Asymmetric design and difficulty levels

from Elemental Forums

Hi!

First of all, I really like what I'm seeing here with SK. Good job and good luck :)

In symmetric games, difficulty levels are typically simple bonuses: extra hitpoints, more production, etc. I think they get pretty boring after a while. You can only add them for a while before the game breaks. And AI is at full capacity very early, you just can't beat a good human player on level ground - at least without a heavy investment of man/froghours.

I'm wondering if the asymmetric nature of SK could be taken advantage of to create more interesting difficulty levels. I don't know much of the design, but I'm thinking of either handicaps that affect only the player, but fit the story well. Or extra advantages given to SK that are not so blatantly obvious as, say, extra hp. I'm afraid I can't name many good ideas right away, but I hope I'm making at least some sense.

As an example the good old "AI knows where all the colonizable planers are", but in a way that keeps immersion since SK has far different resources at his disposal.

6,879 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Finally thought of a better example than the map fog. Since the Sorcerer King can cast spells into tactical battles, the difficulty level could determine its list of available spells.

In a symmetrical game this wouldn't work since everyone would be researching spells in the same way. But with SK I think it works fine.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Things that could be adjusted with difficulty levels:

 

1. How easy/difficult it is to get allies among the minor nations

2. The number of monsters sent into the world by the SK

3. The balance between good/bad random events (if such exist in this game)

4. The quality of the crafting materials found (less good stuff on harder difficulties)

5. The speed of the doomsday counter on some events 

 

If these were ajusted the difficulty of the game could go up without the player feeling that the AI cheats 

Ashes of the Singularity II