4 ms·

God that game was so hard. Maybe I’m a wimp about rogue likes in general though. I enjoy stuff like XCOM where it’s a puzzle you can reason your way through and

God that game was so hard. Maybe I’m a wimp about rogue likes in general though. I enjoy stuff like XCOM where it’s a puzzle you can reason your way through and use save states to re-try when you realize your plan or your execution of the plan is insufficient for the task. There are random elements, but it’s mostly a puzzle. FTL was just confusing, hopeless death for me.

knodi123 7y ago
> Maybe I’m a wimp about rogue likes in general though That really is a core element of roguelikes- some playthroughs, you're just going to get screwed by the random number generator- hence the saying "pray to RNGesus". And when you die, you start over- no fixing, no recovery. With those precepts in mind, FTL is a pretty fair game. I've beaten the mothership a few times in vanilla FTL, and each time it was a combination of making good tactical decisions, and getting one of the several equipment configurations that I knew how to capitalize on. There's no shame in bailing early on a run where you know you're not going to get a useable set of equipment. The only way I know to "cheat" (and one I don't feel guilty doing) is to discuss strategies among a community of people who have also been experimenting with different approaches. That's how I learned that teleporters and mantis raiders are so OP.
Pfhreak 7y ago
The thing most players do is try to race for the end, which makes sense -- you are being constantly pursued! Counterintuitively, you want to go as slowly as possible to maximize the amount of rewards you receive. The more planets you visit in a system, the more rewards you get, and the stronger you are when you hit the mothership. That was a key misunderstanding I had that let me make significant progress once I figured it out. That... and liberal use of the spacebar to pause.

4 ms·

God that game was so hard. Maybe I’m a wimp about rogue likes in general though. I enjoy stuff like XCOM where it’s a puzzle you can reason your way through and

by edraferi 7y ago

knodi123 7y ago
> Maybe I’m a wimp about rogue likes in general though That really is a core element of roguelikes- some playthroughs, you're just going to get screwed by the random number generator- hence the saying "pray to RNGesus". And when you die, you start over- no fixing, no recovery. With those precepts in mind, FTL is a pretty fair game. I've beaten the mothership a few times in vanilla FTL, and each time it was a combination of making good tactical decisions, and getting one of the several equipment configurations that I knew how to capitalize on. There's no shame in bailing early on a run where you know you're not going to get a useable set of equipment. The only way I know to "cheat" (and one I don't feel guilty doing) is to discuss strategies among a community of people who have also been experimenting with different approaches. That's how I learned that teleporters and mantis raiders are so OP.
Pfhreak 7y ago
The thing most players do is try to race for the end, which makes sense -- you are being constantly pursued! Counterintuitively, you want to go as slowly as possible to maximize the amount of rewards you receive. The more planets you visit in a system, the more rewards you get, and the stronger you are when you hit the mothership. That was a key misunderstanding I had that let me make significant progress once I figured it out. That... and liberal use of the spacebar to pause.