26 réponses à ce sujet

[PillarBiter]

Maybe many a topic has been started on this already. But I'd rather voice my opinion more focusedly, since it is a view on how I'd liek difficulty, rather than how it probably will be.

 

To me, the difficulty levels should be as follows:

 

Story mode: You can play the game as an easy hack and slasher, without thinking to much or fiddling with the automated setups of the teammates.

 

Normal: Tactics are needed on more difficult fights, and using tactics on normal fights is rewarded through having an easier time, though not absolutely necessary. 

 

Hard: This would play like normal, on a new game plus. Meaning that in order to complete this, you'd need expert tactical movement, cross class combos and all of this already available through using new game plus characters. However, you can still choose to start with new characters. With NG+ characters, this difficutly'd feel like normal. With new characters starting at 0, this'd be a real tactical challenge.

 

Nightmare: Impossible to complete with new characters. And Extremely difficult to complete with NG+ characters. Enemies are more plentiful, are positioned in very difficult places, work together perfectly in unison. 

 

 

At least, this is how I'd like it, but that's just me

[Dubya75]

Well, knowing the world is not levelled promises an interesting gameplay experience with some good challenges.

[DarthGizka]

I'd suggest a slightly different naming and factoring of the difficulty levels, but roughly in the same spirit:

 

TOURIST - for enjoying the story without getting overwhelmed by combat and an (unfinished) rules system that is almost totally undocumented.

 

NORMAL - whatever BioWare/EA see fit.

 

NO KID GLOVES - level playing field without hidden bonusses or penalties, neither for player-controlled characters nor AI controlled ones. I.e. combat rolls follow the game rules exactly. In DA:O,  'Hardcore' comes closest to this but it is partly f*cked up by things like gratuitous blanket spell resistance for all enemies and spell damage reduction (a.k.a. 'elemental resistance').

 

NIGHTMARE - My ideal for this one is the Nightmare mode of Oblivion, where the player was subject to an effective imbalance of 1:36 (i.e. damage dished out was divided by six, incoming damage multiplied by six). Everyone who's ever played it that way will know what I mean... An extremely hostile world where even rats and mudcrabs posed lethal danger, but you could make it through if you knew what you were doing (especially regarding custom spells and enchantments).

 

It was extremely hard but still fair, without the gratuitous crap that BioWare seems so fond of. Like cutscenes that deposit the Warden smack in the middle of half a dozen melee fighters, whose attacks and special moves are all much faster than the casting time of any 'instant' spell, and without any possibility of surreptitiously activating Blood Magic or casting a glyph before the buggers attack. Not to mention that many ambushes put Warden and party in impossible tactical situations by way of the infamous cutscene teleport.

 

What I'm looking for is not the numerical imbalance factor, it's the hard but fair challenge.

[azarhal]

Well, knowing the world is not levelled promises an interesting gameplay experience with some good challenges.

 

Or missed areas with creatures super easy to kill after 20 hours of gameplay.

[Kinthalis ThornBlade]

My hope is for difficulty to NOT be based purely on changes to damage rolls. That's not interesting or fun.

 

Higher difficulty should mean more challenging AI, more challenging combat set pieces, the requirement of smart, tactical deployment of characters and their abilities.

 

So:

 

Story Mode - Characters get bonuses to damage, combat AI is simplistic - charge/attack closest character. Combat set pieces are smaller (less enemies), and straight forward. This is basically for people not at all interested in combat.

 

Easy - Same as above but no damage bonuses. Combat set pieces can be a bit larger/more complex.

 

Normal - AI should be more sophisticated, splitting attention from larger/closest threats, responding to changes in the battlefield. Combat set pieces should include some complexity and provide advantages to the enemy and mechanics/positioning exploitable by the player when it makes sense.

 

Hard - AI should be quick to respond to various threats, should be good at countering them. Every battle should be a set piece that requires tactical thought to break down. The battle ground and positioning should play important parts in how the combat plays out.

 

Nightmare - Same as above, but also make enemies more resistant to various attack methods (but this information should be revealed through the story or in some other way outside of combat), have them deal more damage.

[DarthGizka]

I like your scheme, by and large. However, DA:O had a lot of enemies with sh*tloads of gratuitous immunities, almost all of which only f*cked things up for mages but not for rogues and warriors. That made some bits decidedly unfun, just like the ubiquitous and totally superfluous spell resistance for all enemies. Dodge and spell resistance bypass game rules for the most part and they should be used only sparingly, if at all.

[Elhanan]

@ DG - Think you may have meant DA2 with the added immunities; reason I never chose to play Nightmare.

One thing that possibly could be included, though I am uncertain as to the phrasing of it are Special Combat tactics. In Skyrim, I added a mod that allowed the NPC's to use Power Attacks, Timed Blocks, targets to utilize Forward Rolls, etc, and all of this improved every aspect of combat, esp Unarmed. No more click-fests, but seemed more like an immersive brawl.

I play Skyrim on Normal Difficulty as it balances the PC vs Opponents; increased Difficulty appears to only nerf the PC while buffing opponents, which I find rather dull. But this mod, as well as a couple of others introduced tactical Difficulty to the game which could be tailored by the indv Player as they wish. Really enjoying this!

Would like to see something akin to this on the slider, if possible.

[In Exile]

I like your scheme, by and large. However, DA:O had a lot of enemies with sh*tloads of gratuitous immunities, almost all of which only f*cked things up for mages but not for rogues and warriors. That made some bits decidedly unfun, just like the ubiquitous and totally superfluous spell resistance for all enemies. Dodge and spell resistance bypass game rules for the most part and they should be used only sparingly, if at all.

 

That was just because mages were so unspeakably OP, the immunities allowed enemies to exist for more than a few seconds. Even with the immunities, enemies were still generally jokes. 

[The Hierophant]

That was just because mages were so unspeakably OP, the immunities allowed enemies to exist for more than a few seconds. Even with the immunities, enemies were still generally jokes.

Agreed. iirc in DAO all you needed were Mana Clash, Crushing Prison, the Ice and or Electricity trees. Toss in the Hex or the Glyph trees to make things even easier. Then after DA2's last patch all i needed to clear out the mobs in Nightmare regardless of their immunities were Firestorm, Chain Lightning, and Spirit Bolt. Combining that with force mage made each difficulty easier.

[In Exile]

Agreed. iirc in DAO all you needed were Mana Clash, Crushing Prison, the Ice and or Electricity trees. Toss in the Hex or the Glyph trees to make things even easier. Then after DA2's last patch all i needed to clear out the mobs in Nightmare regardless of their immunities were Firestorm, Chain Lightning, and Spirit Bolt. Combining that with force mage made each difficulty easier.

 

Hex or glyph weren't as useful as fireball, IMO. The knockdown effect of 3 combined fireballs devastated mobs; you could just then play clean-up with ice and electricity. 

 

In either case, mages were absurdly broken. In DA2, I just ran with Varric + 3 mages, and it was basically raining death from above. Just cast gravity well so that enemies slow down and get paralyzed in that central cone, then unleash firestorms, arrow rains, etc. and whole mooks die in seconds. The only "challenge" is finding the right choke point. 

[xAmilli0n]

Story mode: You can play the game as an easy hack and slasher, without thinking to much or fiddling with the automated setups of the teammates.

 

As long as we have something like, and I can pick my gear and teammates on aesthetic and entertainment value instead of function, I'll be plenty happy.  Make the rest of the difficulty settings as hard as you like.

[In Exile]

As long as we have something like, and I can pick my gear and teammates on aesthetic and entertainment value instead of function, I'll be plenty happy.  Make the rest of the difficulty settings as hard as you like.

 

I picked my gear on aesthetic value over function on nightmare. Don't let difficulty hold you down.  

 

Generally, gear isn't as important in DA as synergy and stats. 

[The Hierophant]

Hex or glyph weren't as useful as fireball, IMO. The knockdown effect of 3 combined fireballs devastated mobs; you could just then play clean-up with ice and electricity.

In either case, mages were absurdly broken. In DA2, I just ran with Varric + 3 mages, and it was basically raining death from above. Just cast gravity well so that enemies slow down and get paralyzed in that central cone, then unleash firestorms, arrow rains, etc. and whole mooks die in seconds. The only "challenge" is finding the right choke point.

True, this isn't even taking AW into account either. But i'll forever love the glyph tree for it's Repulsion + Paralysis combo.

[Abraham_uk]

May I add this difficulty setting?

 

Cutscene Mode: All of the fights are replaced with cutscenes with quick time events instead.

[Abraham_uk]

Seriously though.

 

My problem with the approach to difficulty was throw everything at the player.

Whilst this makes sense in a game like Dynasty Warriors (which is an amazing series from what I hear), it makes little sense in Dragon Age series.

 

I'd rather fight a few really tough foes than hundreds of them.

Sure greater numbers does increase the difficulty, but only in a cheap way.

[hexaligned]

Well, knowing the world is not levelled promises an interesting gameplay experience with some good challenges.

Or absolutely 0 challenge, if you enjoy doing anything other than the main story missions.  They haven't said if the game even has difficulty settings, as far as I know.  I heard an offhanded blurb about a FF slider months ago, and then nothing else on the general subject of how the game is being balanced.

[Schreckstoff]

I just want friendly fire to be a toggle on anything less than hard.

I don't really care about higher difficulties (aside from ME where it was really fun) but love friendly fire.

[Ribosome]

If it's a repeat of DA2 Arbitrary Enemy Immunity Mode, I'll stick with the lower difficulties. 

[Maria Caliban]

Or absolutely 0 challenge, if you enjoy doing anything other than the main story missions.  They haven't said if the game even has difficulty settings, as far as I know.  I heard an offhanded blurb about a FF slider months ago, and then nothing else on the general subject of how the game is being balanced.

There is a difficulty slider. It's what determines what level your heath regens to after a fight.

[Fidite Nemini]

I just hope the game dispenses with fake difficulty.

 

The no-health regeneration gameplay might be good, it might also just be a cheap way to make the game feel harder than it actually is (until you acquired a suitable supply of health regeneration items/powers).

 

Similar techiques likes mook spam (DAII was very fond of this) or enemies simply having very high health is equally unnecessary.

 

I'd prefer it if combat is centered about properly creating and exploiting synergy among your team, disrupting enemy synergy, finding and exploiting weakpoints and using the environment tactically. A single archer that you can't reach unless you puzzled yourself through the combat arena is as dangerous, if not more, than infinite mook spam and more rewarding for the player to defeat if you had to put more effort into it that simply mowing down a spefic number of enemies to deplete a spawn budget.

[DarthGizka]

Success depending on tactics, stats and ability selection would be fine, as they all depend on player skill. Ignoring attack/resistance rolls entirely and making success depend purely on luck - like whether or not a lowly mook resists several spells in a row and hence manages to kill your squishy mage in one or two combat rounds - would be bad. Having to drag a team along just because of a small handful of badly designed encounters wouldn't be much fun either, especially if the AI is as bad as it always was (which makes teamwork equate with lots of extra work for the player).

[Innsmouth Dweller]

i just hope the only difference between easy and nightmare difficulty is not in healthbars (or number of enemies). i like playing solo, so mandatory class combos on nightmare is a huge nay for me

friendly fire, less potions, higher prices, less exp, smarter enemies (not trying to flank on casual, enemy class combos on nightmare) - take your pick

 

longer, repeating fights = fail. difficult, tactical fights (maybe phases depending on hp, morale etc.) = win

says the gal who loved playing dps teams in wow arenas - one misstep and you lose, perfect synchronization and you win in few seconds.

 

and i want my enemies to flee if they are sentient (what thug will stay and fight to death if his gang bites the dust?!)

[MrDuck]

Sounds good. I don't think there will be NG+ though. I'm glad they already announced that normal difficulty will be harder than on DA2. Also glad that enemies aren't levelled. 

 

Not really on-topic but I hope there'll be an option for our team to hold position individually instead of as a group.

[Schreckstoff]

I'm hoping fore more intricate tactics that have at least a second layer for conditions to be met.