difficulty modes

[littleman2347]

Has there been any word on modes like ultimate and hard mode or is there just areas that you move to with harder monsters.

[Ancient]

I'd like to see the difficulty level system remain, that way the higher level chracters wont be stuck playing only the hardest few maps in the game over and over.
Similarly, I'd like to see a difficulty above ultimate. One that would be unlockable at the 160 level stage. (or so, depending on how levels work in PSU) That would keep those max level characters on their toes. In PSO, once you hit 200 their isnt much challenge left. And adding megid to everything doesnt count as more challenging ST! I swear ulitmate towers are more like dodge ball than PSO.

[Tystys]

I think when I was browsing the site they already went over that. Apparently, you move to areas that will have even more difficult monsters, because each monster has a specific level now.

[Ryna]

There have been no confirmations about difficulty levels yet. The only thing we have seen are different "letter-grade" difficulties for online missions and monsters having levels (level 47 for example).

[_Tek_]

I hope there's an EMD mode.

[OdinTyler]

Im curious about the levels of monsters now. When thinking about that & the grades of missions, there may not be a difficulty level at all. Of course, there can still be various difficulties & the grade missions well vary between those difficulty levels. Higher difficulty levels shouldnt just be harder monsters. It could be puzzles to solve, a varied dungeon layout, random monster placement.
Those are just some ideas to kick around that maybe ST took into consideration. Besides, you couldnt have a level above Ultimate. The name kinda says it all. I do agree that a challenge is necessary for anyone over Lv100. When you get to the 110s, 120s, & onward, it becomes repetitious. I hope theres a return of the Endless Nightmare quests. Non stop masses of monsters was some of the craziest fun for online play.

[PhotonCat]

It is probably gonna be like a MMORPG set up.
As you lvl you have to move to different areas where there is higher lvl mobs/quests to accommodate your lvl.

This makes it so you don't have to go back to the old PSO days and do Forest or Ruins 1 Million times over...

[Tystys]

Maybe they'll do the Monster Hunter thing, and require you to complete certain missions to move on in that certain environment.
I also wonder if it'll be possible to do area runs. You know, like in PSO?

[Zelutos]

I'd imagine it would be something like Ragnarok Online where there are areas with weaker monsters, and then there will be areas with stronger monsters.

Either that, or they'll keep the PSO system for that http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[_Tek_]

Perhaps it will be based on your teams level? I doubt it actually, but it could be something similar to FFXI.

[Ryo_Hayasa]

Hmm i donno, the idea of areas with powerful monsters and areas with weak monsters seem good enough.

wait a tick, you won't be creating a room, so you in a sense won't be creating your own "set of planets"
alright lets make sense of this.

In PSO you made a room and set what episode and what difficulty.

In PSU we've seen that you make a team why? Because the lobby is apart of the planet. You merely go off with your team and explore an area. or the planet, whatever.

Though assuming that you make a team, and choose were your teams go (leaving the out the possiblity that one team can bump into another team in their adventures, and you make Private rooms ala PSO) i'm sure you can pick your difficulty.

As for levels of difficulty i would love to see a rank beyond Ultimate as well, something like. "God" or something, where monsters area ALL max levels.

[Saffran]

They need to implement the "You Asked For It" difficulty mode from Shining Force 3. THAT would rock.
More seriously though, they could have some kind of unlockable option on each quest. Clear it and you can access a harder difficulty, like monsters start at level 40 and not level 1 or so.

[Ancient]

I would have called the difficulty after Ultimate, Nightmare or something. But "You Asked For It" sounds even more appropriate.
And isnt having to party and then go into your own instanced world just about the same as PSO? The only difference is that the lobbies dictate what particular levels you can access at the moment. Since you're game isnt effected by any other players while on a mission, I dont see why they could not implement the same, or similar difficulty system as before.
Working your way to higher monster areas is fine in other MMO's where there is a lot of endgame content. But not so much here when you've only got a set number of stages. I'd rather have the entire range of stages set to a high difficulty once I get to a high level, than have to hang out in the last couple stages forever just to have a challenge. I'm glad I have to go through Ultimate forest and so on to get a challenge in the later levels, it beats just hanging out in V-hard ruins all day.

[Kannon]

Yeah the way PSO has it's difficulty set up for the
stages is what I like and it allows for more weps
than plain monsters.
The number of difficulties times the number of
monsters per stage.

Yet I don't know exactly how they will have this setup.
Different monster level ranges in stages at a different difficulties.

Normal lv 5-20 Hard 15-40 V Hard 40-80... and so on

[Yummi]

I think the grade system will essentially be the difficulty mode of that mission. Let's say each area on the game on a non mission based game (if they have one) had particular levels in certain areas. That would be for free-base playing and roaming/leveling/farming. Then you would have mission that likely lets you progress in storyline but in doing so you can up the difficulty by trying the same missions youve completed on different grades. I'm guessing the grades probably up the # of objectives you have to complete, the # of enemies, the level of enemies, and the level of the boss itself.

[Tkinc]

Most likely it will have a comback of the Normal and Hard modes- hey even Very Hard ; but not sure about Ultimate yet...

[vox3om]

Honestly I'm kind of hoping that there aren't difficulty modes. I would like to see it played like many other MMORPG's, in which location plays the role of difficulty.

One thing that bothered me after a while about PSO was that I got tired of going back to the same places after I had just beaten them earlier. The only really difference was the level difficulty of the enemies.

So as for PSU having difficulty levels I would like it if each planet were to be a higher and higher level instead of a subjective First, Second, and Third run through on the same areas.

Am I making any sense?

[azjazo]

I hope the gameplay dont rely that much on the character level, say, quests that cap your level like a "mini-challenge" mode for each stage you can go whit your team, maybe extend that Challenge concept, so you can get rewards from each challenge quest, so you can lvl as crazy buy too can enter in a challenge mode more accesible and fun, with a wide variety of rewards based on your "rank level" so only characters whithin the range can atempt for some quests, capping your level to a certain number on each quest

Of course, non-cap quest will be fun too, but cappet quest are something for casual gammers to play PSU online whitout spending their entire lives in it, which I think is the alpha problem in the MMOs these days

[OdinTyler]

Here is something I want implemented & I hope it is. Lets take Episode I as an example. The Caves are pretty long. Three levels of it is alot to explore through. Sure, sometimes you wouldnt mind going through it. How about if youve completed a level, not just an area, you can play through any level you want, however you want. Using the Caves example, after finishing Caves 1-3, why should you HAVE to play through 1&2 just to get to 3? Why not have 3 automatically accessed? If areas are to be broken up into levels (as they presumably are), I hope this was taken into consideration.

[DeathMachine]

I wonder if there will be some sort of bonus something-or-other that will allow us to replay bosses in the same way OT mentioned levels...I always want to challenge Olga Flow without redo-ing those damnable Seabed levels (damn gibarta). Or taking on Any boss with good background music for that matter...

[Saffran]

Wouldn't that just mean "powerleveling"?
Maybe do that in some kind of VR system that doesn't Grant you XP... (for bosses I mean)

[littleman2347]

i wish they had both difficulty mode and harder areas.

[F-o-x]

On 2006-02-02 09:43, vox3om wrote:
Honestly I'm kind of hoping that there aren't difficulty modes. I would like to see it played like many other MMORPG's, in which location plays the role of difficulty.


I hope they do it exactly the way it was done in PSO. I liked being able to do any area (in the appropriate difficulty) whenever I wanted. For example: Forest is one of my favorite areas, I'd hate it if I got to around level ten or so, and then I'd never be able to level there (with that character) again.


How about if youve completed a level, not just an area, you can play through any level you want, however you want.

If this were possible no one would ever do the first areas of a level and just skip to the final area before the boss. I don't think its such a good idea.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: F-o-x on 2006-02-03 04:39 ]</font>

[OdinTyler]

On 2006-02-03 01:27, Saffran wrote:
Wouldn't that just mean "powerleveling"?
Maybe do that in some kind of VR system that doesn't Grant you XP... (for bosses I mean)



No, not at all. I doubt powerleveling will be in PSU. What we mean is why go through all the levels of a particular area over & over again, just to get to the part you really want to go to. If youve earned the right (clearing the past lvls before it), you should be able to port to the exact lvl you want.

[azjazo]

mh, Random generated dungeons maybe, no, not the 4 or 5 presets that was in PSO, but actually RANDOM (or a very huge amoung of previeo generated dungeons) withw weather efects to add some realism and variety, some weather effect could affect your performance, so a very hot dungeon decrase your speed, a dark one deacrease your hit rate, and such, and that way combining the weather, layouut of the dungeon and stuff you can add challenge to even most experienced players, USING THE SAME AREA, and the "level" of the dungeon (say the weather + layout thing) will be based on the team average level, and of ourse, if you add some other goblal effects to each dungeon, you can add more challege, I think that would solve the "limited" amoung of areas

[OdinTyler]

Since you bring that up, you gotta ask yourself if weather effects have been taken into consideration. So far, theres been no mention of that. However, since dungeons are affected by real time play (the time you go in affects the layout), would weather & time differentials really play out in the game? It would make it interesting if it were true. Then, you have to wonder. If its day where you are, will the Japanese see night? If so, to reflect ACTUAL time in the game would be pretty damn revolutionary.