Just an idea, - suggestion for devs to maybe consider.
I think it might be worth it to look into what can be done to diversify the penalties in the game since they constrict the gameplay a bit too much, for the game as OS is.
(especially after longer or repeated playthroughs)
There are two kinds of penalties in the game, those that influence the skills and those against enemies with higher levels.
It seems to me both run too high and that they could be lowered a little bit to provide more width in gameplay.
Those which govern skills and spells with some minimal differences between levels and points spent on a skill or not creates 40% strong penalties, or higher. I think that needlessly skews the game more towards importance of pure class builds. Which is how it turned out in the end, after several changes in the last days of beta. Doesnt mean it cant be improved or adjusted.
Similar goes for enemies which in current system mostly become too strong, too different in a very drastic way - based on differences in levels.
A few levels above is still doable for some players but i dont think it would actually hurt to have that border be less rigid.
The way maps are designed, the story itself, the amounts of enemies there dont really require different sections to be so rigidly inaccessible as they are now - just based on levels.
Better to have it inaccessible because the enemies are more dangerous, numerous and more capable.
I think it would work great both for Cysael area and Luculla forest first stages.
If both of the penalties were to be lowered a bit and diversified so different enemies and places bring different amounts of penalties (which are generally lower but still there) instead of seemingly locked big amounts, the gameplay would only get better.
This would probably be best to do for the new official Hard mode since new difficulties would probably balance with this bigger width in gameplay very nicely.
Last edited by Hiver; 17/10/14 11:38 PM.
