Difficulty vs. freedom of gameplay

[ThalesA7X]

I like that idea

[Jonas]

With ghosting, are you allowed to use gas grenades?

I'm not sure, but I think not.

(eg, he is standing infront of the one and only door, but if you drop a box on a vase( or smash it in any other way) it then breaks and water seeps onto a exposed wire, which shorts out the power for a few seconds, spooking the guard, who then does a quick patrol, enough to sneak through)

Complicated as that sounds, we could actually do that. But we'd rather not. It would take ages. We do have at least one situation like that, but let's try to avoid spoilers.

[NVShacker]

Well, if ghosting is a goal it would be nice if that was always possibly.

Regardless, Alginon's goal was not to avoid being spotted (though that certainly helps!) but simply to get through the game with no items. If there's a crate to be tossed over a head, he can do it! Once I finish my CRATEBASHER (tm) for him he may become rather conflicted about his no-items approach though...

[Jonas]

Ghosting the game will never be a primary goal.

[NVShacker]

Let me rephrase that:
If ghosting is a rewarded behavior, it would be nice if it was possible to do on all difficulties.

[Jonas]

Ah, yeah alright. Another question then: Do you reckon it's alright if the Cloak aug is required to ghost the game on the highest difficulty level?

[EER]

I say: yes. The higher difficulty forces you into using game items more wisely than easier difficulties, which I think would be a good gameplay point.

[that guy]

provided you can get the cloak then yes that's ok.

[NVShacker]

Yes I see the nececessity of cloak as being perfectly legitimate from the design standpoint. It is, after all, a rather useful augmentation designed with stealth in mind. Plus it'd have people trying from time-to-time to ghost the game without the cloak aug, which you wouldn't have to worry about from a design standpoint since that's just people being creative with open-endedness. So yes, I'd say the use of cloak being nececessary to ghost higher difficulties as a viable design decision.

Sorry I tend to be inconcise and ramble a lot by the way, it's me in "frazzled school paper mass production" mode coupled with "writes with c-style syntax better than the far more redundant syntax of english" mode. Also known as "crazed coder" mode.

[MythicMayhem]

Three words...
Shifter Mod Realistic...
One thing you should never do to a difficulty is what shifter did to Deus ex's realistic difficulty Take one small step an everyone knows who you are... death...
as long as it is better than shifter's mod difficulty wise i think we will all be happy...

[DDL]

Nothing like resurrecting a thread almost 2 years after the last post, eh?

[Jonas]

Meh. TNM is all about the geological time scales

[fox]

I voted for "As long as I can ghost it on normal, I'm happy" because usually I always play games my way without modifications for extra challenges. I play stealthy because usually it's my most successfull strategy to reach the endgame and not because it's a challenge. Knowing that it would be possible to get through the game without being spotted motivates to think about your actions more carefully though. Balancing that on hard would be too hard I guess.

[Jonas]

I think we may have managed it. Guess you'll have to try it out and see

[SlySpy]

I don't care about difficulties. I'll find a way to ghost it. Besides, it's jst an option. If it's too hard to ghost on hard, don't play on hard, or don't ghst on hard. It's as simple as that. Well, maybe not THAT simple since people are usually tempted to go for it anyway. But I think you should keep the difficulty. Just don't make it too ridiculous and unrealistic.