I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a nice base to return to, but that you should try not being able to portal back to that base every night. Go out on a long journey and leave the portal at home. It really is a different game, and it makes you think and plan much more, which is the difficulty that I'm after.

The inventory space taken by portal mats is nothing compared to what you need to pack if venture into mislands and don't know when you might return.

Why would you need a portal to return at the end of a gaming session? Maybe if you're playing coop and trying to coordinate, but I don't see any reason otherwise.

As for the starred opponents, I still don't think that would make any difference. Maybe you could make the previous biome a bit more relevent, but why do you need to go to that biome? Why would you not just avoid it? Doesn't everyone already just gravitate toward black forest or meadows no matter what level they're at?

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

IMO it's pointless to add stars or just increase the HP/DPS of mobs. You can already get that affect by just not upgrading your equipment as much. There are also already many other ways of increasing difficulty with self-imposed restrictions.

This isn't really about increasing the difficulty. It's more about letting some enemies remain relevant. So I don't think self imposed restrictions solve this potential issue in a good way.
Do I need Grey dwarves to scale? Not at all. Do I want to run around naked in the Plains to feel vulnerable to Deathsquitos? No. Having 1* or 2* Deathsquitos before Yagluth is dead isn't a great option either.
The chance of facing a 1*-2* Deathsquito or a 2* Wraith would however keep me on my toes a bit more even when I have progressed further in the game.

How many of you spend time making your base "raid proof" or portal home at night to maximize rested buff. Raise your hand if you have a carpet next to your bed, or even have a door where you sleep? How many have spent the night sleeping completely exposed under a ribcage in mistlands?

It's very much a part of the game to build a nice home with good resting bonus. If you believe this thread is just about asking for options to make things more miserable, you're mistaken.
My main base isn't the least raid proof though. It's a viking longhouse with no moat or walls. The hen house has some walls though.

IMO, the devs should encourage more non-traditional playstyles, not just make mobs more difficult to kill. One way they could do that is to remove the boss locks so we could gain access to everything without going through the linear progression of the bosses.

I don't know. I like the old school, linear progression this game offers.

Another would be to make reasonable limits on the portal. Prevent or limit pocket portal for instance. Maybe have the ability to add an adjustable cooldown on portals, so you can only use a portal every X amount of time, and/or require much more infrastructure to be in place so they can only be built in bases.

This could be experimented with. I rarely do those pocket portal runs though. ...but on exploring boat trips, of course I carry portal materials. I think that's intended though. There's a time limit on most game sessions.

IMO, portal use (or non-use) is a complete game changer. I think most don't even consider it because it can be a huge time sink moving things around, but I think there could be a compromise to disallow pocket portals, but still allow their use for getting across the map quicker. If they did that, I think they could also then remove the restriction on moving metals.

Not sure how such a setup would look. I think the current mechanic is pretty good. Portals take up space to build, there's a high enough cost to prevent me from spamming them, they take up 4 inventory slots if you include the workbench, which given the limited inventory space is bothersome enough.
I think it comes down to the players in this case. I use portals, but they're restrictive enough to not make me rely on them too much.

The one change I would make with mobs is to make them more aggressive, and (as others have mentioned), remove the dancing around. They could also make biomes like the plains more dynamic. Everything there just stands around waiting for you to pick them off with a bow. Why doesn't the whole village go on alert when someone drops dead next to the campfire? I find that especially ridiculous.

That would be a good change for a more difficult mode. Seekers can be very aggressive in groups though.

Another idea that I had recently was to remove the "GPS" functionality of the map. I think a reasonable compromise between the current Valheim Maps mode and no-map would be to remove the mini-map and delay updates of the main map until you sleep. It could even look more like a hand-drawn (not perfect) map. The idea being that you update the map when you get to camp.

Another good idea for a hardcore mode. Could add another layer to the exploration aspects.

In that mode, when you're in new places, your going to pretty much know where you are, since you will see the map changing there, but otherwise, if you get blown off course in a storm, you will only be able to know where you are by looking at features around you and finding similar on the map.

I like the idea, but I think it would have to come with some other changes too, if I was ever to try that mode. It would likely add a lot of time to the game. Maybe it could be a more explorative mode with a less linear progression as you suggested above, but also with reduced cost to build and progress. ..an easier/faster progression by other means than grinding.

edit: ..I also have surrounded the pig/farming area with bee hives as protection. I doubt it's all that raid proof still.

IMO it's pointless to add stars or just increase the HP/DPS of mobs. You can already get that affect by just not upgrading your equipment as much. There are also already many other ways of increasing difficulty with self-imposed restrictions.

How many of you spend time making your base "raid proof" or portal home at night to maximize rested buff. Raise your hand if you have a carpet next to your bed, or even have a door where you sleep? How many have spent the night sleeping completely exposed under a ribcage in mistlands?

IMO, the devs should encourage more non-traditional playstyles, not just make mobs more difficult to kill. One way they could do that is to remove the boss locks so we could gain access to everything without going through the linear progression of the bosses.

Another would be to make reasonable limits on the portal. Prevent or limit pocket portal for instance. Maybe have the ability to add an adjustable cooldown on portals, so you can only use a portal every X amount of time, and/or require much more infrastructure to be in place so they can only be built in bases.

IMO, portal use (or non-use) is a complete game changer. I think most don't even consider it because it can be a huge time sink moving things around, but I think there could be a compromise to disallow pocket portals, but still allow their use for getting across the map quicker. If they did that, I think they could also then remove the restriction on moving metals.

The one change I would make with mobs is to make them more aggressive, and (as others have mentioned), remove the dancing around. They could also make biomes like the plains more dynamic. Everything there just stands around waiting for you to pick them off with a bow. Why doesn't the whole village go on alert when someone drops dead next to the campfire? I find that especially ridiculous.

Another idea that I had recently was to remove the "GPS" functionality of the map. I think a reasonable compromise between the current Valheim Maps mode and no-map would be to remove the mini-map and delay updates of the main map until you sleep. It could even look more like a hand-drawn (not perfect) map. The idea being that you update the map when you get to camp.

In that mode, when you're in new places, your going to pretty much know where you are, since you will see the map changing there, but otherwise, if you get blown off course in a storm, you will only be able to know where you are by looking at features around you and finding similar on the map.

Tweaking the global item weight ratio would be desirable. Less reason to do the same trips repetitively, but not so much that people want to turn off portal restrictions or break their one-character-one-world rule.

Would also be cool to be able to flatten the power curve though that one sounds a lot more complicated to pull off well. I don't mind most of the measures that are put in place to discourage wandering too far too early. But what I don't like is how if I leave my current biome, enemies only come in two flavours. They are either pathetically harmless or boorishly long and pointless to -cheese- deal with.

You don't need to make your bosses take 5+ minutes to kill (solo) when you are appropriately geared to communicate that sense of progression. Fromsoft made that fact mainstream years ago but devs are still doing it.

I have seen a 1 star Gjall before I thought it was a normal one, but only realised as it was closing. Luckily some nearby Dverger helped me out with it.

More starred enemies either pre or post boss killing would be worth it anyway. More common starred trolls (excluding raids) as you progress through the bosses would be good too, however it works anyway.

Fenrings, Ulvs & Cultists would be better with starred variants too, but only if they get a huge loot buff overhaul to go with it.

But then again stars before bosses killed might be part of the new settings they were teasing a while back too, so there is that I guess. I'm easy either way.

Oh & Starred Lox would be awesome too.

I wouldn't mind that, might make gathering resources from those enemies faster too. Would also mean that a 2 star deathsquito can deal 270 pierce damage, which is a lot as you could imagine. Though it would incentivize a change in approach to dealing with those type of enemies. You couldn't just parry or block them, and would have to either dodge them, or hit them before they hit you. And gjalls can have stars, however i only saw a one star once, never a two star.

Though i personally would like to alter the aggression of enemies, not necessarily their aggro range etc, but how often they attack, and to stop them from prancing around you in circles cluelessly. An AI change would be most welcome imo, it's pretty easy to play around the enemy AI in pretty much most or every scenario.

And i'm really not a fan of hardcore or skill lose consequences, don't really mind skill lose as i don't really care about it either. They don't really affect the gameplay unless you do die, so having tougher combat scenarios is what i'm looking most for. And i don't mean getting one shot, whilst your weapons merely tickle the enemy health.

Originally posted by loppantorkel:

To keep things interesting in earlier biomes - how about adding * to creatures which are starless as long as you haven't beaten the boss in the current biome?

It would make more sense to give them stars after their biome's boss has been killed, if the goal is to keep things challenging.

gjalls can have stars. but only during nighttime spawns. not during day. so they are very rare. but they exist up to 2 star.

lox dont spawn with stars cause they tend to spawn in groups of 3 as 1 spawnpack. and 3 2 star lox in 1 spot would be a bit silly.

Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Originally posted by loppantorkel:

To keep things interesting in earlier biomes - how about adding * to creatures which are starless as long as you haven't beaten the boss in the current biome?

It would make more sense to give them stars after their biome's boss has been killed, if the goal is to keep things challenging.

True. It’s what I meant but didn’t formulate very well :D

Originally posted by Nerevar:

gjalls can have stars. but only during nighttime spawns. not during day. so they are very rare. but they exist up to 2 star.

lox dont spawn with stars cause they tend to spawn in groups of 3 as 1 spawnpack. and 3 2 star lox in 1 spot would be a bit silly.

Exactly, i'm not necessarily the biggest fan of starred loxes. If you found a 2 star lox then it's just better to tame it instead of bothering to kill it.