BF2S Forums [FTL: Faster Than Light] Space Combat RTS

FTL: Faster Than Light is a top down, real time strategy game created by indie developers Subset Games. In the game, the player controls the crew of a single spacecraft, holding critical information to be delivered to an allied fleet several sectors away, while being pursued by a large rebel fleet. The player must guide the spacecraft over a number of sectors, each with planetary systems and events procedurally generated in a roguelike fashion, while facing against rebel and other hostile forces, recruiting new crew, and outfitting and upgrading their ship. Combat takes place in pausable real time, and if the ship is destroyed or the crew lost, the game ends in permadeath, requiring the player to restart.

At game start, the player chooses a spacecraft with several specific systems rooms (piloting, engines, weapons, life support, etc.), and a crew. The game randomly generates multiple space sectors à la roguelike games, with twenty-some interesting way-points per sector. The player must "warp" the ship between way-points, normally unaware what awaits at each point, making headway to an "exit" point leading to the next sector until the Federation is reached. Players can revisit way-points, but each warp jump consumes fuel and causes the rebel fleet to occupy more of the space in each sector. Encounters are more dangerous deeper within the rebel sphere of influence.

In combat, the player can manage the ship's systems by distributing power, order crew to specific stations or rooms to repair damage, and fire weapons at the enemy ship. Successful weapon strikes by either side can damage systems, disabling their functions until repaired by crew; cause hull breaches that vent air into space until patched by crew; ignite fires that spread and damage both systems and the hull until they are extinguished by crew or starved of oxygen; and inflict direct hull damage, which reduces the ship's hull points (the player can restore hull points via stores, friendly bases, random events, and hull repair drones). A ship is destroyed once its hull points are reduced to zero, or defeated once its crew is eliminated. A player victory earns resources for bartering, upgrading, or combat; an enemy victory results in game failure, deleting the save file and forcing the player to start over. Alternatively, the player may evade combat by jumping to another way-point after the ship's engines have charged.

Last edited by Eagle (2013-07-13 14:15:27)