What is the difference in the difficulty levels, please?

[FroBodine]

It would be GREAT if you showed a description of what each difficulty level has in it, so we can make an informed decision about what level we want to play. For example, monsters do +10% more damage, etc.

I'm trying to decide between normal and classic, but I have absolutely zero information to go on to know what the difference is.

[Eran.Yaacobi]

Hi,

This is something we plan on doing, but haven't got round to it yet (along with showing information on the differences between factions when you select a faction).

In general:
Easy - Your heroes do more damage and have more health. Enemy units and heroes have less health and do less damage. On average around 25% difference. AI doesn't play too well - doesn't use much physics, rarely takes full cover, doesn't move ranged units away from melee units, etc. You start with much more resources than the AI.
Normal - Your heroes have slightly more health (around 10%). AI plays okay, but still not well. You and the AI start with the same amount of resources.
Classic - unit stats are the same for player and AI. AI is playing almost to the best of its ability, and start with a bit more resources and heroes.
Legendary - unit stats are the same for player and AI. The player starts with very little resources. AI is playing to the best of its ability, and start with more resources (the same amount as you start with on Easy) and more heroes.

In all difficulty levels, the rate at which you and the AI gather resources is the same.
Encounters on the world map (static monsters) have more units (and of higher tier on average) the higher the difficulty is (this affects the player and the AI in the same manner).

Due to the encounters on the map having more units and stronger ones, the amount of Renown gained from this battles is higher. To counter that, the prices of guild upgrades are increased (so the rate at which you can get them will be roughly the same across all difficulty levels). This applies to both player and AI.

[FroBodine]

Very useful info! I think I'll restart and play on Classic. I look forward to this information getting into the actual game.

[FroBodine]

So, v1.0 is out now, and you still didn't add descriptions of the different difficulty levels. It sure would be nice if you did this. We shouldn't have to come here to find out what the different difficulty levels mean.

[Eran.Yaacobi]

Hi,


I agree, and we actually did implement this (in the form of tooltips when hovering over the difficulty options), but we didn't notice that it works only in the testing environment and not in the actual build till it was too late to release a fix.

The final build must undergo rigorous testing to make sure everything is working properly - we can't risk hot-fixes on launch day for things that are not critical (and while this is important it's not critical), as with any bug fix there's always a risk of introducing a much worse one.

Sorry about that - the fix will be in the next patch.

[Keith]

Your AI must pretty good then. HOMM had to give its AI bigger advantages than that.

[FroBodine]

Hi there. Your descriptions of the difficulty levels you wrote above are different than what is shown in the tooltips in the game now.

In the game, normal mode says both you and the AI start with the same amount of resources. However, above you wrote differently that the player starts with more resources.

What way is correct, please?

[Eran.Yaacobi]

Hi,

Since then it changed. Sorry - didn't notice it's not accurate here.
The game description (while is partial in game for simplicity) is the accurate one - you start now with the same amount of resources as the AI on Normal.

I'll adjust the description here to avoid confusion.

[FroBodine]

Thank you, Eran!

[Carnage]

Please either add a custom difficulty or a setting where you and the AI are equal in terms of resourses/units BUT the AI plays at highest AI level!! It's preposterous that such a difficulty doesn't exist.. Ugh. I want smart AI *Without* also giving them bonuses!

[FroBodine]

Yep . . . great suggestion! They covered all the other difficulty settings except this one.

[Keith]

Originally posted by Carnage:

Please either add a custom difficulty or a setting where you and the AI are equal in terms of resourses/units BUT the AI plays at highest AI level!! It's preposterous that such a difficulty doesn't exist.. Ugh. I want smart AI *Without* also giving them bonuses!

I like that idea as well

[derw4tz]

owowow i just found out something the dev didn´t mention:

cost of guild upgrades changes (renown), i quickly checked all difficultys and heres the summary:

easy: 75%
normal: 100%
classic: 150%
legendary: 200%

[Eran.Yaacobi]

You're right - forgot to mention that :)

But the reason for that is that I don't consider this as part of "increasing the difficulty" because that's not the purpose behind it, which is also why the increased prices also apply to the AI factions.

The reason for this is that because Renown is gained from battles, and you have way more battles on higher difficulties, the rate at which you gain renown becomes extremely fast - the prices being balanced by the amount of enemies you encounter on Normal difficulty. This to some extent means that it's much easier getting Renown on these difficulties, which shouldn't be the case. So to counter that, the prices are adjusted based on around how many enemies there are.

I'll add that to the list.

[FroBodine]

Any chance of adding the difficulty setup that Carnage suggested above? That would be perfect!

[Keith]

A setup like HOMM would best of all where you can set a custom difficulty by adjusting all the important parameters.

Edit: Also a setting that allows us to adjust border guard strength would be awesome as well.