Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Has anyone else on here played Faster than Light?  If you don't know what it is, its a indie game on steam where you have a spaceship and are trying to outrun a rebel fleet to get information to the federation fleet by jumping from system to system and sector to sector.  Systems have random events like pirates, slavers, distress beacon events and some other things.  The game can be really hard, and you can get killed easily by certain random events if you aren't ready for them, but I find that its really fun.

Anyone else played, it, and if so what have you thought of it?

Sounds like an advanced version of Oregon Trail lol

I have beaten the game (5 or 6 times on easy, once on normal), I actually find the final boss is kinda easy if I can get to him, but my playstyle might just be more geared toward taking him down than surviving the other sectors.  I really dislike the engi ship, probably because I don't use drones, and  my favorite weapon is on the starter ship (well and on the federation cruiser too, which I like, and the artillery beam is fantastic, but the lack of cloak is devastating against the final boss), which is the Burst Laser II.  Get all burst Laser I and II and you can have a maxed out load-out for the amount of power a 4 weapon ship can send to its weapon system, and are firing 8-12 laser shots a round with it.  With the highest shields in the game being 4, nothing can handle that kind of laser spam.  Get an automated reloader or two, and its nothing can even try to stop you at that point.

You can probably tell I play the game too much.

I just picked this up on half off and I am loving it   Burst Laser II is amazing, I had a play through where I had 3 of those. Still died....

Does anyone know how to avoid being near suns? I die more to them than anything else.

The only way to completely avoid it is to get the augment that the stealth ship has on it that lets you see when dangerous places (asteroids, suns) are coming up so you can avoid them.

To minimize the damage of a sun though, just upgrade your doors so the fire remains contained (and vent the room if there's no one in it) and try to get out as fast as you can.

How the heck do you beat this game on normal?  I just started and im getting slaughtered by sector 4 every time by some mega op'd ship

Luck and practice.  If I remember correctly, I've only beaten it on normal once.  You have to be able to jump on every opportunity the game gives you, because you aren't gonna get a lot of them.  Make sure you always have enough scrap (or at least enough unimportant things to sell) to buy weapons you like because you never know when that store carrying that Burst Laser II is going to pop up.  Upgrade doors to second tier quick, it'll save your life against boarders.  Upgrade shields and engines for standard defense, and upgrade to accommodate weapons you find ASAP. Don't get power-hungry, slow charging weapons.  They'll deal a lot of damage, but you'll die before you get to use them.  Invest in things that fire multiple shots, overwhelm the opponents' shields and take out their weapons as soon as possible.  Weapons that fire multiple shots and cost 2 power are your friends.  You can max out your power out put and fire output if you get 4 of them. Missiles are good, but the final boss in his second form and some enemies with drones can intercept them, bombs are better.

Most importantly, you have to stay fluid, and take what you get, and even then, you'll die a LOT more than you succeed.

Also on the final boss, always take out the missile launcher as the first thing you do.  Leave the triple lase alive, because you'll probably kill the rest of his crew, and you do NOT want to kill the whole crew.

Why not?

Also, It sorta needs to be clear you need to intercept the flagship, I thought I could wait for it T_T; Yeah I auto lost.

You don't want the entire crew to die, because when they do, an AI takes over the ship.  The AI auto-repairs all damaged systems on the ship over time, and you don't want that.

You guys have any recommendations for the Kestral Layout A? I can get to the final stage no problem almost every time with the Engi Ship Layout A or B but the Kestral is just so bloody hard to use! Once you run out of missiles you are just dead within seconds I cant seem to get past sector 4 with this ship even on easy

Use missiles sparingly, and dump the missile weapon as soon as you get something better.