more for it. And funny thing, I did! (Tips <3)

PirateCat wrote:snippety about other games

Really? Play other games? Like which ones, exactly, let me control my own ship with my own crew in a semi-free-roam galaxy? Because if you say "Well, Skyrim is free roam and shit" I'll get offended, cause that's one overpriced piece of shit. And before you say that Mass Effect is kinda like this, well, it's an action-RPG if I recall the term correctly, not a tactical "consequence game".


And to finish the line, options add to game's longevity - lack of them deters from it. I don't get why you got all up in arms because I said the game could use some options...


Thank you for the reply.