Perma-death as a skill level option?

[sonicflare]

Hi,
This topic i would say is very controversial, but hear my point.
This game takes randomness as a game mechanic, and makes a decent job in terms of replay value, but, as we all know, randomness in game design is double edge sword. And it can swing very badly towards the player. And there is little that player can do counter a "bad luck" situation.
Like, flying to the asteroid belt right from the get-go and to solar flare after that. (how bad luck is this?). Not to mention how many good builds were destroyed by some random factors.
My proposal for this is to introduce new skill level, called "perma-death" or "hardcore". For example you get 35% more score or some other benefit. For the level below, you allow to use save game option (as it is already in the game, you just need to surface that. And you can already do the same thing with the backup of save files).

This would satisfy the "hardcore" payers and also ease the random element for more casual players.

Thanks

[VanguardOfValor]

So basically, you aren't adding perma death and a hardcore mode, you're suggesting the addition of an "ultra-easy" mode, where you can save as often as you want and load saves if things go sour?

I guess it could work, but I don't see the point. Allowing you to easily ignore any negative outcome would make things a bit TOO easy in my opinion, and would kind of kill the fun of playing the game. Rather than give more score for playing the traditional game mode, I'd imagine a game mode like this ultra-easy one would give 75% less score or something along those lines, and not allow achievement or ship unlocks.

[UltraMantis]

I've nothing against the game being made easier to acomodate more players and have more fans overall. I do think that you are blaming luck a little too much. Yes an early tough beacon can even end the game, but that happens very rarely. Jumping into asteroids right from the start is pretty bad because your ship is liekely slow at that point and your crew unskilled. Solar flares are also far from game enders as you can vent much of your ship to limit the potential of wildfires spreading across the ship.

The more you play and the more you learn, the more you realise just how little luck has to do with playing the game. Luck decides what to throw at you, but your cleverness and experience is there to solve the problems. 99% of them can be solved, but not by newbie players. If you enjoy playing you will slowly master the game. Of course some gamers don't have the patience or time for this. I don't blame them, but it makes it harder for them.

FTL is designed from the ground up as an "Ironman" type game, where saving and reloading is not possible and there are no multiple lives. I'm not realy sure how fun it would be to play if such limits were removed, and i'm even less sure of just how much difficulty should be modified. There are already some good ideas on making Easy mode easier, and keeping Normal as is, even possibly adding a Hard mode. Allowing Easy mode games to be saved at the beginning of each sector is one of the better suggestions as it would not make the game any easier that it is, but would remove much of the frustration of losing.

Removing permadeath might be possible with the use of a mod, there already is a Checkpoint Savesystem Mod for Mac.

[WilliamAntares]

I agree that save points would make the game's challenge decrease heavily- as this would allow you to make a build perfect for each type of encounter you would come across. However I don't see a problem with a checkpoint system even in "normal" mode if reloading the game would change the random scenarios you were to come across, at least as an option. I don't particularly enjoy having to restart due to a near un-winnable random scenario marring a otherwise fair playthrough. I say near here because as Mantis mentioned almost all (however I doubt its 99%) of the random situations can be solved- however some solutions just take you from the pot and into the fire

Such as jumping away from a fight you can't win with your current setup, or a fight near a solar flare early in the game- to jumping to another fight in the same situation. As I stated much of the game relies on random chance to provide difficulty, I think it's a little elitist to describe anyone who gets runs into these situational rolls as a "newbie".
Eg: Solar flare fights back to back where the initial flare sets several fires in vital rooms (cockpit, med bay, engine room etc) at the same time while you're being attacked, or finding a play through with no stores/friendly encounters to be repaired (which I'm sure is rare but I just had a game with that )

Skill most definitely plays a part in this game, but chance plays a considerable one too. I'd like to see how some "veteran" players would handle some of the stinker %'s I've run into.

[UltraMantis]

Yeah, that 1% statement is a bit arbitrary. Maybe i was trying too hard to argue against the game being luck based. Chances have to be taken in order to grab all the scrap neccesary for ship upgrades, because without that there is no victory. Very last game i played was a Stealth A run, and i gambled and won, then gambled and won, gambled... etc. Ridiculous chances that got me loads of crew and scrap that easily could have cost me crew and hull HP. Giant spiders, mysterious abandoned settlements, etc. all the dice rolled my way.

So the game is decided by luck when you do decide to gamble, and it's your choice to take the risk or not. But since you are under pressure to take risks, i will admit that luck plays a bigger part than 1%. Certainly in scenarios that don't involve skill at all, only judgement of risk vs. possible reward.

Even in the overall game, blind luck will have an impact on the outcome. That "gamble and win" run in the Nesasio? You know how it ended? Not enough stores selling weapons! The best i found was a Heavy Laser and it would not have helped against 4-shield enemies. I somehow managed to finish sector 7, but at that point i was running away from most of the ships because Dual Lasers + Mini Beam were hopeless at this point and boarding was usually out of the question. The rare ship i managed to defeat yielded enough scrap to repair the ship but that was it. Unless i found a miracle store in the last stand, the game was lost regardless of my skill and experience.

Where exactly that run went wrong, i just don't know. Maybe the missing pieces were in the sectors i haven't visited. Maybe if i had taken that pirate's bribe that included a Hull Laser, or if i hadn't sold the Fire Bomb... who knows. I sold it to buy the Scrap Recovery Arm and because i was out of missiles anyway. I gambled and lost.

Being elite smartarse helps very little in actually winning the game. It mostly matters in recognising trouble ahead of time and better uderstanding how events work. In combat, experience gives a better chance of victory with less damage taken. That's why i said "newbies" had worse chances at winning. Simple mistakes that are mostly made once and then never repeated. "Lesson learned, won't fall for that again." type of surprises and such.

The game stays challenging no matter how much you improve. I may be #$%^&* less often by boarders for example, but it still happens. l33t or nup, FTL doesn't discriminate...