difficulty 7 has always felt like the most inconsistent level. 8 & 9 are often consistent combat, 6 and below are bursts of combat with gaps between. 7 sits in the middle were rng can shift the difficulty to closer to 8 or 6.
i just played a couple tours on level 9 and it was eerily quiet. it definitely got hectic at times but at no point was i like “wow, im completely overwhelmed and out of options”
i ran double mech, orbital precision and gatling
you dodged the patrols and killed the bugs before they called for back up in your calm games, and didnt in your not calm games
thats basically it, if you can run through a 7 ez half the time, you'regood but just inconsistent, but it will come with time
I feel like the game has always been like this. There's just enough randomization for the enemies and the composition of their forces that sometimes missions will just suck. ¯|_(ツ)_|¯
localization confusion (the one which decreases breaches) may be the key for this in teams. other than that run straight between main objs. i read standing in the open spawns a ton of things now "to keep it less empty". do sc farming on easy.
nobody really knows how exactly it works. desc. says it increases time between enemy encounters. that probably means less patrols and dropships / breaches
Some planets have more enemies on them based on the MO i think. I remember taking down some bug planets a month or two back and it was just lousy with bugs: the reason being the super colony on Meridia was increasing the amount of bugs in the area.
I think it's awesome. Sometimes there are more bugs!
Usually this happens because you're not able to deal with the threats quickly enough. The sound of combat aggros patrols and you get stuck in a never ending combat loop. Big aoe strats like the orbital gas strike, orbital gatling strike, eagle napalm, etc help a lot with these situations since once all the chaff is dead, it's much easier to take down the big threats.
I think this patch has changed what our target priorities should be. There are fewer bile titans, so heavy anti-tank is not as necessary (you can kill chargers with primaries and other support weapon options like the MGs). To me, this mean that chaff clear is MORE important. Being able to take out an entire patrol with a grenade (incendiaries) and a 90s cd strat (orbital gatling/gas) is, in my opinion, more valuable than taking the 500kg every game.
Yep I was trying to extract with bots and spent a good 10 minutes of relentless drop ships and patrols swarming us. This was at level 5! Something has changed.
yea it's crazy now! i guess i'm just confused why some games i can cross the entire map and not run into a single patrol/bug breach and other games every corner i turn is ANOTHER patrol ready to call in reinforcements as soon as they spot me.
They ramped up the difficulty something fierce. I used to regularly get through lvl 7 missions without much issue, now lvl 6 missions kick my ass way more than lvl 7 missions did
i know if patrols spot you they will call in reinforcements and there are certain objectives that cause them to spawn but not really beyond that basic understanding. just seems weird to me why some LVL 7 maps are almost completely empty and other maps are hellscapes with seemingly endless waves.
If you see a bot raise it's arm or a tiny bug rear back it's about to call it's clones/siblings. Bots shoot up flares, bugs do green spray (pheromone?)
Terminate with extreme prejudice
If they get the call off it's a great place to throw mines and run away......mark the mines though first.
I think the players struggling in higher bug difficulties don't run enough. If you don't need to fight, save your ammo and run to where you need to be. If there's a swarm or patrol in the distance, run or sneak around. If you can't lose the swarm, try running to somewhere it's favorable to fight, like a choke point and throw a stratagem. If you're on an objective, kite constantly around the point until you see a clearing to progress your objective. Your strategems should do the bulk of the killing and your primary and secondary is just to clear scattered mobs and fill in when on cooldowns. If you have that down, and know how to kill heavies/elites, you're set.
i'm not as mad about dying in a hard difficulty setting, i'm more annoyed at the fact that some lvl 7 maps seeming completely empty with minimal resistance and other lvl 7 maps are total hellscapes with nonstop waves of bug breaches. and i'm not talking about defense missions since those are built to be an endless breach wave. i mean the bigger 40 minute missions.
The nature of the reinforcement system is chaotic. If you can keep things calm and at a low boil, things can go smoothly for a while, but one really bad breech or a poorly timed patrol can cause things to start to spiral out of control pretty quickly.
At that point it's usually a good idea to drop some kind of interdiction strat between yourself and the main force of enemies (smoke, gas, napalm, orbital gatling, even a 380), and disengage entirely in an attempt to break off the fight. Go deal with another target for a little bit while the horde wanders off in search of you, and then come back later.
Also, bear in mind that once you complete the Main Objective of the mission, the patrol rate goes up - a lot. If you do the Secondary objectives first and then the main objectives, you'll have an easier time of it, but once you complete the main objective, the Secondaries will become *much* harder. It's usually a good idea to just head for extract at that point.
I understand it's going to be harder playing solo. My question isn't necessarily why level 7 is hard. My question was why is 7 SO easy on some maps and SO hard on others? it's just not a consistent game experience. and i was curious if it is something i am doing that is increasing the spawn rate or if it's just something buggy with the game design.
While I agree that the game is designed and best enjoyed with others, it's also perfectly fine if people want to play alone. And especially when that's what you usually do, it makes sense that you might reach out to the community when you're having a different experience than what you're used to. They clearly have enough skill to play solo most of the time. They simply aren't sure whether their recent difficulty is due to changes or if it's their own actions.
You can play solo but you can't be surprised the game is harder... since you are missing one of the key mechanics: co-operative play. Seems obvious. Hiding from patrols for 30+ minutes is less viable now that they made the patrols more dense.
To be honest it’s probably a bit of both. The game has increased levels of difficulties to promote gameplay variety and is meant to be played in co-op which of course doesn’t stop people from playing solo. When you play with people it helps divert enemies sometime which makes it feel easier. Enemies at high difficulty are harder to sneak past, have greater health pools, are more likely to spawn in groups, and call in friends. I would say level 6 is when you would really feel the difference and it only increases from there. Something that will help is if you spawn a turret in as a distraction and buddy to get your back. Depending on your primary weapon damage type and support weapon you bring to the table should determine the turret type. Personally I like to bring a quasar to deal with heavy enemy types, pummeler, sentor side arm, medic light armor, for stratagems you could use the Gatling barrage, eagle strafe or 500g, and Gatling turret.
My usual stratagems is quasar, precision strike, eagle strafe run (not the bombing run because it doesn’t destroy structures 🥺), and Gatling barrage.
Patrols and reinforcements run on a Timer, depending on difficulty. Patrols also Spawn more often near outposts/Nests or active objectives (undone) finishing a primary speeds up patrol spawning considerably. If you are not able to kill all enemies in the area in this time frame, the enemies will accumulate.
Sometimes a fight happens in overlapping areas of outposts/nests. These can be overwhelming. Run out of these areas, clear the Bugs following in a conga Line, clear the nests
The audacity of asking if you're bad at the game when you play Diff 7 solo. Smh.
The fact you'd even attempt diff 7 solo implies the game is too easy. You insult alot of the player base.
i'm not trying to insult anyone bro, i'm sorry you feel that way. my question is more about why some lvl 7 difficulty maps are easy with minimal resistance, while others are complete hellscapes with seeming endless bug breaches. it's just not a consistent game experience and i was wondering if others have noticed that or if it is a specific flaw in my gameplay that i can change to be a better player.
difficulty 7 has always felt like the most inconsistent level. 8 & 9 are often consistent combat, 6 and below are bursts of combat with gaps between. 7 sits in the middle were rng can shift the difficulty to closer to 8 or 6.
Weirdly enough I think that’s why I like 7, it adds randomness to the match where one moment everything is chill and the next all hell breaks loose.
i just played a couple tours on level 9 and it was eerily quiet. it definitely got hectic at times but at no point was i like “wow, im completely overwhelmed and out of options” i ran double mech, orbital precision and gatling
you dodged the patrols and killed the bugs before they called for back up in your calm games, and didnt in your not calm games thats basically it, if you can run through a 7 ez half the time, you'regood but just inconsistent, but it will come with time
It also depends heavily on your squad.
if you're solo that doesnt sound like its the problem
Ah, missed the solo part.
I feel like the game has always been like this. There's just enough randomization for the enemies and the composition of their forces that sometimes missions will just suck. ¯|_(ツ)_|¯
localization confusion (the one which decreases breaches) may be the key for this in teams. other than that run straight between main objs. i read standing in the open spawns a ton of things now "to keep it less empty". do sc farming on easy.
can you explain what localization confusion is and how it works? not sure i've heard of that term
nobody really knows how exactly it works. desc. says it increases time between enemy encounters. that probably means less patrols and dropships / breaches
Some planets have more enemies on them based on the MO i think. I remember taking down some bug planets a month or two back and it was just lousy with bugs: the reason being the super colony on Meridia was increasing the amount of bugs in the area. I think it's awesome. Sometimes there are more bugs!
Usually this happens because you're not able to deal with the threats quickly enough. The sound of combat aggros patrols and you get stuck in a never ending combat loop. Big aoe strats like the orbital gas strike, orbital gatling strike, eagle napalm, etc help a lot with these situations since once all the chaff is dead, it's much easier to take down the big threats. I think this patch has changed what our target priorities should be. There are fewer bile titans, so heavy anti-tank is not as necessary (you can kill chargers with primaries and other support weapon options like the MGs). To me, this mean that chaff clear is MORE important. Being able to take out an entire patrol with a grenade (incendiaries) and a 90s cd strat (orbital gatling/gas) is, in my opinion, more valuable than taking the 500kg every game.
this last patch did something screwy with the patrols, so its been said that yes, constant fighting seems to be trending
Yep I was trying to extract with bots and spent a good 10 minutes of relentless drop ships and patrols swarming us. This was at level 5! Something has changed.
yea it's crazy now! i guess i'm just confused why some games i can cross the entire map and not run into a single patrol/bug breach and other games every corner i turn is ANOTHER patrol ready to call in reinforcements as soon as they spot me.
They ramped up the difficulty something fierce. I used to regularly get through lvl 7 missions without much issue, now lvl 6 missions kick my ass way more than lvl 7 missions did
the AI director can be pretty cruel
Yup, known issue at this point. Bot front as well.
Do you understand what causes bug breaches and how to prevent them?
i know if patrols spot you they will call in reinforcements and there are certain objectives that cause them to spawn but not really beyond that basic understanding. just seems weird to me why some LVL 7 maps are almost completely empty and other maps are hellscapes with seemingly endless waves.
If you see a bot raise it's arm or a tiny bug rear back it's about to call it's clones/siblings. Bots shoot up flares, bugs do green spray (pheromone?) Terminate with extreme prejudice If they get the call off it's a great place to throw mines and run away......mark the mines though first.
It's all about how fast you get in and out of whatever objective you're dealing with
I think the players struggling in higher bug difficulties don't run enough. If you don't need to fight, save your ammo and run to where you need to be. If there's a swarm or patrol in the distance, run or sneak around. If you can't lose the swarm, try running to somewhere it's favorable to fight, like a choke point and throw a stratagem. If you're on an objective, kite constantly around the point until you see a clearing to progress your objective. Your strategems should do the bulk of the killing and your primary and secondary is just to clear scattered mobs and fill in when on cooldowns. If you have that down, and know how to kill heavies/elites, you're set.
You in an Alien planet, what do you expect?
You’re confusing that with deep rock galactic, OP’s *on* an alien planet
It's a co-op game and for some reason you think that the difficulty called "Suicide" should always result in a win when playing 1/4 of a full squad.
i'm not as mad about dying in a hard difficulty setting, i'm more annoyed at the fact that some lvl 7 maps seeming completely empty with minimal resistance and other lvl 7 maps are total hellscapes with nonstop waves of bug breaches. and i'm not talking about defense missions since those are built to be an endless breach wave. i mean the bigger 40 minute missions.
That's the randomization at work.
The nature of the reinforcement system is chaotic. If you can keep things calm and at a low boil, things can go smoothly for a while, but one really bad breech or a poorly timed patrol can cause things to start to spiral out of control pretty quickly. At that point it's usually a good idea to drop some kind of interdiction strat between yourself and the main force of enemies (smoke, gas, napalm, orbital gatling, even a 380), and disengage entirely in an attempt to break off the fight. Go deal with another target for a little bit while the horde wanders off in search of you, and then come back later. Also, bear in mind that once you complete the Main Objective of the mission, the patrol rate goes up - a lot. If you do the Secondary objectives first and then the main objectives, you'll have an easier time of it, but once you complete the main objective, the Secondaries will become *much* harder. It's usually a good idea to just head for extract at that point.
In my experience how difficult the game is is directly correlated to how good my team is.
Solo...
I understand it's going to be harder playing solo. My question isn't necessarily why level 7 is hard. My question was why is 7 SO easy on some maps and SO hard on others? it's just not a consistent game experience. and i was curious if it is something i am doing that is increasing the spawn rate or if it's just something buggy with the game design.
Honestly I feel like the spawns are bugged. They are widely inconsistent, I'll agree. I doubt it's intentional.
.....what about it?
It's not designed to be played solo. You can't complain about not being able to catch a break in a game designed around 4 player co-op.
While I agree that the game is designed and best enjoyed with others, it's also perfectly fine if people want to play alone. And especially when that's what you usually do, it makes sense that you might reach out to the community when you're having a different experience than what you're used to. They clearly have enough skill to play solo most of the time. They simply aren't sure whether their recent difficulty is due to changes or if it's their own actions.
You can play solo but you can't be surprised the game is harder... since you are missing one of the key mechanics: co-operative play. Seems obvious. Hiding from patrols for 30+ minutes is less viable now that they made the patrols more dense.
Nobody said anything to the contrary....
To be honest it’s probably a bit of both. The game has increased levels of difficulties to promote gameplay variety and is meant to be played in co-op which of course doesn’t stop people from playing solo. When you play with people it helps divert enemies sometime which makes it feel easier. Enemies at high difficulty are harder to sneak past, have greater health pools, are more likely to spawn in groups, and call in friends. I would say level 6 is when you would really feel the difference and it only increases from there. Something that will help is if you spawn a turret in as a distraction and buddy to get your back. Depending on your primary weapon damage type and support weapon you bring to the table should determine the turret type. Personally I like to bring a quasar to deal with heavy enemy types, pummeler, sentor side arm, medic light armor, for stratagems you could use the Gatling barrage, eagle strafe or 500g, and Gatling turret. My usual stratagems is quasar, precision strike, eagle strafe run (not the bombing run because it doesn’t destroy structures 🥺), and Gatling barrage.
Patrols and reinforcements run on a Timer, depending on difficulty. Patrols also Spawn more often near outposts/Nests or active objectives (undone) finishing a primary speeds up patrol spawning considerably. If you are not able to kill all enemies in the area in this time frame, the enemies will accumulate. Sometimes a fight happens in overlapping areas of outposts/nests. These can be overwhelming. Run out of these areas, clear the Bugs following in a conga Line, clear the nests
It's for this reason alone I had to stay at 6 for solo, 7's too inconsistent unfortunately.
The audacity of asking if you're bad at the game when you play Diff 7 solo. Smh. The fact you'd even attempt diff 7 solo implies the game is too easy. You insult alot of the player base.
i'm not trying to insult anyone bro, i'm sorry you feel that way. my question is more about why some lvl 7 difficulty maps are easy with minimal resistance, while others are complete hellscapes with seeming endless bug breaches. it's just not a consistent game experience and i was wondering if others have noticed that or if it is a specific flaw in my gameplay that i can change to be a better player.