bestonesofar
Member
|
I should clarify that I would like early Book 1 to be easier, and nowhere else. I think this would constitute the first 14 levels or 3 hours of gameplay. In comparison, I understand that early book 3 is potentially improved every month with reimagined updates, while Books 1 and 2 are largely left alone.
If the player is not spoonfed strong, class-specific weapons, the following issues remain in the early levels:
1. Main quests drop no guaranteed usable weapons after Forgotten Spear. For example, It's a Dirty Job can drop really nice weapons that beat all the early bosses; but the drop table is shared with 30 other weapons that may be for another base class, much higher level, or have horribly unstable range. I would not like to start farming against 3 Boulder Elementals an hour into playing because my first attempt dropped a nice weapon that I can't use. In contrast, The Pure Pool has a much nicer drop table, with about a 1/10 chance of getting a usable water weapon before facing Xan. Even here, I don't think a player should be spamming a quest 10+ times so early in the game. My suggestion indicates spamming Guardian Arena 3 times or Dragonsfall (small) 3+ times with an option to buy another fire weapon for 500 gold, which I think is acceptable.
2. Shop weapons are expensive and not worth the price. Around level 10, NDA players have spent most of their gold on stat training, and DA players won't be able to buy much without farming. The prices were fine 15+ years ago, but now it is faster and normal to level up and run into relatively tough bosses with a low level weapon. Player Suggestion Shop weapons are also expensive, but I think they are strong options in these levels and can stay useful for longer than low level weapons from Yulgar, The Inn Shop, or Lugosi. The alternative to paying up is, as usual, sifting through large drop tables.
3. With the Timeline around, there is less reason to do quests not on it, even if it suggests to do so. Without outside sources, there's no good way to know which side quests offer useful drops. This is fine when adventuring and frustrating when looking for specific drops. These outside sources, such as Best Weapons For Your Level And Class or the DF Calculator are not readily available or easily visible to the player.
4. Without good weapons, base classes are not good at soloing bosses. Let's examine Bassault without a water or ice weapon, which the player fights four or five times.
Warrior: stun wore off, shield wore off, 3 turns of Bassault's attack under Strength Strike within (2/5) shield uptime is enough for potion range, if Bassault is not dead after after the next two shields, player is dead
Mage: can't use fireball, ice strike and mage fury are weak, dealing about 200% weapon damage per turn while Bassault sometimes breaks through -50 bonus and finishes the job after second blind is over
Rogue: high chance to stun, but then Bassault sometimes hits through 45 mpm and -50 bonus, player is trying to stall with less than 200% weapon damage output and relying on luck
5. Early Book 1 difficulty is appropriate 15+ years ago, when it was midgame for the whole game. It seems strange now to maintain this difficulty, then make things easier later with story classes, more and better weapon drops, pets/guests, and slowly increase difficulty afterwards. I think players should get frustrated with and learn from difficulty later in the game or at the Inn, not in the first few hours of playing.
6. These levels are already easy, with sequence breaking. Options such as Doom/Destiny weapons, farming gold for Pirate/Ninja, skipping to Paladin/Ranger/DragonSlayer/any other class behind longer quests, grabbing Ultra OmniKnight Blade from Book 3 or resist gear anywhere, getting +bonus gear so that attack chains aren't ruined at the worst time, farming best weapons for level per element, etc would stomp through bosses. I would like early game to be easier than it is now without sequence breaking.
< Message edited by bestonesofar -- 1/20/2023 13:11:11 >
|
Printable Version
Icon Legend
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread
