game too easy or hard - comments

[WOLFGIR]

Too easy??

Maybe I am doing something wrong here but I am a "adventurer" level 12 sort of a battlemage, who has trained alot but all thoose blimey monsters in the crypts makes this a how many potions can you carrysort of thing game.. :S

I think the difficuly is ok, not too easy and not difficult, you got the excitement still in there.

[Raederle]

I'm a hybred bit of everything character with major skills alchemy, longblades, marksman and minor enchant, block and unarmored as combat goes. With a bonemold bow I can take out bettys in three shots, and bulls in one. Unless the mob moves really fast I usually dont have to do close combat outdoors. Indoors an ebony sword makes fairly short work of bonelords (2-4 blows). And I'm hardly using the best equipment out there, simply what I've found so far in Balmora/Caldera/Pelagiad. I'm level 27 and likely will be 60th before I'm halfway done with the world. But that means I have like 180 hp's and its a rare mob that can outdamage me to where I need a potion to make it through a fight, and my three to four healing amulets handle cleanup with ease. So yes, combat's too easy after the first 10 levels or so.

I find that the main 'unbalancer' in the game is that the gear is overpowered vs the mobs. The magic damage seems more balanced vs mobs. If it took me 10 shots (like with a chitin shortbow) rather than 3 the bettys would go back to being a challange. Ditto indoors mobs. Granted bumping up assorted higher mob hitpoints based on *my* current level would smooth out the curve some. But the bottom line is melee in good gear are very overpowered vs the game's mobs whereas magic with its slow recovery time or thieves attempting to sneak past things are much less so.

As for quests and speech, the game engine works pretty well, though bribing 100 drakes is far too rewarding and certain for faction with individuals. The thieving is much too easy, especially since it's possible to walk upstairs past a merchant and a guard, take EVERYTHING up there where not watched, then walk out with 5-6 pillowcases full of junk past that same guard. I think guards in shops should come with a 'followme' ai that made such things trickier, and that the AI should test whether the items are in line of sight and not just the player. I do however still love that to steal something you just pick it up. I dislike that once having stolen an instance of an item all instances are flagged as stolen forever (grr silver longswords grr), but man, there have to be *some* penalties somewhere so I live with it.
Common and petty soulgems seem to be too available, and the higher gems a bit too rare. They set up the difficulty of enchanting items (lots of poofed soulgems) as a balancer, but seriously given f5 and reload (which nearly all gamers take for granted as ok) that's more an exercise in patience, so a different mechanism might have been better. Certainly enchanted items regain power much too quickly. Perhaps if lesser soulgems were more available yet the *only* way to repower items were via soulgems that might better limit how potent enchanting is.

The lack of merchants with serious cash is a royal nuisance, and easily hacked. Better would have been a system that more steeply discounted the value of high ticket items. So that something at 50 drakes might sell for 40, but 500 for 300 and 5000 for 2000 and 50000 for 10000 etc. Who, other than a specialist merchant very familiar with the item types in question, would give full value on something he can't use, doesn't need and will have a hard time reselling? Then for the stubborn set up *the* sword, armour, gem, etc merchants who, actully knowing the products, give better rates in those item types only and let those players make the hard trek to the merchants in question.