Regarding increasing difficulty

[somename]

Hey

After having completed the first PoE, I started the second one. I figured since I'm somewhat familiar, I'd start with Veteran with full level scaling (which is what I played on the first game). So I started playing and I rerolled a bunch of characters until I found one that could take the starting island without much issues since I figured the start was indicative of the game's difficulty in general. As an aside - this character ended up being a DoT Druid. Anyways having continued after the starting island nearly everything has been a breeze (including red three skulls mobs I've encountered so far), which I didn't mind for a while because I felt vindicated for getting my ass handed to me on the Gorecci street and by the Young Drake on previous characters. After a while, however, this is is no longer particularly enjoyable :D

My questions: if I increase to POTD and enter an area, then decrease again - will the mobs reset back to Veteran? Should I take POTD with no level scaling as the next step or should I keep level scaling on? Will the mobs/stats change properly if I keep switching around these settings to find a good spot? Will Story companions be able to hit stuff on POTD? I'm worried because the ones I employ have disappointing Perception/accuracy - but I presume that can be overcome via items and proper skill choices.

I'm asking because one of the games I played a long time ago (perhaps POE1?) had this issue where upon reloading an area or something some mob(s) would keep increasing in stats until they were stupid strong. You never know with these games and I don't want to break my game because I really enjoy this character - both thematically and strength wise.

[TheMetaphysician]

The Deadly Deadfire mod might be what you are looking for. I recommend it.

[xzar_monty]

Btw, some people regard Gorecci Street as the hardest fight in the entire game. I personally found the digsite encounter to be the most difficult of all; nothing after that came even close, no matter how many red skulls there were.

Edited September 24, 2019 by xzar_monty

[somename]

54 minutes ago, TheMetaphysician said:

The Deadly Deadfire mod might be what you are looking for. I recommend it.

I think I'll refrain from modding for now, but I'll keep it in mind for a second playthrough - thanks! 

37 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

Btw, some people regard Gorecci Street as the hardest fight in the entire game. I personally found the digsite encounter to be the most difficult of all; nothing after that came even close, no matter how many red skulls there were.

That the starting island is the peak of difficulty is quite disheartening tbh. Regarding the digsite though: I had charm beast, so that one was a walk in the park.

[xzar_monty]

On 9/24/2019 at 5:16 PM, somename said:

That the starting island is the peak of difficulty is quite disheartening tbh.

I agree. Have you got any further? Do you have a new sense of the difficulty / lack of it?

[somename]

10 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

I agree. Have you got any further? Do you have a new sense of the difficulty / lack of it?

Yeah, after a while I just went for PoTD upscaled. There's some fights that have been tougher - there was a giant black Ooze on some island, that I simply couldn't do at my level (I havent gone back to try now). The undead dragon was pretty hard to beat as well until I figured out I had to interrupt it to prevent it from casting its annoying defense spells. The island where I got my Druid the Spider Silk robe surprised me as well in terms of difficulty (also I think I might have gone there too early).

All in all though, I would say the game is not that difficult but I have made it more of a challenge by going to high level areas before I'm supposed to. Nonetheless, I enjoy it a lot and I'll definitely be doing a second playthrough with an evil/cruel character. So far I've really liked Rogue's class abilities so I'll probably try to do something with that. There's a lot of cool weapons and abilities across all the classes out there so ending up on one idea will very likely take a lot of time. (On a completely unrelated note - why have they given Ranger such bland abilities).

Back to difficulty - out of the recent games I've played in this genre, I would say this is easier that POE1 and Kingmaker were. Kingmaker's difficulty was not, however, handled in an enjoyable way. Deadfire has been thoroughly enjoyable so far (minus the frustration from Gorecci street :D). 

 

 

[Boeroer]

To be fair you don't have to fight in Gorecci Street to solve the quest. The high difficulty is done on purpose. It's like the bear cave in PoE1. Maybe it's even a reminiscence.

The digsite is also quite tough (not so much the drake + adds but the skeletal warriors in the western catacombs) - but also here you can do it all with sneaking (even without stealth points).

But yeah - it can be a hard slap in the face for a newcomer, that's for sure.  I like that (not that newcomers get slapped - but more that I get challenged so early).

Most following encounters might be not that difficult (depends how you progress though) - but I think that's due to the habit of most players to build rather efficient characters and tend to level rel. quickly with non-violent quests in Neketaka and so on. It's hard to keep the difficulty up for good character builders while making if still possible to win for more "casual" players. Even if you can tune the difficulty level.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Boeroer

[xzar_monty]

4 hours ago, somename said:

Back to difficulty - out of the recent games I've played in this genre, I would say this is easier that POE1 and Kingmaker were. Kingmaker's difficulty was not, however, handled in an enjoyable way. Deadfire has been thoroughly enjoyable so far (minus the frustration from Gorecci street :D).

A lot easier, yes.

I agree that Kingmaker suffers from a difficulty that is not well handled. In short, the game developers cheated quite a number of times, which was really poor. (Having said that, though, I must say that it was only at the House at the Edge of Time where I thought they really went too far; the encounter design there is simply cruel and senseless.)

Deadfire is very enjoyable. It's an excellent game. I found Gorecci street manageable in the end because, as Boeroer points out above, fighting is not necessary. You can use stealth. And given the way the game is built, I'm guessing you never lose anything, even (significant) XP points, if you skip a fight. Maybe Boeroer has some more specific information on this: are there any places in the game where NOT fighting is a losing strategy (in terms of XP and items and other rewards), if not fighting is possible in the first place?

[Boeroer]

You usually only "lose" the loot. That may be not worthwhile at all (like Gorecci Street where the looters drop nothing that's exciting) or quintessential for you build ideas (e.g. with Familiy Pride/Bardattos vs. Valeras: Casità Samlia's Legacy and Deltro's Cage can only be yours if you kill both family heads).

It is possible to do a pacifist run. You will have to fight every now and then - but most of the time fights can be avoided with dialogue and stealth.

A "problem" will be bounties though. You can't do them without fighting. In those cases the nearest thing to not fight is to sneak in and deliver a gouging strike, go invisible, run away, grab a coffee and watch a Netflix show and come back later when the enemy is dead. Repeat.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Boeroer

[Wormerine]

10 hours ago, Boeroer said:

A "problem" will be bounties though. You can't do them without fighting. In those cases the nearest thing to not fight is to sneak in and deliver a gouging strike, go invisible, run away, grab a coffee and watch a Netflix show and come back later when the enemy is dead. Repeat.

Ah, good old times, when one could pickpocket target's head from his/her inventory. 

[Boeroer]

Wait... I didn't even know that was possible. 

[Wormerine]

Yup, that was a thing

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/99848-you-can-pickpocket-head-from-yours-bounties/#comment-2025881

[xzar_monty]

Doesn't this "pickpocket a head!" go all the way back to BG or NWN?