This game is now a fun challenge. Thank you Trion

[N3gativeCr33p]

If you want a real challenge and dynamics then you should really try DC Universe Online.

Yep, just renewed my Legendary 'script a few moments ago...

[3rdpig]

I'm one of the people who were asking for some things in the game to be more challenging. But, IMO, bullet sponges aren't more challenging and they're sure as spit not more fun, they're grindy, time consuming and annoying.

And you know what else bullet sponges are? They're lore breaking. Now I'm not a lore freak, but it does play some importance in this game. Nim beat 18 armed soldiers singlehanded with just a sword. The Arkhunter, that's you and me, beat Nim singlehanded. Now we have to run for cover like little girls when there's more than 3 Raiders? Raiders are low level MINIONS and they can now take 3 mags in the face while barely flinching? No...just no.

And even if bullet sponges are fun and challenging, not all players in the game want that level of challenge every where they go. Not all players want to research guns, shields and enemies just to survive a drive down the road or a daily contract. Put the open world back where it was, leave the expert stuff for expert co-op missions (but for God's sakes, fix them!).

For a year this has been a great game for the casual social shooter person. Those people are now leaving the game. I've got two friends who refuse to play it at this point. Won't even log in. You may be fine with that, and for all I know, the people at Trion who designed this patch may be fine with it too, but I doubt those that add up the days profits are fine with losing a large chunk of the player base.

And if these two friends quit, so do I since they're about the only reason I still play. We'll find another game to play, it's not like there aren't other decent choices.

Alas poor Defiance, I knew him, Crixda.

[r2nddan]

In b4 amen brother

[Bonehead]

I'm one of the people who were asking for some things in the game to be more challenging. But, IMO, bullet sponges aren't more challenging and they're sure as spit not more fun, they're grindy, time consuming and annoying.

And you know what else bullet sponges are? They're lore breaking. Now I'm not a lore freak, but it does play some importance in this game. Nim beat 18 armed soldiers singlehanded with just a sword. The Arkhunter, that's you and me, beat Nim singlehanded. Now we have to run for cover like little girls when there's more than 3 Raiders? Raiders are low level MINIONS and they can now take 3 mags in the face while barely flinching? No...just no.

And even if bullet sponges are fun and challenging, not all players in the game want that level of challenge every where they go. Not all players want to research guns, shields and enemies just to survive a drive down the road or a daily contract. Put the open world back where it was, leave the expert stuff for expert co-op missions (but for God's sakes, fix them!).

For a year this has been a great game for the casual social shooter person. Those people are now leaving the game. I've got two friends who refuse to play it at this point. Won't even log in. You may be fine with that, and for all I know, the people at Trion who designed this patch may be fine with it too, but I doubt those that add up the days profits are fine with losing a large chunk of the player base.

And if these two friends quit, so do I since they're about the only reason I still play. We'll find another game to play, it's not like there aren't other decent choices.

Alas poor Defiance, I knew him, Crixda.

Well said Pig, well said.

[Tsort]

And you know what else bullet sponges are? They're lore breaking. Now I'm not a lore freak, but it does play some importance in this game. Nim beat 18 armed soldiers singlehanded with just a sword. The Arkhunter, that's you and me, beat Nim singlehanded. Now we have to run for cover like little girls when there's more than 3 Raiders? Raiders are low level MINIONS and they can now take 3 mags in the face while barely flinching? No...just no.

This is why I've stopped playing.

[Festival]

This is why I've stopped playing.

I'm done, too. I'll keep an eye on the forums to see if they figure out how to retain all their fancy new stuff that no one asked for (scaling, Arkforge,etc.) while getting rid of this un-fun bullet sponge rubbish. The last few times I logged in, I found myself thinking, "why the hell am I doing this? It's not in the least fun."

[Yrkul]

I'm one of the people who were asking for some things in the game to be more challenging. But, IMO, bullet sponges aren't more challenging and they're sure as spit not more fun, they're grindy, time consuming and annoying.

And you know what else bullet sponges are? They're lore breaking. Now I'm not a lore freak, but it does play some importance in this game. Nim beat 18 armed soldiers singlehanded with just a sword. The Arkhunter, that's you and me, beat Nim singlehanded. Now we have to run for cover like little girls when there's more than 3 Raiders? Raiders are low level MINIONS and they can now take 3 mags in the face while barely flinching? No...just no.

And even if bullet sponges are fun and challenging, not all players in the game want that level of challenge every where they go. Not all players want to research guns, shields and enemies just to survive a drive down the road or a daily contract. Put the open world back where it was, leave the expert stuff for expert co-op missions (but for God's sakes, fix them!).

For a year this has been a great game for the casual social shooter person. Those people are now leaving the game. I've got two friends who refuse to play it at this point. Won't even log in. You may be fine with that, and for all I know, the people at Trion who designed this patch may be fine with it too, but I doubt those that add up the days profits are fine with losing a large chunk of the player base.

And if these two friends quit, so do I since they're about the only reason I still play. We'll find another game to play, it's not like there aren't other decent choices.

Alas poor Defiance, I knew him, Crixda.

Very well laid out.

Character progression based games usually have the feeling of accomplishment and empowerment as essential components. In Defiance these are very weak:

• The storyline was not very compelling, and felt unfinished. Once done, the world felt very, very static. Nothing changed despite our efforts, and the conflict sites we visited during our quest to stop Nim carry on with their chunk of the story, over and over...

• Character progression got neutered hard sometime before my first hiatus. Loadout slots and perk slots are all unlocked before getting past 1000, so there was no character-centric progression past that point. The main focus, then as now, is on gear acquisition, and this element lacks permanence due to the constant revision of related game mechanics.

• The recent changes to the game tries to introduce an EGO based power progression. However, the way it was handled did more worse than good. The feeling of accomplishment and empowerment is lost, when your adversaries just scale with you. Sure, things start get easier past a certain point, but there isn't much empowerment in going from struggling with content, to struggling less. The scaling of players also undermines the feeling of progression, since my low level character is 4750 most of the time, and my mid level character is 4750 most of the time. The only difference is that the low level character struggles more, and needs to pay more arkfore to keep gear updated. There's no incentive to get out of one's way to get legendaries until you're close to EGO 5K, due to the progression tax. Remember another game that used mobscaling? Elder Scrolls IV. Remember one major feature the players were unhappy about? Yeah.

Defiance was launched in an unfinished state, and a lot of things needed to be changed/added. However, one year is way too late to make changes this big. Once the player base settles in, things need to be done with a scalpel and surgical thread, not a meatcleaver and packing cord.

Trion needs someone with knowledge of gaming psychology and behaviourism. If there's no budget for that, at least strap Trick down and have him go through Extra Credits. All of it. James Portnow may be an idealist, but he's an authority in the games industry.

[Atticus Batman]

Very well laid out.

Character progression based games usually have the feeling of accomplishment and empowerment as essential components. In Defiance these are very weak:

• The storyline was not very compelling, and felt unfinished. Once done, the world felt very, very static. Nothing changed despite our efforts, and the conflict sites we visited during our quest to stop Nim carry on with their chunk of the story, over and over...

• Character progression got neutered hard sometime before my first hiatus. Loadout slots and perk slots are all unlocked before getting past 1000, so there was no character-centric progression past that point. The main focus, then as now, is on gear acquisition, and this element lacks permanence due to the constant revision of related game mechanics.

• The recent changes to the game tries to introduce an EGO based power progression. However, the way it was handled did more worse than good. The feeling of accomplishment and empowerment is lost, when your adversaries just scale with you. Sure, things start get easier past a certain point, but there isn't much empowerment in going from struggling with content, to struggling less. The scaling of players also undermines the feeling of progression, since my low level character is 4750 most of the time, and my mid level character is 4750 most of the time. The only difference is that the low level character struggles more, and needs to pay more arkfore to keep gear updated. There's no incentive to get out of one's way to get legendaries until you're close to EGO 5K, due to the progression tax. Remember another game that used mobscaling? Elder Scrolls IV. Remember one major feature the players were unhappy about? Yeah.

Defiance was launched in an unfinished state, and a lot of things needed to be changed/added. However, one year is way too late to make changes this big. Once the player base settles in, things need to be done with a scalpel and surgical thread, not a meatcleaver and packing cord.

Trion needs someone with knowledge of gaming psychology and behaviourism. If there's no budget for that, at least strap Trick down and have him go through Extra Credits. All of it. James Portnow may be an idealist, but he's an authority in the games industry.

The last perk slot is unlocked at 1k. Thanks to Patch 1.024 which was was announced July 10, 2013 and went live July 11, 2013.

http://www.defiancedata.com/page.php?id=19

Not sure about Character loadouts. Slot 5 used to unlock at 1500.


I am not sure if it still does though.

[Hopeisdead]

Dont know much about challenge, but Defiance is certainly fun. Altho it was fun before 1.5 too so nothing changed at least for me.

As for challenge well Starcraft on pro level is probably challenge, but not for me cause i am terrible.

[XPac]

I didn't like the new changes at first.

But I have to admit, after getting used to it a bit I think I'm actually cool with them.

I DID think Defiance was previously a bit too easy. Now it's more of a challenge. Some parts, like the Volge major ark falls, are still a bit too much of a challenge.

So even though I was fine with how the game was before, I'm okay with the direction they took. It think it still needs tweaking, but I don't need them to turn it back to the way it was either.