Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Balance Issues

I'm only in the first act, playing on hardcore, and the game is much too easy. The problem is that money is unlimited and that unbalances the game. All I have to do is convert arrows in the BF and buy whatever I want. I just zone back into the BF and buy more arrows and repeat. When I zone back there are tons of new items/charms/potions to buy(essentially free). My stats are now cranked up and the game is easy. If I get low on health, I just drink one of the hundreds of healing potions I have bought from the BF merchants. Oh, and with my sharpen skill, I increase my weapon's damage by 300% at a few skill points. Skills require no planning either, since I just pay a nominal fee and change them on whenever I like.

I like the game, but these problems can easily take alot of the fun out of it.
Some solutions:

1) Lower the resale value of all arrows to 1 gold piece(or something close). These arrows would still be good for combat, but wouldn't unbalance the game.

2)Limit the respawn of BF merchants' wares, perhaps to 1-2 respawns per act or possibly one respawn for every 4-5 player levels gained. Otherwise we can simply zone in/out wating for the perfect items to appear. Perhaps having some very basic items respawn more often might be ok.

3) I think healing potions need to be limited. Otherwise combat is too easy if you have hundreds to drink at any time.

3)Reduce the sharpen skill's effectiveness. Making a weapon give 200-300% more damage with just a few skill points seems a bit overpowered.

Thanks for listening. I am enjoying the game and hope you keep twinking it to make thinks even better.

Laezyre

I actually wish the merchants' inventories would refresh more often, or at least that they had more gold. I'm down to picking up less than a third of the items I find -- only the ones that need identifying, pretty much, since I can't find a teacher to let me access higher levels of identification -- and I can sell maybe half of what I pick up.

Act 4, BF trader Brian, teaches identify up to lvl 10.

I'm playing on "very easy" and still die regularly.If the developers take some of your suggestions I hope they only apply them to hardcore mode,so they don't spoil the fun for other players.

Etoile,

Every time you leave the BF and come back, the merchants get more gold and refresh their inventories. So you have infinite refreshes of items and gold currently. Why do you want more?

If the resale value of arrow was reduced to one gold piece, it would make lowering the refresh rates for BF merchants less important.

The problem is having infinite amount of money AND infinite numbers of items.

Laezyre

Maybe for me the problem arises because (1) 99 times out of 100 the things the merchants have are not actually things in which I have any interest [the items I find on my journeys being superior] and (2) because the items I find on my travels are superior [my hero ended up with very high luck stats early on from item bonuses] they're worth more gold than the merchants usually have. Perhaps it's not a common problem, but it does irk me to leave valuable weapons sitting on a dungeon floor because I can't carry them all, and I can't sell them either. It's not even that I particularly need the gold, it's just the way I play, I suppose. Waste not, want not, or something.

General comment:
If you don't like it don't use it. Don't want unlimited money? Don't use the convert trick. Don't want unlimited potions? Don't reset the battlefield merchants just to buy them

1)
This wouldn't work either, now you've just 'forced' me to steal the 50k+ charms which I can sell back for somewhere around 40K.
10 steals (doable in act 1) later I have 400k (450k+ in act 1).
With this I buy normal arrows.
I sell the arrows in ammounts that result in 1 merchant being cleaned out of cash then reset the merchants.
The merchants DO NOT remove items you sold to them from their inventory so I add in another bunch of arrows. reset field, etc till I'm out of arrows.
Note that you can buy more arrows from the money you gained.
After running out of arrows I do 1 steal to get all the arrows back.
Rinse and repeat.
It is not exactly unlimited money but using this trick (I never considered the convert arrows one before I checked out this board) I have made several million.

2)
What is a perfect item? How long are you willing to wait? Are you willing to go through it all again in the next act?

3a)
I'm wondering how you play that you need hundreds of potions. With a bit of thought you don't need hundreds of them, not even on hardcore. And at the point where you wish you actually had an unlimited supply you can't access the battlefield.

3b)
I agree bring back the something like the original agility curve to limit usefulness.


My suggestion for problem 1,2 an 3a is do nothing
but if you are going to do something about them then I suggest:
For the problem of the merchants is to get them back on a timer like they were in DD. This would solve your perceived problem of unlimited money. It would also allow people to just wait (and/or sleep) for the merchants to reset.
This doesn't end the unlimited money supply but people are paying for it in a different way: the boring sitting behind the computer waiting for the arrow/charm/potion merchant to reset.

For the waiting for the perfect item cannot be solved without creating the battlefield when the next act gets created and figure out a way to reset merchants in such a way that a player cannot pinpoint when/how the merchants got reset.
If a player finds out when/how a merchant is reset they'll just go on and save just before that point and reload till they have their item.

velt,

As mentioned in my original post, limiting the respawn/refresh rates of the BF merchants is a possible step in the right direction. Whether it's a timer, level limit, Act limit; it should be something other than every time you return to the BF.

I don't recall mentioning that I need hundreds of potions. In fact, I rarely use any potions at all. With my new gear I don't sustain much damage. All I need to do is zone into the BF if things ever get too crazy.

My point is that I have access to hundreds of healing potions from the unlimited money and potions available in the BF. That takes the challenge out of the battles. Heck, it's easy enough to just zip away to the BF anytime you get into trouble.

I think a time limit on when you can zone back to the BF would help as well. Otherwise there is always an easy escape from any situation.

Laezyre

so don't go to the BF then...... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Too easy, huh? Interesting.

I'm playing on easy. Cleared out BF level 1 easily. Nothing but skeletons. Boring, repetitive, barely leveled up once.

Snuck past the Dark Knights (can't even begin to fight them) and found BF key to level 2. Great, I think. A little harder, maybe better drops, a chance to level up, etc. Maybe then I can fight the guards instead of sneaking around like Gollum.

I use the key, I'm dumped back to same dungeon. Okay, I think, maybe repopulated with better foes. Nope. The levels I already cleared are deserted. Then, I see two red dots on the other side of a door. Eureka!

Go through the door, My lads die in 2 or 3 seconds to what look like an Air and Fire elemental. Or something. Huge. Killed us so fast I didn't even have a chance to ID it.

This is Level 2? Skeletons to huge monstrosities that kill in 2 hits? Something wrong here. Maybe if I used the exploit you describe I'd have a chance. I hate using exploits, but I guess it's the only way to survive in this game.

Sigh.

Before playing the game, I had envisioned the Battlefields being accessable through a fixed portal. After reading Child of the Chaos, this idea still makes sense. What they could have done is still had the Battlefield Keys, but put the portal in a physical location, probably a dead-end in the demon dungeons for Act I. This would fit the story better and, prevent the escape route.

HandEFood, you have the gam, AND the book? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

Well, yes. They came in the same box. The book comes with both the game and the Fan Pack.

I don't understand when people complain that something is too easy when they can easley ignore the exploit(s) they find, I admit that some games are too "easy" (but this is definitely not one of them), the majority of the time the challenge can be upped by the player, learn to use just what you get (or use just the basics if your that hard core ie:no magic gear, or just use fists), if you think a piece of gear is too good, drop it and forget about it, so far I'm in Act 4 and its pretty challenging, not that challenging but still I end up dieing once in a wile.

This is not an online game either so no worries about annoying n00bs ruining your day <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Any way, just my thoughts

Well it looks like the Larians agreed with me. In patch 1.45 arrow resale value is now very low and sharpen has been nerfed. I'm impressed at their willingness to listen to us and further balance things. Thanks Larian!


Laezyre