I dont want to make assumptions or accusations of "dumbing down" but does that really mean its going to make the game easier? Im actually not bothered by that, but if it means rebalanced to be harder, then Im skipping DKS.

I dont pay people to masochistically torture me, I'll take the easier combat so I can enjoy the story more.

I believe it means a little easier in the beginning, and a little harder towards the end (where you can simply not take any damage from many opponents if you are a few levels higher). Adjusting the strong level dependence of combat is at least part of the rebalancing.
The easy difficulty mode is being changed to a casual mode, where opponents are still easier, and at least an escort mission in FoV is given greater health/time restrictions. Presumably there could be greater time limits in a couple other situations, or sinking platforms could get fixed in place, etc.

The system where you do extra damage to enemies lower level and take less damage from enemies of a lower level (and the opposite for enemies at a higher level) makes for a strange difficulty curve.

The game is pretty hard between levels 7-10.

Orobas Fjords has a ton of enemies, but you gain experience so fast that soon there's not much which can threaten you. At level 21, walking from Champion Harbour to the fork in the road gives you an entire level, and clearing out the rest of the road, from High Hall to the Mine gives you just about two more levels.

The Flying Fortresses are also a problem because there are 4 of them, they have enemies between levels 26-29, and doing just one of them should get you from 26 to 28 or 29, making the remaining fortresses too easy.

Theres no such thing as too easy, there are alot of factors involved such as player skill and desire for immersion and following the storyline, I dont think anyone has the right to really say someone should play the game the same way as someone else.

But then I think people who are obsessed with Challenge to be guys trying to prove their manhood using games.

Thanks to all for answering though, this Reba lance sounds like it might be good for all players enjoyment and not just Hardcores.

Taking literally zero damage from enemies 5 levels lower than you is too easy. That's not exaggerating at all, enemies 5 levels lower than you can't hurt you at all. If that's not such a thing as "too easy", I don't know what is.

But the worst part is that taking 0 damage is BORING.


Amdusias is such a hard boss with his use of Explosive Arrow, that you pretty much need access to your own level 15 spells to be able to fight him, and there are several fights after that on Sentinel island which are also hard at the appropriate level 16-18, especially the tight-quarters fight when retrieving Sassan's ring. Those are pretty challenging, the assault on the tower and boss battles which follow are challenging.

But in Orobas Fjords and beyond, the enemy level spread is too narrow to keep things challenging, and you'll almost certainly out-level your average enemy by 5 or more levels if you do most of the content, and then you'll have a lot of enemies which are unable to hurt you at all. That's what the "too easy" complaint is.

Again, see your generalizing. Its Boring to YOU. Maybe your not open minded but you should allow for the fact some people dont find that type of play enjoyable. I mean look at popular Cheat websites are like Gamefaqs.com or Cheathappens.com. They are pretty widely used for game cheats. I mean of course your welcome to your opinion but it is pretty arrogant to assume because you feel Challenge is fun and good, that its the only valid view point.

Casual gaming is popular these days for the simple fact alot of people dont see games as some sort of competitive sport, they see it as a form of entertainment.

I guess in the end, it doesnt matter if in some areas DKS is harder or not because at least on the PC people will just use Cheats to overcome it.

He didn't say wanting a challenge is the only valid view point, he said complete lack of challenge is boring. That may not be a universal opinion, but I'd guess most RPG players would want at least some challenge.

If it where true that RPGers like alot of challenge, I doubt games like Wow, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Mass Effect and 2 etc would be as widely popular and best selling as they are now. They are amongst the most easiest games ever made.

I fully understand VampLena you wish to play an RPG just for entertainment. That's for sur okay

Do you know I enjoy always a good RPG, even it is a real challenge? For me such a hardcore RPG is also great entertainment for me !!

I always begin each RPG on "easy" difficulty and honestly, the first time I begin to play Ego Draconis on easy, I find it realy difficult and die many times ! Also the time-based puzzles I must have enough courage and patient to succeed those time-based platformpuzzles! Some of them I play a whole half day trying to solve such a puzzle !! (okay, I HAVE much patient and I know not everybody have so much (?) )

After awhile playing Ego Draconis (on Xbox) on easy the game became too easy (like Stabbey said) and also on "hard" too easy at the end of the game (after level 21 or 24)... Killing Laiken in the Battle Tower was for me on hard too easy .... only some Black Rings where for me very difficult....

I enjoy the story AND love to have a great challenge (hardcore too!) AND all is for sure still
Great Entertainment for me !
SO you see : all people experienced 1 game on a sooo different way like you said already !!

Note:
I love to have a great hard challenge only because it gives me a more thrilling experience and also let me "realy sinking into the RPG world" because of playing a RPg "hardcore" and I love that so much !!

I have full confidence Larian makes the Massive Rebalance in a very good way for ALL kind of players : those like you and more ... and those like Stabbey, me and more ...

for Larian who listen to their forum-members and did this "Massive Rebalance"

Also you'll be happy to know we've added a bit more 'air-control' to the jump so you can control it better. It makes those trickier platforming sections a bit easier

Very great news !!

I know the Larian Team do it again !

Yay! The physics of jumping in ED were a bit odd. If you do a running leap from a cliff, after a certain point your forward momentum goes abruptly to zero and you go from falling in a curve to plummeting straight down, which actually made cliff jumping to transform into a dragon harder than it should be.

If rebalanced means that the level-based damage will be taken out, all is good.

I would not like it if the mage & ranged skills are nerfed, though... because those made it possible for a character to beat even much higher leveled opponents, which was completely impossible with melee.

I'm probably going to sound like VampLena with this, but I can't see how you guys find normal/hard mode too easy, especially at the end.

The final fight kicks your butt regardless of what difficulty you're on, I've noticed. Is that too easy? Should they all one shot you regardless of your level?

And with regular fighting/"boss" fights, those are too easy? Do you really think it would be fun to run into a group of two enemies and die a hundred times until you find the perfect strategy to beat them, then repeat those steps on each and every other enemy spawn in the game? Dunno about you all, but that doesn't sound fun to me.

The difficulty is fine to me. You need to upgrade your potions every few levels in order to keep up with the increase in HP/damage. Being one shotted unless you know exactly where to stand, when to attack, when to dodge, and one little misclick/mistake gets you killed is not fun, it's annoying.

Games like these need a mixture of normal difficulty, which I guess you guys call "mindless button mashing" and harder boss fights. You can not make the whole game super insanely difficult or 90% of the player base quits out of frustration. It's a shame this game doesn't allow mods, because that way the people who want insane challenges (and what is an insane challenge anyway, when after you die a hundred times you get the hang of it and it becomes "too easy"?) can mod scary nightmare modes into the game where you die in one hit regardless of unavoidable magic/projectile weapons.

Just my 2cents. I like the difficulty the way it is...The only thing I'd change is the final battle and make it more manageable than "Hope you have a ton of greater restoration potions you can spam"

On level 36, normal difficulty, I found the final fight to be a little easy. I certainly couldn't stand still at the beginning and expect to live long, and couldn't let myself get surrounded and fight the Divine and 3 or 4 paladins at the same time indefinitely, but once into the main room with my creature summoned it was relatively easy to clear out the rangers/paladins first and then take out the Divine and Zandalor.

However, entering the Hall of Echoes I could literally fly into a group of a dozen Memory Eaters and sit still while they attacked, having a commander occasionally cast Fire Sphere to set me on fire, and not take any damage at all. In the arena I fought the Memory Eaters and summons first to maximize loot (not that I needed it or got anything good), and then took out the main opponent(s) for each round, with little chance of taking much damage, unless I got careless.


How does a complaint that having a lot of common opponents with zero chance of doing any damage making combat boring translate to a desire to have to fight every opponent repeatedly until you are lucky enough to survive or find its one weakness?
I did go after opponents a higher level than me a few times, and did have to reload and adjust my strategy, either just to try to take them out early, or because they were the only opponent left in an area and I figured it was better to try a few times than to have to come back for them later. Nobody is advocating that be the norm for combat, though.

Yes, the final fight is hard no matter what level you're at. I was level 36 or 37 when I went in and found that pretty tricky. But the problem is that if you explore a lot and do as much as you can, for a long time, everything UNTIL the final fight is too easy, including the arena fights right before the final fight.



The problem is that in Ego Draconis, the difficulty of the combat varies a HUGE amount depending on the difference between your level and the enemy level. Enemies 4 levels or more above are very hard and dangerous. Enemies plus or minus 3 levels of you level are challenging, and enemies 4 levels or more below your level are totally non-threatening.

I would be happy if the damage enemies can do do you is capped at the damage they do for enemies 2-3 levels below the player level. But enemies 4 levels below the player level do scratch damage, and 5 levels below do no damage at all.

Yeah, of course you would, because you're 4 levels above what's expected.



Well the thing about the level scaling: In the beginning of the game when you only have 1-2 merchants that will sell you a limited amount of healing potions, you NEED that level scaling. Enemies the same level as you in mobs (which is common) will eat up countless potions, and you need to conserve every last one until you get to a higher level. Later on in the battle tower when you can make unlimited I Win healing potions, level scaling isn't really needed, but it's not likely that Larian would be able to put in two separate combat systems in the same game.

Other than doing some of the start of the fjords before heading to Sentinel Island and delaying turning in some of the quests in the fjords, I didn't do anything special to try to level. The game shouldn't be balanced so that you become untouchable for parts of the game if you simply explore everywhere and do all the side quests, and getting to 2 levels above the final bosses shouldn't be that unexpected.
I stopped assigning stat points (to keep things interesting) and ended up with 39 unused points, but with the strong level dependence of combat it wouldn't be as easy to handicap yourself as in other games that become easy (ie remove or use lower level equipment, etc). That said I did get my fair share of challenge earlier in the game, so having some of the human sections become quite easy wasn't a big deal for a first play through, IMO. The moderate difficulty of a few boss fights and some of the dragon sections of the flying fortresses kept things from getting too monotonous.


There were a few topics about the lack of potions in the game, so I tried to conserve them, and use food instead at the very beginning of the game, etc. However, I found plenty of potions from loot, and did not need to purchase any. The only time I ever started using a lot of potions was when I tried entering an area with higher level opponents, which could be avoided by trying another area or quest first.

My problem is only with people who obsess over very difficulty gameplay and out of some sense of "I play the game on this difficulty so everyone else should suffer too" mentality. If its fun for you its fun for you but I dont see what the big deal is with having Easy, be actually easy for people who just want to enjoy the game from a entertainment standpoint and people who love challenge and play on Very hard enjoying it for their adrenaline rush or whatever.

Often times hardcores complain too much about people wanting Easy to be easier, and it is quite annoying, what I do in my game doesnt affect anyone else. Im glad to see some of you understand that there is a very fine line between challenging but satisfying and difficulty and rip your hair out frustrating, its a shame some people dont understand that, but with this Rebalance, Im hoping Larian understands.

for everyone who die hundred of times in Ego Draconis ...
I'm sure Larian make a really good Massiv Reballance so the final battle will become more easy fore people who didn't like hard battles ...

Hope Larian make the three different levels of difficulty (easy, normal, hard) much more different because I play first on easy and later on normal and hard, but didn't experienced a significant high difference between easy and normal/hard, seriously.

First time I play and become around level 21/25 I though I make my hero too strong (I always search for the best equipment I like in a RPG, my "fever") and so the enemies couldn't hurd me anymore.... But later I read and discovered I was wrong!

So I think, now the Dragon Knight Saga has the Massiv Rebalance, it is much moooooore important to have a strong good equipment (for protection etc) ...
So gamers who have the "fever" to have the best gear he/she wants and have the patient to invest time in this RPG element, it is more worth the effort On that way our hero can stand enemies from a few levels above him and also bosses and the finale battle!

But I have the confidence Larian make it !

I have to say, if you want 0 damage from enemies.. just set the game to easy tbh. :x

I've noticed that i took 0 dmg from enemies as well, but i just thought it was my kickass armor at the time, but reading all this, i realized that they were indeed 5 levels (or more) lower then my level. (and for me, easy is a setting that is never used. I always start games at normal level, otherwise, you can't experience how the game was meant to be.. and it would seem as if it's no challenge)

True, everyone has their own opinion about how it should be played.. and i also have an opinion..

If you use cheats, you're not a Gamer, you're just a lamer wannabe that cannot get through games using your own skill. (there, i said it.)

I suppose you mean that using ownn skill is using my brains and learning hand-eye-coordination etc in a game ... so a game become not only entertainment, but also a thing you can "learn" an/or "train" something (new)

Yeah, I agree. For me gaming is NOt smash buttons the much I can and the fast I can (no competition at all) and don't "think" about moves first ... No, I like to think much about making my own strategy to survive and come to the end of a game ...

And what more is: I have learned english too and learn each day more because of this forum

I think the problem with the end fight of Ego Draconis was that only very specialized builds (for example, a pure warrior pumping everything in strength, vitality and skills that regain health actively or passively could easily survive - even standing in the middle of the room just hacking away), while maybe most players would spread out skills during the game making survival harder.

Okay, but in that case the game isn't well-balanced ! I find each character may have approximately the same chances to survive (a final battle)!
And Vitality (and other HP related things like Regerate skill) has for me nothing to do with a warrior (melee) character ... It's logical if each kind of character put points in Vitality, he/she has more chance(s) to survive !

Just my opinion.

But vitality is much more important for warriors than mages or rangers, though, since warriors always fight surrounded by enemies and not at a distance.

Also, specialized characters are normally always better than "jack of all trades, master of none". It's better to have 15 points in one skill, than 5 points in 3 separate skills.

I think that's what ended up happening with me - it's not like I chose my skills at random, but the end result was that even "easy" usually translated into "ludicrously difficult". One of my main aims when playing games like this is adventuring: exploring and interaction, in other words. While I like combat to present something of a challenge, it very quickly gets to the point where it ceases to be challenging and becomes a chore. I loved Ego Draconis overall, but the latter point was too often true of my combat experience.

Having read through the FAQs I can see a number of areas where I went wrong, but in lieu of that information I think it was a bit counterintuitive, at least considering the deleterious effects on my survivability. Although I like to get immersed in a game, I'd prefer not to have to conduct an academic study into its mechanics just to survive!

In short, hopefully any "rebalancing" will translate into a further separation of the easy, normal and hard choices - the hardcore types can have their way, while I can explore to my heart's content without being slain every few minutes!

Agree ! ... thanks Vometia !


And an extra option (or more than one) to set "time based" platformpuzzles etc on/off (or give the time a slider-option to control the time) , no matter which difficulty the player go for.
Because some players have maybe problems with the time based puzzles, but no problems with hard combat and vice versa

I only have problems with the "jumping from platform to platform" puzzles.. since the "hero" has to jump like a moron every single time.

Now we must only wait till novembre the 5e to see and experience the difference with the jumps (and many more!!) now the Dragon Knight Saga should have a massive rebalance

Agreed as well!

I also wish RPGs took a turn toward hybridizing with Adventure games. I mean challenge is all fine and well, but enemies with mountians of HP and hard hitting attacks in combat isnt what I consider challenging, its tedious and boring especially when every fight at the least takes 5-10 whole minutes.

I'd be up for a challenge in RPGs if it came from using your brain (combat isnt much about using your brain) in the form of puzzles and brain teasers and riddles and other Adventure game fare. Something that actually engages your brain to solve the puzzles, I'd be all for that sort of thinking persons gameplay, but having to form very specific builds just to survive in a game, or just being a wiz kid with the combat system and the numbers game from min/maxing attribute points and skills is just really silly and unsatisfying mentally, and makes me fall asleep at least in my opinion.

On the other side of the fence, a lot of people aren't used to riddles and puzzles and the like. Just look at Myst and others: Most people don't bother playing them because most of the time to figure out puzzles on your own takes HOURS. To a lot of people taking hours on a single puzzle isn't fun either, it's a bad way to lengthen game time.

For me the game was balanced just right...very hard in many places and easy in others were i could soak in the sights.

It was the last end fight i had so much trouble with..it was sooooooo hard

must have took me 30 attempts and unmpteen saves..i really thought at one point i wouldnt be able to complete last end fight

Building an effective generalist is possible, though it does increase the difficulty in the early game. I posted the stats over here.

A rebalance to make higher level enemies less insanely difficult and lower levels be able to harm you would be good. It might be nice to have a good mixture of of enemy levels so there are clear 'leaders' and 'fodder/minions' when fighting groups of enemies, if the rebalance is done well.

I didn't play myst because the type of riddles I think (been long time since I did). I don't mind riddles and puzzels if they make since. Take CSI games I find them great and solve them easily. Myst and its successors are a poor reference. I played many puzzle game in line of myst, tex murphy comes to mind. If a riddle doesn't make sense it isn't a riddle just an endless what do I do next click click oh that worked... Myst felt that way to me, or that is what I remember feeling when I think back to those days, no logic unless you already knew everything about the game which is the opposit of what a riddle should do IMO. I never had good memory so maybe it just required me to recall where certain things were in its side scrolling environment way too much for my short attention span.

The riddles in Divinity 2, weren't complicated in the slightest, at least imo and I didn't even think of them as such. I took no time pondering were to go next to turn off those shields or waht to do to finish quests.

I found Myth...rather mystifying. I hated that game, I heard it was good and I got it one day to find I couldn't complete a single puzzle.

Puzzles, riddles, and other challenges of brains and skill are okay in games that are not all about them, as long as the really challenging ones are not required to complete the main quest. After all, games that have a finish are less fun if you are unable to complete them.

There're people who love the Myst games. I play to the end Myst, Riven (Myst II) and Myst III. I find the puzzles are logic... these game are old school games, so you must write down on a pice of paper (everything) that can possible help you solve the puzzles...
The first games I played in my life are such games like Myst and other adventures.
From the time I discovered Divine Divinity and other RPG's later on, I love much more playing a RPG and forgot further playing adventure games ... because I love the replayability of a RPG ! Adventures have avery low or just none replayability !

For a RPG it is fun there'are some puzzle in it (but hope de dev's don't make only puzzle for making the playtime of their game longer! )
and I agree that the most difficult puzzles may NOT stand in the way of the main quest/path to complete your RPG !
The most great puzzle in Ego Draconis I found is the statue puzzle in Keara's Fortress! And you can end the game without solve that puzzle, so that's okay

Yes that was a simple straight forward puzzle. I guess writing down stuff being required in myst was its down fall for me I got it after I got used to mini maps and quest logs. Without either it felt painstaking to play wihtout the riddles. I alos couldn't play for long period of time so getting my head back into a game that required manual memory... days sometimes before I could play again... Myst was more poor design as much as too vague of riddles. IMO and I'm going on memory of long ago so...

I pretty much agree. Stuff like this is best served for side quests with a nice reward at the end for completion. Nothing like a good dungeon, with a puzzle to solve and traps to avoid, with a nice (trapped) chest of loot at the end.



Why? You can respec in Divinity 2 so you should be able to run whatever you like at the beginning, right?

Indeed, you can unlearn all your skills in Divinity II (Ego Draconis, the DKS with Flames of Vengeance inclusive!), so no need to build instead a pure warrior or whatever!

I never build a pure Warrior/Mage/Priest/Dragon Slayer or Ranger!
I always just take the skills I like most and for sure that's always a combination of many types ...
That said: I build always a generalist and don't have problems beating the final battle AND the beginning of the game too !!

And I think with the massive rebalance in the DKS/FoV : it increases the FUN much more !!!

You can, but I did not feel like doing anything other than generalizing. And my comment on the viablility of such a build would be incomplete if it did not include the early game.