Difficulty setting de-valuates the game

Ehh, the difficulty modes don't add difficulty, they're more just Alternate hardcore.

 

To be fair to the OP, even though I believe he is overreacting, games can be 'diluted' by difficulty levels since the devs have to spend extra time on them. Thing is though that difficulty levels are acceptable and can add to the game, but only when they actually add difficulty. I kind of think that the direction of 'difficulty' for starbound is a fairly lame one since it does little other than affect the amount of time you spend on the game.

I mean, lets be realistic. Just because hardcore mode has one life doesn't mean the game changes at all, it just means each time you die you gotta start over. It's difficult in it's own way, but it adds nothing to the experience.

 

I respectfully disagree with your position that greater penalties don't increase difficulty, or that it's only a "cheap" way of increasing difficulty. The fact that death is more rage-inducing does make the game more difficult in that preserving life is all the more important. However, I do also agree that an additional multiplier difficulty approach would be a nice addition.

I hold the position that there are two types of difficulty -- one that ups the pain, and the other that ups the punishment; I believe that difficulty is more of a two-dimensional metric, rather than just a linear measurement of easy<->hard. Ideally, there'd be both a multiplier slider and a game mode changer. This would increase choice even further. You want tougher enemies but lower penalties? Then you could set that. Or a game that is easier, but also punishes you with permadeath? That would work too!

edit: Just to add, "cheapness" of difficulty is subjective. To me, simple multipliers are a cheap approach to difficulty. As long as you are skilled enough, I personally find that it just draws a game out rather than making it harder.

 

If it really comes down to that they wont make true difficulty modes then we at least have the
mod support that will let us make it ourselves. But i truly hope that they wont make us do that.

 

I refer to it as fake difficulty or game-mode, but you are right: it increases difficulty in its own way.

Hence I mentioned that the main difficulty system should consist of those multipliers and additional behaviors, while along with that they could add a slider for the game-mode (which would be the lose gear/lose character thing).

If they'd do it that way, they'd make most people happy by far.

 

Very true. I think it really depends on what people find to be difficult -- the pain or the prospective punishment.

It's all relative. As I mentioned in my edit (which you may have missed) I find simple multipliers to often be a cheap way of addressing difficulty. I mean, take TES... I find that it only serves to draw out battles rather than make it actually harder. Compare this with, say, the Requiem mod for Skyrim which actually does add proper difficulty.

Although this clear subjectivity does support the argument for a dual difficulty system.

 

Everything they have added is a common thing for games to have. It's people like you that want to start a war between Terraria and Starbound that make these fake conflicts up.

 

first OP says terraria is difficult, which it isn't.
then op says mode options are bad, which is absurd.
then the people come here, and says that starbound is difficult, which it's not, it's just grindy.

i don't know who is trolling who anymore...

 

Oh no, not just simple variables/multipliers, but also special behaviors of monsters/environments that would be more difficult to master. For example, they could add the blood vomit attack to harder difficulties, and leave it out at the easier ones

I agree just simple variables would be a little bit short sighted too, in my eyes perhaps a little bit better, but that's just opinion.

I have never seen this specific type of difficulty system implementation in any other game besides Terraria.

Dunno what you read, but people come to post here that the game needs a different difficulty system, or at least something that has been thought about a little bit more. The OP kinda failed to bring the issue forward in a proper fashion.

Also, game not being difficult is your opinion, not everybody shares that same opinion.

 

How about you're a tiny percent of players that actually crave being whipped to an early grave?
I for one am digging the way the game is heading, less about failure, more about fun and having a great time!

 

Bitch when there's no difficulty mode.
Bitch when difficulty modes are added.
Bitch the difficulty's fake.
Bitch when enemies do too much damage.
Bitch when enemies don't do enough damage.

The combat in this game can only be so much guys. It's not going to be the greatest combat. It's a 2D platformer using the Terraria engine and it's only capable of so much. You can tweak numbers and shit all you want but the combat still isn't going to be the best part nor the point of this game.

You want awesome combat? Go play the new DmC game. It's combat is pretty baller. This game? This is an exploration game. You wanna play on the highest difficulty? Do it. No ones stopping you, not even them adding difficulty modes.

 

Ah, OK. The only problem with that approach is that it would very likely need a rewrite of the monster generation. Although multiple difficulty-based attack sets would certainly be interesting.

 

I am rather excited for the difficulty settings. I have a tendency to play every game possible in "Hardcore" mode. It adds a sense of excitement to the games that I can't get playing in a regular mode. However if the difficulty setting does not add increased difficulty along with harsher death penalties then I don't see a point. I would also enjoy items that can't be attained in the regular difficulties to be attainable in the harder settings. It encourages players to take that risk and step up their game.

 

I don't think so.
Without knowing the inner workings of their code, I can safely say that it shouldn't be much work.
The laziest hack to try such a system out would be to find the method where damage is actually dealt, and multiply it there.

Code:

if (damage is dealt to enemy) {
damage_value = damage_value * difficulty_factor;
}
else {
damage_value = damage_value * (1/difficulty_factor);
}

 

That's a simple multiplier, no? Archer was proposing different attack sets rather than just a simple multiplier.

 

Brainfart... -.-
I'd love both things though.

 

Based on the Tweet Tiy made, the difficulties will be:
1. Drop pixels on death. (likely what we have now so I don't count that as making it easier.)

2. Drop items on death.

3. Lose character on death.

 

Official source, please?

 

the only potential issue I see with difficulty modes is if they segment the multiplayer population. If you can play with others that have a different difficulty setting then I don't really care

 

Server-side difficulty?