FTL: Faster Than Light

Grimebox

This god damn game! Died at the third phase of the end boss again!

the incredible pudding

Grimebox wrote: »

This god damn game! Died at the third phase of the end boss again!

Heh, i just beat it and had my ship explode literally a second afterwards -the game still counted it as a victory though - a hollywood style sacrifice I suppose!

I managed to kill about 4 of my own crew whilst boarding other ships. Felt really, really stupid!

Grimebox

It happened again.................................

Grimebox

Starting the last sector for the last time. If I can't do it with this ship, I'll never be able to do it.

Gbear

I hate the Engi b so much.

I was trying to unlock the Engi C but there's just no helping it. Unequivocally the worst ship in the game.

Kiith

I want the Mantis ship, but i never manage to find the events required. Full mantis boarding party would be fun.

Also, the first sector is, imo, the most important in the game. Get yourself a lucky event or weapon drop, and you'll absolutely cruise through the game. Nothing worse than being on the backfoot after the 1st sector.

Also, **** you nebulae sectors.

Gbear

Kiith wrote: »

I want the Mantis ship, but i never manage to find the events required. Full mantis boarding party would be fun.

Also, the first sector is, imo, the most important in the game. Get yourself a lucky event or weapon drop, and you'll absolutely cruise through the game. Nothing worse than being on the backfoot after the 1st sector.

Also, **** you nebulae sectors.

Your best bet are ships that have teleporters already - Slug B, Rock B, Federation C.

If you have two screens it helps to have the wiki open on your second screen to know which dialogue options to pick to unlock the various ships. It just isn't worth the hassle to me of gambling on these events when they come up so seldom.

CatInABox

Gbear wrote: »

I hate the Engi b so much.

I was trying to unlock the Engi C but there's just no helping it. Unequivocally the worst ship in the game.

Yeah, even if you get it up to scratch by the 4th or 5th sector, it just gets out classed again in the 6th and 7th.

CatInABox

Gbear wrote: »

Your best bet are ships that have teleporters already - Slug B, Rock B, Federation C.

If you have two screens it helps to have the wiki open on your second screen to know which dialogue options to pick to unlock the various ships. It just isn't worth the hassle to me of gambling on these events when they come up so seldom.

Or you can pause and alt-tab out.

Gbear

CatInABox wrote: »

Or you can pause and alt-tab out.

That too, but it's nice not to have to.:)

CatInABox

Gbear wrote: »

That too, but it's nice not to have to.:)

True. I don't have that problem either, I run it in windowed mode, otherwise it looks like muck on my 27 inch 1440p monitor.

Grimebox

CatInABox wrote: »

True. I don't have that problem either, I run it in windowed mode, otherwise it looks like muck on my 27 inch 1440p monitor.

That's a first world problem if I ever heard one

CatInABox

Grimebox wrote: »

That's a first world problem if I ever heard one

I know, it's truly a heavy burden to bear

Gbear

Absolutely fuming I screwed up an amazing run with the Zoltan B.

Had a Vulcan laser and a ton of upgrades and then ran down a cul-de-sac and got murdered by the planetary cannons. **** those in the neck.

the incredible pudding

Just finished it on hard, needless to say it was true to its name! It's just really hard to get enough scrap to get to a good level - an early cloak is a must so you don't have to constantly pay for repairs and you have to choose your battles much more carefully, running is often a good option.

The flagship's missiles are connected to the main ship so they're harder to keep offline. Otherwise it's more or less the same,

Had a very good run though, lanius b is a great ship, as long as you look after your clone machine - many heartbreaks were caused by it being put offline just the moment someone was killed. I love having them as you can board drones, which is a huge help.

I think i'm done with it now, just hit uninstall and noticed I'd over 100 hours clocked up on it! Many hours of pain for a few of glory!

Grimebox

the incredible pudding wrote: »

Just finished it on hard, needless to say it was true to its name! It's just really hard to get enough scrap to get to a good level - an early cloak is a must so you don't have to constantly pay for repairs and you have to choose your battles much more carefully, running is often a good option.

The flagship's missiles are connected to the main ship so they're harder to keep offline. Otherwise it's more or less the same,

Had a very good run though, lanius b is a great ship, as long as you look after your clone machine - many heartbreaks were caused by it being put offline just the moment someone was killed. I love having them as you can board drones, which is a huge help.

I think i'm done with it now, just hit uninstall and noticed I'd over 100 hours clocked up on it! Many hours of pain for a few of glory!

How the hell...

I don't think I'm bad at games, but this game is almost impossible for me. I have yet to beat in on normal once. The end boss is just way too hard

the incredible pudding

Grimebox wrote: »

How the hell...

I don't think I'm bad at games, but this game is almost impossible for me. I have yet to beat in on normal once. The end boss is just way too hard

Advice on the boss -

what is vital -
either cloak or a single defense drone (for the missiles), or full engines and 3- levels of shields.

enough firepower to get through 4 shields - obviously turn off auto-fire and make sure all your weapons fire at the same time. If you're using missiles - don't go nuts if you don't have too many of them - if you get the shields down to 2 then hold em for later. Ideally your weapons should have good symmetry - e.g. similar preload time. The weapons that take 4 bars of energy are usually not worth it in my experience ->
2 good weapons > 1 great one.


1st stage - getting rid of the missiles is the most important thing.
If you have cloak - only use use 1 level of it, and only turn it on when you hear/see the missiles coming at you (or if you're in a similarly desperate situation). If you have boarders - send them there asap, then to the other weapons - except the second gun (fires 3 lasers) - that one's pretty harmless.
If you can get it in a situation where all the guns are down (apart from the second one) you should have pacified the beast (won't be a threat) and then try to kill as many of the crew as possible, it'll make the 2nd part much easier as you'll be able to hit the drone room.

2nd part - again, getting rid of the missiles is the most important thing. Only difference here is i'd use cloak, again only 1 level, when the drone surge occurs. If you can get the shields down to a state where you can do some damage to the drones then you should be able to stall the boarding drones it sends.
Their defense drone can be a nuisance - if using missiles try get the missile to fire between laser shots - so that the defense drone might miss it for a pathetic regular laser instead. Timing can be kind of tricky there.


3rd stage - missiles again - cloak for them, and then after for the super-weapon - (if you're engines are fully powered then it's not really a bother.)

Some general advice - (sorry if lots of this seems very obvious)

Engines are hugely important. I try to get em to level 4 by the end of the first sector and to 5 pretty quickly after that I find the 4th level of shields to generally be more expensive than they're worth imo (if you've the scrap to spare then all well and good of course). There's some diminishing returns after that but having the extra levels is invaluable when it means you're dodging every other shot. If I've two crew - one goes as pilot, the other as engines - that 10% evasion can save your game.

Boarding is OP, largely due to the benefits in terms of loot - free weapons, drones and more scrap received than simply destroying the ship. The only way I won on hard was by getting pretty lucky with getting free drones i could sell so as to be able to buy that one extra weapon to make the build viable. I consider healing beams/bombs to be a waste of a weapon slot - you should be able to manage your boarding party well enough not to need to use em.

Weapon order - both in terms of order of you fire them, and order they are in the system, is important. The former in that timing is important (some are slower than others) and you want them to fire in the right order - bombs/missiles, then Ion, then regular laser, then heavy laser, then finally beams (only if they'll do damage otherwise obviously save em (also make sure to aim them in a way that can do the most damage). The latter in that you want your most vital weapons first so they're knocked off last as the system takes damage.

Only use drones/missiles if you really need em. If you're using kestral 1 for instance, you really shouldn't need to use the artemis unless you really, really need to - i usually have it powered off unless there's a desperate need for it.

Power management is difficult but if you're willing to pay attention and try juggle systems on insufficient power you can get more out of your ship than otherwise. e.g. have missiles - but don't need em for this fight? - turn em off and pump it into engines. Similarily, medbays should only be on if someone needs healing, teleport only on if someone needs moving etc.

Sometimes it's good to run from a battle.

Alien spiders are no joke...



Hope some of that info is helpful!

Gbear

the incredible pudding wrote: »

Advice on the boss -

and then try to kill as many of the crew as possible, it'll make the 2nd part much easier as you'll be able to hit the drone room.

But whatever you do don't kill all of them. Then it goes into auto attack mode and it's much more difficult.

the incredible pudding wrote: »

Alien spiders are no joke...

Ugh.. it seems like they've added another good few situations that kill your crew. Such a pain in the arse until you figure out when to avoid them.

Your best bet is to never do anything the popups suggest and always run away. You're ok with ones that do a little bit of damage ("shield the vessel from asteroids" is one, I think) if it's early on but any time you're asked to put the lives of your crew on the line just don't. Sometimes I do it on the first sector and just restart if I lose them because it's no great loss but it can kill a great run stone dead if it happens later on.

You'll do fine in collecting scrap, buying from shops and getting free items without the need to gamble your crews lives.

CatInABox

Gbear wrote: »

But whatever you do don't kill all of them. Then it goes into auto attack mode and it's much more difficult.

Yes, try to kill everyone except for the guy in the Heavy Laser room. That way, he can't repair the rest of the ship, or interfere with your boarding party while ripping apart his ship.

As a follow on from that advice, you're better off not taken the chance with the O2 supply as well, leave it so he stays alive.

Grimebox

the incredible pudding wrote: »

Engines are hugely important. I try to get em to level 4 by the end of the first sector and to 5 pretty quickly after that I find the 4th level of shields to generally be more expensive than they're worth imo (if you've the scrap to spare then all well and good of course). There's some diminishing returns after that but having the extra levels is invaluable when it means you're dodging every other shot. If I've two crew - one goes as pilot, the other as engines - that 10% evasion can save your game.

I've been doing everything you said except this already. Level 4 by the end of the first sector?! I wouldn't even have them that high by the end

Gbear

Grimebox wrote: »

I've been doing everything you said except this already. Level 4 by the end of the first sector?! I wouldn't even have them that high by the end

Engines are fairly cheap so it helps to get them if you have a bit of spare scrap and the more engines you have, the quicker your pilot and engine guy gain experience. Obviously there's a huge difference between 10% dodge (which is the standard with 1 engine and a pilot) and 20% (which is 2 engines, 1 pilot and 1 engine guy).

I don't think they're that important early on thoguh. Once you start facing enemies with multiple missile weapons they become more important but before that your best bet is shields holding off beam, ion and laser weapons (so get them to level 3 asap and level 4 by sector 5 or 6) and just ignoring the odd missile.
If you start with a defence drone I'd not bother upgrading them at all until sector 6 or 7.

Also, a cheat is if you have 2 shields and get to an asteroid level and you've beaten the enemy ship, if you power down your engines (so you have no dodge) and just sit there (go an make a cup of tea), your guy working on the shields gets experience from asteroid hits. Obviously it doesn't work if you have no guy on shields and as far as I know, it doesn't work for leveling up your pilot and engine guy.

CatInABox

Gbear wrote: »

Also, a cheat is if you have 2 shields and get to an asteroid level and you've beaten the enemy ship, if you power down your engines (so you have no dodge) and just sit there (go an make a cup of tea), your guy working on the shields gets experience from asteroid hits. Obviously it doesn't work if you have no guy on shields and as far as I know, it doesn't work for leveling up your pilot and engine guy.

I wouldn't call that a cheat really, more a bending of the spirit of the game.

There are lots of possibilities once you get to two shields. There are ships out there that just can't get through two shields(i.e. a slow firing laser), so if that happens, then I just leave the game run in the background and come back to it later. There's a setting that stops it from pausing when it loses focus, so you can do other things.

Sometimes you can be lucky enough to get such a ship while you have a ion weapon, which will allow you to level your weapons guy too.

Gbear

I'm so happy to find out that if the game crashes, instead of losing your game like you did in the regular edition, now you can continue from the end of the previous beacon.

the incredible pudding

Gbear wrote: »

But whatever you do don't kill all of them. Then it goes into auto attack mode and it's much more difficult.


Ugh.. it seems like they've added another good few situations that kill your crew. Such a pain in the arse until you figure out when to avoid them.

Yup, and avoiding them is usually the best idea... unless you've cloning vats - in which case send them away and let the spiders eat them! No harm, no foul. Only exception to this is the weird vortex eye event. That event can take your crew members and they will not come back, she was a voltan and everything!



RE: early engines

I think it's important to them up early on because the experience your pilot and your engine guy get is a huge boost later and it means you can get your evasion to around 30 really early. That goes a long way in preventing damage when the game starts to get harder and saves your hull and thus more scrap for you to upgrade your offence. Maybe i'm being unrealistic to say level 4 in the first sector, but if you start with 2 e.g. kestral A, then it's not actually that costly.

Regarding the asteroid trick - I think they got rid of that in the update. I also think I noticed you don't get evasion points if you're cloaked. I'm not positive about either of those things but thought I saw it anyway.

I remember meeting a ship that couldn't do any damage to me and maxing out one crew member in piloting, evading, shields and firing just because I could. Naturally I put him on the boarding team then.

Gbear

Hah.

In about 95 hours and about 180 run throughs I've beat the game 6 times. 5 on easy, once on Normal.

seamus

By sheer chance I got the boss on the ropes for pretty much the first time ever, just the right combination of weapons in the right order, I had his shields down and was hammering him with multiple drones.

Then

he hit me with a hacking drone in the weapons room, and the missile I was using to take out his shields in pretty much one shot would get to 95% charged before being disabled again.

He recharged his shields to full power and that was the end of me.

I rely mostly on pure luck to get me through, picking up weapons drop rather than buying them, etc.

CatInABox

the incredible pudding wrote: »

I remember meeting a ship that couldn't do any damage to me and maxing out one crew member in piloting, evading, shields and firing just because I could. Naturally I put him on the boarding team then.

Yup, that happens.

So often I screw up by doing something so incredibly stupid that I have to sit there for a moment processing it mentally.

Worse one by far was jumping out of a system while leaving my crack team of 4 boarders on a ship that they pacified in mere seconds. No solar flares, no asteroids, in fact there was no pressure at all, I was just in a hurry, so when the warning popped up that I was leaving my crew behind, I just pressed yes.

RAGE QUIT.

Grimebox

CatInABox wrote: »

Yup, that happens.

So often I screw up by doing something so incredibly stupid that I have to sit there for a moment processing it mentally.

Worse one by far was jumping out of a system while leaving my crack team of 4 boarders on a ship that they pacified in mere seconds. No solar flares, no asteroids, in fact there was no pressure at all, I was just in a hurry, so when the warning popped up that I was leaving my crew behind, I just pressed yes.

RAGE QUIT.

Thankfully, it warns you about that now.

the incredible pudding

CatInABox wrote: »

Yup, that happens.

So often I screw up by doing something so incredibly stupid that I have to sit there for a moment processing it mentally.

Worse one by far was jumping out of a system while leaving my crack team of 4 boarders on a ship that they pacified in mere seconds. No solar flares, no asteroids, in fact there was no pressure at all, I was just in a hurry, so when the warning popped up that I was leaving my crew behind, I just pressed yes.

RAGE QUIT.

Oooof, that's a rough one!

I put him on the boarders as i wanted him to be the best at everything - i would even try to take him back from attacking people so he could do repairs!

Dacelonid

Finally managed my first victory on Advanced Edition, in the Mantis B.
Had poor enough weapons, but I did have a hull repair drone which was invaluable. Managed to leave just the one guy alive after the first round, so could teleport over 4 mantis

once the Zoltan shield was done

and take down the shields and engines and pilot, while the repair drone was keeping the ship together, then the weapons I had could do max damage.