FTL: I can't get the concept, please help, want to love it.

I have had FTL on my machine since I saw the quickloook, and I have tried probably 30 times to play and been through the tutorial an obscene amount of time and still don't get it. What am I missing? Is there a doc or video out there that will help me learn how to play? Thanks in advance for any help.

What do you mean by "you don't get it"? You need to be more specific if you want help.

FTL is essentially a roguelike - trial and error is a part of the game, so is failing miserably.

What is it that you're not "getting" ?

There is a lot of luck to the game in the items you come across, but you need to to try and buy heavy lasers, and some missle launchers. Get your shields upgraded. Target key systems like their weapons or power systems to stop them from firing. Get some blast doors for raiders. Ive gotten to the end several times but never beat the game.

@Sillybigwillie: Don't be afraid to turn it down to Easy. Seriously. Besides that, what specifically aren't you getting?

You're being really vague.

I can't get how to play the game. Just the basic rules don't make sense. It just seems so much is going on and I can't remember much of them when the crap hits the fan.

Hit the space bar to pause. Shoot enemies.

It's a very rough game at the start. Once you do get the hang of it, it will get "easier". The trick is to try and unlock other ships / types. Also, remember to pause the game when you need to take control otherwise you are losing precious time while the enemy continues to instantly send commands.

@totaboy said:

Hit the space bar to pause. Shoot enemies.

Yep. Also try to target multiple enemy ship locations. See if you can have one weapon take out shields while your other weapon fires so it can hit its target right before the shields come back up.

In the first sector(or maybe the first two?) just aim for the enemies weapons system. 
At least with the default ship your laser is enough to take down the shield and get two shots in at their weapons so they're basically useless and just make sure to pick a route that takes you through most of the sector just to fight whatever you can early on and then start buying upgrades for the ship during Sector 2.
  
If stuff gets too crazy just hit the space bar and take a breather while you figure out what to shoot at next and don't be afraid to bump it down to easy just to get a hang of the game. 

@Sillybigwillie said:

I can't get how to play the game. Just the basic rules don't make sense. It just seems so much is going on and I can't remember much of them when the crap hits the fan.

Here's my best go at quickly summarizing the game:

• When you're starting out, yeah, the game seems to move fast. You can pause whenever. Also, you can issue orders while paused. PAUSE OFTEN.
• Move your initial crew to the following rooms: the helm, the engine room, the weapon room, the shield room (that is how I prioritize them). Having crew in those rooms boosts the effectiveness of those systems.
• Keep the medbay unpowered, except when you actually need to heal a crewmember. You do this by right clicking the medbay icon in the lower left. You can repower the room by left clicking it later.
• Your weapons can target different things on the enemy ship. Shields regenerate quickly in the game, so it is in your best interest to damage the enemy's shield rooms (it's the room with the S on it). Your missile weapons (like the Artemis missile) are good at bypassing shields to damage the shield room. Alternately, if your laser weapons are good enough, they can punch through the shield to damage the shield room. If they only have one bubble of shield (the little blue circle near a ship's HP), then your starting laser weapon can probably just punch right through the shield without the aid of missiles, so you can just take turns targeting their weapons and shield systems.
• If a room on your ship is damaged or on fire or has a breach, moving you crew member to that room will allow them to resolve the problem.
• Alternately, you can manually open the airlock on the edge of your ship, then open a pathway of doors to a room on fire. This will drain the oxygen into space, and without oxygen, the fire can't burn. Make sure no crew members are left in oxygenless rooms. Close the doors afterwards.
• At the start of the game, it is usually best to save up enough scrap to A) upgrade the shield room so it allows 4 total bars of energy instead of the starting 2, and B) then add two more bars of power to your reactor so you can power your more powerful shield
• PAUSE OFTEN

I'm not clear on exactly what you're having trouble with, and I'm assuming you understand the basic UI and how powering your ship works, but if not, play the tutorial again? Also, if you pause the game, then hover your mouse over much of the UI, a tooltip will appear explaining what that thing is and does.

Admittedly this is the type of game you kind of need to be aware of everything that is going on otherwise you might have lost half your crew to that pesky fire or boarding crew. But seriously, just pause often. Generally I manually fire my weapons instead of the auto-fire, so I can get maximum damage on whatever I'm aiming at.