Game sets you up to fail

[hockeysteve54]

All of my first missions are these "Date" missions that seem to have no end. If you skip the prologue, you begin with no medical supplies, no crafting supplies, no materials to buy supplies. Since there is no way to avoid damage, and given the length of the mission, your companion is doomed to die before your destination. Your "date" dies somehow if you return to camp early, and if you don't accept the date on the first day, they die anyway. It's frustrating because you can't just get better at the game and push through. You can't get better at resource management since you don't have any resources to manage.

Things for the developer to consider:

*Don't make the missions have to be done the same day. Allow a couple of days for the player to prepare -- to employ strategy and planning.

*Don't make missions early in the game too lengthy.

*Make health items more common, even if they are minor ones; at least early in the game. Food being common ealry on, but becoming scarce later fits the apocalypse/survival theme.

*Show the player how far the destination is. i.e. "Reach Area 13"

I'm leaning toward posting a negative review.

[HolyAvatar]

If you skip the prologue you get all items and the stuff when you play the tutorial. You have the materials, tools to start. you gain ressources in the areas. the game is not so easy but if you understand the tactics its absolutely okay for a normal difficulty survival game.
there is a learning curve and often people understand this after a few tries. there a lot of players who complete the game. Permadeath games are not for one play only.
if you die you can also upgrade your player with more materials / tools for example. But you can complete the game without upgades.

you will see after a few tries you will understand the way, and always look after the tooltipps of the enemies. Important is defence and resistance.

>*Show the player how far the destination is. i.e. "Reach Area 13"

is always in the game except for quests where the people dont know the correct destiantion.

And i saw you get this strange Lydia Death , okay here I understand your frustration. Normally it won't happen. But i will check it again in the other topic.

[hockeysteve54]

Thank you for your response. I did not have any medical kits or other healing supplies in my inventory at the start of the game.

So the "date" women aren't suppose to die if you return early?

[Vultan]

Why did you have to return early is what i wonder. I had no difficulty with that mission, did you bring any weapons :S

[hockeysteve54]

Originally posted by Deus Vult:

Why did you have to return early is what i wonder. I had no difficulty with that mission, did you bring any weapons :S

For Lydia: A couple of scavenger ambushes depleted her health. I kept going from area to area, without any mission specific dialogues, and we had found a rest stop in Area 2 or 3, so I was beginning to think I had already completed the mission. I was thinking that the worst case scenario was that I would lose out on some romance storyline or something, but it went straight to Trish chastising me and there being a funeral. Never stated how she died. This was my first playthrough.

For Larissa: she died in Area 10 I think. She didn't start with any weapons other than 6 engineering "ammo." I didn't have any spare weapons, since I never had the opportunity to scavenge or craft. Never had health kits/food to start, so her health kept dropping as we kept pushing deeper into the areas. Because of my experience with Lydia, I thought going back would kill her, anyway.

[MorTvicR]

Pretty much, does it really take a day to make a thing, eg medi pack etc, and tsome quests expire in a day so, either do quest with little health or make medi pack and fail quests..

I need tools it was my only quests, I completed one to 20 killed boss no tools, did another got 1 tool, guys all injured, and need healing lose a day making medi bags, do forest night, find 1 tool, still need 1 more

RNG not giving tools quest failed, game over..

[Vultan]

Originally posted by MorTvicR:

Pretty much, does it really take a day to make a thing, eg medi pack etc, and tsome quests expire in a day so, either do quest with little health or make medi pack and fail quests..

I need tools it was my only quests, I completed one to 20 killed boss no tools, did another got 1 tool, guys all injured, and need healing lose a day making medi bags, do forest night, find 1 tool, still need 1 more

RNG not giving tools quest failed, game over..

THe tool rng made me fail a quest, that in turn ended the game. Would love to se a wiki about certain "unclear" stuff like this.

[cwithey87]

It's basically a crapshoot - moderately enjoyable when you get decent rolls.

[Smokey]

RNG dice rolls are this game based on & not so much strategy, luck is a much bigger factor
(its good fun for 5 bucks)

[Concrete Galoshes]

Originally posted by Smokey:

RNG dice rolls are this game based on & not so much strategy, luck is a much bigger factor
(its good fun for 5 bucks)

5 bucks is the key thing here.
Too bad people will be suckered into buying this game.
Because man is it boring and ugly to look at so far.

[hockeysteve54]

Originally posted by Smokey:

RNG dice rolls are this game based on & not so much strategy, luck is a much bigger factor
(its good fun for 5 bucks)

Except that it is $14.99 (I got it for $13.49)

The brillance of a game like FTL is that the luck factor requires you step outside your comfort zone to employ strategies using what you have. In most cases, you can use stategy and skill to increase your odds in a scenario. Sure, in some circumstances, the odds are so against you, that there is virtuality no probability of making it out alive, but those situations are usually thrilling and sometimes even funny.

Another thing to consider is that a playthrough of FTL only takes a couple of hours, so if you end up failing, you only wasted a nominal amount of time; not 6-8 hours.

All these aspects are what made FTL so great, and what this game -- in its current state -- is lacking.