the reason behind ashlands difficulty

[deadshooter]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248636259

as you can clearly see - amount of spawners outweighs every other biomes rate. It breaks soloplaying to a point when you need to get lucky to find clear spot to land. So this was a game about "brutal survival and exploration", now this is the game about luck. Well, if wanted to test my luck i would rather open CS cases.

Another bad things

- spawn rate exceeds average soloplayer DPS. You can't kill mobs faster than they spawn
- amount of mobs is so high, so theit frequent attacks constantly interrupting player's attack animation. In this case you can't kill anyone, because you can't even make a hit.

amount of spawners and spawn rates NEEDS to be fixed. Otherwise, for soloplayers like me it become a massive waste of time to make progress in ashlands.

[esbenmf]

There is a difficulty slider to use.

[Edgemoor]

Originally posted by esbenmf:

There is a difficulty slider to use.

Be interesting to see if reducing the difficulty has any effect? In some games reducing difficulty doesn't always reduce it enough to make a difference to the result.

[Deylendor]

Send in the Helldivers

[Nerevar]

you dont need to kill everything you see. and the spawners only spawn enemies around them. the actual invisible enemy spawners can only be disabled by useing player base structures to begin with like any biome.

the majority of enemies is slower than the player. you can outpace them easly and twitchers and archers hit like wet noodles. they are the greydwarfs of this zone. just pay attention to the enemeis that can actually kill you. and those are way way fewer in numbers.

the solo difficulty is fine for a penultimate biome. once you have adjusted to it and learned how to play the biome soloing goes pretty easy. on top of that getting the new gear is very easy and faster compared to mistlands which took alot longer on that front. here all you have to do is kill a bunch of enemies and loot some fortresses. and these fortresses are just harder fuling villages. just dont bulldoze and think you must fight and kill anything that comes you way. a good player knows when to RUN AWAY. same as any biome before this one. when you get outnumbered or suprised : RUN. standing your ground is simply bad play in such a case and will lead to deaths for no good reason.

[JP_Russell]

Originally posted by Edgemoor:

Originally posted by esbenmf:

There is a difficulty slider to use.

Be interesting to see if reducing the difficulty has any effect? In some games reducing difficulty doesn't always reduce it enough to make a difference to the result.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/World_Modifiers

Easy combat increases player damage by 10% and lowers enemy damage by 25%, and lowers their size and movement speed by 10%. Very easy combat increases player damage by 25% and lowers enemy damage by 50%, and its the same as easy on enemy speed.

I don't see how these numbers wouldn't make a very big difference if someone is having trouble on normal.

[Mineralwasser]

Originally posted by JP_Russell:

Originally posted by Edgemoor:

Be interesting to see if reducing the difficulty has any effect? In some games reducing difficulty doesn't always reduce it enough to make a difference to the result.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/World_Modifiers

Easy combat increases player damage by 10% and lowers enemy damage by 25%, and lowers their size and movement speed by 10%. Very easy combat increases player damage by 25% and lowers enemy damage by 50%, and its the same as easy on enemy speed.

I don't see how these numbers wouldn't make a very big difference if someone is having trouble on normal.

So you can outrun the enemies even faster. Makes one differnce. Not getting killed because the enemies hit even more like wet noodles. Makes two differences. Killing enemies faster or applying some stuff like stun better gives even better chance of survival. Difference number three. But hey,if you cant beat the game on easy. Maybe just look for something else. I bet you can stunlock the enemies with a mace pretty nice.

As stated. you dont have to engage the spawners in meele. You can just shoot them from far away with spinesnap.

Getting killed or the problem with progression is on the player. Just adapt to the new environment and learn the formula. It is just that easy.

Playing as a Mage seems pretty fun in ashlands too. The wildstaff rebalance is just broken. The vines hit like 300dmg per hit. Just stuns everything.

[Mineralwasser]

Originally posted by deadshooter:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248636259

as you can clearly see - amount of spawners outweighs every other biomes rate. It breaks soloplaying to a point when you need to get lucky to find clear spot to land. So this was a game about "brutal survival and exploration", now this is the game about luck. Well, if wanted to test my luck i would rather open CS cases.

Another bad things

- spawn rate exceeds average soloplayer DPS. You can't kill mobs faster than they spawn
- amount of mobs is so high, so theit frequent attacks constantly interrupting player's attack animation. In this case you can't kill anyone, because you can't even make a hit.

amount of spawners and spawn rates NEEDS to be fixed. Otherwise, for soloplayers like me it become a massive waste of time to make progress in ashlands.

Maybe try some aoe-weapons and trivialise the encounters. You can play solo just fine. You just didnt adapt to the environment. Just a skillissue on your side.

[Megatron]

An average skilled player should kill every mob without much hassle. Death is a great teacher. Instead of complaining, try to think why did you actually die, and what should you do differently next time.

[deadshooter]

Originally posted by esbenmf:

There is a difficulty slider to use.

difficulty slider does not impact nor amount of spawners, nor spawn rate. Congrats on absolutely irrelevant comment made by you.

Originally posted by Mineralwasser:

Maybe try some aoe-weapons and trivialise the encounters. You can play solo just fine. You just didnt adapt to the environment. Just a skillissue on your side.

it's a skill issue on your side - you clearly not understanding what other people say, you are listening only to your self.

Originally posted by Mineralwasser:

Originally posted by JP_Russell:

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/World_Modifiers

Easy combat increases player damage by 10% and lowers enemy damage by 25%, and lowers their size and movement speed by 10%. Very easy combat increases player damage by 25% and lowers enemy damage by 50%, and its the same as easy on enemy speed.

I don't see how these numbers wouldn't make a very big difference if someone is having trouble on normal.

So you can outrun the enemies even faster. Makes one differnce. Not getting killed because the enemies hit even more like wet noodles. Makes two differences. Killing enemies faster or applying some stuff like stun better gives even better chance of survival. Difference number three. But hey,if you cant beat the game on easy. Maybe just look for something else. I bet you can stunlock the enemies with a mace pretty nice.

As stated. you dont have to engage the spawners in meele. You can just shoot them from far away with spinesnap.

Getting killed or the problem with progression is on the player. Just adapt to the new environment and learn the formula. It is just that easy.

Playing as a Mage seems pretty fun in ashlands too. The wildstaff rebalance is just broken. The vines hit like 300dmg per hit. Just stuns everything.

so, long story short - melee is useless now, don't fight, just run, use magic to proceed into land with average speed of 100 meters per hour. What a fun game! You need only 236 hours to get to the trashlands boss.

[deadshooter]

Originally posted by Megatron:

An average skilled player should kill every mob without much hassle. Death is a great teacher. Instead of complaining, try to think why did you actually die, and what should you do differently next time.

so i need to cover the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ island with campfires? Seriously? This is Valheim now?

[Megatron]

Originally posted by deadshooter:

Originally posted by Megatron:

An average skilled player should kill every mob without much hassle. Death is a great teacher. Instead of complaining, try to think why did you actually die, and what should you do differently next time.

so i need to cover the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ island with campfires? Seriously? This is Valheim now?

Can you see the spawners from far away? Destroy them from far with your bow/crossbow. Bring stones and erect a circle wall for your base.

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by deadshooter:

Originally posted by Megatron:

An average skilled player should kill every mob without much hassle. Death is a great teacher. Instead of complaining, try to think why did you actually die, and what should you do differently next time.

so i need to cover the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ island with campfires? Seriously? This is Valheim now?

no. you just do that near your beachhead base. like you would with ANY base where you dont want enemies to spawn inside your walls you know? valheim basics.

the enemies themselfs are all really weak for the most part. its like advanced greydwarfs. there is lot of them but they dont hit very hard in exchange. the warriors are the only charred who hit hard. but guess why they are melee only and why they are SLOW TERMINATOR like walk only? to balance thier dmg output.

reduceing the spawnrate would entirely remove all difficulty from this biome. it was balanced around high spawn rates. the enemy stats where balanced around that.

the charred dont resist phys dmg at all. unlike seekers where your entire phys dmg in melee was always negated by 50%. yet the charred aside the slow warriors and the fortress only warlocks have less the same or less health than seekers had.

you entirely ignored that point. people arent ignoreing what you said. the problem is still on your end despite that. you expect an easy time with the 2nd to last biome. game isnt meant to be like that.

and you dont have to do ANY dungeon delving in ashlands to get everything either. putrid holes are just like troll caves : neat but not needed for anything really. the metal is literally handed to you via the new portal.

without the current spawnrates this would be a grossly undertuned easy biome. they would have to redesign everything in order to lower spawnrates.

these devs have one basic good game design understanding : NEVER EVEN TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE who plays your game. as the moment you try that as a gamedev you WILL end up with a shallow mainstream game. and the market is overfilled with such games already. so adding any more to that endless trash pile should never be the goal of a game developer whos goal is to actually make a GOOD game.

[Megatron]

The Morgen holes are good early source of Molten Cores, which are needed for the new portals if you want to transport metal thru them

[Terminal Desolation]

the issue is not the DIFFICULTY of the enemies for most people... they hit fine, they have a bit more health than I'd like and they recover a bit too quickly from the parry stun, but like overall they aren't that bad

it is the QUANTITY

You can fight 1 on 1, 2 on 1, 3 on 1 - that's the largest scale engagements the game has had before this, MAYBE a 4 on 1 in the Mistlands if the spawns got spicy around a dungeon area. And the enemies that did have 3 on 1s either had no range or their range was awful.

Ashlands is 5 on 1, VERY frequently. I've ended up in 10+ on 1 MORE THAN ONCE, just wandering the map, not even near any points of interest. Previously, combat on this scale was was only doable if you decided to rush into a Goblin village unprepared or something because enemies just do not spawn that densely. Of course, about half the enemies have some degree of ranged attack, and despite some people in this thread insisting that everything is slower than you... it isn't. The animals and fallen valks both outspeed you and from my experience the Twitchers are at LEAST as fast as you. They may not hit very hard but they will keep hitting you and forcing you to expend your stamina to dodge around them, which leaves you with less stamina to fight the other 8 enemies who are trying to murder you.

Even then the 3 or 4 or 5 v 1s aren't unbearable - when they get more than that they certainly can be. The biggest issue is the respawn rate and the way enemies respawn. More than once I've literally watched enemies appear in front of me, just out of the blue. That's ridiculous. We've cleared out an area around one of the Flametal Ore pillars and as SOON as we started mining it, quite literally 10 enemies spawned at various locations around us, immediately forming an encirclement with about 6 or 7 ranged guys and 3 of the melee boys, while surrounded by the excellent instant-death lava that will murder you if you backpedal your heel into it. Of course, said instant death lava has NO effect on ANY mobs in the area, so while YOU have to pay attention, the enemies don't have to give a ♥♥♥♥. They don't even get a fire DoT for their troubles - and they ARE vulnerable to Fire DoTs as evidenced by them catching on fire from the Fallen Valkyrie attacks. Just not lava. For some reason.

Legitimately everything about the area is ~fine~ except the sheer quantity of enemies the game throws at you. This game's combat was not designed for anything more than like a 3 on 1, and it REALLY feels like it in the Ashlands. You can't manage your stamina around dodging 7 different attacks AND fighting 10 enemies. Ain't happening. This really feels like someone accidentally messed up the respawn timers or something.

[Megatron]

Originally posted by Terminal Desolation:

the issue is not the DIFFICULTY of the enemies for most people... they hit fine, they have a bit more health than I'd like and they recover a bit too quickly from the parry stun, but like overall they aren't that bad

it is the QUANTITY

You can fight 1 on 1, 2 on 1, 3 on 1 - that's the largest scale engagements the game has had before this, MAYBE a 4 on 1 in the Mistlands if the spawns got spicy around a dungeon area. And the enemies that did have 3 on 1s either had no range or their range was awful.

Ashlands is 5 on 1, VERY frequently. I've ended up in 10+ on 1 MORE THAN ONCE, just wandering the map, not even near any points of interest. Previously, combat on this scale was was only doable if you decided to rush into a Goblin village unprepared or something because enemies just do not spawn that densely. Of course, about half the enemies have some degree of ranged attack, and despite some people in this thread insisting that everything is slower than you... it isn't. The animals and fallen valks both outspeed you and from my experience the Twitchers are at LEAST as fast as you. They may not hit very hard but they will keep hitting you and forcing you to expend your stamina to dodge around them, which leaves you with less stamina to fight the other 8 enemies who are trying to murder you.

Even then the 3 or 4 or 5 v 1s aren't unbearable - when they get more than that they certainly can be. The biggest issue is the respawn rate and the way enemies respawn. More than once I've literally watched enemies appear in front of me, just out of the blue. That's ridiculous. We've cleared out an area around one of the Flametal Ore pillars and as SOON as we started mining it, quite literally 10 enemies spawned at various locations around us, immediately forming an encirclement with about 6 or 7 ranged guys and 3 of the melee boys, while surrounded by the excellent instant-death lava that will murder you if you backpedal your heel into it. Of course, said instant death lava has NO effect on ANY mobs in the area, so while YOU have to pay attention, the enemies don't have to give a ♥♥♥♥. They don't even get a fire DoT for their troubles - and they ARE vulnerable to Fire DoTs as evidenced by them catching on fire from the Fallen Valkyrie attacks. Just not lava. For some reason.

Legitimately everything about the area is ~fine~ except the sheer quantity of enemies the game throws at you. This game's combat was not designed for anything more than like a 3 on 1, and it REALLY feels like it in the Ashlands. You can't manage your stamina around dodging 7 different attacks AND fighting 10 enemies. Ain't happening. This really feels like someone accidentally messed up the respawn timers or something.

As far as I know, if you start mining the flametal pillars, it will trigger mob spawning around them. So that's the reason you had all those spawns around you.
And when you generally explore, carefully scout your surroundings, charred spawners can be seen for far away and destroyed with ranged attacks. It is a good idea to walk around with a loaded crossbow, so you can land some sneak attacks, or even one shotting some mobs. Use potions, and when you see that something is not going as planned, don't be shy to pop the bonemass power (or queen power if you are mage)