Game Difficulty

[FoMarlBorough]

Howdy folks,

Seen some mention on the forums on how this game isnt that difficult. That being said and even though my main is only lvl 30, i have to agree.
I feel ive gotten just past the point of the endless grind just to unlock my sub-class.

Is there more in store? I like TA's in theory. Only started doing some on PSO BB until my team died(fell apart, drama, etc...)

So, i guess ill ask:

How would you like to see added difficulty in PSO2?

For one i think if the enemy AI used attacks and techs that reposition the players, that could add difficulty. Make spacial positioning, thus timing more relevent.

Different quest objectives would be cool but what if there was a difficulty that included friendly fire? That could be LOL's out the Wazoo.

Better enemy AI that would let mobs gang or snipe you from a flank or rear, timed against certain PA/Techs. Example, you do an Over End, some ankle biters start banging on your backside(insert jokes). Would likely give more priority to invincibility frames/ cancels/ and dodges.

Enemy attacks that drain your PP?

More emphasis on team composition. Like an all cast team gets some bonus, but maybe a cast/dewman team gets a penalty. Prolly could use some fluff to support or use a cyclical calender-like system where tuesday is cast day...etc.

Racial weaknesses. Casts suck vs lighting/shock, Newmans suck vs Dark/poison...etc. This is where humans could win out.

Perhaps more tactical thought could be given to enemy ranged and tech attacks.

These are just some ideas that im spraying at the forums as my Gf is going over our grocery list. If some ideas seem dumb, im gonna blame some of it on trying to tune out reality,

[UnLucky]

Well there's Advance and Extreme quests, but they're not enough. And the hardest XQ floors aren't the most rewarding (or any set of floors for that matter). The next difficulty level could solve all our problems, but I doubt it.

But nah, they can't add racial differences now or face a lot of outcry. That can completely invalidate people's character choices, requiring restarting from scratch to change.

What they need is more aggressive enemies that take longer to kill but are much more rewarding. Oneshots and stunlocking needs to go away, on both sides. Right now the more things that die the better, and if you get hit at all (or rather if the enemy even tries to attack at any point) then you messed up.

The huge attacks that kill the weak and unskilled are great. The ones with obvious tells that nobody should get hit by and deal enough damage to kill anyone who doesn't have good defensive stats.

But in addition to those, we need a regular onslaught of weaker attacks that, while still dodgeable, are more likely to catch players off guard but aren't too big of a deal unless you have crappy gear and take a lot of hits without healing. Great players will take no damage, good players will feel the pressure, and bad players will die over time.

And ranged attacks that prioritize distant targets. Or AoE attacks with safe zones near the boss. Or arena-wide suction/gravity effects. Or annoying adds that scatter away from the boss. Anything that doesn't ruin either only melee classes or both melee and ranged together.

And then limit max Moon capacity to 1. A single revive per person. With Dolls in the NPC shop, also with 1 max.

[Kilich]

How would you like to see added difficulty in PSO2?
Yes, but not by making enemies more aggressive, since the last thing I want, with this attack design, is rabid enemies.

For one i think if the enemy AI used attacks and techs that reposition the players, that could add difficulty. Make spacial positioning, thus timing more relevent.
>Not for client side game
Different quest objectives would be cool but what if there was a difficulty that included friendly fire? That could be LOL's out the Wazoo.
>That would just annoying. If you want FF just get hit with Panic.
Better enemy AI that would let mobs gang or snipe you from a flank or rear, timed against certain PA/Techs. Example, you do an Over End, some ankle biters start banging on your backside(insert jokes). Would likely give more priority to invincibility frames/ cancels/ and dodges.
They already try to flank and gang up on you. And if aggro system and attack design was better, they would apply pressure at all ranges.
Enemy attacks that drain your PP?

More emphasis on team composition. Like an all cast team gets some bonus, but maybe a cast/dewman team gets a penalty. Prolly could use some fluff to support or use a cyclical calender-like system where tuesday is cast day...etc.
>Even more locked mpas, because people would hate if wrong class/race joined
Racial weaknesses. Casts suck vs lighting/shock, Newmans suck vs Dark/poison...etc. This is where humans could win out.
That doesn't really make sense lore wise, since all ARKS are protected by personal forcefields. And it would lead to even wilder difference in damage received.

[Kondibon]

Well there's Advance and Extreme quests, but they're not enough. And the hardest XQ floors aren't the most rewarding (or any set of floors for that matter). The next difficulty level could solve all our problems, but I doubt it.

But nah, they can't add racial differences now or face a lot of outcry. That can completely invalidate people's character choices, requiring restarting from scratch to change.

What they need is more aggressive enemies that take longer to kill but are much more rewarding. Oneshots and stunlocking needs to go away, on both sides. Right now the more things that die the better, and if you get hit at all (or rather if the enemy even tries to attack at any point) then you messed up.

The huge attacks that kill the weak and unskilled are great. The ones with obvious tells that nobody should get hit by and deal enough damage to kill anyone who doesn't have good defensive stats.

But in addition to those, we need a regular onslaught of weaker attacks that, while still dodgeable, are more likely to catch players off guard but aren't too big of a deal unless you have crappy gear and take a lot of hits without healing. Great players will take no damage, good players will feel the pressure, and bad players will die over time.

And ranged attacks that prioritize distant targets. Or AoE attacks with safe zones near the boss. Or arena-wide suction/gravity effects. Or annoying adds that scatter away from the boss. Anything that doesn't ruin either only melee classes or both melee and ranged together.

And then limit max Moon capacity to 1. A single revive per person. With Dolls in the NPC shop, also with 1 max.

I like all of these ideas. Infact I don't think I have anything to add to this.

[gigawuts]

The problem is they don't understand how to make the game difficult. They make everything either flinch you to death while making you wait 0.1-15 seconds during flinch animations you can't interrupt, or they one-shot you.

There is no in-between.

They have zero freaking idea how to make something that can be a threat without flinching you or one-shotting you. They haven't made anything actually challenging by doing anything else. And the things that will do that? You can guard, dash, or just stand really far away from them. Once you're used to them they pose no threat at all unless you make a tenth of a second misjudgment on when to evade.

So yeah. They could take a different approach, but with the way the game is designed - fast runs and such - I don't think it'll ever be "challenging" in the vein prior games were, i.e. entering a dungeon and trying to not run out of resources.

[Zipzo]

The only challenge that they can foresee-ably give us in this game based on the mechanics they've given us to play with, and the way they are currently designing enemies to be killed...is give us strict as fuck timers on stuff.

Basically you absolutely can't even trip over a stick if you want to finish in time. You have to play your class properly and use the tools your class has to utter perfection. Put some good rewards behind it and there ya go, people will start thinking about their efficiency more and who they bring to their parties and you have yourself some "difficult" content.

Don't make it all or nothing, if you can't seem to complete it at the best time then make it so you can get "okay" rewards for not meeting the expectation, but keep the top tier rewards behind the max efficiency times.

Sort of like the old Hunters Guild missions in PSO with timers, except even stricter.

[~Aya~]

Ultimate mode PSO1 style.

Make AI try to rush you and gang rape you like PSO1. (Atleast some monsters should)

Bring bosses back with multiple forms requiring different strategies for players to out how to fight them efficiently.

Give some enemies megid that has OHKO chance.

[UnLucky]

So like XQ farming, only each individual run is not rewarding at all and the only benefit to running them stupid fast is to conserve booster tickets. And it's once per day.

[AgemFrostMage]

Well there's Advance and Extreme quests, but they're not enough. And the hardest XQ floors aren't the most rewarding (or any set of floors for that matter). The next difficulty level could solve all our problems, but I doubt it.

But nah, they can't add racial differences now or face a lot of outcry. That can completely invalidate people's character choices, requiring restarting from scratch to change.

What they need is more aggressive enemies that take longer to kill but are much more rewarding. Oneshots and stunlocking needs to go away, on both sides. Right now the more things that die the better, and if you get hit at all (or rather if the enemy even tries to attack at any point) then you messed up.

The huge attacks that kill the weak and unskilled are great. The ones with obvious tells that nobody should get hit by and deal enough damage to kill anyone who doesn't have good defensive stats.

But in addition to those, we need a regular onslaught of weaker attacks that, while still dodgeable, are more likely to catch players off guard but aren't too big of a deal unless you have crappy gear and take a lot of hits without healing. Great players will take no damage, good players will feel the pressure, and bad players will die over time.

And ranged attacks that prioritize distant targets. Or AoE attacks with safe zones near the boss. Or arena-wide suction/gravity effects. Or annoying adds that scatter away from the boss. Anything that doesn't ruin either only melee classes or both melee and ranged together.

And then limit max Moon capacity to 1. A single revive per person. With Dolls in the NPC shop, also with 1 max.

The enemy only looks passive, but they're really waiting for a commitment from the player and either dodge or counterattack. Those little birds always try flying behind the player, but I see them =)

Some enemies already take too long to kill. Take the wondas and al aidas for example. The aidas already dodge and move fast, I move control stick and keep up with them and finally safoie or rafoie them (depending on distance, nafoie is only good against them after they've been sazan or nazaned down) but they have tons of HP considering their damage output and speed. Wondas need a shield nerf since if you run to their left you run into invulnerable part but go to their right and they do that big swing so you can't get hits on their weakpoint. Only way to beat them is (again) wait for them to commit, usually after their shield rush.


If you want monsters to have more HP just use weaker weapons, you do have that choice no one stops you

[Zenobia]

We need a challenge but the way the players are if the game isn't challenging its no fun we want easy bosses and enemies so we can steam roll everything.

Only time this game is challenging or somewhat is when you solo 4 person is a joke.

I really liked the way those sharks were before the nerf now its just plain stupid.

Really hate games where I hardly die at all or feel fucking immortal.