Let's talk about: Game Difficulty!

Well back to difficulty. I dropped my cleric and warrior and went and leveled up 2 other wizards since basically all my loot was wizard orriented. Been able to be white scar and higher levels now. Gear REALLY REALLY makes all the difference. Even when my draws are bad I can still deal some damage.

 

Woo! Go you! Once again, a wise player's re-spec efforts bring reward.

Personally, after the unknown day that they wipe beta data, I plan to run 1 adventurer with each of the 9 possible race/class combinations. I'll try to keep them even-ish in level and then swap out parties as the adventures demand.

 

At level 6 and the game is impossible, I have to keep grinding through level 4 and 5 dungeons repeatedly. Even a level 5 dungeon (rescue from newhaven prison) kills me repeatedly, and if I manage to make it all the way through the campaign, the XP is poor. I purchased 400 pizza, opened up a ton of mostly useless chests (since I can't equip any of the good things), looked for anything in the stores that would help my cause... my level 6 team has the best gear I can find, and I'm still stuck. Difficulty = outrageous... you'll never keep casual players like this.

 

In my current replay with no chests or anything like that i beat lvl 1 - 6 with 4 map losses in total so its far from impossible.

 

I do agree with Janus in that the levels 5-7 felt pretty much like the hardest part of the game.
After I got past those, the rest of the adventures caused nowhere near that amount of trouble.

 

Did you replay with the 100 item shops tho zalminen? Because they where basically putt in to fix that part and they did according to me.

 

The big shops were added after I'd already played past that part and there's also been a lot of new items added since then so it's hard to estimate just how much those help.

 

I've been smashing my face against diamonds of the Kobolds for ages, feeling I was pretty well sorted out, nice synergies etc. but the first map would wipe me most of the time and if i ever got past it the second would finish me off.

Eventually moved on to the level 7 Trog missions (Diamonds is lvl 6) and flattened it. Did the premium with the trees and equipped the reward shield, went back for the pesky Kobolds and managed to edge my way through. Beating diamonds opened the white star up, and I flattened that too, nothings stopped me since.

I just feel there is nothing I can do in those first two maps of Diamonds of the Kobolds to prevent being surrounded, and once that's done it's generally game over

 

Wait, first map of Diamonds of the Kobolds? If you don't want to be surrounded, you don't have to be: you start in an alcove on one side of the map. Wait where you are and decide how many enemies are allowed to attack you at a time.

Now, this requires you to have anti-Block strategy (and cards) that work from the front. Enemies with Blocks seem to stop a lot of players, really; which probably is the concern that started this most recent round of "the game's too hard."

But on that topic: don't forget all the people who decided that the game was "too hard" at Troglodytes. Or impossible at Ruby Demon Portal. The game never was for the "casual players" alone, Janus, which I repeat:

 

I may add that i have from the start of the beta and still do think that the first map has too many enemies with too much hp and blocks for the gear you have.

 

My point is more that Diamonds is listed at level 6 as is White Star. Frozen earth and Forest of Souls are both level 7. I found Diamonds of the Kobolds harder than all three of my other examples. two of which are higher levels.

I'm not saying the game is too hard, I am putting forth a balancing concern about an area. Now I may have been unlucky in my drops & store but I haven't seen too much in the way of anti-block, or it may be my strategy/party, without discussion we won't find out

 

Oh, it's entirely possible that enemy Blocks are the single nastiest part of the game. Cards that completely negate an Attack? Some of which harm the attacker? With a small deck size so more are sure to show up? And in a game where there are way, way fewer anti-Block cards than, say, Armor Penetration and Armor discard?

This is why I asked about cards to change enemy facing (making them face away from the attacker) and why I heavily emphasize mobility (getting behind enemies) whenever people bring related stuff up. But I also know that the player needs to be able to learn relevant strategy over adventures (warning: old link). So: Highway Robbery teaches you about Blocks at level 3, and then Diamonds of the Kobolds hits you with Blocks AND even larger masses of enemies (not all of whom have Blocks at all) at level 6. It SOUNDS good on paper. If it needs revision, then what exactly does it need?

(Also, if it's helpful in your specific case, then I heartily encourage area-of-effect Attacks to flush out Blocks. I put up with Vulnerable and Fright on the Sword Of Thunder because it gives me a single Thunderblast. It does require two clear talents, unfortunately, and this particular item is all the way up at level 13. I used it when I came back from higher levels and tried quests.)

 

Remember that at level 6 you don't have talents at all or do you have one? Which is why this adventure specifically the first map is so brutal. The fact is not only do they have blocks they have too good blocks like parries that cant be flushed out. Now that weak parry exists they definitely should have that instead.

Besides just for that map specifically i really think they do too much damage compared to your hp and their numbers.

 

At 6? No talents yet; that's why I gave my example as "unfortunate." And if you're concerned about Parry, then you have even more reason to use magical area-of-effect: setting fire to everything will either cause 2 damage (Jarring Block) or approximately 2 damage now and lots more in a moment (typical fire spells plus relevant Arcane Skills).

Of course, the best anti-Block melee cards you'll have at this point are Chops. Just not Clumsy Chops. And I presume people already know that Weak Strike (or whatever your weakest card is) exists as a "lead" to test and see if the enemy has more Blocks, but I toss it out there.

As to enemy damage on that adventure: it's pretty nasty. I try to pack Blocks myself.

 

I'll have to agree with Dark Wolfe Janus on the point of casual play. I don't see many casual types sticking with the game long at this stage. The game is challenging quite often, even returning completed maps. After playing X number of maps I find myself trying to rush content. This leads to "shooting from the hip" and which often leads to my success based solely on good draw orders.

If I feel the round is not going well fairly early on or feel it will drag on for many rounds I'll resign and reload. It feels like a waste of time to purse drawn out game or ones that are obvious losses. Some battles that I stay with do turn out well, so I can't say how many I have ended prematurely.

I have only spent pizza given to me by Gary on a chest or two. I did buy pizza to unlock the premium adventures, but have not bought chests with it. So my cards are limited to adventures and 2 pvp rounds.

The level change from 6-7 seem quite difficult, except for Forest of Souls. Levels 8-10 felt like a breeze. I find myself slamming my head against 11-14 content with little progress. A list of maps I've found difficult can be found here. (I need to update it with more 11+ content)

The most difficult issues I run into seem to be:

1. Small space combat or situations where I start next to enemies.
2. Enemies which I cannot reach, like the Light Brigade map.
   Not sure how I beat this the first time through. The only other time I've bested it with liberal use of smoke bombs and clearing up my confusion over the wording of resistant hide (and finally finding one).

No doubt the game is very strong in regard to the use of correct deck builds and strategy on the board. However, there are significant cards which make things much easier once you have access to them, mainly cards that control movement (stops) and LOS. (Smoke Bomb, Rockfall, Acid Spray)

I've burned out a bit trying to get beyond a number of ~12+ maps. I'm not sure how much of this is due to my play style or how much of this is based on the cards I've found. Are difficult maps set at a certain number of levels to encourage players to buy pizza, in order to find items which will help them progress? I have been avoiding using pizza or pvp for item gain.

 

Yeah I was constantly jumping my wizard in to drop Fire Sprays & Ember Sprays to rinse out blocks, then loosing her. I tried Force Cone but it doesn't clear up space in the front line as I've mentioned in an earlier thread. Wavering faith was something I tried but I didn't have enough to stack them in.

When I got through it it was when I came back with items that gave everyone better blocks, and stacked more of their decks with them, but I still just ended up in a line with my back to the wall praying for cards that could cull blocks and then follow up.

 

Eugh, I hope not, and I tend not to like "conspiracy theories" anyway. Not when . . . well, I'd just have to repeat myself: other people have already declared all the intervening maps as "difficult maps." Here, let me link:

Troglodytes are really hard. So much for levels 2, 3, and 7.

Lizardmen and Black Oozes are really hard. Levels 4 and 5.

. . . And then there are other attack-type-immune enemies like those Black Oozes, appearing all the way to level 17 (the end of beta).

Ruby Demon Portal is really hard (see also). There goes level 4, and we should probably toss in 10 and 14 for good measure.

Rescue from Shieldhaven Prison is really hard. And we already know that anything else with Blocks is really hard, so there we have levels 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, and 12.

. . . And then there are other get-behind-you-and-backstab enemies like the Shieldhaven dogs, appearing all over the place.

Lastly, this shady character thinks Astral Guardians are really hard. That means levels 13 and 14.

And I haven't even tried to enumerate all the places people struggled with Armored enemies (Troglodytes count, but so do Golems).

So basically . . . the only places post-tutorial where people DON'T say "these adventures are really hard" are the level 9 ones. And possibly the level 15 ones, but you haven't gotten there yet so you'll have to let me know what you think.

 

Difficulty is such a hard thing to gauge until you start throwing people at it with different ideas on how to play your game, especially when it contains so many complex interlocking systems. Trust me that the team is reading through your posts and evaluating the game through them. That's what being in beta is also for: not just finding bugs but game balancing as well.

 

Problem is that the magic spells don't flush out the parrys and warriors have such a high percentage of non attack cards compared to say wizards so you get maybe one a turn and to have that be parried is devastating. The high amount of damage also makes it impossible to save up attacks for a turn so you can flush blocks and then attack since you die without your armor. The first map really is merciless and even as a experienced player who really knows what I'm doing trying multiple tactics i have lost more times than i won and only won by a hair every time i have won.