Author Topic: Some more feedback on Expert mode  (Read 1847 times)

Offline Misery

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Some more feedback on Expert mode
« on: September 15, 2013, 07:25:18 am »
Ok, so, I've spent some more time with Expert mode, going about 1/5th of the way through the game.  So far, so good.

This is definitely a step up from the other modes;  you need to be able to make good use of the special items like mines and sentries to be able to really make it here.   Item power now raises a bit faster from one level to the next, so there's stronger things to get and my guys tend to have a good amount of shielding, and this works out nicely with the rate at which the enemy bot power is increasing.  Some of these guys are pretty damn tough.   Also, SilenceBots.  BAH.  That's what I think of them.

I've only had a couple of actual deaths from enemy attacks, and a few deaths that were my brawler dissolving himself (oops). But it's alot harder to completely avoid damage here, particularly when you get enemies like the TeslaBots that have 20 range, and Commands/Masterminds giving them loopy buffs. 

It's easy to screw up in this mode, so you've really gotta be paying attention, and maxing out your stats as much as possible is a must.  So that part is going well. 

Some of this may change a bit with the Bahamut upgrades, but I havent found any of them yet, for once they didn't generate overly close to the starting point.

The one thing that has been kinda annoying has been the enemy bot selections;  I know that in the early part of the game it is basically using a hand-picked bot selection to give the player a bit of time to power up before letting the RNG go nuts, but doing 6 missions in a row that's all CommandBots, Masterminds, SilenceBots, and some snipers and such, the same ones each time, can get old.   My suggestion is to create multiple hand-picked groups... like 3 or 4.... that the game can randomly choose between for the early game missions.  Simply to keep it from getting stale.


Overall, it's providing a good challenge.   No problems yet, and quite enjoying it.


Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Some more feedback on Expert mode
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2013, 09:46:59 am »
I know that in the early part of the game it is basically using a hand-picked bot selection
FWIW on Expert HandDesignedBotMixForDays is set to zero, so I don't think that's what you're seeing :)
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Offline Misery

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Re: Some more feedback on Expert mode
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2013, 10:38:42 am »
I know that in the early part of the game it is basically using a hand-picked bot selection
FWIW on Expert HandDesignedBotMixForDays is set to zero, so I don't think that's what you're seeing :)

Buh.... that surprises me.  I kept getting the same mix over and over and over for the first 5 or 6 missions.   Commandbot, Mastermind, SilenceBot, BlasterBot, ThiefBot, and the occaisional Razor or Bat. Over and over and over....

Offline Hyfrydle

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Re: Some more feedback on Expert mode
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2013, 11:26:01 am »
I was playing on normal earlier and also seemed to get the same mix mission after mission some more variety would really help things and keep the player on their toes.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Some more feedback on Expert mode
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2013, 12:48:08 pm »
I know that in the early part of the game it is basically using a hand-picked bot selection
FWIW on Expert HandDesignedBotMixForDays is set to zero, so I don't think that's what you're seeing :)

Buh.... that surprises me.  I kept getting the same mix over and over and over for the first 5 or 6 missions.   Commandbot, Mastermind, SilenceBot, BlasterBot, ThiefBot, and the occaisional Razor or Bat. Over and over and over....
Sounds like a bug to me, though I guess it's possible it's not.  More Chris's thing than mine.  If you wouldn't mind mantising that so he sees it, with an emphasis on "on Expert", that would help.

FWIW, the first day's prefab bot list (for any difficulty by Expert, which should totally ignore this) is DumBot, DumBotInvigorated, AmmoBot, BatBot, and EagleBot.

So if you're seeing CommandBot, BlasterBot, etc (some special ones may seed even during the prefab phase, I dunno) on the very first day then it's definitely not using the prefab list.

In the non-prefab branch the robot types picked look right to me.  There's a MinimumDayForSeeding for WyvernBot, RaptorBot, AvalancheBot, and PantherBot, but pretty much all the other ones should be fair game.  If I'm reading this code right.
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Offline Gemzo

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Re: Some more feedback on Expert mode
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2013, 10:40:14 pm »
I've noticed that the enemy bots have, indeed, been the same types for every single mission. After playing on both normal and expert, the enemies seem to always stay the same types regardless of difficulty. After the minimum day count for a bot type is over, they might suddenly join the mix, but that's all the variety I've seen.

Offline Winge

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Re: Some more feedback on Expert mode
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2013, 10:47:03 pm »
Oh.  I thought that was intentional behavior, much like the AI's picks in AI War.  :o
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