A new post on the official FTL website has confirmed some of the new features for the early 2014 FTL expansion including a brand new race: The Lanius.
In FTL: Advanced Edition, the Lanius are a metallic scavenger species who do not need oxygen to survive. Actually, their presence in a room will drain oxygen. This is neat, terrifying, and totally metal; and the mechanic is sure to introduce some interesting play styles. If nothing else, you could run an all Lanius crew and forgo Oxygen all together in favor of some of the other new systems. Invader boarding parties will have one hell of a time fighting without any air, and hull fires will be a thing of the past!
Clang your hands together and give a warm and metallic welcome to the Lanius:
Additional Features
It’s a good thing the Lanius don’t need to worry about life support systems–they can focus time and scrap on new features like:
- Mind Control System: Temporarily turn enemies into allies. Force a boarder to repair the damage they just did, or have the enemy pilot sabotage their own helm.
- Hacking System: Lockdown and disrupt enemy systems. Unique effects for each system, ranging from forcing a teleporter remove boarders to making the medbay damage instead of heal.
- Backup Battery Subsystem: Subsystem that can provide temporary reactor power in a pinch.
- New Drones: Expanded drone options includes: the Shield Drone that generates a green super shield for your ship, the Anti-Combat Drone that shoots down enemy combat drones, and the Ion Intruder that blasts into the enemy ship and randomly ionizes systems while stunning and distracting crew.
Not enough for you? Well, eight of the original ships will now also come with new third ‘C’ configurations implementing some of these new systems. The update will also feature new enemy ships to take advantage of the new mechanics. FTL: Advanced Edition will be free if you already own FTL, and the update will release in early 2014 for PC, Mac, Linux, and now also for iPad.
