I know what's wrong with the difficulty-settings!

[Mike1304]

First of all: this is a great game! Although I'm new to the game I can already say I love it!

But of course as a noob (not only to this game but to strategy games in general) it's very hard for me.

I see that there are several settings for difficulty to make the game easier.
But I think the devs did something wrong:

If you choose lower difficulty the game gives you less points/awards so that you can't afford upgrades which would make the game easier for noobs.

So in fact they make the game harder for beginners who would need MORE support (more upgrades, better weapons...) to make life easier and the game more enjoyable for them.

The hardcore-pro's should get their great and hard challenge (LESS support, less upgrades, a longer and harder way to progress in the game).

So if you are not good in strategy games and need help to be able to still enjoy the game and therefore choose lower difficulty you are being punished instead and get less points, less upgrades and they make it harder for you to progress in the game...

Wrong strategy!? What do you think, guys?

[One Man Army]

Originally posted by Mike1304:

First of all: this is a great game! Although I'm new to the game I can already say I love it!

But of course as a noob (not only to this game but to strategy games in general) it's very hard for me.

I see that there are several settings for difficulty to make the game easier.
But I think the devs did something wrong:

If you choose lower difficulty the game gives you less points/awards so that you can't afford upgrades which would make the game easier for noobs.

So in fact they make the game harder for beginners who would need MORE support (more upgrades, better weapons...) to make life easier and the game more enjoyable for them.

That is incorrect.
You get the same amount of Empire and Tech points that affect your gameplay regardless of difficulty.

What difficulty affects is the SCORE POINTS that affect your final score.
The score does not affect gameplay AT ALL.
This is purely just score points like the ones you get when you play an arcade game.

[Kurtino]

Yeah difficulty doesn't change talent point accumulation as far as I'm aware.

I think there are problems that I would more appropriately describe as design flaws more than difficulty problems, and I think a lot of people are getting the two mixed up. You could describe any problem as difficult, but that doesn't mean difficulties have to be bred from problems.

[cnconrad]

Actually the second person is correct. Setting it on easy doesn't affect tech points.

That is one poor design though the tier 1 technology is just too expensive, 20% more food from fishing huts or 5% more energy simply are not near worth it and a new player can really screw them selves over by picking bad tech. Tier 1 tech should cost like 30% as much as it does now Tier 2 should cost 80% then some of the early tech will be worth while.

[One Man Army]

Originally posted by cnconrad:

Actually the second person is correct. Setting it on easy doesn't affect tech points.

That is one poor design though the tier 1 technology is just too expensive, 20% more food from fishing huts or 5% more energy simply are not near worth it and a new player can really screw them selves over by picking bad tech. Tier 1 tech should cost like 30% as much as it does now Tier 2 should cost 80% then some of the early tech will be worth while.

Yes I agree, a lot of the early tech are newbie traps (to put it kindly), which is really bad compared to what you can get if you just go further down the path for the same points.

Unfortunately inexperienced players will not know that and will spend their points as soon as they get them. A more experienced player will hold on and plan their path before hand.

The wonders are also a horrible choice trap as well.
The wonders are balanced for long games played on survival maps (90days+) and not for the campaign.

I don't blame the new players, the system only rewards you if you are already familiar with the system and mechanics.

[Mike1304]

Okay guys, sorry! I seemed to mix things up but I wrote that I'm a noob ;-)
And I think I miss a good tutorial and description what all those points mean...
There are "Empire"-Points"?! There are "Tech-points"?! There are "Score-Points"?!

Can one of you veterans please guide me through this points-jungle? :-)
So on lower difficulty I have no disadvantage considering buying upgrades in the Tech-Tree? That's good then. So all those percentage loss I get with lower difficulty and all those lower "multiplicators" I get with lower difficulty don't bring me any disadvantage at all? That's good then...

[One Man Army]

If you play on Easy or Nightmare you get the same amount of Empire points (Used for swarm missions) and tech points (Used to spent in your tech tree).

Score points is just that, score points used for your final score.
There are 3 or 4 achievements related to final score points for the campaign but if you don't care about that, then just play on easy and learn the game.

There are also perk points that you get each time you finish a tactical(Hero) mission.
(1 per mission)
Those are used to upgrade your hero.

[Mike1304]

Thank you. That's great to hear! Yes I don't care about score-points then, just want to enjoy the game and progress through the game.
One last question though: I read something about "perma-death" and that it's bad for such a huge campaign-mode that there is no manual save-option and you would have to restart the whole campaign from scratch and loose perhaps hundreds of hours of gameplay-progress....
Is this true?
I know that you can't replay a mission in the campaign (which is bad IMHO) but if you loose a mission you can of course retry it as often as you want, right? Don't get the panic then...

[One Man Army]

I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many times you can lose a mission.
I haven't lost yet, so I can't comment on that.

I think it would be reasonable that there is no limit, but maybe someone with a lot of retries on a mission can tell us.

Maybe you can try by spam resigning on the first mission in a new campagin and see.

[Mike1304]

Originally posted by One Man Army:

I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many times you can lose a mission.
I haven't lost yet, so I can't comment on that.

I think it would be reasonable that there is no limit, but maybe someone with a lot of retries on a mission can tell us.

Haha, wow, I understand now why your name is "One Man Army". You really never lost? Cool!
I'm just at the beginning of the game and don't have any progress in tech-tree yet. I have only tents and arrows as weapons.
On youtube-videos I saw gigantic cities with huge modern weapons. How long do I have to play this game to progress this far? And which mode? Campain or Survival?

[One Man Army]

If you want the entire tech tree unlocked then play survival mode.
Campaign is slow tech unlock.

[Mike1304]

Thank you very much for your help Sir!
Do you have any hints for the first upgrades I should buy in the tech-tree? I read that there are many traps for noobs like me who aren't worth the money (I mean Tech-points ;-))...

[HijackDallas]

Mike1304

in Survival-Mode is 3% the easiest mode and 900% the most hardest mode

150 Days (lowest score) < 120 Days > 100 Days < 80 Days (higest score)
Lowest Pop. (lowest score) < until < Nightmare (higest score)

[One Man Army]

Soldiers,Logistics, Wood workshop, Farms and any upgrade that affects soldiers (armor,attack damage,attack range).

On easy i think you can do most of the stuff if you spam soldiers.

[One Man Army]

Originally posted by Mike1304:

Thank you very much for your help Sir!
Do you have any hints for the first upgrades I should buy in the tech-tree? I read that there are many traps for noobs like me who aren't worth the money (I mean Tech-points ;-))...

Soldiers,Logistics, Wood workshop, Farms, stone walls and any upgrade that affects soldiers (armor,attack damage,attack range).

On easy i think you can do most of the stuff if you spam soldiers.

[Mike1304]

Thank you guys for your help. Your are all very kind!