What are the actually differences between the different difficulty levels in the campaign? Is it more enemies, "smarter" enemies, more waves of attacks, or something similar?

I apologize if this topic does not warrant a thread of its own.

KungDenzel

Sweden4 Posts

July 29 2010 22:55 GMT

Well, I played through it on hard, then I tried some missions on normal and it was a real snoozefest, it didnt spawn more than a few zerglings every other minute, real boring. It really spawns a hell of alot more stuff and ai is more aggressive, think in some cases the units are stronger too. Gonna try brutal soon, if the difference between hard and brutal is as huge as it is between normal and hard, its gonna be..well brutal xD

FeeL_ThE_RusH

Ireland227 Posts

July 29 2010 23:31 GMT

Dunno if they do it on other difficulties but on brutal the ai is pretty damn good at dodging psi storm on the protoss levels. Noticed that it micros weak mutas back and forth vs. marines too sometimes.

Karliath

United States2214 Posts

July 29 2010 23:33 GMT

On brutal, they seem to target my medics most of the time.

opiuman

United States187 Posts

July 29 2010 23:35 GMT

The most obvious changes are HP values of enemies. Casual is 50%, normal is 100% and it goes up from there. Also, the amount of enemies/buildings also changes.

Karliath

United States2214 Posts

July 29 2010 23:39 GMT

On July 30 2010 08:35 opiuman wrote:
The most obvious changes are HP values of enemies. Casual is 50%, normal is 100% and it goes up from there. Also, the amount of enemies/buildings also changes.

Wait, so the enemies on normal are the only ones with normal HP? Sigh, I don't mind them sending more waves of enemies at me, but I don't want enemies with more health on Brutal. Won't this mess up people's multiplayer senses?

eLiTe TaKeR

Portugal17 Posts

July 29 2010 23:40 GMT

Differences I noticed from Hard to Brutal:
- sometimes you are given less units at the start or the AI has more units per wave and more units defending if you have to storm the place than in easier difficulties;
- the AI is way more aggressive;
- prioritizes medics, cv's and also scv's instead of ignoring if they are repairing anything (which makes the mission where you have to steal the Odin a lot harder);
- you have higher requirements for missions (eg. In utter darkness the requirement increases by 500 for each difficulty I think).

There might be some more things but I didn't play many besides brutal to check for more stuff

vyyye

Sweden3917 Posts

July 29 2010 23:42 GMT

On July 30 2010 08:39 Karliath wrote:

Show nested quote +

I don't think the campaign cares about your multiplayer senses.

axion

Norway110 Posts

July 29 2010 23:43 GMT

On July 30 2010 08:39 Karliath wrote:

Show nested quote +

I think the multiplayer sense is already messed up by bunkers with turrets, vultures and automatic refineries

FeeL_ThE_RusH

Ireland227 Posts

July 29 2010 23:44 GMT

#10

On July 30 2010 08:39 Karliath wrote:
Wait, so the enemies on normal are the only ones with normal HP? Sigh, I don't mind them sending more waves of enemies at me, but I don't want enemies with more health on Brutal. Won't this mess up people's multiplayer senses?

Considering all the absolutely ridiculous stuff the Terran units get I think HP values of the enemies are the least of your worries. AOE Banshees & Vikings(with 11 range or something ridiculous??)... Not to mention the Science Vessel which is so broken.

Meta

United States6228 Posts

July 29 2010 23:45 GMT

#11

I'm almost done with the campaign on brutal and I'm really content with it's difficulty level. Some missions are quite hard, but not impossible, and therefore extremely rewarding.

Can't comment on specific differences, but I concur that the brutal AI target fires medics and scv's repairing, it even targetted my science vessels when they are repairing.

McPwnage

Canada48 Posts

July 30 2010 00:21 GMT

#12

I started out on normal and it was just boring, you are barely ever attacked and all you have to do is get a decent sized army up and you will be set. After a bunch of missions I switched to hard and the main difference I've seen is a the agressivness of the ai,and an increse in the number of ai units.

Beating missions on normal isn't rewarding at all where as beating them on hard is challenging but really rewarding

Karliath

United States2214 Posts

July 30 2010 00:24 GMT

#13

I'm probably going to go with hard then. Brutal is just...too brutal for me ><

I wish someone would upload Brutal replays (campaign replays do exist btw), but that's probably not gonna happen for a few months at the very least.

Excalibur_Z

United States12248 Posts

July 30 2010 00:38 GMT

#14

I've only played on Brutal but I noticed a few things:

- Enemies start with 1/1 (and sometimes 2/1) upgrades.
- Enemies target fire medics/SCVs as well as weak units.
- Enemies pull back weak units.
- Unit health is unchanged from default (in fact Casual probably drops health values by 50% or so, and every other difficulty is normal)

There are probably a lot more units to contend with, and you probably get fewer units to start with as well.

EvasivE

United States70 Posts

July 30 2010 00:54 GMT

#15

my friend is playing it on "normal"
im playing is on "hard"
my brother is playing it on "brutal"
my friend thinks the single player is lame, i think its alright, my brother loves it.
if its boring and easy change the difficulty lol

Karliath

United States2214 Posts

July 30 2010 05:26 GMT

#16

I've tried Smash and Grab on Brutal perhaps 10 times, never getting past the protoss "base." Now on hard, I finish the whole thing easily on my first try.

Meta

United States6228 Posts

July 30 2010 05:29 GMT

#17

On July 30 2010 09:54 EvasivE wrote:
my friend is playing it on "normal"
im playing is on "hard"
my brother is playing it on "brutal"
my friend thinks the single player is lame, i think its alright, my brother loves it.
if its boring and easy change the difficulty lol

I concur here. My friends played through on normal/hard and thought it was only alright. I think it's amazing on brutal. People just need to challenge themselves

Vokasak

United States388 Posts

July 30 2010 05:50 GMT

#18

On July 30 2010 08:39 Karliath wrote:

Show nested quote +

No. The only HP change is on Casual. All other difficulties have the normal HP amount.

One thing nobody mentioned yet is that the enemy has access to more tech on Brutal. I had to face a tank in the second mission on brutal where on hard there's only Hellions (Which actually was brutal, to try and storm that thing with nothing but marines and medics while hellions are roasting you. :[ ). On Brutal, you see Carriers that aren't there on hard on the second Zeratul mission.

Sometimes, the objectives change as well. For the mission where you have to escort the civilians, on Normal you can lose any number of convoys with no reprocussions. On higher levels, you lose the mission if too many die. The kill requirements are higher on In Utter Darkness. There's probably others, but that's all I've noticed.