Difficulty slider

Wicked Feedback
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Before I start my topic I have to get one thing out of the way. I love how the game looks. As always with a Moon Studios game, I felt immediately at ease with the game with the feeling it gave off from the get-go. Hats off to those in charge there, seriously.

I am a very long time Ori fan. The collector’s edition is still sitting right here atop my shelf and I wear the button every day on my backpack. It’s my favourite franchise. I’m not a diehard gamer, and because of that when I do game, I tend to focus on a story. I’ve always had my saves be on easy mode, because that’s what got recommended to me if I wanted to do that, right inside the game.

Initially, I didn’t notice the lack of this difficulty selector and the ship was easy enough to clear. Until I reached my bigger enemies (you know, the ones with the huge double sided axes or worse, Warrick), then the irritation and confusion started to set in. I had no idea what to do, what to look for and most importantly, what to learn, a tough pill to swallow. This game is very hard for my smoothbrain to understand. Worth noting, this is my first ‘souls-like’-game, whatever that might mean.

I’ve looked through the ‘Warrick is too difficult for me’ thread a bit and I’ll be trying to implement some tactics from there into my playstyle, which is hard for me to do because I only really like to play games where I can slash and dash through enemies like they’re weeds. The general consensus on this I’ve found is that I should’ve known this from the get-go, but I didn’t. (Or, alternatively, “git gud”.)

Even if 99% of you guys would not care to think about such a thing like a difficulty setting, adding something like this could very much help me and a few others get through this game. Just nerf enemies their damage points a bit on an ‘easy’ selection and it would probably be perfect.

Sincerely, someone who annoyance-quit this game several times now, something which I really don’t want to see myself doing more often.

I love Moon Studios for everything they have done so far and want them to succeed, not just for me personally but also for the rest, especially those struggling just like me.

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I understand your concern. Introducing a difficulty slider may be difficult for the way the game is designed, causing a change that the creators don’t want for how they want to create the game.

That being said I don’t have issues with difficulty settings. I play on normal almost 100% of the time. A few games have been stupidly difficult on normal in certain sections (poorly developed final bosses for example) and I have changed it to easy just for that fight so I could progress.

If Moon Studios chooses to have a settable difficulty I won’t have any issues with it since I will play on normal, the standard way to play the game (hard or even hardest if it is too easy for me). It won’t change my enjoyment.

I would also point out that they will be adding coop play in the next major update. One of my favorite things to do in difficult games is hop into another persons game where they are struggling with a boss an help them get through it. Hopefully this will be something implemented here.

Also if you look at the zone level below the time and weather in the upper right it will state how difficult the area is relative to you. With the exception of Warrick and the intro, and a little bit here as well, you can grind until the zone is safe. Once it is “safe” the zone is much more manageable.

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I get it. It feels like the game atm is locked on Hard. Some bigger monsters can delete you with 1 move. Although I’ve never seen a difficulty slider, I’d be impressed if they could pull it off. The graphics already have sliders which is a first for me. I’m also not a sweaty hc gamer, so I did die a lot.

And the fact that consumabeles like food are gone after you die and reset make it extra annoying bc you need to get a break to farm more ingredients elsewhere to continue trying to beat the boss. I understand it for normal foes bc they don’t respawn once killed.

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All they really need to do and it should be ridiculously easy to implement for single player only, would be a “Damage taken” slider. This means no other mechanics need to be changed and players can still learn the moves properly. A bonus would be that it doesn’t have to only reduce damage taken. It could also raise damage, making the game more difficult for those that need an extra challenge after completely min-maxing their builds.

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They could introduce a Realm Difficulty.

And have like Normal, Hard, Ironman and Custom.

Normal being the base game. In Hard enemies deal more damage, have more HP. Lower durability and durability drops harder. Resources have a lower drop rate. And some other Stuff. Ironman is Similar to Hard but once you die it is Game Over. And Custom for people who work 9-5 and want to come home and chill and click on a tree and get more resources, reduced upgrading time etc.

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And have like Normal, Hard, Ironman and Custom.

Absolutely correct.
Right now Moonstudio is losing playerbase for no reason because of that. Many people would like to play just for exploration and story - they want to buy and enjoy the game, why on earth turn them off?

While “souls zealots” keeps posting their dogma “there must be no difficulty”, “git gud”, etc - they themselves can’t explain why and don’t take into account simple fact that “difficulty” concept itself is very different for different people. I saw many feedback posts on this game in Steam and they vary significantly from “impossible” to “too easy on the brink of boredom”. This is how different people see current game difficulty. Since NoRest is not an online mmo with one and the same world for everyone, several difficulties will have zero influence on their “hardcore” gameplay. Well, unless Moonstudio have plans to turn the world into big one and for all in the future like in mmo.

Yes, some games indeed do not need difficulties, like last Zelda game for example. But, while it also has “souls” combat, it is very different in several important aspects: 1) open world 2) full 3D interaction 3) huge ammount of means to fight, up to a point when you don’t engage in melee at all 4) static enemies who don’t level up with you. Thus you can start a game and go wherever you like, fight enemies you like, ignore bosses and hard enemies, etc - according to your personal skill and desire. Thus difficulty regulates itself. Skilled hardcore gamers can even take a tree branch and go directly on a final boss right from the start - and even beat him (extremely hard, but possible). NoRestForTheWicked though does not have all these options and thus should have difficulty levels to choose from.

Actually hardcore players can also benefit from it, playing, if they desire so, on super hard difficulty (if there will be one). Many games do that, there is absolutely no reason not to do it here. And yes, as people above suggested, you don’t need to change much - just basic char HP (to be able to take many more hits) or adjust overall damage reduction by a coefficient. Thus overall balance will affect all difficulties at once, there is no need to adjust each and every all the time.

PS: Larians in BaldursGate3 apart from adding super hard difficulty added even Custom Difficulty to please their players, so that one can sqeeze maximum personal fun from playing (where fun is always a correct challenge balance between boredom and frustration). And I’ve seen no complaints so far that BG3 is bad because it has difficulty levels (maybe because its community doesn’t have “souls zealots” -)

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I think it would be a good idea for launch (V.1.0) to have realm difficulties and realm settings. For early access I think it is fine as it is, since it is more about testing the current systems in place. Changing difficulty is easier than reimagining entire systems and how they function.

I do think the realm difficulties are good since they appeal to a very broad audience, something for everyone.

Normal: people new to the game/genre
Hard: people looking for a challenge and veteran gamers
Ironman: sweaty tryhards
Custom: dads who work 9-5 who just wanna chill

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I’m a dad with 9 fingers and feel the difficulty is good but needs to be more balanced around player level.

Early game is hard and by the mid/late game you become so powerful the game becomes easy.