Hi all,
several people have asked me what do I do to make the game more challenging, i.e. harder.
What mods, settings, rules, etc.
To answer all such questions at once, I decided to make this post.
I will ignore mods completely and talk only about vanilla OpenXcom... but similar principles apply to most (if not all) mods as well.
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So, first of all, to make the game harder, you have to eliminate (or dumb down) things that make it too easy.
Let me illustrate this key point/idea on something I've seen on IRC yesterday:
"07:49 every tactic is appropriate in winning"
That is true, if you are fighting a real war (actually since humanity developed wartime conduct, even this is not true anymore), but in a computer game this has severe consequences.
If every tactic is allowed, then I can just use a squad full of super-psi-soldiers and win every mission without ever leaving the Skyranger. If you want a proof, look at BattleBunny's latest LP (second half of it).
Summary: You need to limit the use of tactics and game mechanics that make the game too easy.
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Now, when we know we need to set some rules, let's discuss what can we do.
The game is basically divided into two parts: geoscape and battlescape.
In geoscape, there is very little potential to make the game truly harder (and a lot of potential to just make it annoying instead).
First option would be to make the dogfights harder (e.g. attack with one interceptor only; or use inferior weapons only, etc.). But since the game can be won without ever shooting down any UFO (for proof see my Hawaii challenge LP), this is of little importance.
Second option would be to make economy-based constraints with implications such as more expensive staff, craft and equipment; longer research, etc. And that might seem like a perfect way to make the game harder.... until you realize that it doesn't make the game "harder" in any way... it just makes the game *longer*. Oh and btw. it is possible to win the game with starting tech (plus Cydonia-or-Bust and Avenger), you don't need better weapons, you don't need any armour (although it looks funny to walk on Mars without helmets), you don't need experienced soldiers... you can win with a bunch of rookies carrying rocket launchers, heavy cannons, HE packs and flares (I would give you a proof but I don't remember who did it on camera).
So, what's left are rules for battlescape...
Summary: If you want to make the game longer, download one of many mods, which make the tech tree more complicated and/or economy more tight (Solarius' FMP, Hobbes' Redux, Hellrazor's Hardmode, etc.). If you want to make the game harder... continue reading.
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Now we know we need to set some rules for the battlescape to eliminate the "cheesy" (sometimes even "cheaty") stuff.
So, what is cheesy?
What makes the game "not challenging" anymore?
If you want a text book example check out Ivan Dogovich's "Up Close and Personal" mod.
There is a weapon called "Advanced Flash Bang"... a super-effective stun grenade, which doesn't give aliens any chance of success whatssoever (especially with instant grenades option turned on).
That's cheesy.
I know that everybody will have a different view on what is cheesy in vanilla, so I will name only things, which I believe most of us can agree on. Eliminating those should cover 90% of cheesiness in the game.
Cheaty:
1. Reloading
Cheesy:
2. Abuse of psionics
3. Supersoldiers
4. Abuse of explosives
5. Abuse of AI
Summary: Don't worry, I will go into details. Please continue reading.
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1. Reloading... is sometimes necessary, especially if you are playing with mods that are not 100% stable yet. But in most cases, autosave is enough.
Not reloading is the single most effective way of making the game harder. For those who don't have a strong enough will (98% of us), turn on the Ironman mode, to escape temptation.
Your best soldier dying is part of the game. Your most favourite soldier dying is part of the game. You making a stupid mistake is part of the game. You making a misclick is part of the game. Everything else (expect for game crashes) is part of the game!
Btw. this option almost entirely eliminates also issue #3 (supersoldiers)... more about that later.
Summary: DON'T RELOAD! If you can't resist, play with Ironman mode on. If you rage quit on Ironman, go play with Barbie instead.
PS: as a funny fact, if you decide to allow reload anyway (I don't blame you)... consider turning save scumming ON. Basically both options are cheesy, but here's my explanation why:
- With save scumming OFF - every time you reload, everything will be the same... so you can reload until you develop a perfect recipe for the problem at hand.
- With save scumming ON - every time you reload, everything will be different... so your original problem will disappear... but at least it may be replaced by a different, maybe even harder problem
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2. Abuse of psionics... as I mentioned before, you can win every mission by having a handful of psi-freaks while hardly moving from the safety of the skyranger.
I will not give you any specific advice here, one man's meat is another man's poison... so decide for yourselves, what do you want to do about it.
For inspiration: I am taking no more than 2-3 psi-amps on any given mission. And even then I am using mind control "with care".
Summary: Give aliens a chance ffs... you'll enjoy the game more, trust me!
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3. Supersoldiers... are soldiers, which have survived 20+ missions and their stats have increased significantly (e.g. strength = 60+, firing accuracy = 90+, psi skill = 60+, etc.)
With several of these, you can run around with rocket launcher, three rockets, heavy plasma, five alien grenades, medi-kit and psi-amp... while every shot will be a hit, every throw a kill and every mind control a success. A lot of fun, if you're playing for the first time... afterwards... not so much.
If you follow the above and below recommendations (i.e. don't reload and don't abuse), such soldiers should not exist!
Soldiers have a life expectancy between 1 and 20 missions. Supersoldiers break the balance of the game. "Allow them to die" for the planet, with honour.
You can get supersoldiers in an even cheesier way than honest battle experience (honest only on their side of course, mostly abusive on your side).
You can (ab)use active "training", for example mind control and disarm a muton, and shoot at him at point blank range until you're out of bullets in your pistol; or even better put him in a circle of soldiers and let them reaction fire and train reactions too. Or mind control him many times to improve psi skills.
Does this feel right? Don't answer, it was just a rhetorical question...
Furthermore, there are several settings in OpenXcom, which can also increase your soldier's life expectancy a lot and I recommend to turn them off.
First is the "alternate movement methods"... being able to "run" for cover is a life saver; so is the ability to "strafe" around corners. Keep it turned off.
Second is the TFTD damage formula. Basically original has 0-200% damage spread on shooting weapons, whereas TFTD has 50-150%. And while minimum of 50% may sound like it makes the game harder (because unarmored rookies don't survive by pure luck), it is really the upper boundary, which is problematic. With 150% max damage the aliens can barely do any damage to you in power armor facing their direction. I would appreciate having 50-200% roll, or double 0-100% roll... which seem the most fair to me... but since we don't have them, take the 0-200% roll (not the 50-150% roll).
Summary: Every soldier has a right to die.
PS: Lastly, everyone who played this game at least 2-3 times knows that 10 random soldiers in power armour with heavy plasmas on autofire can win any non-Ethereal mission. For proof look at BattleBunny's latest LP (first part of it).
Therefore, although I recommend not to use any new fancy OpenXcom options, I do STRONGLY recommend turning on this non-standard option called "UFO extender accuracy"... I honestly can't imagine playing without it anymore. Btw. if you're wondering why is it in this section... it allows the soldiers to miss, which decreases their life expectancy. Also, without it, you have almost no reason to use aimed shots.
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4. Abuse of explosives... I hope it's not a surprise for you, if I tell you that explosives (grenades, rocket launchers, etc.) are the most powerful weapons in the game. Lots of damage, accurate throwing, small weight, bad resistances of aliens, throwing possible even from cover, grenade relay.... and many more reasons.
Now, I am not telling you to stop using explosives... but at least don't make them even more powerful than they are supposed to be.
There are several settings in OpenXcom, which transform explosives from the best weapon in the game into game-breaking uber-weapons:
- instant grenades - keep turned off
- pre-primed grenades - keep turned off (even for non-lethal, such as smokes)
- explosion height - keep at 0 (zero)
Already one of these settings breaks the game (IMO), all three are just ridiculous.
Summary: Not everything that looks cool is really cool.
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5. Abuse of AI... AI is stupid! If AI was not stupid, you would lose every time. Since AI is stupid already, don't take too much advantage of its stupidity.
Again, there are dozens of examples, but I will name only a single one, which is ABUSED most frequently:
When you land with a loud Skyranger, common sense tells you that all nearby aliens would be waiting for you to stick your head out of the craft and shoot you in the face (or if you throw a smoke first, shoot blindly at you... which unfortunately AI is too stupid to do). And they do!! All aliens start with full time units on turn 1 and on Superhuman difficulty they are even all turned towards you. That was a conscious game design decision. Please read the last sentence once more. If you didn't read that sentence again, please return back and really read it one more time! Thank you.
If you skip action on the first turn, aliens (driven by the stupid AI) will start running around "aimlessly" (or killing civilians in terror missions) and spend their time units, making it a LOT easier for you in the second turn... effectively losing the combat advantage the game designers have given them. And this will increase your soldier's life expectancy, which will lead to more supersoldiers... and same old story again...
I personally would even re-classify this exploit from cheesy to cheaty... but I will leave it up to you.
Summary: Don't just wait on turn 1! Fight and look for cover...
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Final summary: - don't confuse the words "longer" and "harder"
- don't reload
- don't abuse any tactics, which lead to easy victory (whatever that may be for you)
- EDIT (thanks NeptunesNookGames): don't wait until it's day... always take off immediately and play night missions too
Cheers,
Meridian
Disclaimer: Everything above is just my opinion, not scientifically proven facts... you are allowed to disagree... I don't mind if you do, I don't care either.
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