Not sure I agree. There's an element of RNG everywhere, from who goes first to how much damage an attack does. Without any RNG layer, it would be a pure build / decision making process. Hell even MTG has an element of RNG in what cards are available, when.
Now, that said, people have always criticized the RNG in DD as being too heavy handed. That crits matter too much no matter which direction you're looking. So I don't think it should be a surprise that it's still true in DD PvP.
But I wouldn't fault anyone for considering it hot garbage. It's easy to overlook that in the SP because you can save scum or w/e. But that sense of "I had that!" and being robbed, when there is another human player involved, I can easily see that being a bridge too far.
Like I said, I was watching a stream and a dude failed to get a deathblow at pretty much the most critical moment, and my instantaneous reaction was to close the stream, much like I'd switch away from a TV program that was inflicting weaponzed levels of cringe. As per my original post, DD works on my anxiety and sense of "entitlement" more so than most games I've ever played. Which is why I'd never touch the PvP, even with another balance pass.
RNG can have an impact in single player, but there are multiple safety measures a good player can put in place. Consumables, appropriate team composition, the retreat button. Even a failed mission isn't a huge deal. I've had several zero-deaths clean runs on the highest difficulty (except
the two scripted deaths in the final mission
). Better players have completed the game with crazy limitations like no stuns, no heals, no light. So RNG can be almost nullified in single player.
I'm not against RNG per se, but in the current PvP format one single bad roll can literally mean a defeat screen. When the opponent hits a deathblow at the first chance vs 80% resist and you miss three deathblows in a row, well, that's bad design.
A pure design/build decision making process is not a bad thing, in my opinion, because the game is complex enough. In one single round, a player has 4 decisions to take, respectively with 16+12+8+4 options, so it will never be a simple rock/paper/scissor affair.
Crits are an important feature in this game, so I agree that they cannot be simply wiped out from PvP. But I think they should be significantly toned down. Maybe a crit should add just some stress damage instead of transforming a simple attack to "LOL YOU ARE ON DEATH'S DOOR IN ONE HIT".
And the main offender is the whole deathblow business. That one seriously needs some work. I don't know how I would deal with it. Maybe something like stress, adding a second HP bar?
Also, I admit I may be slightly pissed off by the achievements. Why? I don't know, usually I'm not an achievement fanatic. But Darkest Dungeon for some reason is a game I've always wanted to keep at 100%. This DLC has changed everything.
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Topic: Darkest Dungeon II. Emotionally traumatize some adventurers. Wagon Life. (Read 221907 times)