I am actually curious about where people see the difficulty currently. Now to clarify I am only talking about Single Player Campaign maps. This doesn't include challenges, as they are something else but could include Premium dungeons. This is a general "What do you think" about the game in general, not specific maps, or specific enemies. Now a couple things to keep in mind.. First, this is beta, and things are changing constantly, just because it maybe too hard or too easy for ya now, doesn't mean that it will always be that way. This is just kinda of a measurement of where are they right now in terms of difficulty. Finally, if you voted too hard or too easy, or actually any in between, why do you think that, if it is too easy what could make it where it would reach the difficulty you are looking for, or if it is too hard, what makes you think that in general about the game?
Some of the adventures are undertuned, some require a very specific loadout to beat (or at least limit what you WON'T find useable) - but in general, I find it about as hard as it should be.
Come to think of it, we might want to add how far in we're basing our opinion (as I believe the early game can feel harder due to a more limited card/item pool). Mine's lvl 10.
I personally feel some specific enemies are just stupid hard ( monkeys and treants) but the game in general is so sweetly balanced that you get your ass kicked some times but the better you play the less it happens and i like that. I want my ass kicked just a little bit especially if i do dumb things because i don't consider my better options.
I voted right in the middle, but because some boards are too hard and some are too easy. For example, I ran the Compass and both Gnome levels every day until I leveled past them because they were so easy. (And not specific-card easy, like drawing Resistant Hide in a Portal map. Just underpowered.) But then the 30 kobold map, the first arena map, and Tree Forts I skipped until my second playthrough. But overall it is perfect. Some skin of the butt victories, and some lose on the last turn heartbreakers. Hey, they track stats on win-loss for each map, right? I haven't been keeping score. Bad tester.
Diamond of the Kobolds I more found needing a specific tactic and some luck to beat, it it no way was impossible - but one of the harder ones. I believe it's the 2nd map who has the priest with the stair and two groups spawn on either side in a tunnel? My mage took out the priest in 2-3 hits, then I started working on the lower left group - and then moved into the tunnel and killed the 2nd group off one by one as they came in. I was only out in the open for a short time, minimizing the risk of getting overwhelmed. Also, this map benefits from high mobility - something the enemy lacks, and yeah... there's rubble to use against him. For the 3rd (?) with the long winding cave I just had my group hang around in the first room and wait.
Keep in mind I'm still a newb with two level 3's and a level 2 right now, but I think the difficulty is about right. With my party, I have attempted a level 3 adventure already, and while I haven't beaten it yet (only tried once so far), I can see how with some better card draws and luckier die rolls I could have beaten it. I got to where I had one of me and one of them both with 5 hp left, but I just didn't draw the right attacks. I might go back and grind some of the level 2 adventures I've already beaten, though, to have all my guys at level 3 before I try again.
I believe there are a lot of maps that are just too unbalanced. It can be as a lot of other maps show it is possible, but the ones that are unbalanced seem to at least equal the amount that aren't. For example return to the Astral Shrine.. needs a lot of work. I also kinda disagree with forcing people to build one way to beat a map. For a game that is based on customizing your own "Deck" it is rather limiting to say well if you don't have a Mage (Resistant Hide) for this battle, or a Fighter (any form of attacks that do more then just hit hard) for this one.. Your just going to die. Especially when you replay the same dungeons over and over. Also I think it does get worse at higher levels, past level 13ish (Map level not character level) there are quite a few dungeons that are crazy unbalanced. My rule of thumb is if there are 2-3 guys of the same type, they should not be able to kill you in a turn, with armor that is lowering the damage.. especially not across the map. Sometimes it feels like they were not sure which kind of advantage to give them, so they gave them all of the ones they thought of... and that just makes them crazy strong. Its not bad to have a few maps that are kinda strong, but it seems to be a way too often recurring theme of just a map that will trash you, unless you are lucky with your draws and rolls, over leveled for the map, and have the exact cards you need for that specific map. This is just my opinion of course, and I am sorry if it sounds a bit harsh (I have rewrote it a couple times.. believe me it was worse, and I don't mean it that way), but honestly this is what I think is the problem. It can be fixed, and hopefully will be, since this is the beta these things happen. Edit: Dang it Ponyboy will you stop changing your avatar lol *kidding*
I voted 'A bit difficult' although I've also encountered fights that are probably too easy. The biggest problems are not really the actual difficulty but the difficulty slope should be more gradual than it is now. I'm nowhere near the end so I can't really tell what the overall picture looks like but so far the adventures have been a bit too varied in terms of difficulty with many already on the harder end of the scale. I don't mind a challenge (especially when I'll no longer be keeping a diary and can retry fights and adventures quicker) but I have a feeling that the current situation might scare off more casual players, especially when there's no difficulty selection option. If the difficulty increased a bit more gradually new players wouldn't feel like hitting a wall and would be tempted to try again just one more time and get better at the game while doing that.
Voted 'A bit difficult'. There are a lot of fights which require a specific decks or at least your limiation of 'useless' staff for a certain fight. That said it adds this strategic and great feeling to the game. I love it! Some maps are certainly feeling much easier than others, some are much harder - I would say there's great balance of easy and hard as well as some hardcore battles, mmm! Last thing: I love when game challenges me to do better... that's what Card Hunter succeeded to do in every place. Edit: Level 17, all adventures.
I don't like the idea of having to change my deck for a specific fight like you say. That makes some adventures more difficult than they could be of course. But I'm not playing a deck building game, I'm playing an adventure game. I make my guys cool and power through. If this is the incorrect attitude according to the game design, then I'd like buttons on my character sheet to make loadouts. Just A B C to make three "decks" for each character. Then swapping in all acid wouldn't be a pain.
I think the incorrect assumption is that this is an "adventure game" over a "deck building" one. In fact, being inspired by Magic: the Gathering, it's more about deckbuilding and effectively playing your deck than adventuring as you would do in a D&D based game. That said, the lack of loadouts/decks for each character is annoying: i'm having an hard time switching items back and forth in-between fights and adventures (as of now - lvl 8 characters - i'm using a club/dagger/polearm warrior and a pure fire/electricity/terrain modification wizard - priest basically stays the same). That would be a great addition to the game.
