Faster Than Light was one of my favourites games for 2013, and now they have just released a free expansion : Advanced Edition.
FTL: Advanced Edition is a major update that adds features to the original and is a free download for players who already own the original. It was released on Thursday, April 3, 2014
Faster Than Light (more commonly known as FTL) is a top-down, real-time strategy game on Steam, made by indie team Subset Games. The player takes control of the crew in a space vessel that’s in possession of critical information that must be delivered to an allied fleet several sectors away. However, to make the game more challenging, you are pursued by a large rebel fleet in every sector.
In keeping the story simple, the team has been able to create an in depth management system. You must maintain the ship when it’s damaged and make difficult decisions when under attack. For example, jumping in the middle of battle or taking energy from one source to power a weapon.
Jumping is how the player moves through the game, and, in some circumstances, the player may be near death, but can still escape battle. You will, of course, have encounters with the rebels. These are real-time, ship-on-ship battles which are the core of Faster Than Light’s gameplay, and, on quite a few occasions, the tension is increased through forcing you to make split-second decisions at every turn.
What’s new in Advanced Edition
These are some of the new features available with the Advanced Edition.
New Systems:
- Mind Control System: Temporarily turn enemies into allies. A more upgraded version of the system allows for longer mind control as well as health and combat bonuses. Vision of crew is required in order to make use of the system and Slugs are immune to this effect. With this system you can force a boarder to repair the damage they just did, or have the enemy pilot sabotage their own helm.
- Hacking System: Hacking is a system that sends a drone to a chosen enemy system at the cost of a drone part. Once there, the drone closes the door to the room it’s hacking and grants vision inside of it to the player. Unique effects for each system, ranging from forcing a teleporter remove boarders to making the medbay damage instead of heal.
- Backup battery is a subsystem that grants the player 4 extra reactor power (once fully upgraded) for 30 seconds with a cooldown of 25 seconds. Being a subsystem, it can be allowed on the ship without taking room from other systems.
New Race : This new race has been called the “Lanius”: A race that needs no oxygen to survive and drains oxygen from whatever room they are in.
New Weapons and Effects: Many new weapons that take advantage of new mechanics: overcharging to increase the number of volleys, stun effects to freeze crew, and area effect targeting, to name a few.
How to download the FTL Advanced Edition expansion:
Everyone who has FTL will receive the Advanced Edition expansion for free. How you get it will depend on how you purchased FTL to begin with. Here are the instructions for each vendor:
Steam:
Your Steam Client should automatically update FTL. By the time you read this, you have it!
FTLGame.com / Humble Store / Humble Bundle
The HumbleStore manages our purchases on FTLGame.com, so if you bought it from there the system is very similar to if you bought it from Humble Bundle or the Humble Store. If you connected your purchase to your account, you can log into your account and re-download FTL. The updated build available will include the Advanced Edition. You can log in from https://www.humblebundle.com/.
If you did not connect to a Humble account, then you’ll need your download link again. You can dig through your inbox to find it, or use their key resender:
https://www.humblebundle.com/?s=resender
