DivOS is a game with so many cool mechanics that interlock and so many possibilities to solve problems that crafty players will find it too easy (cause there are so many possible solutions to situations) and casuals will find it too hard (cause they can't figure out this stuff).
This is why we have difficulty modes.
The problem with RPGs with even moderately complex mechanics is that the higher the level, the bigger the difference between a bad player and a good player. How successful you are is something like (party build) * (equipment) * (abilities) * (tactics). The problem is that poor players will generally have low coefficients in all of these, whereas good ones will have high ones -- which means the spread grows fast as you level up.
That's why hard mode should ramp up the difficulty faster than easy mode. D:OS doesn't do this: Tactician is a notch above Classic, but the difference stays the same. It would have been better if they had had them start at the same level and then had Tactician ramp up faster. It's a common design mistake with RPGs, but still.
Somehow PJ in his blogging manages to do both at the same time; complaining about shit in one post without apparently considering the most obvious solutions - melee guys have no mobility (yeah they do, if you build chars appropriately), Braccus Rex nukes me (fire a charming arrow up his ass and have him work for you?), shamans freeze me (you have put no points into willpower/bodybuilding have you?) - and then complaining about easy difficulty in the next post. I don't get it.
It's called "learning the game" bro. I'm just blogging this as I go.
And yeah, now that I've played a bit further and have come across mobility- and dexterity-enhancing items and given my knight Thunder Jump and Teleportation, I concede that I was wrong about that. Melee characters have plenty of mobility.
In re willpower/bodybuilding, nah. This game isn't fun or effective by going with defence; the trick is to CC them before they CC you, and putting your skill points into offensive abilities instead has a bigger payoff.
As to Braccus Rex, my complaint is that the encounter starts direct from dialogue, and Braccus drops the nuke as his first move. If you pre-buff, your buffs will also run down during the dialogue. Yes I figured out how to beat the encounter without taking a casualty, but it requires cheesy metagaming which I dislike out of general principle -- i.e. stacking buffs before going into dialogue, then 1-1-1-1-1:ing through it as fast as possible so they're still up when he drops the nuke. Again, that fight wasn't hard at all, the only complication was that I took a casualty in the first round (and promptly resurrected her with a scroll.) I didn't try Charming him before going into dialogue; I have used that tactic elsewhere and would certainly have done it had I had any trouble with the encounter. (Would that even work in Tactician mode? He has an invulnerability aura until you nuke those crystals.)
The early game is pretty hard in Tactician mode, but the game loses its challenge fairly early, for me around level 8-9 or so. It took me several tries to beat Pontius Pirate and a few tries to figure out the best way to beat Joined-In-Flame. The first encounter when you exit Cyseal is pretty hard because those immune-to-everything-stun-on-hit zombies teleport in halfway through. The lighthouse fight was pretty hard. However once I hit level 8 or so it started to get progressively easier; at this point the challenges are no longer about beating the fights, they're about beating the fights without taking a casualty, or beating the fights without using consumables, or any of a number of other self-imposed restrictions. As hard modes go this is kinda lame TBH, and not /all/ RPGs are like this.
Aren't you supposed to be some kind of grognardian mechanics genius?
Uh... no? I don't think I've ever characterised myself as a grog, or a genius. I am a bit of a systemsfag though.
(This butthurt is kinda delicious though. Maybe I should write a D:OS - EE review...)
