Put that person in charge of the decision making because this has made the game feel fresh again - the upcoming itemization changes are another big step in the right direction. Keep up with the communication and take some time to hear the feedback about the weapons you guys added and fix them accordingly. Do this for a year straight and the majority of us might even start giving you the benefit of the doubt!
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Been having a lot of fun with it. Itās the only reason I still boot up the game for an hour ever few days. Auric maelstrom finally feels like its namesake.
The new rager patrols and hordes with ragers mixed in are especially great.
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Alternatively, itāll push out casuals and youāll be left with one thousand Auric-only players and empty difficulties everywhere else. The difficulties have to be spread out more evenly, to produce genuine progression, without everything being stacked at the top end as you prefer.
So, no, while I agree with upping the difficulty at the top end for those of you who want it, it should be smoothed out lower down, for those people I know who donāt want to sweat. Whoever handled the difficulty increase did it in a heavy-handed way. Sort of like everything Fatshark has done, itās completely lacking in subtlety.
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It is smoothed out on the lower end, its called doing low intensity malice missions.
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I donāt understand the point youāre trying to make here? How are the difficulties not spread out? Are you saying malice is now too difficulty for people who played malice before the patch? Or the opposite?
I find it very hard to believe that between five difficulty levels, as well as high and low intensity modifiers, that thereās anyone who canāt find an appropriate difficulty level for their ability.
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Itās because the lower difficulties are balanced with lower density and health. Malice and lower difficulties are probably too empty, which gives a false first impression, which is a problem all 'tide games have had early on.
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I agree with thie entire post
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Isnāt that what we want
The game to die so fatshark are motivated to actually put on more than 1 dev to service the game.
To be clear, I donāt want to make āthe gameā as a monolithic entity, easier. I want people to enjoy Aurics, Maelstroms, and anything coming above that. But since difficulties were jumped up, to the delight of those at the top end, people in my experience who were gently progressing through the difficulties lower down, are pushed even further down. They have, in essence, had what they felt was āprogressionā taken away from them. Itās a crappy feeling, and itās left a few folks I know rather dispirited and doing other things. At the moment, itās a coin-toss if theyāre coming back, so itās a bit personal.
The difficulties being āspread outā is how it should be. Curved more evenly, with a build up for the top end with the increases between difficulties further down done in a less ham-fisted and more measured way. Encouraging players with their progression instead of knocking them down between difficulties just because theyāre retuning the top.
The jump across all difficulties did the opposite of what was helpful.
So unless you know any good groups of pals playing mostly T4s and the odd T5 looking for another casual, it more or less killed the game for me, since my six friends entirely stopped playing. Like I said, personal, but valid (if a tad circumstantial) for those lower down the ladder nonetheless.
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I donāt get it. Thereās hi intensity, maelstrom and auric maelstrom for top difficulties without modding.
Thereās also regular damnation and low intensity for the same rewards.
If you want to gradually work up to the top (auric maelstrom) thereās literally 4 versions of damnation to work your levels up. All intended to be the actual end game experience.
I legitimately do not get the dudebro sensation of the absolute hardest content needing to be cleared by a casual group not bothering to master the game to be āfunā.
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Thanks for clarifying, Iām much clearer on what you mean now. Having not played below damnation in a long time Iāll just take your word for it that these changes have had a knock on effect to lower difficulties.
Iām definitely sympathetic that it sucks for people who eg have worked their way up to being comfortable at Heresy suddenly finding themselves having to drop back to malice to cope. That absolutely does suck and should be avoided where possible.
In light of the specific enemy changes it gets tricky though. You canāt really eg make the gunner changes to ONLY T5+ or youāre kind of lessening how well lower difficulties prepares you for higher ones. You shouldnāt go from T4 to T5 and feel like youāre playing a different game entirely where enemies behave differently.
How do you feel they could have handled this last patch better to avoid the situation your friend group have found themselves in? Because Iām struggling to come up with good solutions personally.
This is also why I strongly dislike the continual player power creep and enemy nerfs weāve had since patch 13. It kind of invariably leads to situations like this where there is a jarring transition.
@MarxistDictator Iām not convinced you actually read what they wrote because nothing you said really addressed any of the actual issues they laid out.
Iām pretty sure they have much lower rewards than auric. Last time I checked anyway.
Only for dockets Iām pretty sure. Many of us have a pretty low bar for base stats and plasteel ends up being the resource choke point, at which point low int damn is easily the most efficient farm you can do.
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No, Iām pretty clear that there is enough queue splitting forms of difficulty progression as is. If you arenāt ready for low intensity T5 then play hi intensity T4. If you arenāt ready for auric play regular.
The T3 experience has never changed even now, so Iām not sure of the greater point to be made in not letting the few enemies who do appear there at least hit people for damage. Aka the recent enemy buffs. Do we want people to learn anything at all by the time they move up? They need some degree of punishment, unfortunately.
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Lest we forget penances also share some of the responsibilities.
Complete 250 auric missionsā¦ I wonder how many people are doing that penance. Itās 100 missions for other mission typesā¦ But 250 for auric. Then there is the maelstrom penances.
I bet many people will be completionists and feel compelled to do them even if uncomfortable in auric.
I mean I agree with a lot of that, as stated in my response before. I also agree with Jayn though that if youāre a casual player slowly working your way up the difficulty levels it kinda blows to log back on and find you need to go back down a difficulty.
I donāt have a good solution to this, mind, other than FS not needlessly nerfing enemies into oblivion in the first place.
I donāt think either you or I are in a position to say T3 hasnāt changed any though. Somebody who actually plays at that level is saying that the changes this patch have nuked their entire friend group out of the game, and yeah that really sucks to hear. Itās worth remembering that difficulty levels donāt ONLY serve to train you for the next one up. For some portion of the playerbase they are the final point in the climb and they donāt have interest in going higher than that, and that portion of the playerbase does also need to be looked after.
They need to put more enemies in the lower difficulties. Theyāre like ghost towns. Theyāre meant to be easier, not walking simulators.
No reason they canāt have denser hordes.
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The difficulty increase feels nice.
The way it affected some of the most popular weapons thoughā¦ not a fan, not a fan at all.
Thunderhammers always had problems but now they are so much more apparent, boltgun is a shell of its former self and flamer doesnāt do anything significant to flak, nevermind carapace.
I welcome the higher difficulty, even if I think they may have gone overboard with the spawnrates in certain scenarios, but why our power weapons were not adjusted with the changes in mind baffles me.
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Never thought i would agree with a Cosmophase take.
The difficulty for me (I play Heresy most of the time), is good. Nothing to complain. Of course, if you play with good players, it can feel a lot easier (on normal mission) but in atrium, itās great !
1 Like