After scouring the internet, I haven't been able to find any documentation on what the difficulty settings actually change.
I am wondering what actually happens when you change the difficulty. Does the AI get smarter? Have guard/barrier/more abilities? Or is the only change in that of enemy health etc.
If someone could shed some light on the mechanics of the difficulty setting I would be very greatful.
When an enemy attacks a party member, the enemy armor penetration factor in combat damage is increased, as follows:
armor_multiplier: Used to normalize the armor values of party members to variations in enemy damage output across different difficulties. The possible values are:
- Casual: 65%
- Normal: 100%
- Hard: 140%
- Nightmare: 200%
Damage versus party members is increased directly, as well:
- difficulty_bonus: Bonus applied based on difficulty level. The possible values are:
- Casual: -35%
- Normal: 0%
- Hard: 40%
- Nightmare: 100%
Maximum health of enemies is also increased, but I don't have values for that.
Finally, some abilities, like guard generation and barrier generation are enabled in Nightmare. Not sure if they are enabled at lower difficulties.
All thanks to Papa Charlie, because nothing on the wikia:
You also get a couple of nifty achievements for beating the game at harder difficulties.
Thanks to you and Papa Charlie. I'm surprised that there's so little on this, considering the wiki entries on difficulty for DAO and DA2 are pretty clear.
The guide that all came from:
https://forum.biowar...mbat-mechanics/
I answered you on Reddit too, but I forgot about the armor adjustment. I still think there is a health adjustment too, but I'm going to have to prove that to myself with some tests.
Where in the mechanics thread is it listed about difficulties? I just saw a little bit about Guard.
NM, see a bit in the damage formula.
Where in the mechanics thread is it listed about difficulties? I just saw a little bit about Guard.
Open the "Damage Calculation" spoiler.
Difficulty Max Health Armor % relative to Normal ---------- ---------- ----- -------------------- Casual 199816 59 96% Normal 207873 59 100% Hard 217081 59 105% Nightmare 226288 59 109% Nightmare/Even Ground 311541 72 150% (but note that XP level increased to 23)I used my Archer Artificer at XP level 23 for this experiment, so Even Ground brought Hivernal up to that level. The Percentages look to be roughly +/-5% per difficulty level, except for Even Ground.
I did some testing in the Emerald Graves, and health seems to vary for different types of enemies. I've included my figures in this document, but the short of it is that "easy" mobs have a ~80% increase, "medium" mobs have a 40-50% increases, and the one elite I tested, the giant, had a 20% health increase.
While it's not in the table, armor seems to stay consistent, in line with your dragon test.
I believe Nightmare also gives you higher-level and more enemies, meaning you gain experience faster. I also wonder if Nightmare gives you more promoted enemies which would result in more cool trial rewards.
I did some testing in the Emerald Graves, and health seems to vary for different types of enemies. I've included my figures in this document, but the short of it is that "easy" mobs have a ~80% increase, "medium" mobs have a 40-50% increases, and the one elite I tested, the giant, had a 20% health increase.
While it's not in the table, armor seems to stay consistent, in line with your dragon test.
Effectively, yes, since without Trials you get more enemies in a mob in any case. Promotion is rolled per enemy, so the more enemies you start with, the more likely you'll have more promotions.I believe Nightmare also gives you higher-level and more enemies, meaning you gain experience faster. I also wonder if Nightmare gives you more promoted enemies which would result in more cool trial rewards.
Believe me, I was surprised as surprised as you are. This is all without trials of any sort. I also made a point when collecting the data to check multiples of the same mob, and there doesn't seem to be any health variation for a given mob at a given level.
What I meant by elite was the in game classification of normal, elite, and boss. It seems to me that the range health gain is partially dependent on the specific class of mob that is being affected. Additionally, some of the mobs have the same health scaling.
I added a bunch more entries, did some more formatting, and the patterns are a lot easier to see now.
Believe me, I was surprised as surprised as you are. This is all without trials of any sort. I also made a point when collecting the data to check multiples of the same mob, and there doesn't seem to be any health variation for a given mob at a given level.
What I meant by elite was the in game classification of normal, elite, and boss. It seems to me that the range health gain is partially dependent on the specific class of mob that is being affected. Additionally, some of the mobs have the same health scaling.
I added a bunch more entries, did some more formatting, and the patterns are a lot easier to see now.
Name Level Casual Normal Hard Nightmare NM/NO HD/NO Giant 19 42435 46504 51154 55805 20% 10% Quillback 11 6218 7182 8140 9097 27% 13% Wyvern 19 15404 17439 19764 22089 27% 13% Gurngut (JoH) 21 18190 20592 23338 26083 27% 13% Bronto 19 9591 11626 13951 16276 40% 20% Gurn 19 9591 11626 13951 16276 40% 20% Pride Demon 19 9591 11626 13951 16276 40% 20% Bogfisher (JoH) 21 11326 13728 16474 19219 40% 20% Pride Demon 16 7072 8572 10286 12001 40% 20% Venatori Brute 19 8138 10173 12498 14823 46% 23% Fear Demon 21 9610 12012 14758 17503 46% 23% Greater Terror 19 6685 8720 11045 13370 53% 27% Lessor Terror 19 6685 8720 11045 13370 53% 27% Rage Demon 19 6685 8720 11045 13370 53% 27% Red Templar Behemoth 19 6685 8720 11045 13370 53% 27% Rage Demon 15 4455 5811 7361 8910 53% 27% Red Templar Knight 19 5232 7266 9591 11917 64% 32% Venatori Gladiator (w/Shield) 19 5232 7266 9591 11917 64% 32% Red Templar Shadow 19 4941 6976 9301 11626 67% 33% Greater Shade 21 5148 7550 10296 13042 73% 36% Tusket (JoH) 21 4805 7207 9953 12698 76% 38% August Ram 15 630 969 1356 1743 80% 40% Nug 15 126 194 271 349 80% 40% Tusket 15 126 194 271 349 80% 40% Wraith 19 1322 2035 2848 3662 80% 40% White Claw Raider 11 1167 1796 2514 3232 80% 40% Freemen Sniper 15 1889 2906 4068 5230 80% 40% White Claw Raider Escort 11 1556 2394 3352 4309 80% 40% Despair Demon 19 3778 5813 8138 10463 80% 40% Poison Spider 19 3778 5813 8138 10463 80% 40% Red Templar 19 3778 5813 8138 10463 80% 40% Lurker 19 3778 5813 8138 10463 80% 40% Freemen Infliltrator 15 2518 3874 5424 6973 80% 40% Despair Demon 15 2518 3874 5424 6973 80% 40% Despair Demon 21 4462 6864 9610 12355 80% 40% Poison Spider (JoH) 21 4462 6864 9610 12355 80% 40% Fennec 1 55 85 119 153 80% 40% Red Templar Marksman 19 2834 4360 6104 7848 80% 40% Venatori Marksman 19 2834 4360 6104 7848 80% 40% Wraith 15 881 1356 1898 2441 80% 40% Wraith 21 1562 2402 3363 4324 80% 40% August Ram 19 945 1453 2035 2616 80% 40%
When Jaws of Hakkon came out, I recall people mentioning that Guard Breaker and Barrier Breaker didn't appear on lower difficulties (I know they show up on Nightmare, don't know about Hard). So enemies also get better at destroying guard/barrier. If anyone has a lower-difficulty save of JoH, most of the Hakkonite groups had at least one person with a breaker ability, so it should be easy to check. If present, Guard Breaker or Barrier Breaker will appear in their tac-cam tooltip.Finally, some abilities, like guard generation and barrier generation are enabled in Nightmare. Not sure if they are enabled at lower difficulties.
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