This game just isn't hard enough.

+
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.

Well how could that feeling and m.o. be maintained for random encounters with no prep allowed?

Witcher contracts are set up this way, but what's a way to be consistent with the rest?

If anything, W.C. should be much easier than the M.Q.
 
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 :p Whatever your opinion is, this is not the way the hardest difficulty should work :p

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 :p , 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.

@yoobzon

Just wanted to say thanks for directing me to the Better Combat mod, I didn't realise how much work had been put into it already. This is all I was asking for. No gimping of builds needed with this mod, in fact it opens up a variety of alternate builds not available in the vanilla game while still keeping the player from becoming OP. Crazy to think one guy made this in months time, if only CDPR could have given us something similar, but this and future mods will fill the gap. Doesn't help consoles, but hey, we tried. Too many people here prefer to cake walk through their games it seems.

Kudos to you good sir.

If there's anyone else here in a similar boat, you finished the game and want an actual challenge, take a look at what this mod has to offer: BETTER COMBAT ENHANCED

---------- Updated at 09:20 AM ----------

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.

WTF does laziness have to do with any of this? Are you even in the right thread? LOL

---------- Updated at 09:22 AM ----------

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.

Seems pretty plain and simple to me... :cheers:

---------- Updated at 09:27 AM ----------

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.

Luckily you don't have to play that game, it's why we have a choice of 4 difficulties to choose from.

It's like some people here think we're trying to make every difficulty hard, which is obviously wrong. As has been stated many times throughout the thread, we just want Death March to be actually hard. As it is now, it's barely any different from Blood & Bones.
 
Game should challeng you. Not the other way around.

Next time someone says its easy, tell them to play while doing guitar hero and a magic cube.

What a bunch of dumbasses. If you are happy with your easy mode, stick with it. Let the people who are not work their ways and ask the devs (or modders) for a better experience.

And, given the amounts of topics about this, it really is an issue for a lot of people.
 
Such a disappointment, even on the highest difficulty. Game should have included a dark mode, now we have to wait for an Enhanced Edition for that.

Whats' your character stats? My character went from a default 8k vitality to 77k vitality due to a repeatable Dimeritium Bomb stat boost bug. My dps also went up to 4k, hah.
 
Are you serious? You realize YOUR choices are what are making the game easier? Simply changing the way you play changes your difficulty. It's like when people would complain about Dark Souls being too easy. No **** it's gonna be easy when you use overpowered greatswords, magic and ring buffs. Play with a longsword with no magic or buffs and you'll have a balanced difficulty in any Souls game. Difficulty is determined by the player.

Those limitations I gave are precisely what a new difficulty would enforce but because it's the player choosing them and not a difficulty setting they are stupid? Do you realize how stupid it is to complain about being overpowered when you've invested into skill points and mutagens that are responsible for you being overpowered when you can simply disable them?

Don't want to kill everything in one hit? Stop using Red Mutagens, and and damage skills. Don't want to have too have too much damage resistance? Then use weaker armor. Don't spam quen after every hit you take. It's an endless list.

If anything you are the one limiting yourself by only excepting new challenges if they are forced on you by the game.

Ya I agree with you Death12. I have always done this in games because every game has an exploitable way around everything. The Ai at this point has never been able to best the player unless using extreme handicap and even then there will be an exploitable way to win. Witcher 3 for instance is adren potions with quen. I have been able to take out things 10 + levels higher than me using that combo. Take these abilities away or play with some house rules and the game becomes significantly harder.

Total War games almost require house rules to make the game more realistic. I like to play with the notion of supply lines, harsh climates things like that... The newer total wars have tried to put a lof the these things in but never to the realistic degree you can with role play.

Mods like frostfall and hunger and thirst for skyrim also gave some immersion/difficulty levels. I try to have Geralt eat 3 times a day, not fall into cold water... just shit like that.. perhaps there will be mods to make this stuff in game but if not I can always role play it. Taking the time to go hunting and such is pretty fun... making him meditate atlast 3-6 hours a day (figured he doesnt need sleep being a witcher) also makes you seek shelter and such.
 
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.

The game already does a good job of showing the multi dimensional preparations for fights when you are tracking the beast.

But my comment was purely in regards to your mentioning of immersion, an epic boss fight in which a Griffin takes 40 strikes to kill isn't realistic or immersive. The struggle for Geralt isn't how many strikes he needs to land, the struggle is getting in the right position in which Geralt can effectively land his blade. Then a few strikes would be all it needs to slay the beast.
 
The fact is: they AREN'T optional. If you want to play with a signs build how can you do it without taking Igni upgrades, Yrden or Axii ones? What you say makes no sense whatsover and it seems like you havent' even played the game. Tell me, please, how can you possibly not become overpowered in Witcher 3 while going signs or alchemy route, I would like to know, short of, naturally going that route only platonically (i.e. practically only taking a skill out of the tree and insisting you "invested in alchemy").

Or are you REALLY pretending that one should limit oneself to only play a sword's built without using Whirl, Rend, Crippling Strikes and pass on critical chance? Because this is, practically, what you are suggesting. "Do you want to make the game more difficult? FFS, what's the problem? Play always the same sword build skipping Whirl, Rend, Crippling Strikes and don't use Cat Techniques with light armor and you are perfectly set". Are you kidding me?

The problems in the difficulty in the game are not only tied to certain limited skills or items that one could easily skip, they are tied to COMPLETE set of skills that aren't skippable if you want to play a certain way (even more because EVERY skill you take gives you huge passive bonuses that aren't skippable, as +stamina regeneration, +adrenaline generation and +potion duration. so practically even by just investing in a tree without anything else - i.e. not even the bonuses in the skill itself - you already become too powerful). Why should I not be able to play a sign's build just because elsewhere the game will be a cakewalk? Why should I completely avoid going the alchemy route elsewhere I will become immortal? Why should I force myself to not use critical sword skills like Rend or Whirl or Crippling Strike or not use +critical chance gear and skills if I want to go a sword's build, hence removing completely the point on playing a sword's build to begin with? In little words the ONLY sure way to not become too powerful is to simply not advance. That's the only safe way, but is that really your "solution"?

Practically if one would have to follow your advice I should play the game always in the same exact way to have some challenge, that's the complete antithesis of a RPG, and anyway you will have no challenge in any case if you don't either force yourself to not use certain armors or weapons.

Your concept can be fine when the difficulty is ALREADY balanced and you want more challenge, NOT when the gameplay is completely and utterly unbalanced and so you have to skip on half the content to do the same. The two things are NOT the same even if you cannot seem to comprehend the difference.

I'd rather the developers fix any number of issues over something that already has multiple toggles. I kind of agree with Death132, and if it seems demeaning to 'not advance' the difference is the difficulty IS what you make it, especially in a game with so many options that you have control over.
 
I just read an interview with Damien Monnier on this subject that made me scratch my head.
:huh:

Games Radar: You chose to not have enemies scale to your level, which is always a contentious decision. Was there much debate about it internally?

Dammien Monnier: It was unanimous. I don’t even think there was a meeting about it, because everybody wanted it, this feeling of becoming a better player. Not only do you get better skills and weapons [as you progress], but you become better at playing the game. The creature that was giving you trouble, you go back to it and absolutely destroy it, and you feel great. That would be lost if you went back to that creature to find it had levelled up as well. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be super-easy when you’re level 40, but it really adds to your sense of achievement. You really feel like time has passed: you’ve been in this world a while, your beard grows, you become better as a player... It’s really cool, I think.
http://www.gamesradar.com/witcher-3s-world-building-and-quest-design-explained-cd-projekt-red-2/

Bold is mine When I read that I thought, "Are we even playing the same game?" From my experience, by the time you reach level 30-ish the only thing that really presents a challenge is boss fights.

And no --you don't become a better player over time. Okay, maybe you do. :p But the point is you don't need to because the game becomes easier as you progress.
 
Luckily you don't have to play that game, it's why we have a choice of 4 difficulties to choose from.

It's like some people here think we're trying to make every difficulty hard, which is obviously wrong. As has been stated many times throughout the thread, we just want Death March to be actually hard. As it is now, it's barely any different from Blood & Bones.
Well, I haven´t tried Blood and Broken Bones(i´m playing DM all along) so idon´t know if there´s any difference or not, but DM itself seems hard enough, even unrealistically many times, such as fist fights, fighting guards that one shot you, etc...
I just play this difficulty level because the IA seems much better, but there are many nonsense things in fights even when you´re 20 levels over your enemy.They simply make too much damage. Just my opinion.
 
According to my Ps4 statistic, less then 1 percent actually had the deathmarch achievement. I doubt that this is that much different on Pc. So the game is hard enough for the majority of players. And as long as a harder difficulty basicly just inflate health numbers of enemies and their damage rather then implementing a smarter Ai...

---------- Updated at 11:22 AM ----------

I also thought the game was becoming kind of easy-ish, but then I took an arrow in the knee met Imlerith.

Found the mage harder actually...

---------- Updated at 12:38 PM ----------

Eredin needs to be the hardest boss in the game

Why? A king is not necessarily the best fighter.
 
Why? A king is not necessarily the best fighter.

Very good point, however he is presented as the ultimate and final challenge and as some sort of mega badass by the game.
So he should at least be comparable in difficulty with Imlerith, which is treated as a minor fight.

I would agree 100% if he was presented as more a schemer than a warrior or if we were talking about Henselt or Foltest or somesuch. Emhyr most of all.
Their presence and threat projection derives primarily from their status as kings or authority position/authoritative tone.
With Eredin it's different.
 
You know there is something wrong when the most challeng you have is when you start a new playthrought the ghouls are harder than that lvl 40 Archgrifon.
 
The game is extremely easy by the end. Once I got into the 20s I didn't even have to dodge much anymore except in the big fights against the Wild Hunt generals. I would pretty much just take Superior Thunderbolt and spam attack and signs until the enemy died. Granted, I wasn't playing Death March (i was playing the one below that), but I can't imagine that death march would have been much harder at that point.

In the beginning, the game felt like it was so difficult even on the level I was on. I was struggling with just about every fight I came across. As I went on, the difficulty curve leveled off to a good spot where fights would be difficult, but not to the point of frustration. Then it eventually became too easy.

I think the higher level monsters need to be faster in everything they do. You should have less time to react. Also, when fighting groups, the higher level monsters should be better at coordinating and attacking you at the same time, making it more difficult to evade enemies and requiring more use of area of affect signs and attacks. This would help offset the fact that you have more powerful attacks, signs, and potions/oils/bombs.
 
I'm in danger of sounding a broken record but the easy difficulty is arguably part and parcel of an Open World, because you can't compartmentalise the world and keep harder things for later in quite the same way.

Perhaps if there was a Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition they should introduce a hard Core Mode.
I personally would like to see an implementation of basic needs a la Fallout New Vegas Hardcore, and the ability to interact with the world to sit, sleep etc.
You would need to regularly eat, sleep, and stay out of the Cold.

As it stands, it's hilarious and rather stupid that in the middle of boss fights I can run away from the enemy cramming blackberries into mouth to instantly regenerate health...
 
Very good point, however he is presented as the ultimate and final challenge and as some sort of mega badass by the game.
So he should at least be comparable in difficulty with Imlerith, which is treated as a minor fight.

I would agree 100% if he was presented as more a schemer than a warrior or if we were talking about Henselt or Foltest or somesuch
Well, Ereding killed his predecessor with poison, not in a duell.
 
I'm in danger of sounding a broken record but the easy difficulty is arguably part and parcel of an Open World, because you can't compartmentalise the world and keep harder things for later in quite the same way.

I think upscaling would go a long way. I know people like to feel super powerful as they level up, but steam rolling through a level 12 quest when you're level 25 is just silly.
 
I think upscaling would go a long way. I know people like to feel super powerful as they level up, but steam rolling through a level 12 quest when you're level 25 is just silly.

I have been thinking about the same solution. I think it'd be a good idea to do a selective upscaling, where only the late-game monsters that are supposed to be dangerous in the lore are upscaled.
 
I'm in danger of sounding a broken record but the easy difficulty is arguably part and parcel of an Open World, because you can't compartmentalise the world and keep harder things for later in quite the same way.

Which is why the game really needed a mode where every enemy was deadly, no matter what level. And even with this being the case, the difficulty still isn't balanced very well.
 
After 10 hours with my new playthrought I can highly recommend the better combat enhanced mod http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/212/? for anybody who want's a challenge. If the mod manages to keep the difficulty for the rest of the game or make it even more difficult (the description says: "the game is more forgiving in the beginning given the increased usage of signs at your disposal but then it becomes harder by and by as you encounter strong enemies since bonuses you receive from skills and levelling are drastically reduced. In little words the difficulty curve is on a rising pattern instead of a descending one.") than this is the perfect mod for people like me who think this game is way too easy on Death March.

Some random things I like about the mod so far:
- you have access to all skill from the start and it still doesn't make the game too easy because of the heavy increase of the overall difficulty
- Quen is beyond broken in the base game. With this mod, there is a 15 seconds delay on stamina regeneration after you used it. It's still useful (mainly before the combat as preperation) but not completely OP anymore
- potions have a higher toxicity but last longer. They can't be spammed that easy anymore.
- food doesn't work during combat. With this mod I use potions for in-combat healing and food for out of combat healing. They way it should be used imo.
- experience curve is better, which prevents outleveling quests (couldn't test it after 10 hours, but it feels slower)

Now I only need a mod, which rebalances the gold gain (too much gold from selling stuff) and the frequency you can find alcohol (would prefer to use my alcohol wisely and not being able to meditae after every fight) and I can get the perfect Witcher experience.
 
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