So, having reached endgame content and spent 34 hours ingame.

I've played multiplayer, singleplayer, and every tier of content available. I've even reached terraria hell on a threat 40 planet and done a bit of datamining (See http://puu.sh/5EFyw.jpg , http://puu.sh/5EGGL.jpg ).

What I've gathered: THE 100 LEVELS OF THREAT SYSTEM IS FANTASTIC. It's amazing. More levels of armor are required, and the optimal solution would be to make armor blueprints of the threat level of the planet you're on (maybe a few above) drop. Seriously, it'd be the best option for difficulty. No, really, it would be. I'm even polling it. Please consider this a petition, developers.

I've got a threat 40 planet with a gun merchant located, I've played with friends, new friends, and goofball bard characters alike. I love the difficulty the way it's set up now, and I don't think condensing it and making E/M/H monsters would produce the same level of difficulty. Being oneshot is a symptom of too few levels of armor, not a symptom of a skewed difficulty!

Note that the character wipe has little to do with my complaint - I'm actually quite alright with that, and have been planning on it since release day, where we were graciously notified that Chucklefish (Heretofore referred to as Big Ape) would wipe the game. Even Big Ape has limitations.

I've established a firm like for the difficulty system and want to see meat added, not bones restructured.

Alright. That aside, I'll move on to other points.

Point two! The races are differed very, very well, and armor dye doesn't work. Why does this matter? I want to dye my legionairre's armor blue. It's red. I cannot dye it. In my opinion, all items should be able to be dyed with both base and secondary color (Base and trim) if you ask me. It should be part of a tier upgrade as a new mechanic, like spawners are now.

Spawner enemies being attackable by both you and your allies is a bit absurd - I'm next to sure this is unintentional and will be fixed, but if it is intentional, PLEASE! please. I just want a hylotl fish cutie on my ship that won't be shot to death in a single bullet.

Point three! In my datamining, I noticed drop tables. "Legendary" level guns have a .0005 chance of dropping from everyday town enemies, if I read it right - that's a brilliant drop rate and it means each legendary gun will be truly hard to find. Unfortunately, it also means they'll be at the threat level (or within ~2 TL) and armor penetration of the normal everyday town citizen you slew. It feels a bit unsafe to not choose planets of your own threat level, a delightfully fixed issue by a core feature of the game: the infinite number of planets.

That's all I have to say for now, I'm certain within the next 24 hours I'll be back to say how much I love the current spread of threat levels (Always did like Angband more than Nethack), and have a few more things to add to the list then.

tl;dr I played this game to a ridiculous extent and went beyond just playing the game. Three points:
1. The new threat level system will, in my opinion, detract from the charm of the game immensely. I am suggesting that enemies drop mechanically different armor, not entirely new armor. Maybe their own racial. Making armor stats flexible like weapon stats should not be difficult on the current framework, unless sleep deprevation has gotten to me.
2. The races are well-differed, but racial armor (And everything besides tiles for that matter) is undyeable.
3. Legendary weapons barely spawn at all! The enemy type they drop from is odd, but the drop rate is a good choice mechanically.

I'll add more soon. Please read the wall of text and vote!

EDIT: I have condensed what I think is just about 100% the most optimal solution to the problem: We need one of two things! Either a seperate crafting table to upgrade armor level by pouring excess materials into it (A bit suboptimal, promotes repetitious and non-involved gameplay) or a means by which to get blueprints, preferably drops. The blueprints I'm talking about will allow for crafting/upgrading of fashionably similar, but functionally better armors - preferably for the threat level of the current planet! I'll detail what I mean in a new thread when I wake up.

PLEASE READ : http://community.playstarbound.com/...lance-threat-level-isnt-the-core-issue.40912/

 

I wholeheartedly agree on this. My group has been playing heavily since the initial beta release, and have come up with nearly the exact same conclusion. The one thing I will say, is that the AP system might be a bit interesting/odd, but it could be made to work, or replaced, but the threat level system is something I really feel needs to remain in the game to keep the feel I was expecting from the game.

 

I think I mostly agree with your point, that the current system would be a lot more tolerable if there were armors obtainable for every armor level. As it stands, for example, there's nothing between armor rating 15 and 25, meaning you're fighting the level 20 (19 now?) boss in rank 15 armor which, by the current scaling, makes your armor totally useless.

That said, the solution that the devs are going to be trying out in the next patch seems like it will help a lot on a more intuitive level to help understand how good your weapons are in comparison to each other. How they handle the player's armor in this new system I'm not entirely clear on, but the focus seems to be making it easier to tell how good your weapons are comparative to each other.

 

My heart sank when I read "10 planet levels". The current armor pen system is perfectly fine and just needs tweaks. Some people just need to learn how to use it. The problem was there wasn't enough armor given at the correct levels. The best armor I could find was 30 defense and that's at the end of Tier 4. 30 defense = designed for up to level 30 mobs with the current system. This armor is what should be obtainable from level ~25-28 planets, not from level 40 planets.

I will admit the system is flawed though, you can just go to the highest level planet of that tier, find a couple weapons with higher armor penetration (just avoid mobs, build blocks around them), and start one shotting everything after you find one. I will try the new system but I really hope they don't make the game worse. Currently there's absolutely no balance that I can see and it has huge loopholes. So we shall see.

I feel the new system will be better for endgame though. Currently the only stats that really matters is Armor Penetration, and only 1-2 points of it makes an incredible difference... leaving no room for endgame progression.

 

Threat level needs to stay. 10 levels do not feel like it's enough.

 

Please read my entire post.

Also, it looks like I have a ground floor agreement level from the community here, and that makes me extremely happy. I'd love to put together an "Alpha team" of sorts made up of dedicated beta testers who want to explore every nook and cranny of the game - each singular aspect.

 

Great points you made there Sir, I hope one of the devs will look in this thread and see that the changes planned to the levels might not be a good idea!

 

From what I have seen, each level item, when OVER an enemy's level, does double damage for each level it is over the enemy. For instance a level 4 sword that does 12 damage hitting a level 1 enemy would do 12*2*2*2 damage, or 96 damage. The same goes in reverse; using a lower level weapon against a hgiher level enemy HALVES the damage for each level the enemy is higher. The same 12 damage weapon against a level 7 enemy would do a measly 1 damage. Just a little something I learned.

 

I agree the system they're planning to put in doesn't sound as good as the current system but making loads more armor isn't a realistic alternative (time-wise).

I feel like this is too simple to work somehow but what if they just made armor more effective against penetration higher than it, meaning even a monster 10 levels stronger won't be able to (quite) 1-shot you but you would have to hit them a lot to kill them.

 

Allow me to clarify, and I'll edit my original post - I am suggesting that enemies drop mechanically different armor. Making armor stats flexible like weapon stats should not be difficult on the current framework, unless sleep deprevation has gotten to me.

 

As I had suggested in another thread, introducing an augmentation system (Or as someone else had mentioned, a reinforcement system) onto the current system could help fill in the smaller gaps without having to create entirely new sets of armor for every single level. With the dropable crafting recipes and everything, this could easily be worked in, and still give a more gradual curve, while reducing the need for 100 sets of armor for each style, if you went with an armor set for each level. It would also add a bit of additional progression into the game, given that you have to improve your armor over the course of a sector, and then a massive upgrade for the next sector.

Just my 2 cents

~Kosan

 

i think the real problem of the game mechanic, it is the devs use 2 systems whit 2 different mechanic at same time, who kinda broke the combat systems.

1- They create a weapon generator who work kinda fine whit the threats lv, drop should be a bit randomize whit lv threats of monsters around 1 or 2 lv below/ highter and add gun for drop)

2- Then they make armor who are not in a generator, who work fine whit a other systems (like Terraria system) who leave cap in the systems.

so there is 2 way to fix it, ether they add a armor generator like the weapon who is drop or do at next patch going Terraria systems (who gonna start to feel like be Terraria 2.0.....)

Adallamus, yeah my post kinda feel same thing you say just trying to be more clear to more people, and you write to fast...

 

I assure you my writing is at a fine speed, and I can also tell you making enemies drop all new armors and randomly generating it to any extreme extend won't be great. The best I can imagine is that it'll keep the same stats (KISS method, if it ain't broke) but vary them slightly, especially armor class and energy value. I personally LOVE that maxhealth is so limited - making maxhealth less limited will change the feel of combat ingame and also allow for a bit (And maybe too much of a bit) of silliness in characters coming to earlier levelled planets. Changing max HP with armors is not the answer, if you ask me - I understand that it's the direction the game is looking to take, but I feel like that's shooting yourself in the foot.

 

Wow 34 hours and at end game thats kinda dissappointing =/. Cool that you got to the end just seems like if you cant get there that fast then the game leave alot to be desired. I played for maybe 9 hours and i just unlocked "steel" items. Do you feel the game was a little to easy? (well at this point of course)

 

you saying the the weapon system is fine ,but armor is not, why not use same systems for both? variety will be add in the systems, like more heat but less armor or both when more rare.

to ZeroFiveNosh, lv 40 planets is kinda the max right now but the true game should be at lv 100 when it end, whit end game content

 

Your post lacks insight. The tiers beyond platinum titanium are not fully implemented. The reason I know this: You can simply bypass an ore or alloy for that tier by making 40 of it, and never have to look at it again! The first three tiers are great fun and progress perfectly fine, provided you have the game knowledge to get a level (Sector, threat max) 10, 20, or 30 weapon and possibly to build the proper arena for a boss.

The game was difficult and I love the difficulty the way it is. I DO NOT in any way shape or form feel that it should be condensed, rather I feel that armor should be rebalanced first. Platinum being 2 points in armor score lower than t2 racial was tragic for me, because it pointed to an idea that the devs may not have tested things in order and noticed the scaling was off.

FOR REFERENCE: Platinum armor has a 13 armor value - my glitch racial (Soldier) had a 15 armor value, rendering the platinum entirely useless. Platinum was unlocked later and had 2 points lower in armor class. Despite being a prerequisite for the exquisite KNIGHT set, it was nigh useless otherwise. Despite looking cool.

The weapon system is fine for weapons. If armor varied as wildly as weapons did, there would be a pit of entropy. Too many weapons and armors would be available, and at too great variance - this is fine and entertaining with weapons, but on armor, it would cause confusion and unnecessary obfuscating of drop tables. We simply need the ability to make armor more powerful than 1/2 of the way through the current tier, that is all. (( REFERENCE since you seem to either have just woken up or never slept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory) ))

 

I see, an perhaps they should make a workbench for upgrading equipment?

 

I'm starting to want exactly this, but only for armor. The way weapon drops work now is perfectly fine, and I am dreading the next update a bit because of the condensing - It'll make weapon TYPES more desirable, rather than weapon rarity as it stands now.

 

He got to the end of the content in the beta. Which is only 4 of the 10 sectors that will actually be in the game.

As for the OP's points. I think the current level system in place is "okay". The main problem is that it scales completely out of control if you try to fight enemies just 3-4 levels higher than your armor rating. And likewise with your weapons dealing way to little dmg if you armor penetration is lower than the mob your fighting ( main reason why people have a hard time witth UFO boss ). I am worried that their new system will be too big of a streamline, as it sounds like they will essentially reduce the 100 level system with a 30 level system ( 10 levels, with mobs being easy, medium or hard type )

If the legendary droprate is as low as you say it is. Then that's just terrible. I don't want to kill thousands upon thousands of enemies for the chance at gettting a good item. There's plenty of asian grind mmo's if that's what I want to do.

 

.0005 is .05% chance to drop. That's better than a shiny pokemon, which IMO, is how low this should be - seeing as the gun I got shoots what appear to be kittens with dynamite strapped on that walk along the ground at my foes.

It doesn't scale out of control - the level system is indeed "Okay" and there's nothing wrong with it. The issue is the current armor scaling is about EXACTLY HALF of what it should be. Always half. 5 armor, 15 armor, and 25 armor, when the bosses are 5 above that which is 1/2 the sector. Armor is the biggest issue in the game right now, and I desperately want players and developers alike to realize this.

EDIT: Realized you were talking about APEN being too low for the UFO boss - No, I fought him the first time with a 10 APEN broadsword. Because threat 10 planets are accessible, you can have 10 APEN on a weapon to fight the threat 10 boss. It's straightforward. Weapons don't need fixing. Tweaking, maybe.