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[Farwalker]

I'm hoping some of the add-on areas end up brutally hard.

I want to see someone take their uber-maxed character into some of these areas, after walking around with almost perfect to hit and almost impossible to be hit by anything stats and equipment, and watch them get thoroughly served.

Give me enemies with complete immunity to multiple things so you have to tackle them with different tactics, areas where magic doesn't help you so you'd better have other skills, sections where if you don't sneak you're pretty much dead, situations where you need ranged attacks to take out enemies, and others where you get completely swarmed and surrounded. There could be places where your treasured equipment will get destroyed if you take it through a certain area, so you have to go in without gear.
Bring it on good sir!

[CrazyBernie]

thank you sir....I'll have another. was I psyscic or what ??!! I knew it wouldn't take long for you guys to come out.

Nice, ask for milk, than claim to be psychic when someone hands you glass. Good show!

[pincaviglia86]

thank you sir....I'll have another. was I psyscic or what ??!! I knew it wouldn't take long for you guys to come out.

Nice, ask for milk, than claim to be psychic when someone hands you glass. Good show!

Thank you sir, I'll have another.....glass of milk, that is. By the way is that your sword, or are you just enjoying the show?

[CrazyBernie]

thank you sir....I'll have another. was I psyscic or what ??!! I knew it wouldn't take long for you guys to come out.

Nice, ask for milk, than claim to be psychic when someone hands you glass. Good show!

Thank you sir, I'll have another.....glass of milk, that is. By the way is that your sword, or are you just enjoying the show?

The answer would be... yes.

[Nevermore]

If you want easy game, you can buy a common console RPG. We are all old school RPG gamers, and Eschalon Book II is a game like that. As other people i'am at 2/3 of the story with a Virtuous Magic User at level 15 and i have no problem. The facts is that as table-top rpgs, it's need some attention into building the character and some strategy in the fights.

[Slarty]

I don't mean to be critical by saying this, but both Eschalon games are among the easiest CRPGs I've ever laid eyes on, whether on PC or on console. It's not an issue of "the game is challenging if you don't exploit the loopholes" because (1) even then, combat is not difficult unless you go straight to the tougher areas, and (2) there are so many loopholes and some (like the overpoweredness of range in a 1-square-per-turn engine) are so blatant that you can't help but see them.

The dramatic easiness is particularly true if you compare Eschalon to "old school" games which are, as you imply, much harder than their modern counterparts.

Seriously, though, what CRPGs are easier? I'd be interested to hear nominations, as I'm having a hard time coming up with any.

[Farwalker]

I don't mean to be critical by saying this, but both Eschalon games are among the easiest CRPGs I've ever laid eyes on, whether on PC or on console. It's not an issue of "the game is challenging if you don't exploit the loopholes" because (1) even then, combat is not difficult unless you go straight to the tougher areas, and (2) there are so many loopholes and some (like the overpoweredness of range in a 1-square-per-turn engine) are so blatant that you can't help but see them.

The dramatic easiness is particularly true if you compare Eschalon to "old school" games which are, as you imply, much harder than their modern counterparts.

Seriously, though, what CRPGs are easier? I'd be interested to hear nominations, as I'm having a hard time coming up with any.

I agree. Thus my comment above inviting some real challenge with the add-ons. For me the explore and storyline are entertaining, but not challenging. I see a lot of promise in the system though, and I enjoy figuring out how it really works, interesting things you can do in it, and ways it might be made even better.

Having an easier game isn't necessarily a bad thing by the way - especially if it makes the game appealing to a somewhat wider audience. You just need aspects of the game that are tougher to engage with players who want more of a challenge. The game options to influence difficulty and the built-in challenges were excellent improvements to book 2 I think. Something different than the more typical "all the bad guys just got tougher" approach.

Still, there's something to be said for being able to make the bad guys tougher too. Or having MUCH more difficult areas that you don't have to go into if you don't want to. Or much more difficult endings (and BW has done some fun things with multiple endings already).