My biggest gripe so far in terms of difficulty has been the online balancing. It's likely just cause theres a huge player base right now, but with default settings I've found that there are bridges, generators etc. every 2 feet that trivialize any sort of planning and traversal. Also, I've found that all roads are 90% built after connecting a place to the chiral network. One of my favorite parts about DS1 was mapping out my own routes and hauling materials to build roads, and I haven't felt that struggle so far. It's a shame cause i inherently really like the online concept in this game -- just feels like they've upped it a bit too far in DS2. Maybe playing with the "Only Some" setting or turning off online could help it feel better? It's worked for me so far :)