Hardcore vs Casual - Does everything need to be hard mode?

I didn't say I don't want a challenge. I just found the super meat boy reference funny. You've even quoted one of my posts about what I think of the difficulty.

Besides, I think the idea of ironman/hardcore is that you DON'T die a lot... you lose your character when you do.

 

I'd imagine some Role Play servers would appreciate Hardcore mode, since some are pretty strict about RP deaths and all that. Useful for some, maybe not for others.

 

Wings and spear whilst fighting the wall of flesh was one HELL of a lot of fun in Terraria but that is kinda the point you were making to be fair. the basic click move click move is dull. having utility and variation can make it more fun.

damage tweaking does need to exist to a point. one shotting everything makes the combat system useless, too many hits makes it tedious, as you said. One or two shotting average trash with a well placed bow shot however, is kinda rewarding! because it requires some skill to aim and estimate the drop. The spear kinda had this in terraria. it was my favourite weapon because landing your shots and running enemies through was stupidly satisfying.

so basically I'm agreeing I'd love to see weapons become more interesting than just clicking and moving out the way and adding utility to how you move and so on, woo! many fun

 

I never tried the spears, but the wall of flesh WAS fun, along with the eater of worlds. They required some technique aside from smashing their faces in over and over. Positioning also played an important role, which made it more interesting.

 

As usual You make a good point, i do believe the devs want a better combat system this time around (why bother with tech abilities then) also a creative mode, would make sense.

 

You make a great point as-well.A consequence for dying should exist. For example, going to an ice planet without fire/good clothing kills you, but next time you know what to do.
It is the same with the aliens.

 

I misunderstood you, sorry

Don't you agree however, that the combat system should be balanced so that it proves challenging in certain situations and not in others. Don't you agree the game should not be TOO easy and not be TOO hard.
If you learn from your mistakes as you play hardcore mode characters in my experience, it makes the game that much more rewarding and fun.

 

see the problem with your mode of thinking is apparent even in the thread of this topic: why does it have to be hardcore VERSUS casual? It should be hardcore AND casual. We simply need adjustable difficulty settings. normal hard mode would be a 'frustrated' like experience, while easy normal mode would play like 'indignant'. everybody wins.

 

No, it's not the same. Read my above posts for a bit more insight into my line of thinking. A tldr version of what I said:

We can't just ramp up difficulty with current combat mechanics. This would NOT make the game any more challenging, it would only make it, as you said, frustrating. I'm assuming your idea of making the game harder involves increasing enemy health and damage... this NECESSITATES better combat mechanics, because currently, it would just mean doing more clicking and moving, nothing else. All you do is lengthen the same song and dance.

 

Options Options...
For when we have access to terraforming, can we 'raise' the threat levels of planets in a way to get better rewards?

It's not about making the game harder per say, but how we take what it has as a challenge.

So in this case, suggesting game mechanics that lets us 'utilize' harder planets via terraforming or gene-splicing for example.

Once you beat sector X for instance, you can build a terraforming machine which you use on another planet in the system, which changes up the planet's threat levels to various traits that you can set it to.
You can change a limited range of stats though, but generally:
Intelligence - Changes how the inhabitants live and prosper on the planet, high intelligence leads to large civilizations on the planet over time.
Aggression - Determines how aggressive the inhabitants are, including monsters and npcs. Low aggression leads to peaceful creatures more so than hostile creatures.

Environmental Statistics: Determines how the inhabitants adapt to it, thus making them tougher and more enduring to damage, and at the same time stronger, you'll see more environmental harshness from weather and night times.
Hot or Cold - A gauge of -100 to 100 to determine the temperature of the planet... Want a 'lost planet' feel where it's insanely cold without proper equipment? Or insanely hot for the same reason? You can expect inhabitants to adapt to it better than you.
Regardless, a super hot or cold planet would have it's inhabitants live underground or if civilized or intelligent, live in fortified cities that separates them from the weather.

 

I wasn't suggesting the implementation of specific mechanics so much as, using them as simple examples. My point is more broad in that a 'one size fits all' approach to game difficulty (while rarely possible) is extremely dicey and that having dedicated modes to specific difficulties allows the devs more freedom in defining those specific experiences.

you have the vanilla ice cream crowd and the chocolate ice cream crowd. You can pick one flavor and make half the people happy, you can swirl the flavors together and make everyone half-happy or, you can have both flavors and make everyone happy.

 

Sell them ice cream machines.

 

You make a very very good point, That is exactly what I think the game should not be TOO HARD or TOO EASY.

 

I find it rather telling in a way, that for all the claims of loving challenge we don't see many threads in the vein of 'I soloed the UFO using only starting gear, after an hour, with no healing' or 'cavemaning, no metal, not ever' the people who protest about diminishing challenge, never seem to see that they can forgo as many advantages as they wish.

It seems to me that what they want is exclusivity. Not for they themselves to find it hard, but for them to know that other people have found it hard. They don't so much want to have a challenging time of it themselves, they seem more to want to deny those landmarks to other people.

Oh they brag about how easily they reached landmarks, or how simple it is to get T2 and T3 stuff, they avail themselves to every advantage, then complain the game needs to be more difficult.

Its rather like a professional free-climber lobbying to close a peak to supported climbs rather than testing themselves via night climbs, encumbered climbs, and choice of slope,

 

Ah, yes I did misinterpret your response. However, having dedicated modes with different difficulties could also spread the dev team a bit thin. Having to balance a single mode is hard enough (as you can probably tell from what we are currently going through). It's a feasible long term goal however.

 

I don't think its an issue when it comes to Hardcore vs Casual, difficulties will surely be added to suit most peoples needs. I myself want this game to give me brain aneurysm's in rage at its difficulty level. But... with that in mind I think its more a case in loss of vision by the devs, this game was meant to be random and infinite. So far its been the opposite having a very linear progression which will leave this game facing a brick wall of end game, this to me is unacceptable considering that it was the very idea of "Procedural Generation" of just about everything that made me chuck money at my computer screen.

If this game had stuck to that vision it would actually please most people, because take into account if it had been so, there would be random planets with random levels of difficulty even with random creatures where in a 1-10 chance you come across a boss creature that cant be defeated by a single person unless they simply out level it. It would have been that mystery that makes this game, different from many other games out there. There was a great deal of trolls suggesting this game is just "TERRARIA in SPACE" with its current progression they have just been proven right. I'm not even certain the randomly generated weapons (Borderlands like) have been implemented properly yet? Could anyone clarify this for me? If they have indeed already implemented this, its actually boring and basic and not the original idea they portrayed.

But I should be able to come across planets in alpha section where I might bite off more than I can chew, or even come across planets that's just like kicking around small puppies. This leaves it down to choice, if a player wants to give himself a hard time, he can simply visit worlds and discover if they're hostile or not and if he is even capable of surviving there either it be mobs/npcs/weather/temperature/etc etc...

In its current vision of progression, the devs will be having to add new bosses weekly just to keep players happy, if they had stuck to the original idea players would be busy for months. Leaving devs to make interesting additions to the game rather than spending time and effort on "tiers"

 

Unfortunately, the cries from the masses that I have read so far all seem to be asking for things from Terraria and Minecraft. I've played those games, and I'm done with them. Please please PLEASE do something new Chucklefish!

 

I disagree entirely. so much so in fact, that I am suggesting it as a feature. Feel free to shoot it down:

http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/adjustable-difficulty-settings.50167/

 

yes, this^

although I will hold out hope that it's not too late - beta is gonna beta, after all. If I'm wrong (it happens), the modding community at large have proven their mettle in picking up the dev slack/ loss of scope and vision. I wouldn't play minecraft if no one ever made TerraFirmaCraft or GregTech.

 

Hardcore would be a character deletion upon death. Just saying.

SB should cater to casual gamers with perks for serious gamers. Something like an adventure mode and a free play mode.