On Difficulty Settings

[Mile pro Libertate]

I've noticed we have quite a few new Shogun 2 players last several weeks, and many discussions about difficulty and AI bonuses.

I thought'd it'd be helpful to post this link to Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War Shogun II:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?137395-Frogbeastegg-s-Guide-to-Total-War-Shogun-II

It is a great overview of all aspects of the game, but unlike many other guides, it goes into some detail about the difficulty settings and what exactly they do. It also has reference to some developer comments regarding difficulty and AI bonuses, which I am going to past here:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" The difficulties.


There is one very important thing that players of past Total War games need to take note of. The AI has had a bucket of cold water tipped over it and is up on its feet outraged. No longer is it passively snoozing away, making the occasional questionable move as it stirs in its slumber.

Shogun II's AI is very good. Personally I feel that it is the best in the series by a good way. The developers responsible for it had stated that it aims to win; this means it is playing with the same goals as you. It will expand, it will use diplomacy, and it will try to take Kyoto to proclaim itself shogun. If you get in its way it has no qualms with crushing you. In fact many of the early reactions to the game I saw came from stunned players who had been crushed in the opening turns! Excellent.

This means that players should not expect to select very hard and then cruise through a reasonably mild campaign, as they have grown accustomed to doing in the older games. If you select very hard it will be very hard, especially if you do not know the game very well. For those who enjoy learning with a challenge, this is perfect. For everyone else, adjust your difficulty setting accordingly.

Now, some notes on the specific difficulties.

Easy.

Easy is the difficulty that the tutorial campaign uses, or so I assume as it awards the "Easy Campaign Completion" steam achievement. If you have played through that and found it to be about right for you, then there's no reason to not select it for your first campaign. Alternatively, if you want a laid back, relaxing game where you can admire the scenery and indulge in evil laughter as you mow down your foes, easy is a good choice.

The AI is quite generous towards the player at this level. It seems more likely to direct its aggression at other computer controlled clans, although that is not to say it ignores the player altogether. It will deliberately make mistakes, or fail to follow up on opportunities.

The AI has limitations at this level. Its production and building priorities are handicapped. On the battlefield the AI has limitations to its accuracy, morale and melee attack value, and the player has bonuses to them.

Normal

Normal is the level that most people will want to use for their first game. The AI is still capable of giving you a beating, especially in the perilous early turns and in the realm divide phase of the game. Certain clans, such as the Chosokabe, will be fairly easy and players will not need to worry overly about being trampled underfoot. Conversely the hardest clans, such as the Oda and the Tokugawa, will be quite a bit tougher and it may take a few false starts before a player feels that they have survived the opening satisfactorily.

On normal, the campaign AI has a small penalty to its production and building priorities. It seems quite balanced in its attitude towards the player; it will punish foolish moves more often, and appears to have no preference between player or AI controlled clans when it comes to aggression. It will do as it sees fit without biasing towards or away from humans.

On the battlefield the AI still receives slight penalties to accuracy, morale and attack, and the player receives a slight boost to those areas.

Hard.

Exactly as the name implies, this mode will offer a stiffer challenge. New players with a lot of strategy experience may wish to start on this mode, in which case they should expect to gather some nasty bruises before they triumph! For most players this is a mode they might like to look at after they have won a campaign.

On this level, the AI is no longer handicapped, and instead it receives a small boost to recruitment. I am not sure if this means it can occasionally recruit samurai units a bit faster, or if it has an extra recruitment slot or two. As yet, I have not seen any developer clarification. You should expect rival clans to be more aggressive towards you. Diplomacy and peaceful options will still be possible - and indeed form part of a winning strategy - but the AI knows you are the greatest potential threat and will be watching you more closely.

On the battlefield the tables have now turned: the AI begins to get bonuses to its accuracy, morale and melee attack values. The player receives nothing.

Very hard

On this mode you should expect no holds barred, no mercy, and no kindly little sleights of hand where the computer says "Ah, humans cry so much when they lose. I'll let them off ... this time." Again, diplomacy is still a valid and important part of strategy, so don't expect an anti-human free for all. The recruitment boost is a bit more significant at this level.

The battlefield AI bonuses of hard mode still apply, and now the AI gets a larger boost. The player still receives neither boost nor penalty.

Legendary

Legendary is the mode where you should pretty much expect to die unless you play an absolutely exceptional game, and quite possibly even then. This is a new difficulty mode, combining very hard mode with a series of extras to create the ultimate Total War challenge. Some of these extras were available as optional modes in prior titles, such as restricting the camera so it could not move past a set distance from your troops. Others are entirely new. The AI does not gain any new bonuses or capabilities compared to very hard; this mode focuses on curbing the god-like abilities normally available to the player. Once you commit to legendary difficulty you cannot alter the difficulty for that campaign, neither on the campaign map nor on the battle map.

On legendary mode you are only permitted a single save. Each time you save your game your old save will be overwritten. If things go pear shaped, tough! No winding the clock back. The game is saved before and after every battle; if you lost your entire army, live with it! You may find yourself developing a degree of sympathy to the AI, which can never reload.

The remainder of the changes affect the battle map, and are as follows:

No radar map for land and sea battles
While the game is paused no orders can be given
The camera cannot be moved while the game is paused
You cannot move your camera more than 200 meters from the centre of any of your units. The camera will be "rubber banded" to the nearest unit
Enemy units more than 600 meters from your units are treated as hidden
Enemy Tooltips have minimal information
Enemy Unit IDs are removed



Even if you are not keen on tough games it is worth trying this mode at least once, just to see how different the experience is.

Did you know that you can set campaign and battle difficulty separately? It's true, and the game is strangely determined to conceal this fact. Although the campaign set up screen is missing the now traditional pair of difficulty sliders, the option to change battle difficulty appears once you have started your campaign. To do this press escape while on the campaign map, select game settings, then move the slider that's in the upper middle part of the options list. Simply set the campaign difficulty you wish to use on the campaign set up screen, then change the battle difficulty to your preference. This does not apply to legendary mode; you have to be totally legendary, not mostly legendary.

A couple of interesting developer comments relating to difficulty.[/u]

There are two particular developer comments which struck me as important to understanding the way the higher difficulties work. They made me appreciate what we have in Shogun II's AI. Both of these developers know the AI inside out.

The first comes from Jack Lusted:

--The bonuses to the AI on hard and very hard are half the bonuses in previous Total War games.--

So the AI is giving far better results on the battlefield than the older games, and it is doing that with half as much help. Those bonuses have been in place since the very first game in the series, the original Shogun: Total War.

The second comes from Watcher on the official forums.

-- There has recently been a lot of discussion about the possibility that the Campaign AI is spawning armies to increase the difficulty to the player.

To be clear, the Campaign AI does not spawn additional forces except under the following four circumstances:
· The Ashikaga faction. To represent the idea that the Shogun could place a levy upon his subjects and to improve game play the Ashikaga gets some free units.
· Rebellions, these troops are the result of a spontaneous (or incited) uprising.
· Wako pirates, they are pirates and not subject to normal rules!
· European Traders, the Black Ship.

Any other forces you encounter are the result of the AI's recruitment through normal channels.
On harder difficulty levels the AI gets some (minor) recruitment bonuses that may allow it to field armies more quickly than the player.
On easier difficulty levels the AI is penalised and you should be able to out produce it.

Besides normal troop recruitment the AI can also acquire forces through the normal defection and bribery mechanics.

Also note that the AI has a tendency to hide forces and that Ninjas and other agents are not 100% effective in revealing ambushing armies. Don't assume that because an agent can see some location that an army isn't there waiting to ambush.

I hope this clarifies things! --


That one is important for two reasons. Some players were convinced that most of the challenge came from highly artificial means, such as magically creating armies in positions where they could threaten the player. The above means that this is not the case. You can wear the AI down with attrition. It also means that the AI is using advanced campaign map features such as concealment and reinforcement to very good effect!

As an aside, it's worth noting that comment about agents not always seeing hidden armies. Previously scouting has been pretty much infallible. That's no longer the case and you should plan accordingly."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope people find this helpful!

[House of Rahl]

nice guide, i only skimmed it and ill come back n finish reading it tonight but looks really good.

[GeorgeKar]

nice guide

[Spaddel]

Great job! Helped me to understand the settings!

[Teh_Diplomat]

I just got back into this game, and Hard setting is the 'Goldilocks' settings of any Total War game I've played. It's not automatically punishing - it is if you make mistakes; and feels like you need to weigh your options, ensure you're not leaving yoursself open to counter-attack (eg: undefended 2nd front), too many enemies too quickly, and you'll need to spend the next series of turns overturning the losses you're going to experience.