By Craig Pearson on March 26th, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
I am sad. The updated version of space-faring roguelike FTL the developers are showing off in their beta video series is a few steps beyond the IGF version I have on my PC. So, yeah, you might like what you’re seeing and want to play it, but take a moment to think about what it’s like to be me? To see a better version of a game I own, but can’t have yet. I will accept your pity. I’m about to throw a massive, over-entitled strop. Hnng. HNNG. No, I can’t stay mad at them. Not after this video shows what they’re adding to the game: new ship designs, stealth elements, and NPCs to fix fires. Also: fire beams to start fires.
Eff Tee Ell is currently in the process of Kickstarting. They’ve made the money they needed, plus several thousand more, but there’s only five days left on the funding round if you want to play the game from its beta phase in May via Steam.
Still looking at an August release date.
26/03/2012 at 20:13 Lambchops says:
I’m enjoying the fact that every time they produce an update video there’s a new thing to see in it that makes absolutely perfect sense and adds more tactical choices to the game.
Beam weapons – of course they have to be in! The glories of firey destruction.
Different races of crew having different strengths – adds more personalisation, I’ll no doubt feel horrible when I carelessley let my guy who is good at fixing everything die in a boarder assault.
Looking forward to the beta so I can get my grubby mitts on this, the OnLive demo really whetted my appetite. I’d actually been swithering on bumping up my pledge amount, but I know I’ll never look at a PDF art book.
26/03/2012 at 20:18 Hanban says:
This is probably the game I’m looking the most forward to seeing. Looks super!
26/03/2012 at 20:26 Hodge says:
Yep, this one looks like it’s going to be a bit special.
26/03/2012 at 20:28 marcusfell says:
Does anyone else think this would be right at home on an IPad?
26/03/2012 at 20:44 JFS says:
They already get Star Command first, that evens things out.
26/03/2012 at 22:49 Riaktion says:
What is this Star Command.. I can’t find it on the iTunes store..
26/03/2012 at 21:25 Hoaxfish says:
I think it looks like some things would be too small on a screen the size of the iPad (e.g. managing individual crew members).
26/03/2012 at 20:49 gritz says:
I’m excited about this game, don’t get me wrong, but I wish it was more of an Elite/Privateer open world space trader game than a roguelike.
In an ideal world, the Mass Effect series would have had ship management and space trading in place of rovers and planet scanning.
26/03/2012 at 21:16 Roshirai says:
Space trading doesn’t really make sense in the context of being a galaxy-hopping military commander, though. Even when you go rogue in ME2, you still theoretically have the near limitless resources of a terrorist organization backing you, so having to shuffle whatzits around between systems in order to earn cash seems weird.
I’d totally play Mass Effect: Gaiden, however, in which I get to play a lone Quarian who takes up plying the trade lanes in order to bring an awesome gift back from his Pilgrimage, but only if said Quarian is also a loose cannon and plays by nobody’s rules.
27/03/2012 at 00:30 gritz says:
You say that, but in ME1 there was a character on your ship who tells you that he buys and sells goods every time the Normandy lands and in ME2 all of your goodies are built with resources you’ve prospected in the most tedious way possible.
27/03/2012 at 09:12 jalf says:
You do realize that it is possible to own more than one game, yes? That means a single game does not have to do *everything*. As much as I love both Mass Effect *and* Elite, and as much as I’m looking forward to FTL, merging the three would produce a lumbering behemoth that plays like crap in all departments. I’m personally happy if we can have all three games *separately*.
27/03/2012 at 17:43 gritz says:
“Hey you know that game in your head that you wish someone would finally make? Well, it sucks, even though it doesn’t exist. Please continue to be content with contemporary games that are whittled and streamlined to fit into the most narrow experiences possible.” – You, 2012
26/03/2012 at 21:30 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
So if I kickstart/donate now, I get a drm-free AND steam version upon release? I am sorely tempted!!!
26/03/2012 at 22:15 theLumberJack says:
I think you just get it on steam, which is fine by me. I’ve had never had a problem with steam offline mode.
26/03/2012 at 21:48 phatcat says:
What is crazy, is this game is a digital version of this board game:
http://www.battlestations.info/faq.html
http://www.battlestations.info/art/phasedie.jpg
26/03/2012 at 22:22 CaLe says:
Is it because I have never watched TV shows like Star Trek that this seems uninteresting to me? I like spaceships and sci-fi… but this doesn’t seem very appealing.
26/03/2012 at 22:52 Carra says:
Glad to hear that they’re on steam.
And I’ll play it once it’s out thanks to my Kickstarter $10 :)
26/03/2012 at 23:58 nihaoworld says:
http://rve.k.af
27/03/2012 at 02:00 Tiax says:
Seeing this video made me raise my pledge from 10$ to 25$, I *got* to play the beta of this otherwise I just might do a spontaneous combustion.
27/03/2012 at 02:18 Big Murray says:
Every single one of the high donation rewards has been sold. Even the $5,000 one. Where you fly to China and stay in the developer’s bed.
That’s an impressive Kickstart.
27/03/2012 at 04:28 polpolpolpp says:
http://www。cheapedhardy2。tk/
27/03/2012 at 09:00 Plaz says:
I know one of the guys who is making this, he and his brother are also responsible for the Winnitron cabinet currently residing in the Arcade bar in Shanghai:
http://www.thepretentiousgamer.com/page/winnitron-sh-complete/
He’s a lovely guy and you should definitely give him all your money :)
27/03/2012 at 17:37 shot2bits says:
have they announced anyway to pre-order this after the kickstarter is closed? i would love to throw my money at them but dont get paid for another 2 weeks.