Hard mode is too easy.

[juanval]

It's a pity to wait for more than 2 years and, after 30 hours of gameplaying, to lose interest on the game because of the terrible balance it has.

 

I'm playing on hard doing quests in act 2 in Defiance Bay and until this moment I haven't found any hard battle. And I haven´t been affected by the stats bug (only Aloth and Eder had +10 on reflex and will, respectively). The only interest I have in this moment is to see how the story continues and ends, like if I were reading a book. I don't care if I find an incredible sword or ring because I don't need them. I don't care how much XP I need to reach next level either.

 

I remember BG 1 and 2 avoiding lots of combats and waiting to gain more XP in order to overcome them.

 

In my opinion:

The setting is perfect and lovely. The plot until this moment is great. Art is lovely.

I like combat mechanics and how combat works, but combat balance is terrible and makes lose interest on the game. Obsidian failed releasing a game that is not challenging.

Edited April 4, 2015 by juanval

[Archaven]

I think the Rock, Paper & Scissor mechanic isn't that hard compared to BG2 i think. Back then, if you have no Breach spell, some party with mages basically untouchable. Also with no preparation on protection spells, going against Vampys you are dead.

[Sensuki]

Lock and Trap XP actually gives way too much XP - that's the main problem. They shouldn't give any IMO.

[Mangonel]

Well, hard mode is for experienced people. I kind of assumed it was tuned with the idea that you'd use hired party members at least until you find companions to flesh out your party. One of the first things I did was to hire some party members.

 

That said, I do find it kind of easy. I can win most fights with some basic prep (IE positioning and weapon selection) and I rarely find myself having to make use of the full breadth of aids the game has. Food/pots/scrolls/etc.

 

Priests are so over the top with the buffs they provide I wonder if the consumables are more to cater for a priest-less party rather than for having with one.

[PrimeJunta]

 I am not steamrolling the game because of some stat bug. There is too much XP. I was level 10 when I reached Dyrford Village. I believe in the backer beta they were doing it at level 5 or 6. 

 

Edit : if someone could confirm what the backer beta starting level was I would appreciate it. Also @ Rosveen : Please trust obsessive people to notice things about which they are obsessed. I actually did have one toon go out of control with stats. Kana. Kana now lives in the Inn at my keep. Its a good thing though because I don't really go there much.

 

Wow how in the name of Mog did you manage that? I was on level 5 or 6 I think.

 

In the BB, you started at level 4 but XP was wildly inflated (because they wanted to test the character progression as well) so you finished at level 8. At level 10 I'm sure it's a yawn.

[PrimeJunta]

I think the Rock, Paper & Scissor mechanic isn't that hard compared to BG2 i think. Back then, if you have no Breach spell, some party with mages basically untouchable. Also with no preparation on protection spells, going against Vampys you are dead.

 

Actually I did fine against mages with backstab + Keldorn (fast Dispel Magic on demand), and vampires by using summons (Animate Dead, then nuke them from orbit).

[Hatred]

 

 I am not steamrolling the game because of some stat bug. There is too much XP. I was level 10 when I reached Dyrford Village. I believe in the backer beta they were doing it at level 5 or 6. 

 

Edit : if someone could confirm what the backer beta starting level was I would appreciate it. Also @ Rosveen : Please trust obsessive people to notice things about which they are obsessed. I actually did have one toon go out of control with stats. Kana. Kana now lives in the Inn at my keep. Its a good thing though because I don't really go there much.

 

Wow how in the name of Mog did you manage that? I was on level 5 or 6 I think.

 

In the BB, you started at level 4 but XP was wildly inflated (because they wanted to test the character progression as well) so you finished at level 8. At level 10 I'm sure it's a yawn.

 

 Idk I like finding the shiny weapons and reading their stories so I do all of the quests and search everywhere. I didn't realise I could get to dyrford so early. So I did literally all of defiance bay and then I went and did a whole heap of the dungeon because I was like ... if I don't get into this dungeon pretty soon it will all become too easy. Then I wanted the sword from the dungeon. So I kept on going down until I had all of the pieces. That was the last time I had fun

[Hatred]

 I haven't been paying a lot of attention to what does and doesn't give xp. I just tend to do what I want to do. Silly ole me thought that this wouldn't ruin my experience. I have found some pretty awesome weapons (which I have to admit I don't actually use since my party has 3 casters priest druid and wizard) in locked containers.

[PrimeJunta]

@Hatred I think that's kind of unavoidable in a game with lots of side content and no level scaling. If the side content doesn't give any tangible rewards it becomes just tedious, and if it does, you're overleveled for the critical path content.

 

I believe Josh originally wanted to lightly level-scale the later critical path content à la BG2, but that went down like a lead balloon so he didn't. So here we are, completionists break the game.

[demeisen]

@Hatred I think that's kind of unavoidable in a game with lots of side content and no level scaling. If the side content doesn't give any tangible rewards it becomes just tedious, and if it does, you're overleveled for the critical path content.

 

I believe Josh originally wanted to lightly level-scale the later critical path content à la BG2, but that went down like a lead balloon so he didn't. So here we are, completionists break the game.

 

I'm not a big fan of level-scaling encounters, but I end up thinking that just toning down the side quest exp could do a lot to address the too-easy-combat issues (as well as some folks reporting they hit the level cap well before the end of the game).  There'd still be a benefit to doing the side quests (items, minor exp), so it'd be beneficial, but it wouldn't render the main quest combat almost effortless either.

 

I'd say make the side-quests give somewhere around 10-30% of their current exp, and it might work out about right.  Maybe a sliding scale based on the difficulty setting, like 50% of current exp on easy, 30% normal, 20% hard, 10% POD.

[Hebruixe]

I played up to the start of Act 3 on hard mode. It was far more challenging at low levels than high levels.

 

The game is designed for newcomers. People who don't know veteran tactics will indeed find "hard" difficulty very hard. Veteran Infinity Engine players like the OP should stop complaining about the lack of challenge (in other words, massaging their nerd egos) and restart the game on Path of the Damned mode.

 

PotD is a treat. Trust me. 

[NoQuitt]

Looking for a bit of advice from you guys so I don't fall into the over-leveled trap. I'm doing my first play through so I don't really have an idea of how much is too much

 

I'm playing on hard mode Trial of Iron. I'm running a fully hired party to there won't be any exp from companion quests. I want to do as much content as I can without trivializing things. Since I won't be doing any of the companion quests, will I be ok doing everything else? Would doing all the bounties still get me over leveled? Thanks!

[Rack]

@Hatred I think that's kind of unavoidable in a game with lots of side content and no level scaling. If the side content doesn't give any tangible rewards it becomes just tedious, and if it does, you're overleveled for the critical path content.

 

I believe Josh originally wanted to lightly level-scale the later critical path content à la BG2, but that went down like a lead balloon so he didn't. So here we are, completionists break the game.

Ugh, he really should have had courage in his convictions there. Since Oblivion level scaling has become a dirty word. No-one understands it, they don't get it's been used to great effect in loads of games, but they vehemently oppose it because it was used badly that one time.

[ComplyOrDie]

I played up to the start of Act 3 on hard mode. It was far more challenging at low levels than high levels.

 

The game is designed for newcomers. People who don't know veteran tactics will indeed find "hard" difficulty very hard. Veteran Infinity Engine players like the OP should stop complaining about the lack of challenge (in other words, massaging their nerd egos) and restart the game on Path of the Damned mode.

 

PotD is a treat. Trust me.

 

Sorry but strongly disagree with this. Path is extremely under tuned. Vast majority of enemies cannot hit your tank so tactics become redundant. Your wizard can hit enemies but also can't hit your tank. Solution, if a fight gets tough spam fireball at your tank, everything around him will die, if no rush just have 5 ranged guys slowly pick off the horde surrounding Eder (only shoot the one he's engaged with). Literally that simple from level 5 to the end.

 

Nobody has an ego for wanting difficulty upped, I think it's great obsidian cared enough to have hard and a path of the damned mode, nothing wrong with then asking for it to be tuned correctly.

Edited April 4, 2015 by ComplyOrDie

[Cronstintein]

I think the beginning is tuned nice on hard.  Levels 1-4 were a fun challenge for me 1st time through.  5-8 was ok, but not very challenging.  Now I'm lv10 and completely overpowered.  I'm only up to the backer area and have a TON of unfinished quests so I'm not sure how they balanced the xp gain but it needs another look. 

 

The XP/level needs to be a higher degree of exponential and maybe cut quest xp by about 30% (and 70% on those bounties).

[Mazisky]

Btw, it is not an ego matter, i just wanna play with some tactics instead of just clicking on the enemy. This is not a Hack n slash

[DevastatinDave]

The first couple levels were a challenge, but after I got to level 5 and found like 3 fine arbalests and gave them to my ranged party members and I'm just breezing through everything.

[Telmorial]

Has anyone found a hack to change the difficulty level to PoTD without restarting the campaign? I'm in act 2 and already finding it a little too easy and from what I'm reading here, it will only get easier.

[Mazisky]

With IE mod you can change it while ingame

[Telmorial]

With IE mod you can change it while ingame

 

Great, thanks. I may try that if I notice the game getting too easy. Cheers.

[Grotesque]

this game is too ****ing easy on hard. that's for sure

 

there is a threshold point where all goes downhill regarding difficulty and you become way overpowered. (just like in Divinity OS where gameplay became a borefest because there was no challenge anymore)

 

Having 2 fighters all in heavy armour  and high deflection makes PoE a near borefest, especially when I was able to recruit a cypher.

No challenge is the death of gameplay and fun.

Hard mode needs a big buff.

 

AI is really limited. Engagement system limits the AI even further.

 

 XP gain should be reduced.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Grotesque

[Ichthyic]

 

The game is designed for newcomers.

obvious statement is obvious.

 

it is, after all, an entirely new combat system, with different mechanics, classes, spells, skills, monsters....

 

we are ALL newcomers to this.

 

that said, I'm eyeing the IE mod just so I can swith to POTD mode on the fly.  that, or lower all my character statistics by 20% across the board.

 

edit:

 

hmm, I'm not seeing where the IE mod allows you to change to POTD mid game?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2015 by Ichthyic

[sparklecat]

Welp.  Given that I just cleared out Cliaban Rilag on Hard without resting once and still had a fair number of spells left at the end, yeah, I'm definitely feeling overlevelled for the main path quests thanks to all the xp sidequests give.  Which is a real shame.

 

 

eta: just to clarify, it doesn't stop there; I'm feeling overlevelled for the new side quests I'm picking up now, too

Edited April 5, 2015 by sparklecat

[Justinian]

How does the new patch affect difficulty? Is it better tuned?

 

Sounds like the biggest issues now are overlevelling content too quickly and fighters being too invulnerable.

[sparklecat]

I was never using the two wizard spells that got nerfed, so I can't really comment on them; it's nice that Aloth isn't running right up into the enemies' faces to cast his spells so much, though.  Mind Blades feels as deadly as ever.

 

I think there's still a ways to go in terms of balance, but I think the overlevelling issue is the main problem, and where the devs should start before getting into the details of individual abilities too much.