I was playing the game FTL: Faster Than Light tonight with the Torus, the drone carrier.
Here was my ship’s configuration at the beginning of the final mission:
Crew: an Engi helmsman, a Rock gunner, a Mantis shield technician, a Human engineer, and an Engi mechanic/shield tech.
Weapons: Ion Blast II, Ion Bomb, Heavy Laser I.
Drones: Laser I, Beam I, Defense I.
Extras: Advanced FTL Navigation, Engi Medibots, Advanced Reloader, Cloak I (later II), Engine IV, Shield VI. 8 fuel, 25+ missiles, 15 drones.
I reached the enemy flagship and fought the first engagement with minimal damage. By targeting its shields with both the Ion Blast and Ion Bomb, I was able to bring the shields down quickly. I used the Heavy Laser to damage the shield generators as well. That enabled both my Laser and Beam drones to rip apart the flagship’s components. The flagship retreated with major damage.
I pursued it and re-engaged it as quickly as possible. This time, it destroyed about 65% of my hull, and it sent in a bunch of both aerial drones and two boarding drones. I was able to handle the boarding drones with my Mantis and Rock crewmen, but the flagship’s weapons successfully damaged the oxygen generator and started fires around 25% of my ship before it retreated again with even more damage. I was able to open the exterior doors and vent out much of the oxygen in the burning sections. After closing the exterior doors, I was able to repair the oxygen generator with about 15% of the ship’s capacity remaining, but not before one of the Engi died of oxygen deprivation while repairing the generator. At some point, the door controls had been disabled, so I needed to send the other Engi to repair the door controls.
The flagship’s attack had also disabled my ship’s internal sensors, so as soon as my crewman entered the door control room, he was attacked by another boarding drone! It had been left behind when the flagship fled, but it was still operational. The crewman fled with major injuries. It’s a good thing Engi ships have airborne medibots that can heal crewmen anywhere on the ship! The crewman was able to reach the medical room without dying. The Mantis and Rock crewmen rushed over to the room and dispatched the boarding drone. I upgraded the cloak with some of the extra salvage from the flagship.
Now that we were short one crew member and the hull was heavily damaged, we also had to temporarily retreat as well. The Advanced FTL Navigation enabled my ship to get to a frontline repair station quickly. It had not yet been overrun by the rebel forces, so we were able to get most of the hull repaired. They also added some fuel to our nearly dry tanks, so we were able to intercept the flagship one final time.
The third battle was an incredible battle! As usual, I tried to disable the flagship’s shields with the ion weapons. This time, though, the flagship had a special shield system that absorbed more damage before going down, so it took my ship much more time to wear down the flagship’s shields. Also, their missile launcher damaged my drone control room, so I temporarily lost the use of my beam drone until I adjusted my ship’s power levels.
At this point, I was hit by the flagship’s super laser weapon. Multiple laser shots broke through my shields and hit my ship in multiple locations simultaneously. Fires started all over the ship, and the oxygen system was damaged again. I had to take my medical system offline so I could continue to fire all weapons. I also thought about taking the cloaking system offline, when I suddenly realized: I had not used the cloaking system at all! I could dodge the super weapon with it. In the meantime, I had to open the exterior doors again. I did so, knowing that without an oxygen supply, the fires could go out, but things were going to get really dangerous for the crew. Sensors detected another power surge from the flagship, so I activated the cloak this time, and I successfully dodged the next laser barrage!
Suddenly, the boarding alarms went off. Two humans went after the cloaking device, and another went toward the door controls. I sent my engineer to repair the oxygen generator, and I sent my gunner and shield tech to repel the men attacking the cloaking device. I ignored the third boarder for the moment. In the meantime, I had successfully disabled the shield systems on the flagship. My drones were fully online and doing lots of damage to the flagship, but my heavy laser was offline, so I wasn’t able to finish the flagship off quickly. The cloaking device took an ion hit and would not be available when the flagship’s super weapon would next be charged.
At this point, the oxygen supply was under 20%. I had not yet noticed what the boarder was doing. The two boarders died in the cloaking device room, and I suddenly realized that they had asphyxiated in addition to suffering wounds! I opened all of the interior doors to spread out the remaining oxygen, since my crew were also losing health from oxygen deprivation. At that moment, the third boarder destroyed the door controls, so the interior doors could not be closed! The exterior door was still open, so there was no way to replenish the oxygen in the ship!
My engineer and pilot were now working together to fix the oxygen generator, but it looked hopeless. Another super laser barrage hit and fires started again. There was even a breach in the engine room from a missile hit. Since the doors were open, that was just another nail in the coffin. All of my crew died within seconds. The third boarder died a moment later, and my ship was lifeless.
My ship broke apart and pieces of wreckage began to break apart and drift away. I sat in my chair, screaming “NOOOO!!” because I had reached the final battle with a really good ship and crew, yet I had lost the game…
…or had I? Suddenly, the flagship ALSO broke apart! I had concentrated so much on the boarding parties, the repairs, and the oxygen problem that I had not watched my drones. They had been whittling away at the flagship the whole time. They must have started some fires on the flagship, because normally drones would shut down if a ship was destroyed. Therefore, the flagship must have been destroyed by fire just milliseconds after my last crew member died. Even though I died first, the game declared VICTORY FOR ME!
I was shocked, amazed, and relieved. My crew, having embarked on a suicide mission, succeeded heroically. Vengeance was theirs from beyond the grave!
Experiences like this help explain why so many players of FTL are enjoying the game so much! Since the game has many independent parts, unexpected events can happen. Players have to react to those events, so players will often play differently in any given play session than in any previous session. And sometimes –like tonight– the game and the player work together to create exciting and memorable stories.