2041

There’s one late-game enemy, who’s an old favorite, who has a few tricks up its sleeve that will surprise you. But it’s not quite the same as UFO Defense as far as oppressive atmosphere goes.

2042

I did play on normal (needed to get through the game for my review, and when I played classic in the preview, I realized it would take too long). Still, shouldn’t casual have a shackled A.I. and normal have, well, the normal A.I.?

Either way, I hope to start up a classic game soon. The final mission is … I’ll just say that it has problems.

2043

So to play a “Normal” game we play on “Classic” because Normal is a gimped AI?

2044

I wouldn’t be surprised if the AI, like the original game, isn’t very good. It’s just the illusion of good. I will explain:
In most missions (all of them?) the aliens are at the defensive in the map, your mission is to eliminate all of them, you are the attacker. That allows the designers to have a static AI with maybe a few wandering AI patrols doing a circuit, that only attacks when you engage one of them. The fov will make them seem more interesting, as from to time to time it will coincide that some alien will attack that you didn’t spot before from another direction.
And the map sizes doesn’t allow for… I don’t know, big flanking maneuvers, ambushes, or whatever more interesting strategic actions.

In other words, just by the design of these games, it’s easy to make a “serviceable” AI. They have to add just a few nice tactical tricks like maybe “when alien A does a suppression action, alien B does a dash action” and “use a grenade if two allied soldiers are close”, etc and the final user experience will be that the AI is indeed, good.

2045

You should have played at least a pair of hours in Classic, to have an impression of the difference between Normal and Classic, and extrapolate with your Normal campaign.

Impossible, btw, seems really really impossible. Only two guys got to do it, I read.

2046

I did play it classic many times on the preview build and failed each time, and with three days to play, finish, and write, I couldn’t take the risk, heh. But I didn’t write about the A.I. in my review.

Yes, impossible is just so. I couldn’t ever finish the starting mission.

2047

So… what are the differences? more aliens? more HP and damage for them? Prices more expensive in geoscape? More aliens attack in the globle?

2048

And more importantly, how are we rewarded as players when we bump up the difficulty to “Classic”?

2049

Interview with Solomon about the difficulty.

2050

The aliens have much better to-hit percentages – they hardly ever miss in classic even if you’re behind cover. Their attacks also do more damage. And your soldiers’ aim becomes just awful. I felt like I was missing targets a lot more on classic than on normal. These seem to be the biggest differences.

All the flanking, use of abilities, use of items … I didn’t notice much of a difference between the difficulties. And I didn’t notice any prices changing or there being more Geoscape missions.

2051

You feel better with yourself? :P

2052

if you beat the game on classic, you will receive a gold star in the mail acknowledging that you’re a bad enough dude to save the world from an extraterrestrial threat. Either that or a warm, feel good feeling knowing that you just beat the game on classic difficulty.

2053

I’m pretty sure there’s an achievement for beating Ironman on classic/impossible, if you’re into that kind of thing.

2054

Easy:

  1. Base global panic starts at 0
  2. Most alien activity only raises panic by 1 in left unchecked
  3. Your soldiers have 1 bonus hitpoint
  4. Aliens are dumber, and there aren’t as many of them
  5. Soldiers cost $10

Normal:

  1. Base global panic starts at 0
  2. Most minor alien activity raises panic by 1 in left unchecked with some events doing up to 3
  3. Your soldiers have no bonus hitpoints
  4. Aliens have their AI mostly unshackled
  5. Soldiers cost $10

Classic:

  1. Base global panic starts at 8 (1 per location)
  2. If unchecked alien activity causes at least 1 panic, but will often cause 2 or 3
  3. Your soldiers have -1 hitpoint
  4. All aliens receive bonuses hit hitpoints, accuracy, critical change and / or damage.
  5. Alien AI is unshackled
  6. You receive no officer training school
  7. There are even more aliens per map
  8. Soldiers cost $15

Impossible:

  1. Base global panic starts at 16 (2 per location)
  2. If unchecked alien activity causes at least 2 panic, but will often cause even more
  3. Your soldiers have -2 hitpoints
  4. All aliens receive bonuses hit hitpoints, accuracy, critical change and / or damage.
  5. Alien AI is unshackled
  6. You receive no officer training school
  7. There are even more aliens per map
  8. Soldiers cost $15
2055

The developers talked about this (they have been crazy open about the entire development process but I can’t keep track of where I remember hearing all this information) but the gist of it was that Normal was where everyone is going to start, so they have to cater to many peoples, such as those who have never played a proper strategy game before. Classic Ironman is what the developers consider the “PURE” way to play, but they do recommend Normal for even die hard fans of the game, as Classic doesn’t give a lot of wiggle room for mistakes. Conversely, Normal mode is where you can more easily experiment with your tactical and stretegic options, preparing you for either Normal Ironman or Classic/Classic Ironman. Seeing the differences in difficulty, it’s clear the games “rules” are tuned towards Classic, especially with a properly unshackled AI.

Since I’m not reviewing it (for a professional site) I’m going to enjoy banging my head on Classic Ironman for awhile, and treating it like a massive rogue-like. I’ll probably never touch Impossible, instead using the Second Wave options and Ironman mode to tweak difficulty as needed.

It’s awesome that we have so many options, AND a solid AI to boot, right out of the box.

2056

Well, that’s comprehensive. Thanks Bleed.

2057

Any time! It beats sitting here at work staring at the clock. :)

I will quick comment that I would have preferred either a fifth difficulty between Normal and Classic that kept everything flat (in terms of starting panic, costs, etc.) but had the full blown AI OR had an option (even a “second wave” option) that was something along the lines of "unshackle the AI regardless of chosen difficulty. I’m content with Normal Ironman being that bridge though, assuming at some point I can consider Classic the best way to play, which isn’t a forgone conclusion - I may well get mad that I can’t win on Classic but I can never lose on Normal (even Normal Ironman).

It’s a problem I have with CiV - no matter how much I play (120+ hours so far) I can beat Prince almost every time, but on King I lose nearly every game. Frustrating!

2058

Ah, but why should you be rewarded at all, other than with a hearty pat on the back and maybe an achievement?

The idea of offering players rewards other than bragging rights for playing harder difficulty levels is a broken one, in general. Difficulty levels exist so that players can find the level they enjoy the best. Adding incentives for a player to choose a difficulty he isn’t really up for just muddies the water, causing the player to thwart his own fun. “Well, Hard is cheap and annoying and I hate it … but I get better XP and treasure…”

Adding mechanical incentives to choose a higher difficulty also makes game balance more difficult. Old school RPGs often gave more XP and/or loot for harder difficulties, with the unintended consequence that “hard” mode could be easier than normal once you got a few levels into the game.

2059

Awesome. The Torchlight 2 debate is infecting this thread as well.

2060

I was being somewhat facetious, since Tom asked the same question in the Torchlight 2 thread which made for a strong debate over several pages regarding exactly that.

What is interesting to me, is that actually in a game like this, for some reason I’m unsure whether its worth playing on the Classic mode with the listed disabilities.

All I really want is a good AI that acts, and not one that sits patiently and waits for the fog of war to be lifted, like it seems to be the case currently in Normal.