Difficulty Levels

[rayfer]

I love retro rpg's like Knights of the Chalice but find that they often, as this one is, are way to difficult. I played through the 1.7 demo and as soon as I hit the first level dungeon room to the south (the spider sent me there) or went down the stairs to level 2 (where you fall into a room full of undead) my party gets literally cut to pieces. They are not even close battles. I am overwhelmed. I had leveled up twice before going in either place. When a demo is this hard, what's the full game going to be like? Another thread talked about the full game giving you the option to make all stats 18 but that just takes the fun out of leveling up. Why no easy, normal, hard settings? Or is there in the full game? Apart from this...you guys made a great game.

[BlueSalamander]

Hello rayfer,

Thank you for your post and for trying the demo. First of all you should see that the battle in the south room is not as difficult as the battle against the undead. Therefore, you should concentrate on the south room. Secondly, have you cleaned out the above-ground? If not - do this first as it may allow you to gain a level.
Lastly, there are many ways of defeating the south room battle. Have you equipped the best weapons? Are you using your magic wands? Have you tried casting spells like haste, fireball etc. Plus, did the guard in the previous room sound the alarm?

[jknight]

It was the difficulty of the demo that attracted me to full.

I didn't actually get through the demo, died at the three trolls and said "wheres my damn save game!?". But I went back and replayed it maybe 5 times? What kinda deathwish is Ironman mode. xD

I've found myself using spells and tactics that i've never had use for in other dnd games. Actually had to think, look at the monsters saves and feats to decide how to attack them. So, "hard", yes, but only because you don't know what to do. Thats called depth. Once you learn a little more it will be easy. Always check what feats the monster has. Stuff like damage reduction can be bypassed with the right material blade making an impossible battle into a hard one.

[rayfer]

Thanks guys for the prompt and insightful replies. The glory of difficulty levels, if done right, is that it opens a game up to both the hard core and casual gamer (myself)....and from a developers point of view I would think that would be a good thing for increasing sales potential. The hard core like jknight get the challenge they seek, and the casual gamer like me gets to enjoy the unfolding story, etc. without the time crunch that reload after reload brings while trying to work out that perfect combo of spells and weapons needed to win a very difficult fight.

[Demiath]

Thanks guys for the prompt and insightful replies. The glory of difficulty levels, if done right, is that it opens a game up to both the hard core and casual gamer (myself)....and from a developers point of view I would think that would be a good thing for increasing sales potential.

Nothing wrong with this as a general principle, but is it realistic to assume that a sizeable number of "casual" gamers will ever be interested in a niche title like Knighs of the Chalice, regardless of how many difficulty levels the developer adds? In my experience, even the majority of Western RPGs fans (i.e. pretty non-casual gamers who more often than not know a thing or two about D&D) wouldn't dream of buying a game which doesn't have real-time combat, choices/consequences-oriented gameplay and cutting-edge graphics. With this mind, it makes more sense for Heroic Fantasy Games to focus on satisfying the more or less hardcore gamers (who at the very least have the obvious benefit of constituting an actual, already existing consumer base), rather than spending time and effort on implementing complicated variations on KotC's already very intricate ruleset in order to appeal to casual gamers (a category, by the way, in which I wouldn't include someone like you who actually "loves retro RPGs like Knights of the Chalice").

[WCG]

Nothing wrong with this as a general principle, but is it realistic to assume that a sizeable number of "casual" gamers will ever be interested in a niche title like Knighs of the Chalice, regardless of how many difficulty levels the developer adds?

Why not? "Casual gamers" aren't all alike, and it's hard to say who might put themselves into that category. I don't know if I'm a "casual gamer" or not, since I buy a lot of games (and would buy more if I could find more turn-based games). But I have no interest in fighting battles over and over again. It's just too boring. So if they're that tough, forget it. (Note that I don't find Knights of the Chalice to be that tough, but the campfire resting system can cause the same problem.)

The thing to remember is that people are different. You can certainly design a game to appeal only to a certain type of player. But if you add just a few options, you might appeal to a wider group. If I wanted to sell games, I know which I'd choose,... but I'm not the game developer.

[getter77]

Uh..there's pretty much an adjustable difficulty to the game upon the start with choosing max HP on level or not, all stats at 18/some guaranteed/none guaranteed, and Ironman or regular mode. All of these things can make for some varied and pretty dramatic play experiences and tactics needed/employed.