This game just isn't hard enough.

[TheLocoMofo]

It's complexing to you because you are miscomprehending my motives.

My 1% comment was in regards to people who can half ass Death March without ever dying, not the people who want more difficulty. But to counter your point about the many posts here. Witcher 3 sold 4 million copies in it's first 2 weeks and surely has continued to sell even more. Compare that number to the minuscule number of people who come here. You'll realize the people here are a very very small bunch.

Yes I realise only a tiny fraction of purchasers will actually visit the official forums, I was pointing out that we're not alone in wanting a more challenging experience like you made out in a previous post. There's quite of few gamers around that enjoy being challenged and there's nothing wrong with that. It has nothing to do with epeen as others suggested, it's a singleplayer game for gods sake. I just want to be tested and have that satisfying feeling when I overcome the odds, it's simply not here in this game, which is a shame because it's a masterpiece.

I don't get the comments from others labeling us hardcore or pro gamers... Not sure where any of us said that. I don't consider myself good, BUT I'm breezing through Death March. To me, that's a problem that should be pointed out and hopefully addressed. If the hardest difficulty available is not in fact hard, why shouldn't people bring this to the devs attention? Do the people wanting to keep it easy just want the Death March achievement or something? I would honestly love to know your reasons, because I really don't get it.

I never once said difficulties are pointless. I would prefer Witcher 3 to have a higher difficulty setting in which all enemies scale with your level while always being a few levels higher than you. This way you never out level them. And of course I want potions, bombs, oils, to be necessary in order to survive. I want everything you guys want.

I never once suggested mods and I myself don't use them for difficulty. My point is simply to tell people that they have many easy ways to emulate the exact results a new difficulty would provide. An even bigger motive is to point out how ridiculous it is to complain about an insignificant overpowered buff/skill whilst refusing to disable it. As I already said...

1. Someone complained about Upgraded Igni. If a harder difficulty came out, what would it do? Give Griffins more HP, more incineration defense, or simply make the incineration effect weaker? How does any of this differ from the exact same effect you'd get by not upgrading Igni? It's the same exact result achieved through different means.

2. What about damage in general? A new difficulty making enemies take more damage gives the same exact result as not using Red Mutagens or the plus 25% light/heavy attack skills.

3. Stamina regen is too quick? Simply don't spam and use restraint. It's literally that easy. What's mind boggling is someone who complains that spamming signs makes the game too easy, as they continue to spam signs while playing. It's like someone who's allergic to peanuts, complaining about their throat swelling up, as they continue to eat peanuts. Just don't eat the peanuts and don't spam signs.

None of these changes remotely deprive you any more than a new difficulty would as they do exactly what that new difficulty would do. They give you the exact same result and require almost no effort.

These don't fix everything, but I don't see why there is such resistance to the most simple and convenient changes that you yourself can make.

I've already taken this action. Let me go through your suggestions:

1. Igni, never used it. Ever since I heard how OP it could be and how boring it looked to use, I stayed clear from the very beginning focusing on combat instead.

2. My current Death March build only uses green mutagens. I'm full Alchemy, but again once you get a few skill points for chugging potions, bombs or even oil if you wanted, it's back to easy street. Which is a real pity as I figured I would need to prepare before tough fights using this build on Death March, but nope.

3. Stamina regen is not an issue as I don't use signs except for Quen. If I really wanted, I could chug Tawny Oil all day long, but it's not needed.

Thank you for the suggestions, but honestly I'm finding it really hard not to make a kick ass build unless I really go out of my way and just pick the worst possible options. But that's just not how I want or should be forced to play this great game.

---------- Updated at 11:08 AM ----------

Well we can't all be as Uber as you can we. I'm re-playing it from 'Just the Story' to two more up from that and finding it very hard. I haven't mastered the 'parry and counter' timing. How dull games must be for you. Did your Mother swallow a console controller just so you could prepare in the womb?

Hit the nail on the the head even though you didn't mean to.

Yes the game is dull on Death March for some people, that's what this whole discussion is about. For people like you playing on normal difficulty, this should not effect you whatsoever.

---------- Updated at 11:14 AM ----------

Actually his guess was pretty accurate, just look at the achievement stats on steam
A mere 1.3% even achieved "Walked the Path" around .5% of all players got the achievement on PS4 last time I checked. While those are obviously not all players, those platforms should provide a decent sample size... certainly a better one than the 30,50 maybe 100 people that complain on this forum.

Most issues that make DM too easy aren't even related to the difficulty at all and no amount of number shifting will fix that... at least not properly.

I've not even finished my play through on Death March, simply because I'm flying through it just like I did on my Blood & Bones play through. I probably won't either if the difficulty isn't upped or perma death mode never eventuates. Right now I'm waiting for the dev kit to drop then hopefully we'll start seeing some quality difficulty mods hit Nexus like we saw with Skyrim.

 

[yoobzon]

Just wanted to add one thing that really bugged me about late game on vanilla DM. I was fighting this huge fiend and I was trying to power through the night to finish Act 2. My wheelchair seat was tilted back, I was basically lying down like you would in one of those comfy armchairs. I kept making ridiculous mistakes and I was still able to beat the boss-type fiend on the Isle of Mists.

I think this describes my problem with the vanilla Death March, by the final act I'd completely forgotten that I chose this punishing difficulty and I was playing the game like Zynga Poker on a sleepless night Whatever your opinion is, this is not the way the hardest difficulty should work

Let me reiterate my previous tips (For PC gamers) based on countless hours of playtesting on my part.:

The Better Combat mod - This gives you a challenging experience where you can still make a mistake or two but ultimately you are always punished. This mod augments every difficulty level differently so you can turn it down a notch if need be. Use the Better Combat mode on Death March if you like epic boss battles like me but you arent necessarily a gaming ninja - http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/167/?
.
Ucross' Hardcore Mod If you are a legit pro and think that quen should be basically outlawed , use the Ucross Hardcore mod. On top of harsh new stamina regen rules and a punishing potion rebalancing It also nerfsthe gold yielded from item sales by a staggering 90%, all in order to make your in-game jobs much more relevant. It gives you an extreme combat experience where you really have to get the positioning and timing 100% right. Let me just say, I can appreciate Ucross' vision but ultimately this one was way too hard for me - http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/139/?

Turn up the XP requirement by 10% manually or use the Ursine version of the Better Experience Curve mod. Either of those will force a completionist approach on you and overlevelling will not be a big issue for completionists any more - http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/178/?

Any of those 3 mods will make your Witcher experience fundamentally better. Personally I'm now playing on a combo of Better Combat Death March and a 10% adjustment to the leveling up system. I can personally guarantee that this combination will make TW3 a completely different experience where you actually reminisce epic boss encounters

This game is not fundamentally broken as some suggest, it's just balanced badly for experienced gamers. If you have a PC go ahead and fix it. It is really worth it.

 

[Graill]

Threads like this are truly pathetic. Gamers too lazy to adjust things for themselves. Their is absolutely no excuse for these threads or these types of mods. Hell, I even bet a good portion of you types would download a mod to delete the save game when Geralt is killed because you are simply to damn lazy or weak minded to do it yourself. Dark mode is available, it always has been.

Even though RED went full on console development i do not fault them one bit in what they gave in terms of in game tools usable by the gamer. Gamers too lazy to adjust what they have available make threads like this.

So, you download a mod to make the game..."harder", so what did we do here? We download a mod that does for you what you could have done yourself without downloading a stupid mod. I am not going to go into detail here but I will type one simple example of the OP and this type of gamer mentality and thought process.

Today's lazy ass gamers in a nutshell. When faced with a situation needing to get to the second floor from a first floor and having a rope to climb, a staircase, or an elevator, the OP type gamers will be absolutely lazy and then complain about it. There was an elevator there, omg! who puts and elevator in a multilevel building!? I mean really, I would have used the rope but it wasn't cool enough and didn't scale to my real ability of having no upper body strength and being a lazy gamer and using the stairs, but...my god!!!! An elevator, of all things?! We need a mod to have the elevator removed and simply supply a rope so no one can use the stairs or that stupid elevator.

I have stated this before, you have the tools you need to make your character as strong or weak as you want, add in a difficulty setting and you have everything from a cakewalk to getting your ass handed to you even at level 35.

If the game is broken in difficulty its because you are clueless and have no skills or actual will power and would rather have the "Illusion" of a mod doing the work you could have easily done on your own. Too many cupcakes...and you type of people eat them all, regardless of whether you should or not.

No sympathy for any gamer that cant think for themselves and modify themselves in this game to change their own difficulty.

 

[elementuk]

If people want to make it harder for themselves, why don't they simply use equipment that 'IS NOT' the best they can find. Maybe the console version is alot easier than the PC because I find it incredibly hard to kill the 'Cockatrice' without the 'Draconoid Oil' and Geralt being lvl 6 instead of 8. But 'Shrieker' is the lowest lvl mission can find presently. How they think 'Walk the Path' (follow the Witch throught he caves looking for the Mage) is lvl 6 and stick a Golem at the end..Wow. I guess I never had enough food on me but I'm finding money very hard to come by. I'm also attempting every map feature I can find along the way and getting involved in almost every wandering encounter I come across simply to get the XP's. Is the console controller version giving people insta-access to every piece of equipment whenever they need it coz it's not like that with a keyboard and mouse. Very easy to hit the wrong key mid-combat.

 

[evilhippo]

Why is it up to us to make the game harder?.

Because it seems most people do not have a problem with the game as is, judging by the small number of people complaining. Just download that mod and you are sorted.

 

[devivre]

If people want to make it harder for themselves, why don't they simply use equipment that 'IS NOT' the best they can find. Maybe the console version is alot easier than the PC because I find it incredibly hard to kill the 'Cockatrice' without the 'Draconoid Oil' and Geralt being lvl 6 instead of 8. But 'Shrieker' is the lowest lvl mission can find presently. How they think 'Walk the Path' (follow the Witch throught he caves looking for the Mage) is lvl 6 and stick a Golem at the end..Wow. I guess I never had enough food on me but I'm finding money very hard to come by. I'm also attempting every map feature I can find along the way and getting involved in almost every wandering encounter I come across simply to get the XP's. Is the console controller version giving people insta-access to every piece of equipment whenever they need it coz it's not like that with a keyboard and mouse. Very easy to hit the wrong key mid-combat.

You're still very much at the beginning. The true problem starts a lot later. You'll see the difference. And yes it's nothing to make a drama of but it's still a flaw of this game.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

That goes against the reason why there are "level ups" in games in the first place...we all enjoy the process of maxing out your character's potential, some games like Diablo II are downright obsessive about it.
If the game's difficulty makes you want to cripple your character, for the sake of enjoying it, then it has balance issues, plain and simple.

 

[Black_Iris]

So, you download a mod to make the game..."harder", so what did we do here? We download a mod that does for you what you could have done yourself without downloading a stupid mod. I am not going to go into detail here but I will type one simple example of the OP and this type of gamer mentality and thought process.

OMG, yet another individual that doesn't understand how the system in the game works and continues to sprout this nonsense. As I've already proven back in the thread, you cannot nerf yourself either if you want to as EVERY skill you take gives you huge bonuses that, in the end, make the game really easy by themselves.

The ONLY real way to "nerf" the difficulty is to not take any skill whatsoever. If this is your interpretation of "choosing the best difficulty for yourself" then so be it, but please (please) refrain from the absolute false notion that you can do something about the difficulty in the game by choosing one option vs, another because, in the end, just by the bonuses the single skills innately give, it will not make any difference. When you have +20 stamina/s regeneration by just investing on a signs build you can already practically spam signs left and right and no matter what the upgrades do themselves, difficulty will become a formality.

Moreover, tell me: how can you go, for example on a sign's build without taking Igni, Yrden and Axii upgrades? What's even the point to play a sign's build then? The same for a sword's build: what's the point of even go there if you cannot use Crippling Strikes, Whirl/Rend, Cat Techniques and Fast Attack? And the same also with an alchemy build where practically every skill gives too many bonuses.

Nerfing yourself is impossible in this game, either if you want to.

So yes, mods are necessary right now to adjust the difficulty on the game and there's no way out of it.

I'm sorry to say this but the only ones that cannot see a fault in the system as it is are people like you that seems like they play the game in a sort of daydream state where they cannot clearly comprehend what the screen tells them, as it cannot be explained otherwise how it would be possible elsewhere for you to not notice that every skill (independently from what it does) gives innate huge bonuses to the character. Plus you have huge levelling innate bonuses, plus you have bonuses from items, plus you have bonuses from mutagens/runes. Practically everything in this game gives innate bonuses and that would be even fine if the bonuses weren't so huge as they are.

You don't need to use a mod to increase the difficulty in a way that the game becomes challenging, you just need to not use OP things equals to: play naked, using no decoctions (that also them gives some insane bonuses, as Thunderbolt 100% critical chance for example), taking no skills and using weapons ten levels below the one you are currently at. Yeah, you totally have a point.

 

[JackTheReaper7]

WTF guys?? I don´t want a game where you´re suppose to be the best swordsman in the world and get one shotted by some bandits or fat guards just because they put a number over their head(lvl).
Also, do you really think that is not difficult enough in DM? When just a simple punch takes 1/3 of your health and you do but a 1/20 or so? C´mon, absurd difficulty doesn´t make a game more enjoyable but a realistic difficulty.

 

[pithikos]

You don't get less XP on higher difficulties. That was a myth going on some time ago but it's false.
As for not regenerating vitality without eating food, actually that's the way the game should be, imo. That they added a way to heal while meditating is only to help people in normal and casual mode.

With all the food you have plus swallow you surely don't have problems of regenerating health and actually entering in meditation just to heal yourself is a burden.

you do get less xp. Not for random kills that is the same. BUT from missions the exp is different. For example completing the griffin contract in white orchad if you refuse the coins you get 500 xp in story and sword while if you refuse the money in death march you get 400 xp. (If you get the money you get 300xp in story and mode but I didnt test it on death march to see what you get)

 

[Death132]

just by the bonuses the single skills innately give, it will not make any difference. When you have +20 stamina/s regeneration by just investing on a signs build you can already practically spam signs left and right and no matter what the upgrades do themselves, difficulty will become a formality.

Nerfing yourself is impossible in this game


You don't need to use a mod to increase the difficulty in a way that the game becomes challenging, you just need to not use OP things equals to: play naked, using no decoctions (that also them gives some insane bonuses, as Thunderbolt 100% critical chance for example), taking no skills and using weapons ten levels below the one you are currently at. Yeah, you totally have a point.

I just want to point out that your examples do nothing for your cause.

Stamina regen is too quick? Simply don't spam and use restraint. It's literally that easy. What's mind boggling is someone who complains that spamming signs makes the game too easy, as they continue to spam signs while playing. I don't spam signs and I have no issue enjoying the game balance. You choose to spam, not the game.

As a level 35 myself in Blood and Bones, simply removing my Red Mutagens and 25% light/heavy damage buffs has helped balance damage output even with my level 33 swords. I also wear full Bear armor, but in my case I make sure to never get hit no matter how weak the enemy is, so enemy damage isn't an issue, since they don't touch me. I have leveled up signs but use them with self control so them being OP is not an issue. Even back to WItcher 1 and Dark Mode in 2 I rarely used potions or oils, so these don't cause issues for me in 3. But when I do use potions or eat, I only do it before or after combat like in the past games. I also play with no HUD, so I am forced to be careful as I don't know my or my enemies HP.

With my own personalized playstyle, I don't need a new difficulty as I've created what I would want from one. I'm not saying that you should be doing these things I listed. I understand the need for a harder difficulty setting and I hope CDPR implements one. My point is that "Nerfing" yourself isn't impossible or even hard and is certainly not as your last sentence suggests. Although the stamina complaint, is on you since you can once again, just not spam.

 

[Martindnewton]

The fact that i can kill contract bosses 4 levels lower than me on death march in less than 4 hits and take not even a 10th of my hp per hit is horrendous. Who thought it was a good idea to make it this easy? And those are quests where i am NOT overlevelled, which as you likely all no, doesn't happen often - you are usually way higher than you need to be especially for main quests.

 

[yoobzon]

I feel that people who are defending the difficulty are still in one of the first 2 acts of the game. Again, up to a certain point the difficulty curve is as it should be. Most of us are talking only about The final third of the game so if you have not reached that point, please don't get angry with us. As @Black_Iris has pointed out, there are multiple builds that become overpowered, not only "igni to win" as some of you are suggesting.

I congratulate to all of you that are capable of "restraining yourself" and working together with the game to make it harder. I for one don't want to worry about these things, constantly readjusting your build to make sure you haven't reached easy mode is a drag which spoils the fun of combat for me. I don't want to worry whether a particular victory was a cheap one.

This thread dis becoming a bit pointless. We're fighting over something that doesn't really need a consensus:

Gamers that are OK with how things are should continue to play the way that makes them happy instead of calling people that aren't content lazy sign spammers . Guys, us the critics also freaking love this game, we wouldnt be criticizing if we did not. No one here is attacking the game as a whole

Gamers that are not content with the difficulty curve I suggested should stop antagonizing the ones that are happy. Clearly, at least 90% of the player base want a fun, quick and easy combat experience. There's nothing wrong with that and this does not mean they are blind. We all have different expectations coming in and that's OK.

Finally, we can all agree that adding a simple rebalance as a fifth difficulty will not hurt anyone. I'm pretty sure CDPR is realizing this is needed. I'm sure that by the time the first expansion hits the market it will be fixed. Until that time, refer to my mod suggestion post if you start to feel like we do.

Conflict solved, the UN should send me to the Middle East

 

[Gerald01]

I think the game itself is fine as is globally.
The main problems stem from easily exploitable game mechanics, both for the combat style itself and builds, potions, signs related ones etc. which need fixing.

They would still persist even if CDPR tripled enemies HP or doubled their speed or halved Geralt's maximum ones.

 

[Scryar]

DM ist just awfully broken. Finished my 2nd playthrough.Both on DM. Tried many different builds and it doesn't really matter what you skill. Once you reach level 10-12 you become OP and the game becomes a cakewalk. Take a sign build for example. I would say except for the basis version of axii each sign is broken and makes the game too easy.
Yrden with enough sign intensity almost freezes the enemy and the alternate mode perma stuns them.
Quen makes it impossible to die.
Igni is the most broken skill in the game. It's damage and burn (permastun) is just ridiculous.
Axii controlled bandits onehit other bandits (seriously?)
Aaard knocks most enemies down and let you use the finisher on them.(instant kill)
Not even mentioning that you can just spam all signs if you put enough points into the tree.

An alchemy builds makes it 100% impossible to die. It takes longer to kill a enemy than with a sword/sign build but if you don't go afk during a fight you just can't die.
The bleeding and damage from a sword build is so high that every enemy dies within a few hits. Actually you can just hit him once and wait till the bleeding kills him.
There is zero challenge on Death March, even if you ignore the obviously broken skills like Quen and Igni.
Neither Witcher 1 nor 2 were balanced games, but not using Aard and Igni in Witcher 1 and Quen in Witcher 2 made them at least a bit challening. This isn't possible in Witcher 3 anymore, as there are too many broken skills and synergies. You would have to ignore most of the skills to get a challenge on the highest difficulty. But what's the point in it? The gameplay isn't that fantastic that just using the same sword attack and a little bit of magic keeps people motivated for 100+ hours.
I don't even know why CDP bothered with adding 4 difficulties if none of it is challening after 10-15 hours.

 

[OutgoingHermit]

I do agree that the game becomes too easy, but I don't think that's entirely bad.

- Dodging, parrying properly, and using Quen are all very effective means of negating damage and become second nature with practice.

- The devs made the admirable decision NOT to create health sponge enemies. Giving enemies a lot more health is a cheap and lazy trick used by many game developers to artificially pump difficulty at the expense of making things tedious. While I'm grateful that CDPR had the good sense not to make this trade, it does contribute to the overall difficulty being a bit too easy. I suppose you could say that they chose the lesser of two evils.

- Hybrid and specialist builds are both quite viable. It feels like the game was balanced around a player picking the worst possible talents and never bothering to upgrade mutagens, so if you do pick only the most optimal talents and mix greater mutagens, your power curve outpaces what the game is expecting. Again, this is a case of the developer choosing the lesser of two evils. You remove the possibility of a player picking lousy talents and gimping himself to make the game frustrating, but then this makes the game much too easy for players who build their characters in optimal fashion.

Ultimately, though, the reason the game is too easy is that it is very long. After playing the game for a hundred hours, you have mastered the system. At that point, you're able to anticipate your dodges and parries, you understand the AI's behavior, you know when and how to use your signs, and you understand how and when to properly execute your attacks. And I think that shows through with players who are replaying the game, especially those who have turned up the difficulty. Second playthrough for me on Death March is going easier than first playthrough on Blood & Broken Bones. I mastered the system.

That said, I would absolutely love to see this game get the Witcher 2 treatment with a brand new difficulty mode for us psycho gamers. Something like Dark Mode for this game would be fantastic.

 

[yoobzon]

I do agree that the game becomes too easy, but I don't think that's entirely bad.

- Dodging, parrying properly, and using Quen are all very effective means of negating damage and become second nature with practice.

- The devs made the admirable decision NOT to create health sponge enemies. Giving enemies a lot more health is a cheap and lazy trick used by many game developers to artificially pump difficulty at the expense of making things tedious. While I'm grateful that CDPR had the good sense not to make this trade, it does contribute to the overall difficulty being a bit too easy. I suppose you could say that they chose the lesser of two evils.

.

Very nice and reasonable post mate, thank you for that. Still, I think at least the boss encounters on higher difficulties should maintain a high degree of challenge. If not for anything else, they should do it to maintain immersion. Geralt from the books constantly risks his life and is on the verge of death while completing his contracts. 1 sign use plus 4-5 hits take away from the epicness of the experience, in my opinion.

 

[mjgb_10]

Eredin needs to be the hardest boss in the game now is to easy and boring caranthir and imlerith was much harder

 

[Death132]

I think at least the boss encounters on higher difficulties should maintain a high degree of challenge. If not for anything else, they should do it to maintain immersion. Geralt from the books constantly risks his life and is on the verge of death while completing his contracts. 1 sign use plus 4-5 hits take away from the epicness of the experience, in my opinion.

When I think of immersion, a couple signs and 4-5 sword strikes would be all it would realistically take for a Master Witcher to kill a lot of these contract beasts. Not saying the fights would be easy though.

 

[yoobzon]

When I think of immersion, a couple signs and 4-5 sword strikes would be all it would realistically take for a Master Witcher to kill a lot of these contract beasts. Not saying the fights would be easy though.

Killing a monster in the books (I only read the short stories thus far*) is usually a complex, multi-dimensional task full of preparation, using your environment, waiting for the right time of day etc. Late game encounters lose that feel. Geralt always prevails not because he's the best swordsman on the Continent, but because he's a complete pro with a great talent for analysis.