A Newbie's POV -- Too Much Grind

[rgeneson]

So I've just started in the Beta test and, while this was my opinion within the first 30 minutes, I've played for a few days before posting anything. There is too much grind in the early levels, I'm no expert at these types of games but I'd expect that after 3-4 days of serious play I'd at least be through 'beginners brigade'.

I wouldn't mind it so much if I got anything at all for all the work, but unless I finish the dungeon I've wasted my time for maybe 1-10 gold. A bit of grind, even unrewarding grind, is to be expected but this game has a TON.

I'm no game designer so I've no idea how to fix it (maybe re-balance things so that a same-level monster isn't a death sentence half the time in the normal dungeons?) Like I said, I'm sure that my skills are very low, but, as things are, if this had been a demo I would not buy the product.

Perhaps your target audience is people who are already very experienced with this type of puzzle/crawler in which case you've certainly hit your mark but as a total newbie I find the current learning-curve off-putting.

Sorry for all the negativity, I really like what you've put together here and think Desktop Dungeons will be an awesome experience once I've learned all the tricks I need to get through a dungeon. It's just my two-cents.

Ryan

[Darvin]

It's very important that beginners like yourself speak up. The forums are dominated by people who have been playing for months and know every trick in the book. As a result, the developers are much more likely to hear about obscure exploits that allow you to defeat the boss as a 1st level character rather than legitimate complaints by beginners who are struggling the easier dungeons.

So, welcome to the DD forums and I hope we hear more from you.

[Lujo]

Very true of both. Game has a bit of a rough start, and the forums have too much insane veteran feedback.

Welcome aboard.

[Xaxyx]

I would even go so far as to suggest splitting up the forums a bit -- a Newbie forum, a Strategy forum, a Super-Veteran-Game-Balance forum... however you'd like to arrange it. But at least some division of sorts, so that the newbies have a logical place to go for newbie-level tips and advice without being overwhelmed by advanced analyses of features that they (we!) aren't even aware of yet.

[Lujo]

Xaxyx - I wan't to see what you do for your second post. QFC should hire you as a consultant for you first one. Seriously. As long as I get a tiny subforum for my incessant spamming in the veteran part, so I don't have to start a proper blog.

[Nandrew]

We've been meaning to sticky some more newbie-friendly threads for a while now, so that people can regularly go to them and find stuff out.

If any stand-out threads illustrating some good early-game stuff come about, we can pin them to the top of the board.

Actually, speaking of which, I should just get around to graduating one of them now.

[gjaustin]

I recently started a new profile and was surprised by how much harder it was to get going.

[The Avatar]

Yeah, the bank caps are MEAN. They make it much harder to get started.

[Lujo]

I've been mentioning it fr a while. There's a nasty clump at lvl3 guilds, and the second level directional dungeons give nothing. Having to pay for the Berserker and the ability to locker items must be really hard on newbies, and since quite a few uselfull items are unlocked by challenges, the dungeons get harder overall.

Also, newbies don't know about gold windfalls like TT and Gloves of Midas. Early game could be completely unplayable without TT, just because of the gold farm. Can't remember the last time I tried it any other way.

[Leem]

Hi there,

I'm still new to DD myself. But I would like to add that maybe a topic with general tips and guidelines regarding some of the challenges and deities (currently stuck on wizard silver myself, I want that mageplate) would be nice. The way things are going now, I am already insanely happy if I manage to finish 1 dungeon/challenge a day.

Regarding deities, I unlocked TT and Mysteria right now, but somehow, TT punishes me more than he rewards me. Now I tried to follow the wiki's advice and follow him late, but I found out that I do not have enough low leveled enemies left by that time to really farm any piety.

I am greatly into difficult challenges, but my lack of experience in dungeon roguelikes makes me feel like even the normal dungeons are close to vicious difficulty already (even though this obviously isn't the case, the hard dungeon (hanging rocks) was even more brutal for me).