Normally in a game, you would expect the game to be easy early on and get progressesivly harder as ingame time passes, while actual play time and with it, experience, partly offsets the increasing difficulty of mid and end game.
On a side note, Piratez is not a game but a mod. This means the player is expected to know the basics.
While the mercenaries and star gods are tough, you don't seem to meet them much more in the late game than in the early game. I'm in the late game now and I'd love to fight some more challenging opponents, but they're hard to find, and I keep getting distracted by lower-ranking foes. (I feel compelled to assault any ship I shoot down...)
And yeah, I agree that I'm discuss it from the current state of the mod that in the past two years has only gotten harder in the early game (timed supply ship missions, combat stress, hammer nerfs, etc).
Yeah, rack the difficulty up until the player is too tired to play anymore. Great idea, sir, great idea. Most games actually eventually fall on their ass because of this (looking at you, Borderlands, Space Nomad, et al). The most primitive difficulty curve isn't neccesarily the best one, since it robs you of any feeling of accomplishment and turns the game into an unforgiving grind which can work only for a roguelike or a top-down shooter. Let's better think of games which handle the difficulty curve in a more intricate manner, like Half Life 2.
Also what enemy tech progression in the OG... from plasma rifle to heavy plasma in under 5 seconds? lol.
Radically changing gals' stat caps would influence the tactics in such a major way it's not even worth discussing. If you feel uncomfortable with high movement rates, play another mod, where the game is balanced for more static tactics. High movement is crucial for melee and assorted heroics.
And yeah, how far into the game did you make anyway? Are you getting constant crackdowns already? Do you feel comfortable facing VIPs and their plasma or gauss-totting entourages? Are Mercs and Star Gods no longer a threat? Also what difficulty level are you playing since the challenge changes considerably?
Harder? Really? :) Let's recap 2 most probable first missions from old times:
- Gunship. 20+ enemies, 100% Personal Armor, all laser weapons.
- Mutant Pogrom. Everyone and their dog has laser weapons, you can also easily meet tanks, cyberdiscs, Powered Armor...
I dont like your hostile attitude (again) one bit.
You dont want feedback, fine.
... going after low-ranking enemies is quite pointless in the late game...I'm still in my first playthrough. I'm currently at a stage where most of my troops are wearing either Assault armour or Brute armour. My weapons aren't great, but they are easily good enough for most of enemies I face - and so I usually use my cheaper weapons (such as commando rifle and advanced lasgun) rather than my more expensive more powerful weapons.
Yeah I'd like that, this stuff can go pretty crazy.
A great example of this curve overall, is the abandoned campaign by https://www.youtube.com/user/FireWaterGasoline. Over 5 episodes on YouTube he lost the campaign twice to early crackdowns. Fundamentally his xcom tactics in ground battles were solid, though as a blind playthrough there was certainly inefficient utilization of weapons. His downfall was the irresistible tendency to shoot down anything that flies. This is typical from someone used to playing UFO or TftD. Its things like these that the first time PirateZ player must un-learn, that make them throw up their hands and walk away like this YouTuber did.
difficultyBasedRetaliationDelay: [4, 2, 1, 0, 0]
I strongly suggest considering this option in piratez base game.
Might be useful indeed. But first retaliations will be delayed by other means (inability to shoot down anything in early game).
...Is Retaliation generated by the act of shooting down an UFO or by simply engaging it?
I think it would be better if there was a 'retaliation-o-meter' which built up in a similar way to how reputation builds up.
Of course, that's probably not super easy to implement; and in most cases player's wouldn't be able to tell the difference between something like that and a flat percentage chance anyway. ... but I still think it's worth suggesting.
That's why I'm not planning on adding any immunity, maybe on the lowest diff level. Like I said, it will be a time before you'll get any interception-capable ship. If you're not ready by then, well, too bad.
I also think 15 researchers is quiet enough to get through the game, so there would be no point in making the lib more expensive to slow research down.
15 does indeed seem a bit low. Im currently on only 14 and can barely keep the tech list from growing at all while also. I guess you dont NEED 60 unless you want to research everything, but 15 seems too low in order to keep up with necesarry research.
Considering i have 17.000.000 stashed i could easily double or tripple my brainer count. Not sure i like to swim in money, but hey, the mod works like that i guess.
A few suggestions to make the early game less frustrating:
1. There should spawn a lot more missions (both shipping and warehouses) which do not give a negative count if not intercepted. Sometimes one has to wait a long time without anything to do. For the mood it would be good, if much more small UFOs were flying around, even if you can't shoot them down. It makes the player eager to obtain a craft with which he can shoot them down. It would also feel more like a sprawling planet with lots of traffic.
2. Reduce the salary for the brainerz a bit. If you have one or two bad months without many missions their salary can drive you into bankruptcy. Sure, an experienced player knows that, but for a new player it is like a trap. If one want to keep research progress slow, the price for library etc could be increased.
Also Plate Mail. Too Easy To Make...!
Until M1, I did not feel the time pressure at all. In fact, it would be quite easy to lollygag until close to Year 3 on any difficulty not Jack Sparrow.
Since M1, things changed a lot. Now it is way more difficult to lollygag, and there is only one way of dealing with the pressure, getting a goal and sticking to it. Unfortunately, for people not in the know what is, or is not a goal, they might suffer from unfocused playstyle that will ultimately grind their campaign to a halt no later than 9 months in.
That said, experienced players tend to know this stuff. And in any case, avoiding !stuff! Is basically the WORST thing you can do, so much so I'd consider it a newbie trap, not an experienced player rigid time control method or whatever.
When I've said "experienced players" I meant players experienced by general gaming (not only computer games). In my opinion those players have tendency to lessening time pressure by any means (but still in the game's world) when they feel that they must obtain more understanding, just to have more fun, without chasing technical stuff buried somewhere outside in the author's secret garden.
...
This problem is very reocurring, and we're having discussions constantly on how to make the player forget other gaming tropes.
Thanks for info.
Maybe I shouldn't modify those files because using spoilers and using save scumming is part of the game in this mod?
Just "rush" base defences, better interceptors and tanks and you are pretty much golden. Only Star Gods and Mercenaries can give you a problem when they arrive if you achieve this.
No more spoilers and definatelly no save scumming required.