FTL Speed Races (Concluded) - All Can Join!

[Twinge]

The goal is to beat the Flagship as quickly as possible on Easy while the other racers are doing the same. Everyone will be using the same ship and resets are allowed.

Races will be done through SpeedRunsLive, a website that handles the timer for the race and lets you watch multiple racers simultaneously. We'll be starting with the Kestrel A for the first race so anyone that wants to can participate.

To join in, you need to setup an account on SRL and stream yourself playing. Information on how to do this can be found here: http://speedrunslive.com/race/?id=smbge

The race page is here: http://speedrunslive.com/race/?id=cagw8
If you want to see my side of things you can watch here: http://www.twitch.tv/darktwinge

[shadowcrust]

Anyone finished yet?

[Twinge]

We did 4 races with up to 10 going at a time - was a fun night =)

[5thHorseman]

Sounded fun. I wish sometimes I don't work 3rd shift

[shadowcrust]

4 races! What ships did you use, always Kestrel? New world records? Who won with what time?

10 people joining is a lot, but I think FTL is actually a very social game. For our 6 six International FTL Meetings, we had six people on average exploding in space in the same room... you'd learn a lot of interesting cuss words at such events, if you had time to listen

[Twinge]

First 4 results here: http://speedrunslive.com/races/game/#!/ftl/1. (There were a few people racing unofficially alongside since they couldn't stream.) Kestrel A, Stealth A, Engi B, Engi A.

Records are generally not going to be set during races, and this is even more true with FTL -- the strategies for doing well at a race are absolutely not the same you'd use to go as fast as possible. 31:17 is probably faster than anyone's ever beaten it with Engi A though =)

I DID set a new AE world record in some runs after the races, though. 25 minutes is still very slow compared to the original FTL (19:00), but it's the fastest time for AE thus far and shows off the new Stealth B strats.

[shadowcrust]

Why would a speed run in AE take longer than in Classic? Different sector layout disallowing straight lines to the exit, or longer fights on average?

[Twinge]

Why would a speed run in AE take longer than in Classic?

Longer fights. New enemy ships layouts are worse for the Crystal B because there are several ships that have no 4-tile rooms and they have more crew to fight on average. Hacking and especially Mind Control will slow things down when present (such as on the Flagship). Beam Drones knock down Super Shields more slowly which slows down Phase 3 as well. There's really nothing that makes the old strats faster to compensate; MC or Hacking on your end are slightly helpful but you can't really afford them.

[shadowcrust]

It's interesting to have actual numbers for that. According to your speed runs, AE fights are roughly one third longer than Classic fights. I often have very protracted fights, and I also had the feeling that AE fights are even longer (and more varied because of different threats) than Classic fights. Maybe one of the reasons I prefer AE, eventhough Hacking puts the player (and sometimes - rarely - the rebels) in a very, very powerful position.