Forge of Potential update

[u/Handy_Handerson]

So, does that mean no more save scumming?

Guess I won't be interacting with it anymore until they adjust the success rate and/or refund all mats on failure.

[u/YumAussir]

They have done that, yes. That said, the attitude they project is that they do it with kind of a pissy attitude. They seem to have a vision of a much more hard-core difficulty than most players tend to want and resent when people don't align with it.

I mean just look at the console command to enable achievements.

And I'm someone who generally enjoys the difficulty! I don't activate increased resources, I've always played on Normal (the intended difficulty), yadda yadda.

Some things in the game just aren't fun though. And usually it's little tedious things. Like the game nowhere tells you the minimum distance required between planted crops, and it gives you no way to ensure you maintain that distance. It just makes you waste seeds. So I use the simple farm grid mod.

And sure, I guess the game is "harder" without it, but there's hard that makes for a good challenge and hard that isn't fun to deal with.

It''s why I haven't been keen on the post-release bosses (the Queen and Fader, haven't done the DN yet). I can handle a tough boss - I've loved Dark Souls and Elden Ring - but these two bosses can basically keep firing abilities at you 24/7, knock you around in the Queen's case, or keep fire around himself 24/7 for Fader, such that there is next to no opportunity to get a hit on them in melee.

And sure, that makes them hard, and I have been able to win by switching to magic, but in my view, that's not good difficulty design. But the devs don't seem to agree when they've made comments on that sort of thing.

[u/FauxGw2 → u/YumAussir]

But the game isn't hard, it's tedious there is a huge difference.

[u/YumAussir → u/FauxGw2]

Well that's the distinction I was drawing. I think it's decently difficult in its systems - monsters can be quite dangerous, surviving depends on a system of timed food buffs, the materials needed to progress require more than just one mining trip..

But other parts are tedious, not hard. Having to manually space my crops is tedious. Not being able to take metal through portals - at least previous-biome metals - gets tedious (e.g. why can't I take Tin through portals if I'm progressing the Mountains)? Portals being paired-only is tedious. Having to refill fires and torches with wood and resin is tedious.

I enjoy the difficulty level in the combat and pace of the game's gear progression itself, but don't enjoy the tedium. That's why I mod the tedious parts, but steer clear of changing the fundamental experience.

[u/RanaMahal → u/YumAussir]

I’ve basically modded the piss out of Valheim and it instantly become 100 times more fun to play.

Portal mods, building mods, farming mods, etc. I get the devs’ vision for the game but making it less of a slog is so much more fun, and has me playing a lot more than I otherwise would’ve

[u/GamingwolfZJ → u/YumAussir]

I was stubborn with Fader and didn’t switch to Magic. Only died three times. The main way I did that attacking-wise was having Primal Berserkir Axes. I’m not gonna pretend I know the specifics, but if I had to guess I think their above average attack speed and the Primal buff keeping him down helped a lot. I was also using a Storm Fang every now and again when I got impatient while running around and waiting for an opening.
Defense-wise, Barley Wine’s a given and a must, and Bonemass’s Power came in clutch when I got too greedy. Same with Major Health Meads and Medium Stamina Meads. I also had a weird armor combo: Flametal Helmet, Chestplate, and Ashen Cape for their armor buffs, but then the Trousers of Ask so I didn’t eat all of the movement speed debuff from the heavy armor set. The combo of heavy helmet, heavy chest, light legs, and cape has actually served me surprisingly well.

[u/Chronos1977 → u/YumAussir]

Yeah, how dare they make cheaters admit that they cheated in order to earn achievements that they were warned in advance couldn't be earned by cheating at all!

[u/YumAussir → u/Chronos1977]

You should have a better attitude in life than this.

[u/Chronos1977 → u/YumAussir]

I mean, they wanted to make a game for everyone. People can spawn in items if they want to just play a building and base-decorating game, and they can play without cheating if they want to play a challenging game. But the game is diminished for that second group if it's possible to get recognized for meeting challenges by cheating, so they very sensibly disabled achievements for those who choose to cheat.

Their mistake wasn't in making the command to earn achievements even with cheats snarky; it was in putting in a command to earn achievements even with cheats. If you want achievements, then earn them. If you want to cheat, then don't complain that the devs aren't treating you like you're not cheating.

[u/YumAussir → u/Chronos1977]

No, I think I can expect the devs to act like professionals instead of whiny piss babies. Sounds like you could stand to relax too if you refer to everything as "cheating".

It'll be ok. Be chill.