FTL: Limited Information (Federation Victory!)

For completed/abandoned Mish Mash Games.
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FTL: Limited Information (Federation Victory!)

Post Post #0 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:19 pm

Post by callforjudgement »



The Galactic Federation is at war. A large-scale Rebellion has caused Federation space to be consumed from within, shattering the tranquility and harmony that the Galaxy had known for years.

Two jumpcycles ago, a Federation loyalist intelligence ship picked up some very interesting information. Now they knew how the Rebellion started. Now they knew how to stop it.

And now, they are all dead. The Rebels don't like to leave loose ends.


They may have perished, but their information survived. Not everyone was on duty that day, and a last desperate message back to their home base reached four new recruits, and a newly delivered warship. Messenger duty is a reasonable job for a Federation soldier's first mission. Running for your life isn't, but what can you do about it?




This game is a interactive playthrough of (a modded version of) the computer game
FTL: Faster Than Light
. The playthrough functions as follows: I as the moderator will be playing the game on my own computer, but according to the instructions the various players send me privately, with each player operating a single character within the game. So any large-scale decisions will be made by the players. However, nobody (but me) will have a full picture of everything that's going on; I'll keep individual players updated on their own part of the ship, but not on what's going on elsewhere, and players will be making decisions independently using the resources they control (although public discussion about what to do is permitted and welcome). So the playthrough will function similarly to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons; it's just that we'll be following the computer game's rules engine, not those of a more freeform system. Each player will have their own, non-public victory condition; these are broadly compatible with each other, but may cause conflicts in the details.




Current players:
  • the worst (Engi)
  • Iconeum (Rock)
  • Varsoon (Mantis)
  • Gammagooey (Slug)
Queue of players who might join later (if events in-game cause new characters to join our ship, or possibly if replacements are needed):
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Last edited by callforjudgement on Fri May 10, 2019 5:23 am, edited 15 times in total.
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Post Post #1 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:19 pm

Post by callforjudgement »

Rules
Conduct
A1. Try to stay active.

Try to check into the game thread and your private thread at least once per 32 hours.
If you don't do so, either you will be replaced, or the game will continue with your character taking no actions (potentially putting the mission in jeopardy).

A2. No private messages.

Please talk about the game only in its main game thread and your personal Private Topic.

A3. Do not quote the moderator.

If you play Mafia on this site, you should be familiar with this rule; please do not quote or publish non-public information
directly
, as it would go against the Limited Information spirit of the game.
You are allowed to publicly discuss information that you've been given privately, but please paraphrase it (i.e. state it in different words). Also note the next rule.

A4. No numbers.

This is a special rule for this game, intended to make it harder to share information between the players:
You may not post any numbers in the game thread, even indirectly, except for monetary amounts (i.e. quantities of scrap).

Legal examples of posts would be "I'm ⛯10 short of being able to buy the weapon I want" (scrap quantity), and "my new drone deals more damage than the old one but uses more power" (qualitative, no numbers given).
Illegal examples of posts would be "Please purchase another 3 units of ammo" (3 is a number), and "my new weapon deals twice the damage of the old one" ("twice" = "times two" which is a number).
Although you should try not to violate this rule, I will not be very harsh on offenders.
Note that you can talk about numbers freely in your personal private topic (that's what it's for!), and in non-game-related statements like "I will be V/LA for 48 hours".

A5. Play to win.

A basic win is to complete your primary objective; that's your primary target. (Note that if your primary objective is completed before the game is over, you will be given a new one.) Players' primary objectives will be broadly compatible with each other, so you can work together to achieve them.
For a perfect win, you would also want to score as highly as possible on your secondary objective (ideally outscoring the other players). Playing to win also means aiming for your secondary objective, as long as you do not have to sacrifice your primary objective to do so.

A6. All site rules apply.

Specifically, we're following the Universal Site Rules and General Site Rules (because this is not a Mafia game).


Gameplay
B1. You will be controlling a character in the computer game
FTL: Faster Than Light
. Well, mostly.

The moderator will be playing a game of FTL, based on the input of the players.
Each player in the Mish Mash game will be (indirectly, via the moderator) controlling the behaviour of one character in the computer game.

B2. The game has been modified.

The version of FTL in use has had an unreleased balance patch applied. As such, players who are spoiled on FTL may discover that things act differently from what they're used to. In general, the balance patch aims to make more items viable than in vanilla FTL.
Additionally, the moderator may alter the flavour behind events to make them harder to recognise, alter the game lore, and the like. So FTL should be seen as the "rules engine" behind which the game operates, but the setting of the game will be a mix of vanilla FTL's setting and ideas of the moderator's.

B3. When a new situation arises for the first time and a decision is required, the moderator will pause the game and ask the players for input. Please indicate how similar situations should be resolved in the future, so that the game will not need to be stopped the next time.

The game is likely to stop repeatedly early on, as new situations arise, but to keep the game moving, you should let me know what general principles I should use to decide on your character's actions; that will prevent the game lasting forever due to the need to ask the same questions over and over again.
If your chosen course of action does not work, and your characters would be aware of this, I'll pause the game and ask for a new decision.

B4. Each player will be responsible for a subset of the ship's behaviour. Each decision is, therefore, made unilaterally by one player. However, the other players can give input into the decision.

For example, if a shop is offering an upgrade to the ship's piloting system, only the pilot can decide to purchase it; if they choose not to (or fail to decide in time), it will not be purchased.
You can choose among yourselves who should be responsible for what, especially if characters are added to the game or end up dying. However, to get things started, I've suggested a split that should be approximately balanced when 4 characters are alive.

B5. Anyone can look out of the window. However, for things affecting the ship's interior, only players responsible for the relevant part of the ship will be told what is happening.

This is the "limited information" part of the game. Things that happen outside the ship will be posted in the main game thread. Things that happen inside will be posted only in the relevant player's private topic (who has the choice to stay silent about them, talk about them honestly, or lie about them, although remember that they can't use numbers to talk about them).

B6. Any scrap (currency) gained will be split evenly among the players. Players can spend only their own scrap. Players can transfer scrap to other players at any time.

Most likely, you won't have the money to purchase things without pooling your money, so feel free to negotiate over who should get to buy something!
Note that if you're given rewards in units other than scrap, they will be given entirely to the player in charge of that area of the ship, rather than being split evenly. Yes, that's unfair. Life's unfair sometimes. (However, if you reorganise who is in charge of what part of the ship, all the relevant items will be automatically moved to the person who's now in charge of them.)

B7. Only players who complete their primary objectives can win. Completing all your primary objectives gives you a basic win. If you complete your primary objectives, and outscore all other players on your secondary objective, that's a perfect win.

Thus, your primary objective is more important than your secondary objective. Some primary objectives may be accomplished before the end of the game, in which case the player will be given an additional primary objective; every player will therefore still have an objective to fulfil when the game ends.
If you get knocked out of the game (due to your character dying in-game), it may still be possible to win post-elimination if your primary objective happens to be completed by the other players, but a perfect win is no longer possible.

Queue
C1. The game will start when 4 players are ready to play.

The ship we're using starts with 4 crewmembers.

C2. If more players than characters are available, the additional players will wait in a queue until a character becomes available for them to play.

So if we have 4 crewmembers and 5 players want to play, the fifth to sign up will have to wait until a character within the computer game decides to join the party.

C3. If more characters than players are available, the additional characters will perform only boring actions.

The additional characters aren't players, so won't be sent any information, won't be given scrap, and won't have any control over the ship's actions. I will try to control them using a similar algorithm to the one that the game's AI uses when controlling enemy characters.

C4. If your character dies in-game, you can rejoin with a new character, but will be sent to the back of the queue.

FTL can be quite lethal sometimes, so feel free to replace back in when a new character is available.
Note that FTL typically gives a player very little control over
which
character dies when a death occurs, so if you decide to take risky actions, you're taking everyone's lives into your hands, not just your own.
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Post Post #2 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:21 pm

Post by callforjudgement »

Initially, I will need 4 players, because the Federation warship we'll be using for the game has four crewmembers. This number is, however, likely to change over the course of the game, as crew arrive and depart, so if you miss the initial signups but wish to play, feel free to /in, and you'll be added to the game when a new playable character is in need of a player to control them.

Additionally, each of the four crewmembers is different. So the players who enter will need to decide who plays which of the four characters; we have a Mantis (combat specialist), Engi (repair specialist), Rock (slow and defensive), and Slug (greedy). Ideally the four players would agree on who controls which character, but if you can't agree, it will go first-come first-served, i.e. the first player to sign up will have the first choice of character to control.
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Post Post #3 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:25 pm

Post by the worst »

/in.
:)
great ship choice.
who's scum? i haven't read up yet but like, it's me
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Post Post #4 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:28 pm

Post by callforjudgement »

Most of the ships in the mod are fairly pigeonholed into specific strategies, so the game would be mostly me micromanaging rather than the players strategising. (They've all had changes from vanilla FTL, some minor, some major.) Kestrel A is one of the ships that isn't, but we've done that already. Federation A, on the other hand, is also fairly versatile, and seems more or less perfect for something like this (as we have four different crewmembers right from the start, and a clear plotline). So as soon as I thought of it, the choice of ship was obvious.
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Post Post #5 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:35 pm

Post by PvtUrist »

/in
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Post Post #6 (ISO) » Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:41 pm

Post by the worst »

Federation A has some really nice flexibility and lends itself well to lots of different builds as well.
This should be fun. :)
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Post Post #7 (ISO) » Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:40 am

Post by Varsoon »

/in.
I'd like to be a Mantis, if possible.
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Post Post #8 (ISO) » Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:45 am

Post by Varsoon »

Also, how do we handle making rooms have no oxygen in them or does that qualify as metagaming a bit too much?
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Post Post #9 (ISO) » Mon Mar 04, 2019 10:00 am

Post by Varsoon »

Also--how would someone on the Camera system (or the slug) have information given to them?
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Post Post #10 (ISO) » Mon Mar 04, 2019 10:00 am

Post by Varsoon »

I'm interested to see how this plays.
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Post Post #11 (ISO) » Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:16 pm

Post by callforjudgement »

In post 8, Varsoon wrote:Also, how do we handle making rooms have no oxygen in them or does that qualify as metagaming a bit too much?
You'll be dividing the responsibilities for the systems up between yourselves. If someone's in charge of the Doors and/or Oxygen systems, they'll be able to give instructions like "try to keep this room vented" and I'll try to follow that.
In post 9, Varsoon wrote:Also--how would someone on the Camera system (or the slug) have information given to them?
Everyone has a private topic; information only one player knows will be sent to them in their private topic.

However, I'm not going to try to give everyone realtime updates about every battle, as that would take way too long. So what will happen is that whenever something that hasn't happened before comes up, I'll ask people how to handle it (which might include checking sensors, venting rooms, or whatever), then I'll keep doing the same thing in the same situation until it obviously stops working or someone requests to change part of their strategy.
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Post Post #12 (ISO) » Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:42 am

Post by callforjudgement »

While we wait for a fourth player: the worst, PvtUrist, do you have any opinions on which character you play, or shall I just give you whatever's left over after the fourth player signs up?
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Post Post #13 (ISO) » Wed Mar 06, 2019 1:30 pm

Post by PvtUrist »

I'll take rock
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Post Post #14 (ISO) » Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:15 pm

Post by Enter »

How long will it take to play through the whole game, do you expect?
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Post Post #15 (ISO) » Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:22 pm

Post by callforjudgement »

Probably somewhere between 1 and 2 months, based on how long the prequel lasted. (The time will vary based on how quickly people make decisions; if people make decisions faster, the game won't last as long.)
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Post Post #16 (ISO) » Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:32 pm

Post by BuJaber »

I'm interested but as I've never played or heard of the game before I don't mind being one of the later characters.
Wayward Bullets is in signups!

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Usually I’m not big on puns, but I like the cut of your jib
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Post Post #17 (ISO) » Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:37 pm

Post by PvtUrist »

it's possible we die first jump to zotlan shield double flak pirate so theres that
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Post Post #18 (ISO) » Thu Mar 07, 2019 12:23 am

Post by Varsoon »

I've played so many Stealth 1 games where my first jump is to one of those unmanned drone ships that has good weaponry.
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Post Post #19 (ISO) » Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:37 pm

Post by Iconeum »

/ in
Rawr!
#stopmodabuse
#Town!Ico.never.does.that.
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Post Post #20 (ISO) » Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:38 pm

Post by Iconeum »

Don't really care which char
Rawr!
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Post Post #21 (ISO) » Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:42 pm

Post by the worst »

In post 12, callforjudgement wrote:While we wait for a fourth player: the worst, PvtUrist, do you have any opinions on which character you play, or shall I just give you whatever's left over after the fourth player signs up?
I'm easy, give me whichever works out. :)
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Post Post #22 (ISO) » Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:46 pm

Post by Iconeum »

I'll take whichever is available in this order:
Mantis (combat specialist)
Slug (greedy)
Engi (repair specialist)
Rock (slow and defensive)
Rawr!
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Post Post #23 (ISO) » Thu Mar 07, 2019 10:05 pm

Post by PvtUrist »

Hype :]
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Post Post #24 (ISO) » Fri Mar 08, 2019 2:59 am

Post by Varsoon »

No idea how the races work exactly in this, but in general:

Mantis attack and move faster but are MUCH slower to repair systems and take extra damage from fire.
Slugs can see which rooms lifeforms are in even in the enemy ships and are immune to mind control.
Engi are machine people that repair systems extra fast but do half damage in combat.
Rocks are immune to fire and have much more health than the other races, but move at half speed.

There are also Humans, Zoltan, Crystal, and Lanius. We'll probably get to those when we get to those.
Having diversity in your crew is important, though, because it lets you solve various events.
For instance, you might find a space station on fire, and normally would have to risk a crew mate to save people, but if you had a Rock person, you could send them in and succeed 100% of the time.
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