Okay, consider it done
(And I'll try to have the hold with difficulty mode settings uploaded later today.)
I've decided I will tone down the difficulty in a few small ways,
in addition to adding Normal difficulty. This is for two reasons -- (1) as I said, I now think some of the decisions I made three years ago were clearly wrong; (2) I'd like the difference between the difficulties to concentrate on the bosses, so the player who's completed Normal and wants to try Hard isn't constantly looking over their shoulder in case they missed a small difference.
So, I'm moving the Seep on DS 2S2W on
both difficulties -- it was my room, so I can do that
I'm adding a large potion to 2N2W, also my room -- 230HP + 2DEF is hardly enough for a yellow and a green key. The oremite goblin will flee on both difficulties, the hot tiles will be gone, and the secret room won't ask for the invisibility potion.
For now, I won't make the Seep in CC 1N2W hit you only once when taking the power-ups. It's not my room, and the player is likely to leave it until they can kill the Seep taking only one hit anyway. But I will move the Seep one square east, as at the moment it's really annoying when ctrl-moving through the room.
So, to recap, on the first four levels, the differences between the difficulties will be:
1 -- Boss has less ATK
2 -- Boss requires only a green key to de-brain
3 -- None, but entering L4 costs half as many green keys
4 -- Removed Fegundo in 3N3W; Bahamut has less HP
Now, Level 5... this level's main problem is that traversing it requires giving up keys and HP, but it's hard to get any HP back. There's a good stash of HP in 2N1W, but it costs
a lot of keys. So I'm removing (yes, on both difficulties) the three compulsory yellow doors in 1S3W. (It's not my room, but looking back, I did mention that the player might have a large number of keys, and asked if the
edge rooms could use some of them up....)
I'm also tempted to replace the compulsory Waterskippers, and maybe some of the optional ones, with Little Waterskippers. And I'm going to modify my room 5W -- a choice between one green door and killing
six Fegundos isn't much of a choice.
I'm also very tempted to reconfigure DS 2N3W, even though it's not my room. Firstly, I don't like doubling ItemMult for one room without telling the player -- it hides information, and there's plenty of space to double the number of gems instead. Secondly, there's no arrow rotator in the room, so as far as I can see, the gems at the bottom are inaccessible. And in any case, four green doors is way too much for two of each gem.
Only problem is, so far I've not seen a good opportunity to make there be a difference between the difficulties on Level 5
Of course, there doesn't have to be one on every level... the differences on earlier levels will make later levels easier anyway....
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50th Skywatcher
[Last edited by Nuntar at 11-16-2012 09:19 PM]
The aumtlich in 2N2W of the final level was a bit anoying, since it makes the room moot if you've managed to get some lives, and won't lose lives in any other way.
