The difficulty of DNF.

[madhatter man]

Computer games are known for not being all that difficult, even being set at the hardest levels I (and many other people) tend to still fly through games like they were set on easy. I just wondering will the game still have your average difficulty settings: very easy, easy, normal, hard, or very hard or the game might feature the changing difficulty during gameplay feature (I'm at a lost of words here)?

I want to add another question.

Will there be the standard stereo-typing in the game? Will white people be the majority of the game and will they be all business like and some trying to act like gangsta's? Will asians be small and super intelligent? Will blacks be carrying guns and rapping? Will mexicans be stealing and looting stuff from stores? Are you gonna stear clear of this?

Its a weird question but it exist in games and the world.

[Reaper]

I'm sure it was stated before that there will be dynamic difficulty, meaning the difficulty level adjusts as you play (usually after each "level"). Also, it has been said that there will be a hard mode for people who need the extra challenge.

[MegaMustaine]

Hopefully it will be a real challenge, and hopefully all the difficulties will be available from the get go. Unlockable difficulties make absolutely no sense to me.

[ZuljinRaynor]

Hopefully the adjustable difficulty is better than what most games have nowadays.

[Steve Farfan]

I want a difficulty so hard, that I don't beat the game until years after I've bought it.

I also hope that there will be good adjustable difficulty.

For example for me for the Duke 3D "Let's rock" was the best. For Atomic Edition "Let's rock" was little bit too difficult but "Piece of cake" was a little bit too easy. So if there is option to select difficult and depending how good is your progress tio adjust the level. And for example if in some place you die too many times to reduce the difficult and if somewhere you pass too easy to increase it.

Of course for hard core players there should be "Damn I'm Good" and option to turn off the adjustable difficulty.

I suppose this way both hard core and casual players(like me) will be satisfied.

[dark_angel]

I think the most difficult thing about DNF is actually Playing it

[evanazzo]

i thought the difficult part was getting it finished :P jk adjustable difficulty is the way to go. should be something very easy for kids. easy for people who wanna get a feel for the game before then bump it up to normal for regular play then a hard for if you've beaten the game on normal and your thinking hmm i wanna kick some more alien ass but i want a challenge and then finally somthing really hard like doom 3's nightmare difficulty

[Firstperson]

Originally Posted by dark_angel

I think the most difficult thing about DNF is actually Playing it

What? Yer saying that once you have it, you will be too estatic to install it?

[Firstperson]

Originally Posted by evanazzo

should be something very easy for kids.

UH.....If some of the stuff we want goes into the game, we won't be able to let the kids WATCH it, much less play it.

I can immagine a minimum age of 18 rating for the game.

[Nacho]

I'm pretty sure it will use dynamic difficulty which adjusts to how good or bad you are. It was a while ago they said that though. I remember talk that they might add an unlockable Hardcore mode for those who REALLY want a challenge instead of just Dynamic Difficulty.

All this is old talk though...

[Rider]

Bummer... I like preset difficulty levels. I'm one of those people that perform better when the going gets tough... y'know... grace under pressure

Also, beating a game on harder difficulty settings gives bragging rights, which is always a cool thing

[Tim. Just Tim.]

I really really hope it doesnt use any kind of dynamic difficulty system. That would be a terrible idea for so many reasons that I dont feel like typing out. I want the old fashioned easy, medium, hard difficulty options at the beginning of the game. Furthermore, I hope the differences between those difficulties is not just how much damage and hitpoints the enemies have. At the very least, it should affect the number of enemies in each level, and possibly the positioning and AI tendancies of enemies.

[vcatkiller]

How about how it was set up in Sin Episodes? That was kind of clever. Dynamic difficulty, but you could set restrictions on how easy/hard it would get, as well as the starting difficulty. It kind of means if you wanted a real tough game, you just set those three values really high, or if you wanted a really easy game, you set those 3 values really low.

[madhatter man]

If im reading your post right vcatkiller, I think your saying you can have choices when playing the game. Like increasing enemy damage and increasing enemies in the level as well as total hitpoints the enemy have. I think thats what you mean but that sound fun.

[evanazzo]

Originally Posted by Firstperson

UH.....If some of the stuff we want goes into the game, we won't be able to let the kids WATCH it, much less play it.

I can immagine a minimum age of 18 rating for the game.

well if they have kid mode (takes out everything bad in the game) then kids can still play it

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by evanazzo

well if they have kid mode (takes out everything bad in the game) then kids can still play it

Why would they have kid mode when it will be rated "M for Mature?" No game in the current market has kid mode, really. It's practically useless. Why wouldn't they (not 3DR mind you, but game developers in general) just make the blood green so to get a lower ESRB rating (case in point: Quake IV was "T for Teen" because of green blood)?

Originally Posted by MegaMustaine

Hopefully it will be a real challenge, and hopefully all the difficulties will be available from the get go. Unlockable difficulties make absolutely no sense to me.

This man speaks the truth.

[Longtimefan1984]

I wish games were a bit more challenging, made you think about what you are doing, how you are going to do it and the consequences of your actions....and give you atleast another option to execute your mission..

[madhatter man]

Well some console games are actually challenging (ninja gaiden) compared to Computer games.

[Antikorper]

ofcourse it must be hard. But you should still be able to play it through with GUNS not pressing buttons and feeding sugar to some birds that will bring you keys. I dont think that kind of puzzles are fun at all... the only puzzle i want to see is a mess of blood, pieces of brains and bones.

just my opinion.

[vcatkiller]

I love the good ol' fashion puzzle adventure game. Sam 'n' Max ftw!

That being said, yeah, this is Duke Nukem. Although it would be nice to have some puzzles here and there to break the flow a little bit, and you can imagine the high level of interactivity would allow for some pretty creative puzzles, more than 90% of the game will probably be solved with the wrong end of a shotgun or other firearm. And it would be wrong for the game to be any different.

Duke's more a straight forward kind of guy. I couldn't imagine him feeding sugar to birds to find a key to get through a locked door. I imagine him loading a round into his shotgun, taking a puff on his cigar, and planting his foot through the lock instead.

[Malgon]

George mentioned that ADD was to be in DNF a while back, iirc. I thought Max Payne 2 had a nice even balance which was good for just cruising through the game. Sin:E system was even better, since it had so many options that allowed it to adapt very quickly to the players style, which meant it could get insanely hard. I'd prefer DNF to be much harder than most FPS these days though, but not the frustrating hair-pulling type of difficulty either. I don't want to blitz this game, I just want a good challenge to help make the experience worthwhile. Hope that makes some sense.

[Needle]

I hope there'll be a wide selection of difficulty settings to choose from (ranging from walk in the park to ultimate gauntlet, changeable in game preferences whenever you feel like).

[alexgk]

I hope the difficulty is managed like Max Payne: dynamic difficulty by default, and after beating the game some hard difficulty levels.

[madhatter man]

I would want a new difficulty setting to be added the "you got to be shittin me" difficulty only for the true hardcore. Meaning enemies are 100% accurate and a few shots kill you, plus five times the amount of enemies in the level.

[Caine]

i want old difficulties which have great names like in duke 3d ! i hate automatic difficulties, that's for noobs...

[Tim. Just Tim.]

The problem with automatic difficulty settings is two-fold.

First, you're assuming you know how the player wants to play the game. If I'm having trouble getting past one spot in the game, will it get easier? I hope not. Maybe I like trouble. Besides, it already gets easier as I play it because I'm practicing and getting better at that particular spot. If I'm cruising the the game too easily, will it suddenly get harder? I hope not. Maybe I like cruising through the game. You should never assume something that important about how the player wants to play the game, when its so easy to just ask him, like every other game does.

The second problem is can you pull it off perfectly? Assuming the first problem is not an issue, and you can figure out exactly how hard the game should be at any given moment. How the hell do you implement that? There are way way too many variables here and I cannot see how this could work.

I seriously hope that George has reconsidered the auto-dynamic difficulty 'feature' since he mentioned it. If you want to get clever, there are plenty of other aspects of the game that could use it. But not the difficulty settings!

[vcatkiller]

The other thing that really gets me about dynamic difficulty is it kills off the replayability to an extent. You can't finish it on normal, for example, and then try it on a higher difficulty. Then beat it at that difficulty and then play it at the next highest difficulty. And so on and so on.

I do agree with Tim's first point, too. What if I just feel like cruising through the game, just to muck around and check the scenery? What if, instead, I feel like a challenge and want near insurmountable odds? If I can't decide difficulty, will the game suddenly be able to read my mind and know how I feel like playing? Dynamic difficulty removes those options, and tries to give one single experience that it decides I should feel like.

Mind you, anybody remember how the original System Shock had the difficulty settings arranged? I always thought that was pretty clever. I remember running around with all four difficulty bars set to 0, just to see what it was like...

[madhatter man]

Well, if you want to cruise through the game then do god mode. If you want to make the game harder nade yourself (or someother method) to get your low really low and attack players.

That brings up another thing, does the game (with dynamic difficulty) change if your health is really low and makes every enemy really easy to kill? or will it change to harder just to kill you off?

Originally Posted by Malgon

George mentioned that ADD was to be in DNF a while back, iirc.

Attention-Deficit Disorder?

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons?

American Dream Denial?

Stop teasing!

- - - - - -

But seriously. Easy. Medium. Hard. Harder. In that order.

Why fix what isn't broken?

Yea, i like the "Dynamic" health system like COD2/4 Gears, i could go on and on, i dont like running to get medkits all the time, i really hope that will be in,.

[themetal]

I wouldn't mind healthpacks, the only thing is that they should be in places that make sense, and maybe duke can improvise, like say in a bar theres a burger or some nachos and drinks, maybe he could munch a little to get health back, apologies if this has been mentioned already

[Nyteshadow]

As long as the "Piece of Cake" difficulty and the others are in I'll be fine...

[Caine]

Duke has to use medkits, dynamic piece of sh*t , mostly for noobs.

[Betelgeuse]

i'd prefer difficulty settings too choose from, but im not too phased if they go with dynamic difficulty, dynamic health would be good, but healing with meds and food is also good. not phased.

[MegaMustaine]

Well it has been a while since I have stated this, but I will be pissed if they implement unlockable difficulty of any kind. If I cannot play on the hardest mode there is in the game from the get go I will be pissed. Oh and "Halo" health sucks.

[Jeff]

I don't usually have good aim or good control of my keyboard functions, so that's why I probably won't make it too far unless the mobs just stand still and allow me to shoot them.

[SpinX]

Dynamic health is silly, just silly, an really artificial way of having the player to search for cover... i hate it!!!!!!!!!

The healthpack system in fear worked very well and is similair to duke3d

[mysteryperfecta]

I don't mind moderately easy games-- a basic characteristic of most protagonists is that they are very good at what they do. Duke is no different. If you're contantly dying, the satisfaction that comes from being a superior force suffers.

What I do NOT like is games that are either too easy or too difficult because of deficient A.I. An easy game due to dumb enemies is emasculating, while cheating enemies are a major turn-off.

In my opinion, the sophistication of the A.I. should be uniform across all difficulties (that is, uniformily advanced). Difficulty should be managed by hitpoints, availability of health, and perhaps in numbers of enemies.

[Tim. Just Tim.]

If 3DR insists on putting the dynamic difficulty in, then I think they should at least make the classic difficulties available to us as well.

So when you start a new game, you would get these difficulty options:


- Piece of Cake
- Let's Rock
- Come Get Some
- Damn I'm Good
- Its time to kick ass and let 3DR decide how you want to play your game, even though you could have chosen yourself by picking one of the above options you now leave it up to a computer algorithm to decide how much fun you have, designed by folks who don't know you or your play style. And chew bubble gum.