favourite Difficulty

[Skladzien]

Hi. After finishing game few times (Normal -> Hard ->PotD -> TCS -> Hard Expert) i can fully responsible and thrutfuly say that Hard with Expert mode is my favourite one. Battle are challenging but if worked properly don't require dozens of reloads in hope for a glitch (in PotD especially Wraiths and Pwgra sometimes do), and Expert mode is better than having full of tips about enemy listed. This one feels the closest to playing with reasonable GM some PnP game. Trial of Iron is not fun as sometimes You just don't expect something (like a glitch, fps drop or anything), and You can have to restart whole game not becaue u played wrong but because of something impossible to predict. Andasi said before PotD sometimes feels just unrealistic (being stunlocked in Lle a Rhemen...).

 

I have a question to You all. What is Your favourite difficulty setting, and do You use any "difficulty increasing" option (second poll allow multiple choices).

 

Edit: Story Time difficulty has been added to Poll.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Skladzien

[Infinitron]

Second question shouldn't be mandatory. Most people don't use either.

[Aranduin]

Second question shouldn't be mandatory. Most people don't use either.

 

+1

[DreamWayfarer]

I have too say that PoTD is quite fun, if you don't mind reloading, but I am no minmaxer and meta-gaming all the time tires me, so I generaly prefer hard difficulty. I also use Expert Mode once in a while, because I have good enough memory to not need to check the area of my abilities all the time and feel it also makes the game more immersive by removing those helper features.

[limaxophobiacq]

PotD.

 

Voted trial of iron because I had to pick one and I feel expert mode is just a bad interface that makes you jump through hoops to get information you want instead of just showing it to you.

[Skladzien]

Second question shouldn't be mandatory. Most people don't use either.

Right, sorry. I added Third option ;-)

[MaxQuest]

Have started first play-through on Hard. At the end of act 1 (party lvl 7) have switched to PotD.  Tbh the extra challenge is quite satisfying. So I'm keeping it.

 

Shout-out to Felisa and her gang, which when stumbled by my lvl 8 priestless-party, has dominated 4 of my characters, and made me re-evaluate the usefulness of scrolls.. and also be more cautious with echo.

Edited February 16, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Wolken3156]

Path of the Damned for sure. Its the main difficulty for trying out builds. IMO, using any complicated builds on the lower difficulties feels like overkill.

 

I'm not a huge fan of the other options though. Trial of Iron is just a pain since I have bad habit of setting traps off and getting my characters killed by them. Expert is even worse since I have very caster heavy playstyle, and getting hit by your own spells in PoE is far more dangerous than the IE games.

[Aarik D]

Whaa? No Story Time love? 

[Tennisgolfboll]

Trial of iron. Anything else is immortality mode.

 

TOI on easy is better than POTD with immortality reloads

[Inspector Switchblade]

Whaa? No Story Time love? 

Yes, story Time for letting the girlfriend play!

[Wolken3156]

Whaa? No Story Time love? 

too op

 

please nerf

 

(I kid)

[emeffkay]

Working through my first playthrough on Hard. Have to say as an IE vet, Hard reminds me a lot of mid-late stage BG2/ToB and late IWD - just enough mobs to make things difficult but not quite so tough as I can't re-evaluate what I'm doing wrong, usually it's because I'm favoring direct damage over affliction debuffs.

 

While yes, there are some abilities that tend to be overpowered (full disclosure: looking at you ectoplasmic echo - which I'm loving running with my guncipher and GM), most of the game mechanics are beautifully balanced.

 

I just got to act 3 last night, and will graduate up to Paths of the Damned for a bit. I am, however, also thinking of saving a PotD run for my next playthrough, probably with a druid or a rogue.

 

Just want to take this opportunity to say I am LOVING this game.

[DreamWayfarer]

Clarifying on my preference for Hard on Expert mode, I generaly run teams with few 'full' casters(druids, wizards or priests) and no minmaxing. On setups with three casters, or specially built teams with strong synergies, or with more custom characters than premades, I feel PoTD is slightly better.

Edited February 16, 2016 by DreamWayfarer

[why]

I didn't have time to play, but I built my character and did the first cutscene to start my PotD run.

[anameforobsidian]

I think it's interesting that as of right now there are a fair amount more votes for PotD than Expert mode.  That says that people enjoy a challenge, but not a masochistic one.

 

 

Whaa? No Story Time love? 

 

No.

[why]

Story Time mode didn't get a lot of love in this particular forum?  What a surprise.  (Note well the period at the end of the preceding sentence.)

 

I didn't vote for any because I haven't finished the game on PotD.  My latest start also included expert as a slight vanity setting.  Of course, having finished the game on normal and hard, I would have to say that there isn't much by way of bragging rights for playing expert when I already pretty much know the dialogue options and the lay of the land as well as I do.  I also tend to like to try different a bunch of different tactics and whatnot, even if ithe battle went well.  I'll still reload from a successful battle and switch things up so, unless I get board and feel like being able to lay claim to the triple crown thing, I doubt I do ToI.

 

Plus, some people are so fervent about it that they go gonzo.  I guess I might mean you, Tennisgolfboll, but I don't mean any harm.  It's just that the depth of feeling about folks playing a certain difficulty or with a certain toggle seems odd to me.  Shrug.  Some people get so into invested in PotD, Expert, and ToI that I wonder if their perfect game isn't one with absolutely no saves.  If you leave your game long enough, your people starve or wet their pants.  Where, upon dying in the game, it deletes itself forever, the hard drive becomes inoperable, your house sets on fire, and a hand with a pistol pops out of the case and shoots you dead in real life.

[Tennisgolfboll]

Story Time mode didn't get a lot of love in this particular forum?  What a surprise.  (Note well the period at the end of the preceding sentence.)

 

I didn't vote for any because I haven't finished the game on PotD.  My latest start also included expert as a slight vanity setting.  Of course, having finished the game on normal and hard, I would have to say that there isn't much by way of bragging rights for playing expert when I already pretty much know the dialogue options and the lay of the land as well as I do.  I also tend to like to try different a bunch of different tactics and whatnot, even if ithe battle went well.  I'll still reload from a successful battle and switch things up so, unless I get board and feel like being able to lay claim to the triple crown thing, I doubt I do ToI.

 

Plus, some people are so fervent about it that they go gonzo.  I guess I might mean you, Tennisgolfboll, but I don't mean any harm.  It's just that the depth of feeling about folks playing a certain difficulty or with a certain toggle seems odd to me.  Shrug.  Some people get so into invested in PotD, Expert, and ToI that I wonder if their perfect game isn't one with absolutely no saves.  If you leave your game long enough, your people starve or wet their pants.  Where, upon dying in the game, it deletes itself forever, the hard drive becomes inoperable, your house sets on fire, and a hand with a pistol pops out of the case and shoots you dead in real life.

I just hate how gamers talk about challenge when reload is the lamest mechanic ever.

 

I pretty much never play above normal on any game but always with ironman rules. So much more fun and immersive.

 

Then the forum is full of people saying POTD is to easy. Ofc they have reloaded a hundred times. So lame. Even if you only have 1% chance to win if you can do it endlessly you might as well have every cheat in the world.

[Messier-31]

Whaa? No Story Time love? 

 

It seems that I will try out Story Time at some point - its getting harder and harder to find time for playing these days. Thanks, Obids

[Rosveen]

I would vote for Expert mode, but removing AoE ranges is an overkill, so I use custom settings and turn off everything except that. I like difficulty, but not playing blind.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Rosveen

[Skladzien]

 

Story Time mode didn't get a lot of love in this particular forum?  What a surprise.  (Note well the period at the end of the preceding sentence.)

 

I didn't vote for any because I haven't finished the game on PotD.  My latest start also included expert as a slight vanity setting.  Of course, having finished the game on normal and hard, I would have to say that there isn't much by way of bragging rights for playing expert when I already pretty much know the dialogue options and the lay of the land as well as I do.  I also tend to like to try different a bunch of different tactics and whatnot, even if ithe battle went well.  I'll still reload from a successful battle and switch things up so, unless I get board and feel like being able to lay claim to the triple crown thing, I doubt I do ToI.

 

Plus, some people are so fervent about it that they go gonzo.  I guess I might mean you, Tennisgolfboll, but I don't mean any harm.  It's just that the depth of feeling about folks playing a certain difficulty or with a certain toggle seems odd to me.  Shrug.  Some people get so into invested in PotD, Expert, and ToI that I wonder if their perfect game isn't one with absolutely no saves.  If you leave your game long enough, your people starve or wet their pants.  Where, upon dying in the game, it deletes itself forever, the hard drive becomes inoperable, your house sets on fire, and a hand with a pistol pops out of the case and shoots you dead in real life.

I just hate how gamers talk about challenge when reload is the lamest mechanic ever.

 

I pretty much never play above normal on any game but always with ironman rules. So much more fun and immersive.

 

Then the forum is full of people saying POTD is to easy. Ofc they have reloaded a hundred times. So lame. Even if you only have 1% chance to win if you can do it endlessly you might as well have every cheat in the world.

 

Why so aggresive? For me more cheating is going in non-expert mode, but i get that it is just mine feeling and I do not call everybody else cheaters just because they can hurl spells wherever they want (I avoid all kind of AoEs that can hurt my team), and because they have maim(which for me is much closer to immortality mode than having to reload last save when someone get killed).

Edited February 17, 2016 by Skladzien

[Tennisgolfboll]

I dont care if people cheat or not.

 

 

But what i do care about is that there are so many games being balanced on reloads. Gamers think hard means a few reloads and then they win. But that isnt a challenge nor is there any risk. Nor reward.

 

Its like going into a casino and playing on the roulette betting on red. Ofc no real money is being placed, and you can keep going until you hit red. If you want it harder then chose both a color and even/odds. Of course that is just an illusion because you are given endless spins. But if you want the hardest possible challenge, just pick one number! So hard. 50 spins later you win. Awesome challenge! Great reward. So immersive. Or the exact opposite. You always were immune to actually feel a loss and winning was always going to happen after enough spins. No risk, no reward.

 

Imagine watching a movie where William Wallace dies 15 times in each battle but he just reloads...

 

 

I love that POE has TOI and also no instant death spells etc. Much much better than most games.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Tennisgolfboll

[limaxophobiacq]

 

Then the forum is full of people saying POTD is to easy. Ofc they have reloaded a hundred times. So lame. 

 

 

LOL. I reloaded a grand total of 3 times on my 3.0 beta PotD run, and that was playing white march I for the first time blind. Even if someone does reload a hundred times being mad at people on the internet for how they play single player games is pretty silly.

Edited February 17, 2016 by limaxophobiacq

[Tennisgolfboll]

 

 

Then the forum is full of people saying POTD is to easy. Ofc they have reloaded a hundred times. So lame.

 

LOL. I reloaded a grand total of 3 times on my 3.0 beta PotD run, and that was playing white march I for the first time blind. Even if someone does reload a hundred times being mad at people on the internet for how they play single player games is pretty silly.

Im not mad at you. Even if you reload 300 times!

 

But what i dont like is that difficulty=a few more reloads

 

 

Its a terrible way to implement difficulty

 

(It isnt more difficult at all, again you dont lose anything, just keep spinning the roulette wheel and get your number)

Edited February 17, 2016 by Tennisgolfboll

[limaxophobiacq]

You fail and you try different things and you learn.

 

If you play on a difficulty low enough that you never lose you never really have to get any better at a game.

Edited February 17, 2016 by limaxophobiacq