Difficulty settings and AI performance.

[Soulequilibrium]

Hello everyone.

Rebel Galaxy is looking to be quite lovely, from what I've seen. I'm not particularly in the loop however so, after watching an archived twitch stream from February earlier this year, I was left to wonder about some things.

It occured to me that the player was able to take a significant amount of damage whilst tearing through enemy ships, despite these ships being of similar or larger class than the hammerhead the developer was flying in. The gear on his ship wasn't that fantastic either, mostly starter stuff. On top of that the enemy made very little effort in the vast majority of the fights to turn away their wounded sides and just flew in strait lines.

Now, I understand that was footage from a months old build, and that things may have changed since then. I don't really expect all balancing passes to have been complete when the developer mentioned they were still working on being feature complete. So my question is, has this changed? Is the AI smarter about their tactics and positioning? Is there perhaps a difficulty setting? Because I hope I can find a serious challenge in the combat in this game. And not in the way of just finding something that's way too overgeared for me to engage, but in equally sized and geared ships.

Whatever the case, I wish the developers the best of luck in wrapping up and launching the game and hope there will be many copies sold.

[travis]

Well, it's not a simple answer, but here goes -

If they were flying a Hammerhead and it was early game, that's the smallest ship you can fly. In the early game, there are all sorts of little nerfs that occur in AI/pursuit situations so that you can get away and find your footing.

As far as AI, it's changed continually over the course of the development. By and large though, as the game progresses, you're engaging more and more simultaneous ships, of all different sizes. Yes, sometimes you'll have 1-on-1 engagements, but more often it's about juggling a battlefield.

AI will turn away wounded sides, will use boosters to flee and recuperate, will engage deflectors, lay mines, and use flak to protect against inbound torpedoes.

What sort of ship you choose to fly changes how you approach a combat station pretty substantially too, based on your size, broadside placement, turret counts, hull thickness, maneuverability, and sheer size and what sort of target you present.

I don't think you'll have a problem finding a challenge - there's always something bigger and nastier out there, for the most part :)

[Soulequilibrium]

Thank you very much for taking the time to write a detailed response Travis.

It was mentioned that the enemy was restrained at the start of the game, though in part of the stream this was no longer the case the dev said, after upgrading to a Korian Light Destroyer. I think that was the ship. He used that, coupled with a missle turret and mining laser and his starter gear to warp in on some pirates. Two Hammerheads and a destroyer. He wasted them in not even half a minute. So yea, I was getting the vibe the player was too powerfull. Now I understand the combat is more about you versus multiple enemies and that you as an individual are most likely to be stronger than most opponents one on one, but it just seemed extreme.

In any case, I'm glad to hear the AI is now up to snuff. And I'll trust in finding the challenge I wish to encounter. I just hope it's the norm rather than the exception.

Thank you again for the reply. I'll be looking forward to playing Rebel Galaxy.

[travis]

You'll be able to cut through weaker enemies like butter as you gain better equipment - which feels great! But the different solar systems, and regions within them, house much different ships, groupings, etc. There's a built in 'threat' rating that gives you an idea of the aggregate difficulty of the craft you're facing. (There's an internal formula for comparing your equipment, with modifiers for the size of the opposing force, etc.)

Every mission also has a relative risk - taking higher risk missions = better reward, but they'll be harder, of course. Often significantly so. Solar systems ALSO have a baseline risk, so you can head out into mean territory if you want to take on heftier opponents with better equipment and higher bounties.

[travis]

As an aside, missions and ships are leveled fairly significantly beyond the end of the story, so you should be able to continue to find a challenge even after completing the storyline (if you bother to complete the storyline)

[Soulequilibrium]

I'll be sure to look out for those high threat situations then. That combined with the AI being smarter about their tactics will probably give me a run for my money. And I certainly will complete the story. Actually I'm very curious to see what you guys came up with regarding that as I love a good story and generally am quite a lore nut as well. I'm all excited now, going to keep my eye out for that trailer you mentioned in the "How far away?" thread.

Thank you for the additional insights Travis. Your efforts are appreciated. Always awesome to see devs come in and take the time to talk with their (potential) players.