FTL - a spaceship Rogue-like

I still get absolutely murdered most times before I even get to sector 5. My ship never holds up well, and I can never muster up enough scrap for sufficient upgrades. Or I'm stuck with shitty weapons all the way through. Anyway to unfuck this?

Honestly, it's just a matter of practice.

It's a roguelike, so you aren't expected to win. You're expected to fail. Don't start each run thinking "I'll beat the game", start it thinking "I'll do better!" Each run, you gain more skill and make it further.

If you unlock new ships, give them a try. You might find one with a playstyle you like.

edited 25th Oct '16 10:04:32 PM by Ekimmak

I've played this game for nearly two years and I'm not getting any better. I can't even get up to speed enough to unlock anymore ships.

Well, you must have atrocious luck, because I've beaten the game with the Stealth B fighter, and that one starts off with zero shields.

If you're not enjoying it, don't play. Simple as that.

edited 25th Oct '16 10:06:02 PM by Ekimmak

It's not that I'm not enjoying it, it's that I'm God-awful at playing it and can't come up with a valid strategy.

Kestrel B is what I'm using now.

Well, if you absolutely completely struggle with the game, you can abuse the pause button so you have plenty of time to plan out your attack.

My personal pick is Rock B. The starting weapons can solo enemy ships until midgame, and even then they're a threat (setting a ship's O2 supply on fire is a good way to keep earning cash). Later on, you can install a crew teleporter to add extra threat to the blaze.

It's kind of hard to plan anything when you've got Kestrel B, and still have just the 4 Basic Lasers.

Are you kidding? Four basic lasers is enough to get you through level 3 shields.

Admittedly, it's been so long since I've played I can't remember the exact starting kit for it, but in all honesty, there's only so many times you can complain before something has to change: either you figure out what you're doing wrong and stop doing it, or move onto another game.

edited 26th Oct '16 1:39:49 AM by Ekimmak

Yeah, Kestrel B is one of the most powerful stock vessels in the game due to the potency of a full volley, the quick cooldown of its weapons, the ease of simply dropping better weapons in due to the low power cost of the basic lasers, and its good overall layout. The only ships that really rival it are boarding optimized (Mantis B and Crystal B). If you're having trouble with Kestrel B, I'm pretty sure it's user error.

Once all your weapons are charged, pause, cue up focused fire on the enemy's weapons (if they have a particularly threatening weapon, like a missile launcher) or shields (if they don't and you want to take them down quickly), unpause, rinse and repeat. Bam, sectors 1-4 rolled up easy-peasy.

That said, my personal favorites are the Zoltan ships because of dat Supershield and the Zoltan crew.

edited 26th Oct '16 2:20:48 AM by Balmung

I didn't like the Zoltan ships when I tried them, but that might simply be because of a boarding event that ended my run because the boarders thought it would be a brilliant idea to destroy the O2 system. None of the crew had enough health to survive repairing it, so it was over.

Every time it should, I either miss, or it just knocks the shields down and nothing more. I have absolute shit luck when it comes to hitting. So MANY runs have been ruined by my weapons room taking a fuckton of damage, an inopportune miss, or whatnot.

You might need to ask the developers to create a specialized version for you where the RNG isn't out for your blood, then, because you seem to have become the 1% that cannot get a good run.

I'm tempted to call confirmation bias. You think you have terrible luck and don't recall events that contradict this (eg. all shots connecting), while recalling strongly the events that confirm this.

If you want to try something a little less RNG-based, you could try downloading a save with all the ships unlocked and try a boarding ship (for example, Mantis B or Crystal B) or a ship that comes with drones (for example, any Engi ship), hacking (several type C layouts), and/or mind control (also several type C layouts), as well as acquiring a cloaking device if possible (but not starting with one of the Glass Cannon stealth cruisers). All of these give you more direct control over the battle and reduce your dependency on RNG to either damage the enemy or avoid damage from the same.

edited 30th Oct '16 3:48:10 PM by Balmung

I think it's Kestrel B and Lanius B that are strongest on stock...and yes, I LOVE Lanius B.

Also: Twentington, did you slow your gameplay pace down AND start focusing on upgrading defense early AND do a proper target prioritization after that vid you posted? Just wondering.

edited 31st Oct '16 6:14:31 AM by onyhow

i can never get enough scrap. If I beef up my shields and engine early, then i can't afford any damn thing else for ages.

You don't need to. You've got the perfect starting weapons.

Well, like all things it requires some attention to how the run is going. Generally my rule of thumb is 2 shields first, then 4 engines, but then I focus more on getting a new weapon by sector 3, even on the Red-Tail, than trying to get 3 shields. Stuff like 3 shields or a defense drone can usually wait until around sector 5; the ability to have a large number of projectiles (or other evasion-mitigating factor) is far more important since tier-2 shield enemies are much tougher to kill than tier-1 shield enemies.

Just for curiosity's sake, what's the most projectiles you can launch at once?

It depends on whether you use a bug/exploit - conventionally, it'd be 24 projectiles on the Federation C cruiser - 17 flak from two Flak IIs and a Flak I/Burst Laser II for weapons, and 7 more from the Flak Artillery.

Using the fun bug with the Weapons Pre-Igniter where you power some weapons at the end of a beacon, then pause the game, de-power them, power up other weapons, then jump to a new beacon, you can get all your weapons charged at the next beacon. This means, with 4 Flak IIs in your loadout, you can fire two of them, instantly switch to the other two before they lose too much charge, and fire two more of them a couple of milliseconds later, for a total of 28 projectiles.

edited 31st Oct '16 6:58:40 PM by Leylicite

Cool.

Except when I'm in sector 5 and can't hit a damn thing anymore.

It doesn't matter how many times you don't get all the hits. If you have enough shields, you will eventually finish the fight.

If they have missiles, then you might struggle a bit, but the fact is, that when you have enough shields to block all their attacks, and enough power to keep them and the weapons going... you win.

End of discussion.

So spend three days fighting them because one hit out of 247 will damage them?

The highest achievable evasion is somewhere around 45%, so at most you should miss just under half the time.

So why do I so often miss for a billion shots in a row? I've had times where I've fired two Flak I Is at the enemy, and all fourteen shots missed. Repeatedly.