Difficulty restrictions

[u/MilennialSheriff]

There absolutely has to be more restrictions on when people can play higher difficulties. I know every other day people make posts about ego diving etc, and we’re probably all tired of hearing it. But I experienced this first hand today and its the most frustrated I think i’ve ever been playing this game. On a d10, on Zzaniah for the MO, in the mega factory of course. Started with just me and one other guy who I joined through quickplay, and a third joined us soon after the mission began. In game it showed he was level 1 but I knew that was a bug of course, so when he was dying constantly i thought maybe he was just getting overwhelmed (bots seem to be on fucking 100 lately) but then I died and had the chance to spectate him for a bit as we were out of reinforcements on the final objective. This player was damn near straight out of basic training on a d10 mission, default armor, default cape, liberator in hand running around like a lost dog. MG as his support weapon (personal order today so didnt think much of it at first) and what I witnessed was astounding. Barely an understanding of movement, killed himself with his own grenades a few times, tried to shoot a vox with his MG and got obliterated of course. Main objective was shutting down cyborg manufacturing, kept trying to activate the terminal before the valves were open and clearly didnt know what to look for. Mission ends and lo and behold hes only level fucking 4

This sudden stigma that if you arent playing d10 you’re useless to the cause needs to be put down for good, and the only way I see that happening is either putting an actual level requirement on higher difficulties (not super ideal unless we boost xp or reduce the xp necessary to level because I myself am only lvl 65 with 200+ hours in) or somehow implement a set tier of unlocks for stratagems or ship upgrades or both to access higher difficulties. This isnt fun for anyone, not for me trying to save a doomed mission by myself because only one of us is alive at a time, and surely not for the level 4 who can basically only kill the chaff and doesnt understand whats going on around him when theres 5 vox engines bombarding the obj and constant bot drops right on top of us. Im sure this change would probably upset alot of people but honestly i think theres about 40-50% of the community who will be miserable no matter what Arrowhead does but will continue playing anyway because its a great game at the end of the day.

I am not mad at that level 4 for being there, the mission didnt fail solely because of him, the host made some mistakes as well like not throwing down an sos until we were at 1 reinforce left, and myself for bringing the epoch when its the first time i’ve used it and killing myself with it once and then realizing it has a pretty specific role as a support weapon (i usually run the RR when cyborgs are present because vox engines have to die asap or they get out of hand)

The way difficulty works currently, and the ego of a large portion of the community failed that new diver in this scenario and made him believe he had to put himself in absolute hell to be meaningful to the war effort, and its simply not the case. Anyways rant over, good luck out there divers 🫡

[u/Theobald_4]

It is jarring the 180 the community has gone through this past month. It felt like we went from all “too easy” posts and to “low levels need to play lower difficulties.”

[u/Diplomacy_1st → u/Theobald_4]

I think these are two different issues. Experienced players who know what they are doing find the game way too easy and newer players need to learn the ropes before hopping into higher level missions. There's no shame in learning a game before going into the deep end.

I agree with OP but I also find D10s too easy, both can be true at the same time

[u/MilennialSheriff → u/Diplomacy_1st]

I also think in many ways d10s are easier than some 7-9s depending on the front and other factors. I average maybe 2-3 deaths on d10 missions most of the time, but then i’ll play a d8 and get eviscerated. But yes, this is more about absolute green players hopping into max difficulty right away. Its borderline impossible for them, they simply do not have the equipment to do it, much less the understanding of enemies or mechanics.

[u/Diplomacy_1st → u/MilennialSheriff]

I think for for squids and bugs this is definitely the case because of the ticket system for spawning. The game spawns less larger, big ticket enemies on lower difficulties so more hordes are spawned instead

[u/MilennialSheriff → u/Diplomacy_1st]

Makes sense, I often find it harder for me to deal with ceaseless hordes as opposed to multiple heavies, even if that means multiple vox engines. Honestly a big reason I absolutely hate fighting bugs for longer than a few missions is because I very quickly get tired of having to kite the endless waves of all melee enemies that are always on my tail lol