Campaign Difficulty IMPLEMENTED

[COOLguy]

Daniel and I would like to organize the storylines by difficulty (a little like AoF) to help clear up the menu a bit and help new players. Here is the matrix that I think could help in determining difficulty.

difficulty rating:
- 1: Easily defeated it the first time/no chance of AI winning
- 2: Defeated it the first time but could've lost and required strategy
- 3: Oh my goodness, did I just lose?
length rating:
- 1: afternoon well spent. finished the story
- 2: an hour or so for each map. story could take a week
- 3: Life drain. Huge map takes forever.
units rating:
- 1: not many upgrade units. Or did not require any knowledge of how to use units
- 2: upgrade units are often used from many parts of the trees. Advanced strategies or tactics needed for normal units
- 3: very advanced and detailed knowledge of how to best use each unit given.

difficulty*length*units/2 = rating score
1-4 Easy
5-10 Medium
11-13.5 Hard

Here's what I've got so far - Please help!:

Easy
Gorgon-Delight
Revolution
Challenge
Carnage
Almost Got It
War of Factions
Grim Company

Medium
Viking Age
Heir to the Throne
Two Kingdoms
Aquarius
Fire War
Brothers War
War of Factions
Paths of Rome

Hard
Maximus
Owaguchuk
Ambition
Hornburghs Dominion
Kingdom Come
The Rebel King
Mercenaries
Nyadhos Strategy
Age of Nyadhos

What do you think?

[godOfKings]

although my story isnt complete yet, but u can add The Rebel King in the hard category , the only good thing about the maps is that they dont take too long, other than that they r extremely difficult for noobs

[makazuwr32]

Personally i think that both Nyadhos strategy and Age of Nyados are hard campains.

[godOfKings]

yes

[makazuwr32]

My personal rating of campains:

Gorgon delight - easy.
Paths of Rome is medium - there are some medium and even hard maps.
Grim company is actually easy/medium. Yes you need upgrades but with them it is really easy campain.
Kigdom come - medium/hard rating. Especially second half.
Aquarias - agree with medium rating.
Maximus - medium/hard rating i think must be.
Carnage - easy/medium rating. Without upgrades pretty hard, but with really easy.
Fire war - medium rating because of first two maps. Enemy has really powerful forces compared to your at the beginning.
Brothers war - easy/medium. Needs a bit of strategy and a bit of upgraded units.
Nyadhos strategy - one of hardest campains for myself. Definately hard rating.
Age of Nyadhos - same here, one of hardest, hard rating.
Almost got it - medium rating with last map as hardest.
Heir to the throne - medium/hard rating: there are some really hard maps.
War of factions - medium/hard rating. Some maps are really hard because of stupid allied AI.
Viking age - easy rating, but close to medium.
Two kingdoms - medium rating.
Owaguchuk - medium/hard rating, with closer to medium.
Challenge - easy. Really easy.
Mercenaries - hard rating. Really hard campain, on pair with both for Nyadhos.
Ambition - medium/hard rating. First maps pretty easy but after harder and harder. Can't finish it.
Hornburghs Dominion - medium rating.

[tamtam12345]

difficulty rating:
- 1: Easily defeated it the first time/no chance of AI winning
- 2: Defeated it the first time but could've lost and required strategy
- 3: Oh my goodness, did I just lose?
length rating:
- 1: afternoon well spent. finished the story
- 2: an hour or so for each map. story could take a week
- 3: Life drain. Huge map takes forever.
units rating:
- 1: not many upgrade units. Or did not require any knowledge of how to use units
- 2: upgrade units are often used from many parts of the trees. Advanced strategies or tactics needed for normal units
- 3: very advanced and detailed knowledge of how to best use each unit given.

difficulty*length*units/2 = rating score
1-4 Easy
5-10 Medium
11-13.5 Hard

What do you think?

In difficulty part,I want to ask what is definition of"win"? Get 3 stars OR only win? They are different.

[COOLguy]

In difficulty part,I want to ask what is definition of"win"? Get 3 stars OR only win? They are different.

Hmm i didn't think of that I guess
1 - easy 3 star
2 - 2 star
3 - lose or win 1 star easily

I'll look over what you guys have said and update OP

[COOLguy]

Updated. @mak I think I agree with most of your rating. Some like Hornburgh and Owagachuk are in hard just because some of those maps are soooo long And Ambition is a really really long campaign too.

I didn't realize that the Nyadhos pair were so hard.

Some I haven't played all the way through either like two brothers and almost got it.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[tamtam12345]

Hmm...Here is my ratings.

Gorgon-Delight E
Easy.Last two maps need some strategy.
Revolution E
Very easy.Can get 3 stars first time.
Viking Age H,no doubt
Very very difficult to get 3 stars in 2,3 and 5th map.(I still can't get 3 stars in 5th map).Need to think twice before move each unit.Length is long because it is difficult.Need to try it many times.
Challenge E
Need some strategy to win.But 3 stars is easy to win due to turns.
Carnage E
Almost Got It E~M
War of Factions E~ M
Maybe just because I played it many times...
Heir to the Throne M
Two Kingdoms E~M
Aquarius M
Maximus H
Second map is very very difficult.Need to try many many times to get 3 stars.Need luck if you use that method.
Fire War M
Agree with makazuwr32.
Brothers WarNot finished yet.
Grim Company E
I remember it is a easy campaign to win.
Paths of Rome M~H
Difficult and interesting maps.
Owaguchuk M
Some of them difficult to win. Honestly,I don't like this campaign.
AmbitionE~H
Agree with makazuwr32.
Hornburghs Dominion H
Very very difficult to kill all emeny within 30 turns in last map. I think I won't forgot it. Other maps are quite big so I set it to hard.(Although not difficult)
Kingdom Come H
The Rebel King E~M
Mercenaries H
Nyadhos Strategy Honestly I haven't finish it all.
Age of Nyadhos H,no doubt
And I found the final marks are strange...most of them become easy...so finally I deleted them.

[COOLguy]

Thanks tamtam, I will edit my OP with some from your post.

I thought that Vikings would be medium, because the first maps I found as easy. But I kinda agree with Owaguchuk

[samuelch]

I have an idea: Sort campaign based on it's average duration to win it. Campaign with a lot of units and huge map need a long time to win it.

[COOLguy]

I have an idea: Sort campaign based on it's average duration to win it. Campaign with a lot of units and huge map need a long time to win it.

Yes I think you are right. That is kinda what I was trying to do too. Long maps make the campaign more hard.

[Puss_in_Boots]

I think we should arrange gem awards these ways. We organize maps into different difficulties, and set higher gem rewards for each level of difficultly. Encourages players to try time consuming and hard campaigns.

[COOLguy]

That's a good suggestion. Can you put a topic in the Gameplay/UI suggestions section? (so you get gems for completing storylines in addition to maps right?)

[Stratego (dev)]

what you think about sugari kingdom?

[godOfKings]

Lol its suhari kingdom, poor ayush would b sad to see this, but I guess it can b called easy for now, his last two maps were quite interesting and I m looking forward to see more of this

[makazuwr32]

I just leave it here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4415&p=57239#p57239
this is opinion of Ayush Tiwari itself.

[Ayush Tiwari]

Lol its suhari kingdom, poor ayush would b sad to see this, but I guess it can b called easy for now, his last two maps were quite interesting and I m looking forward to see more of this

Thats understandable.
I was thinking not to put turn of stars for first two maps,btw tht is against the.....(should I call it rule?)


Also,I forgot to tell,third and fourth map are probably brought in wrong order.
Its Inside the Ship first,and then Crossing the Coast,but according to story,it should be first Crossing the Coast,and then Inside the Ship

[Badnorth]

Oh yeah btw puzzles campaign should be moved to hard. It isn't easy at all. Who even decided to put it there lol. Im stuck at level 3. Power creep campaign is even more easier than this. It will confuse new players because of its difficulty.

[DreJaDe]

Oh yeah btw puzzles campaign should be moved to hard. It isn't easy at all. Who even decided to put it there lol. Im stuck at level 3. Power creep campaign is even more easier than this. It will confuse new players because of its difficulty.

I put it there because it takes only few turns to finish.

Btw 3rd map should be ez because of the 1st and second map? Hmmmm...

[Badnorth]

Oh yeah btw puzzles campaign should be moved to hard. It isn't easy at all. Who even decided to put it there lol. Im stuck at level 3. Power creep campaign is even more easier than this. It will confuse new players because of its difficulty.

I put it there because it takes only few turns to finish.

Btw 3rd map should be ez because of the 1st and second map? Hmmmm...

Bro that's your reason? Remember what coolguy said?

difficulty rating:
- 1: Easily defeated it the first time/no chance of AI winning
- 2: Defeated it the first time but could've lost and required strategy
- 3: Oh my goodness, did I just lose?

Easy maps should be easily defeated 1st time and ai has no chance of winning.
I meant 2nd map sorry. Increased spearman got me.

[Badnorth]

It should be either in moderate or hard

[Endru1241]

Definitely hard.
It actually doesn't allow almost any mistakes.
It's not even about strategy skills - it's a riddle.
You have only one way to complete it and if any mistake is made - you have to start over.
It's close to impossible to get it on the first try for normal player, so that alone disqualifies it as potential moderate campaign.
And I am only analysing first two maps - I don't know what is later, as I left it alone after 3 trials - I don't have enough time/patience/mental health to put up with that. I play AoS to relax - I like strategies, I like tactical thinking, I hate 90-ies RTS games with only one good solution to complete a map, I hate even more anything that needs multiple tries (just to learn the map, AI behaviour) to even have a chance.

But no matter what I like or not:
- easy should be completed on first try with 2-3 stars by decent player and even complete newbies should be able to complete them by following goals/descriptions. Any potential failure should be obvious and easily correctable.
- moderate should be doable with 2 stars by careful approach of decent player in first try or even with 3 stars if a little luck allows. And doable with 3 stars in 2-3 tries with quite clear (as long as scouting was done) understanding what needs to be done to complete it with 3 stars.
How long maps are should also be considered, but taking into account listed logic first.
So if short map needs multiple tries to get 3 stars - it's no longer easy, even if logic required is not so hard.

[Badnorth]

Other players were complaining on chat about the puzzles campaign. I see them complain the most about bridges or something. The difficulty hard is totally agreeable. Btw I too dislike this types of campaigns. They give me headaches and is sometimes just a waste of time. I hope the changes are made.

[Stratego (dev)]

puzzles gone to hard