Feedback - OMG.... he caught it

[Nomad]

I'm playing a level 3 Cult map. My team are level 12.
I'm bunched up because I know I'm about to be swarmed... and a guy threw a grenade into the middle of it.
GO DEFUSER!!!!!

[Daithi]

Wow, that's pretty high level. Yeah, when defuser activates, it's one of those neat moments

Can I ask what difficulty level you are on, and how the difficulty is? Is it getting too hard or too easy? Any thoughts on whether one of the gangs is a lot more powerful than the others?

[Nomad]

I'm playing at Vigilante.

The difficulty is ok. I pick my fights.
I pick on the cults, because at this stage, they're pushovers (except one fight where I went in against the cultists on a danger level 3 and three of my party went down, that's how I knew I was going to be swamped this time).
The cultists aren't armed. So far they've thrown one grenade and someone caught it. I gun 'em down.
The mafia are what I'd call a middle of the road threat, with the Survival nuts being a danger. I have tried a level 2 Mafia mission, but I'm still only attacking level 1 Survivalists.

[Daithi]

Cheers for info. Some of the cultists will get guns later on, but your observations on difficulty levels of the gangs matches my own, think the cultists need to be buffed.

[Nomad]

Well.... not too buff. They pretty much mopped the floor with me on one map because it was a wide open street and I had nowhere to go (that was my first attempt at a level 3 danger mission). So, they surrounded me and beat the stuffing out of me until most of my crew went down.
Ray was the last man standing. I pretty much used up most of my stock of medpacks too.

Balance is a tough thing. What might be a walk-over for some, can turn into a nightmare for others. I discovered that the map has the potential to make or break me.

Maybe... for each Cultist that has a gun, remove one of their number?
Eg: take away two unarmed cultists and add an armed one.

Give 'em a random chance to have hammers, machetes, knives, etc. (without the need for decreasing their number).
You know what... we should probably take into account that I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who went into a level 3 area unprepared and got caught in a map with no cover and got swamped.
I still won. It came down to the wire.
Their numbers are probably fine.
Just random some of their weapon loadouts.  =)

[ushas]

A nice bark exchange for the catch. This is a good example of barks communicating what's happening (being still useful when any funny content long overstays its welcome)

Coming unprepared, really bad position, enemy having advantage in numbers... and still winning at first try...
It's true that one ought to assume you're very good at this stage, Nomad. But otherwise it would practically sound as definition of easy.

Thought the Vigilante is deliberately set for testing purposes. Once familiarized, it was harder not to win a battle in v14 and v15 statistically speaking. So enemies are already getting more stronger in v16? I'm yet early trying Hard boiled for a change (Sam at 5lvl, only having Ray so far).

Nevertheless, haven't you said that money, better weapons and perk points are to be less abundant in the final game?

[Nomad]

You also have to take into account.... that I'm only playing on difficulty 2 out of 4. I just jump into each game at the default difficultly level.
I suppose I should try Hard Boiled or something, but I'm just having a play around and seeing what happens.

There you go.
I'll try a game at a higher or highest difficulty and see how badly I get my butt kicked.

[ushas]

Oj, didn't mean to imply you should do differently. The point is something sounding easy from a veteran, can end up harder for others. So it's tricky to evaluate.

I've started HB deliberately to force myself out of laziness. If you go up then I can also try the lowest one, so we have it covered. But to be honest to make something useful out of an effort like that would need much more info and a guidance from Daithi (eg. what are differences and intentions exactly). My confusion is whether there are all the systems in to try assess the difficulties.   

[Nomad]

I'm running a Hero game now.
Money is so scarce that getting a single loot hit after a mission of 40 bullets was a godsend. It's tough.

[ushas]

Makes you think differently, doesn't it?
For example, when we don't have enough money to even craft the base armors for everybody (or advanced versions), it starts to feel limiting being unable to switch it from a sharpshooter Sam to a front-line Ray.