Does the challenge in patch 1.1 stay tough after early levels?

[Uni]

I love what i have heard of the beta, but has anyone here played more into lv10 or smt? Im really interested if the game stays hard like in the beginning or if it starts to become easier and easier when you level up like poe1 and poe2(at least before this patch) did.

 

Id like to make my first complete playthrough in this patch but i really dont want the game to become trivially easy after i played more than half of it. I have had to restart all my previous attempts because the difficulty curve is so bad. Even last time with pretty heavy difficulty mods everything just started falling with no effort around lv14.

[CrazyL3opold]

Well I have to say it depends on. Some fights are as easy as before just with some more enemies but sometimes in fights there are really strong enemies added to combats. (e.g. Surprise in front of the Poko Kahara temple ^^). But all in all I have to say its still possible to complete the game on PotD even though you now have to use equippables, scrolls or even the slow mode sometimes. Combined with Magrans Fires/Flames which will be availible (hope so) soon it should be a real challenge -for everybody.

[Uni]

Well I have to say it depends on. Some fights are as easy as before just with some more enemies but sometimes in fights there are really strong enemies added to combats. (e.g. Surprise in front of the Poko Kahara temple ^^). But all in all I have to say its still possible to complete the game on PotD even though you now have to use equippables, scrolls or even the slow mode sometimes. Combined with Magrans Fires/Flames which will be availible (hope so) soon it should be a real challenge -for everybody.

Did you feel like the game was generally getting easier when you got more levels and went into later game areas or did it stay similar to the early game/even get harder?

Edited June 5, 2018 by Uni

[omgFIREBALLS]

Game definitely got easier with levels for me in 1.1 beta. From reloading to steamrolling.

[CrazyL3opold]

 

Well I have to say it depends on. Some fights are as easy as before just with some more enemies but sometimes in fights there are really strong enemies added to combats. (e.g. Surprise in front of the Poko Kahara temple ^^). But all in all I have to say its still possible to complete the game on PotD even though you now have to use equippables, scrolls or even the slow mode sometimes. Combined with Magrans Fires/Flames which will be availible (hope so) soon it should be a real challenge -for everybody.

Did you feel like the game was generally getting easier when you got more levels and went into later game areas or did it stay similar to the early game/even get harder?

The areas itself got easier. But difficult fights didn‘t. They are (more) challenging now but still possible. If they simply increase the stats of every single enemy a bit it should be ok. But we are still far from PotD or even veteran compared to PoE1.

[Tigranes]

Difficulty in Deadfire is, and will always be, massively dependent on your playstyle, your player ability, your party composition, and the order in which you do all the quests and islands. Vacuuming up all the quests and loot in Neketaka before going to the islands will make some of its fights trivial no matter how you jack up the difficulty, for example. And your second playthrough will generally be far easier than the first.

 

So with all that said, I find it more comparable now to POE1's difficulty (non-WM).

Edited June 5, 2018 by Tigranes

[whiskiz]

Game definitely got easier with levels for me in 1.1 beta. From reloading to steamrolling.

 

Already saw this coming, still.

 

You need to wait until they "officially" "release" something, then you need to wait another couple months for them to actually finish it properly. Releasing things means less and less, in context of how finished it is.

 

Just as release, so as a balancing patch. Unless you want your first playthrough to be free QA/beta testing for them.

 

As a general rule of thumb, for a game you're either really excited about or that has alot of potential - you should hold off on getting it for around 6 months.

 

The gaming industry is getting worse and is now releasing things well before they are finished, need to start getting that $$$ asap to keep publishers and investors etc happy, while they get to severely increase their QA/beta testing pool for free.

 

Never change capitalism.

Edited June 5, 2018 by whiskiz

[dunehunter]

You can still one shot the final boss with Empowered Meteor in patch 1.1. I think the difficulty adjust is not finished that’s why the boss is so weak. Btw that boss has 70 deflection, for a BOSS...

 

I find some onboarding naval combat is more challenging than final boss fight.

[Tomice]

To be fair: a dev said that several regions are not yet changed in this build - I believe somewhere in the beta patch forum

[theBalthazar]

Obsidian don't like challenge.

 

But I don't understand why. Josh Sawyer choice for casual gaming surely... But Potd ? Casual don't go here...

 

Start is OK. But why after that it is so easy ?

Edited June 5, 2018 by theBalthazar

[Tigranes]

You can still one shot the final boss with Empowered Meteor in patch 1.1. I think the difficulty adjust is not finished that’s why the boss is so weak. Btw that boss has 70 deflection, for a BOSS...

 

I find some onboarding naval combat is more challenging than final boss fight.

 

Empower is a broken win button right now, and I find that not using it makes the game a lot more fun. I really don't know who thought it's a good idea - hey let's let a level 10 guy cast something at level 20 basically once every single battle!

[dunehunter]

 

You can still one shot the final boss with Empowered Meteor in patch 1.1. I think the difficulty adjust is not finished that’s why the boss is so weak. Btw that boss has 70 deflection, for a BOSS...

 

I find some onboarding naval combat is more challenging than final boss fight.

Empower is a broken win button right now, and I find that not using it makes the game a lot more fun. I really don't know who thought it's a good idea - hey let's let a level 10 guy cast something at level 20 basically once every single battle!

That’s caster only, empower a meleer ability is not worth it except inner death.

[Purudaya]

If you play with scale up: everything on 1.1 PotD offers a pretty consistent challenge throughout. With a level 14 party, the office fight at Crookspur was much more difficult than before (there are three ranged rogues that make excellent use of devastating blow if you don't take them out quickly) and assassinating Queen Onekaza and her rooftop guards (3 of which are very effective chanters) required turning the difficulty down to veteran in my testing. They haven't finished tuning all of the encounters yet so it's hard to gauge how the difficulty will scale with level in the finished product, but so far I think it's definitely moving in the right direction.

[Tanred]

If you play with scale up: everything on 1.1 PotD offers a pretty consistent challenge throughout. With a level 14 party, the office fight at Crookspur was much more difficult than before (there are three ranged rogues that make excellent use of devastating blow if you don't take them out quickly) and assassinating Queen Onekaza and her rooftop guards (3 of which are very effective chanters) required turning the difficulty down to veteran in my testing. They haven't finished tuning all of the encounters yet so it's hard to gauge how the difficulty will scale with level in the finished product, but so far I think it's definitely moving in the right direction.

I agree, with scaling up turned on PotD v1.1 stays somewhat challenging even in later levels (with companions party at least). Early levels can be brutal, for my playthrough I even had to slightly tone down the PotD bonuses to accuracy and defenses.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Tanred

[Climhazzard]

The beginning and middle of the game gives a pretty good impression of encounter improvements, but many areas were pretty much untouched, only relying on the +2 armor/penetration and improved encounter scaling to make it more challenging, which isn't enough to make a lot of fights less than easy once your party is geared and specced properly.

 

The dragon at the maw for example, takes awhile to kill now because of his high armor but is never really a threat.  He's charging up his big fire attack at the start for like 4 seconds and I'm like...  oh ****... then it hits and my health doesn't even move.

 

Here's to hoping they eventually give every encounter some love, not just the ones that were on their mediocre "need to improve now" list.

 

EDIT:  New update on the beta patch today.  Something like the following.  Who knows how many encounters this includes that I've already played, so I'm just starting over.

• All encounter changes for PotD are now in.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Climhazzard

[Tigranes]

I can't even remember the enemy stats precisely enough, so half the time I feel like the battle is different but I can't tell if it's because of the flat armour/pen change, or the level upscaling, or whatever. Of course, in some places, like the Aloth meeting area, the addition of new enemies is obvious.

 

Take the giant grub in Old City - in 1.00 POTD, never really a threat. In 1.1, I knew that if it grabs my lower-resolve characters, it's likely a crit and a one-hit-KO, so my rogue had to Escape away and have other characters interrupt/paralyse, which added a nice dynamic to the fight.

[InsaneCommander]

If you play with scale up: everything on 1.1 PotD offers a pretty consistent challenge throughout. With a level 14 party, the office fight at Crookspur was much more difficult than before (there are three ranged rogues that make excellent use of devastating blow if you don't take them out quickly) and assassinating Queen Onekaza and her rooftop guards (3 of which are very effective chanters) required turning the difficulty down to veteran in my testing. They haven't finished tuning all of the encounters yet so it's hard to gauge how the difficulty will scale with level in the finished product, but so far I think it's definitely moving in the right direction.

 

That is how it should be. PotD difficult the whole game and people having to consider going down to Veteran.

[dunehunter]

 

The beginning and middle of the game gives a pretty good impression of encounter improvements, but many areas were pretty much untouched, only relying on the +2 armor/penetration and improved encounter scaling to make it more challenging, which isn't enough to make a lot of fights less than easy once your party is geared and specced properly.

 

The dragon at the maw for example, takes awhile to kill now because of his high armor but is never really a threat.  He's charging up his big fire attack at the start for like 4 seconds and I'm like...  oh ****... then it hits and my health doesn't even move.

 

Here's to hoping they eventually give every encounter some love, not just the ones that were on their mediocre "need to improve now" list.

 

EDIT:  New update on the beta patch today.  Something like the following.  Who knows how many encounters this includes that I've already played, so I'm just starting over.

• All encounter changes for PotD are now in.

 

 

That dragon fight is ridiculously easy, Imo dragons should be faster, and more deadly. Now they are just a chunk of meatshield. Also boss should regenerate Concentration every a few seconds to prevent being Knockdown locked.

[269811510]

 

You can still one shot the final boss with Empowered Meteor in patch 1.1. I think the difficulty adjust is not finished that’s why the boss is so weak. Btw that boss has 70 deflection, for a BOSS...

 

I find some onboarding naval combat is more challenging than final boss fight.

Empower is a broken win button right now, and I find that not using it makes the game a lot more fun. I really don't know who thought it's a good idea - hey let's let a level 10 guy cast something at level 20 basically once every single battle!

ESPECIALLY the rest system is so broken.

[roylofquist]

"I find some onboarding naval combat is more challenging than final boss fight. "

 

Big cheese spoiler....

 

Your characters in reserve (the ones at the bottom in the party management screen) join the fight when you board another ship.  Hire 6 beckoners and set their AI to summon upgraded Wurms.  36 wurms take care of things PDQ.