The game is neither hard, nor easy, but totally broken.
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I think the game is fun. xD
I’ve already put 50+ hours into it.
Really? I’m just playing on veteran and I get to see them on the first diplomatic mission sometimes…
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My word! 
My thoughts too. I did look at the ‘empty magazine’ perk for heavies and wondered just how much damage you could do with one. Never thought of a sniper/heavy hybrid though, and the rocket suit/sniper pairing is awful tempting…
I could see it might make sense for a perk to strive for closer to end-of-game, but given the speed that you can move through the levels it seems like something that’s going to dominate during the mid game.
Surely it’s going to be nerfed in the first patch…
It’s not that the game is easy but rage burst is broken. Playing without a couple of broken skills, the game is tough. Should be addressed differently.
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Yup. I built to provide food to trade, it’s a good investment. I see they’ve slowed the mechanic by at least forcing you to fly to a settlement to trade, but even so…
I wonder whether this whole perks thing is part of the problem with getting a balanced game. Perhaps better to have development trees for weapons and armour and accumulated skills through training and experience. Then capture and research provide access to more weapons to balance against enemy strength.
But play testing the perks and balancing those must be an absolute nightmare, particularly given the hybrids. One small change in one place has consequences that’re difficult to predict and can break the game.
At one point I thought there was an analysis of the strength of the PP squad being sent on a mission and the opposing enemy adjusted to suit. But I suppose not.
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This is a very interesting thread.
Up to now, I had not really played with any of the multi-classing. With each of my soldiers I did not pick another class to specialize in. Partly, because I was just trying to keep them alive and level them up in their original class and partly because I was focused on other aspects of the game.
But reading some of the examples here of what can be done by combining classes makes me want to go home and start playing with it. Sniper with Heavy max skill and pump a clip into a creature? Wow…I so need that. Assault + Melee and using Assault’s ability to rapidly cover ground? Sweet. Makes the melee useful.
Are these overpowered? Does it make the game to easy?
I don’t know. It still takes time, effort, material and skill points to get a soldier to the point where you can do these combos. For the Sniper + Heavy you need someone at level 7 and I only just managed that recently (got a few there).
Honestly, the difficulty I am facing now in the game I would welcome some easy.
Even with a group of super soldiers (which would take quite a bit of effort and time), each with some optimal class combo, the battlefield is still pretty lethal and you could still easy lose a soldier and then you lose all the work, resources and points that were invested.
Make one of your bases full of training facilities. They will be max rank in a very very short time.
WAAAAAAAY faster then leveling via missions.
Just two training facilities in a base is around twice as fast as doing missions.
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Huh. Didn’t even think of that. Makes sense that multiple training facilities in a base would speed it up since the same is true for research of fabrication. And I just got access to research that boosts my training facilities by 50%. Could probably train some people up wicked fast.
Hmmm…I am starting to see how this could become considerably easier.
I think I could see doing this Ironman now. The tactical battles are deadly, but you can train people up pretty fast.
Assaults with high will points, return fire, the last ability that returs 2 action points and shotguns can fight back a lot. If you have a prist to give them frenzy then you got a squad.
Eventually with patches,DLC and mods it will get solved hoppefully and we[ll have more than way to play.
My first mission with 4 soldier with return fire suprise was a completely wtf beginner hell experience. Then after few missions is started to enjoy game a bit. Then i got scarab and rofled through missions. After maybe 20 missions. I thought wth am I doing. On the globe, which has “deep tactical strategy” i just hoppedihop around the world getting random event. The research tree i just click click whatever. And missions have too less enemies to be challange.
I never imagined that I would toss this game so quickly.
I found the game also too easy, though i never reached endgame. but its simply because there is no balance and a lot of detail is missing in too many ways. Highest diff should be extreme on every mission and every encounter should be thrilling.
This game needs atleast one year extra fine tuning and finding fun factor.
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Check out 2:41:02
Killed a scylla in one attack.
This was my first time running into these things. haha… Looked intimidating but it died like a scrub.
Based on what I have read here today, I have restarted (default difficulty). I will look to multi-class my soldiers and make one of my bases a training base with multiple training facilities. I will also self enforce Iron man mode to keep it challenging (hopefully).
That said, I still expect it to be difficult, but we will see. Based on my game play up to now, I cant imaging it becoming easy (even with the combos described in this thread).
Unfortunatly this only shows how broken some mechanics are. Sure killing a big enemy with one attack is kinda hillarious. But its also extremely boring.
It just means: take 6 Sniper/Heavy hybrids and some ammo to make even the hardest difficulty a cakewalk.
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Yeah I’ve had similar, all the havens after a week or so in game upgrade to ‘elite training facilities’, so no more basic classes at all.
Sometimes, elite training facilities in Havens spawn basic class soldiers. Recruited a Synedrion assault from one of these yesterday.
I usually search through havens that have recuits available and see their info to know what class the recruit is.
My thoughts on how to resolve the issues:
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Tone down stealth so that a 100% stealth infiltrator can’t solo the entire game with no risk. By this, I mean make it so that the infiltrator can be detected if he shoots or comes into contact with an enemy.
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Remove Rage Burst all together. It’s busted yo.
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Add cooldowns to abilities like Dash, Armor Break, Rally the Troops, etc… Being able to spam these abilities is what makes the game feel way too easy.
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Make Mind Control require 2 AP for everyone. This would allow for more counterplay with abilities like War Cry, etc…
I think just these 4 things would go a long way toward enhancing the gameplay experience.
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I would say, just make it useable with full-auto-fire weapons → assault rife, heavy maschine gun → no sniper, no cannon, etc.
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Maybe. It is still really strong with those weapons. I mean sure it is no 16 shot sniper rifle from 81 tiles away, but you can do some serious damage even with an assault rifle if you shred their armor first.
Another option for Rage Burst would be to up the AP and WP cost. 4 AP and all your WP or something… even then it is bonkers busted. Rage Burst is an awesome idea, but the mechanics need adjustment.