Voting Poll: Hard Mode (aka Good Campaign Difficulty), Too Hard or Just Right?

[Computica]

Everyone I'm going to need some of your input on the mods difficulty. I have a wide range of uses for all difficulty levels. enough that you can tell if the game got harder or easier just by switching the Campaign AI Difficulty or the Combat Difficulty. The game is balanced for Normal Difficulty.

What I want to know if Hard Mode (aka Good Campaign Difficulty) is challenging, impossible, or just right.

EDIT:
Just so you know I play on normal and find it to give me a run for my money. So therefore when I do make difficulty a factor I don't things too hard. As far as easy goes it is really easy.  Combat difficulty has a factor with how many troops surrender and the chance of it happening. In beta 4 it combat difficulty also effects the in-battle dueling.

Campaign difficulty effects so many areas of the game from income, all the way to auto-upgrading, prisoner limit, and back to how much an advantage lords have over you. So It'll be hard listing every single thing it can change. If you switch between the certain settings then you will see that it really can make the game very easy or really hard.

 

[Notsure]

I only played on good AI so far and it feels just right.I have wiped the nord and swadian and i have to say the AI doesnt seem to let an opportunity slip by and thats how it should be,as for the income i have slight issues with tax inneficiency (3 center i belive is the max before you start being taxed more heavily) with 3 center i still lose 8-10 k even with kingdom policies set to reduce my TI.

 

[The Lich]

I didn't have a chance to explain on the campaign difficulty yet, but I can say combat difficulty increased in a very admirable way. Still I would prefer even harder and harder, as long as we can dodge arrows by strafing, it is the way to go in my opinion.


Even though I have not tested it, I think a harder campaign would be also nice. Because, oh cmon man we start with a small professional army at the beginning, and we can have lots of troops at a reasonable price. Just go and win a tournament, and you will be owning the best enterprise type in 4 towns (if you bet on yourself of course).

 

[Alavaria]

Combat difficulty has a factor with how many troops surrender and the chance of it happening.

Campaign difficulty effects so many areas of the game from income, all the way to auto-upgrading, prisoner limit, and back to how much an advantage lords have over you. So It'll be hard listing every single thing it can change. If you switch between the certain settings then you will see that it really can make the game very easy or really hard.

On hard:

Never see troops surrender. Even when beating 400 Villanese at most 1 or 2 peasants will surrender. It may be due to the whole horseman stabbing at high speed instakilling people, I'm not sure. Routing troops is also uncommon, but that might be because they get killed before reaching the map exit.

Income is just fine, I just max out my Tax Inefficiency and get the bonuses from serfs/centralization, it isn't a problem. Also, the many towns in the game mean you can get a lot of enterprise income, perfect for the start (when you also have low TI) and later on it helps grease things like 75K to upgrade plate armor.

I don't auto upgrade. My AI lords seem able to have 50 elite troops or more and a size of 160+ (They are on Great quality, second from top).

The enemy Lords mostly always seem to be at full strength, one can grind away at them and always get the same quality of troops to kill and loot to sell. But there are limits. If they really don't have anything they'll suffer a bit when you beat them. If they have a fief or two they seem able to rebound really fast almost infinitely.

Not really had any issues with prisoner limit. Because my men use swords, spears, morningstars and crossbows, I bet..

And no, i never win a single tournament ever. People who can run their faction from the arena will have it even easier. Usually money gets a little tight around town#3 (with all the corresponding villages) then it eases out as the TI hits the cap ...

 

[Computica]

And no, i never win a single tournament ever. People who can run their faction from the arena will have it even easier.

Ah, perfect! One of the things I wanted to know was how hard the tournaments were. A lot of people keep telling me there easy to beat but it is really tough. You have a higher chance of winning in the later tiers. But during the matches where everyone is on foot you have to be on your 'A' game.

I'm making the rewards you receive for tournaments based on the actual town your in. Also there will be a much bigger variety of troops competing in the arena skilled with certain weapon types.

 

[Alavaria]

Ah, perfect! One of the things I wanted to know was how hard the tournaments were.

That I don't know, I never try them.

 

[Computica]

Ah, perfect! One of the things I wanted to know was how hard the tournaments were.

That I don't know, I never try them.

I think I've balanced them pretty well this time. I think the tournaments are where I want them to be right now.

 

[Alavaria]

Except my character pretty much only levels polearm (from lance) and crossbow (from siege defence) and has not much powerstrike/weapon master. Or ironflesh or athletics... huh, funny I can outlevel companions with all that.. (not really)

The only real issue is how long to grind money for enterprises before starting a faction. Since I have to properly take castles, more.

 

[Merker]

Well, I've never diverted from "good" setting of the campaign difficulty, so I wouldn't know how easy plays out. However I've very satisfied with how the AI handles the wars. Even in old 3.0B a faction was a tough nut to crack, the khergits were the most heavily hit from all sides, yet they kept going until I came along and took their southern towns. Now I've just started the 3.91b3 fix 3 or whatever and it feels awesome, the AI seems to be better organized, lords don't go wandering about for no reason and they group into an army more often. The factions are more careful about declaring wars and they generally focus on one enemy at a time.
Without a full companion party with trainer skill leveling up some soldiers takes a while, but I can always resort to mercenaries. Since I have grown tired of restarting I just import my level 33 character from the previous games with 4 mill, so I can't really say about starting difficulty(I do admit it was nerve grinding to start in 3.0B, until I could train soldiers faster at least).
Tournaments are easier now at level 33, but I do occasionally get whacked all of a sudden. I just wish there were more "named" champions except the "champion fighter" and "Veteran fighter" dudes. Victory greatly depends on the weapons you get though. A bow and dagger is kind of useless against a fast sword dude. Or a lance after the initial hit...

I will give input on fief and kingdom management as soon as I can join the Khergits. Btw, I notice towns and villages build upgrades on their own now. That;s really really really cooooooooooool. Does that mean that when I capture one I get all the upgrades it has built?

 

[Computica]

Well, I've never diverted from "good" setting of the campaign difficulty, so I wouldn't know how easy plays out. However I've very satisfied with how the AI handles the wars. Even in old 3.0B a faction was a tough nut to crack, the khergits were the most heavily hit from all sides, yet they kept going until I came along and took their southern towns. Now I've just started the 3.91b3 fix 3 or whatever and it feels awesome, the AI seems to be better organized, lords don't go wandering about for no reason and they group into an army more often. The factions are more careful about declaring wars and they generally focus on one enemy at a time.

Good, soon depending on kingdom Centralization lords may act more independently like in SOD: Gold.

I will give input on fief and kingdom management as soon as I can join the Khergits. Btw, I notice towns and villages build upgrades on their own now. That;s really really really cooooooooooool. Does that mean that when I capture one I get all the upgrades it has built?

Yes, they will eventually be able to be destroyed during sieges & for villages raids.

 

[The Lich]

I have a question, is it possible to improve AI to block more properly? At least a %25 chance for manual and %50 chance for shield will make the player to not feel like it's not a sandbox. If the player doesn't want that much of a challenge there's still the option for reducing the game difficulty. I think converting the current hard difficulty into ---> medium difficulty and designing a new hard mode would be fantastic, if it's possible of course. Because fighting on foot is still not hard as it should be. I can easily be the latest guy in a tournament training, and even more easily be the champion of a tournament. Those who feel like it is very hard to win a tournament can focus on taking down one opponent if the odds are overwhelming for this round. So they will not be eliminated even if their team is doing very badly.

 

[Computica]

As far as battlefield fighting goes most of the AI combat as in them blocking and attacking is hard coded. As for the making normal the new hard, I've think I've succeeded in making SOD more difficult as a whole.

 

[froggyluv]

As far as battlefield fighting goes mos of the AI combat as in them blocking and attacking is hard coded. As for the making normal the new hard, I've think I've succeeded in making SOD more difficult as a whole.

Not sure how they did it but the GK clan had some modified bots on their duel server that could literally block just about anything -even from the best duelers! Might be worth a look if interested.

 

[Computica]

I'd pass on that as I'm sure that modification is server side.

 

[froggyluv]

You may very well be correct 

Just fired up this mod last night and coming from a long time original SOD backround, I just have to give you mad props for what your doing here. Even as a layman, I can appreciate the sheer amount of work and your coding talents!

I'll report back about actual campaign difficulty after I get my bearings here.

 

[Computica]

Sweet, unfortunately I'm in a situation atm where I can't work on the mod. The things I have prepared in the next version will probably blow your mind. You can check up the additions in the next release here. For now I'm sketching up the ideas that will be in Version 4.0.