What is Reaper difficulty?

[Blackheartox]

I know a huge amount of people who have left this game because of how easy it is.

You are wrong.

Full guild i was part of, one of the best and amazing players cannith had.

[Blackheartox]

As long as its fun and challenging for everyone, and i mean the most hardcore vet

[Postumus]

I know a huge amount of people who have left this game because of how easy it is.

You are wrong.

I don't know anyone who has left this game because it is "too easy." Anecdotal evidence works both ways.

[The_Human_Cypher]

The Reaper difficulty should be so challenging that a full party would have the best chance of completing it. Group play should be the focus of the new difficulty setting which was originally the focus of DDO. All of the players soloing EE have made the current difficulty settings irrelevant.

[Qhualor]

I know a huge amount of people who have left this game because of how easy it is.

You are wrong.

Me too, but I don't want to see a new diificulty. I want to see a balance pass on the difficulties. The player base is made up with a lot of easy street players and a lot less challenge seekers. A new diificulty will just end up as fail, imo. Most of the vocal players seeking a fun challenging game are gone to help out.

[Postumus]

As long as its fun and challenging for everyone, and i mean the most hardcore vet

The goldilocks zone is tough to find. There is never something that satisfies everyone.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the last person left reading this board who remembers the countless threads about how ridiculous mob HPs & immunities were in the 'good ole days' pre-MotU. I also feel like this board has collective amnesia regarding champion difficulty.

This will follow the same cycle as before:

- Incredibly hard difficulty that satisfies a small group of players
- A larger group of players don't like how hard it is and demands nerfs
- It gets nerfed due to player request
- Small group of players are mad
- 6 months later the same players demanding nerfs will complain it is too easy.
- Rinse
- Repeat

It's so predictable it's like watching re-runs.

[Severlin]

please work on making elite back what it once was in terms of difficulty, and remove the bravery streaks from the xp considerations.

better balance the difficulties we have, rather than considering new ones. at the moment elite = hard, hard = easy, everything else is casual.

Elite is tied to bravery streaks (with bonuses), favor, and other rewards that current players are basing their game play and game time around. The current game demands playing through content for the very first time on elite to get these bonuses as well, thus adding to the expectation that players should be able to complete new content on elite. That's a good thing for many of our players. Making elite even more difficult is not something we want to do at this time.

Sev~

[Postumus]

Elite is tied to bravery streaks (with bonuses), favor, and other rewards that current players are basing their game play and game time around. The current game demands playing through content for the very first time on elite to get these bonuses as well, thus adding to the expectation that players should be able to complete new content on elite. That's a good thing for many of our players. Making elite even more difficult is not something we want to do at this time.

Sev~

Thanks for the reply. It makes sense and you guys have a better idea of what the current player base wants than we posters outside of our niche areas of gameplay.


Hopefully this puts the "kill BB" threads to rest. I would like to see elimination of scaling in elites, but I can live it if it never happens. Hopefully if you will entertain eliminating scaling for any new, harder difficulties though.


Thanks again.

[Rys]

Elite is tied to bravery streaks (with bonuses), favor, and other rewards that current players are basing their game play and game time around. The current game demands playing through content for the very first time on elite to get these bonuses as well, thus adding to the expectation that players should be able to complete new content on elite. That's a good thing for many of our players. Making elite even more difficult is not something we want to do at this time.

Sev~

Instead you will just introduce a new mechanic. Haven't heard that one in a while. Speaking which, any plans on some new augments? Or updating cannith crafting? Or adding more rewards for Commendations of Valor?

[Blackheartox]

The goldilocks zone is tough to find. There is never something that satisfies everyone.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the last person left reading this board who remembers the countless threads about how ridiculous mob HPs & immunities were in the 'good ole days' pre-MotU. I also feel like this board has collective amnesia regarding champion difficulty.

This will follow the same cycle as before:

- Incredibly hard difficulty that satisfies a small group of players
- A larger group of players don't like how hard it is and demands nerfs
- It gets nerfed due to player request
- Small group of players are mad
- 6 months later the same players demanding nerfs will complain it is too easy.
- Rinse
- Repeat

It's so predictable it's like watching re-runs.

It is the scenario that will always cycle in this game.
I lost many friends in this game due to the casualization and removal of challenge, couple came back during champ just to feel total hate toward ddo after the nerf, game was fun for a week and bum exploded again to nothing.
I got no idea what the reasoning is behind the constant nerfs, it appears to me its tied to players not willing to accept that the game can beat them and that they need to always in any scenario dominate the game.
I liked ddo way way more back in the days when i died, died, died, got close completitions, and died and died and died.
Nowadays, its really hard to die on almost any build.
Sadly i was away at motu implementation time, so i dont know what the state was back then. But whoever complained i fully support those people

[FifthTime]

Wouldn't it be a great idea to take an already small and spread out population and stretch it even thinner? Turbine should create an entirely new option to further reduce the already meager LFM panel.

It's what this game really needs. Less grouping.

[Angelic-council]

Punish the strong, demolish the weak, leave no place for recovery, create frustration, anger and a feeling of unparable joy upon sucess are steps id suggest thme to follow.

Yeah, you have a very good point!

It's always the joy and tears of happiness that will keep us playing this game after completing insanely difficult challenge with satisfying end reward. Challenge = many tears = joy.

My only concern is the player themselves... They always seem to give up. They don't try again if the content is too hard, they instead come here and complain while others challenge it manage to complete. I believe many players build up this weird mentality due to game mechanism that people tent to not care anymore. This is sad.. but I hope turbine stay strong and create another difficult for fun and challenge, ultimately reward.

[kanordog]

Possibly a really hard difficulty setting with no extra favor or xp,
Few ppl will try it then will go back to elite coz no reason ^ to run reaper.

[Ape_Man]

I don't know anyone who has left this game because it is "too easy." Anecdotal evidence works both ways.

We generally have peers who are at the same level of player skill.

I know dozens if not hundreds who've "gotten bored" and left. lack of anything challenging that was worth doing was the reason for many.

I just hope Turbine doesn't get stupid in it's quest to add challenge, I wouldn't want to see Reaper bing nothing but the mirror room in Terminal Delirium.

[jakeelala]

Me too, but I don't want to see a new diificulty. I want to see a balance pass on the difficulties. The player base is made up with a lot of easy street players and a lot less challenge seekers. A new diificulty will just end up as fail, imo. Most of the vocal players seeking a fun challenging game are gone to help out.

I do not.

There is still about 60% of the population who doesn't touch EE from my experience. That means it is PLENTY difficult for "the masses".

And there's already a reward/xp curve/stral/first time bonus system in place for N/H/E

Its high time there was something simply different than that, totally unrelated to XP or progression. Something that simply was brutal and not completable by the general public, so that masochists and hardcore min/maxers have somewhere to go when they want to test builds, mechanics, and their skill solo or with others.

Without this we continue to see zergers ruin parties for casuals, and people not grouping due to the extreme differences in skill, gear, builds, and experience.

DDO is not a competitive game, the idea that there would be some content you can't finish at your current level of play is not an issue except for people who don't want to change but want to be the same as people who play for different reasons and at different investments of time and effort.

To that I say fooey. Anyone can learn to build better, can grind for gear, and can constructively try to change how they play if they choose to. If they do not choose to do that, then there is no reason to penalize the people who do by saying "no to hard content".

Most of the people who were good enough to play a very hard difficulty left because that's how they enjoyed the game.

Everyone who doesn't want to be extremely challenged already has ways to enjoy DDO. ITs high time there was a way for the more hardcore players to get to enjoy the game too.

[Angelic-council]

Elite is tied to bravery streaks (with bonuses), favor, and other rewards that current players are basing their game play and game time around. The current game demands playing through content for the very first time on elite to get these bonuses as well, thus adding to the expectation that players should be able to complete new content on elite. That's a good thing for many of our players. Making elite even more difficult is not something we want to do at this time.

Sev~

Exactly. Spot on Sev!

We don't need elite to be more difficult than it's now. It's already difficult as it should be. I can solo any elite or EEs. But it doesn't mean it's easy. Not many players can achieve what I and other vets can do. I find EE to be difficult sometimes, especially lv29 - lv32 ones. It's not very good for many players to raise elite difficulty. Except new lv30 quests. But new difficulty as a challenge is totally different story.

[FranOhmsford]

- 6 months later the same players demanding nerfs will complain it is too easy.

Please tell us who these "same" players are?

Because I for one have NEVER complained that this game is too easy!

Admittedly I also didn't demand nerfs to Champions BUT I DID state that the implementation of Champions was massively flawed so you could see that as demanding nerfs if you can't tell the difference between asking for a more balanced implementation and straight up demanding nerfs!


And that is a major point - Many of the posts complaining about Champions after they were introduced were not complaining about Champions themselves but about the extremely unbalanced implementation!

Quite a few people specifically stated they were happy with the Champions themselves but not with the unbalancing effects of those Champions!

Actual specific nerfs to Champions were not asked for by many but there was a major outcry about the implementation!


If the Devs had spent more time working out the kinks beforehand OR rather than going for a straight up nerf concentrated on fixing the issues in certain quests they'd have made many of those complaining and people like yourself who loved Champions as they were HAPPY!

[Requiro]

Which is exactly the same as saying.. "Hey, we are working on a harder difficulty, even though EVERY TIME PLAYERS SUGGEST IT ON THE FORUMS ABOUT 10X AS MANY PLAYERS POINT OUT ITS A BAD IDEA.. because, we don't care".

This

I wonder how many "brilliant" idea Council will force until DDO will collapse...

[GoldyGopher]

Elite is tied to bravery streaks (with bonuses), favor, and other rewards that current players are basing their game play and game time around. The current game demands playing through content for the very first time on elite to get these bonuses as well, thus adding to the expectation that players should be able to complete new content on elite. That's a good thing for many of our players. Making elite even more difficult is not something we want to do at this time.

Sev~

<shrug> I guess Sev just summed up a number of problems in DDO and said they aren't going to fix them. <shrug>

[legendkilleroll]

Exactly. Spot on Sev!

We don't need elite to be more difficult than it's now. It's already difficult as it should be. I can solo any elite or EEs. But it doesn't mean it's easy. Not many players can achieve what I and other vets can do. I find EE to be difficult sometimes, especially lv29 - lv32 ones. It's not very good for many players to raise elite difficulty. Except new lv30 quests. But new difficulty as a challenge is totally different story.

So, it not right to raise elite difficulty because lesser skilled/geared players can complete it and get max xp/favor but it was ok to nerf it when people actually failed the games hardest difficulty, you know the one thats supposed to challenge a group of players.

Same story with champions, people started to actually die, fail quests, NERF! now its almost auto complete again

Just dont understand it, why is the hardest difficulty, especially heroic the default mode everyone has to run.