Re: Heroic 1.1 Mod
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2024 1:39 pm
Okay. I probably will not be playing this anytime in the future soon, but I can help bugfix if need be, anyone else reports things.
My advice for balancing difficulty, especially in regards to vanilla gameplay:
If you want more difficult Tan attacks, they should never be simply made bigger. I would recommend either making them slightly faster (either sending them sooner, or sending them more frequently) or replacing units with "stronger" variants. For example, instead of grunts, send grenadiers. Instead of machine gunners, send snipers. Instead of half-tracks, send tanks. Add a single mortar man to a squad. There are lots of ways to drastically increase the effectiveness of the enemy AI in very subtle ways.
Another reason making enemy squads even 10-20 seconds more frequent, or the reason why the vanilla game only sends squads every 5 or so minutes: the Tan AI has the advantage of having an already fully constructed base, AND has an exorbitant amount of resources, AND being a computer player is can micro-manage perfectly. 10 - 20 seconds can make a big different when you are out of resources, and you're trying to fight your way in after trading units with towers and other static defenses. It also helps in that, while the Tan is attacking the player, yes, the main flow of the game is going to usually be the player advancing onto the Tan's territory. Meaning that they have the advantage in that their facilities construct units which are then thrust into battle sooner: they have less distance to go after all and pretty much construct as soon as possible (ignoring build modifier handicaps of course).
My advice for balancing difficulty, especially in regards to vanilla gameplay:
If you want more difficult Tan attacks, they should never be simply made bigger. I would recommend either making them slightly faster (either sending them sooner, or sending them more frequently) or replacing units with "stronger" variants. For example, instead of grunts, send grenadiers. Instead of machine gunners, send snipers. Instead of half-tracks, send tanks. Add a single mortar man to a squad. There are lots of ways to drastically increase the effectiveness of the enemy AI in very subtle ways.
Another reason making enemy squads even 10-20 seconds more frequent, or the reason why the vanilla game only sends squads every 5 or so minutes: the Tan AI has the advantage of having an already fully constructed base, AND has an exorbitant amount of resources, AND being a computer player is can micro-manage perfectly. 10 - 20 seconds can make a big different when you are out of resources, and you're trying to fight your way in after trading units with towers and other static defenses. It also helps in that, while the Tan is attacking the player, yes, the main flow of the game is going to usually be the player advancing onto the Tan's territory. Meaning that they have the advantage in that their facilities construct units which are then thrust into battle sooner: they have less distance to go after all and pretty much construct as soon as possible (ignoring build modifier handicaps of course).