Harder difficulties?

[Demiansky]

So for the life of me, I couldn't find any reference anywhere to a difficulty level harder than normal. I beat the game on normal on the first day, and while I totally love the game I was hoping for a greater challenge. Once I lost a few games by "learning the rules" (like learning that my crack team of mantis boarders won't be coming home from a drone that cloaks...) it was pretty easy beat the final boss most of the time.

I thought that maybe a "hard" difficulty might unlock once I beat normal the first time, but that wasn't the case. Am I missing something?

[Zaffre]

You want harder difficulties? Have you gone MAD?!

[Demiansky]

So I guess there aren't any harder difficulties?

[Eji1700]

So I guess there aren't any harder difficulties?

Not yet no. Certain ships are sorta like harder difficulties in that they have more trouble at various points, but there's nothing yet that actually qualifies as a hard mode.

[TJJ]

I see using the less powerful ship designs as being the next difficulty threshold.

[Demiansky]

TJJ, I guess so, but it does seem a little odd that you would try hard to get ships that suck more. I wonder if the game can be modded to be more difficult? I guess I'll dig through the files and see what I can find.

[srulz]

@Demiansky: What ships are you using to beat Normal on a regular basis? Kestrel? Torus? Osprey?

Anyway, there are many more ships out there that had to be unlocked, and all of them had -very- different playstyle from the "common" ones above. So, why don't you try completing Normal using each of those ships first?

At least that's what I'm currently doing, and it's really fun! just got my 1st Normal win using Stealth-B, going for Engi-B next.

[Demiansky]

Yeah, my first win was from the Engi ship. I built it for "boarding action" first, then stacked defense and disable abilities. Pretty much all of my boarders died before I got to use them on the final boss, though, because I didn't realized that you couldn't teleport your boarders back from a cloaked ship (in this case, a probe, and they all died from oxygen deprivation when the probe cloaked. Normally you can knock out a probe's weapons immediately with boarders since there is no resistance, then teleport them back to your ship before oxygen deprivation kicks in). I still went on to win, though, even though I had to built my Engi ship for boarding action. Then I went on to win with a Kestrel and Stealth ship right afterwards. Oddly, I haven't been able to unlock the other ships other than, obviously, the Flagship (which I presumed would be pretty easy to win with).

[jamotide]

I thought the same way after I won my third game, started out on normal right away. But now I know the first ships are sort of "easy" mode. Try playing with Engi B or Stealth Ship B, it is definitely the hard mode you seek.

[Lee72]

You want hard? try playing Dwarf Fortress & not this!