Custom and Advanced Difficulty Settings

[Tarrak]

I added a link to this thread as well to the FAQ / Common Questions thread. The questions about the advanced difficulty settings are popping up a lot lately and this explanation is really good so it's good it as easy to find as it can get.

[yarco]

FYI

I've asked to Tarrak, one of our moderators in Slitherine forum, and he replied:

Question 1: Player and AI prestige - does this mean you and/or the AI get more prestige than normal when you take objectives?
The slider affect players or respective AI prestige. It affects both the prestige gained during the campaign as well as starting prestige at the begin of the campaign. It scales between 0% and 200% .. careful when moving player prestige to 0%, you will start with 0 prestige and you will not receive any.

Question 2: Player and AI experience - what does this do? How do you get more or less experience?
The slider affect players or respective AI experience. It affect both the experience gained during the campaign as well as starting experience at the begin of the campaign. It scales between 0% and 200% .. careful when moving prestige to 0%. You will not gain any experience at all.

Question 3: Number of turns (1-5) - what does this do?
The slider deducts or adds the set amount of turns to the turn limit of all scenarios in the campaign.

Question 4: Player and AI strength - what does this do?
The slider deducts or adds the set amount strength to all the units. It affects the base strength of the units before overstrength. For example if the slider is set to +5 the basic strength of standard units become 15. They can be still overstrengthen by 5 points up to 20. Conscripts would have a base strength of 20 as they already have a base strength of 15. Moving the AI strength slider to 5 basically is the Mannstein level of difficulty.

Question 5: AI level (0, 1 or 2) - what does this do?
The slider set the level of the AI. What exactly which settings do is impossible to say but one can safely assume the higher it is the better the AI will play tho in heavily scripted scenarios the freedom of actions for the AI is quite limited so one may not notice much difference at all. On the predefines settings the AI is set to 0 at Sergeant and Lieutenant, to 1 on Colonel and on all other difficulty levels to 2.

Question 6: Combat random (normal, limited, chess) - what does this do?
This governs the randomness of the rolls used by the game. Normal settings is like the game always used to be. Limited allows some randomness but limits it to be within 20% of the prediction. Chess turns any randomness off so that combat always ends as predicted.

Question 7: Reform units - what does this do exactly?
This works exactly like the reform units cheat introduced a while ago except it stays active through the whole campaign. All killed units move to reserve with zero strength and can be reformed before the next scenario.

He replied to the best of his knowledge, but he can't guarantee their are really 100% accurate. Especially in what concerns the amount of variation on the limited option may be different.

Now the reply from ThvN, anotehr moderator in Slitherine forum:


First of all, if you want to use these advanced settings, don't forget to tag the 'Custom Difficulty' box, otherwise the game will still use the preset difficulty.

Question 1: Player and AI prestige - does this mean you and/or the AI get more prestige than normal when you take objectives?
Yes, 0% means the player (or the AI) get only half of all prestige income, and 200% mean they get double the amount.

Question 2: Player and AI experience - what does this do? How do you get more or less experience?
If set to 200%, that side will earn double the experience from combat, set it to 0% and that side will receive no experience.

Question 3: Number of turns (1-5) - what does this do?
It lowers or increases the number of turns normally available for a scenario. Example: -5 = change scenario length from 20 to 15 turns, +3 = change scenario length from 20 to 23 turns.

Question 4: Player and AI strength - what does this do?
The default strength points of all units from that side get lowered or increased by the set amount.For example, Player strength = -5 means all player units that are normally 10 strength are now 5. AI strength = +3 means all AI units with 10 strength are now 13 strength.

Question 5: AI level (0, 1 or 2) - what does this do?
Set the difficulty level of the AI, i.e. how smart it is. This has less effect in heavily scripted scenarios, as the AI is often preprogrammed for certain behaviour, so the effect will depend a bit on the scenario. To give an idea, for the preset difficulty levels, 0 is used on Sergeant and Lieutenant levels, 1 is used on Colonel, and 2 for General and above.

Question 6: Combat random (normal, limited, chess) - what does this do?
Determines the deviation setting for the dice rolls that determine combat results.
Normal= standard Panzer Corps deviation (100%).
Chess= no deviation (0%), combat results are exactly as predicted.
Dice chess= deviation is decreased a lot, to about 20%, instead of the normal 100%. So combat results will vary max. 20% from predictions.

Question 7: Reform units - what does this do exactly?
If a core unit is destroyed during a campaign, after the scenario ends it can be 'reformed' in the next deployment fase by reinforcing it from 0 strength to 10 (you basically buy it back). This will reset its experience to 0, but the heroes that it has stay with it.

[Trifler]

Thanks yarco, but all of that was already integrated in as it was part of the reference material.

[Trifler]

I added a link to this thread as well to the FAQ / Common Questions thread. The questions about the advanced difficulty settings are popping up a lot lately and this explanation is really good so it's good it as easy to find as it can get.

Thanks Tarrak!

[a_b_danner]

AI Level 2...For what it's worth, I started a '40 campaign with AI Level 1, and it was a piece of cake. I'm seven battles in or so.

I started a '42 campaign as the US, with AI Level 2. It was a totally different game. I struggled against the French in TORCH (I was expecting a cake walk, and wasn't being all that serious). Then played Kasserine, and lost 80% of my core. It was impossible, the germans taking little damage while I was taking massive damage. It also seemed the AI was MUCH more aggressive and smarter in general.

I started the third scenario, Tunisia, but it was like a high school team up against professionals. I can't swear it was the AI setting, but as I said, the British campaign isn't that tough.

It kind of makes me want to replay a German campaign with these settings, but maybe customized a bit more. Smart aggressive AI is great, as long as it doesn't get unreasonable dice roll advantages.

[krugec]

Class specific xp is a big change.

AT gets 2 hard attack per 100 xp (+10 hard attack for 5 star units)
Fighters get +2 AirAttack per 100xp bf109k 500xp 16+10=26 air attack)
AA guns get +2 AA per 100xp

A major buff to attacks, combined with high rate of fire and alot of xp, the smaller flak guns become much more useful.Same could be said for the cheaper AT guns/spg.

Of course your enemy also has higher values, but in general they dont have an army of 5star 500xp units

[Trifler]

Class specific xp is a big change.

AT gets 2 hard attack per 100 xp (+10 hard attack for 5 star units)
Fighters get +2 AirAttack per 100xp bf109k 500xp 16+10=26 air attack)
AA guns get +2 AA per 100xp

A major buff to attacks, combined with high rate of fire and alot of xp, the smaller flak guns become much more useful.Same could be said for the cheaper AT guns/spg.

Of course your enemy also has higher values, but in general they dont have an army of 5star 500xp units

Thanks I hadn't seen that one.

VPaulus and Tarrak, I waited to be sure before posting again, but I'm still not getting e-mail notifications. It appears that any time someone posts a new message, it removes my subscription to the thread. I've been checking every single time to make sure I'm subscribed before I leave and when I check again later with no new posts, it still says I'm subscribed. However every time I find a new post, it says I'm not subscribed again.

[Tarrak]

I have a look at the subscriptions to the thread. I must admit i never used it before. Will report back after i tested it.

[Tarrak]

Could anyone post anything here. I subscribed to the thread and i was waiting patiently to see if the notification works but it seems the activity here kind of died.

[fliegenderstaub]

Could anyone post anything here. I subscribed to the thread and i was waiting patiently to see if the notification works but it seems the activity here kind of died.

"Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur."

Sorry, the temperatures in good old Germany...

[Tarrak]

Thank you fliegenderstaub. The notification is working fine for me. I received the email the same minute you posted. So if it's now working for you Trifler it must be something related specially to your account or some error on the user end.

And hell yes the temperatures are not funny. Last weekend it felt like late autumn with rain and around 15 degree and now it instantly went to bloody 35 degree. WTB an office with air conditioning.

[Trifler]

Thank you fliegenderstaub. The notification is working fine for me. I received the email the same minute you posted. So if it's now working for you Trifler it must be something related specially to your account or some error on the user end.

And hell yes the temperatures are not funny. Last weekend it felt like late autumn with rain and around 15 degree and now it instantly went to bloody 35 degree. WTB an office with air conditioning.

Yeah I see it shows me an not subscribed again. I have no idea why it keeps unsubscribing me.

The temperatures here have gone crazy too.

[fliegenderstaub]

Thank you fliegenderstaub. The notification is working fine for me. I received the email the same minute you posted. So if it's now working for you Trifler it must be something related specially to your account or some error on the user end.

And hell yes the temperatures are not funny. Last weekend it felt like late autumn with rain and around 15 degree and now it instantly went to bloody 35 degree. WTB an office with air conditioning.

Yeah I see it shows me an not subscribed again. I have no idea why it keeps unsubscribing me.

The temperatures here have gone crazy too.

USA southwest?

Referring to the subscription: In my experience I stay subscribed, if I click on the first link of the notification email, which leads me to the login page and redirects me afterwards to the latest post of the topic. Any other way unsubscribes me, too. Try this and maybe it might help you...

[Trifler]

USA southwest?

Referring to the subscription: In my experience I stay subscribed, if I click on the first link of the notification email, which leads me to the login page and redirects me afterwards to the latest post of the topic. Any other way unsubscribes me, too. Try this and maybe it might help you...

USA Northwest. Not as bad as the southwest, but still much hotter than I've ever seen it.

Problem is, I have yet to receive any notification e-mails of any kind.

[Delta66]

Thanks Trifler, for collecting those infos in one place.

[2010sjones2010]

When the original Slitherine Vanilla Panzer Corps Campaign out, what about three years ago now? I played it once through then heard about the unlockable difficulty levels if I managed a DV on each scenario. I reached Kursk scenario doing all DV's then the DLC's came out, then AK, then AC so I have still yet to complete the original Panzercorps with all DV's. So my question is - with all the updates and patches I have downloaded over the last couple of years will the original file I still have saved, be worth finishing ie Kursk to USA West Coast with DV's to unlock the difficulty settings or do I have to start again from the first Poland scenario??

[fliegenderstaub]

When the original Slitherine Vanilla Panzer Corps Campaign out, what about three years ago now? I played it once through then heard about the unlockable difficulty levels if I managed a DV on each scenario. I reached Kursk scenario doing all DV's then the DLC's came out, then AK, then AC so I have still yet to complete the original Panzercorps with all DV's. So my question is - with all the updates and patches I have downloaded over the last couple of years will the original file I still have saved, be worth finishing ie Kursk to USA West Coast with DV's to unlock the difficulty settings or do I have to start again from the first Poland scenario??

Well, you don't have to complete the vanilla campaign with DVs. Editing the registry is the other way to unlock the bonus difficulties.

Have a look here: viewtopic.php?f=121&t=36715 , especially the reply of boredatwork.

[2010sjones2010]

I appreciate your reply but I would like to play the scenarios to unlock the higher difficulty levels so should I start again or will it still work using the old file I saved when I reached Kursk?

[Tarrak]

I appreciate your reply but I would like to play the scenarios to unlock the higher difficulty levels so should I start again or will it still work using the old file I saved when I reached Kursk?

You don't even need DV on every mission to unlock the difficulty settings: All you need is a DV in the last USA mission. So if you manage to get there with some MVs it's still ok. I am quite sure it should be fine to use your save game to carry on.

[2010sjones2010]

Didnt know that!! Thanks for the info. That will make life a lot easier. Many thanks