Higher Levels of Difficulty

[BigGoose2006]

I finished Half-Life 2 a couple of days ago and enjoyed the game immensely. I had very few problems with the game, the graphics were great, the gameplay even better than the original, I loved the guns, the enemies, the levels.... in short the game was near perfect. However I did find the game too easy. I beat it on hard in about 20 hours, and while I admit that I am an experienced gamer and probably a good bit better than average, I still believe the game is too easy, even on the highest difficulty settings.

I want to know if it would be possible to set the difficulty higher by using the console? Possibly increasing damage taken, or setting higher enemy accuracy by changing a variable or two.

Also, if someone could tell me how to execute several commands in the console upon entering the game, so that I don't need to type them in every time I get into the game. Thanks.

 

[nick_t]

I beat it on hard in about 20 hours, and while I admit that I am an experienced gamer and probably a good bit better than average, I still believe the game is too easy, even on the highest difficulty settings.

it took me 15 hours to beat it on Normal so 20 hours on hard seems normal. i doubt there are any commands to make it harder. try to beat the game with the gravity gun alone and voila! - you have a higher difficulty level.

 

[CaptainEO]

I think it should be possible to beat at least Ravenholm with just the grav gun (I suspect Valve might have designed it that way).

 

[BigGoose2006]

it took me 15 hours to beat it on Normal so 20 hours on hard seems normal. i doubt there are any commands to make it harder. try to beat the game with the gravity gun alone and voila! - you have a higher difficulty level.

20 hrs playing meticulously, searching for hidden areas, soaking in the awesome atmosphere created by VALVe, you get my meaning? I don't really mean to brag, but compared to other fps I had very little difficulty. I never got "stuck" at hard parts, I died a small number of times, around 30 or 40. Me and my brother play through fps keeping track of deaths as our own little competition, and 30 or 40 deaths is VERY few for a fps on high difficulty settings.

 

[Lobster]

There is a skill.cfg file that has the health and damage ratings for all enemies friendlies weapons and the player, u can make a copy of it in the hl2 folder, and adjust them as you like.

Id say you could get a long way with the grav gun alone, but the gunships and striders could cause a problem.

 

[ryudom]

you should be able to shoot the rpg ammo and make it expode on impact with g gun heh

 

[Garric]

Skill.cfg my ass. Theres no such thing.

 

[BigGoose2006]

There is a skill.cfg file that has the health and damage ratings for all enemies friendlies weapons and the player, u can make a copy of it in the hl2 folder, and adjust them as you like.

Where is the skill.cfg file? Is it in the SteamApps/username/hl2 folder?

 

[Top Secret]

20 hrs playing meticulously, searching for hidden areas, soaking in the awesome atmosphere created by VALVe, you get my meaning? I don't really mean to brag, but compared to other fps I had very little difficulty. I never got "stuck" at hard parts, I died a small number of times, around 30 or 40. Me and my brother play through fps keeping track of deaths as our own little competition, and 30 or 40 deaths is VERY few for a fps on high difficulty settings.

30 or 40?! Dude. I just got out of Nova Prospekt on Hard and I've died one time. 30 or 40?

 

[BigGoose2006]

30 or 40?! Dude. I just got out of Nova Prospekt on Hard and I've died one time. 30 or 40?

That is damn good. I died several times at both places where you need to protect a room... also that was my first time through, I am now replaying the game on hard, and I have only died once and am at the end of Ravenholm.

 

[Lanthanide]

you should be able to shoot the rpg ammo and make it expode on impact with g gun heh

Tried it, doesn't work unfortunately :/

Dunno if scanners would be usable as ammo (against striders) - they explode when destroyed, not sure if they hurt others or not though.


Using only the gravity gun would be very difficult in much of Highway 17 - no way to kill the antlions once you're out of the buggy (and can you use the gauss gun or not?).

 

[Sparta]

There is a skill.cfg file that has the health and damage ratings for all enemies friendlies weapons and the player, u can make a copy of it in the hl2 folder, and adjust them as you like.

Id say you could get a long way with the grav gun alone, but the gunships and striders could cause a problem.

Where the heck is it? I emailed Yahn and he told me about it but i can't find it anywhere. Is it only in the retail version?

 

[egon]

most fps single player games are easy for ppl who've played too much deathmatch. the first time I played hl, I found it really hard on easy, when I finally played it in hard, it was easy, if you kno what i mean.

 

[BigGoose2006]

most fps single player games are easy for ppl who've played too much deathmatch. the first time I played hl, I found it really hard on easy, when I finally played it in hard, it was easy, if you kno what i mean.

Yah, I have played many hours in deathmatches with my brother ( the one I told you about), so perhaps that is why the game is incredibly easy, however, they should make the game HARD on hard, even for very good players such as myself and other HL2netrs, I dunno, HL2 was just.... too easy.

 

[ChronosWing]

Where the heck is it? I emailed Yahn and he told me about it but i can't find it anywhere. Is it only in the retail version?

The skill.cfg is in one of the gcf files, you gcfscape to extract it and just put it in your cfg folder. And the retail version and steam version are the exact same, retail version is the preload files on a cd.

 

[GetCool]

My trick for making these games harder is to limit my saving. As in, no quicksaving. HL2 has an autosave feature that saves fairly frequently, so if you wanted to, you could turn that off and play with no saving altogether. I think that without saving, the game feels more "cinematic," since you can't redo portions at will, and it becomes a real fight for your survival (no more walzing into rooms just to see where the hidden enemies are, then reloading your save and running in with your gun pointed in the right direction).

It would be an interesting experiment to try to get through the game without any mid-chapter saving. If you die, restart the chapter.

 

[axeil]

So how would you guys recommend making it harder? And how would the game know not to use the standard "easy", "medium", and "hard" difficulties?

 

[egon]

thats happened to me with every fps. except stuff like thief. eg. nolf was damn easy if you just blast thru (highest difficulty). but was more fun to paly with stealth. nolf2 also = easy on superspy.

 

[aerasal]

imo, taking more damage to make the game harder would not be funner in any way. i'd love to see the game get harder with superior AI.

 

[Garric]

where are thhe GFC files? I searched my pc but I can find none.

 

[l337vegeta]

where are thhe GFC files? I searched my pc but I can find none.

search for GCF, not GFC
they are in the steamapps folder

 

[jellydoughnut217]

think about what valve was trying to do they were trying to make the player feel like they were gordon freeman how realalistic would it have been to have you dieing every 10 minutes

 

[flamz]

I agree with BigGoose, ...loved it, but it seemed like ammo and health was just too obvious and easy to find.

I say remove the quick save option. Too easy to restart after a save when you get some health + ammo.

 

[Ownzed]

Yeah right!...The game is very challenging..expecially on hard! Most challenging fps i've ever played.

 

[Apos]

I agree: we need some enemy AI tweaks and additional enemy placements: maybe even some additional enemy behaviors. With steam, it should be a breeze for valve to add something like this down the road: redo the SP for a sort of legendary mode. We should talk to Valve about this: official changes are always ten times better than user mods.

 

[l337vegeta]

i think removing the quicksave would work fine. it could still autosave checkpoints and you wouldn't have to start all the way over if you died. but you wouldn't have the luxury of saving whenever you full health and armor.

 

[Acert93]

I think the AI is fine. The problem is Gordon can out gun a crowd of combine. Make the combines guns shoot just as well as him and give them better aim... that would make a HUGE difference.

The AI gives my brother and cousin fits... good players will always find AI weak because even good players in MP are no match. I was watching the combine in slow motion today and they are not dumb--the take cover when reloading and flank, etc... they are just under powered. When you can step into an area with 10 Combine and not get shot, the issue is not the AI but their AIM (something very fixable). But the game is not about 1-on-1 melees, but about Gordon taking on great odds I prefer the over the top, Gordon takes on an army approach!

The only solution is an "Extra Hard" level where the enemies shoot just as well as top players and do the same damage (kind of like the snipers with blue laser finders in HL2)... but who wants to be headshot by Combine a good long distance away? If you had 5 combine with an elevated and protected position with good aim and equally powerful gun you would get squashed with the current AI!

Think of it this way: In real life, if you had 4 good players going 1 on three. If all four stepped into the room at the same time, the 1 player may get one guy but the other two will kill him.

That is why the AIM/GUN POWER for Combine are toned down... so even good AI feels week. FarCry tended to have accurate AI who could see you miles away in brush... I did not consider that great. But maybe an EXTRA HARD mode where the Combine are more accurate and have a decent bump in power would be fun.

 

[BigGoose2006]

I think the AI is fine. The problem is Gordon can out gun a crowd of combine. Make the combines guns shoot just as well as him and give them better aim... that would make a HUGE difference.

I agree completely. I think that the AI is top notch in HL2, but nothing compares to a real person, and many of us play lots of competitive online FPS, so... what to do? Increasing enemy accuracy is good, but what I think would really make the game more difficult is removing a large portion of the games ammunitons and health supplys. I rarely went long without being full of ammunition in most of my guns, and the health and jolly-juice (an old nick-name for suit-energy) wall chargers gave too much of a boost; 75!? However, being practical I realize that this would be a lot of work to do, so the next best thing would be not to decrease the number of health packs, but to decrease the amount of health they give you. There must be a variable somewhere that will change this.

Also, as a side note, if you look into the console, a large number of the variables have to do with ai_. maybe one of them could increase the accuracy? I don't know, as I am not all that good with that sort of thing.

 

[BigGoose2006]

How exactly do you get to that skill.cfg, you said that it is in one of the GCF files, but I don't know how to extract it.

 

[Gordons_nan]

Increasing enemy accuracy is good, but what I think would really make the game more difficult is removing a large portion of the games ammunitons and health supplys. I rarely went long without being full of ammunition in most of my guns, and the health and jolly-juice (an old nick-name for suit-energy) wall chargers gave too much of a boost; 75!? However, being practical I realize that this would be a lot of work to do, so the next best thing would be not to decrease the number of health packs, but to decrease the amount of health they give you. There must be a variable somewhere that will change this.

I agree with this idea.

I'm also finding the game too easy on hard and the main problem isn't the accuracy of the combine or the damage you take, it's the amount of health packs strewn around the place. They're far too easy to find and like others, I rarely found myself short on health.

I also think that taking away quick saves would be a good idea and add much more tension to the game as it's very hard to discipline yourself in not saving after a big fire fight, once you're all nicely topped up on health again.

Unfortunately I think Nova Prospekt was a bit of a waste of a level when it came to difficulty. Visually and sonically it was an awesome level, but your head crab buddies just made it too easy to sit back and let them do all the work. Plus they get in the way too and actually become quite annoying on that level, anyone else think this? Shame really as I would have much rather gone it alone on that level.

 

[we11er]

There are various console variables for enemy health, I tihnk somebody made a thread with a large list of them.

So you could modify these in your autoexec.cfg file.

 

[Sparta]

I agree: we need some enemy AI tweaks and additional enemy placements: maybe even some additional enemy behaviors. With steam, it should be a breeze for valve to add something like this down the road: redo the SP for a sort of legendary mode. We should talk to Valve about this: official changes are always ten times better than user mods.

Thats pretty much EXACTLY what i want to do.

 

[-h2o-]

yes same, couldent agree more

 

[silvercue]

Agree - game is too easy.

I play a lot of FPSs. I usually play on default or one up from default difficulties. As I have waited for Doom3 and HL2 for so long I played them both on the hardest to "savour" the experience, rather than a sprint to the finish.

Half-Life2 is way too easy. In fact it is easier on the hardest setting than most FPSs are on the default settings. I see why they have made the game easy, but I really wish completing the game unlocked a "REALLY HARD" level, as the hard setting is not even a challenge.
The only part I had trouble with was when you had to arrange the first set of tripod guns, and as soon as I worked out what to do - that was not that hard either.

I agree - the big problem is the massive amount of health around, even without looking for hidden bits.

Also - can we turn off the Ant-Lions and Team mates helping you. You basically don't have to do ANYTHING AT ALL in those levels. The team mates even have an infinate amount of health for you. I tried and tried to command them to stay, but when the game auto-loads next bit they follow again!!!

We need a "REALISM" mod. A mod where you play the game with no health pick-ups other than the wall mounted ones would be cool.

 

[Tantalus]

Yeah right!...The game is very challenging..expecially on hard! Most challenging fps i've ever played.

you must not have played many fps... i never had any trouble in the game

one fun way to make the game more difficult is to increase the speed. this will increase the enemies reaction time, and give you less time to react.

 

[BigGoose2006]

Also - can we turn off the Ant-Lions and Team mates helping you. You basically don't have to do ANYTHING AT ALL in those levels. The team mates even have an infinate amount of health for you. I tried and tried to command them to stay, but when the game auto-loads next bit they follow again!!!

I don't think completly turning of cooperative AI is a good idea; while I did think HL2 was way too easy, I like nearly every other apsect of it, including how it incorporated cooperative play in the game. But what we could do is decrease the health and damage of friendly antlions so they are less effective, and do the same for friendly human AI as well.

We need a "REALISM" mod. A mod where you play the game with no health pick-ups other than the wall mounted ones would be cool.

Completly removing all health paks would make the game really hard, not only that how would we do it? You would have to go back in all of the maps and manually remove every health pak, and every crate that contained one... too much work for me. I think decreasing the health given by each pak would be easier/better, as it would keep a relative balance for health placement in the game, and all we would need to do is find the variable that dictates how much health is given and change it to 10 instead of the current 20.

 

[Tyguy]

try not getting hit....thats pretty hard

 

[BigGoose2006]

try not getting hit....thats pretty hard

Yah, I would think so... but I find setting rules for myself such as only using pistols or only doing that or this is difficult to follow up on. The only such rule that I can consistently keep up is no quicksave, but even so the game is too easy. I would rather set the game up to be really difficult, even when I am using Gordon's full arsenal, and am playing well.... Get what I mean? Maybe not... I dunno, I guess I would just rather have the game be near impossible on hard, so that I have a goal to reach toward and so that when I do beat it on that "near impossible" difficulty I can feel good about doing it, rather than simply telling myself that if I was really good I could avoid getting hit or some other arbitrary thing like that.

 

[TheCanOpener]

Personaly i think that they should have had more setting to reach a wider audience, it would have solved these issues if there were 5 settings not just 3.

 

[The Monkey]

I haven't died many times. I quickload as soon as I get too much damage.