Beta Freeplay Difficulty
- Thread starter ALEMAN12
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Scorpinator
Larva
Good Question, My colony is full, everything is maxed in lvl. (No spots open in the underground) This colony is invincible.. difficulty is on ramp with colony size... The entire map is full of enemy creatures, but my ants can't get far... they just kill everything on there way and because they are so many.. they just have to move like 10feet en they have endless food. My foodstock is full and i can't die... i literally can't. I can only die if i go suicide.
John's going to make some changes to reduce the number of wandering creatures and make them more of a threat.
I was not complaning About the difficulty i was more curious and aside the fact that the entire map is so crowded with enemy Bugs it seems completly red lots and lots of them are heading straight for the nest. With all the ants and Bugs it never rises above 8 FPs anymore; what seriously eats on the entertaining effect. The Graphycs are set to Epic though. My Colony by now is only saved by the royal Degree; because somehow the larvae ant spaning quickly enough.
ALEMAN12 said:
Most of the creatures are up there milling about doing not much, so changes are going to be made to make them more aggressive, therefore either killing the player or clearing them out quicker. We know that a lot of the expensive calculations are to do with collisions between creatures right now - as the creature count increases, the problem becomes worse.
We're going through a round of profiling (a process which identifies the most computationally expensive things we're doing) at the moment and this should increase the frame rate for late-game Freeplay.
adge
Larva
Maybe it is me being a n00b, but I find the Freeplay far too difficult. I like a challenge, and my set-up is by-and-large the default, with the following changes:
Initial difficult reduced to lowest possible.
Difficulty increase changed to Scale with Colony
Attacking Waves added.
However, I just can not get very far. Usually by the third/fourth attack wave, I'm done. I've tried different tactics, such as clearing the colony of food sources before heading for the surface, or making a rush for the food on the surface asap. However, following either strategy struggle to get enough food together to build a decent defensive army before the 3rd/4th wave, which invariably has large numbers.
I enjoy the challenge, and I don't want the game to be too simple, because the fun is overcoming the struggle! So while "lowering the difficulty" (say, no waves and "Constant" setting) is obviously an option, I don't think I'd 'learn' enough from a simple challenge to be able to tackle the tougher options.
As as baseline, what's a good, 'moderate' difficulty setting that provides a challenge, but isn't nightmarish, in which I could evolve and adapt to give me a better chance to beat the 'tougher' settings?
And KUTGW, I'm bloody loving the game, even if I apparently suck
Initial difficult reduced to lowest possible.
Difficulty increase changed to Scale with Colony
Attacking Waves added.
However, I just can not get very far. Usually by the third/fourth attack wave, I'm done. I've tried different tactics, such as clearing the colony of food sources before heading for the surface, or making a rush for the food on the surface asap. However, following either strategy struggle to get enough food together to build a decent defensive army before the 3rd/4th wave, which invariably has large numbers.
I enjoy the challenge, and I don't want the game to be too simple, because the fun is overcoming the struggle! So while "lowering the difficulty" (say, no waves and "Constant" setting) is obviously an option, I don't think I'd 'learn' enough from a simple challenge to be able to tackle the tougher options.
As as baseline, what's a good, 'moderate' difficulty setting that provides a challenge, but isn't nightmarish, in which I could evolve and adapt to give me a better chance to beat the 'tougher' settings?
And KUTGW, I'm bloody loving the game, even if I apparently suck
Formica fusca is sort of like the "tutorial species" in my opinion. The mechanics of planned species, such as leaf cutters, will probably be much more complex than just basic workers, soldiers, and bringing seeds back to food storages. Generally, the more complex and late game a faction (or species in this case) is in strategy games, the more powerful it is when used correctly. So I definitely agree with you, wood ants are much stronger because of their shooters, and gene thief ants are much stronger because of their shooters and their upgrades.
Slug Disco probably wants to raise the complexity of the species the player plays with as he/she get closer to the end of the campaign, so it is a possibility that the last species planned for the campaign will be the strongest (this is why I doubt in multiplayer there would be different species against each other, both players would probably be playing as gene thief ants).
I find it unfortunate that so many people on the steam forums are complaining about the free play mode being too difficult when they have attack waves on (which are meant to be difficult), and they are playing with Formica fusca, (which I am assuming) is meant to be the weakest species in the game. Some of them even rate the game down because of that. It is good to keep in mind that free play's core will more or less stay the same (of course with the addition of new maps, landmarks, and enemies), and when more powerful species are added, it will have to remain balanced.
Slug Disco probably wants to raise the complexity of the species the player plays with as he/she get closer to the end of the campaign, so it is a possibility that the last species planned for the campaign will be the strongest (this is why I doubt in multiplayer there would be different species against each other, both players would probably be playing as gene thief ants).
I find it unfortunate that so many people on the steam forums are complaining about the free play mode being too difficult when they have attack waves on (which are meant to be difficult), and they are playing with Formica fusca, (which I am assuming) is meant to be the weakest species in the game. Some of them even rate the game down because of that. It is good to keep in mind that free play's core will more or less stay the same (of course with the addition of new maps, landmarks, and enemies), and when more powerful species are added, it will have to remain balanced.
Mr_Ced
Colony
A more complex species does not mean that it will overthrow less complex species. It means that it has a greater variety of ants to choose from. Mature Formica Fusca colonies are powerful, even more so if they are upgraded to the third level. When I played "Queen of the Hill" I found that it was harder to kill Formica Fusca as opposed to Formica Rufa.
I think we can all agree that wood ants have much more damage output and the levels 2.1 and 2.2 were designed around that because of the much higher health enemies that are not present in the previous levels. If one was to play a wood ant colony in 1.1 and 1.2, they would for sure have an easy victory. Tier 3 mortars can kill devil's coach-horse larvae and slave makers in a couple shots. And it isn't just mortars that are powerful, mass producing level 1 rapid fires can be as effective.
But if one was to play a black ant colony in 2.1 and 2.2, they would have a much more difficult time. They would be struggling to do enough damage to kill crabs (especially with the crabs healing ability), and wolf spiders would be a problem to kill (on hard and insane). A very skilled player might be able to win 2.1 on hard with black ants, but definitely not insane. As for 2.2, I don't think a black ant colony could beat it on anything but easy and medium. I can't speak for leaf cutters and say they will be slightly more powerful than wood ants yet, but I think there is a good chance they will be. More powerful doesn't just mean damage, in some cases, it could be they can produce food much faster and therefore grow faster.
I'm not saying a developed Formica fusca colony isn't powerful, I'm just saying from the perspective of multiplayer the game is definitely not balanced and a fusca colony would not stand a chance against a wood ant colony with equal skill level. That's why I think that if there is a multiplayer, both players would play as gene thief queens.
But if one was to play a black ant colony in 2.1 and 2.2, they would have a much more difficult time. They would be struggling to do enough damage to kill crabs (especially with the crabs healing ability), and wolf spiders would be a problem to kill (on hard and insane). A very skilled player might be able to win 2.1 on hard with black ants, but definitely not insane. As for 2.2, I don't think a black ant colony could beat it on anything but easy and medium. I can't speak for leaf cutters and say they will be slightly more powerful than wood ants yet, but I think there is a good chance they will be. More powerful doesn't just mean damage, in some cases, it could be they can produce food much faster and therefore grow faster.
I'm not saying a developed Formica fusca colony isn't powerful, I'm just saying from the perspective of multiplayer the game is definitely not balanced and a fusca colony would not stand a chance against a wood ant colony with equal skill level. That's why I think that if there is a multiplayer, both players would play as gene thief queens.