Game is WAY Too Easy

Hmm, I don't think GMs have much to do with game-skill. But it does help to know there are challenges Thank you.

 

If there are those who just want to just power through it to boredom then that's their choice.

 

That is true. Question is, how many?

 

That's a looooooooooooooooooong lunch Allie

jus sayin

 

A grand point. I've always been anti magic and don't use any including healing and it definitely adds a wrinkle to the game and makes it far more difficult for me.

That said, devs are working hard on adding a lot of stuff but there are more pressing needs like group content to work on instead of making sure the game is still challenging for the handful of L110+ players.

 

Every skill within those trees? Why stop there? Why not make a creature that is immune to every skill in every skill tree except for one? I mean, every player should have all skills leveled up right?

Where's the harm?

In case it wasn't clear: yes, it's very unreasonable to let players waste their time leveling up their skills only to lock them out of something because "they chose wrong". You can make a creature that is immune to many skills (even within the same skill tree) but to you should always give the players the tools to work something out with the character that they have built.

You call it "purposely limiting the skills", I call it "role-playing". We are playing a role-playing game, aren't we? I didn't read "The Hobbit" novel but, in the movies, I'm pretty sure Bilbo Baggings didn't respec from burglar to spear-wielding-battle-wizard.

"Now now, Gix," you might be saying to yourself "the whole point is to make group play more meaningful!" Ah yeah? How is you telling me that I'm gimping myself for not broadening my skill set help make group play more meaningful? Should I or shouldn't I specialize?

I have [Blade], [Light Armour], [Subterfuge], [Tactics], [Shield], [Focus] AND, because I HAVE to if I want to play the damn game when I go in dungeons or play during night time (which is every god damned 30mins, btw) I have to use [Night Sight]... because the game designers didn't think that "seeing the game" was important enough when sneaking around.

How many skill trees am I "supposed" to invest in in order to have a decent chance playing this game? I take MORE damage from spells because I don't specialize in casting spells of that given tree. I understand the concept in paper but, in practice, that means that I have ZERO CHANCE to make a dent in PvP... all because role-playing in a role-playing game is "purposely limiting the skills".

If I HAVE to build my character a certain way, why have choice at all?

The saying goes: "Jack of all trades, master of none." not "Jack of all trades, able to play."

What "choice" do I really have?

I wouldn't demand that every creature in the game were vulnerable to the skills I've chosen. Again, I'm fine with skeletons being immune to [Rend] so I'm not sure why you have to specifically mention this. The nuance I'm trying to communicate is that there's a difference between something that is made harder because of my choices and something that is made impossible because of my choices.

Not to mention that, if there were a type of creature where I'd have more difficulties dispatching, I should also have creatures that I excel against... which is something I'm not experiencing at all in SotA. I'm not "better" against a certain type of creature, I'm merely "worse" against others.

 

And I'm pretty sure he didn't kill any trolls either, though I admit it's been a while since I read that book.

You've chosen to place limits on yourself, and, as I said above, that's fine. What's not fine is not expecting that choice to have consequences.

They are free to build a character with two skills levelled up to 180 and nothing else, they should not expect to be able to kill everything with that character.

You've got that backwards. If you want to do something which requires a certain set of skills, get those skills, don't demand that you should be able to do the thing with any set of skills.

Again that's your choice. I never use night sight.

If you can kill anything in the game with any set of skills then: same question? What difference does your choice make if it all works?

Because Stundorn is demanding to be able to kill trolls with only earth and water magic and that's why we're having this conversation.

 

Bums the lot of em I tells ya

 

Totally fun convo but I gotta go farm those higher level mobs before R48, see yas.

 

People can argue as long as they want here but, please, for the virtues sake, stop mentioning hard cap in every single thread like this.

It has been stated and demonstrated many times, with the other games, that they are NOT the solution (just look for videos where high end players can accomplish raids/operations with a reduced party or in solo in some other MMO WITH hard caps and you will certainly understand). The solution is SKILL BALANCE.

Some skill mechanisms in SotA tends to neutralize soft caps, which are more than sufficient to prevent the wide gap between high-end players and the others and to balance difficulty in the game.

 

Forum time only when "work" time

 

Did I misquote ? Stundorn wants to be like gandalf ? Big deal ; he's actually quite humble

A... troll... not "the hulk"...

right,

theres alot of tension in the air...

breathe in... breathe out...

 

Whats the time ?

 

I have no idea lol

 

Gotta understand that sometimes saying "it was better with hard caps because z n x" might serve to highlight the current softcap shortcomings ... people's feedback should be taken lightly and you already know not many people here have the knowledge to actually understand your post.

After reading your post 5 times I think I'm getting where you are getting at, and if you're right we could conclude this chapter it would be nice... please enlighten us with the details

 

ok going to bed

 

I wouldn't say that the game is too easy. But I have a feeling there is a mismatch between the distribution of zones and the power levels of the player base.

I'm adv level 86. My favorite zone right now is K'rul. I can solo parts of it if I'm careful, but there's always a risk involved. There are a few other zones which are optimal if I want to get exp fast, like Kobold camp, Grannus colossus and Crag foothills. However these are not really challenging, there's no risk of dying. There are also plenty of boss type monsters around the world which are challenging or plain unbeatable for me, but I don't like killing the same thing over and over so I generally don't fight them a lot. Then there are a few places I haven't tried much yet like The Rise and The Fall. I think they might be too tough for me still, and I only just got started with pvping.

So whats the conclusion? Well, probably around 80-90 percent of the world is too easy to be challenging for me even though I'm far from a top level guy. There are challenging zones, but they are so few that adventuring gets a bit repetitive. Meanwhile there's a great wealth of well designed zones that are lower level. I think it's very important that the first experience for new players is great, so don't get me wrong. But I still wonder how many low level adventurers there are compared to the number of zones. I seem to recall that getting to 5 skull zones didn't take that long of a time, maybe 100-200 hours? I know that it's at least smaall compared to the time I've spent in 5 skull zones since then.

I guess the developers have numbers so they would know if the 2-4 skull zones are actually under utilized because most have leveled past them , but my guess would be that they are.

 

I don't pretend to understand things better than anyone else. I only use experimented knowledge in this debate when I can, and I sometimes see people making assumptions on their own beliefs.

When I say that people can solo boss, raids or operations which were designed for 8 party members in games with hard caps, that's quite easy to verify. Google "swtor solo raid" and "teso solo raid" and you will see that by yourself. I mean, people looking for challenge is not something new. Of course, some videos are made by people using higher level than intended for the raids (and that's not less impressive when you know how hard it can be when you are not really prepared) but some others only show that the fundamental problem is the balance with skills. I actualy played swtor long ago with a guild. And when we had hard time to go through the new raids with a full party, my guildmates showed me 3 or 4-man videos on the nightmare level of difficulty for the same operation where people just used (or abused) some skills of one or two classes very smartly. All of this just to tell you that hard caps won't prevent hard-core players to be a step forward.

I already made many posts about how, in my opinion, the soft caps are a better solution for everyone here and here (where I'm talking about the unreachable perfect balance), and how skill design can be an issue in this regard, here.
I even gave an exemple here.
I also had some suggestion on how to fix the underlying problems here, and here.
There are many people who made other good suggestions for thos, also.

Of course, I can be wrong, like everyone else here, but I still try to use valid arguments. People can't deny that some buffs and skills are currently playing a way too important role in SotA fights. I looked at one of @Kigu Starfish (Kor) duel the day before yesterday. The first part of the fight was something like 15~20 seconds of non-stop buffing behind a wall. Personaly, I don't think that is fun. It breaks combat dynamic if you ask me. I think @Kigu Starfish (Kor) gusting his opponent into the void when he was losing a fight is actualy fun. Do you get the difference ?

 

They have long ago lost the sense of neccessary proportion or want you to share their approach to "playing" the game. Most people only go for max output.
Killing bosses with switchmodes is not playing the game.
Killing Mages in one room with quick respawn is not playing a game, it's repetetive grinding going for max output.
They do this for Month now and destroy any base on where we could all compete.
Driving the measures, crying if you want it more accessible for casuals.

No it's all fine. I agree.
I dont want to kill everything.
I just want things more accessible, more balanced, more options...
I can kill water Elemental with Ice arrow
If they do things like that, they should do it better, more consequent, more balanced.

"quite a bit of work" is extremly underrated.
If one had 5000 hrs in the game and "worked quite a bit" for his 150+ GM
Or lets just say 3000 hours and 90 GM ( magic what you profit from allways and also passive) and then compare to someone who plays 20hrs/week.
How long does it take him to be competetive?
Answer: too long (~3 years)
And constantly grinding and "quite a bit working" on skills.
Not good, not balanced.

And if someone ask, yes i want the same strength like someone who plays 24hrs a day.
I care less what they do with their time.
I dont grant them extra power when it comes to competition, if they have skill ok.
Time to grind should never be the measure for strength.
Same with money.

That's the biggest Problem
SP mechanics (skillsystem) for MMO.
Therefore it's crap if we think of real coop challenge and also and especially if we talk about pvp and economy.
Without limitations and balsncing it wont work ever.

Make it not harder. Nerf the players.
Limit things, so all can play and compete together.
You need to get rid of your effort= strength BS.

Wow, what a good proof for this everybody can get rich, strong, beautiful blablabla.
Some people wont see it, I cannot blame you for that.
I just can say, if it were so good and fun, why arent 2000 players online every day?

Completely wrong way.
But the 30 players will work it out.
And the game will exist of these 5% of players in the long term, no competition, no vendors full of low and medium equip, no PvP beside Tournaments or the 3 Guys with 200 GM fighting against each other until its boring.
But hey then it is about playerskill.
Unfortunately nobody will join ir wait maybe some are ready in 10 years.

Exactly this!!!
I cannot agree more!!!!
But i dont want it harder i want them to take your power away.
YES i want exactly that and i disagree on spent time grinding = strength and limitless andl that.
It destroys everything for me and some others.
And all games i know are realizing it is better to make people equal strong and let them play together and against each other. Guildwars, WoW, TESO, Destiny2
Ok SotA is different and oldschool, but it is very unaccesible to casual gamers.
I want to be equal strong with nit even 1% of playtime.
What is your problem with that?
Takes it away the point of your gamers live or what?


Forget it, the game is not for me anymore.
It's just a grindfest and less roleplay, especially germanspeaking there is only one Person i know what is interested.

Have Fun playing.

P.S. I dont like leveling, achieving and working, i like playing especially roleplaying ( what includes gamemechanics, strength and more) and if things are about playerskill and nothing else.