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.

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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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From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 18, 2014 8:00 AM

    Alice 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.

    • reply
      February 18, 2014 8:01 AM

      Cant wait.

      Especially cant wait for the Ipad version.

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        February 18, 2014 9:03 AM

        I can't wait for the fresh set of tears.

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      February 18, 2014 8:11 AM

      Hard mode! Finally! *still hasn't beat it on easy*

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        February 18, 2014 9:16 AM

        I haven't beaten it on easy, with cheating.

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        February 18, 2014 9:30 AM

        I am in this club and have spent way too many hours playing the game :( .

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        February 18, 2014 10:02 AM

        Yup. Not a small club I suspect.

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        February 18, 2014 10:19 AM

        This game pounds harder than an Amish kid at a nude beach.

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        February 18, 2014 10:48 AM

        hi2u, no-winning bro

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        February 18, 2014 11:21 AM

        For all those who can't beat it on easy, just buy long range scanners. They save you from game ending moments.

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          February 18, 2014 4:01 PM

          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.

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            February 18, 2014 4:58 PM

            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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            February 18, 2014 5:01 PM

            I forgot the game has an autofire function - do people actually use that? It would explain the frustration.

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              February 18, 2014 5:15 PM

              It took me all of two fights to figure out that the autofire function was a terrible idea.

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                February 18, 2014 5:21 PM

                Why does it even exist?

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                February 18, 2014 5:32 PM

                I really only use it for the disruption weapons; it does jack shit for normal weapons.

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              February 18, 2014 6:09 PM

              [deleted]

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              February 18, 2014 7:00 PM

              [deleted]

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              February 19, 2014 9:51 AM

              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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            February 18, 2014 6:08 PM

            [deleted]

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              February 18, 2014 6:52 PM

              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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      February 18, 2014 8:39 AM

      that sounds great. When?

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      February 18, 2014 10:45 AM

      I FINALLY beat normal about a month ago. I was so wiped out from the ordeal, I've taken an FTL break.

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      February 18, 2014 11:06 AM

      ipad version?/

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      February 18, 2014 11:20 AM

      HARD MORE for HARD GAME CLUB. Yesssssssss

      I have way too many hours in FTL.

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        February 18, 2014 11:30 AM

        definitely gonna hit up hard mode, can't wait

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        February 18, 2014 3:03 PM

        I'm kind of scared about that. Normal was tough to beat. Not totally impossible feeling like some roguelikes, but still challenging.

        I'm scared of hard mode.

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          February 18, 2014 3:32 PM

          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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      February 18, 2014 4:51 PM

      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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        February 18, 2014 4:56 PM

        When you are finally able to stand back up and try to defend yourself, he throws two rabid wolverines in your face and then cloaks himself.

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          February 18, 2014 4:56 PM

          Also the wolverines bark bees

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            February 18, 2014 5:34 PM

            [deleted]

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              February 18, 2014 7:23 PM

              Monsanto's lawyers then serve you papers for coming into contact with their bees.

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                February 18, 2014 9:06 PM

                You aren't able to defend yourself because it's contractually stipulated with your HOA

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                February 18, 2014 9:15 PM

                And seize your kids due to possible cross pollination

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                February 18, 2014 9:43 PM

                and then their entire law staff kicks you in the nuts, again, at the same time. patent pending

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      February 18, 2014 8:51 PM

      goty

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      February 18, 2014 10:05 PM

      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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