Subset Games Forum

I was just thinking of some random events, sectors and enemies to fight that the developers could perhaps add in as an update or DLC or something of that sort. I came up with some fun ideas keeping in spirit of its board game influence.

#1: Infestation

"A small asteroid harmlessly bounces off the hull of your ship, you think nothing of it until you hear the skittering of talons scrape across the hull of your ship. Suddenly the sensors in one of your rooms go black."

How this event works is a single room on your ship goes black and a random number between 1-3 parasites are spawned inside of this room. The parasites will do no damage to any of the systems in the room and will never attempt to open the door. If the door is opened for any reason be it enemy boarding party, venting air, repair drone etc, parasites will burst into the adjacent room, and if all parasites are not killed before the room is exited that room will go black on the sensors and a random number of parasites will be spawned in this new room. For each jump an infested room is not cleared out an additional parasite will spawn to a maximum of 6 per room. Only the parasites that are in a room that is opened will attack, not all parasites aboard the entire ship will attack.

As an added danger if a crew member drops below 25% health while fighting a parasite he will be infected. If a crew member drops below 25% health again after being infected a chest burster will pop out of him and if no one is in the room to defeat it the infestation cycle will begin anew. This can be cleared by bombing darkened rooms until they appear on the sensors again letting you know they've been cleansed or by using an anti personnel drone that would use a flamethrower that instantly clears out infestations but instantly creates the maximum possible amount of fires in a room. Or by simply killing all of the parasites that come out of a room with your regular crew.

#2: Body Snatchers

"Your scanners pick up some life from a derelict research station on one of the planet's moons. You send an away team to investigate and find three delirious men staring intently at each other, refusing to take their bloodshot eyes off each other for even a second. Upon seeing you one of them jumps up and screams "SHOOT THEM QUICKLY, THEY'RE BOTH INFECTED" then one of the others screams "I'M NOT INFECTED THEY'RE INFECTED, SHOOT THEM!"
Desperate for the man power you decide to sort this out later and take them all aboard ship"

This will be an optional event that will give you 3 people on your ship. The catch is that one of them is a body snatcher, and that once during each jump the entire ship will randomly go black for just a single moment, even rooms where you have crew member present, and any person that is in the same room with a body snatcher when the scanners turn off for that instant becomes a body snatcher. Body snatchers will only reveal themselves and attack when A: Their disguise body loses all of its health B: The number of body snatchers on a ship is greater or equal to the amount of crew members or C: They take 50 damage from fire.

#3: Rogue AI

"A ship approaches on the horizon and a cold monotone voice hails you and says "Continued c-c-c-conflict between waring organic l-l-l-lifeforms with current population numbers give 68% percent chance of total anhil-hil-hil-hilation. Extermination only logical conclu-clu-clu-clu-clusion." Suddenly you find that all of your drones turn against you!"

This one is self explanatory, all of your drones turn against you and the only way to stop it is by hitting the pilot chair of the rogue AI ship with a single ion blast or by reducing the pilot seat down to red through weapon damage.

#4: Quarantine

"Before FTL travel was invented and humans were able to spread among the stars, populations became incredibly dense with huge numbers of people living in mega colonies. You find yourself being forced to travel through one of these former mega colonies that was strangely quarantined several years ago. You sneak past the automated attack ships that guard the jump beacon only to discover too late that the guard ships aren't there to keep the outside out, but to keep the inside in."

This is a sector that basically introduces space zombies that work like this. They have a weaker attack than a human but have 120 health. Upon a space zombie's death they leave a toxic cloud in a room that does damage as if it were a room with zero air (So no fighting it in the med bay) the gas can only be gotten rid of by venting. If someone is killed by this gas they become a zombie, if someone is killed by a zombie they become a zombie. Also zombies have an 80% penalty against all doors and will take a good amount of time to get through even level one doors. Also zombies are attracted to the nearest crew member and will try to attack that rather than systems. This can be used to manipulate zombies.

Zombie attacks come in three flavors:

"You enter into what looks like a meteor field from a distance but something about the "meteors" catch your eye, upon further inspection you realize that they aren't meteors at all but escape pods, hundreds of thousands of escape pods!"

This works like a meteor shower but if an escape pod manages to make it through your shield it spawns a zombie and breaches your hull.

"You slowly and carefully try to navigate your ship through a massive ship grave yard, when several of the ships slowly seem to come to life as their lights dimly turn on and their ancient systems gradually power up, a guttural voice utters "must feed" through the hailing frequencies. It look as if they're going to ram us!"

Several derelict and heavily damaged ships that have random systems randomly in the red and yellow will come at you one at a time doing their best to fire and attack, but the ship will have a timer above it and if the ship is not destroyed or the engines are not brought into the red before the timer reaches zero the ship will ram you, doing a large amount of hull damage and breaching your hull, the hull breach will continually spawn zombies out of it until it is repaired or it has spawned all the zombies that were on the ship that rammed you.

"You gaze in awe at the massive mega colony hub and look in wonder at the thousands of transport tubes that spiral out of it. Much to your dismay an object collides with one of the transport tubes causing it to crash into your ship. You hear the sound of metal grinding into metal as the tube and the hull of your ship become intertwined. Your stomach turns as you hear the sound of hundreds of hands scraping and banging against your hull at the point of impact."

This event causes zombies to spawn at a breach point endlessly until the transport tube is destroyed or you are able to jump away. Zombies will only spawn up to the amount of characters that a room can hold, but once they break through the door and make it to the next room more zombies will spawn in.

#5: Space Hulk

This is a variation of the infestation idea, the idea is that you find another ship that has been totally taken over by these parasites and the entire thing will be dark. But instead of destroying it or killing all the crew what you have to do is find an object that is hidden in a random room to get a reward. Not all of the rooms will have parasites but random rooms will have random numbers of parasites. Meaning that how you proceed either through constant fire bombing boarding drones or the bravado of your crew will mean the difference between life and death. But all you have to do is stumble upon the right room for a great reward.

I personally don't like any of these. They're either too difficult, too flawed, too unoriginal, or some mixture of the three.

1. Either you are forced to fight numerous enemies in an airless environment(which could return after the fact because your crewmembers would get infected) or you just ignore the infection entirely.

Also, aliens using human bodies to breed, very obvious references to the Aliens series(chestburster).

2. Flawed, in that you could just leave each person in a different room while jumping and nothing would ever happen. It's also reliant on killing your crew to find out who the snatchers are. You could also just dismiss all three of the arrivals and immediately be rid of the problem.

Also, blatant idea theft(Invasion of the Body Snatchers).

3. All your drones turn against you.

Let's take an example. The Torus runs into this event with a full compliment of anti-ship drones, and three ion blasts. Now, not only is the Torus unable to do any real damage to the enemy ship, but it has to deal with fire from it's own drones and fire from the enemy ship, essentially fighting two enemies at once until it's blasters charge and it can score that shot on the pilot's chair that it needs(keep in mind that the enemy ship would probably have shields and/or a running engine with which to avoid being ion blasted). The anti-ship drones would be firing on the Torus the entire time it's ion blasters are charging, likely causing a lot of damage.

There's also the situation in which you have no drones, which turns this into a bland random encounter ship.

4. No. Zombies are really overdone. Not only that, but a crew of 8 would not be able to handle that many zombies, not even a full-mantis crew with two anti-personnel drones.

They also invalidate whatever area you're trying to defend from them, because of the gas thing. Medbay is the easiest way to fend off boarders, and this event effectively prevents us from defending the ship from boarders on any part of the ship.

5. It doesn't really add anything to the game, because you already get better rewards for invading and taking over ships instead of destroying them.

Orangebottle: Just because an idea has been done before/ is inspired by something/ is blatantly stolen doesn't mean it's bad (did you see that topic named "FTL the movie"? ).

Granted the ideas would probably need to be tweaked or left to the modding community because of copyright infringements perhaps? I don't find the examples all that inspiring but the reason "that's been done" seems a bit weak since it hasn't been done in FTL

Assuming that you have the Torous (and their medibay augmentation) the zombie cloud thingy wouldn't be that much of a problem, at least not if you upgrade the medibay. If you only have 3 units (or there is only thre zombies allowed to be on the ship at once) the zombies wouldn't be impossible to handle in the medibay (assuming you can trick all of them in there instead of destroying your other systems) as the gas thing wouldn't be able to outdamage the heal from the medibay.

@Orangebottle

Saying something isn't original enough is an incredibly silly reason against anything, what is the threshold for originality when FTL itself is derivative of star trek, fire fly, and the board game Space Alert with all the races in it being blatant scifi tropes and the game play reminiscent of many rogue likes.

In response to your first point:

I don't know where you get the idea that the environment would be airless but it would be a difficult fight which is why you have the option to ignore it, but the infestation gets progressively worse as time goes on and one boarding party walking through the infested zone means that the infestation increases, and if one of the systems in an infested area is damaged you have to fight through some angry monsters while being shot at by another ship to get a system up and running again. It is a fight that you can fight at your choosing and put off at the risk of having it escalated by random events during a very bad time and if you don't have the proper stuff to clear it such as anti personnel drones or bombs then you put your crew at risk. This also gives people a good and legitimate reason to actually use anti personnel drones. Also aliens using people to breed isn't specific to Aliens.

In response to your second point:

You mistake between jumps and during jumps. As in the sensors flash at a random point after a jump has occurred, so it could very well happen while you are in a ship fight, it would happen while you're putting out a fire, and it could happen while you're repairing stuff and keeping your crew separate is the entire point in that the paranoia means that having multiple people repair, fight fires, or even fight off enemy crew carries an increased risk and sense of paranoia in that if you have one of the things several people in the same room could put you in a bad position.

Also this is an optional event, a thing you can say no to, and is only done if you desperately need new crew which is obviously why a person would choose to accept this. And once again you didn't read the post very well b/c exposing a person to fire will reveal them without killing them meaning when there is a fire on the ship you can test your crew by letting them be injured by the fire.

Also invasion of the body snatchers 1955 is derivative of the Phillip K Dick Novel "The Father Thing" in 1954 which is turn derivative of "The New Mother" in 1882, once again this is a silly argument for anything.

In response to point number 3:
It only takes a single ion shot to disable the rogue ai, it's easily manageable by a torus. Also there are ships that don't rely on their engines to win meaning by your logic had the developers suggested an encounter that shut off your engines you would have dismissed it as a "bland encounter" as well. The idea that because this isn't a thing that would always affect every single ship that it shouldn't be implemented leads to a lot of regression in game mechanics.

In response to point number 4:

What is an exact amount of scenarios that need to exist before you consider it over done? Think how many games take place in space, yet to you space is not over done. The idea that X is over done is a silly and subjective idea. How X is implemented is always the most crucial element, not that X has been done before. Fantasy books have been done to death yet Game Of Thrones manages to be captivating because it is implemented well.

Also you're missing crucial elements of the zombie idea A: That they move towards crew members and not systems allowing them to be split up and B: that it takes them a long time to get through doors. Also the gas doens't invalidate whatever area you're supposed to defend, it just ensures that you have to lead the zombies to a tactically sound position before engaging them. Also all boarding combat involves camping around the med bay which means that boarding combat has become repetitive. These zombies are specifically designed so that med bay camping is not feasible and is instead replaced with microing your crew and the doors around you in such a way as to split up zombies into bite size chunks while ceding and gaining ground.

In response to 5:

All boarding actions have the combatants of the enemy ships aggressively engage you, this is radically different because all enemy units aboard the ship are passive until a new room is entered and each room may or may not be incredibly dangerous meaning that how you proceed must be met with an extreme amount of tactical caution, and that you proceed room by room at a slow and methodical pace.

In Summation:

Losing is fun, and rogue likes are all about how spectacularly you can fail in your mission, these are scenarios to make the game more difficult and make your failures even greater, anyone who does not understand this about rogue likes, does not fundamentally understand FTL.

Al_Ka_Pwn wrote: Saying something isn't original enough is an incredibly silly reason against anything, what is the threshold for originality when FTL itself is derivative of star trek, fire fly, and the board game Space Alert with all the races in it being blatant scifi tropes and the game play reminiscent of many rogue likes.

I can't remember a single moment that the gameplay has been "exactly like <insert game here>!". Or, "Hey, that <something> was totally a reference to <science fiction show here>!" While flying around in space is an age-old concept, I'm pretty sure flying around in space by using an FTL drive to jump from beacon to beacon is a pretty original way of doing it. TL;DR: I don't remember Captain Kirk telling Scotty to fire up the FTL drive because the rebellion fleet is closing in.

Also, name me a roguelike in which you and your enemy fight simultaneously on even ground with no consumables(potions, scrolls, etc).

I don't know where you get the idea that the environment would be airless

Mainly that these things had to get into the ship somehow. Sure, an asteroid brought them to your hull. How do they get in? Ship's airtight except for breaches. I'm pretty sure they would have to carve their way in with those claws of theirs.

but it would be a difficult fight which is why you have the option to ignore it, but the infestation gets progressively worse as time goes on and one boarding party walking through the infested zone means that the infestation increases, and if one of the systems in an infested area is damaged you have to fight through some angry monsters while being shot at by another ship to get a system up and running again. It is a fight that you can fight at your choosing and put off at the risk of having it escalated by random events during a very bad time and if you don't have the proper stuff to clear it such as anti personnel drones or bombs then you put your crew at risk.

There's no specific random event that totally screws you over if you don't have very specific equipment that isn't used often.

This also gives people a good and legitimate reason to actually use anti personnel drones.

If people want to use anti-personnel drones, they should do it because it fits their strategy, not because some random event will end their game if they don't have one.

Also aliens using people to breed isn't specific to Aliens.

Of course it isn't, but when you throw in terms like "chestburster", it's pretty obvious where the reference came from.

You mistake between jumps and during jumps. As in the sensors flash at a random point after a jump has occurred, so it could very well happen while you are in a ship fight, it would happen while you're putting out a fire, and it could happen while you're repairing stuff and keeping your crew separate is the entire point in that the paranoia means that having multiple people repair, fight fires, or even fight off enemy crew carries an increased risk and sense of paranoia in that if you have one of the things several people in the same room could put you in a bad position.

Also this is an optional event, a thing you can say no to, and is only done if you desperately need new crew which is obviously why a person would choose to accept this

So basically, don't play normally or you die. But if you don't play normally, you die anyway. Queue everyone pressing 'no' when this event comes up, and it never mattering anyway.

And once again you didn't read the post very well b/c exposing a person to fire will reveal them without killing them meaning when there is a fire on the ship you can test your crew by letting them be injured by the fire.

Okay, so you have to let the enemy set your ship on fire before you can test for them. This makes perfect sense.

Also, I did read the post, because I included that in the "you have to kill your crew" part. Remember how, in the original post, it said that they have to take 50 damage from fire? That's half their health. And then you have to get them out of aforementioned fire before they die from it if they happen to not be a bodysnatcher.

Also invasion of the body snatchers 1955 is derivative of the Phillip K Dick Novel "The Father Thing" in 1954 which is turn derivative of "The New Mother" in 1882, once again this is a silly argument for anything.

So, the concept is already very unoriginal, let's not stain FTL with it.

In response to point number 3:
It only takes a single ion shot to disable the rogue ai, it's easily manageable by a torus.

My point being that you have to get to disable the rogue AI's shields to even have a chance at getting to the piloting subsystem, and probably it's engines too, depending on how late in the game you encounter it.

Also there are ships that don't rely on their engines to win meaning by your logic had the developers suggested an encounter that shut off your engines you would have dismissed it as a "bland encounter" as well. The idea that because this isn't a thing that would always affect every single ship that it shouldn't be implemented leads to a lot of regression in game mechanics.

Er, no. Every ship has an engine. Every ship can potentially dodge missiles using that engine(unless they shut it off for some reason). Not every ship comes with a drone control.

What is an exact amount of scenarios that need to exist before you consider it over done? Think how many games take place in space, yet to you space is not over done. The idea that X is over done is a silly and subjective idea. How X is implemented is always the most crucial element, not that X has been done before. Fantasy books have been done to death yet Game Of Thrones manages to be captivating because it is implemented well.

The idea that zombies are overdone is that zombies have been a thing since ancient times. Corpses rising from their graves, stalking the night, and hunting people down. Yeah. You essentially can't have a game without zombies anymore. Many games have had some sort of 'zombie' element to them(Call Of Duty:World At War(Nazi Zombie mode), several fantasy games, the Halo series, the Fallout series). There are even games dedicated to the idea of zombies as a whole(Left 4 Dead, Space Pirates And Zombies, every single resident evil game)

Also you're missing crucial elements of the zombie idea A: That they move towards crew members and not systems allowing them to be split up and B: that it takes them a long time to get through doors. Also the gas doens't invalidate whatever area you're supposed to defend, it just ensures that you have to lead the zombies to a tactically sound position before engaging them. Also all boarding combat involves camping around the med bay which means that boarding combat has become repetitive. These zombies are specifically designed so that med bay camping is not feasible and is instead replaced with microing your crew and the doors around you in such a way as to split up zombies into bite size chunks while ceding and gaining ground.

Do you know why boarding combat is camping medbay?

Because there is no other tactically sound position on the entire ship. It's the only place in which you are constantly healed to full health and there are no other disadvantages that could potentially harm your crew.

All boarding actions have the combatants of the enemy ships aggressively engage you, this is radically different because all enemy units aboard the ship are passive until a new room is entered and each room may or may not be incredibly dangerous meaning that how you proceed must be met with an extreme amount of tactical caution, and that you proceed room by room at a slow and methodical pace.

Except nothing changes, because your crew won't regenerate health between rooms unless they're in friendly medbay, and they never need to reload, get more ammo, or fulfill any personal needs(eating, sleeping, drinking, etc). In addition to that, you could just use your teleporter and quickly shift between rooms to figure out which one holds the item you're looking for.

Losing is fun, and rogue likes are all about how spectacularly you can fail in your mission, these are scenarios to make the game more difficult and make your failures even greater, anyone who does not understand this about rogue likes, does not fundamentally understand FTL.

Sure, I get the "losing is fun" aspect of roguelikes. These events are either too difficult, too flawed, or too unoriginal. The point of a roguelike is not to simply be crushingly difficult(like a good 3/5 of these events are), but to have a large variety of creative ways that the player can lose, and only one way(if any) to win.

OrangeBottle wrote: I can't remember a single moment that the gameplay has been "exactly like <insert game here>!". Or, "Hey, that <something> was totally a reference to <science fiction show here>!" While flying around in space is an age-old concept, I'm pretty sure flying around in space by using an FTL drive to jump from beacon to beacon is a pretty original way of doing it. TL;DR: I don't remember Captain Kirk telling Scotty to fire up the FTL drive because the rebellion fleet is closing in.

That's pretty much how every FTL driven story is made up... the only variation is how the beacon system works or what constitutes as "beacons".
I'm surprised you don't see the likeness to Star trek.. how about Stargate universe then? They even have a time limit imposed on them at each pause or beacon while they deal with whatever "event" that takes place there.
The standard story element of having to charge up the FTL drive while something dramatic is closing in is present as well quite a few times.

Didn't the Milenium falcon from Star wars have to charge their FTL drive as well while the empire was closing in on them or am I imagining that? (maybe they had to repair it?)

What about Battlestar galactics? Don't they fit the way FTL works to a T? only difference was that they did it in a fleet instead of a single ship.

The game mass effect uses mass effect relays to travel faster then light and those are definitely fixed points.

Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda: FTL travel by riding the quantum strings connecting solar system to solar system where the only "exit ramps" are. They are even running from the magog and their "world ship" at one point in the series. And running from the nitchians the rest of the time.

I am pretty sure an anime named Galforce or Calforce or something charged fought off their pursuers again and again while charging their FTL system to escape...

The system is also reminiscent of how the strawhat pirates travel along the grand line in the anime One Piece now that I think about it ( although that's boats on water and no faster then light travel involved)

What part of kestrels flight from the rebel persuers by jumping from one beacon to another beacon is original to FTL? the fact that the ship is named Kestrel?

Gorlom wrote: I'm surprised you don't see the likeness to Star trek

There was no FTL drive in Star Trek. They used an different system IIRC.

how about Stargate universe then? They even have a time limit imposed on them at each pause or beacon while they deal with whatever "event" that takes place there.

There's no actual time limit in FTL, you can take as much time as you want as long as you respect the jump-limit per sector as the rebels close in on you. I believe, as the name of the show implies, they used a gate to get there. Then again, I've never seen the show, so...

The standard story element of having to charge up the FTL drive while something dramatic is closing in is present as well quite a few times.

Not always an FTL drive specifically, but still a valid point.

Didn't the Milenium falcon from Star wars have to charge their FTL drive as well while the empire was closing in on them or am I imagining that? (maybe they had to repair it?)

According to Wikipedia, that was a hyperspace drive, and that system worked on inputting coordinates, not beacons.

What about Battlestar galactics? Don't they fit the way FTL works to a T? only difference was that they did it in a fleet instead of a single ship.

No idea. I've never seen Battlestar Galactica. Heard a lot about it, though. I looked over the wiki page, but couldn't find a single reference to jumping, warping, FTL, or beacons whatsoever. In fact, looking at linked pages, the only reference I can find that points to the ships in Battlestar Galactica warping at all is this line on the Battlestar page:

The Pegasus just escaped the Fall of the Scorpion Ship yards by a blind jump and was destroyed around two years later at the Battle of New Caprica.

The game mass effect uses mass effect relays to travel faster then light and those are definitely fixed points.

I've heard about the Mass Relays. Weren't there a lot more of those, though? And the warping capability came from the relays themselves, not from within the ship's engines. They're also**SPOILERS** ancient beacons that awaken the doom of all life in the galaxy.**SPOILERS**

Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda: FTL travel by riding the quantum strings connecting solar system to solar system where the only "exit ramps" are. They are even running from the magog and their "world ship" at one point in the series. And running from the nitchians the rest of the time.

Never even heard of that. Ah, but it isn't really beacon based. The beacons in FTL appear to have been established by humans, for the express purpose of warping from beacon to beacon as a method of travel. These "exit ramps" appear to be natural.

I am pretty sure an anime named Galforce or Calforce or something charged fought off their pursuers again and again while charging their FTL system to escape...

Too obscure. You don't even know the name.

The system is also reminiscent of how the strawhat pirates travel along the grand line in the anime One Piece now that I think about it ( although that's boats on water and no faster then light travel involved)

What. Obviously not a valid comparison.

What part of kestrels flight from the rebel persuers by jumping from one beacon to another beacon is original to FTL? the fact that the ship is named Kestrel?

Let's see:
1)The power to jump comes from within the ship itself. The engine, more specifically.
2)The locations being jumped to are determined by man-made beacons placed in specific locations
3)The crew of the Kestrel is attempting to deliver information to their superiors in the Federation fleet while attempting to escape from the Rebel fleet. On the way, it encounters many things that are entirely unrelated to it being pursued(Stations, pirates, stranded ships that need fuel, Mantis vessels, Slug vessels, etc).

OrangeBottle wrote:

What part of kestrels flight from the rebel persuers by jumping from one beacon to another beacon is original to FTL? the fact that the ship is named Kestrel?

Let's see:
1)The power to jump comes from within the ship itself. The engine, more specifically.
2)The locations being jumped to are determined by man-made beacons placed in specific locations
3)The crew of the Kestrel is attempting to deliver information to their superiors in the Federation fleet while attempting to escape from the Rebel fleet. On the way, it encounters many things that are entirely unrelated to it being pursued(Stations, pirates, stranded ships that need fuel, Mantis vessels, Slug vessels, etc).

1) Not a unique or original feature at all, you just haven't seen enough shows apparently.
2) That doesn't make sense at all. Even if I assume that they used sublight-speed travel to place all those beacons how come there are "uncharted nebulas" if all the beacons were created and placed by humans?
3) Common subplot story element for episodic tv shows. Kestrel, Federation and Rebel are interchangeable with stock factions. I'm not convinced that it's original. Regardless their motivation or backstory doesn't really make the concept original imo. I assume that neither do you or you wouldn't really have that problem with the OPs suggestions.

I'm surprised you don't see the likeness to Star trek

There was no FTL drive in Star Trek. They used an different system IIRC.

They had impulse drive which was a sublight propulsion system, and the warp drive which was an FTL propulsion system.
They could however drop out of warp where ever they wanted though. OFC since you can miss the beacons (by a small margine so that the rebel/mantis ship waiting for you cant ambush you) so can the ships in FTL they just don't want to.

how about Stargate universe then? They even have a time limit imposed on them at each pause or beacon while they deal with whatever "event" that takes place there.

There's no actual time limit in FTL, you can take as much time as you want as long as you respect the jump-limit per sector as the rebels close in on you. I believe, as the name of the show implies, they used a gate to get there. Then again, I've never seen the show, so...

SGU is the second Stargate spinnoff after Stargate Atlantis. They get stuck on a starship that jumps in and out of FTL and everytime it stops they use the onboard gate to explore nearby planets.

The standard story element of having to charge up the FTL drive while something dramatic is closing in is present as well quite a few times.

Not always an FTL drive specifically, but still a valid point.

This was actually part of the SGU comment.

Didn't the Milenium falcon from Star wars have to charge their FTL drive as well while the empire was closing in on them or am I imagining that? (maybe they had to repair it?)

According to Wikipedia, that was a hyperspace drive, and that system worked on inputting coordinates, not beacons.

Hyperspace or faster then light drive. Do you really make a distinction? What is the difference? That FTL is an obscure term that may include hyperspace drives? As far as I can tell there is no way to determine what happens onboard of the Kestrel between a jumps starting point and landing because of how Justin and Matthew has chosen to represent the jumps mechanic wise in their game.

What about Battlestar galactics? Don't they fit the way FTL works to a T? only difference was that they did it in a fleet instead of a single ship.

No idea. I've never seen Battlestar Galactica. Heard a lot about it, though. I looked over the wiki page, but couldn't find a single reference to jumping, warping, FTL, or beacons whatsoever. In fact, looking at linked pages, the only reference I can find that points to the ships in Battlestar Galactica warping at all is this line on the Battlestar page:

The Pegasus just escaped the Fall of the Scorpion Ship yards by a blind jump and was destroyed around two years later at the Battle of New Caprica.

They jump.

The game mass effect uses mass effect relays to travel faster then light and those are definitely fixed points.

I've heard about the Mass Relays. Weren't there a lot more of those, though? And the warping capability came from the relays themselves, not from within the ship's engines.

Can you determine what makes the exit beacon so special? Why can't I warp from any beacon at the end of the sector in FTL? Occasionally there are some beacons that are even closer to the next sector then the so called exit beacon.

Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda: FTL travel by riding the quantum strings connecting solar system to solar system where the only "exit ramps" are. They are even running from the magog and their "world ship" at one point in the series. And running from the nitchians the rest of the time.

Never even heard of that. Ah, but it isn't really beacon based. The beacons in FTL appear to have been established by humans, for the express purpose of warping from beacon to beacon as a method of travel. These "exit ramps" appear to be natural.

Indeed the exit ramps are natural. (And as I mentioned earlier in this post I highly doubt the beacons are manmade in FTL because of the "uncharted nebulas" ... why would they ever place any beacon inside an asteroid field?) In my first post I mentioned that the beacons can look or work differently. No TV show has FTLs exact system (because afaict it doesn't make sense in anything except a game adaptation where the mechanics limit and determine the system) but that doesn't make it unique or original. It is basically a composite of several other systems.

I am pretty sure an anime named Galforce or Calforce or something charged fought off their pursuers again and again while charging their FTL system to escape...

Too obscure. You don't even know the name.

Got the show on an old VHS tape.. I blame bad handwriting. :p

The system is also reminiscent of how the strawhat pirates travel along the grand line in the anime One Piece now that I think about it ( although that's boats on water and no faster then light travel involved)

What. Obviously not a valid comparison.

Still has similar aspects and you can't rule it out as a source of inspiration. You greatly opposed zombies because you are sick of how often zombies are used. Although I've never heard of zombies in escape pods crashing into a spaceship causing hull breaches. I've never heard of Zombies in the FTL universe.
You object to OPs "chest buster monsters" because they remind you of the xenomorph from aliens, but he never intended to invade that copyright. You obviously consider a concept "stolen" or inspired by if some aspect of it is similar. So why is the way Kestrel travels through the game so unique when I have mentioned a handful of shows that has systems (while not exactly the same are similar enough) that if we apply your logic concerning OPs suggestions to the travel system its been done lots of times already?