Anyone played the later missions? Or finished the campaign?

[sebi.serbanescu.ss]

I m playing the game for some time now and I think I played about 20 missions. It s really hard now, even if I m full upgraded. Anyone care to comment about the difficulty at the later missions? I m really anoyed by the mechanical artillery the enemy has. Also there is a mission on an island where you have to kill a Dragonslaver. Very very hard.

[Agent]

Originally posted by Qoojo:

Originally posted by holychair:

At first I thought the problem is that it is a "puzzle" battle game (which is not my cup of tea), but now I think it's rather that the more you deviate from optimal gameplay early on, the worse it gets later - like a "spiral of death" so to say.

When you think about it, that's just part of a bigger puzzle right? Knowing what you need to deal with later scenarios.

Unfortunately the snowball/death spiral effect has been present since the original Panzer General and seems to be an almost unavoidable aspect of games with longish branch campaigns in which you carry forward an upgradeable core force. Name a game of this type and it was a problem: Panzer General, PG2, Allied General, Panzer Corps + expansions, the Order of Battle: WW2 series and every expansion, the WH40k ones. All of them.

Either you balance the game on the assumption that people will play suboptimally early on in which case players who play well early will steamroll the later scenarios (like in PG/PC when you'd have a core force which included 12 Tiger 2s/Panther Gs, 9 ME262s, and 9 Hummels or whatever), or you balance the game so that you assume players play almost optimally early on in which case players who don't get their ass kicked in a death spiral.

The only real solution is probably to balance NORMAL difficulty around the idea that players will do ok but not great early and HARD+ on the idea that players will squeeze every last bit of gold/loot out of every battle. But that's very tough to do properly and I've never seen it done well, only various levels of mediocre/poor.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by primetide_dev:

You can change difficulty between missions and resources are part of the difficulty. So that will not only affect the number of enemies but also the amount of gold you can make.
We will take a look at the difficulty again, during beta feedback was that it is fine in our last iteration.
However I find that going for a replay once is not a bad choice to adapt your tactics.

Also the game scales enemy budget to a degree it reacts to you having a smaller army.

You have to realize that most beta testers will be "hardcore" types who are 1) generally superior players than the general player base, and 2) seek harder game experience. It is not always best to rely exclusively on beta testers for balance feed backs.

[blindseye]

Be careful when you start, I think I started over and didn't reset it to "easy" and played about 10 scenarios and it was very difficult (I could finish but was having a hard time upgrading units, etc.). I started over on Easy and it is easier, but I also chalk that up to now know the maps, enemy composition, etc. I spent less on keeping experience and only upgrade troops I needed, and I hired mercenaries (who are worth it if you clear map quickly and win more gold than they cost). And, I did not loot friendly villages (and get kin slayer -1 permanent morale for all troops near you) and did not take the witch quest to return the girl (I skipped their huts and just went looking for the girl), etc. It is much more enjoyable this time through. I think as everyone gets more familiar with it, they will enjoy it more and more. Also, the manual didn't explain about being able to summon creatures, charm creatures, etc., I had to learn that on my own (thanks to someone on one of these threads mentioning it).

[Can'tTouchThis]

I suppose there aren't any repeatable missions? Could be a decent idea to add some sort of skirmish missions that allow people to grind xp/resources. Would be optional missions.

[etalian]

I just used Cheat Engine especially on the Sunken Islands slogs. For some reason the maps after that are more fun for against the Empire and overall terrain layout

[blindseye]

The Sunken Islands force you to learn some new strategies, that's for sure. They are a bit of a slog (especially for cavalry).

[Lampros]

Originally posted by etalian:

I just used Cheat Engine especially on the Sunken Islands slogs. For some reason the maps after that are more fun for against the Empire and overall terrain layout

Cheat Engine to do what? Get more resources? Keep HPs up?

[etalian]

To get more resources to balance out the current ♥♥♥♥♥♥ farming/RNG system. I'm enjoying things like the art style of the game and story. Not enjoying the player punishing game design.

[blindseye]

I am on mission #23 I think, one before the Empire Capitol. The later Empire maps are easier to plan for, just slow down a little to protect your troops, as you will have plenty of time.

[Agent]

I think the difficulty has been overstated by some folks. I've just left the Sunken Lands for good and I'm sitting on more resources than I can possibly spend and 32/30 supply. I admit I never did play The Gap or a couple of the other scenarios before they got nerfed though so that may color impressions.

[Rufus73]

Just finished on normal, and after sunken lands it gets a little harder, but not too hard for those that are used to strategy games. Never give up!

[alation13]

I am just starting the sunken lands for a second attempt on normal level. I am finding that I have no shortage of resources without worrying about save scumming on that difficulty level (2000 gold, 17 weapons, 14 armour). The only resource I am really short on is liquid mana as I have only received 1 during the entire game so far. You really have to learn to love summons in this game. As far as being forced to choose between multiple potential maps, this game is tame compared to FG 1, from the second mission on you always had to pick between 2-3 maps to play.

[bighotpuff]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by etalian:

I just used Cheat Engine especially on the Sunken Islands slogs. For some reason the maps after that are more fun for against the Empire and overall terrain layout

Cheat Engine to do what? Get more resources? Keep HPs up?

You can use cheat engine to get more resources, yes, and xp for your units. Of course it makes it very easy early on if you do that.