Thank you psavola.
Very good an well thought feedback.
Before I go to details, let me reiterate that this mod balance things here and there. However, a lot of changes come from "TFTD Rework" parent mode. I agree with them in general but I am completely fine tapping into it and modifying all parameters as needed based on feedbacks like yours.
I understand your are playing on SH difficulty? If so then keep in mind that this supposed to be hard enough that players would never desire to try anything even more harder. It should definitely be unforgiving in every single aspect. Probably should require a lot of grinding and micromanagement too. The fact that vanilla SH is a cakewalk should have nothing to do with modifications as they usually try to restore normal difficulty level progression.
I agree that making impassable games is no fun either but we should be careful to not ease up toughest difficulty too much so it loose the meaning.
- I like the balance in economy (sell prices cut in half, or even more compared to vanilla). The game economy works much better this way, i.e. you don't get too much money so easily (either by selling alien stuff, or manufacturing items)
Initial idea from parent mod. All alien stuff selling price is cut in half.
- Decreasing the price of craft rents is likely a good idea (because you need far more of them than in vanilla, and also likely need to purchase more when they are shot down), especially in the first 6 months or so when money is a critical asset (you'll also need to expand your coverage, hire scientists, etc.).
I played with halved interceptor rent and I feel like it is a right spot. Indeed, one need a large fleet of them. It is only natural to halve costs to match halved revenue from selling alien stuff.
I also loose interceptors and bases occasionally. That makes it fun as I need to either protect them or risk rebuilding. Same goes for sacrificing interceptors for yummy big USO.
- Some aliens are very tough and I keep wondering if this is really intentional. In particular, in vanilla xarquids had a very low under armor (making them essentially vulnerable to HE), now they have 50. It seems very difficult to kill them and/or you'll face severe losses (because they have very good reactions and deadly sonic weapon).
I found Xarquid to be extremely tough too. It seems to be an ultimate challenge of early-mid game. Yes, this is intentional but not by me. This is inherited from parent mod. I should say this parent mod makes enemies somewhat tougher. Not to nightmare level but noticeably. I generally agree with this approach as superhuman difficulty should be like that. Giving them no under armor in vanilla makes them falling like flies against rocket/grenades which is, obviously, not match to their place in alien hierarchy.
Personally I found them beatable even with gauss rifles and vibroblades with the right tactics. If you noticed, their under armor is raised to 50 but their face armor is lowered. This is their soft spot. Use smoke and movement sensor to spot them without revealing yourself and shoot them from distance. Other option would be to sneak up on them using cover and poke them with the knife.
I found it takes about 2-3 vibroblade hits, 2-4 heavy gauss hits, 4-6 gauss rifle hits. This is serious grinding I agree but not impassable. I actually enjoy this smoke and maneuvering play. Without it all missions would reduce to "run forward and kill everybody in sight" boring stuff repeated 100 times.
Keep in mind that player always can backup from mission if it feels too difficult for current gear level. That is intended to make sure users are not raiding landed larger USO with basic crew at the beginning of the game.
I would say one needs to develop plastic armor + heavy gauss to face serious menace like Xarquids, Bio-drones, Reapers, etc.
- M.C. Lab requires alien implants. So you can't do MC screening on your aquanauts without first acquiring that. AFAIK you can only get alien implants from colonies, artifact sites or very large ships. This poses a significant challenge, as you'll have to manage one such mission with MC-vulnerable aquanauts. Colonies are a no go. Artifact sites start at month 6 (50 % chance), and then it might be a doable, but already in month 7 you might get cephalids, and you would be screwed in a major way (I certainly was). In vanilla, gillmen very large ship would be doable, but now xarquids would slaughter your crew. Aquatoid is likely very difficult without MC screening. I suppose you could wish for tasoth or lobstermen. But nonetheless, I wonder if getting MC lab is made excessively difficult and dependent on RNG. I would certainly be interested in hearing how the others dealt with this.
That is the question to research tree. Generally, I feel it quite all right. Especially, the fact that alien tech is discovered by researching aliens. However, I agree M.C. Lab could be available for research a little bit earlier. Feel free to propose tech tree change for that.
- Sonic weapons seem to be next to useless due to their very low accuracy. I didn't see a point in switching from gauss rifle and heavy gauss. I wonder if they have been nerfed too much. The main reason to research sonic is getting sonic oscillator and sonic displacer (though it is also significantly nerfed now, because the weapon requires more TUs). But I suppose I didn't play enough at that point to figure out if the balance was good.
I tried to interleave their characteristics so that they all have certain value at least at some game stage. That is why gauss may feel better under some conditions. It could be too much - I am not sure. It is easy to return sonic weapons their vanilla glory but then player would just discard gauss stuff immediately as we did in vanilla.
Generally, sonic series are lighter and more damaging but slower and less accurate.
Gauss auto fire option works exceptionally well against weaker aliens when kill is guaranteed. Useless against tougher enemies not killable in a single round of auto fire. Sonic for range and melee for close becomes better combo against tougher enemies.
Roughly they have these effectiveness niches (let me know if you don't feel this)
- Gauss pistol is light and extremely fast. Very effective against Aquatoids and lower Gillmen. Good for early USO recovery.
- Gauss rifle is heavier and relatively fast. Effective against Gillmen/terrorists and lower Tasoths. Good for early USO recovery and terror sites.
- Heavy gauss is heaviest pig of them all. Effective against Tasoths and lower Lobstermen. Can be used in ship missions and artifact sites.
- Sonic pistol has about same damage ratio as gauss rifle but light as a feather. Very easy to carry vibroblade and all kind of explosives with it.
- Sonic rifle has about same damage ratio as heavy gauss but much lighter.
- Sonic cannon has best penetration and effective against all Lobstermen.
I was already getting a bit bored with the lack of much progress for months (going after those tasoth and lobster missions is tedious because they take so many hits for further away, and meleeing them is rather risky - with medium+ lobsterman missions usually at least 1-2 people get killed or wounded). I had no MC lab yet, so most aquanauts would get trashed anyway after the screening, so there would be little use in training them to be exceptionally good. I lost the rest of my motivation for now by the cephalid/aquatoid artifact site mission. But I will likelyl try again at some point.
Again, I am all for allowing M.C. Lab earlier. However, as I noticed in my games, I do not get seriously delayed in getting this tech. Meaning, I don't have enough scientists to get to it (much) quicker anyway. I.e. even if I would not need larger USO parts for it I would not research it earlier than fourth month or something, anyway. There are other, more important research out there.
EDIT: now that I think about it, the only sensible way "in paper" to deal with xarquids would seem to be with thermal shok launchers.
I doubt so. Stun works the same way as weapon (armor and health). So it could be even worse in effectiveness.
