Now that daggers get strength bonus, Imoen gets a lot of mileage out of that Firetooth dagger combined with a strength belt. She can backstab with it in melee mode (mislead abuse if you like cheese) or chunk it around for big damage. Tenser's and Improved Haste are brilliant. Also see: Aerie with slings
For all the ideas people have about what is fair play and what is cheese and how you can create a greater challenge without a spiral in powercreep, one of the most elegant and fair solutions is the most devastatingly simple: limit resting.
That's why I already mentioned it twice on this topic. That alone is the single most effective thing I can think of to make the game more challenging and "realistic".
This doesn't make spellcaster weak (they still have the highest impact during a tough fight), it only forces them to think twice before unleashing all their powerful spells against critters, and to rely more often on lower level ones (instead of stop using them). It would also make scrolls and wands much more valuable imo.
Last but not least, LIMIT PLAYER'S POWER CREEP. I know I'm biased on this because of my mods but even SCS had to deal with it with a few tweaks aimed at fixing the more glaring issues. If you are willing to exploit vanilla's Staff of the Magi invisibility, if you love using Shield of Balduran and Cloak of Mirroring against Beholders, if you add even more ridiculous items to your game like Sanchuudoku then don't say "I want a challenge". Same is true for cheesy stuff like infinite spells loop, armies of planetars via Project Image, etc.
If you want some real challenge then all those things need to be rebalanced, not just AI scripts.
I agree. The only thing about which I disagree is calling cheesy the infinite spells loops since no exploiting is involved. they can trivialize the game, be cheap and so on but for me no exploit=no cheese. Armies of planetars via Project Image, 4x PI via CC, fake talk and attack and so on involve exploiting and are cheese.
Classify it as you like (*), that wasn't the point but rather that if a player uses OP stuff (be it a broken item, an item/spell combination that went out of hands, etc.) then he/she cannot complain about the lack of challenge imo.
(*) Example: using the Shield of Balduran against beholders isn't an exploit, it's what it was clearly designed for, but I still call it "cheesy" because it completely trivialize encounters that should be really hard instead. The infinite spells loop might seem a smart play for you, for me it's a silly broken mechanic that exists only because developers either didn't expected it or they were not enough interested in preventing "cheese" in the first place (both imo). Balance clearly wasn't their forte considering how much OP stuff they put into their game, but it's ok because most casual players actually enjoy that.
IR and SR are very different things, more then nerfing alter the enviroment. A player using SR uses a magic system similar but different from the vanilla one, not a nerfed version of the vanilla one.
Not sure what you mean. The magic system within SR is more refined imo, it offers more options, but it's not that different from vanilla.
You're right about IR/SR not creating a "nerfed version of vanilla", that wasn't the goal. Only OP items/spells got "nerfed", but in exchange tons of weak items/spells are now viable. The end result though is still a reduced "power creep" because on one side players have more variety and more interesting abilities, on the other they don't get crazy powerful stuff and they cannot rely on the most famous cheesy stuff or broken exploits.
"By the middle of Shadows of Amn, your enemies are pretty much going to either have magic resistance (drow, raksasha, the alarming amount of golems) and/or are gonna make whatever saving throw your spell calls for" and "That balance does not exist in BG2. Casters have more power and they can have it available all the time since there is no restriction on resting and preparing spells. So BG2 is naturally biased in favour of casters (this is pretty obvious, yes? " are 2 sides of the same coin.
As @Lord_Tansheron had explained many times the best damage dealers in this game, but casters, and arcane casters at the highter grade, are powerfull, maybe even more then fighters, if you don't factor in only dps. Fighters and arcane casters don't need to be rebalanced between them, but whith other classes. If you nerf the casters you give to fighters advantage against eweryone, even if each class can be powerfull if well played.
About the 10 buffs for each battle someone do it, if they have fun I am also happy, but IMHO, as I see from Youtube, that is the best way to know how others play if you don't play multiplayer, most of the time is yust overkilling. Bg2 magic system is complicated and I see often a lot of not so usefull in that situation spells casted, when far less but best suited could have been much more effective. As I see dragons debuffed, inyuried and ripe to be killed in half a round by the party whith 5 strong mlee characters (often duals), and the party retreats and starts to rebuff leaving someone alone to deal whith the beast. Lots of spells lost and opporunity lost. Send 1 protected whith PFMW and then immediately the other 4. And even that PFMW is too much, party has a potential of 40-50 APR whith OP weapons, the beast HP is low, he is debuffed and unprotected. But is easy to spot the errors of others........
Anyway I hope that my point is clear, often casters are underused (clerics as healers????) or overused whithout much effect because the player has not perfected how to use them.
But if you nerf the casters making spells somenting rare cause you limit rests people will never learn how to use magic. Only casting a lot, experimenting, making comparisons you learn. And you will learn that you cast a lot only doing it, not nerfing it. Only experienced players can benefit from nerfing it, and they end up to do it anyway, as they stop using antibeholder shield. They try to focalize on best casting strategies that don't rely on spamming spells but on using the right spells.
Basically you'd never run a pure caster under that system because why would you.
Maybe becayse is a Sorcerer that levels fast and he or his PI whith RoV and IA can in a moment IH your Duals, debuff enemies and maybe, but is really optional, also deal some little damage like 3x Dragon Breath or ADHW?
But really the damage part is optional, he can make the duals much more effective as they have basically to protect themselves whith PFMW and sometimes a SI, they can focus on dealing phisical damage, that in your builds is their main role, as he buffs them, debuffs foe and improove their raw power.
Sorry, I donìt know how to edit. please read "As @Lord_Tansheron had explained many times the best damage dealers in this game", 2 comments above. as "As @Lord_Tansheron had explained many times the best damage dealers in this game are the phisical damage dealers"
I understood that it was pretty clear that the discussion was focused on advanced players seeking additional challenge through a voluntary restriction. I don't see how people learning the magic system has any bearing on the discussion. Moreover any restriction is personal, it's not like rest limits are going to be modded into the game.
Regarding opponents in the midgame onwards - it's not like mages are helpless against magic resistant opponents, they still have a ton of options to debuff opponents (not affected by MR), summon, buff allies, tank powerful enemies, and even lower resistance to cause direct damage. And opponents always making their saving throws is just a fallacy. Lots of opponents still have saves in the 5-8 region and there are tons of spells with save penalties.
*sigh* I'm not sure if its a reading comprehension type situation, or all the non-native English speakers, or just me, but I think it would be in my best interest to just go back to making funny pictures and stay the heck out of any kind of discussion on here.
Maybe becayse is a Sorcerer that levels fast and he or his PI whith RoV and IA can in a moment IH your Duals, debuff enemies and maybe, but is really optional, also deal some little damage like 3x Dragon Breath or ADHW?
I doubt that a pure caster would be more efficient overall than a hybrid setup. Yes buffs are nice, but not at the cost of personal performance (see the Bard dilemma). Having slightly less/later buffs but basically having an extra full-time physical damage dealer should yield better overall output. Having rest penalties would only exacerbate that.
Classify it as you like (*), that wasn't the point but rather that if a player uses OP stuff (be it a broken item, an item/spell combination that went out of hands, etc.) then he/she cannot complain about the lack of challenge imo.
(*) Example: using the Shield of Balduran against beholders isn't an exploit, it's what it was clearly designed for, but I still call it "cheesy" because it completely trivialize encounters that should be really hard instead. The infinite spells loop might seem a smart play for you, for me it's a silly broken mechanic that exists only because developers either didn't expected it or they were not enough interested in preventing "cheese" in the first place (both imo). Balance clearly wasn't their forte considering how much OP stuff they put into their game, but it's ok because most casual players actually enjoy that.
The reason I like to "classify" is that how is used in the gaming boards cheese can mean everithing and also nothing. Is used as a substitution of OP, cheat, exploiting, easy and cheap tactic, something that unbalance the game or a mix of some of that things. And if a word can mean everiting and defines more a flavour than something specific,usually a negative flavour, giving an implicit judgment on how players play this game maybe is better not using it at all. Or give it a more tecnical meaning, and I think that exploiting the game (AI, engine limitations and features and so on) is the best communly agreed meaning we can find as we don't have another word to define it while we have OP, cheat, cheap tactic and unbalanced to define the rest. If we decide to agree about that.
About the complaining about the lack of challenge I agree whith you. My point is that I think that as a player improoves he anyway stops to use something that prevents him to have challenge and fun, at his level of knowledge and ability to play the game. And this is true not only for things that involve OP items and spells or cheese, but also less self-evident things like lowering difficoulty slide to have maxed HP. Just let him drop the things that reduce the challenge when he feels ready and in the order he like. Or maybe to don't drop some of them if he still enjoy them. An exemple of that is limiting rests and so limiting X day spells, for some players is a good way to find new challange, for others that love the complexity of BG2 magic system and have fun in dealing whith conplicate buffing, debuffing and protective strategies there are better ways to find new challenge. And here is also the answer to
IR and SR are very different things, more then nerfing alter the enviroment. A player using SR uses a magic system similar but different from the vanilla one, not a nerfed version of the vanilla one.
Not sure what you mean. The magic system within SR is more refined imo, it offers more options, but it's not that different from vanilla.
You're right about IR/SR not creating a "nerfed version of vanilla", that wasn't the goal. Only OP items/spells got "nerfed", but in exchange tons of weak items/spells are now viable. The end result though is still a reduced "power creep"
The way IR/SR change the balance of the game is a global change in one specific department, items or magic. In this global change in each of the departments some things too OP are nerfed and other things that in vanilla are too nerfed rise in power. the key is global change, a player playng whith that mods plays a different and better balanced game, very similar but different form vanilla. And well balanced in himself because of the global approach. Whitout compelling the player to play "as the modder like" and not in his personal style, which is the thing I don't like of mods like Improoved Anvil*. If a player want he install that mods and enjoy them due to the global approach they have. Another player may enjoy the idea of really powerfull artifacts, or of a mage that reaching a certain level of knowledge becomes almost instoppable and that can use his power and knowledge to even more OP effects using infinite spells loops and strategies and so on. And since is his own game let him do it, as long as he is clear about the premises when he posts his results on the boards.
I found that mods that impose some arbitrary nerfs, outside a global approach that revises a whole part of the game, instead of proposing them as optional is less enjoyable, because impose to the player something he don't want, or maybe is not still ready to want, or prevents him to benefit from other things that he like, whether he choose to install or not.
* Obviously what I like or dislike of mods is not so important, and the modders are free to mod as they like, whith their personal approach. I am thankful to all of them, even to the ones that produce mods I don't like or mods that are widely unliked in the gaming community. Every person that freely makes available the results of his effort, his time and his knowledge in this word too focused on self gain has my gratitude.
I understood that it was pretty clear that the discussion was focused on advanced players seeking additional challenge through a voluntary restriction. I don't see how people learning the magic system has any bearing on the discussion. Moreover any restriction is personal, it's not like rest limits are going to be modded into the game.
Is prettty clear that the discussion is focused on players seeking additional challenge. What is not obvious is the "seeking additional challenge through a voluntary restriction" thing. Because the OP started the topic talking of mods, SCS and Ascensions, and a modder is partecipating at the discussion. Mods are another way to seek additional challenge. I am a sponsor of the voluntary restriction approach, but is only a part of this discussion.
Also about advanced players I think that the reasons people seek additional challenge are manifold. Advanced players, players that uses too much OP stuff, use of cheap tactics that grant almost no risk and success guaranteed, parties too optimized filled whith dual fighter mages whith excellent stats and lots of hp, being advanced in other aspects of the game like strategy in phisical combat. There are players who feel the need of additional challenge but in using effectively BG2 magic are not advanced at all.
@subtledoctor I don't know if rest limits can be modded into the game, the modders will tell, but is possible to mod in the game some "costs" for the rests, like loosing some XP each rest, and it has been done in Hidden Kits mod. But is so easy to self restrict rests that maybe is better that modders focalize their efforts on something that can not be so easily self restricted by players.
about "but there shouldn't be a situation where, if you figure out "the formula" the difficulty just goes away.
That's what I don't like about the artificial "AI cheating" of mods like Tactics or the specific SCS encounter components: if you figure out how the AI cheats, and discover the one way to overcome that cheat, then the cheat becomes obviates and the increased difficulty goes away." I say that there is not "the one way", but there are more ways. Whith a little resarch on the net you find them. Or whith a lot of resarch you can find your own original ways, like mine to defeat Kuroisan exploiting a weakness of his OP katana against people protected whith fireshields. AFAIK no one before me has discovered it or posted it in the net. And be shure that in my next run I will not use that tactic anymore, I will try to figure out a new original way. that is why I love so much tactics and the other cheating mods.
All this game is "if you figure out "the formula" the difficulty just goes away", the fun is to refuse to steal other people's formulas and to don't stick forever to your own formulas. In the end mods, cheating and fair ones, and self restrictions serve not to increase the difficulty, but to compell you to use new and better tactics, to explore new roads. As, knowing the right ways, that work for a given set of mods and self restrictions, there is no difficulty at all.
Or whith a lot of resarch you can find your own original ways, like mine to defeat Kuroisan exploiting a weakness of his OP katana against people protected whith fireshields. AFAIK no one before me has discovered it or posted it in the net.
I'm pretty sure that was known many years ago. The old GB forums maybe? I used to hang out there but they are now defunct.
There's various methods of cheese for Kuroisan, and other encounters as well. I agree that is a regrettable situation, but it's just the result of incomplete bug fixing for the most part. Very few issues are systemic engine limitations that are hard to fix without comprehensive changes.
Of course there's always the danger of "fixes" having unintentional consequences in other places. And there's the core issue of it often not being very clear what constitutes an "exploit", a "bug", or "cheese", and what needs and needs not be fixed.
Either way, manpower shortage is a big problem as well. There's only a handful of modders that are able and willing to delve into the deeper regions of the engine, and comprehensive changes such as they are being proposed here would certainly need more people working on them. Personally, I'm glad we have people on the job who bless us with things like SCS, IR/SR and the likes and keep them running - everything beyond that is icing on the cake.
I told AFAIK and I discovered the thing when in some testing my fighter mage hitted a fireshielded Aerie whith the istant kill effect for both. Then I fiigured out how to dispell Kuiro's elemental protection and how to protect my mage. but so many cheese resarch has been done that is possible that every new route has been already discovered by others. But as I did not know it my satisfaction was preserved....
But the point is not about exploits and fixes, also whith tactics that don't include them as you find the right tactic there is not much challenge left. Until you drop that tactic and search for new ones.
The basic problem is that player knowledge tends to increase constantly and gradually, while the game's maximum difficulty stays the same. The solution is to either constantly mod the game and add more and more difficult encounters, or constantly mod the game to keep it as balanced as possible.
I've played SCS, Tactics, and Ascension multiple times each. These mods haven't been updated much, while my knowledge of the system has increased. The result is a decrease in difficulty that, without different mods, can only be cured by changing my playstyle.
The player and the computer compete, but one of them grows faster than the other.
Growth is a factor, to be sure. But new mods do come along. Switching to IR and SR for me has done a great deal in revitalizing the game. Hard as Bhaals mode, too. I don't expect infinite growth, but I'm also not too worried. If I can still find enjoyment even though I know how to kick the engine's butt twelve dozen ways, other people will have YEARS of fun ahead still.
Note on limited resting - some parts of the game advance only when you rest, so if you take a never-rest approach, some parts of the game will be closed off. To some extent, this can be addressed by taking multiple consecutive rests until an advance occurs, for those that trigger at random (as resting while already reseted is no advantage) but that covers only a minority of cases.
Personally, I take a pragmatic approach to resting. Assume that I will rest only in inns, try to complete each map at one visit, as it is a long way (RP wise) for the party to return, and prefer to advance to another map rather than return to town each time, so the party 'feel' like they are making progress.
That said, if an encounter goes badly and the party is cut to the quick, and low on resources, I have no qualms about find a secure corner and resting, in order to survive the return home. I may allow myself to rest and prepare for a climactic final encounter when I know I am on the verge of victory in a given dungeon (e.g., Daevorn, or Firkraag) rather than force a complete retreat and return, or engage at hopeless odds. Only for clear end-of-stage battles though, and not if the party is still functioning reasonably well, generally over 50% of capabilities of a freshly rested party.
How much you rest is a choice that involves many things. The difficoulty, but also your way to RP, the balance between magic and brute force, the composition of your party (think about the impact of limited rests whith a solo caster or a 6 mlee oriented characters party) and maybe other things. In my experience limiting rests beyond a certain point make the game a more point and click thing, leeds to a less complexity. Some players love to abuse resting and other feel guilty if they rest 1 time more then the minimum possible, other are somewhere between those extremes. Everyone for his personal mix of those things. I don't like mods that impose rest restrictions as difficoulty riser because it affects so many other things, there are other ways to rise difficoulty that don't have so much impact on player's style.
Comments
This doesn't make spellcaster weak (they still have the highest impact during a tough fight), it only forces them to think twice before unleashing all their powerful spells against critters, and to rely more often on lower level ones (instead of stop using them). It would also make scrolls and wands much more valuable imo. Classify it as you like (*), that wasn't the point but rather that if a player uses OP stuff (be it a broken item, an item/spell combination that went out of hands, etc.) then he/she cannot complain about the lack of challenge imo.
(*) Example: using the Shield of Balduran against beholders isn't an exploit, it's what it was clearly designed for, but I still call it "cheesy" because it completely trivialize encounters that should be really hard instead. The infinite spells loop might seem a smart play for you, for me it's a silly broken mechanic that exists only because developers either didn't expected it or they were not enough interested in preventing "cheese" in the first place (both imo). Balance clearly wasn't their forte considering how much OP stuff they put into their game, but it's ok because most casual players actually enjoy that. Not sure what you mean. The magic system within SR is more refined imo, it offers more options, but it's not that different from vanilla.
You're right about IR/SR not creating a "nerfed version of vanilla", that wasn't the goal. Only OP items/spells got "nerfed", but in exchange tons of weak items/spells are now viable. The end result though is still a reduced "power creep" because on one side players have more variety and more interesting abilities, on the other they don't get crazy powerful stuff and they cannot rely on the most famous cheesy stuff or broken exploits.
and
"That balance does not exist in BG2. Casters have more power and they can have it available all the time since there is no restriction on resting and preparing spells. So BG2 is naturally biased in favour of casters (this is pretty obvious, yes? "
are 2 sides of the same coin.
As @Lord_Tansheron had explained many times the best damage dealers in this game, but casters, and arcane casters at the highter grade, are powerfull, maybe even more then fighters, if you don't factor in only dps.
Fighters and arcane casters don't need to be rebalanced between them, but whith other classes.
If you nerf the casters you give to fighters advantage against eweryone, even if each class can be powerfull if well played.
About the 10 buffs for each battle someone do it, if they have fun I am also happy, but IMHO, as I see from Youtube, that is the best way to know how others play if you don't play multiplayer, most of the time is yust overkilling.
Bg2 magic system is complicated and I see often a lot of not so usefull in that situation spells casted, when far less but best suited could have been much more effective. As I see dragons debuffed, inyuried and ripe to be killed in half a round by the party whith 5 strong mlee characters (often duals), and the party retreats and starts to rebuff leaving someone alone to deal whith the beast. Lots of spells lost and opporunity lost. Send 1 protected whith PFMW and then immediately the other 4. And even that PFMW is too much, party has a potential of 40-50 APR whith OP weapons, the beast HP is low, he is debuffed and unprotected.
But is easy to spot the errors of others........
Anyway I hope that my point is clear, often casters are underused (clerics as healers????) or overused whithout much effect because the player has not perfected how to use them.
But if you nerf the casters making spells somenting rare cause you limit rests people will never learn how to use magic. Only casting a lot, experimenting, making comparisons you learn. And you will learn that you cast a lot only doing it, not nerfing it. Only experienced players can benefit from nerfing it, and they end up to do it anyway, as they stop using antibeholder shield. They try to focalize on best casting strategies that don't rely on spamming spells but on using the right spells.
But really the damage part is optional, he can make the duals much more effective as they have basically to protect themselves whith PFMW and sometimes a SI, they can focus on dealing phisical damage, that in your builds is their main role, as he buffs them, debuffs foe and improove their raw power.
please read "As @Lord_Tansheron had explained many times the best damage dealers in this game",
2 comments above.
as "As @Lord_Tansheron had explained many times the best damage dealers in this game are the phisical damage dealers"
Or give it a more tecnical meaning, and I think that exploiting the game (AI, engine limitations and features and so on) is the best communly agreed meaning we can find as we don't have another word to define it while we have OP, cheat, cheap tactic and unbalanced to define the rest. If we decide to agree about that.
About the complaining about the lack of challenge I agree whith you.
My point is that I think that as a player improoves he anyway stops to use something that prevents him to have challenge and fun, at his level of knowledge and ability to play the game. And this is true not only for things that involve OP items and spells or cheese, but also less self-evident things like lowering difficoulty slide to have maxed HP. Just let him drop the things that reduce the challenge when he feels ready and in the order he like. Or maybe to don't drop some of them if he still enjoy them. An exemple of that is limiting rests and so limiting X day spells, for some players is a good way to find new challange, for others that love the complexity of BG2 magic system and have fun in dealing whith conplicate buffing, debuffing and protective strategies there are better ways to find new challenge. And here is also the answer to The way IR/SR change the balance of the game is a global change in one specific department, items or magic.
In this global change in each of the departments some things too OP are nerfed and other things that in vanilla are too nerfed rise in power. the key is global change, a player playng whith that mods plays a different and better balanced game, very similar but different form vanilla. And well balanced in himself because of the global approach. Whitout compelling the player to play "as the modder like" and not in his personal style, which is the thing I don't like of mods like Improoved Anvil*.
If a player want he install that mods and enjoy them due to the global approach they have. Another player may enjoy the idea of really powerfull artifacts, or of a mage that reaching a certain level of knowledge becomes almost instoppable and that can use his power and knowledge to even more OP effects using infinite spells loops and strategies and so on. And since is his own game let him do it, as long as he is clear about the premises when he posts his results on the boards.
I found that mods that impose some arbitrary nerfs, outside a global approach that revises a whole part of the game, instead of proposing them as optional is less enjoyable, because impose to the player something he don't want, or maybe is not still ready to want, or prevents him to benefit from other things that he like, whether he choose to install or not.
* Obviously what I like or dislike of mods is not so important, and the modders are free to mod as they like, whith their personal approach.
I am thankful to all of them, even to the ones that produce mods I don't like or mods that are widely unliked in the gaming community. Every person that freely makes available the results of his effort, his time and his knowledge in this word too focused on self gain has my gratitude.
Because the OP started the topic talking of mods, SCS and Ascensions, and a modder is partecipating at the discussion. Mods are another way to seek additional challenge. I am a sponsor of the voluntary restriction approach, but is only a part of this discussion.
Also about advanced players I think that the reasons people seek additional challenge are manifold. Advanced players, players that uses too much OP stuff, use of cheap tactics that grant almost no risk and success guaranteed, parties too optimized filled whith dual fighter mages whith excellent stats and lots of hp, being advanced in other aspects of the game like strategy in phisical combat. There are players who feel the need of additional challenge but in using effectively BG2 magic are not advanced at all.
I don't know if rest limits can be modded into the game, the modders will tell, but is possible to mod in the game some "costs" for the rests, like loosing some XP each rest, and it has been done in Hidden Kits mod.
But is so easy to self restrict rests that maybe is better that modders focalize their efforts on something that can not be so easily self restricted by players.
about
"but there shouldn't be a situation where, if you figure out "the formula" the difficulty just goes away.
That's what I don't like about the artificial "AI cheating" of mods like Tactics or the specific SCS encounter components: if you figure out how the AI cheats, and discover the one way to overcome that cheat, then the cheat becomes obviates and the increased difficulty goes away."
I say that there is not "the one way", but there are more ways. Whith a little resarch on the net you find them.
Or whith a lot of resarch you can find your own original ways, like mine to defeat Kuroisan exploiting a weakness of his OP katana against people protected whith fireshields. AFAIK no one before me has discovered it or posted it in the net. And be shure that in my next run I will not use that tactic anymore, I will try to figure out a new original way.
that is why I love so much tactics and the other cheating mods.
In the end mods, cheating and fair ones, and self restrictions serve not to increase the difficulty, but to compell you to use new and better tactics, to explore new roads. As, knowing the right ways, that work for a given set of mods and self restrictions, there is no difficulty at all.
There's various methods of cheese for Kuroisan, and other encounters as well. I agree that is a regrettable situation, but it's just the result of incomplete bug fixing for the most part. Very few issues are systemic engine limitations that are hard to fix without comprehensive changes.
Of course there's always the danger of "fixes" having unintentional consequences in other places. And there's the core issue of it often not being very clear what constitutes an "exploit", a "bug", or "cheese", and what needs and needs not be fixed.
Either way, manpower shortage is a big problem as well. There's only a handful of modders that are able and willing to delve into the deeper regions of the engine, and comprehensive changes such as they are being proposed here would certainly need more people working on them. Personally, I'm glad we have people on the job who bless us with things like SCS, IR/SR and the likes and keep them running - everything beyond that is icing on the cake.
But the point is not about exploits and fixes, also whith tactics that don't include them as you find the right tactic there is not much challenge left. Until you drop that tactic and search for new ones.
I've played SCS, Tactics, and Ascension multiple times each. These mods haven't been updated much, while my knowledge of the system has increased. The result is a decrease in difficulty that, without different mods, can only be cured by changing my playstyle.
The player and the computer compete, but one of them grows faster than the other.
Personally, I take a pragmatic approach to resting. Assume that I will rest only in inns, try to complete each map at one visit, as it is a long way (RP wise) for the party to return, and prefer to advance to another map rather than return to town each time, so the party 'feel' like they are making progress.
That said, if an encounter goes badly and the party is cut to the quick, and low on resources, I have no qualms about find a secure corner and resting, in order to survive the return home. I may allow myself to rest and prepare for a climactic final encounter when I know I am on the verge of victory in a given dungeon (e.g., Daevorn, or Firkraag) rather than force a complete retreat and return, or engage at hopeless odds. Only for clear end-of-stage battles though, and not if the party is still functioning reasonably well, generally over 50% of capabilities of a freshly rested party.
The difficoulty, but also your way to RP, the balance between magic and brute force, the composition of your party (think about the impact of limited rests whith a solo caster or a 6 mlee oriented characters party) and maybe other things. In my experience limiting rests beyond a certain point make the game a more point and click thing, leeds to a less complexity.
Some players love to abuse resting and other feel guilty if they rest 1 time more then the minimum possible, other are somewhere between those extremes. Everyone for his personal mix of those things.
I don't like mods that impose rest restrictions as difficoulty riser because it affects so many other things, there are other ways to rise difficoulty that don't have so much impact on player's style.