I need a new game

[Admiral Squish]

Basically, I need a new game to occupy my time for the next couple weeks, and I'm looking for recommendations! I just bought and promptly finished Turmoil and Kingdom: New Lands, and I'm running out of youtube videos to occupy myself with. I've been looking around on Steam for a while, but it seems like everything that looks interesting is either too expensive or too much for my computer to handle. I was hoping the playground might be able to point me to some hidden gems, some interesting games I might have overlooked in my search. Generally speaking, Skryim on the lowest settings is just about the maximum my computer can handle, and I'm hoping I can find something under $25~ish. Genre's not super-important, honestly, I'll give most anything a try, so whatever you suggest will probably get at least a good long look, even if I don't end up buying it.

[Corlindale]

I don't really know what you like, but many roguelite and roguelike games are dirt cheap and have low system requirements, while also being capable of many, many hours of entertainment. Case in point: My most played game on Steam by far is Dungeons of Dredmor, which I got on sale for less than 2 euros (it's 5 right now).

For something even cheaper in the same genre, there is Tales of Maj'Eyal which you can download for free (there are a few extra perks if you buy it, but they're not neccessary). It can take a few hours to get into, but atm I've played 80+ hours and still haven't finished it. It also runs on practically anything, having quite simple graphics.

[Inarius]

Right now I'm playing a ton of Factorio. Its basically an OCD simulator where the goal is to set up and design a factory that eventually leads you to launching a rocket to space. It starts off pretty simple but gets considerably more complex as you begin having to have to figure out how to set up all of your resourece gathering and production areas to feed into other resource and production areas to make higher and higher tier components. Graphically its not a powerhouse, though at 20 bucks it might be a little bit of a gamble.

[Cheesegear]

I've been looking around on Steam for a while, but it seems like everything that looks interesting is either too expensive or too much for my computer to handle.

Sounds like you need a good, older game. Have you looked into Good Old Games (https://www.gog.com/)?

[factotum]

Yeah, have you looked at some older games that you might not have played first time round, like Morrowind? (Since you mentioned Skyrim).

[Triaxx]

Stardew Valley is very easy on the system requirements, and can keep you playing for a while. So can Galactic Civilizations II. Mount and Blade should run fine, and has many mods when you get bored of the base game.

For games with more discrete endings: Dust: An Elysian Tail is absolutely fantastic. May want a controller for it though. Two Worlds is about equivalent to Oblivion for system requirements, but I had a lot more fun riding around bashing my way through the countryside in that, than I ever did in Oblivion. (Not least because of the mounted combat.) It also has a very interesting magic system.

On the strategy side, we have Total Annihilation, which is absolutely awesome, and with the Core Contingency Expansion, also has four campaigns, two for each side. Age of Empires 1/2 are still awesome, and I think you should be able to play 3 as well. Plus Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, which is based on AoE 2, but with aircraft and some engine refinements.

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition should run fine, as should the second game. Icewind Dale also has an Enhanced Edition, and while IWD 2 doesn't, it's still pretty good on it's own. Played Fallout 1/2/Tactics? Those are also pretty awesome. I was also just reminded that Star Wars: Episode 1: Racer is a thing on PC. And it's perhaps the best thing to come out of Episode 1.

[Aotrs Commander]

Paradox grand strategy games are pretty good and a huge time-sink; if you catch 'em during a sale, you can pick 'em up quite cheap (they just released a new DLC yesterday for Crusader Kings II, so that's on sale now).

Bit of a learning... wall, rather than a curve though; the various wikis for those games are basically essential (and there's no substitue for going and asking questions on their forums, there's dedicated question and answers). CK2 is one of their older games, so you might be able to run it with an older machine.

But if its the sort of game you play, they're very good value for money; I've played one game of Europea Univarsalis IV, one of Stellaris and amd party-way through one of Crusaderkings 2, and between them, I've clocked up about 400 hours (200+35+190).

If that sounds appealing, I can expound further and suggest what of the DLC (though unfortunately this time, not not much of that is on sale outside of the collection pack, which misses a couple of the better ones).

[factotum]

Two Worlds is about equivalent to Oblivion for system requirements, but I had a lot more fun riding around bashing my way through the countryside in that, than I ever did in Oblivion. (Not least because of the mounted combat.) It also has a very interesting magic system.


Well, being more fun than Oblivion isn't exactly a high bar to set. Having said that, Two Worlds is worth playing, if only to hear some of the most hilariously inept voice acting ever committed in a video game. :smallsmile:

[Silfir]

Both Bastion and Transistor were some of the best I've ever played.

The Sword of the Stars Complete Edition is $10 or something and one of my favorite space 4X. It compares favorably to Stellaris in a good number of aspects, but Stellaris is a $50 release that has no expansion packs out yet. SotS Complete Edition has four expansion packs in it, I think. Don't touch SotS II, mind you.

FTL is one of the best $10 games I've ever played. On the other hand, pretty much everyone has heard of it. The free version of ADOM is also worth a try. (It's $15 on Steam for some bonus features, but the game originated in the 90s as freeware and still is.)

While we're on the subject of games with replayability via the "roguelite" formula, Renowned Explorers is a tremendously charming and mechanically original title that belongs to the genre as well. Should be good for a lot of playthroughs. Crypt of the Necrodancer was awesome fun for a while, but might not have the longevity you're looking for.

If you're going over to GOG.com, you might want to try Master of Magic. It's the grand-daddy of fantasy 4X, still unmatched, very playable to this day and I think only like five dollars. Same goes for the old, 1994 X-COM: Ufo Defense.

Obviously, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the 2012 reboot, and its expansion, is an amazing game in its own right - but outside of a sale, more expensive than what you're asking for.

Of course, there's also Heroes of Might and Magic III, the best fantasy-themed strategy game ever made.

Also, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the pinnacle of the Civilization series (despite being a spin-off inbetween II and III).

Let's see - someone's already mentioned Mount and Blade: Warband...

$20 buys you Grandia 2 - Anniversary Edition, the only JRPG I keep replaying over and over. It has badass music and just about perfect combat, and the characters and story are lovable enough. Not sure if they've finally worked out the issues with the port, though. It's good for 30 hours of playtime at least, I think.

That's basically a tour through my favorite games that didn't cost me a lot of money.

[Triaxx]

Completely forgot about the X series. Ignoring Rebirth, you can sink thousands of hours into them. And then you can mod them.

[Hunter Noventa]

Paradox grand strategy games are pretty good and a huge time-sink; if you catch 'em during a sale, you can pick 'em up quite cheap (they just released a new DLC yesterday for Crusader Kings II, so that's on sale now).

Bit of a learning... wall, rather than a curve though; the various wikis for those games are basically essential (and there's no substitue for going and asking questions on their forums, there's dedicated question and answers). CK2 is one of their older games, so you might be able to run it with an older machine.

But if its the sort of game you play, they're very good value for money; I've played one game of Europea Univarsalis IV, one of Stellaris and amd party-way through one of Crusaderkings 2, and between them, I've clocked up about 400 hours (200+35+190).

If that sounds appealing, I can expound further and suggest what of the DLC (though unfortunately this time, not not much of that is on sale outside of the collection pack, which misses a couple of the better ones).

Those manner of Grand Stretegy games can get very resource intensive when you reach the end-game, however. Not necessarily graphically, but running the AI turns will get intense.

It's a little newer than Skyrim, but it's not super graphically intense, so I'll suggest X-Com: Enemy Unknown/Within. They're tricky turn-based tactics games that will make you curse the RNG Gods, but when things go well, it's very satisfying.

[danzibr]

Huh, you mention Steam. Any chance you have PS3 or PS4? Lots of great cheap games on the PSN.

As far as Steam goes, I recently downloaded a collection of games, supposedly $75 in value, for $2 or something. Maybe $5, I don't recall. Quite a few are crap, but some of them are surprisingly good.

Unfortunately, I can't check Steam here, so I can't get you the link on that particular bundle (if it's still running), but browsing the bundles and seeing if there's anything which has an absurd discount seems like a good way to go about it.

[NRSASD]

If you're interested in turn based strategy, Xenonauts might be up your alley. It's a lot like X-com, only less graphically intensive but more strategic. If you literally want more Skyrim, look into Enderal, which is a total conversion mod. I'm having a blast flailing my way through that right now, and the story telling is top notch. Besides, it's completely free.

[factotum]

Since Triaxx mentioned Two Worlds earlier, just thought I'd mention that both it and its sequel are on weekend sale at GOG, so now's the time to get them if you're interested.

[rooster707]

Hmm... looking through my Steam library, here are my absolute favorites:

Half-Life 2, and its expansions
FTL: Faster than Light (The only game that I regularly ragequit, but still come back to over and over)
Deus Ex (One of my favorite games, ever. I recommend the Revision mod, which is free to download on Steam.)
Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2
Gunpoint (A small game that I grabbed on impulse during the Summer Sale. Fun gameplay, good story, great soundtrack, kind of short though.)
Antichamber

[Flickerdart]

In terms of older games, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is amazing and if you haven't played it yet, you should.

For newer but non-demanding games, Dungeons of Dredmor is great. Mount and Blade has pretty low requirements, as long as your battles aren't too huge.

[Admiral Squish]

I was not expecting quite this much response! This is a lot of games to look through...

I'm not really keep on either Factorio or Stardew Valley, honestly. I mean, I'm happy to farm/grind in a game to help me accomplish something else, but games where the farming/grinding is the only thing to be done just seem... aimless to me.

I'd give Good Old Games a more serious look if the front page weren't mostly dominated by new releases. As is, doesn't seem like it'd be worth downloading another launcher for.

I've never played Morrowind, or Oblivion for that matter. They're on the higher end of my price range, but I'll definitely consider them. I'm just a little worried that, after getting spending several months absorbed by Skyrim, they'll either feel too similar or too primitive by comparison.
On a related note, I might consider Enderal, but I think I'd probably want to try some other Skyrim Mods first.

I got hard copies of Galactic Civilizations 2 and Two Words as gifts, but Two worlds refused to install, and I couldn't figure out how to move a ship out of orbit in Galactic civilizations, so I obviously didn't get far. Might give them another go.
Dust looks cool as hell, but yeah, from what I saw in the trailer thingie I do think it would probably require a controller.
Mount & Blade seems cool, but for whatever reason just doesn't seem to grab me. I dunno, human-only medieval stuff never really gets much interest from me...

I don't know about strategy games, I used to love the hell out of Starcraft, but it's been a while, and nothing seems to be catching my interest.

Transistor and Bastion look FANTASTIC, but they are on the higher end of the price range, so I'd have to think about them a little more carefully.

I've heard good things about FTL, but I still have no idea what it's actually about. I'll give it a good long look.

Renowned Exlorers looks fun, but expensive, so I'll have to think about it a little more carefully.

Reviews do not seem to agree with you on Heroes of Might and Magic III...

I can't find Alpha Centauri on steam but I'll keep an eye out for it.

Grandia, huh? Name's familiar, and it looks a lot like Skies of Arcadia, which is one of my favorite games ever, so I'll definitely think about it, even with the relatively high price tag.

'The X Series' doesn't really help me search for the actual games. You know how many games have an X somewhere in the title?

I've heard good things, but any version of X-Com is definitely out of my budget.

The last console I owned was an xbox. The original. So, console games are out, unfortunately.

Xenonauts looks very cool, but not quite cool enough to justify the very top of my price range.

I will confess, half-life and KOTOR have always seemed to be 'holes' in my gaming knowledge, some of those universal experiences I've somehow missed out on. Not sure if this is the time to patch said holes, but they're definitely going on the list for consideration.

The trailer for Gunpoint on steam actually made me laugh pretty hard, so that's a point in its favor.

Antichamber looks mind-bending and awesome but the high price tag makes me think twice.

I played the hell out of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time when it came out.

[Eldan]

Those manner of Grand Stretegy games can get very resource intensive when you reach the end-game, however. Not necessarily graphically, but running the AI turns will get intense.

Not necessarily te paradox ones. The map is worldwide from start to finish, so that doesn't get bigger, building is rather minimal and I'd say the general tendency is for there to be fewer nations in the end than the beginning, so there's fewer players, too. Armies and populations get bigger, though.

[Triaxx]

Forgot not everyone knows X. X3 Terran Conflict or Albion Prelude are the newest of the old generation. X:Rebirth is a series reboot, but has gotten mixed reaction.

Alpha Centauri is on GoG. A) don't be fooled by the Front Page. Once you dig in, you'll see all the older games. B) or by the launcher. It's not at all necessary, even if they do push it a bit.

Morrowind is different enough to Skyrim not to feel identical.

[factotum]

B) or by the launcher. It's not at all necessary, even if they do push it a bit.


Yeah, ignore all that cobblers about GOG Galaxy, you don't need it--every game on GOG can be downloaded as a single .EXE (possibly with a small additional patch EXE, depending on game) which you can install the old-fashioned way and which will launch as a standalone game. You would have to sign up for a GOG account to buy anything from them, but that's hardly onerous.

[Gnoman]

'The X Series' doesn't really help me search for the actual games. You know how many games have an X somewhere in the title?


In this case, the X isn't in the title, it IS the title.

The games are X:Beyond the Frontier, X2: The Threat, X3:Reunion, X3:Terran Conflict, and X:Rebirth. All of them are on Steam.

[Silfir]

Heroes III reviews don't agree with me...? What?

OHHH. Don't get the HD remaster on Steam. It's awful. Get the original Complete Edition (https://www.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition) on GOG. That's what all the negative Steam reviews recommend as well, if you check closely.

EDIT: Dear lord, how could I forget Theme Hospital?

[factotum]

The games are X:Beyond the Frontier, X2: The Threat, X3:Reunion, X3:Terran Conflict, and X:Rebirth. All of them are on Steam.

You forgot X-Tension and X3: Albion Prelude. :smallsmile:

[Knaight]

Yeah, ignore all that cobblers about GOG Galaxy, you don't need it--every game on GOG can be downloaded as a single .EXE (possibly with a small additional patch EXE, depending on game) which you can install the old-fashioned way and which will launch as a standalone game. You would have to sign up for a GOG account to buy anything from them, but that's hardly onerous.

Some of the big ones are multiple .exe files, but that's comparatively rare for anything that doesn't have "Witcher" in its name somewhere.

As for games: The current Humble Indie Bundle has some solid games in it, and $10 gets everything.

[Peelee]

Sins of a Solar Empire is amazing, if you like 4X RTS. Really well-balanced factions, really different playstyles for each faction, graphics aren't really important (but it looks beautiful anyway), just great game all around. Only downside is no campaign, but it should be dirt cheap by now.

[Admiral Squish]

What exactly does 4x mean? I've seen it a couple times in this thread and I've never heard it before.

[Peelee]

What exactly does 4x mean? I've seen it a couple times in this thread and I've never heard it before.

EXplore, eXploit, eXpand, eXterminate. You need to fuel your war machine to keep on keepin' on.

Edit: as in, in Sins, you expand and exploit by colonizing planets (which give you taxes so you have a steady stream of cash) and mining asteroids/moons (which give you a steady stream of materials), so you can build ships, defenses, build up planetary infrastructure, what have you. Exploring finds you phase lanes/paths to see what planets are accessible from where, and also new planets (and possibly hostile empires). And, obviously, exterminate by warfare (you can also wage war via economic or cultural means, but only guns destroy fleets).

[Triaxx]

The four X's of Explore, Expand, Exchange, and Exterminate. IE explore new lands, expand to them, exchange goods with the residents and then Exterminate them when you have everything you want from them.

[Peelee]

Bytheway, just checked Steam. Sins Rebellion - which is the Sins of a Solar Empire base game, with the Entrenchment, Diplomacy, and Rebellion expansions all packaged in together - is $10 (normally 30, knocked off 75% for a Stardock sale) for the weekend.

*Rather, Rebellion has the content for all the originals, but not the individual games themselves. That package is like 30 bucks.

[1dominator]

You can try openXcom for a free port of the original xcom, if you are on a tight budget.

[Valley]

Skyrim? So your computer is equal to mine - so here is a list of games, mostly from Steam (so you can check reviews and prices), that should not tax it or cost too much. Also, I have all the below so I am not just shooting them out there for no reason.

Mount & Blade: Warband - Some role play and some tactical battles. Think Lite Crusader Kings 2 + Rome: Total War

Banished - Survival 'Jamestown' game. Not much else.

King of Dragon Pass - Very much role play - Think Crusader Kings without moving armies and Aztec invasions. Or DLCs. The one on Steam has a slightly different UI but more events than the older version. Set in a different fantasy world the morals and ethics are different. What seems correct to you may not be correct from the people's point of view. You will love it or hate it. I once played a game that lasted over a hundred years.

Rogue State - You try to keep a newly formed independent Middle-East-ish nation in one piece. You only have so many action points per turn, so you really have to decide what to do before you do it.

UnReal World - Survival in Iron Age Finland. Good tutorial.

Sid Meier's Pirates - Kind of says it in the title. This is the newer version.

Papers, Please! - You are a Border Guard in a 80's Communist nation. Somewhat depressing to be honest.

UnTurned - Dayz + Minecraft.

Sheltered - Family in a Fallout Shelter. No zombies, just fall out, searching for water, and trying to keep your family (and family pet) alive.

60 Seconds - Sheltered Lite + Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. Beer and Pretzel game. Fast game and can be funny.

Prison Architect - Make a prison. Riots, riots, and more riots. And you also have a mod where you escape from it after building it.

The Escapist - Escape from a prison. Steal keys, make a tunnel, turn off the fences, what ever it takes.


Not on Steam and FREE!

Dwarf Forces - Not on Steam and totally free but the most complex game in the world. You will love it or hate it.

Prospecter - A space game that is kind of like Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode in space. Not on Steam and totally free. Simple graphic and a UI that is not shown - you would have to write down the commands on a piece of paper.

[factotum]

You can try openXcom for a free port of the original xcom, if you are on a tight budget.

OpenXcom doesn't include any of the actual art or audio assets from the original X-Com game, so you still need to purchase that if you want to actually be able to play it.

[Triaxx]

UFO: Alien Invasion (ufoai.org), is another X-Com style game, that's been in development for a while. I stopped playing, after they made some slightly questionable design decisions. It's still not a bad game, just I became disenchanted with it.

[GrayDeath]

Aside from the obvious suggtestion I always make when people say their Computer ios crap (MoO 2, Cthulhu Saves the World and KoToR 1 and 2+Jade Empire) lets see......


2 Worlds has an amazing Soundtreck and offers real free World GamePlay (you can easily just go to the end Region and kill the End boss within a few hours ... if you are really really hardcore ^^) and few ways to make **** characters....and bad voice acting and a really simple story (until the end^^).

You might also try some older NfS Games, especially Most Wanted and Carbon.

[Admiral Squish]

So, I decided to buy FTL as my first game. Thanks for all the suggestions, I've added a whole bunch of them to my wishlist, and I'm definitely gonna be checking them out sooner or later. Feel free to keep suggesting new ones!

In the meantime, I'm getting my butt kicked by FTL. I mean HOLY HELL. I must have started two dozen games and I've YET to beat the rebel flagship! Is there a super-easy mode somewhere I could be doing? The first few games I was having fun imagining the action on screen like it was a sci-fi TV show, Emily the rock trying to extinguish a burning engine, Sean the hot-blooded mantis pouncing on boarders with a wicked gleam in his eyes... But after the twelfth or so time they all dies horribly in vaccum, it becomes a lot harder to connect to them.
I just can't figure out what I'm supposed to be doing differently. If I rush through the systems, I'm too weak to handle the later ones, and if I meander even a bit, I run out of fuel or get caught by the rebels!

[Peelee]

Check out Kerbal Space Program, if you get a chance. It's cheap, in the sense that it's about the only game I play anymore, and is the only game that has ever given me a true sense of accomplishment. Back before the tutorials really existed, establishing a stable orbit was a milestone, and the feeling you got on your first successful Mun landing was.... indescribable. Just for the ability to make me feel so strongly about my achievements, I'd say it's my favorite game ever, but it's so much more than that.

Like, $40 more.

[Silfir]

So, I decided to buy FTL as my first game. Thanks for all the suggestions, I've added a whole bunch of them to my wishlist, and I'm definitely gonna be checking them out sooner or later. Feel free to keep suggesting new ones!

In the meantime, I'm getting my butt kicked by FTL. I mean HOLY HELL. I must have started two dozen games and I've YET to beat the rebel flagship! Is there a super-easy mode somewhere I could be doing? The first few games I was having fun imagining the action on screen like it was a sci-fi TV show, Emily the rock trying to extinguish a burning engine, Sean the hot-blooded mantis pouncing on boarders with a wicked gleam in his eyes... But after the twelfth or so time they all dies horribly in vaccum, it becomes a lot harder to connect to them.
I just can't figure out what I'm supposed to be doing differently. If I rush through the systems, I'm too weak to handle the later ones, and if I meander even a bit, I run out of fuel or get caught by the rebels!

You should be visiting as many stops as possible in each system without running into rebels. That does usually mean you have to buy fuel at stores.

It can be hard to figure out what exactly it is you're doing wrong, but it could be many things. FTL can be unforgiving about something as simple as buying the wrong upgrades. How is it you usally wind up dead? Is it as a result of events, or in space combat?

You get better at roguelites or roguelikes by process of elimination. Figure out what you did that contributed to your dying, and change that approach, until you don't die anymore. (As often.)

[Corlindale]

FTL is meant to be really hard, especially the flagship. It's important to explore as much as possible. As for killing the flagship there are many schools of thought. I always find a Cloaking Device really, really helpful.

[Triaxx]

Well, the trick is to learn what races don't need oxygen or don't need as much. I believe rocks can last long without it, so while she's trying to put out the fire, you can open doors to space to also deprive the fire of oxygen, and then close them when it goes out. As long as no one else is in the path you chose. There's also a button to close them all I think.

I've watched a few people play the game and only one person win it. So don't feel bad.

[Eldan]

Teleport is very helpful with the flagship. The weapon rooms on it aren't connected to the rest of the ship, so you can port in, kill the gunners and destroy the weapons and they can't repair them.

[factotum]

I've watched a few people play the game and only one person win it. So don't feel bad.

I won it *once*, on easy difficulty (or, as it should accurately be called, "not-quite-hard-enough-to-make-you-want-to-eat-your-own-eyeballs" difficulty)--as I recall, I did it just by having so many active lasers that I could wipe the mothership out really quickly. Problem is, there isn't any general strategy for defeating the thing because of the highly random nature of the game--you can't guarantee you'll have a cloaking device or a teleport by the time you reach the mothership!

[Triaxx]

If I recall correctly, the on I watched had a bunch of drones so those could focus on the shields and then missiles to break things once those were gone.

[Silfir]

If I recall correctly, the on I watched had a bunch of drones so those could focus on the shields and then missiles to break things once those were gone.

That seems unlikely, since missiles bypass shields anyway. Many ships end up relying on drones or missiles only to break shields so beams or lasers can do the rest, because drones and missiles consume limited resources. If you don't treat them as limited resources, you usually end up petering out and losing at some point. A ship that has to use both missiles and drones to deal with threats is already on a downward slope.

90% of my missiles in FTL will be aimed at the Shields section. The other 10% are a) cases where I can damage the ship with lasers quickly without relying on missiles (for instance, if the Shields are already in the red), but the enemy is dealing damage to me; I'll target weapons then, or something else crucial, or b) when the enemy ship is charging FTL drives to escape; In that case I bestow gifts of missiles on the pilot and engineers to encourage them to stay awhile and listen.


I won it *once*, on easy difficulty (or, as it should accurately be called, "not-quite-hard-enough-to-make-you-want-to-eat-your-own-eyeballs" difficulty)--as I recall, I did it just by having so many active lasers that I could wipe the mothership out really quickly. Problem is, there isn't any general strategy for defeating the thing because of the highly random nature of the game--you can't guarantee you'll have a cloaking device or a teleport by the time you reach the mothership!

There are no 100% guarantees in roguelikes, but you can hone your strategy definitely to the point where you can get 99%, so to speak. That's the key to the higher difficulties.

For instance, while there's no guarantee you will get a cloaking device before the final battle, it's extremely likely if you can float a steady 150 scrap and visit enough stores. In fact, you want to float a significant amount of scrap even if you do have cloaking, at any point in the game - because the likelihood of a store having something that will help you tremendously in some way is higher than the one of it having one specific item.

But to be able to float 150-200 scrap and still win battles as you advance through the sectors, you have to know how to maximize your rewards and exactly which upgrades are worth getting in what situations, as well as be careful to avoid taking damage as much as possible. For example, it's almost never a good idea to buy crew members at stores. Over the course of a game, you can expect to stumble across at least one or two of them for free, and with the average starting crew of three that's enough to power the four main systems and still have one guy left over, usually an Engi to repair things. Any more than four crewmen is a luxury. If I do buy crewmen, it's because it's very late in the game and I bought a whole laundry list of other things first already.

While we're at it, rockmen make a crappy fire brigade. They're too slow. Your main method of fire control always ought to be oxygen deprivation, except if the fire is in a 100% crucial system, like the helm. Rockmen are well-suited for either combat or manning stations. If, for instance, the helm is hit by a missile and goes up in flame, the rockman has more HP to tank the missile and doesn't take damage from putting out the flames - that's why if I start with one rockman, he's the pilot.

[Triaxx]

I checked and you're right. He was using missiles and lasers, not drones. Drones were from a previous failed attempt.

[Knaight]

FTL is meant to be really hard, especially the flagship. It's important to explore as much as possible. As for killing the flagship there are many schools of thought. I always find a Cloaking Device really, really helpful.

It's pretty near essential, although if you're high energy enough there are some fun options involving defensive drones, lots of shields, and hopefully boarding.

[Silfir]

It looks like Renowned Explorers is now discounted by 60%, (http://store.steampowered.com/app/296970/) its lowest price ever.

I cannot recommend it enough, especially if you're already enjoying FTL.

[Admiral Squish]

I really am enjoying FTL, it's a really cool, engaging game... that's also SUPER FREAKIN' HARD. I took the thread's advice and meandered as much as possible ahead of the rebel fleet, and on the very first attempt I actually beat the flagship! ...Then I had to fight it again, and I managed to beat it again! ...But then I had to fight it a third time, and by then I only had a sliver of hull left and all the repair stations had been taken over, and I got destroyed. If I just had a hull repair drone on hand, I could have pulled it off... I have yet to get THAT close to winning since, though I've been trying pretty regularly. I really, really want to keep playing this, but unless I figure out what I'm doing wrong, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to motivate myself to beat my head against this wall.
Further advice is more than welcome.

I decided to pick up Renowned Explorers while the price was down, and I made it through the tutorial and the 'starter' expedition thus far. So far, it's not quite as immediately engaging as FTL was, but it's definitely fun, and I suspect I'll get more into it as time goes on.

[factotum]

I really, really want to keep playing this, but unless I figure out what I'm doing wrong, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to motivate myself to beat my head against this wall.


The problem is, you might not be doing *anything* wrong. That's the general problem with roguelikes like FTL, you are a slave to the RNG and you simply might not get everything you need to win against the flagship in your run.

[Silfir]

Beating the first two phases of the flagship is no small feat! The first time I reached the flagship myself I only got past phase one.

The trouble is, if you're doing something wrong, it's impossible to deduce what that is just from reading your post. I'm willing to bet, personally, that you are doing a lot of small things wrong - or even some big things that look like small things. If I could only watch a recording of your run...

Do you remember what your ship looked like when you started fighting the flagship? Shield layers, weapon loadout, engine levels, reactor bars, cloaking, boarding teleporter - simply put, what did you have? How did you take damage - some damage is unavoidable fighting the flagship, but if, for instance, you take out the missile room with boarders straight away, have full shields, close to maxed engines running, have a defense drone Mk 1 on hand to defend against boarding drones, and use cloaking to avoid surge attacks, and your weapons are up to par, it's not impossible to get away with taking very little. In short, how did they get you? Were you just overwhelmed by the lasers, ions and such? (If so, that would indicate to me you didn't have enough engines and shields running.) Did a boarding drone or hacking attack catch you with your pants down? Did your weapon combination take just too long to get any results? (There are weapon combinations that can theoretically beat the flagship eventually that simply don't do it fast enough.) Could you have approached the final sector differently so that there was a better chance of a repair station being present? Were you looking for stores as well - they can be found in that last sector at empty beacons and sell repairs?

[Admiral Squish]

I did it! I had to cheat a little but dammit I DID IT! I finally beat the flagship! To do so, I had to use a mod to turn of rebel pursuit so I could meander freely through the sectors without a time. Even with my ship maxed out in every respect, the final battle was WAY closer than I'd have liked it to be.
I think I'm gonna use this to unlock the various ships, then actually try to beat it with the fleet on once I've gotten a lot more practice with this.

[Ashery]

I'd actually suggest *not* using that mod outside the occasional experimental run as you can get into some bad habits that could be hard to break. That, and learning how to milk the most from the time you have and knowing when it's worth it to risk fighting the fleet is one of the more important skills you need to learn.

As for actual advice, it's hard to say without seeing you play. One little detail that's often overlooked and rather important is that you don't need the biggest, baddest weapons to win. In fact, it's quite the opposite; almost all of the best weapons are only one or two power. Not only are they directly more effective when you can get a full load out of'em, but they allow you to focus the scrap you'd use on the seventh and eighth weapons system upgrades on other areas of your ship.

@factotum

While pretty much every roguelike will occasionally feed you an unavoidable death, actual unavoidable deaths are very rare in a well designed game like FTL or DCSS (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup). Some players can maintain around a 50% win rate on hard for FTL, but there are others out there that can be over 70 or 80%, and that just wouldn't be possible if the RNG was that fickle.

The underlying skill to FTL, and roguelikes in general, is learning how to self-reflect after things end badly and realize how, why, and where things went wrong in that run and what could've been done differently. This is the main reason I consider FTL to be so close to the roguelike genre despite having so little in common with the genre on a superficial level.

@Silfir

A couple points of advice I disagree with:

You actually almost want to have a build that utilizes both missiles and drones as the game will always throw a number of free missiles and drones your way. What you want to avoid is a build that relies on them to the extent that you need to buy either from a shop. Buying them from a shop can be unavoidable for certain ships during the early game, but the one of the goals for any viable build for those ships should be weaning yourself off missile or drone part purchases.

Sitting on 150 scrap for cloaking comes at a rather hefty opportunity cost, especially in the first few sectors. It's not much to do that in, say, sector five or six, but if you're sitting on 150 scrap at the start of sector three, that's three engine bars with power that you don't currently have.

Also, happy to see Renowned Explorers mentioned. I ended up grabbing it when I saw the sale (Not from this thread) and have been a wee bit obsessed about it. Not quite as polished and solid as FTL, but FTL is pretty much one of the highest bars that can be set for a game, so that definitely doesn't necessarily imply the game has any significant weaknesses.

[Silfir]

I'd actually suggest *not* using that mod outside the occasional experimental run as you can get into some bad habits that could be hard to break. That, and learning how to milk the most from the time you have and knowing when it's worth it to risk fighting the fleet is one of the more important skills you need to learn.

As for actual advice, it's hard to say without seeing you play. One little detail that's often overlooked and rather important is that you don't need the biggest, baddest weapons to win. In fact, it's quite the opposite; almost all of the best weapons are only one or two power. Not only are they directly more effective when you can get a full load out of'em, but they allow you to focus the scrap you'd use on the seventh and eighth weapons system upgrades on other areas of your ship.

@factotum

While pretty much every roguelike will occasionally feed you an unavoidable death, actual unavoidable deaths are very rare in a well designed game like FTL or DCSS (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup). Some players can maintain around a 50% win rate on hard for FTL, but there are others out there that can be over 70 or 80%, and that just wouldn't be possible if the RNG was that fickle.

The underlying skill to FTL, and roguelikes in general, is learning how to self-reflect after things end badly and realize how, why, and where things went wrong in that run and what could've been done differently. This is the main reason I consider FTL to be so close to the roguelike genre despite having so little in common with the genre on a superficial level.

@Silfir

A couple points of advice I disagree with:

You actually almost want to have a build that utilizes both missiles and drones as the game will always throw a number of free missiles and drones your way. What you want to avoid is a build that relies on them to the extent that you need to buy either from a shop. Buying them from a shop can be unavoidable for certain ships during the early game, but the one of the goals for any viable build for those ships should be weaning yourself off missile or drone part purchases.

Sitting on 150 scrap for cloaking comes at a rather hefty opportunity cost, especially in the first few sectors. It's not much to do that in, say, sector five or six, but if you're sitting on 150 scrap at the start of sector three, that's three engine bars with power that you don't currently have.

Also, happy to see Renowned Explorers mentioned. I ended up grabbing it when I saw the sale (Not from this thread) and have been a wee bit obsessed about it. Not quite as polished and solid as FTL, but FTL is pretty much one of the highest bars that can be set for a game, so that definitely doesn't necessarily imply the game has any significant weaknesses.

With regards to drones and missiles, you've misunderstood what I was getting at:


A ship that has to use both missiles and drones to deal with threats is already on a downward slope.

Eventually, of course you want to work with both missiles and drones. You just don't want to be reliant on both of them to hurt opponents at all. You don't want to be reliant on either of them, while we're at it, there are just some ships that don't have a choice in the beginning.

As for the issue of floating scrap, I stand by what I said, which is


you have to know how to maximize your rewards and exactly which upgrades are worth getting in what situations, as well as be careful to avoid taking damage as much as possible

You do want to get the rank 2 and 3 engine upgrades as soon as you have the money to spare - though even that comes second after the second shield layer - because they help avoid taking damage. What you don't want to do is spend the scrap on things that won't make a meaningful difference, like crew members, unneeded reactor bars and secondary system upgrades in the very early sectors. That's the mistake I've seen new players actually make.

In perfect agreement with everything you've said, but just felt a bit of clarification was in order.

[Ashery]

Ahh, now I get what you're saying re:missiles and drones.

And that was a much needed clarification re:floating the scrap for cloaking. I've see many screenshots over the years where people are floating a couple hundred scrap while their ship isn't upgraded enough to cleanly get through the sector they're in, so I always push back against the simplistic interpretation of saving for cloaking. Your clarification, however, puts your line of reasoning in agreement with my own.

[Triaxx]

It ends up a positive income thing. If you spend the scrap to upgrade your ship, you can more easily acquire additional scrap.

[Wookieetank]

I'll second Dugeons of Dredmor, its an incredibly fun roguelike, with a huge amount of character customization, a great sense of humor, and eyebrows. For added bonus, if you have a friend who also has the game, you can do identical builds and compete to see who can make it farther. It is also only $7 for the game and all its expansions (and you get to name one of them).

For an older school style game, Last Dream is amazingly well put together 16bit jrpg. It has a surprisingly open world, and there is more than one way to advance the plot. I ended up playing this game to exclusion of all others when I first got it until I beat it. This one is $10.

Terraria is also great. Its a metroidvania with minecraft elements and is one of my top 5 played games. It is $10 and I still pick it up once or twice a year for days on end.

[Peelee]

Kerbal Space Program is 40% off until the 18th, if you're interested.

[Admiral Squish]

Dungeons of Dredmor is on the list already, I'll probably pick it up sooner or later.

Also added Last Dream, the trailer does look really nice.

I'm curious about Terraria, I've heard about it before, but I've never really looked into it.

I've seen LPs of Kerbal Space Program, I was under the impression that it actually required a lot of computer muscle because of all the simulation elements.

[dmnull]

I highly recommend Stellaris. It is a space x4 game by Paradox. It kill nearly a week of my free time when it first came out.

[factotum]

I've seen LPs of Kerbal Space Program, I was under the impression that it actually required a lot of computer muscle because of all the simulation elements.

It depends how complicated the rockets you're building are. I was able to run it on my old triple-core 3.2GHz AMD Athlon and build Mun rockets and interplanetary stuff without too much trouble.

[Serpent-SR]

Have any of you guys ever played kings of chaos? its a great time sink

[cobaltstarfire]

I would recommend Crypt of the Necrodancer (on steam or recently added to PS4?)

It's not too expensive, and it has an interesting little twist. You have to move to the beat of the music (unless you play as bard, he can ignore the beat).

So it's like a rhythm game and a rogue-like rolled into one. The trick is learning how the monsters move so you can approach and attack them without getting attacked yourself. (all the monsters also move to the beat).

Also how can you say no to a game that has monsters with names like Deep Blues (chess/blues themed boss), and King Konga (gorilla boss with a giant zombie konga line).

It takes a little bit to get used to moving to the beat, but it's really fun, and has a pretty large amount of replay value.

The controls are pretty customize able too. For example I have mine set up so that I use the right buttons to move, and the D pad and triggers for inputs that usually require you push two buttons at once.

And you can input your own music to play to if you want.