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Messages - mwilde

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Suggestions / Customizable difficulty settings
« on: August 05, 2021, 09:35:05 pm »
First, thanks for all the amazing work that has gone into all the modding and developing for this game!

I would like to know just how difficult it would be to implement some form of customizable difficulty for the game. It has often been said that Superhuman makes the Battlescape hard due to the number and stats of the aliens, but due to the huge amount of loot you get to sell from them it makes the Geoscape easier. The reverse is true for the easiest setting.

So, my thinking is that you could have sliders to set various parameters, such as:
  • Number of aliens (with a minimum depending on ship type).
  • Number of terrorists per mission (that would have terrorists at all)
  • Alien stats (could range from 50% to 200%, for example)
  • Amount of loot recoverable (for example with 1x of every item that could drop, to some other max number)
  • Frequency of Terror missions (want to have 5 per month, sure!)
  • Cost of construction/upkeep
  • Strength of UFOs
  • Funding and score calculations

This isn't a complete list, of course.

Now, I know that actually implementing this would be a huge task, but once the core code would be in place I think it could dramatically change the game. You could set it up so that each mission would have few, but very tough enemies that drop minimal loot for a quick but tough game. Or, a game where you have loads of missions with loads of enemies that are weak, if that's what you like doing, or any other combination.

So, just how difficult would it be to implement this? Is this something that could be on the "sometime in the future" list, or more in the "dream on" list?

Thanks in advance!

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Offtopic / Re: Looking for a new book series to read?
« on: January 29, 2019, 04:20:02 pm »
Can agree with the Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons.

Other good Sci-Fi series of note:

The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Written in the 90s, it's a mostly "hard science" vision of the colonisation of Mars. Some of the stuff is a bit dated, but still a good read.

The Dune series by Frank Herbert. Probably one of the most iconic Sci-Fi series ever written. Basically a must read (at least the first 3-4 books) for any fan. Haven't read the "new" books written by his son and Kevin J. Anderson, but they don't get good reviews.

The Commonwealth series by Peter F Hamilton. Fantastic setting, though I have a love-hate relationship with some of his characters. Skip the "prequel" Misspent Youth unless you're a competitionist, and the last two, The Chronicle of the Fallers is very low tech for a Sci-Fi story.

The Culture series by Ian M Banks. Just started it myself, but it comes highly recommended, and I've enjoyed it immensely so far.

If you're up for some classics, then Issac Asimov's Foundation series and Robot series are great, if you can get past the liberal use of "atomics". It's a lot of fun reading the old short stories in both series from the 50s and 60s, and then see how he merges them in his novels of the 80s.

If you like Star Wars, I can highly recommend many of the series from the 90s, most notably the Thrawn Trillogy and Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi stories.

Can't remember of any other Sci-Fi series that I've read off hand, but this should keep you occupied for a few months. :D

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