Fix the difficulty

[BOG]

I can put up with the laggy zombies that dart around, the iron sights being bugged, players showing up as just a face and gun, I can even put up with the rare buggy zombies that take 20 hits and 10 shots to kill that are still attacking even after their head is gone; but the main thing I can't put up with in this game is the way it's balanced at the highest difficulty.

In most games you get stronger as the game goes on, you acquire skills and perks that enhance your style of play, but in this game it works in the opposite direction. You get perks and it looks like you're getting stronger, but in reality the perks do nothing at all and you just become weaker and weaker as the difficulty increases because the difficulty outpaces the skills/perks.

In a zombie apocalypse game, who's idea was it to increase the difficulty by making the zombies into bullet and melee sponges rather than adding more zombies? The entire reason zombie movies are scary is because of the number of zombies, not because they are so hard to kill. At max difficulty I feel like I'm swinging a pool noodle at these zombies. Even the guns kind of suck, I had the pistol headshot perk and still couldn't one shot zombies with a headshot consistently. I have a 15-20 pound two handed ratchet wrench and it still takes 4-5 swings to the head to kill a zombie...

If you make people feel weak and helpless this game will die, the only way people should feel this way is because there are too many zombies to melee by yourself, or there's not enough ammo to shoot them all. I've read in your posts that you intend to make ammo harder to come by, if you do that and leave the game balance the way it is I can't see who will be willing to play this, I certainly won't. Guns are the only thing making this game remotely playable at the highest difficulty.

[Khav]

I agree with this comment. In addition to the game's bugs, which I tolerate at the moment, considering that the game is in the Early Access phase.
The game is hard enough with normal zombies. Want to add more difficulty? add more zombies... those "elite runners" certainly doom the player's fate. I can be surrounded by 10 normal zombies, and with those alone I will have enough difficulty trying to manage my survival strategy and try to kill them, one by one, especially if I don't have bullets... but if 1 elite joins this bunch of 10, the final sentence is almost certain.
In one of the games I played, practically all the bullets I found on the way from the starting point were for pistols...nothing for magnums, which is the weapon we have at the beginning.
Remove the Zombie Elite now, because in the current situation of the game, it is not pleasurable to play this game, nor to explore it properly.

[Twilight Sparkle]

I also agree as well, not a fan of the forced difficulty options that the game makes you go to, I wanna enjoy the game with my choice on the difficulty options and not just straight jump into nightmare just cuz its based on the character level, really doesn't make it any fun, sure other people enjoy it better (because there are hardcore people as well) but some of us don't really so we wanna have our options to be able to either jump into high difficulty or not

[StarryEyes]

in my experience, with the right skills and expert versions of skills, and a little luck... you are strong enough to even the playing field. You are not OP anymore, but you stand a chance., I completed matches with just me and one other, at the highest difficulty with well built characters.

Granted we have a lot of hours and practice with fully max characters, which we even got lucky on re rolling our new responders.

I'm not defending the bugs. I've died to them too, and they suck and are ruining the mass appeal of this amazing game.

My point is difficulty is far more inconsistent then it is unbalanced. Freshly rolled char, difficulty 1 and I have 3 runners up my ass frame while i have a pipe and six magnum rounds. They keep coming? Farmhouse absolutely filled with red eyes and a screamer for good measure. FARMHOUSE. Difficulty 1 btw. a minor POI that is normally very easy, and can be done very efficiently when you have a decent melee weapon and can avoid making too much noise. Difficulty 1 btw.

When i have a decently built max character, I solo many poi's on hardest difficulty. atleast.. That's how it goes when i don't die to a bug or bugs that lead to a series of very gruesome and unavoidable happenings..

TL;DR I feel difficulty scaling is rather balanced, but is inconsistent on easier difficulties. Often too much for newer un leveled characters. So maybe i disagree with you on the opposite. I feel end game is balanced properly. Early game.... not so much.

Not to mention, if you are in a full match with nothing but ppl who know what they are doing. You all meet up while gearing and hit the main obj's together. No mater the difficulty you escape literally 100/100 times. It's become trivial at this point with the right team.

i admit as a new player the cards are stacked against you. You have a mountain of bugs, very specific jank mechanics to learn, How to circumvent different bugs., and much more just to be able to enjoy the game.

Those 500-1000 ppl just like me seem to see the good in the game and will put up with the BS in order to play and still enjoy it. As of now there is not another zombie game in this style, with this atmosphere, nothing close. and just..♥♥♥♥ man. I love it. I'm very passionate about this game.

Meanwhile i do I respect you all, all of your gripes, concerns, criticism, anger..ETC all of it. But if you can only take away one thing I've tried to convey to you over this WAY too long steam discussion board comment... It's this: There is an amazing game under here.

[StarryEyes]

Originally posted by Twilight Sparkle:

I also agree as well, not a fan of the forced difficulty options that the game makes you go to, I wanna enjoy the game with my choice on the difficulty options and not just straight jump into nightmare just cuz its based on the character level, really doesn't make it any fun, sure other people enjoy it better (because there are hardcore people as well) but some of us don't really so we wanna have our options to be able to either jump into high difficulty or not

I can get behind this... the game already lets you play at your pwn pace...TB said they are actively working on different game modes. hopefully one will allow you to choose your difficulty. Perfect for the people who wish to do so. I see no problem with that.

I'm confident that when this games is finally in the right state gameplay and polish wise. We can amass a strong enough player base to keep the game rolling. Not going to guess how many, but i imagine it will be enough,

If we had more casual game modes with the modes they are already currently working on, it may attract a more casual audience to boost the player base. Casual players, while I don't know the exact numbers.. I'd have to say they out number us by at least 8 to 1.

Wishful thinking? maybe. i just want this game to succeed. at some point down the line console versions should be considered with opt in/opt out cross platform multiplayer.

[Mad GobliN]

I can understand the annoyance related to the bug, but stop complaining about the difficulty of games without knowing how to play correctly.

I see your posts saying ''I have a runner behind and I just have a 6 shots magnum..
pushes the runner and during the short lap of time where he is stun shot in the head.

It is easy currently, I regret even having a magnum provided at the beginning. the best is to start only with a melee weapon and find the gun. it reinforces the feeling of insecurity.

The game is not a walk in the park, but a walk on the edge of the nothingness.

(It hurts to be faced with the reality of your gameplay, give me the clowns)

[snatchr]

there is literally no difficulty at all in this game, you just hold W to the power plant and just press W if there is any zombie near you and you walk away

[StarryEyes]

Originally posted by snatchr:

there is literally no difficulty at all in this game, you just hold W to the power plant and just press W if there is any zombie near you and you walk away

thats not even close to being considered a half way coherent statement.

wat?
Trolling, gotta be. Or else quite possibly the biggest imbecile on these boards. It's one or the other tho, that much ain't up for debate.

[Rippa]

Originally posted by StarryEyes:

Originally posted by snatchr:

there is literally no difficulty at all in this game, you just hold W to the power plant and just press W if there is any zombie near you and you walk away

thats not even close to being considered a half way coherent statement.

wat?
Trolling, gotta be. Or else quite possibly the biggest imbecile on these boards. It's one or the other tho, that much ain't up for debate.

that kid lives on cs:go lol

[droggen]

Honestly the game is only as hard as the perks you pick building your character, My first character I was trying to be a medic that was hard with no damage boost to guns or melee. This current character is a leathal killing machine with one handed melee weapons, Once I find a crowbar or a hatchet I win even red eyes go down in one to two hits on nightmare.

[Thunderkiss5000]

anyone that says it isn't that difficult is cheating and using bugs to their advantage. You keep talking about realism, when a brain is no longer active, neither is the body - a shot to the head deactivates the brain therefor no active body. Only 1 bullet is required to do this in real life. You get where I'm going with this. The game needs walkers and a lot of them.. get rid of the runners, add infection and then you have a realistic experience. The game is far too hard on the higher levels if you're an honest player not using bugs to win.

[xNOGx]

i second this motion! this is a great idea as well... make the hardest difficulty with insane amounts of the undead... but for the love of god dont reduce the ammo count! we need them bullets just to stun them in the games current state. if you manage to fix the immortal zeeks than by all means tweak ammo as needed but as for right now these immortal zeeks are breaking the game for all of us as a community. its hard to stream this conetent on twitch when the viewers and chatters dont want to watch a buggy game no matter who the streamer is.

[Germaine's Bra]

Originally posted by BOG:

zombies that take 20 hits and 10 shots to kill

I keep being told noone has really experienced this, and it's just that I need to learn how to aim.... Like hey dumbass I troll into a spot where they can't hit men and dump numberous shots, or beat of them for ages and they just don't go down. 40+ hits on one before I alt-f4'ed as everyone else died less than 5 minutes into said match.

Level 1

[BOG]

For those saying not to complain about difficulty or that it isn't hard, I'm not asking for them to make the game easier, I want them to re-balance\fix the difficulty by making more zombies, including making more runners or red eyes, even the infection system I also want in the game. I just think that the game would be more fun if they balanced it this way, instead of just making zombies more spongy and deadly.

It feels more real on the starter difficulties, and feels gamey on nightmare. When you have to hit a zombie in the head with a charged two handed wrench 4-5 times to kill him it kind of kills the immersion, instead of feeling scared or giving the game tension it just feels artificially difficult and gamey.

So again, I do not want the game to be easier, I want them to balance the difficulty in a different way which I think would retain the fun from the easier difficulty levels. Just add more zombies overall, including the special types. Maybe even add a stamina drain to sprint if you want to make it really difficult on nightmare.

[BOG]

Originally posted by Germaine's Bra:

Originally posted by BOG:

zombies that take 20 hits and 10 shots to kill

I keep being told noone has really experienced this, and it's just that I need to learn how to aim.... Like hey dumbass I troll into a spot where they can't hit men and dump numberous shots, or beat of them for ages and they just don't go down. 40+ hits on one before I alt-f4'ed as everyone else died less than 5 minutes into said match.

Level 1

I've seen it at least 4 times, we had one where we shot off both arms and his head was a stump and it was still alive lol we initially tried to melee him but after 15-20 hits we took out guns and started blasting, it still took about 10 shots with the shotgun.

[Dredd]

I don't like how red eye zombies only take actual damage if they are hit on the head...