The challenge is part of the fun! However...

[Time Traveler]

Casual gamers make up a huge majority of customers. While I love the rewarding feeling that I get from overcoming the difficult bosses in this game, I am worried that casual gamers will be turned off from the difficulty. GGG should add a "story mode" difficulty for such players, so that they can enjoy the story without a difficulty that will chase such customers.

That way, those of us that enjoy the challenge can keep playing on our difficulty without GGG nerfing the bosses while more casual gamers can enjoy the game at their pace. It's a win-win for players and a larger, happier customer base makes it a win for GGG.

[Xersin]

Originally posted by Time Traveler:

Casual gamers make up a huge majority of customers. While I love the rewarding feeling that I get from overcoming the difficult bosses in this game, I am worried that casual gamers will be turned off from the difficulty. GGG should add a "story mode" difficulty for such players, so that they can enjoy the story without a difficulty that will chase such customers.

That way, those of us that enjoy the challenge can keep playing on our difficulty without GGG nerfing the bosses while more casual gamers can enjoy the game at their pace. It's a win-win for players and a larger, happier customer base makes it a win for GGG.

This IS Story Mode difficulty. They haven't added the Hard Mode yet.

[Duskyer]

I feel like the first Act shouldn't have so many enemies that drop a death pool. First time Warriors will suffer. Especially since all the ranged enemies attack so fast and mobs can pile on us. It doesn't help that there's no mobility skills like in PoE1. The maps are way too large and have so many dead ends that in PoE1 we could just warp past. In here? You gotta backtrack and it could take a good minute if you don't have movement speed boots.
Like you either have a buncha mobs dogpiling on you or wicked hard bosses. Not both, at least for the 1st Act.

[Steel]

Story mode difficulty just for the campaign?
I'll tell you what happens with that. They play campaign on story mode facing no challenge and not having any skill or knowledge checks, get to the endgame, get absolutely walled and destroyed at T1 maps and end up quitting anyway, with the only difference being that they now wasted 40 hours of their lives being baited into playing a mode that does not represent what the game actually is, before being bait and switched into a brutal endgame.

And also, because such a mode would be the easiest way to get to endgame, not just casuals would use it, EVERYONE would. There would be zero reason not to play on it.

[Duskyer]

Originally posted by LE TOUCAN HAS ARRIVED:

Story mode difficulty just for the campaign?
I'll tell you what happens with that. They play campaign on story mode facing no challenge and not having any skill or knowledge checks, get to the endgame, get absolutely walled and destroyed at T1 maps and end up quitting anyway, with the only difference being that they now wasted 40 hours of their lives being baited into playing a mode that does not represent what the game actually is, before being bait and switched into a brutal endgame.

And also, because such a mode would be the easiest way to get to endgame, not just casuals would use it, EVERYONE would. There would be zero reason not to play on it.

A game should ease you in at the beginning. I found most my difficulty in the first 3 Acts. Once I got to "Cruelty" Mode I breezed past it. How is it that the game goes from super hard, to wicked easy, back to super hard?
There's absolutely nothing wrong with giving casual players a casual experience. It does not affect you whatsoever. You still have your endgame content being extremely hard and first time players can at least enjoy the campaign.

[♥BlackSun♥]

it's 0.1 build, story is not even done. Talk about story mode and such on 1.0 release please.

ppls who think "game uber hard, need baby mode" could as well wait up until official release of a game then try again.

[gachi is manly]

I think the whole "it's too hard for casuals and they're not enjoying themselves" is rather overblown. The game has like, what? 83% positive reviews? If casuals make up the majority of the player base and are mostly not liking it, I think you'd see the review score being mixed at best.

PoE1 has existed for over a decade with stable population numbers without catering too much to the casual audience. PoE2 will be just fine.

There's certainly a lot of work to be done balancing things, though. Some stuff is just absolute BS, like cruel ascendancy trials are still overtuned or at least just plain not very fun for anybody I've talked to. And the game balance feels a bit "off". It starts off hard, then gets easy, then hard again. Ideally it should get gradually harder with the occasional spikes to keep it spicy. End game also just feels undercooked in general.

Originally posted by Duskyer:

There's absolutely nothing wrong with giving casual players a casual experience. It does not affect you whatsoever. You still have your endgame content being extremely hard and first time players can at least enjoy the campaign.

Whatsoever is a bit of a stretch. It takes dev time away from other things to balance a whole new difficulty mode and continue to balance it moving forward as more content is added. I'm not against the idea, but I'd rather they just tweak the one difficulty than make a new one.

[Sergio]

Step one: decide to play in early access
Step two: encounter bugs and overtuned enemies
Step three: go to forums and cry about game not being ready in early access version 0.1.0

Nobody forces you to spend the money or play the game right now. Game will come out absolutely free to play in version 1.0 and will have story line, more balanced gameplay, bug fixes and more.

[Cody]

90% of ARPGs are too easy, I've finally found one that proves a challenge let's not change that please.

[ominumi]

I really want to watch some of these 'casual gamer' play games. [insert Cuphead meme]

[Spirit]

Originally posted by gachi is manly:

I think the whole "it's too hard for casuals and they're not enjoying themselves" is rather overblown. The game has like, what? 83% positive reviews? If casuals make up the majority of the player base and are mostly not liking it, I think you'd see the review score being mixed at best.

PoE1 has existed for over a decade with stable population numbers without catering too much to the casual audience. PoE2 will be just fine.

There's certainly a lot of work to be done balancing things, though. Some stuff is just absolute BS, like cruel ascendancy trials are still overtuned or at least just plain not very fun for anybody I've talked to. And the game balance feels a bit "off". It starts off hard, then gets easy, then hard again. Ideally it should get gradually harder with the occasional spikes to keep it spicy. End game also just feels undercooked in general.

Originally posted by Duskyer:

There's absolutely nothing wrong with giving casual players a casual experience. It does not affect you whatsoever. You still have your endgame content being extremely hard and first time players can at least enjoy the campaign.

Whatsoever is a bit of a stretch. It takes dev time away from other things to balance a whole new difficulty mode and continue to balance it moving forward as more content is added. I'm not against the idea, but I'd rather they just tweak the one difficulty than make a new one.

those reviews are from poe 1 veterans who extensively played it and have vastly more knowledge about it then someone who look into it on occasion to see whats the next season is about
most casuals dont even leave a review and silently leave the game behind , enjoying other games instead

[Xersin]

Originally posted by Spirit:

Originally posted by gachi is manly:

I think the whole "it's too hard for casuals and they're not enjoying themselves" is rather overblown. The game has like, what? 83% positive reviews? If casuals make up the majority of the player base and are mostly not liking it, I think you'd see the review score being mixed at best.

PoE1 has existed for over a decade with stable population numbers without catering too much to the casual audience. PoE2 will be just fine.

There's certainly a lot of work to be done balancing things, though. Some stuff is just absolute BS, like cruel ascendancy trials are still overtuned or at least just plain not very fun for anybody I've talked to. And the game balance feels a bit "off". It starts off hard, then gets easy, then hard again. Ideally it should get gradually harder with the occasional spikes to keep it spicy. End game also just feels undercooked in general.




Whatsoever is a bit of a stretch. It takes dev time away from other things to balance a whole new difficulty mode and continue to balance it moving forward as more content is added. I'm not against the idea, but I'd rather they just tweak the one difficulty than make a new one.

those reviews are from poe 1 veterans who extensively played it and have vastly more knowledge about it then someone who look into it on occasion to see whats the next season is about
most casuals dont even leave a review and silently leave the game behind , enjoying other games instead

You say that like it's a bad thing. It's okay for a game to not be for everyone.

[Duskyer]

People will defend the most strange mechanics. Like Global chat has some of the most annoying egoists.
"I like that items disappear on death even if you've killed the boss. Shouldn't let your guard down."
"I don't think they should've changed rolling. People should just be aware not to be dogpiled."
I once argued I'd like to zoom the camera out a bit more so I could actually see some boss's tells when they attack, and this guy was like, "Sounds like a skill issue. You should get close so you can see them." I am a ranged class in my most effective position to deal damage.

[Arrakisdef]

Originally posted by Time Traveler:

Casual gamers make up a huge majority of customers. While I love the rewarding feeling that I get from overcoming the difficult bosses in this game, I am worried that casual gamers will be turned off from the difficulty. GGG should add a "story mode" difficulty for such players, so that they can enjoy the story without a difficulty that will chase such customers.

That way, those of us that enjoy the challenge can keep playing on our difficulty without GGG nerfing the bosses while more casual gamers can enjoy the game at their pace. It's a win-win for players and a larger, happier customer base makes it a win for GGG.

One shot mechanics from random trash mobs is not fun. Say it with me. There doesn't need to be a story mode. There needs to be a properly balanced mode.

[ministrog]

Originally posted by LE TOUCAN HAS ARRIVED:

Story mode difficulty just for the campaign?
I'll tell you what happens with that. They play campaign on story mode facing no challenge and not having any skill or knowledge checks, get to the endgame, get absolutely walled and destroyed at T1 maps and end up quitting anyway, with the only difference being that they now wasted 40 hours of their lives being baited into playing a mode that does not represent what the game actually is, before being bait and switched into a brutal endgame.

And also, because such a mode would be the easiest way to get to endgame, not just casuals would use it, EVERYONE would. There would be zero reason not to play on it.

you know, i used to think like everyone else that's been complaining about "GGG games are too hard!". ever since they've changed POE 1's act 1, i got it. what you just wrote literally put what i've been thinking for awhile now in a much better way than i ever could. it's almost a courtesy to show people what this game is about. waste no one's time.

but the game should tweaked regardless. remove outliers because they'll accelerate unhealthy metas.

[Duskyer]

I would appreciate more quality of life. I shouldn't be able to die to some death puddle if it belonged to a boss or the final enemy of a map. Why should I be stressed even after the boss I worked so hard to kill is dead.
Another thing would be a kill notification. I'd like to know what kinda of damage I took and the numbers I was dealt with so I can actually prepare my gear better.