[QuantumDelta]

Missions are balanced around you having more respawns (if indeed you do, not all missions do have respawns).
Multi missions (well, community validated pack 3) are generally considered to be significantly harder than single player missions, but that's to be expected.

[Kolgena]

Really? A friend and I tried a few of the mutliplayer missions on insane. Found it a joke. Maybe we were playing some badly balanced missions from an early version of the MP pack? (this was a while ago)

[QuantumDelta]

The [v] and first mission pack contains missions which really aren't as hard at all.

[Bob-san]

I play the regular campaign on Insane, except for a few missions. The 3rd mission is one of them. Other than that, the first Ravana mission is another. Beyond that, the TAG missions are really difficult on Insane, as is the Asteroid mission. That entire loop is nearly impossible to do on Insane. Other than those missions, I almost always play on Insane. I've actually had an easier time on quite a few missions; friendly fighters become smarter, friendly beams become more deadly. Just develop an evasion tactic and you'll be fine. Mine is to run at 2/3 engines and use the afterburners instead of countermeasures.

[Ziame]

The 3rd mission is one of them.

This mission is damn hard for a beginner. Can't pass it on hard.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Try playing Into the Lions' Den in multi. ZERO respawns for continuity reasons.

I played it once and ended up with the least amount of hull (6%) by the 12th minute. I really thought the Nebiros would screw me over (it didn't).

[General Battuta]

On retail campaigns? Insane all the time.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Oh yeah, I remember reading your review of the main FS2 campaign on Insane before. Very informational.

[General Battuta]

I also finished Blue Planet on Insane. Not actually that bad given the excellent point defenses on the post-Capella warships.

However the prospect of attempting ST:R or PI on Insane makes me shiver.

[QuantumDelta]

I also finished Blue Planet on Insane. Not actually that bad given the excellent point defenses on the post-Capella warships.

However the prospect of attempting ST:R or PI on Insane makes me shiver.

Ironic I struggled a little bit with BP on Insane(which is a good thing ) but ST:R (apart from the damned escape pod mission) wasn't that bad at all for me oO

[Dragon]

I started to play main FS campaign on Insane, but I got bored after entering the nebula, as I played it before and knew the storyline.
For user-made campaigns I use Medium, just to avoid balance issues.
The main campaign on Insane was challenging, but not impossible (I had no problem with mission 3), I liked the fact that it was playing completely different from lower difficulties.
Especially I liked the AI weapons ROF increase, Shivan beams looked just awesome (they were still annoying, but they continous fire made me overhaul the beam cannons used in my mod).

[colecampbell666]

Try playing Into the Lions' Den in multi. ZERO respawns for continuity reasons.

I played it once and ended up with the least amount of hull (6%) by the 12th minute. I really thought the Nebiros would screw me over (it didn't).

That was a fun time.


I usully play on hard-insane, I turn it down to hard if it's ABSOLUTELY impossible to beat the mission, never before. Multi is always insane, and I find people only notice if I tell them.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I automatically assume that it's on Hard or Insane the moment my shots don't seem to do anything.

Unfortunately, I can't really do much on either difficulty level except being cannon fodder.

[General Battuta]

I also finished Blue Planet on Insane. Not actually that bad given the excellent point defenses on the post-Capella warships.

However the prospect of attempting ST:R or PI on Insane makes me shiver.

Ironic I struggled a little bit with BP on Insane(which is a good thing ) but ST:R (apart from the damned escape pod mission) wasn't that bad at all for me oO

To be honest I haven't actually tried ST:R on Insane; it might be just fine. I'm just remembering 'Return to Ross 128' and how hard it was to get all the bonus objectives.

Procyon Insurgency would probably be doable too since most of the missions can be solved with Stiletto spam.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Procyon Insurgency would probably be doable too since most of the missions can be solved with Stiletto spam.

[stuart133]

Just started the retail campaign on insane  It doesn't seem as hard as I was expecting.  But at the same time I am having to be more careful about playing chicken with the enemy fighters. They never get out of the way and then I'm left floating there with 50% hull and no nav or comms   

[Mongoose]

I'm still content with keeping my butt firmly planted on Easy.  I don't need even more of a reason to have to keep restarting missions in order to accomplish some objective or other when I already get that at this difficulty.

[stuart133]

I'm still content with keeping my butt firmly planted on Easy.  I don't need even more of a reason to have to keep restarting missions in order to accomplish some objective or other when I already get that at this difficulty.

But surely you get a warm fuzzy feeling when you pull off a really hard mission on insane and have to sit there for a few minutes while you realise what you've done?? Or is that just me 

[colecampbell666]

I also finished Blue Planet on Insane. Not actually that bad given the excellent point defenses on the post-Capella warships.

However the prospect of attempting ST:R or PI on Insane makes me shiver.

Ironic I struggled a little bit with BP on Insane(which is a good thing ) but ST:R (apart from the damned escape pod mission) wasn't that bad at all for me oO

To be honest I haven't actually tried ST:R on Insane; it might be just fine. I'm just remembering 'Return to Ross 128' and how hard it was to get all the bonus objectives.

Procyon Insurgency would probably be doable too since most of the missions can be solved with Stiletto spam.

I played through most of the damn campaign until I realized that Stilettos were untargettable. I used Trebs the whole time. It got so much easier.

[paul1290]

Insane can be done, but I don't find it very "comfortable" at all.

By "comfortable", I mean that some of the missions really don't feel right with it, they feel kind of awkward.

Technically by doing Insane, you're not cheating anymore, as your ship will be the way it should and not made better than it should be. However, when you look at what you're often up against, it starts to sound just downright "Insane" in a lot of cases.


That being said, I always thought it would be interesting to have an alternative "balanced" difficulty, where your ship would not be given any advantages but at the same time the amount of enemies would be reduced somewhat to more reasonable levels, making individual confrontations more exciting without cranking overall the difficulty up by such a large degree, like a sort of step sideways rather than a step up from Hard.
Though maybe someone has already made a mod for that but I never heard of it.