Thougts regarding current difficulty of the game

[aloysiop]

Hi im playing the current build 14 beta 4.0. First of all, i would like thank for what u guys have been doing to this game! It's just amazing and i'm having a lot of fun so far! Played the original quest line (Sea Hawk) and now i'm playing free-play mode, on the highest difficulty (swashbuckler) with all the realism settings on. I'll try to point some things that i think could improve the experience (they are personal, but i think can apply to other people who, as me, have found little challenge in certain aspects of the game). My style is melee focused, and i enjoy more land fights, dungeons or boarding and taking other ships in sea. Said that here are my thougts:

- Early game is very well balanced i think, it's hard as it should be in all aspects, since we are starting and need to improve our character. By early game i mean the very first levels (1~10) where i wasnt able to easily defeat any bandits, clean dungeons, board ships of the same class or make fortune just trading, no matter how many times i reloaded and tried again. You can really feel getting stronger as you level up and start being able to progress in this points.

- As i gained access to some good itens, improved my skills (in my case i got all melee abilities first, and professional fencing is just soo op ) and get some gold to hire and equip you and ur officers, things start to change very fast. I feel like bandits, highwaymen and dungeons become too easy too fast ( around lv 12~15) and i can just go and loot the entire dungeon without problems, hire a good quatermaster and sell the loot for gold (also u get a lot of skill improvement itens this way and buff to hp, wich is a huge jump in power). At this point is still very hard to board same and higher class ships (as it should be i think) and if u do something to get the town guards after you, they are very strong as well . This is the most fun part of the game for me, where u start to feell getting really strong but still have a lot of challenges. The problem is it ends very fast.

- Once i reached lv 16 i think, i had already did Toff's daughter quest (getting op nicolas sharp sword) progressed some levels with the dutch and got a nice class 4 ship. Bought the better armor (such strong item, makes u almost immortal) and a few more skill itens (did stack + than only four points as i read should be) equipped my officers and my crew, buffed a little more my hp at the apothecary and nothing could stop me anymore. Boarded and captured a class 3 ship, repaired it, and decided to try capture a fort. Didnt expect it was going to be so easy, and that i would be given 11.000.000 gold pieces along with all the ransack. At this point i was almost lv 19 and there was no more challenge (some forts were still defeating me, but then i got another ship and even those couldnt handle me anymore ) and i decided to start another game.

In this new game things are going even faster as i already now some "tricks" from the last playtrough, even when im not rushing anything and trying to enjoy and do all the side quests avaiable. But still very nice job done with this game!

With all that said i want to now if there is a way to add difficulty to the game as you progress? Like enemies better equipped and higher lv than you (when u get professional fencer, battle armor and good weapons u can just ran all the dungeons easily with rush active without needing to block attacks just pressing c to heal sometimes) And why are the opponents from boarding and fort raid battles sooo much stronger than bandits and dungeon enemies from land?

Thanks for reading all this and sry for the bad english!

 

[Grey Roger]

One reason why things are easier when you have better equipment is that there wouldn't be much point getting the equipment otherwise.

Bandits do seem to be easier than they used to be. Especially in dungeons. In older versions of the game I had a hard time in dungeons and had to save game frequently because I was liable to get killed. Now I can just wander through and casually slaughter the entire population, the downside being I get much less experience for doing so.

Enemies never seem to wear armour. One exception I can think of is the Dark Teacher, the red-robed boss you meet towards the end of the "Strange Things Going On" quest - he has battle armour because I gave it to him. Random enemies never use it, though. So once you and your officers are in gold armour, you have a big advantage.

Of course, if you want to make things difficult again, just unequip your armour.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I never liked the concept of enemies becoming stronger as you increase in level.
But that's how the game works, so we'd better stick with that for the foreseeable future.

There are formulas that can be changed to increase the effect of the Difficulty Level.

Enemies not using armour might play a large role though. That sounds like a missing feature to me.
In the past, soldier models with armour would actually have armour. But I don't think that works anymore.

Boardings and land encounters are 100% independent pieces of code.
The strength of enemy boarders depends on the relative strengths of both crews, scaled with both crew morales.

If you want a truly hard game, try starting Free Play as a Castaway.

 

[Talisman]

Boarded and captured a class 3 ship, repaired it, and decided to try capture a fort. Didnt expect it was going to be so easy,

The Forts are of different sizes - so some will be easier to capture than others

If you want to try and capture a big Fort - try Governors Harbour on Eleuthera.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'd imagine Havana might be a tough nut to crack as well.
And Cartagena's and Charlestown's forts are very hard to hit.

 

[aloysiop]

Yes, this time i'll stick with the leather armor, also i'm using only 4 skill bonus itens. Bandits and dungeons still feel easy yet though. I tried smuggling this time and it makes soo much gold! I'm progressing in a more economic way this time.


Pieter, there is a simple way i can change effect of difficulty level, and what exactly would that change? Also, is it possible to make armor less effective?


I'll definitely try capturing Governors Harbour this time Talisman!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

i'm using only 4 skill bonus itens.

There is an option in InternalSettings.h that controls how many skill points you can add per skill per item.
By default that is set to "4". You could decrease that and then no matter how many skill items you get, you won't have so much benefit from them.

Pieter, there is a simple way i can change effect of difficulty level, and what exactly would that change?

You'd have to edit the spots in the code where the difficulty level is used.

Also, is it possible to make armor less effective?

Edit initItems.c .

 

[aloysiop]

I forgot to mention Pieter, i did start as a castaway this time and the beggining was really really hard indeed. It takes more time but i just reached that point eventually. I get that as u equip and evolve things get easier, and thats ok, but i wish there was a difficulty level where things get harder as you progress.

And thank you, i'll try those changes!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I get that as u equip and evolve things get easier, and thats ok, but i wish there was a difficulty level where things get harder as you progress.

Would be nice. Some sort of "Survival Mode".

 

[Pieter Boelen]

And I was going to mention: Have you tried playing as a Pirate yet? Hostile to all nations? And using Divide the Plunder Mode?
Or a Privateer with multiple LoMs and Changing Nation Relations ON in Free Play? Those might be some nice new challenges!

 

[aloysiop]

And I was going to mention: Have you tried playing as a Pirate yet? Hostile to all nations? And using Divide the Plunder Mode?
Or a Privateer with multiple LoMs and Changing Nation Relations ON in Free Play? Those might be some nice new challenges!

I did played as a pirate with divide the plunder, it's definitely good to prevent making a fortune easily haha. I'm playing with multiple LoMs, how do i turn Changing Nation Relations ON?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If you're in the Free Play storyline, it already is.

 

[aloysiop]

Didn't noticed they changing yet, just got another LoM, let's see what happens.

 

[Grey Roger]

One thing you'll have notices if you look at the "Quests" page is that previously one of the nations was highlighted in yellow. That's the nation which provided your first LoM and you were in the service of that nation. One effect of that is that your relations are tied to those of that nation, which means if it was at war with someone and now makes peace, the other nation will make peace with you as well. You're in the service of Portugal, which is at war with Spain, so you've been attacking Spanish ships and Spain hates you. If Spain and Portugal make peace then Spain makes peace with you as well.

If you have both English and Portugese LoM's, neither nation is highlighted; instead, "Personal" is highlighted. You're not tied to any one nation. Portugal is at war with Spain, so you've been attacking Spanish ships and Spain hates you. If Spain and Portugal make peace then Spain still hates you.

Alliances matter. As an independent privateer, if you attack Spanish ships then Spain will hate you and so will its allies. Most of the time that's not a problem because the powers are divided into groups, e.g. England, Portugal and Holland are allied to each other and all at war with France and Spain, which are also allied to each other. So you get LoM's from England, Portugal and Holland, then attack Spanish ships, and as France is allied to Spain then it hates you and you get to attack their ships too, which is fine because all your clients are at war with France. Variable relations complicate that - if England makes peace with France, and then allies with France, then France still hates you, but if you sink a French ship then England won't like it and you'll lose your English LoM. Keep doing it and England will become hostile, and if you then sink an English ship then you lose your Portuguese and Dutch LoM's as well. Which means you need to watch international relations carefully and be careful who you fight.

But if you're careful then multiple LoM's can be very rewarding because you end up with titles and land from several nations at once. You just need to keep one eye on the international affairs table, visit taverns often and keep up to date, and make sure you don't upset any of your clients.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I really like how cool that sounds!