Valheim hard mode

[dirktoot]

So I heard the devs where adding difficulty scales at some point before the ashlands. I like that, I was disappointed by nerfs and think I will enjoy(or regret but in a good sense) the challenge 'hard' gives.

I would like to suggest some changes, and would like to see what you guys have in mind too! This is the topic for those that love a good challenge, please use this opportunity to share some awesome ideas! Hopefully the devs see them too.

So first of all we had some controversial nerfs. I'm thinking of the mistlands nerf, and I heard there where deathsquito amd fuling nerfs before I played. I think reverting most of these nerfs already is a good start. What I would personally suggest:

1. Revert the mistlands nerfs:

This one is obvious. Seeker AI back to full wolf and get back the old Gjall. Creature spawns back to the old level too. Maybe accompany this by a dvergr buff so they don't get owned in that new environment as easily. A nice add on would be to let 1 and 2* Gjalls also spawn 1 and 2* ticks.

2. Introduce higher star 1 and star 2 frequencies. Instead of a 90-9-1 ratio, maintain a 4-2-1 ratio perhaps. I think that will provide an additional challenge, and the 2 stars still remain special/terrifying. Perhaps throw some 3 star mobs in the mix too with lower frequency, but don't add much more stars beyond 3. At some point they'll just become HP sponges.

3. To add on to 2, add stars to current non starred mobs. Not necessarily all. But definately golems, aboms, wraiths, deathsquito's and of course lox. While we're at it, we might as well make some tamable behemoths too don't you think ;)

4. That brings me to the plains nerf I have only heard about. Point 3 solves the skeeters for me, with the occasional 1 and 2 star they're buffed enough for me. As I understand it the pre nerf skeeter was equivalemt to a 1/2 star version anyway. On the other hand, goblins can get more agressive AI too, like wolfs and pre nerf seekers. As I understand they had before. Do the same for lox as well I'd recon.

And let fuling berserkers spawn outside of villages in the plains too, with about abomination level frequency.

5. Don't be shy with the ashlands. Bring on the challenge. Swamp like environment but then with fire. If you step into the lava, you get some serious damage. Better be ready.

And make us cry when we run into the ashlands in a cocky mood please!

6. Let cultists and ulvs spawn at night in the mountains too, like the regular fenring.

8. Add wraiths and ghosts to the crypts, they belong in such spooky environments!

7. Events. First get the mistlands raid back on track as it used to be, including with the soldier. On top of that they should be able to visit you in every biome. Also new raids would be awesome, some ideas:

A. Wraith raids. Swarms of wraiths raid your base and you need to keep up. Trigger is the bonemass kill, as I think this one is a bit too much directly after the Elder. Let it be the succesor of the regular 'foul smell from the swamp'.

B. Deathsquito swarm. The plains version of being hunted, this one isn't for the faint hearted and can get triggered whenever you are in the plains post Moder. 6-10 skeeters attack you for the duration of the raid, and kills trigger respawns.

C. Let Gjalls visit your base wherever it is. You defeated Yagluth and killed at least 1 Gjall? You can expect a visit, and not only in the mistlands. Make this event like the troll event, unlike the seeker raid it doesn't disable after defeating the queen. Perhaps do 2 Gjall instead of 1 in line with the shaking ground, but I'm not sure on that yet.

D. Dvergr raid. This one may be the hardest of all. If you have defeated Yagluth and ever aggro'd a dvergr, they come visit your base with a typical tower group. Respawns after kills. This raid can be avoided by not aggroimg them and destroying the wards with RE to get your extractors. Perhaps hide that ward in an iron cage to avoid ward cheeses, but that can be discussed below.

E. On top of everything I said, maybe get some starred mobs in events? This could depend on stuff like the biome you are in, world progression or distance from center too. And not all mobs in a raid have to be starred, there's just a chance individuals will be that is roughly equal to the chance for regular mobs.

What do you think of my ideas, anything to add? And do you guys have additional ideas/suggestions on what you would like to see in a hard version of the game?

[Leftcoast]

For sure should be an option.

Normal difficulty should be mostly as is. The mistlands was a bit over nerfed, and needs some tweaks here tho. For what the mistlands started as.... that was extreme difficulty. I can't even get my friends who didn't play it to understand and a couple are pretty hard core old gamers. I am all for that being on the high difficulty tho cause there a lot of us that want/need that. It was not so bad after I geared up (of course I learned a lot too), however, the grind to gear up was also a big part of the difficulty frustration with the pre-nerf mistlands. Now, I think POIs tend to have more cores, so that would have helped me a lot.

[dirktoot]

Originally posted by Leftcoast:

For sure should be an option.

Normal difficulty should be mostly as is. The mistlands was a bit over nerfed, and needs some tweaks here tho. For what the mistlands started as.... that was extreme difficulty. I can't even get my friends who didn't play it to understand and a couple are pretty hard core old gamers. I am all for that being on the high difficulty tho cause there a lot of us that want/need that. It was not so bad after I geared up (of course I learned a lot too), however, the grind to gear up was also a big part of the difficulty frustration with the pre-nerf mistlands. Now, I think POIs tend to have more cores, so that would have helped me a lot.

I actually just barely didn't play the pre nerfed mistlands, was in the mountains and early plains when the nerf hit. Then reddit blowed up about it. My only encounter with the pre nerf mistlands was a swamp age body retrieval, because it went from a safe buffer zone(used it as an empty safezone close to a swamp) to a very hostile environment, and that was obviously not fun lol. I was kind of disappointed I couldn't take revenge on the level it was at during that time later on.

If some of the nerf is preserved I would prefer it to be done with spawn frequencies instead of retaining some of the lame AI(particularly for seekers). How bad was the pre nerf night time ML? Even worse than what you describe? Maybe make the night time ML as bad as pre nerf daytime ML, and daytime still a tad busier than it is now?

It's not that I am even that good at the game, I died often in my playthrough. It's just that in my experience you develop muscle memory pretty fast after some persistence, so I know from previous gaming experiences that things can go from impossibly hard to trivially easy eerily smoothly. And if it is really hard I can always bring a ton of tamed wolves with me, beats lowering the difficulty haha.

[Jogo]

:-) From the lack of responses you can tell that these boards are mostly frequented by the opposite kind of players. I'm with you though. I would love to see some challenge. Fulings and seekers doing their lil dance, instead of hacking, piercing and slashing the heck outta you, annoy me to no end. Funny how it is not an issue with them draugr in the swamp -- once locked on, they won't let go, unless you break their line of sight. The swamp! THE swamp that is only second to mistlands in terms of how much hate it gets from the players.

To expand on your ideas a lil more...

- No guaranteed drops (other than bosses). This is a survival game and a brutal one at that. I fail to see how it is hard to survive with overwhelming majority of resources being as abundant as they are.

- Repairing equipment and structures requires resources. Wore out your axe? Your high wall about to crumble? Make sure you have stone/wood/whatever on you before you attempt repairs.

Yes, we could use mods. There's plenty out there that do most of what we would like to see in the game. But I'm just the kinda guy who wants to experience the game the way the devs intended it to be played.

Refreshing to see a fellow player wanting to up the challenge instead of whining about nerfing the heck out of everything they have a hard time overcoming.

[Veseljko]

I’ll just drop a few more ideas:
1. Shorter days, longer nights
2. Limited upgrades to armors and weapons
3. Only minimap available. Full map available only at cartography table
4. Limited use of portals - each boss drops special materials for only a few pairs of portals. Multiple killing of the same boss does not provide additional drops
5. Zone levels - this is an idea from Creature Level and Loot Control mod and i love it. If you keep killing enemies in one zone (64x64 meters) the Zone level increases and that means more starred enemies will be spawned in that zone. It goes up to level 3. And all neighboring zones levels also increases by 1 level. So if you are standing in zone level 3, all the neighboring zones will be automatically set to level 2 and their neighboring zones will be set to level 1. Zone levels resets after you have not visited it for some time. This means that if you spend a lot of time in your base killing curious mobs that come to visit you, your zone level will keep increasing and turn it into a place you want to run away from and stay away for some time.

[Pantstron]

Cool ideas. I'll suggest 1 and 2star variants could have special move/abilities. And what about 50% skill loss on death, 5% loss is nothing, and of course portal recipe is removed.