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Author Topic: Please Don't - Difficulty  (Read 22411 times)

Garath

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #30 on: February 16, 2012, 05:50:55 am »

I've been travelling in the wilderness for ages now and had only two ambushes! come on! Maybe I didn't lower some stats to unrealistically pump up some others and I'm just better at avoiding them, but it's no fun. (seriously, it seems to just punish people who lower everything just to get that extra boost in recuperation or something like it)
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MaskedMiner

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #31 on: February 16, 2012, 06:08:50 am »

I've been travelling in the wilderness for ages now and had only two ambushes! come on! Maybe I didn't lower some stats to unrealistically pump up some others and I'm just better at avoiding them, but it's no fun. (seriously, it seems to just punish people who lower everything just to get that extra boost in recuperation or something like it)

Lucky you, I get them on every fricking step  :P
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Sallen

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #32 on: February 16, 2012, 06:33:40 am »

I've been travelling in the wilderness for ages now and had only two ambushes! come on! Maybe I didn't lower some stats to unrealistically pump up some others and I'm just better at avoiding them, but it's no fun. (seriously, it seems to just punish people who lower everything just to get that extra boost in recuperation or something like it)

I didn't lower anything. In fact my points are all spread out. And I get them unholy M16 guerrillas every minute.

EDIT: I'm not saying the bandits are difficult. If you play carefully you can dispatch them without any trouble. They are just too freaking frequent and that makes them annoying.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2012, 07:22:18 am by Sallen »
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Cities_Burn

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #33 on: February 16, 2012, 07:39:12 am »

I've been travelling in the wilderness for ages now and had only two ambushes! come on! Maybe I didn't lower some stats to unrealistically pump up some others and I'm just better at avoiding them, but it's no fun. (seriously, it seems to just punish people who lower everything just to get that extra boost in recuperation or something like it)

I didn't lower anything. In fact my points are all spread out. And I get them unholy M16 guerrillas every minute.

EDIT: I'm not saying the bandits are difficult. If you play carefully you can dispatch them without any trouble. They are just too freaking frequent and that makes them annoying.

The leaders usually are the only ones that pose a problem for me. So damn hard to hit them!
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MasterMorality

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #34 on: February 16, 2012, 08:36:33 am »

I think I must be the only person who enjoys the shock and reality of having your character do their thing and then just get whacked. After all the beasts slain, all it really takes is a bolt, or a blade, to the face and you're fucked.
No heroic epic death all the time. Just a sad, sudden departure.

I love that.
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Kaelem Gaen

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #35 on: February 16, 2012, 09:03:16 am »

I'm not claiming the game is harder,  (Hell I had trouble in  31.25 when I went to take on my first baddy, Granted Grinding isn't something I generally do, and in older roguelikes it could lead to a death sentence cause the only way to grind in those is fighting mobs a lot.)  But I do feel like the encounter rate is a tad too high, and all the people calling us whiners, chillax... Not everyone who plays Dwarf Fortress is a heavy hack-n-slasher.   Hell I play dwarf mode with Invasions off (though that's mainly cause military control is a PITA. And I've yet to master Burrows.)


I'm not saying "OMG I WANNA BE ABLE TO ONE HIT KILL BANDITS OUT OF THE GATE" I'm just saying I'd like to at least be able to take  at least 10 steps before getting smacked by bandits...  I have tried a superior Intuition character and the most that does is gives you a better position when you run into an Ambush.   


Also there are a lot bandit camps right near the Hamlets you often start in, man no wonder only a few people have furniture and they all have to crowd into buildings.  The tribute they gotta be paying is insane.

Neonivek

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #36 on: February 16, 2012, 09:20:08 am »

I am all for difficult games (the learning curve and complexity is why i play DF), but the difficulty right now is game breaking. It also doesn't make sense. Bandits should not be able to (easily) kill demigods or trained professional soldiers. It really hampers the enjoyment you can have with adventure mode because there is so much stuff to see, and every second you are traveling there is a 10% chance of being encountered by instadeath. The bandits are stronger than mummies and other supernatural creatures.

There's also no precautions you can make to avoid being ambushed. You'd think setting up camp deep in a forest would make you relatively safe from an ambush, but no.

Actually some bandit groups throughout history have been known to be in such high numbers that they actually fend off armies and quite a few bandits have been known to be great warriors and generals. Given that bandits could also have been ex-soldiers and ex-mercinaries it means they could be as skilled or even more skilled as the average town guard or even royal guard.

The way the game handled it previously was actually quite nice. There were minor bandits who normal people would tell you of, and major bandits who kings would tell you of.

As well what are elite bandits, elite master bandits, doing bugging a lone adventurer walking through the woods? You should be raiding entire carrivans, not fighting some poor shmuck in cloth walking in the woods.

Elite Bandit camps should leave you alone unless you are bugging them or enter their territory (which shouldn't be "right next to the town"... bandits tend to like easily hidden territory. I find it hillarious that bandit camps tend to be close to town)
« Last Edit: February 16, 2012, 09:31:13 am by Neonivek »
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GrizzlyAdamz

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #37 on: February 16, 2012, 11:02:55 am »

If, in the past, you've ever used Runesmith to check creatures' stats, you'd have noticed that bandits had very low skills, even in their weapon of choice.  That doesn't really mesh with the idea that an untrained dwarven peasant can train to far higher levels with a season or two of sparring.  My guess is that bandits just got a slight skill boost that is very noticeable.

Also, "Demigod" is just the number of points your adventurer has for attributes. The RNG can make NPCs that are every bit as tough as you.  Really, you're playing as one fairly tough mortal without plot armor.
The thing is- we need a better difficulty system. The difficulty of the game currently ranges between a weak mortal without plot armor and game mechanisms geared towards killing him, (bandits always outnumber the party..), and a fairly tough, (not extraordinary, not superhuman, not even necessarily remarkable) mortal, without plot armor, and game mechanics geared towards killing him.
However, consider: If a player chooses demigod, one can assume they have a vested interest in that character surviving. Having a very difficult start-up period and the constant threat of 'random' death by way of lucky shots is unfavorable for those players, and needlessly so--Those who wish to have the realistic experience would be satisfied with any of the current setups, as all they do is affect starting difficulty, and so would be fine if the upper one or two tiers were instead geared towards those who want to make an extraordinary adventurer, or even one of legends, without having to save-scum and exploit different facets of the game to make it happen.
Yes yes, savescumming is frowned upon, as evidenced by it's name, but this rings just like good old 50s repression. If you don't feel like spending your time throwing characters into the woodchipper that is this game, waiting for one to miraculously make it through the teeth relatively unscathed, savescuming will happen. And I reckon many people enjoy dodging the teeth more than greasing the gears.
Point is-
If Armok wants blood, he may get more if his subjects are satisfied prior to his bequest.
If players can survive long enough to make a name for themselves, or even establish a good legend --without savescumming-- then some players may be more inclined to accept the final blow and give Armok what is seen as rightly due, instead of constantly stolen.
Thus,
True difficulty settings ftw.
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Broseph Stalin

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #38 on: February 16, 2012, 11:07:06 am »

There's a big difference between Fun and hollow masochism. When your adventurer defeats armies of men and is strangled by his own animated arm that's Fun when you step outside and get mobbed by bandits seven consecutive times it's dull and frustrating.

RAKninja

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #39 on: February 16, 2012, 12:17:27 pm »

whats the difference in starting peasant and spending a few real world hours grinding skills to legendary, and starting demigod?
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Intro1827

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #40 on: February 16, 2012, 12:19:39 pm »

Starting stats also dictate your max stats. A peasant will have a lower attribute ceiling than a demigod.
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Aquillion

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #41 on: February 16, 2012, 03:52:04 pm »

No, you wouldn't start in full bronze. You got a weapon and possibly a shield. No armor. It's not any loss of armor that's causing a spike.
Hrm?  I was sure that at least at one point, investing in lots of armor skill made you start with armor.  Maybe that was changed earlier than I thought.
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Kanil

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #42 on: February 16, 2012, 04:10:41 pm »

There's a big difference between Fun and hollow masochism. When your adventurer defeats armies of men and is strangled by his own animated arm that's Fun when you step outside and get mobbed by bandits seven consecutive times it's dull and frustrating.

This. I've given up on adventure mode again, for after around 10 attempts, I have yet to succeed at walking to a city. Not doing a quest, not delving into some dangerous cave, but just trying to walk to a city.

My adventures consist entirely of dying on the side of a road, and that really isn't very adventurous.
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Yah, it sounds like minecraft with content, you have obviously missed the point, people dont like content, they like different coloured blocks.
Seems to work fine with my copy. As soon as I loaded the human caravan came by and the world burst into fire.

Garath

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #43 on: February 16, 2012, 04:58:04 pm »

I only get ambushed by kobolds. Please gods, send some goblins my way, I need that size armor. can't keep on wearing that elf crap
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Xotano

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Re: Please Don't - Difficulty
« Reply #44 on: February 16, 2012, 05:26:48 pm »

Guys i can see we are all talking about the new patch and how a lot of us think it is much harder.

I just wanted to say please don't send the wrong message to Toady because he will most likely be looking over us in these forums for what's going on.

If he see's how much some of us are stressing he may want to change the game to be easier. Adventure mode right now(for me at least)  is getting a lot closer to how hard i want the game to be.

If you disagree sure voice your opinion i'm just worried about sending Toady the wrong idea.
bandits are stupid hard.  i dont mind other things being tough, but bandits (in my opinion) should only be hard in large groups....  a demigod adventurer and companions who outnumber the bandits should not be wiped out.
funny, i don't have problems with bandits, they ambush WAY too often for me but i just hop in the nearest pond or behind a tree and sneak and pick them off one by one with stones :D
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