The Glade 4.0

FTL is the first of the Kickstarters I've backed to deliver the final product (Sorry, Banner Saga -- your T-Shirt and Poster don't count here). And it's fantastic.

Is anybody else playing? It's $10, and awesome. You should be. I'm looking at you, Stathol, in particular.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I've been playing it.

I got a friend into it.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Nice. I ran through a fairly doomed run last night, made it into Sector 2 after playing the tutorial. Lessons learned, looking forward to applying them to the next game.

Unfortunately, the computer here at work doesn't seem to like the game -- runs very slow, which could be dealt with on its own, but the laggy mouse really just makes it annoying. So no playing over lunch, must wait 'till the evening.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Tedford is having fun with it, and I have died -so- many times. Made it to the last boss a couple times, though.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

screenshots?

The first word in the original post is a link to the game's website, which has a gameplay trailer featured prominently.

Let me just get it out of the way -- this isn't a game you'll play for the graphics.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Played it about 15-20 times. Can get to boss, but always die on it

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Oh, dear. So my first playthrough as the Engi ship on Normal, I score the "I hardly lifted a finger" achievement with no problem on an unshielded drone. Yay, me.

My first jump into a Nebula sector, though, and I run into a ship while my power is cut in half and I have no sensors. It has one shield, and can recharge it faster than my attack drone can fire. So I need to fire up my 3-power ion cannon... and have exactly 5 power output total. So I depower all other ship systems except for drone control and the ion cannon, and go all-in.

I kill off the ship! And then my crew dies while I look for the leak that I realize is slowly killing them off. I forgot I could've just powered the Medical systems back up and the Engi nano healbots would've probably kept me up long enough for the O2 system to replenish life support... ah, well.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I just bought this last night, having a blast with it. It's a very well-designed and balanced tactical game, and am I right that it was made by only two people? (other than sound and music) That's quite remarkable.

I think that's right, yeah.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Mental note: when playing with the crew teleporter, be sure to teleport your guys OFF before you destroy the ship. Poor Maloney is going to go space-crazy all by himself.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

And never teleport onto the ship when they're trying to run.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

So my current play on Normal with the Red Tail (variant B of the base ship)...
Six crew, including 2 humans, 2 mantis, a Zoltan, and an Engi. Still the starting 4 basic lasers. Upgraded ship power once.

Have an automated reloader (+15% weapon cooldown rate), long-range scanners (damn this is nice -- avoid annoying asteroids or solar flare systems, gravitate towards ships for better loot), and a repair arm. I love the repair arm, it's always my must-buy whenever I see it. Sensors level 2, pilot station level 2, and I'm about to upgrade to two bubbles of shield.

Now I just need to find some weapon upgrades, and I think I may be riding the gravy train...

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well, then. Nevermind. Sector 3 ended up being basically a waste. Lots of empty stuff, two quests. I jumped to both of the quests' destinations, but found ships that fled before I could kill them. WTF is up with 3 shields and missiles on enemies in sector 3? So despite making it to two stores, I had essentially zero scrap to show for my travels through the entire sector. So no weapon upgrades for me -- if I'd have been able to afford it (if I hadn't purchased shields, for instance), I could've scored a pulse laser Mk. 3... That'd have been nice.

Especially since my third jump in sector 4 found... a triple shielded ship with bombs and a Mark 3 Pulse Laser of their own. Bye bye, good ship.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I haven't been able to get anywhere with this game on normal.

On easy mode I managed to take down the final boss the first time I reached the final sector, which was around my 3rd or 4th game. I followed up a with missile-less victory using the Engi ship.

Now I'm trying the Osprey. The artillery beam is...interesting. I nabbed two scrap recovery arms in the first sector, but I can't say I'm exactly rolling in scrap. I think I've pissed most of it away in hull repairs. I'm about to jump into the last sector, but I have serious doubts about my ability to take down the final boss this time around. I lost one crew member late in the game because I'm an idiot who messes with giant spiders in spite of knowing exactly how that encounter is likely to turn out. So now I have only 4 crew members and no possibility of getting any more.

Ugh.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Hahah, I take that back. I actually ran into a slaver in the final sector and bought mytself an Engi. I didn't know that was possible.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Yep. Final boss stage got me. I would have won it easily if I could have gotten any repairs at all between the 2nd and 3rd, but I had to enter the fight at just under 50% hull.

I'm kind of torn about this game. I HATE race-against-the-clock mechanics in general, and with particular vehemence in roguelikes.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Yeah, this is me, too.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Ugh. The Rock ship is inexcusably terrible.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Rock sector music, on the other hand...

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Very LTTP: Been playing this on my iPad. Best $9.99 game ever, easily.

I haven't yet beaten the game, though I've unlocked several of the other ships so far. I can get to the final battle(s) with little problem, but am usually overwhelmed by the Rebel Flagship.

I am currently at the beginning of a nebulous sector 7 with, what I feel, is the most unstoppable, well-equipped ship I have yet had the privilege to command. I had to share it somewhere that it could be appreciated and this is that place.



With the ability to power all drones, both ion weapons and the hacking, I can lock down a hostile's shields quickly, disable piloting and start damaging quite rapidly. The ion stunner can be reaimed at any room that gets damaged when the enemy crew starts their repairs there. This stuns them and keeps them occupied doing nothing. The defense drone stops ballistic weapons reliably, thus reducing damage received in the battle. What little damage I do receive is usually healed by the Repair arm, and drones are recovered by the Drone arm upon jump.

If there is a boarding party, I can quickly set the 3 mantises (Mantii?) upon them as they are not manning anything critical. Additionally, if Medbay is powered, they are being healed during the battle as well.

With all of sector 7 to complete before jumping to 8, I'm sure I'll up the shields. But not sure where to put the rest. Perhaps I'll max out hacking and get another level of sensors, but suffice it to say this is probably only the second ship I've ever gotten to the final battle that seems to stand a chance against the flagship.

Love this game way too much. Thanks for listening.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

That's a pretty pimp ship you're rocking.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

And once you feel like you've mastered the game, try winning a "no pause, hard mode" run.

So with Shields upgraded to full, hacking to 3 and a second ion stunner, I took it to the Flagship.

The first iteration went with barely a bother. The end result of that battle left me with only 3 unrepaired damage.

The next battle didn't go as well as I was scattering trying to repel the boarding drones. Though I managed to keep doling out damage, I also overlooked a couple of hull breaches and then the damaging of my Oxygen system. As my drone dealt the final blows to the 2nd iteration of the Flagship, I noticed the breaches and almost complete lack of oxygen as 4-5 crew succumbed to suffocation. As I watched the rebel ship jump away for the second time, I quickly upgraded my Oxygen system to 2 and hoped my remaining crew members could make it to O2 system room to repair it to full and sustain them while the breaches were found and repaired.

Alas, they fell in the process of repairing the system and thus ends my best run yet.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.