Drusk Boss Battle

[E.X.D.]

8 hours ago, Kevin said:

This is definitely the case, especially on high-P runs. Some negotiations are meant to be aspirational - if you can beat it, great! But just because the game shows you the option doesn't mean it's necessarily possible for you with your current deck. You need to use your best judgement.

Fights are a little trickier - we try not to outright kill a healthy player with a forced fight, but if you are out of resolve and money, you might find yourself with no other option but to take a fight that you probably can't win. In general, you need to pick your fights carefully, and ration your resolve if you want to survive. Optional fights (like, where you decide to rob a merchant or something) are potential run-killers, and we don't filter those for you.

Boss fights are fight-deck checks - You will have to beat those fights each day, or it's game over. We try to give you a way to make them easier with negotiations / bribes in most cases. But if you only negotiate, and never get new fight cards, you will eventually die.

 

Interesting, that really makes clear that this whole game has a combat focus. Why did you decide to make it so it's possible to beat this game without negotiations but not possible to beat it without combat? Do you ever think you'd do a dev Q&A or possibly discuss more about the sort of baked in assumptions you guys have about how the player plays the game?

[Hraklea]

19 hours ago, Kevin said:

In general, you need to pick your fights carefully...

In that case, we should have alternatives to fights. There are moments in the game where the only quests you're given are combat ones, and the enemies damage are often broken.

You shouldn't have 2 combat quests in a row with 2~4 enemies attacking you for 15+ dmg per turn each.

[Kevin]

14 hours ago, E.X.D. said:

Interesting, that really makes clear that this whole game has a combat focus. Why did you decide to make it so it's possible to beat this game without negotiations but not possible to beat it without combat? Do you ever think you'd do a dev Q&A or possibly discuss more about the sort of baked in assumptions you guys have about how the player plays the game?

Ideally, it's not possible to beat the game with only combat - health attrition, and missing out on the prizes from optional negotiations should end up getting you killed (in a combat). I mean, I'm sure it's *possible*, but it's not the intended experience. The intended experience is that you are a grifter living by both your wits and your fists. You try to talk your way out of trouble when you can, but you can back up those fancy words with force when you have to. Or throw money at the problem (if you have it). Or use your friends (if you have those). 

The original sal day 2 assassin encounter was a pure negotiation check. The assassin had you dead-to-rights, and you had to convince them not to kill you or it was game over (with no explicit fight). People haaaaaaated it in testing, because the game had established that you can always fall back on fighting when words fail, and it felt unfair. I'm not against trying scenarios like that again in the future, but they have to be handled *very* delicately.

[pacovf]

4 hours ago, Hraklea said:

In that case, we should have alternatives to fights. There are moments in the game where the only quests you're given are combat ones, and the enemies damage are often broken.

You shouldn't have 2 combat quests in a row with 2~4 enemies attacking you for 15+ dmg per turn each.

I find that most combat quests are manageable if you’ve been building up your combat deck and do your best to stack the odds in your favour. You can always hire a merc or pay someone to look the other way before starting the fight. You should generally avoid fights when you have numerical inferiority, unless your combat deck is really busted. Most of the really tough fights are either optional or you can run away with no repercussions.

Then again, it’s been a while since the last time I played a negotiation-focused run. I’ve prioritised combat quests for quite some runs now.

However, I don’t remember ever being offered only combat or only negotiation quests. Maybe that’s a bug?

[TheCoolestFool]

I thought quests are just random. Plus a lot of quests are labeled combat and negotiation.

[Hraklea]

12 hours ago, pacovf said:

I find that most combat quests are manageable if you’ve been building up your combat deck and do your best to stack the odds in your favour.

I agree, most combat quests are manageable.

[pacovf]

7 hours ago, Hraklea said:

I agree, most combat quests are manageable.

Which ones do you think are overtuned?

[TheCoolestFool]

I think you get a lot of options on the ones with hard combat so that you dont have to fight. Like even quests where spree captains show up you can just leave the bar/shop and let them rob the joint and the travel insurance one you can let them kill the guy. The only situation that sucks is day 4 random encounter before you even get a chance to hire a merc and you can still run. Only really effects you if your running a hostility deck since that coward card blows

[Hraklea]

5 hours ago, pacovf said:

Which ones do you think are overtuned?

I'd have to check the name(s) to give you an accurate answer. And some quests have random encounters, and not all of them are broken. I had quests where I had to face one 4 star + two 3 star enemies - I reloaded the game, same quest, and I got one 2 star + two 1 star enemy instead. And again, the same fight could be incredible easy with the right rewards, and impossible when the game only offers you bad choices.

So it is hard to point out "quest A" or "quest B" is broken. My problem is getting beaten, spending all my shill on food not to die, and to be offered only another battle quest when my deck is filled with debuffs and I have no shill to hire a partner. The game should either give you a break, or better resources to deal with those situations when they happen. I'm not saying they happen often. I'm saying they happen.

Most of my runs are fine. (I wouldn't be playing the game if it weren't fun)

[pacovf]

I think most of my deaths are from running into a fight before knowing how hard it will be. This used to be wild animals in day 4, the caravan robbing quest, or bounty hunting in the spree bar (before they fixed that quest so you got a warning for the difficulty). This was also before running away was a possibility.

I have never reloaded a save to see how variable the difficulty of a fight is. One 4-stars and two 3-stars by yourself is basically suicide for all but the craziest decks, while one 2-stars and two 1-stars should be doable by the end of the run. If a combat quest can vary between the two due to sheer luck, I definitely consider that a problem!

The only thing I would add is that I always keep enough money on me to hire a merc. It dramatically decreases the chances of finding yourself facing an impossible quest combat. Doesn’t really help against random events though.

[s5unaMe]

Man ~20 walkthough 19 Shroogs and 1 Drusk boss (which is desecrated me at pure kill-all-characters build).