Have the Devs discussed difficulty Options?

[Christianjoseph]

I just came back to the game and it seems overly easy.

 

Have the devs recently talked about increasing the difficulty or giving us options to increase it at all? 

[RikuvonDrake]

ops will become easier with each gearing upgrade

[ThanderSnB]

If you're talking about leveling and class stories, Bioware wants it easy so players get to endgame faster. They really want people to subscribe, and endgame is where subscription is pretty much required for a lot of things. Veterans also like it being easy, so they can level alts faster and finish heroics faster for Daily Resource Matrix. When you're doing heroics for the 100th time, you just want to get your materials fast. When you're leveling your 20th alt, you just want to mow down enemies instead of each fight being a long battle.

People have asked for difficulty settings, so each player can choose what's best for themself, but Bioware has said it's too hard to rework the lower level planets. The phased areas wouldn't be hard to do, but it's an interesting problem what to do with shared overworld areas. They can't make the mobs harder for everyone because some players will find it too difficult. One thing they could do is give players a debuff that changes based on their chosen difficulty setting. It could be reduced health and damage, and increased damage taken based on the setting the player chooses. The Easy (default) setting could be no debuff (100% health and damage, 0% increased damage taken). Medium could be 75% health, 75% damage done, and +25% damage taken. Hard could be 50% health, 50% damage done, and +50% damage taken. There would have to be a lot of testing for balance. So I think it's possible to do something like this, but there just isn't much demand for it. The players that spend the most money on SWTOR are the veterans that want it to be easy.

Even though there isn't a way to adjust difficulty, you can do some things to make it harder. You can play without a companion or set them to DPS role, so you get no healing in combat. You can use green gear only, no blue or purple. You can use the mod vendor to artificially use lower level gear. For example, you could use level 18 mods on Alderaan (a level 28 planet). If that's too easy, try level 10 mods. (In general: try mods 10 levels below planet level. If that's too easy, try mods 20 levels below planet level.) If you want to slow your experience gains, you can get the White Acute Module on fleet during a double xp event (reduces xp by 50% and still works when the event is over). It's a little harder when your level is closer to the enemy level.

Edited November 14, 2022 by ThanderSnB

[juliushorst]

On 11/14/2022 at 12:59 AM, ThanderSnB said:

The players that spend the most money on SWTOR are the veterans that want it to be easy.

I am a veteran and I want the open world \ heroics \ dailies to be even easier than now

 

On 11/14/2022 at 12:59 AM, ThanderSnB said:

People have asked for difficulty settings, so each player can choose what's best for themself, but Bioware has said it's too hard to rework the lower level planets.

The way Veteran's Edge worked would be nice. Easy setting - higher stats from the Edge, medium - no Edge, hard - lower stats (negative Edge).

[TonyTricicolo]

On 11/13/2022 at 9:48 AM, Christianjoseph said:

I just came back to the game and it seems overly easy.

 

Have the devs recently talked about increasing the difficulty or giving us options to increase it at all? 

Ya want harder? Try running some the Kofte/et missions in Veteran and Master Modes.

[DWho]

It has been discussed in the forums and the main issue involves open world opponents. When you can have a level 80 and a level 1 in the same area, mob difficulty can't be adjusted and the abilities that the high level character has trivializes the low level content. Level sync tries to make that adjustment but without taking away inappropriate abilities for the planet (a change that would cause universal uproar), balance is difficult to achieve. Throw in the bonuses that veteran players have for datacrons and legacy and the situation becomes more complicated as you have to balance experienced and novice gameplay at the same time.

I have found that if you keep your gear at the planet's level (using only the mission dropped gear sets), keeping the appropriate companion (with the appropriate skill set) for the story at an appropriate level of influence, and using the white acute module to cut xp gains, you can somewhat simulate what the game used to play like (high level AOE attacks against low level foes really break things). If you limit yourself to the abilities you should have on the planet in question, it becomes truer to the original play. Adding the ability to play a different advanced class in the story completely breaks any balance that might have been since the stories were based around the abilities of the original class at the time they got to a specific planet.

[Darthmoriquendi]

Norhing worse than slogging through daily content, especially when grinding seasons, heroics, flashpoints  dailies for resources etc. When you have to run a lot of characters through this each day, the last thing you want is to be held back by 300k health mobs. You want to get it done asap so you can actually play suff you want.

No thanks. Keep the game more difficult on end game content, arenas, Ops etc. Not casual every day grind.

[ZUHFB]

13 minutes ago, Darthmoriquendi said:

When you have to run a lot of characters through this each day

Yes. But you don't.

[Darthmoriquendi]

I don't what?

 

[ZUHFB]

1 hour ago, Darthmoriquendi said:

I don't what?

 

You don't have to do dailies on a lot of characters. If it feels like a slog or boring to you than don't do it. There is no reward for doing it anyway.

[Darthmoriquendi]

5 hours ago, ZUHFB said:

You don't have to do dailies on a lot of characters. If it feels like a slog or boring to you than don't do it. There is no reward for doing it anyway.

Of course i don't have to do it, but if I want or need the resources and the tech frags then yeah I need to do it or is that too difficult to understand? Making the daily grind take longer because Bioware wants  to increase difficulty in casual areas to make people stay logged in longer is just not fun.  A lot just want to get in and get out so to speak. and just move on to doing things they enjoy.

[OlBuzzard]

I have personally made the suggestion to make multiple levels of difficulty available.  IMO this could also be done for the "story" if they chose to do so.  If ANY area is instanced, it could be done.  The lead player "pulling" other team members in (for lack of a better term) could select the level... and advise those entering with them what they are doing.  That instance can (should) be able to read the number of players / level / armor and determine what level of NPC's to release for that group.  By the way ... it should be noted that this has already been done in an older game roughly in 2001.  It was one of the first online games that I tried to play.  

IMO it is not being realistic to assume that everyone wants the same type of game.  Just as some players see anything other than PvP a total waste of time and money from a development standpoint of view others see story mode as a game for children (thus dull and boring).  Both are at extremes. 

Getting people to once again connect to others ...  (even if they are solo players) and connecting to SWTOR is imperative.  One of the ways to do that is to include multiple levels of difficulty available.  YES, it is ABSOLUTELY true that open areas in PVE cannot be done this way.  I believe that a happy median can be reached there as well.  While some think this is a pipe dream ... I don't think so.  Not for a moment!

[ZUHFB]

5 hours ago, Darthmoriquendi said:

Of course i don't have to do it, but if I want or need the resources and the tech frags then yeah I need to do it or is that too difficult to understand? Making the daily grind take longer because Bioware wants  to increase difficulty in casual areas to make people stay logged in longer is just not fun.  A lot just want to get in and get out so to speak. and just move on to doing things they enjoy.

Theeeen gear doing the things you enjoy?

[Jett-Rinn]

On 11/18/2022 at 8:32 AM, TonyTricicolo said:

Ya want harder? Try running some the Kofte/et missions in Veteran and Master Modes.

Or Master Mode wearing only a costume...🤪

[juliushorst]

On 11/19/2022 at 8:16 AM, ZUHFB said:

Yes. But you don't.

You got us (people who don't like 7.0's scaling) - we pay our subscription fee only to read pearls of your wisdom on the forum, we don't play the game at all.

[ZUHFB]

1 hour ago, juliushorst said:

You got us (people who don't like 7.0's scaling) - we pay our subscription fee only to read pearls of your wisdom on the forum, we don't play the game at all.

Apparently most people don't play the game because conquest gearing is inefficent and wasted, there is no reason to do many dalies and much less reason to do them when they are the content the gear would be used for. If you need gear for PvE or PvP a player should use those geat paths because they are faster and better.

So this leaves me to come to the conclusion that in both cases farming DRM is a waste of time.

[arunav]

I'd like to see a difficulty toggle for Class Story bosses. 

I recall, back in 2012 and 2013, when going through each of the 8 stories, even with blue, level-appropriate crafted mods, some of the bosses could pose a bit of a challenge. Certainly, the level of difficulty fit each story better, as in an antagonist that is built up over multiple planets didn't die in a few seconds. 

If scaling could give players a difficulty option in instanced Class Story areas, it would be a huge improvement. 

Even if I prefer mobs to be easy at endgame, when doing things like heroics or daily areas, if leveling an alt, I'd rather the bosses have a difficulty setting. I'd even welcome some kind of Master Mode, similar to KotFE/KotET, for them, though that would obviously be the most difficult setting. Others settings could be the level of difficulty bosses are currently, something like what 1.x and 2.x was, and maybe something a bit more difficult but not the Master Mode referenced above. 

So: casual --> classic --> veteran --> master

I don't expect BW will ever implement this or anything like it. 

[MortenJessen]

All I hope for, is that BW get around fixing instanced quest areas, so they become as "difficult" as they were at launch. I hate having to fight the Emperor, and my companion kills him before I even get to jump in. NOT FUN.

[DWho]

The best solution is probably a voluntary debuff that lowers your abilities further than level sync does. Something like what is done with the White Acute module with XP. The Baras and Emperor fights would need to be moved to their own synched instance because they take place on "starter" planets. A level 50 Coruscant and Drommund Kass area on the same planet might do the trick (this is something that exists for the bonus series on several planets, where the bonus area is higher level than the base planet, so it is potentially doable). What often makes the end chapter boss fights "too easy" is overlevelling and overgearing. Short of BW taking away abilities you shouldn't have for the fight (which would cause a huge backlash) you're pretty much on your own to do that to make the fight tougher.

[SteveTheCynic]

4 hours ago, DWho said:

Short of BW taking away abilities you shouldn't have for the fight (which would cause a huge backlash)

You say that, and I agree about the backlash, and yet it's a thing in "Fates" in FF14.  If you are over-level for a Fate, and you go anyway, the game strips off your abilities that the synced level wouldn't have.

[OlBuzzard]

While voluntary debuff has some merit...  IMO it still has its limitations. Even if companions were the key factor (for voluntary debuff) ..  It just seems easier to set in place 3 (possibly a fourth) for both solo and multiplayer options.  Casual, Classic, Veteran and Master are good names to be used.

Open areas (PvE) ...  These could easily be divided into "areas" with varying levels of difficulty.   The further North you travel the more pockets of intense difficulties are found (including more difficult random major bosses encountered).

I simply see the possibilities of a wider variety difficulties being made available.   And YES the rewards should reflect those accomplishments.  

[DWho]

1 hour ago, OlBuzzard said:

While voluntary debuff has some merit...  IMO it still has its limitations. Even if companions were the key factor (for voluntary debuff) ..  It just seems easier to set in place 3 (possibly a fourth) for both solo and multiplayer options.  Casual, Classic, Veteran and Master are good names to be used.

Open areas (PvE) ...  These could easily be divided into "areas" with varying levels of difficulty.   The further North you travel the more pockets of intense difficulties are found (including more difficult random major bosses encountered).

I simply see the possibilities of a wider variety difficulties being made available.   And YES the rewards should reflect those accomplishments.  

I could support a "project" like this but the resources needed would all but assure we wouldn't see any new story content for years (what we have gotten is already pretty pathetic, being mostly content intended for a group "dumbed down" for solo play with some extra cut-scenes or extremely linear "daily" areas). It's essentially a whole new game. The debuff would effectively be different versions of level sync (which affects both companions and characters). Defense is the biggest influencer of difficulty in that it is pure damage prevention (which gives both more time to take down the opponent as well as allowing the companion to do more damage instead of healing).

[OlBuzzard]

20 hours ago, DWho said:

I could support a "project" like this but the resources needed would all but assure we wouldn't see any new story content for years (what we have gotten is already pretty pathetic, being mostly content intended for a group "dumbed down" for solo play with some extra cut-scenes or extremely linear "daily" areas). It's essentially a whole new game. The debuff would effectively be different versions of level sync (which affects both companions and characters). Defense is the biggest influencer of difficulty in that it is pure damage prevention (which gives both more time to take down the opponent as well as allowing the companion to do more damage instead of healing).

Reads DWho's stuff...   grumbles to self!!

Yeah!  I know! (still grumbling to self) ...  You are still correct (even if I hate to admit it!).  IMO it's too stinking bad that we can't get stuff in the game for a wider audience...

(still grumbling to self) ...  It's FRUSTRATING!!!  Even more frustrating to think that if someone who is a nobody like me can figure it out... SURELY someone with the resources and talent can as well!!

[/shrugs] ...  maybe they have and just can't do something about it????

TBH I was just remembering a 20+ year old game where it would read the lead player ... and those that were "drafted" into the instance.  The game would release AI according to the total ship strength.  I was one of the best times I've ever had playing a game.  It was also the last time I was a part of a guild (and they were really good too).  Heck ...  they had to be to put up with me.  Back then I was lucky to be able to fire up the ol' puter!   BUT as simplistic as that game was it was easy to engage in PvP as well as PvE:  SOLO or GROUP !!!  The same game .. the same server.  And YES difficulty levels could be adjusted!

BTW ...  not upset with you!  I do enjoy your stuff.  And it's pretty obvious on many of your other posts you to have a pretty good handle on things from a more practical standpoint!

I'm still looking for that solution that works on a larger scale without dumbing things down (to the point of boredom) for some, providing a good challange .. and when needed some aspects that would be almost mind numbing for others!!  And yet provide fun and entertainment (as well as challenges) for as wide an audience as possible.

And yes ..  the simple fact is it won't be cheap!

If any team is looking for cheap and easy ... well ...  never mind!  I'll get myself into some real trouble.  Nothing I ever got EVER came easy! College:  (worked a full-time job with a full load every year) ...  home ... car ..  everything!  It just don't come easy!  Not for me at least!

IMO the same goes for any game worth playing.  It won't come easy!

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by OlBuzzard
clarification

[jedimasterjac]

20 hours ago, SteveTheCynic said:

If you are over-level for a Fate, and you go anyway, the game strips off your abilities that the synced level wouldn't have.

Obviously a matter of taste, but losing the abilities is what makes me not want to do any of the fates or scaled dungeons. It's just not fun being a WHM, for example, and going back to a point before your class got fun to play.