Why is the Nightmare difficulty easier than original's Hard?

[Gallonidas]

I was playing the "regular" version of Quake II + the 4K mod Quake II XP, while comparing the visuals with 2 Youtube videos throughout THE WHOLE GAME in the last 3 days.
What's more surprising ? While both of the videos were playing at Nightmare difficulty, I noticed that often the eneies needed less hits and were in less quantity in the RTX version.
Meaning that the Original HARD is harder than the New NIGHTMARE.
Interesting new Nutella version...
Have gamers became less capable ??

[3D Master]

It should be the exact same game, I don't think any changes were made to the levels, or the toughness of the aliens. It's just an engine update.

[mr.devolver]

Originally posted by Gallonidas:

Why is the Nightmare difficulty easier than original's Hard?

It's thanks to RTX technology. Millions of rays are piercing your enemies much faster than just your weapon alone.

[Gallonidas]

No, I mean it... by the first level alone one could spot more enemies on the older version. Then following the walkthrough I noticed many enemies would die with 2 railgun shots, and no matter where I landed the shots it would never go down bellow 3.

[Jonnypanic]

It seems the mission packs haven't been affected (using the custom mod). They are hard as nails. This would seem to confirm your suspicions.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

I would not call the mission packs "hard as nails"; the new monsters are tougher than their vanilla Quake II counterparts, but if you can beat the original campaign on Hard difficulty, then you should have little trouble playing through the mission packs.

[Jonnypanic]

You seemed to have missed the point. It being that the mission packs are relatively hard, and Quake 2 RTX seems easier than original Quake 2.

[Kvaki]

yeah the vanilla quake2 difficulty isnt that great, try this mod. you will be ragequitting in no time :D
http://thequake2repository.blogspot.com/2013/10/stroggs-gone-mad.html

[JohnnyTheWolf]

So it just makes Quake II unfairly hard? That does not seem to be an improvement...

[Kvaki]

not unfairly hard. still has skill level options :D , perhaps start with easy skill first
the ai is extremely well done. they sometimes follow you in the levels. and dont get stuck on ledges and run in circles, plus many other improvements. see for yourself. easily my favorite single player mod.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Okay, so I gave it a shot: not bad, but the new AI seems to have some pathfinding issues, as I have witnessed an enemy run into a laser fence and I had to noclip my way up at one point because an enemy was standing on top of the elevator, preventing it from going up.