Readable Difficulty (Standardized Skill Levels) (+UV! only)

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Spaceman333
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Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:40 pm

Readable Difficulty (Standardized Skill Levels) (+UV! only)

Post by Spaceman333 »

I got annoyed when the skill level selection menu was either too vague or had unwanted extra things, so to fix that I created this tiny override mod.

Image
Image

Basically, the difficulty levels are now standardized:
  • They explicitly say what they do.
  • They don't sneak in annoying flags or hidden nonsense value modifiers (like disabling cheats).
  • They don't lie about what the values are.
  • They have a clear purpose.
  • They maintain a restrained consistency, opting to let the game content itself define how the game should play.
ReadableDifficulty.pk3
Overrides the skill levels (difficulty settings) of vanilla or any gameplay mod.
(809 Bytes) Downloaded 272 times
NEW: "Ultra-Violence! Only" version:
ReadableDifficulty_UVonly.pk3
This mod removes all other difficulties and leaves the one and only true difficulty, Ultra-Violence!
You can start Doom, mash enter on new game and be guaranteed to instantly be in the game on regular UV difficulty. The benefit of this version is to bypass the entire skill selection menu altogether, saving you time and a keypress.
(243 Bytes) Downloaded 183 times
WARNING:
This will overwrite any existing skill levels, so its usable on top of any mod, replacing their native difficulty settings. This includes any special modifiers such as Ammo Drop Multipliers, Monster Aggressiveness and Damage Taken that a modder may have intentionally designed for the mod to have by default! Use your discretion when you want to use a mods own difficulty settings vs this one. (Personally I'd use it to replace Vanilla and Brutal Doom's native difficulties, but I wouldn't use it with Russian Overkill.)

I also threw in some extra modes that I really longed for, as vanilla monsters tend to be derpy and slow compared to some of the modded monsters out there. These will give them an extra edge. Meanwhile, the overkill mode is basically a crazy powertrip mode just for fun when you want to mow down hordes of fast, but brittle monsters with quadruple the ammo than normal.

Sharing this here in case anyone else finds this tiny mod useful.
Last edited by Spaceman333 on Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:45 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: Readable Difficulty (Standardized Skill Levels)

Post by Enjay »

This would override things such as aggressiveness, ammo multipliers...

i.e. It could ruin the subtlety intended by some mod makers.
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Spaceman333
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Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:40 pm

Re: Readable Difficulty (Standardized Skill Levels)

Post by Spaceman333 »

Enjay wrote:This would override things such as aggressiveness, ammo multipliers...

i.e. It could ruin the subtlety intended by some mod makers.
OP wrote:It will overwrite any existing skill levels, so its usable on top of any mod, replacing their native difficulty settings. Use your discretion when you want to use a mods own difficulty settings vs this one. (Personally I'd use it to replace Vanilla and Brutal Doom's native difficulties, but I wouldn't use it with Russian Overkill.)
Read the OP man. I know.

EDIT:

Added an UV only edition if you only play on regular Ultra-Violence! by default like I do. This mod will save you a keypress and some time by not bringing up the skill selection at all.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: Readable Difficulty (Standardized Skill Levels) (+UV! on

Post by Enjay »

I did read the OP. It didn't explicitly state that it overrides things like I mentioned so I thought it was worth making that clear because some people might not even know that the difficulty setting can be used to change those features and that some mods make use of them - and even rely on them for gameplay balance.

I was actually trying to add detail to your "use at your own risk" disclaimer rather than criticising the mod. I accept that I could have been clearer in doing so though.
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Spaceman333
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Re: Readable Difficulty (Standardized Skill Levels) (+UV! on

Post by Spaceman333 »

Enjay wrote:I did read the OP. It didn't explicitly state that it overrides things like I mentioned so I thought it was worth making that clear because some people might not even know that the difficulty setting can be used to change those features and that some mods make use of them - and even rely on them for gameplay balance.

I was actually trying to add detail to your "use at your own risk" disclaimer rather than criticising the mod. I accept that I could have been clearer in doing so though.
Ah, I had taken those modifiers for granted when I wrote the disclaimer for overriding the existing settings. I also had previously encountered people that didn't actually read the OP, so I assumed this was again one such instance. My bad.

I appreciate the added detail you mentioned, I'll add it to the OP.
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