A lot of Star Trek has centered on the idea of ”going bold” since its founding in 1966, providing the public with a view of humanity removed from modern flaws. Still, the original USS Enterprise was essentially a military submarine under the cavalier Captain Kirk. It’s no surprise that many interesting concepts from the franchise wonder how a united people would face incomprehensible threats to their lives and morality, like the Borg in The next generation and Dominion War in Deep Space Nine. Ten years ago, Subset Games was released FTL: Faster than lightwhich still stands out for the way it puts these dilemmas in the hands of players.
The Galactic Federation in FTL is less elaborate than Star Trek‘s United Federation of Planets, but retains the same core appeal. It is an intergalactic peacekeeping organization with members of different alien races, all serving on the same starships to provide their unique abilities. A big difference is that FTLBuilding the world is not based on utopian ideals, it is more like the gritty Star Wars universe – the main plot even relies on players providing information that can help defeat the Rebel Flagship, a stand-in for the Death Star, before destroying the main federation base.
This fundamental story of good versus evil fits so well into the morally gray politics of a… Star Trek-stylized alliance because FTL‘s roguelike design emphasizes how the player behaves during each randomly generated run. Victory against the Rebel flagship requires a lot of power, especially on higher difficulty settings, but how the player acquires this power depends on how they think their crew would react to unexpected circumstances. Subset Games gives players the chance to build a real coalition that answers aid or a death machine that takes components from both friends and foes, and the freedom within the relatively limited framework is compelling to this day.
Creating FTL and Intergalactic Warfare
Justin Ma and Matthew Davis are the two people responsible for Subset Games, raising over $200,000 to create FTL via a Kickstarter in February 2012. That crowdfunding campaign cited outside sources describing: FTL as “glowworm in a manner of spelunky,“downsizing the kind of space opera plotting in franchises like Star Wars by focusing on the inner workings of a single ship.
Each FTL run begins by selecting one of a handful of ships, each equipped to take advantage of the game’s potential diversity. For example, the base Engi ship has built-in drone controls to suit that race of emotionless, mechanical creatures; meanwhile, the stock Mantis ship has a Teleporter to take advantage of boarding enemy ships with fast, rock-hard insectoids. Still, these ship systems can be modified on-the-fly as players find upgrades along the way to match the customization inherent in naming your ship and crafting crew members to your liking for role-playing.
Freedom of choice goes deeper as players not only allocate resources to upgrade their ship, but also decide how each system works during real-time battles. A player’s ship will never be prepared for every encounter given the wide range of combat options, but even low-powered ships can survive with the kind of clever direction you might see in a Star Trek episode. Everything can be adjusted by hand, from pulling power from generating oxygen to sucking up shields to opening each door so that the vacuum of space extinguishes fire. Crew members get better at serving certain stations over time, but anyone can be ordered to make repairs or fight invaders in any part of the ship – provided there’s room.
In an August 2012 interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Ma and Davis said they love the high-stakes combat and command Deep Space Nine in the style of a board game from above, and FTL is certainly an example of what made that series popular in the microcosm, better than officially licensed titles like Crossroads of time. It was so successful that the FTL: Advanced Edition expansion released in 2014, featuring a new alien race, more ships (including new variants of older ships), and much more.
Choice controls all systems of FTL
Fight in FTL is an immersive chess game of moving units and targeting enemy systems to take them out perfectly, but much of what is possible in combat depends on the player’s exploratory nature and ability to read ongoing situations. Players must pass through seven sectors to reach The Last Stand against a Rebel Flagship, spread over branching paths that can take the crew into civilian space, hostile environments, or mists that obscure one’s surroundings.
Each sector is a cobweb of beacons that the player’s ship can jump to (within certain parameters, unless certain augmentations are equipped) before the enemy fleet catches up, and this is where the roguelike nature of the game shines. Each beacon can lead to a battle, shop or any event that usually offers a choice – drawing on inspirations such as precipitation and Mass effect. Sometimes good or bad things happen outside of the player’s control, but other times they may encounter a problem that needs to be solved.
One example is the “smashed pirate” event, where a pirate-marked ship is found trapped between two large rocks after illegal mining in an asteroid belt. Players can attempt to dislodge the ship with a laser at the risk of destroying it (and taking damage), or they can deliberately destroy the ship for zero pirate tolerance. However, if equipped with a beam-based weapon, players can only cut the ship loose for a no-risk reward. Collecting different gear and crew members is essential as players never know when they will need an Engi to spread vaccines on a contagious planet or a Rockman to wade through a fire.
All of these elements and more unique elements introduced through Advanced Edition content, with writing assistance by Tom Jubert and Chris Avellone (who has since been accused of sexual misconduct), mingle with combat that requires a split-second decision to truly commit. lay what it would be like as a Star Trek During a television season, the crew encountered threats around every corner. Subset Games would go on to explore the tropes of Kaiju movies and time-loop stories like Edge of tomorrow in the subsequent release in the breachbut there is still plenty of reason to visit again FTL‘s unique place in the canon of sci-fi games after 10 years.
FTL: Faster than light is now available on mobile and PC.
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