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After countless hours of playing, I have pretty much "solved" the game on its hardest setting ("Normal"), so I am really, really looking forward to a massive, free add-on I'd easily pay $10 for.

Definitely planning on getting the iPad version the second it arrives in the App Store.

What makes the game so fascinating is how many different, exciting situations arise from a number of pretty simple game mechanics.

One example to show how complex it gets: You are in an asteroid field and your medbay has a hull breach (so oxygen is low in that room), enemies which have beamed on to your ship are on their way to your engine room, but you see the enemy ship's shields are down to zero, what do you do with your crew of 3? Do you repair your weapons first, fix the hull break, or try and suck the oxygen out of the engine room to suffocate the enemies?

2 comments

> I have pretty much "solved" the game on its hardest setting ("Normal")

I think FTL is one of the few games where this is actually an achievement. Well played!

> What makes the game so fascinating is how many different, exciting situations arise from a number of pretty simple game mechanics.

That's also what make it frustrating sometimes: let me relate some fictional situation that depicts this. I have my multi-shielded ship with my crew of 4 against a powerless enemy. Oh, they just teleported a boarding drone into my oxigen module, making a breach on the way. I can only send two of my men at the time and the heal module is far away. In the mean time, they have not been able to get through my shields and I have deactivated almost all their weapons. almost. A teleported bomb has started a fire in the shield module and destroyed it ; blaze is spreading to the heal module. Most of my crew is now half dead, I can only extinguish the fire by making vacuum, but cannot fill it back with air. In the mean time, the boarding drone has gotten to the weapon module. … Glad to have served with you on this ship. Open all doors.

On the plus side, if it is frustrating, it is also very humbling and makes you paranoid. Alright, the plus side then: having to deal with so much random is what makes the challenge very interesting. The game is not about winning, it is really about learning from your mistakes (in most games, you just need to guess the scripted motion or the right path by trial-and-error).

Share some tips? I never lose on Easy but have yet to win on Normal