Subset Games Forum

I find that the game is fun because the boss is difficult.
Nerfing the boss would make the game boring because i would beat it almost every time i get to it.
Also, why would the rebels be stupid enough to make their flagship underpowered, as if it gets destroyed than they are finished.

I actually have a cute little comment;

On my first run of the game, I literally accidentally got to phase 3 (I got to sector 8, freaked out and just tried to use my insignifigant force to live for longer than a minute.)

The boss was quite hard the first couple of times but now I feel like if I make it to sector 8 I beat the boss. Guess it is a learned skill.

jamotide wrote:

master_bungle wrote: No it's not. I think you need to re-check what roguelike means.
Also the Civ games, as far as I'm aware, can't put you in a situation where you CAN'T win due to luck, assuming you weren't doing stupid things up until that point.

Yes roguelike means what it means, that why FTL is called roguelike-LIKE, meaning it has only some elements of it. Thats my whole point.
And yes, provided you play well, you cannot get into a situation where you can lose due to luck in Civ, but it is the same in FTL, if you play properly with the normal ships, you can't lose. At least after the first 10 minutes.

Actually you can easily lose due to luck when playing well. I have got to the latter sectors without finding any new weapons or having the chance to buy any. That means eventually you will be unable to get past the enemy shields. Making it impossible to win.

Also FTL is classed as a space simulation roguelike. Nowhere have I ever seen it classed as a roguelike-like... Again, not that it matters, I just couldn't help replying

Anyways, as great as this game is, the fact that the randomisation can result in it being impossible to win at times can make me unwilling to play another game. I can deal with a challenge, but its no fun when no matter how skilled you are, and no matter how much you try to reduce risk, the game can royally F you over with bad luck and end your run. Gets old after a while

master_bungle wrote:Also FTL is classed as a space simulation roguelike. Nowhere have I ever seen it classed as a roguelike-like...

"FTL is a spaceship simulation roguelike-like."

That's where the "roguelike-like" statement comes from, so it's not something people have made up.

master_bungle wrote: Actually you can easily lose due to luck when playing well. I have got to the latter sectors without finding any new weapons or having the chance to buy any. That means eventually you will be unable to get past the enemy shields. Making it impossible to win.

Accumulating over 500 scrap specifically earmarked for weapons from pretty much /always/ boarding and wiping crew, hitting many stores, and never ever seeing a non-beam weapon for sale (and mostly just crew or drone schematics?)? Been there, done that.

The problem with the flagship isn't necessarily the difficulty but rather how restrictive the fight is.
FTL is a game that promotes freedom of choice. One of the most appealing aspects is being able to experiment with tactics and play it your own way. This doesn't apply to the flagship fight which only has a few options for victory. It was the same problem with Deus Ex: HR.

For example, the game can be played stealthily. I had a run where I focused underhand tactics and avoided open conflict which turned out really well until the final fight where my ship was obviously pummeled into the ground.

Personally I don't mind difficulty in games but the final section just needs to have more options for victory.

You do have to play each game with the final fight in mind. It doesn't restrict how you play up to the last stand, but it can cause a good ship to fail because of how linear the boss fight is. That said, the boss fight is the only non-random battle and that makes it predictable and easy to counter. Easy once you've been beaten to a pulp a few times.

It's the only weakness of the game. Everything that leads up to the last stand goes out the window. And the difficulty of having to learn how to tackle this one problem (or three really) once you've invested so much in a run is pretty brutal as well.

THAT said, it really makes defeating the boss feel special and well deserved.

personally I find the boss to be the weakest enemy in the game. Once you have beat him once, you know how to in every other runs, since he never changes. If I do get to sector 6 or so in a play through, I know I am gonna win. Because the boss is killed by some basic strategies: boarding, Ion weapons, burstlaser spam, cloaking.

My very first time playing, (which was on normal,) somewhere around the 6th or 7th sectors I didn't have enough firepower to defeat most of the enemy ships. I was able to jump and repair well enough to survive to the 8th sector, which felt really great at the time. Since the stated goal of the game was to reach the Federation base, I thought I was winning right up till I found out that while the Federation had lots of ships, my battered Kestral was the only one they could spare to fight the giant Rebel ship. And then I died.