The "default" difficulty

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Ivan Rajic
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:56 am

The "default" difficulty

Post by Ivan Rajic »

Hey!

Just a quick question that I can't seem the find the answer to anywhere. Which difficulty do you think is the "default" one? I.e. the one around which the developers did the balancing for what they considered to be a challenging but fun experience? Is it Normal or Classic?

Thanks!
Amineri

Re: The "default" difficulty

Post by Amineri »

Ivan Rajic wrote:Hey!

Just a quick question that I can't seem the find the answer to anywhere. Which difficulty do you think is the "default" one? I.e. the one around which the developers did the balancing for what they considered to be a challenging but fun experience? Is it Normal or Classic?

Thanks!
This varied a bit. Way back when LW for EU was first being developed, it was really mostly a mod on top of Impossible. As time went on, we expanded to more difficulties. I'm not really sure whether the default should be Normal or Classic -- it depends on the player. An experienced turn-based tactics player should probably default to Classic, while someone less familiar should default to Normal, IMO.
Ivan Rajic
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:56 am

Re: The "default" difficulty

Post by Ivan Rajic »

Thanks! That's sort of what I figured.

The tactical missions on Normal started being a bit of a push-over already in May or June. Basically, Thin Men are scary in April, and the 4hp Sectoids shake things up a bit, because you cannot count on almost completely reliably one-shotting them anymore. But, from then on, once your troops rank up and you get a bit better gear, things become easier again. Particularly the EXALT missions where they need to destroy the relays. Their low-ish hp and running towards the relays basically mean you can generally butcher them with ease, if you're careful and don't get utterly unlucky. And even the new aliens, Mecthoids and whatnot, are not hugely difficult, as long as you're careful.

I'm thinking that the extra hp EXALT gets on Classic might change that up a bit. And the small buffs all enemies get, while not really being in-your-face obvious (as, say, extra hp are), will for sure add up over the course of the campaign. The 5% extra aim, for example, doesn't look like much, but with thousands upon thousands of shots, that's going to be hundreds of extra shots hitting my troops.

Also, I seem to be noticing more aliens on Classic? Specifically an extra pod. Like, a light abduction or even the first mission have around 10 aliens, whereas I seem to remember that on Normal they'd have around 7? Am I just imagining this, or are there extra pods or aliens per pod? Because this increase is not listed on Ufopaedia. It actually makes for a perceptible difference in tactics - if there's an extra pod, I end up using more explosives, being more careful with moving, etc.

In the strategy game, though, at least in the early game, there does seem to be more of a discrete jump in base building. I guess it has to be, because the base building is quite discrete and most steps are jumps anyway. You definitely feel the lower funding, and the extra 2 power that you do NOT get actually make a big difference. You want a workshop, and you have 3 instead of 5 power, that's an extra generator. And with the lower funding, it definitely makes a difference.

I'm wondering how the quicker alien research will work out, as according to Ufopaedia, it's a jump from 70% to 100% speed, which is more than a 40% increase from the Normal levels. I'm guessing that's going to have a very perceptible impact at the tactical level. The same with the lower amount of alloys and weapon fragments, neither of which I ever felt I particularly lacked on Normal.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the effect of the faster research on the air game. I can completely see that you guys tried to do whatever was possible to make it more than the few clicks it boiled down to in vanilla, but, at least early on, it really is too RNG based for my taste. The only tactics are basically to choose when to abort and whether to engage a UFO at all. Both decisions ultimately depend on what will happen in the future (i.e. can you afford the repair times), but you cannot know what the aliens have planned, so it's really a stab in the dark. That does change later on, but essentially, the progress in the air-game is about reducing the importance of the RNG (higher hit chance, longer engagement times, higher damage, etc). In that context, having the aliens improve their UFOs faster looks like it's just going to prolong the period where the air-game is too much of an RNG gamble against future unknown events.

OK, this post was just meant to be a short thank you for the quick answer, but I just ended up writing my thoughts on the difficulty. Sorry for the wall of text! :)
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