Hard mode difficulty changes

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

Ive been looking around but the only info i found is that Hard difficulty increases damage taken and decreases damage done for player ship.
I tried testing it in combat, but it is very hard to get consistent outputs since it heavily dependent on hit rate I do/recieve when testing aginst 1-2 enemy fighters, and it seems that there are little difference when there are more enemies invovled - since unless i run and spread enemy thin, i will die no matter game difficulty.

Does anybody know exact numbers for those modifiers and if there are any other changes being made by hard difficulty?

[ezra-r]

I don't know them, but consider this:

AI will never be smarter than you, but let's say in a realistic scenario, 1 vs 5 is sure death, so Hard difficulty is as it is, compensates the lack of AI inteligence with superior damage to match a realistic scenario without being too overwhelming in 1vs1 or 1vs2/3, so unless you manuver very very well and use all the tricks as your disposal when you are surrounded, or approach a capital ship carelessly, you will get killed.

So I would consider Hard difficulty is quite well balanced right now.

---

I remember when game was released, AI was more or less the same, but enemies were easy to kill and boring, luckily the odds are even now, since you won't engage lots of fighters without checking you have enough shields to boost out, or far away from a station you can hide behind, and even taking down a capital ship will require you time and patience, and not being too careless, oh and last but not least, missiles are your best friends now not like before.

Now I leave you to the figures somebody else may provide.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

Well, ive been playing on hard for almost 20 hours so far, picking it mostly for the sake of steam achievments

The problem is that I am a kind of gamer who hates game balancing by damage modifiers and other similiar things, ending in situation where, lets say, my weapon does less damage than completely identical weapon enemy has simply because... It hits hard on suspension of disbelief for me.
On the other hand I dont mind a healthy challenge and situation where game becomes too easy because of inept AI.
So far, as I said, I havent noticed dramatical changes between Hard and Normal modes, but the thought that game is unbalanced and numerically stacked against me simply for the sake of artifical difficulty is chewing me from inside If I had some numbers, at least I could have made informed decition on whether i want to continue with buffs/debuffs difficulty makes, or want to disable it. I can put up with maybe 10-15% of dealt/recieved damage difference, but if its any higher, I think I might want to revert back to normal simply to experience game universe as-is, wihtout artifiticial buffs/debuffs.

[ezra-r]

Well, ive been playing on hard for almost 20 hours so far, picking it mostly for the sake of steam achievments

The problem is that I am a kind of gamer who hates game balancing by damage modifiers and other similiar things, ending in situation where, lets say, my weapon does less damage than completely identical weapon enemy has simply because... It hits hard on suspension of disbelief for me.
On the other hand I dont mind a healthy challenge and situation where game becomes too easy because of inept AI.
So far, as I said, I havent noticed dramatical changes between Hard and Normal modes, but the thought that game is unbalanced and numerically stacked against me simply for the sake of artifical difficulty is chewing me from inside If I had some numbers, at least I could have made informed decition on whether i want to continue with buffs/debuffs difficulty makes, or want to disable it. I can put up with maybe 10-15% of dealt/recieved damage difference, but if its any higher, I think I might want to revert back to normal simply to experience game universe as-is, wihtout artifiticial buffs/debuffs.

I know what you mean.

I hated it in Skyrim where in the hardest difficulty I had to puncture a bad guy with dozens of arrows to kill him where one of his would kill me right away hehe.

But in my experience Rebirth is not like that, I am not even sure your weapons do less damage than theirs. Just that those little fighters that shoot you have more than 1 gun, while you can only 1 at a time.

I am not sure of the exact numbers for balance, but after hundreds of hours I haven't felt what I had in Skyrim in any chance.

If I recall correctly, Egosoft tweaked the speed and range of turrets, but damage was the same for player and AI, just, that like I mentioned, fighters have more guns than you do by design, and they turn and shoot you so you have to use everything at your disposal, like manuvering, boosting, missiles... just hard enough to balance it well.

Seriously, I think Egosoft did a great job in this one to compensate AI deficits without doing artificial overwhelming

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Damage modifiers apply to weapons but since NPC fighters rarely shoot missiles (compare player's potential RoF for V Crushers, for example), I don't think the odds are particularly stacked against the Skunk on Hard once familar with the game.

Are Skunk and NPC armour HP, shield HP and weapon DPSs the same in the encyclopaedia across all difficulty levels? Since the Official Combat Beta, I've only every played hard and never looked. lol.

[GCU Grey Area]

Are Skunk and NPC armour HP, shield HP and weapon DPSs the same in the encyclopaedia across all difficulty levels?

Encyclopedia entries are the same irrespective of difficulty level, therefore probably refer to normal difficulty.

I am not even sure your weapons do less damage than theirs. Just that those little fighters that shoot you have more than 1 gun, while you can only 1 at a time.

In many cases Skunk's weapons are more powerful versions of the guns installed in fighters (even if they share the same name) presumably to offset the fact that the fighters often have several of them installed.

Couple of examples:
The Pulsed Maser mk1 installed in many fighters has a DPS of 1400, whereas Skunk's version does 3600.
Other fighters are fitted with Plasma Repeater mk1 (DPS 2400), whereas Skunk gets the Plasma Cannon instead (DPS 5600 for the mk1 version).

[Snafu_X3]

Sparky.. you use V-crushers against fast-moving targets? You have a better sytstem than me then (unless you're just trying to get rid of them)

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

He he he, no way am I that good

I meant they don't spam them against my capitals and stations

...which given the propensity for the Daito/Katana to shoot their own missiles in front of their face is probably a good thing! Hahaha

[Goobers]

Are Skunk and NPC armour HP, shield HP and weapon DPSs the same in the encyclopaedia across all difficulty levels?

Encyclopedia entries are the same irrespective of difficulty level, therefore probably refer to normal difficulty.

I am not even sure your weapons do less damage than theirs. Just that those little fighters that shoot you have more than 1 gun, while you can only 1 at a time.

In many cases Skunk's weapons are more powerful versions of the guns installed in fighters (even if they share the same name) presumably to offset the fact that the fighters often have several of them installed.

Couple of examples:
The Pulsed Maser mk1 installed in many fighters has a DPS of 1400, whereas Skunk's version does 3600.
Other fighters are fitted with Plasma Repeater mk1 (DPS 2400), whereas Skunk gets the Plasma Cannon instead (DPS 5600 for the mk1 version).

In the story, the Skunk's weapons (Pulse Maser, for example) are prototype versions... Namely be more like mk 0.

With the commercial version being weaker (prototype overheating too fast?).

[PabloRSA]

I have notice that on easy level the reward for missions was on average 1M at the start and for hard it is on average 350k.

Also i read, that you get more enemies flying around the universe. Instead of the usual random 3 attacking the station, it will be 4.

I don't know much about the ships at the moment, but to use X3 reference. Easy mode will be 3 Busters, where as hard, would be 3 Novas

[Goobers]

I have notice that on easy level the reward for missions was on average 1M at the start and for hard it is on average 350k.

Also i read, that you get more enemies flying around the universe. Instead of the usual random 3 attacking the station, it will be 4.

I don't know much about the ships at the moment, but to use X3 reference. Easy mode will be 3 Busters, where as hard, would be 3 Novas

In the early portion so far, and on hard vs normal... the ships are the same, but they definitely hit harder (maybe they're more accurate?).

When I started on normal last weekend, the two drones in the beginning gave me a little hassle by taking most of my shields (I guess it's because it's been a while since I've played even a space based game)...

However, two days ago, those same two drones in hard mode, ripped off my shield and practically shredded my Skunk... I survived with about 1/3 of my hull left.

Considering I had close to a week to get re-acquainted with playing a space game (and X in particular)... I should be at least a little better than when I fought the two drones in normal mode.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

I was lucky to encounter o whole bunch of passive rievers in DeVries space that were idling at the gates, doing nothing even when getting shot at, so I did some testing.

Shooting stationary Maelchon with particle repeater nonstop untill it overheats on normal left Maelchon with a tiny fraction of its hull intact, while on hard it had around 50% hull when particle repeater overheated.
Cennelath was destroyed on normal at around 80% particle repeater heat, and was left with tiny fraction of its hull on hard.
Also I tried shooting at station to see how many % of station shield I will take down before overheat on normal and hard levels.
All in all it seems that at hard player weapons doing roughly around 30% less damage than on normal.
Since it is much harder to test skunk shield, I can assume based only on my subjective observations that damage recieved is also should be around that number.

[w.evans]

I figured that this:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =250121682

was a test that they did before introducing the difficulty levels so, assuming it was a successful test, the differences in difficulty would have something to do with the details described in that test.

Can't say for sure though, since I was still avoiding this game like the plague back then.

[bm01]

I only noticed one difference between normal and hard, your guns suck more in hard (damage difference shown in the encyclopedia IIRC).

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

I figured that this:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =250121682

was a test that they did before introducing the difficulty levels so, assuming it was a successful test, the differences in difficulty would have something to do with the details described in that test.

Can't say for sure though, since I was still avoiding this game like the plague back then.

Yeah, that's the fella. From my recollection, Hard difficulty today is basically the same as the increased difficulty we experienced in that official mod.

[Leafcutter]

I wouldn't play on Hard setting with a beginner's ship tho, the rebalance mod did make it harder.

-LC-

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

So it seems nobody have hard numbers for difficulty damage multipliers. Wonder if bern or some of the devs could take a peek into this thread and enlighten us.

[CBJ]

In easy mode your ship does 50% more damage and receives 25% less. In hard mode these are reversed, so your ship does does 25% less damage and receives 50% more.

[All_Names_Already_Taken]

Sorry for necro, but I felt I have to say thanks to CBJ for clarifying difficulty modifiers, that was exactly what i needed. Thanks a lot.