|
|
Post by xdesperado on Mar 25, 2013 1:34:38 GMT -5
Okay my current TA unit, (The Sisters of Retribution, I've given them all female names  )has completed 65 battles so far. My Chaplain,Hydra, Neptune, 3 Scouts and 3 Berserkers all have the best gear. I've got half a dozen each of the Relic Ammo Kits and Advanced Technologist Kits plus the Hydra and Neptune Ammo Kits (which oddly are one time buy items.) I've added two Berserkers after losing one of my originals, who had full kit of best gear. And I've currently got 32,399 Honor in bank with nothing useful to spend it on. Problem is that I'm getting way to much Honor way to fast for the economy. A large part of that is because the Honor reward keeps going up as I gain experience. Gained over 5,000 Honor from my last battle alone. Thinking though that the prices of gear need to be reevaluated and seriously raised. Currently it's much to easy to just skip the lower grades of weapons and armor and buy the top stuff. Why spend 1,500 on a mid level weapon when another battle lets me get the top grade for 3,000? Right now the most expensive purchases are the Hydra and Neptune Armors, yet you will only have a couple of these specialists in your unit so it won't make a huge dent in your bank over an extended period. In addition to making the various grades of gear progressively more expensive, I also think the Honor gained from completing battles should either see minimul increase due to experience or even start to get smaller. (Once you've become a legend it's harder to make that legend grow!) Would like to hear other's thoughts on this subject. Looking for a way to give players more long term goals and add to the replay value of the available campaigns. All I have left for my current unit to accomplish is to beat all the campaigns. Means I still have plenty of play time left with the Sisters, but other than personal satisfaction there isn't any real rewards or goals to aim for. Part of the fun with ST and CK is that they have such an open style with some goals and rewards that are fairly hard to attain. Feel TA is currently missing out on some of that since you can get the best there is right up front practically and then just cruise through later parts of the game. |
|
|
|
Post by johndramey on Mar 25, 2013 8:00:09 GMT -5
I agree that sometimes the honor can be a little... much. It's pretty well balanced for the first campaign or three though. The only thing I can think is maybe making it cost some honor to unlock the campaigns after a certain point, or to make the high end gear cost a lot more.
As a side thought, why not have unlocks in TA like we do in ST? Maybe make some of the higher level gear require certain feats? Something like playing through missions using only melee/ranged, taking no hits, losing no men, getting X kills in a mission. Would be a fun little way to get some extra challenge in the game.
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Mar 25, 2013 11:59:37 GMT -5
Thinking though that the prices of gear need to be reevaluated and seriously raised. Currently it's much to easy to just skip the lower grades of weapons and armor and buy the top stuff. Why spend 1,500 on a mid level weapon when another battle lets me get the top grade for 3,000? Right now the most expensive purchases are the Hydra and Neptune Armors, yet you will only have a couple of these specialists in your unit so it won't make a huge dent in your bank over an extended period. Cyber Knights in fact has the exact same issue. We have planned a price re-evaluation for both games in the near future. If the prices of the high level gear is not high enough, you've basically priced the mid-range gear out of use. I honestly think CK has it a lot worse than TA right now, specifically with weapons (not so much elsewhere). The re-vamp of the campaigns and level system that TA has undergone in the last two months is all leading up to adding campaign unlocks. So, we've done most of the big prerequisite activities to layer this in, but there was a lot to fix and re-organize before we were ready. We are pretty much there now, so hopefully this will be coming sometime soon. Finally, I have added #TA-1078 to re-check the Honor calculation equation. The numbers you are reporting are way out of line with what should be occurring. I suspect that when it is generating your Honor that we may have accidentally had it give an Honor bonus for all historical kills and not just kills in this level. |
|
|
|
Post by Lt. Hathaway on Mar 25, 2013 16:08:20 GMT -5
If I recall correctly, right at the beginning of this "new equipment every update" period, honor bonuses were added to elite campaigns. I suspect this was done so there would be feedback on new items. I have one campaign where the team owns at least one of each item for that purpose.
I would suggest you start a regular free TA game and check the honor per level. I think you could make the argument that it's the 'canonical' honor rate, while TAE has a 'temporary' bonus to facilitate testing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lt. Hathaway on Mar 25, 2013 16:14:41 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by slayernz on Mar 25, 2013 17:02:47 GMT -5
On Basic/Normal, your honor starts off moderate, but within a couple of dozen battles, you're up to thousands per battle. By 100 battles, you're getting high-thousands of points.
Even on Hard and Brutal, you start off with the dregs that chickens have already picked over, but by battle 100, you're getting 2000+ points.
I'd love some 10k+ HP purchases - my current captain has 181 battles and 130k of spare honor. This is where the sentry guns, grenade launchers, nukes, sharp sticks etc would come in handy.
|
|
|
|
Post by johndramey on Mar 25, 2013 17:26:54 GMT -5
Man my lack of attention really kills me on these kind of games. I always start up a squad, play 2-3 campaigns, and then wipe the squad to start fresh with some other idea. Because of that I've never gotten much more than 1,000 honor per battle. I didn't even know it was much of an issue.
I don't know what it's like when you get that much, but I love the tenseness that comes from tromping around with only two mid-range weapons in your squad and just praying that you can survive the map. Looks like I gotta keep one squad long term to see what's doing.
|
|
|
|
Post by xdesperado on Mar 25, 2013 17:42:51 GMT -5
Having more consumables and ones that cost more would help.
Also kind of a wish list thing here, but think it would be neat if you could unlock the option to buy additional Captains that could be switched out or mixed with the original one in squads would be cool. Maybe make the cost of a second Captain something like 50,000 Honor.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lt. Hathaway on Mar 25, 2013 17:49:14 GMT -5
For clarity, Elite is totally broken with respect to honor at the moment. A squad that's ready for Narvidian Dawn need not look at costs. I have no idea what my honor is for my senior teams because there's no need to look (okay, I peeked, 168,338 for a 90 mission, post Narvidian team. Extra slogging to train a berserker....)
You know, one way to reduce the need for repetitive battles on our various favorite campaign first level and take out a good chunk of honor would be to let us buy XP for new soldiers. Our advanced squads are famous enough that we draw our new recruits from the cream of other elite units. It takes roughly 90 battles to get a soldier ready for Narvidian Dawn. I'd give 500 to 1000 honor a point right now to add a fully trained troop, and it'd eliminate a lot of the repetitive battles that partially cause the trouble in the first place.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayernz on Mar 25, 2013 21:29:06 GMT -5
Buying XP (to a certain level) would work well. 1,000Honor per XP means you could spend 50k to get a knight up to the experience level of a veteran with 50 battles under his/her belt.
Other things:
One off ammo kits
Having the following could be useful too
75h = 25% ammo (already implemented)
150h = 50% ammo (already implemented)
ADD
300h = 75% ammo
600h = 100% ammo
1200h = 200% ammo
Rationale - ammo kits aren't too expensive for the 25%/50% range, but if you want to carry more, make it available for a higher cost.
Armor upgrades
5,000h to add a point to your armor shielding or plating.
Weapon Range upgrades
10,000h to add a square of extra range to your weapon (Max 6 square range)
One off extra sight range
250h to see 1 extra square around your knight for the level you rae in
500h to see 2 extra squares
1,000h to see 3 extra squares
2,000h to see 4 extra squares
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Mar 25, 2013 21:44:49 GMT -5
Thanks for the discussion everyone, and to slayernz for the great suggestions on extra expensive war gear. Cory and I will look at this when he gets back next week and will start by trying to correct whatever has gone wrong with the Honor granting scale. There are a number of tickets in about this now, and we will report them in update logs as we tick them off! |
|
|
|
Post by rabidbite on Mar 27, 2013 0:25:34 GMT -5
A completely inane statement from me:
What Price Honor is SUUUUUUCH a good title for a story.
rabid
|
|
|
|
Post by xdesperado on Mar 27, 2013 0:33:55 GMT -5
@rabid to be honest I'm pretty sure its already been used as a book title...  That said if I ever get motivated to write some TA fan fic I may have to use it. ;D Note: Yep it is the title of the 2nd Star Trek Enterprise novel. That's the series with the first Starship named Enterprise at the start of the Federation in case your not a Trekie who's tried to keep track of the various series. LOL |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Mar 30, 2013 20:02:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the help with this one everyone! I have resolved the Honor generator's bug for the next release.
There was a mistake in that the bonus Honor per level had a (historical count of melee kills x 5) in it, instead of (melee kills this level x 5). This means that long-running squads (and especially those with mighty Captains or those relying on Berserks) were getting crazy amounts of Honor! This also should explain why people are seeing the Honor-per-replay of a level continuously climbing.
|
|
|
|
Post by rabidbite on Apr 1, 2013 19:42:09 GMT -5
@rabid to be honest I'm pretty sure its already been used as a book title... That said if I ever get motivated to write some TA fan fic I may have to use it. ;D Note: Yep it is the title of the 2nd Star Trek Enterprise novel. That's the series with the first Starship named Enterprise at the start of the Federation in case your not a Trekie who's tried to keep track of the various series. LOL What Price Honor The toxic atmosphere of Reglon Seven whipped pass at gale force winds. The shuttle weaved and danced through so much anti-aircraft flack, the occupants could probably jump out and walk on the stuff. To Gavin's left was his Captain Chaplain Desperado, to his right the ever reliable Exo Scout known as Slayernz "Cheer up newbie," Slayernz said to Gavin with a grin ... while placing bets with the squad mates on Gavin's survival odds on his first drop. "If you get shot and it is a slow wound, the toxic atmosphere will do you in right quicklike." The grim humor elicited a few chuckles from the veterans. Hazing the new kid was a ritual. It was to both see if the kid could take it and to cement bonds within the squad. In truth, they would all watch out for him. Templars take care of their own. The "One minute to drop" red light painted everything with its crimson hue just as the shuttle shuddered with a near miss. Chaplain Desperado growled, "Suit up." Everyone in the shuttle affixed their helmets and sealed in. Faces disappeared behind the humorless "X's which crisscrossed the green painted faceplates. "Com channel check, call it out." "1" "2" Slayernz's voice came through, "Three." Gavin's turn was four. Chaplain Desperado was six. Lieutenant Slayernz ordered, "Lock and load." The sound of weapons being readied was drowned out by the increasing sound of hits on the hull. A few more long moments and Desperado's voice chanted, "We are the Gun and the Blade. We are the Heart and the Flame." "TEMPLARS" came through from every voice. The shuttle engines whined as it slowed down. The squads stood up and hooked to the deployment lines. "We are the first to land and the ONLY ONES left standing." "TEMPLARS" The shuttle motors reached a whine. It tilted for landing even as its defensive weapons suddenly roared with the staccato of vulcan cannons cutting into targets outside the hull. "What is the price for this great honor?" "OUR BLOOD, OUR BODIES, OUR SOULS." The shuttle settled down with a thump. "AND FOR WHOM DO WE BLEED, FOR WHOM DO WE KILL, FOR WHOM DO WE DIE!!?" "SHALUN! SHALUN! SHALUN!" The doors opened into toxic hell. Things crawled and slimed their way towards them, tens, dozens, hundreds. Captain Desperado growled, "Kill them all." Gavin grinned. |
|
)has completed 65 battles so far.
