Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Can we get a "regular hard mode?"

DOS:EE's introduction of the tactician mode is neat, but I lament that it comes at the cost of a simple hard mode. I'm still playing through EE and I'd really like to get to turn up the difficulty without going all the way to Tactician. So, I'm hoping for such a thing in 2

At the very least I suppose we can expect mods for it

What do you mean by "regular hard"? Is it just "Enemies now have 30% more HP and deal 30% more damage, now don't bother us, we're going back to sleep"

Did you know a long time ago Hard Mode would actually change level and enemy layouts?

Yeah no offense but Tactition mode or bust.

I don't think he said remove tactician mode.


I think there is room for a middle ground difficulty between classic and tactician. But I suspect they don't want to over do the options.

I'd also support classic just being harder but I think they explicitly don't want to do that either.

Also, additionally, this is just the Alpha, so balance tuning will happen.

Yes I heard what he said.

I utterly refuse to have this game include a pointless difficulty setting that doesn't do anything but give enemies 50% more life or some crud like that. I am tired of it.

So yes... Tactition mode or nothing in my mind.

That's silly and illogical in the extreme. For starters it already has such a mode in the opposite direction. Should they eliminate explorer mode because it offends some grand principle of design? Tactician itself had health modifiers. The original game had a hard mode and it worked fine. Enemy (and player) health is set by the developer on every difficulty level and changed to suit the amount of difficulty they want at that level.

If they decided classic should be harder tomorrow I guarantee one of the things they would look at is how much health the enemies have. Is adding or even reducing health on an already existing difficulty level crud? When is adding health okay?

And most importantly, it doesn't affect you at all if you want to play tactician mode because tactician mode would still exist.

That is because that mode is the "I don't care about the gameplay, I just want to experience the game without caring about combat or strategy"

Why bother putting effort into the "Why bother?" mode?



It also altered the enemies, changed around their abilities, added entirely new enemies, changed their layouts, and a bunch of other things.



Perpetuation of laziness and low effort band-aid solutions to difficult doesn't affect me as a consumer?

I'd say I am very much affected by it as a consumer. Can you even think of the last game where hard mode actually was different?

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There are games where the only thing they did was increase stats where I was entirely ok with it, but that is because it fundamentally changed the way the game is played and not in a bullet sponge or "overly dangerous bullet" way.

Yet that isn't Divinity Original Sin or Divinity Original Sin 2.

So your ideological argument only applies as the game gets harder and not easier? That makes no sense.

If you think the problem is perpetuating "lazy" solutions then you should want the easy difficulties to have simpler enemy formations, weaker skill loadouts, and enemy types all up and down the line. Stop perpetuating low effort bandaids.

And if you don't care about easy, why do you care about a HP buffed version of classic? Tactican still exists. No one is calling for the removal of a difficulty level that has all the enhancements you want. Divinity would still be perpetuating the things you want.

Nor have you answered the question as to when modifying health is okay. Why is it okay to modify health in tactician? Who determines the just right amount of health for any mode for that matter? Why is the current amount of health in classic desirable over a different amount?

There are two cases where modifying health is ok

1) Is when simple statistic alteration does actually affect the gameplay in a very noticeable way, where playing "better" isn't the solution.
-Most games when they make enemies 2x harder typically you are playing the game exactly the same except maybe more cautious.

2) When it is coupled with some alterations either to enemies, new enemies, layouts, and what have you.

Anyhow I am passionate about this... But I don't think I really want to debate this, I just want to put my two cents in that I'd personally would be ticked.

I really think people should move on. Not because I am backing out, but because I think people need to put their opinions in and not get bogged down by one naysayer.



It has more to do with how the easy mode it set up in this case. Which is that it is meant to be a mode your supposed to coast through.

I'd prefer it is Explorer mode actually changed things up too, but how to do that without removing content is beyond me (well maybe changing boss' signature moves)

so you don't want any additional optional content that benefits people other than you even if it doesn't come in the cost of what you want?
you are satisfied with tactician mode so in theory even if they add 10000 extra modes to other peoples' needs and interests, it shouldn't affect you.

Ahuh, "Content". So beneficial especially in the long run.

I honestly couldn't care if they add this but dear god I hope it's only as an after thought thing once everything else is done. I mean, it should be simple to implement scrpit to just change some numbers en mass, but I wouldn't want them dedication any resources to this that could be used for better things or get caught up making some middle ground difficulty when they could focus on skill and stat system and so on.....

with that said, if someone wants a mode that literally just adds some buffed/debuffed numbers of taction mode without other changes...well not like it does anything to anyone elses experience (At least I hope to god they wouldnt base any balance issues around this or anything) so why not?

I wouldn't mind having both a hard and a tactician mode in the game. There's nothing wrong with that and there's barely any resource alocation to bumping up enemies health/damage so you can explore different strategies that won't work on tougher enemies. It's a different experience nonetheless.

But I do want a Tactician mode with more and harder encounters, more variety and more enemies etc. The game as is imo is too easy at the moment. Here waiting for some rebalancing in the near future

Meh, don't care about other mode as long as there will be an honor mode and mobs still do cheesy actions like double TP people onto lava. ^^

Extra health doesn't matter anyway if the armor stays the same.
And they still have to do the very first difficulty pass over the Alpaha on feedback, so don't expect things like this soon or they just have more to keep up to date.

Neonivek & Co. belong to those people who see the world in a very simple way: "I don't care, hence it is wasted time". Don't worry, there are plenty of these people around the boards....

It's alpha, Larian gave us alpha access to send them feedback, if you don't care about a suggestion you might certainly say so (useful for Larian) but insisting that it is just a waste of time is not useful, since you do not work for Larian.

I don't care for Hard Mode but if there are enough players who do and Larian can implement it, why not? I just won't click the option....

My problem with the sort of "hard mode" the OP is suggesting is not that "I don't care about it". I actively think it's a poor idea.
"Bulletsponge" enemies and inflated numbers don't make things more interesting.

In fact it would be the typical example of difficulty setting implemented in the laziest, most boring possible way.
Something that I was fairly surprised (and pleased) they managed to avoid with the tactician mode in the EE.

Ideally, every game should have a difficulty menu, instead of an option.

The original Soldier of Fortune did that, you could customize everything: how numerous, how durable, how accurate and how aggressive the enemies were, and even if they were allowed to respawn once you left the room.


Being able to customize the number, the AI, and the health/damage multipliers of enemies for a playthrough would be the ideal solution.

I don't mind if you disagree with me... But please don't present my viewpoint in a fallacious way. This is NOT my viewpoint.

It would take 2 seconds for Larian to implement this harder mode... maybe a bit longer given balance testing to see if it breaks any encounter (so like a day at most).

Which in many ways is precisely why I am against it when we have Tactition mode... something that took effort.