"You Will Die" Difficulty... Can I Have It?

[Valmonte]

adding difficulty sliders is only going to serve to fraction the already fractured player base it going to be a virtual war ground of the vetrans cutting off and disowning casuals.

if someones adds me to a party and says "oh we suck balls" or "we're to stupid to learn a simple 5 stage fight" so we're going to run it easy mode. im droping party and assuming the above if i see any thing with easy mode engaged.

[Orophin]

Oh there's a reason to make content for less then 1% of the player base. It gives casual players something they can try to work for but never achieve so they can feel like they are never done because they have not beat all the raid bosses on hard mode and do not have the best gear. Less then 0.1% of the WoW playerbase can beat Hard mode raids on current tier. Its often the hard core less then 1% that make a bunch of videos and stuff of your game which is basically a bunch of free advertising.

It's the carrot on a stick that you can never reach that keeps people playing.

That seems like a pretty flawed argument. I can't see most people willingly throwing themselves at something that they know they not capable of completing because it's the only thing left to do.

I never had the opportunity of playing with people in WoW that could clear hard mode content, so guess what I did? I completed the normal mode stuff and eventually stopped playing when I ran out of stuff to do.

[IndigoDarkwolf]

im droping party and assuming the above if i see any thing with easy mode engaged.

That makes you sound like the kind of player I won't want to group with anyways, so not really a loss where I'm concerned.

I'm sure it won't be a problem, though. Your attitude tells me that you probably wouldn't join a random party that's shouting in Ul'Dah, anyways. Nor would I expect you'd use cross-realm parties if they were ever implemented. You'll find an LS to run top-end content on an organized schedule, and won't voluntarily play with anyone outside of that. In short, "easy mode" wouldn't really effect you.

Actually, I'm not even sure why you're complaining.

[Mudd]

I would like certain areas full of ??? level aggressive monsters, each one like an HNM in strength. It could be a place filled with aether that have allowed animals to grow to amazing strength and take on a twisted appearance. They could drop mats for cursed gear or special materia

So basically an Area where you aren't meant to be that has monsters that you aren't likely to kill?
I'm sure there will be areas like that, like in 1.0, that are meant to be used later.
As to if they would drop anything worthwhile, *shrugs*

You figure though, while that sounds cool and all, you would need a whole lot of people to deal with possible linking and so on, which would lead to massive headaches if the range you can pull a monster isn't far enough, and regarding loot. Plus, if its too strong HP wise, as you move in, they will start to pop around you, meaning you can only really farm at the edge of the zone, making it just one big closed off area until they raise level cap high enough that you can steam roll everything

I don't know.

[Valmonte]

That makes you sound like the kind of player I won't want to group with anyways, so not really a loss where I'm concerned.

I'm sure it won't be a problem, though. Your attitude tells me that you probably wouldn't join a random party that's shouting in Ul'Dah, anyways. Nor would I expect you'd use cross-realm parties if they were ever implemented. You'll find an LS to run top-end content on an organized schedule, and won't voluntarily play with anyone outside of that. In short, "easy mode" wouldn't really effect you.

Actually, I'm not even sure why you're complaining.

surprise, ive done plenty of pick up groups, helped people clear there Jobs quests, and assisted many in stomping out van darnus, i do that because its always a decent challenge. that avenue of challenge is now being threatened. people will just go easy mode and learn absolutely nothing about the tactics required to beat that fight when presented with a more difficult setting. the whole let the player choose the difficulty is garbage and ruins the whole RPG feel.

Van Darnus was supposed to rip off your head and shit down your throat he had the power of bahamut at his disposal, you'd ruin his intire plot becuase one persons to dame dumb to listen and adapt based on situations.

[IndigoDarkwolf]

Van Darnus was supposed to rip off your head and shit down your throat he had the power of bahamut at his disposal, you'd ruin his intire plot becuase one persons to dame dumb to listen and adapt based on situations.

Maybe my assumption is wrong: that if 2.0 were to have a fight like Van Darnus, the fight's easy mode would already be on par with Van Darnus Easy from 1.0, which you say you helped people with because it was a decent challenge. So the slider would let you make the fight harder than that, with appropriately scaled rewards.

Did I miss the part where S|E said they were planning to scale down the base difficulty level? The rumor-mongering I've heard suggests exactly the opposite.

[Klive]

Oh there's a reason to make content for less then 1% of the player base. It gives casual players something they can try to work for but never achieve so they can feel like they are never done because they have not beat all the raid bosses on hard mode and do not have the best gear. Less then 0.1% of the WoW playerbase can beat Hard mode raids on current tier. Its often the hard core less then 1% that make a bunch of videos and stuff of your game which is basically a bunch of free advertising.

It's the carrot on a stick that you can never reach that keeps people playing.

I know what you want, its tiered content. That does have some strengths, it gives and great sense of journey and accomplishment. Earning your way into Molten Core or Onyxia's lair was a feat to be proud of, let alone clearing them. But their is a huge problem with these as well. Tiered content has lots of bottle necks and creates huge hurdles for new players. Nothing makes a girl/bot friend love a game like "I'm sorry, you can't play with me until you finish 2 months of raiding after you hit max level." Bottle necks make it hard to progress to the next tier. You can't get a raid to help clear UBRS to key you to BWL because you are behind the curve? Too bad, try again later.

Also, you need "resets" tiered content due if you get too many tiers the hurdle becomes way too high for new players. Well that leads to another problem, such a small percentage will reach the highest tiers. As Zumi pointed out, less than 1% of vanilla WoW player reached Naxx. For someone trying and working hard to reach Naxx and then a "reset", ie expansion, comes out, that really sucks.

I will say, I did like vanilla WoW. I played it a lot and raided a lot. If FF14 had a similar path, I would be fine with that. I do accept they are walking a tight rope and not everyone is going to be happy with whatever decision they make.

[Yrusama]

Personally I think Yoshi-P and the team are a little sadistic when they make bosses. Yoshi-P seemed disappointed that we killed Garuda too fast, and I can picture him wringing his hands every time a boss is released, saying "THIS one will get them. They'll NEVER beat this one... Mwahahahahaha!"

As others have sad, adding greater difficulties for these fights is a matter of popular demand. Just because one team is bored of the content doesn't mean that the whole endgame player base will be.

So basically an Area where you aren't meant to be that has monsters that you aren't likely to kill?
I'm sure there will be areas like that, like in 1.0, that are meant to be used later.
As to if they would drop anything worthwhile, *shrugs*

I reeeeaaally hope they implement those "forbidden spots". I'm sure by now you're all sick of my Gelmorra Ruins sig. Even after they made it easier, that place was still pretty tough to reach without dying, and even if there wasn't a reward for it I felt a little cooler for making the trip solo.

[Stephen]

The key word here is optional guys - people are always so quick to jump in and nay-say because they feel that the particular thing being discussed doesn't sound as though something they would enjoy.

Something optional and as simple as this would only require a bump in the mobs level/speed so it wouldn't waste any of Yoshi and his teams time so there isn't really any reason to say no to something like this.

But .... to the OP - I would totally be up for things like this, always good to experience new challenges / have things to tide you over whilst waiting for fresh content.

[Kinseykinz]

The key word here is optional guys - people are always so quick to jump in and nay-say because they feel that the particular thing being discussed doesn't sound as though something they would enjoy.

Something optional and as simple as this would only require a bump in the mobs level/speed so it wouldn't waste any of Yoshi and his teams time so there isn't really any reason to say no to something like this.

Yes, it is 'Optional' but the reality is, that that optional content will end up tearing the community further apart and causing undo headaches...because 'if you were a real player you'd have beat that battle on EXTREEEME' will be the epeen sentence people hear all the time. At the end of the day, we will as a community consider the battle to be 'the Extreme' version, not the 'Normal'. But, unless you have a dedicated static/group you do everything with AND play together often (like 4-5+nights a week), you stand little chance of being able to clear this, regardless of your actual skill.

Besides, this is an MMO...overtime battles that once were "epic/hardmode/dude I can't believe we beat him", get easier. This happens either because level cap is raised, players get better gears/abilities/exploits are found/many in the community have clear and are now able to focus on getting 1 person at a time their clear/ or the developers gradually ease the battle as the release newer content. It is far smarter overall to allow the community to ALL beat the same version of a battle for the same quest, than tier content.

For example: Lets remember version 1.0's Ifrit Battle(s) as they were semi-ish tiered.

Ifrit level 25 and Ifrit 'Normal' were both released in the same patch. At the time they were released, we were still in the middle of the 'battle system reforms' and did not have jobs. Even then, Ifrit level 25 was so very easy that very few of us even talk about it. Heck, it is possible to kill him before the person who started the quest can finish watching the CS's.

But the 'Normal' Iffy battle back then, was a decent challenge. MP conservation was an issue, Survival was hard without Sentinel it required some actual player skill, luck with lag and teamwork. But, as the game evolved, with us getting the more refined battle system, jobs, better gears etc. Ifrit 'Normal' became fairly easy for many in the community.

Now that we actually had a battle system and jobs, SE could introduce the Iffy battle they originally intended for us to have..."Iffy Extreme" (due to the lack of jobs, and battle system this would have been an impossible battle back at Ifrit's original patch release) Very few have cleared him at this point or have even gained access, but we ALL talk about it. And now, 'Ifrit Hardmode is now considered the battle you need to clear to be 'Elite'.

Sliders were never needed to allow the community to clear Ifrit though. Overtime and though in game changes, we all get better at the content in the game. Someday, Iffy Hardmode will be considered 'fairly easy' to the community just like 'Normal' mode seems now. (unless SE keeps updating him of course).

Besides, 'hardmode' sliders are really just a cheap way of re-using existing content over and over. "Hey guys we just beat Iffy Easy-mode. Lets try Normal...cool beat that, lets try Hard...beat that....lets do extreeme..." Instead of 'Woot we beat Ifrit! Lets go work on clearing Garuda!'