MMH5.5: Difficulty settings tutorial - Might & Magic: Heroes 5.5 mod for Heroes of Might & Magic V

There are numerous places to shape the challenge a game can offer - adventure map, player starting resources, AI thought and behaviour.

When creating ARMG map...
There are 2 options that adjust map difficulty during random map generation:

• Monster Strength - Defines the map neutral creatures size on day 1 of the game. There are 5 settings:
  • Weak - easy
  • Medium - average difficulty, default value for any casual player.
  • Strong - Challenging stack sizes. Default in competitive games
  • Very Strong - Very Challenging stack sizes. Require careful planning.
  • Impossible - Mines are guarded by tier 3 or higher creatures, fights are unfair, maps with this setting are considered for the hardcore player base only.

Creature strength menu in Map_Editor_64.exe

Creature strength menu in Utility_64.exe

• Resources - defines the amount of scattered resources for the heroes to pick. There are 5 values (Miserable, Little, Normal, Lots, Much) the higher the setting the more piles will be found. Casual player value: Normal or above.
  
  

When creating game...
The player has the following tools to configure difficulty:

• Difficulty (Normal/Hard/Heroic/Impossible) - controls:
  Note: Map difficulty is based on combination of map Monster Strength during map generation with game difficulty (starting neutrals and neutrals growth).
  
  • starting resources for the player (harder option - less resources)
  • starting resources for the AI (harder option - higher resources)
  • starting neutrals - (harder option - higher multiplier)
  • neutrals growth per week (harder option - higher multiplier)
  • experience multiplier - (harder option - higher XP multiplier)

• Lookahead Depth - (Works only for MMH55_64.exe) Defines how much the AI should spend on thinking its turn. The higher the value the smarter the AI. This also means that the AI will take more time to take its turn. For casual play use lowest setting.
• AI rush discount - (Works only for MMH55_64.exe) Sets amount of days since game start which grant discount to creature purchase for all AIs.
  
  
  
  Lobby settings
  

When in lobby...
There are a number of game modes a player can set. Mode choice is different for AI and human players.

• Human Player mode:
  • Casual - AI players are not allied and are allowed to flee. They get no bonuses and start with limited resources. Battle sites growth -10%.
  • Default - AI players are not allied and are allowed to flee. They get no bonuses and start with limited resources. Battle sites growth +10% if no AI players are present.
  • Savage - Players are divided in 2 teams - AI vs human. AI does not flee combat and fight to the end. Battle sites growth +5%.
  • Nightmare - Same as Savage mode but AI heroes cannot be looted. Battle sites growth +10%.
    
    
    
• AI Player mode (Works only for MMH55_64.exe)
  Note: Can be set different for each AI
  
  • Aggressive AI - AI will explore the map conquer new areas and search for enemy players
  • Defensive AI - This AI will stay in his zone and will not be interested in exploration or chasing enemy players