Is this game for real?

[czerro]

There are alot of problems with this game. I have a passing familiarity with Elder Signs...but everything about this game is opaque. Every minor mission on EASY seems impossible. The player can't even employ any strategy. You just 'pick a thing' and the mission pops up and it's revealed it's either 'right' or 'wrong' for the character. How is there strategy in that? The player is just randomly boned?

Even IF you get a good pairing...the mission is impossible. I believe the player gets 6 or 7 signs depending on the character in the first round. Aside from Scrolls, there are no 'multi' signs on EASY...yet the mission will have THREE requisites: Triple Skull, Triple Tentacle, 7 mags. If you have played the game, you will know, there are enough 'signs' that getting a 3 out of 6/7 in round 1 is a long shot...if you are successful you can look forward to trying to roll a 3 of 4 in round Three. STRATEGY!

You lose a sign every turn/reroll. So if you didn't get any of those 1/10000 odds on your first roll, you are immediately screwed...not to mention getting 3 out of 4, or 3 out of 3 duplicates in the 3rd turn is essentially impossible and entirely luck. You have to beat these odds THREE times successively!

There is basically no gameplay to the 'game'.

People explain you have to min/max your team at the start and hope for best rolls. So you have to know how everything in the game works, to min/max the first couple rounds, in the hope that you randomly draw something playable in the open...to actually play.

Brilliant.

I think there is a good game here, but nobody took the time to really examine the balance, explain the mechanics, or give the player enough ability to control what is happening. You basically stumble around blindly into scenario's that are probably ill fit for the character in that turn. Where is the strategy? What does it matter if I know what abilities my character has, if the draw and req's are all random anyway and I can't see the scenario before I pick it?! Why even give me the option to pick anything?!

Someone asked if this was a 'troll game' and I have to confess I think it is.

Edit: The only thing I can think of, is there is a bug in the RNG related to the framerate (144hz no vsync). The random reqs are impossible on EASY. They are always maxed with 3 reqs, and those reqs are always maxed: 3 skulls, 3 scrolls, 8 mags or some such. That's impossible in 6 turns with n-1 draw over 6-turns. That's THREE turns and impossible odds! I'm going to lock framerate to 30fps and force vsync and return. It's just unimaginable that the dev's released a game where every scenario was impossible...

[X-the Unknown]

I been tryin to tell em all this for awhile now but they keep saying there is STRATEGY in choosing where you go lol some strategy. Thas it the computer generated randomness plays the rest of the game for you. ;))

[Bojan]

Idk what you guys talking about... You can check how hard the location is, then you check what items and special ability your Investigator has, and then you decide is it worth it to even try. Pure risk assessment.
Yes, heavy RNG is involved, but you can beat the game.

[Arcturus Asriv]

Originally posted by Bojan:

Idk what you guys talking about... You can check how hard the location is, then you check what items and special ability your Investigator has, and then you decide is it worth it to even try. Pure risk assessment.
Yes, heavy RNG is involved, but you can beat the game.

What he said.
Yes, RNG is a major component of the game, but so is risk mitigation.

I focus on (1) unlocking any locked glyphs, (2) removing Midnight effects, (3) collecting signs, (4) defeating monsters. In that order.
Be aware at all times of your investigators' special abilities, and use them. Also be aware of the rewards for each encounter. Some investigators get a bonus on certain items.
Always use strong physical characters vs. areas that do physical damage if you fail, and strong mental characters vs. areas that do mental damage if you fail. Hope to win, but expect to fail. It's a horror game, not a carebear adventure.
Some encouunters, especially if there's a monster, may require teaming up. Allow for your first investigator to 'take one for the team' to get rid of a monster or to be there to hold a glyph for the next member.

[Einar]

You can see what's needed (which symbols), rewards and penalties by clicking the title of the locations. Before I realised that I thought it was way too random.

[Bojan]

To be honest, game is not worth its full price, but if you get it during a sale, it is a quick time waster. It doesn't pretend to be much more anyhow.

[natolelamarigolo]

I don't understand the complain. This game is good. For the difficulty, my first tries were all easy victories (Yig, Tsatogghua, Hastur). I won againt Azathoth with a first Investigator deceased. I lost for the first time against Cthulhu, but without some strategy errors, and with some more luck, I think I could have win. I finished by beating him anyway, with only one Investigator eliminated, but with no strategic errors, and some luck at critical moments. It was epic. It's possible to win, and it's because it's difficult that it's so good! Now I'll try to win against Dark Pharaoh. I lost but I know I can win. Seriously, I consider playing againt the 4 first villains is a training mode. The last 3, with their capaign mode full of surprises are great to play against!

[Tapewormz]

Elder signs is a really difficult game. I own the physical version and I can honestly say that unless you were playing the game properly you would have found it everybit as difficult to win in the physical version as you do in the digital version. It's just a really hard game to play since the majority of the game is based on die rolls with very little manipulation to the results.

[wolfenfyre]

Originally posted by Bojan:

Idk what you guys talking about... You can check how hard the location is, then you check what items and special ability your Investigator has, and then you decide is it worth it to even try. Pure risk assessment.
Yes, heavy RNG is involved, but you can beat the game.

So, how do yo check the difficulty? I have the game on my shelf, with all the expansions, and love it. This is pretty much a rubbish attempt to make it digital.

[DankWestern]

I gotta say, WAYYYY back in the day, like iPod Touch days, I used to jam out on this game almost every day. I was continuously destroyed no matter what I did. No matter how solid my choices were, no matter how hard I strategized, I always met with failure.

[Plake]

Originally posted by czerro:

There are alot of problems with this game. I have a passing familiarity with Elder Signs...but everything about this game is opaque. Every minor mission on EASY seems impossible. The player can't even employ any strategy. You just 'pick a thing' and the mission pops up and it's revealed it's either 'right' or 'wrong' for the character. How is there strategy in that? The player is just randomly boned?

Clicking the name of the mission reveals all tasks without entering it... I stopped reading after this, since the rest is most likely a similar nonsense rant about an EASY game! Learn which characters work best and git gud!

[DankWestern]

Even with that knowledge, how is one supposed to collect like 11 skull tokens in an RNG dependent draw and you only get 1 skull token 99 out of 100 times you try that mission?
I would love to know how one can 'git gud' in that case, please enlighten us of the secrets.

[Plake]

Check guides, I am not here to teach you. Looking at your comment in the other topic "achievements" (while you yourself proudly present the most rare ones on your profile) I also don't want to...

This game is one of the best boardgame-to-digital games out there and on Boardgamegeek are more than enough guides and tips!

[DankWestern]

Hahah you just like coming in and telling everyone they need to git gud and not offering anything at all, fair enough.

[Plake]

Originally posted by DankWestern:

Hahah you just like coming in and telling everyone they need to git gud and not offering anything at all, fair enough.

I explained EXACTLY what the problem in OP's first part of his post was. You need to learn to read posts you are replying on...
Just because you decide to hijack a topic with your own nonsense, doesn't mean others need to jump on your bandwagon!

[DankWestern]

You came in, told everyone to Google it, and that we're talentless scrubs who need to git gud. When someone comes in with such a pompous piece of advice, it's pretty hard to continue reading anything they have to say. It's not hijacking a thread to call you out for a useless comment.
Sure we could all just Google it, but that defeats the spirit of a "Discussion" and don't you think we've tried by now? That's step one, lil bro.