Game Difficulty

[Norfleet]

If I were gonna put a storyfag difficulty in a game, I'd just make it play the game for you while you watch, and your involvement would just be about picking the dialogue and cosmetic choices.

[DoubleOO7]

I ******* hate it when the harder mode is just "x2 HP for all enimies and you take x2 DMG" that's so lazy, even ***** **** like ghosts of tsushima got it right by tweaking ai to be more aggressive and making you more vulnerable at higher difficulty

[J1M]

Warband again does this better than most games.

Enemies have the same health and armour regardless of difficulty. You can turn down the damage they do (if you are ********), but otherwise it stays the same.

What actually changes is how they use formations, whether they feign or parry - if they attack head on, or try to flank - both from a macro for formations, micro on the individual troop level.

Seeing an NPC force their way around to your non-shield side, then kick or shield bash you, is insanely zased.

To decide what difficulty to play a game on I look to see if it has this or if it is just number inflation.

[rusty_shackleford]

There's a very high chance that the lower difficulties are just number deflation instead. Normal is often not the intended experience but an easy mode called normal to placate people with fragile egos.

[Eyestabber]

There's a very high chance that the lower difficulties are just number deflation instead. Normal is often not the intended experience but an easy mode called normal to placate people with fragile egos.

That's because when you give storyfags an inch they will take a mile which is why the correct way to handle them is by filtering at the door. "Oh I would TOTALLY buy this game if only they made it shittier and more ******** just for meeeee" <=== yeah, hard pass on these people. They are the **** of gaming.

[methoxetamine]

even ***** **** like ghosts of tsushima

It's a little disrespectful towards ****** to compare them to western game developers, isn't it?

[Vergil]

I don't like difficulties at all because there's no standardize system for them. Halo has Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legenday but the game was tuned for Heroic as the intended experience with the others added later with Easy/Normal being handicaps and Legendary being a bunch of values turned up to make it unplayable without using cheese and exploits.
DMC3 had this issue regionally. American "normal" was Japanese "hard" mode due to feedback about DMC2 being too easy. Then they changed it in the HD collection so now new players playing "normal" are actually playing an easier game than those who played on PS2.
When I play a new game I just default to "normal" or its equivalent and hope for the best.

[Norfleet]

When I play a new game I just default to "normal" or its equivalent and hope for the best.

I just play on I AM DEATH INCARNATE because I'm not a pussy.

[Tweed]

ITT wimpy babies who can't play on anything but easy.

[Oyster Sauce]

Something needs to be done about difficulty customization



I'd just make it an unlockable cheat reward for beating the game properly

[rusty_shackleford]

Something needs to be done about difficulty customization



I'd just make it an unlockable cheat reward for beating the game properly

Customizable difficulty is a cheat menu for people that don't want to feel like they're cheating.

[Oyster Sauce]

Something needs to be done about difficulty customization



I'd just make it an unlockable cheat reward for beating the game properly

Customizable difficulty is a cheat menu for people that don't want to feel like they're cheating.

Yes, but so is selectable difficulty

[rusty_shackleford]

Something needs to be done about difficulty customization



I'd just make it an unlockable cheat reward for beating the game properly

Customizable difficulty is a cheat menu for people that don't want to feel like they're cheating.

Yes, but so is selectable difficulty

Yes, games should have one difficulty as designed, and optionally one more for extra challenge.

[traxtan]

I like how Ghost of Tsushima implemented harder difficulties, you die way faster and the enemy ai is extremely aggressive but their health is also way lower as well so it balances out. This applies to bosses too where they get lower health on the higher difficulties.

Basically you kill them in the same number of hits as they kill you, that's my preferred difficulty in any game.

[J1M]

Something needs to be done about difficulty customization



I'd just make it an unlockable cheat reward for beating the game properly

Customizable difficulty is a cheat menu for people that don't want to feel like they're cheating.

The people in question are first and foremost the designers opting out of doing their design job.

[J1M]

Customizable difficulty is a cheat menu for people that don't want to feel like they're cheating.

Yes, but so is selectable difficulty

Yes, games should have one difficulty as designed, and optionally one more for extra challenge.

Agree, but there should also be a journalist mode that completely removes the difficulty so the casual audience doesn't adversely affect the intended difficulty.

[Gastrick]

For most games, even on the hardest difficulty, they aren't actually any hard, where you'd have to self-impose things like playing blind without hints or try to play through it without taking damage or any characters dying to be difficult. For those rare exceptions, having lower difficulties is a good way to ease players into the actually challenging mode so they can get used to controlling the character and using their abilities + game mechanics.

[rusty_shackleford]

you'd have to self-impose things like playing blind without hints

This is called "not cheating"

[Trickster]

you'd have to self-impose things like playing blind without hints

This is called "not cheating"

By the way, come to think of it, can the "tactics" used by pro gamers in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 be called cheating? For example, splitting a unit into single creatures and thereby giving yourself more room to maneuver, to block, to distract the somewhat dumb artificial intelligence. Or what about the "speed boost" trick, where you dump your entire army into a nearby mine and keep only a single creature of your fastest unit, so the hero gets more movement on the next turn.
Do you consider this cheating?

[J1M]

No. Perhaps bad design.

[TKVNC]

The only game I don't play on the 'hardest' mode is M&B, since the hardest mode is all the difficulty settings, but also with 2,000 man battles.

I would. But my computer can't run it at that point.

[Norfleet]

By the way, come to think of it, can the "tactics" used by pro gamers in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 be called cheating? For example, splitting a unit into single creatures and thereby giving yourself more room to maneuver, to block, to distract the somewhat dumb artificial intelligence. Or what about the "speed boost" trick, where you dump your entire army into a nearby mine and keep only a single creature of your fastest unit, so the hero gets more movement on the next turn.
Do you consider this cheating?

No. Cheating is when you hack or edit the game, or use debug/cheat codes. This is EXPLOITING. You didn't make the rules, you're just taking advantage of the rules as written.

[Tweed]

Something needs to be done about difficulty customization



I'd just make it an unlockable cheat reward for beating the game properly

Whoever they expect to play this game is gonna make it weird alright.

[asf]

muh balance

best games are the ones you break with some op strategy you figure

[Norfleet]

For most games, even on the hardest difficulty, they aren't actually any hard

Unless it's a physical challenge, difficulty doesn't exist. There's only "solved" and "I don't know what I'm doing so I'm going to call this hard". A thing cannot be "hard" if a small child can beat it just by doing exactly what I tell them to do. You being clueless and uneducated is not the same as something being hard.