I got to the Flagship in the Kestrel with six crew, four shields and a combination of energy weapons. The fight went on for ages, but I think I needed a second missile launcher and less lasers as any time I seriously damaged it it just stealthed.
Speaking of stealth, the stealth user ship is balls. No shields? What are you, a TIE fighter?
Every time I’ve taken it out the hanger I end up on fire with half my systems down.
I can get to the Flagship fairly reliably on easy and once on normal, but I still can’t beat it. I know the tricks now but pulling them off with out it making to the base is another matter.
Amazing game, certainly a roguelike.
Only got to it once and blew it up … except I didn’t. Multistage bosses suck. :P
Arise!
I only discovered FTL in the last month, and I played the hell out of it. Given that, is there anything else out there similar to this?
Similar to FTL? Strictly speaking, not really, not yet anyway, but there likely will be, given its success. I saw a Kickstarter for a game that looked wayyyy to much like FTL, and that’s why it failed I think.
I really wouldn’t be surprised to see clones coming out. I must have beat it two dozen times, and that doesn’t even include the untold number of losses.
There are a couple games like FTL, and in fact were released far before it. For shame, Brian!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/55000/ Flotilla. 3D phase based combat that will drive you insane. Also is in the currently running weekly humble bundle so you can pick it up for a buck if you’re so inclined.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/226120/ Weird Worlds. Slightly RTS-esque combat and more ship customization than Flotilla, but slightly less choices and consequences influencing future events.
Neither has the same “Moving guys around on your ship” combat of FTL, but they’re both randomized score-attack space adventures. I actually prefer Weird Worlds over FTL, and put Flotilla at the bottom of the bunch because of the combat. Still enjoyable though.
Squee, I don’t think those can really be compared beyond the randomness element. FTL is a game about managing your ship and crew in concert with the situations that are thrown at them. While Flotilla and Weird Worlds are awesome, they don’t accomplish the same thing, nor do they try. FTL is much more micro, more granular, than those other games.
So :P
Wish they’d announce an expansion already.
Weird Worlds really is lots and lots of fun. I lost many hours playing that a couple of years ago.
an open world expansion with trading and more exploration would be nice.
Hah, if they opened up the FTL universe so I wouldn’t have to be on the run, and could take quests and do trade runs at my leisure, I’d totally return to the game.
Depends on what specific elements you liked and are looking for similarities to. In terms of space games, Squee’s recommendations are good ones.
However, If you mean that you found you liked the general approach of permanent decisions and consequences (no reloading after death), coupled with heavy use of random, procedurally generated content to keep each run varied, then you may have discovered a taste for roguelikes. Other recent games that successfully apply that philosophy include Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac, and Desktop Dungeons, or for more of a traditional experience, you could join in on the current Brogue threads or check out Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
First, a wierd worlds game where you can manage your ship FTL style, maybe with even more elements from the Battlestations board game, would be awesome.
On the other hand I think part of what makes FTL work for me is the stress. If I didn’t have that rebel fleet behind me I would “star scum.” Any fight that looked risky at all I would jump out from, leisurely peruse the rest of the map get the equipment I needed and go back whe it’s no contest. That pressure to make every single jump and encounter a very meaningful decision is a big part of FTL.
Tom M
There is a way to remove Fleet Pursuit, but I like the element. http://ftlwiki.com/wiki/Modding_guide#Rebel_Fleet_Pursuit
FTL would be improved if your loadout wasn’t so dependent on dice. If I want to build around a weapon, like an Anti-Bio beam, I just have to hope I get one. Maybe and RPG setup, where you have a budget and can spend it on various components, would help in that regard.
I won’t argue which is better or worse. But FTL, taking a lot from roguelikes, is intentionally brutal about forcing the player to adapt their play style to the situation at hand and not vice versa. I can understand players not liking that but that is a time honored feature of a lot of roguelikes.
Tom M
Good roguelikes typically give you ways to game the system assuming you have enough knowledge. For example you can somewhat reliably identify identify-scrolls in Nethack using trickery, and you can usually wrangle a blessed or at least non-cursed magic lamp for a wish relatively early in the game. Both are fairly simple things you’ll eventually figure out from play which will give you a better starting point than you had before you knew about it. You’ll still inevitably get YASD but it starts becoming less of a luck issue and more along the lines of you fucked it up somehow by not playing cautious enough, playing too cautiously, or you forgot that walking over a cockatrice corpse while blind and not wearing gloves is a bad idea.
In 20 hours of FTL all I really learned was teleporting and boarding parties are fucking ridiculous and you should never not have them. That was also around when I stopped playing because I got sick of doing vaguely the same build, and none of the unlocked ships really changed that for me.
I totally forgot for a while. If roguelikes are your thing and you want one a little more exploration based try prospector or similar to the wing commander privateer game is ASCIIsector.
Tom M
the ground/boarding combat portion of ascii sector is interesting.
prospector hasn’t had a new release in over a year, so not sure if it is still being maintained. it has balance issues in the ground combat area, imo.