Difficulty

[FogLeg.9354]

This is not related to the LW4E2 specifically, but all the new content released since LWS2.

- When designing new Open World map with new enemies, do developers expect most players to explore and fight solo, small group or big blob?

- Should all the new open world maps be soloable? For example completing the map (pois, hearts, vistas)?

- For how many players are longer Meta event chains in open world designed for? Should group of 5 players be able to finish Palawadan, Jewel of Istan or The Specimen Chamber? 15? 50?

- Have you ever considered lowering difficulty of older maps that were clearly designed for larger groups but now when there are much less players doing this content, have become fairly impossible to finish?

- When testing difficulty, do you expect characters to use Elite specs only or should someone with core class be able to have fun too?

- Are Story Bosses designed for solo players or groups?

- Will story bosses ever scale to the number of players?

- How long do you consider "reasonable" run within story instance for solo player?

- Do you always test the Story Bosses with every class or just some generic "ranged" or "healer"?

- Does it bother you when players start to do "centaur leather farm" or "boss run in map X" instead of, you know, simply playing the game?

- Does it bother you that whenever you release new and interesting secrets and hidden content, JP or collection, next day there will be step-by-step guide in Dulfy and most players will simply follow the guide?

[Cameron Rich.3905]

Story bosses are designed primarily for a solo experience. The vast majority of story instances are played solo, so we wouldn't want to create an experience that isn't balanced for those players. However, there is still a challenge in balancing for solo experiences, as the gap in power between high proficiency and low proficiency players is fairly extreme.

 

As for Story bosses scaling to the number of players, this isn't impossible, but very unlikely. As said before, the majority of players play solo, so the ROI of creating a scaling balance for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 party members is pretty low. It also comes with it's own additional baggage. Since the difference in power potential of one player is so great, the difference in power level for 5 players becomes exacerbated to a point where it's almost impossible to create an experience enjoyable to all kinds of players.

 

In general, players looking for group content should be directed to the open world and content like fractals or raids. If you bring more players to a story instance run, it should generally make it a more enjoyable experience, which ultimately means making the content easier to overcome.

[Cameron Rich.3905]

Timeframes for running through an instance vary in terms of the intended length. It really depends on the instance, what story we're telling, what fantasy we want players to experience, etc. An episode finale instance is usually between 20 and 30 minutes, with some outliers. Opening instances, we usually shoot for 10 to 15 on average. Again, there are some outliers, but this is the general idea.

[Cameron Rich.3905]

When creating instances, we usually test with a variety of classes, specializations, roles and geartypes. It's very important that everyone have an enjoyable experience, given they are adequately prepared.

[Randulf.7614]

Given the large amount of negative feedback about the Golem boss in episode 2, could we see some adjustments to this boss coming?

[Cameron Rich.3905]

What kind of adjustments would you expect?

 

There's been some negative feedback to that boss, but we've also seen a lot of positive feedback as well. It's just not as loud as the negative (which is almost always the case in these situations).

 

I'm personally pretty happy with the balance of the fight, bar a few bugs here and there that need to / have been ironed out.

 

I've seen players struggle with the encounter when not completing it correctly, and I've also seen a single player take him down in under 60 seconds (without cheesing him at all). If we nerf his health, more players may take him down without feeling any challenge from the encounter's mechanics (as they wouldn't see them). If we reduce the damage done from his attacks, more players may feel they can just ignore those mechanics entirely.

 

It's not black and white, for sure. I don't think it's perfect, but I also don't think it's as bad as the exaggerative rhetoric has sometimes been.

[mercury ranique.2170]

I personally think this subject is very troublesome. I understand that a fight has to be challenging and fun for the more experienced players, but not being able to do it alone, also feels pretty bad. For some part it can be resolved with proper instructions of the fight. The E2 golem is not hard at all IF you know what to do, but this is not very clear. I did had issues with some of the fights early on in E1. This might be cause I switched main shortly after PoF release and was somewhat inexperienced with new toon.

One thing I wonder is if a difficultysetting has ever been on the table? I do not think it should be a strong setting (like the difference between normal and hard mode in gw1).

 

I even think that it can be a fun adition to the game. you need to be defeated to unlock a dialogue if you want to lower your difficulty setting, and if you succeed the instance without dying, you can unlock a higher setting. Obviously, when doing so, the rewards and achievements should be better. Credit for who deserves it.

 

But just my thoughts about how I would deal with this. I am curious what your thoughts are.

[sweetrules.8359]

I wouldn't even touch that boss with a ten foot pole until I'm sure all the bugs are ironed out. Because as someone who has raided, and use to do t4 fractals daily, it was absolutely atrocious. And I thought it was operating as intended until I checked the forums.

[JayMack.8295]

I understand why that boss is annoying until you discover its mechanics, but once you do, what's so difficult about it?

 

I think the biggest issue with it is it has an attack that ONLY hits you from range, but that's never really explained anywhere other than experimenting. I had no idea its bouncy ball attack COULDN'T hit you if you were under it until 3 quarters of the way through. THAT made it frustrating, but once I figured it out, it was no harder than any other boss.

 

I absolutely think the attacks for that boss are poorly executed, i.e. the aforementioned ranged bouncy ball attack, but other than that, everything you need to beat it is taught to you in the lead up with Braham escorting the cubs.

[Crunch Bars.4309]

I can't speak directly about a specific boss or difficulty of specific events, but I do think that meta achievements that provide rewards such as the mantle in this current story segment are great when they're so relaxed in terms of freedom from not having to do every single thing in the meta. It's nice to pick and choose what you can do based on your playstyle of doing story alone or the group events out in open-world.

[sweetrules.8359]

> @"JayMack.8295" said:

> I understand why that boss is annoying until you discover its mechanics, but once you do, what's so difficult about it?

>

> I think the biggest issue with it is it has an attack that ONLY hits you from range, but that's never really explained anywhere other than experimenting. I had no idea its bouncy ball attack COULDN'T hit you if you were under it until 3 quarters of the way through. THAT made it frustrating, but once I figured it out, it was no harder than any other boss.

>

> I absolutely think the attacks for that boss are poorly executed, i.e. the aforementioned ranged bouncy ball attack, but other than that, everything you need to beat it is taught to you in the lead up with Braham escorting the cubs.

 

I did it the first day. The golem was attacking as if it always had quickness, was not spawning the smaller golems properly, and other assorted issues. Let's just say that put me off ever wanting to deal with it again solo. I am tired of seeing people claiming, "Oh, mechanics," Or, "Oh, it isn't hard(I actually had a group with me/it didn't bug on me, so clearly, it couldn't have possibly been different for you.)"

 

Try killing those golems as a firebrand with max 600 range on everything besides staff 2 or 3(Because the nerf to its 1 range was global and not just pvp or WvW) and a golem attacking at twice the speed it's suppose to be(Not that I knew at the time) So the field was constantly covered in aoe, even spamming blocks and dodges, I went down repeatedly to inanely high damage every second. It was a tedious slog, and no amount of, "Well, that's not what happened for me," will change how it went for me or others who dealt with similar or different bugs. I don't feel they should nerf anything till they have it working at 100% what it was suppose to be. Once it's working properly, I might try it again and see how it goes, since I still need the achievement anyway. But do not claim that "It isn't difficult" to people who possibly had a very different encounter to you. To me, it was extremely tedious because of the bugs, but the auto-revive turned it form difficult to tedious, so at least eventually, I killed the bugged golem.

[Cameron Rich.3905]

> @"sweetrules.8359" said:

> I wouldn't even touch that boss with a ten foot pole until I'm sure all the bugs are ironed out. Because as someone who has raided, and use to do t4 fractals daily, it was absolutely atrocious. And I thought it was operating as intended until I checked the forums.

 

What bugs are you referring to? I've been keeping an eye on this boss in particular, and the only active bug right now that I know about is one that actually makes the fight much, much easier.

 

It's easy to get lost in hyperbole when criticisizing something, but remember that large sweeping statements don't help to identify issues that can be solved - they only serve to display distaste of the content.

[Cameron Rich.3905]

> @"JayMack.8295" said:

> I understand why that boss is annoying until you discover its mechanics, but once you do, what's so difficult about it?

>

> I think the biggest issue with it is it has an attack that ONLY hits you from range, but that's never really explained anywhere other than experimenting. I had no idea its bouncy ball attack COULDN'T hit you if you were under it until 3 quarters of the way through. THAT made it frustrating, but once I figured it out, it was no harder than any other boss.

>

> I absolutely think the attacks for that boss are poorly executed, i.e. the aforementioned ranged bouncy ball attack, but other than that, everything you need to beat it is taught to you in the lead up with Braham escorting the cubs.

 

I'm genuinely curious: Why do you consider the main projectile attack frustrating? Often times, in boss encounters, the name of the game is plan, execute, observe, learn, repeat, and that interaction is what makes success so sweet to obtain.

 

With that in mind, what makes the situation you described above painful, rather than rewarding?

[sweetrules.8359]

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> > @"sweetrules.8359" said:

> > I wouldn't even touch that boss with a ten foot pole until I'm sure all the bugs are ironed out. Because as someone who has raided, and use to do t4 fractals daily, it was absolutely atrocious. And I thought it was operating as intended until I checked the forums.

>

> What bugs are you referring to? I've been keeping an eye on this boss in particular, and the only active bug right now that I know about is one that actually makes the fight much, much easier.

>

> It's easy to get lost in hyperbole when criticisizing something, but remember that large sweeping statements don't help to identify issues that can be solved - they only serve to display distaste of the content.

 

Fair point, and I'd have to see what was actually addressed in patch notes, which unfortunately, are not updated for every new build, as I know there are many with undocumented changes since the episode dropped. I would need to play the instances again, because I don't record stuff, and I do not know how many bugs have been fixed since then. I've been more focused lately on the task of upgrading a personal guild hall for just close guildies/friends and I. So I will just take your word for it and assume that most of the bugs have been fixed. Not sure when I'll get around to doing the episode on another character though.

[Cameron Rich.3905]

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> I personally think this subject is very troublesome. I understand that a fight has to be challenging and fun for the more experienced players, but not being able to do it alone, also feels pretty bad. For some part it can be resolved with proper instructions of the fight. The E2 golem is not hard at all IF you know what to do, but this is not very clear. I did had issues with some of the fights early on in E1. This might be cause I switched main shortly after PoF release and was somewhat inexperienced with new toon.

> One thing I wonder is if a difficultysetting has ever been on the table? I do not think it should be a strong setting (like the difference between normal and hard mode in gw1).

>

> I even think that it can be a fun adition to the game. you need to be defeated to unlock a dialogue if you want to lower your difficulty setting, and if you succeed the instance without dying, you can unlock a higher setting. Obviously, when doing so, the rewards and achievements should be better. Credit for who deserves it.

>

> But just my thoughts about how I would deal with this. I am curious what your thoughts are.

 

Unfortunately, difficulty settings are very difficult for us to implement into story instances. They require a lot of bubble gum and duck tape style design and implementation, as the systems in the game just weren't built to support difficulty settings outside of specific content, like Fractals and Raids.

 

As to your comment about not being able to do it solo:

 

Why do you believe this boss isn't possible to do on your own?

[JayMack.8295]

> @"sweetrules.8359" said:

> > @"JayMack.8295" said:

> > I understand why that boss is annoying until you discover its mechanics, but once you do, what's so difficult about it?

> >

> > I think the biggest issue with it is it has an attack that ONLY hits you from range, but that's never really explained anywhere other than experimenting. I had no idea its bouncy ball attack COULDN'T hit you if you were under it until 3 quarters of the way through. THAT made it frustrating, but once I figured it out, it was no harder than any other boss.

> >

> > I absolutely think the attacks for that boss are poorly executed, i.e. the aforementioned ranged bouncy ball attack, but other than that, everything you need to beat it is taught to you in the lead up with Braham escorting the cubs.

>

> I did it the first day. The golem was attacking as if it always had quickness, was not spawning the smaller golems properly, and other assorted issues. Let's just say that put me off ever wanting to deal with it again solo. I am tired of seeing people claiming, "Oh, mechanics," Or, "Oh, it isn't hard(I actually had a group with me/it didn't bug on me, so clearly, it couldn't have possibly been different for you.)"

>

> Try killing those golems as a firebrand with max 600 range on everything besides staff 2 or 3(Because the nerf to its 1 range was global and not just pvp or WvW) and a golem attacking at twice the speed it's suppose to be(Not that I knew at the time) So the field was constantly covered in aoe, even spamming blocks and dodges, I went down repeatedly to inanely high damage every second. It was a tedious slog, and no amount of, "Well, that's not what happened for me," will change how it went for me or others who dealt with similar or different bugs. I don't feel they should nerf anything till they have it working at 100% what it was suppose to be. Once it's working properly, I might try it again and see how it goes, since I still need the achievement anyway. But do not claim that "It isn't difficult" to people who possibly had a very different encounter to you. To me, it was extremely tedious because of the bugs, but the auto-revive turned it form difficult to tedious, so at least eventually, I killed the bugged golem.

 

 

First things first, I wasn't implying that just because I didn't find it difficult that no-one had problems and it was perfect. I was asking because I wanted to know WHAT The issues people had with it were, which was what my original question was. It wasn't rhetorical.

 

Bugs in the boss are obviously unintended and not meant to be part of the difficulty and should obviously be fixed. That's a no-brainer. I also expressed I had frustrations with it.

 

Bugs aside, though, I agree with Cameron. The attacks should be impactful enough so that they can't just be ignored and its health should be large enough that the fight has actual mechanics so it stands out from every other boss.

 

I absolutely have issues with the boss, and nothing I said was me going, "I had no issues, so neither should you." it was genuine curiosity.

 

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> > @"JayMack.8295" said:

> > I understand why that boss is annoying until you discover its mechanics, but once you do, what's so difficult about it?

> >

> > I think the biggest issue with it is it has an attack that ONLY hits you from range, but that's never really explained anywhere other than experimenting. I had no idea its bouncy ball attack COULDN'T hit you if you were under it until 3 quarters of the way through. THAT made it frustrating, but once I figured it out, it was no harder than any other boss.

> >

> > I absolutely think the attacks for that boss are poorly executed, i.e. the aforementioned ranged bouncy ball attack, but other than that, everything you need to beat it is taught to you in the lead up with Braham escorting the cubs.

>

> I'm genuinely curious: Why do you consider the main projectile attack frustrating? Often times, in boss encounters, the name of the game is plan, execute, observe, learn, repeat, and that interaction is what makes success so sweet to obtain.

>

> With that in mind, what makes the situation you described above painful, rather than rewarding?

 

For me, it was mostly not knowing that the projectile could only hit me from range. There was no clear game language that was telling me, "Hey, get close to it and it can't hit you with its projectile." I figured that out by accident when I got stuck under it and realised it wasn't able to hit me with that attacks. At first, I was trying to dodge its bouncy ball attacks, and was coming up to running out of dodges as it bounced so frequently and getting hit by it. This was also because this (as far as I know and can remember) is one of the very few enemies in the game that has an attack it will fire that just flat out can't hit you if you stand under it so I wasn't used to it. I could be misremembering though, there are a lot of enemies over the past 5 years.

 

I'm wondering now if it was attacking more frequently than it should with people mentioning bugs, so I don't know if that was intended or not.

 

[Cameron Rich.3905]

> @"sweetrules.8359" said:

>

> Fair point, and I'd have to see what was actually addressed in patch notes, which unfortunately, are not updated for every new build, as I know there are many with undocumented changes since the episode dropped. I would need to play the instances again, because I don't record stuff, and I do not know how many bugs have been fixed since then. I've been more focused lately on the task of upgrading a personal guild hall for just close guildies/friends and I. So I will just take your word for it and assume that most of the bugs have been fixed. Not sure when I'll get around to doing the episode on another character though.

 

If you do, please reach out to me. I am always interested in listening to criticisms.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> What kind of adjustments would you expect?

>

> There's been some negative feedback to that boss, but we've also seen a lot of positive feedback as well. It's just not as loud as the negative (which is almost always the case in these situations).

>

> I'm personally pretty happy with the balance of the fight, bar a few bugs here and there that need to / have been ironed out.

>

> I've seen players struggle with the encounter when not completing it correctly, and I've also seen a single player take him down in under 60 seconds (without cheesing him at all). If we nerf his health, more players may take him down without feeling any challenge from the encounter's mechanics (as they wouldn't see them). If we reduce the damage done from his attacks, more players may feel they can just ignore those mechanics entirely.

>

> It's not black and white, for sure. I don't think it's perfect, but I also don't think it's as bad as the exaggerative rhetoric has sometimes been.

 

It does worry me a little given that the feedback about Golem has been comparable to Caudecus such similar bosses have previously been tuned down. This is a mid story boss, which must be progressed to actually reach the new map. The problem is, the mechanics are often unclear, are potentially not even working (the buff the Elders give gave me no dps boost, in fact this phase actually took longer than the first phase), the HP bar is absolutely enormous for a solo boss and it has some one shot attacks. It took me 2hours to get to that boss, largely because I was either AP hunting in instances or just soaking it all up as I leisurely progressed. To hit that very, very tricky boss after 2 hours was frustrating and also soul destroying. It just zapped all the fun I was having right out of me

 

I get we are moving towards more involving bosses, but story is the place many of us want protected from raid and fractal content where the overload of mechanics and group style bosses are appropriately implemented. I understand the need for challenge and stepping things up, but story appeals to a lower skill set and a more casual mind. I totally understand why I should have invest in a variety of new gears and builds and stats for elite level content, but story I feel needs to have a lower base and I thinking the game is creeping up at times. People are always going to to beat this sort of content in 60 seconds or less, but story is not a game mode which should be designed to accommodate that kind of player. The priority of a story is to progress the narrative and no boss, mobs or mechanics should hinder that. That is what raids and fractals are for.

 

And if such a difficult boss must exist, it should exist at the end of the episode not gating a map players have already exhaustively spent 3 (admittedly excellent) story instances to get to.

 

In case it was missed, I think there is a lot of relevant feedback on this boss here and I certainly think some changes are vital to this boss even if it is clearer, manageable mechanics and a reduced HP pool

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/31207/is-the-lw-4-ep-2-boss-bugged-or-just-poor-design/p1

[ImTasty.2163]

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> What kind of adjustments would you expect?

>

> There's been some negative feedback to that boss, but we've also seen a lot of positive feedback as well. It's just not as loud as the negative (which is almost always the case in these situations).

>

> I'm personally pretty happy with the balance of the fight, bar a few bugs here and there that need to / have been ironed out.

>

> I've seen players struggle with the encounter when not completing it correctly, and I've also seen a single player take him down in under 60 seconds (without cheesing him at all). If we nerf his health, more players may take him down without feeling any challenge from the encounter's mechanics (as they wouldn't see them). If we reduce the damage done from his attacks, more players may feel they can just ignore those mechanics entirely.

>

> It's not black and white, for sure. I don't think it's perfect, but I also don't think it's as bad as the exaggerative rhetoric has sometimes been.

 

I would like to add that I find the fight enjoyable as is. The main thing I can offer to change is the revive animation. It feels kind of sluggish. I understand that getting killed is a punishment but is there any chance the revive animation can be sped up by let's say 2 seconds?

[Nebilim.5127]

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> > @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> > I personally think this subject is very troublesome. I understand that a fight has to be challenging and fun for the more experienced players, but not being able to do it alone, also feels pretty bad. For some part it can be resolved with proper instructions of the fight. The E2 golem is not hard at all IF you know what to do, but this is not very clear. I did had issues with some of the fights early on in E1. This might be cause I switched main shortly after PoF release and was somewhat inexperienced with new toon.

> > One thing I wonder is if a difficultysetting has ever been on the table? I do not think it should be a strong setting (like the difference between normal and hard mode in gw1).

> >

> > I even think that it can be a fun adition to the game. you need to be defeated to unlock a dialogue if you want to lower your difficulty setting, and if you succeed the instance without dying, you can unlock a higher setting. Obviously, when doing so, the rewards and achievements should be better. Credit for who deserves it.

> >

> > But just my thoughts about how I would deal with this. I am curious what your thoughts are.

>

> Unfortunately, difficulty settings are very difficult for us to implement into story instances. They require a lot of bubble gum and duck tape style design and implementation, as the systems in the game just weren't built to support difficulty settings outside of specific content, like Fractals and Raids.

>

> As to your comment about not being able to do it solo:

>

> Why do you believe this boss isn't possible to do on your own?

 

I dunno Cameron. I can think of several things you guys could do to add as difficulty setting without being too hard or difficult to implement. For instance, you could add a interactable mote at start of every instance that will activate easy mode and give players permanent 25 stacks of every boon or some other sort of boon like 50% extra damage and less incoming damage, and as compensation for having an easy time, every achievement would be disabled. So people who just want to enjoy the story and game can have an easy time.

 

This way, you are free to design the bosses as they should be, as you envision. You should never let yourself be too greatly influenced by any side of the playerbase majority. So many people complain about the robot boss, but don't realize he completely harmless if you just circlestrafe and 1200 range, or just melee and then dodge when his radiation attack comes. His laser attack only hits "unfairly" at mid range." I understand that some they can't do it not matter how hard they try, but the game shouldn't be dumbed down that much, difficult is part of being a game in the first place. One can just toss themselves at the boss and clear anyway because wiping doesn't reset it, so why have a boss then?

 

For instance, In instan, we have this one character hyped to have defied joko orders themselves and be so strong he killed anyone who approached his cave, but when i arrived there and casted one meteor on a berserker ele...he just flat out died. That's it, 10 seconds to kill him. That was completely underwhelming. I saw so many bundles around i thought there would be more phases to the fight or a challenge mote, but nope. That was the entire fight, killed by a single skill.

 

If there was one point where the story was perfectly balanced, i would say season 2~3 and HoT. Those felt on point even though some bosses got a few nerfs after complaints(caudeucus comes to mind). But i believe this is how difficulty should be treated. You release what you want, and then tune according to the feedback.

[michelada.2947]

The most fun i had with the pve was at the released of HOT, the game was really "challenging" and the fact that "finally" you could die to normal mobs made the game really interesting, after that, HOT was nerfed in dificulty, the game was made for players to feel bad ass for killing everything you put in front of them, the mobs feel like sponges waiting anxiously to receive your hits, the Eater of Souls on POF story was almost instantly nerfed because people was dying to him even when the mechanic to success was really clear , bosses that don't feel like one because all you have to do is stand by their side and spam all your abilities, i'm not saying the pve is terrible, i'm just saying that could be far better, sometimes it feels that the only thing that make's PVE fun is just the battle system and not the mobs you are fighting.

[DirtyDan.4759]

> @"michelada.2947" said:

>the Eater of Souls on POF story was almost instantly nerfed because people was dying to him even when the mechanic to success was really clear

 

After finishing PoF story I looked at reddit to see what others thought about the story. I saw many complains about Eater of Souls mechanics and I thought "... what mechanics?" That guy died to me faster than those veteran monsters running around Tarir as an event. I dodged his charge, broke his defiance bar and melted him down.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"DirtyDan.4759" said:

> > @"michelada.2947" said:

> >the Eater of Souls on POF story was almost instantly nerfed because people was dying to him even when the mechanic to success was really clear

>

> After finishing PoF story I looked at reddit to see what others thought about the story. I saw many complains about Eater of Souls mechanics and I thought "... what mechanics?" That guy died to me faster than those veteran monsters running around Tarir as an event. I dodged his charge, broke his defiance bar and melted him down.

 

The problem before they changed Eater of Souls was that you had less than half a second to break his bar. The bar broke on a single stun, but most of us simply didn't have that kind of reaction speed and ofc if you missed the window, he I think either full healed or insta downed you (I forget which). It was quickly changed to lengthen that window

[FogLeg.9354]

I am afraid this has already turned into usual "learn to play, noob" thread, which just means people having trouble with bosses will quit the game. But thanks for taking time to put down some answers, Cameron.

[Warscythes.9307]

> @"Cameron Rich.3905" said:

> > @"JayMack.8295" said:

> > I understand why that boss is annoying until you discover its mechanics, but once you do, what's so difficult about it?

> >

> > I think the biggest issue with it is it has an attack that ONLY hits you from range, but that's never really explained anywhere other than experimenting. I had no idea its bouncy ball attack COULDN'T hit you if you were under it until 3 quarters of the way through. THAT made it frustrating, but once I figured it out, it was no harder than any other boss.

> >

> > I absolutely think the attacks for that boss are poorly executed, i.e. the aforementioned ranged bouncy ball attack, but other than that, everything you need to beat it is taught to you in the lead up with Braham escorting the cubs.

>

> I'm genuinely curious: Why do you consider the main projectile attack frustrating? Often times, in boss encounters, the name of the game is plan, execute, observe, learn, repeat, and that interaction is what makes success so sweet to obtain.

>

> With that in mind, what makes the situation you described above painful, rather than rewarding?

 

Not that guy, but I consider the revive mechanic that has been appearing more and more to be an issue.

 

I understand it is suppose to be a catch up mechanic for the bad players, however I don't think it actually helps them and does nothing but worsen the experience for every one. Ideally you want the mechanic to help the players progress, however what revive does is basically force the player to die over and over again doing a couple hp percentage at a time because they are not really getting better and the mechanic is not helping them. All it does is take away the tension from everyone.

 

I think a better option would be a some sort of stat stacking buff upon death. Say call it determination that gives a flat 5-10% boost to literally everything. Die again? Get another 10% and it increases upon a certain amount. You are never going to magically make the players better in 20 minutes, but you can force to literally make the characters better with stat buffs. This way it keeps the tension in because you can still technically fail, but players will be eventually able to beat it by themselves. Good players will do it with 0 to 1 death, some will do it with 2-4 and others can do it with 10 or more death. Maybe add a check point somewhere so fights don't get too dragged out. The result is still going to be the same but the experience will not be cheapened anymore.

 

Difficulty slider is harder to implement, but I think this sounds feasible. What do you think?