FTL

[Bjorn]

I agree with that, I find it to be the least interesting form of combat, which is why it frustrates me that it is the most effective in many ways.  I'm totally willing to self-impose limitations on myself by not allowing teleporters on some runs, but I don't think I ever beat normal (or maybe even easy) without them. 

[Dewar]

Suddenly having crew members on the enemy ship makes the other combat tasks less fun as you have to avoid firing anywhere that might damage your own crew. I don't have fun balancing how much damage to do with my guns and how much to rely on my boarding party, especially once a major fire breaks out on the opponent's ship or the oxygen room goes down. Also, if you don't beam over right away, you often won't have enough power to beam them back before the ship explodes. So that encourages beaming over immediately every time, even when it's not needed.

 

It is also possible I'm a bad FTL player.

[Bjorn]

On my most successful runs, I would only use my guns to disable whatever the most threatening system was, and then let my boarding crew take care of the rest. 

[ariskany_evan]

I completely and totally agree with your teleporter play style, though a good way to not blow up the ship/shoot at your teleporters is to use the ion blast thing, which only disables the systems and doesn't cause damage.

 

I had the same tendency to use the teleporter immediately, and it does get dull after awhile.  In general, I found there wasn't a ton of creativity in the battles, since the limited resources meant I was always min/maxing whatever build I ended up with.

[tberton]

I think teleporters are fun.

[Ozzie]

Never had to use the teleporter to beat the final boss. I'm not sure I ever used it on that occassion. Maybe once? I tend to rely on the cloaking device instead.

[tberton]

Cloak is super useful for the final boss. I imagine the new hacking and mind control systems would be helpful too.

 

In other news, hacking a room, thus locking in any enemy crew in there, then sending in some Lanius to drain all the oxygen in the room and watching them suffocate is awesome.

[Cleinhun]

The hacking system in general is my favorite new feature so far. Like most things, you generally want to use it on weapons or shields, but using it on a teleporter is really nice if you crew is bad at fighting/you forgot to buy blast doors, and I can imagine using it on engines against one of those drones that seem to dodge everything. And like tberton said, locking people in rooms is awesome if you have a teleporter or a weapon that starts fires.

[tberton]

Also, hacking the Oxygen system is hilarious.

[Bjorn]

I played one game tonight, started on Normal.  I'm a bit rusty, only made it to Sector 4, and barely limped my way there.  The hacking system and mind control both feel like really natural additions.  The Cloning system is neat as well, though it does have a rather dark tendency to make me start treating some crew like they are disposable.

[Brannigan]

I too haven't played in forever.  I'm sure I was really unprepared for the last stand but the boss did something really annoying and hacked my doors pretty much immediately.  This prevented my engi set aside for repairs from doing anything for way too long and I never recovered from it.

[Bjorn]

Oh god, I forgot to mention, I ran into one of the new encounters, two ships that had collided with one another and I had the choice to bypass, help them separate or consult a crew member.  I hope the rest of the new encounters are as pure gold as this one was. 

 

They are two Engi ships, and if you consult an Engi crew member, you learn that they haven't crashed, they are copulating. You can then scoop up some scrap that has fallen off them due to their wild space love making, even though it makes you feel a little gross.

[sclpls]

I haven't played this game in like a year, and man, I was just total garbage when I played last night! So much fun though!

[tberton]

I was trying to unlock the Lanius B today. One of the Achievements is "make it to Sector 8 without your oxygen levels exceeding 20%". I could have sworn I accomplished it, but apparently not. Then I died in Sector 8 against a dumb rebel ship, not even the flagship.

 

Anyway, all the new systems are awesome. And Flak Cannons are pretty sweet too.

[TurboPubx-16]

I forget how to play this game. I ran out of fuel and spent most of a sector fighting the pursuing fleet. The rebels get a new off-screen artillery which is some serious bullshit. Either I will play this game for a couple more hours or another hundred, hard to say right now.

Almost forgot: I lost a crew person to an event, and when the event was over this crew person came back with every stat maxed. I couldn't believe it.

[Sno]

I forget how to play this game. I ran out of fuel and spent most of a sector fighting the pursuing fleet. The rebels get a new off-screen artillery which is some serious bullshit. Either I will play this game for a couple more hours or another hundred, hard to say right now.

Almost forgot: I lost a crew person to an event, and when the event was over this crew person came back with every stat maxed. I couldn't believe it.

 

The "off-screen artillery" is the new "anti-ship battery" hazard, but it actually shows up in some scenarios as a friendly asset that will lend you additional firepower against your opponent, so that's neat.

I've been playing a lot of the update, and i think the changes are good. Most of them seem geared towards giving you more ways to break through tight defenses, which not only blows open the number of viable builds available to you, but also seems to make the game a fair bit more difficult because its likewise harder to defend yourself.

[Bjorn]

I'm really struggling to get past Sector 4 in Normal when the difficulty starts ramping up.  Not sure if I'm just super out of practice, have forgotten good early game strategies, or if the overall balance has shifted.  I think I'm just not spending enough on upgrading my existing ship abilities.  All the new shiny toys and the double inventory in some stores is causing me to spread my scrap to thinly and not focus on a ship's strengths.  Tried with multiple ships last night, and just couldn't do it. 

 

Might have to back off to Easy for a bit to unlock the C ship variants and practice some. 

[tberton]

The "off-screen artillery" is the new "anti-ship battery" hazard, but it actually shows up in some scenarios as a friendly asset that will lend you additional firepower against your opponent, so that's neat.

I've been playing a lot of the update, and i think the changes are good. Most of them seem geared towards giving you more ways to break through tight defenses, which not only blows open the number of viable builds available to you, but also seems to make the game a fair bit more difficult because its likewise harder to defend yourself.

 

Agreed. It feels like there are way more different ways to play now, which is great, because my favourite thing about FTL has always been trying out different strategies. I still haven't checked out a lot of the new weapons: charge weapons seem neat, as do all the new drones. Flak Cannons are amazing though, they just murder shields.

[Sno]

The mind control system and the flak cannons are probably my two favorite new pieces of gear.

[Bjorn]

Flak cannons are amazing.  I paired one with the triple shot laser, and that resulted in the best run I had (still lost). 

 

It's overshadowed by the new systems/weapons, but one of the biggest changes I love is being able to man doors and sensors.  That has been a life saver a couple of times if I hadn't upgraded either system.  Like when fires or boarders were on the ship and I could quickly rush someone to the door room to seal off the ship.  It feels very natural too, like you can imagine the Captain ordering the Chief Engineer to seal the bulkheads.  I also used manned sensors to get a peak at enemy locations before sending over boarders.

[TurboPubx-16]

Agreed. It feels like there are way more different ways to play now, which is great, because my favourite thing about FTL has always been trying out different strategies. I still haven't checked out a lot of the new weapons: charge weapons seem neat, as do all the new drones. Flak Cannons are amazing though, they just murder shields.

 

I just wish I wasn't always forced to try out new strategies. I just died in the second-to-last sector and didn't get a single laser weapon in any of the stores. I'm not saying that I dogmatically buy lasers no matter the situation, I just happen to have preferences.

 

A burst laser 2, pike beam and the starting missile launcher got me through the bulk of the game just fine, until the game does what it always does: pairs the next tier of ship with an event that cripples a part of your ship or starts the fight off with four intruders. This time my engines were reduced from level 7 to level 1 (good luck trying to escape quickly) and I was facing a Zoltan ship with more weapons than I'd ever seen. I had just bought cloaking and I guess I probably didn't use it as much as I could have. And I guess there was a flak cannon back in sector 2 that I could have sold an arm and a leg to get. Yeah, I'm salty .

[tberton]

Flak cannons are amazing.  I paired one with the triple shot laser, and that resulted in the best run I had (still lost). 

 

It's overshadowed by the new systems/weapons, but one of the biggest changes I love is being able to man doors and sensors.  That has been a life saver a couple of times if I hadn't upgraded either system.  Like when fires or boarders were on the ship and I could quickly rush someone to the door room to seal off the ship.  It feels very natural too, like you can imagine the Captain ordering the Chief Engineer to seal the bulkheads.  I also used manned sensors to get a peak at enemy locations before sending over boarders.

 

Yeah, that's probably my favourite addition. It gives extra crew something to do and allows for interesting strategies, like moving somebody to Doors when you get boarded so that you can vent the ship to space.

 

I just wish I wasn't always forced to try out new strategies. I just died in the second-to-last sector and didn't get a single laser weapon in any of the stores. I'm not saying that I dogmatically buy lasers no matter the situation, I just happen to have preferences.

 

I think that's just a core part of this type of game and there's not really any way around it without drastically changing what the game is about.

[Bjorn]

A strategy I really want to try for the fun of it is a reverse boarding party.  Mind Control to turn enemy, teleport to bring them over to my ship to a room vented to space, and upgraded doors to keep them there until they die.   Not the most efficient strategy, but it turns FTL into a space horror simulator, only you are playing the villain/monster.  This amuses me.

[Berzee]

A strategy I really want to try for the fun of it is a reverse boarding party.  Mind Control to turn enemy, teleport to bring them over to my ship to a room vented to space, and upgraded doors to keep them there until they die.   Not the most efficient strategy, but it turns FTL into a space horror simulator, only you are playing the villain/monster.  This amuses me.

 

That would be funny / monstrous -- and also, it makes me think that it would be kind of great if you could then teleport your crew onto the other ship and sail away in that. =P Terribly broken, I'm sure, but kind of great.

 

I haven't played this new expansion, I really must do that soon.

[castorp]

I still love this game. I think the additions are great. They do seem to make the game a bit harder, which I like. Or maybe not harder in general, but the new stuff provides more opportunities to get completely destroyed by the enemy, by a certain configuration, early on, without having had much chance or time to get the defenses up.
 
(Okay, I said this some pages earlier in this very thread I think, but to the people who have really big problems with getting through the game: You all do use pause constantly and for everything, don’t you?)