Looking aside from the fact that the Aegis forcefield ability is technically just silly, I'm interested in something from you specifically before I get too negative. Is this really what you expect in these games? Is this 'danger' and 'gameplay' for you? (lmk if this comes off as vitriolic, I can't tell).
Yep
My bottom line is really low, so while watching that showcase I was literally internally screaming "let me play this fucking game". The forcefield, if I understood its mechanics correctly, is pretty much an ability that I was imagining for a tank. A "others get hit, but the damage comes my way"-type thing, but a full player-controlled thing, both on the tank's side and on the partymates' side.
But again though, this is the base level that already has me excited. Adding proper AI, adding proper ability sets on mobs, proper mob group mentality and proper stat interactions (across all types of stats) would obviously elevate the gameplay ever higher.
Would I've loved to see all of that right now? HELL FUCKING YES. Am I ok with what was shown? Also yes. In other words, I'm doing a similar thing to what you were doing during some other showcases. I'm trying to see where this could go with future development. I might be completely wrong with my assumptions, but all of us are wrong in them until proven otherwise. Mine are just a few levels below yours, because I can be pleased by a much more simpler gameplay.
P.S. the comment could come off as vitriolic in text, but I'd like to think that I get intentions correctly most of the time, so I didn't apply any vitriolic sentiment to it.
Tweaking the amount of damage a group does to a mob or the HP values the mob has doesn't actually change the difficulty or the gameplay. "The Mob kills you fast" isn't 'difficulty' when you are already riding your cooldowns and spamming your CCs.
Some mobs could get the same CC diminishing return mechanic as players will have and some (or same) mobs could have proper resistances to the abilities whose CDs you'd be riding.
But I'd definitely like to hear what else I'm missing in term of difficulty. Cause to me, the danger of every hit is the difficulty. If I die - I have failed. If I've failed - the difficulty was higher than what I could manage. Steven said that they're not working towards pure iframes on dodges, so that already boosts the potential danger of each mob hit. And one- or two-shots from mobs seem quite dangerous to me, if I can't just endlessly dodge them w/o taking a single hit.
I don't think I saw Steven make a single recognizable 'choice' in that stream.
It's also Steven though. He's juggling a top of "showcase" stuff, while also not being the peak lvl player. Though yes, this was definitely a pretty basic showcase, but they've addressed that part in the stream. And as much as I'd like them to be finished with all the detailed development already - they're not, so I'm judging exactly what I'm seeing.