108 replies to this topic

[vas14]

Hey Anyone, you should consider a career in writing, your story was pretty entertaining

I am nearing the later stages of my IM classic on 1.02 and things are going pretty easy. Once the squad gets high up there in levels and gear it's entirely doable to do all the missions risk-free. That is in stark contrast with early game where you really have to fight for survival.

I have a few suggestions you could consider implementing:
- Make the earlier ranks come faster, but keep the later ones require much more xp, so early game becomes less of a toss up.
- Reduce the prices on early-game essential items, such as nano-fiber vests and *maybe* carapace armor.
- Toughen up later game enemies, muton elites and heavy floaters for one. Also I'd say further buff the berserker.

[Anyone]

@vas14 Haha, thanks. I might even do something along the lines later, but right now, I'm too occupied with fine-tuning the mod and some other stuff. You were playing on classic, right? I'm starting to get into the middle to late game stage (alien base comes next, but I've already met berserkers, mutons, cyberdiscs, etc.) The definite late game enemies are sectopods, etherals, and elite mutons. All are significantly buffed in 1.02 (based on difficulty, classic is the first level of tougher late game enemies, impossible boosts them again), but I find my current mid-game Impossible a bit too easy too, especially since my team has a very good killpotential and doesn't have to risk firefights often. 1. Mhm, the earlier ranks faster I can do, but there's already been some concerns the highest ranks my require too much xp (about twice as much as on vanilla). I'll release 1.1 with a rebelanced experience progression, though, where I fine tune the earlier levels a bit. I don't want it to be too easy, though, because there are two very good ways of dealing with loss of soldiers and the gap (SHIV's are getting better, and are supposed to be a sort of medium-level fighting unit, that can replace mediocre troops in around the middle rank; and Council Missions and Abduction Missions sometimes offer a experienced soldier). Since I don't want to devalue both, or make the progression from the critical hp soon too fast, I'll probably only speed up the lower three ranks slightly and see how that works. 2. Are they really too expensive? Do you use workshops, or sell some aliencorpses, alloys or other things to be able to buy them? With the exception of carapace armor (limited by alloys) I didn't have much of a problem to buy them when selling some alien materials. I'll have to look into that, but I want players to use workshops, so I can't make it too cheap. 3. Hm, I'll see what I can do. As I said earlier, they're already buffed, but they don't challenge me too much, though that may be my play-style. (2 Assaults with Shotguns have ridiculous killpower) Berserker for example, have 20 health on vanilla and normal, but 25 on classic and 30 on impossible. I might consider increasing their range, though. They should already be able to do insane damage to players if they get to it. I'm currently checking exactly at which point (probably alien base) the enemy units you encounter are switched around again, so I'm trying to find out how far you can have advanced, so that I can assess the weaponry. Because if the player has trouble early in the game, and I don't leave some leeway, he might be unable to recover despite his best efforts and successes. But I don't want players who manage to get through successfully to swim in a vacuum without challenges. So while I could say: Maybe you're too good for classic, I have to admit that sometimes, on impossible, missions aren't as tough if you're teched up. Which may lead me to both nerf armor slightly, and increase the enemy stats. Maybe I'll change their defense values, to make up for the increased aim of the soldiers, so 100% hit is more difficult to achieve. Not sure about that though, I don't want players to gamble all the time. I prefer good hitchances and increases in alien health and damage or range to that. Thanks for your feedback! You've definitely given me some food for thought and confirmed some of my fears about the mid-late game.

Edited by Anyone, 24 November 2012 - 12:40 PM.

[SgtFallout]

For what it's worth, I'm sort of with vas14: the beginning of classic is tough, but ok with crazy careful play, and then it does seem to get a good bit easier, so buffing late game stuff is something I like the sound of, at least for classic.

I doubt I'm too good for classic, since I've only played through the game a few times.

[Anyone]

@SgtFallout Yes, I'm now at the Overseer mission part and I think even impossible gets too easy in the endgame difficulty. (Though not easy, mind you. I've had 5 UFOs shot down, got a council rating D, lost myself, the sniper who I wanted to roleplay, France decided to "c'est la vie" me and dropped out to find a jolly future as alien slaves, and I've had a Terror Mission where I so barely came out alive, I still thank the Grenade gods I had one left to deal with one of the most nightmarish situations I can imagine. The new sectopods on nightmare are frightening, but maybe not enough) I'm planning a slight increase in difficulty for the mid-game, and a significant increase for the late game (though I'll keep in mind not everyone gets to have a toprank team, so I won't adjust the enemy damage to those ranks). Some of the enemies will get meaner, more mobile, tougher and more dangerous. Thanks for the feedback, hearing you guys confirm my doubts makes it much clearer into which direction to steer! As for too good on classic. Classic is pretty much a simple question: Can you be careful and handle limited enemies, use flanking and be able to decide between taking out, retreating or overwatching. (Though there are more tactics of course) Impossible is where it gets really tough, because the difference in enemy numbers is just so vast on some maps. Terrormission with 29 enemies. Sometimes small maps where every step activates a new pack with 16. So if you feel you do good in classic, you may give impossible a shot. It's a neat step up. Overall, 1.1 will feature a polishing touch on the early game, slight adjustments on the midgame (zombies, chryssalids, Muton Berserkers, Drones, each becoming even more unique in their role) and some improvements for the main endgame units (elite mutons, ethereals if they aren't tough enough in the matches today, slight changes for the sectopod, heavy floaters might get an adjustment as well). Also, it will feature a SHIV rebalance, where SHIVs finally become really useful. I'm in the final testing stages, will implement the new difficulty changes today and test them, and then all that's left is fine tuning and preparing all the release info. So release should be soon, but I won't specify it, because when I specify when I'll get something done, I never do.

Edited by Anyone, 25 November 2012 - 01:18 PM.

[Joote]

I hate this mod. One of my men got shot in the face.

Only kidding. Great mod and still enjoying it 100 times more than vanilla.
I hope you keep it updated with future versions of the game.

[Anyone]

@Joote

Hehe, I got myself literally killed the other day (and thus, my personal soldier will remain dead), almost lost another soldier (critically injured), france, and had some other unpleasent experiences.

As for the V1.1 update. I'm currently doing the last few things, checking what else to improve, what could be done, and so on, so that I won't have to release another too soon, and people can play without having to restart or deal with oversights.
I've been doing lots of calculations, gathering metadata, finding "keypoints" in the system, and designing the game around that for the middle and late game. So far, it looks like finally, the middle game will be slightly tougher and the late game will be one hell of a ride.

I'm also redesigning the difficulty and improving numerous other things, all which will be released soon. In fact, the biggest workload that remains is actually my, rather ambitious, project of creating an overview of all the new features and things, so people can see with one look what to expect - because surely no one will read the changelog from bottom to top and then try to know what's going on.

[SgtFallout]

Woohoo! Can't wait!

Thanks SO much, Anyone

[marcinsk]

Would like to try this mod but I think I'll wait for the next version. Is it long before relase?

[Anyone]

@SgtFallout
Well, you can't wait for the mod, I can't wait for feedback to know what to improve.
Now that Version 1.1 has been released...


@marcinsk
In that case, yours is a short wait. Just uploaded everything.

[marcinsk]

That was quick, thank you! I merged your mod with Warspace (your defaultgamecore file, his upk modifications) and it's a completly new game.Thx again for your work!