Tell me this is real.

To avoid any confusion and bleating, why don't they call it "Suicidal" difficulty.  Reaper is too obtuse.

Then when people complain about dying in suicidal, the automatic and justified response is "what did you expect?"

As someone in the original thread alluded to, knowing these devs, all they will have done is double the CR, HP and saves so only Barbs will be effective.

I have little to no desire to play "Reaper" difficulty, but I don't begrudge others who do want the challenge.  So long as it is done well and people play it in the right spirit, good luck to Turdbine.  Now, how are they going to incentivise players to play it is the interesting aspect.

Illetirated wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 1:15am:


lol

Barkabout wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 1:56am:


I hear ya on the PC stuff and it was at the back of my mind.  Reaper is kinda obtuse though.  Maybe they call it "insane" difficulty - will that offend the nutjobs?

I originally had suicide, then changed it to suicidal.
The term suicide is primarily related to the taking of one's own life.
But the term suicidal seems to be far less confronting and is part of the normal vernacular for us.  Culturally for us it simplify refers to someone who is an excessive risk taker.

I realise some will not be able to gauge the difference, but i think the term is apt.   

mystafyi wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 2:04am:



Because anything else would require work and they lack time and resources.
Maybe they'll just make everything in Reaper a Champ?
At least that would be semi-random, but still unfun (for me at least).

Flav wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 2:48am:



Yes, but you would have to do that across all content.  Not an inconsiderable task.

If they add a new difficulty, but choose to only make it available on specific content (eg. new content), then it remains consistent with all previous content + a new difficulty.
They could then go back retrospectively and selectively add some quests and raids with a new difficulty unlock.

Even just changing what Normal/Hard/Elite means is a problem because people are used to the existing system and it would be challenging to educate the masses who don't read the forums (or even read anything at all).

You can imagine they log in to play the content they usually do and suddenly start getting owned and thinking WTF?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the real challenge they face is the current difficulty system is partly a global adjustment and partly content specific.  I think we've seen stats/CR etc as different settings within the content, but there is some global multiplier effect to them as well.  Spawn qtys might be a global factor.  There are certainly some dynamic elements (ie. scaling)  for party size and composition too.

Perhaps Reaper difficulty would enable them to circumvent the global adjustments and just customise the content (I'm sure its possible - whether they can do it is the question).

knockcocker wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 3:07am:


It comes down to the risk vs reward.
Initially, people might just do it for kudos.

But after awhile, that will wear off and people will notice it takes longer and consumes more resources.  If the bang for the buck isn't there, they'll migrate to the most efficient difficulty.

They will then look at rewards such as XP, favour and loot.  Does Reaper give better/unique loot, or just higher probabilities of the same old loot?  All interesting decisions.

If Power Creep isn't the goal, then Turdbine need to look at another player motivational system.  A competitive league system for example.

Most EE players are looking for challenge and some acknowledgement so they need to address this.

Make it versatile and flexible so it does not stagnate, have some decent non-power rewards (like 2000-5000TP) as well as unique cosmetics (I say that with genuine trepidation after the work on the Crown of Fire).

This is an opportunity - they need to not fuck it up.

Wipe wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 3:51am:



At a basic level, your logic is sound and I agree.

The problem that has arisen for Turdbine is the power void.
TR'ing was an excellent idea to maximise the utilisation of content - incentivising replayability took the pressure off endless content releases and racing towards having 100 levels.

The reality with a declining population in an MMO is keeping people playing together.  Not everyone will play together, but the basic premise is that of a social one otherwise the game will lose its "feel".
The declining qty of LFM's should be a significant concern for any MMO Producer and is probably why the latest group dynamic changes have been implemented.

So the power void is a two fold one.  The first is common to many MMO's - gear.  The second is innate power such TR and ED's.
Combined, the effect is amplified and when player experience is included in the equation - there is almost nothing a new player can contribute to experienced groups except to slow them down or lose XP.

Edit:  There is another dimension - vertical level dispersion and horizontal level power separation.  With 28 levels and lower pops, the outcome is that there are less people around each level range.  The horizontal level difference is the relative power of two toons in the same range.

If new players can't contribute to groups (or worse are perceived as a liability), they will find less grouping options available and they will find it hard to progress their skills to become the next generation of Elite players.
Whilst some can learn to solo content and raids, I would venture that most cannot.  I think the majority of players like myself learned the "tricks of the trade" from other veteran players.  Some players will have the skills and desire to go onto play Elite content, others will not.
So the pyramid becomes smaller and smaller at the top.

So I believe that by adding more uber rewards for uber content will only exacerbate the current problem.
I do agree with the fundamental premise that Elite players and raiders should get the better gear, but when adding in a new difficulty I'm not sure making Reaper level gear is prudent.
That's my argument in a nutshell.      

DropBear wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 12:37am:


I hope they crank the difficulty so high players come out with bloody assholes from the championasspounding they will get.

then the mobo bitches cry about how hard it is and Turban will nerf it.  just like they do every time.  then the mobitches can go back to bitching about how everything is too easy.

fucking forums make me hate this game sometimes.

Yobai wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 5:38am:

The forums make me hate the forums.

Yobai wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 5:38am:


This might actually be the most stupid line ever posted on the vault.

If what your read on a forum makes any kind of difference on wether you enjoy playing or not you need to get your head straight.

That is like not enjoying your holliday on Tenerife, because rich people go to the Maldives.

Rubbinns wrote on Jul 12^th, 2015 at 5:53am:


but your masochism keeps you here.