Difficulty level is riddiculous.

[Esthlos]

It would be much better to resolve the initial issue "such slow-paced game should not do bad unpredictable things"

How?
I mean, I can imagine how (just edit them out, or give warnings), but wouldn't it move the Remake too far away from the original KaM?
Or maybe you had something different in mind?

[Krom]

The fact that very few complaint about this problem aloud makes me wonder if we (me included) are at the minority with this issue. Or are we not?

Maybe that deserves a poll at our FB group, to see how many still play campaigns and find AI attacks in them absurdly punishing and a test of some kind - e.g. some hard TSK/TPR mission rigged to show the countdowns until the attacks?

[Esthlos]

The fact that very few complaint about this problem aloud makes me wonder if we (me included) are at the minority with this issue. Or are we not?

Maybe that deserves a poll at our FB group, to see how many still play campaigns and find AI attacks in them absurdly punishing and a test of some kind - e.g. some hard TSK/TPR mission rigged to show the countdowns until the attacks?

Good idea.

I wonder: would it be possible to make it optional instead, so that only the ones that want it can have it?
Not necessarily a checkbox in the Options menu; even just on a mission-by-mission basis ("demolish this isolated watchtower in the mountain to disable it") or on a campaign-wide one ("mission 1: if at the end of the mission the tower is standing, you'll get countdowns for the rest of the campaign") using the campaign variables, it would stil be optional.
Not overly elegant, but still optional and not too hard to add...

[Hiro]

If memory serves, there are already messages in missions like "brace thyselfes, enemy is preparing for an attack!" Maybe just add something like that, without a countdown clock which would look wierd?

[Krom]

IIRC those messages are quite rare and even as they come they don't tell the time when the strike will occur.

I would expect a game to keep a certain challenge to the player in its "mind" - e.g. "force recruit/weapon production to defend from early attack, dont get your food screwed meanwhile, help defend ally from another attack, hold your defenses, proceed to attacking AI"

Now if the game plays by these rules but does not tell them to the player .. I doubt it's good. Imagine if the game wanted player to defend an ally, but did not tell about it, just announce the player is defeated when ally is killed. Same with repelling big attacks.

[Tiank]

make it optional instead, so that only the ones that want it can have it?

That's the best solution imo. Thes best option would be checkbox somewhere (in campaign's map or in each mission). Placing a building/deleting it/enabling or disabling house repair is weird to trigger the script, but it's at least something and easier to implement for sure

[zombie01]

Idea for knights province.
give the campaign/maps a difficulty level

[Vatrix]

If memory serves, there are already messages in missions like "brace thyselfes, enemy is preparing for an attack!" Maybe just add something like that, without a countdown clock which would look wierd?

I can't just place messages to every mission where an early attack happen, that would be quite weird. If you listen to the story carefully, you will understand that the story tells you about these attacks, not the exact time when it will happen, but it will tell you about it.

If I make message for every attack it will just completely break the atmosphere of every single mission and that is not what I'm trying to accomplish. After some time my goals about TSK and TPR changed from "make it like the original" to "make it fit to the Remake" and that means to change the base of all missions to match Remake qualities and be open for beginner player, but also for expert player. No offence, but this what you suggested would destroy all my efforts put in it.

Now if the game plays by these rules but does not tell them to the player .. I doubt it's good. Imagine if the game wanted player to defend an ally, but did not tell about it, just announce the player is defeated when ally is killed. Same with repelling big attacks.

It is true that attack in mission 8 are made to happen quite soon. In most missions which I've fixed attacks happened much later in original, than I set in Remake, it's because of Remake faster mechanics, but in mission 8 all attacks happen in the exact same time as in original TSK. Problem is that in original TSK your village fit in the space you had behind your towers, in Remake you must demolish those towers and build your city much bigger to have stable economy. Also in mission 8 it was quite easy to destroy left city, because you just pulled barbarians on your towers and that 6 axemen you had left were able to kill them. In Remake this cannot happen, because of your smart AI bowmen. All this results in mission 8 being the hardest mission in TSK, but it is winnable.

make it optional instead, so that only the ones that want it can have it?

That's the best solution imo. Thes best option would be checkbox somewhere (in campaign's map or in each mission). Placing a building/deleting it/enabling or disabling house repair is weird to trigger the script, but it's at least something and easier to implement for sure

I think this is the only right solution to this problem, but since Krom is working mostly on KP and I haven't seen Lewin for decades, I doubt it would be implemented before Hiro and other players lose their interest in campaign, if ever.

That's some huge post I did here, hopefully intelligible.

[Tiank]

since Krom is working mostly on KP and I haven't seen Lewin for decades, I doubt it would be implemented

Well, there are always modders, right? RIGHT?

[Strangelove]

I have a few different ideas on how to fix that problem:

Implement some kind of difficulty level a player can set before starting a campaign/map, that adjusts the strenght of Enemy Units (the downside of that would be that it might be a bit confusing if Enemy Units have different stats from your units) or tools for developers to change for example group-sizes or change attack-patterns to match the difficulty set by the player. I do understand that the last solution would require a massive amount of work, since pretty much every attack and defence position would have to be set in dynamic script, which is not really practical.

Most modern RTS have some kind of Checkpoint-System, that saves the game after an objective is completed or a certain amount of time passed. There could be a Dynamic Script "Action" that creates a Savefile if certain thing happens in game.

Not really a fix tho but it would be more of a quality of life improvement:
Implement an option that let's the player choose to have more then 1 Auto-Savepoint, so in case of an emergancy they can go back and load any autosave-point they want. This would require the least amount of work.

Best regards,
Strange

[zombie01]

a dynamic script would have to change the enemy forces strength

a better way would be to change the rate at wich enemies create forces and to change the starting forces.
wich basically results in a different map
unless someone creates a dynamic script for every single campaign map that either edits the strength or the numbers of the npc.

so yeah, work...

[Tiank]

For game like KaM it seems better to implement things such as countdown timer, additional helping messages, tips or maybe even more starting resources that could be enabled via script/checkbox on/off. Changing enemy's army count or changing stats via script is too much work and doesn't make much sense imo.

I like idea of checkpoints though, because sometimes after very tough battle (like in TSK08) player can forget to save game then and just keep on building his city. If something's goes wrong, it's really annoying that you have to start from beginning or from a point 1.5 hour ago. With checkpoints that player can choose from it would be way easier to go back and try some new strategy.

[Strangelove]

If a "State"-version of each "AI"-Action would be implemented and a Difficulty-Slider/Dropdown-Menu in the UI of the KaM-Remake, almost every campaign- or multiplayer-map could be adjusted by the same script (with minor adjustments).

What I mean is for example:

  Code:

States.GetAIEquipRate(Player Index, Type): Integer; States.GetAIGroupsColums(Player Index, Group Type): Integer; States.GetAIGroupsUnitAmount(Player Index, Group Type): Integer; //...and so on.

And ofc a State that returns the set difficulty level:

  Code:

States.GetDifficulty(): Integer;

What I also desperatly miss is this:

  Code:

Actions.AddAIAttack(Player Index, Target, Soldier Amount, Initial delay, Melee Group Count, Antihorse Count, Ranged Count, Mounted Count: Integer; Random Groups, Repeating: Boolean); Actions.RemoveAllAIAttacks(Player Index);

[pawel95]

To the first post:

Not sure what you are talking about. Most missions are rather too easy for most people than too hard. However it´s hard to discuss this point. It´s the first topic I have read here on the forum that the fixed, original campaigns are so hard. Maybe try some fan made campaigns, then you know what "hard" means

In General: TSK/TPR missions were (and should still be) quite easy. In most missions you get a message right before an attack (after one hour) or you get a message right after you start the game (e.g. TSK 08, barb attack at the start). I don´t think you need a timer or sth similar The fan made campaigns that are included in the Remake are way harder. If these mapmapers would like to "help" the players, they could add such a timer with an easy script. No need to edit the easy Standard campaigns though. When I fixed those missions of the campaigns, I tested most of them in x10 speed and won, without even thinking about a good City structure. So can it be really that hard?