Overall i feel like we get too much power from commanders but there’s nowhere to use it.
So can’t we at least get a new difficulty with more random things in it? I mostly think that the problem with Brutal is that its all about patterns… once you memorize them all its kinda boring. All my ideas part from the principle of removing the most patterns you can and making things more random. A few ideas i have are:
No minimap marker of enemies position;
Random timings of atacks;
Less interval between atacks;
More angles of atacks (like, a bane drop on your base, a liberator on your mineral lines…) This together with no markers could be fun;
Harder waves (maybe just more hp, damage like 50%);
Changing enemies comps through game… change it gradually so you can adapt.
Just a few ideas i tought in like 10 minutes… im sure there’s a lot that can be done.
(I don’t really wanna talk about mutators here… they are like just special variables that forces you to play with specific strategies, im talking about a step in difficulty like from hard to brutal)
Brutal+ exists for added challenge.
You seem to be suggesting better AI, which is something a lot of people wanna see.
But then you’re also suggesting flat out power boosts for the enemy units, which is a lot like a mutation. You gotta remember, a robot cannot think creatively so you will always be able to pattern it. You want to feel like you are against a human being then go to ladder.
A better AI is not the way to make this game more “Fun and challenge”. If you guy already saw the Pre-nerf Alpha star, you will see that unless you get an army that is 5 times better than the AI, you just won’t win.
A direct power boost doesn’t do it either because that’s literally what you were before the masteries were added into the game.
Some maps could have a survival mode, where you decide when to end the mission like in LOTV mission “Last Stand”.
In Temple of the Past, it would be exactly like in Last Stand, after the countdown you can activate the temple whenever you want, but enemy waves become more and more stronger, and gain the ability to spawn anywhere instead of at fixed locations and in a fixed order.
In Void Launch, there could be a story element about being able to destroy the warp conduits from orbit after a time, and past the normal waves, you can inflict additional damage to Amon, but waves become worst.
And so on, I realize this is taking more space and time than expected.
Of course some missions can’t easily be tweaked that way, and it’s mainly map editing rather than game changing, but could be a path to take.
We haven’t gotten a new commander for almost a year now, no new maps for… I donno, 1.5-2 years (and last 2 maps were actually “transformed” from winner-of-contest-community-made-maps), and you think they will / should use their time to create algorithms for the ai harrassing your workers, or “evolving” enemy comps. And a change like this won’t bring in any extra $$ for them (maps also wouldn’t, but commanders would - even prestiges might’ve been a way to make people purchase more commanders due to varied playstyles added to them).
All this while if you read the forums there are always a ton of people complaining about another ton of noobs which expect to be carried and still have no idea how to play this mod 5 years after its release.
It’s been proposed time and time again, and imo if it hasn’t been implemented when coop was going strong, it won’t be implemented now. I would’ve liked some changes or challenges, like for example facing enemy mercenary units like in Hots campaign on hard or brutal diff, but not any annoying stuff like worker harass. If I’d wanted that, I’d go play vs, or custom games with commanders mod with other players.
A survival mode setting would be good in some ways. Maybe one where you can win the mission but it keeps going after the final objective, leaving the match after that point will result in a win.
You could reduce the amount of minerals and gas, the ones we get in coop have so much that it takes a very long time until you run out. The survival aspect here is trying to survive after you run out and the mission is complete while the ai is still throwing waves of enemies at you.
It’s not quite what you’re asking but custom mutations do a lot of this. You’re limited by the mutator options of course, but that’s still a lot of mixing and matching to make maps moderately to extremely difficult (and not randomly so).
An even better option IMO is Maguro’s map and mutators. He came up with a bunch of his own that are way more interesting than the blizzard ones.
The downside to either of these is you need a party, and Maguro Map doesn’t contribute experience to your commenders or ascension levels.
What’s the point in making things harder still by wasting resources to design and balance these new proposed features?
Want a challenge? Turn off prestiges, remove masteries, restrict your own build, and find someone who will let you do true-solo, best the records of missions.
“Oh but it’s not the same”. Then I guess you don’t want more difficulty, you just want to delete more waves with all the delete wave buttons in coop. People think they all great at coop cuz they can win a few brutal matches lmao.
Can’t we just boost enemies making them harder to kill? Boost their damage also. I mean, every mutation i played that enemies were harder to kill and/or you had to kill them twice were cooler than brutal already. Something that forces you to use more dps than now. Its easy to implement and already something better than brutal.
Everyone says “just play with mutators then”. NO, most mutators are awful. Maybe if there was an option to remove a set amount of mutators from Brutal+ it would be more enjoyable. But I would much prefer a new difficulty without mutators.
I guess the devs are comfy with their marker of difficulty on them. I still strongly believe it would be far more fun (without losing difficulty) to tune them down.
Right now, I’d say very small number of people can handle 6-10 mutators at once. So why scale it that way at all. Tune each mutator’s individual difficulty down, so that their bad interactions are in turn tuned down as well. As a whole, this would scale the difficulty towards… “More can handle 6-8 mutators”… so in the grand scheme, the ‘total’ difficulty so to speak isn’t changed (as those handful of people can still enjoy the 8-10 mutator equivalent).
One way to make it worth of the “impossible” mode: secretly record the worst trolls (don’t build armies, randomly destroy their ally, don’t know what an “objective” is, and so on), and when you choose Impossible, they receive an invitation from the system to drop whatever they’re doing to come and burden you instead
note: those smileys really lack a regular “devil” one
What about giving the option to add a versus AI to Co-op missions.
The map design would probably have to be altered some but since enemy attacks are spawned anyone not produce I think this idea could work. You have your standard spawned attacks, and static units / fortifications but the enemy now has second player Versus AI ally.
So you would still play the co-op mission with all the regular attack waves and such at the selected difficulty level . But you could include a Versus AI opponent that will attack you / your base. The versus AI attacks wouldn’t be announced. Versus AI would play just like a versus AI in that it get starts with CC / Hatchery / Nexus, gathers resources/ builds from scratch just like it would in a Versus game.
AI race / build would be random and independent of enemy Co Op AI unit comp. Meaning you can get Terran air with a zerg Versus AI.
Let’s go nuts about the idea why don’t we??
Cake Walk - Instant Victory!
Ezee Peezee - Even less enemies and there are no enemy waves!
Extreme - All enemy units are turned to Hybrids!
Glorious End - Instant Defeat!
