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"Difficulty"

6 months ago I wrote my first Gameaday winning post, Frustration. It was about how games can get really frustrating like No mercy which I have thrown out of my window several times due to frustration and I asked is there anyway developers can avoid frustration. Well 6 months later it finally hit me (and I have the bruises to prove it), AI.

No wait, don’t go, get your cursor off that future of gaming prime topics link! Much better. No this isn’t another boring topic about AI it is about their difficulty (I said move that cursor!). To be honest easy, normal and hard isn’t always enough, I am really good at Perfect Dark and found it easy (even Perfect agent) but my friend finds agent so hard he can’t do it! This has caused him to hate the game and to be honest I know if it was a little easier for him he would love it!

Perfect Dark though does have a mode that is perfect (boom boom) for him, the Perfect Dark option that gives the player the option to fiddle with the AI of the guards! Goldeneye did the same with 007 mode. The only problem with this you needed to do Perfect Agent or 00 agent in order to get it so not so good players can’t get them!

Many developers have increased the amount of difficulty levels recently with “extra hard” mode or “Beginner” but surly a percentage bar where you can set the AI’s ability in comparison to your own would be a lot more accurate? The easy, normal and hard modes won’t be gone though as in games such as Perfect Dark normal and hard require extra missions to be done so the level can be completed.

But maybe someone out there has managed to complete all Goldeneye levels in 00 agent except Aztec, just too hard and his dream of getting 007 mode goes down the drain. If only he could make the guards 1% easier he might do it. Gone are the days of reviews criticizing a game for being too easy or too hard! Now games can appeal to beginners and expert gamers so a wider audience can enjoy the same game! Rare might be onto something with the ability to fiddle with AI and maybe we should see more percentage bars in the options menu in the future!

Dringo

so Dringo, you are saying you completed the Perfect Agent settings on Perfect Dark with no trouble whatsoever?

somehow even I doubt that?

Huh? I found it all easy my friend called Andrew found it impossible! Indeed as i said easy, normal and hard modes wouldn't be a thing of the past but if there happens to be a level you just can't do making the guards a little easier would be really useful.

percentage bars in games i think would make it pathetic. a guard with only 1% says diffulticy would be like and old blind, deaf,crippled woman. which is not very hard for the ararage gamer... ok then all gamers. On perfect dark the agent difficulty is really easy until the last level which im stuck on! your friend mr.dringo must be of a single figure age because agent on PD is a walkover. i nearly compleated pd on agent in a week of getting it which was a bit of a let down because goldenye's agent was a really good learning curve, but in PD the levels are totally changed when you get on to a diffrent difficulty like you have to get diffrent things go different way on the such which is really nice. (but i cant get on to it!!!!! GRRRRRR)

Hmmm cheating? would you call playing on easy cheating? 1% wouldn't make the guards useless just not very good! And to be honest it wouldn't be much fun. Sure it can be called cheating but those who cheat are people who wouldn't want to complete the game properly in the first place and even if a percentage bar isn't availible they would try using cheat cards or Cheat codes.

I agree with ashley, this is the same as cheating. If you allow people to tamper with the skill of the CPU opponents then you are giving them an advantage wich they shouldn't really have.

This option would also mean that comparisons of your skill and a friend's could no longer be made as you or your friend would perhaps take advantage of this option.

I also think that this would make the game very dull and boring, as people that play a level for the first time will probabaly find it difficult (because they have not had any practice on it). They will then immeadiately adjust the difficulty just to have an easier time of it.

It may lead to more people being able to complete the level, but they will not have developed the skills that they should have done, if they had completed the level honestly.

I don't think it would be a good idea in the end, i think the completion of a level should come from practise and skill, not from adjusting the AI on your enemy oponents.

I find some game's difficulty range is a little off, for example on TimeSplitters, the easy option is like little boy with a pea shooter could beat them type easy, but even on hard it's still quite easy. A good range is Quake 3's. A good match is around middle, easy is, well, easy and hard is, well, IMPOSSIBLE! It's great for all skill levels.

UT has that sort of option.

On multiplayer with the bots you can turn on "adjust to skill". This alters the bots so they are the same as you.

It's very noticeable if you put them on either very hard or very easy initially, with this option turned on you notice the difficulty change within the first few minutes of the game.

It's something all developers should put in their games!

I just remembered It was the syndicate manual but even so the same applies.

Wouldn't this be called cheating. I spent hours completing Aztec on 00 and the fact that i could if anyone was sad enough to want to see it, show that i had completed the game./ This shows my skill at the game and the achievement would be taken away from by cheating and altering the difficulty. Wasn't it in the goldeneye manual that it said if you find the first level to difficult you should return the game as you obviously can't go any further. If you can't do most of agent there is little point in continuing as your enjoyment will be severely limited. Agent is purposely made easy and bars to make it easier would be ridiculous.

Sigh this Topic grows dead until someone else comes on!