Game too easy - but also lacks direction in terms of knowing what content to do

[....]

The game either needs difficulty settings or has to become harder in general.

Some people seem to struggle with it but i think thats also a game/questdesignproblem. Its really not fun if a lot of the content is almost onehitting enemies.

So i think enemies schould become harder but to avoid having players become frustrated the game also needs some additional systems ot give players more direction since to me it seems that many people simply dont know where to go and what content to do and end up doing harder content first and easy content afterwards - its often not clear what quest to do and which area.

Suggestions besides making the game harder:
- add difficulty ratings to the quests in the questlog depending on playerlevel in comparison to questlevel
- either release a map with rough levelzones or add some mechanic that helps players (its not hard to know when you are in a region too hard - but its hard to find the region appropriate to your current level at the moment)
- add soft levelscaling +2-3 levels so that enemies and loot dont become pointless even if you do things in a different order


I think this is really important since having freedom is great - but you need some sort of direction to avoid constantly feeling aimless and running into content not appropriate for your character - especially if you do harder content first (which is fun when you are outleveled) - but after having fun you suddenly have to do quests and areas where you oneshot everything.

[Dreadstone]

Quests give exp. "Usually" the more exp (negligible I admit) the harder the quest. Also, if a quest tells you to "go to 'X'" and 'X' is covered in Red Shroud, that's usually a hint to upgrade your Altar.

[gadfly6363]

Getting a new quest puts an entry in your journal and a marker on your map, so I'm not sure how much more "guidance" a player needs. It's kind of a "go find out" system; you go, and you find out if you can do it or need to level first. I do like the idea of a map with rough level zones, but that could discourage people from even trying to get to certain places just to check it out. And I absolutely hate level scaling, so that no matter where you go, the enemies are always harder than you, and all your work never makes anything easier, as if the world would be better off if player never existed, because everything player does makes the enemies harder.
I don't know if you ever played Oblivion, but it was absurd. At level one, all your enemies are rats and half naked bandits, and at level 20 the same area is covered in high level enemies with the best armor in the game. The poor citizens were hoping the player would die and quit making the world harder, lol.

[Sgt.JESUS]

I got lost all the time, thats great, i really hate those towers that mark everything, its too assassins creed. I like to get lost, explore and clear the fog of war. Took me awhile to figure it out that upgrading the altar cleared those red fog of death areas.
I just wish those red trees stayed dead, really annoying that they respawn, and dont give you anything when killed twice.

[Sultryhag]

I find the game too hard as I am awful at action combat. I'd rather they don't make it harder or at least have a slider for difficulty so that I can still play. All the jumping puzzles are also very bad since I suck at that too.

[biosmonkey]

Originally posted by gadfly6363:

Getting a new quest puts an entry in your journal and a marker on your map, so I'm not sure how much more "guidance" a player needs. It's kind of a "go find out" system; you go, and you find out if you can do it or need to level first. I do like the idea of a map with rough level zones, but that could discourage people from even trying to get to certain places just to check it out. And I absolutely hate level scaling, so that no matter where you go, the enemies are always harder than you, and all your work never makes anything easier, as if the world would be better off if player never existed, because everything player does makes the enemies harder.
I don't know if you ever played Oblivion, but it was absurd. At level one, all your enemies are rats and half naked bandits, and at level 20 the same area is covered in high level enemies with the best armor in the game. The poor citizens were hoping the player would die and quit making the world harder, lol.

Agree 100% with everything said here!

[BrEaD1402]

Originally posted by Sgt.JESUS:

I got lost all the time, thats great, i really hate those towers that mark everything, its too assassins creed. I like to get lost, explore and clear the fog of war. Took me awhile to figure it out that upgrading the altar cleared those red fog of death areas.
I just wish those red trees stayed dead, really annoying that they respawn, and dont give you anything when killed twice.

so I'm at level 20 and i got my roommate to try out the game, it's a good thing they do respawn because they allowed him to start catching up quest wise and also get his point for leveling.