Update 1.2.6 - Improving delivery difficulty progression
Reroute
This update changes the way deliveries are generated, so if you have a save with an ongoing delivery, it will be randomized mid-flight after you move to this version. Sorry about that, consider it as a reroute for in-game lore.
The problems
Until now all checkpoints had completely random delivery tasks generated. This made progression pretty clunky, especially for Hard runs where you could get stuck with impossible to land deliveries at the start of the game.
Another issue is that you couldn't have any idea about the terrain in which you would land prior to starting a delivery. This would often lead to frustrating experience, where after a long flight, you'd have to either pay a lot of repairs, save abuse, or abandon the delivery entirely.
Landing difficulty overview
This update introduces 3 changes:
Landing difficulty is now a part of the delivery details.
Normal deliveries are always to a checkpoint with the same difficulty.
Bonuses based on landing difficulty.
How it works
In Bush 1022, the terrain gets more height variation as you get further away from the start. This directly correlates with landing difficulty and it's currently used as the sole factor that determines it.
Basically, deliveries can have and easy, medium, or hard landing rating based on how far from the center of the map the destination checkpoint is. It is now shown in the Checkpoint Menu when you pick a delivery.
Progression
The water, heavy and urgent deliveries remain random as they were in the past.
The key change happens in the normal delivery type. The destinations for this type can only have the same landing difficulty as the checkpoint they're started from.
In practice, this means there are always simpler deliveries to do at the start of the game. If the player goes further out, they can remain in a difficulty area as long as they please.
Overall, there should now be a more coherent difficulty progression.
Reward bonus
Based on the landing difficulty, there are now extra bonuses:
25% for Medium.
50% for Hard.