Increased difficulty?

[blastpop]

I have downloaded and started a new world with the release of the 1.11 patch.

Almost immediately I died, unable to get past the fire blocker guy in the first zone- so early in fact I had nothing with which to get new upgrades. So with that I quit and started a second new world.

This one I've been able to upgrade and get things I need, but have died twice fairly early on with low level difficulties.  Having said that I purchased a day or two after game release and had no such difficulties.

Has the complexity been ramped up some at the basic levels or have I just started with bad locations? Not complaining mind you- just kinda wondering.

[keith.lamothe]

Fire blocker guy?  You mean the slime?  Or the skelebot giant at the end of the intro area?

[blastpop]

Its that redish blob you can't move through (it occupies floor to ceiling) that has the little short range fire. Can't find the monster right now in my game, of course! 

Played for a little while since I posted and am making reasonable progress now, I think...

[Coppermantis]

The red slime (and red/yellow slime later on) are only in the tutorial levels. Depending on the settings you choose when making a new world, you can skip the tutorial.

To beat the red slime you need to find the Ball Lightning spell in the building you pass before meeting the slime. He goes down fairly quickly once you get that. To beat the second slime, you need to go into the caves and get materials for a different spell (I think you can get launch rock or something) because the red/yellow slime has resistance to both ball lightning and fire touch.

[x4000]

That's part of the intro mission -- it warns you repeatedly to stay back from that thing.

You have to go away and get a different spell from the building you start in, and then you can kill it easily while taking no damage.  In terms of people dying early on into the game, I think that's pretty well always been the case.  From a fundamental sense, the complexity hasn't really changed; at the "macro" level the complexity has actually decreased.

And really, it should be a bit easier on average now than it used to be.  Monster stats have not changed, but base player health is higher, and characters now get extra bonuses that they didn't have before.  There are a number of new enemies that are specifically quite difficult, but mainly those are relegated to specific zones of the world (fear the forests) or to later in the game.  There are also now more missions that start out easier and then ramp up more as you play them more -- before most of the missions started at what is now considered their max difficulty.

There has also been the introduction of things like the infestations, which do add more difficulty; but then again those are offset by all the benefits the players now have.  And similarly, players now have an extra enchant slot for even more bonuses than I already mentioned, and the whole upgrade stone system has been turned into an enchant-based system at the opal guardian's store that means the penalty for death is vastly less.

And you start with more enchants once you reach the settlement, plus you have the ability to buy more with the consciousness shards that you now find around in the world.  Among... other various benefits and simplifications.

But yeah, some of the new monsters that you see right from the start in some of the zones are definitely much harder than the older ones, in counterbalance to this, I will say.  Not during the intro mission, though.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

[yllamana]

I've had two friends now fail to make it past that red slime. They have trouble getting the new spell, get bored, get the wrong idea of the game and give up. I feel like the resistances are already very easy to understand (given whenever you hit anything you have text popping up saying you did bonus or reduced damage) and that the slime is just mostly superfluous. I think the pause resist display is part of that tutorial but it's anecdotally put two people off the game.

[TechSY730]

I've had two friends now fail to make it past that red slime. They have trouble getting the new spell, get bored, get the wrong idea of the game and give up. I feel like the resistances are already very easy to understand (given whenever you hit anything you have text popping up saying you did bonus or reduced damage) and that the slime is just mostly superfluous. I think the pause resist display is part of that tutorial but it's anecdotally put two people off the game.

The slimes have two purposes:
1. To teach about elemental resistances/immunities/"healed by". As you mentioned, this is mostly superfluous, as the popup text clearly shows that. However
2. It teaches the need to have more than one element type in you spell loadout, and forces you to find a new one (which currently leads to the "how to get more spells" sub-tutorial, which also covers exploration and crafting materials)

So yea, the slimes may be an annoying way to teach point 1, but they do serve as a (rather heavy handed) way to go into point 2 and the sub-tutorials it implies.
Maybe there is there maybe a better way to communicate point 2, or possibly separate point 2 from the thing that "forces" the "how to get more spells" tutorial and have a new way to introduce that sub-tutorial in a way that could possibly seem more natural to some players.

[x4000]

There's also a third purpose, which is most critical of all: it makes people have to learn the map system, and that buildings can be entered, and that there are sometimes side passages that are really important.  You'd be surprised how many people run past the house, or enter the house but don't find the treasure, etc.

Sometime after 1.0 I believe we made the red slimes there so tame that it's kind of hard to die to them unless you just continuously sit there and don't leave.  But perhaps the balance on that shifted from some other cause since then, I'm not sure.

[yllamana]

I don't think point 2 is necessary to teach. The fact you have a huge bar to put spells on makes it implicit, as well as the whole... well, I just shot this thing and it took a quarter of normal damage, maybe another element would help.

For a game very much about exploration the tutorial just seems really linear, not-explorey and out of place. I know it's not very long, especially if you know what you're doing, but with two casualties to that stupid blob...

The map system is a bigger deal I guess, but I would've said that's more the cave than the blob itself.

Anyway! Just some feedback on it.

[TechSY730]

I don't think point 2 is necessary to teach. The fact you have a huge bar to put spells on makes it implicit, as well as the whole... well, I just shot this thing and it took a quarter of normal damage, maybe another element would help.

For a game very much about exploration the tutorial just seems really linear, not-explorey and out of place. I know it's not very long, especially if you know what you're doing, but with two casualties to that stupid blob...

The map system is a bigger deal I guess, but I would've said that's more the cave than the blob itself.

Anyway! Just some feedback on it.

There probably is a smoother, less "heavy handed", potentially less frustrating way to guide players to the "exploring, how to use the map, and entering 'sub-chunks' like buildings" sub-tutorial and the "how to craft spells and find the materials needed for them" sub-tutorial, but I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Then again, the current "heavy handed" implementation of the tutorial to lead players to those tutorials has anecdotally turned away 3 people due to potentially wrong first impressions about the game, so that might be something to consider.

[zebramatt]

I honestly can't see how this could possibly be the game for someone who when faced with an enemy their standard spell cannot kill, gets bored at the prospect of having to think about whether there is an alternative approach and instead quits forever.

Perhaps that is the true purpose of the slimes: to filter out people whose gaming style is incompatible with the game!

[omegajasam]

I've not tryed it in a few versions, but with upgrade stones gone, can players get upgrades in the tutorial anymore?

Took a few health upgrades to make the caves easy back when I last played it.

Personaly I think it's a pritty dran good tutorial. Anyone who's too fustrated by having to go get new spells isn't going to get very far overall.

if they already know the mechnics, then the tutorial is skippable anyway.

If they don't, then they need to go through it, else honestly the game seems confusing as heck.