FTL
http://www.ftlgame.com/
Since we would not all be here if we were not into starship simulators I wanted to mention that FTL, a Kickstarted space roguelike, comes out for the PC in two days (9/14). It isn't Artemis 1.7, but it still looks like it may be fun. It looks like it is going to be avaliable on Steam and GOG.
Since we would not all be here if we were not into starship simulators I wanted to mention that FTL, a Kickstarted space roguelike, comes out for the PC in two days (9/14). It isn't Artemis 1.7, but it still looks like it may be fun. It looks like it is going to be avaliable on Steam and GOG.
[Last edited Sep 13, 2012 01:29:02]
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This game is soooo much fun. Got it for $9 on steam.
I've been playing it this weekend. VERY fun!
Creator of Artemis
I'm enjoying it, but only because I like the game that they used/ripped off to create it.
i LOVE this game <3
need to get some of the ideas from FTL into Artemis ;)
need to get some of the ideas from FTL into Artemis ;)
This game rocks.
It's very addictive, in a tragic way.
It's a little like that Supernatural groundhog day episode where Dean keeps dying again and again and again while Sam wakes up the same day each morning and is the only one who knows about the time loop and keeps trying to save Dean's life, but it restarts as Dean dies in senseless, tragic, comical ways that slowly start to drive Sam insane.
Yeah, that's kind where I am with FTL.
It's especially bad if you name the crew after your Artemis bridge crew friends.
It's a little like that Supernatural groundhog day episode where Dean keeps dying again and again and again while Sam wakes up the same day each morning and is the only one who knows about the time loop and keeps trying to save Dean's life, but it restarts as Dean dies in senseless, tragic, comical ways that slowly start to drive Sam insane.
Yeah, that's kind where I am with FTL.
It's especially bad if you name the crew after your Artemis bridge crew friends.
[Last edited Sep 26, 2012 19:36:49]
Daredevil Cosmic Cowboys, TNS Hyperion, Weapons Officer
1st Fleet of Southern California Sector.
1st Fleet of Southern California Sector.
Actually, this game is somewhat easy after you learn how to play. I went from getting frustrated over and over again while trying to play on normal to having no problem winning on normal every time (Kestrel A, Torus A, Stealth A, Zoltan A).
Usually roguelikes are about "you never know when the game will screw you up" and i hate it (i like my failure to at least somewhat depend on my actions, not entirely on random number generator). This one, FTL, is actually much more fair - first sector enemies are limited in their strength (never have 2 shields in S1, except rebel fleet, never have 3 shields in S2, except rebel fleet again) and so, you can always survive.
And by sector 3 you already have either:
- better weapons (now you can take on 3 shields and win)
- good away team (now you can beam them right from the start and win battles via boarding)
...plus you have cloak and probably 2 shield bubbles. And this means that you can now beat almost any enemy in the game. Really, if played correctly, by sector 5 you are pretty much unstoppable (can beat any possible encounter in the game with minimal to no damage). Chances of game "screwing you up" are minimal, and that is mostly bugs (no path to exit) or being fixed (in new version you see the paths between any node on the map, so you know in advance wether you can jump from that node over there to exit node, and wont end in a dead end, having to get through 4 rebel encounters to get out of the sector). Also, you can be screwed at start, but then you just lose several minutes of game by restarting, no big deal. And even that - i never really have been screwed at a start, it was just that i lost 25 point of hull integrity in first one or two fights, and i knew that it would set me back way much in scrap collection, so i CHOSE to restart, not that i was forced to.
Comparing with DoomRL (i didnt get far in other roguelikes, so i will compare to DoomRL which i had a lot of time invested in) when you enter a room with several mancubi and it so happens that now its their turn, you can be "screwed" by the game with no chance of surviving. Same for unlucky encounter with Revenants. There are situations where you have to rely in RNG to survive, and you can get an impossible situation you have minimal or no chances of winning.
I feel FTL is really kinda unbalanced, in a sense that fulcrum point is when you get shields level 2 and cloak and crew teleporter and enough weapons to do at least 1 point of damage to 3-shielded enemy - which is easilly achievable early. Then, after you upgrade to 3 shields and being able do at least 1 point of damage to 4-shielded enemy you are unstoppable. Because worst case scenario, you will get hit once or twice for ~3 hull damage. You can win almost every fight vs manned enemy by either targeting their weapons system and then boarding them, then targeting their medbay if they have one, or by targeting their shield system to remove 1 bubble, then weapon system, then boarding them and then targeting medbay if they have one.
The game is hard and fun at the beginning, you have to carefully plan a lot, you often rely on lucky shots or clutch dodges to stay out of trouble, have to constantly rotate your energy, often fighting without life support, but after you reach that fulcrum point, which comes early, somewhere around S3, you have that "phew, I got this" feeling, and you start just winning. Even rebel fleet is not very dangerous - often I can afford facing them from sector 2 onwards (which i do on purpose to explore more beacons), and very often by sector 4 they are no longer a threat at all.
What is even worse, since my first victory on normal, I NEVER had any problem with boss at all - if anything, its the LEAST hard encounter in the whole game because he is very predictable and very easy to kill (because of his weapons being in separate rooms, and being able to waste his main crew in stage one so that he doesnt have it in other stages). Right now its not about "Wether i will win against the boss" or "Will he even get a chance to get one power surge this time" (my record so far is when I got Kestrel A with 4x Burst II and 3x 15% weapon recharge time augment - boss didnt get to get power surge at stage 3 at all, and at stage 2 his power surge drones didnt get to fire even once)
So yea, would love to see some really hard enemies in sectors 6+ (like, having artillery beams for example, or 2 Ship II drones, glaive beam, two rocket launchers and Burst III) and at least a random boss layout (or maybe, fighting boss in random conditions - like, boss in a nebula with an ion storm would be cool to fight, or boss in a solar flaring sun). So that you're challenged up till the end, not only in the first half of the game.
Usually roguelikes are about "you never know when the game will screw you up" and i hate it (i like my failure to at least somewhat depend on my actions, not entirely on random number generator). This one, FTL, is actually much more fair - first sector enemies are limited in their strength (never have 2 shields in S1, except rebel fleet, never have 3 shields in S2, except rebel fleet again) and so, you can always survive.
And by sector 3 you already have either:
- better weapons (now you can take on 3 shields and win)
- good away team (now you can beam them right from the start and win battles via boarding)
...plus you have cloak and probably 2 shield bubbles. And this means that you can now beat almost any enemy in the game. Really, if played correctly, by sector 5 you are pretty much unstoppable (can beat any possible encounter in the game with minimal to no damage). Chances of game "screwing you up" are minimal, and that is mostly bugs (no path to exit) or being fixed (in new version you see the paths between any node on the map, so you know in advance wether you can jump from that node over there to exit node, and wont end in a dead end, having to get through 4 rebel encounters to get out of the sector). Also, you can be screwed at start, but then you just lose several minutes of game by restarting, no big deal. And even that - i never really have been screwed at a start, it was just that i lost 25 point of hull integrity in first one or two fights, and i knew that it would set me back way much in scrap collection, so i CHOSE to restart, not that i was forced to.
Comparing with DoomRL (i didnt get far in other roguelikes, so i will compare to DoomRL which i had a lot of time invested in) when you enter a room with several mancubi and it so happens that now its their turn, you can be "screwed" by the game with no chance of surviving. Same for unlucky encounter with Revenants. There are situations where you have to rely in RNG to survive, and you can get an impossible situation you have minimal or no chances of winning.
I feel FTL is really kinda unbalanced, in a sense that fulcrum point is when you get shields level 2 and cloak and crew teleporter and enough weapons to do at least 1 point of damage to 3-shielded enemy - which is easilly achievable early. Then, after you upgrade to 3 shields and being able do at least 1 point of damage to 4-shielded enemy you are unstoppable. Because worst case scenario, you will get hit once or twice for ~3 hull damage. You can win almost every fight vs manned enemy by either targeting their weapons system and then boarding them, then targeting their medbay if they have one, or by targeting their shield system to remove 1 bubble, then weapon system, then boarding them and then targeting medbay if they have one.
The game is hard and fun at the beginning, you have to carefully plan a lot, you often rely on lucky shots or clutch dodges to stay out of trouble, have to constantly rotate your energy, often fighting without life support, but after you reach that fulcrum point, which comes early, somewhere around S3, you have that "phew, I got this" feeling, and you start just winning. Even rebel fleet is not very dangerous - often I can afford facing them from sector 2 onwards (which i do on purpose to explore more beacons), and very often by sector 4 they are no longer a threat at all.
What is even worse, since my first victory on normal, I NEVER had any problem with boss at all - if anything, its the LEAST hard encounter in the whole game because he is very predictable and very easy to kill (because of his weapons being in separate rooms, and being able to waste his main crew in stage one so that he doesnt have it in other stages). Right now its not about "Wether i will win against the boss" or "Will he even get a chance to get one power surge this time" (my record so far is when I got Kestrel A with 4x Burst II and 3x 15% weapon recharge time augment - boss didnt get to get power surge at stage 3 at all, and at stage 2 his power surge drones didnt get to fire even once)
So yea, would love to see some really hard enemies in sectors 6+ (like, having artillery beams for example, or 2 Ship II drones, glaive beam, two rocket launchers and Burst III) and at least a random boss layout (or maybe, fighting boss in random conditions - like, boss in a nebula with an ion storm would be cool to fight, or boss in a solar flaring sun). So that you're challenged up till the end, not only in the first half of the game.
I think it would be great if the DAMCOM teams ran around like little dudes repairing the ship like in FTL.
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