Well, I just played the newest update, and I enjoyed it so far, the skills are pretty fun, but not as unique as I though. Some characters have the same skills, which well, isn't as fun as I though, because each character is unique, so why can't their skills be too? But, the passive skills are well, they are pretty good, but nothing game changing so far. The only strategy that I had to change was deciding which hero should stay back and take care of my machines. In another subject, the difficulty, I have heard lots of complains about the new difficulty, and well, I like it personally, it finally gives me that feeling of survival, though I am not too happy about how enemies have faster speeds, with that new change, running away isn't much of a choice anymore, unless the fleeing hero is fast enough to run to safety..if there is safety. Though in the first dungeon, I must say that the map is usually really linear, which I like for the beginning, but it can be easily farmed if conditions are met. All the cosmetic changes are well received by me, the new rooms, and new graphics are great. One small problem I did encounter were some graphical glitches, I found out that it was due to the resolution in which I was playing, I played from the smallest, to the largest, at first it was great, then it ended up with lighting problems. Another small issue that I'd like to be fixed, would be if the keys could be configured.



What are your thoughts?

You heared lots of complaints about the new difficulty? Where did you hear those and what were they?

I think it's a step in the right direction but it still could be harder. I'll probably try to mod it. ^^

I don't see much difference in the difficulty, they mention a rebalance in the patch notes due to to the skill tree but it's not game breaking hard.



@Ail I wouldn't worry about difficulty being to easy either, there are still 6 floors that are going to be added with each level increasing difficulty. So making it even more difficult in the first 3-4 levels would mean the other 6 levels would be a nightmare lol.



I'd tell anyone that thinks the game is too easy to wait until the other levels are added before coming to conclusions, they can't really balance everything until the last levels are added anyways.

Ail wrote:
You heared lots of complaints about the new difficulty? Where did you hear those and what were they?

I think it's a step in the right direction but it still could be harder. I'll probably try to mod it. ^^

Saw it on Steam, I actually find the new difficulty to be fine, though to new players, it may seem strange or too hard. My girlfriend tried it, and well, died in the first two levels. I survived to the 4th level with no problem.

I only played a couple runs in 0.1.13 and I didn't have to strategize much to do well. Just lost my second run in 0.1.14 and I've had to think about a lot to survive. Most recently died because I got too greedy leveling characters; I didn't have a good food buffer for bringing the crystal to the exit so the carrier died.

Now it is harder than before. Haven't reached 4th level though, but I always closer and closer to get there. Im hoping some more uniqueness in the active skills of different heroes in the future too.

DaveyAlcala@live.com wrote:
Saw it on Steam, I actually find the new difficulty to be fine, though to new players, it may seem strange or too hard. My girlfriend tried it, and well, died in the first two levels. I survived to the 4th level with no problem.

Yeah, I found the discussion there and also was baffled, that a lot of the folks was considering the game too hard now.

I'd say it could be slightly harder still but feels about right.

I linked my Let's Play in the thread so they can see, that the game clearly is doable and can compare it with their play-style and analyze better what it could bet that's giving them troubles.



But maybe it's time to think about difficulty-levels. Obviously it's hard to find a setting where all players are pleased. If it is too easy a lot of players will be bored. But if it is harder, this, as we could see in the Steam-Thread, also puts people off.

About difficulty:



First of all, you know that we *try* to make a genre of game that is not intended to be won each time... The update has only just been released, so it makes sense that some of you didn't beat the game yet Try again, read guides or the wiki, watch Let’s Plays, and you’ll get there eventually! Some of our players have already found several times the last exit!



But obviously, the current balancing is far from being perfect, you're right! A lot of variables have been modified, so a lot of side effects have to be detected and fixed, and that's why we need your precious feedback during this alpha



Currently, some of you find the game too hard because you don't use all the features available to you (like the active pause [spacebar] or operating modules [heroeswiththepassiveskillmaystandnexttothemoduletoboostitsstats]). And that's our own fault; we know we have to improve the tutorial and the feedback in the game.



About the random part of the game, you can notice that it seems less important over time But then again, this is a very important topic and we’re working on that. With the addition of new features, like the choice of the starting ship & heroes, science and combos, we expect to give you more choices and consequently more control over the game.



FYI, for the release, we plan on adding difficulty levels.

I just beat the game in my 3rd run, got 4 heroes, all maxed level, decent items, and ended up with more food than I could use. This is beatable, and I enjoy this update far more than I thought I would, and now that I know that there will be difficulty levels, well that just makes me happy to have bought the founders pack. Great game so far guys, keep up the great work

@Mysterarts: I like how you wrote: "Currently, some of you find the game too hard because you don't use all the features available to you (like the active pause [spacebar] or operating modules [heroeswiththepassiveskillmaystandnexttothemoduletoboostitsstats]). And that's our own fault; we know we have to improve the tutorial and the feedback in the game."



That's about the politest possible way of saying "l2p noobs" ;D

Personally the new patch seems a little easier than the old one. Maybe I'm just getting really lucky on hero and merchant spawns. The layout changes to create more long corridors though are just so much easier to defend. In the previous patch I'd always tried to create long corridors that funnel waves into one or two very defensible rooms but it was often easier said than done with rooms intersecting one another more often. Now the game does it for me for the most part.

Game was too easy for my taste before, but now difficulty ramps too quickly in my opinon. Not all can have the superior gaming skills that some people here boastfully claim. You currently have 3 levels to ramp difficulty and I think you should use them, because too steep a difficulty curve at level 1 is offputting.



I suggest raising diificulty based on resources and crew members xp level when starting a new room to make it a bit adapative (get the player into "flow" or whatever). That way everyone faces roughly appropriate challenge from level 2. Those playing at higher level would automatically be rewarded with a higher score, since they would face more enemies/rooms or whatever your varaibles are.

Btw, I would not use resources as a variable since you achieve the same with more enemies/rooms and ressource starvation is not a as fun imho (limited resources good, starvation bad). I might consider raising the base earnings slightly and lower the value of ressource generators appropriately. This would also help curb late game overpowerment, while make comebacks more likely.

lolholm wrote:
Game was too easy for my taste before, but now difficulty ramps too quickly in my opinon. Not all can have the superior gaming skills that some people here boastfully claim. You currently have 3 levels to ramp difficulty and I think you should use them, because too steep a difficulty curve at level 1 is offputting.



I suggest raising diificulty based on resources and crew members xp level when starting a new room to make it a bit adapative (get the player into "flow" or whatever). That way everyone faces roughly appropriate challenge from level 2. Those playing at higher level would automatically be rewarded with a higher score, since they would face more enemies/rooms or whatever your varaibles are.

Btw, I would not use resources as a variable since you achieve the same with more enemies/rooms and ressource starvation is not a as fun imho (limited resources good, starvation bad). I might consider raising the base earnings slightly and lower the value of ressource generators appropriately. This would also help curb late game overpowerment, while make comebacks more likely.

Well the devs already mentioned that they would implement difficulty settings, but I do think that an adaptive difficulty would satisfy everyone. But right now the difficulty right now in the latest patch seems appropriate, gives me a challenge, and it adds new strategies for me to play around with. Though I personally think the vent rooms are still a bit scarce.

Hey, no argument on the difficulty spiking at level 1. The game is at its hardest on level one because that's when you have the least control over the way things are going. Get a bad roll on heros e.g. Opbot + a squishy and 0-1 major nodes in the first 3 rooms and you could be in for a very rough time. Once you get mid way through level 2 in my experience the game just kinda rolls from there and the difficulty drops off quite a bit. Increasing the number of waves that can spawn from 3 to 5-6 on level 4 is a good start but I don't think it's enough to make level 4 feel as hard as level 1 can at times. One thing that other roguelikes have done better IMO is constantly giving you the feeling that you're just barely scraping by. I never feel that way on level 3 or 4 though.

I'm liking the new update quite a bit. Skills change things a little bit, and the passives are a nice touch. Only thing I don't like is the difficulty spike on Floor 4. I've gone through it a few times, and the game decides that the player should get about 25% of the dust as the previous floors and easily half the number of module/node slots. That, and it seems that mobs spawn in just about every un-powered room now. I'm getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of the things since I have no way to power more defenses. It might just be that I've had a string of bad luck, but this is definitely on par with FTL's normal difficulty.

I just picked up this game a couple hours ago so I don't know what changed in the latest update. But I've been having a blast. I've only made it to level 3 on my best run. I've seen complaints about the difficulty but I find it to be challenging enough to keep it interesting and still have fun seeing what encounter is behind the next door I open.



I've only noticed a couple small bugs. Just visual and audio annoyances. But I'm looking forward to the coming patches and the eventual release!