Cross Link Scenarios: Adjustable difficulty

[Pyros]

Cross Link Scenarios: Adjustable difficulty

Adjustable difficulty related with the player’s WIN ratio

Concept: The more the player wins marginal victories the harder the game will be.

Mechanism of Balance based on Standard map/scenario:

1. Increase or decrease of hostile units performing active patrol duties
2. Increase or decrease of replacement points
3. Increase or decrease of auxiliary support units (air, artillery)
4. Increase or decrease of fortification points
5. Combination of 2 or more of the above

1. By increasing the presence of the active hostile units (not stationary) we add more opposition to the tactical plan of the player. Patrol routines will be discussed under the appropriate AI “patrol” section.
2. By decreasing the replacement points we counter the possibility that an experienced player will play the battles without loses, leading this way to unbalanced due to not anticipated evolution of his core army (bigger effect on small battles, smaller effect on bigger battles – depends on the ratio between core army & auxiliary army)
3. By increasing the auxiliary support unit we help player to achieve his objectives on assaulting units
4. By increasing the fortification points we help the player to avoid further friendly casualties
5. By making combinations of the above parameters we may adjust difficulty in a desirable effect.

We have to work with case studies of categories of players

The best system to achieve equilibrium for players that load/save (a lot) during the game will be to create "traps".
A "trap" is the cross-link path that is the result of 3 consecutive decisive victories (or even marginals).
If a player scores something different the he leaves the "trap" and procceeds to the normal campaign route.
The check will will go for a 2 or 3 consecutive decisive victories.

The maximum difficulty will have a limit, in general the Adjustable Difficulty will lead to a combination (permutation) of 3^2=9 possibilities (3 levels of hostile presence and 3 levels of replacement points).
The point is that a player may still be able to play the game at the max difficulty level (max enemies & min replacements points) and that this increased difficulty will force the (reload type of) player to lose more often and win harder.


Summary:

The player at the beggining of each Chapter he will gain some replacement points according to the level of adjustable difficulty (d, m, v). Then he will procceed to the Secondary mission (Sd, Sm, Sv) and by the outcome of his victory(?) he will procceed to the corresponding type of primary mission (Pd, Pm, Pv). The result of the primary mission will determine the new difficulty level (of the player) for the next Chapter.
The mechanism of calibration of each primary/secondary mission according to the appropriate difficulty will work by adding a percentage of active enemy patrol forces to the the standard mission. The main task for each Chapter will be to design one primary prototype mission and one secondary prototype mission and then calibrate or modify according these prototypes according to the difficulty level or mission type.