Difficulty Levels

[DOUGL4S1]

I know this is a bit of a weird idea and it will probably never make it into a GTA game, but it's fun to imagine. When creating a new game, you could select a difficulty to play on. Each difficulty is locked to the save and would have its own set of features to make it easier or harder. As with any game, the default difficulty is Medium. The Online mode will also be locked to Medium so some players don't have unfair advantages over others on higher difficulties, but some specific gamemodes can have other difficulties (i.e. a Deathmatch on Hardcore mode).

 

EASY

Player

• The player has 250 HP, 50 more than by default
• The place where the player gets shot has little to no effect on player's health.
• Getting killed or arrested has no effect on player's arsenal.

Weapons

• No weapons or ammo limit.
• Number of weapons have no effect on player's speed.
• Bullet-proof vest has no effect on player's speed.
• Weapons can't jam or overheat.

Vehicles

• Vehicles are 10% more durable.
• All vehicles have automatic gearbox.
• Player doesn't lose health dring impact and isn't ejected from windscreen.

Misc.

• Radar and Waypoints normal.
• Enemies have 30% accuracy.
• Cheats enabled.
• Auto-aim enabled on Consoles and PC.
• Hunger is not available and player can eat to regenerate health.

 

MEDIUM

Player

• The player has 200 HP, the default in some games.
• Headshots cause more damage, taking 2 headshots to kill the player.
• Getting killed has no effect on player's arsenal, but getting arrested, all the ammo is confiscated.

​Weapons

• Only one weapon per type and maximum ammount of ammo limited per weapon.
• Number of weapons has no effect on player's speed.
• Bullet-proof vest has no effect on player's speed.
• Weapons can't jam or overheat.

Vehicles

• Vehicles have the default durability.
• All vehicles have automatic gearbox.
• Player doesn't lose health on impact, but it can be ejected from windscreen.

Misc.

• Radar and Waypoints normal.
• Enemies have 60% accuracy.
• Cheats enabled.
• Auto-aim enabled on Consoles, but not on PC.
• Player has to eat to not lose health due to hunger, and food can regenerate health.

HARD

Player

• The player has 150 HP.
• Headshots cause more damage, taking 2 headshots to kill the player.
• Getting killed has no effect on player's arsenal, but getting arrested, all the weapons are confiscated.

​Weapons

• Maximum of five weapons and maximum ammount of ammo limited per weapon
• Maximum ammount of weapons and ammo makes player 10% slower.
• Bullet-proof vest makes players 5% slower.
• Weapons can jam, but can't overheat.

Vehicles

• Vehicles are 10% less durable.
• Some vehicles have a manual gearbox, implemented as a sequential.
• Player loses some health from impact and can be ejected from windscreen.

Misc.

• Radar normal, but impossible to set Waypoints.
• Enemies have 75% accuracy.
• Vehicle and fun cheats ennabled, but weapon and health cheats disabled.
• Auto-aim enabled on Consoles, but not on PC.
• Player has to eat to not lose health due to hunger, and food can regenerate health.

HARDCORE

Player

• The player has 100 HP, the same as an NPC.
• Headshots are an instant kill.
• Getting killed or arrested makes player lose all his arsenal.

​Weapons

• Maximum of 3 weapons (two pistols or SMGs and one rifle) or one heavy weapon, and maximum ammount of ammo limited per weapon.
• Maximum ammount of weapons and ammo makes player 20% slower.
• Bullet-proof vest makes player 5% slower.
• Weapons can jam and/or overheat.

Vehicles

• Vehicles are 25% less durable.
• Some vehicles have a manual gearbox, implemented as a sequential.
• Player loses health from impact and can be ejected from windscreen.

Misc.

• Radar stuck in "Blips Only" mode, impossible to set Waypoint and no GPS route to objectives.
• Enemies have 95% accuracy.
• Cheats disabled completelly.
• Auto-aim disabled.
• Player has to eat to not lose health due to hunger, but food cannot regenerate health, only med-kits.

Optional

• One-life mode can be enabled to all difficulties, so if the player dies, he has to delete his save game.
• The Gearbox mode can be changed to all difficulties, but it's locked on Manual to some vehicles on higher ones.

If you have any more suggestions on what could be made easier or harder, feel free to share them.

Edited March 3, 2017 by DOUGL4S1

[TheHumanIsland]

No. It is already not a hard game with 100hp and the same as peds. But their punches are stronger now.

 

Anyhow, making it easier is not a good thing. Harder, sure, but everything below hardcore is just easier than already exists.

 

I think rockstar has said they don't like difficulty levels in games in the past too, and that max payne had them because that was in series before, but can't find the source.

 

Game is an adventure with some small challenges here and there, but mostly about just experiencing the game more than anything else - difficulty modes do nothing for me personally. I don't mind if they make it harder, but it should not have difficulty levels. It'll also mess up all the data they collect from player to player as well.

Edited March 3, 2017 by TheHumanIsland

[DOUGL4S1]

No. It is already not a hard game with 100hp and the same as peds. But their punches are stronger now.

 

Anyhow, making it easier is not a good thing. Harder, sure, but everything below hardcore is just easier than already exists.

 

I think rockstar has said they don't like difficulty levels in games in the past too, and that max payne had them because that was in series before, but can't find the source.

 

Game is an adventure with some small challenges here and there, but mostly about just experiencing the game more than anything else - difficulty modes do nothing for me personally. I don't mind if they make it harder, but it should not have difficulty levels. It'll also mess up all the data they collect from player to player as well.

The thing is that some of these features, like the small gun and ammo limits would make some people happy, but also anger lots of other people, so the easier way to implement them is through difficulty levels. I know that Rockstar is kinda against this, and that's why I said it's probably never going to make it to a GTA game, but it would be fun.

 

And most of the data they collect is probably from Online, and as I mentioned, it is permanently stuck in Normal unless someone changes it for a gamemode, this would be a Singleplayer feature. And I think it would be amazing a Deathmatch on Hardcore mode at night on an abandoned place, with limited weapons, little health, the possibility of the gun failing, etc.

[DragonpokeZ]

Well what if I disagree with some but like some as well? Ammo limits are f*cking retarded, but weapon limits are not. Gearboxes are annoying, not hard. Jamming weapons? So how would you even unjam them? Or does that mean you have to throw the weapon away? Meanwhile, overheating weapons is a good idea. Also autoaim is already disabled by default on PC, replaced by free mouse aim (actually easier lol)

[Zeta87]

Enemies with 95% accuracy on Hardcore? It's not ok if it takes only 2 headshots to get you down... it's more like "Godlike" than "Hardcore".

[Mister Pink]

I'm not going to nit-pick your choices but I think your post raises awareness and gives us some insight in to how difficulty settings can work and be implemented in GTA. I never wanted difficulty settings but for the last year or so I've been always playing on harder difficulties so this interests me in a GTA.

[Agem]

I don't think difficulty levels would help at all. The game just needs to be balanced to a good point where it's neither too easy or too hard. I remember reading somewhere that Blizzard buffs and nerfs characters differently from consoles to PC, and I actually think they should apply some of that concept in the future. GTA V feels way too easy when you have mouse aiming, the A.I. difficulty doesn't scale correctly to the PC version.

 

Obviously this won't happen, but I wish people would just ''git gud''. Like Mister Pink said, after a while you start to get more engaged into harder difficulties in any games, automatically ignoring easy and medium (and even hard in some cases), however some games become extremely unfair in certain difficulty levels, while others actually shine to their full potential, like the latest DOOM.

 

I actually really enjoy

about the difficulty aspect of games. There are also

and specially these two fantastic videos from Mark Brown's Game Maker's Toolkit that GTA could also learn from, specially from Resident Evil 4's scaling difficulty. GTA V could've done really well with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by Mega

[Racecarlock]

I'd request a custom difficulty setting so that people who want some features of medium but otherwise want easy could also get their fill.

 

Also, why is hunger on the medium setting? I mean, I get that san andreas had it, but there's a reason why it was kept out of GTA IV and V. Because it sucked. At least leave it in hard.

 

Also, why does what difficulty you choose effect what cheats you can use? Cheats pretty much exist to break rules. They're inherently anarchic, basically modifying the rule set of a video game to either give the player an unfair advantage for some overpowered fun or to grant the player an item that would otherwise be hard to find (Such as a weapon or a vehicle). I get the logic behind it, but cheat codes are more "Rebellious" than that. No matter how stupidly limited they were in V.

[*DERGaming]

From the very beginning the whole idea of GTA was to cause as much havoc as possible it has been like that since the very begging. The idea of diffulticty levels was to appeal to all gamers but GTA games are made to appeal to a select group and I feel every game should recognize that.

[Tao Cheng]

Less likely to happen. GTA has done a great job providing a decent challenge for veteran players, yet fair and friendly for the casual players. If they happen to do so, I will like to post a video trying to fail missions on easy mode.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Tao Cheng

[Natasha]

I don't see why it would be a problem, although it could result in the ego wars of 'i completed it 100% on hardcore haha you're all sh*t' and such. Personally I find GTA has always been fine, but any games with difficulty levels I ensure I play on easy usually as I'm just a casual gamer, I don't get sucked in enough to spend hours and hours trying to perfectly complete every game under the sun.

[Queen]

I wouldn't mind it if NPCs were more intelligent. It usually feels like I'm murdering a bunch of morons. And yeah, I know the point is to wreak havoc. But in terms of difficulty, that's the one area I'd like to see improved.

[SoulForger]

I don't see why it would be a problem, although it could result in the ego wars of 'i completed it 100% on hardcore haha you're all sh*t' and such. Personally I find GTA has always been fine, but any games with difficulty levels I ensure I play on easy usually as I'm just a casual gamer, I don't get sucked in enough to spend hours and hours trying to perfectly complete every game under the sun.

The difficulty is no problem except in gameplay it's frustrating to have to shoot the villains, gangbangers many times

just to kill them. The hp damage is really annoying.

[Maibatsu545]

I think by default it should be hard as f*ck. V was a casual cream puff. it puts you to sleep. I want the next GTA to go full dark souls. They'd need to improve the AI though, no bullsh*t like how they artificially raise the difficulty in GTAOnline by making it so enemies can take multiple .50 caliber rounds to the chest.

[_Raven_]

Difficulty settings really only complicate a game like GTA. Sure, games such as Watch Dogs 2 implement this but in GTA games the difficulty gradually increases as you progress through the story.

 

GTA V didn't really carry this tradition, instead the game was substantially easy compared to past games. In GTA IV this was more prominent, however the earlier missions also relied less on guns and action and more on fist fights and learning game mechanics...

 

I'd like GTAN to be easy at the start. Give us time to learn the map, driving and shooting mechanics, and get a feel for the game overall. Then as we complete more story missions start to load more pressure on the player. Then at the climax of the game, really test the player's metal.

[Queen Elizabeth II]

 

 

No weapons or ammo limit.

What. Even easy games aren't that easy.

 

Also, I wouldn't like difficulty levels in GTA.