Almost no challenge in combat - because game is not linear enough

[mc_kracken]

I'm playing on hard, never did a bounty quest and just now (almost act 4) doing the endless paths (which untill now (7th level) is no challenge at all - as is the rest of the game.

 

and before anyone recommends Path of the Damned:

Inflated stats and enemy numbers would make it harder, but it would break immersiveness (why is everyone so much tougher than me - oh, right because the AI is bad and or low level enemies placement, stats balance etc. is also not good)

 

Way I see it the this is partially the fault of a game that is not linear enough - since you can travel around too much and get huge XP points for quests where you dont have to fight a lot. But even if you stick to the area that are available - you level up way too fast.

 

Let's face it hard isn't hard. The developer's should know by now. I want high level scaling right from the start.

 

Also: money is pointless AGAIN (got way too much - there is no need to spend money on magic item's, since you just have to wait for loot and enchant that)

Edited March 29, 2016 by mc_kracken

[Lord_Mord]

Everyone is tougher than you??? You could easily wipe every living being out of this game. Even on PotD your killiness enables you to slaughter dragons, krakens, hordes of ogres and ancient evil beardy men with epic magical powers.

 

The game is not linear enough, the game has too much text, the 2D graphics are ugly. What the hell is wrong with you, kids?

 

Lets face it: You should probably reconsider sticking to WoW or beat dead some kittens. Whatever you kids do these days to waste your time.

[Carlo]

Please don't feed the trolls.

[jsaving]

This is the first time I can remember someone complaining that an IE-type game was too nonlinear.

[Skirge01]

Please don't feed the trolls.

 

[mc_kracken]

This is the first time I can remember someone complaining that an IE-type game was too nonlinear.

so i dont buy into the hype - and look where all the "Elder Scrolls" open world lameness got us = yet another rpg with HUGE difficulty issues and necessary scale to your level crap.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

This is the downside of no level scaling, yes.

[anameforobsidian]

The inflated stats on PotD hardly make a difference, the real difficulty comes from the substantial change in encounter composition.  Many strategies and builds become less viable as difficulty increases for that reason.  (Tank and five glass cannons particularly).  Up the difficulty before complaining about it not being difficult enough.  Also, keep going in the endless paths or White March.  Galvino's lab will murderate you at mid-levels, and Durgan's Battery, Concelhaut's tower, and the Eyeless are not pushovers at any level.

 

Asinine OP is asinine. 

[willingcat]

Please don't call someone troll because you have different thoughts. I had exactly same experience, especially after the white march DLC patch. There are many areas, many quests and exps, so you get to achieve too high level too fast. However, the game difficulty doesn't seem to catch up with the player's level. TWM areas provide enough gears to make you invulnerable, and Act3 after THM becomes a bit ROFLSTOMP. The game system needs either slower level ups, or higher scale ups. I know there are some important reasons that devs made THM as an independent area rather than Act4-Act5, but I think that's one of the reason that the game becomes not linear enough. They had to add some more mechanisms to make THM complete as a whole game. The game definitely needs some more alterations with leveling and difficulty.

Edited March 30, 2016 by willingcat

[tid242]

Please don't call someone troll because you have different thoughts. I had exactly same experience, especially after the white march DLC patch. There are many areas, many quests and exps, so you get to achieve too high level too fast. However, the game difficulty doesn't seem to catch up with the player's level. TWM areas provide enough gears to make you invulnerable, and Act3 after THM becomes a bit ROFLSTOMP. The game system needs either slower level ups, or higher scale ups. I know there are some important reasons that devs made THM as an independent area rather than Act4-Act5, but I think that's one of the reason that the game becomes not linear enough. They had to add some more mechanisms to make THM complete as a whole game. The game definitely needs some more alterations with leveling and difficulty.

 

 

I'm curious - what difference does the "you are too high level would you like it to be more challenging" option generate?

 

I clicked "no" for the WM on my latest playthrough and so far it's been generally a romp - although I did have to fight a couple of battles twice as a result of underestimating the number of spells I'd need...

 

Here's my impression on difficulty - if you have a balanced party (wiz, pal, fight, rogue, barb, priest - in my case) and you use spells freely fights are pretty much always easy.  If you're attempting to conserve spells it can be different...  I've found all of the normal mobs to be stompable due to my over-leveledness, but a couple of the bounties can be really tricky without a wizard/priest setting up the fight beforehand.. I'd imagine that each bounty is different depending upon party composition but Mezla (sp?) comes to mind as definitely needing the disables and CC...

 

Yea, yea, what do you have a wizard for if he's never going to cast spells in fights - true.  But I prefer to not really rest unless I absolutely have to..

 

cheers, appreciate hearing your opinion(s)

[Cartoons Plural]

Please don't call someone troll because you have different thoughts.

i think its more about how confrontational his tone is which, if you were wondering, is what makes a troll a troll

 

Beyond just macho swagger I don't understand why people feel the need to trash games for being WAY TOO EASY BRO when I'd say about 95% of the people who play this game find it plenty challenging. So you've mastered it. Move on, do something else. Stop acting like its the game's fault. I'd love to see a chess master moan about how easy chess is. 

Edited March 30, 2016 by Cartoons Plural

[Brimsurfer]

I'm playing on hard, never did a bounty quest and just now (almost act 4) doing the endless paths (which untill now (7th level) is no challenge at all - as is the rest of the game.

 

and before anyone recommends Path of the Damned:

Inflated stats and enemy numbers would make it harder, but it would break immersiveness (why is everyone so much tougher than me - oh, right because the AI is bad and or low level enemies placement, stats balance etc. is also not good)

 

Way I see it the this is partially the fault of a game that is not linear enough - since you can travel around too much and get huge XP points for quests where you dont have to fight a lot. But even if you stick to the area that are available - you level up way too fast.

 

Let's face it hard isn't hard. The developer's should know by now. I want high level scaling right from the start.

 

Also: money is pointless AGAIN (got way too much - there is no need to spend money on magic item's, since you just have to wait for loot and enchant that)

 

Difficulty and how it scales in this game suck balls......

[Brimsurfer]

 

Please don't call someone troll because you have different thoughts.

i think its more about how confrontational his tone is which, if you were wondering, is what makes a troll a troll

 

Beyond just macho swagger I don't understand why people feel the need to trash games for being WAY TOO EASY BRO when I'd say about 95% of the people who play this game find it plenty challenging. So you've mastered it. Move on, do something else. Stop acting like its the game's fault. I'd love to see a chess master moan about how easy chess is. 

 

OP is right, specially after WM release the game is piss easy, those atheists messed up badly on difficulty curve in this game and someone who did not play this game before WM, is pretty much going to be dumbfounded by absolutely crappy difficulty scaling in this game......

Edited March 30, 2016 by Brimsurfer

[Abel]

Never found the game too easy yet. But, while i played act 1 and 2 several times, i never got further in the game yet. But one thing is for sure: i don't spam rests. I would clear an entire dungeon before resting, and i barely ever use camping supplies in hard difficulty. I rest if my party members are tired, or if night is coming (because night should be the time to rest ^^). Not to replenish abilities or spells, never. I use them very, very caustiously so i can go on for an entire day, even in a dungeon. I don't min max my characters either. Even my PC is clearly suboptimal. I don't really use an item if i feel it isn't fit to the profile of a character, even if it seems powerful. I would rather put a non magical scale armor to my priest than a heavily enchanted plate armor because, well, my priest is more fit to wear scales. Just my idea of the character.

 

At first, i thought some people here were genius strategists, for thinking the game is too easy since the very start. But actually, now, i think some of the so-called geniuses just do everything they can to make the game easier, and then complain it's too easy. Editing companions stats, with no care at all about their RP background is just one of many examples. I guess, everyone play the game the way they like.

 

But to post a complaint because the game is not linear enough...? Well it kind of gets on my nerves. There are enough silly non-quite-RPG around here: linear, fancy, barely written. And there is WoW, too. Try it.

[Messier-31]

game is not linear enough

 

This is by far the most ridiculous thing on this forum.

 

 

This is the downside of no level scaling, yes.

 

I'm really starting to consider this true.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Messier-31

[FlintlockJazz]

 

game is not linear enough

 

This is by far the most ridiculous thing on this forum.

 

 

This is the downside of no level scaling, yes.

 

I'm really starting to consider this true.

 

I've been thinking, the problem is that there is levels at all: all systems that have classes and levels suffer this problem.  I think the reason for this is because of the 'inflation' of character stats as you level, while all systems can have this occur those with levels inevitably go for increasing health and attack rolls with every level as 'base'.  This inevitably means that the enemies also need to inflate their health and attack rolls to counteract this, which means that to keep it challenging the game needs to throw equivalent level monsters at you, making the inflation actually pointless as it's being counteracted by increasing the defenses of the enemy.  I wonder if instead of increasing these base stats, the game just gave you the abilities and talents for your class?  You could still increase things like accuracy by spending your talents on Weapon Focus and the like, but you wouldn't get the +3 accuracy every time you level up.  

 

This would make power growth 'flatter' at least, but as I am not a games designer I make no claim as to whether this would be a good idea or utterly the worst.

[hilfazer]

1. No linearity.

2. No level scaling.

3. No content overleveling.

 

Pick any two.

 

 

I always wanted to write this :D

[Crucis]

 

game is not linear enough

 

This is by far the most ridiculous thing on this forum.

 

 

 

 I don't know about ridiculous, but it is amusing as all hell. 

 

I remember when IWD2 was fairly new.  What was the biggest complaint against it?  It was "too linear".  And maybe it was.  IWD2 was just about a dead straight line in terms of the story from start to finish.

 

I can see how the lack of linearity may cause some problems in terms of scaling difficulty.  OTOH, excessive linearity also reduces replayability, because you're forced to play everything in just about the exact same order, time after time after time.  And sure, if a game is extremely linear, like IWD2, the designers can have a much firmer grasp on constantly maintaining a good level of difficulty as one progresses through the (linear) story, but at the expense of creating a game that could become increasingly boring for players who like replayability. 

 

Now, there might be some things designers could do to mitigate this.  In PoE, while the entire world is not open at the start, eventually you open up new regions, like Eir Glanfath or the White March, and so on.  But at some point, you have the entire map open to you, which means that there's no semblance of linearity at all.  But I think that perhaps there are some ways in which designers could introduce a modicum of linearity without going whole hog like in IWD2.

 

Design a story that goes from region to region to region as story progresses, but don't allow the player to go backwards to past regions.  Note:  By region, a large location that consists of multiple areas.  The White March could be considered a "region".    Set the story uo so that you go from region to region to region and ever look back.  And each region, the specific locations and various enemies encountered, would be scaled for a certain general level of difficulty.  And once you complete whatever part of the main story line needed to be completed in that region, the main story requires you to travel to a new region.  And so on and so on.  But unlike IWD2 it wouldn't have to be a ruler-straight line of maps.  You could have to travel to Ruratai, and do a number of things in a number of different locations, possibly with some side quests in Ruratai.  But eventually, you'd complete what you went to Ruratai to do, and have to move on to the next area, like say, The White That Wends.

 

The idea would be to have a somewhat managed progression of the enemies the party has to face without going to a 100% linear model.  That said, in this model, you wouldn't be able to have a real stronghold in the sense you do in PoE.  I could see two ways in which you could have sort of a stronghold in this model.  Version #1, if you were traveling from region to region on a ship, perhaps your ship is your "stronghold", your base of operations.  Or, version #2, perhaps you find or purchase a temporary base of operations in each region you visit.  A cave.  An abandoned house.  A townhouse in a city that you purchase.  Maybe you rent a room at an inn long term.  Heck it could be all of the above, if there were multiple regions in the storyline.  A different one for each region, and possibly even different benefits for each temporary "stronghold".

 

 

Anyways, that's enough for now.

 

 

[Lychnidos]

The lack of challenge problem stems from the decision that the game be completable by doing only the crit path. That is fine on it's own, but they also seems to have intended for a player reaching a new act by doing crit path only to be able to do the side content in the particular act, all with limited to no use of level scaling. Which leads us to things such as Act 3 side content being optimized for level 9, with level 10(maybe even 11?) being reachable in Act 2.

 

The scaling they introduced with the expansion is an ok effort to alleviate the problem, but is a half measure because it looks like they were to restrained to do it proper. TWM 2 like Act 3 is also designed for level 9, and both have available scaling at level 12, which ups them to the same level, this results with players being overleveled for at least one. A better solution would have been to increase them to level 14 instead, a level 12 party won't have much problem with content 2 levels higher anyway.

 

In the end, maybe it would have been better if the experience followed some exponential function, instead of the current linear one.