Why do casuals act as if it's the end of the world when suggesting?

[Burmecia]

1) But we already have content of variable difficulty levels. People have stuff from which to choose.
2) Who has suggested difficulty bump? And, like for which level of content? All of it?

[Shurrikhan]

1) But we already have content of variable difficulty levels. People have stuff from which to choose.

We have some content with difficulty levels. Most difficulty levels outside of "normal", though, do not have varied content.

• "Easy" has only MSQ scenarios.
• "Extreme" is limited to perfectly rectangular or circular rooms where 8 people beat a cylinder to death while making sure to be at the right places --and hit their scripted heals and defensives-- at the right time.
• "Savage" is limited to perfectly rectangular or circular rooms where 8 people beat a cylinder to death while making sure to be at the right places --and hit their scripted heals and defensives-- at the right time.
• "Ultimate" is limited to perfectly rectangular or circular rooms where 8 people beat a cylinder to death while making sure to be at the right places --and hit their scripted heals and defensives-- at the right time.

Only "normal" ---i.e., no difficulty setting at all-- has any real range of content.

2) Who has suggested difficulty bump? And, like for which level of content? All of it?

It's been suggested here and there, mostly as modest bumps across the leveling process, to be mostly unnoticeable at any given step but as to better prepare players for the endgame as to give more confidence and relevant practice that might bridge the way to Extreme difficulties, etc.

[Quor]

The game shouldn't hold your hand, correct. But it shouldn't give you false direction either.

It tells you to go to the camp it doesn't tell you that you have to go to the camp in a very specific way and you can't just use "common sense" and simply turn around a take the long way around and avoid them.
Good games give you real options, to fight or to avoid. They don't misdirect you they simply just don't tell you.

It makes perfect logical sense to be able to simply avoid them if the game gave you real choice, it doesn't. It misdirects you.

Ok, so, putting aside the fact that the entire quest area you are placed in is cordoned off by the Orange Balls of Thou Shalt Not Pass (and thus there is zero chance of "false direction" to be had):

You're missing the entire point of the quest; you aren't able to "avoid" the big confrontations because they are a part of the story. The fail states for each of those are so difficult to reach that you have to be actively not playing the game in order to lose. This is because part of the point of In From the Snow is to show you, the player, how ridiculously OP your character is compared to your average run-of-the-mill guy.

In the vein of "real options," if you could simply avoid everything and make a beeline to Camp Broken Glass then you wouldn't truly be feeling what the devs want you to feel, which is to say confusion, helplessness, frustration....all those feelings that so many people seem hell-bent on avoiding in this quest are the very things that you are meant to be feeling. You are not supposed to have a choice in how you complete this quest. You are supposed to have wild emotional swings, starting with the horror and disgust of being ripped out of your own body and placed into a new one followed by the shock when you see Zenos take up yours and go off to do who-knows-what to your friends. Then there's that faint spark of desperate hope as Fanny Danny sends you into the city center and tells you that you'd better hurry, but oh, do be careful, you're significantly more fragile in your new body than you're used to! Better avoid as many of the random mooks as possible, or else!

Then, being drawn naturally to the south west (because that's where the Camp is) you ultimately run into the wall of warmachina and the disabled Reaper. Your heart sinks as you see all those machina that you can't hope to beat in your current body, and you're meant to feel at least some chagrin at the fact that - were you in your own flesh - this whole thing would be a cake walk. But you've got that Reaper just sitting there, and if you can locate the key and some fuel for it then you might just stand a chance. Snaking your way back through all the hostiles, maybe engaging in a tense battle or two, your emotional state fluctuates wildly from one moment to the next. Finding some extra health kits gives you a measure of peace; you've got a safety net now, but you're nowhere closer to your goal. It's a small victory for sure but the clock is still ticking. Maybe you get lucky and stumble upon the dmg up and HP regen buffs, and for a few precious minutes you almost feel like you're in your own body again, no longer constrained by health kits and lackluster damage. But deep inside, you know they'll wear off eventually, so that sense of power and security gives way to a new kind of desperation; you've gotta find that fuel and the key ASAP to get the most out of your limited-duration buffs. Plus you're running out of places to check; you know there's gotta be some fuel here somewhere and with your new-found buffs active you feel a renewed sense of urgency to get that fuel.

And eventually you do. The key isn't hard, but getting the fuel back is a nail-biter, what with trying to dodge patrols, having to make yourself "helpless" while you carry the fuel and maybe even getting attacked. But you get it back, load up the Reaper and then....bliss. Absolute bliss, as wave after wave of machina fall to your magitek weaponry. Sure, there are a few tense moments, managing your cooldowns and using the right skill for the job, but compared to how you've been living over the past few minutes you may as well be a god.

And then it ends, that confident power high giving way to the despairing fact that you now, again, must hoof it through dangerous territory to save your friends.

That's the point of this quest that so many people seem to be miss. You're supposed to feel lost like a rat in a maze trying to find your way out, but the game gives you ample enough time that even if you search literally everywhere else you can still complete the mission before the timer runs out. But even with this in mind there is no misdirection of any kind. The game tells you exactly what needs to be done and provides you with a brief tutorial on what you need to do to get to your goal, complete with an actual in-game tutorial about scavenging for supplies from downed enemies. It shouldn't be hard to put those things together and draw the appropriate conclusions.

I can only imagine that people who died more than once to clearly unwinnable fights are the types to jump into a raging river in order to cross it simply because it's the fastest, most direct route, completely oblivious to the danger they are about to put themselves into. In From the Snow was made with the apparently-unusual belief that people would be able to adjust their thinking to accommodate for a new situation, and I guess that's just not the way it is.

[Lauront]

It's been suggested here and there, mostly as modest bumps across the leveling process, to be mostly unnoticeable at any given step but as to better prepare players for the endgame as to give more confidence and relevant practice that might bridge the way to Extreme difficulties, etc.

Especially now that they are rolling trusts out to virtually all MSQ instanced content - may as well just tack on any "easy/auto-win" mode options to that and let the regular content fluctuate a bit more.

[redheadturk]

The game shouldn't hold your hand, correct. But it shouldn't give you false direction either.

It tells you to go to the camp it doesn't tell you that you have to go to the camp in a very specific way and you can't just use "common sense" and simply turn around a take the long way around and avoid them.
Good games give you real options, to fight or to avoid. They don't misdirect you they simply just don't tell you.

It makes perfect logical sense to be able to simply avoid them if the game gave you real choice, it doesn't. It misdirects you.

^This. And Fandaniel telling you to "stick to the shadows" would give a lot of people the impression you can do just that, sneak around the mecha and get to the exit. A better nudge toward what you are supposed to do instead of just expecting people to figure it out on their own would be quite handy.

[Kazelus]

^This. And Fandaniel telling you to "stick to the shadows" would give a lot of people the impression you can do just that, sneak around the mecha and get to the exit. A better nudge toward what you are supposed to do instead of just expecting people to figure it out on their own would be quite handy.

So you are doing an instancied mission with a limited area to explore, the paths is completely blocked by a bunch of machines that are so many it's actually impossible to be in the rear of all of them simultaneously.
You have a magiteck armor facing them and shining like every "quest related item" since the start of the game and your first reflexe is to try to pass through the impossible instead of checking the shining armor that could help you ?
Plus, the game can't give you a false direction, since the area you can explore is quite limited...

[Ilisidi]

Naw, you sneak around the safe way since the game just showed you you are squishy and without regen or other reliable heal, which means you end up at a bunch of Magitek where the games tells you Magitek and fuel are useless (contrary to what the MSQ recently told you), so you continue sneaking around safely looking for a different way and don't come across the other Magitek because that's in an area unsafe for squishy you, not that it matters anyway, because the repeatedly game told you Magitek are not the answer.

[Raoabolic]

So you are doing an instancied mission with a limited area to explore, the paths is completely blocked by a bunch of machines that are so many it's actually impossible to be in the rear of all of them simultaneously.
You have a magiteck armor facing them and shining like every "quest related item" since the start of the game and your first reflexe is to try to pass through the impossible instead of checking the shining armor that could help you ?
Plus, the game can't give you a false direction, since the area you can explore is quite limited...

You don't understand. There were no AoE markers anywhere. Every dungeon teaches you to run in and engage. What do you want them to do, change up how they approached the instance after they died? Pay attention to where the enemies are facing so you can run behind them? Ask fellow friends/FC mates for tips? The instance was just too overtuned. :^)