[Request] Instead of nerfing solo duties and whatnot, add a very easy difficulty mode

[Kathryn_Morningstar]

I've been playing this game for a few years at this point and I am genuinely happy when I have difficulty with the content in this game - having something difficult to overcome is one of the main reasons I play videogames other than narrative fulfillment.

That being said, there is a vocal minority of players who are either disabled (no disrespect to them, the fact that they've gotten this far is commendable) or are still dreadful at this game despite having played through 5 expansions at this point, and all the duties from the beginning to now (how).

Thus I propose this: In source games they have this cheat known as buddha mode, which makes you unable to go below 1hp. This still gives the narrative feeling of difficulty while making it able to be completed by essentially anyone. Call it "story mode" and have an option in the character settings menu to automatically set the difficulty to that in solo duties (as well as offering it if you die like, 5 times in a row).

Doing this will ensure that those of us who love difficult (though not *very* since its msq stuff, but whatever) content are happy, and those that aren't good at videogames can enjoy the story

[Kathryn_Morningstar]

Screw it, make this a thing in trust dungeons too, but don't have it award xp for obvious reasons. I want people to be able to enjoy the story no matter what, without ruining it for the majority of us

[Minali]

100% agreed. Maybe also give some extra lives like in the final solo duty of 6.0 for Duty Support and Solo Duties so one mistake doesn't mean game over.

I really don't understand how anyone can be against adding an option for people with disabilities in game modes where others are not affected. Especially the "git gud" crowd should be all over it, considering this means the devs have more wiggle room and freedom to design the difficulty level you usually start with however they see fit. It would allow for more experiments in gameplay.

(Also, make the tooltips in solod uties actually say what they're doing instead of "this button is for three different skills in a row and no, we're not going to elaborate if there is a heal hidden in there somewhere and which one is the AOE.")

[LibitIncarne]

Just add extra lives on the easier difficulties. Most people who are unable to clear solo duties are unable to walk out of the bad or into the tower so giving them an indeterminate damage boost that doesn't even do anything in several duties (Looking at you, Healer Role Quest. That boss was at 1 HP for two entire minutes.) isn't going to help. And in Duty Support/Trust dungeons. Give the player 1 (2 in Very Easy) extra lives for the easy duty/trust dungeon and make it so that you get a full heal and temporary invincibility when you would have otherwise hit 0 HP.
Maybe in dungeons you can change it to lock you at 1HP with Down for the Count until anyone other than Thancred, Estinien, Ryne, or Krile (in trusts) or the designated healer and/or Alisaie/Y'shtola/the Thaumaturge/Venat (Duty Support) uses their raising skill on you. That'll also teach new players that if their raisers are dead or don't exist, they have less wiggle room to eat vuln stacks.
In dungeons, make the raise status reset each time you beat a boss or die the second time like in Criterion Dungeons.

[Mlem]

Story/Easy Mode would unblock the MSQ for everyone, be fast to implement and leave the difficulty intact and I can't understand how everyone can't be behind it.

There can be a debate about how much casual combat stuff the devs spend time to put in each patch later.

[Rydia_Misuto]

There already is a very easy mode, I assumed this was a joke from the title tbh.

Solo instances that have difficulty serve the important role of forcing people to understand mechanics before progressing in a way that doesn't mean everyone else has to deal with 2 paladin 2 white mage trials where it's a wipe because half the party jumped, has no idea what they're doing and runs away with stack markers/etc.

If instances are made easier (even if not, to be honest) there /needs/ to be some kind of rudimentary, mandatory check/tutorial that forces people to understand how basic mechanics work so they don't go into a new trial thinking they can ignore mechanics the way they have the previous 500 hours of the game they've played/4 hours from when they bought a jump.

I'm not saying people need to be able to parse the top 10% to play the game, but at the bare minimum the fundamental basic mechanics like stack markers, tank buster icons, 'akh morne' markers, etc. - these things need to be required learning before going into public content.

[Ayan_Calvesse]

Why not just give them the offer to skip them entirely rather then waste the time scripting very easy fights. If people do not want the combat or to spend the time doing them...why waste resources to code it.

[Ayan_Calvesse]

There already is a very easy mode, I assumed this was a joke from the title tbh.

Solo instances that have difficulty serve the important role of forcing people to understand mechanics before progressing in a way that doesn't mean everyone else has to deal with 2 paladin 2 white mage trials where it's a wipe because half the party jumped, has no idea what they're doing and runs away with stack markers/etc.

If instances are made easier (even if not, to be honest) there /needs/ to be some kind of rudimentary, mandatory check/tutorial that forces people to understand how basic mechanics work so they don't go into a new trial thinking they can ignore mechanics the way they have the previous 500 hours of the game they've played/4 hours from when they bought a jump.

I'm not saying people need to be able to parse the top 10% to play the game, but at the bare minimum the fundamental basic mechanics like stack markers, tank buster icons, 'akh morne' markers, etc. - these things need to be required learning before going into public content.

Simple - force people to have completed that content on normal before they can go into challenge content. So like no EX Trials until you've actually cleared all the actual dungeons.

[Valence]

I haven't faced it in DT, but when I ran the Endwalker lvl89 trial 3 years ago I wiped stupidly and they DO give you 1 more live each time you wipe for the next run. I do not know how it is right now but I'd assume it's still the same?

Either way I agree with the OP.

[Mirikh]

I support this. The new MSQ dungeons, trials and raids are some of the best parts of Dawntrail. The more freedom the developers have to throw new graphics and intersting twists at us even if it will all be very familiar in a few weeks time, the better. It enlivens the initial playthrough quite a bit. I'd much rather see a "skip instance" or "god-mode" button added for those who just want MSQ story completion added to the game than to have developers under constant pressure to nerf, adjust and downgrade the instances for everyone else.