Risk versus reward events question.

[Octavia]

So, to begin, I'm not quite experienced at Faster Than Light(10 hours on and off); I'm wondering how other people treat these events, and if there's a 'right' or 'agreed upon' way to do them. Specifically, I'm talking about events such as "There's a Mantis who's fleeing from an Engi ship, and offers to join your crew if you fight them off." or "There's spiders on this station, should we investigate it?", etc. Those kind of events.

Should I only be taking a risk if I have a blue modifier, such as having a certain weapon type or crew member race? Or does the reward tend to outweigh the risk? Should higher risks be taken with certain events, such as those potentially rewarding a Mantis crew member(Particularly if you lack a boarding crew), or will they more often than not punish the player?

I'm mainly curious on how more experienced players treat these events. I consistently feel that I'm making the wrong choices about these events, particularly when running with the Krestrel A(The only ship I have, minus the Tauros and the Vortex), since I lack racial specific crew for safer options, but many of the events can seem to potentially reward a crew member(Or offer significant other benefits that would be very useful) while having a harsh punishment(Such as losing a crew member).

I'd like to thank anyone who contributes in a meaningful manner for doing so; I very much appreciate any insight given to a relatively new player who's looking to improve himself at this, quite entertaining(If brutal!) game.

[Harimir]

i personaly follow a few "rules" on risk-related events

i never take risks in sekor 8

on risk of crew:
if im in sekorts 1-3 this can skrew me ower. i do however risk it as geting a powerfule weapon, adisjonal crew or alike is a huge boost so early in the game. in sekors 4-7 i risk it if i have 4+ crew (hoping it does not take someone with a usefule skill).

on risk of hull dmg i will usualy tak eit unless i think it'd take me under 25% hull

i nearly always take the risk of boarding. you can with the pause option and some decent "macroing" take down any number of them

on the red/blue wire i usualy take the opisite of wat i tok last time, so far giving me a sucsess-rate of ca 3/5

i do still adwise you to take things into consideration. for example you do not want to get crew-capped to early or have to throw an item out, as thise are "lost value"

[Gekkibi]

If it says something about Giant Alien Spiders, run away as fast as possible. Other I concider to be a "noob trap" is mantis pod floating in space. Sure, you can get a mantis crewmember... Or lose already existing one.

Usually I take risks that can cause hull damage. If I don't need a mantis crewmember I normally give him over to Engi, even if there's a possibility of taking hull damage. Everything is contextual. Do I need the reward? What if I get the penalty?

[TehJumpingJawa]

Read the wiki, know the events, know the risks.

- although not signified by blue options, the cloning bay eliminates the risk of crew death from many events (part of the reason why cloning is significantly better than med bay)

- blue options aren't always better.

[Pixel Peeper]

Ah, Giant Alien Spiders.

People have looked at the game data for this event and insist it's 50/50... but my personal experience and the personal experience of everyone I know indicates that it's more like 90% chance to die and 10% chance for a really, really tiny reward.

Indeed, in general, you just have to know what the reward is if you succeed and the penalty is if you fail, and decide if you want to be taking that risk. Of course, since it's usually a 50/50 thing, half the time you'll end up with a straight loss. But a success might change the entire run for the better, so it can be worth it.

When I'm not certain though, I typically avoid the event. I'm not a gambler and I despise the fact that my own personal skill will have zero impact on the outcome; the game will abritrarily decide if I win or lose the event, and that's dumb.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by TehJumpingJawa:

Read the wiki, know the events, know the risks.

-although not signified by blue options, the cloning bay eliminates the risk of crew death from many events (part of the reason why cloning is significantly better than med bay)
-blue options aren't always better.

I believe this wiki mentality is somewhat harmful. It can ruin the fun from most games. Some games are meant to have a big try & error factor, like Don't Starve. I believe you get the most out from FTL without reading the wiki. FTL is just a game, and the reason why anyone should play games is to have fun. Winning is not required (then again... these modern generation gamers tend to care more about achievements and dlc costumes than actual gameplay...)

[TehJumpingJawa]

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

Originally posted by TehJumpingJawa:

Read the wiki, know the events, know the risks.

-although not signified by blue options, the cloning bay eliminates the risk of crew death from many events (part of the reason why cloning is significantly better than med bay)
-blue options aren't always better.

I believe this wiki mentality is somewhat harmful. It can ruin the fun from most games. Some games are meant to have a big try & error factor, like Don't Starve. I believe you get the most out from FTL without reading the wiki. FTL is just a game, and the reason why anyone should play games is to have fun. Winning is not required (then again... these modern generation gamers tend to care more about achievements and dlc costumes than actual gameplay...)

Min-maxing, and achievement whoring are two completely different & unrelated mentalities.

Personally I've nothing against (meaningful) achievements, so long as they supplement quality gameplay rather than replace it.
In that regard FTL did it right.

[Wasted]

never fight the alien spiders unless you have the blue option using a boarding drone

I tend to take many risks besides that event.. also if you have upgraded systems like scanners, medbay, or teleport etc you can sometimes get a blue option that is usuaally the best choice with the exception of some blue cloaking options that cause you to flee the fight

the blue option isn't always the best choice

I advise learning all/most of the event outcomes on the wiki in advance

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by TehJumpingJawa:

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

I believe this wiki mentality is somewhat harmful. It can ruin the fun from most games. Some games are meant to have a big try & error factor, like Don't Starve. I believe you get the most out from FTL without reading the wiki. FTL is just a game, and the reason why anyone should play games is to have fun. Winning is not required (then again... these modern generation gamers tend to care more about achievements and dlc costumes than actual gameplay...)

Min-maxing, and achievement whoring are two completely different & unrelated mentalities.

Personally I've nothing against (meaningful) achievements, so long as they supplement quality gameplay rather than replace it.
In that regard FTL did it right.

Of course they are two different things. But achievement whoring and a compulsion to win no matter what walks hand-in-hand, at least that's what I've seen. Part of the fun I've got from FTL comes (or rather came. Seen them all) from new events (and outcomes) I haven't seen before.

[Wasted]

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

Originally posted by TehJumpingJawa:

Min-maxing, and achievement whoring are two completely different & unrelated mentalities.

Personally I've nothing against (meaningful) achievements, so long as they supplement quality gameplay rather than replace it.
In that regard FTL did it right.

Of course they are two different things. But achievement whoring and a compulsion to win no matter what walks hand-in-hand, at least that's what I've seen. Part of the fun I've got from FTL comes (or rather came. Seen them all) from new events (and outcomes) I haven't seen before.

I agree and haven't checked the wiki since vanilla for this reason... however if you really want to win checking the wiki to understand what can happen is surely sound strategy

[Octavia]

I'd rather not read a wiki, it tends to kill the fun of some games(At least initially, before you get into mix-maxing; I personally don't enjoy that); although I use it to, say, research the formula for Crock Pot recipes in Don't Starve, it's a bit different than Faster Than Light; looking up Crock Pot recipes is saving more frustration than anything, since the trial and error factor is more taxing, in my opinion, than skill based. Especially with how nonsensical the system can seem if you don't know the priorities, but I digress...

I certainly did fall into the "Spiders? I better try and help!" thing; so that's one thing I'll be changing. Losing a crew member to that event in three separate games in sector one is certainly changing my eyes on this '50/50' thing. At this rate, based on personal experience, I'll probably be avoiding the Mantis pod and quarantined sector, due to their lower pay-off and risk of losing crew; I haven't ran into a Cloning Bay yet, but I'll definitely increase my risks if I ever find and purchase one!

I'll have to pay more attention to the rewards I'm getting and planning accordingly; my general habit with risks tends to be go big or go home(Adequately it's a horrible idea, and I'm aware of it), so I'll have to change that up for Faster Than Light. Thanks for the help so far; getting confirmation that spiders are easily the most horrible event, at least in similar experience, really helps; I'll try and work on making more sound decisions like that, since I'm pretty sure that's my weakest point in this game so far.

Although out of curiosity, which blue options aren't a good choice? Most of the ones I see, such as sending an Engi into a quarantined station or having a Beam weapon to cut out a ship trapped in Asteroids, are straight up improvements. Perhaps I've just not stumbled upon any yet, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for those options and not inherently assume they're better.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Octavia:

Although out of curiosity, which blue options aren't a good choice? Most of the ones I see, such as sending an Engi into a quarantined station or having a Beam weapon to cut out a ship trapped in Asteroids, are straight up improvements. Perhaps I've just not stumbled upon any yet, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for those options and not inherently assume they're better.

Don't want to give spoilers because you said that you don't want to read the wiki. But for example you can use cloaking to get away from a fight. This is typically a "bad blue choice", because if you succeed you don't get to fight, and thus lose the potential reward you get from beating the enemy.

[Wasted]

I avoid abandoned sector for the most part if possible (hard mode)

[Octavia]

I'm not so much concerned with spoilers as I am with "This event is 30/50/20 for "x" result, making this the most efficient choice."; I'm fine with being told "Hey, this is a possibility." or something, but I appreciate your concern. I can see how the cloaking would be a bad choice, although I'm not one to use it much; I'll keep a look out for other ones that would give me a worse reward during my next attempts.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Octavia:

I'm not so much concerned with spoilers as I am with "This event is 30/50/20 for "x" result, making this the most efficient choice."; I'm fine with being told "Hey, this is a possibility." or something, but I appreciate your concern. I can see how the cloaking would be a bad choice, although I'm not one to use it much; I'll keep a look out for other ones that would give me a worse reward during my next attempts.

It's quite simple. Just read the text and use common sense to guesstimate what will happen. The "bad" blue options are quite obvious ones. If there's a fire and you have an option to send a rockman to help put out the fires then you don't have to be a rocket scientist to put 1 + 1 together and realize that only good can come out from that option.

[Octavia]

Ah, so no random guesswork of sudden unforeseen circumstances involved. Fantastic. I'd like to think I'm not a total dunce, so I should be fine; thank you very much for the assistance. I'm already doing decently on this run with a new crew member from a ship that seemed to have fire consuming it(I believe so, at least); let the survivors escape into my ship, and although I assumed that one of my members may be murdered or boarders would attack, I got a Zoltan out of it. So already better than I expected!