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Author Topic: Added Difficulty Adjustment  (Read 5684 times)

BillyRueben

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Added Difficulty Adjustment
« on: August 31, 2012, 12:20:52 PM »

A "simple" suggestion (I hope).

Right now, all we have is either 50% or 100% player ship damage. Mount & Blade had a good example of what I'm thinking of. Of course, you don't have to go too overboard with modifiers, since if someone wants some really specific, they can just mod it in.

Some extra modifiers like:
Player Damage Taken:         [50%] [100%] [150%]
Player Damage Dealt:          [50%] [100%] [150%]
Player Fleet Damage Taken: [75%] [100%] [125%]
Ship Costs:                       [50%] [100%] [150%]
Cargo/Crew/Weapon Costs: [50%] [100%] [150%]
and so on...

I would like the option to increase the difficulty of the game in some areas, or lower it in others. Something to keep in mind.
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Brainbread

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2012, 01:38:08 PM »

A "simple" suggestion (I hope).

Right now, all we have is either 50% or 100% player ship damage. Mount & Blade had a good example of what I'm thinking of. Of course, you don't have to go too overboard with modifiers, since if someone wants some really specific, they can just mod it in.

Some extra modifiers like:
Player Damage Taken:         [50%] [100%] [150%]
Player Damage Dealt:          [50%] [100%] [150%]
Player Fleet Damage Taken: [75%] [100%] [125%]
Ship Costs:                       [50%] [100%] [150%]
Cargo/Crew/Weapon Costs: [50%] [100%] [150%]
and so on...

I would like the option to increase the difficulty of the game in some areas, or lower it in others. Something to keep in mind.

It might be useful in the short run, but this "is" Alpha, so there is a lot of room for the game to change in difficulty in more subtle ways.
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PCCL

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2012, 01:58:57 PM »

options can't hurt...

if not too much trouble, +1
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TJJ

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2012, 03:18:18 PM »

It'd be of value in the final product, but I do wonder if it'd make the alpha testing process less effective.

It's hard to detect & report ship imbalances if people are playing on anything but 100% difficulty.
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PCCL

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2012, 03:38:05 PM »

well... we have the half damage player ship option...

this can't be THAT bad...
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BillyRueben

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2012, 04:15:30 PM »

I guess the key was at the end of my post when I said:
Something to keep in mind.
This was an idea for something down the line a ways. As the campaign becomes more fleshed out and the game becomes more complex, the game's difficulty is going to change dramatically. This seems like something that would be useful to plan to do before adding a ton of features, rather than going back later and doing it.
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Brainbread

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2012, 04:24:29 PM »

I guess the key was at the end of my post when I said:
Something to keep in mind.
This was an idea for something down the line a ways. As the campaign becomes more fleshed out and the game becomes more complex, the game's difficulty is going to change dramatically. This seems like something that would be useful to plan to do before adding a ton of features, rather than going back later and doing it.

Now, as a MOD, the extra difficulties would be nice, but not as an actual change in the game.
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Catra

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2012, 04:47:04 PM »

the only problem here is that these are artificial difficulty modifiers, something more along the lines of :

Tri-Tachyon Combat AI intelligence:

Smart: goes for objectives in groups, moves around in death blobs, leaves no openings to harassers

Mediocre: goes for objectives individually, moves around in small groups, some gaps in defense.

Dumb: doesn't go for objectives, moves around individually, no concept of protecting the rear

Tri-Tachyon Fleet Composition Intelligence

Smart: builds fleet for specific purpose (EG: mostly fighters, few carriers)

Mediocre: sort of understands fleet composition (EG: some carriers, some fighters)

Dumb: doesn't know the first thing of fleet composition (EG: mostly carriers, few fighters)

Tri-Tachyon Ship Loadout Intelligence:

Smart: individual ships can handle all threats thrown at them, capacitors / vents are distributed to strength ( IE: low tech ships have mostly vents, midline have some vents and capacitors and high tech are mostly capacitors )

Mediocre: individual ships are outfitted for specifc purposes (IE: point defense ships have mostly weapons to shoot down missiles), strikes a balance for capacitors and vents (IE: if a low tech ship has 10 OP leftover, then 5 go into capacitors and 5 into vents, instead of 10 going into vents)

Dumb: random weapons are thrown on and no points are distributed for vents and capacitors.

etc etc

things like that would be more in line for making the game easier / harder without logic breaking " my ship(s) magically does next to no damage and everything dies to a tactical laser equipped buffalo  "

though, it would be interesting if the sector was MOSTLY populated with captains according to the options you chose, and that there's a chance that you will come across captains who display signs of lower (or higher) intelligence, so something like:

AI intelligence variations:

Alot: 95% of the galaxy is populated with your choices.
Some: 55% of the galaxy is populated with your choices.
Sparse: very rarely (25%) will you meet a foe with a higher / lower setting than what you have chosen.
none: exactly as it says, you will never meet a more difficult / less worthy adversary.
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BillyRueben

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2012, 05:01:16 PM »

As long as I get to make the game harder or easier.
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Aleskander

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2012, 06:42:19 PM »

I'd rather have the AI better than have the stats like damage increased. It's such an easy way out.
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PCCL

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2012, 06:56:51 PM »

it's the easy way out for a reason....

it takes a good chunk of time to code ONE AI for a game, let alone 3 or 4...
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Reshy

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Re: Added Difficulty Adjustment
« Reply #11 on: September 01, 2012, 02:20:50 PM »

Suggested advanced difficulty settings before.
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