Positive feedback: a process that occurs in a feedback loop in which the effects of a small disturbance on a system include an increase in the magnitude of the perturbation.
In Cogmind, the alert level has a strong positive feedback, by design. As the alert level rises, enemies appear more frequently, which causes the alert level to rise even more. Thus, a major goal in the game is to ensure that the alert level stays as low as possible through the course of the game.
I like that mechanic. It provides a nice risk/reward tradeoff when playing for score. However, I feel there's currently an unbalanced aspect to it.
In my last game, I had a terrible time on -3. I wrecked half the place until I finally found the exit. The alert level shot up. Despite that, I went up to -2 in a relatively good shape (full inventory, etc).
Reflecting on what I should do next, it occurred to me that luck, not skills, was the more important factor at this point. To my knowledge, there are 4 things that could save me.
1) Finding the exit quickly.
2) Finding a terminal and driving down the alert level significantly.
3) Finding a chute trap.
4) Finding a garrison and be able to enter it.
All those actions have low odds of success. There isn't much time to find anything with ARCs that keep deploying, and corruption builds up fast. My combat build is designed to make the most out of that situation (it's fast and resilient), but the RNG has to cooperate eventually. I tried to enter two garrisons (~30% chance per hacking attempt) and hack some terminals (I had an improved scanner) but they would have none of it. I died. In my experience, that pattern occurs quite frequently.
When the alert level shots up, the player gets punished a lot. Getting to an exit is a major achievement in those conditions. However, a bigger challenge awaits on the next level, and the level beyond that.
Getting parts blown up help, but not enough to get rid of the alert level doom. So the player has very little control on his fate anymore. I don't think that's fair.
I would prefer if the influence decreased a lot more when reaching the next level (i.e. on evolution). I'd also gladly trade two of my slots to drive down the influence down to zero when changing level. Those nerfs would make the game easier, but I think that's a good thing. The player already had his challenge when the alert level shot up.
Perhaps the bigger issue is that terminals are so difficult to hack on Research and beyond (even with decent hackware).
