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[pacovf]

Sounds like a nice fellow. He must have felt pretty paranoid at school, never knowing when his name was being called, though

Dying in Zot 5 is tough, especially after achieving the 15 rune run... I would consider it a spiritual win anyway!

That Qazlal fellow sounds pretty rad. Next time I get a game going, I might try a Cataclysmic Minotaur.

[blueblimp]

Anyone played Hoplite (http://www.magmafortress.com/p/hoplite.html)? The combat system is very fun and dynamic, because to attack you need to move around, such as by sideswiping and jumping, although it's a turn-based game. It gives me a similar feeling to playing a Vanguard in Mass Effect 3, as an analogy.

The game is very skill-intensive because, although the levels are randomly generated, the AI's behaviour is somewhat predictable and there's no randomness in the combat itself, so at least on earlier levels you can almost always clear them without taking damage if you play well enough. But playing well sometimes means planning ahead at least 1-2 turns to make sure that you don't put yourself in bad situations, which may not sound like a lot, but can be hard when there are many enemies in the level.

[Jorbles]

(Your link is a little borked).

I've played Hoplite before and really enjoyed it. It's really simple in concept, but it's a fun puzzle game.

[Jorbles]

(I don't really understand your analogy to ME3, but I always played as a Soldier.)

[blueblimp]

Fixed the link. What I meant with the ME3 analogy is that the Vanguard playstyle is very movement-based (because of Biotic Charge) and you're constantly balancing charging into the fray against not putting yourself into trouble you can't get out of. I hadn't thought of Hoplite as a puzzle game but now that you mention it, I can see how it has some aspects of that.

[pacovf]

Anyone played Hoplite (http://www.magmafortress.com/p/hoplite.html)? The combat system is very fun and dynamic, because to attack you need to move around, such as by sideswiping and jumping, although it's a turn-based game. It gives me a similar feeling to playing a Vanguard in Mass Effect 3, as an analogy.

The game is very skill-intensive because, although the levels are randomly generated, the AI's behaviour is somewhat predictable and there's no randomness in the combat itself, so at least on earlier levels you can almost always clear them without taking damage if you play well enough. But playing well sometimes means planning ahead at least 1-2 turns to make sure that you don't put yourself in bad situations, which may not sound like a lot, but can be hard when there are many enemies in the level.

Thanks for sharing, I love it! I wish more games used this kind of gameplay mechanics for combat, based on movement rather than numbers.

I've gotten all the simple achievements, and I am now working on the "return the Fleece three times in a row" one, shouldn't take too long, I can do it reliably now if I don't do anything silly.

I've tried a couple of runs based on the shield bash, instead of the leap, and it is great fun. Just got killed when I discovered that you could reaction-bash yourself into magma 
I haven't unlocked all the prayers related to the throw, but it looks like throw-based strategies are really tricky to pull off. I rarely throw the lance, unless it is against the last enemy of the level (damn cowardly demolitionists) or if I am guaranteed to recover it automatically through surge. Maybe somebody else has tips on how to use the throw effectively?

Oh, and I would definitely classify this as a roguelike rather than a puzzle game. There is a certain randomness associated with the movement of enemies and the bomb throwing. Unlike, for example, Desktop Dungeons, which in my opinion is more of a puzzle game than a roguelike.

[blueblimp]

Yeah, the bash does so much for you at once, especially with both Shielding Bash and Reaction, which together make it a lot easier to extract yourself from tough situations. The achievements I have remaining now are just Speed Run, Pacifist, and Hoplite Master. I've been trying to get Speed Run but it's mostly reliant on getting good luck with the level layouts. Pacifist probably shouldn't be too hard though.

[pacovf]

Yeah, the basic bash is hardly useful, because not moving usually means getting shot at by three ranged units or so. Reaction is a deceptively useful ability, especially when you realize that the movement from reaction triggers backstabs and lunges, and that displaced enemies don't attack. A sufficiently strong bash with reaction can save you from nearly any situation, even before taking shielding bash into account; sweeping bash is a must to ensure you get propelled in the right direction, though.

Already got demon partisan? That one sounds really tricky to get. I think part of the trick of Speed Run is to ignore Altars, don't know if you've been doing that already.

Just died in level 13 after 2 successful runs. 
I think it was the first time that I managed to corner myself, usually I get hit because I am not careful enough with those damn archers.

EDIT: My mortality rate is highly correlated with the number of successful runs that I've done just before. I only die when I've done two successful runs before. It's happened 4 times in a row now; two of them involved a reaction bash into magma, and one was a plain unwinnable level. Gaaaaaah.

[blueblimp]

Demon Partisan was surprisingly easy, although I forget whether I got it first try or took a couple tries, and what strategy I used. One helpful note is that it doesn't count against you if a demolitionist explodes a demolitionist or wizard with a bomb. I don't know whether if counts if you bashed the bomb, though.

For the speed run, I'm pretty sure that getting winged sandals from level 10 is required, but other than that I think it's more flex. If you pray at an altar, you can restore your energy by taking divine restoration, which helps offset the time penalty of visiting the altar. In my attempts, I've also grabbed 2 fortitudes from earlier levels, because otherwise later on I tend to die or waste a lot of time avoiding dying. Winged sandals eats a heart when you train it, so with no fortitude upgrade, you only have 2 hearts, which is pretty fragile. Maybe it's better though to just go without and hope for the best.

[Ichimaru Gin]

I've seen FTL stuff in this thread before right?

Anyway, just got the game. Did 2 playthroughs with the basic ship--made it the 2nd to last sector on the last one and unlocked the engi ship. I'd really appreciate any beginner tips you guys might have for me. In particular, it's hard for me to decide which weapons are the best to purchase at stores and stuff. A lot of the them require too much power, or just don't seem that effective in action. The default laser one that you start with seems really good though.

I love the micromanagement of the crew and individual doors and stuff. Especially when boarding parties come on and I'm desperately trying to vent rooms and get everyone to the medbay. With the roguelike elements of random generation and the ton of ships available, this game has more than met my expectations and I'm really stoked to try and beat it for the first time--but I could definitely use a little help.

[AHoppy]

I've seen FTL stuff in this thread before right?

Anyway, just got the game. Did 2 playthroughs with the basic ship--made it the 2nd to last sector on the last one and unlocked the engi ship. I'd really appreciate any beginner tips you guys might have for me. In particular, it's hard for me to decide which weapons are the best to purchase at stores and stuff. A lot of the them require too much power, or just don't seem that effective in action. The default laser one that you start with seems really good though.

I love the micromanagement of the crew and individual doors and stuff. Especially when boarding parties come on and I'm desperately trying to vent rooms and get everyone to the medbay. With the roguelike elements of random generation and the ton of ships available, this game has more than met my expectations and I'm really stoked to try and beat it for the first time--but I could definitely use a little help.

I love visiting this thread and seeing FTL stuff it's the only roguelike I play.  First off: If you haven't figured it out yet, you can get some extra power through not always powering up your medbay.  You only really need it when you need to heal your crew.  Second, taking down ships is all about timing.  You need to wait until all your weapons are charged and blast through shields and then (usually) weapons in one go.  It's also difficult to give general advice because all the ships are very different.  Another thing that is super helpful: don't use autofire.  The best weapons to use autofire are ion weapons (not bomb, because that will kill your ammo).  However the onscreen autofire button will make all your weapons autofire which will screw up your timing.  So if you hold control and click the ion weapon then it will autofire just that weapon. 

Another general tip:  If a ship has super high dodge, don't take out their engines.  Take out the helm.  That reduces their dodge to 0 and only takes a max of 3 damage.

[pacovf]

The (real) FTL discussion in this thread starts here; there are a fair amount of tips and tricks in there (and some Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup discussion, but that's like the subtitle of this thread anyway).

EDIT: warning, there are some light spoilers about the end boss...!

[Ichimaru Gin]

Thanks both of you, I appreciate the help and navigating to the right part of this thread.


Made another run and got to the last sector, but lost most of my crew in sector 7 (including one of those crystal guys) all except one human who was the pilot, and his name was Barry. I kept playing just for fun, and he actually won a few more battles by himself. But then I got boarded and I successfully vented and took out the boarders. But they damaged my oxygen supply and so the last guy suffocated trying to fix a hull breach in that room instead of the oxygen supply

This game is incredible fun though. I have yet to try the engi ship, as I kinda want to beat the game at least once with the original. I had high hopes for this last run though--especially because I got an early second Burst Laser Mark II which was pretty sweet.

[AHoppy]

I think my first win was with the engi ship.  Possibly even B layout...  It took me a looonnnngggg time to win

[pacovf]

I think my first win was with the engi ship. Possibly even B layout...  It took me a looonnnngggg time to win

Pics or it didn't happen

[AHoppy]

I will after class

[AHoppy]

Here you go:


Of course it was on easy, it was my first win.  I hope you didn't think I meant normal   My first normal win was with Zoltan A I think.  I'm pretty sure it was my first, but there are no timestamps in this game so I can't tell for sure

[Hydrad]

all of this FTL talk is making me try it again... and realize why I couldn't do it.

I can't believe a game on easy can still crush my soul this much...

[AHoppy]

Just takes practice

[Ichimaru Gin]

Update: I made it through the first battle with the flagship. I was pretty seriously underpowered weapons-wise though. I did have 8 crew, and like 2 rockmen, so that was good. The second battle was insane, and once my shields got taken out, the drones took my ship out super quickly. Still, that's the closest I've ever come before to beating the game. I've heard the second battle is the hardest of the three, has that been your guys' experience?

I want to unlock the Kestrel B layout--and already have the achievement that you get from having 6 different races on your ship. So just need one more.

[AHoppy]

Yeah, stage 2 is the hardest.  Gotta take out that drone bay to avoid the boarding drone and their defense drone.

Kestrel B is great.  timing becomes even more important with that one

[pacovf]

In my experience, it is impossible to beat the Flagship without knowing what's coming for you beforehand. I know that I died quickly every time I met a new phase. In particular, the feeling I had when I finally managed to defeat the second phase... only for the flagship to leave and prepare for a third phase... man was that disheartening.

The first phase can be a nightmare if the Flagship hacks the right room, otherwise it is not particularly difficult if you've got a moderately competent ship. The second one has strong defenses, and three angles of attack, so it can feel quite brutal. It does have one glaring, some would argue gamey, weakness, that I am not going to spoil to you, but sheer firepower and the right defenses can get you far. The third is mostly testing if you're running out of missiles/drones/crew/hull yet, but you are unlikely to get there unscathed, which is what really makes it dangerous.

Good luck!

[pacovf]

Back to Hoplite:

#1 reason of loss of life: moving into a tile thinking that I am too far away for that wizard/archer to snipe me.
#2 reason of loss of life: doing a multikill move that ends right next to a soldier (cos soldiers are just there to activate surge, right?)
#3 reason of loss of life: getting boxed in with no energy and the bash in cooldown.

...

#1 reason of death: forgetting whether I have mighty bash/herculean bash, and doing a reaction bash straight into magma.

[WalrusMcFishSr]

#4 Jumping/throwing spear to the wrong hex. This can be a death sentence; I turned on fat-finger mode because of this

#5 Pressing recall when I meant to press bash...

[pacovf]

#5.5 Getting recall instead of anything else in that Altar

Seriously, recall has no reason to exist. It's extremely rare for it to do any good for you. "Follow" at least can sometimes, maybe, get you out of trouble if you've managed to throw your spear to the right spot, but throwing your spear is already a questionable decision by itself so...

I wish there were prayers that made spear throwing useful. I mostly build a shield hoplite, because I haven't unlocked some of the craziest leap prayers yet, and because killing 4-5 demons in a single turn is fun, but from what little I've found online, there are no redeeming prayers for throwing. Which kinda makes me sad.