[.98][Gameplay] Don't understand 'difficulty' on world creation screen.

from Elemental Forums

There is 'difficulty' on world creation.

And then difficulty for each kingdom. 

Perhaps it is in the manual, but, as best I can determine, only the kingdom difficulty matters..

3,065 views 6 replies
Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I think the World difficulty controls the number, frequency and type of the wandering parties (bandits, spiders etc) while kingdom difficulty controls the factions.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

If that is true I haven't noticed any difference in world difficulty. I keep getting a ton of roaming bandit groups that easily destroy my cities even in the beginning of the game on novice.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

agree...would be nice if there was some "hover" text that explained what "difficulty" means on these two setup screens.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting RaptorMenace, reply 3
If that is true I haven't noticed any difference in world difficulty. I keep getting a ton of roaming bandit groups that easily destroy my cities even in the beginning of the game on novice.
End of RaptorMenace's quote

 I think that's because the default spawn rate is set far too high for them, although saying that last time I played (with the world difficulty on easy) it was a good hundred or so turns before I even saw a wandering NPC party (I actually managed to settle around a quarter of the huge continent I was on before they appeared).

You do tend to get the 'monster escalation' messages less frequently on easy (the one's where you're told scouts have reported more fearsome creatures wandering around) and thus far I've never seen anything more powerful than bandits or the lower quality chaff creatures (spiderlings, bears and wolves) outside of a dungeon on easy. On medium I've seen alpha wolves, black widows and various other higher level beasties wandering the map.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Looking at the xml and without giving exact numbers, this is what difficulty seems to impact at least as far as the AI is concerned:

AI Economy (I'm guessing income)

Whether or not the AI can see through FOW (again, a guess based on the variable name)

What % of the unit's HP the AI units have (i.e. unit defined HP * this = HP the unit has if AI owned)

A couple things involving sovereigns. One involves their HP (I'm guessing just like with the units above). The other - I have no idea. It seems like some kind of way where the AI can make custom sovereigns, but I don't think I've ever seen the AI do that?

The intelligence of the AI (probably what strategies/builds/etc are enabled)

And whether or not the AI will use tactical spells.

 

This is probably for the difficulty on the "Pick your foes" screen?

 

Edit: I did a search on all xml in the data/English directory and that's the only mention of it. I tried searching on "Normal" and found a couple other things, but no way of figuring out anything else. Will keep looking as I can.