Forum Mod Bakery Docs

Make the Timers in ALL levels more "fair".

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[deleted user]
7 yrs ago (Statistics)
Hello,

I have been trying for 3 weeks to continue my donut mod let's play. But L2M4 is death for me, I can't get away from Apu in 40 seconds. That's not fair due to the cluster of traffic and pedestrians that love to put your hit & run meter through the roof. While The collecting flatmeat stage is 90 seconds. This is not fair due to all the spaces between the platforms that will take 15 seconds while sprinting to get back to. I'm not trying to sound mad or irrational, even though I'm both right now. This is not just apparent through those missions, thats how ALL the later missions in levels are. I still hate how the design of the difficulty HAS NOT CHANGED. There still goes from easy to hard in each level, not slowly through out the entire mod. I'm sorry, but other than bugfixes, I don't think the latest update is what I would call a "rebalance". But that's my opinion.

Please don't take this the wrong way,

hipporeno
[deleted user]
7 yrs ago (Statistics)
@hipporeno

I have to agree with you here. In my opinion the normal difficulty is too easy for the average SHAR player, whereas Hellfish can only be played by the experts. I feel there needs to be a middle ground.
[deleted user]
7 yrs ago (Statistics)
@max_power998 I'm playing on normal and I can't beat it. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
@hipporeno

I assume you mean L2M5 instead of L2M4? L2M4 doesn't have the stages in it that you're describing.

The timer to get away from Apu is actually 1:10 on Normal and we currently consider pretty fair, but we might end up changing it (perhaps give Apu a weakened con file?). It shouldn't be too hard to do. If you're having issues, try cutting through the Buzz Cola board shortcut seen here, then make your way to the Springfield Stadium. This should guarntee that you lose Apu every time thanks to SHAR's AI not knowing how to go through here:


Alternatively, I uploaded a really quick playthrough of the mission in Normal Mode if you're still having issues evading the car:


As for the issues with the mod still feeling unbalanced, I apologize. Normal Mode's intentions in the Rebalance Update was to match the original game's difficulty to the best of my abilities, but I'm seeing that some missions might still be too hard. If anybody would be willing to be more specific about what sections are too difficult or how they compare to the original game, please let know. Our current team is very confused at the moment on how to deliver a Normal Mode that pleases most individuals due to the conflicting reports we've been having and a lack of team members.

@max_power998

I wouldn't say it's too easy given that the user above is having issues with this one particular mission. Normal Mode was originally quite a bit ways harder, but we ended up changing after some user criticisms believing the mod in it's current state was too difficult. After hearing this, we tried to rebalance the game so that it's difficulty is pretty similar to the original SHAR. This way, those who are picking up the PC release just to try out our mod can have a similar experience to the original game that's easy on them. Normal Mode assumes now that this is your first time playing the game in quite a while (think a several year gap) or if you want something that matches the original. We've decided Hellfish mode is where the real challenge goes, basically.
[deleted user]
7 yrs ago (Statistics)
@Kenny Giles

Maybe I'm just a lot better at the game than I thought I was :p Although I can say that even on Normal that particular mission is tough.

The thing I was suggesting was a mode inbetween Normal and Hellfish, not to make Normal harder or Hellfish easier. I know if it even gets added it won't be for a long time but it would be, in my opinion, a good idea.

@hipporeno

I'm sorry if I offended you by saying Normal mode was easy, I forget sometimes how much I've played this game over the years! I'll confess that the first time I played the mod on Normal the flatmeat mission took me at least five tries.
[deleted user]
7 yrs ago (Statistics)
@max_power998 you did nothing wrong. Thanks everyone for suggestions!
@max_power998 you know, I once had that idea for a new difficulty myself: Donut Mod's original "Normal" difficulty. I wanted to say so, but either I keep forgetting, or my confidence just wasn't strong enough. You're probably thinking of something easier than that where the difficulty is at the exact median of Normal and Hellfish, but hey. Might as well state our slight similarities.
@max_power998
I would so love a middle mode.
I want a bit more challenge than Normal mode, but still not as extreme as Hellfish.
[deleted user]
7 yrs ago (Statistics)
That's exactly what I mean. I've been playing the game for years and I tried some of the Hellfish missions so many times that I had to skip them. Believe me, I love Hellfish, and I will continue to use it as my default difficulty, but I think a median mode would be good for players who have beaten SHAR before but aren't quite experts at it.
The issue with adding another difficulty is that maintaining a total of four (Normal, New Normal, Hellfish, and the hardest difficulty Deathfish) would be really complex. We'd have to consider what timers and challenges would be fair for all four difficulties, and in addition to that test all four difficulties to make sure they don't crash or have any weird issues. It'd increase the work load by quite a bit, and in the end might not be worth it for what appears to be a very small group of people. If the demand changes, we'd consider otherwise, but at the moment it just doesn't seem as if it's worth it the trouble it'd add.

We decided in the end nerfing the Normal difficulty was in the best interest of everyone. People found it too complex as the difficulty initially assumed you were well-familiar with the game or fairly skilled at it, and I recall some streamers finding Normal Mode a bit difficult as well. We just don't see the need for a new fourth difficulty. Hellfish is meant for people who are very comfortable with speedrunning the game and want some challenges that just wouldn't be present in the original game. Deathfish we plan on making very sadistic, but at the moment we're trying to find a new "gimmick" that would help better seperate it from Hellfish so it isn't "Hellfish 2: Electric Bugaloo".

With that out of the way though, we are interested in balancing the difficulties a bit better so that way the difficulty gradually ramps up. Normal Mode does purposefully try to match the rather inconsistent difficulty the original game had, but Hellfish could probably be made to be more consistent.

So perhaps in the future we might get more playtesters to help us balance things, but we'll see.