RFC: rebalancing the mid and late game?

[osheroff]

I just finished another expert plus play-through, and I'm starting to think that the balance of Invisible is pretty out of whack: the early game is very very hard, and the mid-late game is very easy, by comparison.

 

The first few missions must be done with the utmost care.  I die a lot in the first few missions, sometimes through carelessness, but sometimes I just get into trouble that can't be avoided: RNG spawns 4 guards in a room and you have to do what you can to slip past.  I love those kind of situations, to be honest; trying to come up with a creative way out of a jam is what got me hooked on this game in the first place. 

 

Compare this to the penultimate mission of my last play-through, where every agent was decked out in full stats, had multiple level 3 cloaks, stims, and powerful enough weapons.  I played sloppily and got spotted by a guard 3 or 4 times, but it was really no big deal.  Rush popped a cloak, borrowed a stim and tackled the guard.  It wasn't hard, so it wasn't fun. 

 

Specific imbalances I can name:

 

- Tagging is so powerful I've forbidden myself from using it.  

- Same with the econ chip.  I know I can breeze through a playthrough with Seed + Econ chip, so I forbid myself.

- Cloak L3 (especially when combined with Chameleon Movement) is pretty overpowered; I will often build an agent with max-speed, a couple of stims and a L3 cloak, and I can scout a lot of the map by the first alarm level effortlessly.  Once the map is scouted I feel like you've got 80% of the level done, and cloaking is the "nuclear bomb" of rock-paper-scissors; nothing beats cloaking.

- The DLC made alarm level 1 much harder, but the rest of the alarm levels are actually easier, since no new guards enter the level on L3, 4, 5.

 

Anyone feel the same?  Interested in tinkering around with a balancing mod?  There'd be a couple of different ways to approach tuning it, I feel:

 

- do the hard-work approach of trying to tune each item, either by nerfing it or adding counters (infrared cameras, anyone?)

- you could simply add guards to the level.  I'm not sure this would work.

- there may be some bigger ideas that might change the balance of the game.  Perhaps you could make the levels grow much larger as the game progresses?  Or give out less economic rewards?

- other stuff?

 

 

[Barleytree]

I completely agree. This is especially noticeable in the DLC with it's overly-lenient 'difficulty boost' at a point in the game where even Omni stop being a threat.

 

Another point I'd add is the balance of higher levels of items.

 

For instance, a Buster Chip II is strictly better than a Buster Chip I, in every regard. you get more firewalls broken and a shorter cooldown. When I first played the game, I was actualy surprised to discover this; I had been convinced that a higher tier of Buster Chip would would have a longer cooldown, to balance its potency. This is the same for cloaks, neurals and so on.

 

I get that you're paying for a better product with extra credits, and the risks that higher security levels bring, but there comes a point when your higher tier item is just going to trivialise the game. And they do, as you point out in the case of Cloaking III.

 

So I think an item rebalance would be one possible way to tackle this issue. Although, that approach might be more controversial than the others.

[osheroff]

 

I get that you're paying for a better product with extra credits, and the risks that higher security levels bring, but there comes a point when your higher tier item is just going to trivialise the game. And they do, as you point out in the case of Cloaking III.

 

 

Yeah, so credits in theory could be the grand equalizer.  It doesn't matter if an item is overpowered, if it's expensive enough you can only get so many of them -- one L3 cloak with chameleon movement is an awesome asset, but probably doesn't break the game.  6 L3 cloaks does.

 

I've tried playing with a lower credits multiplier (or fewer safes, and with no starting credits), but that seems to make the early game even harder, where I feel that the early game is about right.

 

Maybe balance could be taken on from a purely economic perspective (the "greenspan mod?")

 

- jack up the costs of all the higher level items

- stop letting anarchy L5 fish L3 stims and the like out of pockets

- (maybe) reduce STEAL credits?  

[Quaro]

I agree the end game balance is out of whack with the early game.  Early game is just right.  End game I sometimes wonder if I should bother finishing, once I have the right combos, I know I can pretty much solve anything.  It's just a matter of grinding out the levels.

 

I think you want to do a little of all of your strategies.  Nerf the most overpowered combinations a bit, and ramp up the difficulty in the later missions.   

[cphoenix]

Tweaking the new alarm levels after the Contingency Plan mission by having them also spawn new guards could do a whole lot to solve the late-game easiness. I just breezed through the final mission by just knocking-out every guard and paralyzing all of them. After that alarm levels are meaningless because all the guards are down; who cares if they get extra armour or KO resistance?

[invscribe]

Perhaps you could make the levels grow much larger as the game progresses

 

I think that is an excellent idea, and I think it can be done. Mind if I mark it on my to-do list?

[osheroff]

invscribe, sure go for it.  I don't have anything started for a rebalance mod, just sorta collecting thoughts.  have you started work on something?

[osheroff]

ah, I just saw your other post.  Cool.