What difficulty do you play on?

[Lilith]

Inspired by a certain thread in this forum, I thought I'd take a look at just what difficulties people like to play Avadon and other SW games on. Obviously, a sample of this forum probably won't be a representative sample of the entire SW game-playing population, but it's a starting point.

[Barzhal]

This is an insightful approach to collecting data. Perhaps we could expand it a bit to gain more information? I have some ideas if you're interested, but only if you're interested.

[Nioca]

Torment all the way.

 

Actually, I'll usually start with an initial play of normal, but that usually doesn't go farther than the demo section before I start over with a torment party. Save for Avernum 3, which was my first SW game, all of my completed SW games have been beaten on Torment.

[Dintiradan]

I've only played the Avadon demo, so I didn't vote on that option. I played on Torment for the demo, for what it's worth.

 

I played Avernum 1 on Hard, but for Avernums 2 - 4 I've played on Torment. I start my Blades of Avernum games on Torment, but if the particular scenario is difficult and I don't feel like generating a tougher party I'll switch to a lower difficulty level.

 

Were I to play Avernum 4 again, I would probably play on a lower difficulty setting. Torment there was mostly "big bags of HP", so some sections were rather tedious.

[Alorael at Large]

Generally normal. I'll occasionally venture to hard, but I don't really enjoy the extra challenge as much as I am annoyed by the frustration of dying. And I'm not sure why; I greatly enjoy dying constantly with far greater consequences in Angband.

 

—Alorael, who used to play on easy back when it wasn't casual. He graduated form it when it became too easy. Maybe his skills improved.

[Dikiyoba]

The difficulty I play on really depends on the game. I usually start on casual or normal and then bump it up on future playthroughs once I know what I'm doing, but only if I like the game enough to want the extra challenge.

 

Dikiyoba played Avadon on casual twice to see all the endings and take all the characters out and about, and then tried playing it on hard but got bored before finishing the wretch quest and hasn't touched the game since. There are still new classes to play and builds to try out, but there's no more new story to see and the lockpicking mechanics limited to just two classes is really annoying.

[Dantius]

Casual, unless I've replayed it enough to be familiar with the mechanics to play Torment. Usually that means that the only games I can play torment are the Geneforges and BoA.

[A less presumptuous name.]

I seem to have the same issue as Dikiyoba, only worse. I start off on casual just to enjoy the game, and I typically will wait a bit before starting a new run through, planning on seeing new endings and progressively bumping the difficulty. Alas, I have great trouble in replaying games, even though I know these games are great for replay. So I always end up with just a casual/easy experience. But since I care mostly for the plot, that bodes very well with me.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Barzhal

This is an insightful approach to collecting data. Perhaps we could expand it a bit to gain more information? I have some ideas if you're interested, but only if you're interested.

Go ahead. I'm sure there are more questions I could have asked but didn't, but I didn't want to make the poll too complicated.

[Micawber]

A difficulty with the UBB polls is there is no way for us to see the responses to the two questions for the same sets of participants. We assume the 5 people who played Avadon on torment are the same 5 who played all other SW games on torment, but we can't actually conclude that.

 

For free you can have the information that I voted normal on both.

[Callie]

I almost always play on Normal. I've tried Torment before but I'm not a big fan of reloading.

[Blender]

Ive always played normal for the simple reason that I feel it is the way the develloper wants you to play his game. Some people feel better knowing they beat the game on hardcore however I prefer just to actually beat the game before I get bored or stuck on something that make me leave it there.

[Earth]

I play all games on normal since I don't want reload that often (lazy saver) and bosses are tough enuf on normal (like on A4 (Nicoduas-battle) which took several attempts to finish and still fighters died on last round/2nd last round).

[BlueDraconis]

I played the first playthrough of Avadon on hard because many achievements require the hard difficulty. The game's quite easy until halfway through though.

 

Other games I mostly play on normal for the first playthrough.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Blender

Ive always played normal for the simple reason that I feel it is the way the develloper wants you to play his game. Some people feel better knowing they beat the game on hardcore however I prefer just to actually beat the game before I get bored or stuck on something that make me leave it there.

For what it's worth, this isn't a bad instinct. Spiderweb games are tested for balance most thoroughly on Normal difficulty, and designed to produce an experience where the average player on Normal will get through most of the game without very much trouble. The higher difficulties are for if you want trouble.

[Goldengirl]

Traditionally, I play every game on Normal up until the point at which battles start to drag on or are too difficult. At that point, I transition to casual/easy, sometimes while using cheat codes at the same time. The reason for this is that, quite simply, the game is supposed to be fun, and that comes to me from the plot. Most of the battles will either be tedious, so I'll want to blow through them faster, or bone-crushingly difficult, so I know I messed up my character design and need to start tweaking things to correct for that.

 

That said, I still enjoy the challenge areas in the games. My first was against the Titan in Geneforge 4, and boy, was that fun!

[Enraged Slith]

I played Avadon on Hard. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Jeff changed the difficulty scale from 'mountains of hp' to something more challenging.

 

For BoA, I play and design for Normal difficulty.

[Sterno]

For the record, I played through on Hard, but for the most part found it too easy and have decided henceforth I'll play future Spiderweb games on Torment.

 

I had to average my answer for "previous games", because I did Avernum 1 on Normal, Avernum 2 on Hard, and Avernum 3 on Torment.

[Doctor Albert Halfmann]

I always play on Casual/Easy difficulty, and cheat to boot. I'm not much about challenges. I play mostly for story and aesthetic aspects. This applies to most games, with the exception of those that do not allow for cheats. When forced to deal with a challenge I sometimes enjoy overcoming it, but when an alternative exists I simply lack the discipline and patience to go the more difficult route.

[Juan Carlo]

I play every game on the hardest possible difficulty.

 

For one, I find that games tend to be too easy anyway, so usually the hardest difficulty is the only way to get any challenge. If I ever play on normal or easy or something I find that I usually have to make up self-limiting rules for myself (like never dying, or some other such thing) to keep myself interested.

 

For another, I'm just kind of OCD like that, I think. I just feel like I'm wasting my time or something if I'm not playing it on the hardest possible settings.

 

But one thing I like about "Avadon" is that I think it does the implementation of a "torment" difficulty very well. Which is rare as I often find that very few developers are able to get difficulty adjustments just right. I really really hate it, for example, when games scale difficulty just by increasing enemy hitpoints to absurdly huge levels. This is just cheap and tedious. But Avadon seemed to scale damage/enemy behavior/abilities, so while battles were very hard on torment, they also could be finished fairly quickly---so you usually don't end up in "Dragon Age 2" type situations where you find yourself whittling down hitpoints in a long and boring fashion (in fact, I hated DA2 so much that I didn't bother finishing it, but that's another thread perhaps).

 

Ideally, I think developers should think of "Torment" mode as being one that takes "realism" as it's model (or whatever equivalent "realism" would be in terms of your game world)--all the other difficulties should just be "realism" nerfed to various degrees (and, yes, I do think RPGs can do realism quite well. Just look at the roguelikes, for example) However, it seems like too many developers look at "Torment" as meaning just giving the enemies super powers and the ability to cheat in unrealistic ways, which is dumb, I think. I want a challenge, but I also want to believe that if I play in a smarter fashion then I can meet this challenge. I don't want to feel like I am just playing a slot machine where the odds have been greatly tilted in the house's favor and all I can do is pull the lever and hope for the best.

[Superba]

I began playing in Normal, then I found it too scaring ( I panic easily with games) and began to use the shift-D cheats, then I discovered The Turtle Moves Editor and went on with that to Hard and then Torment. Hope I well remember, it seems ages ago. Last two months anyway I played only Torment without cheats or Editor to win the last medal and due to the experience made and the knowledge acquired I finally succeded. So I would say my gaming "style" is aimed to experiment all possible ways of playing a game until I am totally confident with it.

[jlsgaladriel]

I almost always do a normal runthrough, and then, assuming I like the game, I do a runthrough on hard. ( Which was the awful one, Avernum 3 or 4? There was one game I never finished on *any* setting.)

 

Avadon I played on hard except for one area of fiery critters I fell into far too soon --only to discover that one minute of normal play was enough to deny me the achievement badge. (Strange that not being awarded a little image made me sad!) Yes, it was far easier than the avernums/geneforges, with the exception of the final battle if one chose to fight Redbeard, which was just tedious on any setting.

 

I almost never use cheats, though -- I enjoy a challenge, but "hard" is usually my limit for enjoyment. Do torment players normally play with or without cheats?

[Earth]

A3 had few bad places and A4 more so .......

 

Torment players play w/o cheats by min-maxing party.

[Necris Omega]

I play on normal. I don't want to feel like a little child hammering away at the big bad man, I want to feel like the hero.

 

Part of being a hero is feeling some level of competency. We don't root for Batman because he's a one-legged dog struggling valiantly against insurmountable odds, we root for him because he's downright awesome, while not being horrendously cheap like Mr. Iddqd, Superman.

 

I get the most balance between the two by playing on Normal. Sure, I could handle Hard, and probably put up with Torment, but I wouldn't enjoy it. I wouldn't get anything out of it. It's still the same game and story, I just have to hit "reload" more often.

 

And yeah, some people get so many warm fuzzies in knowing they triumphed over the worst a game has to offer that it's worth the time and effort. Me? I'm not one of those.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: jlsgaladriel

I almost never use cheats, though -- I enjoy a challenge, but "hard" is usually my limit for enjoyment. Do torment players normally play with or without cheats?

There may be people who play on Torment and use cheats, but to me that seems like it'd be missing the point of playing on Torment in the first place.

[Ceiling Durkheim]

Agreed. I've used them every once in a while if I get really screwed over, but I think that amounted to once or twice in my torment play of Avadon.

[Arch]

I played through on Torment as my first introduction to Spiderweb games, and had a ton of fun doing it. I'm gonna do a solo run on Torment when RL cools down a bit.

 

I also agree that just adding a bunch of HP makes harder modes boring. I loved the fact that damage was increased, but hitpoints somewhat unaffected. I'd love to see smarter AI's on harder difficulty as well, but if the developer had the time and resources to improve it, i'm sure he'd do that through all modes.

 

I like the harder challenges in tactical RPG's because it makes the fights much more interesting, though I have to admit i'm a meta player, usually spending an hour or more reading up on stuff before i actually start playing a game!

 

I dislike games where I end up with a lot of unused items/boosts and did not have to make careful considerations as to what I was training towards or have items i never found a situation for.