Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Goober5000 on March 21, 2003, 03:08:43 am
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I've been turning this over in my mind for a while, but was reminded recently while playing through the Port. (In Evangelist, I had forgotten that there were no beams in FS1, and was surprised for a moment that nothing zapped me while I made my bombing run on the Eva. The mission seemed ridiculously easy compared to what I had gotten used to.) What's your opinion on the difficulty of Freespace missions in general - good, bad, easy, hard?
I thought the missions in FS1 were just the right level of difficulty, with an occasional good challenge here and there, but the missions in FS2 were generally harder than average. The first time through the main FS2 campaign, I remember being incredibly frustrated at Slaying Ravana in particular, although now I can usually beat it the first time through. (FYI: I got FS2 last year and FS1 the year before that.) Exodus was another difficult one - there are so many things to keep track of at once.
But the mission that really gets my blood boiling is Proving Grounds - I think that's the absolute hardest mission Volition's put out. First there's the virtually impossible task of protecting the Oberon, then you've got to protect the Aquitaine from bombers coming from all directions, and finally there's this nasty corvette that doesn't show up on sensors firing at everything. And all this takes place in a nebula!
It's interesting to note that you get the OOG medal if you keep the Aquitaine above 50% (a feat in and of itself) but the game yells at you if the Tiamat isn't destroyed. (As an aside, that bit about providing sensor support for the Aquitaine doesn't seem to make much sense.)
What is everybody's opinion on mission difficulty? I know there are some people who really like a challenging mission, but to me playing through a mission 50 times just to beat it once is rather tedious. (I prefer to hone my skills over time. :)) I like a campaign with a good story that provides reasonably challenging missions (with perhaps a good challenge every now and then) rather than something like Aeos Affair. I think FS1 succeeded just about perfectly in its difficulty balance.
And just because I'm curious: Is there anyone who's ever managed to complete everything in Proving Grounds (Oberon protected, Aquitaine above 50%, Tiamat destroyed) at Medium or above, without cheating? :)
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I get the Order of Galatea, on medium, about 75% of the time. 'Tis easy to let it slip, though :nod:
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I'm not that great of a pilot ( I have to fly with a Sidewinder pad ) but I've gotton the Oberon, and the medal and the Tia a few times on medium, although I remember on hard, the Tia seems to stay alive, and of course you can't touch it.
I prefer challenging missions that you need to get good to play through as long as they ain't riduculously hard. By that I mean like Bearbaiting on Insane or something like that as a riduculous example.
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And just because I'm curious: Is there anyone who's ever managed to complete everything in Proving Grounds (Oberon protected, Aquitaine above 50%, Tiamat destroyed) at Medium or above, without cheating?
I had the Tiamat under 7%...
Something that frustrated me was in the mission with the Demon destroyer, I had it down to 1% and it jumped out! :mad:
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I only destroyed the Tiamat once.
But the FS1 missions are too easy compared to the FS2 missions.
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I agree with darkage.
as for Proving Grounds, I got the Oberon survived, Aquitaine above 50, but never got the Tiamat.
As for the hardest, Argonautica was the mission I was stuck on for weeks on my first time through. The bombers weren't as hard as was staying alive.
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Indeed, no fighter beams or flak really does make capships a lot less scary. Only ones that still command some respect in FS1 after having played the sequal are the ones that pack a good amount of shivan clusters for their size, like the Lilith... those are still deadly on harder difficulties.
Hardest mission for me is probably Bearbating. No fail, every time I play it my wingmen are dead in 30 seconds, leaving all the shivan fighters to concentrate on me while I'm trying to concentrate on taking out beams and flak. On harder difficulties I always miss one or two beams because I have to break off and kill a few fighters just to stay alive. And it's not like I could deal with fighters myself and let the other bombers take out the beams, cause it'd probably take a computer pilot 10 minutes and 8 helios's to kill each beam :lol:
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The mission Lions Den, was prety hard, when Snipes screamed *DIVE DIVE DIVE HIT YOUR BURNERS PILOT!* I followed that and engaged my burnes only to see that i ramed the sathanas and got laucnhed to oblivion:D When he started screaming i also jumped from my chair:D
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Lion's Den gets my vote as most scary, but not most difficult. First time after narrowly evading the Sathanas I had to pause the game and take 5 minutes to calm down (late night, lotsa caffeine, I nearly hit the ceiling), and the destroyer nearly ramming me in the node didn't help either :)
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But the FS1 missions are too easy compared to the FS2 missions.
That's what I thought as well. FS2 missions were generally a bit harder than FS1 missions, but the FS1 missions were a bit too easy, and I generally thought that the FS2 difficulty was more to my liking. There were some in FS2 that were kind of frustrating more than challenging (e.g. Bearbaiting, by far the hardest FS2 mission, which would have been so much easier if the AI's actually did anything), but one eventually got used to it.
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I noticed they where to easy when i replayed the campaign, no real chalange. All you need to do is hold the fire button and maby stear around but most of the time enemy fighters die just by thinking of them.
Yes beerbeating:p was a annoying mission i needed to do that 2/3 times before i made it to the next mission. But the most fun in FS2 is that you actualy need to pay attention at what you are doing if you are going after fighters instead of the bombers your screwed. But then again the fighters can also be a threat to a convoy or just a cruiser/crovette.
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Bearbaiting is nasty. I usually just knock off two beams right at the start, then leave the Sath alone and go after fighters. That way, you've still got some wingmen left to cover you while you vape the Demon. You just disable that with a pair of bombs, then the mission's easy. Knock off it's LReds, and it just sits there and gets a pasting from the Sobek. Job done. :D
Proving Grounds: I save the Oberon most of the time, actually. Just find a Pegasus and follow it. Keep shooting it, and it'll never get a shot off.
As soon as the Tiamat appears, take out it's big beams, and the Aquitaine will sort it out pretty quick. Also, disabling it helps! Then just keep killing Nahemas 'til the Aquitaine jumps.
I think the FS1 missions are slightly too easy, to be honest. I have to play it on Hard or its too simple. FS2 is better for mission difficulty and variety, but has perhaps too many escort missions (I really hate those :ick ). FS1 has a better end mission, though - the last FS2 mission is just a massacre, followed by a mad dash to the node before you die. Kind of a let-down, really, but I suppose it's the only sort of mission you could have, given the storyline.
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Originally posted by Darkage
I only destroyed the Tiamat once.
But the FS1 missions are too easy compared to the FS2 missions.
FS1 missions do not have flaks, and AAAs. These two weapons make FS2 hard.
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I just started to play FS2 again, but with the fs2_open (the 3.5.1 runs fine with me, no loadout errors, no funny crashes. Yes I know it's weird.) and I really feel that beams should pierce shields. It's just wayyy too damn easy!
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Actually, I played into the Lions Den with the non Piercing shields... hella wierd. it'd seemed like it made it harder though, because before, You made more effort to avoid them, and they only hurt your hull while the shields deflected flak and lasers. Now your shields get stripped too fast and flak eats you alive. :blah:
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Hard missions, eh? Just you wait until you play "The Angriest Angel" ;7
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Originally posted by diamondgeezer
Hard missions, eh? Just you wait until you play "The Angriest Angel" ;7
Somehow I knew that was coming :)
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Originally posted by pyro-manic
Bearbaiting is nasty. I usually just knock off two beams right at the start, then leave the Sath alone and go after fighters. That way, you've still got some wingmen left to cover you while you vape the Demon. You just disable that with a pair of bombs, then the mission's easy. Knock off it's LReds, and it just sits there and gets a pasting from the Sobek. Job done. :D
At the beginning of bearbaiting (how good a pilot are you eh) try the following to get the fighters off your back and your wingmen alive.
1/full speed
2/Communication (order all wings to engage enemy then right after, target sathanas, order all wings to ignore target!)
3/Fire one dual treb at beam one selected. change to helios dual fire under arm slightly or they imact on surface and do not do enough damage.
4/afterburn to flakcannons at front of ship firing dual trebs and akheton gun. three trebs each and Ak fire will take both out.
5/afterburn towards next big beam arm and call in support.
nuke 2,3,4 as your wingmates "should" keep the enemy bust now that they are not suicdally attacking the Sathanas.
This way IS time critical. I think I ge about five seconds to spare before the " get out of the way message" but it works most of the time and leaves enough fighters to deal witht the demon easily.
Most scary moment?
"we are detecting a massive shockwave coming from the capella star. You must get to the node and activate your jumpdrives NOW!"
"ahhh Bolloks I`m dead!"
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I thought FS1 missions were much harder than FS2, I remember when FS2 came out and I started, wow my weapons do damage, and in FS1 aiming is much more of a priority, this is just how it felt to me, maybe I had the dificulty settings diferent
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Originally posted by Bobboau
I thought FS1 missions were much harder than FS2, I remember when FS2 came out and I started, wow my weapons do damage, and in FS1 aiming is much more of a priority, this is just how it felt to me, maybe I had the dificulty settings diferent
I was beginning to feel that I was the only one who felt that way :)
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Originally posted by Bobboau
I thought FS1 missions were much harder than FS2, I remember when FS2 came out and I started, wow my weapons do damage, and in FS1 aiming is much more of a priority, this is just how it felt to me, maybe I had the dificulty settings diferent
Weapons are surely better, your secondary missiles at last can hit non-stationary targets, too. I remember the moment, when the Interceptor automaticily evades the target, just to make the game hard. Fury and Rockeye are the best'
Hornets are the shame of allied weaponry and technology! I would rather use a machine gun to Hornets.
:no: :no: :no: Hornet :no: :no: :no:
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Originally posted by TopAce
Weapons are surely better, your secondary missiles at last can hit non-stationary targets, too. I remember the moment, when the Interceptor automaticily evades the target, just to make the game hard. Fury and Rockeye are the best'
Hornets are the shame of allied weaponry and technology! I would rather use a machine gun to Hornets.
:no: :no: :no: Hornet :no: :no: :no:
Agree totally!!
Both in FS and FS2. Hornets= suck BIGTIME.
Harpoons=mmmmmmmmmm! trebs=MMMMMMMMMMMM
I`d rather use hellfire missiles than hornets.
And I`d love to fire a meson based missile/bomb :eek:
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What's that mission where the Aquatains been disabled, and you've got to escort it out of the nebula? It's the last 'fly with the Vasudans' mission. That, in my humble opinion, is the hardest mission of FS2.
I tend to find the initial few wings of Shivan bombers usually destroy my wingmen (and their reinforcements) with their cluster bomb leaving poor old me to hold of half the Shivan fleet.
I personally don't find Bearbaiting hard at all, unlike the above mission.
I also have to agree to those who find FS1 mission harder than FS2. At lot of the FS2 mission felt like that you could just sit back do nothing and the mission would still end up as a success - even if this was not the case. In FS1 it felt like you would make a difference, even if this wasn't the case.
I also feel I must disagree with the point above about the Hornets. I think that they are the best 'general perpose' missile around. Trebs are good, but you can't only carry that many, especially compared to the hornet.
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Originally posted by Tar-Palantir
I also feel I must disagree with the point above about the Hornets. I think that they are the best 'general perpose' missile around. Trebs are good, but we can't only carry that many, especially compared to the hornet.
Wha? We are talking about the same missile here, right? The ones that only ever hit slow things from directly behind? That Fail do do any damage at all to capship turrets and subsystems? THOSE Hornets?
Sorry 'bout that, but I can't believe you said that! Sure, Tornados are pretty damn good, but I find the Hornet to be almost useless in most situations. :)
My preferred weapons are double Prometheus S, a bank of Harpoons/Tornados and a bank of Trebuchets. All-round kill-stuff capability. :)
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Prometheus S suck. They are too slow and too energy-consuming for my taste.
Give a Double Subach or Subach/Prometheus or Subach/Kayser, and a pack of harpoons/trebs or /harpoons/tornadoes any day.
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Originally posted by pyro-manic
Sorry 'bout that, but I can't believe we said that! Sure, Tornados are pretty damn good, but I find the Hornet to be almost useless in most situations. :)
Do you not find it annoying when a wing of Maras jumps in and blasts your transports with Hornet volleys? Bye bye transport :(
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Originally posted by Stunaep
Prometheus S suck. They are too slow and too energy-consuming for your taste.
Give a Double Subach or Subach/Prometheus or Subach/Kayser, and a pack of harpoons/trebs or /harpoons/tornadoes any day.
prom s is great, but only on ships with lot's of power. for the smaller ship, i'll just take subach.
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Double Kaysers in an Erinyes. Yeah! Somehow I don't like Circe and Maxim combination, if the target's shields are down, hull damage is low, and the same is true reversed(inverted, or don't know how the English say) Kaysers can damage both shield and hull well. Otherwise your generators don't like them. But why? :)
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My preferred combination is probably an Ares with a Maxim, a Prometheus S, Tempests and Harpoons.
Prometheus S suck. They are too slow and too energy-consuming for my taste.
Give a Double Subach or Subach/Prometheus or Subach/Kayser, and a pack of harpoons/trebs or /harpoons/tornadoes any day.
if you think the Prometheus S sucks how come you mention it as a favorite in the next line? :wtf: (unless you meant the R, which is a total piece of crap and arguably the most useless thing in the game)
Do you not find it annoying when a wing of Maras jumps in and blasts your transports with Hornet volleys? Bye bye transport
They are good against slow or stationary targets but can never hit any fighters. :p
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Originally posted by diamondgeezer
Do you not find it annoying when a wing of Maras jumps in and blasts your transports with Hornet volleys? Bye bye transport :(
well yeah, except that Shivan hornets actually DO SOMETHING!!
harpoons are excellent(except in MP natch). good reload speed, excellent track, lock and intercept speed. Plus two fired at once does some pretty hefty damage to bombers too.
The hornets are slow to load, slower to fire, have the WORST track ability ever! (even rockeyes are better!) and do little damage. Only time they are useful in SP is when you are behind a bomber and fire double vollys.
fav loadout has to be.... Eiryn fighter W one kayser, one maxim- loadout= one bank of harpoons, one bank trebs.
always the loadout fot the final mission, can save almost every damn thing if I`m in the right area!
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Originally posted by CP5670
if you think the Prometheus S sucks how come you mention it as a favorite in the next line? :wtf: (unless you meant the R, which is a total piece of crap and arguably the most useless thing in the game)
Because they suck in any other combination.
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i think it might have been for FS1 (don't remember exactly) but someone did a (i think it was babylon 5) huge fight. it was do-able, but it was hard, but still fun as hell.
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Originally posted by hobnob1978
harpoons are excellent(except in MP natch). good reload speed, excellent track, lock and intercept speed. Plus two fired at once does some pretty hefty damage to bombers too.
The hornets are slow to load, slower to fire, have the WORST track ability ever! (even rockeyes are better!) and do little damage. Only time they are useful in SP is when you are behind a bomber and fire double vollys.
That's right Agreed. But the tornado has high bank capacity, but even far better than the Hornets
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Um...no it doesn't, you can carry more Hornets than Tornadoes. e.g. Perseus can hold 40 Hornets or 32 Tornadoes (in one bank).
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Originally posted by Shiva Archon
Um...no it doesn't, you can carry more Hornets than Tornadoes. e.g. Perseus can hold 40 Hornets or 32 Tornadoes (in one bank).
I wanted to mean as tornado requires more capacity, so can be less mounted into a fighter.
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I thought he was just saying that every other aspect of Tornadoes is better than Hornets, but that they still have decently high capacity...
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I'm just playing the FS2 campaign again on hard and I have to admit the mission is really difficult, if you want the medal. Even the first wave of maras deal sometimes 20-30% dmg to the Aquitaine, I don't know how. And then when the bombers and the Tiamat warp in at the same time you really need some luck.
I got already the medal on hard a few times, but maybe because I'm a little bit out of training or due to bad luck the Aquitaine health dropped to 30% before I even was able to destroy all bomber and the Tiamat.
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Couldn't you just make a new thread for that
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Why? Ye, I know this thread is old, but whats the difference in create a new one or revive a old one? I mean, I searched for this mission on Google and found this thread, so if anyone else will search he will be glad all relevant information are in one thread and not spread apart right? I mean, the missions do not change, so the old information in this thread is still relevant :nervous:
BTW: I just beat the mission while getting the medal, my problem was I totally overlooked the first bomber wave which comes with the maras, so they (not the maras) dealt this much dmg. After the first bomber wave I concentrate on the second one and then on the Tiamat beam canons, was a piece of cake. Aquitaine survived with 70% health :) Tiamat got also destroyed, but I got no kill on it :(
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Why? Ye, I know this thread is old, but whats the difference in create a new one or revive a old one? I mean, I searched for this mission on Google and found this thread, so if anyone else will search he will be glad all relevant information are in one thread and not spread apart right? I mean, the missions do not change, so the old information in this thread is still relevant :nervous:
Kinda true, but depending on how Google works they might next time just post into one from 2001. Not a drama, though it's often considered bad style here.
Anyway, :v-old: made that mission kinda weird, in particular the part with the Tiamat not getting destroyed sometimes.
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Silent Threat: Reborn, Chasing Shadows mission.
"They all gone nuts" a pilot says. Huh huh. Maintain the blockade by destroying all vessels trying to make it out to the jump node, defend the Hope against superpowered bombs, defend beat up Atens against unlockable Lokis. All primary objectives. At the same time.
Gone. To. Hell.
Funny thing is that allied fighters end up doing all of the work, while you mostly shout orders and intercept bombs, or crash with transports to slow them down.
I pulled it through with one of the Atens finishing at 2% hull.
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INF Nemesis ftw (even though that mission wasn't out when the thread was started)
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INF Nemesis ftw (even though that mission wasn't out when the thread was started)
...my God, he's right.
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:eek2:
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:bump:
Playing Judas in FS1, because I never figured out how to get past the Dragon patrol and scan the cargo pods.
A Monster in the Mist in FS2, because I got killed by SAAAs once. Proving Grounds gets an honourable mention because the Tiamat doesn't take enough damage on Very Easy.
Hardest fan-made mission is the last mission of Deus Ex Machina, because I never plotted a correct path for the Iceni to jump out.
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Most of the missions in PI.
Okay, it's been a while since I played it, and I've gotten better since then, but I had to cheat to pass most of the missions when I played it. It was really tough.
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Took me dozens of tries to complete Clash of the Titans because I saw the Demon and thought that was obviously the main thing we had to destroy. In my defence I was 7 years old when the game came out.
Didn't complete As Lightning Fall for many, many years until after I first completed the campaign because I never knew what the hell I was supposed to do. I remember restarting a number of times to try and get through the dialogue but it never worked. I always just jumped out 5 times to get the next mission or skipped out of SOC altogether. I don't know if I've ever completed it legit rather than just going straight ahead, it's a real slog of a mission.
In terms of actual difficulty I always found Playing Judas very difficult. From FS2 probably Exodus.
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Playing Judas in FS1, because I never figured out how to get past the Dragon patrol and scan the cargo pods.
This is one I'll never understand, because as long as you fly almost straight ahead from the start of the mission and just park yourself right underneath the node, nothing from Arjuna wing gets close enough to matter. And if one does start drifting close to you, all you need to do is target the nearest hostile and fly in the opposite direction for a bit. The community has produced far more egregious stealth missions than that.
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Why? Ye, I know this thread is old, but whats the difference in create a new one or revive a old one? I mean, I searched for this mission on Google and found this thread, so if anyone else will search he will be glad all relevant information are in one thread and not spread apart right? I mean, the missions do not change, so the old information in this thread is still relevant :nervous:
BTW: I just beat the mission while getting the medal, my problem was I totally overlooked the first bomber wave which comes with the maras, so they (not the maras) dealt this much dmg. After the first bomber wave I concentrate on the second one and then on the Tiamat beam canons, was a piece of cake. Aquitaine survived with 70% health :) Tiamat got also destroyed, but I got no kill on it :(
Hey Perry in the past, tell me how you did that. :D
I just play the main campaign again with the latest MediaVps and so on and somehow I have the feeling the game is more difficult than before :P
I playing on hard like always, but I struggle again with this mission. The first Bomber wave fires so many bombs in a very short time. I try to take them out as quickly as possible but the Aquitaine is always at about 72% health, and then the second Bomber wave and the Tiamat jumps in and before I even try to take out the second wave or the beam canon the Aquitaine is under 50% :(
Well I will keep trying...
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It's possible that code changes or model changes have created some subtle differences in balance. I know that there were some turret bugs in FSO that were recently fixed.
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Well, i have the actually same problem like Perry for my Insane Video Playthrough, even i have a slightly changed AI Behaviour to use recent AI features :D
I stuck on "Proving Grounds" as well...
Insane was a walk in the park until now even with the AI changes... but here. Proving Grounds never felt so hard for me :D
In the past i played this mission always with EMP missiles as they were easily able to shut down the bomber wings and their bombs to collect their kills without any danger for the Aquitaine... but well... for whatever reason the EMP effect seems to be weaker, it does not even shut down the bombs any more... and it also did not helped me against the Pegasus' attack in the first part of the mission, which is however still possible to complete successfully with the morning star and some luck.
Interestingly it was the other way around in Retail. No problem to hold off the Shivans and Pegasus thanks to the EMP missiles... but there is no way to protect the Oberon with the Morning Star alone :D.
Even i had the feel to remember, that the EMP missile also affected ETS aswell and so was able to slow enemies down temporarily (in other way than the D-Missile however).
But maybe i mistake it with an EMP missile from a mod. :doubt:
So, right now i am still trying some new approaches :). There have to be a solution.
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Insane? Ok wow. I tried it once, but it's so hard to hit any ship in insane. The AI is super smart in dogfight and always try to get you from behind, if you fight more than 3 targets at once, was happens quite often it was nearly impossible :D
But back to this mission. My current approach is:
1. I don't bother with the Oberon, I felt it is impossible anyway.
2. I try to estimate the jump point from the first bomber wave, which is pretty hard in this damn fog.
3. I try to destroy the bombers itself afap, because bothering with the bombs results in much worse results.
4. I try to estimate the jump point of the second bomber wave, wich is even harder, because I loose so quick orientation and because you can't really see the Aquitaine the direct way is often blocked.
5. I try to target the Moloch beam canons, but at this time the Aquitaine is already below 50% :(
So maybe I should try to swap step 4 and 5, im not sure. But it is not even enough time between fighting the first bomber wave and the arrival of the second one and the Moloch to get in the proper position.
I use a Myrmidon because it has 3 primary guns (3x Subach) and I load for secondary weaponry 2x Tempest und 1x Hornet. I try to fire 1 salve of Hornet and then switching to Tempest. I think this is the quickest way to get rid of the bombers.
I found also this is one of the last missions where you haven't Prometheus S which would also help in my opinion. And this second bomber wave are Nephilim class with this damn 1.600 shield points.
The main problem is anyway, that normally bombers are deployed about 3-4 clicks from the target away. This bombers are deployed abuot 1-1,5 clicks away and they are damn fast and the afterburner velocity is much greater then the afterburner velocity from my space superiority fighter. I mean WTF! :D :D
P.S. @Novachen Do you commentate your run? Can I watch it somewhere?
I JUST DID IT. Well I think you also need a little bit luck :D Also also equipped my allied ships with EMPs. The downside is, I couldn't destroyed the Tiamat, but well at least I got the medal :)
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P.S. @Novachen Do you commentate your run? Can I watch it somewhere?
Nope, as i want that the viewer is experiencing the game as it is, there is only some kind of text commentary in the video description in my videos.
And as mine is not even a normal playthrough, the commentary is only about changes that were introduced for NTP (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=96944.0). But right now, i only have still the first act of FS2 online, as i still did not through Proving Grounds. That first act is however already online on my YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClVZZzIOkYqbKyuj8s5_rBA). But i am currently unable to retry that. Had some technical issues lately, as i had to repair my fire button on my G940, i could not fire primaries anymore. Also something personal suddenly occurred again, which prevent me to play any FS2 lately.
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Most of the missions in PI.
Okay, it's been a while since I played it, and I've gotten better since then, but I had to cheat to pass most of the missions when I played it. It was really tough.
I played through it myself last year and found some missions pretty unreasonable. :p A few missions were too dependent on subtle gameplay and AI behavior that changed slightly over many FS2 builds, and if things didn't go exactly as they did in the builds 15 years ago it became much harder. If I ever get around to it, the campaign would benefit from an "easy mode" that scales better with the difficulty setting.
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Most of the missions in PI.
Okay, it's been a while since I played it, and I've gotten better since then, but I had to cheat to pass most of the missions when I played it. It was really tough.
I played through it myself last year and found some missions pretty unreasonable. :p A few missions were too dependent on subtle gameplay and AI behavior that changed slightly over many FS2 builds, and if things didn't go exactly as they did in the builds 15 years ago it became much harder. If I ever get around to it, the campaign would benefit from an "easy mode" that scales better with the difficulty setting.
I definitely wouldn't mind an easy mode overall for PI. So hopefully you can get around to that at some point (I do really like PI overall and it was the first non-canon campaign I played after setting up MVPs years ago).
However, if you wanted to do a minor fix in the mean time to reduce PI difficulty how about these suggestions: Couldn't it make things easier if you just changed the Maxim from its PI version back to the normal longer range non-shotgun version?
-Also, maybe allow the PromS back in for an overall good cannon (and just remove that line in the beginning about gas restrictions)?