[Sept 18] Difficulty and Level Progression

After a almost non-stop weekend playing an ranger I find the difficulty overall fair, ranging from killing masses of fodder to getting confident and killed by a flash mob made up from the same monsters.

From my experience, "rare" items are not so rare after stacking a couple of items with "xx% increased rarity of items found". At one point I had a stash page full of them not counting the ones I sold... After a while I became reluctant in investing the harder-than-rare-to-find gems in items.

I'm pretty far in act II with my level 27 Duelist. From about level ~22 on I found the game a little too easy. Up till then it was perfect for me. I also switched from bow to two handed sword to dual wield sword over time and found the difficulty to further decrease with that. I didn't think I had skilled so much towards melee but somehow I find melee to be a lot easier.

That said, I love the game so far, played it for many hours in only a few days and I think I will end up liking and playing it more than I did Diablo II. I'm not really interested in Diablo III and I think you are totally going into the right direction. The beta so far worked for me better than a lot of final retail games I played. Very professional and stable overall. I can't remember a single crash or non-cosmetical bug. You are doing great work here!

Perhaps you could consider implementing some kind of consumable item that makes the instance you're in harder when used? Here's how I'd envision it:

Malignant Orb of X
10 to a stack
When used: The instance you currently in has its difficulty increased by Y%. The quality and quantity of items dropped by monsters is increased by Z%. Difficulty returns to normal if the instance is reset.

The key here is: No experience modification. This item is not something you buy if you're in some kind of speedrun league, but is more or less for veteran players who want some extra challenge, with a little extra reward. This item could be purchased from vendors or simply be a random drop. New players who use this without thinking and find the instance too hard simply just need to wait a few minutes for the instance to reset itself.

Any chance of having extra bosses/sidequests in different difficulty modes?

First: Awesome game ! With some nice tweaks here and there, I believe you are on the way to make a title that could become even better than Diablo 2 in my opinion !

On difficulty progression, I found the first half of Act 2 REALLY easy and repetitive. At first I was excited to be given 3 paths but since all of those have the same low level of monsters, after finishing the first one you become too strong for the others. It turns those 2 other paths into boring massacres.
The second thing that felt repetitive was the excessive amount of bandits in all of those areas. Maybe you could change the bandits for a mix of zombies and golems near the spider nest ? Just, some tiny mix and change to make it feel like the player is not doing the same thing again and again for the whole act...
Last reason: those maps in these areas are TOO big. I love huge maps where I get lost, but when they are filled with weak ennemies it makes it extra boring.

*One way to avoid this would be to have those 3 paths have different level requirements but then it would give less freedom and force an order to visit the places kinda.
*Another way is to make those specific areas way smaller, players would get less XP from clearing them and would still be in the right range of level for a bit longer.
* Or if you can do that, make a dynamic evolution of the difficulty: each time you beat one of the bandits, the level of the monsters in the areas near the remaining bandits raises. Might be tough to make, but might be the best way to keep the freedom of the player while still keeping the game interesting at all time.

I agree with many of the people on here suggesting that the game has a feeling of being too easy.

I know Chris said that they are going to up the monster damage in cruel onwards, and I support this as many people tend to be making glass cannons and hence wipe their way through the mobs without too much trouble.

In regards to act 2, where we are given the opportunity to head off in several directions, before having to back track over them again. Could we perhaps have these zones act dynamically with their difficulty matching that of the player within a certain level range (for example they are always a level 17-22 zone in act 2 of normal). Without this you tend to be challenged by one direction and then out level the other.

Another thing I think is making the game a little too easy is the use of flasks. I would love to see the regeneration rate for the charges reduced in increasing difficulty levels. The game does seem to be based around building high dps, consuming the flasks to mitigate damage and replenish mana and you seem to have little trouble maintaining this pattern. If each increasing difficulty reduced the regeneration rate by 33% and then 66% (so 2 kills per charge then 3 kills per charge) this could add some more challenge and strategy to the mid game as we progress through those acts in increasing difficulty.

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auLansalot wrote:

In regards to act 2, where we are given the opportunity to head off in several directions, before having to back track over them again. Could we perhaps have these zones act dynamically with their difficulty matching that of the player within a certain level range (for example they are always a level 17-22 zone in act 2 of normal). Without this you tend to be challenged by one direction and then out level the other.

Another thing I think is making the game a little too easy is the use of flasks. I would love to see the regeneration rate for the charges reduced in increasing difficulty levels. The game does seem to be based around building high dps, consuming the flasks to mitigate damage and replenish mana and you seem to have little trouble maintaining this pattern. If each increasing difficulty reduced the regeneration rate by 33% and then 66% (so 2 kills per charge then 3 kills per charge) this could add some more challenge and strategy to the mid game as we progress through those acts in increasing difficulty.

i agree with your points on these 2 issues, especially for flask usage being too rewarding and more helpful than needed already makes the game so weak and easy, it also turn the game to unchallenging at worst.

I really like the suggestion of decreasing charge rate of flasks by each difficulty goes, unless we will always feel like "we are guaranteed not to die what ever happens on any place" mind, and this is not the way to go.

no protection from chaos..
the game has to consider that all builds have to work out. every big choice you make has to be good. I dont like this CI can't be taken early

Also , more gamechanging passives should be insterted now, while in beta, not when its released and users start complaining.

so , put AoF-like passives back in the tree

Imo, what Chris is getting at is that overall the pace of the game just has to slow down so that...

...dumb power-lvling won't exist anymore and just render the lower difficulties useless and labeled as "lvling content".

If there is stability within all difficulties then all items would make sense to have and players of different skill levels would be playing at their respective difficulties and enjoying their content while still being promised the chance of being able to secure higher-end items to get to a higher difficulty that their personal ability normally would stop them from being able to achieve and even possibly beat the game.

I think having a stable pace would indirectly solve many other problems as well including the economy and item value.

Looks like this game is headed in the right direction, good job Chris.

in this case I might be tempted to try hardcore mode.