[Suggestion] Vanilla - Extra Hard

[yrizoud]

Ah sorry about that, I searched the origin in the forum, and the earliest reference I could found with this name was from Reaper's mod.
The correction is also useful because it may be easier to see the weapon in a near-vanilla context in a mod like Alien Armory Expanded.

[Xcommander]

Very cool stuff, however I want vanilla. Not chocolate, not strawberry, vanilla!

But harder.

Fought my first terror ship, and ..there's really a lot of aliens there :-) I might experiment with just double the number instead of triple and giving the aliens some armor.

[Solarius Scorch]

If it's harder than vanilla, it's not vanilla any more.

It's not just about word games, it's about the fact that you are drawing an imaginary line between "vanilla enough" and "no longer vanilla". It's fine, but you should specify where exactly this line is drawn, otherwise everyone will have a slightly different idea.

If the only change is doubling the enemy numbers, then it's crystal clear, and trivial to mod.

[Meridian]

But harder.

But it's not vanilla if it's harder :-)
It's hardilla.

[Solarius Scorch]

It's hardilla.

Nice name for this mod

[Xcommander]

an imaginary line between "vanilla enough" and "no longer vanilla".

Idea is
- dominate the fuck out of the game from back then, now, as we have grown we go back to the game of old and find closure by beating the aliens that kept us at the edge of our seats and sometimes bested us.
- to reuse all the intricate knowledge of the game - like a gambler knows his odds from his vast experience and can tell if the dice are loaded, we know the XCOM mechanics quantitatively and intuitively.

Geoscape is solved; we can go to Cydonia even with nations quitting and soldiers dying. Battlescape is where it's at. If you want to leave the mechanics untouched the only things that seems to remain is add quantity - more and more aliens.

 

[hellrazor]

Well more Aliens will only make them Panic faster.

There are two things which greatly imbalance vanilla gameplay:
- Psi
- Economics (Laser Canon CashCow)

I changed those factors in my mod significantly, so you have economic constrains, since maintenance cost and wages are pretty high.
PSI can still be unlocked relatively easily, so you con build PSI-LABS to screen you soldiers, but to use PSI you need PSI-Amps and those need some extra investment into research.

Simply adding more Aliens will only increase an overflow in cash, proper balance is needed. Took me actually a while to achieve it.

[yrizoud]

Oh and I would allow restarting any battle from the beginning if you don't like whats happening.

Sorry but this kinda defeats any changes to 'make the game more challenging'.
If you want to learn playing a difficult UFO game, start by trying to play with no reload. You then learn to use non-ideal units, balance risk / reward, and even the later game is still challenging because you don't have your max-level units.

[Meridian]

Oh and I would allow restarting any battle from the beginning if you don't like whats happening.
- no more worrying about losing your super star!

I somehow missed this when I was reading the post earlier.

What the heck?
That's not even funny man... this is the very definition of "opposite of hard"...
... reloading and not losing your superstars is for 8-year old kids and has nothing to do with xcom.

I still can't believe what I'm reading... just, speechless...

[Xcommander]

Guys, guys. Relax. It's not about losing that super star.  If XCOM had multiplayer I'd challenge anyone 1vs1 who doubts my commitment to difficulty lol.


1. I had to adapt to handle 3x the aliens but now I'm doing all right and handle things without reloading. I got this

2. Ever complained that chess players undo moves in training because they worry about losing that "super star king"? Imagine XCOM Battlescape missions SO HARD that you have to "study" a mission and rethink everything you normally do? Edge of Tomorrow - style? #goals

[yrizoud]

Loading a game from before the battle is generated (ie.before landing) is considerably less cheaty, because on reloading you will not know things like "there were no aliens in this building, I can ignore it".

[Xcommander]

Bring extra clips