Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

The Cylons have rebelled. The alliance of the Twelve Colonies falters. Take control of the Colonial Fleet and save humanity from an endless war.
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Daniele
Slitherine
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Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by Daniele »

“Tell me, corporal; have you ever run from a fight?”

“No, ma’am.”

Sashenka eyed the young soldier, rigid, wooden, staring into the distance above her left ear. He was trying so very hard to hide his shaking hands. “You enjoy throwing yourself into danger?”

“No, ma’am, ”repeated the soldier. “I’m not a coward. I follow orders.”

The minister sneered. “Obedience is for the unimaginative.”

“I trust my superior officers have been trained by Canceron’s best. I trust that they respect the well-being of their command. A soldier’s life is a calculated risk.” Wenutu held up the assault rifle and looked down the sights at the young man. “You like to visit the big card tables while on leave. All those drinks and flashing lights. I suppose that’s why you’re here. Lots of money owed to men with very long lists. Was that a calculated risk, as well?”

The soldier faltered. “Ma’am, I’m here because I was told you had work that needed—” “You do not run from a challenge, soldier, because a challenge is fair and equitable. You may not win. You may not even live. But you can die knowing that the table was not rigged.” Sashenka pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She let the man see the disappointment on her face before she threw the weapon to the floor. “That’s why I do not gamble, corporal. You will do. Report to the squad lead in two hours. I expect we will not ever see each other again.”


The Infinity Update and Anabasis DLC has been out for a couple of weeks now, so we wanted to let you all know about what we’ve been working on, and some of what’s coming up soon.

It’s been very interesting to hear the feedback about Operation Anabasis. One thing that we are hearing a lot is that many players are finding it too difficult. Whilst Anabasis was intended to be challenging and more intense than the campaign - and requires a different play-style to succeed - we didn’t mean for it to be impossible.

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We value what our players have to say, so we are working in implementing difficulty levels in Operation Anabasis. Soon, when you start the operation, you’ll be able to choose how challenging the operation will be, similar to the story campaign.

Beyond that, we’ve also started work on a number of new features and improvements to the game, many of which are requests from the community. We’ll talk more about those features in future diaries as we get them into the game.

In the meantime, you can join our Discord channel to talk fleet compositions and tactics with other BSG fans. And don’t forget about the Anabasis Survival Challenge, which ends this week!

Until next time.
MVP7
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by MVP7 »

Any chance of missile countermeasures being balanced in the next update? I really liked the original campaign and would like to get the Anabasis but I won't be buying it until at least the visuals and effectiveness chaff is fixed (I made a more detailed feedback thread about the genuinely game-breaking issues of chaff back in June).
fisher2000
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by fisher2000 »

Daniele wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 1:55 pm
We value what our players have to say, so we are working in implementing difficulty levels in Operation Anabasis. Soon, when you start the operation, you’ll be able to choose how challenging the operation will be, similar to the story campaign.

Beyond that, we’ve also started work on a number of new features and improvements to the game, many of which are requests from the community. We’ll talk more about those features in future diaries as we get them into the game.


This is why everyone who works behind the scenes on this game is amazing! You have breathed life back into RDM, made me rewatch the whole franchise and beat the game times across two platforms! To everyone who is dedicated to this game I would like to thank you for all of your work!
blacklab
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by blacklab »

@MVP7 - We made a number of changed to chaff in the Infinity Update that was released mid-October:

- Sweepers now have a visualisation when chaff pods are launched
- Chaff effect has been modified to be less "chaotic" & uses the same system as Flak to allow munitions to penetrate before detonation

(The flak change referrred to was :
- Flak now has a % chance to detonate missiles, instead of an auto-kill when the missiles hits the outer edge of the field)

Have you tried the game lately, and if so, are these changes better?

@fisher2000:
Thanks! We're glad you enjoy our game :)
Paul Turbett - Game Director - Black Lab Games
twitter.com/blacklabgames
DRZLIGHT
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by DRZLIGHT »

Hello to everyone at Slitherine games,

Just wanted to say a huge thank-you to all your hard work on the Operation Anabasis DLC! Its so much fun to play and very very challenging! Love the improved visuals of the Battlestar's Main KEW's and the way the Cylon missiles fly as they approach one of your ships looks so much like how it did in the series its great to see!!!! Also really liked how you added an extra support fighter slot to the jupiter and atlas classes. I feel like its made both ship's worth what it costs to put them in a fleet especially the atlas class, I feel like its now a very useful addition to any fleet. I also really enjoyed the new side missions in the main campaign all of them have been fun and actually make you really want to complete them to get those additional RP points.

I do though want to talk about the Operation Anabasis survival mode,

In the update article you spoke of how hard it was with some players claiming it was impossible to beat. I found this is certainly not the case though I will explain fully below and what suggestions i would like to add.

(Now I often play the survival mode with a fleet of 3 jupiters and an atlas so what i experienced is based on that)

When I first played the survival mode i immediately realised that after about jump 5 the difficulty skyrockets! while its still manageable I often found myself in the beginning realising that I would only survive the next jump if i was lucky. But after thinking about my play style i realised i was playing the survival mode all wrong. Having your ships openly combating the cylon fleet and its reinforcements will lead to your ships getting wasted in no time. And with no guarantee of repairs next jump (and that they will remain cheap as well,) it can be a huge risk to choose to engage cylon forces directly. So instead of fighting directly I found the best option was to literally run! LOL no joke. Literally turn your ships around and run them to the edge of the map and make your stand there. "THIS" is what i find most thrilling about the DLC. You are in a hopeless situation. The opening story screen to the survival mode indicates this. Its meant to be your little fleet against a huge relentless cylon war machine. If you stand and fight you are going to die. However with saying that i do admit it was a struggle to beat the survival mode i often had to sacrifice my atlas and (rarely) another battlestar to slow the cylons down so that they dont reach helena's and sam's ships. But still survived to caprica anyway.

Also, with the jumps that add a civilian transport to the fleet this adds another layer of Morality vs Survivability which I love but found it doesn't affect to much.

As it stands though, Do I place my ships closer to the transport to keep it safe, spare my fighters from protecting my battlestar's from missile fire to defend the transport and allow my ships to take some hits and thus lower my chances of successfully getting the entire fleet back to Caprica or... Do i keep my fleet back, let the transports be the bait to slow the cylons down thus reducing the damage to the fleet and in turn increasing my chances of reaching Caprica. In that moment you are either Cain or Adama... lol maybe i'm looking to much into that but found it interesting. But i found this to be a little underwhelming. Although Sam and Helena will comment on this if you sacrifice or loose a civilian ship it doesnt effect the gameplay or the difficulty of the Cylon forces.

Maybe add a negative effect if you loose a transport? Maybe minus -1 to ship posture for every transport lost? It would make defending them more important to be sure. And do you remember the scream affects from galactica blood and chrome when columbia died. those screams gave me the chills. This is the cost of war if you fail. It would definitely make me feel a bit worse if i chose to sacrifice the transports. (which i often do)

But going further with ship posture. In the survival mode you can only move it a maximum of 4 places (defensive or aggressive) I feel this is not enough. Especially as the enemy fleet gets larger and more aggressive with each jump. I feel that as you progress through the survival mode each jump grants you a list of bonuses for surviving a jump whether it be an increase to posture (+1 for every successful jump) or maybe +5% increase to armour as your ships crews get more experienced during the fighting. changes like that. With each jump your commander and crew should get more experienced. I feel this would positively affect the survival mode and add an extra layer of strategy to game.

****SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVENT SUCCESSFULLY BEATEN ANABASIS SURVIVAL MODE****

another thing which i think is a missed golden opportunity which would add another reason to save the transport's is right at the end once you've reached caprica Helena and Sam will be overcome with relief if they both make it but they don't mention in greater detail the lives lost in the process. When the transports appear in the beginning of random missions a pilot of one of the transports should send out a message to the fleet requesting assistance even detailing who it is that is on the ship. And maybe if that ships is a mining transport then it could have some bonuses to add to the fleet like increased salvage rate for future jumps as long as it stays alive. Sam and Helena can respond to this and give there say but ultimately its you who decides what happens. If at the end you loose no transports then that could be considered a full victory of the survival mode. Each of the captains thanking your for your kindness. But if you loose all the transports but your battlestar's survive with both helena and sam they could mention in sadness the loss of captain ***** of transport 1 captain ***** of transport 2 ect. I think that would really hit home to the player and make them consider saving the transports more of a priority for other play through's.

Anyway, those are my thoughts loved the DLC so far though. Keep up the good work and thank-you!
Rebel Yell
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by Rebel Yell »

+1 to DRZLIGHT.

I also used 3 Jupiter and an Atlas and didn't have too many problems.

It was more fun doing it with 7 Janus' (3rd missile slot PCM for all, nice not to have to recover fighters before jumping) and 7 Atlas was also interesting.
MVP7
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by MVP7 »

blacklab wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2018 12:15 am @MVP7 - We made a number of changed to chaff in the Infinity Update that was released mid-October:

- Sweepers now have a visualisation when chaff pods are launched
- Chaff effect has been modified to be less "chaotic" & uses the same system as Flak to allow munitions to penetrate before detonation

(The flak change referrred to was :
- Flak now has a % chance to detonate missiles, instead of an auto-kill when the missiles hits the outer edge of the field)

Have you tried the game lately, and if so, are these changes better?

@fisher2000:
Thanks! We're glad you enjoy our game :)
Thanks! These changes weren't mentioned in dev diaries or public changelogs but it does look like that the chaff duration has been significantly shortened which somewhat mitigates the issues.
bmjohnheath
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by bmjohnheath »

I am a current game design student at Full Sail university.In my Opinion, the main improvements that would make Operation Anabasis still challenging but not impossible.
1. implement a award mechanic, for players staying in combat longer. For example you gain more salvage per Cylon ship You destroy , Before FTL. To the next jump point , This would increase the Meaningful Choice and Risk reward of Operation Anabasis .
2. Increase the amount of Salvage . the amount of Salvage Gained Seems to be to small , preventing the ability to repair your ships or resupply.
3.Adjust Ui When the player is in a repair and resupply jump. After further playthrough I noticed that the option to repair individual ships was available , by pressing the hammer icon. I would recommend adding a large repair button in the empty slot. To prevent overlooking this mechanic like I Did.
UI Example
UI Example
bsge.JPG (392.77 KiB) Viewed 4185 times
4. increases the speed and tweak the Ai of the vipers and raptors. I would be stuck in a punishing Combat longer, causing me to lose ships, because the Vipers Ai would get confused after pushing the recall button. same thing with the Raptors.
5. being able to recover the Raptor's and vipers from other ships that were destroyed in combat . Which would allow the player to use them in the next combat jump.
6. if you have to leave a ship behind in a emergency FTL Allow the player a chance to for those ships and/or vipers to appear in the next combat later on; for example the player jumps befores recovering two Raptors those raptors appear 3 turn into the next jump.
Last edited by bmjohnheath on Sat Dec 08, 2018 10:07 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Rebel Yell
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Re: Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Dev Diary 13 - Rolling the Hard Six

Post by Rebel Yell »

+1 to #5
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