#Difficulty Analysis

[breakingarrows]

Killzone 2 Difficulty Analysis

Some time ago I was thinking alot about video game difficulty. This has been a topic of conversation and Twitter discourse many times, especially around FromSoftware releases due to their reputation for being difficult to play to the end and the lack of any options to ease that difficulty. However I was thinking about it from the angle of what exactly we mean when we say something is difficult. Does it mean the player takes fewer hits before being reset to an earlier point, whether it be the very outset of a run in a rogue-like or a checkpoint a minute earlier in a Call of Duty campaign. Is difficulty determined by how many hits an enemy can take before being defeated, is it harsher scoring qualifications for a Devil May Cry, is it enemy behavior becoming more adaptable or sophisticated, learning from the player actions or being given more capabilities the higher the setting? Killzone 2 has a reputation of being one of the tougher games to complete on its hardest difficulty level: Elite. And so I wanted to take an analytical, frame-by-frame look at Killzone 2 and its four difficulty levels to see what exactly separates each option from each other.

As a first person shooter I expected the main differences between difficulty settings are: player takes less hits to die and be reset the higher the setting, the enemy takes more hits to die the higher the setting, and I was curious as to whether the enemy AI is more aggressive with flanking/grenade usage/firing at an exposed player the higher the setting. Below is a table with my findings upon reviewing my footage in Premiere Pro going frame by frame to count the amount of actual hits to kill and milliseconds to die:

Former is multiple, latter two are a single enemy firing. No aiming reticle. Enemy moved while in cover back and forth, throwing grenades at my cover point. Blood splatter to indicate taking damage appears in the frame before the bullet is actually fired.

Reviewing the footage and the table both Recruit and Trooper are relatively tame. The standard ISA M82 assault rifle takes 6 hits on average to kill while the Helghast assault rifle the StA52 takes 5 hits to kill. Your time to die on Recruit is over 15 seconds while Trooper is barely over 10. On Recruit the enemy AI was more preoccupied with the ally NPC than my player character, focusing fire on him despite me standing in the open. On Trooper their hits were more consistent, and the time to die would have been even shorter if not for the enemy soldier reloading and taking time to take cover. Veteran is where things really change drastically. Enemies take more shots to kill, ranging from 2-4 on both assault rifles. The time to die is significantly shorter, about just 2 seconds continuously exposed before death. Elite had a consistent 9 bullets per enemy with the M82, whereas the StA52 was more varied between 6 and 10 bullets. Time to die on Elite is pretty much the same as Veteran. Additional details on the Elite difficulty is I noticed enemies would move while in cover to avoid the player zeroing in on their exposed areas. Grenades were thrown more often on Elite than on easier difficulties, and the player lacks the aiming reticule when firing from the hip that is present in every other difficulty setting.

Reviewing this it appears Killzone 2 has two main difficulty levels: Normal and Hard with more acute differences between their sub-divisions. Killzone 2 adheres to the expected difficulty variation of the higher the difficulty the more damage is required to achieve a kill and the less damage you can take before being reset to an earlier checkpoint. I do appreciate the finer details on Elite with enemy AI appearing to become more capable to combat the player’s actions compared to every other option.

Lastly, some miscellaneous details: Average time to load a checkpoint upon death was 9 seconds 39 milliseconds 26 microseconds. Average time to load a level from mission select was 28 seconds 59 milliseconds 40 microseconds.

[lotus-pear]

bsd fic authors i understand yalls pain SO well right now why is it so fucking HARD to write dazai. like i have a whole fucking spreadsheet dedicated to tireless analysis i have done on my part so i can accurately characterize him but he is such an unpredictable and morally gray character that it's hard knowing his limits and boundaries and where he draws the line for himself.

[icedroppedinparasolcider]

to the mizuki5 doomposters, i have to ask: are we reading the same 25ji story? in what reality does this storyline lead you to conclude that mizuki5 will be some sort of breakup event for mizuena or niigo as a whole given every event since the conclusion of Say Goodbye to Masked Me has been a process of confronting their internal conflicts and finally finding ways to heal from their pain? it would be entirely counteractive to the point of 25ji if they were to write niigo, any of them, not accepting mizuki for who they are. yes, they are scared of this possibility, but they're also traumatised and paranoid, as evident by the rooftop scene of My Footprints, Your Destination. that very event makes it clear that mizuki was caught up in her own fears and acting irrationally as a result; we have several events since then where mizuki openly contemplates telling ena The Secret, and we see in multiple events mizuki concluding that they're no longer going to run away from this problem. the cliffhanger at the end of Reeling in the Lights shows exactly that: mizuki telling herself that she's not going to run away and that it's time to confront this fear. which, again, is the entire point of the arc this story has been on since third anni.

you people are far too obsessed with the idea of divorce arcs and breakup events. i know the wxs second arc teased that possibility for several events, but it was also the entire point of that story to have a "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" message. the other four units don't even approach those ideas?? ichisaki divorce in Parallel Harmonies was basically the exact same concept as shihonami divorce in Unwavering Feelings, Now Put Into Words: two characters struggling to get on the same page about something they're both very passionate about. the difference between the two events being that ichisaki have literally never argued before and had no idea how to navigate the problem without the interference of the virtual singers, while shihonami managed to figure it out on their own, and thus dwelled on the problem for less time. anhane divorce in Whip the Wimp Girl!! was the direct conclusion of a massive underlying conflict in an's story progression that was first made clear in Bout for Beside You, with an finally expressing the feelings and fears she'd kept hidden from kohane, and not once did kohane even begin to get upset. you can see it in kohane's untrained for the set; she's effectively fallen in love with this girl who completely shook her to her core all over again because of an finally letting loose her raw emotion in an unfiltered way. Whip the Wimp Girl!! wasn't a divorce arc, it was an event that only made more powerful the bond between the vivids, it amplified the aibou magic that's existed between them since the main story. and that event, alongside concluding an's story arc, provided the motivation and drive to kohane to achieve what she does in OVER RAD SQUAD.

will there be conflict in mizuki5? yes, because it's an entire event and they always have some form of central conflict for the characters to confront. mizuki's fears are the conflict, and her finding a way to face them will be the entire point of the event. from the pieces before me, i personally think this will happen through mizuki being forced into a position where they have no choice but to face this, but it's not like they're completely unprepared; Searching for a Reflection Beneath the Waters had mizuki tell themselves they need to face their problems so they'll know how to help mafuyu do just that, Next to the Unchanging Warmth was a reminder of how far they've come and that hiding who they are for the sake of being accepted will only make them more miserable, and then the end of Reeling in the Lights was the decision to confront it. it might not happen in the way they want, but it's not like mizuki doesn't want this to happen at all. they've had an entire story arc since My Footprints, Your Destination; hell, they wanted to tell ena during that event! they just didn't because they were scared, and finding the strength to stop running away has been the point of mizuki's story since Our Escape For Survival. pairing that with her being rejected would be completely counter to everything project sekai's story represents.

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

hey kings quick reminder to tag dis/course and fandom/team/character neg! i have seen some very nasty things from red AND blue pov watchers today- we're all enjoying the same series, let's be considerate of each other. purgatory is hard enough when our streamers are going thru The Torments lets not bring the torments here

[puppyeared]

who up seeing their disorder in a fictional character but feel like its not their place to put a name on it

[mimiruku]

I say 'peculiarities' as if I don't mean toddler Miruku is a contemptuous hater. He isn't impolite, but he loathes being around people so much that it has him seriously ill. ( literal ) ⸻ a quick way to have him denouncing your right to exist would be touching him without his explicit permission, which is to say he dislikes 99% of the population because most people do not respect a child's boundary.

Deep down inside, Miruku hasn't actually grown from this, just that he tolerates & allows himself to enjoy the pain of flareups. ( love is sacrifice, this is what he learned very earlier on but he wants to possess love enough to go through with it )

[sharkieboi]

okay okay I know how we all talk about like light vs dark and good vs evil and the very very VERY cool concept of like dark being good and light being evil.

rewatching Nimona movie and IT LITERALLY DOES THAT.

currently on the scene of the first time Balistar gets arrested. and like the light shining on her and the shadows he’s in. but he’s also surrounded by light (the electronics) and she’s surrounded by darkness (the empty cells)

idk i’m always having many feelings

[pancakeke]

why do so many people in amazon reviews want product instructions spelled out with words. most of the time when I see these complaints, adding text to the illustrated instructions wouldn't add any additional clarity.

I get that some people might process information better in the form of text but there comes a point when a matter is so simple that reading any amount of words is more complicated than seeing a visual. like if a coffee table arrives as a tabletop with four pre-drilled holes and four screw on legs what the fuck are these people doing leaving a review saying "garbage instructions don't explain anything". like how did they even figure out how to buy things online.

though I guess these are probably just shit-stirring "this is america and everything should be written in american" types.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Further thoughts on season 3 -

Because season 3A is, of course, the show sloughing off the remains of its police procedural suit and letting its dreamlike gothic vibes-based surrealism run wild. It doesn’t have the same comforting, familiar scaffolding to contain the weirdness that the show previously had.

But also intriguing to me is the way the second half mines its uncanny qualities from its seeming return to normalcy. The Italy arc hinges on the characters being temporally fractured and unmoored from the surroundings that once defined them - and this is reflected in the structure and placement of “Aperitivo”, in which the characters are all, through their introductions, tethered to their pivotal moments of trauma.

But season 3B, oddly, doesn’t try to make the three year gap felt in that same way - the story simply breaks off at Hannibal’s capture, the stylization of the arc not applicable to the mundanity of his trial and incarceration - and then when we rejoin the characters, they’ve all been relocated and shunted into their proper positions for the Red Dragon adaptation to play out. The uncanny effect comes from how simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar everything feels - the return to a more “conventional” crime story, the anchoring of Fuller’s “remix” approach in a well-known and previously adapted larger plot line (much more straightforwardly so than the show’s adaptation of the novel Hannibal) with previously used lines and story elements retrodden, and the characters in similar places to where they were introduced to us. Will is married now, but once again pressed by Jack into consulting; Hannibal is in prison but still entertaining guests; Alana has Chilton’s former role. And yet there’s such an underlying sadness and loss to all of it - it feels insufficient and insubstantial, somehow. The passage of time is felt in just how much it isn’t dwelt on, like the characters have someone melted into these new and unsustainable approximations of their old roles.

And the editing, too, is so much artier than the previous seasons were, even in little cinematic details like the transitions from scene to scene. It’s as though the conventions of the plot are haunted by the strangeness of the first half of the season - as though there’s something far more bizarre and violent trying to burst out of the straitjacket of its plot, just like Dolarhyde’s violent side bursting free of him. And of course, it does, by the end, with Will’s transfer of his allegiance to Hannibal’s way of thinking.

I often think that the lack of flashback to time within the three year gap, and general effort to make that length of time feel weighty, feels like a curious excision. And I’d ideally have liked to see both halves of the season expanded into their own full seasons, because there’s so much more you can mine there than just suggestion. But I think the lacuna itself is a fascinating bit of fragmentation in its own right.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

You know how you hc that the twins battle each other all the time, and thus are basically their hardest opponents? That post you made about Ingo's brutal Path of Solitude made me desperately want Ingo and Emmet challenging each other to various versions, sometimes with Ingo having the upperhand like in the game, sometimes with Emmet making Ingo use a wurmple against a staraptor. And sometimes, for fun, they even make it a double battle. They make the most buff pokemon in existence and everyone is sufficiently terrified

they so would frfrfr. wait this reminds me i had two sort of mutually exclusive path of solitude points i wanted to make in the same post i'm just gonna do it here hang on

1) ingo was really like, here's a new style of battle challenge i'm introducing that's literally not done anywhere else even in the future, i invented it myself. the challenge is you have one single pokemon and you have to face a very difficult opponent and you're not allowed any other help than what you go in with and you're all alone forever. this is based on absolutely nothing at all and was inspired by nothing. i am fine.

2) path of solitude is really like turbo single battles honestly like of course the guy who is The Single Battles One came up with this. what do you think emmet would have done if he was here instead. would he be like ok pick a pokemon and i'm giving you an entirely random partner. no planning beforehand gotta figure it out when you open the pokeball and we start the battle. dwi.

[technicolorxsn]

I am feeling so violent

[bonefall]

If Feathertail and Stormfur had chosen to remain in Thunderclan instead of returning with Misty to Riverclan, who do you think Bluestar would have picked for the Prophecy in TNP? Who do you think would have been Riverclan's pick?

It seems that StarClan was intentionally picking cats who were half-clan, for a reason that doesn't seem consistent imo.

Half-Clan cats are more likely to care about all the clans instead of just one?

...they're also more likely to be trusted, somehow? Because they're all... respected and worthy? uh

The Half-Clan cats need chances to prove themselves as truly representative of their clans

Erins were like, "How do we justify StarClan picking the kids who were too young to be main characters in TPB" and kinda worked backwards.

BUT ANYWAY, I don't think it's necessarily a terrible notion to pick cats who were half clan, out of a stern passion. "You will trust the cats WE pick or you will die by your own xenophobia, StarClan has fucking SPOKEN."

Reedwhisker

I think the most obvious pick would be Reedpaw, as Bluestar's grandson. Personally I'm really fond of the idea that he wasn't completely overlooked by TigerClan's persecution, but squeaked by for being 75% RiverClan and having the a TigerClan loyalist Blackclaw for a father... but he was always on thin ice and it gave him extreme anxiety growing up, delaying his assessment for a long time.

(and, even, making some RiverClan cats start to believe that maybe Tigerstar had a point about halfclan blood. A vicious cycle where they hyperfocus on his weaknesses and ignore his strengths.)

I think it would have been better for the dynamic, too. I feel like Feather and Storm weren't well characterized, but an extremely nervous and cautious Reedpaw? That could have been neat, next to Competent Leader, Incompetent Leader, Hissing Ball Of Rage, and Squirrelpaw.

Mothwing

They really could have used a medic, and as an outsider and the daughter of Tigerclaw, I think she could have made an excellent pick for StarClan's message.

And development-wise? Excellent. Mothwing is insecure to the point of fucking up when Hawkfrost is around to pressure her. Having her go on this journey and prove that she's actually super skilled as a medic, even without StarClan? That would have been awesome.

Not to mention how Bramble and Tawny would feel about their surprise sister who didn't grow up with the pressure of being Tigerkin at all!

And in terms of personality, no one could have improved the dynamic more. She's unable to stand up for herself because of Hawkfrost's abuse, finding herself thrown to a pack of assertive bastards. They could ALL learn a lesson from humbling themselves to ask Mothwing what she's thinking, with her constantly having a good ideas when they make sure to include her.

How would she GET the StarClan message though...? Would be fun if Leafpool communicated it to her, and Mudfur confirmed it after they left.

Hawkfrost

I'm super fond of "Hawkfrost goes on the journey" type AUs, though I don't know if I can say I prefer it. I think he would have an important place in the Forest, if the narrative could commit to this being a comment on Leopardstar, and the remnants of Tigerstar's ideology.

But, either as Moth's tag-a-long, or as a chosen hero, I think it would have set up Brambleclaw's arc a lot better. We could have seen Squilf actually not trusting him. We could get Hawkfrost's good traits-- making for a TRULY tragic death at the lake.

I really would have liked something to make us care more about Hawkfrost, make us not want to believe that he's actually pure evil and just interpreting the code in a way that fits him.

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

no but im still going crazy over the code having access to the tasks. why is it warning them. why does it have access to the tasks. if it has access to the tasks and it wants to kill the eggs then why has it never used the tasks to set up an ambush. there was that one day that there were so many laggy tasks (the same day that the code did that really awful attack on phil and pomme that got taken back- and what was up with that, too? why were there no warnings? why did it kill so quickly?)

it really makes me think that the code is in a position similar to the players. it has things it wants to do, but the federation is somehow able to limit it. but the code keeps pushing past those limits- like the full warning in the tasks. "you're running out of time." time for what? to leave the island? why warn them now? the timer has been up for days.

mm. the code can spawn mobs. we haven't really seen any mob spawning from the feds, but we've seen a lot from the code. I almost wonder if the increased difficulty in the mobs is from the code too- and i'm really wondering who put all those mobs in the federation dungeon. was it the code? the feds didn't seem to be able to activate that timer themselves- why else get the jaidens to do it after the facility has been abandoned for so long? if the code put all those mobs in there as a deterrent to starting the timer, then they obviously had some access to the facility, so who was it that contacted cellbit and made him take all the books?

what the hell is behind that frosted glass?

[ame-to-ame]

i can't sing a love song really makes me. ugh. i really like Kita!!! I'm just like her fr 😭😭😭

[simplyender]

yall can send me asks abt spot whenever you guys want btw. i love talking about the guy.

[airenyah]

i did it guys, i turned my thai drama obsession into my bachelor thesis