Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

General discussion about the game.
IntolerantApe
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby IntolerantApe » Mon Feb 10, 2014 8:32 pm

I don't recall any event text like that but they did come onboard in two separate groups, so at least it sounds reasonable. The game is tough enough as it is, it's good to know that it doesn't blatantly cheat to increase the difficulty. Thanks for the insight!
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5thHorseman
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby 5thHorseman » Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:47 pm

IntolerantApe wrote:Sorry for the necro... I didn't want to create a new thread to post my whinge.

...

I guess my point is that difficulty by cheese is not a fun and constructive way to balance a game.This is a great game, I just wish that the AI was restricted by the same universal laws as I am.


I think this is a fair necropost. Nothing related to this has changed since the original discussion.

As explained before, you essentially got a twofer that is possibly the hardest combo in the game to overcome. You CAN overcome it though with judicious use of your medbay and doors. Just be careful that they don't take out your doors or O2 while your whole ship is open to space.

As far as giving the enemies advantages, every game in the world does this. FPSes frequently let the enemies see you through walls, for example. We must give the computer an unfair advantage because the poor little thing is lacking something we all take for granted: A brain. We can reason our way around problems and come up with unique solutions. All the computer can do is what the programmer told it to do while that programmer thought in very general terms. If the AI didn't have some advantages, we'd walk all over this game and it would lose its appeal in hours instead of keeping itself interesting (for me) for almost a year now and going strong.
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PatchworkAndCo
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby PatchworkAndCo » Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:03 pm

Perfect Faro, can you remember what weapons the enemy ship had? That would really help us determine what you could have done.

Anyway, that sounds like a nasty encounter...
Elven Virus
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby Elven Virus » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:52 am

That video killed a part of me
shadowcrust
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby shadowcrust » Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:48 pm

I sifted through my screenshots and found two appropriate ones.

Image
Image

Guess which fight I won and which one I lost!
Ghaleon
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby Ghaleon » Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:50 am

I'll just ignore the first half of this thread since it's old... but dayum... I REALLY want to lecture someone here...

In any case, as soon as I read this thread title it reminded me of one time where I was insta-killed. And I really doubt anyone could have fared better.

I was the stealth ship (that effing stealth ship), it was still the first sector, so.. I couldn't have shields yet, nor could I warp away within the window of my cloak from something really dangerous. As a matter of fact, the very first system I visted, was some ship with TWO beam drones... two beam drones with no shields =... Yeah... I think butter can fend off a hot knife better, seriously. It was horrible. I don't think there was a single thing I could have done once my cloak wore off.

I guess you could say I should have avoided a sector with a ship in it, but tbh I don't think that was an option either, but I honestly can't remember. Even then though I feel you need to find ships to get scraps since non-ship sectors seems to give you scraps far less frequently, and you really need some sooner than later imo.
obliviondoll
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby obliviondoll » Wed Feb 12, 2014 3:08 am

Looking at the OP, I had a similar situation the other day.

The enemy ship fired first, and had an EMP weapon which took down one layer of shields, followed by a 3 shot Burst Laser which took down the remaining shield layer and dealt 2 damage to my weapons.

I still had a 2-shot Burst Laser active, because I had built-in redundancy on my weapons in case of incoming fire, and had my weapons laid out to keep a fast-charging weapon available.

Moral of the story: REDUNDANCY. Build your systems to take damage even if you don't need (and in some cases, can't use) the amount of power it allows for. I often add the odd-numbered point of shields when I have the scrap available to do so even if I'm not planning to upgrade to the next layer straight away. It's nice to have that margin for damage on the shield room BEFORE losing a layer. I also usually keep my O2 and medbay at level 2 even though I rarely power them up beyond the first bar.

Finally, though... early in the game, before building in that level of redundancy, and particularly with some ships like the Stealth Cruiser, you can find yourself in unwinnable situations occasionally. You get torn apart, but when it happens and it's an unavoidable situation, it's ALMOST ALWAYS at or near the beginning of the game, and you can get a fresh start without losing too much progress.

Getting totally wrecked by the RNG hurts, but it's part of the fun and frustration of the game. Like that time where the Flagship with 30% evade dodged more than 70% of my shots while I was hit by literally every shot it fired with 45% evade. Or that time when a full BL2 volley hit my cloaked ship with 99% evade and took out my cloaking device.
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Twinge
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby Twinge » Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:24 pm

Just to clarify: Unwinnable situations are EXTREMELY RARE. They essentially exist for the Stealth B only, and even then will be less than 5% of games.


What is much more common is getting a seemingly unwinnable encounter, but that's only the case because a) you don't know better tactics that improve your situation, or b) you made mistakes earlier which caused the current predicament.

(For proof, if necessary: I've won the game 18 times in a row on normal difficulty while streaming, once with each ship. Luck alone will not make you lose.)
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shadowcrust
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby shadowcrust » Tue Feb 18, 2014 2:08 pm

Well, I don't know. Drawing conclusions from one player's single winning streak is a bit like getting the Crystal cruiser during your first game and then telling everyone else how easy it is to get and that they should stop complaining.
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5thHorseman
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Re: Is "Instant Death" a Common Part of the Game?

Postby 5thHorseman » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:16 pm

shadowcrust wrote:Well, I don't know. Drawing conclusions from one player's single winning streak is a bit like getting the Crystal cruiser during your first game and then telling everyone else how easy it is to get and that they should stop complaining.


Not exactly. Twinge set out to beat the game 18 times in a row and then did. This is different than just happening to beat the game 18 times in a row. What he did is more analogous to a player stating that you can unlock the Crystal Cruiser in most any run, and then saying "Here, I'll do it on Twitch right now" and then doing it.

If you record yourself playing and then soberly reflect on each encounter later you WILL find mistakes you made. And if you learn from those mistakes you WILL eventually get to the point where losses are rare. Even in the DA-SR 12. I know this because it's exactly what I did.
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