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Is it ok for campaigns to be deliberately made too hard for novice players?

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Iain Baker:
(Trying to do this on my phone so fingers crossed this works)

I was playstesting an as yet unreleased campaign recently (I won’t say which one) and was having great difficulty even on medium skill setting, despite usually playing campaigns on Hard. Spoke to the devs who advised that it was ‘balanced for Easy’ which turns out to mean that it was deliberately made so hard that even veteran players would struggle if playing on Easy. This of course would make Normal too hard for veteran players, and Hard and Insane near impossible.

I questioned them about what should a novice player player do then, since even Very Easy would likely be too challenging and there is no easier setting than that. Their response was that ‘those players should practice more on easier campaigns then come back once they are good enough to play it.’

Note that this is one of most story-driven and lore-enhancing campaigns since Blue Planet. My view was that deliberately excluding novice or less-skilled players (not everyone can improve their skills by practice alone no matter how hard they try) from such world building wasn't fair. They disagreed. So now I’m throwing it out to the community at large to get their views.

Shivan Hunter:
Hmm.

I think "It's too hard" or "It's irritatingly hard" (e.g. needing you to know the mission beforehand in order to win) is definitely a valid criticism of a campaign. It would sour my experience with the campaign, and I'm definitely not alone in that. I personally would caution a dev against this decision, as you're doing. But is it objectively incorrect, the way it would be if the campaign threw up 3942 error messages and invariably crashed in the first mission? Tbh I don't think so. I and others would give our feedback, and the devs could take it or leave it, as they could with any and all criticism. And there's always the www.freespace2.co.uk strategy if you need it :)

deathspeed:
I agree with Shivan Hunter.  Like any art, the devs are free to make a campaign however they like, but deliberately limiting the audience does not seem to be a good success strategy.  I guess it depends on how they define "success."  It may be critically acclaimed by the elite, but they should be prepared for a lot of "this mod is broken" complaints from the masses.   :banghead:

I have been playing FS and mods since 1999, and I still play most on Easy the first time because I am looking for fun and advancing through the storyline more than looking for a challenge.  If I find it enjoyable (or too easy - rare!) I may replay on Normal.  I'm also not ashamed to drop to Very Easy.   There are mods that I have read are difficult, and I have not ever tried them just based on their reputations.  This sounds like one I will read about but never download.

Novachen:
I would say, yes.

Modding is not for everyone. It is already an experienced thing. User campaigns are always some kind of unofficial expansion pack. In most cases they are always for more experienced players. Look to Silent Threat for example. Most of its missions are definitively not for novice players.

If a campaign require the story of other campaigns, the player should played them first anyway, for example. There is no need for retail difficulty.

Mobius:
This may be a rather inappropriate example from back in the day, but we have a classic named The Aeos Affair whose description states the following:


--- Quote ---These missions were created to challenge elite players. The recommended difficulty setting is "Easy". Crazy people with suicidal tendencies may attempt the missions at higher levels, but be advised that your chances are slim. Note that all of the missions have been tested and all are winnable. On the "Very Easy" level, all objectives of all missions can be completed. Are you good enough?
--- End quote ---

In poor words, the campaign shifted difficulty levels by at least one place (Very Easy - Easy, Easy - Medium, etc., with Insane going off the scale and even Hard being pretty much unplayable). The creators specified it in their original release thread (which I was unable to find but I assume the source of the statement is indeed the release thread) and therefore "warned" all players about it. So yeah, I would guess certain difficulty levels that don't quite match the standard FreeSpace "meaning" fall in the greater umbrella of the degrees of variability custom campaign have come out with in the past 25 years. :)

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