I think FTL should be easier

General discussion about the game.
BKT
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby BKT » Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:00 pm

ruler wrote:Many people complain that the game is too difficult, and someone that gets frustrated with a game isn't likely to recommend it, let alone continue playing it or purchase additional content. Easy mode -> larger playerbase -> more money -> more development resources -> more content and stuff other players will benefit from. I care because I find it silly that people reject the idea of adding an easy mode.


Keep in mind that any game maker can always designed and made their game to be easy/easier or add some sort of god mode into the game, which is very trivial to implement— but in this game, like many other great game, chose not to do this— I won't going to pretend that I knew what exactly is the reason, but there is a reason behind it.

Therefore, rather than asking for the game to fits you, it's seem easier to just looking for mods, trainer, or cheating to make the game fits you IMO.

ruler wrote:As for implementation:
Each encounter will be classified by its difficulty, range from say -3 to 3.
New encounters won't be completely random; rather it will give preference based on the current trend. With -3 being the easiest, if you encounter 3 easiest encounters in a row,this will add up to -9, and the system will have a better chance of rolling a more difficult encounter. That is, before each encounter, the system first looks at the current average difficulty, and adjusts the chance accordingly.
Outliers in difficulty will be omitted, like one of those insanely difficult ships that are tougher than the boss.


You're missing the whole point of randomness and seem to underestimated the level of influences players can exert on the game's random nature— on the grand scheme of thing, the game is much less random than many (mostly new player) believe.

ruler wrote:Crew members could have additional health to make boardings easier to defend. Before you learn that you just need to open up all the airlocks, 4-mantis boards are extremely deadly.


But why would people want to learn to use the airlock (and other tactics+countermeasure) if boarders, or any other threats, are easy to deal with in the first place?

Mistake needed to be made for people to actually learn something, and the threats needed to be real to some extent in order to gives value to the countermeasure of the threats and 'a mistake' some significant that give player an incentive to actually learn to minimize it.

In fact, I believe that the ship any new player must use, the Kestrel A, is designed specifically not only to be very straight-forward and simple to play, but also actually teach new player that, apart from getting destroyed by enemy's shots, there's other way you can die in this game if you're not careful. :lol:

ruler wrote:Starting scrap bonus and/or scrap bonus could be increased.


IMO the game already gave you as much scraps as it can be on easy mode without eliminating the occasional need to make some tough decision (which is what made the game fun) on what to spent it on altogether.
ruler
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby ruler » Wed Feb 20, 2013 12:38 am

Therefore, rather than asking for the game to fits you, it's seem easier to just looking for mods, trainer, or cheating to make the game fits you IMO.


As a player that can easily beat the game in normal and is looking for more of a challenge, I agree. However, I greatly disagree with needing a mod to make the game easier. Less skilled players are also much less likely to even know be able to figure out how to install mods.

As I've stated time and again, it's not "asking for the game to fits you", but ADDING an additional set of numbers that will only be used by those players that struggle with it.

You're missing the whole point of randomness and seem to underestimated the level of influences players can exert on the game's random nature— on the grand scheme of thing, the game is much less random than many (mostly new player) believe.


No, I am a firm believer and enjoyer of randomness. But a "strong" case of randomness leads to outliers, and in some cases outliers that make the game extremely difficult. The length of the game, although short, has a pretty good chance of giving you a few of these hard parts across several jumps.

But why would people want to learn to use the airlock (and other tactics+countermeasure) if boarders, or any other threats, are easy to deal with in the first place?


Once a new player has beaten the easy mode, they will at least have the confidence to continue instead of being left with the frustration of a 0% win ratio, and will go on to attempt normal mode. Of course apply the bells & whistles such as achievements here.

Mistake needed to be made for people to actually learn something, and the threats needed to be real to some extent in order to gives value to the countermeasure of the threats and 'a mistake' some significant that give player an incentive to actually learn to minimize it.


For you and I, and clearly many other players that enjoy this game, that is definitely the case! But quite frankly, many players are simply unable to figure out these things, or execute them properly in game. I am usually against the "dumbing down" of a game, but as per my previous argument of more players leading to more content, I think just a small amount would do great.

FTL already has a decent amount of interest; I myself found out about it through Day[9]'s youtube channel (a Starcraft 2 players & caster).
BKT
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby BKT » Wed Feb 20, 2013 3:56 am

ruler wrote:As I've stated time and again, it's not "asking for the game to fits you", but ADDING an additional set of numbers that will only be used by those players that struggle with it.


That's exactly what I meant about "asking for the game to fits you" ...

The reason I put it this way is to help emphasis my point: I do not saying it because I hate the idea, but just to point out that if you really want the game to be change to whatever you would like it to be, and not saying it just to vent out frustration, it's easier to use other method instead of trying to convince the dev to make these change.

ruler wrote:But a "strong" case of randomness leads to outliers, and in some cases outliers that make the game extremely difficult.


... or extremely easy. :roll:  But usually, it's a mix of the 2.

----

IMO because of how the current game mechanics fits together so perfectly well, it's very difficult to add or change something in the game, be it either to make it easier or more difficult, without a significant change to the game's overall experience...

I wish there's a mod that change how the enemy aim their weapon (not drones)— instead of hitting all room randomly, change to only hit a system room. It would make battle more challenging without effecting anything else. 8-)
DauntlessK
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby DauntlessK » Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:42 pm

EveryOne wrote:I'll just cut to the chase: I think the game should be easier on the "Easy" difficulty. (Yes, I'm serious. No, I'm not trolling.)

Some people on the forums have asked for less RNG, some want to remove or change the final boss, some want to make the shops more standardized, so on and so forth. It seems to me that they are all just dancing around the central issue: the game is really, really hard--for most people--even on the misnamed "Easy" setting. Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting changing the "Normal" setting in any way, just the "Easy" setting.

Alright, let the flaming and ad hominems commence.


No. Its randomness makes it easier or harder... sometimes you run through a game with an amazing ship because you got a lot of lucky stuff. Other times not so much. Not sure how you'd have less RNG... I think gameplay-wise is good. I think it just needs different game modes.
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OlafBiggles
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby OlafBiggles » Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:33 pm

I'd like to see a hard setting..

Played about 14 hrs, and completed with Kestrel on normal, after maybe 10 attempts. Now time to complete with each of the other ships - tried stealth ship already, that seems kinda like a hard setting!
UltraMantis
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby UltraMantis » Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:49 pm

The B type certainly. Slug B is also challenging.

It's loads of fun, trying out new ships. But dont give yourself the chore of winning in each at the expense of all fun. It's also tricky to learn to play the old game in a new way because there are differences in ships.
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nakedian
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby nakedian » Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:58 pm

Whoa, whoa, whoa... I think there is something MAJOR missing here. I beat the game regularly, but I agree the game is too hard for MOST SHIPS. If you've got the type B Crystal ship it's not all that difficult to beat the game on normal. The type B Mantis ship is VERY difficult but not impossible... But try to beat the game on normal with the Nesasio many of the other ships and you are pretty much doomed. Even the type A Mantis ship is next to impossible. I'm not saying it can't be done... I'm sure it has, but I don't think that kind of challenge is good for any game. You want everybody to have success at some point otherwise the game is just frustrating. My point here is that some ships should be a little better equipped. Some extra shield slots and power, a weapon of some sort etc...


My $.02 -Ian
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5thHorseman
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby 5thHorseman » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:39 pm

nakedian wrote:Whoa, whoa, whoa... I think there is something MAJOR missing here. I beat the game regularly, but I agree the game is too hard for MOST SHIPS. If you've got the type B Crystal ship it's not all that difficult to beat the game on normal. The type B Mantis ship is VERY difficult but not impossible... But try to beat the game on normal with the Nesasio many of the other ships and you are pretty much doomed. Even the type A Mantis ship is next to impossible. I'm not saying it can't be done... I'm sure it has, but I don't think that kind of challenge is good for any game. You want everybody to have success at some point otherwise the game is just frustrating. My point here is that some ships should be a little better equipped. Some extra shield slots and power, a weapon of some sort etc...


My $.02 -Ian


I wholeheartedly disagree. I think the 18 available ships are a wonderful mix of easy and hard. Want an easy run? Take the Red Tail for a spin. Want a challenge? DA-SR 12 comin' up!

If anything, this game is too easy once you master it. Even the DA-SR 12 I can win ... maybe not often but at least on a consistent basis.

I will still play the Red Tail on occasion because it's fun to wipe the floor with every ship in the first 4 sectors before you need to upgrade weapons, but I would have stopped playing this game long ago if there were no ships that offered a challenge.
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby aaaaaa50 » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:51 pm

The mantis B can make the boss fight easy! In the first phase break the medbay and you can kill all the enemy crew with your 4 pad telly. (Leaving that one guy in the laser bay alive.) Then you can use the telly to kill the shields and helm (and drones) at your leisure.
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Smauler
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Re: I think FTL should be easier

Postby Smauler » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:00 pm

The game's not too hard. It's random by design.

I recently had a win on normal, which for most of the game I was thinking "this is going awfully... why am I carrying on?" I was flying the kestrel, and got a fire beam early on.... then literally no other weapons until sector 7, stores or otherwise. Early on, it was a cakewalk... just knock shields off, burn them up, get scrap. Once they started getting 3 shields, getting through them was the problem, and I was limping from one encounter to the next. In sector 7, I picked up a burst laser I, which with my II already on the kestrel I was able to win with. I also managed to pick up cloaking too.

That's definitely my best win so far... my lowest scoring one too, because I ran, scrimped, and was not the boss of anyone.

Basically, if you don't like dying... don't play FTL. Sometimes the RNG has it in for you, and you _cannot_ win.

Once you get past sector 3 or 4 with a decent setup, you should be getting confident.

That being said... I've beaten FTL on normal about 5 times, and my highest score is still a loss.