I am not blaming you, I just said that the answer is there, it is not completely blind fights, but don't worry, there will be an easy mode in the near future because by your experience it is clear that my vision of normal may be a little bit too hard. What can I do, I am a fan of the souls games they are part of me now.
The difficulty was fine. It just that i played the game differently then you intended and very much not forgiving off that.
While you seem to want to direct the player away from unintended paths by making it incredibly grindy when you go off the intended path. If as a player it is not obvious what that path is you end up grinding but not making much progress trying to solve the wrong problem.
Just try to be more mindful of the players time.
- If you want the player to take a scripted loss don’t punish them harshly for it.
- Don’t give the player the possibility to grind to get better to avoid the scripted loss when that is impossible.
- I think whether you have save points in the goblin cave doesn’t change the difficulty.
- While still having unfinished content it is really helpful if you give the player an idea how much content there is left.
- While being rail roaded can be annoying it is fine given your resources linearity is a good way to do that. Just don’t give players an open world which gives off the illusion of non-linearity and choice when the way you set up your game doesn’t allow that.
I just said that the answer is there
Well, let me tell you what went through my mind: I saw i couldn’t take that shaman into my party. So it can’t be a character which sticks around after she actually surrendered to me. Does that mean she will betray me? I didn’t pay much attention to her because if she is unwilling to fight with me how can i trust her?
It’s cool that the answer is there. To bad player feel frustrated about your game if they for what ever reason experience the game differently then you intended. Make your answers more robust. Dark soul doesn’t explain it’s mechanics in text alone and having someone telling you what enemies to expect and changing your build based on that is a new mechanic you are just introduncing at the boss fight. If you could change your party and skills based on enemy descriptions during normal fighting (except in the ambush) that mechanic wouldn’t be that suprising. It would be neat to have different build slots for that now that i think about that.
I didn't think it would be too long to save only before the dungeon considering there is only 3 fights there and I was worried if someone managed to enter without the necessary tools to win and is using only one save and saved inside so now they just lost their save and must restart.
You probably didn't notice but when you defeat the group blocking the entrance you get all the xp you lost back with a bonus. And it is actually possible to win agaisnt the ambush if you grind long enough with the right build, comp and a little luck.
I can probably find a way to introduce build slots for players to save different build of summons and skills, that is a good idea.
One thing that is already comming on the next version is using the keyboard to select skills.
I could probably clarify it there when the shaman says she can't help you directly that it makes sence with what you know about dungeon contractors, it will help in making the players to thrust her, although when she stops you from getting hit by a trap is also a good sign that she is trying to help.