Alternative difficulty scaling methods

SNES, HM64, BTN, STH, A Wonderful Life, Another Wonderful Life, AWL:SE, Magical Melody, Puzzle de HM, Tree of Tranquility, Animal Parade, Frantic Farming, Hero of Leaf Valley, My Little Shop, Seeds of Memories, Lil' Farmers, Light of Hope, Popolocrois: SoS, and Doraemon: SoS.
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yzafre
New Seedling
New Seedling
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Joined: Mar 30, 2021 12:03 pm

Post  Posted:

So I've noticed that the "difficulty" levels in the games really only effects money - how much you start with, how much you earn, ect. Which... I suppose it makes things take longer? But I wouldn't really say it makes things more difficult. Sort of how in an action game just doubling the HP bar of enemies doesn't really require any more skill from a player, just more time.

I was thinking about what could make the game require more "skill", such as it is in a farming sim, and the one thing I've seen people on the forum bring up as giving them challenges - for better or worse - is time.

Having modes with different clock speed would actually affect the way you play - what do you prioritize, how do you choose your activities, ect. It makes a bit more sense for repeated play-throughs, as well. On a second playthrough, just changing how much money you earn... makes you do the exact same things, but slower? Why would you want to have a slower pace on a repeat play through?

Whereas speeding up the clock would allow you to take advantage of your earned knowledge from the previous game to choose your preferred/optimized route on a second run.

What do you guys think? Do you like the way difficulty is handled now? How would you address difficulty options if you were in charge?
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Mikodesu
Huggy Chickens
Huggy Chickens
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Joined: Apr 07, 2016 7:45 pm

Post  Posted:

I'd really like to see these types of games explore something more complicated in terms of difficulty scaling. I can't blame indie teams (a few developers can't be expected to make something so complicated) but I'd still love to see it.

Imo the simplest thing would be lampshading the money thing. Harder difficulties make livestock more difficult to keep healthy, plants more prone to disease. Things that require money (or time) to fix. Aside from that I'm not sure. Getting a more complicated system in related to soil health would be nice too. I know Rune Factory 4 touched on it but I don't think it ever made that much of a difference.

Ultimately I'd prefer something more dynamic. Things you can buy to make the game easier but aren't necessary. A la getting the option for more defense or offense in an adventure game.
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yzafre
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 14
Joined: Mar 30, 2021 12:03 pm

Post  Posted:

The RF4 soil health is definitely interesting, though I think it walks the line between "difficulty through management" and "tedious" depending on the person.

For optional things you can buy to make things easier... so sort of like EXP sharing in pokemon, how you can turn that off and on? Some maybe items that passively effect all quality/affection/ect from one place? Though come to think of it, there were some farm circles in ToT that did something like that, weren't there? I guess the issue there is that's a late game benefit, rather than a difficulty level available from the beginning of the game...

I do like the livestock/plant health idea though, there's something there I think.
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