Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Gothars]

Let's talk about game difficulty The best difficulty system I have seen to this day was Bastion's Idol system. I think something similar would work very well in Starfarer. Iron mode could be seen as the beginning of that.

It could work this way: You can find special items/unlock achievements while playing the game. These open up difficulty modifying options. You can activate those either from the menu for the current game or when starting a new play-trough.
 
These difficulty options are freely combinable. They could reach from simple things like added enemy HP to really mean stuff. Some (quick) examples:

Spoiler

No rest for the wicked - Deactivates the pause function in combat, all orders have to be given in real time
Turning the hourglass - Your character has a incurable sickness and his/her time is running out. You have to purchase expensive medicine every x minutes.
This deck looks so much better with a glass floor - Your Flagship takes x% more hull damage
A question of honor - You can't choose to escape
Wonders of technology - Better optimized ship variants with OP bonus are unlocked for the AI
One stubborn Starfarer - You can't deactivate once activated difficulty modes in a play-trough
Even at night you can't walk on the sun - Your fleet takes damage close to a central star
Etc - something that makes trading more difficult, mining, exploring... basically something for every aspect of the game a player might wish for to be harder

[close]

I can see many benefits:
1) You get collectables/achievements into the game that really do something and are thus fun to find/acquire. Other than normal items they don't have to be balanced since their activation is detrimental and entirely optional.
2) You can freely choose and combine your difficulty options to end up with a game that plays just as you want it.
3) Both the finding of the options/items and later on using the options can be bound into the game world and narrative. Normal game difficulty takes place on a completely separate menu layer, that's a missed oportunity.
4) The game doesn't "threaten" a new player with too many difficulty options

I (choose to ) believe this would not even need a huge amount of time to realize (not much balancing, graphics) and could be easily expandable in the future.

Thoughts?

[PCCL]

love it, especially the sickness one, actually gives a constant pressure to overcome. As is in sf it's so easy to get complacent and that gets boring quickly imo

[Histidine]

AI War (a 4X/RTS/Tower Defense hybrid) had something similar with various settings that could make the game harder (or easier). Actually, thinking back, the Civilization series have a few of these too.

Not sure I like the idea of tying it to ingame achievements - what if I want to try a new game with certain settings, but lost all my save data? And some of them will break suspension of disbelieve if you activate them midgame (why did all the NPC ships suddenly receive across-the-board upgrades? Or why is my flagship suddenly extra flimsy?) But it's not a big deal, so I won't argue the point.

In fact, you could have even have player-positive modifiers as well as negative ones.
Some random ideas:

Spoiler

Popular: Neutral ships will sometimes fly up and ask to join your fleet. Reduced crew hiring costs.
Ramming speed!: Increased ramming damage
Brave Sir Robin: Reduced damage when retreating from battle
Safety first: Reduced crew losses; lower accident rates/effects
Pacifism: NPC ships are less aggressive towards you
Diplomatic immunity: Can repair/trade/etc. even at hostile stations

Can't get no respect: Officers/ships will sometimes ignore your orders
Den of thieves: Increased numbers of pirates
No juryrigging: Ships repair more slowly (and can't refit at all) without a station
Cursed: Worse autoresolve results; occasional accidents even with no risk factors, and other RNG-based shenanigans
Never submit: Ships will never surrender to you

[close]

Although some of these seem like they'd make more sense as character traits...

[Gabrybbo]

I love this idea!

Maybe tying at least some difficulty modes with the actions of the player may be nice:
For example, diplomatic immunity could be unlocked by becoming an actual diplomat for a specific faction and would work until you make an action like attacking an enemy fleet that was respecting your immunity.
Den of thieves could instead be unlocked by killing a patrol that was keeping the pirate presence in a system at bay.

[Gothars]

Not sure I like the idea of tying it to ingame achievements - what if I want to try a new game with certain settings, but lost all my save data? And some of them will break suspension of disbelieve if you activate them midgame (why did all the NPC ships suddenly receive across-the-board upgrades? Or why is my flagship suddenly extra flimsy?) But it's not a big deal, so I won't argue the point.

In fact, you could have even have player-positive modifiers as well as negative ones.

The savegame issue is the same for every unlockable difficulty option. It's a rare case (and you can still cheat).

Adjustable difficulty is immersion breaking in general, but I'd say the gameplay benefit is more important. And Making the difficulty part of the Game World is the more immersiv option.

I think some positive modifiers are a Good idea, maybe offered after the player lost several times.

[ciago92]

Is it necro-ing if the OP posts a link to this in a different thread?

Anyways, I love the idea, but I agree it would need to be expanded in a positive direction as well. This would let less skilled players have a crutch to help them in the specific areas they are getting beaten in, perhaps to replace the half/full damage toggle?