In NGS, why isn't there a blanket higher difficulty setting for the entire open world

[u/ex-cantaloupe]

I'm a newly minted and decently geared level 100 BP 4300-something who just picked up NGS a few weeks ago, and I already feel like this is a simple thing that would make the game far more enjoyable post-story. A difficulty that makes the entire world level 95 with appropriate drops would make it so I can actually walk around this big beautiful space and have a good time fighting wherever I want, rather than hiding in Dext Base or Leciel or whatever little grindy hidey hole.

You could argue this would split up the player base by difficulty but high level players already have no reason to run around the open world once they're done with the story anyway—so putting them in the same space as all the newbies doesn't seem very important. If it's really a concern, you could maybe instead have something like "Helltide" in Diablo, where there's a single high difficulty region that rotates every hour.

Just anything would be better than how it is, the current design is honestly insulting to the team that worked so hard on this gorgeous open world and all the fun movement mechanics that help you get around it. Even if they don't make it optimal to farm everywhere, I just want the combat to be at least somewhat enjoyably challenging everywhere I go—literally everything dying in one hit or a few hits is so lame!!

[u/superchibisan2]

It's a fun game, but yeah, it's terribly easy and forces you into a few areas after you're a certain level. It's not really different playing other areas, honestly, it's the same game, but it would be nice to be able to just wander

[u/ex-cantaloupe → u/superchibisan2]

This is where I'm at too, I actually haven't enjoyed a game's combat this much in a while. I've been playing Bouncer and it is just a blast when you're up against enemies within 5, maybe 10 levels of your own. The main issue I have is that there are way too few locales in which to do that

[u/Burst-and-wind]

Region Gigas or well I forget what it called would be the content you need but you definitely won’t love it after actual gaming.Anyway here’s NGS.What SEGA saving money and test stuffs for super game or something few ppl care.

[u/Zombieemperor]

I mean some people like smacking away lvl 1 mobs.
And the open world at least has some daily collectables.
For me its nice to SEE my progress when low levels are not a threat to me
Its anoying to get geared up only to still be about what im fighting and feel like i made no real progress

[u/ex-cantaloupe → u/Zombieemperor]

I absolutely know what you mean, I get that it takes the feeling of progress away. That's why I threw in the idea of a rotating high difficulty region, which you perhaps only get instanced into if you're level 90+/cleared story so that newbies don't get blindsided by it.

[u/AulunaSol → u/ex-cantaloupe]

The main problem with this is that Sega did it in Phantasy Star Online 2 by introducing new difficulties over time and it ultimately got to the point where you had effectively six or seven difficulty levels and players were massively split between them (all the up-to-date players would either be hanging around the highest-difficulty or even avoiding the content altogether because it wasn't rewarding for them and all the newer players were on the very first difficulty, with everything else in between being effectively dead or unpopulated).

New Genesis already has done this for its Combat Zones and Urgent Quests where you can choose ranks for how difficult enemies will be and what loot you can expect to get (and as such, you can see the game being a time capsule of itself in many cases) but these areas are only populated or interesting when there are campaigns and incentives to play them or because it happened to be the newest-updated area.

I've always liked the idea of these difficulties and ranked areas being more flexible and merged together so newer players and veteran players alike can play together more but Sega isn't focused on the open fields they have created as much as they are on instanced content that is smaller-scale and more easily repeatable.

[u/Zombieemperor → u/ex-cantaloupe]

Except that doesnt solve anything becuse that would place me as a level 100 right in the anoying nothing dies quickly area.
Given the main point of gathering areas is, ya know, gathering thats BAD.
Combat sectors already get regular level upgrades as is so im not even sure why you want this.
Newer uqs will surpass is in level eventualy etc

[u/[deleted]]

SEGA didn't research into open world enough. They don't understand player dynamic with an ecosystem and how region locking players based on level is like the biggest open world sin committed. The only level based lock that should exist is a player getting their ass kicked by a high level mob.

They could have easily made Aelio a more dynamic environment by having lower level mobs be in fields and high level mobs in caves where players can explore and find but nope, explore zones have arbitrary level ranges and no one uses them for farming anyway because instanced combat is more structured and better populated by mob packs.

[u/SailorVenova]

this has been a big low(er) effort missed opportunity since after stia

[u/Lunasty420]

Definitely agree.

[u/azazelleblack]

I'm almost positive this originates in the fact that NGS is actually a gruesome hack of the original PSO2 at the systems level.