Piratez Difficulty Curve

[Dioxine]

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.

[Meridian]

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.

Sounds good, maybe just add it in the meantime, until you get to this new style.

[Dioxine]

I think it is already fine, more or less. I will make a quick update after all (this week) which'll make it a bit harder to get H/K. However you can still intercept with Pachyderm or Jetbike, if you get enough cash to buy it and fancy an interception.
And the Skyranger... maybe I'll add it to Contact Mutant Alliance (which will enable Pogrom despawn penalties at the same time ). I must also say I'm quite enamoured of all these low-powered craft like Airbus, which can be beautifully constructed from Robin's Apocalypse tiles. It's all in a flux now.

[clownagent]

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.

[Baldri]

Sprawling? In my mind it is quiet a desolated place with only as much traffic as abolutely  needed and affordable. A wasteland so to say.  Sprawling would mean that the aliens are somewhat benefical which they aren't in my mind. Nuclear waste all over the place and with that radiation of course. Half destroyed cities. Reliance on heavy, dirty industries - not exactly that hightech. I think all the ships are leased from the gods. Why would they heavily invest in a slaveplanet? Rebuild it and so on? They would not invest more as absolutely needed to fulfill their needs as no slavebased society will ever do and Earth is quiet dependent in terms of Hellerium  which is not found on Earth. Also the foodsituation seems quiet desastrous considering all the soylent.

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.

Sorry, the word "sprawling" just triggered  that doesn't seem to fit for me. 

[ivandogovich]

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.

Heh and here I am looking at my save file and boggling at the almost 700 techs I've discovered and my 60 brainers on staff.  You think I overkilled it a bit then? June 25th, 2602 (2nd year).

[AncientSion]

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.

[Baldri]

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.

We need more numbers to determine whats overkill^^. I guess it is a more personal preference anyway.

And to be fair: I also like having 30. The number 15, the lab, was only considered moneywise.

Putting only one brainer at a topic also speeds up research btw, so even if you have to wait longer you do not waste any points by overspending. So 15 brainers doesn't equal 15 brainerz. It depends how you allocate them.

[legionof1]

I think the optimal brainer count has more to do with difficulty then anything else. On a low difficulty your access to some bottleneck research topics is severely reduced as well as lower early income(less foes means less loot). In this case both your income and whats available at a given time are both reduced. 15-20 served my diff 2 campaign perfectly well and even had long periods of complete idleness. I couldn't afford to maintain many brainers and by the time i could it was a moot point as there was nothing much left to do.

[karadoc]

During my current (first) playthrough, at one stage I sacked a couple of brainers because 1) I could barely afford to keep them. 2) my research was just about to hit a bottle-neck. (I think I had around 13 at the time, and reduced it to 11.)

Not long after that, I finally captured an academy engineer, and the research tree opened up like a flower. Fortunately my financial situation improved a lot as well. I pretty quickly expanded my research team to 18, then started a new research base... Now I'm close to the end of the game, and I've been going along comfortably with ~29 brainers for awhile. I certainly won't need any more, because I'm running out of research topics.


In any case, I do think the high cost of brainers is a bit of a trap. But I don't think it should needs to be changed (I don't mind either way). If a player runs out of money, they can sack their brainers. No big deal.

[Cristao]

15 brainerz is definitely too small. I used between 40 to 50 in my last two playthroughs.

[Dioxine]

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.

1. Absolutely. The planet is vast and even though it's a poor one, the Fifth Element / Heavy Metal feel should be there (there was 450 or so years to rebuild the civilization after the Star Gods finished their business of 'aligning' it to their imperial template). I will even make a Space Bar... one day! I think a good idea is adding a lower-tier 'civilian' traffic that doesn't generate Crackdowns when shot down (more fun with LEGO's! Yay!).

2. Nah. The above will take care of that (you should be able to run almost double the number of current 'warehouse' missions on average monthly). Also I think keeping tabs on the number of brainers is an important aspect (teaches you not to overspend).

3. Not sure yet how to bottleneck the final tech progress (tier 1. attack marker sites -> tier 2. engage non-retal traffic and landings -> tier 3. engage warships). The final tiers of tech should require engaging warships, but not sure how to make it work (adding a rare component to all warships maybe...?) Also Plate Mail. Too Easy To Make...!

[Meridian]

Also Plate Mail. Too Easy To Make...!

[Dioxine]

Thank Bloax for that

[legionof1]

Perhaps you could gate the final tier with a high tier "weapon" item with something like the frequency of blaster launchers? I don't like the idea of an object tied to the ship since large warships ships tend to take significant collateral damage to internal tiles because of the types of weapons involved. Both player and enemy.