I wanted to make this post so I can see if it was just me since I haven't heard anything and I didn't see it covered in the patch notes. Does the AI director feel a little too aggressive on lower difficulties to you guys? I was playing with my family since they had just got the game and we were playing the first operation since that's all they had unlocked. They were the host, just barely having unlocked operations at lvl 1 meanwhile I was well into the campaign and about to enter chapter 4 and my Operations tactical was lvl 2 or 3. On our second run we ran into a Neurothrope. I was surprised since it was a mid-campaign boss and they were low level and we had just fought a large group and were low on ammo. We ended up wiping because another wave spawned when we pushed forward in order to reach an ammo crate in the next section. Our next run the Neurothrope spawned again later in the mission after wiping an area as we were searching for ammo. It also happened a third time. We were only on the second difficulty (I think it's called average) since they were still getting a handle on the controls so I think back to back bosses is kind of rough, especially since we kept dying so the game should know we weren't up to it. Bosses aside, this same effect of spawning hordes (usually with Zoanthropes) after fighting another group of enemies. The Zoanthropes especially made the waves very spongy and we couldn't effectively focus them down since we didn't have enough ammo. I can only assume the AI Director was being extra aggressive since it saw us lingering looking for ammo. Another weird part is that it seems confused about where we are since these surprise waves primarily spawned from where we came from. I haven't had the issue since playing by myself so I'm wondering if the Director had too many tickets since there were 3 of us and it just kept spawning bosses. Anyone else experience this or did I just get really unlucky? I'm on PC btw, if that means anything.

I had multiple pairs of Neurothropes on an easy mission last night (1st operation). A pair early on in the mission and then another pair at the end. I was only able to beat the first pair because the other elites and small bugs were already dead when I found them. The pair on the end killed me due to the horde of elites and smaller bugs. 

I feel the AI Director doesn't understand difficulty levels. AI Director is even worse when you're forced to play with 2 bots.

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Tatoskok wrote:

I had multiple pairs of Neurothropes on an easy mission last night (1st operation). A pair early on in the mission and then another pair at the end. I was only able to beat the first pair because the other elites and small bugs were already dead when I found them. The pair on the end killed me due to the horde of elites and smaller bugs. 

I feel the AI Director doesn't understand difficulty levels. AI Director is even worse when you're forced to play with 2 bots.

I was going to say that I'm fine with the difficulty if it's intended and I'm being told to work up from easy but I played the campaign on the second difficulty so I assumed they were comparable and if it's also freaking out on easy I might just randomly loose runs and req points hindering my grind for no reason and that sucks. Also, it sounds like you're facing Zoanthropes (if I have my Tyranids right) which always spawn in pairs and have annoying support abilities while the Neurothrope is larger, spawns alone and is designed as a boss with more offensive abilities and has a boss health bar at the top than announces it

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Fracture wrote:
Does the AI director feel a little too aggressive on lower difficulties to you guys?

yes. a group of 5 majoris is very hard for new players. so are zoantrophes (they're invulnerable if you don't know how they work).

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crispy_64 wrote:

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Fracture wrote:
Does the AI director feel a little too aggressive on lower difficulties to you guys?

yes. a group of 5 majoris is very hard for new players. so are zoantrophes (they're invulnerable if you don't know how they work).

I found the melee pretty intuitive so I became the dedicated melee unit so they'd swarm me and not my noob partners and I like 5 majoris is a find fight if you manage the group well enough, but another 5 right after with small ones with a quarter ammo left is rough. Either go full melee and come out with no health left or rush through the next area for ammo, activating all those Tyranids as well.

I had discussed this with a group I was playing with from discord. That ruthless seemed easier than Average. But also have to take into account everyone's experience at that point, coordination and teamwork at play as well.

A 20+ Tactical will make most encounters trivial with his Auspex. Bulwark negate having to worry about health so much. Heavy will give you back your abilities constantly. Weapons do so much damage that it can refill your contested HP quickly, even unloading my pistol can recoup 1/4 of my HP. Knowing where Bosses can spawn means we know when and when not to use skills. Meltas are making it very easy as well with their clearing ability. Overall though it does seem like there are a lot fewer swarms. Chaos on the other hand is still cancer but doable.

I feel like something changed recently, because I just did a mission on Average with a friend who just got the game, playing on my Assault, who I had not leveled yet. We literally just stepped out of where we spawned and got accosted by a Helbrute. Both my teammates went down, and I managed to kill it after like, 5 minutes (I basically just had to constantly dodge while being assaulted by a wave of enemies).

After I finally kill the goddam thing, we move to the next area and get attacked by a massive horde, then wipe.

I've never seen the AI Director go that buck wild on Average.