Blizzard understands the difficulty curve better

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jhnsmth#0260 wrote:

IMHO the first task in any game should be trivial to complete.

Why? Cause you can lose so many players with no reason.

Hard disagree. A mild challenge early on makes things quite interesting. And the first task - which is getting to town - IS mildly challenging at best, the Miller is in no way difficult.

The Devourer on the other hand is a bit challenging, sure, but it only teaches you a few things you'll need later on anyway, which is excellent game design.

I had no trouble with Devourer on my ranger.

On my Monk devourer handed it to me. I just skipped him temporarily and kept going with campaign and came back and got him later.

I love the difficulty... If anything, it might get easy a bit too fast as I get a build online, but I understand this is a tradeoff as others with worse builds struggle in those same moments.

IMO, POE2 is much more enjoyable than being able to walk up and nearly afk face-tank bosses for 4-6 acts in POE1 with 1 skill and flask piano on every class.

The best thing to do is practice more and get used to your class/build/mobs experience

We need to get good and not stay mediocre - it needs to be harder than easier!

I have almost 500 hours into D4 and this game is already better imo. D2 was amazing and this game is the game we've needed. I love D4 but have been wanting something more like this and i think the opposite, the start dragged me right in not pushed me away. D4 had so many issues it almost pushed ppl away. Just my opinions though.

go back to D4

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jhnsmth#0260 wrote:

I think the the beginning of D4 is almost perfect.

I think D4 was better at launch.
Now it is kind of a joke where you get levels every 2 kills. And "kills" is generous, more like "stuff just runs up to you and dies".

Your reasoning is sound though, that if it is too difficult people may leave.

But there is a fine balance, games are not movies, there needs to be some challenges to overcome. It is EA they may adjust it yet if enough people feel the same way.

I personally am loving it right now.

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NicknamesOfGod#1810 wrote:

Maybe it's because I'm playing the monk; Jonathan did say that monk players had marginally higher levels of satisfaction with the game during earlier play tests.

Interesting, I did not know he had said this, but I am also playing monk, and loving the game.

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jhnsmth#0260 wrote:

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alhazred70#2994 wrote:

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jhnsmth#0260 wrote:

I really did enjoy D4 for some hours. I think the the beginning of D4 is almost perfect.

(This post is not about D4 endgame, that is another matter)

This game is the opposite at the start. That is a big mistake.

IMHO the first task in any game should be trivial to complete.

Why? Cause you can lose so many players with no reason.

to be fair Diablo 4 has a "scaling" system that essentially means there's no actual progression in the game at all. The game scales with you and that IMO feels like trash and is the primary reason I can't stand playing it, even more than it being shallow as a puddle.

Not saying GGG hit the mark, its early access for a reason but using D4 as an example is really bad.

Why? I just stated the first hour of D4 is almost perfect.
It is the same genre.

I think GGG could learn from anybody even Blizzard.

look into how D4 "scales" so that you're never actually progressing essentially if your character gains XP and damage the monsters gain health and dmg in kind which means there's no actual progression almost no feeling of your character becoming a badass over time, or your loot mattering.

On the contrary POE and also well loved games like Survival crafters, are often hard right up front, the first night in most survival crafters is usually brutal to set the tone: respect the game, don't just barge into every pack like some sort of instant Marvel superhero.

I was referring the first hour of any game.

The best examples are classic/vanilla WoW, and diablo 2.

The first hour of each one is very easy, there is no real challenge.

But after the first hour the challenge is slowly ramping up.

I think the first hour should be easy in any game.

Lmfao.... at least there's some comedy.