So how come FTL tries to dictate play style?

[laxu]

It seems that quite often FTL tries to tell you how to play the game. I have had multiple times when the game keeps feeding me everything drone related: loot/surrender events give me drones, shops are chock full of drones and drone control just when I would really rather get something else. Or alternatively the game gives me tons of crew and teleporters.

Is FTL rigged in this way to offer specific awards throughout the whole game so you'd play a certain way?

[itg]

Nope, it's all random. The only way FTL tries to dictate your playstyle is by designing each ship around a certain plan. For instance, Mantis B is a boarding ship, and you'd have to be very, very stubborn to make it into anything else.

[META_mahn]

I have had Assault Ship runs where I get lots of Burst Laser Mk 2s, I've had Tank Cruiser runs with Zoltan Shield and Overcharger, and also Boarding Ship runs with Teleporter and lots of Mantis crew. Sometimes I have multiple combos of those.

[obliviondoll]

I've had plenty of games where I've had multiple opportunities to get teleporters, but no crew but Zoltan and Engi.

The last game I played handed me missile weapons for days, but I only got drones from encounters, no missiles.

My first successful run in vanilla FTL (as the Engi A) started me with a good Drone system, and gave me more drone types, but my only source of the actual drones I needed was buying them up in stores.

Sometimes, the game hands you everything you need for a particular playstyle, and other times it gives you a disjointed mess of equipment with no hope of effective synergy.

[zohaa]

You probably are getting better over time, but getting free BL2's is pure luck. And no, there's no "reward mode," it's just normal randomness.