This game just isn't hard enough.

[Amioran]

I do agree that it gets easier even on Death March as you level up, but it's still highly challenging enough for the crushing majority of players.

Really? Because in all forums you see people complaining about the game being too easy. The only ones that find DM challenging are those that never played a Witcher game before, but DM shouldn't even be a difficulty possible for them (as an hardcore mode should be balanced around experienced players, not newbies). Hell, even hard in theory should be very very difficult for a newbie of the game. Elsewhere what's the point, you know, of calling a difficulty "Hard" or "Hardcore" if it can be beaten (with just a little challenge) by those that don't either know how to play the game yet? It's absurd.

 

[Lieste]

There is a "nice increase in difficulty" on a curve as the game progresses. Just a shame it can be swamped by equipment stat gain, and character skills and stats increases... especially for 'optimised' one-trick builds.

On the hard levels it is still "unforgiving" ~ many monsters attack in groups (or have a streamed multiple attack) that if you mess up *once* can result in death and a reload. It is entirely possible to play cautiously and never get hit by this (or to have Quen up as a buffer, or to have decotions that aid health regeneration or damage mitigation)... but it is only casually easy with the definitely overpowered signs and bombs builds. Those based on a "book" Geralt ~ swordsman with a few modest 'tricks', are much more interesting and challenging (IMO).

 

[Margravene]

Really? Because in all forums you see people complaining about the game being too easy.

Several million of copies of the game have been sold, people complaining here -on the official forums- about DM are numbered in the hundreds, at most. Keep that fact in perspective before claiming that everybody and their dog are complaining.
Just look at this very thread: just 200 replies, and half of them not agreeing with the game being too easy. It's nothing in proportion. And someone pointed out earlier that "less than 1% actually had the Death March achievement". It speaks for itself.

The internet often gives vocal minorities a deluded sense of mass, precisely because they are vocal.

Note that I'm not disagreeing with you about DM difficulty: I too find it not up to the challenge, and I implicitly said it in my last comment. I love insane difficulty modes.
But I'm aware it's not the case for the majority of players. Most people around me find DM too hard for them. That's the way it should be, developers cannot afford to put time in major designs satisfying less than 1% of players.

And as I stated in my previous comment, there always will be people not finding it hard enough (and I'll probably be among them).
The answer to that "issue" is modding and/or making your own behavioural difficulty mode.

If I really had a complaint to fill, it wouldn't be about the level of difficulty itself, but rather about the way the AI behave sometimes.

 

[Khronikos]

There always will be people for which the game is either too easy or too hard, no matter the difficulty setting. It doesn't make the game "unbalanced".

I do agree that it gets easier even on Death March as you level up, but it's still highly challenging enough for the crushing majority of players.
They won't, and don't have to make the game even more difficult to satisfy the whims of a tiny minority of players - and I'm one of these, as I love insane difficulties.
So I concur in what have been said : use mods. Period.

Alternatively, you can do what I used to do in other games to make them more challenging and realistic:
- Only manually save at "safe" places, such as inns, camps, villages and cities, and discard automatic saving (other than for recovering from game crashes or obvious bugs).
- Don't consume food or health potions in the middle of a fight. Because, seriously.
- Don't use perks giving you unrealistic boosts (such as the one giving you more health regen, for example).
- Limit yourself on what you're carrying, because having 5 swords and 3 sets of armors in your inventory just isn't realistic. It also means you'll indirectly earn less revenue by selling loot, making the equipment management and upgrade more complex.
- Any other similar tweak you can think of.

By mixing all this, the result is no more "fighting against all odds" bullshit, after a couple failures, you'll find yourself fleeing or avoiding deadly conflicts, as anyone with a brain and without a death wish would do (including a witcher), and learning to behave in a more well-thought way in your fights and wanderings.

I used to do that kind of things with games such as Stalker (with insane difficulty mods to make it even more challenging), and it's much more rewarding then, when your choices leads to greater consequences on the long haul: you tend to be more careful and realistic in your behaviours, as any misstep matters more, and you're more on a survival path than a uberpwning one.

It's a more rewarding and interesting type of difficulty in my opinion, much more than bluntly raising levels, hitpoints, damages and number of opponents.
Beside theatrical boss fights, fights that lasts minutes aren't realistic or challenging to me. I don't want to grind a healthbar. I want a meaningful feeling of risk and consequences.

I've been an Eve Online player for over 10 years, so maybe it affects the way I perceive the whole difficulty/risk/consequence issue.
But as a gamer for 25 years, it just makes sense to me. I've had my share of "hard-mode" games that just drops mountains of resistance and health to grind at. And it's nowhere interesting or challenging.

These ideas are so bunk. USE MODS. Nah. The devs promised a very hard difficulty level in this game. They were even thinking of perma death at one point.

There are way too many exploits in this game for it to even be called balanced much less even remotely difficult. Even Witcher 2 with Combat Rebalance Mod done by their own employee got pretty difficult in the last chapter or so, despite again being a total walk in the park the first couple.

This team doesn't understand inherent balance and it's obvious. All of these problems have been a problem since their inception. They should honestly look into hiring new people for this portion of the game. They have no idea what they are doing. Deathmarch is NOT a difficulty that should be even fathomed for the new or even mildly experience player. It should have NONE of the exploits that it does. And there are dozens.

Stop shilling for the team and admit the game has problems.

MODS only work for PC. Please reread that sentence.

---------- Updated at 10:38 AM ----------

Trying to use poor anecdotal evidence based on forum posts doesn't really make a case either way. Your game should not have exploits at every turn like this one does no matter the difficulty. I'm all for mods but that does not help anyone else but PC players. Others will find themselves overloaded with money and nothing to buy because of the terrible economy. Poorly balanced stats, signs, decoctions, etc. Even Gwent is poorly balance lol. It's really hard to make excuses for all of this.

 

[scratcherpen]

Try to spawn at least two-three high-level monsters at once(Basilisks, Wyverns, Golems e.t.c.)with console on Death march for example. Then talk about difficulty. They`ll rip your ass to British flags immideatelly.

 

[Amioran]

Several million of copies of the game have been sold, people complaining here -on the official forums- about DM are numbered in the hundreds, at most.

Do you think there are only these forums around? There's Steam, there's Gamefaqs, there's Reddit etc. etc. You will find A LOT of people complaining about the difficulty, and if you analyze the posts all these people are usually those that played at least Witcher 2 in the past.

Of those who find the difficulty "fine" you will find almost anybody that played a Witcher game in the past, they are all new players of the saga. What the hell can they understand of "difficulty" if they have absolutely no parameter of comparison nor do they even know how to play the game well before judging how difficult is it? If they were a little more objective on the matter even logically they would understand that if even they, as newcomers, can beat the game in its highest difficulty setting without having either played it before then it means something is obviously amiss; but naturally you cannot ask for logic from the majority of people in the net nowadays.

Then automatically associating those who don't go on forums to post to "not complaining about difficulty" is naive at best and dishonest at worst: a person that doesn't post simply doesn't post and that's it, nothing more and nothing less. The majority of people simply don't go on forums and that's a fact, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they have nothing to complain about the game (and so also on difficulty in this case).

 

[Cronstintein]

I think the real problem is the difficulty curve is going the wrong direction. The game is amazingly balanced at levels 1-10 but falls off the rails quickly after that. Just as the player's skills are getting better the game difficulty goes down resulting in a less satisfying combat experience.
I think:
-giving creatures over level 15 a haste-like effect would be a good start.
-Maybe adding a stamina penalty to dodging as well.
-Also quen is super OP but I can avoid casting that if other factors are brought into line.
-Giving creatures increased resistances with level so that 100% igni/aard isn't an I-win button.

Just throwing out ideas I would enjoy in lieu of damage++/hp++ changes that are not going to be a great solution.

 

[Orpheal]

The problem is not the game balance, the problem is because enemies don't scale up as you progress with Geralt so that enemies stay challenging.

So more you level up with Geralt, so higher should increase the Base Level of all Enemies that are weaker than you after you surpass their initial levels.

Example:

We mee early on in the game Level 5 Wolves. Once we reach self Lvl 5, the Game should scale up the Wolf Level from 5 to 10 so that Wolves, especialy when they come in large packs of like 5+ of them stay really challenging and a serious threat for you. The moment where enemies become one hit kilsl due to your weapons becoming too strong and your skilsl becomign too strogn for the enemies, that don't scale up, thats the moment, where game balance fails and where CDPR should have learned from Guild Wars 2's scaling system to keep monsters challenging enough, even while you progress in the game, so that you simply can't completely outlevel them to the point, where they basically would have to run away from you, if their appreciate their lives due to you beign able to one hit kill foes with simple fast attacks.

Equipment and Enemies need to scale up better. So more we progress with Geralt, Loot that we find in chests should always be level appropiate, never lower that what level we are currently, and also not never much higher that we currently are. Loot Chests should reset after a certain time, so that people just don't loot stuf first, when they have reached high levels.
Like after a month of game time (30 days) chests should reset.. This way you can play the game just normally, loot whenever you find somethign and maybe return later to a place when you have become stronger and enough time has passed, so that you can loot a chest again and find maybe the next time then better scaled up equipment for your current level ( a bit randomized, so that peopel just don't abuse that system to get too easily good enquipment/gold from selling respawning loot)

Either this, or CDPR should improve the craftign system, to add the feature of REFINING equipment, so that by refinign our equipment, we can increase the quality of equipment and its max required level to make the refined item more powerful.
Refinign equipment would become so more powerful the weapon becomes costful and owudl require of Geralt also to bring to the Weapon/Armorsiomths certain items.
also the item range that can be refined by the npc should be defined by the job experience of the NPC.

Beginners should be able to refine for you items from Level 2 to Level 20
Adepts should be able ti refine for you Items from Level 21 to Level 40
Masters should be able to refine for you items of Level 41 and above to whatever is Max...

When i remeber right, a dev of CDPR said that TW3 has no max level, that you can basically level unendlessly in the game to learn everything, if you want.. that there is no level cap.

A refinement System would make also sense, because it would give the game a good money sink, because once you have learned basicalyl all schematics that you can learn/need and have good enoiugh equipment to play through the game, there is basicalyl no reason anymore to spend any money in the game for something.

Buying food? Waste of money, you find toons of food everywhere in the game or you can simply kill animals for food. just missign that we can pull out a fishign rod lol...

Buying alcohol, see food, you fidn plenty of it everywhere that you basically never need to buy it and even if you do, it currently has no meaning in the game, as it has not the use for you, like it had in TW1

a little money sink that stays permanently is only repaiing your equipment so far

 

[Hotjimmies]

I might not have much to say, but after level 15-20 the game is almost easy as drinking water ( Death March of course).

 

[Lieste]

A better solution is just to restrain the growth of skills... Geralt has no reason to become 10x-20x stronger as a swordsman... and this would permit more nuanced threat types and scaling... trying to fix Geralt outgrowing monsters by making all the monsters stronger is an utter nonsense... fix the core issue of this problem by significantly toning down the changes to the character over time, both in the core character and the learnt skills, and in the ability to use equipment of escalating power.
With the 'taming' of OP skills and equipment is a necessary recasting of all opponent abilities and stats ~ as it stands the weakest would be far too weak and the strongest impossible... but there is a precedent for such a recast in both previous titles. FCR 1.6 and FCR2 both made combat make more sense (if you ignore the ability to "cut" the anachronistic full harness on every man at arms ~ a concession to appropriate half swording and other techniques being absent from the animations..)

Small increases in mob size, or minor changes in stats were sufficient to keep the difficulty stable over the game, because Geralt's skills and stats were also only modestly increased (and that with the framework of recovering lost memories and skills).

Setting balance on a level field is a lot easier than trying to do the same on a "cliff".

 

[Tangsta]

There are definitely creatures in Death March that can give players trouble, unless they're super prepared. Jenny of the Woods, that Foglet contract in the bog, high level wraiths in groups, and few others that have a tonne of HP and hit like a truck, heck even some human enemies can hit pretty hard. Whoever said you can tank 95% of the enemies in Death March is either lying or hasn't faced every enemy yet.

But there are also a lot of enemies that are way too easy once you figure out their attack patterns. So a rebalance is necessary.

 

[Cronstintein]

It's not necessarily that you can tank everything. But almost all the stuff you can't tank, is super slow and easily dodged/quenned, or completely negated with a simple cast of aard/igni. (Wraiths being the exception)

 

[DNMR2K5]

I believe that this game should have better difficulty settings such as was the case with the witcher 2...

Easy, for those who want an interactive screen saver.

Normal, so you can still be challenged while not requiring needle precision reflexes and having a doctorate in micro-management skills.

And finally, Hard, Masochistic, and Doctorate...Brutal combat difficulty that would make the most hardcore veteran of dark souls....Get "Dark soil" in his underwear from the prospect of perma-death and having to fight creatures 12 levels higher with the level cap of.....Five, all the while maintaining a micromanaged inventory style that requires at least a year in encon 101 in order to maintain the logistics of monster management... (^_-)-b

Anyone surprised with getting stronger while enemies get weaker should simply not spend any points at all...And to say it's the devs fault for not making the game punishing enough for you, should consider the fact that you are an extreme example of the gaming elite addict, and as such you should know that you're in the same company as adrenal junkies, you know, the same folks who base-jump or kite surf, where only the prospect of death gets your blood pumping, only in your case, it's virtual and not physical.

So yeah, CDPR can certainly benefit with catering to virtual daredevils while maintaining a user base of casual and former power gamers who don't have the motor dexterity of their former 20-30 yr old selves, and who knows the depression of when they were first called sir, by that hot young thing just a couple of bar-stools away, and when you lose your reading glasses again, just when you need them most while reading the obit*...

Oh heh-heh yeah, well, you get my point, carry on then! X^D

Seriously though, it's quite unrealistic to expect any video game company to stay in business that exclusively caters to an "elite base-jumping gamer crowd" while ignoring the triple majority of "non-base jumping gamers" because the fact of the matter is that they need to support the cost and salary/health care/legal liabilities of maintaining a company that supports hundreds of employees that have to make enough to also provide for their families, or they'll walk...

So yeah, the trade off of having a game company that is large enough to offer epic titles is required to hold the interest to not only the hard core fans, but also the new comers, old schoolers and newbie casuals because they simply need the revenue in order to even exist!..So the only difference then, is how well they can balance that need, as every dev at CDPR are just as hard core as you guys, but they also need to pay the bills too!...Just be glad we're not stuck with Blizzard/UbiShit and EA!

 

[ellestin]

well put sir!

To me, what could use improvement in order to makethe game more challenging is more diversity and/or unpredictability in enemy AI, so as to make the quen/dodge/slash business fail at least in some cases. Or allow for Aaxi to fail more often.

 

[HenryBukowski]

If you have limited stamina for rolling it might help with the difficulty issue.
Just as in the Witcher 2, when up against a tough enemy you can always spam the roll key to get out of trouble from just about any situation.

 

[Taurusbull]

There are definitely creatures in Death March that can give players trouble, unless they're super prepared. Jenny of the Woods, that Foglet contract in the bog, high level wraiths in groups, and few others that have a tonne of HP and hit like a truck, heck even some human enemies can hit pretty hard. Whoever said you can tank 95% of the enemies in Death March is either lying or hasn't faced every enemy yet.

But there are also a lot of enemies that are way too easy once you figure out their attack patterns. So a rebalance is necessary.

Thats early game, and as said, early game starts right (pretty hard), but after lvl 16 or so it becomes to easy.

 

[fetchGeraltfetch]

The witcher 2 was much more challenging but i enjoyed the combat much more in the witcher 3.

 

[eXtremateria]

Thats early game, and as said, early game starts right (pretty hard), but after lvl 16 or so it becomes to easy.

If you play the game, like the devs wanted you to play, sure, but try to wander around. I did, and I stopped, encountering enemies 20 levels higher than mine, made me stop acting like Indiana Jones.

 

[MrPerfectionist]

Try being bare-assed and fist fighting everything might be challenging enough lol

 

[whiplash27]

I just want combat to be a bit more interesting. By the late game, if you do all the side quests, everything is a breeze. Also combat never really feels like it changes a whole lot as you go through the game. I feel like I get more powerful, but instead of combat becoming more interesting or fun, it just stays about the same. It's good, but there's not much evolution of combat throughout the game.

1. In quests, enemy levels should scale level up with the player. I don't want them to scale down, but scaling up should definitely exist, at least on death march anyway.

2. Each skill should have less levels within it. Also, a player should be able to use all of their unlocked skills. Maybe if it isn't on the side area, it is available, but at half or a quarter its strength. It would allow for players to complete trees and branch out to other trees a bit more. Players get to experience more skills and choose which ones they want to have the most buffed.

3. A bit more variety in attacks. I wish there were combos of some sort.You can have things based on fast and strong attacks as well as signs. E.g., Fast, Fast, Aard, Strong. Maybe the last strong attack would be some sort of special move or more powerful attack. You can have sign combos, combos that only work with specific potions, the possibilities are endless really. It would certainly be more fun.

4. Higher level enemies are faster and smarter. Enemies that fight in groups will attack you in a more synchronized manner. Some enemies will move at extremely fast speeds or attack more frequently. Some will be more powerful. Some both. Maybe some enemies will counter-attack you with higher success. Things like this would be great. Again, variety. Enemies should have a bit different fighting styles (like in real life). The higher the level, the more variety since they will be more skilled enemies and less predictable. Smarter AI as you advance in the game. Make it happen.