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Xenonauts Difficulty Curve?


IBNobody

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I read Chris' comments about X-Com: EU having an inverse difficulty curve. After borrowing a copy and beating the game on classic, I agree. The game starts out hard. As you play, the game gets easy. In the end, it's ridiculously easy. It wasn't just that you got the firepower you needed. Your troops had enough special abilities to hold their own. Add in a 4-use invulnerability/guaranteed-critical armor ability, and the game was cake.

I remember TFTD, too. Once Lobstermen showed up, the game kept up a pretty flat difficulty curve (i.e. hard!). New weapons softened the blow, but it was still rough. It never felt like you ever had the advantage until they started spawning less.

How will Xenonaut's difficulty curve play out? Will you always feel outgunned? Or will there be a final tech in the game that appears after you've encountered the last new alien type that will make you feel a little more equal?

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We've not done enough playtesting to see what is the most fun, but the current idea is that the final UFO type will be more powerful than any fighter craft you have.

You can kill it relatively easily using missiles built with recovered alien materials, but you'll run out of them pretty quickly and the super-UFOs will only become more and more frequent. So basically you have to launch the final mission before the invasion overwhelms you.

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Back in EU1994 I wondered why you wanted to go on the final mission, when you were milking the resources of the alien fleet so easily.

That seems to have been solved. Hopefully this time, when the big, bad alien brain offers you partnership to exploit the galaxy there will be an option to accept :)

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We've not done enough playtesting to see what is the most fun, but the current idea is that the final UFO type will be more powerful than any fighter craft you have.

You can kill it relatively easily using missiles built with recovered alien materials, but you'll run out of them pretty quickly and the super-UFOs will only become more and more frequent. So basically you have to launch the final mission before the invasion overwhelms you.

Thanks for the response.

I was asking about the squad-based tactical portion of the game, though. Will you get enough gun tech to kill the "final common enemy type" (akin to EU1994's Etherials) with 1-2 soldiers on a single turn, or will it take 6+ guys shooting at the same target to kill it?

My play type is that I like to see my soldiers somewhat evenly matched at the end stages of the game. I don't want to reach the technical pinnacle and then feel like I'm trying to take down a plethora of Lobstermen ...every... ...battle... At that point, the game becomes a chore to play.

A non-X-Com reference would be the UFO: After* games, particularly the first one. When the Reticulans started showing up with shields, the game ramped up significantly in difficulty. You couldn't tech-up your weapons beyond where you were currently, and it would take an alpha-strike by most of your team members to kill them. I beat the game, but I hated that last part.

It would be nice to encounter the toughest enemies, struggle to kill them, get a new weapon as a reward, and then wipe the floor with them (or at least not struggle with them).

I think this is still possible to do this and keep the pressure of the UFO invasion escalation. The aliens would realize that they can't win a ground war. Instead, they send in their super UFO's. They know that they are going to lose a few UFOs (have them shot down), but they don't care about the crew once the UFO crashes.

As for air combat... Running out of alien missiles and losing the war at the very end would be painful, especially if you need those missiles to access the final mission. If the option to do the final mission pops up, and THEN I start to run out of missiles, I'd be happy with that. It's not any different than some of the "complete final mission before day X" scenarios that other games in the genre have.

Back in EU1994 I wondered why you wanted to go on the final mission, when you were milking the resources of the alien fleet so easily.

That seems to have been solved. Hopefully this time, when the big, bad alien brain offers you partnership to exploit the galaxy there will be an option to accept :)

They let you do that in UFO Aftermath. :)

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or will it take 6+ guys shooting at the same target to kill it?

I just imagined Godzilla missions. 1 lone 5x5x3 alien that rampages across a map and it takes repeated hits from your whole squad to kill it. (t probably has strong regenerative abilities) It would be able to move through walls just like androns so you better kill it before you run out of cover. :) (on higher difficulties you would need to do hit and run tactics)

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I just imagined Godzilla missions. 1 lone 5x5x3 alien that rampages across a map and it takes repeated hits from your whole squad to kill it.

Better still, dominate it! You will have to mind-control 38 cubes to gain a controlling interest, and 57 to finally get total control. Or, mind-control just a few cubes, have them shoot others to trim it down a notch, then you just have to mind-control 19. Use them to keep the rest from firing at you as you stun the remaining 18 cubes.

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We've not done enough playtesting to see what is the most fun, but the current idea is that the final UFO type will be more powerful than any fighter craft you have.

You can kill it relatively easily using missiles built with recovered alien materials, but you'll run out of them pretty quickly and the super-UFOs will only become more and more frequent. So basically you have to launch the final mission before the invasion overwhelms you.

Good idea. I hope it will be steady progress and game will not end too fast after discovering all tech and final mission. We will see how many battle ships can we handle at once :P.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Please let the Player choose from begin on if he wants :

- the hard version "Needs to start the Final Mission in a short time period after beeing able to do that or beeing overwhelmed quickly".

- medium version "Needs to start the Final Mission in a long time period after beeing able to do that or beeing overwhelmed slowly".

- or the easier version "Can start the final mission if he wants to. No massive overwhelming at all".

And this modes should be an advanced option not be related to the Difficulties "easy, medium, hard"

I just loved in UFO EU to farm UFO`s before doing the final mission.

In the current state the game is too hard in standard difficulty in my opinion.

I got overwhelmed since the first Large UFO appeared. I got my first Corsair produced but i have

no new armor for my soldiers "50 Technicians need 2days and a few hourse to produce 1...".

Aswell no new aircraft missiles or aircraft weapons produced so far cause it needs too long.

Only 2 Plasma Scopes for my entire Troup.

Plus i cant hire new soldiers "bug?".

I know its an alpha-version, theres much rebalancing needed =)

Just an information.

Edited by Megathron
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Please let the Player choose from begin on if he wants :

- the hard version "Needs to start the Final Mission in a short time period after beeing able to do that or beeing overwhelmed quickly".

- medium version "Needs to start the Final Mission in a long time period after beeing able to do that or beeing overwhelmed slowly".

- or the easier version "Can start the final mission if he wants to. No massive overwhelming at all".

And this modes should be an advanced option not be related to the Difficulties "easy, medium, hard"

I just loved in UFO EU to farm UFO`s before doing the final mission.

Most likely you will get the asked for effect through modding of the ticker system (and through modding only).

In the current state the game is too hard in standard difficulty in my opinion.

I got overwhelmed since the first Large UFO appeared. I got my first Corsair produced but i have

no new armor for my soldiers "50 Technicians need 2days and a few hourse to produce 1...".

Aswell no new aircraft missiles or aircraft weapons produced so far cause it needs too long.

Only 2 Plasma Scopes for my entire Troup.

Plus i cant hire new soldiers "bug?".

The current state isn't balanced yet. Goldhawk is still focusing on implementing features. And yes that is a bug

I know its an alpha-version, theres much rebalancing needed =)

Just an information.

:)

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Well, you wont change my opinion =) I just love to play nearly endless in such games. I loved it aswell in UFO EU.

I dont want to have only the option to do the final mission as soon as possible. Different people have different opinions and believes.

Accept my opinion like i respect your ;)

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Accept my opinion like i respect your ;)

It's not that we don't accept your opinion (you're quite welcome to it), it's just that we're all voicing our own views on them. This doesn't mean that we don't approve or that we think you should think as we do. It's just all a part of good, healthy debate. You have your views and we have ours.

If we were a forum that basically foisted our ideals onto every new member, we'd just be like any other internet forum, self-entitled and utter crap.

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It's not that we don't accept your opinion (you're quite welcome to it), it's just that we're all voicing our own views on them. This doesn't mean that we don't approve or that we think you should think as we do. It's just all a part of good, healthy debate. You have your views and we have ours.

If we were a forum that basically foisted our ideals onto every new member, we'd just be like any other internet forum, self-entitled and utter crap.

The irony of this comming from a Commissar... :D

But Megathron is entitled to having his opinion and with a bit of modding his way too :)

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