New intermediate difficulty level possibly?

[KnightShade]

I think it would be a good addition to add a difficulty level between normal and hard.
Because I was torn between playing on normal and hard, due to the specific changes between each setting.

Here was my analysis:
  1] PC health mod (150%/100%) --- I'm okay either way
  2] Healing consumable power (100%/50%) --- would obviously prefer 100%
  3] Healing consumable cooldown (100%/200%) --- 200% is really unappealing
  4] NPC AI (standard/full) --- full please!
  5] Combat encounters (standard/hard) --- hard would be okay, but if I could choose via an independent slider I would sometimes choose DOMINATING!
  6] Zone transition cost (25AP/40AP) --- I'm fine with 40
  7] EMP affects inventory items (no/yes) --- I'm fine with yes
  8] Armor changing in stealth (yes/no) --- No is good. More realistic.
  9) NPC skill modifier (100% both settings) --- Prefer 100% (130% on dominating doesn't appeal at all)
10] NPC health modifier (100% both settings) --- Prefer 100% (150% on dominating doesn't appeal at all)
11] Boss NPC skill modifier (100% both settings) --- Prefer 100% (200% on dominating makes me feel woozy...)
12] Boss NPC health modifier (100% both settings) --- Prefer 100% (400% on dominating makes me feel woozy...)
13] Item sale value modifier (100%/50%) --- The clincher for all the crafting I like to do. I would never choose less than 100%

So I went with normal, despite preferring six out of the nine differing settings being the same as on hard (or higher).
I guess I would phrase it as: I like challenging enemies, but I don't want to also be nerfed to get them. Especially with the money.

Ideally, each setting could be chosen separately in a difficulty menu (maybe with preset buttons for the 4 standard sets). Maybe even a slider for the 4 NPC stat modifiers with even more settings to choose from (100/125/150/200/300/400%).

But if that's too difficult/time consuming/unappealing to develop, how about an Intermediate (or maybe Challenging is better?) setting between Normal and Hard?
Set as:
  1] PC health mod (100%) --- hard
  2] Healing consumable power (100%) --- normal
  3] Healing consumable cooldown (100%) --- normal
  4] NPC AI (full) --- hard
  5] Combat encounters (hard) --- hard
  6] Zone transition cost (40AP) --- hard
  7] EMP affects inventory items (yes) --- hard
  8] Armor changing in stealth (no) --- hard
  9] NPC skill modifier (100%) --- same normal/hard
10] NPC health modifier (100%) --- same normal/hard
11] Boss NPC skill modifier (100%) --- same normal/hard
12] Boss NPC health modifier (100%) --- same normal/hard
13] Item sale value modifier (100%) --- normal

Yeah, I know there's a large contingent who play on DOMINATING preferentially.
I'm not gonna be moved by "get good, scrub" comments or explanations why it's not so bad or build advice on how to not suffer so much.
I just want to play the game the way I enjoy the most. And I don't want to be frustrated and annoyed all the time while playing.
You guys are free to enjoy your pain and triumph over epic odds. More power to you! I just want to have fun with a moderate challenge.

[cypherusuh]

tbh Normal and Hard doesn't really differ all that much. the biggest impact is how much charrons you got.
the real interesting thing would be padding between Hard and DOMINATING, where the stats is basically identical to hard, but with DOMINATING new enemy placement.
Hell, or just adds toggled "DOMINATING ENEMY PLACEMENT" so you can play on any difficulty, with much harder encounter. Or normal encounter, with much harder enemies stats

[Hammer Wizard]

No.
Make an even harder difficulty. APEX DOMINATING difficulty.

[KnightShade]

The various independently toggleable settings I suggested would handle that.
You could just crank NPC skill modifier up to 150%, NPC health modifier up to 250%, Boss NPC skill modifier up to 300%, and Boss NPC health modifier up to 1000% and suffer to your heart's content...

[Agalyon]

I really like the idea of independent settings or even just the aforementioned "dominating enemy placement." That would be really cool. But yeah, individual settings or sliders would be absolutely amazing, especially for replay-ability.