FTL: Faster Than Light

[Lint of Death]

Originally Posted by Lekon

Ghostbear's always my Zoltan (The green guys with less health) so often he can't make it through all the firey rooms to the med bay in time. 1st time he took a missile to the face, then the fire it started killed him before he could get out. 2nd and 3rd time was fire in several places/explosive decompression that took him out.

Oops, I meant to say Zoltan, I had the Awesomenauts character in my head.

I tried your idea of naming the crew after CoGers, had Ten19 and BrassGecko as Engi pilot and shield-guy respectively, with Master Blaster as gunner. I got the worst score I have yet attained, 227, a mere third of my first playthrough. Eugh. My second run with them's working out better though!

To those who are having trouble, here's a couple tips:

• Even if it requires opening a lot of doors, opening the airlocks to kill fires lets the crew keep working. If there's also breach that needs fixing, beware that doing this could result in suffocating your repairman when you do send one.
• Don't always shoot when a weapon's ready: if you fire all your lasers at once, more shots will punch through the enemy's shields.
• You can flee! If the enemy ship has both strong (3+) shields AND an anti-missile drone, I usually bolt as soon as the FTL is charged rather than waste hull and resources on a lengthy war of attrition, doubly so if there are solar flares or other hazards.
• If you have aliens with really handy abilities, such as the Mantises' 2x combat damage, station them somewhere that it's not disastrous for them to leave their post, like the engine room. Zoltan are pretty awkward to move around, so you might want to do the reverse with them.

[Vigil80]

Originally Posted by Lint of Death

• Even if it requires opening a lot of doors, opening the airlocks to kill fires lets the crew keep working.

My standard fire/intruder protocol is to isolate crew in the med-bay or near the cockpit, then vent the rest of the ship.

With intruders, I've found that trying to follow them around the ship just venting the areas they're in sometimes doesn't work well. If they break down a door, it doesn't seem to vent that next room. So I have to wait for the door to reactivate, then open it, and they're almost through the next door by then.

Now if the enemy ships ever figure it out and hit those rooms I'm turtled in with a big weapon...

On that note, something for a patch/expansion/FTL 2: a shortcut that closes all open doors.

[Libuke]

Originally Posted by Vigil80

On that note, something for a patch/expansion/FTL 2: a shortcut that closes all open doors.

There is button you can press that open all the inner doors. Don't do the air locks though.

[Vigil80]

Opening all the inner doors sounds dangerous. But as long as it closes them too, I'll definitely have to locate it next time I play.

[Ink Asylum]

Opening all the inner doors is good if you need to quickly restore O2 to a room or two so you can get your guys in to safely repair.

[Wackman3000]

After 2 games where I was just getting the feel and didn't make it out of the first battles, my 3rd game I managed to make it to the 6th sector before finally dying. It was a rough ending too.

They sent a few guys on my ship and they attached my oxygen room. I sent my combat drone in to get them, but it was 2 slugs and they fucked him up. Then a rocket gets through and creates a hull breach just as they break my oxygen room. Then the fires started... Oh the fires. Then a guy died to a direct rocket attack in the shield room, more fire.

I decided to end it with my last guy manning the helm as the entire ship went down in flames.

[jpublic]

I had an awesome game going where I made it 5 sectors in, but then I ran up against a guy with a defensive drone and couldn't crack his defenses.

[Vigil80]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

Opening all the inner doors is good if you need to quickly restore O2 to a room or two so you can get your guys in to safely repair.

Oh, air flows in as well as out? That's good to know...

I rage-punched out of my last game. Was going swimmingly with the stealth cruiser, until I came up on an enemy whose shields simply would not go down. No combination of my weapons and boarding party would crack it. Then about the time I decided it best to retreat, an unlucky missile killed two of my best crew.

I was too close to the end to try training up new ones, so I was done.

I'm having trouble finding a combination of weapons that works well toward the end of the game, both in terms of figuring out what they would be and being able to actually find them.

Next, I hope they make an open-universe, perhaps more rpg style game with this kind of system. I really just want to explore and train up crew. The ticking clock is definitely the part of the game most quickly wearing thin.

[evilgoodwin]

I made it to the final boss on my first try (on easy). Fuck that guy. Pretty much just slapped the shit out of me and laughed.

Second try, I used the Engi ship. I started getting the hang of it. Until intruders beamed on in a nebula and took out my sensors and they finally killed all but the human, who somehow managed to survive the ordeal. So with every system damaged and only one crew member... I sucked him out an airlock (basically).

Third try, though? Glorious. First thing I bought was the "Scrap Retrieval Arm" that increases your scrap income by a percentage. Towards the end, I could easily get 50+ scrap from one little drone.

Second glory? Pirates surrendered me a Weapons-Pre-Loader. Oh. My. God. From advice in this thread, I'd replaced my Burst laser with a heavy laser AND somehow got a Burst Laser 3 very early on. That and Artemis caused insane happy funtime. After I also found an Ion weapon, I replaced the Burst with a Beam for delicious hull-smashing action.

Finally, on the next to last sector, I had so much scrap that I could upgrade everything, and I even bought a Mantis for combat.

And then the final battle. I'm prepared this time.

First thing's first, I take out his shields and then burn through their ion cannon. It's not connected to the ship, so if the dude dies, it's forever broken. After that, the missiles were next to go. Muahaha. The rest of his firepower cannot even breach my shields.

And then, when I fire the final shot...

And the game says "Ooop, they escaped LOL"

..... the shit?

I follow them. And this time, it's bullshit. Fucking Drones and the worst missile weapon in existence. Oh god, why? I can't penetrate the shields because the drones keep shooting down my missiles. My beam cannon is worthless. There is no hope. And there were no survivors. RIP USS Behemoth.

Fucking bullshit. Next time, bring lots of extra weapons to change the loadout. Knew I should have bought that Ion Bomb.

[Vigil80]

That's a spoiler about the boss. Might want to tag it.

But yeah, I'm right there with you.

[evilgoodwin]

Gotcha. Fixed.

[BrassGecko]

Originally Posted by Lint of Death

Oops, I meant to say Zoltan, I had the Awesomenauts character in my head.

I tried your idea of naming the crew after CoGers, had Ten19 and BrassGecko as Engi pilot and shield-guy respectively, with Master Blaster as gunner. I got the worst score I have yet attained, 227, a mere third of my first playthrough. Eugh. My second run with them's working out better though!

I see your problem, what were you thinking? Blaster's the one who's good at tanky stuff, not me.

[SilentScreams]

I've made it to the final boss three times, and each time I've lost on the final fight with him. That ultimate weapon is a doozy.

[Lint of Death]

Originally Posted by BrassGecko

I see your problem, what were you thinking? Blaster's the one who's good at tanky stuff, not me.

Actually, the exact same set-up with you guys in the crew got me all the way to sector 6, if I recall correctly

Fun fact, if you double-tap the Open All Doors button, it'll open all the airlocks as well. Thanks for the tips on choking out infiltrators and opening doors to move airflow back into a room, by the way.

[Lekon]

Originally Posted by SilentScreams

I've made it to the final boss three times, and each time I've lost on the final fight with him. That ultimate weapon is a doozy.

I've gotten one win, and form what I can gather from that win, and the losses, you're going to need a few things for the final boss. At least level 4 shields, and some way to get through level four shields too, obviously. Past that, a stealth device (level 2 is best, but 1 works) will save you from the super weapons. Fire it up before they launch the big blast, and you dodge it.

Past the Stealth, a level 2 defense drone will make you much more likely to survive, as will a teleporter system. One of my favorite tactics lately: teleport two mantis or rocks to their cockpit. If the pilot's busy fighting, he's not flying, so the enemy ship suddenly has zero dodge.

[Ink Asylum]

You don't need all of that, although it helps. Stealth is handy, but if your have good shields and take down their triple-missile you can survive their ultimate attack. You can even beat the boss with only 3 shields if you have good enough weapons and drones.

[Wackman3000]

So I bought the teleporter so I could send my guys to the enemy ships. Is it always a suicide mission, or is there a way to bring them back to your own ship?

[Ink Asylum]

Your teleporter has two buttons, sending and recalling. Using either one triggers the cooldown. Use the top button to send whoever is in the teleporter room to a room of your choosing on the enemy ship. Once the teleporter has cooled down (faster if you upgrade) you can use the bottom button to pick a room on the enemy ship and the teleporter will recall whoever is in there.

[jpublic]

So how does the unlocking mechanic work for components and augments?

[Ink Asylum]

What do you mean? Components and augments?

If you're referring to the hangar screen, I don't believe you ever get the option to customize the starting systems on your ship. You can choose from 18 different models but that's it.