More useful stores?

General discussion about the game.
LuniqueKero
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:07 am

More useful stores?

Postby LuniqueKero » Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:14 am

One thing that I noticed and constantly had me lifting my arms in the air saying BS is how useless the stores are sometime and how it can just simply ruin your chances of surviving. It seems a bit annoying that I cannot try a strategy I have in mind because the stores never sell the things I want, like drones or weapons.

It seems right now that the outcome of the game is determined by the random offers of these stores rather than a concious decision of the player. Wouldn't it be better if the stores offered a bit of everything and you'd get to pick which strategical direction you want to take?
PiperAtTheGates
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:20 am

Re: More useful stores?

Postby PiperAtTheGates » Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:27 am

The thing about randomizing the stores is that it forces you to plan ahead and rewards exploring more of each sector to find the store that has what you want. Each sector has at least 3-4 different stores I think, probably more in some cases, so that gives you plenty of chances to get what you're looking for.

The randomization of these stores means that if you're looking for a particular item or set of items, you need to explore every sector thoroughly, save up some scrap so that you can afford it when you find it, and it also means you might have to buy a late-game item before you really need it, as part of your overall long-term plan. In my opinion, all of those things add to the strategy and challenge of the game rather than taking away from it.
StarWarsOZ
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:13 am

Re: More useful stores?

Postby StarWarsOZ » Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:29 am

Having those stores randomised menas there is much more of a challange.
If every store had drones, weapons, systems it wouldn't be hard, because you have so much choice.

This game is a lot about choice, from choosing to go left or right in the beacon map to chosing what systems to target in a fight.
I think that it is good to have the stores randomised, even though it is VERY annoying when they don't have anything. :)
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LuniqueKero
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:07 am

Re: More useful stores?

Postby LuniqueKero » Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:29 am

Exploring more of each sector is a basic of the game, exploring grants you scrap, so random factor or not, you WANT to explore as much as you can. Sometime however, these stores are simply useless and won't let you have anything good to let you progress.

I personally don't see how a random store that doesn't give you anything to help you survive is a "challenge" since it doesn't come down to skill at all, if you dont get good equipment, you are done for, end of story.

I wish the game was a bit more balanced toward skill and concious player strategy rather than just go "well, I never get any weapons or crew, guess I have to go drone".
Agent_L
Posts: 206
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:47 pm

Re: More useful stores?

Postby Agent_L » Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:47 am

Imagine that every store offers Burst laser II.
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PiperAtTheGates
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:20 am

Re: More useful stores?

Postby PiperAtTheGates » Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:21 pm

Good point Agent L, if you could get any item whenever you wanted, the game would be pretty broken since certain items are just too good in multiples, and are therefore meant to be hard to find (burst laser II for instance, as you said).
spacecadet13
Posts: 126
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: More useful stores?

Postby spacecadet13 » Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:50 pm

"I personally don't see how a random store that doesn't give you anything to help you survive is a "challenge" since it doesn't come down to skill at all, if you dont get good equipment, you are done for, end of story"

Huh? Making the best of what you do get (instead of what you want) is THE challenge, and usually requires plenty of skill to get through. Every run with 4 x Burst Lasers MkII? Yawn. Set Autofire, go grab a coffee. Being pretty much guaranteed a victory every run just by getting to a "super" store with everything you need/want would be a gamebreaker.
Derakon
Posts: 111
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 4:05 am

Re: More useful stores?

Postby Derakon » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:14 pm

On the flipside, if every single store sells just (say) crew and augments (or crew and crappy drones), then you're pretty boned -- you'll have to hope that you find useful weapons at random. Which does happen sometimes, but far from always. Without weapons you're basically screwed -- a teleportation system will only take you so far.

The purpose of the shops is to mitigate the random drops you get during gameplay, and to give access to systems you don't have yet. If the shops are too badly biased then they aren't doing their job properly.

Nobody is suggesting, that I can see, that you should be able to buy whatever you want. But when the shops don't ever even sell the category of things you need, that's pretty absurd. There's a huge gap in the economy; why isn't any storekeeper stepping in to fill it?
Madhax
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 6:52 pm

Re: More useful stores?

Postby Madhax » Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:34 pm

I'm fine with the shops working as they currently do. FTL is all about improvisation and overcoming varying challenges. I recently beat the game having never visited a shop that sold desirable crew, so my crew at the end was comprised of three zoltan, four engi, and one human. I usually rely on a solid group of fighters in my crew, so this totally changed how I repelled boarders. Then, I never got to purchase a teleporter, so I had to re-write my Flagship strategy on the fly.

This is a good thing. It keeps the game fresh, challenging, and uncertain.
LuniqueKero
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:07 am

Re: More useful stores?

Postby LuniqueKero » Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:17 pm

Lets not twist my suggestion around, Agent. I'm not saying that store should offer the best weapons all the time to make the game easier, I just wish the store would not be so useless by offering me crews or a drone systems like it seem to be doing most of the time right now. I have to dance to the holy god of FTL space to just MAYBE see a weapon store once and be properly equiped to go through the next sector currently. If the stores for instance would offer only 1 item of each category each visit, I would be happy.

I'm not requesting to make the game easier, Its just that I quickly lost this feeling of control as soon as I understood how the game worked and realised that each game would completely dictate the outcome and that my actions were in some case quite irrelevant.