Too Much Luck Involved

[Barf]

Let me start by saying I enjoy how difficult this game is. I only just started playing it yesterday. I can't make it past sector 5 or 6 with the default cruiser without dieing somehow.

And now I'll say the only thing I'm really disappointed with is the sheer amount of luck involved in beating the game.

Every time I have died, it's been under entirely different circumstances.

1. Boarded 3 times by 2 rockman back to back while in an asteroid field. Missile takes out weapon systems and starts massive 3 block fire. Next missile takes out CO2 and causes hull breach. Died.

2. Ion weapons take out my weapons system repeatedly. Impossible to penetrate enemy super shield plus 3 layer shields with half my weapons. Died in sector 4.

I'll stop at 2 examples, but my point is that there is no way to prepare for every possible encounter. And there are plenty of encounters that are just unwinnable unless you just so happened to have the right combination of gear/upgrades to counter it.

[Dormammu]

Let me say this very clearly. The. Game. Is. Not. to. Luck. BASED. Sorry if that sounded really rude,buut I'm tired of seeing these threads on steam :P

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Let me start by saying I enjoy how difficult this game is. I only just started
I'll stop at 2 examples, but my point is that there is no way to prepare for every possible encounter. And there are plenty of encounters that are just unwinnable unless you just so happened to have the right combination of gear/upgrades to counter it.

Congratulations, you've discovered one of the key game concepts. Now what to do with that information is up to you.

FTL is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be impossible to "master" to a point where you can win every time. That's the key point of the randomness. The same element that puts you unwinnable situations on some occations is also what keeps the game an endless challenge no matter how good you get.

That being said, play long enough and you'll also get some insanely lucky encounters. Recently I was playing a game with the Fed Cruiser where I found a second burst laster II on my very first jump! That essentially iced the game for me. With 2 burst laser II's so early on, my ship was an unstoppable tank. Nothing could touch me, especially when I found weapons pre-igniter a few jumps later! That's right, I found ones of the best weapons and one of the best augments in the first system. Nothing from that point on presented any real challenge until the 3rd round of the flagship, where I took some minor hits before winning big.

So just deal with the frustration. Eventually you'll get some absurdly lucky encounter to make up for them.

[Mazey]

What Ohio said there is true, but not particularly helpful in my opinion. Yes, sometimes you get really bad luck and sometimes you get really good luck but that's not really relevant in the end. What matters is that 99.9% of the time, bad situations that you end up in due to bad luck can still be overcome with sufficient skill and adaptability.

When you first play the game it can feel like you get killed all the time by situations you couldn't stop but, as you play the game more, you'll start to realise what you can do to save yourself.

The only issue is that if you keep blaming the game for being to random then you might never learn, as you can get trapped in the mindset of looking to see what the game did wrong rather than looking to see what you yourself might have done differently.

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by Mazey:

. What matters is that 99.9% of the time, bad situations that you end up in due to bad luck can still be overcome with sufficient skill and adaptability.

That's a bit of an exagerration to say the least. Let's face it, there ARE plenty of situations in which are flat out unwinnable based on the reasources you have. That doesn't make this a bad game. That's just simply a price (IMO a reasonable one) to pay for the randomness factor that keeps the game challenging no matter how many times you play.

[RalphRoberts]

This thread again...

[Haunted]

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Let me start by saying I enjoy how difficult this game is. I only just started playing it yesterday. I can't make it past sector 5 or 6 with the default cruiser without dieing somehow.

And now I'll say the only thing I'm really disappointed with is the sheer amount of luck involved in beating the game.

Every time I have died, it's been under entirely different circumstances.

1. Boarded 3 times by 2 rockman back to back while in an asteroid field. Missile takes out weapon systems and starts massive 3 block fire. Next missile takes out CO2 and causes hull breach. Died.

2. Ion weapons take out my weapons system repeatedly. Impossible to penetrate enemy super shield plus 3 layer shields with half my weapons. Died in sector 4.

I'll stop at 2 examples, but my point is that there is no way to prepare for every possible encounter. And there are plenty of encounters that are just unwinnable unless you just so happened to have the right combination of gear/upgrades to counter it.

Just wait until the last sector when you've almost got the flagship destroyed, but you can't find a store to repair your ship because of rebel occupation. This game is just broken.

[Barf]

Originally posted by RalphRoberts:

This thread again...

Another worthless contributor again...

[RalphRoberts]

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Originally posted by RalphRoberts:

This thread again...

Another worthless contributor again...

I don't feel the need to retread on this subject, just use the search function to find plenty of threads just like this one.

[Barf]

Originally posted by Necromancer:

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Let me start by saying I enjoy how difficult this game is. I only just started playing it yesterday. I can't make it past sector 5 or 6 with the default cruiser without dieing somehow.

And now I'll say the only thing I'm really disappointed with is the sheer amount of luck involved in beating the game.

Every time I have died, it's been under entirely different circumstances.

1. Boarded 3 times by 2 rockman back to back while in an asteroid field. Missile takes out weapon systems and starts massive 3 block fire. Next missile takes out CO2 and causes hull breach. Died.

2. Ion weapons take out my weapons system repeatedly. Impossible to penetrate enemy super shield plus 3 layer shields with half my weapons. Died in sector 4.

I'll stop at 2 examples, but my point is that there is no way to prepare for every possible encounter. And there are plenty of encounters that are just unwinnable unless you just so happened to have the right combination of gear/upgrades to counter it.

Just wait until the last sector when you've almost got the flagship destroyed, but you can't find a store to repair your ship because of rebel occupation. This game is just broken.

Is that last sector really the end of the game? I was hoping I would just end up jumping to a new system or something.

Seems awfully short.. but I suppose it doesn't matter if I keep dieing anyways.

[Dormammu]

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Originally posted by RalphRoberts:

This thread again...

Another worthless contributor again...

He's right. This thread is everywhere. But I will give you some advice:
Wait...You could have jumped out of both of those situations unless you forgot to say they took out your pilot/engines.

[Haunted]

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Originally posted by Necromancer:

Just wait until the last sector when you've almost got the flagship destroyed, but you can't find a store to repair your ship because of rebel occupation. This game is just broken.

Is that last sector really the end of the game? I was hoping I would just end up jumping to a new system or something.

Seems awfully short.. but I suppose it doesn't matter if I keep dieing anyways.

I've got no idea if that's the endgame section, but it feels like it. I don't know if there's anything beyond it. I've gotten close to destroying the flagship 5423181233245 times, but I've never finished it off thanks to cheap boss-fight garbage thrown at the player (deal enough damage to down it and only a section of it falls off, respawns with drone armies and other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥).

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Is that last sector really the end of the game? I was hoping I would just end up jumping to a new system or something.

Seems awfully short.. but I suppose it doesn't matter if I keep dieing anyways.

The short length of the game is something that helps mitigate the randomness. If you lose due to bad luck, then you haven't lost a ton of progress since it only takes a few hours to complete the game.

This isn't supposed to be a "one and done" game. It's meant to be played tons of times.

And I assure everyone, the game is quite beatable. I've beaten it plenty of times, including twice on normal. Others have beaten the flagship on hard mode without taking a single hit. Why? Are they just the luckiest gamers on the planet? Or is it because they put up with countless deaths and failures in order to master FTL?

[The Potato]

To those saying FTL is luck/skill based, its neither. FTL has a skill/luck ratio of X:50
The best possible player has a ratio of 49:50, and because that cancels out, the best posible player sees a game that is 98% skill
The worst possible player has a ratio of 1:50, and because it cancels out, the worst players se a game that is 98% luck.

This person is likely at a ratio somewhere near 20:50.

I'm at a ratio of about 40:50.

The point is, the game may be luck based to some but skill based to others. Skill cancels luck in this game and therefore luck is more prominent for those who practice less or are just bad at micromanagement.

What I mean to say is, whether FTL is luck or skill depends on the person.

[Barf]

Originally posted by The Potato:

To those saying FTL is luck/skill based, its neither. FTL has a skill/luck ratio of X:50
The best possible player has a ratio of 49:50, and because that cancels out, the best posible player sees a game that is 98% skill
The worst possible player has a ratio of 1:50, and because it cancels out, the worst players se a game that is 98% luck.

This person is likely at a ratio somewhere near 20:50.

I'm at a ratio of about 40:50.

The point is, the game may be luck based to some but skill based to others. Skill cancels luck in this game and therefore luck is more prominent for those who practice less or are just bad at micromanagement.

What I mean to say is, whether FTL is luck or skill depends on the person.

Ease up, Cowboy. It won't get you laid or a gold star.

When I encounter a ship with in sector 3 with 3 shield layers, super shield, and next to a sun/nova that sets my whole ship on fire, that's not skill based anymore.

[Barf]

Originally posted by LBPrime2324:

Originally posted by Kidney!:

Another worthless contributor again...

He's right. This thread is everywhere. But I will give you some advice:
Wait...You could have jumped out of both of those situations unless you forgot to say they took out your pilot/engines.

I didn't forget. The part about me dieing means I actually died. No crew, fires, and no o2 means no jumping either.

Good advice. Please lay your next one on me, wise sage.