Closed Early Game Difficulty Curve

Apologies if this isn't the appropriate place to put this.

Using a mod to enable the starting Protectorate quests, I found myself struggling to make progress. I made it to the outpost, got the Erchius Mining Facility mission and then struggled hard. I don't consider myself to be a particularly bad player, so I was wondering if there was something I was missing. I explored the Outpost a little more, got the three techs and tried again. I still had a hard time. Seeing that I only had Tier 1 armor, so I figured I might try to find some tungsten and craft some better armor. My starting planet didn't seem to have any (and turns out it actually didn't), so eventually I gave in. Since I just wanted to get through this mission, I decided to spawn in the tier 3 armor set.

While it was now much easier, the mission was still no walk in the park. I was using armor that you could not have at this point in the game and still had to be careful about how I progressed through the mission. This seems wrong.

The main issue was actually that I took quite a lot of damage, more than anything. The Moontants were doing 15-20 damage which at tier 1 armor is only 5-6 hits. This is worsened by the fact that they have a ranged attack, which means if you don't get to them quite fast enough, you'll take at least one hit (more if they're bunched together, which was often the case).

A further issue was the humans in the mission. The first one I encountered was non-hostile, so when the next ones I encountered 1) started attacking me and 2) one-shot me, it took me by surprise. Seemed pretty trolly for an early-game mission that is required to actually access the rest of the game. Worse is that, as far as I could tell, the path forward required me to get past two hostile humans. While I just dashed past them, the placement suggested to be that I was supposed to fight them.

I also got a similar feeling from the rest of the game. Enemies seemed to do way more damage than was reasonable given that at times I'd be swarmed by 5-6 of them at once. Dispatching them wasn't too difficult, but if I wasn't careful I'd be quickly taken out.

I understand that I'm 1) playing the nightly build and 2) playing content that isn't technically available yet, even on nightly, I'm just writing this as a report about my first few hours with the game to make sure it's known.

 

@Iris Blanche Ah, that could be it. The RPG player in me just loots everything I can. Still, I found it unreasonably tough for an early game, required mission, so I figured I should let the people that can do something about it know.

 

The miners attacking you is related to the dumb guards that attack for no reason. They're not meant to attack you. I did try to kill one miner with full Ferozium gear, and they have a LOT of health. They're not meant to die at all. They get super aggressive when something dangerous is nearby; the ones fighting Moontants will be stuck in "everything is bad" mode, while the ones after the first mutant miner don't attack me unless the mutant gets close to them.

Also, the nightly seems to have an annoying issue where monsters don't remain stationary when using ranged attacks, so Moontants are especially dangerous. I managed it a while ago using a bow and abusing Pulse Jump since they can't jump, but seeing it again with the bugged physics, it's scary.

Before these bugs though, Mining Facility was actually really easy. It felt toned down from the current Stable version. It's just the massive amount of bugs that should be fixed asap cause it to be insane difficulty. What's worse is that you need to get by one set of especially tenacious miners to progress.

 

Keep in mind that you can't get tier 2 armor (or a decent weapon unless you are lucky enough to have a shopkeep or found one) until AFTER this mission has happened. I've been playing for about 3 years now, and I have to say that this is definitely the hardest version of the EMF ever. Hardly any ranged weapons are found now, at least in the few runs I've had on the nightly.
Combined with the guard bug, it makes for a very hazardous and risky first mission.
(Even after this mission, you have to be careful. I went to the Floran mission with the same gear...be careful on that one.)

 

Oi.

I wonder if that's intentional. Because if so, that's one step forward, and two steps backward. I remember the days of Koala and how you could not find guns, anywhere and they expected you to fight Dreadwing with an Iron Bow and melee weapons and that was _mandatory_ to continue.

And then, up through Glad Giraffe you can actually find ranged weapons (though most of them are weak, still better than nothing).

And what.... now we're back to Koala, with almost no ranged weapons?

But then I suppose, Novakids get a ridiculous advantage that nobody else has.

Kinda wish they'd make up their minds here, to be honest I'd rather at least be finding pistols if nothing else on T1 planets.

And also, I wish they would start giving us ways to skip missions at least temporarily. Not everybody has the same skill level, and some people might want to wait and come back to it with better equipment... but they put these missions in front of us as roadblocks. I remember right after the EMF came out, many people couldn't do it until they nerfed it and it absolutely prevented progress unless the person was willing to /admin.

It'd just be so much nicer if they made missions rewarding but not mandatory. Maybe Infinity Express could sell Erchius Crystals for, I don't know, 1,000 pixels per. That way, you could do the mission or farm up 20,000 pixels.

 

They actually made it so that every race starts with a common broken broadsword, and not with 6 with swords and 1 with guns.
Novakid can still craft guns, sure, but everyone starts out with the same crap equipment.
(At least Avians start out with pants now. Thank the lord.)

To get past the EMF, I still had melee weapons and some cheap pistol that wasn't worth it. I held back a lot, used a lot of salves and a few bandages, and used a bed when I could (and when the miners weren't attacking me).

 

Yeah, but Novakids being able to make guns is the whole point of what I posted. Yeah, sure they start out with a 2h sword... but nobody uses their starter weapon in the EMF mission, lol. That'd be suicide. By the time you mine up some iron, get yourself the iron armor and a weapon, Novakids have the advantage in that they have crafted guns. And if guns are that ridiculously hard to find again... then Novakids might as well be the only race having access to guns for the EMF which makes it rather unfair.

 

I dunno, I found a gun on my first planet or two. I usually found them while mining, or, if I was lucky, a merchant had one.
The problem with early guns (both found and crafted) is that they
a) take up a lot of energy (although you don't use it for much else)
b) don't do a lot of damage and/or have a slow reload speed.
If guns don't work out for you, find a shield. They are sometimes as good as guns when it comes to early-game problems.

 

I actually found an Assault Rifle in one of the lockers at the base when I attempted the mission. I thought that was a good idea, but now it looks like I just got lucky. Might be a good idea to actually place a gun there everytime. (Make it a unique weapon with lower price so people don't farm it and sell it en masse)

Anyway, to make up for the lack of guns, bring Javelins. They're decent ranged weapons and pretty cheap right now. Maybe bring some bombs as well.