LazyMonk wrote:Maury Markowitz, there is nothing broken about finding out how a game is like before buying it.
The game inst broken just because it was not what you expected by looking at the webpage.
No no no no no! Its the reviews that are broken, not the process of reading them!
Did you know that something like 80% of all games are rated 7 out of 10, or better?
Just stop and think about that for a moment.
What does "5" mean in such a system? Apparently nothing.
The entire games reviews process is so hopelessly skewed as to be useless. And I'm not the only one that thinks so.
LazyMonk wrote:Its clear to me that skills plays a decisive role on winning.
I'm sure it does, but the problem is that the game doesn't explain what those skills are. This is very important, so let me bold it…
FTL's game mechanics do not inherently indicate how to improve your gameplay. (to me)
Let's contrast. Another legendarily difficult game is Outpost 2. This is an RTS that lets you play a series of missions from one of two sides. Very early in the mission progression for one of the two sides is a mission that is widely commented as being the most difficult mission in any game ever. I played it about 25 or 30 times before I beat it.
Now here's the thing. Each time I played it, there was a clear indication of something that I had done wrong, or could do to improve. For instance, it becomes obvious over time that earthquakes are occurring primarily north of your base, near the mines. These can destroy your ore trucks, which is very annoying because you generally need the ore from the destroyed truck to have enough ore to build a new one. But as you watch this happen, in horror, you can see that's its primarily on the north side… ohh, and there's another mining location on the south…
Luck still plays a *major* factor, and even after I learned all the tricks I still had to play it several times until the luck ran in my favour. But each time there was progression.
The game indicated, slyly, ways that you could improve your gameplay.In FTL I still have not a single clue what I'm doing. I suspect that it
is presenting hints to me, and that I simply don't see them. Why I don't see these hints is the question.
LazyMonk wrote:FTL is described as a rogue-like like. Have you played a rogue-like before? Did you knew what a rogue-like was?
I played through versions of rouge for the Mac when it was still QuickDraw.
Again, the problem here is not the difficulty or the randomness. It is that the game isn't telling me how to improve. There is nothing in the mechanics of the game that indicates "right" from "wrong". To me, *everything* seems utterly random. I win an invasion attempt, I lose an invasion attempt, in both cases I have no idea what my actions did to the outcome.
LazyMonk wrote:We all have been learning from our mistakes, why cant you?
That is precisely my question.