hard vs POTD - what are the differences?

[Daemonjax]

Thanks for a lot of good input. I wish there was more of consensus about how the POTD stats are actually inflated though (one guy says +15accuray/defence and the other says +50% which are not only huge differences but also completely different scaling). I understand that the information might not be easily available though so it's not like I'm complaining

 

I think I am leaning to stick with my game on hard - not because I don't think I could handle POTD, but because I think that risks the game turning "more annoying" rather than "harder". Kind of wish there was a middle-ground with POTD number of enemies but not inflated stats (or just a very slight boost and/or a decent amount more endurance for enemies so they take more punishment). If it's true that some enemies get as much as +50% stats increases that I'm sure would just make it so that abilities aren't really reliable anymore - and that just makes for too random combat and frustration. I don't want to have to cast some spell 3 times over to make it stick.

 

If things get a bit on the easy side on hard I guess I can just make my own fun by having more opportunities to experiment with abilities and spells that aren't strictly optimal. Too optimized usually results in very narrow rinse&repeat strategies.

 

Again, thanks for the feedback so far

-Stigma

 

Yeah, I'd wait for player created mods that re-tune difficulty for more added challenge.  

 

In a difficulty mod, I'd be looking for:

 

• Party experience reduction (which I mod in myself now @ -33%)
• Spell immunities (don't know if we could do this exactly, but we should be able to do something similar)
• Increased cost of resting in towns (you really shouldn't be able to sleep for free at any inn. 75 gold minimum.)
• Remove camping supplies from all stores (they should be limited resources, right now they just have the illusion of being limited.  Either that or prevent shop keepers from restocking them -- ever)
• Monsters respawn on dungeon levels that you don't fully clear if you leave the dungeon and x amount of time passes (this would be difficult to do intelligently.  And it will probably not be possible without the game engine being upgraded to Unity 5.0 due to the availability of the free personal edition)

 

Hard is cooler than normal because it adds more and varied enemies. 

Potd doesn't actually bring anything new to the table for me -- just inflated numbers.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Daemonjax

[thestigma]

 

Thanks for a lot of good input. I wish there was more of consensus about how the POTD stats are actually inflated though (one guy says +15accuray/defence and the other says +50% which are not only huge differences but also completely different scaling). I understand that the information might not be easily available though so it's not like I'm complaining

 

I think I am leaning to stick with my game on hard - not because I don't think I could handle POTD, but because I think that risks the game turning "more annoying" rather than "harder". Kind of wish there was a middle-ground with POTD number of enemies but not inflated stats (or just a very slight boost and/or a decent amount more endurance for enemies so they take more punishment). If it's true that some enemies get as much as +50% stats increases that I'm sure would just make it so that abilities aren't really reliable anymore - and that just makes for too random combat and frustration. I don't want to have to cast some spell 3 times over to make it stick.

 

If things get a bit on the easy side on hard I guess I can just make my own fun by having more opportunities to experiment with abilities and spells that aren't strictly optimal. Too optimized usually results in very narrow rinse&repeat strategies.

 

Again, thanks for the feedback so far

-Stigma

 

Yeah, I'd wait for player created mods that re-tune difficulty for more added challenge.  

 

In a difficulty mod, I'd be looking for:

 

• Party experience reduction (which I mod in myself now @ -33%)
• Spell immunities (don't know if we could do this exactly, but we should be able to do something similar)
• Increased cost of resting in towns (you really shouldn't be able to sleep for free at any inn. 75 gold minimum.)
• Remove camping supplies from all stores (they should be limited resources, right now they just have the illusion of being limited.  Either that or prevent shop keepers from restocking them -- ever)
• Monsters respawn on dungeon levels that you don't fully clear if you leave the dungeon and x amount of time passes (this would be difficult to do intelligently.  And it will probably not be possible without the game engine being upgraded to Unity 5.0 due to the availability of the free personal edition)

 

Hard is cooler than normal because it adds more and varied enemies. 

Potd doesn't actually bring anything new to the table for me -- just inflated numbers.

 

 

Except for camping supplies not being renewable I like those general ideas (because you could get stuck having no way to rest, I think that should be balanced via cost instead).

 

Pretty good ideas about partial respawning enemies too - it provides an incentive to push forward. Currently there is nothing but the small inconvenience of having to go through a few loading screens that prevents you from resting between every encounter (for free even) - and trading ingame power/currency for pure tedium is not a good balance mechanism.

 

Once modding gets underway I envision someone will just make a "any difficulty" mod where you can customize the difficulty to your liking. Just have an ini file with numbers you can tweak as you like

 

I like POTD because fights last long enough to seem to require deeper strategies. On hard I just seem to nuke stuff down for the most part. Much more focus on CC and control in POTD by neccessity - but some sort of middle-ground is definitely lacking. I can absolutely see some players thinking that hard is too easy, but POTD being just a bit much.

 

-Stigma

[Smorensky]

Well so far I'm enjoying my potd playthrough. As I expected things are rather hard early on, but level out once you finish The Old Watcher quest, since every location but Twin Elmes is open to you. Gear is probably the main reason, more so than XP, as you can grab a lot of money and some decent gear early on, putting you on pair with slightly inflated monster stats.

 

This playthrough I'm using a 2H rogue and as soon as I got 10k gold I went to Dyrford to get Hours of Saint Rumbald/Tall Grass (whichever you prefer). Once I got the weapon most encounters started melting.

 

My party is Eder and Pallegina as tanks, Aloth and Durance as buffers/debuffers and Grieving Mother for cc. 90% of dmg comes from my Greatsword sneakattacking rogue as both weapons I mentioned come with great enchantments (sword has +12 accuracy (no dmg thou) while the pike starts with exceptional +8acc and 1.3 dmg). So my character rarely misses an attack, the only thing to worry about is keeping mobs off him

[Taelon]

One thing i'm missing here is how the larger amount of mobs influence the party composition. 

 

With the increased amount of mobs the tanks don't have enough space for the mobs to go around resulting in the mobs passing the tank and onto your other partymembers?

 

Sofar i've been able to keep the mobs on my tanks, but it requires the rest to be really ranged characters. I also have to be carefull with stuns as it will reset the targeteting of the mob. 

At the moment i'm wondering if i should make Kana into half tank. He can do lots of dmg with his chant instead. 

[Sarnind]

nothing, are both too easy for my playstile.

[Crescent Hawk]

Potd makes the game not boring. To me its default, for new players stick to the other 3. its not about being "elite git gud", debuffing and intense micro makes potd battles much more intense, when you party pulls trough a fight you rally feel it.

[Mhantra]

Just play POTD. In terms of how it feels, it isn't cheaty and it's not annoying. There's no infuriating one hit kills, massive HP bloats or anything. If anything enemies are still too vulnerable to disabling spells. Once you know how the game works, POTD is the Normal. 

 

I agree.  It isn't for a sense of accomplishment or anything, I started a PotD because I wanted more challenge. On Hard I never used a scroll or food or laid a trap.  Hell, I skipped finding the awesome equipment out there. 

 

That told me that Hard didn't require me to use all the game's systems.  I wanted to have to think, build well and created a party that isn't niche or abusing some mechanic (actually very different theory of team makeup than I usually see, very much MY creation).  The party needs the synergy I created to work on PotD, and from the very minute I started the campaig, I felt much, MUCH more connected to each moment in combat, to each stat, each piece of equipment. 

 

In short, I am completely absorbed in this campaign when I was not on hard.  Sure, running fewer team members on hard would be fine, but it would just balance out because you would get more experience per quest/encounter, your people would be higher level, and still wouldn't have to THINK about how to debuff and work together to land a hit.

 

Then there's the Shade fights...but that's a different story =D 

[Razorchain]

Well, there is no harm in trying it out Truth is potd is a bit frustrating in the begining, but once you get a few lvls under your belt, backed up with some decent gear, it becomes fun (at least for me).

 

And no, potd does not invalidate "half of abilities and spells" it simply makes spells you never bothered using during normal or hard playthrough useful, if anything it makes more things viable.

 

Things like food for example...Sure you can still run through encounters without it, but in potd it helps a lot.

Traps, you find a ton of them troughout the game and now you actually have a reason to use them

Slaying enchantments, they are completely irelevant on hard, on potd, the added accuracy makes things a lot easier.

Scrolls, yup pretty useful especially early on.

 

As for niche builds, not sure what ppl mean buy that. I play with standard npc companions, so the only character that was minmaxed is my main char.

 

I agree, I use lot's of buffs and debuffs that I had no need for on hard, and I actually use potions, scrolls and foodstuff (sometimes).  Even classess that I felt irrelevant on hard are good in Potd (I'm looking at you chanter)