Subset Games Forum

Just got the flag ship down to its third encounter on normal, farthest I've ever made it, but it wasn't enough. We came apart at the seams and that damn ship that is missing half it's bloody hull somehow lives on.

In defense of Matthew and Justin, FTL is a type of game that has mainstream appeal but mainstream players aren't used to the difficulty and evilness. There are plenty of other very evil games where you realise the developers did their absolute best to design very difficult or borderline cruel levels/situations. Those games usually appeal to fewer players and have little mainstream appeal.

FTL is an unforgiving game and that surprises many folks who mistake it for being evil.

Double post

I definitely don't want an easier experience, but man, lol it's harsh to lose an all out, down to the wire battle against the boss after hours of difficult travel through the 7 preceding sectors. I wish there were a few ship unlocks for high scores to give me more incentive to keep at it. I always thought high scores for the sake of high scores was about as crappy a motivating factor as it gets for games.

The idea of a game is to require a skill to win.

When you're bound to finish, it's not a game. It's an interactive movie.

I havent unlocked all yet. I hit the homeowrld sectors a lot and mostly got nothing out of it, but eventually i unlocked Mantis, Stealth and Rock. Together with Engi and Federation that's not a bad haul. B-types also add a lot to replayability.

Um, i also unlocked Zoltan but havent played it yet.

Trying to win with all ships is my motivation, and scores are there just because i like stats.

Any particular reason you're going after a newbie, Agent_L? Bad day at work? Something you'd like to talk about? As far as I can tell, Azuredreams has said nothing to you, yet all of your posts I've seen directed at him imply something cruel. Chill out, seriously. Also, this game requires no skill at the moment - it is entirely luck based. It's a fun game with great music, but if you get good weapons, especially crew-killers, you cruise to the end boss. And if you found good hull-lasers or beam weapons, the end boss is simply a matter of cloak, blast, cloak, blast, win.

Part of this is that FTL isn't really a roguelike or even a turn-based strategy. There's no exploration - you're permanently on the run. I'd call it an adventure... Space... Rpg... Thing. And it's fine being like that. Folks like me will probably try to modify it and make it more turn-based and more strategy-oriented, with more choice and exploration. Some people might choose to emphasize random death events and then claim they have skill when they've rerolled to the end. Some others may walk a different path still, or combine elements of everyone mentioned. And ya know? Let them. It's a game.

Old Uncle Midwinter wrote:Also, this game requires no skill at the moment - it is entirely luck based.

Not true. Source: I got better at the game.

Old Uncle Midwinter wrote:if you get good weapons, especially crew-killers, you cruise to the end boss.

True in many games. Skill is winning in adverse conditions, not waiting for victory to be served on a silver platter.

Old Uncle Midwinter wrote:And if you found good hull-lasers or beam weapons, the end boss is simply a matter of cloak, blast, cloak, blast, win.

You also need to find a cloak.

Old Uncle Midwinter wrote:Any particular reason you're going after a newbie, Agent_L? Bad day at work? Something you'd like to talk about? As far as I can tell, Azuredreams has said nothing to you, yet all of your posts I've seen directed at him imply something cruel. Chill out, seriously.

I was replying to the OP. My mistake I didn't make it more clear. He sounds surprised because of his defeat. Which is natural part of "game", I wanted to point out.
I can go on rambling about games "this days", starting with Spielberg-produced Medal Of Honor, and how most modern games indeed became interactive movies, which are impossible to not to finish. There is no victory in that.

Agent_L wrote:I was replying to the OP. My mistake I didn't make it more clear. He sounds surprised because of his defeat. Which is natural part of "game", I wanted to point out.
I can go on rambling about games "this days", starting with Spielberg-produced Medal Of Honor, and how most modern games indeed became interactive movies, which are impossible to not to finish. There is no victory in that.

For the record, while I definitely agree that there's a distinction between FTL and games-as-story-first, I certainly wouldn't want to propagate the idea that those are bad things, either.

Interactive stories are a futuristic method of storytelling, which takes the role of the "reader" or "viewer" away from the passive role in TV shows, movies, and some books, and integrates it into a more immersive experience where the reader/viewer can more directly share in the frustration of difficult situations and the joys in overcoming such hardships.

In a way, though, I would categorize FTL still as a "games-as-story", just not "story-first". In FTL, there's clearly a story involved and you're able to build more of a narrative as you go along, but unlike in more "open" games, you're still essentially railroaded into one overarching storyline. However, because the gameplay is the primary focus for FTL, rather than the story, this is less of an issue, since it's done to improve the gameplay. In other more modern games, the focus is on "story-first" because each individual game takes longer, so you're unable to as easily tell more parts of the story through "incremental plays" (such as how you can with FTL), and as such, sometimes gameplay concessions are necessary (or at least not as heavily emphasized) to promote the telling of the story. And that's not a bad thing, either. It's just a different thing.

(Yes, I know this was a tangent and not necessarily what you were thinking anyways, but since I've seen the "blargh modern games are all just stupid interactive movies not games" complaint several times, I wanted to address it.)