Campaign difficulty spikes (version 4.2.0+)
Posted: 22 Dec 2021, 00:20
Hello!
I've been playing through the campaign for the first time since 2019 I think and wanted to share my opinion on its current (Dec 21) balancing.
Since I completed it before and remember how it goes in general I decided to go for Hard difficulty this time (thank God I didn't choose Insane).
Alpha campaign was mostly straightforward, it was hard in a good way, but not impossible. The only abnormal dificulty spike was in the away mission where you get the 'enemy transport approaches' messages literally every couple of minutes. First time I took too much time and the enemy base became completely filled with units produced by factories and airdropped, they barely could move because of this. I loaded a save from the beginning of this mission and made a nearly suicidal attack to bust the cyborg factory and then a tank factory so only constant airdrops remained. Only the fact that I had many units at the base saved me since I airlifted them to the mission as quickly as possible. I suggest this mission should have longer pauses between the enemy airlifts otherwise it becomes unwinnable quickly. I feel that this kind of challenge should be left for Insane difficulty.
Beta campaign was harder, but still manageable. NASDA central mission was brutal since you have nearly no land and enemy comes quickly and locks you up from reinforcements because while you're handling the first group another one arrives. It took several attempts, I think I succeeded when I brought bunker buster VTOLs and busted the factory first, then cyborg factory. Then I had time to bring reinforcements and do a (costly) advance.
Then the last mission, evacuation, was basically unsurvivable for me. I managed to send two transports away and was wiped out (and I knew there will be such mission and built all kinds of defences at the base perimeter beforehand!). Well I thought, let's see a guide on YouTube - it turned out I should have built defences everywhere to survive this. Literally everywhere and near the future enemy spawn points. This is really unacceptable from a game design standpoint - you require from a player knowledge what will happen so he should load a several missions old save and do a tedious work of putting the defences everywhere (and chances are he doesn't have that old save anymore even if he wanted to do several missions again!).
At least the mission shouldn't require the player to survive till the timer runs out. It would be great if it just ended with success and the player started Gamma campaign with the units he managed to save (the Gamma will fail on start anyway if you haven't brought a truck with you). There was the first time I had to cheat - I sent two transports and cheated to end the mission successfully without surviving for 20 more minutes which was impossible.
Then Gamma campaign started and frankly speaking I don't see a way how to survive even the first mission. You may think this is because I cheated on the final Beta mission and brought only two transports of units, but this is not the case. When Nexus cyborgs wiped me out, I restarted Gamma campaign from the menu so I had the default units with Hero experience and several reinforcment drops. Guess what? Wiped out. Another strat? Wiped out. Mad rush to the northern base to bust the cyborg factory there? Wiped out a bit later.
Oook I thought and started the Gamma campaign on Normal instead of Hard, now I'll have my revenge! Wiped out, but I survived a bit longer. Why? The main reason are the Nexus cyborgs that seem to be as beefy as my tracked tanks and come to me sometimes faster then I kill the previous group, tank buster hovertanks being the second reason. I searched the guides and they say the cyborg counter are Assault guns - I built Assault gun defence walls (they don't survive for long), then tried Assault gun bunkers (better, but still), a ton of my own cyborgs, made one group go north and eliminate the factory there - and again all this was in vain. I ran out of starting 15000 oil and the two derricks in the base and two contested ones to the north can't supply me with enough oil to make new units (I even stopped researching to conserve resources). It quickly became apparent I fight a losing battle even after taking out the north base since the enemy makes units faster that I can kill them and replenish my losses. I'm out of ideas what to attempt next short of starting Gamma on easy. Don't you think it shouldn't be like this?
My main point is that the game at least on Normal diff should be winnable from the first try for a new player (and on Easy for a casual player without RTS experience) and not require knowledge of what happens next (what's the fun of that really?). It should keep you on your toes, but you should be able to win without knowing when or where the attack will come, what to prioritize, etc. New players should learn as they go and have fun. In the current situation this is not the case for the Gamma campaign at all - I can't win the first mission even if I know what happens next.
What I'm trying to say to you guys that you're playing this game for decades and know all AI quirks and mutiplayer tactics and what to do in every moment, but please remember you're making the game not only for the expert multiplayer players like you. The difficulty for you already exists, it is called Insane:) Please consider adjusting the campaign difficulty for newcomers and for people who just want to complete the game normally.
I've been playing through the campaign for the first time since 2019 I think and wanted to share my opinion on its current (Dec 21) balancing.
Since I completed it before and remember how it goes in general I decided to go for Hard difficulty this time (thank God I didn't choose Insane).
Alpha campaign was mostly straightforward, it was hard in a good way, but not impossible. The only abnormal dificulty spike was in the away mission where you get the 'enemy transport approaches' messages literally every couple of minutes. First time I took too much time and the enemy base became completely filled with units produced by factories and airdropped, they barely could move because of this. I loaded a save from the beginning of this mission and made a nearly suicidal attack to bust the cyborg factory and then a tank factory so only constant airdrops remained. Only the fact that I had many units at the base saved me since I airlifted them to the mission as quickly as possible. I suggest this mission should have longer pauses between the enemy airlifts otherwise it becomes unwinnable quickly. I feel that this kind of challenge should be left for Insane difficulty.
Beta campaign was harder, but still manageable. NASDA central mission was brutal since you have nearly no land and enemy comes quickly and locks you up from reinforcements because while you're handling the first group another one arrives. It took several attempts, I think I succeeded when I brought bunker buster VTOLs and busted the factory first, then cyborg factory. Then I had time to bring reinforcements and do a (costly) advance.
Then the last mission, evacuation, was basically unsurvivable for me. I managed to send two transports away and was wiped out (and I knew there will be such mission and built all kinds of defences at the base perimeter beforehand!). Well I thought, let's see a guide on YouTube - it turned out I should have built defences everywhere to survive this. Literally everywhere and near the future enemy spawn points. This is really unacceptable from a game design standpoint - you require from a player knowledge what will happen so he should load a several missions old save and do a tedious work of putting the defences everywhere (and chances are he doesn't have that old save anymore even if he wanted to do several missions again!).
At least the mission shouldn't require the player to survive till the timer runs out. It would be great if it just ended with success and the player started Gamma campaign with the units he managed to save (the Gamma will fail on start anyway if you haven't brought a truck with you). There was the first time I had to cheat - I sent two transports and cheated to end the mission successfully without surviving for 20 more minutes which was impossible.
Then Gamma campaign started and frankly speaking I don't see a way how to survive even the first mission. You may think this is because I cheated on the final Beta mission and brought only two transports of units, but this is not the case. When Nexus cyborgs wiped me out, I restarted Gamma campaign from the menu so I had the default units with Hero experience and several reinforcment drops. Guess what? Wiped out. Another strat? Wiped out. Mad rush to the northern base to bust the cyborg factory there? Wiped out a bit later.
Oook I thought and started the Gamma campaign on Normal instead of Hard, now I'll have my revenge! Wiped out, but I survived a bit longer. Why? The main reason are the Nexus cyborgs that seem to be as beefy as my tracked tanks and come to me sometimes faster then I kill the previous group, tank buster hovertanks being the second reason. I searched the guides and they say the cyborg counter are Assault guns - I built Assault gun defence walls (they don't survive for long), then tried Assault gun bunkers (better, but still), a ton of my own cyborgs, made one group go north and eliminate the factory there - and again all this was in vain. I ran out of starting 15000 oil and the two derricks in the base and two contested ones to the north can't supply me with enough oil to make new units (I even stopped researching to conserve resources). It quickly became apparent I fight a losing battle even after taking out the north base since the enemy makes units faster that I can kill them and replenish my losses. I'm out of ideas what to attempt next short of starting Gamma on easy. Don't you think it shouldn't be like this?
My main point is that the game at least on Normal diff should be winnable from the first try for a new player (and on Easy for a casual player without RTS experience) and not require knowledge of what happens next (what's the fun of that really?). It should keep you on your toes, but you should be able to win without knowing when or where the attack will come, what to prioritize, etc. New players should learn as they go and have fun. In the current situation this is not the case for the Gamma campaign at all - I can't win the first mission even if I know what happens next.
What I'm trying to say to you guys that you're playing this game for decades and know all AI quirks and mutiplayer tactics and what to do in every moment, but please remember you're making the game not only for the expert multiplayer players like you. The difficulty for you already exists, it is called Insane:) Please consider adjusting the campaign difficulty for newcomers and for people who just want to complete the game normally.