Insurmountable Difficulty Spike

[lastlonghorn]

I've tried to play the game at least 10 times now.

I tried to play on normal difficulty and standard enemies, The first time, I failed not realizing how important Persuasion was in the early game. Second attempt, no non-third world nations spawned with an opinion of myself >15%. Third attempt, took over England, got Canada and started Moving on the US but the Scientist faction took Mexico and then the US.

I next tried to play on the easiest difficulty with the same number of enemies. I got further and managed to grab the us, but then ran out of influence despite just having the North american big three. Game 5 and I followed a similar trajectory but once I got into space I built the first spaceship I could. I then attempted to intercept the UFO that had been surveilling the planet since the second year and got myself killed. Game 6 I decided to not mess with the UFO since it apparently has 70x the combat effectiveness than anything I could build. Instead I created science stations but RNG killed then and that run. Game 7 I didn't get killed by RNG ran to the moon and was the first to build a base. I then claimed 6 sites on Mars. I started doing well and was able to contain the rampant xenoflora thanks to the USA's Armies and finally figuring out that you could steal orgs from apposing factions. Every single game since then has ended the same way. I anger the aliens enough that they kill all of my stations and bombard everything from orbit. Killing the run.

What am I missing? Is this just what the game is supposed to be? I mean it does seem accurate. If aliens were to ever appear, once they were pissed off enough they would just kill us from orbit with nothing we can do to stop it.

[Aranador]

It sounds like you are getting better and better and learning stuff all the time. This game is deep with a lot of complex systems to get the hang of. You can do it!

[lastlonghorn]

Originally posted by Aranador:

It sounds like you are getting better and better and learning stuff all the time. This game is deep with a lot of complex systems to get the hang of. You can do it!

I had to lower the difficulty to get past the Early game and am now stuck because each of my stations is either destroyed or captured no matter what I do.

[Roaming_Guardian]

"I anger the aliens so much that they start blowing up my stuff"

That right there is where you're problem is. The aliens will match your escalation with their own. If you blow up a bunch of their ships, they send dreadnaughts in to ♥♥♥♥ your ♥♥♥♥ up.

You need to play with a slow burn as much as they do, take the time to research the Layered Defense module for your habs, and get some decent weapons to arm them. The aliens will play a lot more cautiously if theres a risk of them losing ships.

Also to remember, a few blown up stations is not the end of the game. If you get blown out of space, focus on Earth, build more boost, and get back up there. If other factions have all the good mining sites, grab some marine modules or a councilor and take them.

[Lovecraft]

This game punishes rapid expansion. You need to quietly build up strength without attracting alien attention for as long as possible.

[Jemandem]

I think that in general the mechanics are not explaind very well and events that are negative towards you also.
I tryd to save ukrain from war with russia and managed to build somthing ther and then the us europe and US joind russia and my the game was basicly over for me. No clue what happend, public opinion in the eu was good for me. I like to get knowlage of a game but reading 10 hours of wiki entrys and watching 4 tutorialon youtube and still dont understanding whats going on is probably not on me. Shadow of the forbidden gods did that way better and is therfore more playabel even so the state of ea is just 0.1.

[Mistfox]

Oh and just a warning about using armies against xenoflora. They don't get rid of them totally so if you don't keep an eye on the area, it'll grow back secretly.

[Punished "Venom" Gar]

Originally posted by Roaming_Guardian:

"I anger the aliens so much that they start blowing up my stuff"

That right there is where you're problem is. The aliens will match your escalation with their own. If you blow up a bunch of their ships, they send dreadnaughts in to ♥♥♥♥ your ♥♥♥♥ up.

You need to play with a slow burn as much as they do, take the time to research the Layered Defense module for your habs, and get some decent weapons to arm them. The aliens will play a lot more cautiously if theres a risk of them losing ships.

Also to remember, a few blown up stations is not the end of the game. If you get blown out of space, focus on Earth, build more boost, and get back up there. If other factions have all the good mining sites, grab some marine modules or a councilor and take them.

imo the threat mechanic needs a lot of work, it's not always obvious if and what actually generates threat(does wiping out xenoflaura generate it?) and only vaguely hints that how much mission control is spent on habs is how that threat is generated (is it just a breakpoint? does it scale based on how much mission control you aren't using?)

[NZK]

Originally posted by Lovecraft:

This game punishes rapid expansion. You need to quietly build up strength without attracting alien attention for as long as possible.

Hey,

Just curious as to what time frame would be considered rapid expansion?

I've got Russia, absorbed a several neighbouring countries, and have all the Scandos in my back pocket. It's mid April 2024, and just about to hit Luna with a mining base.

Haven't had any Faction try and steal a country off me yet, and there's one Alien ship in low earth orbit.

Timeline wise, when have things gone feral on your play through?

Cheers

[fortydayweekend]

80 mission control, or assassinating/detaining alien operatives is when they start to attack

If you're resistance it pays to do the assassinate mission early, when you have nothing to retaliate against

Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game to what people say here, every alien attack on my Habs (with a single layered defense) ends with them accepting my end battle offer, no casualties. They've bombed a few mining complexes and wiped out one asteroid hab. It's 2032, I've captured 2 aliens and have 81 MC but otherwise left them alone. I haven't even built a ship.

[Baron]

I'm still on my first playthrough, experiencing the same issues in this post, but I'm wondering if maybe the things OP feels are game-enders just...aren't?

I had eight mining bases by 2030, five of them on Mars. I wanted Germany for my Eurasian Union, but the Servants had control of it. Rather than play CP whack-a-mole, I infiltrated them and assassinated four of their councilors who could Purge. It worked - I got Germany.

And then the aliens slagged everything I owned on Mars and Ceres. I rebuilt, then performed the Capture Alien Mission. They assassinated my Scientist and Journalist. I save-scummed and protected the Scientist - they still merced the Journalist, so I replaced him.

I'm still chugging along just fine over here, and my income on pretty much everything is outpacing the other factions.

[Cyborg]

Im now in the 30's and getting crushed by the alien invasions.

The human land armies are much too slow when moving over land and can't catch the Alien armies before they swamp and take over the capitals.

[kennym11]

I was warring the aliens in the 2030's (i have learned this was silly) and understand that there armies were just destroying me but without even invading or taking my control point they just took super europe from me and I have no idea how they did it. Any ideas?

[deMangler]

I have found that games are long. The only reason I have ended a game so far is through quitting. The game I am now playing I have been at for maybe 50 hours, I have gone through owning and losing the UK, completely controlling USA and losing it, recovering through cautious use of hoarded money and influence and now control china and have a base on mars and a couple on the moon. The Servents have gone through being completely dominant to struggling to cope with the combined attrition caused by myself and some other human factions, I now have an assassin that can mow through thier agents and most of my cousellors are pretty well protected.
There is really, it seems to me so far, no need to appy the same critera as to whether a game is worth continuing that applies to other strategy and 4x games.
This game to me appears to be more happily played as the long story of how humanity responds to contact with the aliens from the perspective of a secretive faction, more than how do I win.
There is just too much going on....

[jfoytek]

Originally posted by kennym11:

I was warring the aliens in the 2030's (i have learned this was silly) and understand that there armies were just destroying me but without even invading or taking my control point they just took super europe from me and I have no idea how they did it. Any ideas?

You have gone well over 80 Used MC and ignored alien threat they have since come down to the planet and used their overwhelming tech to crush you.... In this instance they used pheromones to make the people pliable to their demands.

Slow down don't rush watch your MC use watch your threat... Kill an alien ship learn its secrets, take the retribution on the chin they will destroy something of yours and then they will stop... Check your Threat meter notice its gone down...

Now do the next threatening thing you deem will get you to your goals. Remember Servants are basically alien's and when you mess with them you increase the threat meter....

The Mid game is balancing the threat meter and destroying something alien and learning new tech and having something destroyed bye them to cool off....

At some point you will learn enough Alien Tech via this tit for tat mechanic that you will eventually say Okay I feel froggy enough to try and kill the aliens....
*** Hint That surely WONT BE in 2030 ***

2030 is when the above middle game tit for tat will generally start if you didnt power game yourself way past 80 MC before that point and find yourself in a world of hurt

[XartaX]

Just let the aliens destroy your ♥♥♥♥ and rebuild. It's a cheap way to get them to be less mad.