Max Difficulty - Incredibly Tedious And Annoying

[STATIK]

So I decided to try a new custom save. I went into the difficulty settings and set every one of them to maximum difficulty...

There's no way anyone considers this fun. It's not even 'difficult'. It's simply extremely tedious and a massive nonstop resource grind. My mining beam hardly ever stopped running.

And then you finally get to the space station... And a C class explorer ship costs 20 million units? I spent two hours on the planets and made about 300k... Imagine it was someone that had no idea how to make income... This is crazy... I'm going back to my comfy save.

[Felis_Exploria]

To each their own. I like the grind and I only buy freighters, frigates, and emergency beacons.

[Zak]

Yeah, it's way too tedious and grindy on high difficulty but some people actually enjoy that. This is the genre, Elite is grindy as hell too. Resource scarcity and grind define the difficulty. At least NMS now lets you play a Custom Game and tweak the difficulty settings to your liking. I rage-quit Elite because there was no difficulty settings, no way around the endless grind to improve your shields by 5%...

However, if it was someone who "had no idea how to make income" then they shouldn't be playing on max difficulty anyway. Max diff and permadeath is for hard core players with experience in this genre or players who previously played the game and are very familiar with the mechanics.

[Geldric™]

Originally posted by JJ SilverWhite:

So I decided to try a new custom save. I went into the difficulty settings and set every one of them to maximum difficulty...

There's no way anyone considers this fun. It's not even 'difficult'. It's simply extremely tedious and a massive nonstop resource grind. ...

Yup, I call that EXTREME SURVIVAL and I've played NOTHING BUT that since 4.0 dropped.

PS It's extremely fun, you know, for me and honestly when I play a game that's all that matters... my fun

[STATIK]

I love the new custom mode. Just thought I'd try out everything all the way to the right... never again... probably...

[Zak]

Originally posted by JJ SilverWhite:

I love the new custom mode. Just thought I'd try out everything all the way to the right... never again... probably...

I tried NMS at least twice over the years and each time quit within minutes. The last update made the game finally more accessible. And the ability to lower combat is an icing on the cake. I was combat traumatized after playing Elite Dangerous for a while.

Originally posted by Geldric:

Yup, I call that EXTREME SURVIVAL and I've played NOTHING BUT that since 4.0 dropped.

PS It's extremely fun, you know, for me and honestly when I play a game that's all that matters... my fun

I've had enough extreme real-life survival experience working in corporate/edu IT for 30+ years. I want easy, relaxing games with just a bit of challenge to keep it interesting.

[Dirak2012]

The thing is that the game isn't even harder, just more tedious.

[STATIK]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

The thing is that the game isn't even harder, just more tedious.

This is the point I'm trying to make. It's not 'hard', it's just NONSTOP running the mining laser to refill this or that resource that drops like a rock.

'shoot a plant for 25 seconds'. 'use up 15 carbon'. 'get 11 carbon back from plant'... It's just... annoying.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

The thing is that the game isn't even harder, just more tedious.

But that's what unfortunately defines "difficulty" in games like this. In Elite you would literally have to spend over 10 hours to get a single digit % upgrade to your engine or shields. It's freaking insane.

[Consoomer]

Lol, I'm the exact opposite. Only play max difficulty permadeath and cannot understand how anyone considers Normal or lower a fun experience. Games to me are about overcoming hardships, but NMS is balanced for those 7-year-olds from PEGI-7 rating. "All sliders to the right" at least gets the wheels turning. Higher prices and smaller inventory stacks make more game mechanics actually relevant and necessary. Things have more weight and value. Even so I find it mandatory to install mods for more and stronger enemies.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Goblin Mode:

Games to me are about overcoming hardships

Nope. Thanks:) But whatever makes you happy!

[Dirak2012]

Originally posted by Goblin Mode:

Lol, I'm the exact opposite. Only play max difficulty permadeath and cannot understand how anyone considers Normal or lower a fun experience. Games to me are about overcoming hardships, but NMS is balanced for those 7-year-olds from PEGI-7 rating. "All sliders to the right" at least gets the wheels turning. Higher prices and smaller inventory stacks make more game mechanics actually relevant and necessary. Things have more weight and value. Even so I find it mandatory to install mods for more and stronger enemies.

Smaller inventory doesn't make the game any harder, just more annoying.

[Consoomer]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

Smaller inventory doesn't make the game any harder, just more annoying.

I know what you mean, but I do appreciate the pressure to actually increase slots, set up storage containers, etc. Otherwise I'd probably be ok with a couple rows of those silly 9999 stacks. A bit of realism doesn't hurt, and delays the inevitable boredom.

I have seen people pissed at HG for *increasing* at one point the harsh-limit stacks from OG 250 to 300.

[STATIK]

I suppose it also depends on the difficulty of the starting planet. Mine was highly toxic with tall steep mountains all over. Almost constant jetpack use was taking tons of oxygen. I might try again and see if I get a flatter planet next time.

[Zak]

I think that for some people tedious=difficult and frustrating=difficult.

So I increased my Survival diff and all it means is that now I have more tech to recharge and more often. It doesn't make the game any more interesting. I can lower the resources availability too, but why? I don't like looking for stuff in real life why would I do it in games?

[NZ.Zero]

Yeah the game works best when the core challenge is exploring, thats what its best at.
Personally I always save-edit my inventory to max in games like this, I really dont get how that kind of busywork of running back and to is supposed to be interesting.

Then again, I guess a % of the population are sado machocists so guess they need games too :)