Mr_Bill wrote:For about the 18th time, would you please stop using the "Straw Man" fallacy (e.g. attacking a weak parody of what I said, as opposed to what I actually said).
I did not say that quests like Baal (or Diablo, or almost "anything") are completely impossible in Nightmare. (If for no reason other than I have been able to complete them in Hardcore with some of my characters.)
Like aazh already stated, that was basically what you argued over and over.
Mr_Bill wrote:Rather, these quests are, simply, "absurdly difficult (at least for many types of Median characters) to the point where whether a normal player with normal skills, with a normal network connection (for Realm / TSW play) and normal gear (for the level of the area and quest), succeeds in the quest or gets one-shotted by the boss monster, comes down basically to luck... and the odds are heavily stacked against you; to the point where these (mandatory) quests are not 'exciting" any more; they are so frustrating and unfairly difficult that the game isn't any fun to play in Hardcore mode."
Personally I believe you underestimate the average Median player and for some reason you believe that you're an average player yourself. I'm really getting the impression that you're significantly below the average player, so it's kinda funny that you seem to argue the average players case. I don't mean below average in a demeaning way, everybody starts somewhere and everybody has the potential to get better at the game. I say below average because it warps your perception of what is hard and what is not.
Mr_Bill wrote:The basic issue here, which nobody (or few of those commenting) wants to address, is that the Median developers have (understandably) poured almost all their efforts into making the Softcore version of the game "challenging" to play, but they have made Hardcore mode an exact copy of Softcore mode (except for the obvious factor of "you only live once"), producing a game that may be (sort of) interesting to play in Softcore (that is... if you think "getting killed 8 times within the space of 5 minutes", is "interesting"), but which is unfairly difficult in Hardcore.
You stumble upon the reason why hardcore it is the way it is, that it's collateral damage to the game being balanced around softcore and It has been stated multiple times by Marco, that online softcore ladder is the priority. It's the priority to the extend that single player, nonladder and hardcore only really receive changes if said changes doesn't impact realm ladder.
There is without a doubt a discussion to be had about why hardcore is so very anti-player but you never really touched on that until multiple people corrected you that the "tutorial"-part of the game is not part of the hardcore problem. The hardcore problem doesn't really get into effect until level 115-120+ and even then, some people manage to make it work. It will most likely never be balanced and that's why people keep saying that if you don't know what you're doing, then you shouldn't be playing hardcore. If you don't have the tools to make it work, then it's not for you.
Mr_Bill wrote:The answer to all of this should be obvious : Hardcore and Softcore Median should be different games with different levels of difficulty, appropriate to realistic estimates of character strength and durability (for players of AVERAGE competence... not the tiny few who play the game obsessively and who know every last trick around), at each quest or challenge level. Either that, or the devs should just call a spade a spade and drop Hardcore mode altogether.
I'd prefer the former, of course, but it may be just too much work that the developers might feel would be better spent on further upgrades to the Softcore version of Median. In that case maybe we should just say a fond "goodbye" to Hardcore mode and be done with it.
And you manage to answer the question yourself, hardcore is not the intended way to play Median and it will likely never receive the changes you're looking for, cause as you said, the team will officially not provide the development time to make it viable to the wider userbase. That is the reason why most hardcore players are masochists, who understands what they are getting into. It used to be even worse, before Sigma came out, you ran into the first oneshot mechanic at level 5 or so.
About 1.5 months ago, a POE player streamed himself playing hardcore Median for the first time. A couple of Median players spent a lot of time explaining how Median works to him and he made it to level 126, before dying in Duncraig. He already knew what he was getting into, he was super tryhard about it and he wasn't angry when he died, cause he recognized what he could have done better and that's what Hardcore Median is about. You sign up for a shitty deal and see how far you can push yourself. If you don't like those terms, then you should not play hardcore Median.
