View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0008091 | Valley 1 | Suggestion - Balancing Issues | May 24, 2012 8:36 am | May 24, 2012 10:45 am | |
| Reporter | Bluddy | Assigned To | |||
| Status | considering | Resolution | open | ||
| Product Version | 1.029 | ||||
| Summary | 0008091: Uneven difficulty curve | ||||
| Description | AVWW has a hard time getting the difficulty right. This is because it's not clear after how many spells the player is already 'upgraded enough' to deal with the next difficulty level. The recent change to tiers coming from lieutenant kills has been great because it removed the need to do X missions before the next tier, when each mission is really optional in the sense that you don't HAVE to upgrade any spells. One-two upgraded spell could do the job for many people. It also shifted the focus from missions to the enemies in the game, which I think was really good. The down side of the current system is that there's no smooth curve between tiers. When you kill a lieutenant, you automatically 'skip' to the next tier. Why is this bad? Because as you craft spells, you get strong enough to one-shot most enemies, making further missions and spell-crafting effortless. Because the game doesn't increase resistance as you get stronger, there's a long stretch of non-challenging gameplay as you get stronger. Note that a little bit of non-challenging gameplay is good since it makes you feel like you can beat monsters you couldn't beat previously. But too much of it makes a game boring -- it takes away the challenge. Now, you could say: "Why don't you just go defeat the lieutenant if you're not challenged after collecting 3 spells?", and I would reply that it's not as simple as that. The average player wants to have a variety of spells since they are a big part of the game. I want to try out this spell and that spell and the other one. I'll always go for the main attack spells first, but I want to keep growing my inventory. The problem is that after the first 5-8 spells, the difficulty becomes way too low. As soon as I kill that lieutenant, it'll bounce right back up, but while I'm collecting a variety of spells, I'm not challenged. There are 2 ways I can see of approaching this. One way is to reinstate some of the CP concept that existed before, but it can be hidden (or not). As you complete missions (any missions: secret or otherwise), more and more enemies of the next tier and/or elites are spawned, up to a certain maximum. That maximum, and the rate of higher level enemies, could vary by the strategic difficulty level (ie. the number of tier orbs I can get per tier). After getting 2 tier orbs, you'll start seeing some tougher enemies. The assumption is that you're crafting stronger spells, which is basically true -- a player will always go for the attack spells first. The next tier is reached via killing the lieutenant, but the difficulty will have a gentle ramp-up as you finish missions and get stronger. It's important to equate secret and map missions because otherwise you recreate the incentive to farm secret missions. The second approach is from the player's side. Instead of giving the player 15 tier orbs of the current level, you slowly release a mix of tier orbs, with the current tier orbs being in small supply. At tier 1, you'd only get 4-5 orbs or so. At tier 2, the first mission would give you a tier 2 orb. Missions 2 would give you 3 tier 1 orbs, so you'd be able to complete your collection of spells that way, but they would be a tier lower, thus not giving you a huge edge against the tier 2 monsters. Mission 3 would give you another tier 2 orb. Ultimately, you'd only get 4-5 tier orbs of the tier you're at, and a whole lot more tier orbs of a tier below you. This would mean that you have to pick and choose which spells you'd want to upgrade to the current tier (btw it would really be neat if this could be influenced by which monsters are dominant in that tier, thus introducing some variation into the game here that's randomly influenced), but most importantly, you wouldn't grow too strong for your tier level. Basically, allow the player to have a lot of spells at a tier below, and only a few spells at the current tier. I think either of these approaches would work. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | Feature Suggestion | ||||
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I'm gonna go ahead and start out with the obvious comment: If the game is too easy for ya, you can always increase the combat difficulty :) The other thing I gotta mention is that as you progress through the game and get to continent 2 3 4 etc, the HP of enemies increases, independently of tier. Eventually you will get to the point where you can't one-shot anyone, regardless of tier. |
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I appreciate the advice, but my point is that the combat difficulty seems fine where it is. As soon as I get to the next tier, it'll be plenty challenging. But while I collect spells, after 4-5 spells the difficulty is too low -- the problem here is that the difficulty curve is too much like steps rather than a gentle incline. The later continents' higher difficulty is supposed to compensate for the fact that by that point you have stronger enchants. Nevertheless, it's also possible this difficulty level has gotten too easy for me. I'll raise it and report back. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 24, 2012 8:36 am | Bluddy | New Issue | |
| May 24, 2012 8:59 am | GauHelldragon | Note Added: 0024782 | |
| May 24, 2012 9:39 am | Bluddy | Note Added: 0024786 | |
| May 24, 2012 10:45 am | tigersfan | Internal Weight | => Feature Suggestion |
| May 24, 2012 10:45 am | tigersfan | Status | new => considering |
