Difficulties Now Supported: Hi everyone, today's update includes difficulty scaling, so there should be distinct changes for each difficulty now, I haven't updated the mod description to reflect all this yet, but I will. This version requires as much testing as possible.
Please convey any feedback, suggestions, criticism or issues below, thanks.
Are we playing the same mod or why did you call 3 Letter Triad "not particularly difficult" and even have the audacity to give it an Easy/Medium rating? :D
The SWAT AI has a lot of trouble coming out alive in this one; at least I always lose one AI. You basically have to do everything yourself while the AI is just following you, which kind of defeats the purpose of being a SWAT team leader
Edit: Nevermind, just saw it's not supposed to be balanced around SWAT AI
Yeah, 3 Letter Triad is brutal solo, purely because most rooms are large and very open - this results in breach utility not being particularly effective and there's so many little holes and angles you can be shot from. Even in coop it can be quite punishing, the ratings I gave are more... relative to this mod only. The missions here will spank you like a naughty child if you make the slightest mistake. 3 Letter Triad is more about patience and a firefight now, if anyone manages to LTL it, i'll be impressed.
Things are still going to change though, as this is still WIP. The update threw us some extra values to tweak within the configs so i'll be playing with these for a while before dropping another update, current difficulty is going to be considered "Hard" and I will gently walk back the settings for the other difficulties later.
can you please add a standalone version without the increasing number of suspects? it is insane that some mpas have like 30+ suspects making the mission unrealistically hard, the game isn't designed that way you can't even bring enough ammo and equipment' if this mod's goal is realism then you should know real swat operation have like 12 swat operators at once and the game limits you to 5
Unfortunately, I wll not be making another version (It's hard enough making one, especially with the new update). Some levels do indeed have 30+ suspects, though you shouldn't be killing everyone. Technically if you have the trigger discipline, you can complete most missions with 2 magazines solo. If you have a 5 man team and everyone has two magazines (of standard 30rnd STANAG) that's 300 rounds (it shouldn't take 10 rounds per person) - this mod's goal is challenge with realism as a secondary. With respect, it sounds like a skill issue - my coop team and I have completed all stages without ever running out of ammunition. If it is too challenging, perhaps you should consider a different mod.
Please see below:
DISCLAIMER: This Mod is designed to be HARD, I will not be making it easier, if anything I may seek to make it harder. If difficulty is not for you, you may want to try a different mod. You've been warned.
You could also try using the Gunfighter mod, as it increases your loadout capacity, perhaps that will give you the versatility you need. Don't give up, I know from experience that all missions can be completed, this mod is designed for you to fail, but overcome that failure with sufficient adaptation and analysis of strategy.
Nice job on this one overall, and I appreciate your work on it. That said, I disagree with the bomb timer changes/reductions on Elephant. I know you're still tuning things, and I know you're not claiming it's balanced for solo/commander mode - but I went in with the AI squad pretty effectively, moved quickly. got lucky and discovered several of the bombs fairly early, and they STILL went off before I could defuse them all. I was honestly stunned (and vaporized) by how short the timer was. Even if I had my full friend group in coop - (we're fairly competent, experienced gamers, some of whom are actual military) - I feel like it would be a crapshoot as to whether or not we'd succeed. More 'luck of the draw' than execution and tactics, if you will.
That's my one piece of constructive criticism so far. Otherwise, I've really enjoyed the mod, both in coop and in commander mode. It feels really natural and organic. Some AI/suspect-count overhauls feel like they artificially juice numbers and behaviors, but I don't get that feeling from this mod at all. If I hadn't already spent hundreds of hours over the years with this game, you might've been able to convince me that this mod's changes were just part of the vanilla game.
Great job! Thanks for your time, and I'm excited to see how the mod develops moving forward.
Hey thanks! It's nice to get some feedback and thanks for your kind words, it makes it all worth it.
Nice job on this one overall, and I appreciate your work on it. That said, I disagree with the bomb timer changes/reductions on Elephant. I know you're still tuning things, and I know you're not claiming it's balanced for solo/commander mode - but I went in with the AI squad pretty effectively, moved quickly. got lucky and discovered several of the bombs fairly early, and they STILL went off before I could defuse them all. I was honestly stunned (and vaporized) by how short the timer was. Even if I had my full friend group in coop - (we're fairly competent, experienced gamers, some of whom are actual military) - I feel like it would be a crapshoot as to whether or not we'd succeed. More 'luck of the draw' than execution and tactics, if you will.
So, the Elephant is definitely something I want to work on, I want to keep the "identity" of more of a bomb threat with active shooter elements, I wanted the timer quite low as I want it to be a mission where speed and aggression are the real strategies to completing it (I'm trying to make each mission as unique as possible). That being said, it currently does rely on RNG quite heavily (as you have noticed), I managed to complete it solo without AI, but that could have been due to favourable RNG. I could up the timer a bit, but I dont want to increase it by too much as I want as much difficulty as I can squeeze out of every scenario. I want teams to have to TRAIN to beat certain levels.
In terms of strategy, my group and I split into 2 teams, one to neutralise the bomb threat and one to hunt the active shooter(s), this strategy proved very effective (most of the time if RNG allowed it), hunter team would report any located bombs to the disposal team but would continue hunting as the execution timer is also rather low (it's also easier when you remember each pre-determined possible bomb spawn).
With the inclusion of the difficulty settings I will be looking at the current mod being Hard and gently walk it back for the lesser difficulties, including timers and such, as soon as I get Hard dialled in. I will consider raising the timer a bit, but probably not by much for Hard, i'll throw in another 30s for the next update as a trial and will go from there.
Keep any and all feedback coming, and thanks again for criticism and positivity.
Great mod if I haven't already said that. However when I install this mod it keeps crashing my game. No other mods are in the PAK folder. RON only seems to work with zero mods. (Yes I'm using the updated version)
I have been unable to reproduce this issue, perhaps try launching in a different DX level and/or verify or reinstall. I have noticed some people have been reporting issues overall since the update of RoN outside of this mod, so it could be one of many issues introduced/reintroduced by the devs.
Sorry I can't help any further, it works on my end as well as my group who I regularly play with, when in doubt start with a blank canvas, I guess.
Apologies, I messed up when pakking the mod. Should be fixed now, please download new version: It won't matter what difficulty you choose, it's the same across all of them right now.
Has this actually been tested with the DLC3 / LSS update?....Just tried it and nothing changed in the game. I imagine any mod that affects suspect AI would be overriden now that the game has in-built difficulty levels?
Fixed. Was a simple directory error due to the new changes, be advised: Difficulty should be the same regardless of what setting you choose. I may adjust to fit into these categories later down the line. Please also stay vigilant and report any unintended behaviour, thanks.
P.S: Give it a little while to appear in the files list.
The enemies have less health than vanilla. And headshots should indeed be a one-shot headshot. What weapon were you using? Ammunition? Any other mods? What mission?
52 comments
Hi everyone, today's update includes difficulty scaling, so there should be distinct changes for each difficulty now, I haven't updated the mod description to reflect all this yet, but I will. This version requires as much testing as possible.
Please convey any feedback, suggestions, criticism or issues below, thanks.
Are we playing the same mod or why did you call 3 Letter Triad "not particularly difficult" and even have the audacity to give it an Easy/Medium rating? :D
The SWAT AI has a lot of trouble coming out alive in this one; at least I always lose one AI. You basically have to do everything yourself while the AI is just following you, which kind of defeats the purpose of being a SWAT team leader
Edit: Nevermind, just saw it's not supposed to be balanced around SWAT AI
Things are still going to change though, as this is still WIP. The update threw us some extra values to tweak within the configs so i'll be playing with these for a while before dropping another update, current difficulty is going to be considered "Hard" and I will gently walk back the settings for the other difficulties later.
With respect, it sounds like a skill issue - my coop team and I have completed all stages without ever running out of ammunition. If it is too challenging, perhaps you should consider a different mod.
Please see below:
You could also try using the Gunfighter mod, as it increases your loadout capacity, perhaps that will give you the versatility you need. Don't give up, I know from experience that all missions can be completed, this mod is designed for you to fail, but overcome that failure with sufficient adaptation and analysis of strategy.
That's my one piece of constructive criticism so far. Otherwise, I've really enjoyed the mod, both in coop and in commander mode. It feels really natural and organic. Some AI/suspect-count overhauls feel like they artificially juice numbers and behaviors, but I don't get that feeling from this mod at all. If I hadn't already spent hundreds of hours over the years with this game, you might've been able to convince me that this mod's changes were just part of the vanilla game.
Great job! Thanks for your time, and I'm excited to see how the mod develops moving forward.
So, the Elephant is definitely something I want to work on, I want to keep the "identity" of more of a bomb threat with active shooter elements, I wanted the timer quite low as I want it to be a mission where speed and aggression are the real strategies to completing it (I'm trying to make each mission as unique as possible). That being said, it currently does rely on RNG quite heavily (as you have noticed), I managed to complete it solo without AI, but that could have been due to favourable RNG.
I could up the timer a bit, but I dont want to increase it by too much as I want as much difficulty as I can squeeze out of every scenario. I want teams to have to TRAIN to beat certain levels.
In terms of strategy, my group and I split into 2 teams, one to neutralise the bomb threat and one to hunt the active shooter(s), this strategy proved very effective (most of the time if RNG allowed it), hunter team would report any located bombs to the disposal team but would continue hunting as the execution timer is also rather low (it's also easier when you remember each pre-determined possible bomb spawn).
With the inclusion of the difficulty settings I will be looking at the current mod being Hard and gently walk it back for the lesser difficulties, including timers and such, as soon as I get Hard dialled in. I will consider raising the timer a bit, but probably not by much for Hard, i'll throw in another 30s for the next update as a trial and will go from there.
Keep any and all feedback coming, and thanks again for criticism and positivity.
Sorry I can't help any further, it works on my end as well as my group who I regularly play with, when in doubt start with a blank canvas, I guess.
P.S: Give it a little while to appear in the files list.