How Would YOU Fix The Game? Core Mechanics.

[SpellSword0]

Preface:

I want to get some things out of the way here.

I loved EG1 and I will also be the first to attest that EG1 was not a good game! If you want to know why I feel this way, you can look for my review on it.

This isn't about bugs, UI, controls or any of the other awkward and questionable design choices. Right now I just want to focus on the core game play.

I spent 30 hours in EG2 doing my best to engage with the games mechanics and nearly called it quits. Then I spent 24 hours ignoring the games mechanics and finishing my first play through.

What follows is my opinion on where the game fails, and how I think it could be improved. If you don't agree, that's perfectly fine~

A lot of this will probably mirror my previous thread about my experiences during the 24 hour Emma run. But where that thread was made hot off a frustrating experience, I'm hoping to make this one a bit more concise, clear and constructive, while inviting discussion around the issues at hand.

So without further adieu, these are my personal thoughts and ideas on how to fix some of the games core issues. Please feel free to add your own!

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Introduction Summary: The Actual Problem

I see a lot of threads pop up about glitches and OP super agents. Investigators that massacre everyone and muscle minions that demand more pay while offering no difference in strength. These are all valid issues, but I feel there is a deeper, more underlying issue at play that brings the entire game down.

That issue being, the game is not rewarding or engaging to play, nor is there any incentive to engage with the games mechanics.

Let's break down the core mechanics and examine why this is the case, and how it could be fixed.

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1. Investigators and Heat.

Heat is limited to your criminal networks, and investigators add heat to those networks when they leave with suspicion. The problem is that if you don't have a large number of/many upgraded networks, that suspicion heat doesn't do anything.

This causes the game to give you no incentive to deal with investigators, because there is no consequence for letting them escape.

There needs to be a tangible consequence.

I propose getting rid of passive heat build up.

Why? Because passive heat further undermines investigators as a threat.

If the only sources of heat come from investigators and schemes, then suddenly investigators become a big deal the player would be inclined to want to deal with.

But the lock down resetting heat on a network would need to change. I propose that a lock down, when ending, only lower the heat by a percentage. Small enough to keep the heat high and in danger of locking down again.

With this, the ONLY way a network will lock down is if you let investigators get away with suspicion! Or you push it too far with a scheme.

This has the added knock on effect of making the heat lowering schemes even more important to the core game loop.

Thus these mechanics suddenly connect and have meaning, consequence, and incentive for the player to engage with them.

***NOTE***
This does not do much for the long wait times that many schemes have, and in fact probably makes that particular issue worse. But I am not considering the long wait times as a core issue in this post. It is a valid issue, yes, but it's not the focus of discussion.



2. The butterfly effect.

Imagine with me now that the first proposed changes were made. How does that affect everything else in the game?



2 a. Choosing risk/reward of higher networks with confidence!

If heat is only generated by schemes and investigators, then suddenly, as a player, I feel less threatened to build higher level networks and reap higher level scheme rewards.



2 b. Punished for my mistakes, not cause the game said so.

If those higher level networks, with higher level heat, bring down higher level agents? It's because my action or inaction caused it!

Because I failed to keep investigators away from my base, or keep the heat low. Not because a passive heat system says it's time to do this and you have no choice.

Now that I am in control of when these higher level agents appear, I also know the timing of when to expect them, and know that I'll need to prepare. No more being surprised.



2 c. I should keep my suspicious stuff in the back.

Now that investigators escaping with suspicion is something the player should be concerned about, putting all their suspicious rooms and equipment as far back as possible becomes a goal with meaning.

But there is still something missing about this one... We'll get to that in "time."



2 d. Useful tools to achieve a goal I want to achieve!

Wait! Traps! Casinos! These are things I can utilize to achieve my goal of keeping investigators at bay! A goal that exist, because investigators escaping has consequences! A consequence that gives me a reason to engage with and make use of these tools!



3. A Resolve For Doors

The resolve system for agents is fine in my opinion, but it needs to have two parts. Without a time limit, slowing down an agent with doors, or building elaborate labyrinths and dead ends, is meaningless.

Lets give it meaning! How about an agents resolve slowly declines on its own? And it can be a SLOW decline, but a decline all the same.

Even adjust the decline speed based on difficulty. Easy is faster resolve decline. Hard is super slow resolve decline.

Traps and distractions and casino games can still take out chunks of resolve like normal.

But in this way, slowing down agents and wasting their time now has purpose! A door contributes towards getting rid of an agent, rather than just being a hindrance to your minions and a waste of power.

But it would need some balance...

As it stands, even if this change was implemented, a door still wouldn't be worth its cost in power and minion hindering relative to how little it slows an agent down.

I have two propositions for this:

A. Agents have a chance to fail opening a door with every attempt, scaled by the quality of the agent.

OR

B. The act of having to hack through higher level doors gives a small hit to an agents resolve.

If this were to happen, doors would suddenly become a strategic consideration that would synergize well with base design and corridor layout.

Another tool for the player to engage with, with the purpose of achieving a goal, that exist to avoid a consequence, with a now justified drawback of power cost and minion hindrance.

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Epilogue: Playing for the sake of playing it? Or because it's fun to play?

I guess that's it! Investigators, heat, and doors. Those three simple things, I think, both undermine the enjoyment the game could have, and also hold the key to bringing in the fun the game lacks.

Now, there are other ways you could totally fix the games core problems. I made these suggestions with the intent of trying to "preserve" what the developers were going for with the games design. An alternative would be to throw out the design entirely and maybe go back to some things EG1 did... But that feels both unrealistic, and not the best idea probably.

Are my ideas the best ideas? Most likely not. But I feel it can't be denied that there are problems, and having no solutions would be worse for the game in the long term.

Now of course there are other outstanding issues, like the game lacking any information on what is what! Having you start a side story without telling you what will happen, then locking you into it. Asking you to wait, literal, hours, for schemes to finish.

But the issues I posed here, and the fixes I proposed, are I feel what the backbone of the game is. Without this core foundation being fixed, no amount of changing the other problems will improve the game by very much.

Thank you for reading.

[Lula O Honesto]

I Like this game but is very easy,no fun playing it

[Nocxii]

I like you're suggestions but I'd like to add some points:

1. Investigators and Heat

If the only source of Heat are Investigators and your own schemes, investigators should have a wider range of abilities and behaviour to insure they regularly increase Heat, and their main threat should be the Heat they could generate.

1a. Make investigators flee instead of fight

Investigators are there solely to find evidence of your criminal enterprise. It doesn't make sense for them to engage with hostiles, let alone initiate the conflict. It would make more sense if their response to combat/hostility is to generate Suspicion and attempt to flee the island.

Bonus points if the suspicion they generate is based on the type of hostility they encountered, with high-end Muscle minions generating the most.

1b. Provide incentive for capturing Investigators

Make capturing and brainwashing investigators remove all suspicion. Ideally make it remove some Heat aswell. Capturing investigators should be harder when they try to flee instead of fight, rewarding players for capturing them succesfully.

1c. Investigators should have better disguises

Investigators should be harder to detect and more resistant to traps when disguised. This way the focus of your based isn't exclusively on your base entrance and Investigators are more likely to actually find something suspicious.

And some of my own points to add to your list:

A. I want to see more saboteurs and rogues, the only ones I've seen so far are from super-agent encounters. I want a reason to secure my generator rooms and vaults.

B. Soldier agents should never fire on Deception minions, and should only attack Worker minions.

It's incredibly frustrating to have to watch 30-40 Valets and Socialites being slaughtered everytime they arive in my Casino just because they walked on a Cafeteria tile . Initially I wanted to suggest not making Soldiers "trigger" on Cafeteria, Staff Room, and Bedroom tiles, but I think that would just be abused, so I'm suggesting this instead.

[crazy_alan1988]

Could also bring back the traps that do not effect health, such as resolve. Makes the casino feel less pointless if when the investigators get to the back, it isn't kill them or take the heat.

[kERHUS]

Originally posted by S.S.:

This causes the game to give you no incentive to deal with investigators, because there is no consequence for letting them escape.

And there is no consequence kill them. I mean. If u killed them, than also should be raid of soldiers on your base, if u kill soldiers => more soldiers, if u kill more soldiers => Super-agent with soldiers!!!. Then it would make sense to get them off peacefully. It would give meaning for the casino zone. But in game:

-Yeah, some suspicious attention, okay, we'll send investigators!
@@@
More time latter
@@@
-Hmmm, they didn’t come back, well, probably everything is ok. Let's send another group.
@@@
-Hmm, again! Well it's okay.

[sergetechone]

Let me add : Heat vs Investigators.

The game is this logic : IF Total Heat Faction >= 1 THAN Send wave of 5 of Level 1 investigator. It mean : the moment you build a criminal network in any faction area, the game will send investigators every X minutes until the network is destroy. Using the heat reducer scheme is useless in those condition.

It should be : IF Total Heat Faction => 50 AND Total Heat Faction <= 100 THAN Send wave of 5 Level 1 investigator. It mean : no investigator will visit your lair as long the criminal network heat is no lock dowm ( pass or equal 50 ) than you can use a heat reducer to keep it under 50. The heat reducer will have a purpose in this case.

[sergetechone]

The repair logic : As is, the rate for an item to deteriorate is WAY to fast. And items that is critical need to be fix ASAP, a priority list for the tech to fix when it is reacting a certain level. The highest priority first to the lowest priority last.

[talemore]

Originally posted by sergetechone:

Let me add : Heat vs Investigators.

The game is this logic : IF Total Heat Faction >= 1 THAN Send wave of 5 of Level 1 investigator. It mean : the moment you build a criminal network in any faction area, the game will send investigators every X minutes until the network is destroy. Using the heat reducer scheme is useless in those condition.

It should be : IF Total Heat Faction => 50 AND Total Heat Faction <= 100 THAN Send wave of 5 Level 1 investigator. It mean : no investigator will visit your lair as long the criminal network heat is no lock dowm ( pass or equal 50 ) than you can use a heat reducer to keep it under 50. The heat reducer will have a purpose in this case.

Than is no source code and if and then is rarely used because it lock down the source code to a single task.

[Avalon1632]

I completely agree with what you said about heat and investigators. The only thing I'd add is that higher level investigators could have more suspicion needed before they try to leave alongside higher resolve. That way, they stick around and try investigate more, seeing more of your secrets (making sense for a higher level operative sent in after their bosses are already pretty suspicious of you) and leading to a higher heat-penalty should they escape.

Low level investigator sneaks in, sees a couple of body bags, then goes back to their bosses to tell them about how they saw a dead body - which only gives a bit of heat because you can explain that away as an industrial accident on an island and you just haven't had chance to send the bodies home to their families yet.

Higher levels sneak in, trying to find more precise and extreme proof of your wrongdoing so their bosses can go from "Man, the owner of that casino island is real sketchy, y'know." to "Oh my god, they have a prison in the back where they're tickling people to death!" and thus you get a higher heat because they're confirming without doubt you're doing bad things.

[Tenshin51]

1a. Make investigators flee instead of fight

Investigators are there solely to find evidence of your criminal enterprise. It doesn't make sense for them to engage with hostiles, let alone initiate the conflict. It would make more sense if their response to combat/hostility is to generate Suspicion and attempt to flee the island.

I strongly disagreed, especially I am capturing Agent. I really like they fight back and join the fight. I really need to be careful when to engage a fight.

1b. Provide incentive for capturing Investigators

I strongly agreed. Farming Intel is too slow especially I am doing side mission. 4 intel is not enough, also brainwashing a higher tier agent doesn't gave you a better minion but an RNG one. Like capturing a lvl 9 investigator then brainwash it, it will still gave me a disposable perk minion. Also Intel gained should be based on Agent lvl like Excellent agent gave a flat rate of 20 intel because they are harder to capture.

A. I want to see more saboteurs and rogues, the only ones I've seen so far are from super-agent encounters. I want a reason to secure my generator rooms and vaults.

Saboteur will shown up in Patriot Region, Patriot send Saboteur than soldier. If you see Patriot sending soldier it is usually Saboteur. I never saw any region sending Rogue as you stated.

W/ Patriot I strongly believe this region is the easiest Region to manage if you are playing Island 3. Also sending an Invitation to Agent X while in Island 3, Agent X will usually go to your casino first. You can distract Agent X while in casino making him more susceptible to a traps.

B. Soldier agents should never fire on Deception minions, and should only attack Worker minions.
I strongly disagreed, It will make the game easy. Just use Red Alert button, don't put any barracks near your Casino. Mess room, Archive and Staff room are fine. Your non-combat minion will hide at your barracks when you use Red Alert.

W/ the Game that needs more improvement
Henchman Ai, what is the point of Henchman AI? Henchman Ai doesn't replenish their stats automatically except when they got defeated. Henchman cannot hold their position when being told. Henchman patrolling the lair is RNG. Henchman should stick on their theme when patrolling my lair. I need to cheese my lair by building an Inner Sanctum to make my henchman guard that zone especially the vault area.

Why not Eli works in the Casino instead I see him go to my Power Generator? Also Jubei why not he is training my muscle minion his story is about having more disciple? It will be nice Jubei can buff my martial arts minions.


Brain Wash is another poorly implemented mechanic in the game. Seriously brainwashing minion you can change their gender. Also it takes 3 or 4 times to work for minion deserter. Minion that are in prison should gain morale than smart.

[Cosmo 🐲]

I wish i should/could use less time switching to the world map, over and over and over again.

[Dux]

Originally posted by Avalon1632:

The only thing I'd add is that higher level investigators could have more suspicion needed before they try to leave alongside higher resolve. That way, they stick around and try investigate more, seeing more of your secrets (making sense for a higher level operative sent in after their bosses are already pretty suspicious of you) and leading to a higher heat-penalty should they escape.

Higher-level Investigators already have this. The Suspicion cap scales up with Level alongside all other stats. Unfortunately, Suspicion doesn't actually matter at all, so it doesn't matter (see below).

Originally posted by S.S.:

Heat is limited to your criminal networks, and investigators add heat to those networks when they leave with suspicion. The problem is that if you don't have a large number of/many upgraded networks, that suspicion heat doesn't do anything.

Actually, Suspicion does not affect Heat at all. I assumed that it did, too, but I've tested it extensively, and the two are completely unrelated. As far as I can tell, the only thing that Suspicion can possibly do is decrease the time before the next Investigator wave. Although it seems to run clearly counter to the intended design, the best option for the player is to completely ignore all Investigators (no traps, no distractions, no killzones) as Suspicion has no impactful negative consequences.

[SpellSword0]

About disguises and the distract system.

I think a lot of people agree that the distract zone/tag should NEVER have an investigator engage in combat for being asked to leave an area. I agree too but, the distract system would be waaay over powered like that if there wasn't a hard counter to it.

I think disguises should be this counter. As they stand right now, they're barely worth the effort putting on for low level investigators. As a consequence, the entire spotting system and traps that get rid of disguises feels like an under utilized system.

(And yes, higher level agents are a bit better about this but the way the game is now, you have little incentive to attract higher level agents to the base.)

I think disguises should be infinite in the amount of time they last, with the minions ability to see through them scaling based on agent quality, as it currently is. This would be how agents would ideally get past a distract zone to find evidence.

Naturally, if an agent is caught in a distract zone, their disguise foiled or seen through, then they would be escorted out just fine. And if an agent never starts a fight due to this? It creates this situation where the player could be escorting out an agent who has already seen something! And I think an agent escorted out after gathering some threshold of suspicion should simply leave with their findings.

This adds an interesting element of strategically using and placing these zones. An element that you THINK should be there right now, but I feel is currently lacking. Like, you would set up a distract zone maybe closer to the base entrance, then a capture/kill zone much further into the base if agents are caught in high profile areas where they might have seen something already.

Spotting power on cameras, the entire camera security system, and Emma's ability to make minions better at spotting would all be a stronger part of the game as a result. In hindsight this feels like how the game was intended to work, but a monkey wrench in the gears made all these ideas fall apart.

BUT! These zones being locked away behind really far off research is a bit of a hindrance to this idea. However, it doesn't have to be if the tag system isn't as awful to use. Time for a really unpopular opinion! I think IRIS should alert you when an agent has been spotted through a disguise! I know how people feel about IRIS! But I'm certain she can be used for good (greater evil)!

As long as we had some way of knowing that a disguised agent was found out, we would be able to pause the game to look for them and tag them with ease.

Originally posted by Dux:

Actually, Suspicion does not affect Heat at all. I assumed that it did, too, but I've tested it extensively, and the two are completely unrelated. As far as I can tell, the only thing that Suspicion can possibly do is decrease the time before the next Investigator wave.

Wait, really?! Man, if that's true this system is more broken than I had thought...

Also, not that we really need it, but this is another fine example of how the game utterly fails in conveying anything to the player.

Originally posted by Nocxii:

1a. Make investigators flee instead of fight

I think investigators should gain suspicion if they're attacked (maybe even gain full suspicion?), with the caveat that the game does NOT make the investigator the instigator of any fight! (Looking at you distract system.)

And then, after combat is resolved, I.E. your minions are inevitably killed, they should want to high tail it out of there!

This would create a dynamic where attacking investigators and failing to capture/kill them will make them attempt to escape the island with suspicion, so you'd have to be careful about when and how you chose to engage them.

Imagine, if an investigator was attacked at your lairs front door, in the casino. In my experience that is the least likely place you will have an effective security presence, and gives the agent a free pass to flee with reports of assault against them. So you would ideally want to wait for an agent to get deeper in your base before you decide to apprehend them, or prepare your entrance and casino area to handle this scenario.

Though I don't think agents should ignore fights, even when trying to escape.

Originally posted by Nocxii:

1b. Provide incentive for capturing Investigators

Make capturing and brainwashing investigators remove all suspicion. Ideally make it remove some Heat aswell. Capturing investigators should be harder when they try to flee instead of fight, rewarding players for capturing them succesfully.

I don't wanna step on the toes of people who legit use brain washing to replenish the work force, but I think its entire mechanic could be changed. Instead of turning an agent into a minion, it could remove all suspicion, make the agent oblivious to further suspicious acts, and set them to leave the island to report the all clear.

This would pair well with another change, where any number of agents who failed to report back after the last agent of a wave dies/leaves will contribute to a small heat gain for their faction. This would create an incentive to try and get the agents to leave alive with no suspicion.

Originally posted by Tenshin51:

I strongly agreed. Farming Intel is too slow especially I am doing side mission.

Kind of on the side here, I haven't really thought this one through but I think the entire intel resource is dumb. It doesn't feel like it adds anything to the game except to be another arbitrary progression wall you have to grind out.

But... It does give you a reason to interrogate agents, which is good? I guess? I think there should be a reason to engage with the interrogation mechanic, but perhaps we could think of something else other than an intel system. Or think of ways to make it less of a drag.

Maybe instead of being used for schemes and story progression, intel is an entirely optional resource that gives you access to some cool features or abilities? Optional abilities, of course. Trying to think of ideas off the top of my head here...

Like, what about a free heat eraser option that takes intel to activate, and that's it? And it could be accessed through an object in a room, like a control room object.

Originally posted by Tenshin51:

W/ the Game that needs more improvement
Henchman Ai, what is the point of Henchman AI? Henchman Ai doesn't replenish their stats automatically except when they got defeated. Henchman cannot hold their position when being told. Henchman patrolling the lair is RNG. Henchman should stick on their theme when patrolling my lair. I need to cheese my lair by building an Inner Sanctum to make my henchman guard that zone especially the vault area.

Why not Eli works in the Casino instead I see him go to my Power Generator? Also Jubei why not he is training my muscle minion his story is about having more disciple? It will be nice Jubei can buff my martial arts minions.

I love the idea of henchmen being able to fulfill some smaller roles relative to their theming! It doesn't even have to be an elaborate thing, and not every henchman needs to do it, but it would add some nice flair to the game.

Also I agree that the henchmen replenishment system is a joke! Having to select them and tell them to go to the desk every time their stats are really low, but not low enough for them to go on their own, is super annoying! When they do go to the desk on their own, you have to manually order them to get off of it later so they go back to patrolling.

It feels like a dumb system that was designed to give some justification as to why henchmen can sit at the desk. But I think just them being able to sit at the desk for no reason is cool enough a feature of its own! Henchmen really should just auto recover where ever they're standing kinda like...

Man, I've really been trying to avoid saying this line, but...

Kinda like EG1...

[Tri-B-Dojel]

1)Honestly I'd start by rebalancing muscle minions. Maybe it's cause I play on hard, but as it stands muscle minions are a complete waste of money. The weapons do not increase their damage, they do not take less damage, they're basically just workers that drain your gold. Speaking of which

2)Maybe decrease the wages of minions but also give an actual consequence for not being able to pay them? Cause seriously, if there is one, it's unnoticable.

3)Please for the love of god let me disengage henchmen/ the genius and send them to the inner sanctum without them running back into combat. Also just buff the henchmen in general.

3a) Please make splash attacks less of a liability. Incendio has destroyed more of my own stuff than he has downed agents.

4) Better trap management. I like the traps, but I don't like how the giant fan for example fires as soon as the agent walks into it's range. Maybe we should be able to tell a trap to only trigger after another one in it's deployment range triggered? I'm not saying you HAVE to go full EG1.

4a) Also rebalance the traps.

4b) Y'know what, I'm gonna say it, maybe have deserting minions not trigger the traps unless their smarts are very low? Like seriously, they're leaving the lair, whatever, but they also kill like 10 minions on the way out triggering traps they by rights should know where they are.

4c) Maybe this is just me, but I'd think it's hilarious if you could use a trap to throw it's victim down a flight of stairs.

5)I think we've all said it, but I feel like a good middle ground would be if an investigator no longer gets to gain suspicion off of body bags if they started/joined a fight there. Atleast that way there'd still be a reason to try and get them out semi-peacefully.

6) Brainwashing is awful. It's basically a last ditch effort to replenish your workers. I feel like it's not that bad to not get top of the line minions from it, but here's an idea: let us keep the intelligence gains. Or maybe have a toggle between "gain intelligence and agent leaves" or "agent becomes a minion".

7) I'm honestly not that bothered by super agents decimating your minions. What I /am/ bothered by is Mr X and Symmetry just being able to spawn an entire squad into your base. Just no.

7a) While I don't mind my minions being decimated, I do have a problem with spending an entire hour trying to get the body bags while my minions constantly desert cause of the body bags.

8) Iris. NEEDS. A cooldown. On her inane prattle.

9) I'm honestly not that fussed about not knowing what exactly you're looting, what I am fussed about is the relative uselessness of the loot. Also I would like to know what the loot /does/. I still have no clue how to use Pandora's box. Also cupid's arrow does 15 health damage to a single target. Not. Worth. The Effort.

10) Crime lord missions making your life harder is fine. Them softlocking your run is not. Did nobody playtest this game?

11) Please for the love of god rework the superweapons. Here's an idea: A superweapon knocks out a super agent for a short while so you can actually run a plot scheme there without waiting for the tardy jerks to move.

12) Please rework the research tree. Being completely locked out of tier 3 isn't fun gameplay, it's just annoying. Especially since you are increadibly limited until you unlock some things.

12a) failing that, please give us better tools at the start. Upgrade worker stats to 75(even if it is just in one that they're specialised in), make the basic generator less awful, lower the dig tiers of everything by one so we can actually do some fun stuff.

I have more, but those are the most stringent.

[SpellSword0]

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

2)Maybe decrease the wages of minions but also give an actual consequence for not being able to pay them? Cause seriously, if there is one, it's unnoticable.

I think the wages are dumb and only serve to discourage me from having more specialized minions. I would see wages removed from the game, and as a compromise, I'd also get rid of passive income from networks.

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

3a) Please make splash attacks less of a liability. Incendio has destroyed more of my own stuff than he has downed agents.

Hahaha wait, really?? Is Incendio the next Red Ivan? I never got him before so I didn't know this! Wow! I wouldn't have guessed just by looking at him either.

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

4c) Maybe this is just me, but I'd think it's hilarious if you could use a trap to throw it's victim down a flight of stairs.

It would be funny if this was already in the game, just waiting for someone to try it! I don't think it would add much to the game if it isn't already here but, it would be good for a laugh.

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

7) I'm honestly not that bothered by super agents decimating your minions. What I /am/ bothered by is Mr X and Symmetry just being able to spawn an entire squad into your base. Just no.

Yeah, if a super agent HAS to teleport inside your base to be of any threat? Then that's a sign something is wrong with the design of your game. The issues that necessitated this should have been looked at rather than bandaged over with teleportation.

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

8) Iris. NEEDS. A cooldown. On her inane prattle.

IRIS needs a dedicated off button! Sometimes I want to be able to listen to the narrative of the cutscenes without having to constantly turn voice volume up and down just to shut IRIS up.

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

11) Please for the love of god rework the superweapons. Here's an idea: A superweapon knocks out a super agent for a short while so you can actually run a plot scheme there without waiting for the tardy jerks to move.

This is a neat idea! Worth mulling over and discussing for sure. I was given the impression from the previews and marketing leading up to launch that the doomsday weapons would have an effect on a region. I'd like to see this come to fruition in some way.

No, removing heat from one criminal network isn't good enough.

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

12) Please rework the research tree. Being completely locked out of tier 3 isn't fun gameplay, it's just annoying. Especially since you are increadibly limited until you unlock some things.

The research has issues certainly, but I don't have any ideas right now on how to improve it. Will come back to this one later after I've given it more thought...

Originally posted by Tri-B-Dojel:

12a) failing that, please give us better tools at the start. Upgrade worker stats to 75(even if it is just in one that they're specialised in), make the basic generator less awful, lower the dig tiers of everything by one so we can actually do some fun stuff.

100% agreed with this.

[Nahui Ollin]

the problem with the old "do stuff for heat" system is that for 90% of the game you got pathetic agents who could never pose a threat.

This is their way of forcing agents level up over time.

Agents have to teleport sometimes because thanks to the multi level nature of the game, there is NOTHING stopping you from just spamming traps and using stairs in a "tangled ball" way to stop all agents coming in. This was an issue with EG1 as well and has no fix beyond teleporting which EG1 also did with John Steele who also had the ability to permanently unlock all your doors.