CA Needs To Prioritize Difficulty and Challenge In The Next Patch

TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 8:20:11 AM

The most crippling flaw of Warhammer 3 is that CA streamlined basically all strategic aspects of the game into oblivion, leaving nothing for people who'd like a strategy game to be about strategy at least occasionally. At this point I can't get excited for any new content because if the new content can't even give me a dozen turns worth of entertainment, what's the point? The last few DLCs are terrible value for money, not because of the assets included but just because they all offer the same boring invincible steamroll experience and that got old two years ago.

1.The AI needs to be way more aggressive. I don't care if some powergamers start whining about anti-player bias again, an AI that's doing nothing and fails to resist the player renders the game pointless. If you need to let the AI be passive and weak on easy, but make it actually play the game on anything above that. There need to be big AI empires and AI alliances opposed to the player and they need to attack with conviction, not constantly hesistate, fear to commit or even devolve into utter passivity

2.Public Order needs to mean something. Drastically lower or remove the upwards pull, double the downwards pull, make rebel armies automatically take whatever city is rebelling and punt any army that stands in it out with heavy damage. Also, defeating rebel armies should give you close to nothing rewards-wise. Rebellions are punishment for poor or reckless play, they need to be punishing

3.Corruption. Revert the changes that render corruption a total non-issue. Battles should not affect corruption. Make certain mechanics, like Slaanesh seduction or Tzeentch's Cheat Sheet only work on 50%+ corruption so there's counterplay

4.Difficulty levels need to affect racial and factional mechanics. When I play on hard, Ikit's Workshop and co. should require more investments and slower to generate value than when I play on normal

5.Battle difficulty needs to affect magic and ranged damage output. Lower WoM generation on higher difficulties, add spell resistance to AI armies, make spells cost more WoM. Have ranged units shoot slower and carry less ammo and miss more often on higher difficulty settings. It can't be that battle difficulty only affects melee combat when ranged units and magic are so impactful

Updated a month ago.

rehomeStan#5643

Newcomer

rehomeStan#5643

Newcomer

1 400g2g pts

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:05:54 AM

I think so. But the most important thing for WH III is to restrict the characters in early game. In fact, you can defeat almost all of your enemies by 2-4 powerful characters.In recent DLCs, powerful characters have been designed over and over again, like Celestial Genernal (Hammer of Wei-Jin can give this character 70% wp just in rank 8) and Sorcerer-Prophet (He can get 20% physical resistance, Perfect Vigour and Unbreakable without side effects). These characters make this game boring.

TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

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TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:13:16 AM

True character progression needs tweaks as well. Especially with it being so fast. It's not unusual to win one battle and get two level-ups. I think higher difficulties also should come with XP penalties.

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

Summon the Elector Counts!

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:22:06 AM

CA should take notes from Pharao - Dynasties in terms of challenge and difficulty. The game does an excelent jobe in that regard!

Neodeinos#5871

Dark Master

Neodeinos#5871

Dark Master

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:28:15 AM

Captain_Rex#1635 wrote:
CA should take notes from Pharao - Dynasties in terms of challenge and difficulty. The game does an excelent jobe in that regard!

Yeah Pharaoh is a lot harder than Warhammer and it's a really nice change. Warhammer being so easy gets old fast.

TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

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TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:32:24 AM

It's unbelievable how refreshing it feels when the AI declares war on you and then actually comes for your empire with several armies instead of doing either nothing or meekly sending a trash mob your way that runs as soon as you gear up for battle.

Why can't Warhammer 3 have AI factions that are actual players and not just Oblivion NPCs?

Updated a month ago.

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

Summon the Elector Counts!

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:39:18 AM

Neodeinos#5871 wrote:

Captain_Rex#1635 wrote:
CA should take notes from Pharao - Dynasties in terms of challenge and difficulty. The game does an excelent jobe in that regard!
Yeah Pharaoh is a lot harder than Warhammer and it's a really nice change. Warhammer being so easy gets old fast.

The challenge and overall complexity is really refreshing honestly. I also really enjoy the much slower pace.

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

Summon the Elector Counts!

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:45:45 AM

TainBoCuailinge#8335 wrote:
It's unbelievable how refreshing it feels when the AI declares war on you and then actually comes for your empire with several armies instead of doing either nothing or meekly sending a trash mob your way that runs as soon as you gear up for battle.

Why can't Warhammer 3 have AI factions that are actual players and not just Oblivion NPCs?

The Pharao AI is really good and so much better than the WH3 one.

I'm currently palying Hannigalbat and around turn 24, a Civil War broke out in Mesopotamia. I started to make my move to usurp the current King of Assyria (just like in history) but at the same time Charchemish broke our trade agreement and instantly invaded my territory. Had to split up my Armies in 2 half stacks to keep Charchemish at bay and rush for Assur befor the filthy Babylonians conquer it. This is how Total War should always be. I love it.

Updated a month ago.

yanghaohit#5017

Mortal

Not a native English speaker,sorry for any grammatical mistakes or wrong spelling. *^____^*

yanghaohit#5017

Mortal

5 900g2g pts

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:50:36 AM

Yes, these are the issues that people have been feeding back and complaining about on this forum for a long time.

Hopefully CA will not continue to ignore these voices.

Neodeinos#5871

Dark Master

Neodeinos#5871

Dark Master

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 10:57:19 AM

yanghaohit#5017 wrote:
Yes, these are the issues that people have been feeding back and complaining about on this forum for a long time.
Hopefully CA will not continue to ignore these voices.

It's also a common complaint on Reddit which is a way bigger community so I'm not sure why they still aren't doing anything about all this feedback.

DarthEnderX-#6513

Nameless

When push comes to shove, you gotta do what you love. Even if it's not a good idea.

DarthEnderX-#6513

Nameless

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 11:18:01 AM

TainBoCuailinge#8335 wrote:
CA Needs To Prioritize Difficulty and Challenge In The Next Patch

Nah.

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

Summon the Elector Counts!

Captain_Rex#1635

Champion Of Chaos

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 11:19:41 AM

DarthEnderX-#6513 wrote:

TainBoCuailinge#8335 wrote:
CA Needs To Prioritize Difficulty and Challenge In The Next Patch
Nah.

The game being to easy and the AI to dumb is the biggest issue of the game.

rehomeStan#5643

Newcomer

rehomeStan#5643

Newcomer

1 400g2g pts

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 11:21:20 AM

TainBoCuailinge#8335 wrote:
True character progression needs tweaks as well. Especially with it being so fast. It's not unusual to win one battle and get two level-ups. I think higher difficulties also should come with XP penalties.

Some heros in DLCs should be nerfed too. Heros who ride flying monsters are so powerful, but in the last few DLCs, Astromancers can ride Great Moon Bird at level 13 and Daemonsmiths can ride Bale Taurus at level 19. Great Eagle and Feral Manticore are further weaker than the monsters above, but Mage can't rider Great Eagle and Archmages rider Great Eagle at level 16, it's unreasonable. I can only understand that the new DLCs are more expensive than the old DLCs.

TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

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TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 11:37:47 AM

Neodeinos#5871 wrote:

yanghaohit#5017 wrote:
Yes, these are the issues that people have been feeding back and complaining about on this forum for a long time.
Hopefully CA will not continue to ignore these voices.
It's also a common complaint on Reddit which is a way bigger community so I'm not sure why they still aren't doing anything about all this feedback.

It really says a lot when even those goobers take notice.

Neodeinos#5871

Dark Master

Neodeinos#5871

Dark Master

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 1:10:39 PM

DarthEnderX-#6513 wrote:

TainBoCuailinge#8335 wrote:
CA Needs To Prioritize Difficulty and Challenge In The Next Patch
Nah.

Yes. If you want the game to be easy then play easy.

GBone#4408

Human

GBone#4408

Human

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 1:39:57 PM

Agree completely.

However, you'll always snowball in this game. The problem is how quickly. Currently there's no challenge whatsoever after about turn 10. It makes the higher tier units completely pointless as the game is effectively over and an autoresolve fest by the time you can recruit them.

Celery#7483

Dark Master

Celery#7483

Dark Master

3 200g2g pts

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 2:00:33 PM

GBone#4408 wrote:
Agree completely.

However, you'll always snowball in this game. The problem is how quickly. Currently there's no challenge whatsoever after about turn 10. It makes the higher tier units completely pointless as the game is effectively over and an autoresolve fest by the time you can recruit them.

This is why I laugh at the DLC wishlists that are masses of tier 5 SEM's. Yeah they are cool and all but you never organically play with them before they mean anything.

I would really love for CA to just spend a few patches improving the AI so the game is more of a challenge. I don't think that adjusting the modifiers such as Corruption and Public Order are the way to go, they could be improved as mechanics in general but just weighting them more for the sake of the AI is a bad call in my opinion.

The AI just needs to play better and needs to use the mechanics they have available as the faction and Lords they are. They also need to recruit better units. I would love to be able to make use of, and fight against, high tier enemy stacks but it just never happens. It can be 100 turns in and they are still running around with tier 1/2 unit stacks with the odd RoR.

dogoska#1535

Newcomer

dogoska#1535

Newcomer

1 800g2g pts

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 2:16:48 PM

1.The AI right now is far too cowardly and will even give up defensive positions to avoid the player. Plus the AR against other minor factions is too high.

2. Public order malus needs stronger maluses from corruption/lack of corruption and more sources of it. Plus high or low public order should have stronger bonuses or maluses.

Also the AI should not be immune to rebellions and their PO bonuses should either be removed or decreased.

3.Corruption in Warhammer III is too neutered from negatives to sources. In warhammer 2 a single undercity would cause massive problems for the player as franz or gelt with even 0.25 corruption. Right now osmosis is non-existant and untainted too plentiful and the naturre of the change always results in a 0 or 100 corruption situation. Reverting to warhammer 2 pie-chat and adding more means to combat corruption would actually improve it.

TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

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TainBoCuailinge#8335

Majestic Monarch

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 2:17:55 PM

Fixing public order is important because it keeps you from spending all slots on income and growth and forces you to keep some armies in reserve to deal with uprisings. Right now the irrelevance of PO in combination with the passive AI means you can always go all-out on your offense and that takes a lot of strategizing away. The AI could build better armies in Warhammer 2, so this is something CA deliberately changed in Warhammer 3 probably just to appease the powergamers who want to steamroll everything turn one.

GBone#4408 wrote:
Agree completely.

However, you'll always snowball in this game. The problem is how quickly. Currently there's no challenge whatsoever after about turn 10. It makes the higher tier units completely pointless as the game is effectively over and an autoresolve fest by the time you can recruit them.

"Hey, we fixed doomstacking!"

"How?"

"By rendering armybuilding completely irrelevant"

The cure is worse than the disease.

Updated a month ago.

Passthechips#4366

Tomb King

Pyramid enjoyer

Passthechips#4366

Tomb King

5 900g2g pts

a month ago

Jul 27, 2024, 2:23:05 PM

It’s crazy how CA can get difficulty right (or closer to it) in their other titles, yet for some reason the developers for the WH series treat challenge as an anathema. It really has gotten to the point where I don’t really feel excited about DLCs anymore either.

The people who want the experience of smashing the AI with units of a different shape 100 times over can continue to do so on Easy. I’d like a mode where I actively have to engage with all campaign mechanics and have the challenge of even losing a campaign once in awhile.

CA should 100% make difficulty and the campaign experience a focus for WH3. It’s the single most important thing they can do to increase this game’s longevity.