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DoomRL: Dynamic difficulty

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White Rider:

This is just something I thought over the course of a few days and decided to share. Don't take this too seriously, now.

What if DoomRL had dynamic difficulty? By that I mean, what if the difficulty automatically increased/decreased itself when certain things happened?
There could still be a base difficulty setting (ITYTD/HNTR/HMP/UV/N!), but dynamic rank could make the run even harder, for those seeking a challenge for a specific type of playstyle. Yeah, you could limit yourself with just a certain type of weapon through Angel of...whatever, but dynamic rank can gradually tweak the difficulty such that what used to be easy, turn into an unexpected hurdle that can catch players by surprise. Imagine playing a standard game on HNTR, entering a floor on Deimos where the floor is replaced with all former humans of all varieties. But with dynamic rank, the spawn pool could eliminate any spawns of former privates and replace them with sergeants, or thin out the number of former humans and add some former commandos into the mix, or for players who have unusually high rank at that point, spawn in some former elites.

A short list of what dynamic rank could potentially do

1. Rank raises when:
- Doomguy directly kills an enemy
- Doomguy's kill streak increases
- Time passes
   * By that I mean, every few minutes or so, the dynamic rank increases a little bit. For example, every 5 minutes on a standard run at ITYTD difficulty on Phobos, the rank increases a notch. On Deimos on the same difficulty, rank increases every 4 minutes. On Phobos for a standard HNTR run, rank increases every 4 minutes, or a little less.

2. Rank lowers when:
- Doomguy's health enters the red region--when you are mortally wounded or almost dead. Reward the player for living life on the edge, so to speak. Spending
more time while having lower health could lower the dynamic rank a little bit at a time, but spending too much time will also increase the rank back up again.

3. What rank does:
- Affects what enemies spawn (higher rank = tougher monsters earlier)
- Affects enemies' stats (higher rank = higher hp, damage, ac, etc)
- Rank is invisible and has no numeric representation
- Difficulty changes upon entering next floor
- Increased AI pathfinding to player and items for formers/knights/barons; maybe formers/knights spawn closer to armors

- Increase base exp as difficulty increases?

If it all sounds convoluted at the moment, it's because this is all something I thought of on the fly.

Other links and related information of interest

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DynamicDifficulty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raizing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Garegga

re: dynamic difficulty on Battle Garegga:

"The game features an adjustable difficulty system that will increase difficulty based on the actions of the player. Uncontrolled increase of the game's rank can quickly turn it into a manic shooter. Firing and powering up the main weapon, as well as picking up various items, will increase the difficulty of the game. Losing a life will decrease the difficulty (rank) of the game. The fewer lives a player has when he or she dies, the more rank is decreased, thus, the game rewards a player who doesn't stock up many lives at a time. Players are thus "forced" to keep themselves powered down, conserve shots, and lose lives on purpose in order to keep the last few stages of the game playable, though it is possible to finish the game in one life given an intricate knowledge of the game's rank system and an ultra-prudent playstyle."

LuckyDee:

--- Quote from: White Rider on March 29, 2013, 03:17 ---Don't take this too seriously, now.
--- End quote ---

Don't worry, I won't :)

Honestly, I think the idea in itself is pretty good, if a bit unpolished; IMO it just doesn't compute with the concept of DoomRL.

MaiZure:
Rather than delving in to specifics, I think the general problem with this approach is that players will start 'managing' the difficulty level in ways that would defeat the spirit of the challenge. I'd rather players manage the action through combat, not through INaction :P

Tormuse:
I doubt the Devteam would include this in the game, but it could make an interesting mod if someone wants to go about creating it.  :)

White Rider:

--- Quote from: MaiZure on March 29, 2013, 04:36 ---Rather than delving in to specifics, I think the general problem with this approach is that players will start 'managing' the difficulty level in ways that would defeat the spirit of the challenge. I'd rather players manage the action through combat, not through INaction :P

--- End quote ---

Agreed. That's one of the major problems with dynamic difficulty--that managing the increasing difficulty becomes a metagame in itself.


--- Quote from: Tormuse on March 29, 2013, 08:11 ---I doubt the Devteam would include this in the game, but it could make an interesting mod if someone wants to go about creating it.  :)

--- End quote ---

Argh. That would require free time outside of school and knowledge of what I'm doing, as well knowing what I want to do with it, if anything, at that.

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