Does anyone know who to disable the auto-difficulty

[Din Ahmed]

Let me explain my point.

I worked ages to get a pretty well kitted out Destroyer Mk III. But it seems that all the baddies have roughly equivalently capable ships to mine now too. They all seem to have roughly about the same tech level of weapons too... but thats okay I guess. But...

So I played aroung with fitting the destroyer with better shields and lo behold the baddies have better shields too... damn. I thought all that extra money was supposed to buy you an advantage. I seems I'm just were I started 4 hours ago though the equipment change. And I get pirates using Cruisers even when I still using the Destroyers... (Level 10 right now, forgot the rank just know I have 45 points to use up).

I'm guessing the equipment level matches your char level since I'm getting level 10 equipment as well.

What I'm trying to say is when I spend a tons of creds I expect to have some good advantage. So far the only advantage money has given me is allowing me to buy those shield/energy/armor rechargers so I don't die too often in batles.

[Phoenix-D]

What that money does do is prevent you from falling behind. So yeah, in this sense you're just playing catch up. To diable that..hmm. Can't think of a way offhand, actually..

EDIT: I should point out that as you level, the enemies improve. Period. Actually buying anything doesn't affect their power.

[ December 01, 2003, 04:24: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[Rollo]

One way to assure that buying equipment puts you ahead in the tech race is to raise the level offset in the shops.
Perhaps mod a few spacedocks that sell for high prices, but give you equipment that is several levels higher.

[Rollo]

Another way would be to lower the increase of abilities per level on components. So it doesn't matter that much, if you are behind.
And at the same time increase the effects of command points. So superior tageting, evasion, and repair rates will give you an edge.

[LesserHellspawn]

If you still fly around with a destroyer, you'll get slaughtered in no time anyway. According to my playing experience, it's highly advisable to earn yourself enough credits for at least a cruiser before even reporting to Yorkshire III in campaign 1. Not too difficult with Pirate trading missions and a destroyer with 800+ speed. Stay out of combat using superior speed. And I found it also highly advisable to save for a battleship before moving on from campaign 1 to campaign 2. I finished campaign 1 in an Abbidon cruiser 2 MK III with little trouble. The very same cruiser already got owned in the very first mission of campaign 2. You certainly can't expect to get ahead in tech in this game, but you can even out the odds by packing more of that tech into a bigger hull. 4 weapons do cut through shields and armor faster than two, and 20/40 kt shields do take more damage than 10 kt ones before failure.

[Din Ahmed]

Interesting. I'd always wanted to play a small fast ship going against bigger ships beating them with skill/strategy versus firepower so thats why I stuck with the Destroyers...

Kinda like a space shooters where Interceptors can still whack Heavy Fighters due to the speed & Maneuverability advantage.

The way you put it bigger ships are the only way to go... Oh, how/where do you get other than Terran ships anyway?

Whats so good about cruisers anyways... only 2 Lasers face front and Missles & Torps get bLasted by Point Defence too easily...

[Stone-D]

To fix this, in a way, try the following.

Open Main_Enemies.txt. Near the top, you'll find this :

code:

---

Enemy Base Resist All Start := 0

Enemy Resist All Modifier Per Level Added Amount := 3

---

Change the 3 to a 1. This gives that element of satisfaction without raping the gameplay outright. Well, it works for me anyway(1).


(1) Note that the fact that I have A) removed all mines / mine layers from the game(2) and B) added some heavy beam weapons for all and sundry may have an effect on this.

(2) A failed attempt to fix the Terran hostility issue. Kept it anyway because it improves the fighting - enemies no longer cruise along aiming their buttholes at your weapons array.