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[daedalius]

In D2 the amount of potions you can carry is limited by inventory space. At end-game you want your entire inventory filled with charms/anni/torch.

But yes people complained about balance in D2 because you could abuse TP. Even with TP abuse though Duriel is harder than anything I have encountered in KOA by a million times.

Each potion in amalur takes up inventory space as well... probably not enough.

Oh god, Duriel on Hell mode /shivers

I think that was basically because he'd knock down your whole health bar in like a single swing, and he had a unbreakable snare on you all the time. Not exactly my idea of good boss mechanics, but they were effective (at making me rage)

 

[Brandon F]

I can't remember, did everyone complain diablo 2 was a broken joke because you could spam potions? (which I did, in excess)

I always complained about that in Diablo 2(and the lack of respec initially). Love the game, but hated how often my hand hovered over the potion button during. Almost felt like a stupid hack built in as a 'win' button.

 

[AEREC]

I played some more last night and it would be best to summarize in bullet point so hopefully Curt and the boys could look into this. This is all about difficulty and the lack of real challenge++:

* Health Potions need a cooldown and a reduction in how many can be carried.
* High Level Armor should be given later in the game
* Too much loot to early in the game
* Too many status effecting potions are being given too early in the game
* Weight should be added to items this way players cannot carry almost endless amount of items.

++ = Please note, I am playing on hard, have not spammed health potions and the game is way to easy. One of the big problems is that the game is handing out items left and right and consumable items are out of hand. Every item should be counted towards the total you can carry. In my consumable inventory I have what looks like 3 pages of consumables and I have not used anything other that a few health and mana.

It seems like they went overboard creating all this loot but did not factor in the games difficulty and how it alters it for the player. Granted, I am not using hardly any of the potions but it still is a cake walk for me right now.

Unfortunately there is no one fix. If they make a very hard, potion spamming will be even more prevelant or exploiting the broken Blacksmithing will be. It seems a big balance sweep needs to be done, but I dont think they will do that.

This is a bit disheartening. Whats the point of a deep combat system if you dont even need to use it?

Im still starting my game on Hard tonight and will probably focus on the main story so everything stays somewhat of a challenge. I really hope they will add another difficulty mode later (with an achievement). And for the love of god get rid of save anywhere.

Im sure Ill still enjoy the game...I mean Skyrim was basically the same way and I had to use self imposed rules to make it more challenging...but I really wish most RPG's would get difficulty right (like Demons/Dark Souls).

 

[Hawk269]

Too easy??? Did you all just get done playing Dark Souls or something.

It's been fine for me, I have to use potions quite a bit, and just use reckoning for boss types.

To put it simply, quit spamming potions and reckoning mode.

Edit:

After reading what I said and thinking about Dark Souls, I guess a limit on potions does add some suspense and challenge.

Why not just tell us to play with our feet to add more challenge?

Getting sick of people telling other people "dont use something the game provides because you can break it if you do". Just call it as you see it man. The developers did not balance the fucking game very well. There done!

 

[Jrmint]

Can anyone please let us know where House of Valor starts and what level to do it at?

It's been asked a few times.

 

[H3rTz DoNuT]

I'm not sure why people complain about the difficulty, seriously. I'm like 10 hours into the game, level 7 or so, haven't done much of the side quest (11 me think) and hard mode is just perfect. It's not extremely difficult but it's not too easy either, I think it's exactly where it should be. I have to use potion from time to time, dodge and parry a lot to not to die, my gear isn't the best and I have to work a little to kill the enemies with the weapons I have. I really don't see the problem with the Hard difficulty at all.

 

[scy]

This is a bit disheartening. Whats the point of a deep combat system if you dont even need to use it?

Im still starting my game on Hard tonight and will probably focus on the main story so everything stays somewhat of a challenge. I really hope they will add another difficulty mode later (with an achievement). And for the love of god get rid of save anywhere.

Take some of it in stride. The game, at least through 30+ hours and two entire regions completed (nearly 50% of the game), isn't walk in the park tra-la-la-la easy. If you fuck up, you will get hurt in combat. Maybe it takes three or four of those fuck ups to die instead of one or two but it's not like everything in the game does no damage to you and waits to be killed.

Why not just tell us to play with our feet to add more challenge?

Getting sick of people telling other people "dont use something the game provides because you can break it if you do". Just call it as you see it man. The developers did not balance the fucking game very well. There done!

Just some is hard to take that seriously with the hyperbole and "second dungeon too easy game is garbage!" type complaints.

 

[sneaky77]

What about those of us that don't have an issue with the potion mechanics or any of the stuff that all the whining is about? People in this thread are making it sound like the game is broken or something, and while some people have encountered some bugs, I think the mechanics work, at least for me, granted I am still very early in the game but still.

 

[AEREC]

Take some of it in stride. The game, at least through 30+ hours and two entire regions completed (nearly 50% of the game), isn't walk in the park tra-la-la-la easy. If you fuck up, you will get hurt in combat. Maybe it takes three or four of those fuck ups to die instead of one or two but it's not like everything in the game does no damage to you and waits to be killed.

Cool...thanks for restoring my hope a bit.

 

[daedalius]

Take some of it in stride. The game, at least through 30+ hours and two entire regions completed (nearly 50% of the game), isn't walk in the park tra-la-la-la easy. If you fuck up, you will get hurt in combat. Maybe it takes three or four of those fuck ups to die instead of one or two but it's not like everything in the game does no damage to you and waits to be killed.

Sounds about right imo. Bout 12 hours in so far, game isn't a joke, but isn't brutally kick-you-in-the-nuts-repeatedly hard.

Potion cooldown should probably be implemented in some way, would be fine with that I think.

If self-imposed restrictions are recommended to effectively balance the game, then the game does not work as intended and clearly needs fixing.

I doubt they balanced it for the super-hardcore mega-pr0s that want to die in 2 hits.

Carrying less potions because you want it to be harder isn't really that big of a deal. When I played through Darksiders a second time, I never used demon form, since you can max that shit out multiple times each battle late in the game; WAY worse than fate is in this.

 

[Brandon F]

If self-imposed restrictions are recommended to effectively balance the game, then the game does not work as intended and clearly needs fixing.

 

[Riggs]

The game really is ridiculously easy if you are even decently skilled at action games.
Not to mention that in an RPG you can actually outlevel your foes and make it even less trivial.
I don't get everyone's problem with Reckoning mode though. It's supposed to be your character unraveling the way the world works and changing fate.
So when he goes into Reckoning, he turns a giant strong monster into a punching bag because that's his special power. He changes the world. I think it's pretty great and who doesn't like doing those cool finishers?

I am a she!!!!

 

[SuperSonic1305]

The dialogue skipping is annoying and the camera needs to be pulled back. FIX THIS SHIT GUERILLA

 

[JambiBum]

Snip

What area of the game are you in? The area you are in matter quite a lot with the difficulty.

Also, I'm not kissing anyone's ass. I have my own problems with the game, but the difficulty, especially once you leave the "beginning" area, is definitely not one of them. A limit on potions would probably work the best, but I still have issues with inventory space because of them as it is now.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

I must suck because a few times last night I got down to my last potion and was pretty nervous.

 

[legbone]

as an older gamer (37 here) i find the difficulty just fine. i just want to explore and have a good time. some early spider battles actually made me use strategy. the difficulty has been just right for me. i want to enjoy the little gaming time i have. my days of high difficulty are over. this coming from a guy that beat ninja gaiden and battletoads on the nes and can do a no death run of the original contra.

edit: but i totally understand those that want a higher difficulty level. i'm just throwing in my 2 cents for what it's worth (probably less than 2 cents).

 

[scy]

What about those of us that don't have an issue with the potion mechanics or any of the stuff that all the whining is about? People in this thread are making it sound like the game is broken or something, and while some people have encountered some bugs, I think the mechanics work, at least for me, granted I am still very early in the game but still.

Basically. I recognize the mechanic is busted and hope it gets changed but I'm fine with just ... not using it. If I have to resort to potion spam to win a fight, I also recognize that the fight was hard enough to warrant potion spamming. Just the way I think of it.

Incidentally, Health Regen potions are actually more broken than potion spamming. Might as well mention that now. The Master one is 60 HP per second and I only have like 400 HP at Level 30 as a Finesse/Sorcery build. So before potion spamming can be "removed" as a good solution, rebalancing these would probably help too.

 

[Hawk269]

Each potion in amalur takes up inventory space as well... probably not enough.

Not stacked though. You can have a 80 item carrying threshold, but yet still have a 100 potions???

Now, if they said 10 potions is 10 items, then that would remove any and all issues. People would then really need to manage their inventory if something like this would be implemented.

I just want to be clear one more time to everyone here. I do love the game and I think that is the reason I am being so fucking annoying and or a dick (some may say) about some of the balance issues. I blame Curt for all of this though.

Why Curt? Well, he is so fucking passionate about this game and his studio that I really beleive giving him and his team honest feedback that something can be done about it. In the end, if something is not I know that what they learned will carry on to the next game they make...but I think they will be doing something...perhaps not to the level where everyone will be happy, but something.

 

[Sothpaw]

It'd be easier to swallow boss fights preventing it than, post-launch, completely removing an aspect of the game. Though, stated up front in the difficulty selection and it's not really a big deal for the straight removal.

Fair enough. I don't like reckoning mode whatsoever just like I don't like the mode in God of War that 38 copied it from. I just don't like having an "I win" button that I can use as a crutch when something gets a little difficult.

I don't think I am either, I just find most the complaints to be above the first few areas of the game. It's hard to take those claims very seriously. I agree that the game could use a difficulty increase across the board (and a harder option would be nice) but I'm not going to base that off of starter zones.

Some games do have dangerous starter zones. Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, TOEE and Demon's Souls come to mind. That said it's probably unfair to judge a game based on starting zones. But, you have to admit that the way potions and reckoning mode are completly abusable in this game make any encounter trivial.

Add a potion cooldown, make enemies hit harder and nerf reckoning mode and the game becomes much better.

as an older gamer (37 here) i find the difficulty just fine. i just want to explore and have a good time. some early spider battles actually made me use strategy. the difficulty has been just right for me. i want to enjoy the little gaming time i have. my days of high difficulty are over. this coming from a guy that beat ninja gaiden and battletoads on the nes and can do a no death run of the original contra.

edit: but i totally understand those that want a higher difficulty level. i'm just throwing in my 2 cents for what it's worth (probably less than 2 cents).

I'm 30 and also have extremely limited gaming time. But I would love for hard mode to be actually challenging.

 

[Einbroch]

People complaining about difficulty clearly are not very far into the game.

It's always easier than it should be, but the second major area (desert area) is not a cakewalk.

 

[Brandon F]

Take some of it in stride. The game, at least through 30+ hours and two entire regions completed (nearly 50% of the game), isn't walk in the park tra-la-la-la easy. If you fuck up, you will get hurt in combat. Maybe it takes three or four of those fuck ups to die instead of one or two but it's not like everything in the game does no damage to you and waits to be killed.



Just some is hard to take that seriously with the hyperbole and "second dungeon too easy game is garbage!" type complaints.

Keep updating on this. Getting so many mixed messages across the internet, but ultimately it appears the game on Hard is either way too easy or merely serviceable at best. Not exactly living up to the namesake, more like the true 'normal' difficulty.

 

[Klyka]

The dialogue skipping is annoying and the camera needs to be pulled back. FIX THIS SHIT GUERILLA

What?

The dialogue skipping never happened for me and who is Guerilla?

 

[Brandon F]

FIX THIS SHIT GUERILLA

Ah memories.

 

[Haunted]

"less loot"?

That's your solution to the game being too easy? I'm glad you lot aren't actual game designers. If you want to tweak balance, make the enemies more aggressive and hit harder, but don't take away cool stuff from the player.

 

[Torraz]

"less loot"?

That's your solution to the game being too easy? I'm glad you lot aren't actual game designers. If you want to tweak balance, make the enemies more aggressive and hit harder, but don't take away cool stuff from the player.

This, especially as chests don't seem to respawn etc.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

What?

The dialogue skipping never happened for me and who is Guerilla?

Dialogue skipping happened to me in the demo and it is still happening to me now. Characters will say half of what the subtitles show and then it cuts out.

 

[Sothpaw]

"less loot"?

That's your solution to the game being too easy? I'm glad you lot aren't actual game designers. If you want to tweak balance, make the enemies more aggressive and hit harder, but don't take away cool stuff from the player.

I think one person mentioned "less loot." The real issue is the potion and reckoning mode abuse.

 

[Brandon F]

How has the game handled resistances?

A pet peeve of mine is when a game recognizes that an enemy is resistant to say "Lightning" yet I can still one-shot them with a jolt of thunder. Has anyone noticed this as an issue yet? I usually like trying to figure out alternative weaknesses to getting around enemy defenses but have heard no discussion of this in Amalur.

 

[Hawk269]

For those still on the fence Toysrus.com has the game for $44.99. You can go to a store and they will price match it as it does not state "online only". In fact, Best Buy will also price match it. Just go to their customer service counter, tell them to go to toysrus.com, they will see the price and match it for you.

The game is great and while there are some balance issues, I don't think any gamer should pass on this game...if you are on the fence I can understand $60 is alot to ask if your are "ify", but at $45 it is a steal!

 

[CTE]

as an older gamer (37 here) i find the difficulty just fine. i just want to explore and have a good time. some early spider battles actually made me use strategy. the difficulty has been just right for me. i want to enjoy the little gaming time i have. my days of high difficulty are over. this coming from a guy that beat ninja gaiden and battletoads on the nes and can do a no death run of the original contra.

edit: but i totally understand those that want a higher difficulty level. i'm just throwing in my 2 cents for what it's worth (probably less than 2 cents).

Same here. The difficulty is fine for me.

 

[JambiBum]

What?

The dialogue skipping never happened for me and who is Guerilla?

Guerilla games is the developer of Killzone. The FIX THIS SHIT GUERILLA line comes from when KZ2 needed patching badly.

 

[scy]

Some games do have dangerous starter zones. Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, TOEE and Demon's Souls come to mind.

I find myself a terrible judge of difficulty since I still hold that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls need a hard mode. Or anything above the default difficulty since they're both really easy. Origins on Nightmare was kind of a joke too, though the start was the roughest part due to the lack of stuff available to you.

Which is something that Amalur is at least doing right; as I get more stuff, enemies do too. Bandits now come with their own Mages that can teleport around and hitstun you with homing spells. Enemies can buff themselves with Relentless Assault (stagger immunity) before engaging. I haven't seen Rogue types do anything but I bet they might.

But, you have to admit that the way potions and reckoning mode are completly abusable in this game make any encounter trivial.

I do agree they need to be fixed a bit to make Hard (or this new Nightmare/Insane mode) harder and more fun. I disagree that the base game outside of those isn't difficult, however; there's moments where the game is a bit hard and those two serve to equalize it.

Basically, treat the two as separate entities. There's the game itself and then the mechanics the player has access to. The former is relatively fine though that may change I break into better and better equipment; the latter could use some tweaking. Potion cooldowns already exist so I'm not sure why the Healing/Mana potions aren't on that kind of cooldown as well.

And Reckoning is just too beastly. Any fight that triggers a boss HP bar should just get some strange lore reason of you being unable to twist the fabrics of fate or something. I basically just use Reckoning for bonus EXP on this first playthrough and my next ones will just forgo ever using it.

 

[thetrin]

as an older gamer (37 here) i find the difficulty just fine. i just want to explore and have a good time. some early spider battles actually made me use strategy. the difficulty has been just right for me. i want to enjoy the little gaming time i have. my days of high difficulty are over. this coming from a guy that beat ninja gaiden and battletoads on the nes and can do a no death run of the original contra.

edit: but i totally understand those that want a higher difficulty level. i'm just throwing in my 2 cents for what it's worth (probably less than 2 cents).

I have to agree. I think I'm too old for really difficult games.

 

[scy]

How has the game handled resistances?

A pet peeve of mine is when a game recognizes that an enemy is resistant to say "Lightning" yet I can still one-shot them with a jolt of thunder. Has anyone noticed this as an issue yet? I usually like trying to figure out alternative weaknesses to getting around enemy defenses but have heard no discussion of this in Amalur.

It's hard to tell. I mean, I'm Finesse/Sorcery and I don't use my spells much so I can't say. I know that some enemies that resist it are just flat out immune (e.g., Storm Sprite Champions cannot be hurt with Lightning or Shocking damage). Most my elemental damage is attached to a Physical one so I see the resistance message but I just keep going anyway.

I'll pay attention next time I see some of the other enemies I know the resistances of and see what happens. I will say that it seems pretty drastic of a reduction. Kind of wish I saw this before the dungeon I just cleared since it's full of Lightning resistant (maybe immune?) enemies.

 

[dreamer3kx]

For those still on the fence Toysrus.com has the game for $44.99. You can go to a store and they will price match it as it does not state "online only". In fact, Best Buy will also price match it. Just go to their customer service counter, tell them to go to toysrus.com, they will see the price and match it for you.

The game is great and while there are some balance issues, I don't think any gamer should pass on this game...if you are on the fence I can understand $60 is alot to ask if your are "ify", but at $45 it is a steal!

My brothers a idiot, I tell him about these deals and he still purchases games at $60.

 

[jkoch]

I dont get some of you guys sometimes. I love the game, I mean I really love it, but I am not a fanboy and am not going to kiss Curt's ass and blow sunshine up his ass because he is who he is. I think Curt said it best, he is thick skinned and I think he prefers honest feedback (good and bad) about the game. With that said...

Some of you are questioning what class we are playing and that is why it may be easier, stating going almost all might some people are getting close to dieing, that my friends is called a balance issue. It should not matter what class you play, the challenge level should be there regardless. What is conerning to me is that I have not used any of the exploits like blacksmithing, carrying 100 health potions or anything like that. Like any RPG player, the thing I am doing is analyzing armor/weopons and equiping the ones that give me the best stats (which i assume everyone does).

Just so we're clear, I wasn't suggesting that anyone play a different class to up the difficulty. I'm trying to figure out if it's a class or skill balance issue, the game is just too easy across the board, or if I'm just bad at it.

 

[Derrick01]

I've only put 3 1/2 hours in so far (jak 2 is stealing my time) but I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm still kind of exploring that first little village but I have a couple general thoughts. Some negative, some just me thinking aloud so to speak.

-Difficulty I haven't seen much of yet. I had 1 pretty tough moment in a mine near town full of kobolds or whatever and they were pretty tough in groups, but nothing else has given me a challenge yet on normal. Keep in mind that I still really haven't done much yet.

-I hate preorder DLC. I found the chest in town full of the gamestop stuff (I assume, it was all purple weapons and yellow armor) and it ruins the balance of the game early. Not only am I powerful, but I have nothing to spend money on since my gear is better than all the shops so far. Of course this is easily remedied by simply not using the gear, but I have to add how much I hate preorder DLC.

-I'm having a hard time keeping track of the lore. It's pretty basic and generic fantasy lore, full with names and locations I can't pronounce. I'm like this with most fantasy games other than The Witcher series, but I have to think there's a way to make more interesting fantasy lore.

That's it for now. I notice the PS3 version is running pretty well with minimal pop up and a pretty damn stable framerate. I'm impressed.

 

[Nista]

Same here. The difficulty is fine for me.

Perhaps Hard is a bit easy in the starting areas, but when you get further in it really picks up. I don't think Mel Senshir is a cakewalk unless you are totally min-maxing the game.

 

[BrettWeir]

I honestly have not had this much fun in a game for a LONG time. Thank you BHG!!!

One thing I find odd though, is I've found a purple of every type of weapon......but daggers (which is my primary). I swear it's coded in.....

 

[scy]

Just to note, since I just got around to looking at it, Poison looks to debuff enemies to -33% damage dealt with Bleed being +33% damage dealt to them.

I honestly have not had this much fun in a game for a LONG time. Thank you BHG!!!

One thing I find odd though, is I've found a purple of every type of weapon......but daggers (which is my primary). I swear it's coded in.....

I have three full sets of Sorcery equipment and I think every Unique Staff and Sceptre in the game up to Level 30; I have a ton of Unique Longswords, Greatswords, etc.

I have two pieces of Finesse set equipment not counting the quest reward set I have; I have three Unique Faeblades.

 

[Alucrid]

It's as if someone concentrated all the hyperbole on GAF and unleashed it here.

 

[Brandon F]

It's as if someone concentrated all the hyperbole on GAF and unleashed it here.

You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Mass Effect 3 arrives...

 

[Alucrid]

You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Mass Effect 3 arrives...

Atleast I'll be contributing to that histeria

 

[Riggs]

You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Mass Effect 3 arrives...

Winter is coming

 

[Derrick01]

You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Mass Effect 3 arrives...

I have extremely high hopes for that OT. I hope Chinner doesn't let me down.

 

[Nista]

Can anyone confirm / deny that the 360, US version of the game runs on a Japanese console?

I actually know this first hand, because it was the first thing I tried on a friend's console after returning from midnight launch. Game runs just fine on a Japanese 360. He owes me a dollar.

 

[Einbroch]

I have extremely high hopes for that OT. I hope Chinner doesn't let me down.

You for srs?

 

[moop1167]

Seriously... everyone getting heated about overleveling the enemies... what about all the bitching about Oblivion's leveling enemies? It's there in Skyrim too and no one seemed to put up much of a fuss about it.

 

[Klyka]

I think some of you guys on PC might enjoy this:

Reckoning Remapping Tool

http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/...vement-select-abilities-with-mouse-wheel-more

 

[JambiBum]

I have extremely high hopes for that OT. I hope Chinner doesn't let me down.

Chinner? It could possibly be the greatest OT of all time.