Level of Difficulty

[ZoomBoy27]

As I was building my last campaign, I treated each mission like it needed to be tuned to the maximum difficulty just short of unplayable. But as I'm playing through it again as a campaign, I'm realizing what a slog it can be.

 

Outside of the standard difficulty options which can be changed with a password I'm thinking of making 2 changes:

listing the difficulty of the campaign Beginner or advanced

and making the missionpack(derived from the campaign) more difficult than the campaign.

 

Any thoughts?

[Silent Warrior]

For us only halfwit flyboys (read as: I ain't no ace, son), any reduction in difficulty is welcome. Especially in a campaign, where progression demands a rousing success. Wanna cater to me or not? :)

[D-Scythe]

I'd say build a campaign in a way that if the player doesn't know what he is doing, or gets complacent, the mission would be near impossible to pass, so that it forces new tactics and strategies to be developed. Of course, they could also just give up on the campaign, which seems more like than not to happen ;)

[Silent Warrior]

:p Meanie!

[D-Scythe]

lol :D

[AStotzer]

In the past, if a campaign was too hard, I just skipped it and went to something more fun. I wish I could have just played them because they were fun, but I just would die in about 5 minutes every time.

 

When I made 'When HOGs Fly' I tried to make it fun with action and about medium diffucilty. I'm no Ace either. I rarely mess with ripple qty or interval on the A10 dumb bombs, and play with labels on 75% of the time.

 

But for me, if you include the password, I'll probably try to tweak each mission as I get to them if they are too hard. :horseback CHARGE!!

[Russianfish]

Wow 'When Hogs fly' was my favorite campaign!!! So while I got you in this thread THANKS!!!

 

As for me I like to fly with realistic settings, the problem is the single player part of this game falls terribly short of what it could be. In most offline campaigns the missions feel more like a game then a military action and when you fail because you forgot to kill a gnat on the ass of a donkey and have to do it over again even though you lived, quite frankly sucks! It then becomes a game of memory skills. Also alot of missions/campaigns give you just enough weapons to take out an ungodly amount of targets, in almost all of them you fail the first try and well you know....For me this just kills the immersion and I usually scrap it. I already gave up on the 'Flaming Cliffs' campaign not so much because it was hard, but because it just got annoying! Too me 'When Hogs fly' was a good difficulty level and had just the right amount of realism, I flew the entire campaign on Full real and only died when I did something really stupid, not because I didn't kill every thing in just the right order.

[bSr.LCsta]

IMO, NO military will plan or execute missions with low to zero success rates.

i.e. "We have 14 bandits inbound!!! You going out by yourself to kill them all!"

I find the most satisfaction in completing a mission on the 1st try. IRL, im sure most missions are fairly "uneventful", and there are other ways to make a mission difficult w/o adding lots of threats.

 

1. Environmental settings (Wind and Turbulance are great fun for ground attack and landings)

2. Try not using target designators, but actual intel in your briefing for mission goals. i.e. "Target is 4km SE of waypoint 5".

3. Limit your loadouts. (the less you got the more important a 1st hit is)

 

I made a 4 seat MP Su-33 campaign, and there is not even a hostile aircraft in the 1st 9 missions, and its still hard as hell ;)

[D-Scythe]

IMO, NO military will plan or execute missions with low to zero success rates.

i.e. "We have 14 bandits inbound!!! You going out by yourself to kill them all!"

 

How bout when the Serbs sent their MiGs up in Allied Force ;)

 

Personally, I'd like a mission with 14 bandits as opposed to two, so long as the 14 bandits are *not* the objective. It gives missions a bit more replay when there are extra 'side quests' in addition to the main objective - you don't have to kill all 14 bandits, but the option is there for you to kill them.

[Dusty Rhodes]

I always started missions I made (made a dozen or so for 1.02) with an Enemy CAP in the air and a friendly CAP, with new CAPS taking off every 15 to 20 minutes on both sides to keep things flowing in the air arena. My missions were centered around the A-10 so the main action for the player was ground pounding, but it made the player think about the air threat also. When converting to MP missions, it was the 2 Eagleers against waves of fighters that came every 15-20 minutes. The Eagleers could kill, rearm, refuel if needed, and get back up to meet the next intercept.

[KILSEK]

Hi all.

 

i.e. "We have 14 bandits inbound!!! You going out by yourself to kill them all!"

 

LOL, Yep, that sounds like a the beginning of a campaign I am creating.

 

I have been thinking about this subject when I am creating, and for me (easy radar user) they odds of me surviving that kind of engagment is probably slightly ;) better for me than it is for others (real radar users). I admit that going h2h against pilots w/excellent skills and missile effectiveness set to 100%, I still get my rear-end handed to me 80-90% of the time.

 

I really do want to share my campaign with the community, but it going to be the way I want it. I was glad to see that if I make it my way and not classify it folks may take some time to edit it to suit their taste.

 

I just like easy radar because I can create these incredibly "odds against me" missions where my skills and tactics can turn the tide of the battle and I feel like the hero. If I fail then those incredible odds against me will shoot my allies, my awacs, my tanker, steel my dog and blow up my house.

 

@Dusty Rhodes: that is exactly what I am trying to create. Waves of enemies so that I have time to get back to my base, re-arm/re-fuel, and then get back into the action.

 

Great topic. -KILSEK