[Freespace Freak]

Has anyone ever been able to complete the game totally on insane (or very hard) difficulty?  I've tried, but I've never been able to do it.  Has anyone here done it?

[Mathwiz6]

Yeah... a la ~-i, and ~-shift-i 

other than that.... well, third mission in regular campaign, and by the time i'm done... 

after that, it just gets worse...

[Dark Hunter]

I tried it once, back on FS1, and I was astonished at the jump the AI makes. They were specifically aiming at my engines! I managed to get my wingmen to distract them while I had a support ship repair me, then I got disabled again. Arrrrrgh.. that was aggravating! 

I like Insane difficulty in Descent better (robots can't disable a Pyro!  ), where use of the slide ability makes it possible to survive...


One thing I noticed about Insane (in FS1, I think they changed it in FS2) is that on higher difficulties you get medals and promotions much much much faster. In three Insane missions, I had five new medals! 

[Freespace Freak]

I distinctly remember it being called 'insane' in version 1.0 of FS2.  I think they changed it after later versions.

[Mathwiz6]

Yeah, and your subsystems become worse than the AI's.

Damn it sucks when your ship is worse than the computer's, because the AI outnumbers you 10-1.

Like ITDoH has missions where you see "cancer 150"

How the **** do I kill 150 maras... At least they're staggered... and the Eternity kill most of them.... and...

[Unknown Target]

It's always been Insane, Freespace Freak.

And at the higher difficulty levels, your ship doesn't get worse, their weapons get better. The lower difficulty AI's damage is actually decreased from the player weapons, I think. On Insane, they deal the same damage as the player.

[Dark Hunter]

I distinctly remember it being called 'insane' in version 1.0 of FS2.  I think they changed it after later versions.

I meant they eliminated the medal difference btween FS1 and FS2. In 2 I believe you garner medals at the same rate no matter what difficulty, while in 1, the higher the difficulty, the faster you got medals.

[Freespace Freak]

Then why does mine say very hard?  Maybe that's just the FSPort mod.    As for the medals, I just seemed to notice getting metals and promotions faster in FS1 in general, but if I tried to play on Hard or Insane I'd usually get promoted higher than I would otherwise.

[Snail]

You get more points in Insane, I think. And I believe that is medals, not metals.

[Cobra]

I've yet to play Insane on FS2, but I have on FS1. (it was during that tour that I made the 2 scorpions smash into each other. see funny moments in gaming thread. ) I completed it, and had gathered up the rest of my medals and was promoted to Commodore. Best AI ever.

[Mobius]

If you want to complete the game with Insane selected,"simply" do not use the Serapis...

[OMFG PWNT]

its impossible to beat the full campagin on insane. ai has assisted aiming, i.e. their crosshairs will ALWAYS be pointed at your lead indictor, no matter how random you move (make yourself invincible and view from your enemy). so if you were taking on just one ship, thats like killing a baby, but if there are two, while you attack one the other finishes you off. the only way to aviod getting hit on insane is pressing pad 8 and 4 at the same time and have a fighter that moves 75+ speed, this way you cant attack anything though

btw afterburner wastes quicker on insane and recharges like a snail

[Polpolion]

If I ever make a game, I am going to make 10 difficulty levels, except the 'hardest' one will be mega uber easy, and just have an intimidating name.

[Mathwiz6]

Sounds scary...

Make sure the ninth has incredible uber insaneness, and when you go to the highest, it gives 6 "are you sure you want to do that", and that it then says "This difficulty is much harder than the 9'th difficulty. We recommend trying the 9'th difficulty"

[BS403]

I usually play on easy, but recently i started playing on hard and I was like wtf my wing men weren't dying. I couldn't believe they lasted longer on hard then on easy.

[S-99]

A good difficulty i've found was medium. Easy was too easy. Medium is great. I recently tried to do the game on hard, and i couldn't get past the 3rd mission like 4 times, and i said **** this, back to  medium

[Mathwiz6]

Yeah, I couldn't get past the third on insane. After like 20 tries on hard, I finally made it.

On the other hand I'm not incredibly skilled, so let's just wait for someone to come and tell as that we are bad n3w8$.

[S-99]

It's funny though, how like how much in common easy and medium have in common, but how hard is completely different being more than a huge step up from medium.

[Mobius]

I usually play with Hard,but I'm still using the RC5(no shield regeneration)so I returned back to normal difficulty.

[Snail]

btw afterburner wastes quicker on insane and recharges like a snail

Don't insult Snails.


I play on Medium and sometimes Hard, but usually medium. I played the fourth mission in insane and a few shots from the Rakshasa's SAAA gun killed me in about 1 minute into the mission. And is it just me, or does the Enif Station mission become impossible on insane? The Cato kills the Calypso, and then continues firing (its beam just doesn't stop) until Enif Station is destroyed. Sometimes it has 3+ beams firing on the Station at once. There was once I managed to destroy its beam cannon, and when the Hawkwood jumped in it acted normally and I was able to defeat the mission. I think something is buggy on that one...