FTL: Advanced Edition

[agentwiggles]

I know there's other people here being consumed by the heroin-like addiction FTL can cause, made much more intense by the recent release of the FREE Advanced Edition expansion. Anyone have any thoughts on the new expansion? I'm really enjoying it, having recently become readdicted to FTL. Two weeks after I started playing again, this expansion dropped, and shook things up in the best possible way.

For those unaware, the expansion adds a new race, the Lanius, and a bunch of new weapons, systems, drones, ship layouts, and events. I've been toying around with the new content today for the first time and I'm super impressed by how well all the new things fit in.

The Lanius ship is great fun, and a good way to get exposed to a bunch of new content in one play. The Lanius drain oxygen from whichever room they're in, and don't suffer suffocation damage, so you have to be careful with them on your ship, but they make ridiculously mean boarders. It comes with two of the new systems, too - the clone bay, which replaces the med bay and revives dead crew members with a skill penalty, and the hacking system, whihc replaces drones, and can be attached to the various enemy systems to confer the ability to disrupt them temporarily (drain weapon or shield charge, freeze drones, even cause the medbay to damage enemies within).

I'm not sure about the clone bay, I think the med bay is better - I'm used to managing my crew such that they aren't killed so I don't see it being super useful. I think the hacking system is really cool and has huge potential.

Anyone else?

[Ribky]

I'm loving the advanced edition. Hacking + beams is working really well for me. Pop one of those bad boys on a shield and go to town. I notice you didn't mention the mind control system. That right there is a life saver when you get boarded.

I haven't had too much experience with the Lanius yet, other than one or two fights and one boarding. They're tough little robots.

[Taleric]

Ahhhhhhh!

I get spanked so bad even in the update :P

I have yet to beat flagship, ever, even after all this time lol.

Closest I got was a cloaking human build. Even on easy, just stomped lol.

[Nabetsu122]

I have yet to beat flagship, ever, even after all this time lol.

I know that feeling. I had to ask my friend to do it, and that even took ~5 restarts.

I am really enjoying the Lanis and their new cruiser, though. Combine them with a mantis/crystal crew and you can go on some fairly destructive tele-runs. Just remember to not have them in the same room with others as you jump. I have lost a couple of low health crew members doing that.

[MoRmEnGiL]

I strongly dislike the clone bay replacing the medbay, because it's strictly inferior, but other than that I love all the new additions. Especially the hacking system, which I find tons of fun.

[Rob]

I don't own the game, but I religiously watch an LP on it. (sad, I know)

The clone bay isn't inferior, it just doesn't fit your play style. It allows for risk taking that was altogether avoided without the clone bay. Missions that had you send a crew member to aid someone, or search wreckage, that could end in you losing a crew member were avoided, because no matter what the reward might have been, losing the crew member was too much of a gamble. The clone bay removes that gamble. If you focus on boarding, the clone bay allows for you to just fire and forget, or not worry about destroying the ship because it has your crew on board. Or in the event that your teleporter is damaged/ionized before you have the ability to save your crew, they aren't lost.

I'm not sure about having crew on board a ship that FTLs away, technically they haven't died, but I haven't seen the situation happen in the game to know if they are cloned afterwards.

[MaxAstro]

Yeah, this game sucked me back in...

I don't use the clone bay much myself, but I definitely can see the advantage. It allows for some really silly tactics. Get boarded? De-oxygenate the entire ship and laugh. Everyone dies, but your crew just gets cloned.

I also appreciate the extra tactical level it adds on AI ships when you are playing an anti-crew playing style - a number of times I have cleared out the enemy crew, wondered why the "I win" dialog didn't pop up... crap, clone bay! Killitkillitkillit...

I think the med bay is probably stronger in typical ship-to-ship combat, while the clone bay is arguably stronger in every other situation.

[Shinxy]

Gotta say, this really breathed some life back into FTL where needed. Great expansion (for free no less).

The new mind control thing is a blast to use in addition to boarding other ships. Just sitting back and letting my crew decimate the enemy from the inside out has given me fun on the levels of killing their O2 and watching as they suffocate, or trapping them in rooms away from their med bay while everything burns. Turtling with high evasive and 4 shields works wonders, and the clone bay makes it so it's less of a punishment for accidentally blowing up a ship.

Lanius crew helps with that strategy too, because it's hard for the enemy to repair something with no air in it, even if you have to abort a boarding so soon. They're a real bitch to deal with when it's you being boarded, since they can't be suffocated, but it adds to the fun.

Still need to try out hacking, although I'm looking forward to using it in runs with how much of a pain it can be to me. You'd also have to be a madman to play it on Hard. Normal is pretty challenging as is.

[FlowerChild]

Normal is pretty challenging as is.

Haven't tried the expansion yet, and I am slightly ashamed to admit it, but I almost always play FTL on easy.

I started playing on normal when I first got it, but eventually got fed up of how much randomness played into your survivability, decided to give easy a try, and never went back. I just find the game to be way more fun on easy than normal, and it is by no means a cakewalk even on easy (I think I've only made it through the end once in many attempts).

Anyways, for anyone that may have found the game frustratingly random, I highly recommend swallowing your pride and giving it a shot on easy :)

[DaveYanakov]

I have no shame in regards to my easy voyages. The game is still bitch hard

[Psion]

It took me like 30 tries to beat the game on easy, lol. Finally got lucky with the laser that speeds up the more you shoot it, till its got like a 1 second cooldown. (does one damage). Coupled it with the hermes missile to take down shields while my laser charges up, then blast everything in sight depending on what's needed. I also use mind control on the shield room first thing, then fire the first hermes right as the others start to swarm the controlled member, which sometimes kills one or two of them, especially if the missiles cause a fire or breach the hull.

[Rob]

Take this with a grain of salt since I've never played the game.

Mindcontrol is broken. Wait on weapon charges, mindcontrol the pilot, enjoy the sitting duck with zero evade.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Haven't tried the expansion yet, and I am slightly ashamed to admit it, but I almost always play FTL on easy.

I started playing on normal when I first got it, but eventually got fed up of how much randomness played into your survivability, decided to give easy a try, and never went back. I just find the game to be way more fun on easy than normal, and it is by no means a cakewalk even on easy (I think I've only made it through the end once in many attempts).

Anyways, for anyone that may have found the game frustratingly random, I highly recommend swallowing your pride and giving it a shot on easy :)

I agree 100%, easy is much more fun. Normal is an exercise in frustration, and I especially hate how I stumble upon shops just a few scraps short of being able to buy anything of value, and returning to the shop is usually way too risky or impossible.

I had many runs on easy but only managed to beat the final boss what, 6 times? Out of 30 runs or something.

You will be glad to know they added a hard mode btw :P

[Psion]

Take this with a grain of salt since I've never played the game.

Mindcontrol is broken. Wait on weapon charges, mindcontrol the pilot, enjoy the sitting duck with zero evade.

Sadly, i think a lot of enemy ships seem to have auto pilot, so it's not zero evade. That said, i sometimes do it anyways there since it usually causes the other enemies to immediately come attack their buddy rather than waiting for that person to damage a room a bit.

Usually when i mind control i target a rock or mantis since they cause the most destruction to the crew.

[DaveYanakov]

And the Mind Control tactics should be useless against the rebel drone ships.

[dawnraider]

Just got the game, and holy shit, I am having a lot of fun with it.

Unfortunately, on my first go, I almost lost all my crew to a fire destroying the O2 generator, then spreading, preventing workers from getting to it without dying. After 2/3 of the ship was in flames and it was running out of O2, I just opened everything but the medbay and cockpit to the outside. This took care of the fire problem , but brought about a new one: The O2 generator was destroyed and behind 3 rooms without any O2. So I just made trips back and forth through the vacuum between the medbay and the O2 Generator. Thankfully, I got the generator repaired, and was able to continue. This would have been a nice time to have some Lanius, but I was at the very beginning of the game.

I haven't gotten very far, but so far I'm having a blast playing it.