Normal, Cruel, Merciless Difficulty Change

INB4 Diablo references.

On a serious note. How long before we will see something like this due to the natural progression of the game. Act4 as big as it is, is but one of MANY acts still to be released.

I would assume that 6-10 acts down the line you would amalgamate the game difficulties into one. I am not trying to compare this to any other game (calm down fan boys). That being said when you have so many acts, it would be feasible to up the areas level range so that when you get to say act7 you character is easily on level 60+ and ready for mapping.

I see this as being the normal progression in the future. Running 6-10+ Acts on each difficulty would be stupid and by the time you get to the last act you character would be 85+ and thus the mapping system may become obsolete.

Your thoughts?

I was really expecting that Cruel difficulty would go away with the release of act 4. It will almost certainly go away with the release of act 5. Given how long act 4 took to release though, expecting the game will still get to act 10 or beyond seems a bit...optimistic at this point.

With a new act every 2 years, act 10 is expected in 2027

Pretty sure act 10 will never exist, they will develop a new game before even reaching act 6 or 7.
Act 5 may even be an illusion, exile.

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Hodari wrote:

I was really expecting that Cruel difficulty would go away with the release of act 4. It will almost certainly go away with the release of act 5. Given how long act 4 took to release though, expecting the game will still get to act 10 or beyond seems a bit...optimistic at this point.

They might as well remove the acts difficulty if they remove Cruel.

Imagine a game that as you get into act 4or even 5 its so hard you need a certain level of gear to be able to pass it or a really good build. Right now the game is so casual.

We haven't seen all of Act IV but it doesn't seem that big to me.

The real reason we need to remove Cruel is to get a greater sense of progress in each act. As it stands, Act I and Act II in cruel are only giving a couple levels of advancement. They're already petty much obsolete.

For me playing the game 3 times was already a bit boring. I really wanted at least 1 difficulity to be gone... but still having 3 i guess i'll have to deal with it.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

We haven't seen all of Act IV but it doesn't seem that big to me.

The real reason we need to remove Cruel is to get a greater sense of progress in each act. As it stands, Act I and Act II in cruel are only giving a couple levels of advancement. They're already petty much obsolete.

This. I am a completionist, I usually full clear zones and explore everything. However recently, I run through Cruel in a straight line (especially Act 2, so much running around for so little exp), ignoring everything just so I can get to Merc. And you don't even feel the impact in levels by skipping everything. Normal you can't skip too much just because until level 20-30 your characters are too weak to do so.

2 difficulties would be great.

YOu finish the game on normal, anyone with a brain can do so!

When you have a second one say Merciless, you have the chance to make is super hard.

Where levels, gear and skill setups get you through. You should struggle to get to the mapping phases.

Right now things are super easy, ony a few mods on maps pose any challenge.

I disagree with you there Ziiyo. There shouldn't be a massive spike in difficulty. All that does is make play much more frustrating, and make Normal feel more like "paying dues" than play.

In fact, they have the difficulty issue pretty well balanced in 2.0. They should look at adjusting levels though. Each act should have at least 5 levels, just to pull a random number out of the hat. They use too many levels early on, and thus some of the acts get short changed.

When they do decide to delete cruel, it will give them more room to allow for advancement with the acts.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

I disagree with you there Ziiyo. There shouldn't be a massive spike in difficulty. All that does is make play much more frustrating, and make Normal feel more like "paying dues" than play.

In fact, they have the difficulty issue pretty well balanced in 2.0. They should look at adjusting levels though. Each act should have at least 5 levels, just to pull a random number out of the hat. They use too many levels early on, and thus some of the acts get short changed.

When they do decide to delete cruel, it will give them more room to allow for advancement with the acts.

Its a double edge sword, You dont want the game to be too hard thus chasing away casual players. You also dont want the game too easy to push away more hardcore people.

What would be great is if you can balance the difficulty to allow for players to get to the mapping phase BEFORE the content is cleared (end of Merciless)

This means that you need to map to get levels and items in maps , so that you can progress and get to the point where you can end the game.