Beta Poll Part B: For the expert FTL players

[Darthcaboose]

It's definitely doable and by the time I get to the 6th or 7th sector, I have a very good idea of whether I really stand a chance against the Final Boss or not. There will be times though where I do get to that point and realize I need some incredible luck (whether it be more scrap, a fantastic weapon or augmentation, or whatever) to really win it. At that point, the game becomes "How far can I get before I die?"... which is kind of what the game really is all along!

[wslsharkie]

I've logged 35+ hrs on FTL. I tried normal dozens of times but found it just shy of punishingly difficult/challenging. Although, this WAS before the increased fuel/missiles rewards if you spare a ship, and enemy missile/drone caps. Never did manage to beat it then, only saw the boss ship once and got beat sorely in phase 2.

Then i switched to easy and promptly beat the game, not really that challenging but did unlock a couple ship. Afterwards i went back to normal, and I had to retry a dozen times with various ships on normal before i managed to eventually beat it on normal this week. I do a fair bit of min/max with power, but not obscenely switching power bars around. Still, quite a bit of it.

During these more recent runs I've managed to get to the boss fight routinely on a good run, but always was missing that one ingredient/augment/additional upgrade/beginning-hull-integrity i needed to get over the hump. Still the game felt like it was within my grasp. But certainly, any spell of bad luck pretty much spelt failure on the boss fight.

Bonus Points - Yeah, on normal the game DOES have a sense that if you continue to maximize/optimize, then victory can eventually be attained. However, bad luck can very utterly ruin a good run, and do so well before the boss fight.

My further analysis about the game design:
Easy mode strikes me as a bit too easy with the increased scrap rewards. With the amount of scrap you get, you can have your pick of weapons, additional systems (cloak, teleporter, drone), even crew. Plus, energy is always affordable.

Easy doesnt invoke at all that feeling of give/take with your scrap that Normal mode imparts. Easy needs more of that feel to it. My suggestion would be to decrease scrap rewards in Easy, but make opposing ships slightly easier. As it is right now, i dont believe enemies are actually different b/w easy and normal right?

On Normal, the game is very challenging. I think the challenge is just right. But i think improvements can be made cause some consecutive sectors are structured such that... you just can't win. Which i think is a game flaw. Challenging... but winnable is better right?

A true winning strategy with any hope of beating normal requires a 1.5-2.5hr run, where you absolutely hit the max number of points in a sector before moving on. BTW, this is why IMO, save+quit was absolutely a good idea. But forcing a grind like this... may be OK in the grand scheme, but kind of... just, non-preferred. But if you added an additional sector, just as an example idea, you would make the game less grind dependent, but also making (due to additional scrap from a new sector) the game more manageable to players and less prone to fluctuations. But this is really only true taken as a whole, some sectors can still screw you over.

Without the additional scraps from that one extra node you squeeze into every sector or two, then you dont have enough to repair your ship while maintaining your upgrade trajectory to progress through these sectors in an efficient manner. "Efficient manner" basically means able to get through without taking punishing amounts of damage.

In addition, a true winning strategy means diversifying... which players will eventually realize. If you rely too heavily on a teleport/boarding heavy strategy, well when you hit that shit with missiles + two anti-personnel drones... you are kinda f*cked. Not to mention when you hit hard-shields. You need options to survive. Again, the random nature can screw your over. I would be in favor of some behidn the scenes calculating that would know what "type" of equipment you've seen so far in the stores youv'e encountered so far, and then boost the chances you'll hit a new store "type" on your next store.

If you dont see any augments in stores til sector 5... that doesnt help your case in building an effective combo loadout. Behind the scenes "fixing" of chances/rolls could also help "guide" the player torwards a sufficiently diverse build. Of course, super specialized builds can still pull it off, but its up to the game designers which they prefer.

Mainly, lets not change for the sake of change. But having randomness screw you over is not the same as having randomness that diverses your strategy through various playthroughs.

[Bluevein]

@OP; I did not vote (Not in the beta) BUT this poll of yours scares me and makes me want to add a small piece of info.

Here's my scores for Spelunky. 3724 games played. 6 wins. I still love and play Spelunky today.
Times I made it to the boss: (Not listed in stats but I can tell you its about 14).

I am hoping by the time you finish making this game the chances of reaching the final boss are less than 1 in 100. And I hope that the chance of beating the boss at this point is no better than 1 in 5. I know that I potentially a rare type of player who laughs at every death, but we are out there and good difficult roguelikes are few and far between. Normal should be disgustingly hard (To win not to play. Play should be intuitive and user friendly) and easy and lower is where the game should have better than bleak odds of a win.

It's your game and I will buy it no matter what you do. But base difficulty is where games like this stand the test of time. Just my two cents. Thanks for making one of the most awesome games I've seen coming in a long time.

Bluevein

[karnisov]

I think drone schematics should drop more frequently. I only got one drone schematic from a random event last game, compared to like 4 weapons. I was actually using a hull laser on my engi scout because I still had the starter drone. I did see a few drone schematics in the stores, but I had spent my scrap on much needed system upgrades and repairs/fuel. Kind of discouraging, I felt like a low-income kid staring into a toystore window.

[take]

i've only been able to beat easy twice, and only because i got lucky with scrap and drops. not even gonna attempt normal.

[Gomisan]

It took me a little while, and a game update to beat the boss on Easy. But since I'd been concentrating on Easy mode I hadnt really given Normal a fair bash.

I'm now starting to play on Normal, but it's taking a bit of re-adjusting to cope with the reduced scrap intake.

I suspect I could probably beat it, maybe, just, if I had a particulary good run.

I do concur that the difficulty levels need renaming.

Easy to Normal
Normal to Hard
and add an Extra Hard to be unlocked unly if you beat Hard.

perhaps a special hidden 'extra easy' level that only appears if you've run through Easy 20 times and not made it past sector 7.

[Gorlom]

I find that I can reliably beat the game on easy. I haven't tried normal much because I'm still working on unlocking the secret ships.

[censor]

I have played more than 200 matches. I finished the game 3 times: 1 in easy mode and 2 in normal.

Finishing in easy is... very easy. Once I finished in easy mode, I only played in normal.

[timaeus]

I played in easy until until I unlocked all the ships, now I'm trying to beat the game in normal using each ship type. Half done (Kestrel, Stealth, and Mantis), now working on Torus. When I first started playing I agreed with those saying the difficulties should be renamed (Easy -> Normal & Normal -> Hard), but now that I've learned various strategies I think the difficulty labels are fully appropriate. Beating the game in Normal does require a fair share of luck, but it keeps the game more exciting.

Normal mode also really helps to differentiate the individual ships; by the end game in Easy all ships start to look the same since all systems are easily upgradeable, and you can afford to buy nearly any weapon you see and want in a store. Normal mode; not so much .

[temporal]

Bluevein has the right of it.

Make it harder! A true roguelike should be less than 1/100 win ratio for a skilled, intelligent and reasonably lucky player. My ratio from playing nethack, anyway.