Forums → Games → Games should have fine but unlimited difficulty setting.

TITLE: Games should have fine but unlimited difficulty setting.

I think that many games would become far more enjoyable if their creators introduced a fine but unlimited difficulty setting.

Many games have three settings, for example: Enemy HP: 50% 100% 200%

It is neither fine nor unlimited - so I would like a fourth button "Custom" which lets me enter any number >=50.

Without this button, it is not fine, because the leap from 100% to 200% can be too big for someone. And more importantly, it is not unlimited, because skilled players who like the game will eventually master it before they are bored by it.

It happens to me often

This is my case with Hex Empire, where I must invent more and more voluntary restrictions to keep the game difficult enough and challenging.

This is my case with House of Wolves - how I would love to play the same game on a harder setting! The survival mode is uninteresting for me, because when all my defenses have been completely broken, the enemy still has to march and destroy all the way to the west edge of the map. In both modes, it is clear who ultimately wins and the question is, how quickly. I would prefer a game where I must try my best to win!

This is my case with beautiful Takeover: How I would love to play it if the difficulty were customizable. I can try to win 3 stars by destroying the enemy in fewer minutes, but I would prefer a higher difficulty where it would take long to decide who prevails and who will be destroyed.

This is also my case with FreeCiv and FreeCol. I contacted the later and proposed an easy way to make an unlimited difficulty. When I last looked, they gave it a very low priority.

Solution

And yet the solution would be simple, as I mentioned above: To enter the difficulty as an integer, so that whoever masters the game, can restart it at a harder setting. The setting should be unlimited so that there is no peak; noone can ever master the game completely, everyone then has a challenge so far unbroken.

So many nice games would benefit from this! It is a pity that the authors do not do it.

Reflame