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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 9, 2014 17:41:52 GMT -5
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Post by slayernz on Apr 9, 2014 18:06:33 GMT -5
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh ... you're making me go all "I need to play HoS for Ep2" "I have to play ST for designer ships" "I have to play TA for new Alien AI and stuff"  |
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Post by johndramey on Apr 9, 2014 19:36:33 GMT -5
Noooooooooooooo another thing to add to my to-do list. Evil, Cory, just evil.
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Post by algesan on Apr 10, 2014 20:49:21 GMT -5
Adaptive difficulty on all difficulty levels or a new one to choose?
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Post by fallen on Apr 10, 2014 21:08:32 GMT -5
algesan - all difficulty levels. That means you can pick up your best or newest squad and go in swinging and see the difference immediately. We'd love everyone's feedback!
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 10, 2014 22:28:19 GMT -5
It is an extension of the existing system.
For every release of Templar Assault ever the game has assigned bonus HP and Move Points to some monsters as they are spawned. You've seen this as a natural variation.
Previously the game could give out 8 points, which it did based on your difficulty, and when it was added, victory scores.
The game engine has been expanded and updated to allow it to give out 8 points in 8 different categories. Now, obviously when we started playing the game a with these rules two weeks ago, we immediately realized that it was crazy too difficult.
The 64 new types of points the game engine can give to the Xenos could be much more powerful than the previous 8 points. We had to create a much smarter point assignment system, but with so many points we could keep up with the player for much longer.
In the previous build, once you got past the game's ability to assign 8 points, and you were fighting the hardest of the 28 monster types you would only be defeated by sheer numbers or bad luck.
Now, the game is able to keep up with your squad and remain *somewhat* challenging for a long longer than it was before.
NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS =>
I only played 20 or 30 squads and all of the levels. I wanted to test more but I have so much to do. So, Templars is not perfectly balanced. I need feedback. I will update and tweak and stuff but I need help =)
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Post by algesan on Apr 11, 2014 7:48:08 GMT -5
Died twice, then a tense real close run thing on whatever the highest level is. Tutorial squad on third mission IIRC - fight to two objectives the to extraction point. Next mission is move forward a bit & kill X aliens.
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Post by fallen on Apr 11, 2014 8:43:53 GMT -5
algesan - any feedback on if it is too hard early" or just more fun?
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Post by khearn on Apr 11, 2014 13:05:34 GMT -5
Well, some of the bugs are certainly moving a lot faster now. Have to be a little more careful about that. Just saw a fat green & orange bug jump forward 4 tiles at once, instead of the 2 tiles I've always seen them move. If they get much faster, I'm going to need some weapons with a range of 5.  Some also seem a bit tougher. This is a squad on "normal" with around 1800 prestige. They'd been pretty much walking through everything up until now, so a little more challenge is a good thing. "Normal" was feeling way too easy before, more like "walk in the park". |
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Post by fallen on Apr 11, 2014 13:24:23 GMT -5
khearn - awesome, thanks for the feedback. That was what we were hoping to hit - the difficulty climbs with you and you're less likely to a hit the "walk in the park" time! The monsters still have logical limits for things like move, etc - but they just get more points to spread around.
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 11, 2014 15:13:45 GMT -5
Yeah, thank you very much for the feedback. Can you post how many victories they have as well -- it is a combination of Victory and Prestige that informs the Alien AI scaling thing.
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Post by khearn on Apr 11, 2014 16:12:50 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of a fight right now, so I can't check the exact number. This squad has basically done every campaign from the tutorial up to the second mission of the Chaplain Reller campaign.
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Post by khearn on Apr 11, 2014 17:11:46 GMT -5
After playing a bit more during lunch, I'm finding that these fast aliens are forcing me to change tactics, and probably overall strategy. It used to be that I could have my captain or a scout bring up the rear. He could face backwards and fight until there were no more aliens in sight, then turn around and sprint to catch up with the rest of the squad. Even a 3-tile-per-move alien could only gain a couple of tiles per turn. With a fast captain or scout covering the rear, the point could keep moving at a decent pace, knowing that the tail end charlie would be able to catch up. Now an alien that was beyond his vision can move far enough to catch him from the rear in one turn. So tail end charlies now need to back up hallways at about 2 tiles per turn, even when no aliens are in sight. This means the entire squad has to slow down significantly, which means more aliens have time to attack, which means more ammo use.
So now the Naval Officer profession is looking much nicer with its ability to resupply ammo. Either than or trying to run a squad of all Berzerkers so running out of ammo simply isn't an issue.
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 11, 2014 17:16:17 GMT -5
Sounds like we should reallocate some of the balancing points from moves to attacks or accuracy?
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Post by khearn on Apr 11, 2014 17:34:17 GMT -5
Well, it's hard to say at this point. I went overnight from having aliens with speed of 1, 2, or 3 tile per move, to suddenly all of them seem to go 3, 4 or even 5 tiles per move (at least I think I've seen a few move 5 tiles in a hop, but I'm not 100% sure). So it's been a bit of a sudden change. If it had developed gradually over the course of the campaign, as it would normally, it might not have been so shocking.
But in the end, it still means that once you reach this stage with a squad, you are going to be moving quite a bit more slowly because you don't dare turn your back on an empty hallway for fear that an alien will be clawing at it before you can react.
But I also haven't had much chance to think about new tactics. One possibility is to have two people work together, covering each other's retreat. Call them Charlie and Baker. Charlie is the very rear of the squad, and Baker is just ahead of him in line. Both face the rear when fighting bugs at the rear of the squad with Baker providing phalanx fire past Charlie. Let's say the squad is heading north, so these guys are facing south with Baker just north of Charlie. When things look clear, Baker turns around and sprints north up the hall for a turn. Then in the next turn, Baker turns back around and faces south and if things still look clear, Charlie can turn and sprint up to the tile just south of Baker. So Baker is facing south, while Charlie is just south of him, facing north. If a bug come out of the fog and catches up to Charlie's backside, Baker can fire past Charlie to protect him. I haven't tried this out, but it sounds feasible. This should allow the two to move quicker than someone could just backing up the hall, while still avoiding getting their kidneys ripped out.
"Dammit! I didn't sign up to be a kidney donor!"
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