How good is a new dlc?

[bulbatrs]

is it just like an op animal that makes the game easier? then I don't want it, or is it a cool feature where the dog runs around and bites peaople during the day giving them injury and desease and urinate in shoes during the night giving mood debuff?

[SemtexMan47]

I like it. It's a nice little distraction from crafting and gathering resources. Nothing OP that I can see so far.

I'm on day 104 and am overloaded with food, so it's good to be able to give some extra to the dog. I can see the higher level skill unlocks to be pretty useful (like + to accuracy in battle).

[MTaur]

It makes the game easier.

It was pretty winnable before the recent patch, and I guess it would still be pretty winnable on Hard after the patch, even without using the dog.

The dog has several different skills that cost energy.

Restoring a small amount of depression or injury is strong early on. Later on, you can get a camp-wide combat buff for 4 days, or find +5 X skill items. You could accomplish the same with XP and crafting items, but it will probably speed up the late game.

Maybe they should add some DLC-specific balance changes for the sake of keeping it consistent, but I have no idea what would do the trick.

[bulbatrs]

Originally posted by MTaur:

It makes the game easier.

It was pretty winnable before the recent patch, and I guess it would still be pretty winnable on Hard after the patch, even without using the dog.

The dog has several different skills that cost energy.

Restoring a small amount of depression or injury is strong early on. Later on, you can get a camp-wide combat buff for 4 days, or find +5 X skill items. You could accomplish the same with XP and crafting items, but it will probably speed up the late game.

Maybe they should add some DLC-specific balance changes for the sake of keeping it consistent, but I have no idea what would do the trick.

hm, it's quite sad that the devs decided to go the p2w line. all we can do is hope that the future content will be "better" :(

[Skinner]

Originally posted by bulbatrs:

Originally posted by MTaur:

*snip*

hm, it's quite sad that the devs decided to go the p2w line. all we can do is hope that the future content will be "better" :(

Let's not jump to conclusions! I see that it has less than 3 days since release so tweaks and updates should be coming after more feedback. :)

[Purest Warrior]

Originally posted by bulbatrs:

hm, it's quite sad that the devs decided to go the p2w line. all we can do is hope that the future content will be "better" :(

It's not a P2W content patch, as I see it.
It adds a bit more content, management wise, but doesn't make the game considerably easier.
Even if it did, I don't see how the publisher would profit from releasing a P2W DLC, seeing as this is a single-player game, with no benefit from being "OP".

I got the DLC as a means to revive my love for the game and it worked.

[Tolkien Book Fan]

bulbatrs' first post essentially declares that anything that doesn't make a game harder is "OP", then declares it pay-to-win and states the devs must 'git better' without saying how or what they did wrong. This is either trolling or empty, generic hatred of paid DLC.

The bonuses for the Attack and Guard commands look good and the iniative bonuses are good, but Tomoe was defeated second round in a fight where Kari and Shanaw came through uninjured. On my computer at least, fighters are never viable against elites or bosses because they take too much damage when hit, far more than they dish out. Also, the dog requires a lot of bones for training and he is also the (main) source of the bones, so you have to wait several days at least to do any training, longer if you have him do things other than collect bones or rest. He's useful but not remotely game-breaking.

[SemtexMan47]

Yeah, troll meter is pinging.

Originally posted by MTaur:

It makes the game easier.

It was pretty winnable before the recent patch, and I guess it would still be pretty winnable on Hard after the patch, even without using the dog.

The dog has several different skills that cost energy.

Restoring a small amount of depression or injury is strong early on. Later on, you can get a camp-wide combat buff for 4 days, or find +5 X skill items. You could accomplish the same with XP and crafting items, but it will probably speed up the late game.

Maybe they should add some DLC-specific balance changes for the sake of keeping it consistent, but I have no idea what would do the trick.

Strong is an exaggeration. Healing 5-9 depression or sickness for one person once a day isn't going to completely save your ass if you're a player thats struggles to get past day 50.

It does make the game "easier" but by no means is it OP as that guy thinks.

[bulbatrs]

Originally posted by AllEmpiresFall:

bulbatrs' first post essentially declares that anything that doesn't make a game harder is "OP", then declares it pay-to-win and states the devs must 'git better' without saying how or what they did wrong. This is either trolling or empty, generic hatred of paid DLC.

The bonuses for the Attack and Guard commands look good and the iniative bonuses are good, but Tomoe was defeated second round in a fight where Kari and Shanaw came through uninjured. On my computer at least, fighters are never viable against elites or bosses because they take too much damage when hit, far more than they dish out. Also, the dog requires a lot of bones for training and he is also the (main) source of the bones, so you have to wait several days at least to do any training, longer if you have him do things other than collect bones or rest. He's useful but not remotely game-breaking.

you just have to compare 2 things - having an not having a dlc. if you don't have it the game is harder. therefore it's a p2w. I didn't say that I want it to make the game harder - positive could be balanced out by negative, but from what I understand it's just positive. also you mentioned bones - essential component in crafting weappons and armor that you can't get outside of the limited map events and lucky combat drops - how is that not p2w? this dog just sounds more and more op. also I find fighters good, not sure waf are you talking about with them not being viable.

[SemtexMan47]

Having the dog is not the line between winning or losing the game.

Have you beat the game yet? Or how far have you gotten?

If you think getting the dog will solve all your problems then you don't understand where the actual challenge to this game is in days 0-70.

[MTaur]

The implications aren't as dire as a $2 per day buff in a MMO PvP mobile app or whatever. This is a one-time $2 DLC for a $20 game (which maybe you could have bought for $15 or $10 on a sale, idk), and a pretty nice excuse to dust the game off and play it again. And the developers have to pay themselves, and they probably wished they could have included everything in the base game, but after X months Bjorn comes and demands tribute in real life.

Perfect balance is way too hard to aim for, but they could shoot for at least an appearance. It's rather complicated to aim for, since the dog's biggest benefits change between stages of the game. The primary areas hit are depression, injury, combat buffs, and skill level-ups. So we could be looking at +5% injury and depression gains and -3% skill XP gains, for example.

They could even make it so that negative outcome workstation crits don't affect non-Vallhund versions of the game. That by itself might be roughly equitable. But that could be viewed as revoking half of a "free content patch" and might have negative reaction from players for other reasons.

[bulbatrs]

I'm not saying that getting a dog is autowin, but at the same time getting a dog makes the game easier and winning easier and nothing else. that's how p2w works - you pay money and get something that makes it easier to win, you don't allways autowin. comapre this to other games p2w content - battle brothers you can get a helm that gives you a small advantage, nearly non existent - but still whoever got it had an easier time. or in dragon age you could buy armor and weapons and just nearly autowin... sure the dog is much closer to battle brother's helm than to the dragonage op items, but all of this content is just a p2w way to make less skilled players life easier, nothing more.

[Kat]

Is there any disadvantage to having the dog, apart from gloop consumption? I mean, you don't have to waste any resources for "building" the dog, as opposed to other camp stations. You don't have to "repair" it, unlike other stations. You literally just get benefits. Of course, you need energy for actions, but you get energy anyway with some time, don't have to divert other resources to gain energy and it isn't needed for any other activity.

I'm rather early in the game, so I may not be aware of some mid/late game circumstances regarding the dog, but so far I think there should be some kind of more important drawback for having the dog (more food consumption, some wasted resurces destroyed by the dog or else). For now, it just seems as an upgrade to your game, not a sidegrade, an option.

Btw, I'm loving the DLC, cool concept and theme, great array of new actions, new RPG element in teaching the dog. Money really well spent. It might just need some tweaking to make it more challenging.

[Tegga21]

Originally posted by bulbatrs:

Originally posted by MTaur:

It makes the game easier.

It was pretty winnable before the recent patch, and I guess it would still be pretty winnable on Hard after the patch, even without using the dog.

The dog has several different skills that cost energy.

Restoring a small amount of depression or injury is strong early on. Later on, you can get a camp-wide combat buff for 4 days, or find +5 X skill items. You could accomplish the same with XP and crafting items, but it will probably speed up the late game.

Maybe they should add some DLC-specific balance changes for the sake of keeping it consistent, but I have no idea what would do the trick.

hm, it's quite sad that the devs decided to go the p2w line. all we can do is hope that the future content will be "better" :(

Disagree, the dog isn't OP, think of it as like.. 1/8th of a character action (or 1/4 action per day), outside the bones / combat buff if you sink half of its energy bar. It can get bones. It can also provide a combat buff (which you could craft anyway). I'd wager the devs increased the later encounters in concert with the dlc being active. Its part of the story. Very worth getting.

If you've played Lords of Xulima, the talisman of golot was essentially easier game if you had it. This isn't really like that.

The also lowered water gathering by quite a bit with the addition of the DLC.

Skilling the dog requires Energy(segments of resting) Affection(feeding the dog) food(2-4 per upgrade) and Bones(4-10 per upgrade) which you can only get with the dog really. You'll get about 1 per day of double fetching until you unlock upgrades. It will take you quite a long time to 'gain' with the dog. You're essentially trading food VS 4-8 depression loss or 3-6 injury heal once per 2 full days. Its not free.

[bulbatrs]

it feels like repeating myself over and over....
think of it this way - every extra character you get makes the game significantly easier - that's why you want to rush to all 10. so getting an extra 1/4 of a character is quite op, especially since you get it early on when the game is hardest as you only have 4. can you use both craftable weapons/armor and dog's buffs? if yes how is it not op?
do all the changes the devs made to water etc are there only there when I install the dog dlc or not?

[Tegga21]

Originally posted by bulbatrs:

it feels like repeating myself over and over....
think of it this way - every extra character you get makes the game significantly easier - that's why you want to rush to all 10. so getting an extra 1/4 of a character is quite op, especially since you get it early on when the game is hardest as you only have 4. can you use both craftable weapons/armor and dog's buffs? if yes how is it not op?
do all the changes the devs made to water etc are there only there when I install the dog dlc or not?

The dog is nearly useless Pre day 30. Consumes a lot of resources with barely any return. If you've made up your mind without actually trying the dlc, why bother talking here? I'm usually in your shoes about DLC p2w but this one is done well.

GL on whatever you decide.