Hi everyone. I've been an FTL player for many years though I only have about 100 total hours and am fairly inexperienced. I was just familiarising myself with the ship unlock mechanics to see what I should do next and noticed that all my previous unlocks have been on easy mode. I have a faint memory of this game being extremely difficult even in normal, so I wondered what people's opinions were on the game's general difficulty compared to others, and how much dignity one can maintain playing entirely on easy? Also, I still don't understand the difference between difficulty settings and the advanced content. I have always played AE enabled so as to avoid missing out on achievements but I can't really be bothered to turn it off and see what's missing. Just joined this sub, many sorries if these are questions that get asked all the time.
Tl;dr 1: Opinions on general difficulty of the game: is it common to play on easy a lot of the time? 2. AE content: what does it add? How does the difficulty change compare to the actual difficulty settings?
Thank you!!
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Difficulty reassurance!!
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John4458
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:19 pm
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thereaverofdarkness
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:21 am
Re: Difficulty reassurance!!
Higher difficulty settings give you weaker scrap rewards and stronger opponents; little else is different. It often doesn't feel much more difficult other than the struggle for getting enough scrap to buy the things you need. But the odds of you getting roflstomped by a comically strong opponent go up a lot in higher difficulties. I find the game is not really more challenging at higher difficulties, but rather just increases the odds you die to something that wasn't your mistake. So easy is really better and more fun for the most part. Normal can be fun if you do well in the first few sectors. Hard is just gambling on whether or not victory is even possible.
The score bonus also doesn't scale nearly as much as you might think. It says you get way more score on harder difficulties, but my normal and easy victories have comparable scores, with normal scores being only marginally higher. The reason for this is that most of your score comes from the scrap you receive, and you receive more scrap on easier difficulties. So the score difference is a lie, just like so many other things in the game.
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Advanced Edition allows you to play on hard which I don't recommend unless you like having the random number generator decide to off you at random points. Hard I suppose is just for players who have beat normal too many times and are getting bored with the game.
It also adds several new ships, weapons, drones, systems and subsystems, a new race, and some other things. It changes the balance of combat a lot because of the addition of the hacking and mind control systems along with new weapons like flaks and chain lasers. The Flagship is stronger now, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's harder. The Flagship receives a hacking system on the first phase, and mind control on the third phase, with nothing lost to pay for them. But once you get used to all the new tools you have at your disposal, you can generally arrive stronger than before. So it balances out after the first few runs or so.
Chain lasers start slow and get faster each time they fire. Once they are fully chained, they become much stronger than other comparable weapons for the same power cost. If you hit the enemy's weapon system and make the chain laser go offline, it resets its chains.
Charge weapons can save up multiple shots or fire early. They are slightly weaker than burst weapons but can fire early. The AI seems to do okay using their various options, but they aren't particularly strong. The charge missile is great for saving missiles and getting past defense drones, however.
Flak weapons are similar to burst lasers but give significantly more shots relative to their power cost and charge time. This is balanced by them hitting over an area which can lead to shots hitting adjacent rooms or missing the ship entirely. Flak weapons are pretty strong but their best use is depleting shield bubbles.
The Lanius are metal aliens which deplete the oxygen in a room and don't need oxygen to breathe. They are usually hostile, or just see other ships as scrap piles to be harvested. They aren't cruel, they just don't look at things the same way we do. They love scrap and aren't afraid to trade for stuff. You can meet Lanius ships and buy Lanius crewmembers at stores found in abandoned sectors (a hostile sector type).
The rest you will really just need to discover for yourself.
The score bonus also doesn't scale nearly as much as you might think. It says you get way more score on harder difficulties, but my normal and easy victories have comparable scores, with normal scores being only marginally higher. The reason for this is that most of your score comes from the scrap you receive, and you receive more scrap on easier difficulties. So the score difference is a lie, just like so many other things in the game.
- - -
Advanced Edition allows you to play on hard which I don't recommend unless you like having the random number generator decide to off you at random points. Hard I suppose is just for players who have beat normal too many times and are getting bored with the game.
It also adds several new ships, weapons, drones, systems and subsystems, a new race, and some other things. It changes the balance of combat a lot because of the addition of the hacking and mind control systems along with new weapons like flaks and chain lasers. The Flagship is stronger now, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's harder. The Flagship receives a hacking system on the first phase, and mind control on the third phase, with nothing lost to pay for them. But once you get used to all the new tools you have at your disposal, you can generally arrive stronger than before. So it balances out after the first few runs or so.
Chain lasers start slow and get faster each time they fire. Once they are fully chained, they become much stronger than other comparable weapons for the same power cost. If you hit the enemy's weapon system and make the chain laser go offline, it resets its chains.
Charge weapons can save up multiple shots or fire early. They are slightly weaker than burst weapons but can fire early. The AI seems to do okay using their various options, but they aren't particularly strong. The charge missile is great for saving missiles and getting past defense drones, however.
Flak weapons are similar to burst lasers but give significantly more shots relative to their power cost and charge time. This is balanced by them hitting over an area which can lead to shots hitting adjacent rooms or missing the ship entirely. Flak weapons are pretty strong but their best use is depleting shield bubbles.
The Lanius are metal aliens which deplete the oxygen in a room and don't need oxygen to breathe. They are usually hostile, or just see other ships as scrap piles to be harvested. They aren't cruel, they just don't look at things the same way we do. They love scrap and aren't afraid to trade for stuff. You can meet Lanius ships and buy Lanius crewmembers at stores found in abandoned sectors (a hostile sector type).
The rest you will really just need to discover for yourself.