A suggestion about difficulty

[zavox]

Hello again everyone!

I want to talk about encounter difficulty and server balance, the server is quite well balanced, in general but it sure feels like its more balanced for solo players than groups, when you group up it tends to end up with one or two people smacking around the mobs and the rest get to watch, My solution to this is not to make the mobs stronger, but add more mobs overall in zones frequently visited. (Especially epic maps)

So why increase mobdensity instead of powering up the mobs in general?
The answer to that is that increasing mob stats will force everyone who wants to experience the dungeon and loot content to powerbuild their characters and I can a 100% guarantee that, that isnt everyone's cup of tea, fun and interesting ways to build ones character takes a backseat for optimising and metabuilds.

Increasing mob density ensures that everyone gets to be part of the run, because one player can only do so many actions each turn, Solo power players will most likely still find ways to run the content anyways because that's what they do.

One thing i'd like to suggest is that if enough players enter a map say starting at four players the mob density increases to respond to that, which could keep scaling up to say 10 players?

Let me know what folk think about this idea!

[predrag]

I would like to see more of the end game content harder personally.
Most of the dungeons are soloable, and it oversaturates the market with powerful loot, mostly from power-builders who can clear quick and easy on their own.
Would be nice if the end game loot spots were requiring group tactics to overcome.
But not sure how much of this can be done in NWN2.

[Heretic]

I would agree. No PC should be able to solo an epic dungeon no matter the build. I’m off the opinion a dungeon, especially an epic dungeon, should require a variety of different skillsets to successfully complete nor should they be entirely predictable. To enhance the challenge perhaps randomize bosses and mobs (or random boss combo) each with different vulnerabilities and strengths to force a reasonable party to continually improvise their strategy. The designer can even include random ambushes. There’s also making the layout less predictable where passages lead to random chambers (kind of like the Ulcaster puzzle section). I could endlessly pontificate on ways to make dungeons more challenging but my point is that it would be great if dungeons were somehow designed to ensure each party member (of a reasonable sized party) feels like they’re making a meaningful contribution. It's preferable than feeling useless because the tank effectively mops up everything with little effort - leaving other party members asking themselves: Why am I even here?

[Steve]

This is why D&D was designed to be an experience with a DM and a group of players—a campaign tailored by the DM to an experience in relation to the Level of the Player Characters.

If you want infinite random challenging experiences always available, you need to employ a "brain" or (semi)consciousness that will run this. NWN2 doesn't have that ability. Okay...prove me wrong!!!

[YourMoveHolyMan]

There's been a large reformat of the pve system underway for months now. They've started rolling out some of the changes but the largest ones have yet to drop.

[mrm3ntalist]

Real time games are like that. Many games are set up for a standard gameplay experience, but there are always those that play the game differently. Thats why, in many games there are "How to ... " videos, showcasing how to do something much faster and/or efficiently. Especially for a dnd game - which at its core is turn based but made real time for nwn2 - with so many different mechanics that allow players to "invent" new strategies to beat the dungeons.

The only way to make every class relevant in combat, is by making this game turn based. Adding more and more restrictions can result in a game that is not fun to play in general.

[selhan]

Heres something to also consider since it didnt seem to be considered.

Sometimes some people have no choice but to solo because either,

1, Theres not enough people on the same time zone
2, Theres not enough 'Interested" People in the PVE Content.
3, The ones available dont make sense to go dungeon running with ie ..."Pirate and Elves of DA" , "Triel Paladins and Zhents Blackguards" as examples etc.


During my regular play hours, its one of the crappiest times to even play, its already a thing not being able to find the type of rp my character is in line with, (Thank God for DM Carmen for even popping up those shitty hours recently and bothering to run plots or one offs)
I've put up scry messages "LF Group" for certain dungeon runs and get no takers. Which leaves me to solo the runs either difficult or not. But to take that ability away completely, surely leaves out any last bit of interest to even bother logging in. So yeah taking away the ability to solo I'm not for. Theres some players out there that dont even RP for what ever reason they have, was few nights ago I was camping in Corm Orp waiting to see if anyone was gonna gather for a Skull Gorge run, one player walks by and says "Sorry I dont know how to RP, want to team up?" And I of all people, end up setting with that because the fact is ..it was either Solo or log.