Do you like the way DLC was handled in Awakening?

[Ownagepuffs]

To be fair Apo is really hard for the average player.

[Interceptor]

Apoth [Especially SR] is the equivalent of something like Heroic raiding.

Not even close; this is a poor comparison. Apoth is paid DLC, and not included with anything else in particular. For IS to sell something like this, with full knowledge that only a tiny minority of players would even be able to complete it on their own, would be absurd. People would be pissed off, and it would hurt sales.

Your proposal is a fantasy. Some sort of alteration would be required in order to make it palatable (like a difficulty slider, for example).

And constant patching? The numbers don't change.

Patching to keep up with the meta, obviously. You aren't going to be able to predict the perfect setup at release; Awakening's mechanics were too new and complicated for that.

You wouldn't be able to break Apoth with it about 20 points higher on every unit. That's enough to make it a competent challenge.

No amount of stat inflation is going to make Apoth a "challenge"; all you're doing is just raising the floor on the minimally-optimized team that can handle the map. Apoth at its core is just about grinding and preparation, which means that anyone who can follow directions and has the time can conquer it.

The real challenges in this game are the ones that require skill.

[Melissa]

The DLC has to be catered for both veterans (let's face it, this forum and gamefaqs take it to a freakish level) and newcomers.

For said newcomers, they have to feel it is possible. That they can have satisfaction for something they PAID for.

The restrictions people put in their own runs, such as ones they do on Apotheosis, and EXPECTING those restrictions be "official" via the devs is ASKING for the DLC to fail in sales. And it's pretty much elitism. "YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BEAT THIS MAP, HAHA."

The challenge map pack is *HARD* for people new to the series.

You need to keep that in mind when complaining.

Not everyone derives fun in The One Ring™ optimization mentality.

Do it for yourself, not for the praise of your achievements "recognized" by the developers.

The Apotheosis map is to encourage you to beat it with your current "optimized" resources... not "start over from an earlier save before you married the parents off or die."

That would only result in frustration for most people, not satisfaction in buying said DLC.

So essentially, yes I am VERY happy with the way they handled the DLC.

The difficulty curve is handled pretty well.

I quote (relatively accurate) from Extra Credits:

"A difficult game follows its own established rules. A game that suddenly doesn't follow its own rules is punishing, not difficult."

If they are in a game mode that they specifically chose since the very beginning of the game, why in the HELL would you force them to go Classic mode?

That's like suddenly disabling Dual Attacks and Dual Guards from wave 40 on, for the sake of "difficulty".

"Hard"?

40?

Edited August 11, 2014 by CountessDeLaRoca

[Bloo]

Apoth [Especially SR] is the equivalent of something like Heroic raiding.

It's NOT something that should be clearable by the chaff.

Difficulty is not measured from the frodo-level, that's poor design that doesn't account for differences in skill.

It's only measured at Apex. If the high-end find it easy, well, it's easy. Enough said. If you're a newcomer, finding it difficult isn't because it's hard, it's because you're not good.

If it's a "diamond" (Hard but easy to bust once you understand it) it's ...not hard.

And constant patching? The numbers don't change.

You wouldn't be able to break Apoth with it about 20 points higher on every unit. That's enough to make it a competent challenge. As it stands it's a "final challenge" that is optimized for the lowest common denominator, which unless you're running challenge runs is NOT a challenge.

Unfortunately IS needs to cater to a new audience with their games and DLC. If newcomers struggled with significant portions of the game, or forked out money for something they had no possibility of beating, then they may feel slightly cheated. The fact that Awakening includes Newcomer (Casual) mode is one of the main reasons why it sold so well in comparison with past FEs, because many new and younger players bought a game that they had been pushed away from when they heard the words 'permadeath'.

New players save the Fire Emblem series in terms of sales. And some of them, once they feel like they've beaten the hardest challenge in the game (Apo) go on to look for more challenges, and then become experienced players in their own right.

[shadowofchaos]

"Hard"?

Don't tell me that you've never seen/heard of people on the internet about newcomers scared of even TOUCHING the Apotheosis DLC.

40?

Czar_Yoshi's hypothetical example of 100-ish wave endurance.

[arvilino]

"Hard"?

Keep in mind many players won't have/use online resources to plan out things in advance, independantly coming up with the most suitable set ups or combinations themselves would be a big part of the challenge when you don't have other players to do it and share detailed information with you.

Edited August 11, 2014 by arvilino