Avernum 4 Difficulty Level

[jimbob]

Hello everyone. I am currently playing Avernum 4 on torment difficulty. However, the game seems far too easy. Right now, I am at the point where I just finished killing the first bandit leader. I thought the difficulty was off, so I made a new game and selected normal difficulty. I checked the health of some enemies and NPCs (for example, Captain Matos has 308 health, and soldiers have 188). However, this is the exact same number of healthpoints that they have on torment difficulty. I even started a new game on torment to check, and they have the same health. Is this supposed to be the case (maybe other things change on torment), or is there something wrong with my install of the game? Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Randomizer]

Increasing the difficulty should multiply the health of the monsters. If you change difficulty within a fight, then they keep the health from the old difficulty. But that isn't what you are doing.

 

The game ramps up in difficulty when you reach the west end of the Eastern Gallery and go under the river to the west shore. Also the bandit forts do get harder.

[jimbob]

Thanks, Randomizer. Then, do you know if the game seems to be bugged or not? Since I did not change the difficulty level in the middle of a fight, but between new games, I should be able to just look at an enemy and see it having less health on normal as compared to torment. But that is not the case. Would someone mind doing what I did (changing the difficulty level from the new game screen, and seeing how much health different enemies have by looking at them) and reporting back with the results? Thanks in advance.

[Lilith]

That's not a bug I've ever heard of anyone experiencing before. Have you checked the difficulty in-game on your Torment playthrough, just to make sure it actually is set to Torment?

[jimbob]

Yes, I have checked that more times than I can count, both using the in-game preferences window and the main screen preferences window. Speaking of the difficulty level, there was one guy on the boards who said he almost breezed through Avernum 4 on torment, so maybe he had the same problem I have (assuming I have a problem with the game) but did not know it? I find it odd that anyone would feel it was too easy on torment if so many people on the boards have difficulty with it, including some of the people who know a lot about the series.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

I checked the health thing, it stays the same at all difficulties, anyway, I don't think you have anything to worry about, the game is rather easy till the bandit quests and the last bandit leader can actually be killed in a single round, from this point onwards the difficulty starts picking up although the game stays relatively easy compared to A5 and A6 at all points.

 

I do find it strange that the enemies hit points don't change with difficulty but it's quite possible that Jeff balanced this one with resistances and/or better attacks.

[jimbob]

So, you did make new games and change the difficulty level from the difficulty screen that you see while making new characters, correct? And you did not change it while you were in a fight? It would really be odd if that were the case, since Randomizer said that changing the difficulty increases the health of the enemies. Also, it should not be hard to determine whether or not torment increases the health of the enemies, since fights would be longer if it did. Either Randomizer is wrong, or we have the same problem. Can anyone help confirm? Thanks for the help so far, everyone.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

I had old save games, I changed the difficulty level and Reloaded the file, which showed no change.

[Lilith]

I had old save games, I changed the difficulty level and Reloaded the file, which showed no change.

 

Wait, did you change the difficulty level before or after reloading your save? The difficulty setting is stored in your savefile, so if you were on Normal when you last saved you'll still be on Normal when you reload.

[Nim]

I was under the impression that hitpoints stayed the same regardless of difficulty till A5/G5 ?

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Wait, did you change the difficulty level before or after reloading your save? The difficulty setting is stored in your savefile, so if you were on Normal when you last saved you'll still be on Normal when you reload.

So you are saying that, if I :

1. Load my save file.

2. Change the difficulty.

3. reload the file.

then the difficulty is not actually changed and I need a step in between 2 and 3 which is 2.5) save the file.

 

I used both these approaches and found no change.

You might actually be wrong about it though, if I follow only the steps 1,2 and 3, the preferences box still shows the difficulty having changed.

 

I was under the impression that hitpoints stayed the same regardless of difficulty till A5/G5 ?

I can't say about A5, but I am sure they changed in G5.

[S M Adventurer]

From what information I gathered, it seems in A4 the enemies' health remains unchanged regardless of the difficulty level you are playing on. In both A5 and A6, then the enemies' health multiplies depending on the difficulty. In all games though, playing on a higher difficulty level will definitely increase the damage monsters do in combat as well as their chance to hit. Also, on Torment there's that penalty you get to your PCs' resistances.

[jimbob]

It appears that there is beginning to be a consensus that monsters' health does not change based on difficulty in Avernum 4. How odd that someone would think that it did, since it would be obvious that enemies had more health if they took more hits (unless, perhaps, their defense is increased to the point that hits do much less damage). I guess that the best way to see if the enemies are really stronger is to change the difficulty level and see how much damage they do. Although, it is still odd that enemies do not appear to have more health on torment, since my main character [a human spearman (spearwoman)] is able to kill most enemies with two swings.

 

I thought that it would clearly be a lot more difficult on torment in the beginning, like in Avernum 2 where running into the nephil invasion in the first fort (I do not remember its name) can easily spell death unless you let the fort's defenders do most of the fighting. Avernum 1 is similarly difficult on torment in the beginning, if I recall correctly. Afterwards, both games become ridiculously easy past the halfway point. It appears that that trend is reversed in Avernum 4, where the game is easy on torment in the beginning but gets harder afterwards. Hopefully the rest of the game will prove to be more challenging than I have seen so far. Thanks again to everyone for the help.