Why do people enjoy this game?

General discussion about the game.
catsclaw
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:29 pm

Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby catsclaw » Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:24 am

This game seems completely random to me. I've tried playing about 10 times, every time on "Easy", and every time I'm doing fine until I reach an encounter that just completely kills me. There's nothing I can do to prevent it, or avoid it.

Last game I was doing well, and got through the first sector. Second sector I jumped into a space that had one of those suns that disabled my shield, the enemy shot me, and the sun flashed setting half the ship on fire. All my crew died trying to put out the fire.

Game before that, I jumped into a sector only to have the opposing crew teleport directly onto my bridge and kill my pilot.

It really seems like my decisions don't matter, because you're just going to run into a situation that will kill you instantly, and there's no way to predict it or prevent it. And it's not like you're improving your chances on your next run.

What am I missing?
agigabyte
Posts: 551
Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 1:59 am

Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby agigabyte » Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:47 am

catsclaw wrote:This game seems completely random to me. I've tried playing about 10 times, every time on "Easy", and every time I'm doing fine until I reach an encounter that just completely kills me. There's nothing I can do to prevent it, or avoid it.

Last game I was doing well, and got through the first sector. Second sector I jumped into a space that had one of those suns that disabled my shield, the enemy shot me, and the sun flashed setting half the ship on fire. All my crew died trying to put out the fire.

Game before that, I jumped into a sector only to have the opposing crew teleport directly onto my bridge and kill my pilot.

It really seems like my decisions don't matter, because you're just going to run into a situation that will kill you instantly, and there's no way to predict it or prevent it. And it's not like you're improving your chances on your next run.

What am I missing?



No win scenarios are uncommon if you make few mistakes and know the intricacies of the game. Get rid ofissiles as soon as you find a decent replacement.

The first one and second you could handle via venting rooms. Also, losing improves your chances if you pay attention to your mistakes. By now, I never lose a game once I reach sector seven. Although RNG does sometimes decide you must die, most of the time dwathe is because of a player making a stupid mistake. (We've all done it, a lot.)
KeronCyst
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 2:54 am

Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby KeronCyst » Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:08 am

The game is awesome because it's so intricately complex and there are so many ways to handle the different situations it throws at you.

Never allow crew members to die. It's better to send a crew member out of the cockpit to heal in the Medbay than to keep the cockpit manned. If those sun fires took out your shield system, I would have kept someone in the cockpit, and maybe someone in the engines if possible (to boost FTL recharge time), then jumped away from that beacon ASAP to deal with the fires at a different, hopefully peaceful beacon.

You improve your chances over time by gaining understanding of how different mechanics work (for example, as agigabyte noted that you can use door control to vent oxygen out of the ship to asphyxiate boarders and put out fires), and recognizing when it's better to jump away from a difficult situation rather than stubbornly try to defeat the enemy at each beacon. Maybe provide a video recording of your playing (or screenshots of difficult times) and we can give you pointers on what actions could be taken at what times. We're glad to help! It is an unforgiving game, but it's exhilarating to come back and eventually overcome the odds.
itg
Posts: 130
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 8:37 am

Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby itg » Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:15 am

catsclaw wrote:This game seems completely random to me. I've tried playing about 10 times, every time on "Easy", and every time I'm doing fine until I reach an encounter that just completely kills me. There's nothing I can do to prevent it, or avoid it.

Last game I was doing well, and got through the first sector. Second sector I jumped into a space that had one of those suns that disabled my shield, the enemy shot me, and the sun flashed setting half the ship on fire. All my crew died trying to put out the fire.

Game before that, I jumped into a sector only to have the opposing crew teleport directly onto my bridge and kill my pilot.

It really seems like my decisions don't matter, because you're just going to run into a situation that will kill you instantly, and there's no way to predict it or prevent it. And it's not like you're improving your chances on your next run.

What am I missing?


It may help to watch some videos of good players. 5thHorseman has a nice youtube channel where he has beat the game with every ship at least once. Despite the pervasive random events in FTL, whether you win or lose is nearly all skill. A top-level player should win at least 95% of games on normal difficulty, even with the very worst ships, like the DA-SR12 and the Vortex. I can't wait to see what that percentage turns out to be for hard mode, when AE comes out.
catsclaw
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby catsclaw » Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:40 am

Okay, so take the last game. It was going really well, I made it to the fourth sector, when I warped in to a Mantis ship. They attacked, and teleported two Mantis on to my ship. All I had was my original three humans to defend, but I had upgraded my doors to blast doors, so I simply retreated and opened the doors to space to suffocate the attackers.

Unfortunately, they broke through the blast doors very quickly, and disabled my weapons. At that point there was nothing I could do, and I just got blasted to pieces.

What should I have done?
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5thHorseman
Posts: 1668
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Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby 5thHorseman » Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:53 am

catsclaw wrote:Okay, so take the last game. It was going really well, I made it to the fourth sector, when I warped in to a Mantis ship. They attacked, and teleported two Mantis on to my ship. All I had was my original three humans to defend, but I had upgraded my doors to blast doors, so I simply retreated and opened the doors to space to suffocate the attackers.

Unfortunately, they broke through the blast doors very quickly, and disabled my weapons. At that point there was nothing I could do, and I just got blasted to pieces.

What should I have done?


Your weapons room shouldn't have had air in it. Depends on the specific circumstances of course but one thing I like to do is empty the air from the entire ship except one or two rooms (say, medbay and pilot room), and then get my entire crew in those rooms or that room, and then close all the doors I can between the mantises and my crew that will keep no air in the ship. Another trick is to keep the air in two rooms that are on far sides of the ship. They'll work their way to one of them, and then open the door so the air gets sucked out. Then they'll have to re-make their way across the ship to the other room.

Just remember: If you're also fighting another ship or in close proximity to a sun, you need to keep the pilot room occupied to dodge and/or charge the FTL. But with good door control, you should either never have to fight them or you can fight them when they're almost dead and in your medbay, which should of course be charged and healing your guys.

And one thing I should mention: Most of this should all be done in about 1/10th of a second in game time. The first step of ANY tactic is to PAUSE THE GAME so you can take your time and make sure you've got everything all set.
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catsclaw
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Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby catsclaw » Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:36 pm

So you fly around with most of the ship devoid of oxygen?
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5thHorseman
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Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby 5thHorseman » Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:49 pm

catsclaw wrote:So you fly around with most of the ship devoid of oxygen?


You can, but you don't need to. When you get boarded, pause the game, open all the doors, close the ones to the medbay and pilot room, then strategically close doors around the ship to frustrate the boarders wherever they may be and wherever they may want to go, then run all your guys to the medbay except the pilot, and then wait for the bad guys to die or make it to the medbay with low health.

You should have very little problem even with those super-unfair instances where you get 5+ mantises on your ship at the same time.

If you have internal scanners (and sometimes when you don't), you can even tactically open and close doors to let he air out of the room they're going to. Then they'll change their mind and run to another room. They have preferences so with some experience you can herd them around your ship like a pro.

And don't shy away from robbing your pilot of O2. He'll live a little while (especially if he's a rock man) and then the boarders won't bug him. Just, once they've committed to the medbay, make sure you give him air again! :)
My Videos - MY MOD HUB
Simo-V - The Potential - Automated Scout - "Low O2" Icons
The Black Opal - The Asteroid - The Enforcer - The Pyro

"Every silver lining has a cloud..."
KeronCyst
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 2:54 am

Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby KeronCyst » Fri Mar 28, 2014 5:55 pm

Pause, pause, pause the game. You should be hitting the space bar every <5 seconds in general for any situation.

I don't wait to lure them to the Medbay. I try to defeat them without asphyxiation to give my crew members combat experience. When you get boarders in an oxygenated room: send in some of your crew members to fight them until your crew are weak. Pause, send them to the Medbay, and send other healthy crew members. Lather, rinse, repeat until you've killed them or they've teleported back. This is exactly what the enemy does if you board them.

Hope you're enjoying the awesome complexity of FTL a bit more!
Levgre
Posts: 118
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:35 pm

Re: Why do people enjoy this game?

Postby Levgre » Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:10 pm

There are some design deficiencies in the game that end up making it not really a rogue like but basically a flat out strategy game. Once you get good with the strategy, and knowledgeable about the nuances, the randomness is 'relatively' low.

I've never found reason to risk crew member for minimal event rewards, so you simply always play it safe for a good number of events. So really, they are neutered as a de facto event with choices.

One of the main strategy aspects that can take a while to unwrap is what upgrades you need, and when. For example, if your weapons and shields aren't upgrading sufficiently by sector 3-4, you are often in big trouble. You have to keep pace with enemy shields level 2, then level 3 or they will be impenetrable, you have to be safe vs laser volleys perhaps accompanied by drones. You usually have to get missile defense drones (or cloaking for dodging) by mid-late game or you are taking on a lot more risk/damage.

Of course there are alternative ways around the missile crisis. Quick boarding, which is generally the best strat in any case, or overwhelming weapon systems to take out enemies quickly, but that can be luck of the draw with which weapons you get and how much scrap. Defense drones are the easiest way by far, then stealth.