Poll: Difficulty types in games.

[PureChaos]

preferably enemy skill but if not a general stat increase for the enemies is fine

 

[Venom 3135]

I chose "other" because it really depends on the context of the game, plus it's good to increase the difficulty using a combination of those. The best difficulty increases are the ones that just make the players pay attention to what's going on more so than they did on an easier difficulty. For example, an enemy may have a particular attack that isn't much of a threat on easy, but if you play on hard mode, you have to pay attention to it and avoid it as best you can.

In this way, you haven't added or taken away anything, but have instead just forced the player to change their tactics. It also makes it so that the player has the ability to practice on easy mode. The scenario is the same and the player can just use it to practice a hard mode tactic.

i totally agree with that. call of duty WaW was a perfect example of that, in my opinion.

 

[migo]

Item drought is good, suddenly makes the game more realistic. Enemy skill increasing is also good, descent did this well where the robots would just move faster and shoot faster.

True, item drought can be really useful while being seamless. But whenever I try to implement it there is a very precise mark to make it balanced. To many items and the skill aspect is gone. To little and you are creating a sort of fake difficulty because they don't have what is required to fairly win. I prefer to be on the over compensating side but increase the other areas of difficulty slightly.

If you have too little items then it requires perfect accuracy and deciding what to shoot. As long as you have enough amo to kill the enemies that can't be avoided, it's sufficient. It makes it a new type of game though, and I would find it rather annoying in a game where the point is to shoot lots of enemies. In that case, up the items, and increase the enemies. In hard difficulties for Doom you get the shotgun much earlier, which is pretty fair in my view. A zombie game though thrives on item drought.

 

[randomsix]

As a fan of the survival horror genre, I would say that given the proper setting, item drought can be one of the most satisfying kind of difficulty to overcome.

 

[Squilookle]

Enemy Skill Increase. There is no substitute. Still, if done well I'm prepared to put up with all of those techniques except for Player Weakness and Bad Controls.

In my hypothetical game I'd do AI coding in reverse: Make all the A.I. able to see, target and blow your head off the moment they lay eyes on you. Only once that is achieved, We then start holding them back, introducing innacuracy, lowering reaction times, removing certain techniques etc till we get the acceptable levels for each difficulty.

Also with level design I'm a fan of the risk vs reward approach. Include an optional dangerous side-route, with a great (and preferrably already noted) payoff at the end. Simple, and effective.

 

[Rewold]

Out of those I chose item drought. I just like the survival feeling it gives. (Yea I'm waiting for another RE)

 

[OceanRunner]

Adding new enemies and/or enemy attacks are a good thing to add to increased difficulty levels. Devil May Cry only had Frosts and Shadows above easy mode. Then Dante Must Die gave the enemies their own devil triggers.

 

[MazzaTheFirst]

If you have too little items then it requires perfect accuracy and deciding what to shoot. As long as you have enough amo to kill the enemies that can't be avoided, it's sufficient. It makes it a new type of game though, and I would find it rather annoying in a game where the point is to shoot lots of enemies. In that case, up the items, and increase the enemies. In hard difficulties for Doom you get the shotgun much earlier, which is pretty fair in my view. A zombie game though thrives on item drought.

Also true. I kind of abandoned item drought in my Doom 2 campaign for the most part. (A level or two are built around it, but that is about it.) It just doesn't seem to fit that genre well. If I ever get into the survival genre of games I will definitely make items appropriate and won't just wave that difficulty type off.

Enemy Skill Increase. There is no substitute. Still, if done well I'm prepared to put up with all of those techniques except for Player Weakness and Bad Controls.

In my hypothetical game I'd do AI coding in reverse: Make all the A.I. able to see, target and blow your head off the moment they lay eyes on you. Only once that is achieved, We then start holding them back, introducing innacuracy, lowering reaction times, removing certain techniques etc till we get the acceptable levels for each difficulty.

Also with level design I'm a fan of the risk vs reward approach. Include an optional dangerous side-route, with a great (and preferrably already noted) payoff at the end. Simple, and effective.

Haha, with that AI comment that reminds me of the snipers in Team Fortress 2. When Valve introduced bots they had almost pinpoint accuracy. Snipers would dominate the map. But it wasn't just them, you'd have the minigun wielding heavies sniping you as well. After a few updates they are definitely better reaction wise though snipers now seem on the weaker side, I have never been hit by one since.

 

[The Night Shade]

Better enemy skills in some games you are a pussy you take 2 or 3 shoots and you are dead in others when you raise the difficulty enemies are harder to kill and do more damage and that's really cheap