Poll

What did you think about BPC difficulty

Consistently too easy
1 (1.3%)
Consistently too hard
5 (6.4%)
Generally balanced
36 (46.2%)
Some missions were too hard(post which)
34 (43.6%)
Some missions which were supposed to be hard were too easy(post which)
2 (2.6%)

Total Members Voted: 78

Author Topic: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]  (Read 30392 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Vidmaster

  • 211
  • Inventor of FS2 bullettime ;-)
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
This mod is hard and I like it that way, every victory feels earned and I have been playing Freespace for 15 years now.

There are some cheap deaths that occur regularly because the battlespace is so lethal but this is as it must be when the battlespace is lethal :-)    Hoping I do not start the flamewar now, it actually reminds me a lot of military FPS games like Call of Duty where the game is fast, you kill fast and you die fast. The only difference is that in BP, the respawn is not 2 seconds away.

In the end, I have voted for 'generally balanced' as I like the difficulty.

Also thinking "The Plunder!" is the most difficult mission in the game.
Devoted member of the Official Karajorma Fan Club (Founded and Led by Mobius).

Does crazy Software Engineering for a living, until he finally musters the courage to start building games for real. Might never happen.

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
I didn´t play through the whole WiH campaign yet but it´s definitely much harder than the previous ones.

My best example so far is "Post Meridian". In all other releases I played before I could just stop at the starting point and watch the show if I want. My wingmen could do the job alone. Without cheating away Delta Wing I would´t even have seen the Meridian firing her main beam cannon.
In the actual version even on the lowest difficulty the Uriels simply didn´t get the job done no matter how fast I take the Aries Wing and all other fighters out :mad:. There was no playthrough where I don´t had to take out the Crypt Hammer myself.
And after that I regularly found my frigates gutted by I don´t know what. The Eos torpedoes, the Juarez, ???. Simply said I needed 5 attempts to succeed the mission (on lowest difficulty  :nono:) and I still haven´d figured out what I did right the last time ... or wrong the other times :banghead:.

I don´t mind hard missions but the actual "Post Meridian" is in my opinion not a mission anymore where you can "learn to trust your wingmen" (Batutta in developers commentary  :P).

  
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
The Maxim strike will really hurt the frigates; make sure you break it up quickly.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
It might've been more keeping with the mission theme if you just said 'Epsilon, go kill that wing!' and they murderated the whole thing for you.

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
Yeah, it seems the weird difficulty scaling in Freespace strikes again! As all AI scales with difficulty your wingmen are just too **** on very easy to do anything, ever. Post Meridian used to have some issues with that damn LRBGreen but on insane it was because delta sometimes took out the TerSlash first, not because they forgot how2disarm or completely borked like AI tends to do on the lower difficulties.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline qwadtep

  • 28
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
Upwards of 40+ tries attempting to save the Dea Bricta on Normal.

Aristeia has been ruined as an experience. In previous releases, it was my favorite mission; in the Director's Cut it's become horrible.

The Tev fighters, already superior in number, each have enough firepower to kill the player in seconds or less; often they're able to deal 50%+ before the pursuer warning beep goes off. They have enough health to shrug off not just the player, but the frigates' fire for an extended amount of time, while unloading a steady stream of missiles at the player. It's the first time in any Freespace mission ever that I've died because I ran out of countermeasures; I've died repeatedly.

There's no window to rearm or rearmor until the mission is already more or less complete. Attempting to rearm and rearmor anyway is a free kill for the Tevs.

What the hell happened to the UEF's superior fighter fleet that has kept the war going for so long, that massacred all non-Warship assets the Tevs sent at Neptune? It sure ain't here. I was willing to tolerate the "engage=death" philosophy in Tenebrae because you were a stealth fighter and not supposed to engage, but it doesn't work in the other chapters.

The new Diomedes model has even less vulnerabilities than its predecessor. Engaging directly is suicide, yet Paveways are now useless and seem to be shot down, if not by point defense, then by the tail end of the very anti-warship beam you're trying to disarm.

There's no fun in it anymore, only endless loops of "give orders while dodging! press hotkeys while dodging! lure into warship flak while dodging!" If I wanted to play an RTS I'd have joined the command crew, not the fighter jocks, but apparently I'm stuck being command crew in a squishy fighter anyway.

I get the feeling that the BP team has gotten so used to playing their own missions that they've lost sight of how other players might behave and have put everything but their own actions into a failstate.

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
Please don't turn feedback into attacks. It makes your input no fun to work with and discourages people from touching it.

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
And this release had (as usual) a group of new testers.

 

Offline qwadtep

  • 28
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
Please don't turn feedback into attacks. It makes your input no fun to work with and discourages people from touching it.
It wasn't an attack but a conjecture. There's something wrong when a mission that formerly exemplified player agency is suddenly so restrictive.

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
That might be true! Reporting on the mission is useful, reporting on the team is not.

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
It takes a nyx 1.44 seconds to 100-0 a Kentauroi with a balor-balor loadout without any missiles hitting, on insane with the player managing shields perfectly. Before the Balor buff this number was 1.53 seconds. For an Atalanta or Kulas it takes 1.9 seconds, compared to 2.03 seconds pre balor buff. Multiply these numbers by 1.66 if you are playing on Medium. Though it actually may take longer than that due to increased shield recharge times on the lower difficulties.
In terms of toughness the Nyx is still at 350hp + 650 shields like in the last release but the Rapier has been nerfed to deal less hull damage so with 4 of them it will take you an extra 0.15 seconds to kill it.

Your problem seems to be trying to dogfight in a Kent which isn't suited for it. It's an interceptor, not a space superiority fighter. The huge top profile is a big disadvantage in furballs. Either play to the Kentauroi's strenghts or pick the Atalanta for dogfighting in Aristeia.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2015, 01:57:05 am by FrikgFeek »
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline Aesaar

  • 210
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
What the hell happened to the UEF's superior fighter fleet that has kept the war going for so long, that massacred all non-Warship assets the Tevs sent at Neptune? It sure ain't here. I was willing to tolerate the "engage=death" philosophy in Tenebrae because you were a stealth fighter and not supposed to engage, but it doesn't work in the other chapters.
TEI wave 2 fighters have been comparable to high-end UEF ones since WiH was released.  The UEF has never had superfighters.

And like FrikgFeek explained above, the Balor buff is tiny.  You don't die noticeably faster than you did pre-DC.  If you're still trying to go head-on with a Nyx, the reason it doesn't end as well as it used to is because the Rapier has been nerfed and doesn't have Kayser DPS anymore.

« Last Edit: December 13, 2015, 04:29:17 am by Aesaar »

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
Well, it is possible that AI using afterburners more makes them close the gap faster so you get less time to spend(like 0.15 seconds less) in the 1500m-1110m range where you can shoot rapiers at them but they can't shoot balors at you.

Or if you were abusing the Kent's insane reverse burners to keep them there forever. Since those have been nerfed the Nyxes will catch up and own you with their superior shielding and firepower that they've always had.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2015, 05:18:07 am by FrikgFeek »
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline qwadtep

  • 28
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
And yet there's a definite, unaccounted-for jump in difficulty in the mission.

Could wingmen be being knocked out as they charge into a two-on-one brawl in front of the frigates?
Could the frigates be failing to provide a sufficient anti-fighter screen due to their close-range nerf?
Could loadouts be screwed up somehow? (I noticed that a lot of FS:Blue missions had Tempest loadouts instead of Trebs/Hornets/Tornadoes for some reason)

But don't tell me it's always been that way when half of the initial Nyx wave is still buzzing around the Indus by the time the ECM ship arrives.

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
That shouldn't be happening. You should be able to kill all the nyxes before the ECM ship arrives. You should have around 30 seconds to rearm before the heavy fighters jump in.

Since I've never had that happen to me I have to assume that you're either taking too long to kill the Nyxes or that something bugged out and Anjaneya came in earlier.

If you don't want your AI to get knocked out you have to charge into the furball when the nyxes are around 3000m from you, don't just wait at the frigates!

I didn't feel a jump in difficulty pre-Medea aside from that stupid support ship bug and the Atalanta having weapons on the nose(which doesn't apply if you fly the Kent). I have died a few times to friendly slammer fire, are you sure that's not what's killing you? If you're in Gamma's way as they engage they will heavily damage your shields/outright kill you.

Saving Dea Bricta is a lot more difficult now but that's how it should be. Those cruisers are supposed to die as soon as the Medea gets past Calder, the player needs to pull off a miracle to save them.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2015, 12:54:26 am by FrikgFeek »
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline General Battuta

  • Poe's Law In Action
  • 214
  • i wonder when my postcount will exceed my iq
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
Wingmen won't get knocked out on difficulties below Hard, I think.

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
@Battuta,

what do you mean?
mine die frequently on medium?

BTW: i realy enjoy your game -it's just too hard for a dumbass like me ;)

another thing.... do you think it's possible to have Destroyers and Cruisers fight in Multiplayer?
Right now i am playing a lot War of Warships and it's a joy to use the speed of the light cruisers against heavyer units :) wouldn't mind having that experiance in a Karuna or Nara(whatever the name of this artillery frigate is)....

regards
BS

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
He means the plot-critical wingmen that can't die. Wouldn't make much sense if Brie ate a treb and exploded in 1 mission and was just fine in the next. The redshirts will die on all difficulties.
On hard/insane they will simply be knocked out of action for some time, on lower difficulties they are effectively invincible.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2015, 04:42:32 am by FrikgFeek »
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline QuakeIV

  • 29
  • test
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
On the lower difficulties the wingmen appear to be far too stupid to be useful.  This can make things rather difficult in the missions where multiple things need to happen at more or less the same time.  (post meridian, the agincourt capture op, etc).  I'd personally refer to it as "Ramirez" mode.

As an aside, that can be kindof entertaining in its own way.  Results in a lot of dying for me though.

 
Re: Thoughts on Blue Planet Complete difficulty [POLL]
I finally managed to play the new version of the mod over the Christmas days. First of all, amazing job once again to the whole team and all voice actors :)

Concerning the difficulty of the mod, I played on "normal" (with the exception of Aristeia). I used to play on hard, but I haven't been able to play for some time and used to play with a joystick which unfortunately doesn't work any more.

The difficulty is from my point of view on the spot for basically every mission. The exceptions for me are Universal Truth (Tenebra) and Aristeia. For some reason (probably Windows 10) I couldn't play Universal Truth and therefore cannot comment on the difficulty.

I could play Aristeia though, which turned out to be the only mission I couldn't beat on normal difficulty. My problem is disarming the Medea. I never managed to destroy more than one of the two main beams and even that happened very rarely. Compared to previous versions of the mod when using paveways was the trick while trying not to get shot down by enemy fighters, paveways nearly never worked this time or did too little damage. I also tried Stilettos, Scalpell and other weapons, sending in my wingmen, nothing seemed to work.

Nonetheless, every other mission was nearly perfectly tuned and I enjoyed playing blue planet again vey much!