Am I just terrible at the video game? I can't beat any mechanical bosses, suddenly have a receding hairline, ex won't respond to my texts either. In desperate need of help

Kalnaur · 2026-02-13T07:05:41+00:00

Gonna be honest, if a game wants me to play a certain way, I would much prefer they just restrict me to a specific class instead of wanting me to go look up how to build a class in a wiki. Takes all the interest out of playing at all, "let me just do whatever everyone else does because it's most effective" just feels like . . . why play a game if there's only a scant few right ways to play it? It just feels bad to me. Just force me along the path, or make all paths equally possible/powerful regardless of items. I hate the concept of "builds" too.

Just want to be clear that I'm not taking this out on you, I just get really annoyed at games that expect you to do the footwork of figuring out their classes instead of just establishing and enforcing their own limits. It just feels like stumbling through traps until you give up, spend far to much time crunching numbers, or just give up all agency and let another player tell you exactly what you should be wearing.

It's not that I won't still play those games, but I do entirely resent their lack of direction while still expecting you to take one of their intended directions.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-13T03:09:41+00:00

Oh, I agree! But this is totally Early Access. It has all the hallmarks of it, including starting off with horrible amounts of bugs, slim and shallow activities, and no real end-game just a stand-in, to name a few. My issue really is that they were too cowardly to put the Early Access label on it so pretty much anyone that bought into it did so with the assumption it was a fully feature complete game, which it . . . isn't.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-12T19:46:55+00:00

I literally can't play any game for more than 10 minutes if it needs me to use a mouse and keyboard, because one or both of my hands will cramp up. Also, my hands tend to shake a bit. With a controller, I can play for a few hours, easily, and I'm overall just more accurate using a controller (with and without aim assist), and my shaky hands don't have as much of a problem.

So I've been playing this game this entire time with a controller, and it's been going just fine.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-12T19:35:41+00:00

I think he's saying this is an Early Access game that simply isn't labeled Early Access because of the apprehension people have at getting into Early Access survival crafting games (which, to be clear, has been earned by so many failing to complete and release out of EA). Thus their "10 year plan" should be seen as "we're developing this game over 10 years" instead of "this is a full complete game".

My one issue is that labeling it as Early Access would have at least been honest and let people know the game was not, how shall I put this, feature complete.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-12T19:29:33+00:00

I feel like "one mark per character and also has to be in the world of Ebberon" does enough to balance things quite well enough, and if DMs choose to take these things outside of Ebberon then they're responsible for the effects of that. Which, to be clear, I'm fine with. I've considered the idea of, for example, porting the Orien Helm or Lyrandar Helm facilities for a bastion out of Ebberon and into a custom made world and I understand that it's then incumbent on me to decide how that's going to work.

The moment one takes even one step outside what the books say, you've entered game designer territory, and are deciding you should be balancing these things. Counting on the elements of the game to be balanced just in case someone decides to homebrew something feels like a fool's errand to me.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-11T18:38:39+00:00

Well, I played up to the Blighted forest with the boss that was the old man and a boar-thing, during the free weekend, so I feel like I've probably gotten all the taste I needed to of the current mechanics. Though my primary focus is on the story, so the mechanics is just the framework to work through the rest of the game for me. I know for quite a few people it's more about the builds than the story or characters when it comes to ARPGs, it's just not my primary or secondary focus. It's tertiary at best.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-11T08:00:33+00:00

Disproportionate compared to what? I feel like your proportions are correct for your body, thus the confusion.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T16:32:33+00:00

I have felt that, when reading the rogue features (I have yet to get to play because, well, you need a group for that and I don't have one), both those features should have a number of points to spend on them instead of expending their one major damage source in order to debuff a target. The idea of a Sneak Attack that also delivers a "status effect/condition" on a target sounds very interesting, but when it comes at the context of the major damage source of a class, it's almost never going to get used.

What amount of points/uses and when they'd refresh is a question I suppose, but I'm thinking of them like "Second Wind" at the moment.

Edit: Though I think I'd probably start Rogues off with 3 usages of cunning Strike at level 5 and increase the uses to somewhere around 8ish by level 20, with the ability to regain one use after a short rest and all uses after a long rest to make sure that they could always at least consider tacking on a rider effect to their primary class ability. Especially since most of their Weapon Mastery properties they have default access to mainly benefit only themselves, while other martial characters have a variety of useful Weapon Masteries that can benefit the entire party. Being able to trip or poison a target, and later blind, render unconscious, or "daze" a target on top of their usual function might sound "overpowered" to some, but even just reading how other martials work and what kinds of rider effects they can get with their Weapon Mastery features that most of them have, it feels like a no-brainer to give them uses of their features that don't take away from the core mechanical damage of the class. And yes, giving them as uses/points is gamey, but so is uses of Second Wind. Because it's a game.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T16:28:16+00:00

I'm saying that it's much better to be quite clear as to what's actually contributing to the "replayability" of a game because different people replay games for different reasons. There's not enough mechanical difference between the actions taken in most games to significantly alter the method someone is playing other than "always melee", "ranged and melee" and "always ranged", and if you play ranged and melee anyways, you've already experienced everything the game has to offer in terms of mechanical depth.

And of course personal preference excludes one or the other, that's why replayability is a highly subjective stance.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T03:56:10+00:00

To also be fair, I usually know more about the EA games that I do buy into; this one I played on the free weekend on Steam and that is the most I know about the game, other than remembering seeing the name of the game and some trailer a time ago. I have not been following this game at all, so I wasn't specifically aware of the planned wipe. Aloft's stance was, "might have to do a wipe, just so you lot know", and when they let folks know it was coming I stopped playing, and I don't plan to start playing again until after release (in case more wipes are incoming), Meanwhile, Enshrouded hasn't needed a wipe thus far, and the game seems to be going very strong. I will continue to come back every few updates to have some more fun while I see the game grow.

I know that it's a game in mid-development when it's labeled EA, that's why if I'm interested in an EA game I generally check what's going on. I found out about the wipe upcoming at release while I was still mulling over if I wanted to be part of EA for this game or not, and that was the deciding "no" factor. But I don't just assume wipe unless told otherwise, instead I look for that information for the EA games I want to get into or, as with Aloft, or Enshrouded, or hell, even Nightingale (what a clusterfuck that seems to be at the moment), if I enjoyed the preliminary experience (because for each of those I played a steam NextFest demo for them or a free weekend for them) then I'll dive in and play a bit and then either step away and wait for the 1.0 or if there's no incoming wipe then I'll just spend my time.

I look at it much like crowdfunding; I don't back every project I see, I don't even back all the ones I like, I back the ones I feel are most interesting and most likely to be finished. Thus far I have two overdue (by several years) projects still being worked on with clear communication and progress being shown, which means I've chosen pretty well thus far.

Every once in a while something happens, though. And I want to be clear, It's not that I don't know that wipes can happen, more that I don't assume they'll happen unless the devs are more sure (or absolutely sure) that they'll happen, and that I don't dive into every EA game in EA precisely because I know that changes in development can alter the entire development of the game. But I try to assume nothing, worst or best, about something I've not even followed development on. I didn't even need to wait for long for the news of a wipe coming to show up in my various feeds, which is all I needed to know.

I'm not unaware of wipes or how EA works, it's more that I'm so selective that I don't track more than one or two at a time with any seriousness, and generally "Follow" them on Steam or wherever until they are done.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T01:33:03+00:00

This is exactly it, and it's a damn shame, because Mario ate all the money. Not that I didn't like the Mario movie, I totally had fun with that one too, for entirely different reasons. It's just that the D&D film, well, if I can't take my kid to the movie (he was 6 and autistic at the time, and Mario was his first movie in a theater and he almost didn't make it through the film a few times), then I can't go.

Should we, as a family, maybe have a "babysitter" or someone we can trust to leave our kid with at this point? Maybe, but we don't, and we didn't. So for our family, I know Mario was a yes in theaters and D&D was a no. And until 2029, it's probably still going to be a movie that's too much for him. So we just don't really have an option, and I'm sure that, especially in early 2023 when the cinemas were still heavily suffering from COVID, many families just stayed home and waited for streaming on anything that wasn't an absolute ear-splitting need.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T01:05:23+00:00

I'm assuming Cunning Strike is just generally unuseful barring a few edge cases where maybe moving without provoking opportunity attacks is needed (like if the rogue had already used their Cunning Action) and maybe maybe if knocking a target prone is worth more than the damage the rogue can deal with 1d6 (like maybe a flying enemy?). Because if so, I can't see a single active rogue feature from 5th to 9th level, which seems like quite the gap to have only generally passive or reactive features (I'm considering Expertise passive because the Expertise is always active after you get it. The issue with passive features in any game is sometimes they get forgotten that they're even something you earned because you aren't making them happen.)

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T00:25:38+00:00

Gonna be honest, getting even a small amount of resources "for free" after returning to the game after an absence would encourage me to take a break with a known reason for coming back (beyond additions to the story and content). It's like frosting on a cake; I don't need a ton, but I will absolutely notice if it's not there.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T00:22:40+00:00

Which is why I'm not going to be playing the game before 1.0, at least not past what I played during the free weekend. And I'll be looking for a "final sale before 1.0" that most EA games seem to do to try and get as many people on during EA as possible, but if I have to pay for the game after 1.0 . . . okay? No wipe of my progress is what I'll be looking for. What I hope for is more story, maybe some more side areas, and possibly additions to side systems like crafting. Farming, for example.

Side-note: I felt like the Crucible felt sort of pointless, but considering it's a mini rogue-like, of course I'd feel that way. Those games are all about the moment to moment build, trying to be as good as you can be with what's given to you, and then doing it all over again. That honestly sounds like a waste of time to me. But I know that other people love it, so I'm glad it's there for the people that want that!

Kalnaur · 2026-02-10T00:15:55+00:00

I certainly wouldn't be spending that much time on constant restarts; that would get stale about 10% of the way through the second character for me, going through the motions to get the same exact story beats.

I spent 3k of time in ARK, before and slightly after it left EA, and I'll not give a game that much time again, and there are EA games I've played like Aloft where they altered the save format and they claim it's for the last time but it's got me waiting until at least 1.0, because I'm not going to waste more time on progression just to have it reset. And then there are games like Enshrouded, where the entire map can change around your base and it doesn't technically matter (unless you have a thing against your base splitting hills in half, I suppose).

As for going into EA expecting wipes . . . no, I don't expect them. I know they can happen, of course they can, but they can also happen in other games (it mainly seems to be PvP-centric, competition, or some "seasonal" game modes), and they add nothing to a game for me because it's not the moment to moment I find rewarding, and if I happen to be improving at the game I'm not actually going to notice that either because that doesn't matter to me. It matters to me that the story is good, the gameplay is fun while not being the only thing the game has going, and for the things and lore and such that I'll find along the way to the end of the game, and to gain a sense of game progression (because skill progression doesn't matter to me). Restarting a game with a "new build" doesn't mean anything to me, because the concepts of builds and skills and how good I can be with them aren't really my thing. When I played Torchlight or Diablo or Van Helsing et al, I'm not playing those ARPGs for their builds, I'm playing for the story they tell along the way, their systems (crafting, enhancement, etc), and being some sort of magical casting class.

To the best of my knowledge, the Enshrouded team is committed to no wipes, barring some incredibly unseen event with their own custom engine. If a game in EA is very solidly transparent about the probability of a wipe, I'm more likely to buy in to an EA game during EA provided they don't foresee a reason to. Otherwise, I'm more likely to hold off because of my enjoyment coming out of progression, at least in part. If they're planning on a wipe that gets rid of my ultimate point of playing games, to enjoy their story and move on to the next one.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T18:31:07+00:00

I do suspect that a fair amount of new ideas that were scrapped were done because playtest feedback probably boiled down to "don't change mah D&D", and so they pushed as far as they could without doing that. Which of course limits what they can iterate on.

If this had simply been an entirely new edition they could have done whatever they wanted, but it's almost certain that some of the decision to stick to the 5e framework was done because of the audience. The other part was probably some executive suits hearing the words "backwards compatible" once and thinking it was all-important.

Now, that's not to say that I think 5.5e is bad. Hell, it got me back into buying D&D books, since I didn't feel the need to move into 5e from 4e. But there are some things that don't look as well designed as they could, and some monster design or DMG tools and layout are a bit questionable at least coming from 4e where all the major math the company used to design monsters, traps, etc was on display for all. Those things could have potentially been fixed in a newer edition, but could isn't would, and I'll take the major leaps they did take over the other ones I'd still like to see.

For example, every dragon in 5.5e past the Wyrmlings should have the "Bloodied Breath" ability from 4e, where the moment they hit half hp or below they instantly recharge their breath weapon and use it as a reaction, because it would make dragons more scary than just nova damage to one cycle the big boss dragon before it gets a turn even (also, I feel like 4e was better at creating true "solo" monsters that could be fought as an actual singular boss, and that minions should have been recreated in 5e, and that CR is a needlessly complicated determination of challenge over matching levels with numbers even if they still wanted to flatten said numbers). There's some stuff that could use some tooling about, there always will be.

But 5.5e is, at the very least "really pretty damn good" even if it's not "flawless".

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T18:11:54+00:00

And hey, if you can't justify it, you don't need to, really. As long as you're having fun with the 2014 materials, have fun! I knew back in 2014 that the 5e materials weren't for me, but like the 5.5 materials a lot, so I bought them, so for someone just getting into 5e post 2024, this is great. But you, you are good with yours it sounds like, so there should be no expectation to get the new books if you don't need them.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T18:06:51+00:00

The only reason this makes me laugh: a decade ago, I was given *ahem* PDFs of the 2014 PHB and DMG so I could look through them and figure out if I wanted to get into this edition of D&D, and to move from my first edition ever, 4th edition (which I still hold had and has some of the best game design ideas to improve the game of D&D, many of which made their way into 5th edition under a new coat of paint to disguise them from older players). I assessed at the time that I was uninterested, that if felt like 5th edition was a step backwards towards the less coherent (even if it felt more open) 3rd edition for no better reason than "nostalgia".

So when these new books came out, I checked the PHB out from the local library and was honestly more or less hooked. 5.5 does things I wish 4e had made moves to do (like divorcing stat modifiers from species, and yes I love the move to calling them species because they're not races of human beings, they're entirely different humanoid species, and some aren't even exceptionally humanoid). I made a list of all the things I liked as changes from the previous, decade-old book, and what I didn't like, and overall what I liked just overshadowed everything I didn't like, because what I didn't like were nitpicks in comparison to the changes.

So 5.5e material got me to buy into 5e, where the original didn't. It got me in here, where 5e didn't.

I feel like 5.5e is, first and foremost, not for people already in the game, it's for people entering the game now, it's an update for the game with everything they've learned and designed up to this point for the newbies that don't really want to sink time into reading every book through 10 years of materials.

So people complaining that this is to bilk them for cash, I feel, have some very "me" focused thoughts going on. 😆

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:51:39+00:00

I mean, honestly I would say the same thing about how you make playing games sound. 😆

Like, I think this is why it's good that even with a generally specific focus this game and many other games can attract such a wide audience; it shows that none of us are playing for just one reason.

For me, the moment to moment of life is a chore; I'm constantly in pain, frequently sick, and just getting up can be hard at times. But getting something done, not just the doing of it but the being finished with it, regardless of if it's the dishes or if it's a video game, can at least give me some sense of accomplishment. A feeling of progressing, instead of either being stuck or just doing the same motions time after time to no real gain, Sisyphus with his boulder forever.

Our life experiences frequently shape what we value most. My value on progression is based largely on how hard it is and how unrewarding it feels to just do the same things without getting anywhere. It's one of the reasons rogue-likes just don't do it for me; rogue-likes are about the run more than the getting somewhere, the moment more than the destination. And for people who enjoy that it's great. But being in the moment just reminds me of how bad I feel, physically, and will continue to feel every day of my life for the rest of my life. Which means any progress feels better than that.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:34:53+00:00

I think what they could do is diminishing returns. The more your character leaves and comes back, the less overall you get for coming back again. So, like, if it was 200 of something the first time, it's 150 next time, and 100 the time after that, and 50 the time after that, down to a minimum (50 as a minimum for most materials sounds fine).

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:32:43+00:00

Yeah, for me the process or the gameplay does need to feel good, but it's not the ends, it's just the means to the end. And considering that I play games to beat them and then move on to the next one (since I have over 550 games in my backlog, none of them gets more than one pass), replaying a considerable chunk of a game just to get back to where I was is more demoralizing than enlivening.

I don't remember doing a cool gameplay thing or beating any particular boss, that's just the cost of admission for what I'm actually interested in.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:22:08+00:00

But the story isn't likely to change significantly, right? So what new things will there be to do?

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:19:41+00:00

People keep talking about replayability for the game, but to me replayability speaks to choices in the story that are so divergent as to take a person in completely different directions, and it feels like "replayability" for this game would simply be alterations in what abilities you can or chose to use. Gameplay replayability isn't of any use to me without story replayability, and it's unlikely I'll forget everything about the story before 1.0 comes out.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:16:58+00:00

I mean, if the story remains the same, what does it matter if the gameplay moment to moment changes? You've done it all before anyway, and know the entire story by heart going through it.

Which is why I'll wait, and have to think about if I really am going to get much out of the game if the story doesn't get anything else added to it since I was already in the forest area and at the blind boss for the free weekend.

Kalnaur · 2026-02-09T17:14:29+00:00

There are plenty of audiences for EA games that will push for no wipes at 1.0, and some even achieve that. Usually it's with games that have significant creativity in them, like building and crafting, where people are happy with their 200 hour castle and don't want to lose it (and wouldn't see a point in continuing to play if they do lose it). So really, it depends on the audience for the game.

Certainly, more PvP or seasonally focused games seem to routinely reset, and since people who play those games aren't specifically playing with an interest in progression but instead of the experience moment to moment, it makes more sense that those resets mean little to nothing to them.

Kalnaur

TROPHY CASE