I think FTL should be easier

[Todes_Schnitzel]

Ok Easy should make to Normal and Normal to Hard.
You know the hardest ship?
The Vortex and I come 4 times to the Flagship ( 4 times second phase) and kill it 2 times.
It's all a question of the right strategy.

[snarke]

I feel I should point out to anybody who is reassured by the number of people who've said "Oh, I think its current difficulty is part of its charm," that chances are pretty darn good that 99% of the people who played FTL on "Easy," said "WTF? This $@^#$ game is so %#@^#$ hard its @%^$#$%&^ unplayable!" and erased the game from their drive, aren't bothering to drop by here to say so.

You may consider me part of that remaining 1%.

[Warhammer]

FTL is a rogue-like at its core which means tough game play. I have yet to get to sector 5, but that's not due to the game being unfair, but my sub-optimal decisions. I have opted to fight far too often and have not upgraded the right systems of the ship (my best playthrough featured me upgrading my shields significantly).

My only "issue" is when I don't get a lot of scrap early, but that's like not finding a magic lamp in Mine Town in NetHack.

[UltraMantis]

Keep trying Warhammer, your sub-optimal decisions are due to inexperience, and FTL is quite a harsh teacher. Looking back at some of my earlier recorded games, i can see mistakes i would never make today.

The most important thing is that once you actually are rewarded with a Victory, you feel rewarded and satisfied. If you feel that way, your efforts (and money) were well spent. Best of luck.

[DullHuman]

Yup. You certainly do learn.

I've now won with all the ships I have available to me: Nesasio, Torus, Kestrel, Ajudicator, and the federation Cruiser. On easy I win about 50% of the time. And I now play various strategys from total destruction to trying to save ships for extra scrap. I'm now playing through on normal.

It still kills me at random on occasion, which is frustrating, but I don't feel like I have so much invested in each game any more which helps.

For anyone setting out, you should increase your shield by one level each sector, and make sure you have weapons to punch through one additional enemy shield each sector and then the game becomes fairly easy. Level 3 doors at your earliest opportunity are essential too! Certainly before any Mantis controlled sectors!

[Floyd]

I have never tried Easy, but I personally found the difficulty on Normal to be lacking. I beat the game on about my 10th try, with no outside help, and that was with the basic Kestrel too. The other ships just make it even easier. Meanwhile I've played other roguelikes like Nethack hundreds of times without ever getting close to beating them.

So while some people may complain about the game being too hard, I'd love nothing more than getting an actual Hard mode that is a step up from Normal. They could make Easy easier while they're at it.

[UltraMantis]

Agree, though when i feel the game is not murdering me enough i just try the Stealh B. Having Easy, Normal and Hard would be great.

[Mr_Crac]

Do we happen to know what the developers think about this issue?
If their opinion was "FTL is supposed to be hard, deal with it" then I guess we're sadly out of luck.

Personally, I see no reason why there should not be more difficulty levels to choose from. Let there be Easy, Normal, Hard, and - why not - Very Hard. Just let "easy" be what the word actually means. That would be awesome.

I do like this game, but I think succeeding depends a bit too much on getting lucky (e.g. by finding the right weapons).

Also, I wish there was an additional game mode where you could explore each sector fully. Kind of like an "endless" game mode, so to speak.

[Ghastlyghost]

you know, the "easy" setting really doesn't live up to it's name
I don't know how many run-throughs I've had, but I still have yet to beat the boss, let alone get past stage 2
not to mention how many times I've died before sector 8
there really are just too many situations where you have no chance of getting anywhere no matter what your next decision is

[Zelnik]

Please don't do that to me game, it's not fun when you're in a no-win situation. I don't mind losing when I've screwed up, but don't just decide it's time for me to lose.

If it's any consolation, the game does that to us all at some point. "whoops, looks like they played long enough. Time to kill them!" It's disheartening, but it feels really good to punch the RNG in the face and survive.

If it does it to everyone, it's "a feature" and not "Shitty game design"

Want to know what is fun? Slogging it to the very end, to get beaten by the boss because you made a mistake (this is easy mode, FYI).

Want to know what's not fun? Your first jump is into a solar flare with four mantis teleporting into your O2 deck. If you goal was 'fun' with these scenarios, you are sorely mistaken. I suggest you go back to Star Control 2 (it's remastered and out for free on PC, Mac and Linux), and learn what fun is again, because you probably forgot what it was.

Don't me get wrong, this game is great, and when you do well, you feel like you are actually getting the chance to stab a hated enemy in the eye.. and maybe--JUST maybe win.

When it's not, I feel that the developers all sat around a table with a beer and said "lets make people scream, swear and get angry at us, so they can flame the forums and give us cheap laughs".

This isn't Dragon's Lair. This isn't a computerized anger machine. Not making sure that certain events don't happen as soon as jump 1 (this and worse happened to me six times already... my favorite was the unmanned drone with lvl 2 shields and two drones. that was classy)