FTL: Advanced Edition adding Hard Mode, Clone Bay
The stresses of FTL mean captains can become awfully attached to their crew, whether as individuals with their own names or simply as walking stat buffs, so their deaths can be tragic. Handily, the upcoming Enhanced Edition revamp will introduce a Clone Bay to bring lost crew back as good as new. Or, well, almost. It's not quite that simple, of course.
The stresses of FTL mean captains can become awfully attached to their crew, whether as individuals with their own names or simply as walking stat buffs, so their deaths can be tragic. Handily, the upcoming Enhanced Edition revamp will introduce a Clone Bay to bring lost crew back as good as new. Or, well, almost. It's not quite that simple, of course.
The Clone Bay system is an alternative to the Medibay, Subset's Justin Ma revealed in a new blog post, which spits out a clone of a crew member after they snuff it--minus a few skill points. If the Clone Bay's down for too long when a crew member croaks, they'll be gone for good.
"The goal of the Clone Bay was to really disrupt the core way you play the game," Ma said. "You'll be able to send crew off into dangerous situations without fear of death. Giant alien spiders will no longer be the terrifying, unstoppable force that you're used to, since the system can simply revive your crew after the event."
Ma also explained a little more about the other new systems. The Backup Battery will offer a little extra power in times of need, Hacking will launch a drone to screw with an enemy system, and the Mind Control system, well, seizes control of an enemy unit's mind.
With all these shiny new tools to play with, if you fancy more of a challenge, you can play in Hard difficulty, which will pack tougher enemies and less scrap to salvage. I still haven't even beat Normal difficulty.
FTL: Advanced Edition is coming to iOS early this year, and to PC as a free update.
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replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, FTL: Advanced Edition adding Hard Mode, Clone Bay.
The stresses of FTL mean captains can become awfully attached to their crew, whether as individuals with their own names or simply as walking stat buffs, so their deaths can be tragic. Handily, the upcoming Enhanced Edition revamp will introduce a Clone Bay to bring lost crew back as good as new. Or, well, almost. It's not quite that simple, of course.-
Cant wait.
Especially cant wait for the Ipad version. -
Hard mode! Finally! *still hasn't beat it on easy*
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I haven't beaten it on easy, with cheating.
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hi2u, no-winning bro
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not every play through gets those though. there are some pretty simple items to beat the game though:
0) something happened? pause, figure out what to do. you cannot pause too much.
1) get the teleporter and board things. everything. it gets you more scrap when you win, you have greater chances for free crew and it practically trivializes the final boss as you can board the various weapon systems easily. mantis boarders are best, followed by rock.
2) fire lasers in salvos and target enemy weapons. don't just let your guns autofire -- you have to cluster all your lasers in one burst. this is especially important as you get more weapons with different charge times and the enemy shields get thicker.
3) think about how you're going to handle the boss' really threatening weapons -- the 3 missile salvo (easily avoided with boarders + 2x defense drone 1s/cloak), the drone surge in part 2 (avoid with cloak or high evasion), the constant boarding drones of part 2 (usually a defense drone of some sort is best to counter), and the 6 heavy laser salvo of part 3 (again, use high evasion or cloak). you can theoretically beat the boss without specifically countering these things, but it gets WAY harder.
4) it's not enough to just counter the weapons of the final boss, you must also think about how you're going to beat the final boss. it has a high dodge, 4 shields (so you'll need a ton of laser/ion firepower to beat it that way -- at least 6 points shots in a salvo), tons of crew and a 4 man lvl 3 medbay (don't expect to board it to win, only to disable weapons), and at least one stage of high defense drones (missiles can't be counted upon).
the only ships that really have the final boss solved from the start are engi A and the fed cruisers -- the engi ion blast 2 will eventually wear down any shields, and the fed cruiser artillery beam will destroy everything eventually.
engi A is imo the most luck free way to beat the game initially -- it's almost impossible to not find both a teleporter to take down the enemy weapons and some damaging weapon to actually finish off the boss, and you already have the drone system. after you beat the game, the unlocked fed cruiser is pretty easy to roll with any punches the game throws at you.
5) you want lots of crew. so some combo of get piloting 2, med bay 2, and sensors 2 in the first couple systems -- they lead to lots of free crew from blue options. and boarding slave ships gives free crew too.
6) your first upgrade should be upgrading to 2 shields (2 more system levels + 2 levels of power), try to get it by the end of sector 1. only thing that supersedes it is lucking out and having a chance to buy teleporters early.
7) don't neglect engines/dodge. aim for one level upgraded and powered per sector up to level 5.
8) best augments are scrap recovery arm and long range scanners. others can be useful, but usually i'd rather upgrade a system or buy something else.-
The last run I did I had:
Weapon preigniter
Fully powered cloak
Teleporting bombs
Hull buster missles
That fucking SOB had no chance. -
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It took me all of two fights to figure out that the autofire function was a terrible idea.
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I really only use it for the disruption weapons; it does jack shit for normal weapons.
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it's on by default. i've had a couple friends that the salvo thing was an ah-ha moment, they didn't even realize it could be turned off.
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that's why you board and kill everyone except for the weakest weapon system then shoot them down, will prevent the computer from taking over
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Well, I won't feel bad about using some of the more overpowered ships like crystal B, kestrel B, and fed cruiser A on hard mode.
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Come to find out Hard Mode's just a guy that comes to your door and kicks you in the nuts
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And seize your kids due to possible cross pollination
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I just wish this would come out for the iPad. I'm on jury duty this week and I could have used it.
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