I appreciate the testing and feedback. I'm sure it needs adjustment, but bear in mind:
- alt-response goes up in proportion to the number of champions (it treats 0 as 1 for this); playing 8 champions AND high alt-response is really asking for it
- on diff 10 it should kill you
- it is much worse than the normal response, but that's partly because the normal response is actually really not doing its job (playing-with-champs is basically "easy mode" if you really utilize them). The champ-exos will be coming to normal-response soon, and possibly more.
- when I adapted the normal nemesis logic I made them be able to happen earlier in the game; it may be that they need to ramp-up from 0 at 0 to full at 2 hours or so
While I understand that Difficulty 10 should kill you, it's the "You will die in 45 minutes, no matter what you do" that bothers me. There's not even that false fig-leaf of hope that Diff 10 normally gives you.
There's also the fact that because the goodies are unlocked with higher Alt-Progress, and Alt-Progress should be matched by Alt-Response, you can't get everything until both are at 9+.
OR, remove all the goodies completely from Alt-Progress, so that Alt impacts nothing but the XP gain rate. Balance that so that Alt-Response intensity 6 or so is equal to the traditional response, and 10 is no more than a diff 10 Heroic AI.
I'm not sure what you mean. Even just having only-part of the goodies available was pretty much unacceptable to a significant chunk of the people giving feedback. That's why I tried to find a way to incorporate basically all of it
I meant disassociating goodie unlocks from the Alt-Progress setting. Aka, if Alt-Progress is on, at any intensity, you get everthing. The Alt-Progress setting itself only controls the rate the Knowledge coverts to XP in that case. The extra starbases, etc, may come with hull size or modules unlock count or something else, but not be directly dependent on Alt-Progress intensity.
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Re: Response
Right now the response is based on:
(Champ_# * ChampHullSize * AI_Difficulty_factor * Intensity_Factor) * (0.72 * 2) = #_Nemesis_per_Hour
AI_Difficulty_Factor for diff 7/8/9/10 is 1/2/3/6 if I remember correctly.
I'm not certain on Intensity_Factor, but at Intensity 1, Factor = 0.25, Intensity 4, Factor = 1, Intensity 5, Factor = 1.5, Intensity 9, Factor = 5, and Intensity 10, Factor = 6. No threatfleet spawns for Intensity 4 or lower.
For 1 Champion (or zero) frigate at diff 7 and intensity 9 (minimum to get everything), this results in 1 * 1 * 1 * 5 * (0.72 * 2) = 5 * 1.42 = 7 (actually 6, and halfway to the next spawn of 2).
Every hour or two, you'd need to find and destroy all the Threatfleet Nemesis. If you don't, in 10 hours, you'd be facing 70-ish Nemesis, which is enough to destroy most non-FS homeworlds. It also puts a severe crimp in attempting to hold any isolated or remore systems. 20-30 Nemesis frigates can wipe out most systems that have only turrets.
The second item is the Exowave. I tried hard to get one now, and finally managed through even more cheating.
The first double Exowave launches at 5:50 into the game, regardless of difficulty or intensity; second at 10:00. Looks like the charge rate is not based on difficulty or intensity - How's that work?
The number of Nemesis in the spawn is based on the exo-budget purchase price of 2480. First exo is 26,000 * intensity_factor points / 2.
On Intensity 4, this is 5 Nemesis frigates from each AI player.
On Intensity 9, this is 26 frigates from each AI player.
On intensity 10, this is 31 frigates from EACH AI player.
Each subsequent exo looks to be 25% larger.
Each additional Human Champion or hull size increases this Exo size, same as threatfleet spawns above. So double for 2 champs, etc. 8 Champions, Intensity 9 = 416 total Nemesis Frigates = Game Over, no matter what. 8 Champions, Battleship hull? Over
4000 Nemesis frigates for just the first Exo.
That means that on Intensity 9, with 1 frigate Champion, at 6 hours into the game, you will face 52 AI Nemesis frigates that will beeline to your Homeworld and attack your Home Command Center.
Anyway, what I'm thinking right now is:
- have the threatfleet-nemesis component of alt-response get a multiplier that starts at 0 at 0-time and scales up linearly to 1 at 2-hours-time-and-later.
- halve the rate at which threatfleet-nemesis units are spawned for alt-response
- have the effect of each extra champion on alt-response be +50% instead of +100% (so 8 would be +350% instead of +700%) since many of the benefits of higher alt-progress don't really scale up with the number of champs (though the main point of it does)
Reasonable for the next go-around?
For adjustments, instead of making it purely time-based, what about making it wait until after the first unlock before starting the response? So, the first ARS, FacIV, or 4 Fabs gives your Champion and upgrade, and also the AI a countering upgrade so to speak.
Right now, the Alt-Response is also per-AI player, as opposed to being AI 1 only, so basically everything is doubled from what it first appears to be. I'd suggest picking one of the two players randomly, and apply the response to that player each time.
For the threatfleet response, halving the rate means 1 Nemesis every 16 minutes at Diff 7, Intensity 9, 1 Champion. 4 per hour, roughly. 12/hr @ Diff 9, Int 9, 1 Champ. That's workable, if there is a cap on the total number of Threatfleet/Special Forces Nemesis out there. Maybe use:
(Champ_# * ChampHullSize * Intensity_Factor) = Nemesis cap? Like the multiplier above, but without the AI Diff factor.
That'd max out at 8 * 4 * 6 = 192. Roughly 200 Nemesis frigates is enough to kill almost anything - so maybe half that?
The multi-champion response tone down would be, hmm, still a total of 45 or so Nemesis frigates in the Exowave for a Diff 7, 1 Champion, Intensity 9 game. That's likely to be Death for anything but your Homeworld or chokepoint. If you put a cap on the Exo size, like I suggest on the Threatfleet, that might keep it to manageable limits. Instead of 45, you'd get 1 * 1 * 6 = 6 Nemesis Frigates in that first Exowave against a Diff 7, 1 Frigate Champion, Intensity 9 player, and 24 when it'd been upgraded to a Battleship.
Part of my dislike for the way this is going, at least the Threatfleet part, is that nome of this is a counter to the Champions. Instead, it's increased AI response through the normal channels. The Threatfleet will use those Nemesis to crush isolated systems when you fleet and Champions aren't there.
I feel like I've said this before... Yup, there was
a thread from this time last year, where I expressed the same concerns. I'm guessing, after reviewing that thread, that the current Alt-implementation came from there... but it still has the real problem of matching tool to counter.
Maybe instead of spawning normal Threatfleet units, it spawns a unit that behaves almost like Special Forces, doing nothing but hunting the Human Champions through AI space? Add in some Armored Warheads with that behavior - watch the Human player be surprised at the sudden BOOM that wipes out his Champions. Have units spawn that just camp the Nebula entrances. Make a unit that has the ability to drain Champion Shadow Power, and have it join the hunt. Stuff like that, that targets the Champions without being overwhelming.
I kinda like the Exos, as long as they stay small enough to handle with reasonable defenses.