Battle Hints - Submissions Desired!

Hello all,

We're very engaged in the debate around the game's difficulty. We read the forums every day. We look at data every day to make sure there are no anomalies (we track percentage wins and losses for every scenario and adventure). This is one of the hardest challenges of making this game. How hard is too hard? When should it get harder? How steep should that difficulty curve be?

We would like to try to smooth the difficulty curve of the first third of the game by introducing hints for every battle in the first eight levels of the game. We've added a handful over the last month. We hope this will help the people that are struggling without penalizing those that are enjoying the challenge.

If you are interested in helping, I'd love to get people's thoughts on this. I'll put the best ideas in the game. Here's what you should know:

• They appear as a Gary prompt at the lose screen
• These will trigger when you first lose a scenario
• Please keep them to 125 characters or less (i.e.a single line)

Looking forward to seeing your thoughts and ideas! Let's start with the following scenarios:

The White Star:
Gleaming Cavern
The Winding Shaft
Mother Lode

Beneath the Frozen Earth:
Frozen Canyon
Frozen Bridge
Frozen Grotto

Throne of Strench:
Frozen Warren
Frozen Cavern
Frozen Throne

Stafford's Treasure:
Main Hall
Chapel
Treasury

Compass of Xorr:
Wine Cellar
Kitchen
Library

Melvelous the Magnificent:
Castle Hall
Chamber of Traps
Sanctum of Melvelous

 

Is there any chance we can get a "text dump" of the current battle hints? That would be for seeing the format and also making direct changes.

 

I think anything to help make modules less frustrating for the more casual gamer would be a good thing, but I just don't know about these 'hints'....yet. Maybe they will be really helpful....hell, they probably will be for some players, but I think there's a thin line between helping and insulting. For example, Pengw1n's suggested hint: Remember that enemies moving next to you causes them to stop. Finding a good position can slow down even large groups of enemies! ....I'd personally find this insulting because I was already taught this in one of the beginning modules and I'd be thinking to myself "Yeah. I know that already! How about something helpful instead of treating me like an idiot??"

No offense intended, Pengw1n....just trying to make a point.

 

Wow. Calm down.

I was trying to be polite myself, but fine, you want a better suggestion do you? I suggest to not even go through with this idea, Card Hunter Joe. No offense, but it's not hints we need, we need the game to stop kicking our asses. I already understand the game mechanics. I already understand the concept of having to switch around gear/party members to meet the challenge. That's not the issue. The issue is that the game simply throws too much at you too fast. I felt like, in the 6-7 levels, there were too many enemies to handle at once, and the fact that they move in groups made it even more frustrating. Also, I felt like I didn't have the gear I needed. This was probably the main issue. Players won't have the gear they actually need to meet some of these early challenges and they won't understand that they're supposed to grind the earlier modules for more gear.

That's my 2 cents.

 

Hey, can I split that into two pieces of advice?

And having established "line of sight" once, here's just a rephrase of what you said:

 

I'm a beginner, here's a bunch of things that work for me. Sorry if some are a bit basic...

Beneath the Frozen Earth, Frozen Canyon:
- Is your enemy split? Quickly move your force to one foe, don't wait for your foes to close in.
- If you have a healer, then time is on your side. Kill one enemy, retreat, regroup, and heal up.
- If you feel outmaneuvered, then change your boots, or bring an elf.
- Against an enemy that has heavy armor, a few strong attacks are better than many weak ones.
- Three ways to remove armor: Discard spells, spells to destroy armor, acid terrain.
- What is your strategy against armor? Will you remove it, or use strong attacks that get damage through it?

Beneath the Frozen Earth, Frozen Bridge:
- Groups of enemy monsters share cards. Removing armor from one removes it from the group.
- Use a weak attack to test whether an enemy monster group has armor. If not, attack in force.
- Enemies with "Weak Armor" can be struck from behind.
- Striking an enemy turns it to face towards you.
- "Maze" moves your enemy and changes its facing.
- Use ranged weapons and spells to reach over impassible terrain.
- Use Bash, Force Bolt and Telekinesis to put your enemies where you want them.
- Unable to kill an enemy this turn? Pass or retreat, and wait for your opening.
- If you are going to begin a battle pinned in a corner, you don't need many move cards. Change your boots?
- Against a sustained melee attack, "keep" armor and parries are better than discarded armor and blocks.

Beneath the Frozen Earth, Frozen Grotto:
- (repeat) If you have a healer, then time is on your side. Kill one enemy, retreat, regroup, and heal up.
- (repeat) Is your enemy split? Quickly move your force to one foe, don't wait for your foes to close in.
- (repeat) Against an enemy that has heavy armor, a few strong attacks are better than many weak ones.

Compass of Xorr, general.
- Concentrate your attacks on a single enemy. Move out of range of the others, if you can.
- If an enemy fighter has lots of parry cards, attack it with a mage.
- Use your weakest attacks to draw out blocks and parries.
- Reliable armor is good against many weak attacks. Blocks are better against a few strong attacks.
- Characters that rely on blocking strong attacks will sometimes run out of luck. Replaying a battle may give a different result.

Compass of Xorr, library.
- Elven "free move" cards ignore difficult terrain. Flying does, too.
- Does your opponent have a negative trait in their deck? Hang back and wait for it to show up.

Stafford's Treasure, treasury:
- If you need to win quickly, then offensive cards are more useful than healing.
- If your enemy is in a tight group, use chops.
- To fight in a narrow place, use a tough character with mainly range 1, then a character with mainly range 2, and a mage at the back.
- (repeat) Elven "free move" cards ignore difficult terrain. Flying does, too.
- Use force bolts and bashes to move your enemy back.
- You can bash your allies to move them (ctrl-click). Telekinesis is kinder, though.

Melvelous the Magnificent.
- Keep out of sight of enemy spellcasters. (Very basic, very essential in this adventure).
- If your enemy has Area of Effect spells, split your characters up.
- If your enemy has terrain modifying spells, then keep a move or telekinesis in hand.
- What is your strategy against negative attachments? Will you retreat and heal up, or use Divine Cleansing?
- Concentrate your attacks on a single enemy. Move out of range, or out of sight, of the others.
- If you are not under attack, then why not pass and discard? You can wait for your very best cards to show up.
- If your enemies move slowly, use your longest ranged attacks on them.
- When your enemy draws a negative trait, exploit it.

 

Pengw1n, your guides may be "outdated," but they are really helpful for reminding me where to look. Here goes:

The White Star -
Gleaming Cavern:

The Winding Shaft:

Mother Lode:
Same as Gleaming Cavern, but without the stabbing. Then I'd add this:

 

Beneath the Frozen Earth, Frozen Bridge:

1. Allowing your opponent to come to you before advancing gives you the ability to better control positioning in combat.
2. Characters with range like to stay at range. Let them position first, then close in on them. (Too similar to #1?)
3. When retreating into a small area, only move as far as you need to get out of range leaving more room to repeat the process.
4. If you're in a safe position, don't be afraid to hold your resources for later by passing your turn.
5. When dealing with Trogs with Crude plates who are in range to attack, using ranged attacks may bounce them out of range for an attack.

*Edited removing "charge" from #1 AND #2 - thanks Sir Knight.

 

Just be careful: the word "charge" could be confused with the card Charge. I'd suggest rephrasing.

 

These are great. Thanks for all the hard work. I will be integrating some of these this week. Please keep them coming!

 

I'm looking for ideas and suggestions for the following adventures. Thank you for all the help guys.

Wizard's Workshop - battle 4, "Workshop Apex."
Highway Robbery - battle 4, "Bluk, Goblin Chieftain"
Ruby Demon Portal battle 4, "Ruby Portal"
Dungeon of the Lizard Priest, battle 3 - "Lizard Guards"
Rescue from Shieldhaven Prison battles 2 and 4 - "Prison Guardhouse" and "Prison Warden"

 

These are all geat. Thanks Pengw1n!

 

For prison warden i would point out the value of parry since his attacks hurt. Also point out that spells can't be parried focusing the warden him self with spells is good and attacks is not as good.

do formulate it smoother or people will cry and eye bleed!

 

The main hall for Stafford's - I believe it was - was rather tough for my party of dorfs given their limited mobility. That needs to change!