FTL

Effective weapon combo: Fast firing ion weapon to keep enemy shields + weapons disabled, pike / fire beam to wreak havoc on enemy hull / ship.

 

There are hints when you mouse over them in the Ship List.

That said, I did unlock the Zoltan Cruiser, so here you go:

Spoiler

At one point (in Zoltan space I believe) you'll meet some pacifist weird preacher who tells you a lot of things, which you basically yawn at it. If you stay polite and listen etc they will end with sending you to a target system, where you should deliver the pacifist message you just heard.
When you get there a Rebel ship threatens to attack you! However, youcan talk to it.
If you talk to it and try to convince it the two of you needn't fight, after selecting 3 or 4 dialogue options they will drop their masquerade, and, happy you listened and took their advice to heart will give you stuff and unlock the ship.

 

I got the Rockman ship, though I find it to be pretty useless if you don't find certain things early on.

Spoiler

In the Rockman homeworld, you can encounter a ship that gives you a quest marker. If you go there, you'll encounter that ship close to a sun, which means total burning hell. You'll then have to fight them till they leave. Don't remember my strategy, but it was doable. Bring hull down fast I guess. When they pull out they leave another quest marker, follow them there and you'll get their ship.

 

So, just to be sure, if i buy it from the developer.... I get a steam key? And they get more money this way?

As for the gameplay videos, it looks like there is 1 even per 'stop'... am i reading this right? It isn't like I can spend a lot of time at a single stop (like spending extra time on floor 2 of DoD if I feel underpowered for floor 3?). Is that right?

 

Rock.

 

Indeed. Buy from the developer, get a Steam Key. I did that and it worked great.

Do they get more money that way? I'm not certain. But they clearly wouldn't get less!

 

I had a "Crystal" crewman after getting some Zoltans to fix a cryostasis unit I picked up elsewhere.



The Engi ship is made of pure win. The Federation ship is nice, but it takes forever for the weapon to charge and it is only respectable when you are pretty-much out of options to break shields.

 

The game is divided in several "sectors", and each sector have a bunch of points you can go. Your objective is to reach the exit of each sector and reach the final one, progressing more or less like that one in star fox. Once you visit a point on a sector and presence it event, as far I know, there's nothing left to do there. Unless it's a shop, where you can revisit to buy/sell stuff.
Since you have fuel on your ship, and there's a "rebel fleet wave" that keeps going forward from the left, covering points on the sector, in practice you don't have too much free space to roam. It's a game where you must keep going forward and making choices.

I personally don't like that style too much, but the game is surprisingly enjoyable for me. It adds more challenging with this limit on "grinding", and once you get the style of the game, it sure is fun and challenging. Also, it have a very nice game system and controls are very intuitive and easy to learn. The GUI, too, is very well made.

 

It looks good. I will definitely check it out at some point.

 

A friend of mine let me play her copy for a day. That is those three games you see in the image I posted above. I still intend to buy the game. I want her to play her own copy and enjoy it. If you can get enough missiles/drones, you will prosper in all situations. I did find a few things that can be considered exploits. But they will get patched into oblivion in short order.

To be the critical ass I am, I must point out that this game feels like a late beta build. It is good, but it needs work. I hope it is modable. (I have not read up on that yet.)

 

Yeah I've been having fun with the Engi... got the quest for the Zoltan one but I guess I screwed it up, or the enemy response is semi-random. So yeah, can't wait to unlock more than just the Engi.

 

Engi is my favorite so far. I love those drones. I felt sad when I played the federation ship after winning with the Engi ship. Only two drone slots? That is pure suckage.

 

Engi rocks, though my best run was with the federation. Everything manned with legendaries, legendary mantis and crystal fighters, 4 shields and so on.

Spoiler

I died after beating the boss, expending most of my crew smashing his hull from inside. I didn't know the boss had more phases!

Random picture:

 

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/664216-ftl-faster-than-light/64056624
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/664216-ftl-faster-than-light/64055638
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/664216-ftl-faster-than-light/64062234
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/664216-ftl-faster-than-light/64062965

Read them if you have time. They are all full of advise from players.

 

I really, really like FTL. Probably the 3rd best "cheap" game I've ever bought, after DoD and The Binding of Isaac (both roguelikes as well).

One small negative: There isn't a huge list of random events. You'll see lots of repeats.

I beat the game recently with the Engi ship (which honestly is one of the better ships, the ion cannon is amazing). Had an epic final battle, won with like 2 points of hull left and 2 of my crew members bravely gave their lives by being on the enemy flagship when it blew sabatoging key systems.

The crew members lack uniqueness or personality, yet you really "feel" it when you lose one of them...and not just because it is a huge loss to your ship's effectiveness.

 

I like the game. But I can certainly tell you all there will be expansions. The base game is good. But there needs to be a more free-form quest. I am one of those who *HATES* leaving part of the map unexplored. So this rebel army needs to go away so I can do that.

Perhaps the games makers will make an expansion for it. Or perhaps some nice group will mod the hell out of it. Either way it needs more. And bigger ships. Much bigger.