SOULMASK: Big Changes Make The Game Too Easy?

[@yspegel]

the problem is that some want hardcore, a lot want a more relaxed experience. Not everyone is in this game for the hardcore fighting. This is why you need different servers with different settings.

[@robertsnead2319]

Couldn't agree more I've logged thousands of hours in conan over the years swapping between pvp or pve depending on my mood for that play through sitting at currently over 1k hours in soulmask having done both pve and pvp here also we need the choice. Casuals boost sales and help with launch hardcore players keep the game alive

[@lvlrrx]

well its easy when you know what you're doing, and the server coefficient will play a bigger role to the game's difficulty and for me its very fun to play every single time, the amount of what ifs are just plenty and beyond, and will be more better when mods are implemented, this will diverse the vanilla concepts in to more player preference type, and for me this is the best move, and tbh it makes the MC more make sense making it from a extra body into something that truly embodiment the soulmask as it can copy, transfer consciousness, but also having some drawbacks that makes both MC and Tribeman transfer both flexible having their own pros and cons, because lets face it the aesthetic in this game is meeeh, especially in the character side, MC who's your visually pleased and customized character will be more usable and viable now, without devaluing the hunting for better tribesman but opens another goals which is find a better tribesman to either recruit or gene modify either way its a winwin for both pro MC and pro tribesman as both will now have the customization they want, except for the body and face hahaha, next goal is transmog and more mask variants, im also happy that they increased followers size, as a single player and lover of tactical guidance this is very helpful when tackling bigger contents, for me so far the changes are indeed great and better because they are listening to the community and are not close-minded for improvements and modifications imagine in a span of 1 month they made 600 changes in the game, thats really an on-hands approach and a kudos for the devs 👏👏👏👏👏

[@A7xrocksyou]

Maybe a nice balance is the direction they're going where early to mid game content is easier. On top of that, there can be further rewards added that can be earned by completing more difficult content- perhaps something a casual player might feel slightly uncomfortable with.

[@danieldalton1757]

Yeah - I was noticing that some of the achievements have pretty low percentages, and you commented that some people quit before the first boss. But there are also people like me, that are playing with 2 friends on a private server - and I have over 100 hours on this save and still haven't killed the first boss yet! LOL I love grindy games like this!

[@Sargonias]

After 200hours in, i ve only kill the 1st boss lol. I like leveling up all my tribes members, and building stuff.

[@leshasta9652]

I'm on a boosted server and even boosted it's still grindy. I enjoy the small things and enjoy playing my pace. I think players like to be sweaty try hards. I'm in no rush. The more customize option will make the games longevity of the games life. I think too many people want a game there own style only. But as the devs they are going to want to have more diverse player base to sell more and continue its life. If they make it too punishing the larger casual player base will leave. Games are to be enjoyed. They are not to be your life accomplishments. I love gaming but I don't find self worth by saying I grinded for a week straight and finished the game before others. 😂

[@Killashandra64]

love the game as is you choose the difficulty level you choose the direction of play my only complaint really is the direction of building pieces is to subtle and being able to recognise the difference means you are constantly having to remove and replace pieces so they are facing the same way lol

[@argophontes]

I don't think I've ever understood people wanting to police the difficulty settings that others use. My issue with the changes is the possibility of Soulmask winding up as Yet Another ARK/Conan Clone™. Really, I think this is the problem with the Early Access model in general, it tends to "genericize" games before their release due to the devs constantly shifting their goals/end states. Really, I'd like to see Soulmask go the other direction, and just provide the option of dismissing the initial tribesman and designate another one as the "default" one.

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

From my experience with Early Access games, I think the devs do great. They are brave and try things. Better now than later on when people are too used to it. So far I dont see a big issue with it being too similar. But I hope they wont make the control ability too obsolete as it is the core of the game.

[@Vocu]

most complaints are probably from single players who forgot they adjusted all their setting to make the game faster and easier official servers take forever to level, craft, etc.

[@DennyMK007]

This was the most objective video about the updates. They’ll still keep the servers running without the cheesing factor for the hardcore gamers to measure their “life” achievements 😉

[@yahim0568]

I like grinding but I found myself stuck around bronze gear for a while which is something that never happened to me in thousands of hours on other similar games such as ARK and Conan. people like me that work 8-9 hours a day don't really have that much free time to progress in a game like this , especially solo...

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

Yea the iron push here also took a while especially because we initially farmed in the poison dungeon and it was always a little adventure even getting iron going.

[@azwesjr]

I agree the Iron and above is very slow moving. I don't understand how it seems some people just fly pass the iron to steel so fast

[@Adrenalyze]

I'm currently struggling to move from bronze to enter the first dungeon. Four verry frustrating moments dying with my tribe man. Painful setback. In that respect, the game feels like a game from the year 2000. The other day my entire tribe died - I had no one to clear the ashes from the bonfire. The fire was extinguished... until 16 hours later they all died of starvation. It's like an unannounced hard reset. A game breaker for plebs and casuals - which is what I have to call myself now? Not sure. ^^

[@leshasta9652]

They're for private servers and therefore you could toggle them on or off. And official most likely would not change. As far as the main character in an increase to skills and abilities it will not change because the barbarians will have a double the cap

[@Jinz-re2hh]

Its a good step for the devs, but they should really do diff settings for diff servers, if people go onto a pvp server they want more hardcore experience. After they added the fire change its so painful on pvp if you can just insta spawn next to where you died rush in grab your stuff especially if youre having a teamfight where looting is not an option if youre still getting attacked from the other team. Furthermore the buffing of main character im indifferent about since i switch to one immediately after the quest pops up. I always wanted the main character to be taken out of the remodel table and be able to put onto a crafting bench the character could be stuck at lvl 10 whatever idc. Now on a pve server its a whole dif story . *edit and dont get me started on the sheer amount of portals now.........its way too much for a pvp server.

[@damianaguilar349]

My only problem is getting to bone and copper is a good paced grind.. but after copper i feel the grind to level for the next tier is to long

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

Working on a video about that exact topic right now

[@languageguy5539]

Your analysis makes sense

[@memyself356]

I agree. The changes for the main take the soul out of soulmask. Talking about official

[@Paul-jo6xj]

I looked at the main character as a type of Shaman whose talent points went into the darn mask. I mean ya sure.. you want your main character to have higher skill points? OK fine.. then take away skills from the mask to accommodate that. Take away your mimicry abilities. Take away your ability to be invisible etc., That is what your main character is bringing to the table. It is the actual most OP character in equation with his/her ability to dominate the minds of other tribe members. If someone wants to create a private server with weaker settings ok fine, but darn sure don't change official which nullifies achievements of people who have already done this or that.

[@BARZOOSRS]

thanks for the video tiia

[@TheStorm357]

Now they need to go back to old school server ideas. Official normal servers, Official hardcore servers, Official casual servers, Official PvE servers, etc to give those who do not want private server or solo run games the choice of what they want. Its more work for the devs, but these devs seem to be machines that just never sleep or eat with the speed they drop patches.

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

I think the problem is, that this will split up the community a ton. If you look at the player numbers you want to offer less servers so people actually meet other people in a game. On top a big server infra structure costs a whole as well.

[@nemesis851_]

If gamers only have the attention span, or only put in the effort of a Tiktok video, then that’s their problem, not a failure of the game. Modifying the game to be ‘easier’ I think is wrong. I think they really could have done better in portraying our place in the world as THE MASK, and how a token character found us. That the initial character should come with RANDOM TRAITS just like any other character we come across in the world

[@peternoone7902]

? I am one of the people that play solo. And this game, compared to Conan, is really much more difficult. It is the same as Ark when it comes to bosssfights, being solo you have to be the exception. And you will die a lot. Add PVP to this where people camp boss areas makes it even worse. I would say the boss fights should adjust to the amount of players

[@Coldheart322]

I like the concept that you play as the Mask, rather than a person. However to that end I think the devs would have been better off making your first character randomly, and given them low level stats rather than utterly terrible stats. Then, have the opening animation from the Mask's perspective, letting the player know they are the Mask and not the initial character they designed. Why go into the bother of designing a character if they are going to be forgotten about first opportunity? Personally I'm not sure why they are adding Fast Travel, when you have teleporters you can place already in game.

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

Maybe to avoid teleporter spam all over the map.

[@TheBrainstormie]

how can tribemen reach lvl 60 and do you know how I can change the server settings to save 10 tribemen now instead of 3

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

Level 60 after you defeated the griffin and the mammoth. Both unlock +5 levels. The 10 tribesmen are set in your server or singleplayer settings.

[@TheBrainstormie]

@@TiiaPlaysStuff I asked our server admin but he can't find anything for the tribesmen. and thx for the info with lvl 60

[@lvlrrx]

@@TheBrainstormie its under the setting called "Info Entry" for the 10 save tribesman

[@nathanburgett1599]

It seems just like exiles. Yeah they added another mechanic. So its exiles with a mask.

[@Phoenixfly92]

these are actually really level headed takes

[@RedWill42]

I mean at it's very foundation the game is just rolling. It's not exactly a super challenge to begin with. I think they are taking the wrong direction with the game tho, it's an amazing tribal automation and exploration game, but the tribal automation and actual tribe side of the game becomes very lackluster then all that's left is mindlessly hitting different colored rocks for resources. Soulmask It's not Rust and it is not Satisfactory... and if they try to make the game balanced and focus development direction around trying to be both of these genre's all that's going to happen is both communities will move on to games that focus more on exactly what they like. SM strength is it has a very unique automation and tribe management system, and that is what needs to be really fully fleshed out.

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

I honestly wish they put more work into the NPC AI and what they can actually do. I see big potential here.

[@peternoone7902]

And for the love of @#^, please give us more map place, please. More camps to raid. More challenges.

[@karremania]

I see many video's about soulmask, where clearly they running a private server with heavy boosted stuff. That is by default making stuff alot easier. I been playing with a friend on official and we did hit a brick wall at iron, while going 40 to 50 awareness. The Exp needed, the materials, the bosses, the dungeons (and lag), i very much say this is considerable harder then majority of surivival MMO's i played. Yes, part is just boring grind, yes part is just having better gear, but saying its 'easy'? Well, its more unbalanced/unfair. Take for example the masks, their abilties and the materials required, your tribemen boost mask comes from a lvl50 dungeon at wich point tribesmen became obsolete already. The 2nd boss upgrades takes gems only from lvl40 dungeons, where you probably just hit bronze level and barely can go iron. And then the RNG.. the stupid overly RNG on detering. Although all fixed at spawn, its a massive gamble when you deter a tribesman what stats he get, what perks he gonna get.. Where at times, i got the best stats from a 'low rank' detered and majority of 'masters' i can outright trow away since they got horrible stats or perks (really, a lvl50 master weapon with 'just' 109 weapon proficiancy?)

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

Coming from over 1000 hours ARK official I know one thing. I will never play a survival game on 1x again as these rates are not meant to make you enjoy the game longer but simply stay in the game longer. The only challenge in 1x is, how much you can suffer through a grind and a lot of people, me included play for enjoyment and not for suffering. I know there is a lot of elitism to play 1x and how this is the only legit way to play, I know that only the minority plays it that way. And many of those will quit before making any significant progress in the game.

[@karremania]

@@TiiaPlaysStuff I come from around 12.000 hours in Ark (official, same server since day 95 untill the day ASE shut down), but Ark comes from a slightly different angle.. Difficulty in majority is dictated by dino's and their mutations. And in those 12k hours my main goal was social interaction (dino's trading, building, helping new folks), something that kinda is obsolete in Soulmask (apart of helping fights or giving some materials - you cant even repair gear that is given if you havent unlocked it). And yes, the current 1x ASE was actualy already 2x, 'vanilla' ark was even worse. I dont say its 'the elite way' to play, but a 'way it was intended' and in my opinion balance should be depending on. But saying the game became too easy, while running already on 'easy mode' settings, kinda boils down to your own choice. The same as going inn Ark, grab a 20 army of 254dmg rexes and roflstomp every boss, even on official (yes, takes a week or so to get the rexes ready). Yes, going from scratch and doing your own mutations i understand you going on a 5x server (though i did a 200dmg stego all by mself, took a year), but then saying 'the game is too easy' is imho wrong to say. Yes, also in Ark the numbers in private servers eventualy outrise the official (still both had high numbers), but the community of trading dino's, materials and gear for official servers was and still is a very booming business, if such (community thing) lacks in a game, i agree that people will quite eventualy. But Ark, and quite a few other survival games, there is a ongoing progress, be it new tames, be it new gear, you will get from A to B eventualy, it is only time that is the changing aspect. In Soulmask i dont have this feeling, i dont feel 'if i just continue i will get there', because stuff is simply locked behind and often hard-capped at certain set points. Yes, sit afk 24/7 sinking in passive awareness might hit it eventualy, but those 'gaps' are too far in between. My rough gues is lvl49-50 exp needed nearly equals the entire 1-40 exp gained, if not more, while you still 'locked' in Iron gear and gain little to no progression to make your journey anthing faster (unlike Ark, where you still got range of imprint, mutations, weapon % craft, army size etc).

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

@@karremania See but there is already a point where you took shortcuts. You traded animals to do the game content. Rexes other breeders have worked on for years. I have seen a lot of people who went and mated their tamed rexes with Berts Army and then went back to their servers showing off the stats they had. Newbies would have had Gigas thrown at them. People left after a week cause the game was boring as they worked on nothing themselves. Got bussed through the bosses and just sat in their bases collecting wealth. As someone who bred Gigas on official, thats the kind of insanity that is not for balancing reasons, its to keep people playing. And I love that in Soulmask you have to work for yourself. There is barely any bussing and cheesing as while you can take people with you through the bosses, its the materials you need, not in particular the kill. I love that you can't gift people recruits unless they are tribed up with you. The game requires you to play it and not wiggle some artificial (or real) currency at someone who does treat gaming as their full time job. Even official ARK was only playable because people were bending the rules into grayzones that eventually got fixed but often didnt. A lot was optimzing for exploits for as long as they worked and then justifying it with the low rates. One of the reasons I stopped playing official btw because you would feel stupid for not breaking the rules and playing by them.

[@Brando7Calrizz]

I play on official and can get more xp from mining 10 clay nodes instead of defeating the first 3 bosses, like wtf. You dont even get a sliver of xp from killing bosses. Fought the first 3 bosses before lv 25. My tribemates are high 30s and say the same thing mine for xp.

[@jr6366]

Mining and smashing through weak tribals yea. The awareness gained through actions is not very balanced.

[@MrCrilliver]

I think they did a poor job of introducing the “Mask”. I don’t think many people knew exactly what they were getting into. You should have just started out as a tutorial body and been taught how to recruit/takeover a better NPC. Making it a progression of more and better tribesmen as the game goes on and leave the whole Chieftain out of the equation.

[@cadaverouspawn]

I agree,, being a chieftain seems pointless if you just leave lmthem at camp and have a dozen better, stronger people surrounding you

[@socialmediainfo-um6hw]

That was the point. It’s like Long Dark go figure out yourself.

[@GrandelZeon]

most of them get raided before lvl 20 XD theses why the leave most play on pvp

[@cmdrmarrogh9024]

Thank you for this summarization. Lets see how big this change will be, when it has happened. It looks like not far more than a great quality of life update. From my side, I appreciate this step as a step into direction of casual players like me. And I also appreciate the motivation of the devs for trying to catch all or at least more players. As far as I understand, that level and stat increases are still behind a big wall that many player will never reach. I think for the 'pro gamers' there will not be a really change in their play style. They may think, that the devs take away something from them when the game gets a little bit easier or there are some quality of life features they did not have in the beginning. I still playing most of the time with my first character. I reached awareness level 50 last night and I am on the leap into the iron age. I love the game how I play the game. I also love the soulmask mechanic that 'thralls' become 'leaders'.I would never call them so. They are just 'my people'. :D I like the idea that the devs address both sides. I really hope in future the first character will not sitting around depressive after he give away his mask. He really should be better integrated into the game and he also should be able to be deployed and he should take over tasks in the base. (His base that he build up and his tribe that he brought together.)

[@billwerth2]

Could it be that all the people that thought the game was too hard have quit playing? Now just hard core players are left and don't like the game being made easier? I'm in the first camp. The grind was just too much even with easy single player settings. Not sure I'll ever come back. I played more hours than most before quitting. Never really understood the game concept. If they truly want the mask to be for the whole tribe, then why is the initial character treated differently (can't die)? I see this as a failure to execute their concept in a way that is apparent to those that have never played a game where there is no main character. Also why not have options for players so there is no permadeath at all? Why only the initial character that is just going to encourage those that want no permadeath to only use the initial character?

[@Techstation28]

the problem for most it is it takes almost 2 weeks with a normal life with out doing exploits to hit awareness strength 30 and for pvp servers to wipe after 3 months why grind that hard to lose everything. and that why a lot of people are quitting on top of being in pvp servers where its just 2-3 groups teaming up and wiping out servers. the base character being boosted as much as it was, was not what people wanted. they wanted the base character to mean more in game play cause for the rest of the game your starter character is useless. when my buddy and i switched servers we hit iron in a couple days and that's with doing exploits. for the npcs and why people dont have that achievement is there's about 20-30 videos telling people not to get npcs till after they beat the first boss. the base character now has stats equivalent to a purple tier npc which is ridiculous imo. your base character should only have stats of a common tier npc and than should be used as a tribe chieftain roll where they sits in a throne boosting moral and work load of npcs. this boost they did made it to where getting additional thralls to use almost usless now cause at having 90 proficiency now means you can practically do everything in the game with out needing npcs. all you need is pump points into durability and carry 2-3 of each weapon and your fine yeah stuff might take awhile to kill but there's no reason to go for legendary armor or gear when you can stack mods on all your weapons and gear bring damage and durability up. i have been using common iron for a week with stacked mods on it and i can do just about everything in the game.

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

I am pretty sure that PvP in survival games are only doable when youre no-lifing these games. As soon as you have a normal life you are in disadvantage.

[@Techstation28]

No Conan it’s doable same with soulmask it’s very unbalanced though in soulmask. Who ever reaches iron first basically controls the server

[@BertMerlin57]

Yes, i fear they ruin in the game. Its not seem a game most denand some brain , work and time…. Its sad…

[@MrAsmoka]

Well I think if you don't watch any video on YT it's still the case. It's pretty overwhelming at start, many secret and hidden mechanics.

[@BertMerlin57]

@@MrAsmoka .. its refreshing yes…

[@IgnizNova]

I just laugh at these changes and both sides, the ones asking for things to be easier and the ones whining about the game being too easy now, both "solo/local" players are using GM commands and both complain too much

[@TiiaPlaysStuff]

@@IgnizNova How are you able to use GM commands in solo play? Still looking for a method.

[@DerpDeder231]

It was nvr a main character it was an initial and it should of died if it died.. they really screwed a good concept

[@socialmediainfo-um6hw]

Yeah 450hrs in before all the comnplainers and all these gamers complaining about nothing. I do love the 13 portals makes the traveling better that’s all it really needs. This game is becoming Conan with all the Gamers request and most of these gamers have skill issues. 😂. Pretty soon this game will uninstalled. The Devs should not building the game from Gamers request.

[@darkrebel123]

Agreed. I also have about 450 hours. My only major complaint with the state of the game is that the default EXP gain and default respurce drop amounts are generally too low. Of course this can easily be fixed by playing single player or custom server, but I would ideally prefer to play on official servers, with the EXP and drops set to about 2x the current default. On my single player playthrough with the max 5X exp setting, it still took me at least 150 hours to reach awareness 60. Ofc it could be done much faster, I wasn't trying to rush to 60, wanted to enjoy the content along the way. But on default settings I'll never stick with the game for 500 hours on a single playthrough just to get to end game content.