YASD: Yet Another Stupid Death

ibol · #1 October 16th, 2014, 02:35 PM

Though it was my intention in designing Approaching Infinity to give the player as much notice of their impending demise as possible, some situations seem inescapable, and sometimes you just don't make it back to the shuttle in time.

Congratulations! You have reached Infinity!

ExplorerBob · #2 November 15th, 2014, 11:43 PM

I was in sector 4, I believe, having gone back after crashing a Temple and acquiring the Ceiling Fan of Forever in sector 5. With a kitted Assault Scout and a rifle for ground combat, things were good.

I landed on a Terran planet and explored it without much event. There was a cave; I went back up to the ship to heal, and figured I'd land again to see what was in there.

I landed one square away from the cave. I was kicking myself for forgetting to bring the Oxygen Replenisher, but figured it was too good a chance to pass up. After I ran out of suit oxygen, I found that the planet's atmosphere was non-toxic, even better. I could explore the cave as far as it would go, with health being my only limitation.

I was returning back to the ship after getting in some licks from various cave creatures... and turned a corner right into a pair of suckers.

Game over, just like that. I never got to find out what that Ceiling Fan did or whether there was anything down on the second level of those caves. Not only that, there was like ten shipwrecks that I hadn't gotten around to exploring yet... and there was likely an Embassy at sector 6 or 7 that I never saw.

It's one thing to bumble into the second sector and get jumped by 5 pirate ships before the game even really starts (which has happened to me); it's another when things are going good and one little mistake is the catalyst for disaster. I guess I probably shouldn't have gone down myself on that away mission, and in the full version, I might not have, but I feel that in a 7-sector game, it's too much XP to pass up. The downside to that, is that if you stumble across one too many plants, or blobs, or whatever, your time's out -- which isn't a total disaster, considering it's just the demo, but it's still annoying if you have unfinished business (like with that Artifact).

That's just the way life (and death) goes, though.

ibol · #3 November 22nd, 2014, 08:16 AM

I read this when you posted it, and now I'm reading it again. Maybe I'm too soft-hearted for this stuff...I feel bad!

I know that's the way perma-death goes, and also how it's down to so many individual choices that you made from moment to moment, but losing games sucks. I'm really glad I included the non-PD option.

zircher · #4 January 22nd, 2015, 06:56 PM

YASD that would have had me rage quit if the game didn't end with perma-death.

Fracking friendly Linguine heavy warship follows me into an asteroid field shooting me because I'm too close. EVERY DAMN STEP I take it mirrors and continues to shoot. As far as deaths go, this has been the most aggravating doubly so because I wasn't doing anything wrong, the game just decided to murder my best run yet.

ibol · #5 January 23rd, 2015, 09:51 AM

Dammit!

I was playing my own perma-death game on hard, being good and careful, and I was thinking, man, I don't want to give up this game just so I can power-test the new features...

So I found a weapon for sale that was way better than what I had, but I couldn't afford it. I had my first artifact, and it didn't seem to do anything really great, so I thought, "sell the artifact, buy the weapon!"

My mistake was trying to blindly identify it. Threw caution to the wind... and my wrong choice sent out a wave of energy that enraged all nearby aliens. There were Tentaculons. I died.

Cyberis · #6 January 23rd, 2015, 10:03 PM

Heh, Heh!
I guess there is something refreshing when the creator of the game gets smoked every once in a while.

I haven't even played on normal yet so I'm a looooong way from hard. But I have gambled with artifacts a couple of times and lost both times. BLNT! It's a great game.

zircher · #7 January 28th, 2015, 03:16 AM

YASD, I guess the random number generator hates me. In was on a delve and I had to pass a trap to get to the next level. The traps goes off and spawns another trap right next to me. And that trap goes off and spawns another trap right next to me. Well three in a row and I'm toast.

TL;DR?

Rocks fall, everyone dies.

Cyberis · #8 January 29th, 2015, 02:12 PM

Yup,
I've had my away party die rather quickly when three cave-ins happen in succession like that. Ouch!

OrionM42 · #9 January 29th, 2015, 11:29 PM

Astral Phoenixes (whatever they are) destroyed me in Sector 26, on my best game to date. I thought I was playing pretty well; and pretty carefully/conservatively. However, these things (monsters, a race, whatever ?) were overwhelmingly powerful, and totally inescapable.

I couldn't seem to damage them. I briefly docked with a Bankers station, but was so badly damaged that I could not repair my ship's hull to even half of its regular integrity, despite using all the money I had (and selling everything I could craft). After that, when I tried to make a run for it, I was destroyed in about 3 more shots. Pretty frustrating, I must say.

Does anyone have any suggestions, in case I ever get this far again?

zircher · #10 January 30th, 2015, 01:41 AM

Well, what is working for me now is a Field Medic Captain (I always send my captain down) to keep the party alive in case they get mauled or diseased, Virology comes later. One engineer for craft construction, another engineer for build it better, and some third class for crafting consultant. This routinely allows me to build better than the best gear offered and armed for bear my survival rate has been significantly better. So far, better gear has been a winning strategy for me.