Making a point about points

[Levgre]

I don't think hard mode is too easy, with some ships it is already close-ish to a suicide mission, to make it hard enough to be a challenge with solid ships like Osprey, Torus, and Kestrel would make it basically impossible with a number of the weaker ships.

Of course they could alter the difficulty in ways that wouldn't screw over the weaker ships so much (balance methods other than tougher battles and lower scrap), but I guess that wasn't in the scope of this expansion.

[shadowcrust]

So you agree that Hard is not hard, at least with solid ships, whatever that entails?

So next up is the Vortex! *hums Dido's White Flag*

[itg]

I will agree that hard mode can probably be won consistently (90-95%, maybe) with near-perfect play. I can't say I won 3 of my first 4 runs, but after an adjustment period, I'm on a 4-game win streak with some of the weakest ships. If that's your definition of easy, then fine, but I felt like those runs were challenging the whole way through. I don't think I'd want a large percentage of games to be literally unwinnable, and I'm not sure how much harder they could make the game without doing that.

Finally beat my pre-AE high score on hard mode, by the way. 6828 with the DA-SR12. Somehow I managed about 2,400 scrap. Had a scrap recovery arm but wasn't going for crew kills.

[shadowcrust]

Congratulations on your super score! For me, I think the main reason for low scores besides the ca. 10% less beacons you're safe to explore is that at least for my runs so far, I frequently jumped from no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon (up to six times, I counted, and also outside nebulas), which didn't happen in this frequency in FTL Classic to me.

Maybe I'd be here whining how hard and unfair the game is if it really were a bit harder, but I'd have expected Hard mode to make sure you lose at least 9 out of 10 games, regardless of proficiency. As it is, my enthusiasm to do it all over again is quite a bit dampened by how unchallenging it is. No point in being super good at a game that is not really hard to win.

[itg]

I don't know, if you lose 9 out of 10 times, regardless of proficiency, then it's a game of luck, rather than skill--after all, FTL is a game that can be played perfectly, even though few (if any) people can actually do it. Of course, you can always go for shieldless runs and such, if you want to up the difficulty manually, or see if you can get a rebel farming setup going, ASB and all.

[shadowcrust]

I've seen a statement by the developers in 2012 that they expect (and have designed the game so) that around 10% of the games can be won. Many people have shown that this estimate is completely off. So for Hard mode they had the chance to realise their initial design goals, and they either abandoned that goal or again failed at realising it. What I'd have liked in Hard mode is a game that grants you a victory 10% of the time if you're playing really, really well and also have lots of luck. Someone not playing very well would never win in Hard mode. Alas, that's not the case, and making the game more difficult by choosing arbitrary hurdles is a bit like playing a mod, i.e. not the real thing. Anyway, as it is, I guess I won't be playing much FTL anymore, which allows for some progress in other, less important aspects of life

[5thHorseman]

Congratulations on your super score! For me, I think the main reason for low scores besides the ca. 10% less beacons you're safe to explore is that at least for my runs so far, I frequently jumped from no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon to no-event beacon (up to six times, I counted, and also outside nebulas), which didn't happen in this frequency in FTL Classic to me.

Maybe I'd be here whining how hard and unfair the game is if it really were a bit harder, but I'd have expected Hard mode to make sure you lose at least 9 out of 10 games, regardless of proficiency. As it is, my enthusiasm to do it all over again is quite a bit dampened by how unchallenging it is. No point in being super good at a game that is not really hard to win.

I am no "expert" and I'm also lazy and like to take risks, so refuse to play perfectly for 2 hours straight just for the notch on my belt. Sometimes, I just gotta see if that Zoltan Mystic will give me a weapon.

However, my win rate in Hard mode is somewhere around 10% and I find that many times in those 90% of games, I feel the way many people felt in the game when we all told them "No, I win 90% of my games" and they couldn't even get the stealth ships out of the garage before they exploded.

Do you post videos to YouTube or Twitch or whatever? I would love to see someone consistently winning in Hard mode, because as I play I literally can't see how you could win much more often than maybe 50%, if that is even possible.

Of course, I used to think that about Normal mode of the old version.

[shadowcrust]

Taking risks ended my first Vortex run prematurely at the second beacon, as my brave captain investigated a planet's surface and never returned - incidentally, the generic text accompanying this tragic loss was still not tailored to situations where your last (and in this case, also first) crew member gets killed. Second trial with the Vortex (without tempting planet surfaces) is now in sector 6, once more with a severely underpowered ship, let's see how it goes.

I haven't changed my playing style and still take all risks and challenges that appear (giant spiders are still no joke :-p ), otherwise the game would be boring. Hard mode mainly differs from Normal in that you get less scrap (and in my experience so far, also way less encounters, the universe seems to be an empty place in Hard, or maybe it's just AE, or most likely just chance) and have to pay more attention to your upgrades and also to your crew members (as brave captain Monday can attest, if he still could attest to anything), as in an empty universe there are also no volunteers to pick up. But yeah, Hard is just slightly more difficult than Normal.

I find it strange that you only win 10% of your Hard runs, you sure about that? Maybe you're playing worse on purpose as to not compromise your beta testing, where you obviously failed to force the developers to make it properly hard

[5thHorseman]

Haha.

No, in beta testing I did do a lot of playing on Easy and Normal just to see more stuff and find more bugs, but when I played on Hard it was generally for fun and I generally got the floor very clean with my face while doing so. And if you watch my two YouTube runs on Hard Mode so far, they're fairly typical and I don't do anything different (other than not upgrade as quickly as I'd like due to lack of scrap, and then be forced to repair more due to lack of upgrades, which means I can't upgrade due to lack of scrap).

I've even modified my preferred defense upgrade curve, moving everything back by a sector. Not that I can *ever* reach that goal but still, in those rare instances where I can reach my goal, I do and in those rare instances I generally win. Unless because of that I can't upgrade my weapons and therefore end up losing that way.

So yeah. I play the same way and my 90/10 record is now roughly 10/90.

[shadowcrust]

Technically, I haven't lost the second flight of the Vortex, it just went MIA. Clicking on Continue crashes the game, I guess the savegame was corrupted somehow. I just imagine captain Monday has taken over the ship without the irrational interference of the Fleet Admiral, and will continue to crush the flagship in his own, more efficient way... not too unrealistic either, since he got Burst Laser Mk II, Flak I and Breach II (or alternatively, Heavy Laser I or Burst Laser Mk I) and also Mind Control and Hacking, I wish him best luck and think he can make it.

Speaking of bugs, I'm now pretty sure Mind Control is buggy. More often than not, Mind Control will not recharge after having it used once on enemy crew (next jump it will be available again), and enemy Mind Control will keep up the control incessantly, I've been fascinatedly watching my Engi crushing four systems in a row before I could finally destroy the enemy Mind Control system. Now I'm also sure I haven't misjudged the never-paused takeover of my Mantis captain by the enemy in my first fight against the third flagship, which certainly tipped the scales against me and surely not my many bad decisions before that *cough*.

Also the Anti-combat Drone seems to be totally ineffective against Combat Drones Mk II. While the Mk II shot 10 times, the Anti-combat Drone fired once and missed, and the rest of the time it was just twitching, unsure where to fire. If this is intended behaviour, it should say so in the description. Anti-combat Drone: completely ineffective against the only enemy drones for which you'd want an Anti-combat Drone...

Conclusion and moral of the story: beta tester 5thHorseman prevented two well-deserved victories by not pointing out these bugs to the developers and thus karma strikes back making his own flights more difficult...