FTL - a spaceship Rogue-like

@Spooky Mask: I dunno, consider each floor's size, Dredmor can be pretty long...

Other than that...looks like I'm defintiely getting it...

Thats good get it great game <- Engrish

Also, Dungeon of Dredmor isn't that long with short floors. Honestly only point of large floors is to grind and get items, it wouldn't be that long if you play with saves on.

edited 6th Sep '12 10:22:28 AM by SpookyMask

OK, after thinking it was useless at first, the Engi ship really grew on me (though it has the drawback of needing constant drone parts). Might have to go with that instead of the default until I get a better one.

edited 7th Sep '12 5:41:01 AM by Psyclone

Game is REALLY much harder on normal: Enemies actually use drones now(and more beam weapons) =/ For example, only enemy that uses boarding drones on easy is final boss...

BTW, none of alternative layouts for ships are inherently superior to their original self, they just provide alternative way of playing. For example Red-Tails switches missile and burst laser for four basic lasers plus changes room layout. Some of them might make easy mode even easier though since first time I beat game on easy was when I first time played with Red-Tail.... Or maybe I just got lucky with random weapon drops.*shrugs* I got good weapons from random events

On normal drones seem to be actually kind of necessary... On easy you can manage even though you can't do anything to missiles, but on normal you pretty much have to get defense drone because you want to avoid damage at any cost.. Ion weapons also wreck your ship on normal(since more ships use them) since they'll disable your shield if they hit allowing them to cut your ship with beam weapons. Also on normal higher shielded enemies appear earlier so you better get good weapons earlier :P

Somehow I got VERY lucky on my first normal playthrough(with basic ship of all things..) since I got to final boss on that run :P Thats why I was confused about whether normal is really harder, but it IS fricking much harder.

Also with engi ship you HAVE to use ion weapon since doesn't it like have 4 seconds charge? That should be enough to wreck havoc with drone. Really, its not that engi ship is bad, its that it plays differently. Alternative engi ship layout on other hand... Let's just say that from what I heard of it, its more suited for challenge runs :P

Interesting thing about this game is that besides final boss every enemy plays by same rules as you do. I realized that after my weapons started missing on later section that enemy ship engines also become more powerful allowing them to dodge more meaning that neutralizing weapons and shields and drones isn't only thing I should do =/

edited 7th Sep '12 6:35:12 AM by SpookyMask

Anyone going to build the page?

Should I post more gameplay details to this page(which I guess someone could use to put tropes*shrugs*) or should I leave stuff for you guys to discover?

I guess I could post race details since they pretty much describe what alien race types they fit into. But I'm kind of tempted to spoil ways to unlock ships =/ Then again I don't need to post ship details xD

edited 7th Sep '12 7:14:50 AM by SpookyMask

Way ahead of you. Drawing a bit of a blank on tropes, though.

EDIT: Oh, there's a wiki. That will make things a lot easier regarding the races.

edited 7th Sep '12 7:22:14 AM by Psyclone

Eh, that wiki has total of six pages. Heck, wiki's ship page is mostly lifted from forum except forum has thread with mostly completed ship list with exception of "Unknown Ship".

Well, I guess I help you with races :P I put spoilers if they relate to unlocking something.

Okay, races are humans, zoltans, rockmen, mantis, slugs and engi. Humans are humans, they are The Mario, they have no specialties at anything, thats what description text says, they are boring :P They also seem to be what federation and rebels are mostly made of(though federation seems to include other races unlike rebels). Engi are robot aliens apparently, I'm not sure if they are cyborgs or robots, but they seem like robots, whats with their death animation and all(and hostile ones call you meatbags). They repair things at double speed but have crappy combat damage. They also apparently don't trust other than engi according to stealth ship unlock text(and way to unlock it) despite them seeming rather trusting in other random events. Zoltans are apparently somehow related to engi or at least have good relations with them. Which seems to be something to do with their ability to generate energy by just existing :P They also have less heath. Zoltans are apparently peaceful according to random event text that laments 'these times' because of zoltan pirates and way of unlocking Zoltan ship and they are apparently researchers according to random events. This seems to be only hint of how you open stasis pod from one event.

Zoltans and engi sectors are colored green civilian sectors so it seems like they are allied with federation. Rockmen and mantis on other hand have hostile sectors. They are also more combat suited(while engi and zoltans are more support crew members) because rockmen have high health and mantis have double combat damage. Rockmen are also immune to fire damage, and are slow, and mantis repair things slowly, and move twice as fast. Rockmen seem to be kind of warrior racish with their habit of taunting you on some random events. Their putting out fire animation is funny.(they jump on flames repeatedly) Mantis on other hand seem to be mostly pirates(and their tactic involves teleporting into your ship because of their combat damage). They also seem to be proud warrior race since events involving their ships on other sector than their own seems to imply they like hunting/preying on other species(like if mantis ship is found near sun, event test speculates they are there for sake of challenge)

Slugs reside on nebulas and they are apparently thieves and such. Whats with their psychic abilities and stuff, their specialty is seeing location of enemy's crew even if you can't see into their ship. In random events they either try to sell you stuff or attack you so they kinda fit into thief description. So yeah, they seem rather "slimy"(no pun intended) but I don't have much impression on them. I'm also not sure how to unlock their ship.

Super duper spoilers, don't read. There is secret Crystal race that is ancestor to Rockmen, have special abilities and related to quest chain hard to do involving finding stasis pod, going to zoltan sector and going to Rockmen homeworld. Thats how you unlock "Unknown Ship".

BTW, about "Single Gender Race" trope, mantis females are mentioned in some random events(apparently they aren't in important roles unless they are particularly vicious... Which doesn't really make sense considering that they are sentient mantises, you'd think that females would boss everyone around considering how they mate :P) so apparently humans are only ones whose gender can be seen

Also on ideas for trope for page... Well, is there trope for moral ambiguity? I mean, story never explains why Rebels are well, Rebels, so we don't know whether they are "Good guys" or "Bad guys" or just plain grey(same about federation). For example, some rebels are bullying federation civilians for supplies and others are like "I'm sorry, I don't want to fight you, but you are our enemy so I have to" and "We don't let you stop our ideals/peace" and whatever. Though there are much less case of Federation appearing to be bad, if you play game as jerk(never accepting surrenders, leaving civilians for their own fates to not risk your hull, etc) I guess you can imagine federation being same.

edited 7th Sep '12 10:13:12 AM by SpookyMask

And now for something slightly different, Starship Corporation.

So why you don't create your own thread for that? .-.

^^ Looks cool, I just really hope it didn't reach $26000...

^Because you don't want story for that game?

^...more like the story with heavy suggestion from Atlas Shrugged that I don't want...also how long is that game going to be open? I thought I heard about it a while already or something...

edited 8th Sep '12 2:25:54 AM by onyhow

Oh okay

Still find it odd that JAF posted about it here .-. Did you think its not worth its own thread or that its too similar to this game in concept? Or what?

I am also very interested in that game (other than the story thing). He's on the verge of adding the multiplayer component but (hopefully) he probably won't have enough for the single player campaign.

edited 8th Sep '12 8:01:49 AM by Psyclone

Huh, Atlas Shrugged is that annoying story?

Yes, that one by Ayn Rand...

The only way I can see an AS inspired story work here is if the game makes it clear that the player character is a heartless bastard running an obvious Expy of Weyland-Yutani. Or if they go the Bio Shock route and explore the logical consequences.

Bio Shock wasn't as much "inspired" by AS but rather served as a reimagining of Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later◊.

edited 8th Sep '12 8:21:35 AM by Psyclone

The one that Bioshock was based on? .-.

Ninja'd

edited 8th Sep '12 8:20:16 AM by SpookyMask

Nah, Bioshock is a criticism of Objectivism...

So you are worried that game would be pro objectivism?

What was objectivism anyway? I forgot, but I remember it sucking

^ Yes I'm worried, that's why I don't want it to reach $26000...

On Objectivism, Wikipedia page, TVT page...

Eh, it probably reads somewhere what he means with Atlas Shrugged

Seems like he's playing AS pretty straight. Rise through the ranks on your own merits and take on problems such as war, corruption, and "state power."

My guess is that he's going to have the government be completely based around subjugating the people and taxing them heavily and it will be up to the hero to undo their subjugation.

Either way, having story based on crappy political ideas shouldn't really ruin the game unless execution is offensive :P

Anyhoo, I hope this thread becomes more active and more about FTL after game is actually released and everyone can play it. I'd be sad to see it end up as one of those good games I like where people aren't aware of its existence. I hope it at least achieves same acknowledgment here that Dungeons of Dredmor did...