Game Style/Difficulty


mattyboi

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I've been working on this thought for a while trying to boil it down into simple terms. Here is the best I can come up with; I think in pilgrim the decision making in the game could be characterized as primarily a matter of choices, while in interloper the decision making is mostly a matter of trade-offs. The intermediate difficulty levels fall at various points along this spectrum. The vast majority of the game does not change between the difficulty levels; the primary observable difference is in the decision making framework the player must contend with.

This distinction may seem subtle, but to me it runs quite deep.

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12 hours ago, mattyboi said:

I've been working on this thought for a while trying to boil it down into simple terms. Here is the best I can come up with; I think in pilgrim the decision making in the game could be characterized as primarily a matter of choices, while in interloper the decision making is mostly a matter of trade-offs. The intermediate difficulty levels fall at various points along this spectrum. The vast majority of the game does not change between the difficulty levels; the primary observable difference is in the decision making framework the player must contend with.

This distinction may seem subtle, but to me it runs quite deep.

In terms of the game "not changing" between Experience Modes this is true in the broad sense of your antagonist being Mother Nature (weather, wolves [perhaps], etc). 

But we like to think how we contend with, feel about, and indeed survive this encounter with the natural world is quite different between Modes -- the most dramatic being Pilgrim and Interloper of course. :)

I'm curious if you could write a bit more on how your decisions change, and what you're sensing that is "deeper." (Hint: there is a lot going on under the hood, so to speak)

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I definitely agree with you as far as "going on under the hood". I'm trying to express that the mechanics, to me anyway, are still the same mechanics, they just dialed up (or down) to a different degree. So in a sense, the game play is still a matter of managing your resources, your health bars, maintaining situational awareness, risk management, etc. The processes are the same, though they are dialed in to varying extremes depending on which mode you're playing.

On the one end of the scale (Pilgrim), because the mechanics aren't dialed into the extreme, this boils down to mostly a matter of choices. Such as, what do I feel like doing today? Hmmm, let's make a knife. Okay, I go grab my saw and hatchet. I go to DP, pick up some coal on the way, I cut some wood, I saw some scrap metal, light the forge, and boom, I can make a knife. Productive day. But the decision making is relatively simple. You make one choice, then you make another, then another, etc, and you can do this because so long as you don't make a seriously bad choice, you'll most likely survive and keep doing whatever you want to do.

On the other end of the scale (Interloper), with the mechanics dialed into more extreme levels, the decision making isn't nearly that simple because it's about trade offs. As in, sure I can spend my time trying to build my food supply, but I'll get cold much faster, and because of the animal behaviors there is a lot higher inherent risk. Or I can stay inside and sleep at the expense of food/water with the risk of cabin fever. Etc. There's a lot more ways the game can come at you, and it happens to you a lot faster. So it's really a matter of managing your trade offs (I can get this, but at the expense of this). So the decision making is a lot more complicated.

To be clear, I don't personally find any one style superior or inferior. I still have my first pilgrim run, and I often go back to it for the very reason that it is simpler and I can relax and just enjoy exploring, finding screen shots, practicing archery, etc.

My original comment was just an observation that with a little tweaking of the game mechanics, you can move the player into a very different/more complex mode of decision making.

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Well if you want to add to that even more you can.

When I play each of my characters has a back story that will/does affect the play style on top of and above simple decision making.

For instance a character might not like being alone...so they are constantly on the move looking for someone or evidence of someone. And depending on the length of that survivors survival I can introduce them becoming more comfortable with being alone. Perhaps coming to a place of solitude. So my play style would be from constant but careful movement from place to place covering a lot of territory to a evolving transformation of staying in places longer and then finding a place to set up came for an extended period.

On top of this would be my in depth posts letting the reader experience the entire transformation of the survivor from the survivors inner monologue and person thoughts on my blog.

The game is as deep and thought out as you want it to be...and that is why i like it.

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