Concern for the difficulty

[alanschu]

Well, just as a comment, the impression of non-linearity I get from the game was more macrolevel than microlevel. That is, changes in the narrative based on your dialogue.

 

I sort of had the impression that the "combat" areas would be "somewhat" linear, with some variation on how to deal with the hostiles you deal with (sneak past, punch 'em, or pewpewpew). So I guess our initial expectations are a bit different

[L!]

Sure it could have just those basic forms of somewhat linear ways of dealing with enemies, but I would certainly like for them to explore a lot more into that.

 

Let's say you're a sneaky CQC sort of character, you approach a big room full of enemies, you could try sneak past them, you could go into rage mode, or you could apply your martial arts to a fire alarm to force everyone out of there.

 

Expanding on what you can do in area's determined by your skills, Fallout 2 way of doing it in a sense, will help push this game to non-linearity.

[alanschu]

Let's say you're a sneaky CQC sort of character, you approach a big room full of enemies, you could try sneak past them, you could go into rage mode, or you could apply your martial arts to a fire alarm to force everyone out of there.

 

This is still sort of similar to my expectation.

 

The Deus Ex example had me a bit reminscing of some of the very wide open gameplay options.

[Hell Kitty]

I agree with mkreku that Crysis is a good example of how to do different difficulty levels. Also, Assassin's Creed lets you turn off all hud elements, which I think is pretty cool, though it's not tied to a difficulty system.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Turning off the HUD in AC was just for show. The game is prettier that way.

[Hell Kitty]

Er, that doesn't make any sense. The hud has a bunch of useful information, turning it off takes that away.

Edited November 14, 2009 by Hell Kitty

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I can deal without the health bar in AC, simply because when I run out the game has some sound cues and a very clear warning that you are going to die. The map is pretty necessary though, since the waypoint isn't displayed on your screen, but the weapon selection UI is anything but necessary. Besides, you don't even need that stealth indicator, if you're being spotted the game has this nice sound cue (read: alarm) as a warning.

 

Although for AP, it wouldn't work very well.

[Anarchosyn]

Turning off the HUD in AC was just for show. The game is prettier that way.

 

I violently disagree with this. AC was originally design without the HUD and if you tried to play it sans that invasive / fun killing inclusion you'd have discovered just what an amazing game it was.

 

You remember all that design repetition people complained about?

 

IMHO, It was to train a HUD-less player into navigating through the world. Every quest type had distinct audio and/or visual cues that could be recognized and exploited to get through the game. Half the fun for me was figuring out what these cues were - cues, mind you, that I was blind too when I used the hud..

 

ps: I can't produce the interview off the top of my head, but back before AC 1 launched I found an interview with Patrice which made the claim the HUD radar (i.e. what I'm talking about) was a late game design inclusion and he spoke as if the decision wasn't something the core development team wanted to do initially. I will admit that the game's difficulty would scale to an insane degree without it provided you were new to the title. However, if you played through the first few "zones" you'd probably get enough experience with the design repetition to manage well enough without it.

 

Seriously, give it a shot.. it really makes the world come alive to have to use your ears to find certain quest types or NPC (or your eyes to find the safe house, etc).

Edited November 15, 2009 by Anarchosyn

[kreese12]

My 2 cents: Fallout was sweet how it had two difficulty sliders: one for the combat, and one for the non-combat stuff (I forget what they called it , but the second difficulty slider affected all the skill checks).

[alanschu]

heh I don't remember that

[Oner]

I do. Game and combat difficulty BTW.

[Slowtrain]

My 2 cents: Fallout was sweet how it had two difficulty sliders: one for the combat, and one for the non-combat stuff (I forget what they called it , but the second difficulty slider affected all the skill checks).

 

 

Yep, that was awesome. I used to play with Game Diffculty on Normal and Combat Difficulty on Rough.

 

Not that either did that much, iirc. The game difficulty just nade your skill rolls harder to hit and the combat difficulty gave a damage bonus to enemies.

 

 

Still it was nice to be able to affect 2 sides of the game independently. I've alwasy been a big believer in giving the player as many options as possible to affect their game experience. I'm actually a bit puzzled why more game developers don't offer options of the sort. It would reduce player complaints, if nothing else.

[alanschu]

I'm actually a bit puzzled why more game developers don't offer options of the sort. It would reduce player complaints, if nothing else.

 

It's not as easy as "just add more options" unfortunately.

[Slowtrain]

I'm actually a bit puzzled why more game developers don't offer options of the sort. It would reduce player complaints, if nothing else.

 

It's not as easy as "just add more options" unfortunately.

 

 

Definitely. But some things, such as turning off the quest arrows in the HUD in Oblivion couldn't have been that hard to implement. Having that option, and others, would allow more tailoring of the game experience.

[alanschu]

Not being privy to the system I can't really say.

 

I know a big thing about programming in general is that going back and making changes to code that works is something not done lightly. Especially if the working solution is less than elegant under the hood. It could also be that those that would appreciate a particular option are not considered to be in significant numbers where the payoff for the amount of work necessary just isn't worth it.

 

 

At least you didn't post some pseudocode as a solution

[Slowtrain]

I agree that unless it is something that is likely to affect sales numbers significantly, it is not going to get much consideration, especially if it is complex to implement.