Pavonis Interactive Forums

As it currently stands ADVENT forces grow far too strong far too quickly. Power Surge coupled with obscene dark events end up railroading the player. I am proposing a rework to help solve this problem:

1)At the start of the game, give ADVENT x number of strength tokens. These tokens will then be spread out across all regions(i.e lets say there are 10 regions and ADVENT has 20 tokens, each region would have 2 strength.)ADVENT can gain more through a new reinforcement dark event.

2)The number of tokens in a region dictates the strength of that region ONLY:
Strength 0: the player will only encounter basic ADVENT troops and maybe a drone or two.
Strength 1: all of the above with captains added
....
Strength 10: SECTOPODS AND GATEKEEPERS EVERYWHERE.

You get the idea.

3)Liberation of a region destroys the tokens placed there PERMANENTLY.(i.e you liberate a strength 5 region and ADVENT only had 20 tokens, Now they only have global strength of 15.)This will allow the player to ACTUALLY gain the upper hand on the strategy layer rather than always playing from behind

4)ADVENT can acquire more token through a Dark Event: Off World Reinforcement. If allow to complete will grant ADVENT x token to add to occupied regions. Should only take place in extremely high strength regions.

5)Give advent an HQ region with special dark events such as Off World Reinforcement.

How is that any different from how things actually are ?

Yeah, this is pretty much exactly how it works already.

The only differences are that there's also a global hidden Force Level value that influences overall unit strength/tech level/etc. and that the Offworld Reinforcement events are regular missions rather than specially-highlighted Dark Events.

Actually, I think liberating a region just displaces their strength into nearby regions. I had a region jump up 2 or 3 strength almost immediately after I liberated a nearby region. The region had no connection to other occupied regions. In fact, my idea was to liberate it's two connected regions, and leave it weak except for UFO reinforcements, which I imagined to be either be rarer or more lucrative than land-supplied reinforcements.

While liberating a region is still worth it, thanks to the copious resources from an HQ attack, and a region now capable of doing nothing but producing supplies, it doesn't feel like I've actually weakened ADVENT overall, and makes the Liberation feel more like the ultimate supply raid, rather than a significant blow to the aliens.

Word of JL says Liberation destroys up to 5 advent legions and the rest are pushed off to surrounding regions.

Do you guys think ADVENT reinforce too often?

Maybe a little? I've seen them concentrate a lot of force strength into one or two regions and leave most of the rest of the world at low strength though, so it's not like I'm staring down 14 regions of Force Strength 12 or anything.

This will allow the player to ACTUALLY gain the upper hand on the strategy layer rather than always playing from behind

One thing I will say here is that your goal is not to gain the upper hand on the strategy layer. Your goal is to survive long enough and liberate just enough to break the Avatar Project and defeat the aliens at their source. You need to aim for a decapitating strike.

You are a platoon on a flying ship, backed by countless fleshy civilians with crap guns vs a well equipped planetary defense force that can replenish itself at a whim and is backed up by superior alien forces.

You aren't supposed to get the upper hand.

Randal Miser wrote:You are a platoon on a flying ship, backed by countless fleshy civilians with crap guns vs a well equipped planetary defense force that can replenish itself at a whim and is backed up by superior alien forces.

You aren't supposed to get the upper hand.

Agree: it is much more like the Taliban: they are "liberating" parts of Afghanistan, they may organise a terror strike on New York, but conquering the world?