My first playthrough (I did it!)

[Skitso]

Okay, been playing this game for ages but only up to corvettes and usually not even there to keep the game fresh until it's done. Today I completed my first play through (on normal) and here are my random thoughts about the trip.

The first half of the game (up to landing ship) is almost perfect and I really enjoyed myself. But I somehow didn't feel the pressure and urgency of the situation as the game progressed from there. The inavsion didn't feel like escalating much. One of the reasons I feel was the lack of terror sites, alien bases and base assaults. Other being the lack of needing to raid crash sites further in the game. Both combined, most of the late game was geoscape strategy and air combat.

As soon as I had three bases with 2 or 3 foxtrots and 2 corsairs I felt completely unchallenged in air and for the rest of the game I never felt I'd need more or stronger airforce . Also while the game introduces new threats in ground combat, especially wraiths seem pretty lame and uninteresting. The AI didn't seem to find means to use it's special racial ability (teleporting) in any meaningful way. Addon units like drones and reapers were absolutely too rare. There were maybe three maps with reapers in my whole playthrough. Same with drones.

Late-mid to late game (from Cruisers onward) I didn't have any reasons whatsoever to do any crash site missions (after capturing one of each required alien unit) so it got quite boring and I would have gladly had some reason to do more large and massive crash sites (like needing more than one captured units from those). Airstriking gave me more than enough money and the late game was more or less just waiting to get to operation endgame with sufficient gear. Again, with no feel of threat. I would have loved that the huge end game ufos were a bit more menacing with also a reason to raid their crash sites more. Base attack frequency (had none) should ramp up towards ending, forcing the player to start Operation Endgame.

Operation endgame was epic enough but could have been a tad longer and boss a bit tougher. I had one unit go down but survive at the debriefing. (Which is quite silly in such a suicide mission). The ending was a grave dissapointment. I didn't expect renderend short movie or anything, but a small text epilogue with few pictures, war heroes hall of fame, stats about your beloved units, kills, deaths, missions etc, and of course good old scrolling credits would have been nice. Now it's abrupt to say the least.

I had 15 soldiers lost (3 of very high ranking), 0 continents lost, 3 bases (egypt with 3 radars, cuba with 2 radars and thailand with 2 radars), built 1 scout car and used it in 2 missions, 1 CTD, 2 rage quits and 101 crash sites with 0 battleships encountered. 2 alien bases raided, 2 terror missions done. Aliens made 0 base assaults.

Any ways, great game, had lot of fun with it, but the experience got worse the further in the game I got. Now to install bunch of mods and ramp up the difficulty. Hopefully community can make the game to be what it deserves! (It's not that far away from it, mind you!) Still, probably the best spent money ever.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Skitso

[Solver]

Good observations!

It is unsurprising, I think, that the late game feels worse. The early and mid game have had much more balancing and testing, the late game was not reached so often. I know that most of my own playthroughs during development ended around the time Landing Ships showed up, and I have had few opportunities to playtest Battleship assaults or Mag weapons.

Some of that is most certainly part of my modding plans because I have also especially noted the lack of incentives to do crash sites. After my first Cruiser, I have all the tech I need. I can build Valkyries, Marauders, Mag weapons and Predator armour without even assaulting a Carrier, let alone a Battleship. Then the only mission you're motivated to run after a Cruiser is either one Battleship or one larger alien base to get a Praetor, and that's it.

Now go play with some mods

[Mustang Shooting Stars]

I would add that these criticisms could be taken quite positively too if you think about it.

The fact that someone like you - who has played the game a lot and knows how it works really well - found 'normal' difficulty fairly unchallenging is, in a way, really good news. It is designed for people who are completely new to the game and to the genre.

Not saying it can't be improved but it sounds generally about right in terms of 'hardness'.

I'll be interested to see how you find the game on Veteran difficulty with the latest update that (allegedly) increased the chance of base attacks and terror missions if my understanding is correct.

Personally I'd say that, apart from the lack of maps (which has been solved), thinking of way to give players more incentives to complete ground missions is the number one priority right now in terms of mods. Because that's the heart of the game. Although I think most players will still do lots of missions because they will assume you need to.

But to make it an absolute necessity I guess that would involve adjusting resource gathering a bit and the need to constantly 'train up' tough, experienced troops.

But also I guess this could fix itself a bit if the new update does what it says it does.

If there are an increased number of 'difficult' missions - like a few more attacks on your base, a few more terror missions etc then you will both lose more men and need to do ground assaults to train the new recruits + you will need better soldiers in order to do well at these tough missions, surely?

The other thing I'd add is it could be good if the player NEEDED to have more troops and a drop ship at every base. And you needed to train them up to a decent combat level for them to be effective, so that would be three drop ships and three bases with many troops that need to get experience so you would be having to juggle more missions to keep them all experienced.

Just a couple of mod ideas. Sorry to ramble on:

- Soldiers stats could slowly deteriorate if they don't do a mission every year/six months? This kind of makes sense that they would lose their 'edge'.

- Could the game be modded so that, instead of a missile strike to take out crash sights, you send troops on an 'autoresolve tactical mission' with a greater chance of taking losses but also the ability to increase stats? (this would encourage you to do the missions yourself perhaps).

[StellarRat]

Sitso: I think you'll find the late game much more challenging on the air front at Veteran. I doubt I could play that successfully with just Foxtrots. You're right about not needing to do any ships beyond carriers though. I have found the alien base missions very challenging though, even with plasma weapons and predator armor. You are also correct about not enough mechs or reapers. I think that might be because, in my case at least, I've been successful in the air and therefore I've had so few terror missions that I just don't see them too often. They probably need to show up more often in mid-size ships as part of the crew and in alien bases. As far as "forcing" players to do more ground missions in general, personally, I wouldn't want that. They are very time consuming and I'd say I've done somewhere between 20 - 40 to get to the endgame. That was the stated goal of Chris and I'd say he nailed it. If I had to grind 40 - 80 I don't think I'd like that much.

Edited July 3, 2014 by StellarRat

[ventuswings]

I agree with the sentiment that number of the missions is perfectly legitimate, but I'd prefer the number of UFO you usually assault to be significantly less skewed. I'm pretty sure most players mission ratio are like 70% light scout/scout, 20% corvette, 5% landing ship, 5% else.

[Betuor]

I do also 2nd the sentiment that since you played since awhile back start with veteran if not higher. That's what I did. It's not to say the game is too easy, but it's like the original: once you figure out what you need to do and how to do it, you need more of a challenge. Also, I think the few base attacks are a bug(?) I know that during testing I'd always get alien bases popping up and I got attacked myself a few times. Once was a Seb battleship with between 5 and 8 Reaper Alphas. Terrifying.

[KevinHann]

I have raised some of the points in the past and agree with the entire post. You have nailed some of the most disappointing parts of the game. Hopefully forthcoming mods will address them.

[ViewThePhenom]

Try installing the Dynamic UFO spawn mod, that could help with some of the ship crews. If the FTD mod takes off, that could be the answer to more terror/base attack/base defense missions as well.

[Mustang Shooting Stars]

Sitso: I think you'll find the late game much more challenging on the air front at Veteran. I doubt I could play that successfully with just Foxtrots. You're right about not needing to do any ships beyond carriers though. I have found the alien base missions very challenging though, even with plasma weapons and predator armor. You are also correct about not enough mechs or reapers. I think that might be because, in my case at least, I've been successful in the air and therefore I've had so few terror missions that I just don't see them too often. They probably need to show up more often in mid-size ships as part of the crew and in alien bases. As far as "forcing" players to do more ground missions in general, personally, I wouldn't want that. They are very time consuming and I'd say I've done somewhere between 20 - 40 to get to the endgame. That was the stated goal of Chris and I'd say he nailed it. If I had to grind 40 - 80 I don't think I'd like that much.

I guess as long as the option to do, or to not do, more UFO missions is there everyone is happy. Just a shame if it feels pointless doing them (ie there is no ingame benefit and it's better to just rush through the tech tree).

I still think - from the perspective of a newer player not jaded by years of tested etc - a mod or option for a slower, more long-term campaign would be cool if anyone fancies doing that.

For my tastes if I only had to do 25 mission to get the end games I'd find that was a little shallow and I am a bit disappointed to hear that that is the case. But you can't please everyone! Still a great game.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Mustang Shooting Stars