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[Micro102]

It seems that normal difficulty is a matter of luck. If you don't get the right things, you can't win.

[Megaman]

Yes, but luck is a major factor in almost all rouge-likes.

[Tarran]

Lvl2 medbay and teleport are enough.

More clarification just in case someone misreads: Both need to be level 2.

Also, see below.

Yeah, you don't even need a Mantis on your ship. Pretty light requirements actually.

According to this, you also need to not blow up the ship. And it says you also do need a Mantis, though I don't see it in the event files.

Yes, but luck is a major factor in almost all rouge-likes.

*cough*Rogue*cough*

And yes, luck is incredibly important factor. Hence why people get mad at the RNG.

[GlyphGryph]

It seems that normal difficulty is a matter of luck. If you don't get the right things, you can't win.

I've found the exact opposite to be true. As far as I can tell, you CAN lose due to luck, but it is vanishingly, terribly unlikely, and the odds are weighted in your favour.

I haven't lost a game in 9 runs right now, and since I've only been doing runs for the crystal ship I've been doing stupid shit like skipping sectors and generally not trying, and even combined with piss poor luck in a few of those runs I've still had no trouble beating the game. And this is on normal.

I find that unlike many games of this sort, FTL comes down almost solely to skill in the end. It's called a crew management game for a reason, and good micro plus decent preparation are more than a counter for 99% of the terrible luck situations the game throws at you.

And since you can pause, it's not even about being able to do things quickly - it's just knowing what to do, and realizing that most bad luck is just you playing poorly.

My last loss was with the Federation Cruiser and this is because I broke my own rules and played /stupidly/, by focusing on the artillery beam instead of capitalizing on the opportunities the game threw my way - opportunities most people would have seen as bad luck, because it didn't help them get what they want.

Almost everything that IS truly luck-based is completely optional and lets you know up front (white options with a "don't get involved" situation), and once you learn the likely results you learn when it's worth going for (hint: Don't take bets you can't afford to lose)

[kcwong]

Some systems are very cheap to upgrade, and even if you cannot power them, the upgrade will provide advantages in various events. Plus the extra HP for the systems can save the day for you.

Med bay 2:
Provides a lot of options in events, unlocking Mantis ship is one of them, healing people for more crew member is another.

Oxygen 2:
For nebula; slugs love to hack your systems.

Door 2 & 3:
For nebula (boarding events) and mantis systems.

Pilot 2:
Unless you want to take one lucky shot and lose the ability to dodge and FTL.

Sensor 2:
Useful in some events to replace a slug crew member.

Teleport 2:
Mandatory if you want to board AI ships, or retrieve your crew before they get killed in combat (otherwise you need to kite).

[GlyphGryph]

So I've decided to do a livestream of this game demonstrating stuff to people.

Unfortunately, I made some remarkably poor decisions leading to my first death in a while (going for the teleporter was not the best idea) BUT overall I got to demonstrate a lot of the more fine-tuned bits of my playstyle.

It only actually starts about 17 minutes in.
http://www.twitch.tv/glyphgryph/b/359347551#

[monk12]

CRAAAAAAAAAAAP

Was just playing as the Zoltan B, and after a little misfortune and a lot of crew mismanagement, I found myself with one human, a level 2 medbay, and a disabled O2 room with zero oxygen on the whole ship. Up till then it had been a really good run, and I got through three beacons on the strength of my shields and weaponry even without crew, my one little human having medical nannies pump oxygen directly into his veins. I actually made it to a store, and although they didn't have any crew for hire they DID have a heal bomb!

I ran my dude over to the O2 room, and right as he was about to die I heal bombed him.

Would've worked in any ship other than the Zoltan, as the Z shield kept the bomb outside of my ship. There's no way to disable that stupid thing, is there?

@GG  I'm surprised you didn't take a cheap engine upgrade just to have a place to shove extra energy. Not MUCH of an extra dodge chance, but when 1 HP is the difference between horrible death and an FTL jump to safety I like to have the option of "all power to the engines!"

I'd comment on the early teleporter decision, but you've already said repeatedly it wasn't the best idea Post here if you do a stream of the Vortex!

[Sirus]

Is it just me, or does the concept of missing your own ship with your own bombs seem pretty idiotic? The one time I tried to use a heal bomb on my anti-boarding team (engaged in a battle in the cockpit, where the enemy boarded and I couldn't vent without losing evasion), it missed and I had to retreat to and repair the medbay.

Also, the idea that the Zolton shield cannot prevent boarding events is idiotic. Let's take the weakest race in melee and throw a bunch of heavily armed dudes directly onto their ship through the supposedly impenetrable super-shield! Never mind that NO SHIP IN THE ENTIRE GAME can do this, it takes the one good strength the Zolton cruiser has and negates it entirely.

[monk12]

Eh, it'd be more of a big deal if boarding events were more threatening. Level 2 doors should let you do most of the damage via venting, and the Zoltan Shield gives you plenty of time to take that route even if it's coupled with an enemy ship.

Also, wheee just passed 100 hours of playtime in this game. I wish Steam saved how much you paid for a game to make it easier to compute entertainment efficiency- I think I bought this for 7 bucks, which would give me ~14 hours/dollar. Not too shabby.

[Sirus]

Eh, it'd be more of a big deal if boarding events were more threatening. Level 2 doors should let you do most of the damage via venting, and the Zoltan Shield gives you plenty of time to take that route even if it's coupled with an enemy ship.

Also, wheee just passed 100 hours of playtime in this game. I wish Steam saved how much you paid for a game to make it easier to compute entertainment efficiency- I think I bought this for 7 bucks, which would give me ~14 hours/dollar. Not too shabby.

Unless they board into some vital system, where you have to hit them right away or can't afford to remove crew for venting. Depending on the ship layout, there's all sorts of places where this might be possible.

[Jim Groovester]

So I've decided to do a livestream of this game demonstrating stuff to people.

Blargh, dude, start using hotkeys and look like a real FTL pro.

Spoiler: Jim Groovester's remarks (click to show/hide)

At 30:16, you're repairing the engine room which is devoid of oxygen. You can open all doors to quickly get air into the room. This is a very bad idea if there's a breach anywhere on your ship unless you have a level 2 oxygen system. Otherwise, you will lose oxygen faster than you can replenish it.

Also, at 33:15, when you're fighting the Rebel Elite Fighter, you can do the same trick to quickly restore oxygen to your teleporter room.

At 35:39, always buy the 6 fuel for 12 scrap.

At 38:38, I think repairing to full was a mistake. I normally repair to 15 or so since repairing to full is so expensive. Just think what you might've been able to do with 30 more scrap on hand. You could've bought the Burst Laser I without selling the Artemis, or you could've purchased a second layer of shields. You'd have less HP, but you probably would have taken less damage, so on balance it would have been a better move.

At the end, why did you take your pilot to go repair the doors? You probably weren't going to win that fight, but with 0 evasion there was no chance of survival.

[monk12]

Eh, it'd be more of a big deal if boarding events were more threatening. Level 2 doors should let you do most of the damage via venting, and the Zoltan Shield gives you plenty of time to take that route even if it's coupled with an enemy ship.

Also, wheee just passed 100 hours of playtime in this game. I wish Steam saved how much you paid for a game to make it easier to compute entertainment efficiency- I think I bought this for 7 bucks, which would give me ~14 hours/dollar. Not too shabby.

Unless they board into some vital system, where you have to hit them right away or can't afford to remove crew for venting. Depending on the ship layout, there's all sorts of places where this might be possible.

For the "vital system" problem, you can send one crewman in to delay them while the oxygen leaks out. They spend their time shooting at that guy instead of taking down the system, you pull him back to the medbay to heal while they try to punch through doors to get someplace with oxygen. I agree that pulling crewmen away from their systems puts you at a disadvantage, but with the Zoltan ships specifically their fancy shield gives them more time to deal with intruders than the beefier races.

I just wish the in-game explanation was better than just "You don't know how it happened, deal with it," especially given how many times it'll happen in the course of a game. Nitpicking, I'll admit- nobody is here for the story.

@Jim  I think GG passed up the cheap fuel to save money for repairs, and because he was shooting for a boarding party which tends to wind up with lots of fuel-siphoning action. I assume the final mistake was just frustration at how poorly that initial salvo went- the fire was going to kill him from system damage unless he got stupid lucky with his dodges, and even then it would've spread enough to be unmanageable without venting.

[GlyphGryph]

Because being on video makes me stupid. Like I said, I realized I made several mistakes throughout the course of it. At the very least you caught several of them. The biggest one was strategic thought - why the hell go for teleporter when I've got no extra crew? Madness! Especially when a focus on buffing up my other abilities would have easily seen me through the first two sectors with far less damage.

But yeah, not a great game. Lots of basic mistakes, but I think it was (at the least) educational.

Monk is at least right on why I passed up the fuel - I've never had a fuel problem with a boarding ship.

[Lightningfalcon]

Why, oh why is the arty beam on auto fire?  I lost my best boarding crew to it. 

[kcwong]

Why, oh why is the arty beam on auto fire?  I lost my best boarding crew to it.

As said not too long ago, the latest version added the ability to control autofire for each individual weapon. If you toggle the autofire button in the UI, it's for all weapons. If you keep that off, and instead hold Ctrl during targeting, it will be for a single weapon.

But the artillery beam doesn't work like that... it fires whenever it's charged. You need to remove power from it.