Is the balancing out of whack?

[AuntHerbert]

I am really enjoying the game, and reached prestige level 5 with Sal by now, but I feel instead of getting harder and harder each level, the game gets easier and easier. I mean, ok, on the one side I know the game better, so I know how to build good decks and to use them, where to spend my money, how to hack the social game and what to do to get good random quests.... but I feel like the massive boost from grifts and especially mettle plays a much bigger role. At the lower levels it took me several attempts to even finish without dying, now I breeze through the game.

Especially the battle flourishes seem way overpowered. At the beginning they were a rare and cherished resource, that I built up over the day to get a bit of an edge in the boss battle at the end of the day, by now I can drop them twice in every serious battle, once at the start, and once as a finisher, and as I got all four of them maxxed out, it feels like having constant support by a full bomber squad.

For example fighting against Kashio is a breeze. At the beginning I had to stack up on all types of grenades and AoEs I could get my hand on, to pop her holographic images over and over again, now she usually drops dead before she even brought her automech up.

Or ambushing a caravan. I used to have to let the first two opportunities pass by, to get to a weak enough prey, now I slaughter the first one, and the admirality who shows up to investigate right after, without even losing an ally or enough hp to force me to eat afterwards.

Instead of trying to survive, I try to rack up an exceptional kill score with the opposing faction, (12 bandits or 13 admirality were my max so far), and off course I can easily snatch up all the mettle that is offered, so I become even stronger even quicker.

The game is still funny in a way, as I try to complete the "lore", like in discovering the banes and boons for each class in the compendium, hunting achievements or testing out cards that I stayed away from before, but it no longer feels challenging.

OK, I have three more prestige levels to go, and maybe I just got lucky at my previous runs, or I am really the intellectual exception, that every real person I met so far denied, but...  I think the more likely answer is, either the mettle system and the flourishes need to be nerfed, a LOT, or the the nerfs from the prestige levels need to be quite more draconian.

Oh, btw, the daily challenges can easily have the modifier to shut out the mettle system. They should have it on almost always, especially if they also include a reduction in skill cap for the cards, or experienced players will start with a full deck of upgraded cards.... 

 

[AYellowShadeOfB]

22 hours ago, AuntHerbert said:

I am really enjoying the game, and reached prestige level 5 with Sal by now, but I feel instead of getting harder and harder each level, the game gets easier and easier. I mean, ok, on the one side I know the game better, so I know how to build good decks and to use them, where to spend my money, how to hack the social game and what to do to get good random quests.... but I feel like the massive boost from grifts and especially mettle plays a much bigger role. At the lower levels it took me several attempts to even finish without dying, now I breeze through the game.

Especially the battle flourishes seem way overpowered. At the beginning they were a rare and cherished resource, that I built up over the day to get a bit of an edge in the boss battle at the end of the day, by now I can drop them twice in every serious battle, once at the start, and once as a finisher, and as I got all four of them maxxed out, it feels like having constant support by a full bomber squad.

For example fighting against Kashio is a breeze. At the beginning I had to stack up on all types of grenades and AoEs I could get my hand on, to pop her holographic images over and over again, now she usually drops dead before she even brought her automech up.

Or ambushing a caravan. I used to have to let the first two opportunities pass by, to get to a weak enough prey, now I slaughter the first one, and the admirality who shows up to investigate right after, without even losing an ally or enough hp to force me to eat afterwards.

Instead of trying to survive, I try to rack up an exceptional kill score with the opposing faction, (12 bandits or 13 admirality were my max so far), and off course I can easily snatch up all the mettle that is offered, so I become even stronger even quicker.

The game is still funny in a way, as I try to complete the "lore", like in discovering the banes and boons for each class in the compendium, hunting achievements or testing out cards that I stayed away from before, but it no longer feels challenging.

OK, I have three more prestige levels to go, and maybe I just got lucky at my previous runs, or I am really the intellectual exception, that every real person I met so far denied, but...  I think the more likely answer is, either the mettle system and the flourishes need to be nerfed, a LOT, or the the nerfs from the prestige levels need to be quite more draconian.

Oh, btw, the daily challenges can easily have the modifier to shut out the mettle system. They should have it on almost always, especially if they also include a reduction in skill cap for the cards, or experienced players will start with a full deck of upgraded cards.... 

 

Well, part of Roguelites is progression from one run to the other, though yes I agree, mettle is kind of ridiculous.

I don't find the upgrading of flourishes to be that bad, it's more just that you can get them at almost 3x the base rate when fully upgraded.

I'd note that you will see a big change in prestige 7. It's a game-changer.

[pacovf]

3 hours ago, AYellowShadeOfB said:

I don't find the upgrading of flourishes to be that bad, it's more just that you can get them at almost 3x the base rate when fully upgraded.

Wait a second, upgrading flourishes increases the rate at which you can use them?

[Maniafig]

I assume they mean the mettle upgrades for flourishes. With all mettle upgrades it becomes very easy to spam flourishes, especially the +14 Adrenaline flourish as Smith, with a proper build you can use the flourish every other turn.

[spacescrew]

Totally agree. mettle made prestige < 6 challenge meaningless.

[Rook the Bogger]

Quote

Adjusted the scaling of all flourish related mettle upgrades so they scale to 1x instead of 1.5x

Here is what they added in new update. I guess the discussion here is over (or is it still too much?)