Suggestions for FTL 2

[Mr_Crac]

I think there really should be more than just two difficulty levels to choose from. "Easy" is by no means easy for a beginning player in FTL, and "Normal" is not hard enough for some experienced players, it seems. I do hope that FTL2 (if it does happen) will give you more options to choose from.

[dkvn]

Sounds like the OP wants Sid Meier's Pirates! with FTL's battle system.

I guess I'm not the first to figure this out.

[Boese]

I want bigger ships, with a lot more stations to man and manage, so I can captain my own capital ship! For big ships make fighters that can be launched and manned by additional crew members, perhaps functioning like drones but with manual targeting. And if we're in control of large ships with a larger crew, there should also be battles against multiple smaller ships, or a single equally sized ship. But of course this could all be implemented into your plan as well.

[mrguy888]

Sounds like the OP wants Sid Meier's Pirates! with FTL's battle system.

I guess I'm not the first to figure this out.

I saw your other post.

[epickurby]

I do think that FTL deserves a sequel and I think it should definetly have a more freeroam element because when I playthrough and manage to make it to the end its horible BECAUSE THE ENDING DOESN'T CHANGE ITS ALWAYS THE EXACT SAME THING I play through this game with my own custom built ship and its very own crew some I chose the names of and got them super skilled and then I reach this horrible ending area and I'm thinking "crap" now I lose while I know it has to end I don't mind it unless its in this last area cause otherwise its random and spontaneous so I do think their should be some freeroam element but only if its customizable where instead of the OPTIMUM LAYOUT you have multiple options of how you want to make your ship cause if you think about it most of the way the post-hanger custimization is HOW do you want to try and reach the ultamite ship plus I think the game would benifit from being able to play as diffrent factions and some backstory on why these people are fighting like why did the rebels form? was the Federation or empire (thats how forgettable YOUR OWN FACTION IS I played this game like an hour ago)oppresive in any way? what do the rebels hope to acheive?how did they manage too nearly win the war? and then you could play as the empire or whoever it is and see their point of view as well as the rebels and maybe make it possible for manual control of certain systems(yeah I know this is unlikely but tell me it wouldn't be cool) like maybe piloting R.C. missiles it enemy systems as they try and dodge instead of some random computerized dice roll or vice versa as the pilot as long as they were OPTIONAL that would be awesome one last small thing make all systems mannable cause with your original 3 crew you have to make a hard decision of wich system you leave unmanned after you've gotten your 5th crewman its more like well u could be a repair man I guess? I got some zoltans on my crew bringing my crew count to 5 and u know what my extra guy did? STAND AROUND IN THE MEDBAY POWERING IT why can't he be my doctor or my cheif oxygen guy? and you maybe even ACTUALLY MAKE THEM REPAIRMEN like they would automatically go to broken systems and attemp repair or maybe have crewmen automatically go to the medbay when their health reaches a certain point? cause if I have 5% of my total life left logic dictates I'll run for it and one other small thing set priorities when in certain situations like if humans boarders have damaged a system and I send in a rock crewman and an engi why can't I order my rock to distract the boarder while my engi makes repairs but besides all these things I mainly just want more of the same more ships more systems more races more options of where to go and what to do & more custimization for my ship & crew

[got2xlr8]

@epickurby Paragraphs man, try'em.

allot of great suggestions in here, let met try to sum up, integrate, and pose my own.

Proposal: Galactic Exploration.
We all agree that a persistent user explorable galaxy is desirable, its the classic privateer game that we've all played. I, like many of you (I'm guessing) played space trader on the PalmOS (yes I said Palm) and the galactic trader aspect of the game was core the ability for the player to advance; (buy low, sell high, travel the stars!) now that is in stark contrast with FTL. FTL is corner stoned around combat, and the accruing of scrap (pretty brilliant resource idea) and I believe the 2 ideas can be ideally combined.

Proposal: Missions. (Quests... what is this D&D?)
In order to combine the Economic and Combat based economies we need to evaluate what works for each and play to those strengths. Adding the materials straight to the market is tedious, likewise every run through the game involves the same objective. so the game as played IS A MISSION. Suppose, that we have a large multi-paged galactic map (sectors, jump points, black holes, planetary and orbital systems, space calamities {Solar flare, Plasma storm, asteroid fields ect} nebulae..) and that in the process of exploration you come to an event (kinda like how the quests work now) and there would be 3 (could be more this is what I have off the top of my head) kinds of missions:

Trade: take goods from current location A to location B.
Combat: Go to Location A, kill Target A
-Subset-Combat-Retrieval: Bring what Target A has to Location X.
Timed: Whether it be a nearly unbeatable enemy fleet, or a perishable good this is pretty much the game as is. just with different requirements, number of hops, ect... the timed missions would let you jump to a different part of the galaxy not necessarily part of the persistent explorable galaxy. and follow the multi-sector delineated story that we currently enjoy. after which you would jump back to the planet/station you departed from to get the mission.

additionally, when you encounter pirates, or other traders you could scavenge trade goods from their cargo bays (if any) these goods would essentially be quest destinations on the galactic map, for a higher payout of (Scrap, Missiles, Drone parts, Weapons ect) or if you don't want to go traipsing across the galaxy you could sell them at any planet/station along the way for minimal scrap reward.

Proposal:Ships. Classes, Purchasing.
Boese and Namkn posts do a pretty good job of describing what we are looking for. greater variety.

Light, Medium and Heavy cruisers, and Battleships/Carriers. Each class would have limitations on Power, Mount Points, systems, cargo capacity ect. (example: a light cruiser would have the current 25 Power level limitation, a Medium 50 {change the color of the power bars after 25} Heavy 75, and a B/C 100.

Pricing would be very similar to the availability of parts, sometimes based on factional restriction, and the trade in value of your current ship based on the used price value of purchased parts. Core planets and Military installations get the big ones, back water worlds get the smaller ones. (Do i hear another mission idea?!?)

Proposal: Starfighters.
Love the idea for star fighters as a target-able drone class. Mull this over and give me some feedback, I think if your going to haven an OP part like this, it should have a couple of unique features and costs. Only the biggest ships B/C, and maybe Heavies, would have access to them. they would be an alternate to the drone control system. Several types of Starfighters come to mind:

Fighters - Target other Fighters/Drones/Asteroids if not targeting a ship system. Lasers only.
Bombers - Can only target Ship Systems/Hull
-SubClass-FireBomber
-SubClass-IonBomber
-SubClass-BreachBomer

After defeating an enemy Heavy Cruiser, Battleship, Carrier; if you don't have defense drones or fighters of your own enemy star fighters will continue attacking. (they don't just go limp like the enemy drones)

Costs:
Defense Drones I should be able to target Star fighters.
Targeting the Starfighter system will knock out the ability to target/re-target or recall the squadron. (recall would yield back the resources spent, only starfighters lost would expend the resource)
It should cost both a X>=1 Drone Part + X>=1 Fuel to use a squadron or Fuel, Missile/Bomb, Drone part for a bomber.

Proposal:Terrestrial Combat.
I would like to see terrestrial missions as much as anyone else here has posted, actually dealing with those giant spiders sounds awesome. having a vested interest in rpg elements for the individual crew is another huge addition to the game and would be really awesome, literal away team missions! (just don't wear red) if the mission system I described earlier is implemented it would be possible to implement a "Go to scenario" jump that would put your crew on a new ship board (terrestrial) and upon achieving the goal a return to ship option could be implemented.

This I think would be a HUGE add, but I also see it as the greatest departure from the your ship, their ship interface. (you would just have to create ship templates that are full screen and move your current crew set to and from it, I don't know if the combat system can handle that or be modded to handle that but that's really the only way I see that working.)

I have to applaud the designers, I've only watched lets plays and will be getting the game myself. from the looks of it, if expanded it would be the greatest RTS/Privateer game I've seen in a long time. it looks phenomenal. the game mechanics are stellar (bad pun). and even with the proposed expansions the rogue 1 life only method really adds to the angst of equipping bigger ships and taking riskier missions.

[Boese]

Wow, that was a good summary, and a good read! On the subject of larger ships in conjunction with the often requested free roam feature, the player would need a ship more designed for long term space travel, with important amenities such as crew quarters, a galley, perhaps a brig for prisoners, and a cargo hold to hold excess items, or even cargo whose only use is to sell. These would all add an interesting dynamic to ship layout, and could be devastating to have your cargo hold hit when carrying valuable cargo on its way to be sold.

These non-combat rooms would perhaps not be able to be repaired like their combat room brethren, and would add a sense of urgency to return to a habitable station to return functionality to the galley, before the crew starves, as a sort of long-term O2 room.

[Vraes]

It would be nice if a possible sequel had expanded modding capabilities, as opposed to the hoop-dancing current modders have to wrestle with for anything more advanced than numbers-tweaking and reskins.

[Shazmo]

My first complaint with the game was that it was too short. Instead of making weapons go up to mark II or mark III, have them go to mark V or VI! Of course evasion and other systems would have to be tampered with.

I say keep the game simple and rogue. I don't think open exploration is the way to go, or "surface" missions. Keep the game in space and cute. FTL2 will be great with a slightly deeper combat system, revamped graphics, more cosmetic customization, a longer campaign, and another kick-ass soundtrack!

[Johhny B]

A couple of good things to have in the sequel in my opinion would be:
1.more ship types of course maybe more then 2 layouts
2.to be able to capture enemy ships if you kill their crew(this would expand the ship limit greatly,and u wouldnt need to create as many new ships u could just put in the ships from the first game that we would encounter)
3.perhaps a bit of customization for you ships(etc stickers,paint jobs,different ship parts and so on)
4.new systems and subsystem
5.a free roam option

And a suggestion.I know making a game is hard and theres only 2 of you perhaps u could get some help to make the next game faster.