Plans for a new future difficulty?

So I played a bit on the modded realm recently and I rly like some of the mods that bring back some of the old cataclysm difficulty so I wondered - are you guys considering new difficulties for the future? Because I’m honestly a bit disappointed/burned out on legend right now and think the first game handled challenge way better. Of course balancing stuff is way more tricky in V2 but legend feels so inconsistent. When sh*t is rly hitting the fan the game can feel a bit unfair and over the top at times (special spam cough, cough) but if the match is just trotting along its usually to easy. I know difficulty is subjective but the way it’s handled in V2 feels a bit on the cheap side and never reaches the sweet spot of joyful dread the first game did for me. And even if I’m totally wrong here I still think that many legend players would want another challenge and the deeds are just not enough atm…

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I’m more of the opinion that our kits are too strong rather than difficulty is too easy.
I’m still highly convinced that the strength of ranged weapons create a lot of the ease, despite making temp HP changes based around melee.

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Dunno… I feel like the games just to easy as a whole. Melee isn’t much of a challenge either on legend (fighting patrols excluded). I think it’s the temp healths fault and some enemies are just too squishy. Ranged seems to be in an OK spot as of now but that’s just my opinion. But I do agree that some classes are just way too op. With the Zealot for instance I literally have to try dying on legend…

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A lot of the melee ease is because of dodging. There’s another topic on it. Dodge Timers

And I’m not saying that ranged is the only reason. I just think some specs are overly strong. You bring up Zealot as an example, and I’m inclined to agree. There are other specs where you can also dive head first into a horde and come out relatively unscathed. You wouldn’t be able to half the stuff on RV Bardin that you can do on IB Bardin.

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I agree.

I think we either need a new difficulty or for Fatshark to start sanctioning Challenge Mods like Deathwish and Onslaught so that they provide loot. The Deed Rework, coming up, will help but there are people who have been playing Legend for almost a year at this point. It’s pretty natural that for many of those people Legend has lost its thrill. And I don’t think a re-balance to counter power creep is a viable alternative. A lot of work and care has gone into tweaking the feel of the game and a re-balance would set that work back. Just pop a new layer of difficulty on top, just like with Cata in VT1 or simply sanction a challenge mod so that it provides loot.

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In one of the recent streams (probably the one where Hedge was on, but I’m not certain), when asked about the mods, it was mentioned that FS wants to keep control of the difficulty balancing in their hands, and as such the mods are unlikely to get sanctioned. That does lead one to think that the idea of a higher difficulty altogether is probably gaining some weight, even if there are still ways to augment one’s experience even in Official realm, and more are coming (at least in the forms of the Mutators shown off in a stream, and a likely Deed rework). Modifications to the gameplay will only go so far, after all.

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The deed rework will do a lot to salvage mutator play! The lack of match-making for deeds, their consumable nature, some of them being dumb, etc. have definitely crippled their use for most people. Looking forward to that.

But, as you say, that shouldn’t be the true “next rung on the ladder”. Too much hassle and choice. I want to log into the keep, hit “QP Cataclysm” or whatever and go have some fun with randoms.

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I do agree that the difficulty can be a bit on the easy side when you are with a good team, and the easiness is the reward from that to a degree, but I have been sitting here thinking on how one could make it more difficult without being unfair, the specials coming on mass aside, what would be a good way of doing it?

One thing I’d like to try is higher mass and stagger resistance. Legend originally had 50% more of that than champion, and it was really hard.
But just 10% more would likely make a small difference - make that 20, and hordes might just require more than a half-hearted response from half the team.
Specials could use not just more toughness, but likely also a better AI. I know that’s not possible on consoles or during large hordes, but why not an assassin that jumps on a player, hits them for a second, then disappears again if more players are nearby?
Or a gunner sweeping a corridor to make it harder to get a shot in?
I don’t believe it is a solution to just throw more at the player, and just raising the enemies hitpoints again isn’t going to feel good, either.
Right now challenge only comes from a combination of factors - double hooks during a harde that spawned around a corner behind some CWs, or a boss + accompanying horde spawning in difficult terrain seconds after a regular horde approached. I believe any new difficulty setting should achieve it’s higher difficulty without raising the chances of that happening. That’s what deeds are for.

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