User-Selected Difficulty levels
StatMan
I am currently developing a TADS text adventure, and came up
with an interesting problem. How difficult should I make it? Then,
I thought about letting the user enter the difficulty level he/she
wants. I would let it be confined to easy/medium/hard. I dont
think the development would be that hard. Mainly, the differences
between the difficulty levels would be limited to the availibilty
of needed items, methods for solving certain puzzels, and the
addition/subration of "clues" in the description text.
I then wondered if I should let the player fully "win" the
game at easier levels, or have the game leave the player
with information that there was more to look foward to in
the next level.
Anyway, I'm wondering what the general feeling is about this.
In the text adventures I've played, there hasnt been this ability.
Marty Esterman
cco...@prism.gatech.edu
--
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..." --- Dorothy Gale
-------------------------------------------------
Marty Esterman | It is not computers that I fear. It is the lack
cco...@prism.gatech.edu | of them that I fear. -- Isaac Asimov 1920-1992
David Whitten
>Howdy,
> I am currently developing a TADS text adventure, and came up
>with an interesting problem. How difficult should I make it? Then,
>I thought about letting the user enter the difficulty level he/she
>wants. I would let it be confined to easy/medium/hard. I dont
>think the development would be that hard. Mainly, the differences
>between the difficulty levels would be limited to the availibilty
>of needed items, methods for solving certain puzzels, and the
>addition/subration of "clues" in the description text.
>
>I then wondered if I should let the player fully "win" the
>game at easier levels, or have the game leave the player
>with information that there was more to look foward to in
>the next level.
>
>Anyway, I'm wondering what the general feeling is about this.
>In the text adventures I've played, there hasnt been this ability.
>
>Marty Esterman
>cco...@prism.gatech.edu
thru at the easy level, and then being able to play it through with the
same general structure but complicated by some objects not being as easy
to find, or with puzzles to solve before I get certain objects.
Depending on the way this is done, you get two or more games for the price
of one.
And if you have played through the game in easy mode, you know it is possible,
you get a feel for the way it has been written, and you have adapted to the
ideosyncracies of the parser.
David (whi...@fwva.saic.com) US:(619)535-7764 [I don't speak as a company rep.]
Mark 'Mark' Sachs
>I then wondered if I should let the player fully "win" the
>game at easier levels, or have the game leave the player
>with information that there was more to look foward to in
>the next level.
I would say, sure. If it takes more effort the reward would be bigger.
The only difficulty is in how to make a bigger reward... if the objective
is to destroy the evil General Helms's flying battleship, and you win the
game by overloading its reactor and blowing it up, it's hard to make a
"better" ending since that's what you do in every difficulty level.
Perhaps there could be a number of "successful" endings, with progressively
happier endings progressively more difficult to get to. Just escaping from
General Helms's battleship would be easier than disabling it so that his
world conquest plans are delayed, would be easier than destroying it totally...
et cetera. That might be a better way to handle it, as you wouldn't have
to muck around with checking the difficulty level before you do anything.
"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, riddle them with bullets."
[Your blood pressure just went up.] Mark Sachs IS: mbs...@psuvm.psu.edu
DISCLAIMER: Penn State University cares about my money, not my opinions.
Mike Roberts
> I am currently developing a TADS text adventure
Great! The more the merrier!
> I thought about letting the user enter the difficulty level he/she
> wants. I would let it be confined to easy/medium/hard.
> Anyway, I'm wondering what the general feeling is about this.
> In the text adventures I've played, there hasnt been this ability.
One game you might want to look at is "Indiana Jones and the Fate of
Atlantis" (LucasArts). It doesn't have varying difficulty levels
exactly, but it has three "paths" that you can take through the game.
Each path goes through essentially the same territory and hits roughly
the same major puzzles, but the solutions and sub-puzzles are different.
You could do the same thing with difficulty levels -- provide different
solutions to the puzzles for each level.
One thing I've found when designing adventures is that it's not obvious
how hard players are going to find your puzzles, because your perspective
is so different from that of your players. So, players might think that
the level you designate as "easy" is actually really hard.
> I then wondered if I should let the player fully "win" the
> game at easier levels, or have the game leave the player
> with information that there was more to look foward to in
> the next level.
Let them win at any level, but make it clear at the outset that several
levels of difficulty are available.
--
Mike Roberts mrob...@hinrg.starconn.com
High Energy Software 415 493 2430 (Voice)
PO Box 50422, Palo Alto, CA 94303 415 493 2420 (BBS)
Paradise is a place exactly like where you are right now, only
much, much better.
--- Laurie Anderson
Matthew Crosby
>Howdy,
> I am currently developing a TADS text adventure, and came up
>with an interesting problem. How difficult should I make it? Then,
>I thought about letting the user enter the difficulty level he/she
>wants. I would let it be confined to easy/medium/hard. I dont
>think the development would be that hard. Mainly, the differences
>between the difficulty levels would be limited to the availibilty
>of needed items, methods for solving certain puzzels, and the
>addition/subration of "clues" in the description text.
>
>I then wondered if I should let the player fully "win" the
>game at easier levels, or have the game leave the player
>with information that there was more to look foward to in
>the next level.
>
to various problems, with the easier solution being penalised. Perhaps
the best example of this I can think of was Wishbringer. There where
certain puzzles that could be solved in two ways: By using the stone to wish
for something, or some other way. At the end, however, you where penalised for
using wishes: The optimal solution was with no wishes. This worked kind of
well, and was kind of neat, except
1) This applied to only a few of the puzzles.
2) The game was so easy anyway, and the puzzles so easy, that often you didn't
even need to use the wishes the first time. (Note that it wasn't until the
end that the game told you to avoid wishes)
Heres an example (the only puzzle I solved with a wish first):
Spoilers, I suppose.
Well, there was a pit with a platypus in it. You could rescue the platypus
by one of two methods:
1) Wish for rain, so the platypus could swim out.
2) Get a stick you found and put it in the hole so the platypus could climb up
it (I recall the parser being kind of picky about the wording for this)
--
-Matt
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the net!
mcr...@nyx.cs.du.edu -or- cro...@cs.colorado.edu
Damien P. Neil
> I am currently developing a TADS text adventure, and came up
>with an interesting problem. How difficult should I make it? Then,
>I thought about letting the user enter the difficulty level he/she
>wants. I would let it be confined to easy/medium/hard. I dont
>think the development would be that hard. Mainly, the differences
>between the difficulty levels would be limited to the availibilty
>of needed items, methods for solving certain puzzels, and the
>addition/subration of "clues" in the description text.
If you want an excellent example of this, look at _Monkey Island II_ by
LucasArts. It has two user-selectable difficulty levels. In the "easy"
level, about half of the puzzles in the "hard" level are left out. On the
easy level, a biginner has a fair to middle chance of winning. On the hard
level, I have found it to be exceptionally nasty.
-----
Damien Neil dp...@po.cwru.edu "Until somebody debugs reality, the best
Case Western Reserve University I can do is a quick patch here and there."
CMPS/EEAP double majoring masochist - Erik Green
StatMan
>In article <81...@hydra.gatech.EDU> cco...@prism.gatech.EDU writes:
>
> > I am currently developing a TADS text adventure
>
>Great! The more the merrier!
>
Wow! From Mike Roberts himself :-)
> > I thought about letting the user enter the difficulty level he/she
> > wants. I would let it be confined to easy/medium/hard.
[ about Indian Jones and solving via different paths ]
>One thing I've found when designing adventures is that it's not obvious
>how hard players are going to find your puzzles, because your perspective
>the level you designate as "easy" is actually really hard.
>
> > I then wondered if I should let the player fully "win" the
> > game at easier levels, or have the game leave the player
>
I agree with this. For example, my plan was to be fairly obvious in
solving puzzels on the easy level. The next level, would need an additional
object to solve the puzzle. Finally, on the hardest level, there
would be an additional object/problem to solve to solve the original
puzzle. In addition, the method used to solve the puzzle will not
work in easier levels. (I hope that makes sense...)
>
>Let them win at any level, but make it clear at the outset that several
>levels of difficulty are available.
>
I think what I plan is to have three different endings, with each
is more along in story. ie, the easy levels ends a point A. The medium
level ends at point B via point A. The hard level ends at point C, via
point B via A. Point C is the 'full' and 'happiest' ending.
>--
>Mike Roberts mrob...@hinrg.starconn.com
Mike McDonald
In Moonmist there were four variations with different treasures
and endings. In Leathere Goddesses ther was three 'Naughtiness' levels.
Personally, I wouldn't play the same game more than once, even if it
was a little bit more challenging. I would like to see a game with
varying difficulty levels having different objectives and certain
people, places, and things in addition to the base. In the base,
you could adjust/remove puzzles, change, and move around things for
the various difficulty levels.