Also, no difficulty matches what I want out of them. Normal is often too easy, yet Hard can be spongy and spiky at times, won't even mention Hardcore, which is so imbalanced as to require cheese and exploits.

What am I to do? I mean, the game at its core is fun enough.

It's not like the game is going to be balanced ever again, apart from some bugfixes made by the Mod Launcher team in their Restoration Mod, but I would say that the vanilla game is balanced in that old-fashioned way, where there are really strong and op builds and strategies, but you can make anything viable if you know what you are doing.

The difficulty is also made in an old-fashioned way, it's x2 health and x3 damage on Hard and x3 health with x4 damage on Hardcore, the damage numbers are fairly balanced, but most people dislike the health part. It's not really an issue, since there are so many ways to kill your enemies, I would say that some need their health buffed. And stuff like freeze and kick aren't gimmicks nor cheese-strategies, this is just how the game is balanced.

Melee has the best defence stats by far, I'm not sure how the numbers actually work, but from my tests back in the day, 1 piece of armor gives you 12.5% of the damage reduction.

Though some enemies won't be able to penetrate armor that gives you 3 or 4 points of defence, because usually they have their strength level lower than these numbers, meaning that they they won't deal enough damage. And they tend to have x0.7 or so damage multipliers for their attacks, making their damage pitiful.
And the armor with extra health can save you from a hit, two, or five even. Stealth armor is actually the weakest by far, offering little benefits.

Damage is fine, given that your normal attacks have 50% flat damage boost, while jump attack gives you twice the damage, melee is pretty powerful with just the strength stat. Plus, aiming for the head is extra x3 damage for most of the enemies.

The support side of the mage is the most OP thing in this game: telekinesis, charm, healing and sanctuary spells are all extremely powerful. And that's good, because they are fun.

The damage side is fine, actually. It's not just "shoot fireball, win", each spell has its use. Fireballs have a very good splash damage, fire traps can be stacked and they breeze through the first 4 chapters. Lightning is strong against orcs and is decent against lines of enemies, plus it's slightly faster than the fireball and I would say that the adrenaline shot is the strongest among the spells. Even fire arrow is OP, when used with the oil jars, making it a cheap and easy oneshot combo. The Inferno spell is the one that is lacking a bit, but it's basically a flamethrower, so it's still good.

Not sure what you meant by the mana thing, since you can get 130 points, while mana potions restore 50 and are found frequently. And mage robes give 25% boost to the regeneration rate. It's a small upside, but it can be noticeable with the mana regeneration skill.

Stealth is actually the least popular playstyle by far. It's also the weakest one too, but stealth skill is very cheap and offers a lot. The stealth itself is rather boring: the slow movement speed, the level design in some areas and especially enemies that can spot you instantly without any other phases make stealth feel underdeveloped.
Still, it's mostly viable, since you can sneak through most parts of the game, and all those extra skill points you can assign to anything else, making stealth more of a tool. Arkane were never good when it comes to stealth honestly, but Dark Messiah has shadow-based system, which works well in these types of games.

Bows are underrated, extremely strong when combined with stealth, headshots and strength. The main issue is that the Bow of Fiery Rage is bugged, it deals no extra damage at all, which is bad, since I think it won't be able to oneshot most enemies with a stealth headshot. It's fixed with one line in the weapon file.
Though damage aside, I would just increase the headshot multiplier with bows when you get to the 3rd dot.

I'm using my rebalance mod, so most of the weapon bugs are fixed and the game has even more strategies to play around with. But the vanilla game is mostly fine, still a fun experience.

Which weapons are bugged?

And I honestly dislike these controls and all the wavy, motion nonsense. It's so easy to get yourself killed by the silliest of things. The perspective is honestly the weakest part of the game.

The game is annoying and infuriating. With that said, I never truly cared about Half-Life or its Source Engine.

I am playing this only because Ashan. If it were most other settings, I wouldn't download it for free. It's just terribly mediocre.

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Which weapons are bugged?

The Bow of Fiery Rage is bugged, deals no extra damage and can't oneshot oiled enemies. The former can be fixed.
The Poison Bow does nothing. Can't be fixed as of now.
The Lightning Daggers deal no extra damage at all. Can be fixed.
The Souldrinker only restores 10% health of the damage dealt, not 30. Can be fixed.
The Earthfire sword doesn't properly stun enemies. Can be fixed.
The Elven Bow has no critical hits at all. All bows lack critical hits actually. Can be fixed.

And there are other minor issues, like lower damage when equiping the shield, having weird adrenaline gain values depending on the type of a normal attack, etc.

And I honestly dislike these controls and all the wavy, motion nonsense. It's so easy to get yourself killed by the silliest of things. The perspective is honestly the weakest part of the game.

You can use various headbob commands, "cl_bob 0" for instance. You can increase your fov, that's "fov x" and "viewmodel_fov x", you can also remove any headbob from the game with "mm_noHeadMouvement 1", which breaks the whirlwind attack. There are other commands too, you can find the thread on this forum talking about all of that.

The game is annoying and infuriating. With that said, I never truly cared about Halflife or its Source Engine.

That depends. The Source engine in DM was a smart move, outside of the bugs and other quirks of the engine.

I am playing this only because Ashan. If it were most other settings, I wouldn't download it for free. It's just terribly mediocre.

Okay? It's not like the world is good, at least not in this game.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Which weapons are bugged?

The Bow of Fiery Rage is bugged, deals no extra damage and can't oneshot oiled enemies. The former can be fixed.
The Poison Bow does nothing. Can't be fixed as of now.
The Lightning Daggers deal no extra damage at all. Can be fixed.
The Souldrinker only restores 10% health of the damage dealt, not 30. Can be fixed.
The Earthfire sword doesn't properly stun enemies. Can be fixed.
The Elven Bow has no critical hits at all. All bows lack critical hits actually. Can be fixed.

And there are other minor issues, like lower damage when equiping the shield, having weird adrenaline gain values depending on the type of a normal attack, etc.

And I honestly dislike these controls and all the wavy, motion nonsense. It's so easy to get yourself killed by the silliest of things. The perspective is honestly the weakest part of the game.

You can use various headbob commands, "cl_bob 0" for instance. You can increase your fov, that's "fov x" and "viewmodel_fov x", you can also remove any headbob from the game with mm_noHeadMouvement 1", which breaks the whirlwind attack. There are other commands too, you can find the thread on this forum talking about all of that.

The game is annoying and infuriating. With that said, I never truly cared about Halflife or its Source Engine.

That depends. The Source engine in DM was a smart move, outside of the bugs and other quirks of the engine.

Do Poison Daggers work? Also, is it worth playing it on Hard?

Another thing that bothers me is that settings don't get saved and that you can't skip some things(like when you arrive to the city etc). You should really be able to skip everything.

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Do Poison Daggers work? Also, is it worth playing it on Hard?

They do, but they are pretty bad, might be the worst magical weapon in the game.
As for the hard difficulty, weren't you playing on that? Anyway, I've been playing Dark Messiah for quite some time, so I only play hardcore, because otherwise the game is a bit easy. And most of the mechanics and combat depth open up on the hardcore.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Do Poison Daggers work? Also, is it worth playing it on Hard?

They do, but they are pretty bad, might be the worst magical weapon in the game.
As for the hard difficulty, weren't you playing on that? Anyway, I've been playing Dark Messiah for quite some time, so I only play hardcore, because otherwise the game is a bit easy. And most of the mechanics and combat depth open up on the hardcore.

Shame to hear about Poison Daggers.

I've been thinking about Normal, but from what I have tried, it is entirely too easy. Not certain about HP bloat though. I am fine with the damage increase.

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Shame to hear about Poison Daggers.

I've been thinking about Normal, but from what I have tried, it is entirely too easy. Not certain about HP bloat though. I am fine with the damage increase.

I guess you can try to play the game on a harder difficulty for yourself.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Shame to hear about Poison Daggers.

I've been thinking about Normal, but from what I have tried, it is entirely too easy. Not certain about HP bloat though. I am fine with the damage increase.

I guess you can try to play the game on a harder difficulty for yourself.

Isn't there a mod that removes health adjustments? Hard @ Default HP would be awesome.

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Isn't there a mod that removes health adjustments? Hard @ Default HP would be awesome.

There is one, yes. I think you are looking for the Ultimate Edition mini-mods.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

Isn't there a mod that removes health adjustments? Hard @ Default HP would be awesome.

There is one, yes. I think you are looking for the Ultimate Edition mini-mods.

I'll look into it. Point is, I generally don't mind damage increases in games such as this, provided they are not overly dramatic(Hardcore f.ex.). Health increases suck though because they have a cascade effect which can break things a modder / dev didn't wish to break. I am always super careful about changing the "grandmaster" parts of anything.

Originally posted by Gorwe:

I'll look into it. Point is, I generally don't mind damage increases in games such as this, provided they are not overly dramatic(Hardcore f.ex.). Health increases suck though because they have a cascade effect which can break things a modder / dev didn't wish to break. I am always super careful about changing the "grandmaster" parts of anything.

Well, you do you. Sure, making enemies bullet sponges is pretty bad, but In Dark Messiah it works, since it has mostly melee-based combat, and as I said, the game is designed in a way that makes enemies not so spongy as it looks like.
You won't really break anything, just use the Mod Launcher, it makes modding easier.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3378556750

Technically, you will "break" the experience, since the game will become too easy with enemies' health being that low, but plenty of people enjoy it that way more, so.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

I'll look into it. Point is, I generally don't mind damage increases in games such as this, provided they are not overly dramatic(Hardcore f.ex.). Health increases suck though because they have a cascade effect which can break things a modder / dev didn't wish to break. I am always super careful about changing the "grandmaster" parts of anything.

Well, you do you. Sure, making enemies bullet sponges is pretty bad, but In Dark Messiah it works, since it has mostly melee-based combat, and as I said, the game is designed in a way that makes enemies not so spongy as it looks like.
You won't really break anything, just use the Mod Launcher, it makes modding easier.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3378556750

Technically, you will "break" the experience, since the game will become too easy with enemies' health being that low, but plenty of people enjoy it that way more, so.

I am all about power and viability, so it don't matter. Plus, a Stealth build can oneshot most stuff anyways, so that would only help Might + Magic. Especially offensive Magic to get rid of those annoying "environmental interaction" chains. It should be there, but not be the only way to use some things.

Thank you very much!

There is one more thing that bothers me. Given all the bobbing etc, aiming feels difficult.

Originally posted by Gorwe:

I am all about power and viability, so it don't matter. Plus, a Stealth build can oneshot most stuff anyways, so that would only help Might + Magic. Especially offensive Magic to get rid of those annoying "environmental interaction" chains. It should be there, but not be the only way to use some things.

Thank you very much!

There is one more thing that bothers me. Given all the bobbing etc, aiming feels difficult.

As for the headbob, I will leave this here, it might improve your experience a lot, especially the last command.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Use sv_rollangle 0 console command. I recommend creating an autoexec.cfg too.
There are also these commands, they might improve your experience with the game:
sv_rollangle 0 /// as being said, it should remove any camera sway.
cl_bob 0
cl_bobup 0
cl_bobcycle 0 /// these 3 commands remove headbobbing when walking.
sv_friction 8.5 /// this command will remove slippery movement.
mm_noheadMouvement 1 /// this one will remove camera swaying and shaking with weapons, special power mode and so on. Though it will cause 3 small issues, such as no camera-shaking with a bow, the Whirlwind attack will not work properly and when impaling enemies, the camera will not focus on their body. I recommend you to test this command, since not everyone might enjoy it.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Originally posted by Gorwe:

I am all about power and viability, so it don't matter. Plus, a Stealth build can oneshot most stuff anyways, so that would only help Might + Magic. Especially offensive Magic to get rid of those annoying "environmental interaction" chains. It should be there, but not be the only way to use some things.

Thank you very much!

There is one more thing that bothers me. Given all the bobbing etc, aiming feels difficult.

As for the headbob, I will leave this here, it might improve your experience a lot, especially the last command.

Originally posted by SilverSet:

Use sv_rollangle 0 console command. I recommend creating an autoexec.cfg too.
There are also these commands, they might improve your experience with the game:
sv_rollangle 0 /// as being said, it should remove any camera sway.
cl_bob 0
cl_bobup 0
cl_bobcycle 0 /// these 3 commands remove headbobbing when walking.
sv_friction 8.5 /// this command will remove slippery movement.
mm_noheadMouvement 1 /// this one will remove camera swaying and shaking with weapons, special power mode and so on. Though it will cause 3 small issues, such as no camera-shaking with a bow, the Whirlwind attack will not work properly and when impaling enemies, the camera will not focus on their body. I recommend you to test this command, since not everyone might enjoy it.

It's much better with that mod. With that said, something got bugged around Arantir Cave. Because of course.