Faster Than Light | Just fought rebel flagship with slug A

Just fought rebel flagship with slug A
I took the first screenshot for a 'picture taken seconds from disaster moment' - the pause made me realize there was something I'd never tried before. My last ship to win on is teaching me new things after years.
This is my lucky rock.
Cloaking or Hacking?
My WAG on RNG in FTL vs ITB.
[SHIP] SR-71 Blackbird, my first ship creation
Great luck...or terrible luck?
my god is capricious but i know she loves me

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 10:52 PM PST

Got a second bio beam, so I could just zap enemy crew in one shot, used that with ion weapons and weak laser to disintegrate all enemy crews and cruise downy to sector 8, fought flagship, after a less than ideal first phase I finally "won" by killing all the crew. Then I saw the AI message pop up. My strongest hull damaging weapon was a lvl 2 burst laser. FML.

submitted by /u/Coffeeebeen
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I took the first screenshot for a 'picture taken seconds from disaster moment' - the pause made me realize there was something I'd never tried before. My last ship to win on is teaching me new things after years.

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 07:05 AM PST

submitted by /u/AnOnlineHandle
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This is my lucky rock.

Posted: 05 Dec 2019 01:44 AM PST

First jump.

Second jump.

Sector 2, third jump.

Hello Crystal!

Halberd Beam was also a gift.

2 Hacking Stuns dropped this run.

13 laser enemy missed, I did not.

3 volleys finished the Flagship 3, so quick that I forgot to take the final screenshot.

submitted by /u/MyBrotherIsSalad
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Cloaking or Hacking?

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 06:30 PM PST

submitted by /u/superluigi1026
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My WAG on RNG in FTL vs ITB.

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 10:33 AM PST

(sorry, got a bit carried away with the TLA's: ITB = Into the Breach, RNG = random number generator, WAG = wild ass guess)

Ok, here's the deal with what I think is the biggest flaw in ITB: how much action the player is committing at a time between encounters with the RNG. In ITB, the designers clearly sought to minimize the effect of RNG on the game, a frequent critique of FTL. So what they did is isolate the player much more from the RNG. Each turn in ITB, a bunch of random things happen when the aliens pick their actions to display. Then it becomes the player's turn and the player reacts to what the aliens will do.

The subtle issue here is that the player must make a lot of decisions at once. You've got three mechs, each with a bunch of cool special abilities, plus terrain and neutral units. So the player considers each move like a decision tree: I'll move the artillery here, then shoot, which bounces that other guy over there, then I'll punch this third guy. This takes awhile and the player is not reacting to anything new during this process. The player must formulate the proper series of moves according to a set of priorities: prevent damage to civilians, prevent damage to mechs, kill bad guys. After the plan is executed, the aliens move and it becomes the player's turn again. RNG is introduced here in the form of what the aliens decide is their next action.

I believe it's that extended player turn that hurts the game. Looking so far ahead on each turn causes mental fatigue because you're holding all of that stuff in your mind. You don't realize it while playing: you get to the end and then you're stoked if you won because, let's face it, it was hard. But you don't get the urge to go back and play again a few hours later because, well, it was hard. I think this high-effort problem solving negatively impacts the game's replayability. It also limits the designers' choices, because there is no RNG to serve as a kind of buffer: if the player can be expected to perform optimally, then any forgiveness by the game will make it too easy. This puts pressure on the player to not make any mistakes, as they are harshly punished.

FTL, on the other hand, feeds a steady stream of small problems seeded by the RNG: where did the enemy ship fire? Did my shots miss? Where are their boarders? Can they break my shields on a lucky volley? There is a constant give-and-take between the player and the game, with each individual decision being relatively easy, based on the player's experience. It's rare to make a "big mistake" in FTL because the stakes aren't that high for any given decision. Sure, you can pull a howler like beaming your mantis onto an AI ship with only one power in your teleporter (whoopsie!) or going down a deadend on the sector map, but those are basic fuckups, not failed strategy. In ITB, the mistakes are very subtle and can be difficult to avoid – and their consequences are severe. Forgot that one shot also pushes the square behind you? Oops, hope you didn't blow your redo-my-turn yet.

I think ITB is an excellent game and deserves every award it's received, particularly for the elegant UI that manages to convey so much information without it being overbearing. But I think the decoupling of the RNG from the player's actions makes it simply too much work. It's probably a better "pure" game in terms of game design and player skillcap, but it's not as fun.

Edit: added TOC to explain TLA's.

submitted by /u/MercuryFoReal
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[SHIP] SR-71 Blackbird, my first ship creation

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 12:51 PM PST

Download it here:

https://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35320

Unlockable rooms: Cloaking, Drones, Hacking, Crew teleporter

Inspired by the actual aircraft Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

Show rooms

Hide rooms

submitted by /u/-simen-
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Great luck...or terrible luck?

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 09:19 AM PST

I am on my latest run with the Gila Monster, which I have yet to win with. I was having great luck at first. Not only did I get a pegasus launcher early on (bonus points in that it has hit nearly every shot so far, unlike other missile launchers), but I also accidentally completed two achievements back to back and unlocked the second layout. Unfortunately...the game outright refuses to sell me any weapons aside from two-shot lasers, missile launchers, and weak beam weapons. I have nothing to fight high-shield ships except missiles/fire bombs and my two-man teleporter, and I have just checked the last store in Sector 7. Nothing new. I will be fighting the flagship with only 13 missiles and two mantis boarders. I have excelled at doing what the Gila Monster is designed to do, but sadly, the flagship just happens to be the only ship in the game that you can't beat by wiping out enemy crew.

FTL? Or FML? I honestly don't know how to feel about this right now.

Edit: By some miracle...I WON. While listening to Roller Mobster by Carpenter Brut no less (badass song, I highly recommend it). There was one more store in sector 8 that had cloaking and a halberd beam. That combined with really good dodging (for once) and advanced mode turned off managed to make the final fight a breeze.

submitted by /u/TheWinterPrince52
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my god is capricious but i know she loves me

Posted: 04 Dec 2019 08:43 AM PST