Difficulty

[TDplay]

Will CW4's difficulty follow the trend already set out - all easy until it throws a near-impossible level at you (lookin' at Farbor here)? Or will CW4 have more "conventional" difficulty, where it slowly puts the difficulty up?

To be honest, I've hated the story levels of most of the games due to this. All the way from the start, the game gives you easy levels, until it ramps up the difficulty. This isn't a good difficulty curve, because it makes the level feel impossible and causes players to ragequit.

Now I know some people are going to think this is controversial, and will end up making an easy game, but I'm saying that in CW4, no sudden difficulty increases - just slow it down a bit, build up to the really hard level.

I liked Particle Fleet's level "Origin" though. It challenged you, with a big cannon, but it didn't frustrate you. This is why Farbor was annoying, it frustrated you. It gave you a challenge, but the game didn't teach you how to overcome a time constraint. The game could've introduced a ~1hour constraint in one of the 3 planets with Farbor shield keys, but no - it slams a brand new thing in your face and at a really difficult level. The cannons in Origin and Duty threw something you already know - Particulate - at you, in a difficult way. The ship on Farbor gives you something new in a really difficult way.

I don't want to see this mistake repeated, especially after the success of PF. If CW4 is going to feature a REALLY hard level, as is common in Creeper World, at least build up to it.

TL; DR: CW4 needs a better difficulty curve than CW3.

[herobattle530]

I can't say anything about CW1 or CW2 because I didn't play them, but I honestly think Farbor was a fluke. I think that Virgil overestimated the players' ability to adapt to the time limit and so the opinion of the campaign suffered as a result. People remember it as "that one level" for all the wrong reasons. As you said, the cannon in Particle Fleet was annoying, but was easily beaten by having ships near the HQ when it gets fired at.
   
   Reasons Farbor is hated:

1. There is no "secret tactic" to beat Farbor other than getting a blob of units and landing them right next to the middle. Basically an all or nothing attack, instead of methodically moving up like all the other levels.

2. All the other emitters on the islands on the left and bottom are red herrings and pointless. Why are they there?

3. Players don't realize they have another 20 minutes after the initial "failure". Why would they wait for the clock to run out?

4. There is no time to think. It's "GO! GO! GO!" through the whole map.

In my opinion, poor design + random time constraint + overestimating the ability of the player = a bad map almost universally hated. It really is a shame since the levels before it were pretty good at challenging the player while adding new enemies and new ways to nullify the emitters (Apex:Meso with the Robot things, Vapen with the Giant repulsor beam) and it made things interesting and fun. Then BOOM. Time limit with nothing to help you.

Considering all the new enemies and gimmicks in CW4, the difficulty has to be gradually increasing. A giant spike out of nowhere will most certainly turn off a lot of people.

TLDR: I agree with OP.

[jaworeq]

Maybe a bit off topic on the difficulty, but about CW3 campaign - level I liked the most was the one with pyramids. A great distinction from other levels which required creeping through the creeper - this one gave you something to fight for and a reward for keeping that spot.

[TDplay]

-snip-
TLDR: I agree with OP.

My point entirely. Virgil did a fantastic job on these later levels with the new CRPL that lets players create a gimmick for their level. I'd be fine with a ~35 minute time limit (as there is on Farbor) if that was built up to. They (Knuckle Cracker) could've put a ~50 minute limit on a planet with a Farbor key, say with a giant cannon that fires at your ship but takes an hour to charge. This introduces to the player to playing quickly and sets them up for the much more difficult time limit (on Farbor). This would make players perceive Farbor as a challenge, not as a brick wall.

PF did this so well - in Origin, the cannon was introduced so in Duty, where there were 2 and if they did a HQ snipe you lost the level, the player was ready. Farbor is Duty without Origin - it seems impossible, as you simply haven't been introduced to the challenge. Had you not played Origin, you'd find Duty too hard. This is why Farbor failed - it was trying to be an "introduce new stuff" level at the same time as a challenge level. It tried to be Duty AND Origin. It simply cannot be done.

I don't think the cannon was "annoying", though - it was challenging, sure, but it was not annoying. It required a strategy adaptation. (note: ≠ totally different strategy)