Difficulty Level Idea

[flaimdude]

Ok, so in light of the recent swamps discussion I had an idea - have each campaign have multiple levels of difficulty. Yes, you've heard that before, but here's the kicker - only the harder levels have the rare items. I mean, if you're gonna be taking a cakewalk, you don't need a pink item. However, if you're fighting godmode hard enemies, you're gonna need all the pinks you can get. So it flows right into the idea that pinks can only be acquired on the harder difficulties and the people who just want to beat the game on cakewalk mode will, but they won't have epic items.

[vulgarstrike]

what a good idea.

[Royce]

I like the idea, and it would have worked really well with the old host/join system. The game creator could choose a difficulty, and it could be displayed on the join screen. The only problems I can see are related to the new ways of joining games through the magic portals or from the "go to" button in the quests menu. How would those methods determine the level of difficulty to send you to? Maybe a user preference, or maybe just default to normal or easy or whatever.

[Furrawn]

I love the idea... Love it... It would work... And the rare pinks only drop in the harder version...
Brilliant, Flaim, brilliant.

And vulgar? In your other post where you said, "Pi$$ off," I was crying I was laughing so hard...that was awesome!

[FluffNStuff]

I like the idea, and it would have worked really well with the old host/join system. The game creator could choose a difficulty, and it could be displayed on the join screen. The only problems I can see are related to the new ways of joining games through the magic portals or from the "go to" button in the quests menu. How would those methods determine the level of difficulty to send you to? Maybe a user preference, or maybe just default to normal or easy or whatever.

The quests goto should always be the normal mode, as those are designed to get new players interested in the game. These hardcore modes should not be avaliable till after perhaps completion of a number of quests, or at least unlocking of all normal mode levels. So to unlock A02:1 hard core, you need to complete AO2:1-6 regular. The host / join should of course have a selector, and perhaps a user preference for the 'Quick Game' button.

[FluffNStuff]

I love the idea... Love it... It would work... And the rare pinks only drop in the harder version...
Brilliant, Flaim, brilliant.

And vulgar? In your other post where you said, "Pi$$ off," I was crying I was laughing so hard...that was awesome!

Yeah, Vulgar, I didn't want to commend you for using an unwise way of stating what you said, but I want to say THANK YOU for stating it.

[Aspergillus]

Sounds great I'm on board. I'm not sure about having to unlock the more difficult mode though. I may be misunderstanding, but I wouldn't want to have to play through the easy one just to get where I want to go...

Great solution in response to the Swamp thread.

Maybe the harder versions of the levels could have stricter player level requirements?

[Furrawn]

The quests goto should always be the normal mode, as those are designed to get new players interested in the game. These hardcore modes should not be avaliable till after perhaps completion of a number of quests, or at least unlocking of all normal mode levels. So to unlock A02:1 hard core, you need to complete AO2:1-6 regular. The host / join should of course have a selector, and perhaps a user preference for the 'Quick Game' button.

I agree... But I think normal should be normal not easy.
Why not all three preferences? EASY NORMAL HARD

[kavanah]

Why not just release a 12 level campaign that increasingly gets harder and makes each class do what it should do better according to the gear they pick up a long the way?

Say you have 3 pts to this campaign each with 4 levels around the same difficulty. So you would have 4 levels of a medium level of difficulty and you would have to farm there to be effective in going through the next 4 levels which would be of a hard level of difficulty and the final 4 would be of very hard difficulty level, where only the players who have the top pinks from the previous 4 levels would be able to join partys in that part.

Each level could drop a certain type of armor or weapon. For instance lvl 1 would have armor, lvl 2 helms, lvl 3 weapons, lvl 4 shields, for each class. Then you would have gear that could give tanks better tanking ability, damage dealers better damage, and supporters better support.

Throw in a series of quests that follows a good storyline for that campaign, with some pretty nice rewards, not so much gear, but maybe an extra character slot, or an added +20hp or +30 mana? Maybe a name engravement on an item. Maybe a secret level's access?

Just my thoughts.

[Necrobane]

I reckon that this i a fantastic idea because it allows player to run solo if they want to....... Two fairly major problems though.

1. Think about the affect on the myners gen.

2. Now kills will be so easy to farm they wont be worth anything.

Just putting em out there

[Royce]

Kills are already easy to farm, and meaningless (The 2nd biggest problem with the Tombs of Mynas is the ease of kill farming). They could either keep a seperate tally for hardcore mode kills, or just do nothing, since the good players already know for the most part kills mean nothing.

[Necrobane]

When leader boards come out kills WILL mean something but yeah, maby the first three lvls in a campain would have all two options then the second two only have normal and hard and the last three only have the hard option. reckon that would work?

[flaimdude]

Wow, that's a lot of encouraging feedback! And my original thought for the difficulty level system would be an option in the preferences or something like that.

Go devs!

[Royce]

Kills are already easy to farm, and meaningless (The 2nd biggest problem with the Tombs of Mynas is the ease of kill farming). They could either keep a seperate tally for hardcore mode kills, or just do nothing, since the good players already know for the most part kills mean nothing.

I don't want to take this nice thread off topic, but there is a difference between people paying attention to something, and it actually having any meaning. When leaderboards come, people will pay attention to kill count, but it will still be just as meaningless as it ever was. There are a ton of good arguments in this very forum for why K/D, etc. don't actually mean anything, and I've yet to hear anything approaching a real argument for why those stats do mean something.

[Smartress]

In World of Warcraft, most of instances have heroic mode for top levels, the pink drops was designed for the highest level.

Say Balefort Castle was designed for level 15-19 in normal mode, but in heroic mode, it was designed for level 45.

In heroic mode, boss guarantees at least one pink drop per run, but it is ultra hard to get to the boss, i.e. with all the trash mobs become elite.

Also, if you make ultra rare pink drops of a random mob (not necessary the boss), then it gives people incentive to clear the instance.

[bmc85uk]

They've already talked about 'Nightmare Dungeons'; exactly the same maps just harder, hopefully if that brings in a new grade of loot it'll effectively be a 'hard difficulty'.

That aside, your idea is sound, I have an unhealthy amount of contempt for the Mynas generation and their easy-street mentality, so I'd love some separation.