FTL: Faster Than Light

[CeeKay]

from the indie gaming corner comes FTL, a 'spaceship real-time rogue-like'.  it's been getting some good previews (like this one).

the video on the main site shows off some combat-  you can find yourself fighting invaders on your ship while space combat is occurring at the same time.

[Purge]

I thought FTL was Fruit of The Loom

[CeeKay]

they started a Kickstarter drive and there is also a demo out on OnLive (link is on Kickstarter page).

[greeneggsnham]

FYI, this game is up for demo on Onlive. You can play multiple 30 minute runs on the current version, not just a single run. Lots of fun. I'd probably classify this as a cross of SPAZ and rogue with maybe a dash of privateer; it really looks like this will be lots of fun when it's released.

[wonderpug]

From what I've read, there's a sprinkle of Strange Adventures in Infinite Space and a jigger of Firefly, as well. Is OnLive annoying to deal with? The game looks and sounds fantastic.

[greeneggsnham]

If you already have an Onlive account, it's pretty much a no brainer to try it out there. I can't remember how annoying it was to setup the initial account, but it's worth it to play demos and stuff on Onlive. Pretty much instant access to a demo to try a new game with no download.... then purchase it on Steam or one of the other portals.

[CeeKay]

pre-beta footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KLcc2p_PXZg

[greeneggsnham]

For anyone that was on the fence about this, the Kickstarter closes in 27 hours. I went ahead and went to the 2nd tier to get into the beta... I figure it will give me a break for when I'm tired of the Guild Wars 2 beta.

[wonderpug]

Woop woop woop!  The beta is here the beta is here!
 

[jztemple2]

Woop woop woop!  The game has been released on Steam! The game has been released on Steam!
 

It's also available from their website and from GOG.
 

[Crawley]

Been playing it for a bit and man is this game addicting.

Had a few neat games already. In one I had only just started when a fire killed two of the three crew members. I was almost scrapped the game but figured I'd continue to see how far I got. It turned out to be quite the adventure and lasted far longer then I thought I would. Ship to ship combat battles were a bit crazy as I had to leave the pilots chair a few times to fix the shields or the reactor. Putting out fires were as simple as venting all the atmosphere but keeping the pilots room door closed to keep O2 in. But I became quite good at repairing things as usually by the end of battles I would have a system or two to fix.

But it was tough going as I had to spend my earned scrap to fix the hull and I wasn't coming across any new replacement crew members.

Finally I went in to a new sector and hit a store that had crew members to offer. I had to sell an extra weapon I got from a ship battle to pay for both the crew member, fixing my hull, and for fuel I was sorely lacking. But it looked like things were turning around. However I didn't realize the crew member I purchased was a marine type fella. She was bulky and so slow moving it was a pain to watch her move from room to room trying to repair systems. Ugh.

Finally though we had a battle were some bugs teleported aboard. I was elated as I sent my big marine bitch to wipe the floor with these guys. Problem was she didn't know how to fight for shit apparently. They were killing her pretty quick. She made a feeble attempt to make it to the med bay but died even before escaping the room. I hate to say it but I screamed "Move bitch!" as I saw how slowly she was escaping followed but a gutteral frusrated sound as she crumpled over in death. I took matters in my own hand and left the pilots room to confront the attackers. Only to be massacred in a few seconds.

Sheesh. Rough game. Love it.

[jztemple2]

I sent my big marine bitch

Water dog?

[jztemple2]

Review from True PC Gaming (never heard of them, btw).

I won't copy the whole review, but here's something:

Conclusion – Is It Worth The Money?

Yes, it is. Sometimes that’s all that needs to be said.

OK, so maybe a bit more:

FTL is a game that does not look real; its programmer pixel art won’t be the thing that draws you in. But it feels real; it feels like what you’d imagine controlling a vessel struggling to survive in deep space to be like. It asks you to make hard decisions at every turn, to take risks in hopes of greater rewards.

[jztemple2]

I got this through Steam and have been playing it for an hour. It really is addicting .

UPDATE: I've played it for a couple more hours and am still enjoying it. I saw over on the Steam Game Chat a lot of whining about it being boring or a rip off. I got a little irritated so I posted the following:

I wondering if some folks aren't understanding the concept of a $10 game. It's not going to be a massively deep game with tons of unique maps and situations. Certainly there's going to be some repetition, but it's unlikely that you'll come across the same scenario with exactly the same ship/crew/weapon loadout as before. It's like playing Monopoly, the rules, board and situations repeat, but it's the combination of many factors that make each game different.

Sid Meier once said (I paraphrase) that a good game gives players interesting decisions. FTL gives me those decisions in what I spend my scrap (IE money) for each time I can. I also get decision points when in a battle I have to decide where to allocate my power and where I move my people. Sure, we can all imagine how the game could be fleshed out with many more options and situations, but it would be more expensive and require a lot more development and money and backing and the publishers would look at it and say "It's not the next Call of Duty, why should we put money into this?". Be thankful that there are these little guys who put out cool little games.

Maybe I went a little overboard, but sheesh, for less than the price of going to the movies you get some great entertainment. I'm happy that I got it.

[wonderpug]

I think you're just supposed to post a "haters gonna hate" absurd picture in those situations.

[Clanwolfer]

Bought it last night. Played a good bit, and I'm really enjoying it. Frustrated that my mouse decided to stop working today - this isn't really a great trackpad game. Back to it when I get a new mouse!

[jztemple2]

I laid in bed last night thinking of alternative strategies to deal with intruders and whether to spend my money on this system or that. It's one of those type games.

This morning I played some more. One good tip, don't spend your scrap until you check the Jump Map. I missed out on a chance to buy a couple of crewmen because I was in too much of a hurry and didn't wait to check the next store.

I've flown and lost four Kestrels in a row, but I've got an Engi right now, which seems to be a slightly better ship. I'm doing decently, but I've reached that point where I'm reluctant to jump to a new system because it might just be the one that kills me

[Clanwolfer]

I laid in bed last night thinking of alternative strategies to deal with intruders and whether to spend my money on this system or that. It's one of those type games.

This morning I played some more. One good tip, don't spend your scrap until you check the Jump Map. I missed out on a chance to buy a couple of crewmen because I was in too much of a hurry and didn't wait to check the next store.

I've flown and lost four Kestrels in a row, but I've got an Engi right now, which seems to be a slightly better ship. I'm doing decently, but I've reached that point where I'm reluctant to jump to a new system because it might just be the one that kills me

Man, I am just having such a tough time with combat in the Engi. So far I'm still tooling around with the Kestrel.

Lost my last ship when, down to a single crewmember, I decided to look into the Eye of Zoltan... and it transcended her to another plane of existence. Yow.

[Crawley]

I laid in bed last night thinking of alternative strategies to deal with intruders and whether to spend my money on this system or that.

For dealing with intruders and stopping the spread of fires I found upgrading the doors to Blast Doors helped so much. With blast doors intruders have to destroy a door first to get through. So it takes them longer to get anywhere in the ship and allows you to gather forces to deal with them. As a bonus the Blast Doors will stop fires from spreading so they're well contained and don't get out of hand like they sometimes can.

Other beginner things I found out was with your first two guys put one on shields and the other on weapon systems and keep them there. They'll help with the recharging/firing of both. They'll also level up as you use them.

[wonderpug]

I laid in bed last night thinking of alternative strategies to deal with intruders

Have you already tried venting their oxygen the same way you might fight a fire?  Fun stuff.

[jztemple2]

I laid in bed last night thinking of alternative strategies to deal with intruders

Have you already tried venting their oxygen the same way you might fight a fire?  Fun stuff.

I'll have to try that.

I just had an unhappy first experience with my teleporter. I sent a guy over to the enemy ship but before I tried to get him back they offered to surrender and I accepted, then I couldn't figure out how to get him back before he died of lack of oxygen . Is there some trick to bringing someone back on board, other than selecting the person, clicking the return button and selecting a compartment on your own ship? It's that last step that didn't seem to work for me. Any ideas?

UPDATE: Here's my current ship... sweet, except I need some more crew, a couple of red shirts at least.

[wonderpug]

The teleporter only lets you do the return trip after a certain amount of time. Teleporter upgrades shorten the wait.

Also: be warned that unmanned ships are not good ones to board, what with their lack of air.

[davidrobots]

Goddammit, I'm officially addicted. And I have papers due...

Seriously. I hope they make an iPad version, I want to take this thing on the road with me. I think it would translate fairly well, too.

[Bullwinkle]

Looking at the screenshots, this reminds me of the boardgame Galaxy Trucker (and the upcoming game Damage Report, which I backed).

[wonderpug]

Yup, there's definitely a big Galaxy Trucker vibe in the game.

[Enigma]

Goddammit, I'm officially addicted. And I have papers due...

Seriously. I hope they make an iPad version, I want to take this thing on the road with me. I think it would translate fairly well, too.

Gawd, you are right.  This screams IPAD me!

[jztemple2]

I've been playing on Easy, which isn't, but isn't as bad as Normal.  I just got to the Big Boss once again, and again got my ass kicked. I did do a bit better next time, but sheesh that sucker is awfully powerful

[Destructor]

I absolutely love this game. Beaten it twice on 'easy' (more like normal with how hard it still can be), and totally want to put hours more into it. And must beat 'normal' as well.

The modders have already found out how to put in things like new ship layouts and weapons and such. Should be interesting if they find a way to expand the universe and such.

[kathode]

Playing it a lot and really having to resist the urge to put it on my work PC   I made it to the end on easy once but couldn't beat the enemy ship.  I tend to fight EVERYONE and get in over my head early.

[USMC Kato]

This game is killing my sleep schedule. Also a couple mods are available. I just installed a mod that inserts the Firefly ship class "Serenity"

[jztemple2]

This game is killing my sleep schedule. Also a couple mods are available. I just installed a mod that inserts the Firefly ship class "Serenity"

Where are you finding the mods?

[USMC Kato]

This game is killing my sleep schedule. Also a couple mods are available. I just installed a mod that inserts the Firefly ship class "Serenity"

Where are you finding the mods?

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=3dc4053a325c892d695c1c243c279db2

[forgeforsaken]

This game is so evil sometimes...

[Destructor]

This game is so evil sometimes...

I know. And that's why it's so fun.

[Caine]

put in three hours last night (thanks Kato) and barely scratched the surface.  My best run ended with the flagship after his rockets took out my engines and shields.  while my engineer worked on fixing the engines, I lost my weapons and pilot.  before too long, I was venting air and losing hull integrity. 

I've had great runs end in catastrophe due to boarding parties, one where the weapons system destroyed the enemy, only to die from a lack of 02.  (my other crew had all perished from boarding parties). 

[kathode]

Upgrading doors really helps take out boarding parties.  You can seal off their rooms and open a path to outside to vent their oxygen.  Even if they're in a room attacking a system, when the O2 drops, they'll stop and concentrate only on getting out.  The one thing you have to worry about is the boarding drone that is immune to O2 loss AND punches a hole right through your hull when he lands.  He is a real sonofabitch. 

FTL was probably my favorite game of the past year (that I didn't make ).