Combat difficulty - change proposal
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 5:25 pm
I've written this up after reading this:
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14604
however I'm posting it as a new topic because that thread seems more geared towards advice to the original poster, and I want to focus on my idea here instead.
I wonder if all those people who find the combat "easy" don't happen to (unknowingly) have such graphical filters set up that they artificially slow the game for them. That makes combat much easier. (see viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13829). If you play, as a fighter, on the lowest possible graphical settings, and find combat against Uhura, the Terrorsaururs, Rakeesh or Khaleem easy, without lowering the difficulty - my hat's off to you!
While I love this game and in principle the combat system as well, I think an overhaul would be a great idea as far as the way difficulty is set up. Here's what I have in mind:
It should be possible to control difficulty with a slider that affects the maximum framerate of combat.
Currently the game speed slider controls the speed at which things happen out of combat, but once the combat screen takes over, the speed is back up to the max. I propose that either the speed slider also control combat speed, or a third one is added that specifically affects combat.
Let's think about this.
Currently the difficulty slider affects HP and what the enemies do - how often they act and if they do their more fancy/damaging attacks. This makes combat at lower difficulty levels easier, but just because the opponents spend large amounts of time just standing there like morons letting you hit them, and not doing much themselves. And what they do do, isn't very varied. So yes, with the slider down, it's sort of easy, but it's the wrong kind of easy, so to speak.
Also, it's monotonous on the hero's part, too. The tactically correct thing to do is to just pick the move that you know will work best against your given opponent and all/most of his attacks, and stick with it. There is little incentive to play with varied/special moves, because that requires that you recognize which exact attack is being used against you and what special move you can respond with. I know all the fighter's techniques in the game, the special moves, and how all the enemies behave. In principle, I also know what moves can be matched to what attacks of theirs. It's just that (if I play this game without upping the graphics to the point where it slows the game) it all happens too fast. There just isn't the time for those decisions.
Now ideally, with my idea implemented, the player would be able to control difficulty differently. You would have two independent ways to make the game easier: dumb down the enemies (current difficulty slider), or slow down the action (my proposed combat speed slider). Or any combination of those that suits you.
And if you chose the latter while keeping the enemy difficulty at maximum, you could get a fight in which your opponent reveals their full repertoire of moves, but which you can recognize and counter in real time, and actually try to apply a variety of strategies yourself. That would so rock.
In fact, if combat speed could be controlled, you guys could/should even increase the maximum difficulty of enemies. Not the HP, which would make these fight last longer and that's not necessary, but the technical stuff: the frequency with which enemies perform actions and the likelyhood of using their special moves, and their likelyhood of correctly blocking your moves and counterattacking. Make them smarter and more aggressive. It'd still be beatable, though, because you'd be able to respond to all those things. Which is more fun as far as I'm concerened:
being able to win because the opponent just stood there doing nothing 60% of the time = boring
being able to win through technique and correctly matched responses = fun
This change would not take anything away from those who like the game as it is now, since you could keep things exactly the same for yourself if you just don't touch this hypothetical combat-speed slider and leave it up to the max. But I think it'd be great if we had the choice to face enemies not dumbed down in their repertoire of moves and their aggressiveness (or even with that kind of difficultly increased) but with the action slowed down to the point where we can counter them with a variety of our own techniques.
OK, so that's my proposal and my thoughts for why I think it's good. I'm pretty sure I could have done that more concisely, but I guess I'm not the best writer out there. Sorry.
Edit: fixed links
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14604
however I'm posting it as a new topic because that thread seems more geared towards advice to the original poster, and I want to focus on my idea here instead.
I wonder if all those people who find the combat "easy" don't happen to (unknowingly) have such graphical filters set up that they artificially slow the game for them. That makes combat much easier. (see viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13829). If you play, as a fighter, on the lowest possible graphical settings, and find combat against Uhura, the Terrorsaururs, Rakeesh or Khaleem easy, without lowering the difficulty - my hat's off to you!
While I love this game and in principle the combat system as well, I think an overhaul would be a great idea as far as the way difficulty is set up. Here's what I have in mind:
It should be possible to control difficulty with a slider that affects the maximum framerate of combat.
Currently the game speed slider controls the speed at which things happen out of combat, but once the combat screen takes over, the speed is back up to the max. I propose that either the speed slider also control combat speed, or a third one is added that specifically affects combat.
Let's think about this.
Currently the difficulty slider affects HP and what the enemies do - how often they act and if they do their more fancy/damaging attacks. This makes combat at lower difficulty levels easier, but just because the opponents spend large amounts of time just standing there like morons letting you hit them, and not doing much themselves. And what they do do, isn't very varied. So yes, with the slider down, it's sort of easy, but it's the wrong kind of easy, so to speak.
Also, it's monotonous on the hero's part, too. The tactically correct thing to do is to just pick the move that you know will work best against your given opponent and all/most of his attacks, and stick with it. There is little incentive to play with varied/special moves, because that requires that you recognize which exact attack is being used against you and what special move you can respond with. I know all the fighter's techniques in the game, the special moves, and how all the enemies behave. In principle, I also know what moves can be matched to what attacks of theirs. It's just that (if I play this game without upping the graphics to the point where it slows the game) it all happens too fast. There just isn't the time for those decisions.
Now ideally, with my idea implemented, the player would be able to control difficulty differently. You would have two independent ways to make the game easier: dumb down the enemies (current difficulty slider), or slow down the action (my proposed combat speed slider). Or any combination of those that suits you.
And if you chose the latter while keeping the enemy difficulty at maximum, you could get a fight in which your opponent reveals their full repertoire of moves, but which you can recognize and counter in real time, and actually try to apply a variety of strategies yourself. That would so rock.
In fact, if combat speed could be controlled, you guys could/should even increase the maximum difficulty of enemies. Not the HP, which would make these fight last longer and that's not necessary, but the technical stuff: the frequency with which enemies perform actions and the likelyhood of using their special moves, and their likelyhood of correctly blocking your moves and counterattacking. Make them smarter and more aggressive. It'd still be beatable, though, because you'd be able to respond to all those things. Which is more fun as far as I'm concerened:
being able to win because the opponent just stood there doing nothing 60% of the time = boring
being able to win through technique and correctly matched responses = fun
This change would not take anything away from those who like the game as it is now, since you could keep things exactly the same for yourself if you just don't touch this hypothetical combat-speed slider and leave it up to the max. But I think it'd be great if we had the choice to face enemies not dumbed down in their repertoire of moves and their aggressiveness (or even with that kind of difficultly increased) but with the action slowed down to the point where we can counter them with a variety of our own techniques.
OK, so that's my proposal and my thoughts for why I think it's good. I'm pretty sure I could have done that more concisely, but I guess I'm not the best writer out there. Sorry.
Edit: fixed links