BS skeleton fight

[xzar_monty]

 

 

I don't lower difficulty. I don't skip fights either.

 

Hey, that's fair enough. But if you insist on these two points, then you must also subscribe to the ethos behind that. And that, simply put, is: don't complain.

 

 

I also don't lower difficulty, I also don't skip fights. I also play with extra challenges enabled. No problems, which is to say, it's all eminently doable. It's OK to get frustrated (I still do in some areas (*cough* Bridge Ablaze *cough*) no matter how many times I've run PotD+upscaling+challenges), but yeah, like someone else said, this is starting to sound like "one of those posts."

It's true. I don't think I've ever played any game where designers have been so extremely responsive to player concerns about difficulty tuning. There was a lot of collective grousing to increase the difficulty to where it is now (and it's to Obsidian's credit that they kept tweaking it up); the difficulty is now at a point that I feel like many players are adequately satisfied (and for the rest there's things like Deadly Deadfire).

 

 

I think the difficulty works fine, for the most part. There's just one thing that I think is below optimal. In the beginning of the game (say, in the digsite), I feel I need to turn the difficulty down, and later on, I feel like turning it up. So the consistency is a little bit lacking. But this is not a major concern. However, I'd rather strongly argue that it's there.

[bonarbill]

I'm starting to get the feeling that this is one of those posts...

"wahh, he disagree with him, so he's a troll." If you don't have anything useful to say, then stay out.

[Boeroer]

And the same to you with brass knobs on?

[Gromnir]

according to obsidian developers, the two most common player complaints o' every obsidian game is as follows:

 

it is too easy.

 

it is too hard.

 

both is always in the top two o' mostest frequent player criticism o' obsidian games. as such am genuine surprised obsidian spends so much time on difficulty balancing given the seeming impossibility o' satisfying players.  am nevertheless appreciative o' obsidian efforts to adjust difficulty based on seeming trends in feedback and observations made by qa and the voodoo rituals obsidian doubt indulges in to divine what is teh rehul deadfire player experience, but am wondering if the payoff is worth the blood, sweat and tears as 'bove complaints remain constant regardless o' sisyphean efforts. 

 

am also gonna observe how we once lamented the failure o' crpg developers to include unwinnable encounters into games.  from a narrative pov, defeat may be more evocative and compelling, particular when win is expected.  the no-win encounter were, from our pov, fertile and untilled soil waiting to be exploited by creative developers and writers.  however, developers explained to us that no amount o' warning and signposting would cure a player o' the need to beat every encounter-- the belief in player entitlement o' victory were deemed a practical god-given right as set forth by the digital deities since pre commodore 64 times.

 

am mentioning this 'cause threads such as this has had us revising out previous position on the no-win encounter. am thinking developers is correct regarding player inability to accept no-wins.  if level-up-first or difficulty slider options is not even considered by a player in spite o' availability, how then does one teach such folks to accept unwinnable?  as such, am gonna admit we were wrong 'bout unavoidable player fail.  too bad.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[thelee]

from a narrative pov, defeat may be more evocative and compelling, particular when win is expected. the no-win encounter were, from our pov, fertile and untilled soil waiting to be exploited by creative developers and writers. however, developers explained to us that no amount o' warning and signposting would cure a player o' the need to beat every encounter-- the belief in player entitlement o' victory were deemed a practical god-given right as set forth by the digital deities since pre commodore 64 times.

Chrono Trigger has several "unwinnable" encounters (though in truth if you do manage to win them you get a special ending, but it's likely not possible until new game+). I got defeated real fast and got to see the story advance. But I had a few friends at the time who as soon as one of their characters got knocked out would reset their super nintendo and try again, and got extremely frustrated. Like, if they had literally just waited a minute or two for them to completely wipe they could advance the story, but they could not get around the idea that they were supposed to lose (at least until we compared notes some weeks later).

 

I don't think it's completely unreasonable though for players to have an expectation that if there's a fight in the game, that fight was intended to be beaten somehow.

Edited February 4, 2019 by thelee

[Lamppost in Winter]

There's the fight with Ser Cauthrien in Dragon Age: Origins that is unwinnable for most players; if you're quite good at the game and metagame a little you can beat it and the game will go on. I wasn't around for the release for this game, but I don't see any teeth gnashing in the fandom about it. This is probably because losing the fight leads directly to a cutscene that starts one of the more popular quests in the game. I think it is cheesy how a good amount of the difficulty comes from Cauthrien's stats being absurdly jacked up, but that's also a larger problem with the humanoid enemies in DAO in general.

[Triple - A Foxy Lad]

am wondering if the payoff is worth the blood, sweat and tears as 'bove complaints remain constant regardless o' sisyphean efforts.

I sometimes wonder this about crpg dev in general tbh.

[bringingyouthefuture]

Wait! Did they bump the PoTD difficulty again???  I mean those skeletons were always tough, but they made them tougher???  That excites me in all the most morbid ways!!! ... personally the first part of the game is tough, but if you buy a couple custom companions you can whip through it pretty easy - I mean in one playthrough I had to avoid the fights almost completely which in itself was kind of fun, sneaking around ....

Edited February 8, 2019 by bringingyouthefuture

[Verde]

It's optional.

[Boeroer]

It's so optional it's not even mandatory...

[Verde]

I think these skeletons may actually need more of a buff...Gorecci St. pfft

[InsaneCommander]

They should expand the last area of the game and include a lv 20 version of Gorecci St there.

[Verde]

They should expand the last area of the game and include a lv 20 version of Gorecci St there.

Shadow Gorecci St.

[Manveru123]

I want a monster named "BS Skeleton" in POE3 plz. Perhaps an idea for a Megaboss?

[Eurhetemec]

I'm just completely blown away that the OP thinks the only solution here is a full party of MC Bleak Walker Wizards.

[merkmerk73]

 

 

Did you finish the Luminous Adra/Eothas quest before going there? I did that and I didn't find the fights against the skeletons very difficult. I had a Wizard player character though (on PoTD with all only scale up).

 

Ya i beat it before no prob. This time i swear it got up rolled big time. These skeletons have 60+ deflection.

Did you last play before PotD got rebalanced? Because yes the entire first act got much harder.

 

 

This - after everyone complained, they did another POTD pass - most of the game got way better (esp with scaling on), but there's a bunch of broken ass fights on the first island that are just incredibly dumb unfortunately

 

Stuff that I found so far that is completely out of whack with the recommended level on POTD:

 

- grocery street

- street fight after luminous bathhouse messenger bag

- the skeletons at the digsite from this post

- some of the mobs and the boss (if you fight him) of the Berath temple dungeon thing in Nekataka. There were some skeletons there that were 3 red skulls and remained 3 red skulls after I got 2 more levels.

 

Most of it is really well done with scaling on and remains very challenging.

[Boeroer]

Grocery street! I love it!

[InsaneCommander]

Never go to the grocery in the path of the damned!

[thelee]

misspelling aside,

 

- street fight after luminous bathhouse messenger bag

 
it is a bit annoying the various quest-related street ambushes on PotD, because you could trigger the quest when you're low level and have no idea you're about to get an extremely rough encounter. This is one of a few times where PotD just really punishes a lack of metagame knowledge.

Edited February 11, 2019 by thelee

[Wormerine]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This - after everyone complained, they did another POTD pass - most of the game got way better (esp with scaling on), but there's a bunch of broken ass fights on the first island that are just incredibly dumb unfortunately

 

Stuff that I found so far that is completely out of whack with the recommended level on POTD:

 

- grocery street

- street fight after luminous bathhouse messenger bag

- the skeletons at the digsite from this post

- some of the mobs and the boss (if you fight him) of the Berath temple dungeon thing in Nekataka. There were some skeletons there that were 3 red skulls and remained 3 red skulls after I got 2 more levels.

 

Most of it is really well done with scaling on and remains very challenging.

To be honest, the difficulty level offered in the opening isle, is something I would expect from PotD. I don't think it's too difficult - it's what the name and discription suggests: for people who played through Deadfire, know what's coming and will abuse the systems to push through impossible odds.

[prodigydancer]

The starting island is far from the worst, actually. Later on skeleton type enemies become really insane with their immunity to pierce damage and huge damage output.

My party is L8 now and I feel like I hit a brick wall everywhere I go. I have one custom henchman so I thought things would be comfortably challenging at worst but compared with v1.0 the game is frustratingly hard. It's nothing like PoE1 where I also played on upscaled PotD and everything was manageable.

Yes, there are people who will ALWAYS say "too easy" no matter what. Yes, there are people who somehow do TCS in Deadfire (I don't know how they do it and I'll never believe they do it without cheating). My opinion is that at this point mid-game is pure luck. If you don't get some good rolls at the start of the fight, you get overwhelmed and destroyed even if theoretically you have lots of healing available.

Edited February 12, 2019 by prodigydancer

[Verde]

misspelling aside,

 

- street fight after luminous bathhouse messenger bag

it is a bit annoying the various quest-related street ambushes on PotD, because you could trigger the quest when you're low level and have no idea you're about to get an extremely rough encounter. This is one of a few times where PotD just really punishes a lack of metagame knowledge.

Can't you just choose the escort option to avoid the fight?

[prodigydancer]

Can't you just choose the escort option to avoid the fight?

You can avoid a lot of fights if you want to.

 

Anyway, the Principi ambush is pretty ridiculous. You start surrounded by eight enemies. You can eliminate one of the mages by blowing a powder keg but the rest will focus your backline to oblivion. Immediately running to the edge of the map and turtling there is your best bet but pistol shots will still hurt not to mention Finishing Blow spam from the rogues.

[Boeroer]

But it's called "Path of the Damned". What do people expect? 

 

Please don't complain it's too hard. It's not named "Path of the Pipsqueak" for a reason.

 

And the fights you named aren't really ridiculous. And hitting a wall at lvl 8 seems to be impossible to me - you can go to so many places where you get very easy fights - or even quests without any fights in order to level up quickly. 

 

I'm usually not the one who complains about "PotD is 2 eazy LOLZ pathetic!!11!!!" - but claiming that PotD is pure luck midgame and that you will hit a wall at lvl 8 is nonsense, sorry.

 

The fight with Talfor is a bit eh because it can hit you while being very unprepared - but in this case you don't need to fight at all. If you do and keep dying just reload and choose another option. You don't even need to lower the difficulty. 

[xzar_monty]

But it's called "Path of the Damned". What do people expect? 

 

Please don't complain it's too hard. It's not named "Path of the Pipsqueak" for a reason.

 

Precisely this.

 

Pathfinder:Kingmaker has a difficulty level called "Unfair". There was someone who chose that, got very severely beaten and then moaned he had no chance. Well, why should he have had any? That wouldn't be unfair.