1. #1
    Euler13's Avatar Member
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    Skewed Difficulty of Trials Rising

    First of all, I'm a seasoned Trials player. I've obsessively played the series since Trials HD. I have improved over the years, but I've reached a ceiling in terms of how much better I will ever get. I accepted in Trials HD that there was one achievement I would never get: Marathon (Complete 20 tracks consecutively without a single fault). I tried many times, but failed. I'm sure for others who've been playing Trials that long, the name of that achievement will bring back many terrible memories. And kudos to those who were able to unlock it! Yet as the series has progressed the difficulty has continued to increase and the number of achievements I've been unable to unlock has continued to increase.

    There is no doubt that Trials Rising has the potential to be the best in the series, but I believe there are fundamental issues. The tedium of the current progression system has been discussed at length, but I honestly feel that one of the major flaws is the difficulty of this latest game. It is beyond reasonable and has sent this series in the wrong direction.

    I spent around 35 hours of game play and had to complete 180 contracts, some incredibly difficult, just to unlock all of the tracks up to Extreme difficulty: level 92. (I'm convinced something is broken in the game and I wasn't earning XP where I should have been.) I am certainly above average in terms of skill, but I struggled to get there. I've earned A+ in all but the last University of Trials lessons - that last one (Time Trial) is a joke in terms of the time I'm expected to get to earn A+ and annoying that I'll be deprived of the Masters Degree achievement because of it. I've already got gold in most tracks, but I've still got a couple of the Hard tracks to grind. However, I'm not sure if I'll ever manage it. I've never failed to get gold on Hard tracks before, but the difficulty of some of the Hard tracks in this game are not balanced - mainly due to one or two "extreme" obstacles on the track. I've generally got silver on Extremes, but on my first run of the new Extremes I've not even reached bronze on three of them. I'm not sure how much better I'll get on those. As for the stadium finals, I've not been able to complete a single one of them!

    As a player, a measure of how well we do in games - apart from the game's own progression system - is achievements/trophies. I've had a look at the full list of achievements and I reckon that there are at least 13 achievements that I am never going to get. That cannot be right.

    I suspect what has happened is that RedLynx have been paying too much attention to the hardcore players and have been setting benchmarks based on their skill levels. When it comes to core game elements and the majority of what players will experience, less should be catering to players at top level of ability and more to novices and average players. Yes, a few achievements that will only ever be earned by the elite is expected with a game like Trials, but Track Central and Multiplayer racing is the place for those to push themselves and find challenge.

    New players and those who are less skilled are going to give up on this game far too early. They will leave the game feeling frustrated and unrewarded. I'll stick with it as I continue to grind what I know is achievable, but I feel thoroughly discouraged by how poor I appear to be when I compare myself with what the game expects of me. I can't believe that is what the developers were hoping to achieve.

    I realise that most people reading this at a forum for the biggest fans of the series are skewed already in terms of their ability. So if you disagree with what I've said - I imagine many will - then please try to consider the bigger picture in your replies.
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  2. #2
    Don't sound so defeated. Stop stressing about medals and achievements. You don't have to earn every Gold medal or complete every achievement right now. Play for fun and overtime you will improve.
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  3. #3
    I have also played since Trials HD, and I am thrilled that for the first time since then, there are tracks in the core game that I cannot complete.

    When everything in the game can be completed on the first attempt, the struggle of just trying to get through is gone, and it turns into a speedrunning challenge. It is nice to have uncompleted levels that I can keep returning to, to gauge my improvement.

    I do agree that to unlock everything is a grind.

    There are more easy-medium tracks than ever, and if anything, I am a bit disappointed that there aren't more hard and extreme; the ratio seems imbalanced.

    It's great that Trials has such a wide range of difficulty with a gradual difficulty curve, so that nearly everyone will eventually find a level they can't beat (at first).

    Also this:

    Originally Posted by dapp3r- Go to original post
    Don't sound so defeated. Stop stressing about medals and achievements. You don't have to earn every Gold medal or complete every achievement right now. Play for fun and overtime you will improve.
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  4. #4
    I think the trophies for trials fusion are way harder, namely the complete all challenges trophy. That trophy is harder as all in Rising combined.
    This new trials is easier trophy wise and also has a platinum so its not too bad I think.
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  5. #5
    Euler13's Avatar Member
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    I love a real challenge, but as I said in my opening sentences I've reached a ceiling in terms of how much better I will ever get. I'm not a new player and with my previous experience I would expect to zero fault most Easy/Medium tracks on my first or second run. I'd expect Hard to take a few more attempts, and I know that I'll never get zero faults on Extremes. At gamescom last year I completed all of the demo tracks (about 12 tracks ranging in difficulty), including Car Park (Extreme) in about 20 minutes. With the closed beta I got gold on all of them, except Car Park - the best I could get was silver. I'm nowhere near as good as the top players, but neither am I a bad player...



    Yet looking at all the challenges/achievements - which are important to me - I reckon I'll be lucky to earn 420 / 1000 GS. A 42% "completion" ratio is not even close to accurate in representing my skill level.

    Apart from how disheartening I find this personally, my greatest concern is the impact it will have on the future of this game. New players and those whose ceilings are behind my own are going to feel even more discouraged. Video games are meant to challenge, but they should be designed in such a way that a genuine sense of achievement can be obtained if you persist.
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  6. #6
    Yikes. Well I tried to be encouraging. I hope the "boohoo I'm never going to improve" mindset only occurs when you play Trials because otherwise you must live a very sad life. I'm depressed just reading what you have to say. Trials Rising isn't even a month old and you've given up. Smh.
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  7. #7
    booped's Avatar Senior Member
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    I think the best thing about trials is that whatever your skill level there is always room to improve, that is why you have players still playing the game since HD and still learning new techniques.

    Just need to keep challenging yourself and learning new techniques, improvement will follow.
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  8. #8
    If anything, I am a little disappointed that there are no really difficult achievements for the game. People unlocked all achievements within 24 hours of game release. I did as well and I'm not among the best. Maybe the DLC will bring something more challenging in that regard. There are also some sites which provide useful information such as trueachievements/truetrophies.

    I can also not complete all contracts or Ninja tracks and I only have a handful of Diamond medals but that's okay because not every challenge in a game is designed to be completed by everyone.

    You/I can decide to put in the time to improve and reach our personal goals or not. Either is fine.

    Overall, I like the game and if the devs manage to improve some things and deliver some nice DLC I'll be happy.
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  9. #9
    IMO it's the best Trials yet for both newcomers and veterans (aside from the one-time hump to unlock all the Extremes). If we say half the Hard tracks are fairly easy and half are quite tough, that's a total of 53 fairly easy tracks for newcomers to get into the game (2 Beginner, 22 Easy, 20 Medium, 18 Hard, 8 Expert). Fusion only had 40 Trials tracks in total! Newcomers also have an in-game University to help practice various skills, and Gold medals are easier than previous games. For veterans there are 8 Expert tracks, a bunch of Ninja tracks included for the first time, and Diamond medals for the top players, and a lot of challenging Contracts.

    As for Achievements, I don't know about their scoring, however just on ratio completed which is what PC and PS4 players see, I'll probably end up with around 80%-85%. In Trials Fusion I had 15/16, in Evo probably similar. If you can't get 100% then it doesn't make a lot of difference whether you end up with 80% or 90%. I see the point that 420/1000 looks low, but surely you're missing some that are doable?
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  10. #10
    Fusion was my first Trials game and it took me nearly 3 months to complete Way of the Machine. Whereas, I've already done all the extremes bar Inferno 5, that is down to my familiarity with the game's mechanics though.

    Rising is a great game but it's slog, lacks the fun factor and focuses too much on everything being a race. By the time I'd opened some tracks I'd completely lost my enthusiam for the game. And thus, I couldn't do a course and making some really silly mistakes, opposed to, a course being anymore difficult than anything in Fusion.

    Perhaps, a break from it for a few days may help?
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