Gameplay impressions from Liberation day
Mar 2, 2016 17:11:06 GMT -8
Drath, vaendryl, and 1 more like this
Post by Marx-93 on Mar 2, 2016 17:11:06 GMT -8
We'll as I had promised, I wanted to put my final impressions on the gameplay itself of Liberation Day (seeing as I doubt anything game-changer will be introduced in the final game). As I didn't play almost anything of the previous three betas, I aim to make this a commentary of the changes (both good and bad) from MoA and end with some suggestions I think would improve the game (for future updates, as I'm not crazy enough to think we have enough time to change something and properly test it). Take note I have unfortunately only reached until mission 8. So, going by parts:
U.I. changes:
First, seeing the loss of animations is a little sad. I know the reasons why this has been done, but it certainly does make the game look cheaper. Specially when there's still some lag lingering: it's a tremendous improvement from MoA, but with the lack of animations any possible justification has gone out of the window (well, beside the fact this somehow is coded in renpy, but the layman won't be able to understand that). The increased info on targets (armour, shield, flak, etc) is helpful though, and the rest is the same as 7.2, which was already a very polished release, so no problems for the rest.
Now, I have to go on the Upgrade U.I., and I will comment it separately because most of it is pretty bad. First, allowing you to access it anywhere makes possible all sort of hijinks like
I also prefer the colours on 7.2, but that's a subjective impression.
The store is fine, though I would put some more extra items.
New Units
Now, here I can gush. First, the Fast Cruisers are very good enemies, and probably the kind of enemy Sunrider desperately needed. The aren't as slippery as Supports, as tough as Battleships, but also aren't that fragile or slow. They are however very dangerous up close, so they make prefect "regular" enemies; easy enough to pummel, but at the same time you probably won't want to lower your guard around them. Lasers gain another enemy they can be very effective against, and PACT finally gets good at close combat. I can also only gush about the destroyers; they fit another perfect niche being basically PACT's version of the Ironhogs, even weaker (due to lack of flak) but even more devastating, and very importantly being a huge magnet to your shoots. Their splash damage is not enough to make you disperse (from the beginning they are far too devastating to leave around for 1 turn on anything higher than ensign), but it works as punishment, so it's ok for me
On the returnees, It was good to see PACT BBs and Assault Carriers get buffed, they desperately needed it. Though the BBs took it a lot better than Assault Carriers: while the great increase on your number of units with decent to high flak makes one lone BB a lot less dangerous which is kinda offset by their larger numbers and increased toughness, Assault Carriers are in a strange middle ground when they seem to be unable to exploit their advantages. They either make some Elites that can be slightly annoying but nothing more, make a Support that most of the time is too isolated (as in, very little protected even if you don't have the Sniping goddess Sola) to do anything, or simply launch some missiles (which, again, due to increase on flak are barely effective on their own). They don't move to try to use their kinetics, which merely makes them damage sponges, but nothing threatening. The Ryders are fine as always: the mooks barely an annoyance, the Elites an increased annoyance (though, again, the increase in flak makes their previously fairly decent missiles even less annoying), the Bombers a bother, and the Supports the holy mother of troublesome units. Oh, and the Arcadius units, but, well, they've kinda always been a joke in my book, specially now that they don't have flak or counter (well, they are better than other Ryders, but their increased reward and CP gain is simply not worth their problems, they are far too easy to take out).
I missed old Cruisers and Missile frigates. While individually they are weak, there were a pair of times where their strategic collocation could have ruined my fun. The few times they appear are pretty close to that, and I can't help but think that more than once their strategic collocation could have turned a "bunch of annoyances" into a threat.
On ally units, well almost all are pretty neat. Ceran Gunboats fill a good niche, even if I still can't get much use of their special skill (it's good, it's just that most of the times my battle line is precisely at 4 grids of distance, and I don't want to risk them). Alliance Battleships and Cruisers are the same as 7.2 (though oddly their missiles seems to have a higher base accuracy?), and similarly good. Ryuvian Falcons are good enough to make me ask what kind of option is worth not having them; they are also very sneaky with their combination of high EV and decent HP. I fear maybe a tad too good, personally would lower their HP and EV a bit to make them more fragile (700 HP and 25 EV would look good), or at least make them more expensive. Nothing too important, though. Union Battleships are pretty decent; powerful yet slow, and its weapons base accuracies are more on the low side but it has an all compassing Gravity gun. Also a laser focused unit (its kinetics are good, but due to their lower power, accuracy, and higher energy cost, they end being mostly situational) which is always a plus. In both normal weapons and gravity gun uses you'll need a bit of skill to take out the maximum juice out of it, so that's perfect. It seems a tad too sturdy, but I suppose most of the time it's too slow to make use of it as a tank. The Alliance Carriers is the Alliance Version of a Pirate base, no matter what the name says, while the infantryman are basically faster and weaker Paladins; the first is way too useful, but it's only on certain battles (just like the second). I think that's all of them?
Overall balance
I think we can finally say lasers have achieved an overall parity with kinetics. Kinetics still have an edge on big juicy targets, which is kinda their point, but the usefulness of lasers everywhere else makes up for it. Missiles in general have been a tad shafted, what with so much more flak now, but having the Sunrider now with 5 missiles kinda makes up for it a bit (they were also mostly PACT's weapon too). Also, the few times they're used they can be devastating. Seems a tad odd we can't upgrade their accuracy though, and also somehow it seems the Alliance cruiser missiles have a higher base accuracy than the Sunrider (and of course the Ryders have 10% less than the Sunrider)
Rockets also feel the increase in flak. MIRV rockets are totally bonkers though, so they also don't mind too much (also, something I quite love of MIRVs is their 100% accuracy). Kinda want them in, because they're very cool, but at the same time I admit they can probably break the game.
On money and CP: I feel some enemies give a little too much of both (like Arcadius Ryders or Destroyers). For the rest, CP is fine. Maybe a little on the "a tad much" side, but a lot better than 7.2. Money is fine until the last battles (making repair take into account all damages helps a lot, and it's in my opinion a great change), but after it there's just way too much. The store clearly needs some extra items or increase costs.
On new skills: Drawfire is pretty good, and in some situation it can even be a tad OP (first mission, for example). Stealth is improved, but still mostly situational. I found SHDFly cozy, but nothing much to say. Both Awaken are powerful skills that can be very devastating when used well, but I think they're more or less balanced (Asaga's a little less than Sola's, but that's kinda the point).
Buff stacking can get pretty powerful, but at the same time it finally makes the single buff skills (like ATK Up and Aim UP) useful again. Luckily, most of the times the enemy keeps you too busy to allow you to do it easily, but the few mission that give you some time in the middle (mission 4 and 7) can become fairly easier by applying the correct buffs at the correct time.
On missions: I miss the game sometimes hinting you the arrival of reinforcements before the mission. They tend to get a tad too common, and almost encourage first making a "mock" battle to see them (or dive in the code) and plan adequately. I understand the reasons, and in some missions it makes a lot of sense, but far too many times they're simply reinforcements that appear as "another" wave of enemies instead of appearing to help the "original" enemies. It's not bad, but it does feel a tad lazy.
And to be honest, that's probably one of the very few problems I have with Lib Day: it sometimes feels a tad lazy. A bigger, better 7.2, but nothing much more than 7.2 in the end. Let me explain a bit:
In the original Sunrider, you started using lasers in the first missions. Then escort mission happens, and you start needing kinetics. Then Wedding Crash and Far port happen and you are "kinetics and Rocket master-race!". Then Nightmares happen, and you have either dominated the "Best defense is a very big offense" tactic or you will be forced to reconsider upgrading your shields. Then Ironhogs happen, and finally Assault Carriers and Support happens and each wholly changes the way you gear your upgrades and prepare your tactics.
And, I realized, while playing lib Day, that I hadn't changed my tactics during the whole game. I hadn't even changed my upgrades. Liberation Day is a bigger, better version of Sunrider, but unlike Sunrider it simply hasn't changed the game since: you're largely fighting the same enemies (changing ironhogs by Destroyers, and with the addition of Fast cruisers which unfortunately aren't enough by themselves) in bigger numbers, with your units having bigger numbers. You still use the first turn of every battle to effortlessly cast Full Forward. You still have the leisure to use the vanguard and Short range warp from time to time, and you'll use All Guard whenever Nightmare appears. You'll use 3 flak off and rockets when a particularly huge number of surprise enemies appears out of nowhere. You'll maintain most of your fleet in a very compact formation form the beginning to the end, hiding behind your shields and flak. And you will be able to use that same strategy for 8 very long missions non stop.
With all the new stuff, can see lots of things that make the game better, and a lot more polished, and more fun. But, then I ask myself "does has it changed the way I play the game, made me change my thoughts on my upgrades, made me go for different starting formation". And my answer is a rotund "No".
Of course, the game is very fun. 7.2 was very fun too. But now I understand why through all the game I couldn't help but feel that everything was similar, and I had the details of every battle fuzzy on my head ("was that on mission 7? no, wait, it was the final reinforcements of mission 6... wait, maybe it was mission 3").
Suggestions:
-Make MIRV rockets more expensive to purchase (as in, from 300, raise to 600), and remove the -10 to flak from them (making them "nornal missiles"): still very cool and broken, but not as easy as before
-Put an item at the store that raises the base accuracy of the missiles of the Sunrider and its ryders by 10 at 3000$
-Put some Shield Cruisers for purchase after its mission, at a relatively high price
And that's all for now. Maybe tomorrow I'll come and add some extra things I've undoubtedly forgotten, but now I'm collapsing and I've written way too much.
EDIT: Mostly edited a little my late night ramblings to make them more readable. Oh, and I forgot to comment about the music! The music in Lib Day it's pretty good, but I'm kinda sad we took "Driving the top down" over "Powerful" or "Overpowered". I always felt the latter 2 were leagues ahead. In general, in Lib Day I've felt the general battle music gets a tad worse compared to MoA and First Arrival, which blew me away. I think it might be related with use rather than quality of the tracks (for example, "Beat of the Cosmos" is a great song, but it gets very repetitive quickly when your turn can get to last more than 20 minutes due to the ginormous number of units), though only having 2 tracks for 2/3 of the battles of the game probably helps too. On the good side, I've felt the music in the VN parts more to my liking, and I find the music of the vanguard Cannon hundreds of times better.
I mean, I know we couldn't reach Sunrider's variety due to legal issues and all that, but I'm kinda disappointed too. If "Riding with the Wind" hadn't returned for the final battle I probably would have thrown a small fit. Luckily, it returned, so I think I can say that, while not as good as MoA, Lib Day has a good soundtrack, which is pretty laudable when you consider the mess there was with the music in the earlier stages (which I suppose Samu-kun will never be able to share with us due to legal and PR stuff).
Oh, and yeah, the final boss is good stuff. Finally forces you out of your place and to take things from another perspective. Shame a super-ultra-boss was needed for that, but I'll take what we can get.
U.I. changes:
First, seeing the loss of animations is a little sad. I know the reasons why this has been done, but it certainly does make the game look cheaper. Specially when there's still some lag lingering: it's a tremendous improvement from MoA, but with the lack of animations any possible justification has gone out of the window (well, beside the fact this somehow is coded in renpy, but the layman won't be able to understand that). The increased info on targets (armour, shield, flak, etc) is helpful though, and the rest is the same as 7.2, which was already a very polished release, so no problems for the rest.
Now, I have to go on the Upgrade U.I., and I will comment it separately because most of it is pretty bad. First, allowing you to access it anywhere makes possible all sort of hijinks like
undoing Claude's upgrades in her own death scene, reaping all the benefits you may want.
besides some problems with renpy's rollback feature. Then after it, the U.I. itself is a mess. Putting all the stats on view is certainly a good idea, but is completely brought down by simply forgetting everything that made MoA's upgrade U.I. good. Seeing how much effect the upgrade will have? Nah. Seeing even the level of the upgrade? Nah. Seeing how much the next levels will cost? nah. You're basically reduced either to use you perfect Sunrider knowledge (hint: when you know by memory 80% of the upgrades, you're probably a beta tester) or simply go forward and upgrade anything you want or think in whatever way, and if you like it ok, and if you not, well, you can always take it back. I mean, I understand allowing to take back upgrades easily after you basically picked for us the initial stats after MoA, but that doesn't mean you can leave that mess like that. You're supposed to strategy your upgrades, and you can't do that when you have to either look at the code or take pen and paper and record combinations to later remember "Ah, Icari's scaling on En is pretty good, so I can put her EN to 140 relatively early", or "Oh, with lasers the scaling was 10% and not 5%, I kinda forgot", etc . In short, I personally would take out half of the current U.I. and put half of 7.2's one. If we can have what was good with both, perfect, but please not this mess. New Units
Now, here I can gush. First, the Fast Cruisers are very good enemies, and probably the kind of enemy Sunrider desperately needed. The aren't as slippery as Supports, as tough as Battleships, but also aren't that fragile or slow. They are however very dangerous up close, so they make prefect "regular" enemies; easy enough to pummel, but at the same time you probably won't want to lower your guard around them. Lasers gain another enemy they can be very effective against, and PACT finally gets good at close combat. I can also only gush about the destroyers; they fit another perfect niche being basically PACT's version of the Ironhogs, even weaker (due to lack of flak) but even more devastating, and very importantly being a huge magnet to your shoots. Their splash damage is not enough to make you disperse (from the beginning they are far too devastating to leave around for 1 turn on anything higher than ensign), but it works as punishment, so it's ok for me
On the returnees, It was good to see PACT BBs and Assault Carriers get buffed, they desperately needed it. Though the BBs took it a lot better than Assault Carriers: while the great increase on your number of units with decent to high flak makes one lone BB a lot less dangerous which is kinda offset by their larger numbers and increased toughness, Assault Carriers are in a strange middle ground when they seem to be unable to exploit their advantages. They either make some Elites that can be slightly annoying but nothing more, make a Support that most of the time is too isolated (as in, very little protected even if you don't have the Sniping goddess Sola) to do anything, or simply launch some missiles (which, again, due to increase on flak are barely effective on their own). They don't move to try to use their kinetics, which merely makes them damage sponges, but nothing threatening. The Ryders are fine as always: the mooks barely an annoyance, the Elites an increased annoyance (though, again, the increase in flak makes their previously fairly decent missiles even less annoying), the Bombers a bother, and the Supports the holy mother of troublesome units. Oh, and the Arcadius units, but, well, they've kinda always been a joke in my book, specially now that they don't have flak or counter (well, they are better than other Ryders, but their increased reward and CP gain is simply not worth their problems, they are far too easy to take out).
I missed old Cruisers and Missile frigates. While individually they are weak, there were a pair of times where their strategic collocation could have ruined my fun. The few times they appear are pretty close to that, and I can't help but think that more than once their strategic collocation could have turned a "bunch of annoyances" into a threat.
On ally units, well almost all are pretty neat. Ceran Gunboats fill a good niche, even if I still can't get much use of their special skill (it's good, it's just that most of the times my battle line is precisely at 4 grids of distance, and I don't want to risk them). Alliance Battleships and Cruisers are the same as 7.2 (though oddly their missiles seems to have a higher base accuracy?), and similarly good. Ryuvian Falcons are good enough to make me ask what kind of option is worth not having them; they are also very sneaky with their combination of high EV and decent HP. I fear maybe a tad too good, personally would lower their HP and EV a bit to make them more fragile (700 HP and 25 EV would look good), or at least make them more expensive. Nothing too important, though. Union Battleships are pretty decent; powerful yet slow, and its weapons base accuracies are more on the low side but it has an all compassing Gravity gun. Also a laser focused unit (its kinetics are good, but due to their lower power, accuracy, and higher energy cost, they end being mostly situational) which is always a plus. In both normal weapons and gravity gun uses you'll need a bit of skill to take out the maximum juice out of it, so that's perfect. It seems a tad too sturdy, but I suppose most of the time it's too slow to make use of it as a tank. The Alliance Carriers is the Alliance Version of a Pirate base, no matter what the name says, while the infantryman are basically faster and weaker Paladins; the first is way too useful, but it's only on certain battles (just like the second). I think that's all of them?
There are also the PACT friendly units, but the same as above applies, and the Shield Cruisers are basically moving objectives.
Overall balance
I think we can finally say lasers have achieved an overall parity with kinetics. Kinetics still have an edge on big juicy targets, which is kinda their point, but the usefulness of lasers everywhere else makes up for it. Missiles in general have been a tad shafted, what with so much more flak now, but having the Sunrider now with 5 missiles kinda makes up for it a bit (they were also mostly PACT's weapon too). Also, the few times they're used they can be devastating. Seems a tad odd we can't upgrade their accuracy though, and also somehow it seems the Alliance cruiser missiles have a higher base accuracy than the Sunrider (and of course the Ryders have 10% less than the Sunrider)
Rockets also feel the increase in flak. MIRV rockets are totally bonkers though, so they also don't mind too much (also, something I quite love of MIRVs is their 100% accuracy). Kinda want them in, because they're very cool, but at the same time I admit they can probably break the game.
On money and CP: I feel some enemies give a little too much of both (like Arcadius Ryders or Destroyers). For the rest, CP is fine. Maybe a little on the "a tad much" side, but a lot better than 7.2. Money is fine until the last battles (making repair take into account all damages helps a lot, and it's in my opinion a great change), but after it there's just way too much. The store clearly needs some extra items or increase costs.
On new skills: Drawfire is pretty good, and in some situation it can even be a tad OP (first mission, for example). Stealth is improved, but still mostly situational. I found SHDFly cozy, but nothing much to say. Both Awaken are powerful skills that can be very devastating when used well, but I think they're more or less balanced (Asaga's a little less than Sola's, but that's kinda the point).
Buff stacking can get pretty powerful, but at the same time it finally makes the single buff skills (like ATK Up and Aim UP) useful again. Luckily, most of the times the enemy keeps you too busy to allow you to do it easily, but the few mission that give you some time in the middle (mission 4 and 7) can become fairly easier by applying the correct buffs at the correct time.
On missions: I miss the game sometimes hinting you the arrival of reinforcements before the mission. They tend to get a tad too common, and almost encourage first making a "mock" battle to see them (or dive in the code) and plan adequately. I understand the reasons, and in some missions it makes a lot of sense, but far too many times they're simply reinforcements that appear as "another" wave of enemies instead of appearing to help the "original" enemies. It's not bad, but it does feel a tad lazy.
And to be honest, that's probably one of the very few problems I have with Lib Day: it sometimes feels a tad lazy. A bigger, better 7.2, but nothing much more than 7.2 in the end. Let me explain a bit:
In the original Sunrider, you started using lasers in the first missions. Then escort mission happens, and you start needing kinetics. Then Wedding Crash and Far port happen and you are "kinetics and Rocket master-race!". Then Nightmares happen, and you have either dominated the "Best defense is a very big offense" tactic or you will be forced to reconsider upgrading your shields. Then Ironhogs happen, and finally Assault Carriers and Support happens and each wholly changes the way you gear your upgrades and prepare your tactics.
And, I realized, while playing lib Day, that I hadn't changed my tactics during the whole game. I hadn't even changed my upgrades. Liberation Day is a bigger, better version of Sunrider, but unlike Sunrider it simply hasn't changed the game since: you're largely fighting the same enemies (changing ironhogs by Destroyers, and with the addition of Fast cruisers which unfortunately aren't enough by themselves) in bigger numbers, with your units having bigger numbers. You still use the first turn of every battle to effortlessly cast Full Forward. You still have the leisure to use the vanguard and Short range warp from time to time, and you'll use All Guard whenever Nightmare appears. You'll use 3 flak off and rockets when a particularly huge number of surprise enemies appears out of nowhere. You'll maintain most of your fleet in a very compact formation form the beginning to the end, hiding behind your shields and flak. And you will be able to use that same strategy for 8 very long missions non stop.
With all the new stuff, can see lots of things that make the game better, and a lot more polished, and more fun. But, then I ask myself "does has it changed the way I play the game, made me change my thoughts on my upgrades, made me go for different starting formation". And my answer is a rotund "No".
Of course, the game is very fun. 7.2 was very fun too. But now I understand why through all the game I couldn't help but feel that everything was similar, and I had the details of every battle fuzzy on my head ("was that on mission 7? no, wait, it was the final reinforcements of mission 6... wait, maybe it was mission 3").
Suggestions:
-Make MIRV rockets more expensive to purchase (as in, from 300, raise to 600), and remove the -10 to flak from them (making them "nornal missiles"): still very cool and broken, but not as easy as before
-Put an item at the store that raises the base accuracy of the missiles of the Sunrider and its ryders by 10 at 3000$
-Put some Shield Cruisers for purchase after its mission, at a relatively high price
and thus help improve the loss of the Bianca
-Make the R&D screen great again.-On Mission 7, make Asaga receive an Awakening upgrade (as if a turn had passed) every-time she is "killed". Right now she is a joke, close to non-threatening by any remotely competent player, and way too easy to farm. This way the player would have to choose between farming her and make the enemy a lot more dangerous, or take the "easier" way trying to avoid her.
And that's all for now. Maybe tomorrow I'll come and add some extra things I've undoubtedly forgotten, but now I'm collapsing and I've written way too much.
EDIT: Mostly edited a little my late night ramblings to make them more readable. Oh, and I forgot to comment about the music! The music in Lib Day it's pretty good, but I'm kinda sad we took "Driving the top down" over "Powerful" or "Overpowered". I always felt the latter 2 were leagues ahead. In general, in Lib Day I've felt the general battle music gets a tad worse compared to MoA and First Arrival, which blew me away. I think it might be related with use rather than quality of the tracks (for example, "Beat of the Cosmos" is a great song, but it gets very repetitive quickly when your turn can get to last more than 20 minutes due to the ginormous number of units), though only having 2 tracks for 2/3 of the battles of the game probably helps too. On the good side, I've felt the music in the VN parts more to my liking, and I find the music of the vanguard Cannon hundreds of times better.
I mean, I know we couldn't reach Sunrider's variety due to legal issues and all that, but I'm kinda disappointed too. If "Riding with the Wind" hadn't returned for the final battle I probably would have thrown a small fit. Luckily, it returned, so I think I can say that, while not as good as MoA, Lib Day has a good soundtrack, which is pretty laudable when you consider the mess there was with the music in the earlier stages (which I suppose Samu-kun will never be able to share with us due to legal and PR stuff).
Oh, and yeah, the final boss is good stuff. Finally forces you out of your place and to take things from another perspective. Shame a super-ultra-boss was needed for that, but I'll take what we can get.
), but rather the lack of new enemies. MoA's part after New Arrival consisted of 9 missions (4 side mission, 2 at Ongess and 3 at helion) and introduced a grand total of 6 new enemy units (Nightmare, Ironhog, Assault Carrier, Elite, Supports and Arcadius), plus a boss (the Legion). And Carriers were introduced the mission just before. In Lib Day you also have 9 missions, but only 3 new enemies (well, unless you count the ProtoCarrier that spawns Arcadius as a new unit) and the boss are introduced, and one of the former is basically a mid-boss. And further, one of these new enemies is basically a substitute of ironhogs/missile frigates, and missions now have a fairly higher number of units. While there are a lot more allied units, you can't upgrade them or simply deploy too many of them, so their effect on the battlefield is a lot less than the one a new enemy unit would have, which forces you to reconsider both your strategy and upgrades. I think for example a mission where instead of PACT you fight an Alliance fleet would already have changed things tremendously. 
Hot singles in your local solar system! 
