AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I am not using smithing or sagecraft at all. In fact, this isn't even the core problem the game has and will just distract from what makes the game too easy; 1) The limited enemy types and their lack of varied attacks. 2) The fact enemies don't properly scale with your level, particularly in the fact you get increasingly better abilities but the enemies don't compensate.
Consider how Bayonetta mixes up its combat as you progress, despite being a game where you eventually gain more moves, better weapons and skill as you progress. The game mixes things up by providing enemies that thwart or otherwise reduce the effectiveness of certain tactics. For example the later faith and glories, which ignore witch time making them substantially more difficult to kill than regular enemies. This even has parallels in KoA, as enemies that could attack normally during rekoning mode would be very interesting from a gameplay perspective and help spice it up during boss fights.
Things that I expect to be little debate about being potential improvements
1) Sagecrafting, when combining shards, Pristine shards shouldn't be listed in the menu.
2) Sleeping, the prompt should provide you with the current time in it.
3) Skill Trainers, once you've trained, they should disappear off the map, and no longer offer the "Training" button.
4) Difficulty, on what everyone's been saying about out-leveling the content, perhaps a Very Hard mode that makes all places scale to your current level (or perhaps beyond)?
Sure they're minor things, but I don't see a way in which any of those changes could be considered detrimental to the game itself.
And, just something that bugs me, but would be debatable as an improvement: Skill Trainers, take off the cap on level ranges, it really just turns it into a case of Fateweave > Train > Fateweave > Level Up. You can also currently make yourself incapable of using a low level trainer if you missed them, I believe. A 0-3 trainer, the 2 high level trainers, and a skill book would put you beyond the range of the remaining low level trainer.
But don't get me wrong, it is a great game. I think I must have spent 35 hours already, haven't left the desert yet and am level 31.
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
Does the main quest go Dalentarth>Erathell>Detyre>Klurikon>Alabastra?
I think I'm about to do the last thing possible in Dalentarth.
Do you guys feel that some of the difficulty problem has to do with smithing / sagecraft?
There's an element of that, sure. They aren't the primary problems, though. Up until this point in the game (level 33, 50 hours played, very near the end of the main story), I hadn't invested in Blacksmithing or Sagecrafting at all. I've been saying Hard mode is easy since my first few fights, and it's only gotten easier since then. I have all of my abilities now, and I basically can't be touched. I've only just decided to Fateweave my skills around, and play around with Blacksmithing for the achievement. Honestly? Unless they patch the difficulty, I'll never invest in that skill again, because it makes the game ridiculously easy. I went from having about 600 armour to 1100+, and all of my equipment does exactly what I want. I'll likely never find items that can rival what I'm now wearing. So then the game's not only easy, but boring.
So, yeah. Blacksmithing and Sagecraft being as powerful as they are is an element of the difficulty problem, but they aren't the major contributing factors. Enemies need to scale to your level; all enemies, not just the ones in dungeons. Bosses and minibosses need to resist interruption (so you can't just constantly stagger them). Reckoning needs to be toned down, maybe Fate generation needs to be looked at? As it stands now, I have Reckoning available to me every 3rd fight or so.
That's just off the top of my head.
To put things into perspective, I can literally walk away from my 360 while I'm fighting Bolgans (who are classified as Yellow, or challenging, or whatever), and go take care of shit around the house, and I'll come back and be totally fine. My defense and regen are just too high, and they can't actually damage me.
At 47 hours and nearly done with Detyr - lots of content in this game. Unfortunately, the difficulty is starting to be REALLY felt here. Everything has been grey so far bar 2 quests (Warsworn one and another random one IIRC). I haven't even been threatened in the entire time I've been in this area and it feels horribly underleveled (I can get an idea from how bad the items I've found have been). I'm also level 35 so I am not going to have a lot longer before I'm 40. Really can't see me not hitting the level cap well before I'm done with the swamp area and final part of the game.
I hate to say this, but I'm likely to rush the end just to get the game finished. Which is a real shame, because I genuinely love the game but if only the difficulty kept me engaged more I wouldn't be so worried about lacking leveling up to look forward to (possibly new equipment as well, but honestly what I currently have is tearing through everything like butter so even that isn't as big an incentive anymore).
Honestly, DLC to raise the level cap a bit (maybe to 45/50?) and up the difficulty with new enemies please. You can take my money now if you do this.
How many quests have you completed? It tells you this in the tab for completed quests, if you don't know. Just wondering.
edit: at the bottom of your quest log there's a section with your completed quests, not a tab. Sorry. thinking about a different game.
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“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
MalReynoldsThe Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicinesRegistered Userregular
edited February 2012
How to fix smithing:
Make it so that you cannot repair Unique or Set Items until you've reached a certain level in smithing, and make it so that crafted gear cannot, under any circumstances, be repaired. That way you're constantly hunting for new materials and having to craft more gear. You'd still get the reward of massively overpowered items, but they're temporary.
EDIT: And higher levels in smithing means higher base durability. You could also increase the durability of a smithed item by making it with a gem, sacrificing hitting power for lastibility.
DOUBLE EDIT: And then maybe as an added incentive for using an item until it breaks, perhaps give a good or higher crafting mat when the item finally craps out; the implication being, do you craft a lot of powerful weapons that break easily but hit for more to try and get better crafting mats, or do you craft some semi-powerful gear that will last longer and require less trips to the forge and less material hunting? I think that's a pretty good balance.
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Make it so that you cannot repair Unique or Set Items until you've reached a certain level in smithing, and make it so that crafted gear cannot, under any circumstances, be repaired. That way you're constantly hunting for new materials and having to craft more gear. You'd still get the reward of massively overpowered items, but they're temporary.
EDIT: And higher levels in smithing means higher base durability. You could also increase the durability of a smithed item by making it with a gem, sacrificing hitting power for lastibility.
DOUBLE EDIT: And then maybe as an added incentive for using an item until it breaks, perhaps give a good or higher crafting mat when the item finally craps out; the implication being, do you craft a lot of powerful weapons that break easily but hit for more to try and get better crafting mats, or do you craft some semi-powerful gear that will last longer and require less trips to the forge and less material hunting? I think that's a pretty good balance.
The easiest way to fix smithing would be to fix the materials required, or adjust how stacking works with diminishing returns.
Because durability limitations are meaningless when you only need one swing to kill something with your +200% normal damage, +1000% crit damage daggers.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
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MalReynoldsThe Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicinesRegistered Userregular
Make it so that you cannot repair Unique or Set Items until you've reached a certain level in smithing, and make it so that crafted gear cannot, under any circumstances, be repaired. That way you're constantly hunting for new materials and having to craft more gear. You'd still get the reward of massively overpowered items, but they're temporary.
EDIT: And higher levels in smithing means higher base durability. You could also increase the durability of a smithed item by making it with a gem, sacrificing hitting power for lastibility.
DOUBLE EDIT: And then maybe as an added incentive for using an item until it breaks, perhaps give a good or higher crafting mat when the item finally craps out; the implication being, do you craft a lot of powerful weapons that break easily but hit for more to try and get better crafting mats, or do you craft some semi-powerful gear that will last longer and require less trips to the forge and less material hunting? I think that's a pretty good balance.
The easiest way to fix smithing would be to fix the materials required, or adjust how stacking works with diminishing returns.
Because durability limitations are meaningless when you only need one swing to kill something with your +200% normal damage, +1000% crit damage daggers.
Maybe implement both?
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Give us jobs.
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If we had a way to add sockets to Unique or Set equipment, perhaps even via Blacksmithing, that would go a long way, in my opinion. Part of what irritates me about Blacksmithing is that I've got all this bad ass equipment with genuinely neat and unique designs, and they aren't nearly as powerful as the generic stuff I can craft at any forge. If we could use Blacksmithing to add sockets to Unique and Set equipment, that would at least make those items worth keeping around.
I mean, it's overpowered either way. Might as well be overpowered with something that looks cool. Also, I'm of the opinion that Unique equipment should have unique attributes, like, stuff normal (or Smithed) equipment can't have. Maybe a Unique Hammer that swings at Slow or Normal speed instead of Very Slow. Maybe a Longsword that's physically longer than others of its kind, which grants it a bit more reach. That kind of shit.
Set items need to be waaaay better as individual pieces. Uniques need to be rarer, and more powerful with higher requirements. Also, how about some dual requirement gear?
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Set items need to be waaaay better as individual pieces. Uniques need to be rarer, and more powerful with higher requirements. Also, how about some dual requirement gear?
Yes, absolutely. I was hoping for good dual requirement gear like spellplate. Alot of the set gear as it stands just isn't slot competitive or is really, really specialized in a way that's hard to use. This is especially bad since it's not a given you're going to complete sets that aren't tied to the story like Dark Empyrean, so there might be a piece out there that ties the set together and makes its bonuses worth it (Arcanist headpiece, for example, is tons better on its own than Arcanest gloves) that you won't find.
So yeah, those "recommendations" to fix smithing are terrible. Unreparable crafted items?
No.
That's a horrible idea.
Instead of killing off the only really good gear in the game they could make set items and uniques actually worth using. With the level scaling in the game you are always getting set/unique items that are worse, by far, than anything you can craft. This isn't a problem with crafting. That you can do absurd damage with your daggers in backstab isn't a problem with crafting. You'd be killing off the ability for Might characters to do anything just to satisfy some asinine desire for arbitrary difficulty.
Breaking an interesting aspect of the game (crafting) as a bandaid fix for actual problems in the game (enemy and item scaling) isn't a good solution.
If you "fix" blacksmithing with those suggestions no one will use it; ever. No one wants "consumable" equipment that breaks and it's gone. This isn't some hardcore roguelike or something.
Yeah, I'm with The Dude. Blacksmithing's numbers just need to be toned down a bit (you gain the ability to make more powerful weapons as you level or something) and/or players should have the ability to smith items that look like any unique item they've found. That'd be neat.
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Personally I'm not finding the difficulty to be too out of whack with respect to most other RPGs. Do all the sidequest and/or grind excessively and everything is too easy? That's almost a no brainer.
But that said, the damage output definitely needs to scale better to the level of enemy. I take almost zero damage from most physical attacks with my 100% might character at level 29. I have noticed that elemental damage still rips me a new one however so multiple mages present quite the problem. And maybe that is what the game needs more of. More elemental attacks, so you can't just tank everything. Or you are forced to give up some raw armor for better elemental resistance.
I'm really not sure how I'd tweak the game for a "nightmare" mode of sorts aside from just scaling the damage better, more elemental damage, more minibosses or unique encounters, perhaps faster attack animations to give you less reaction time. Stricter timing on parries?
Either getting to smith items using the model of something you found or not making set and unique items bad would really help. The +2 to skills that sets tend to have is enough to set them apart from items if the set items themselves were worth touching.
edit: At level 35 I'm seeing a fair number of people attacking me with pure magic. I'm running a roughly even split on might and finesse and they're not doing enough damage for me to justify doing something about my health other than slaughtering them. This is on hard.
The dodge/attack move with faeblades or one (occasionally two) hits from a greatsword kills them and I think the quickest they could kill me is around a few minutes.
edit 2: I picked up a blue helm around level 20 from a vendor that had +30% damage on it and a little bit of crit chance. the set head that I just got had a 15% chance to steal health and an 8% increase in crit damage. That's it. There's an 11 point difference in their requirements (the set piece is higher). The set bonuses are some damage resistance, some more crit damage, some bleed resistance and some more crit damage. Assuming that I just got the set bonuses for equipping the set helm, I still wouldn't do it.
Set items from somewhere in the drowned forest should not be worse than items you bought from some vendor in Ysa when you went through it.
Yeah, I'm with The Dude. Blacksmithing's numbers just need to be toned down a bit (you gain the ability to make more powerful weapons as you level or something) and/or players should have the ability to smith items that look like any unique item they've found. That'd be neat.
Yeah, fixing Blacksmithing shouldn't be about nerfing the ability as much as it should be about buffing the alternatives. The Unique and Set equipment in this game is really cool. I love the flavour text that comes along with them; not only do they have unique appearances, but also unique backstories, as well. That's appealing to me. What's unappealing is that my character can craft a Rare item with stats that absolutely shits down the throat of every single one of these awesome items. Allowing Blacksmiths to insert Sockets into Unique and Set equipment (not Rares, like the ones they can craft) would go a long way toward evening the playing field, I think.
Also, have some gameplay footage. I didn't do any commentary this time. I probably won't from now on, unless you guys want me to. I mean, there's only so much I can say about a Single Player game, you know? Anyway, this is what Full Finesse looks like. Faeblades and Longbows. I think I do a pretty good job in the clip of showing off all of my abilities, and how they're used. I didn't get to use Gambit as much as I'd like, but there weren't many situations that called for it. I usually use it to help me isolate a target so I can burn it down. Like, I'll open up with a rolling attack, Shadowflare, turn and Gambit behind me so I can't get pinched, Lunge toward my first target, and go to town, knowing I won't be interrupted for at least a few seconds.
House of Sorrows spoilers, I guess. I don't think it's any big deal, but I just figured I'd throw it out there.
It just seems like some people were expecting something Demon/Dark Souls in regards to difficulty.
I really don't feel like this game is any more or less difficult than similar games like Skyrim or Fallout 3 and such (yeah yeah both Bethesda). If you want to not overlevel everything just don't do every sidequest. If you do, expect to overlevel everything.
It's not a perfect solution, but the "cell" based level scaling they use in games like this is much better and much more elegant than the system in, say, Oblivion, where no matter how much you progressed enemies kept pace and the feeling of progression was thrown out the window because enemies always kept up with you.
Some people enjoy that feeling of being powerful and laying waste.
There are some "improvements" people have suggested like putting cooldowns on potions and whatnot, and that's fine, but if they do it, do it with a "nightmare" difficulty or something; don't change the current difficulty levels because that sort of thing simply isn't what everyone wants.
I've said this before, but I think the current "Hard" mode is a good Hard mode. It's definitely a step up from Normal, but it's still not ... hard. I mean, when I play a game on the hardest difficulty, I expect to be frustrated at times. I expect to really work hard to develop my techniques, strategies, builds, etc, because that's what's required. This game doesn't offer that. As you can see in the video I just posted, I am literally running through this dungeon. I basically just look at shit and it dies. That's not really what the hardest difficulty in a game should be like.
A new difficulty needs to be added: one that includes a potion cooldown timer, enemies that properly scale to your level (all enemies, not just the ones in dungeons), bosses and mini-bosses who resist stun / interruptions, and a handful of other stuff. That would be a good "hardest" difficulty. The current one is too easy ... by a lot.
So I'm 24 I think and only a few hours into the second "season." I ran down to house of valor and noticed that everything in Detyre is grey. Is this normal/what people are talking about re: outleveling/ease? Seemed odd to me.
Still, man, I've not had this much fun with a hack'n'slasher for some time.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
At 47 hours and nearly done with Detyr - lots of content in this game. Unfortunately, the difficulty is starting to be REALLY felt here. Everything has been grey so far bar 2 quests (Warsworn one and another random one IIRC). I haven't even been threatened in the entire time I've been in this area and it feels horribly underleveled (I can get an idea from how bad the items I've found have been). I'm also level 35 so I am not going to have a lot longer before I'm 40. Really can't see me not hitting the level cap well before I'm done with the swamp area and final part of the game.
I hate to say this, but I'm likely to rush the end just to get the game finished. Which is a real shame, because I genuinely love the game but if only the difficulty kept me engaged more I wouldn't be so worried about lacking leveling up to look forward to (possibly new equipment as well, but honestly what I currently have is tearing through everything like butter so even that isn't as big an incentive anymore).
Honestly, DLC to raise the level cap a bit (maybe to 45/50?) and up the difficulty with new enemies please. You can take my money now if you do this.
How many quests have you completed? It tells you this in the tab for completed quests, if you don't know. Just wondering.
edit: at the bottom of your quest log there's a section with your completed quests, not a tab. Sorry. thinking about a different game.
135 quests completed so far IIRC. I have only Adessa and one other area of Detyr to actually do now. Also I have failed 1 quest because the NPC got shanked by Kobolds - which was actually quite surprising that it happened in the first place.
On difficulty: Fixing crafting just ignores the elephant in the room: That the enemies scaling and powers don't keep up. You can fix crafting all you want, I'll just wreck my enemies with normal equipment. Crafted equipment just makes them die faster, not make the game more challenging because honestly why are you being hit in the first place. Seriously, the rolling/teleport/parrying mechanics in this game are perfect. Once you can parry the world is your entire delicious oyster of perfect death. Enemies have limited attack routines and are so telegraphed you shouldn't be hit in the first place unless you're just feeling lazy (like I sometimes am). When you get hit, just thump potions and that's the end of that trouble (unless you run into the very rare enemies that can one shot you).
We need to move away from the fake problems of what makes the game too easy and stick to what IS making the game easy. Otherwise we'll amputate the games problematic toe while completely failing to notice the horribly gangrenous legs and arms it has. The games combat system has so much depth to it, that if they make enemies with more complicated attack routines and do things like blocking/parrying with more aggressive attacks the game will be more challenging. The enemies are the problem and where the game can improve.
Again just look at nearly any other action game and how it introduces harder enemies, then introduces harder enemies while mixing in easier ones. Bayonetta is a fantastic example, where basic angles become fodder and distractions while a fairness or faith+fury is attempting to gut you at the same time.
Agree with the majority of the discussion going on here. I really really hope the devs listen and give those of us who want more challenge a mode that will let us take this game's great combat system to it's logical conclusion.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
The only one that gave me trouble was where you couldn't be hit and there were two Lenashe (or whatever they are). I only failed it because the one off camera spat at me while I was killing the other. I didn't make that mistake the second time and mercilessly destroyed them both at the same time with the fantasy shotgun (AKA Longbow Scatter).
So I'm 24 I think and only a few hours into the second "season." I ran down to house of valor and noticed that everything in Detyre is grey. Is this normal/what people are talking about re: outleveling/ease? Seemed odd to me.
Still, man, I've not had this much fun with a hack'n'slasher for some time.
I walked into Detyre(Red Marshes) at 21 and the enemies are still Yellow. I've completed every quest given and can be completed within Dalentarth. Granted I didn't take the long walk to every location after I discovered it. I'd say you're just a little ahead of the curve.
does it?
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
The only one that gave me trouble was where you couldn't be hit and there were two Lenashe (or whatever they are). I only failed it because the one off camera spat at me while I was killing the other. I didn't make that mistake the second time and mercilessly destroyed them both at the same time with the fantasy shotgun (AKA Longbow Scatter).
Shadow Flare and Scattershot are just fucking amazing for Finesse. That slow walk/roll closer to the enemy just to make sure more than two arrows hit is the best thing right now.
does it?
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Psychotic OneThe Lord of No PantsParts UnknownRegistered Userregular
What weapon types would you gents suggest for a Might and Magic build. So far I like the Chakrams for range but I'm wavering on Longsword, hammer or greatsword for might.
What weapon types would you gents suggest for a Might and Magic build. So far I like the Chakrams for range but I'm wavering on Longsword, hammer or greatsword for might.
Hammer or Longsword. You need a duelist weapon to pair with Chakrams since their stagger is meh, Greatsword is more an AoE weapon. I personally run Hammer/Chakram
KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
After 60 hours I have finally completely cleared the western continent and have now shown Mel Senshir what it's like to take fate into your own hands.
I have to hand it to this game, your Fateless One is portrayed as a total badass.
Loving it!
SC2 EU ID Klyka.110
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
After 60 hours I have finally completely cleared the western continent and have now shown Mel Senshir what it's like to take fate into your own hands.
I have to hand it to this game, your Fateless One is portrayed as a total badass.
Loving it!
I'm sitting at 50 hours with just Dalentarth cleared. Ha.
110 hours if you include my three re-rolls.
joshgotro on
does it?
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
How did you spend 50 hours in Dalentarth
SC2 EU ID Klyka.110
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
Safe to say our goal would be to ADD a level of difficulty, as most people wanting more challenge on hard would want the next level and we would not want to intrude on everyone currently playing hard that was having fun with the game.
SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
:sadface:
Finished clearing out the Red Marches, but I had passed through a long time ago and had set the level low, so what should have been a fairly difficult and epic final boss fight for the area was a total snoozefest.
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Consider how Bayonetta mixes up its combat as you progress, despite being a game where you eventually gain more moves, better weapons and skill as you progress. The game mixes things up by providing enemies that thwart or otherwise reduce the effectiveness of certain tactics. For example the later faith and glories, which ignore witch time making them substantially more difficult to kill than regular enemies. This even has parallels in KoA, as enemies that could attack normally during rekoning mode would be very interesting from a gameplay perspective and help spice it up during boss fights.
1) Sagecrafting, when combining shards, Pristine shards shouldn't be listed in the menu.
2) Sleeping, the prompt should provide you with the current time in it.
3) Skill Trainers, once you've trained, they should disappear off the map, and no longer offer the "Training" button.
4) Difficulty, on what everyone's been saying about out-leveling the content, perhaps a Very Hard mode that makes all places scale to your current level (or perhaps beyond)?
Sure they're minor things, but I don't see a way in which any of those changes could be considered detrimental to the game itself.
And, just something that bugs me, but would be debatable as an improvement: Skill Trainers, take off the cap on level ranges, it really just turns it into a case of Fateweave > Train > Fateweave > Level Up. You can also currently make yourself incapable of using a low level trainer if you missed them, I believe. A 0-3 trainer, the 2 high level trainers, and a skill book would put you beyond the range of the remaining low level trainer.
But don't get me wrong, it is a great game. I think I must have spent 35 hours already, haven't left the desert yet and am level 31.
I think I'm about to do the last thing possible in Dalentarth.
There's an element of that, sure. They aren't the primary problems, though. Up until this point in the game (level 33, 50 hours played, very near the end of the main story), I hadn't invested in Blacksmithing or Sagecrafting at all. I've been saying Hard mode is easy since my first few fights, and it's only gotten easier since then. I have all of my abilities now, and I basically can't be touched. I've only just decided to Fateweave my skills around, and play around with Blacksmithing for the achievement. Honestly? Unless they patch the difficulty, I'll never invest in that skill again, because it makes the game ridiculously easy. I went from having about 600 armour to 1100+, and all of my equipment does exactly what I want. I'll likely never find items that can rival what I'm now wearing. So then the game's not only easy, but boring.
So, yeah. Blacksmithing and Sagecraft being as powerful as they are is an element of the difficulty problem, but they aren't the major contributing factors. Enemies need to scale to your level; all enemies, not just the ones in dungeons. Bosses and minibosses need to resist interruption (so you can't just constantly stagger them). Reckoning needs to be toned down, maybe Fate generation needs to be looked at? As it stands now, I have Reckoning available to me every 3rd fight or so.
That's just off the top of my head.
To put things into perspective, I can literally walk away from my 360 while I'm fighting Bolgans (who are classified as Yellow, or challenging, or whatever), and go take care of shit around the house, and I'll come back and be totally fine. My defense and regen are just too high, and they can't actually damage me.
This is the hardest difficulty.
How many quests have you completed? It tells you this in the tab for completed quests, if you don't know. Just wondering.
edit: at the bottom of your quest log there's a section with your completed quests, not a tab. Sorry. thinking about a different game.
I can see myself speccing 20 or 30 times before i complete the game though. I better put some points in mercantile.
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Make it so that you cannot repair Unique or Set Items until you've reached a certain level in smithing, and make it so that crafted gear cannot, under any circumstances, be repaired. That way you're constantly hunting for new materials and having to craft more gear. You'd still get the reward of massively overpowered items, but they're temporary.
EDIT: And higher levels in smithing means higher base durability. You could also increase the durability of a smithed item by making it with a gem, sacrificing hitting power for lastibility.
DOUBLE EDIT: And then maybe as an added incentive for using an item until it breaks, perhaps give a good or higher crafting mat when the item finally craps out; the implication being, do you craft a lot of powerful weapons that break easily but hit for more to try and get better crafting mats, or do you craft some semi-powerful gear that will last longer and require less trips to the forge and less material hunting? I think that's a pretty good balance.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
The easiest way to fix smithing would be to fix the materials required, or adjust how stacking works with diminishing returns.
Because durability limitations are meaningless when you only need one swing to kill something with your +200% normal damage, +1000% crit damage daggers.
Maybe implement both?
You hear that, 38 Studios?
Give us jobs.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
I mean, it's overpowered either way. Might as well be overpowered with something that looks cool. Also, I'm of the opinion that Unique equipment should have unique attributes, like, stuff normal (or Smithed) equipment can't have. Maybe a Unique Hammer that swings at Slow or Normal speed instead of Very Slow. Maybe a Longsword that's physically longer than others of its kind, which grants it a bit more reach. That kind of shit.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
No.
That's a horrible idea.
Instead of killing off the only really good gear in the game they could make set items and uniques actually worth using. With the level scaling in the game you are always getting set/unique items that are worse, by far, than anything you can craft. This isn't a problem with crafting. That you can do absurd damage with your daggers in backstab isn't a problem with crafting. You'd be killing off the ability for Might characters to do anything just to satisfy some asinine desire for arbitrary difficulty.
Breaking an interesting aspect of the game (crafting) as a bandaid fix for actual problems in the game (enemy and item scaling) isn't a good solution.
If you "fix" blacksmithing with those suggestions no one will use it; ever. No one wants "consumable" equipment that breaks and it's gone. This isn't some hardcore roguelike or something.
Bad bad bad.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
But that said, the damage output definitely needs to scale better to the level of enemy. I take almost zero damage from most physical attacks with my 100% might character at level 29. I have noticed that elemental damage still rips me a new one however so multiple mages present quite the problem. And maybe that is what the game needs more of. More elemental attacks, so you can't just tank everything. Or you are forced to give up some raw armor for better elemental resistance.
I'm really not sure how I'd tweak the game for a "nightmare" mode of sorts aside from just scaling the damage better, more elemental damage, more minibosses or unique encounters, perhaps faster attack animations to give you less reaction time. Stricter timing on parries?
edit: At level 35 I'm seeing a fair number of people attacking me with pure magic. I'm running a roughly even split on might and finesse and they're not doing enough damage for me to justify doing something about my health other than slaughtering them. This is on hard.
The dodge/attack move with faeblades or one (occasionally two) hits from a greatsword kills them and I think the quickest they could kill me is around a few minutes.
edit 2: I picked up a blue helm around level 20 from a vendor that had +30% damage on it and a little bit of crit chance. the set head that I just got had a 15% chance to steal health and an 8% increase in crit damage. That's it. There's an 11 point difference in their requirements (the set piece is higher). The set bonuses are some damage resistance, some more crit damage, some bleed resistance and some more crit damage. Assuming that I just got the set bonuses for equipping the set helm, I still wouldn't do it.
Set items from somewhere in the drowned forest should not be worse than items you bought from some vendor in Ysa when you went through it.
The game would still be too easy, but at least Blacksmithing would be what you do for fun, not what you do to break the game.
Yeah, fixing Blacksmithing shouldn't be about nerfing the ability as much as it should be about buffing the alternatives. The Unique and Set equipment in this game is really cool. I love the flavour text that comes along with them; not only do they have unique appearances, but also unique backstories, as well. That's appealing to me. What's unappealing is that my character can craft a Rare item with stats that absolutely shits down the throat of every single one of these awesome items. Allowing Blacksmiths to insert Sockets into Unique and Set equipment (not Rares, like the ones they can craft) would go a long way toward evening the playing field, I think.
Also, have some gameplay footage. I didn't do any commentary this time. I probably won't from now on, unless you guys want me to. I mean, there's only so much I can say about a Single Player game, you know? Anyway, this is what Full Finesse looks like. Faeblades and Longbows. I think I do a pretty good job in the clip of showing off all of my abilities, and how they're used. I didn't get to use Gambit as much as I'd like, but there weren't many situations that called for it. I usually use it to help me isolate a target so I can burn it down. Like, I'll open up with a rolling attack, Shadowflare, turn and Gambit behind me so I can't get pinched, Lunge toward my first target, and go to town, knowing I won't be interrupted for at least a few seconds.
House of Sorrows spoilers, I guess. I don't think it's any big deal, but I just figured I'd throw it out there.
Be sure to watch in 720.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
I really don't feel like this game is any more or less difficult than similar games like Skyrim or Fallout 3 and such (yeah yeah both Bethesda). If you want to not overlevel everything just don't do every sidequest. If you do, expect to overlevel everything.
It's not a perfect solution, but the "cell" based level scaling they use in games like this is much better and much more elegant than the system in, say, Oblivion, where no matter how much you progressed enemies kept pace and the feeling of progression was thrown out the window because enemies always kept up with you.
Some people enjoy that feeling of being powerful and laying waste.
There are some "improvements" people have suggested like putting cooldowns on potions and whatnot, and that's fine, but if they do it, do it with a "nightmare" difficulty or something; don't change the current difficulty levels because that sort of thing simply isn't what everyone wants.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
A new difficulty needs to be added: one that includes a potion cooldown timer, enemies that properly scale to your level (all enemies, not just the ones in dungeons), bosses and mini-bosses who resist stun / interruptions, and a handful of other stuff. That would be a good "hardest" difficulty. The current one is too easy ... by a lot.
Still, man, I've not had this much fun with a hack'n'slasher for some time.
135 quests completed so far IIRC. I have only Adessa and one other area of Detyr to actually do now. Also I have failed 1 quest because the NPC got shanked by Kobolds - which was actually quite surprising that it happened in the first place.
On difficulty: Fixing crafting just ignores the elephant in the room: That the enemies scaling and powers don't keep up. You can fix crafting all you want, I'll just wreck my enemies with normal equipment. Crafted equipment just makes them die faster, not make the game more challenging because honestly why are you being hit in the first place. Seriously, the rolling/teleport/parrying mechanics in this game are perfect. Once you can parry the world is your entire delicious oyster of perfect death. Enemies have limited attack routines and are so telegraphed you shouldn't be hit in the first place unless you're just feeling lazy (like I sometimes am). When you get hit, just thump potions and that's the end of that trouble (unless you run into the very rare enemies that can one shot you).
We need to move away from the fake problems of what makes the game too easy and stick to what IS making the game easy. Otherwise we'll amputate the games problematic toe while completely failing to notice the horribly gangrenous legs and arms it has. The games combat system has so much depth to it, that if they make enemies with more complicated attack routines and do things like blocking/parrying with more aggressive attacks the game will be more challenging. The enemies are the problem and where the game can improve.
Again just look at nearly any other action game and how it introduces harder enemies, then introduces harder enemies while mixing in easier ones. Bayonetta is a fantastic example, where basic angles become fodder and distractions while a fairness or faith+fury is attempting to gut you at the same time.
I walked into Detyre(Red Marshes) at 21 and the enemies are still Yellow. I've completed every quest given and can be completed within Dalentarth. Granted I didn't take the long walk to every location after I discovered it. I'd say you're just a little ahead of the curve.
Shadow Flare and Scattershot are just fucking amazing for Finesse. That slow walk/roll closer to the enemy just to make sure more than two arrows hit is the best thing right now.
I have to hand it to this game, your Fateless One is portrayed as a total badass.
Loving it!
I'm sitting at 50 hours with just Dalentarth cleared. Ha.
110 hours if you include my three re-rolls.
Swimming. A lot of swimming.
I don't care how much swimming you did, the questions remains the same... How did you spend fifty hours in Dalentarth.
There should exist another step (or two) above that, though.
Finished clearing out the Red Marches, but I had passed through a long time ago and had set the level low, so what should have been a fairly difficult and epic final boss fight for the area was a total snoozefest.