Way to change difficulty?

[Alturis]

I started a game in normal difficulty and am fairly far along now (Essence of Fire)

After spending a great deal of time kiting creatures like the giant crab around the dungeon spending far more time dealing with combat issues than enjoying the game I am wanting to switch to easy. I find the challenge of solving puzzles and exploring far more satisfying than the grueling combat that the normal difficulty seems to provide.

I do not see a way to change the difficulty in the game options while playing however. Please tell me that I do not need to restart as I will not be doing that. I may end up having to start a new game in easy and a new game in normal and compare the save files to find where the difficulty is stored so I can hack my existing save game hopefully.

[Lil PeePee]

There is no way to rchange difficulty after you start.

[Alturis]

Yeah I see comparing a fresh easy game sav file with a fresh normal game sav file everything is different after byte 0x19 and everything is the same prior to that. Its as if they intentionally built in defense against this kind of thing by encrypting the data differently in easy vs normal vs hard. I am sure there is a way to hack it but it is beyond my ability.

If anyone has more info or a tool for this I would love to hear it.

[Lil PeePee]

You can muscle through it. I'm on Hard mode and I don't see what others were ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about tbh.

I know the crabs are annoying, but you'll be fine.

[Alturis]

After further playing I have come to the conclusion that the combat difficulty is not well balanced. Muscling through it, while a workable solution, is not one that ends up making the game enjoyable to any degree. It should not consistently take tens of minutes per battle with crystal saves in the middle and extended kiting to have combat in the game. Not to mention the repeated use of the 'oh here is a nice treat just grab it and magically get swarmed in a locked room with overwhelming odds' trick. Overall I am a bit disappointed at this kind of punishment that the game deals out. Its not fun and doesn't let the player feel powerful or accomplished.

[GDMFSOB81]

You are using an awful lot of generalized terms for something that only applies to you. I love the combat.

[Slowhand]

I can not sign that Alturis. I am 22 hours into the game on normal difficulty and to me it seems all well balanced. Have not had too many problems and still using the crystals very rarely ... well I have and alchemist and therefore healing potions are no problem.
Still : If you stumble upon an superior foe you can always go somewhere else to level and look for better gear.

[Dr.Disaster]

Originally posted by braboid:

Well, I tend to agree with Alturis, and of course his opinion is just that, an opinion. On some occasions (esp. Ethereals at an early stage, or the Ratling Boss), there's an unneeded spike in difficulty. I don't think the devs will tone it down, since the game is marketed as "hard" and "old-school", but at least with the console there is a way to adapt your party to the difficulty level you want to play.

When you need the console to "adapt" you're playing a difficulty setting that's too tough for you. The proper solution is to restart on a lower difficulty setting because otherwise you're playing the console and not the game.

[FrankyFastHands]

You guys. Stop it. Play on hard. I was swearing on normal on first boss, then my balls droped and i rerolled hard. Its not that hard actually, just don't facetank ever.

[Alturis]

As an update to this I was able to figure out how to hack the save file to change the difficulty from normal to easy. However it is unclear if it will actually affect the difficulty of combat for me as it seems odd for it to be stored the way it was. So far it SEEMS to be working but I have not tested extensively or done any hard comparisons to confirm. Will report back if it seems to be working as expected. If so message me if you are interested in the tool to perform the hack.

[Austellus]

I think half the reason people find it hard is 'cause the most obviously available route (Through the ruins of Desarune) runs you smack bang into the crabs, which are fairly tough even if you don't do that area first. Doing Keelbreach bog before it takes a lot of the sting out of it.

[tyrael]

Originally posted by Alturis:

As an update to this I was able to figure out how to hack the save file to change the difficulty from normal to easy. However it is unclear if it will actually affect the difficulty of combat for me as it seems odd for it to be stored the way it was. So far it SEEMS to be working but I have not tested extensively or done any hard comparisons to confirm. Will report back if it seems to be working as expected. If so message me if you are interested in the tool to perform the hack.

Well good for you.
I don't generally agree with what you said. Ofc it's your opinion and no one takes away the right to say it out loud. I just think that you somehow failed at learning the basics of combat in this game. The methodology is simple, you are not meant to be hit too often. Even on easy, the characters are meant to avoid any possible hit.
Having finished the game on hard once, now playing for the 'insane ironman' on easy I have to say that hard is very hard and each hit is very punishing, foes are fast and relentless not to mention capable of taking loads of punishment, moreover until being really well-geared you are not able to facetank anything. Easy on the other hand is... well, easy - very much so. Foes move slow and are as dumb as it gets, often just ignoring you and standing showing their backs. Also you are able to tank most things.

I would say difficulty is well balances since it's not a simple matter of scaling the numbers. The AI pattering, response delays, attack frequency (and probably more things) and damage on top of that scales accordingly. If you are not fit for combat, that's fine just remember that skirmishes are also a type of a puzzle as enemies are not identical and they use different strategies.

[Platinumb]

Leave the OP he alone, he wants to go play pokemon, accidentally got grimrock 2.

[Alturis]

Thanks for all the tips. I will be sticking with easy. Maybe I just don't have the focus and reaction time it takes to deal with moving and not getting stuck while simultaneously avoiding multiple enemies and attacking or switching around to find healing potions all at the same time. I do realize that the way to do combat is to avoid getting hit and time your attacks so that you hit them and then evade their attack. Yes I know. I simply find that it is far too difficulty for me to accomplish this without having to work overly hard at it to the point where the game becomes all about the combat and is no longer enjoyable.

I don't want the game to be all about combat because frankly the combat system is crude and not what is good about the game.

[tyrael]

@Alturis
Well, it's good at least that you are able to admit that it is partially your own inability not only game's mechanic that you blame.
Anyway, I hope easy is ok for you and you are having fun with the game playing it the way you like.

Originally posted by Shane Moffatt:

Leave the OP he alone, he wants to go play pokemon, accidentally got grimrock 2.

Now, now, there is no need to look down on OP. Plus pokemon games, the rpg ones (all them reds, golds etc) have an incredible math apparatus standing behind the most important aspects of the game. So they just look easy, but when you dive deep into the rules wanting to level up in an optimized way for example, it suddenly makes your head spin. I am not a fanatic, barely played a few of those games but once, out of curiosity i googled the topic of it all. I have to say what's under the hood there is quite impressive, especially for such "silly-looking" game.

[Seldon]

Maybe you are using wrong weapons/spells. I'm playing on normal mode and there was no fight longer than 4 mins (which was the rat and the plants boss fight). I don't think I had a normal fight longer than 1.5 mins