Update - Difficulty Changes

rickyboy320

Penguin Master
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Board
Nov 18, 2013
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Difficulty Spectrum
In order to streamline new players' experience, and more clearly define the upper difficulty tiers, we have made changes to the difficulty system.

Two new difficulty tiers have been added:
-White (worth 1 point), which is dubbed 'Very Easy'
-Black (worth 25 points), dubbed 'Expert'.

The addition of these difficulty tiers will allow us to more appropriately express the difficulty of the maps. We have noticed that some blue maps were deemed relatively hard for newcomers, so some tiers have been renamed to more accurately describe their difficulty, which should help newer players.

The new difficulty spectrum looks as follows:
White - Very Easy, awards 1 point
Blue - Easy, awards 2 points
Green - Novice, awards 4 points
Yellow - Moderate, awards 7 points
Orange - Hard, awards 12 points
Red - Very Hard, awards 18 points
Black - Expert, awards 25 points
Purple - Variable, multistage maps only
Grey - Unassessed, awards 0 points


With this change, the difficulty spectrum of the maps got slightly shifted, so we made some additional changes in the difficulty values of these maps to help balance the overall FFA:

Old level 2, Mineco and Space Jump were moved from Blue (Easy) to White (Very Easy).
A Whittle Story, 9-Ball, Wipeout and Janus Labs were moved from Yellow (Moderate) to Orange (Hard).
The Great Cake has been moved from Orange (Hard) to Red (Very Hard).
In Rainbows, Redstone Ready and Outpost have been moved from Red (Very Hard) to Black (Expert).
FAQ Quiz now rewards 7 points instead of the previous 5.

Because maps now reward a much greater amount of points, Hardcore requirements were changed from:
20 Points -> 35 Points + FAQ Quiz.
This should roughly mean the same amount of blue/green/yellow maps as with the previous difficulty system.


Boundary Maps (relevant to green+)
We're also changing how difficulty brackets are defined. Instead of having a very loose interpretation that differs for everyone on where the boundaries lie, this time we're locking them down with tangible borders. This mostly applies to parkour, as mazes and puzzles do not have sufficient maps that lie on the border of brackets to serve this purpose. These maps are called boundary maps, and are not subject to the default reward proposal system. They are the foundation that the (parkour) difficulty system is based on, and thus cannot be moved easily. If they prove to be problematic, they can be shifted later by the Board.

Maps that prove to be harder than a lower boundary map can then be moved into the difficulty tier of the given boundary map, and maps that prove to be easier than an upper boundary map can be moved into that tier, and vice versa.

Parkour bracket:
White/Blue: Old Level 2 as upper White border.
Blue/Green: Sky Parkour as lower Green border.
Green/Yellow: Shroomville as upper Green border. Space Mission as lower Yellow border.
Yellow/Orange: Sky Castle as upper Yellow border. Atari as lower Orange border.
Orange/Red: Aqueous as upper Orange border. The Portal as lower Red border.
Red/Black: World Two-ur and Agni both as upper Red border.

Maze bracket:
Blue/Green: Original Lv1 as upper Blue border. The Crooked Forest as lower Green border.
Green/Yellow: Xrm's Labyrinth as lower Yellow border.
Yellow/Orange: Spectrum as upper Yellow border. Tower Prowl as lower Orange border.
Orange/Red: Telepads as lower Red border.

We only picked maps that are unlikely to be modified or broken in the future, and not those that are gimmicky. That's why some maps you might expect to appear aren't listed. Reward Proposals will work slightly differently, as now the proposer must show why their map is easier/harder than the designated boundary map(s).

A fully updated Reward Proposal protocol will follow shortly in the appropriate subforum.


Additional changes:
-FFA Points have been renamed to Points in many different locations.
-Internal change of Local Variables (MSC). Should fix ChatScripts
-Fixed issue with redefining regions and area scripts
-Add /type constructors <builtin-type> and /type methods <builtin-type> for easier access.
-Scripts are only appended to or imported when the resulting script is valid.
-Fixed issue with methods not working on fields.
 
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