Daemonjax Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) * Adjust country and/or continent panic levels slightly - since I will detect more UFOs I should probably reduce the ignore penalty by 1 i.e. PANIC_UFO_IGNORED=1 instead of 2. I think that if you engage the ufo, and then abort, it's 1. That's reasonable, and would require no change to that value. In my own personal mod for Classic (just tooling around currently), I put the units starting hit points up 1, but then took 1 away from each unit on their level progression. The reason I did this was because I didn't like the fact that new hires ignore the health modification, so it really only affects the units you start with. Removing the penalty removed this bug. ;) Edited October 15, 2012 by Daemonjax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solver Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Really it seems that what is needed is a level between Normal and Classic. The difference between the two is huge. A non-exhaustive list of what Classic has over Normal: - Countries start with more panic, at least someone will likely reach level 5 in the first month.- Less funding in personnel and money from the Council- You do not have a Satellite on standby, must build one- Your base has less power, requiring a generator sooner- You do not start with the OTS, meaning extra time and money to be spent to get 5-man squads- Your soldiers start with 1 less HP, which is very important early on- Aliens get +10 aim and +10 critical chance, so they aim better and do more damage- Thin Men get 4 HP instead of 3. Important because it means they can not be killed outright by grenades.- Outsiders get 5 HP instead of 3, making them more difficult to capture- The first terror attack (hi Chryssalids!) happens at least a week earlier All of that together is a big leap. My first attempts on Classic, I was holding on for dear life after 2 months, first attempt on Normal I didn't lose a single soldier until the alien base, while having money to spare and happy countries. So it seems like it was a good idea to create an in-between level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snwkill Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Really it seems that what is needed is a level between Normal and Classic. The difference between the two is huge. A non-exhaustive list of what Classic has over Normal: - Countries start with more panic, at least someone will likely reach level 5 in the first month.- Less funding in personnel and money from the Council- You do not have a Satellite on standby, must build one- Your base has less power, requiring a generator sooner- You do not start with the OTS, meaning extra time and money to be spent to get 5-man squads- Your soldiers start with 1 less HP, which is very important early on- Aliens get +10 aim and +10 critical chance, so they aim better and do more damage- Thin Men get 4 HP instead of 3. Important because it means they can not be killed outright by grenades.- Outsiders get 5 HP instead of 3, making them more difficult to capture- The first terror attack (hi Chryssalids!) happens at least a week earlier All of that together is a big leap. My first attempts on Classic, I was holding on for dear life after 2 months, first attempt on Normal I didn't lose a single soldier until the alien base, while having money to spare and happy countries. So it seems like it was a good idea to create an in-between level. Not only that but the AI is much more intelligent on Classic difficulty. They actually try to flank, and will run right up to you to get high percentage shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solver Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I haven't seen any direct evidence of the AI being smarter on Classic. It seems to be following the same routines, except that they sometimes give different results due to other factors, like larger alien groups and firing accuracy, which emboldens them to take the shots. I have very good reason to believe that there are no additional behaviour algorithms per se that get enabled on Classic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anbar Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I haven't seen any direct evidence of the AI being smarter on Classic. It seems to be following the same routines, except that they sometimes give different results due to other factors, like larger alien groups and firing accuracy, which emboldens them to take the shots. I have very good reason to believe that there are no additional behaviour algorithms per se that get enabled on Classic. its more aggressive on classic. on normal the alien tend to retreat a lot more, dont use grenades (modable that) and so forth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemonjax Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 On Normal you can lock down the AI easilly using just overwatch. Once I realized that, I couldn't play on Normal anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grenademagnet Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 (edited) Thanks for all the replies. I'll respond to them shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to throw out this idea, especially to those who have tried and given up Impossible, and or have finished the game on Classic: What would the results be of changing all the Impossible game settings that are modable with all the Classic settings? There are some settings that can be changed by modding, and some settings that are hard-coded to the difficultly level, like AI agression and the number of enemies per map. I assume enemies on impossible will also patrol more rather than sit in place waiting to be discovered (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm guessing the primary side effect of modding the Impossible game to Classic would yield more enemies per map, which would be desirable by some. But what other effects would there be? I'm thinking now of changing my plan: instead of making Classic easier, just use the Impossible difficulty slot with Classic settings. The program EXE will think it's running in Impossible mode, so the hard-coded impossible settings will be used. I'll call this new difficulty setting, "Implassic", as that sounds better than "Classopible". Edited October 16, 2012 by grenademagnet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PepprmintButler Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 There are some settings that can be changed by modding, and some settings that are hard-coded to the difficultly level, like AI agression and the number of enemies per map. I assume enemies on impossible will also patrol more rather than sit in place waiting to be discovered (correct me if I'm wrong). I think the AI settings are strictly the same between Classic and Impossible, unfortunately.Number of enemies per map seems a safe bet for a difference that is not in the ini.There probably are others, but none I can think of right now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grenademagnet Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 There are some settings that can be changed by modding, and some settings that are hard-coded to the difficultly level, like AI agression and the number of enemies per map. I assume enemies on impossible will also patrol more rather than sit in place waiting to be discovered (correct me if I'm wrong). I think the AI settings are strictly the same between Classic and Impossible, unfortunately.Number of enemies per map seems a safe bet for a difference that is not in the ini.There probably are others, but none I can think of right now...Thanks for that info. What do you think the enemy count difference is, on the average? An addition three or so? Or do the enemy counts get crazy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PepprmintButler Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Not having playing Impossible yet, I don't have the slightest. Anyone ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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