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Difficulty?
wan7830
Member Posts: 9
"Too easy."
That's the reaction of many TR testers.
I didn't have the previlige to be a tester(you lucky bastards), but I have been reading alot of comments from the beta testers.
One of the major problems is, the game is too easy.
Here is a list:
-Player can solo instance.
-Players always hold the control points.
-Monsters die quickly(really quickly).
-Bane army has weak AI (weak as in can't push back the army of players)
Then this idea came to me:
Is it possible that the testers' characters are enhanced for beta purposes?
Testers complain that the instances are too easy and can be soloed, maybe that's because the devs don't want the testers to spend time grouping or figuring out the strategy because the release date is close. Perhaps debugging the map takes priority over game balancing, well, of course it does, it's beta.
Ok please bare with me here for a moment:
What if the characters are much weaker than they are now(now as in beta)?
-Strategy becomes important. What class should charge on the battle field, what class should stay back and pull, who's responsible for support, who's responsible for heal. Those strategic decisions that we love to make would matter. If you see a giant monster with a glowing ball under his belly creepy toward your healer, and the best damage you can do is barely noticeable, you would scream and make everyone run with you.
-Bane's AI is pretty decent, I believe most beta testers agree with that. "They do what they are supposed to do." I guess that's the standard for good AI. The problems is, they are too weak. They don't have the strength to assault the head quarter of the resistance(frankly, they should, if this war has been "raging for eons"). If the players become weak as wasps after the launch, and watch helplessly as the massive bane army slaughter through everyone, the sense of survival and the realism of death would be increased ten folds.
-This is a war, damn it. If earth is conquered in one day, we expect to see the players struggling for survival. How can you call it hostile environment when the player can run around freely like an innocent child without the concern of BEING VAPORIZED?
So that is my theory: beta testers control the supermen to gain access to the entire game and to help testing the game, after th launch the players will be having a hard time battling the banes and that makes the game more fun.
Love to see some comments from the testers.
Comments
I have to say, this approach to development...aside from not clearly and directly balance-testing PCs vs. NPCs ....actually makes some sense from a certain point of view.
Granted, this also doesn't allow a formal and again, direct balance test for the PVE combat systems..but if certain variables are already known...ie, the actual percentage of "ramping" given to the PCs to assist with testing with the formulae being easily adjustable (again, this assumes that they already know that things work at base settings just swimmingly) in the "rewamp" to normal; as the OP postulates; then it'd be a relatively minor task of tweaking...perhaps a pass or two as it's not concerning PvP balance (the new 10th circle of Hell, as evidenced by MANY a title).
I'm not a beta tester for TR, but have seen that in my varied and relatively extensive experience beta-testing other titles that the tried-and-true methodical approach to beta testing, more and more, seems to be simply failing. In this, given the stated (and some unstated) criteria, might be a fresh new way to approach the concept. It's conjecture on my part..but then again, conjecture is all many of us have. That and our own opinions.
Yes, I have anger issues. They taste like chocolate bunnies.
At the moment - yes the game has been made a bit easier so that people can get through the content quickly and find bugs.
I am hoping that the next patch will change this. You are supposed to be able to solo the game if you so desire, but needing to be a few levels higher. This currently isnt the case.
And at only three weeks before the game goes live - they need to kick in the release difficulty / balance so it can get tested before release.
THere are 4 more servers in the server list now (making 6 total) so I am hoping they will do a two week open beta after the next patch.
The control points havent been working properly - this is supposed to be fixed next patch.
MOnsters do die quickly if they are around your level. But you do need a number of types of weapons as some have immunities to particular damage types.
mobs are easy in wow too if your at their level. i have no doubht that if as many people who are complaing about it here are doing it on TR forums then they will change it. after all GW CoH and CoV are popular and this is their game so i doubht they will let it go down the tubes. and i belive in vanguard players were OP for a bit to test content and right b4 the open beta or right after it srarted they set it to normal.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Mobs don't pack much punch, however with War every place starting as soon as you leave a base it would be hard to travel across the map. So I think they have to find a balance between easy and travel OR mobs will have to become harder when a player engage in combat.
I love the idea of war all around, it makes doing quest a little more exciting.
I only have two problems with this game too easy AND graphics are nice but the terrain is deceiving. Some times you can't tell when you can go up a hill or be blocked, this can be very frustrating and real bad in the Divide area. Reminds me of Guild Wars, and it drives me nuts.
They should put it back to when the bane could stack. You would wander out of Alia Das and see one bane so you would shoot it - and suddenly the 9 bane standing inside each other would spread out and kick your butt.
To the OP:
I hate to break it to you, but the conclusions you reached by reading... well, whatever you read to reach your iniial conclusions... are false.
You can solo instances by being above their level, sure. That is probably what they are doing. I know I have a tough time with them solo! But then again, I go in before my character level is high enough.... That's the downfall of any level based system, y'know?
Players DON'T always hold control points!
MOBs DON'T always lie down and die obediently or quickly.
MOB tactics? Mixed bag... Some move about and even use cover... The raw bane recruits just stand there... Like the ignorant cannonfodder they are. Still, the AI could be a little more dynamic. *shrugs*
couple of comments here.
Since this is beta we are all getting extra XP. This means that we are outleveling content. Sure a green mob is easy. Aren't they supposed to be?? The first time I went into an instance in the wilderness area I was lvl 7 and It was not easy it was impossible. Those instances were yellow and would definitely require some help.
Now at level 16 I can go in the same instance and pretty much cruise through it no problem. But then again the instance is now green to me and the mobs are also green. Even so there are still some tough mobs in there that were it not for the bugged web gun would perhaps be a threat.
Control points are buggy right now and are not being overtaken. Control points are also lacking quests and other functions. The devs have posted that control points will be getting a lot of new stuff in the next patch. That aside control points are great fun at lvl 16 when I'm in an instance with just me defending a control point I've been killed and the mobs are again all green so it is a pretty furious battle. The bane tend to eb and flow in there attacks and sometimes come in in mass in a big attack when there are maybe 20-30 bane attacking the outpost... Pretty fun to run in guns blasting even if I do get wasted sometimes
So I think without the xp boost beta has we would not be outleveling the content and the game would be more challenging. AI is not bad but it could be better. I think the AI is slow as I've watched the bane and sometimes when attacking other npcs they do pretty good stuff taking cover and fighting etc. When a PC attacks them it looks to me like the AI is too slow to come up with solutions.
Anyway we should know how it really is in a few short weeks
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Ethion
I can attest that Ethion just gave a nice and accurate description of how it works...
The one thing I would add is that I saw the bane take over twin pillars outpost yesterday... It CAN happen. A lot maydepend on which wilderess area you CHOOSE to be in. I tend to choose lesser populated ones... Interesting facet, that.
Yeah the bane can definitely take over outposts. I didn't know they could do that and assumed TR was like every other game out there. So after exploring a bit I found landing post outpost and took the teleporter back to the starting city. Wow that was fun exploration and so I camped for the night. The next day I logged on and wanted to port back to where I left off and ported to landing post. I ran to run out front and noticed the beacon was a diff color and then that bane were all over inside and then they quickly murdered me before I could realize that they were now running the city.... What a shocker that was
So yes Bane can take over and don't assume the world is static even now and I'm sure it will be even better with tomorrow's patch.
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Ethion
I for one have seen first-hand control points being taken over in TR US server, and I was the one who took the CP (control point) back (with a bit of help from my sis and some other random player). That there just tells you your research by reading is the wrong way to go. And the other points you made have been countered by my fellow testers. Try playing the game rather than reading beta forums.
This is not a game.
With the patch today, the MOB difficulty got a real boost!
Bane assaults are fairly interesting too... Looks like those who judged based on "easy mode" for test purposes were a little off track.
If it's intentional it ruins any balance testing in beta, which means that after the game goes live you can expect pretty liberal swinging of the nerf bat. I'm really not sure what they're thinking, if you listen to some of the comments made by some of the "official" reps of the game, they're always talking about how difficult enemies are. So.. perhaps its just that the people in charge are REALLY bad at playing MMOs? I don't know..
At the moment you can start soloing instances with little trouble at level 7 or 8, and as a general rule enemies 5 levels above you or lower aren't much of a threat unless there's a lot of them. And somebody made the comment about how mobs in WoW were easy at level, which is mostly true. However.. I doubt you could let a dozen at level WoW mobs beat on you for 30 minutes and come back to full health.. which is possible with many Bane.
I haven't seen anything special about the Bane AI really. They mostly just stand there stupidly and shoot at you.. maybe kick you if YOU move close enough to them.