[Suggestion] Balance the game for solo players

12 Oct, '21
Shazroth Merged

Introducing an item that is required for multi player resurrection from the unconscious state might add an extra dimension to multi player play and even out some of the disparity between multi and solo.
Something like an emergency kit or an "epipen" item to get a fellow player up from the unconscious state would add some depth to the game.

16 Oct, '21
OldManSutii Merged

Currently there is a huge gulf between MP & Solo when it comes to the impact of "dying". In the former it is for the most part a non-issue, requiring the entire team to seriously blunder for any impact at all to be felt. For the latter it is always impactful, with that varying from a significant XP penalty if gear can be retrieved to a devastating setback if it cannot.

It is this glaring imbalance which drives a lot of the negative conversation and feeling from those who (completely or mostly) play solo. A couple of obvious solutions below:

1. Completely remove the ability to revive. While still not fully balanced (MP more likely to get their gear back than solo), it's close and simple to implement.

2. Gate reviving behind an item / consumable but also provide an option solo can use (accessory equipped in a slot specifically for this purpose maybe, a vest like M. Bison in the JCVD Street Fighter movie, can be on a long CD and / or consumed on use).

07 Nov, '21
JazzyJeff

Looking at the talent tree, it would appear that there are plans for a revive type skill in the solo talent tree, with there being a picture of a phoenix-like creature. I would assume it would be a one time self revive per respawn, or on a long cooldown. Also, you don't lose everything, you can go and reclaim your inventory where you went down at.

07 Nov, '21
Nick Merged

please remove the respawn penalty when playing single player. there is no option other than to respawn so it just makes the game too punishing when you die

07 Nov, '21
Steve Mc

Even if it's just the EXP penalty is reduced for Solo players.
Getting killed at level 20+ gives too large a penalty.
Also, Finding your gear can be horrid if you got chased into bushes.

08 Nov, '21
Mike

Please DO NOT nerf the challenge. I solo play over 90% of the time and I feel like the difficulty and pacing is in a sweet spot right now. The game is hard solo, but not impossible. I love that it doesn't force you struggle, but it does force you to think like a true survivor. The death loot bag was a great addition, but keep it tough. Make me work harder when I'm solo - sure I'm not trying to mine enough iron for 8 guns, but I should think about carrying a mini mobile base or multiple bed rolls for cave hopping if I'm going into dangerous or uncharted territory. If I want a game that I can dominate in an hour I can literally play just about anything else.

08 Nov, '21
JaysonPhoenix Merged

i disagree, the penality is a good thing, for solo players too. teaches you to take this serious and theres a meaning to your choices (like attacking a bear when close to lvl up). in a survival environment there should be some kind of thrill to make you try to stay alive and care to do so, if there is no disadvantages of dying why even try. we already got the corpse run now, even with permanent loot piles, its handholding enogh now already. the xp penality is not a big thing anyway, you're back on track in a matter of minutes and if its long enough to make you feel punished you actually have a reason to try to avoid it

05 Dec, '21
Kurizo Merged

Died to a level 70 bear, cabin burned down at the same time. Bear camped body for over a day in game. Random respawn put me down on top of a poison flower, previous death effects persisted through respawn and now dying in a loop. Good job, you learned nothing from beta feedback.

08 Dec, '21
Paul Price Merged

I get that it's supposed to be difficult, but when you die several times in a row before levelling up it can be infuriating. Even just losing three quarters of earned XP would be an improvement.

09 Dec, '21
mike Merged

I have been playing survival games since the 90's..
I absolutely LOVE this game and it fills a 'hardcore co-op survival' niche that has been seriously missing. I shouldn't still have to play top-down Don'tStarveTogether to get that experience. I think this game is most enjoyable in a solo/co-op hybrid style. I want to be able to start a prospect and invite friends. If they show up that's great. If not that's also great. I suggest the following:

1- Make solo tree talents apply 50% of their buff in co-op play (encourage solo/co-op hybrid play)
2- Increase base player move speed by 5% (to escape predators at levels 0-3)
3- remove death experience penalty (Encourage solo/co-op hybrid play)
4- make the backpack easier to find on death (encourage solo/co-op hybrid play)
5- add recommended "solo" level (IMO the first radar mission is doable at level 10, solo)
6- bigger feature - add optional BONUS objectives to prospects, for 2x or even 4x the cash reward. (encourage larger bases)

09 Dec, '21
maximvs Merged

I would be ok with a penalty - but losing 100k+ experience is not fair to single players when those playing in groups just have to wait for a revive.

The penalty should be a percentage (such as 20% of XP currently earned in that tier). Remember magical animals still happen often and I'm tired of taking the unfair penalty for wanting to play single player.

09 Dec, '21
TCAT Merged

I am a solo player, so the game has been utterly brutal. A mission will take many hours to complete and be chock full of mishaps. Unfortunately, these mishaps aren't of the "man vs wild" nature, and instead are bugs and lack of balance and features. This image is from the mission I was just on. I had to track and kill an alpha wolf, which was pretty fun at first. It sort of felt like Valheim; a storm cracked on and this alpha wolf was given a boss fight treatment, special HP bar and all. But then a lvl 1 bear came out of nowhere and mauled me, and when I respawned on my bed, it somehow put me in the fire pit I had going, lighting my entire forward base on fire. I was fortunately able to cheese the boss by firing arrows at it while it was stuck in the ruins of my old base. 4 hours later, I am just... tired.

The core loop of this game has potential, but stuff like this happens far too regularly. It's been pretty disheartening. I might take a break and wait for substantial updates.

09 Dec, '21
Jacob Merged

When I started playing missions, I found that the game would routinely spawn predators that a low level player could not realistically handle alone. I found myself dying trying to get on top of rocks to avoid wolves, because my gear was such that more than one wolf was more than I could handle without some kind of avoidance strategy. You can build a base where you can kill animals from the roof, but the idea of having to build new bases for each mission point because the game decides to spawn two bears on an easy mission when I'm struggling to kill wolves is obscene. The game is not balanced for solo play at all, and this really needs to be rectified. I've seen a lot of suggestions around the death penalty for solo, but the issue isn't just the death penalty. The game needs to be balanced so that deaths are avoidable. Deaths should happen when a mistake is made, but as solo is balanced right now, there are no reasonable ways to avoid these deaths.

09 Dec, '21
JellyDonuts Merged

wolves are an easy kill with basic knife or bow headshot. bears are definitely OP for solo play and take multiple crossbow headshots, it's ludicrous.

09 Dec, '21
Rasmus T Merged

Polite attempt to increase your ecperience with the game:
You can oneshot wolfes with headshots even with the first bow and stone arrow.
Same goes for the bone knif, one stab to the head, they die.

If you crouch and shoot an arrow at a wolf not in the head you take 70% of its health. Then one stab anywhere with a bone (possebly also the stone) knife, will kill it.
I do not recognice your experience in the game being too hard in solo - i play solo myself.

16 Dec, '21
Nick Merged

Losing all your XP when you die in solo is a horrible feeling, especially that you can be 99% and have no way of restoring.

Rather than flat out losing it, maybe upon retrieval of your items you can restore a portion (50%?) of your XP. Right now due to no XP restore, it sometimes makes more sense to just go and start fresh, rather than retrieve items due to risk (generally a polar bear or being overwhelmed causing deaths).

11 Feb, '22
Leigh Merged

Ok here goes. I love playing solo at my own pace crafting everything and setting up a great base of operations to improve my game play. What i don`t understand is having to do this for every mission it really sucks, Why is it a base can stay for 30 days not be damaged or destroyed by any storms but the second you leave the world it all vanishes. Mission briefs tell you to craft bases for other people to drop into but these also vanish. I would like to see a mission system for solo play where you can set up your bases and craft a remote computer or something to be able to do multiple missions at planet level. Once you have your exotics mission points etc etc you leave the planet and purchase items from workshop. At this point a reset would be viable and play can resume with a fresh start. Having to spend hours and hours running back and forth and crafting to tier 4 items to complete a simple mission is tedious and boring. I feel the reset option is great for multi-play but not solo :(

24 Feb, '22
DaVinci Merged

Still losing 90% progress bar when dying in solo play. They said it was fixed but it isn't. It's Feb 23.

14 Mar, '22
Bryan Merged

I only play solo, so the death penalty is a huge deal for me. I don't die often, and when I do, there is usually nothing I could have done different with the exception of totally avoiding the area where I died. My problem is that if I play with a friend and get revived there's NO XP loss? That's BS. Maybe add a talent on the Solo Tree to reduce the XP hit on death and increase the decay time/decrease the decay rate of items. Better yet, remove the XP penalty when playing solo and add the Talent to increase decay time/decrease decay rate.

01 Apr, '22
robert layes Merged

solo players need some loving too! i have played every mission solo except the hardcore as i don't want to lose my character. multiplayers can die a thousand times as their friends can just revive them.

id like to see solo players maybe get specialized tools as well doesn't seem quite fair that my tool breaks after not much use and as a multiplayer you have up to 8 players gathering stone wood etc...making their tools last much longer.
I'm a 66 yo gamer and have been gaming since pong was a thing and had my first pc as soon as they were available and have played literally hundreds of games and i can tell you i love Icarus it has most of the elements i look for in a game, building ,hunting, a bit of danger and discovery.
something id love to see is the cave system being more random maybe have a cave or two that show up in your prospect in a random place ! maybe have an element like unobtainium that's very rare and gets a great reward for finding it.

01 Apr, '22
robert layes Merged

id love to see this as well, should be a bonus of some kind for playing solo not a penalty! doing the same work alone versus 2-8 players isn't even close to the same! multiplayer wow they can bring to the planet 30-120 items ! solo i can bring only 15....not quite fair I'm thinking

23 Apr, '22
robert layes Merged

Its great that there has been more content added each week thank you for that! again SOLO players could use more too ! perhaps add an extra module slot in our suit as we can only carry two max if there are two or more players they get to have many many more for instance on the one day scenarios 8 players get the same time so...8 hours verses a solo players one hour. would be nice one week to do some things supporting solo players.

06 May, '22
robert layes Merged

again...no love for us solo players! how bout one week you add things for solo play...its a MUCH tougher game when played alone, anyone can play multiplayer its not even a challenge, make it so some of those multiplayers want to do some solo adventures. us solo players count to do we not?

22 Jun, '22
Miri Merged

When you launch a prospect it ask if you want to allow friends to be able to join, or do not allow anyone to join. If you go the enforced solo route, maybe reduce the costs of T3 and T4 items?

23 Jul, '22
TinyBitQuantum Merged

* no respawn timer * way larger limit (if any) on respawn count. Maybe make the limit someething you can option off in the mission screen * no carry over debuffs * better corpserun buff - 1) 0 exposure 2) 300%+ run speed or) just keep my armor/hotbar/ammo on my person * click f rather than hold f to respawn

23 Jul, '22
TinyBitQuantum Merged

The difficulty balance is way off for solo play. I would guess there just is no scaling at all, so you're trying to 1:1 things like polar bears, which are supposed to be challenging for a small team. The thing I think that's being overlooked is solo play is not 'epic challenge mode' but an entirely different player populace. these are not the people playing Valhiem/COD, but Among Trees. Currently I'd say its basically unplayable for all but the most flagellant. There are a few main problems: 0) get fresh perspectives through the first 5 hours of the game. new skills could be taught, and you can start missions with 0 ability to complete 1) general mobs are too difficult to feel meaningful progression 2) cleared areas respawn hilariously fast. I should really be going on a hunting trip, not popping out my door to take out the wolves deers/outside the doors 3) wave defenses are a bit silly to begin with, but pretty seriously unfun for solo. way too many mobs for way too long.

25 Jul, '22
cmopatrick Merged

Well... I really agree with point number 2. That said, I might have to suggest that there are indeed people here who play Valheim solo as well. If you expect to run solo as fast as some of the teams, doing prospects in minutes or mere hours, then maybe you could consider starting out in easy mode or just play around in the outposts until you have enough experience to build the things needed to take on the bigger challenges. I had to start out in outposts with the vasly reduced experience until I could blueprint enough things to survive normal missions. I would never take on a polar bear without at least one bolt action rifle; there are folks who can do it with bow and arrows, but I'm not one and I don't recommend it. Once you can create the needed components for a rifle, you are pretty safe going after the early main missions at normal difficulty. Build up the basics from the workshop, first a suit (WITHOUT the food slot), then the canteen and oxygen tank, then work towards an armor.

25 Jul, '22
cmopatrick Merged

(cont.) In talents, move quickly towards getting the ghillie armor, once you have the ability to make a full set, most prospects outside of the arctic zones become MUCH easier because the wildlife doesn't see you as a threat unless you are right on top of them. I usually don't go after the arctic missions where there are polar bears until I have at least one lever action rifle and one bolt action rifle (the latter is much more accurate at long range, the former lets you fire 6 times before reloading, so if you miss the one-shot kill with the bolt action, you can use the lever to take down most of what you may face before reloeading).
Another thing to do to make surviving MUCH easier is turn off the music. Many of the early cues that you have of a bear, wolf, or scorpion near to aggro range can be missed when the music is at the default setting; that early audio warning is often the difference between crouching in time, getting to a safe spot, or dying.
imo, ymmv. Good luck.

09 Sep, '22
The Masamune Merged

The death penalty is ABSURD for solo players. no s*** I'm not gonna get a revive, I'm playing ALONE. Losing 99% of a level to XP penalty (could happen, so far I've been unlucky enough to hit 90% loss) and ADD to the fact a major debuf where. if you're new and don't have the suture kit perk is permanent?!

This feature is ridiculous and should only be implemented in the HARD setting for those masochists that feel they should "Git Gud" when they die.

If it is absolutely so hard coded and very hard to change.. at least for the love of all that is solo survival, make it a percentage of accrued XP. not ALL OF IT!
You could even tier it, 20% easy mode, 50% normal. and 100% kick you in the b***s for hard.

12 Jun, '23
Elissa - Producer Admin Merged

"Solo death loop and impacts" (suggested by Soloisbad on 2021-12-05), including upvotes (7) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

12 Jun, '23
Elissa - Producer Admin Merged

"Only lose half of earned XP on death in solo." (suggested by Paul Price on 2021-12-08), including upvotes (3) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

12 Jun, '23
Elissa - Producer Admin Merged

"THIS OLD GAMER HAS AN IDEA" (suggested by mike on 2021-12-09), including upvotes (6) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

12 Jun, '23
Elissa - Producer Admin Merged

"Rebalance Solo Game Play" (suggested by Jacob on 2021-12-09), including upvotes (5) and comments (2), was merged into this suggestion.

13 Jun, '23
Elissa - Producer Admin

"Solo balance and bugs are major painpoints" (suggested by TCAT on 2021-12-09), including upvotes (7) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.