SUGGESTIONS and ideas for improving FTL

General discussion about the game.
FDru
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:08 pm

Re: SUGGESTIONS and ideas for improving FTL

Postby FDru » Sat Nov 24, 2012 3:43 am

I really really really really really want individual autofire for weapons.

A pause button would be great also. I kept looking for one in my first few playthroughs, only to find out later that it wasn't there. What a disappointment... it is the only thing preventing the game from being playable with mouse only.

Todes_Schnitzel wrote:
Revvwm wrote:

Level 3 sensors should allow you to know exactly which weapons and bots the enemy ship is carrying.

You can tell just by looking. You don't even need sensors.

No!! All bombs have the same looking and some Missile launche.


Why do you need to see what different missile or bombs they have? The different types have mostly identical functionality and you'll probably be taking the same countermeasures no matter what. The most important thing to know about missiles is the cooldown, which you can get a general idea of by the size of the launcher.
Revvwm
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Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: SUGGESTIONS for improving FTL

Postby Revvwm » Sat Nov 24, 2012 3:58 am

EdenNov wrote:No. If you want it faster, get the upgrades. The first thing that needs to be fixed is the cloaking's cool down. The rest is meaningless in comparison.

I forgot to add the cloak cooldown indeed! The rest is just as important. This should be addressed.

EdenNov wrote:There already is: x1.25 score.

You call this an incentive to play? Incentive comes from reward. I think if I take the risk of getting less scrap and more difficult enemies, there should at least be a higher chance of getting new crew members or more frequent gambling events.


EdenNov wrote:It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (especially since there already are races that are fire-resistant and suffocation-resistant).

It does make sense, those guys are half robots half organic, right? But I indeed forgot about that one race that is immune to suffocation.

EdenNov wrote:You can tell just by looking. You don't even need sensors.

Well, maybe YOU can, you are an expert at this game aren't you?
You will never know exactly whether the enemy has boarding bots before he uses them on you for example. Also it seems impossible to discern which type of missile launchers there are, and the burst lasers almost all look the same. The art style is too minimalistic for that.
The level 3 sensor would be actually useful for once. It would help preparing for the attack by raising defense bots for example. That's incentive again right here.

EdenNov wrote:Never ran into that problem myself. In fact, I usually hire ~10 crew members each run, without buying any (try getting the teleport early).

Maybe that one suggestion was bad regarding the conservative state of mind of Rogue-like fanatics out there.
But how can you hire 10 crew members each run? It's a randomized game!
You sir are a presumptuous liar and did not offer much constructive criticism. :(
Revvwm
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: SUGGESTIONS and ideas for improving FTL

Postby Revvwm » Sat Nov 24, 2012 4:04 am

ZiMMy wrote:
Revvwm wrote:
  • Add a clickable button somewhere to pause the game, or at least a configurable bind key (mouse button 3 would be awesome!)


Why u no satisfied with space key?


Great argument right there pal!

What if I don't have a working space key (on my computer at work for example, on which I play FTL quite often)?
Also in some cases having to sit with one hand on the keyboard can be very tiresome for some people (especially at work).

Besides, it's just a basic principle of PC gaming: we play on computers FFS, we should be able to rebind every key.
FDru
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:08 pm

Re: SUGGESTIONS for improving FTL

Postby FDru » Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:44 am

Revvwm wrote:
EdenNov wrote:There already is: x1.25 score.

You call this an incentive to play? Incentive comes from reward. I think if I take the risk of getting less scrap and more difficult enemies, there should at least be a higher chance of getting new crew members or more frequent gambling events.


I think a score modifier is a fine incentive in a game with a score system. The achievements track which difficulty you earned them in as well. This game is meticulously balanced around Normal mode anyway. I believe easy was simply added to provide a casual experience... treat it that way.

If this was a dungeon crawler I would agree with you, harder difficulty should give better loot (provided the difficulty is scaled enough so it's still harder despite the extra power your character has). I like the idea of having a more interesting and varied experience as a reward for playing hard mode.
VanguardOfValor
Posts: 205
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:24 am

Re: SUGGESTIONS and ideas for improving FTL

Postby VanguardOfValor » Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:59 am

In my opinion, the incentive for playing on Normal is that the game is actually difficult. :P

I got to the Last Stand in the very first game I tried, while playing on easy, and although I got completely stomped by the boss because I had no idea what to expect it was basically a free ride the whole way there. I went to normal after that and had a much more enjoyable and challenging experience. I don't care much about the score multiplier, but I do like playing on the intended difficulty.

Revvwm wrote:But how can you hire 10 crew members each run? It's a randomized game!
You sir are a presumptuous liar and did not offer much constructive criticism. :(


Actually, if you have a teleporter and boarding party early on, it is really easy to get a ton of crew. Killing the enemy without destroying their ship has a high chance of giving you crew members (and better rewards as a general rule), so getting 10+ is not that unusual. The game is randomized, sure, but those free crew are not uncommon.

I agree about the weapons looking the same as well, but I have to say that diversityMod helps a lot with that. You can get a version that only implements the cosmetic changes (which is what I'm using) if you don't want to add in any of the additional gear and other changes that have been added. If you're frustrated by the rockets all looking the same, it makes things a lot nicer. Bombs are still identical though. :P
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Number43
Posts: 177
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Re: SUGGESTIONS for improving FTL

Postby Number43 » Sat Nov 24, 2012 7:08 am

Revvwm wrote:
EdenNov wrote:There already is: x1.25 score.

You call this an incentive to play? Incentive comes from reward. I think if I take the risk of getting less scrap and more difficult enemies, there should at least be a higher chance of getting new crew members or more frequent gambling events.
(


Someone doesn't get the point of a difficulty setting. You don't counterbalance it being made more difficult by giving bonuses that make it less difficult.
UltraMantis
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Re: SUGGESTIONS and ideas for improving FTL

Postby UltraMantis » Sat Nov 24, 2012 9:23 am

VanguardOfValor wrote:Actually, if you have a teleporter and boarding party early on, it is really easy to get a ton of crew. Killing the enemy without destroying their ship has a high chance of giving you crew members (and better rewards as a general rule), so getting 10+ is not that unusual. The game is randomized, sure, but those free crew are not uncommon.
The most crew i got was 12 and that was when boarding heavily... like, start to finish heavily :D
When NOT playing a boarding game it is much harder to get crew, and those pesky crew-eating encounters sometimes cripple me. Never a slave ship around when you need one.

Lvl3 Sensors display enemy power use, and the exact state of damage on their ship. It's not extremely usefull but it's good for the price. It helps me decide what to target. Are their drones going to come back online before they fix the weapon and reload it? Will they fix the engines and escape? How quickly are they going to repair enough of their shields to get another layer of protection? Things like that are minor but in some cases very usefull.
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EdenNov
Posts: 82
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Re: SUGGESTIONS for improving FTL

Postby EdenNov » Sat Nov 24, 2012 11:54 am

Revvwm wrote:
EdenNov wrote:There already is: x1.25 score.

You call this an incentive to play? Incentive comes from reward. I think if I take the risk of getting less scrap and more difficult enemies, there should at least be a higher chance of getting new crew members or more frequent gambling events.

Yes I call this incentive. Points are the reward (what else are they?). Making a game harder, and then rewarding the player for choosing a harder difficulty by making it easier is stupid.

Revvwm wrote:
EdenNov wrote:It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (especially since there already are races that are fire-resistant and suffocation-resistant).

It does make sense, those guys are half robots half organic, right? But I indeed forgot about that one race that is immune to suffocation.

OK, you're right. What I meant was that it's unnecessary, considering the immunity is already there, on another race (less diversity).

Revvwm wrote:
EdenNov wrote:You can tell just by looking. You don't even need sensors.

Well, maybe YOU can, you are an expert at this game aren't you?
You will never know exactly whether the enemy has boarding bots before he uses them on you for example.

lvl 3 sensors give you the power usage of each system, and the enemy sends out all drones on the first frame (except if you happen to have Zoltan shield and the enemy has boarding drone, but even then, you can see 3 unused power bars and deduce the rest), so what would be the difference?
I agree about some of the weapons, which is why I use the aforementioned Diversity Mod.

Revvwm wrote:
EdenNov wrote:Never ran into that problem myself. In fact, I usually hire ~10 crew members each run, without buying any (try getting the teleport early).

Maybe that one suggestion was bad regarding the conservative state of mind of Rogue-like fanatics out there.
But how can you hire 10 crew members each run? It's a randomized game!
You sir are a presumptuous liar and did not offer much constructive criticism. :(

Have you tried getting the teleporter? With lvl 2 TP getting crew members isn't difficult at all. I do not appreciate being called a liar. Just try it! Not to boast or anything, but with Unidentified Cruiser B (which is ridiculously overpowered), my all-time high was 19 crew members hired. If you don't have that one yet, try with mantis B. You'll see how many blue options you get.
SleepyMage
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:38 am

Re: SUGGESTIONS and ideas for improving FTL

Postby SleepyMage » Sat Nov 24, 2012 11:24 pm

Auto-fire, pause buttons, and cloak buttons are good suggestions. It's just a matter of convenience that should be easy to add.

I also agree on the health bars. When fighting multiple people it gets a bit chaotic to see who is at what. Mousing over them for a health read out is useful, but only can be done one at a time. How about another button or area that you can mouse over that displays all numeric health counters instead of just one?

Eh, normal is supposed to be the harder difficulty. Adding in any more bonuses would make it easier and defeat the purpose.

I would like FTL to make up its mind about cooldowns after battle. Cloak does not recharge instantly, the FTL drive and teleporters do recharge instantly. Cloak doesn't seem like it has an excuse. O2 however, determines whether live or die so it makes sense that your levels follow you wherever you go. It's an active thing to be maintained for survival.

Boarding drones I agree with as well. If it is not active and the enemy ship is dead then you should be able to repair around it, possibly even get a free drone part at the end of it.

Events where enemies board your ship are not supposed to be lucrative, just unlucky. They are easy enough to deal with most of the time, so having a potential surrender option turns this from a constant bad but relatively harmless thing into a almost always good event. If it happened like 10% of the time then that wouldn't be too unbalanced.

I don't know if Engies need to be changed. Crystal people are resistant to suffocation so that is there perk. Engi are pretty balanced as they are in my opinion.

You can already identify the majority of weapons on a ship by appearance or by having them fire one volley. In the majority of circumstances you cannot knock out their weapons before one volley is fired, so I think an identifying sensor has little purpose. Though, I also think that sensors 3 have a relatively weak power and could use some other benefit. Regardless of the power level that an enemy is using you still try to take out the same core systems every time. Knowing which one has one extra or one less power generally doesn't change what you target.

There is sometimes a store in the 8th sector, but you might as well ask why the Federation cannot give you four burst laser MK IIs on arrival. They give you fuel and repair your hull for balance reasons.
Revvwm
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Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 12:43 pm

Re: SUGGESTIONS for improving FTL

Postby Revvwm » Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:56 am

You guys make some fair points.

EdenNov wrote:Have you tried getting the teleporter? With lvl 2 TP getting crew members isn't difficult at all. I do not appreciate being called a liar. Just try it! Not to boast or anything, but with Unidentified Cruiser B (which is ridiculously overpowered), my all-time high was 19 crew members hired. If you don't have that one yet, try with mantis B. You'll see how many blue options you get.

Sorry I called you a liar, I take it back (I often tend to make a fool of myself when I'm very tired and a bit pissy). I'm still not sure how the Teleporter gets you crew members though... Do they surrender at some point or what? Or do you refer to the blue events only? If so, I do not stumble upon them very frequently... perhaps bad luck. Still, I think you should be able to purchase a cheap new human crew upon arriving at level 8 (with no experience so that's not too unbalanced either). *shrugs*

SleepyMage wrote: Events where enemies board your ship are not supposed to be lucrative, just unlucky. They are easy enough to deal with most of the time, so having a potential surrender option turns this from a constant bad but relatively harmless thing into a almost always good event. If it happened like 10% of the time then that wouldn't be too unbalanced.


Yes of course that wouldn't happen all the time, perhaps having a Health Station level 2 at least would be required to have prisoners join the crew as well... It's just an idea. And I've had very bad times with boarders, especially when having a crew of only 3 Zoltans!


Anyway, the interface should be the devs' top priority I think. Hopefully they plan on working on FTL a little bit longer.