Everyone enjoys playing games at different difficulty levels, and whether you are a strategy game veteran or new to the genre, it's nice to have the option to relax and play, or turn things up and challenge yourself.
In Riftbound we currently have 3 difficulty levels (Casual, Normal & Hard), and are looking at ways to add an extra difficulty level on top of this post-release. Our goal has always been to avoid health padding where possible (i.e. just giving enemies more health), and instead have other systems that highlight differences between the difficulty modes.
All of the campaign levels in Riftbound are hand made and tested at each difficulty level, and we have some really nice control over how enemy waves spawn. Here are some of the factors we are able to tweak:
The delay between spawns per difficulty
How long you can stall enemies for per difficulty
Which enemies spawn and how many per difficulty
That's just the first level of control we have. On top of that we have the ability to adjust enemy health, speed, damage and abilities. As an example, the Summoner in hard mode spawns additional skeleton minions, and the Commander uses a more powerful inspire buff on enemies to make them move faster.
Finally, we also have control over adjustments for special levels such as Challenge Levels and Boss Battles. This allows us to move objectives and change victory requirements. A great example of this is Challenge Levels that require you to occupy fort tiles. On hard mode there are more tiles to occupy and some of them are closer to the enemy.
Casual (Story/Easy) In this mode we adjust the timing of enemies and make minor adjustments to health/armor values. This is great if you just want to play through the story. You can still lose if you aren't careful, but in general you can get away with more mistakes, have more time to react to threats, and the strategy you choose isn't too critical.
Normal Mode In normal mode you need to be a little more selective with your strategies, and if you make too many mistakes the enemy might still overrun you - but you will usually have a chance to recover and win the battle.
Hard Mode In hard mode enemies have what we consider "full" health and armor values. Multiple strategies will still be viable, but you will need to be more selective of your strategy to suit the battle. The enemy will punish you more for mistakes, and resource management is going to be more important than lower difficulties. Some special enemies have had their abilities adjusted and you will find them more of a threat, and bosses will do more to keep you on your toes.
You will also want to take advantage of certain game mechanics when playing hard mode, such as the ability to interrupt enemy attacks (if a big enemy is taking a slow heavy swing at your defender, stun him mid swing to prevent it), stalling enemies, smart positioning of defenders, and choosing upgrades to optimize your strategy.
Balancing takes a lot of work, and we go through several balance revisions until each difficulty feels right. The game is going to be fully supported through and after launch, so we will continue to tweak the balance and adjust things as required based on feedback.
Stay Up To Date!
Follow and Wishlist us to stay up to date with information about the game, we have more news and details about the game mechanics coming soon.
1 [Dungeon of Assassin] has been renewed. The rewards, obtainable items, and monster stats have been changed.
2. [Combination of Potion⑵]'s quest completion conditions have been changed. Both [Potion of Magic defenseⓛ] and [ⓧPotion of Magic defenseⓛ] can be completed.
3. Items that can be acquired from AOS have been changed.
4. You can combine RTK points using the combination of [Hunting Championship]. RTK points can be acquired in large quantities only by participating in [rivalry of local barons] and [Siege of Chang'An]. [Rivalry of local barons] and [Siege of Chang'An] would be a useless war if all supplies were available in normal times. So it stays in a state of slight deficiency.
5. Some of the mission rewards have been changed.
6. An error where [⒮freeze] was not displayed on the UI has been fixed.
7. Start selling [arrow⑵].
8. [fishing permitⓧ] is sold by [ⓧRTK-Point shop]. Because fishing can earn RTK points, the price of [fishing permitⓧ] is rather expensive.
9. In [Crown Heritage War], some monsters have been changed to be exposed on the screen. The conditions for acquiring rewards for participating in the war have been relaxed. Participants can obtain higher [Military Merits] than in other wars when using [ⓧPotion in battleⓛ] and [ⓧPotion in battleⓜ].
10. [⒮Ability of Recovery]'s required MP consumption has been reduced.
11. [ⓧPotion of synthesisⓜ] can be made into [ⓧPotion of synthesisⓛ] by using combinations.
Thank you for your continuous support towards Rules of Survival—Steam! In light of changes made to the operations of the game, Rules of Survival—Steam will cease operations starting from June 27, 2022 (15:00). Details are as follows:
1. April 27, 2022 (16:00): Download on Steam will be removed, players will no longer be able to download the game, and all top-ups and new registrations will be disabled. 2. June 27, 2022 (15:00): All game operations will be terminated on Steam and game servers will be shut down. (Players will not be able to log in the game or the official website; the Customer Service portal will also be unavailable) NOTE: After game servers have been shut down, all account data and character info (including but not limited to characters, Diamonds, items, materials) will be deleted.
Thank you to everyone who has offered tremendous support to Rules of Survival—Steam. From the date of this announcement, unused in-game Diamonds can still be used before June 27, 2022 (15:00). We hope you will keep enjoying the game. Please be informed and spread the news. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our customer service.
Just like you, it's hard for us to say goodbye to Rules of Survival—Steam. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your support and understanding. We hope to see you again in other NetEase games!
We would like to inform everyone that Luminary: Rise of the GoonZu shall perform its regular server maintenance, this procedure will be for the server refresh and some system improvements.
➡️ Start Schedule: 🔊 April 27, 2022 (PST/PDT) 🔊 12:00 AM PST/PDT
For more details about the maintenance, you can check our links.
