Difficulty question

[MeltedLemonade]

In the game's difficulty settings, there's options for enemy strength, and also general damage levels. For enemies, does changing either of them increase enemy damage? So setting both to high gives me an even more difficult experience? I just want to be sure

Ok basically does the enemy strength setting just change the HP because there is a damage modifier for all damage sources

[M͕͕͗͗i͕͕͗͗y͕͕͗͗o]

if you set both on high the enemies will have more health but also will do more damage to you. but remember that if you take more damage your tech will break faster.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

hmm... yes..... if you set the difficulty higher, the game becomes harder (?)

Alright that was easy !... Next question ! :3

[UncreativelyNamed]

Generally speaking, the options farther to the right on the difficulty settings make the game harder, yes. Thing is, if you're an experienced player, playing with all the settings as "far right" as they go still isn't all that hard. At that point, if you want more challenge, you're going to need mods.

This is because, also generally speaking, I don't think the devs intend for this to be a "hard" game. I think they intend for it to be a more relaxing and exploration-focused game. Seems to me that's why the "survival" aspect in the beginning just doesn't last very long, unless you do things yourself to drag it out, either through personal rules and/or, again, mods.

[[501st]Mr.Fox]

I've been playing on survival difficulty for a while now and out of nowhere the enemy difficulty jumped a lot higher. Nothing changed in the settings. Almost all weapons are maxed out and even still random pirates are difficult to defeat

[GenSec39]

The game does not become harder. It becomes more grindy, tedious and time consuming. Core gameplay in NMS is hypercasual with very simple mechanics. By raising it's difficulty are not adding more depth or challenge to the gameplay - you are just adding more inconveniece.

If you are just starting to play NMS, I'd strongly recommend to begin with standard difficulty. And only then, after you play it enough, and only if you understand what you are doing - by all means, choose any difficulty you want.

[[501st]Mr.Fox]

Originally posted by GenSec39:

The game does not become harder. It becomes more grindy, tedious and time consuming. Core gameplay in NMS is hypercasual with very simple mechanics. By raising it's difficulty are not adding more depth or challenge to the gameplay - you are just adding more inconveniece.

If you are just starting to play NMS, I'd strongly recommend to begin with standard difficulty. And only then, after you play it enough, and only if you understand what you are doing - by all means, choose any difficulty you want.

Doesn't this prevent achievements tho? I read somewhere that if you change any of the difficulty settings even once, achievements will be unavailable (grayed out). I could be wrong though

[Fitzy]

Originally posted by 501st Mr.Fox:

Originally posted by GenSec39:

The game does not become harder. It becomes more grindy, tedious and time consuming. Core gameplay in NMS is hypercasual with very simple mechanics. By raising it's difficulty are not adding more depth or challenge to the gameplay - you are just adding more inconveniece.

If you are just starting to play NMS, I'd strongly recommend to begin with standard difficulty. And only then, after you play it enough, and only if you understand what you are doing - by all means, choose any difficulty you want.

Doesn't this prevent achievements tho? I read somewhere that if you change any of the difficulty settings even once, achievements will be unavailable (grayed out). I could be wrong though

For survival and permadeath yes if I remember, I done them both at the same time, I changed the option to "locked" for being able to change the settings in game and it makes a "custom" save file, so I played it through without touching them, not sure about normal achievements. They might be disabled on creative mode.

Like was said though the difficulty slider isn't as intense in this game as others, so "Normal" is already an easier pace.

[GenSec39]

Originally posted by 501st Mr.Fox:

Doesn't this prevent achievements tho? I read somewhere that if you change any of the difficulty settings even once, achievements will be unavailable (grayed out). I could be wrong though

You need survival+permadeath only for 2 achievements. The rest can be done on any difficulty. I done almost all achievs on my main standard save. For SP I created separate save, got 2 last achievs in 8 hours and forgot it for good.

[Zak]

Originally posted by GenSec39:

The game does not become harder. It becomes more grindy, tedious and time consuming.

Basically this. You just need to recharge your tech more often, shoot more bullets, use more materials with fewer slots, etc. This is not "difficult", just more tedious. I tried, but saw no point in higher diff, so left everything in the middle.

Originally posted by 501st Mr.Fox:

Doesn't this prevent achievements tho? I read somewhere that if you change any of the difficulty settings even once, achievements will be unavailable (grayed out). I could be wrong though

I think it's only for permadeath, maybe, as few achievements are tied to diff setting, such as "reach the center of the Galaxy in permadeath mode". I messed with diff setting all the time in all my saves, I play only Custom Mode and I still have 23 out of 27 achievements unlocked.

[Fitzy]

Originally posted by Zak:

Originally posted by GenSec39:

The game does not become harder. It becomes more grindy, tedious and time consuming.

Basically this. You just need to recharge your tech more often, shoot more bullets, use more materials with fewer slots, etc. This is not "difficult", just more tedious. I tried, but saw no point in higher diff, so left everything in the middle.

Originally posted by 501st Mr.Fox:

Doesn't this prevent achievements tho? I read somewhere that if you change any of the difficulty settings even once, achievements will be unavailable (grayed out). I could be wrong though

I think it's only for permadeath, maybe, as few achievements are tied to diff setting, such as "reach the center of the Galaxy in permadeath mode". I messed with diff setting all the time in all my saves, I play only Custom Mode and I still have 23 out of 27 achievements unlocked.

And even then the grind is the start of the game, which for new players might be a challenge as they may not know how to get this and that quickly but once you've upgraded hazard and life support and get a little money, you can still buy most of what you need rather than run around a harsh planet looking for it, so while it is more grind there still comes a point where its mostly the same as other settings. Hardest part of perma death is the start, once your ship is moving, it's just a case of doing Artemis quest or looking for visitors on space stations, then take a portal.

[Zak]

My opinion has always been that NMS is not for people who seek challenge in games. And that's fine. I personally don't seek challenge in games, games are simply entertainment for me. But I understand that many people do and for those, there are other games out there.

But yes, the first few hours are the most difficult part of this game and it can be a bit frustrating as the game does some things in not-so-obvious and unintuitive ways, and, despite of the tutorial people miss many things in the first few hours. But later, it gets much easier.

[Daemonjax]

Put everything on the hardest settings. It's fine.

[Sera]

NMS kinda falls in category of "All Ages" Its not gonna be that tough, even on hard.
There was some mods to make it alot tougher. It didn't really over-haul combat.. you still kinda just hide behind something and shot around it. >_>

As for Trophies, Perma-death can be done during one of expeditions. (loop) so not even really perma-death.
I had Finished most of trophies by time Custom Setting came out. But 2 of Expeditions finish get to center/perma in one go for me.