Why do people think this game is hard? [SPOILERS]

[~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-AIN'T]

People who can't kill Cassius should be sterilized. Unless one is intentionally trying to get killed by him (skip turn over and over), I really can't see a way for the player to actually get killed in that fight.

I actually did get killed by him with a character that had minimum physical stats and PER as the lowest of the mental stats. Plus no weapon/defense skills or armor and just a shitty bronze dagger. But that's literally the worst possible combat build.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

To me it seems that those who declare the game too hard (talker can't fight) or otherwise not enjoyable (content gated because of skill checks, NPCs screw you over) do so for exactly the reasons many others, including myself, find the game so refreshing, engaging, and captivating.

The game challenges and spurs me to come up with creative solutions, outsmart opponents, develop a long term scheme, and really consider choices from a consequence and opportunity cost perspective. Yes, there are things some characters can't do. When I play, the main challenge, and reason I enjoy playing the game, is making a certain type of character and then trying to make that character succeed in a game world that is delightfully unforgiving.

 

[Shadowfang]

I feel like a fool for only now discovering that the penalties from aimed attacks are cumulative.
Dellar, i shall fear you no longer!

 

[Old One]

People who think AoD is "hard" are used to being alternately herded like sheep and scampering around freely inside their pen.

 

[kwanzabot]

People who think AoD is "hard" are used to being alternately herded like sheep and scampering around freely inside their pen.

i literally just cut my eyes and face on how edgy your post was

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Dellar, i shall fear you no longer!

Seriously, all the blokes who can give a good fight and you're worried about Dellar.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

No armor can stand the gentle mercy of my sledgehammers.
Also he's a bit dependent on Antidas, isn't he?

 

[TigerKnee]

Do you fight Dellar outside of any other context other than the climax of the Imperial Guards Teron questline?

I'm pretty sure you could win that battle even with a poor-ish combat build just by flinging nets at everything - taking on the Outpost fresh is harder.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Granted, Dellar's probably the baddest motherfucker in Teron right after the IG player. No idea where Carrinas stands there though.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Just take the House Daratan Blaze of Glory path and you will see how badass Dellar is. (and yes he is toughest opponent in IG path but... You have your Guard Bros to help there so just do what happened at 3:10 here:

 

[MrMarbles]

Even when you adjust for the low difficulty of other rpgs and after you learn the ropes, bits of AoD are still hard. Taking on the bandit group in Aemolas' village, bumrushing the IG at the pass or attacking the mercenary at the gate are all very difficult battles with almost any build.

 

[valcik]

Ambush set by Levir in slums is the hardest fight for me. As for Teron, Aemolas' village is pretty hard too. Great fun anyway, being chased by eight bandits, stabbing them with poisoned spear and waiting for bowman to run out of ammo finally! Takes three full circles around the map to finish them off usualy.

 

[Kasparov]

I think that AoD is really really hard to look at. And it shouldn't have to.

Dialogue seems to be mostly skill checks, which isn't very hard if you've got the metagame knowledge to know what speech skills need to be at what levels.

This. It's simply retarded. That does not add replay value and is just plain masochism. I've whipped myself with AoD plenty and got through all that, but this approach is simply not good design.

Instead of failures simply breaking/ending your game they could help define your character in unique ways and drive the story forward in a tangential direction to the successes. Instead you go back to the character creation screen and trudge though the same shit again. The first chapter is basically the Temple of Trials from Fallout 2

Sticking to a character build is a great idea on paper but the way AoD deals with it again forces the player to basically grind for metaknowledge until they get it.

 

[makiavelli747]

Instead of failures simply breaking/ending your game they could help define your character in unique ways and drive the story forward in a tangential direction to the successes.

so no matter what you do you always win?

 

[Kasparov]

so no matter what you do you always win?

YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN. Because you know, that is the only alternative to reloading or re-creating your character from scratch.

No, I don't mean a sort of Fallout 4-esque dialogue wheel that makes choosing between dialogue options redundant.

When you fail, you could lock a path or two that required that roll to succeed and the game moves on. The tone be different from a successful encounter. You get locked out of certain content, might open up new avenues and choices at a later moment in the game. And by later in the game I mean throughout the game - have the choices affect your character progression not just the immediate aftermath of that single encounter.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Instead of failures simply breaking/ending your game they could help define your character in unique ways and drive the story forward in a tangential direction to the successes.

That sounds like a fantasy version of inspector Clouseau or something.

 

[Kasparov]

Exactemundo

 

[Goral]

Vault Dweller
Maybe you should consider adding that "awesome button" AKA easy mode which would give a boost to players stats or nerf enemies. Seeing that 90% of negative reviews are of a kind: "it's too hard, I have to savescum to get by" and/or those who ragequit the game it would probably improve your sales and positive-negative review ratio. These are negative reviews from the last 2 weeks:

Great idea, great concept, good writing. Problem is your put into too many situations where you have to save scum just to get by.

Feels cumbersome to play. It reminds me much of Divinity Original Sin, which I prefer instead.

This game would be suitable for someone who has many 100s of hours left to spare/waste.

This game is silly. They replaced the idea of difficulty with the concept of impossible unless your character has the correct traits. BS, is what I say. It isnt replayable because there isnt enough variation from one story type to another. Plus the whole game is based on skill rolls n ♥♥♥♥ like that, which really is just annoying. Its like, you cant do this because you picked this character type, not that one. Play the game again to find what this line of dialogue is. Lame

It's not like it will change anything to the rest of the players (especially veterans) but it will make retards feel cool and awesome. At this point what's most important is that you will get enough money to make CSG. Unless you're selling so well that you don't need to bother to try increasing the sales further...

 

[SniperHF]

LONG LIVE AWESOME!

 

[Kasparov]

What Vault Dweller was saying and what I firmly believe is that the game is not hard but it is flawed. Bad design. At least the kind of design I do not approve of. Here we've entered the realm of opinions and assholes where everyone has got one or in some rare cases more than a few. The fact that Vince labels it "hard" in a disclaimer at the beginning of the game does not necessarily make it so. If you break the mechanics apart you see that the idea is good but implementation can be improved on.

 

[makiavelli747]

YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN. Because you know, that is the only alternative to reloading or re-creating your character from scratch.

how you can lose then?

 

[Kasparov]

how you can lose then?

Ah, I see we think of very different things when we think about losing.

Take life for example:
You go to a bar. You see a hot chick. You quietly roll your pocket dice and get - BOOM! snake-eyes - the perfect opening line. You pass the check, get meaningful eye contact and just when things are looking on the up and up her ogrish boyfriend shows up.

Now you reach for your pocket, but - alas - the boyfriend is waay above your level and instaknocks you in the teeth and out of the fight before your fingers even touch the dice.

Is that not losing? The next day you're wiser for it and hey! you know a badass pickup line and you've bruises for great party talk.

Or is it only losing when you die a horrible death and have to start over as a fucking baby?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Instead of failures simply breaking/ending your game they could help define your character in unique ways and drive the story forward in a tangential direction to the successes. Instead you go back to the character creation screen and trudge though the same shit again. The first chapter is basically the Temple of Trials from Fallout 2

The failures neither end nor break your game and they certainly don't force you to go back unless you simply must unlock as much content as humanly possible, in which case, tough luck. Play the game in the manner fitting your character and you won't have any problems.

 

[makiavelli747]

Is that not losing?

failure in skillcheck doesn't mean losing a game, and in AoD you don't have to be successful at everything to survive

 

[Drowed]

The failures neither end nor break your game and they certainly don't force you to go back unless you simply must unlock as much content as humanly possible, in which case, tough luck. Play the game in the manner fitting your character and you won't have any problems.

The problem, VD, is that sometimes your view of what was fits your character isn't the same as what a lot of people think, and the result is that several options seem to be missing in the game. "I'm a assassin, so, why I don't have the option of staying on the roof of this house to ambush these two individuals? Why I cannot poison this character using his food? Why I cannot bargain with this one? Why I cannot I steal from this guy here?" So on and so forth. I mean, I understand. You are only one person, and you cannot write all conceivable scenarios and all forms of interactions in the world in your game, this is a problem inherent to games that are deeply scripted.

I guess it's a trade-off, you don't have the absurd interactions like in games that offers more "organic" interaction (like Fallout, where you can go putting dynamite in someone's pocket who is dressed in rags), but on the other hand, the world suddenly feels limited, smaller. Especially because in most RPGs, combat is the "basic mechanic" of the game - all other forms of interaction are built around it, which means that "if all else fails, hit it until it's dead". In AOD, combat isn't considered as the base, it's more like one of the options, you have to consciously make the choice to create a character able to do that. Which, again, makes sense and is part of the game logic, but effectively reduces the number of ways that the player can interact with the world. And since all other forms of interaction are severely scripted, when the game doesn't offer you the (plausible) option that you expected, you feel trapped/stuck.

That's why the game feels like a CYOA most of the time. It's a great CYOA, by the way.