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Assist Mode Incoming


Trumpet_Boi_208

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So the test build on PC now has an assist mode, where you can adjust trap damage, enemy damage, trap speed, parry windows, and it even has a continue mechanic.

 

I'm perfectly fine with damage scaling and easier parry windows, but I am conflicted with the continue mechanic, since it only kicks you to the start of the area, as if you just entered it. It completely changes the mindset of the player from accounting for the long term repercussions of every decision to brute forcing everything with no risk at all. It also messes with the progression curve of the game. When you repeatedly die and restart a run, you are not only learning the enemy's attacks and what biomes are adequate for certain loadouts, you are also given time to invest more cells into weapons, mutations, and the legendary forge. By brute forcing progress with a continue system, you are denying yourself the time to properly invest in them, which will eventually lead up to a brick wall. Remember, assist mode does NOT give you the option to scale enemy health, so in a way, you are setting yourself up to be screwed over later. I've had this happen to me when I went for the platinum, when I brute forced it by backing up my saves. I hit a fat wall when playing 4BC, dealing pitiful amounts of damage to the boss that I was stuck on. It was this combined with the fact that my save got corrupted some time after that completely soured my opinion on the game and caused me to stop playing it for over 3 months. It was only when I put in the time to properly progress is when things not only got easier, since I couldn't screw myself over later on, but the game got more enjoyable as I started doing far greater amounts of damage to my enemies while tip-toeing through their attacks. It was a curve that felt more natural and actually resulted in me pushing through to completion of 4BC.

 

(Tl;Dr: The continue function IMO completely breaks the flow of progression, and you only really notice it when you are far deeper into the game, which can completely mess with your enjoyment of it.)

 

Again, this is all my opinion, forged from previous experience. I'd like to hear y'all's thoughts on this.

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4 hours ago, Optinooby said:

I was just looking into this, and your main concern about the Continue system, there was already a unofficial way to do this. I read the Dev post and they actually mention the 'unofficial continue', where you just quit when you die!! They say they have just made an 'official' option now is all!

3 hours ago, NMErickson said:

Is this an optional mode though, so if you don’t want to play it that way you don’t have to? Not being smart but because this is a game I thought about trying and with them adding accessibility options makes it even more enticing. Even if I ended up playing it regular, it’s nice the options are there. I will never fault a dev for adding more accessibility options so more people can play. As long as it is optional. If any settings void trophies though would have to consider that. You mentioned a brick wall and screwing yourself later by not having scalable enemy health. Wouldn’t turning down enemy damage kind of nullify that? Guess it would depend on the amount. It could just make it an even playing field again.

 

I'm not faulting the devs for adding accessibility options. I'm just concerned about the execution of the continue mode, less so for the sake of accessibility, and more because it could completely kill the pace and hinder your enjoyment of the game. While enemy damage can be scaled to be lower, it doesn't stop the enemies from being complete damage sponges, meaning that you'll spend more time trying to kill them, which will lead to more damage being taken. If you take more damage, you are more likely to use a flask, which is incredibly scarce on 4BC. It's a case of a death by a thousand cuts, where you normally would dodge/parry everything thrown at you while killing enemies quickly. Sorry if I neglected to communicate this point.

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It basically cuts the hassle of save scumming (which you could even do in-game), so I think it works? I really like the idea of Assist Modes in general, if only because it allows people who have disabilities to enjoy the games like anyone else. Whether it should void trophies or not is a different story… I have been guilty of using Assist Mode on Celeste and now Control, and I have to admit…

Edited by visighost
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  • 2 months later...

For those of you who may have given up, see below from the developer discord today.  Sounds like Dead Cells won't be my rarest plat for long!

 

Our latest update 'Breaking Barriers' is live on PC & consoles and making Dead Cells more accessible to everyone. It's been five years since our Early Access release (yep, five freaking years!) and we realised it's about time we made sure that Dead Cells can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. TLDR - Loads of new options to improve accessibility, such as adjustable font type & size, input customisation and individual adjustment of sound effect volumes - Assist Mode including customisation of enemy health/damage, trap speed/damage and parry window.

 

Plus options for multiple lives, auto-hit with primary weapon & full map reveal - Big reduction in cell cost of early-game weapons - 8 weapon reworks Read the full Steam post with the link below, if you prefer videos, here's a VLOG showcasing all the changes. Warning for short attention spans: it is 9 minutes long! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joDnuQaGXsg

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This update is massive for me as now I have a reason to come back to it and work on the DLC. I'm not gonna lie, I save scummed really, really hard in this game. Trying out different weapon combos and what not was fun, until suddenly it wasn't because a slug one shot me cause I didn't see him in the screenwide blood explosion. Or needing to have the map guide near me at all times because I just could not understand why I would find certain areas and others I wouldn't. 

 

I'm completely able bodied, but being able to turn down particle effects even just 10% is all I needed, or an outline on non background things cause god knows how many secrets I missed because everything just blended in with the usual super pixel artstyle. Visually it becomes just mushed up colours very quick, now I can keep better track.

 

Going straight to "omg they added whats basically an easy mode!" is a smooth brain take because nothings forced on you and just let people play how they play. Don't we want more people to play and enjoy games????

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22 hours ago, StanPortrBridges said:

Going straight to "omg they added whats basically an easy mode!" is a smooth brain take because nothings forced on you and just let people play how they play. Don't we want more people to play and enjoy games????

While you have a point on wanting more people playing the game we have to admit that Dead Cells played normally or even with save scumming is a hard ass platinum to achieve. I feel bad for everyone who played the game legit towards their platinum. this game will drop the difficulty 100% the same way Hollow Knight did with the god mode glitch for pantheons.

 

I am all up for the Assist modes but I believe that disabling trophies while using them should be a thing, however I do respect those who do not agree with me. It's all a matter of preference at the end. the Assist modes will be there and you will never be forced to use them, but one thing is certain. the rarity of the platinum will sink and it won't be such a big deal.

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3 hours ago, victorrfuego said:

Just got the 5th boss stem cell trophy, only the collector trophies left and at 100%! I guess more people won't be afraid to plat! It's such a great game I want more people to play it anyways

 

How long do you think the platinum will take utilizing all of the accessibility options 

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On 25/06/2022 at 1:46 AM, OR3OTHUG said:

How long do you think the platinum will take utilizing all of the accessibility options 

started playing after the patch went live. I platinumed the game an hour or so ago.  PS5 lists the number of hours played as 17.

 

Worth pointing out, I did beat it with 2-3 cells on switch. So i knew how & where to get the permenant upgrades, I knew which kinda weapons i wanted to find, how to beat the bosses etc.

Which helped beating it with 4 boss cells active, even with the utilization of the Accessibiliy stuff, it can still kick your ass, if you don't know what you're doing.

 

the only trophy that gave me real issue was "flawless Victory"  (beat conjuctivus without getting hit) that took about 4 hours alone...though I ended up doing it on a higher difficulty than i should have.

 

Which made it extra sweet when it took less than 22 seconds on my first try to beat the hand of the king without damage lol

 

 

Edited by Domatron0602
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On 6/25/2022 at 0:14 PM, Domatron0602 said:

started playing after the patch went live. I platinumed the game an hour or so ago.  PS5 lists the number of hours played as 17.

 

Worth pointing out, I did beat it with 2-3 cells on switch. So i knew how & where to get the permenant upgrades, I knew which kinda weapons i wanted to find, how to beat the bosses etc.

Which helped beating it with 4 boss cells active, even with the utilization of the Accessibiliy stuff, it can still kick your ass, if you don't know what you're doing.

 

the only trophy that gave me real issue was "flawless Victory"  (beat conjuctivus without getting hit) that took about 4 hours alone...though I ended up doing it on a higher difficulty than i should have.

 

Which made it extra sweet when it took 22 seconds on my first try to beat the hand of the king without damage lol

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u-03yDRa2k

 

YouTube link is busted.

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So far the assist mode is game-changing. The game’s still hard, no doubt about it, but it feels more welcoming. No-hit boss fights are exactly the same so assist mode changes nothing, and a lot of the other trophies and mechanics like cursed chests force you to play as if you’re on 5BC no assist mode anyways, so it’s not a huge difference later on, especially when you get a good build. Boss fights don’t change much, but the biomes are made “less punishing.” There’s more room for error, which allows players the desire to stick around more. 
 

rn I’m going for collector no-hit on assist and I’ve been stuck for 2 hours, with assist, as it changes nothing about the difficulty

 

The plat% may go up, but not by much. There are still quite a few no-hit trophies to get but assist mode might keep people around long enough to get them. This is a great choice all around, and it brought me back to a killer game

 

EDIT: So I just learned that bosses have a lot less health on 0BC. I've been doing everything on 4BC for higher-grade weapons but it doesn't matter. You can 1-hit a lot of bosses on 0BC with just a trap and an owl, and a 1++ weapon

Edited by APeskyAxolotl
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