Bad balancing and the grind

[Redmoth27]

I played the game and I liked it. It's just that there are some REALLY BAD GAME FLAWS! First, you can't beat New Home in Hard and Insane mode. The last wave has 4 adult weevils and no matter how prepared and strategic you are, you are guaranteed to lose. Second, the mole crickets are unfair. They attack you when your small and are frustrating to players that like to think things out. It should be like that first 1 or 2 come to show you the danger and after that, the narrator says, "The mole crickets have found another snack... You will be safe, for now at least." Third, probably the worst offender is the grind. You have 2 levels that you probably don't want to do 20 times over,

but you have to because challenge 1 is so long tiring you have to grind. It doesn't add anything meaningful, and it should belong in some god awful free to play mobile game. Maybe you could some submissions on those 2 missions, like say exploring outside the log or provide the queen's favorite delicacy insert quest item. And each can provide there own reward. All these will greatly improve the cames quality, fun, and atmosphere. I hope you learned about some things you can improve this already amazing game.

 

[Diavid]

I almost finished 1.1 on hard, maybe one devils coach horse less in the end and i had won.
But i really don't see room to improve my play. I got killed by 2 adult bugs remaining, and i started the fight with +180 food. My complete army respawned 3 times or so before no food was left.

And on easy, molecrickets aren't even challenging.
With a second army in the base you even don't need to care about them later in the game.

 

[Redmoth27]

How do you beat mole crickets on medium?

 

[Redmoth27]

Hey John and Liam what do you think of my feedback?

 

[Granogg]

I for one agree that everything above Medium feels like the difficulty goes up a little too steep. I understand that "Insane" should by definition be a bit frustrating until figuring out how to finally beat the mission nonetheless, but all difficulties should be beatable somehow

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

Beating 1.1 on insane has been done. We wouldn't have called it insane if it was moderately tricky.

 

[Redmoth27]

I was mostly talking about hard, because it just seemed to be a big difficulty jump Between medium and hard.

 

[Redmoth27]

So Mike what about the grind?

 

[Redmoth27]

A thing I forgot to put in my post is that the strategy on higher difficulties devolves into getting micromanaging everything, then it devolves more into copying the tutorial step by step. Another thing I forgot to add is 50 worker limit is too little. I don't know much about balancing I will say 75 may be enough.

 

[QuantumAnomaly]

It would have been nice to know that losing a mission still rewards food, jelly, and territory. Even if it isnt much, I restarted most of my missions when I was just about to die. It wasnt until I died by accident that I realized I could still be rewarded. Knowing this cuts the grind down just a bit, since you still walk away from a defeat with something instead of restarting 3 seconds before death and getting nothing.

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

So Mike what about the grind?

The perceived "grind" is really a consequence of our modular system of adding new content to the game. The formicarium gives a sense of story progression - it's your colony, you add to it, you return to it, you fight with it. But in order to get new species of ant in, and in part to cater for people who didn't like the idea of the multi-species colony, most of the missions are outside the formicarium as other colonies entirely.

If you're good at the game, we think we've balanced it to a level where you should be able to beat Formicarium 1 just from the rewards you get from playing 1.1 and 1.2 on Medium difficulty. That may not be the case for most players, so we may need to rebalance the rewards and difficulty. It's an ongoing organic process, and it'll be tweaked and refined over time.

 

[Redmoth27]

Another thing I forgot to add is 50 worker limit is too little. I don't know much about balancing I will say 75 may be enough.

As I think about it now it should be like 65 but I'll go on. I have been doing a bit of grinding and got a few more abilities, and I cant get past it with 50 guys.

 

[liquidkitten]

I have to agree with this. I love the game 100% but even as someone with a very long strategy background: Civilization series, Starcraft series, Warcraft (not the MMO) series, GalCiv the list goes on! I still find it very hard to make a decent effort at some levels even on medium. Feels like there just aren't enough resources on the maps sometimes.

 

[AntFked]

I have managed to beat 1.1 and 1.2 on hard mode so I do think it's totally possible to do it on insane aswell, only you have to think about everything you do. If you want to get more ants or upgrade the ones you have etc. It's very well balanced in my opinion.

 

[Redmoth27]

AntFked how do you beat the last room?

 

[AntFked]

Well I only made like 15 workers max and the rest was black ants. I first got around 15 of them and then upgraded them to 2 and some 3 and then got a some more maybe 5-8 and then upgraded them. And kept going. Then it’s just all about having enough food to replenish the army when they die in the last battle. Once the first patch of ants die you regroup them in you nest which should have two entries making your enemies split up and then you pick the two groups off one by one.

 

[b0nedaddy]

I'm currently working on 1.2 insane, and have finished my hard play through. I would say gitgud, but that would be rude and I would only say it for the memes. There is some strategy talks in general discussion if you need help. I will say that you need to try different strategies to progress difficulties, rather than using the same strategy over and over again but "better" if you catch my drift. I personally like the curve.

 

[b0nedaddy]

Redmoth I found that strength in numbers holds some merit. Micro your ants to different trails, and instead of going head first into a room, position your ants in a big room, and dig into all the enemies from there. Setup and ambush in the big room, let the workers open a room and consequently die, and let the enemies come to you in the big ambush room you pick. You can surround them easier with the extra space, and produce more dps compared to just fighting head on. For enemies requiring multiple waves of ants to kill (the last room) you have to micro your ants as new brood are spawned. You don't want them running off to join the existing fight, you want them rallying into a new ambush room that the beetles move to after killing your initial force. You'll have to do this like 3 times on insane to kill the final room.

Is that helpful?

 

[Kaien_Saerin]

Agreed with mike here.In terms of difficulty insane should be as it sounds, insanely hard. Trust me I know. I've played all the levels before this release on insane modes before with relative difficulty, but i find that part of the enjoyment. First play-through I went straight for Insane mode. But had to take it down too Hard too progress. Also the Mole crickets arent hard either, With a single army of 4-26 ants on hard mode I was able too defend the queen fast enough cause i watched for the dirt to start falling rather then waiting for the announcer too call it out. You get a lot of extra time too go back and settle it.

 

[Redmoth27]

Kaien Saerin, what if you don't have any ants near the queen? :-[