Hello, thanks for playing and for the feedback.
I think, the point here is mostly about the game concept. I never intended the game balance to allow the player to simply walk into dungeons and clear them; I go for a more realistic approach.
What I look into when I balance difficulty, is quest resolution. The progress in the game is measured up by quest advancement, so if completing an appropiate-level quest is impossible, and you are doing everything right, then I did my job poorly and I need to adjust.
Let me ilustrate it with an example. At level 2, the player should be able to complete the Lost Explorer and the Flesh is Weak quests from Lannegar. They should not be trivial, they should pose a challenge, and if you're careless, you'll die, but if you're playing carefully a level 2 adventurer, then you should be able to complete those.
Many players just run into the first tomb expecting to kill everything inside, and when they jump into 3 zombies and die, they exclaim:"this game is unbalanced". But this is an open world, the areas shouldn't be "balanced"; what I balance is the quests; they're supposed to be completable, and they provide big XP rewards, taking you straight to level 8-9 without grinding required.
As for in-app purchases: I want this game to be playable and finishable without any kind of pay to win. Maybe in the future I can add "pay for convenience". Gold is a possibility, but as the game is currently in development and balance being adjusted, I want it to be finishable and completely balanced first, without requiring any money spent on in-app purchases. I don't want potential unbalances or partial design forcing my players to spend real-life money on the game; wouldn't be honest, or that's my take on it. On a finished game in which I am confident gold is well balanced, we'll see, it's soon to say.
