Difficulty Level Naming

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Floydman wrote:

I haven't read through all the postings here yet, but are you really considering that the least-challenging difficulty be "Hard." ?

That may prove a bit confusing to new players to the genre.

If I remember right, it was more of a joke because part of the design of the game is it's hard in the first place, and only gets harder.

http://thesaurus.com/browse/Hard
http://thesaurus.com/browse/Cruel
http://thesaurus.com/browse/Ruthless
http://thesaurus.com/browse/Evil

Hard is a synonym of unyielding. I believe the difficulties represent a state of mind and not an actual measurement of difficulty. I like the idea of having Exiled as the fourth difficulty. I just believe that evil fits the direction they were trying to go with their difficulty naming. I just wanted to expand on my thinking and see what other people thought.

outcast -> forsaken -> banished -> exiled

Definitely the best combo I've seen so far.
All 4 difficulties represents social standing in some way.

Outcast
- people dont like you and your purposefully left out.
Forsaken
- People dont care that your laying there dying in the streets. Infact theyre glad hurt.
Banished
- Removed from the general populace and asked to not return.
Exiled
- Forcably removed from the general populace and taken to a remote, unescapable area, forgotten about and assumed dead.

I really like "Brutal" as the last level. Or Path of Exile too, as it refers to the name, it works well :)

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p0rt wrote:

outcast -> forsaken -> banished -> exiled

Definitely the best combo I've seen so far.
All 4 difficulties represents social standing in some way.

Outcast
- people dont like you and your purposefully left out.
Forsaken
- People dont care that your laying there dying in the streets. Infact theyre glad hurt.
Banished
- Removed from the general populace and asked to not return.
Exiled
- Forcably removed from the general populace and taken to a remote, unescapable area, forgotten about and assumed dead.

I agree.

And it even fits the name of the game ;)

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p0rt wrote:

outcast -> forsaken -> banished -> exiled

Definitely the best combo I've seen so far.
All 4 difficulties represents social standing in some way.

Outcast
- people dont like you and your purposefully left out.
Forsaken
- People dont care that your laying there dying in the streets. Infact theyre glad hurt.
Banished
- Removed from the general populace and asked to not return.
Exiled
- Forcably removed from the general populace and taken to a remote, unescapable area, forgotten about and assumed dead.

Yarp, these are definitely the best. They work perfectly around the theme of being exiled, and fighting for survival.

There's only so many ways you can communicate the rank of difficulty in words, and they start to be a bit cheesy, and don't roll off the tong as well. I like it that there is a rank of social standing in these words, though it may take a bit to remember which order they come in...Exiled being easy because it's the the pinnacle/hardest difficulty!

I agree Exiled should be the name of the highest difficulty. We know there will be four difficulties. What happens if they decide to make a special fifth difficulty?
Exiled + ? Exiled Hardcore? Eternal Exile?
Thoughts?

I was watching the game development video.

I thought of a difficulty name called "survival".

“They are trying to save themselves and to gain tools that allow them to survive against the wilderness.” Chris

Shortly after, it shows in big letters survive on the screen. That is where i got this idea. The only problem is that it doesn't fit with the current theme.

I think it should be the name of the Hardcore mode. The reason I think this is because that is what you would be doing because once your dead that's it.

Excruciating
Destructive
Merciless

or maybe making an easier level which could either have a regular name like "normal" or "moderate" or have an awesome name which sort of insults the player like "cowardly" or "worthless".

Hope the suggestions help.

I'm a bit late to this discussion and like the general direction of suggestions (outcast..>>exiled) - and like the idea of Shark's recent comment about a 'weakling'-type label for the easy class (as long as sensitive noobs can handle it I think this could be motivating... though maybe for a trainee period or something so not part of the main level progression).

HOWEVER...
I feel like difficulty levels in MOST games are the same in that they describe changes in the world around the player. But if you look at what's going on with level changes logically it is more the case of the player and their skill/strength/status that are changing... and this enables them to venture into new worlds that are more hard core.
So what about using descriptions of the player and their progression (as others have suggested as a tie in to story elements).

Plus - I think, with the idea of using alternative difficulty level labels, you also have the opportunity to include another little clue such as making the names of levels use the same initials as the game itself (P.O.E.) with a fourth label that entices players with the subtle suggestion of a sequel/expansion to come.

E.G. Labeling the character themselves:
Pariah >> Outcast >> Exile >> *Deity*
Pagan >> Outsider >> Exile >> *Damned*

Or the player's predicament:
Pain >> Ordeal >> Exile >> *Despair*

If that panned out then ideally the final initial could hint at the direction of a future sequel (or the initial of a future expansion world, or the initial of the replacement for "exile" in a sequel or whatever)... I don't know why my suggestions all use the letter "D" for the final stage - it just worked out that way... but you get the idea.