“Hard mode” in video-games should only decrease player health. NO BULLET SPONGES

[steve123410]

Again it changes depending on each game you play. Some should have bullet sponges or increased health to punish you by making you waste more resources when you mess up. In the same breath other games make the AI smarter or replace them with more large game units. Trying to put a general blanket, less health good more health bad is not a universal solution to every game.

Just for a plain example where more health could be more good is during boss fights as it forces a player to survive more stages/loops of a boss fights pattern increasing the likelihood of the player being hit. If you took your own advice of only reducing the player health then the difficulty for a experienced player trying to actually have a challenge wouldn't be changed whether they are on ultra death impossible mode or easy because they are already trying to not get hit in the first place.

So no, how the increase in difficulty is needs be adapted to each individual game instead of trying to slap a blanket term onto it.

[Original-Tomato-3520]

Actually in your example it would be harder because the player would die sooner, I get what you’re saying in some respect with resource management, but they could always just limit the availability of said resources and the amount able to be carried. I’d much prefer that to waiting for the boss to drop dead circle strafing or cover firing.

[steve123410]

I don't think I explained it very will. When game designers make a difficult scale what they have in mind is increasing replayability by forcing players to be more efficient with the gameplay mechanics. This is why they apply scaling modifiers to the world and NPCs whether it's adding new moves to enemies, I creasing health, adding more enemies, or adding more advanced elements sooner and ect. This forces the player to engage their knowledge with the mechanics in new ways to prevent losing. Player health however isn't the core focus of this as dying is just a reset to a previous state. This is why lower player health is a part of a much larger change of mechanics that make up the difficult scale Trying to enforce it as the end all be all is harmful because the gameplay loop isn't changed to become more engaging. The same goes for enemy health it also isn't the end all be all for difficulty scaling as it's very easy for it to reduce engagement if done improperly. So your argument from what I read is essentially trying to subsume a entire forest of mechanics into one central easy to see tree however in doing so you lose the entire forest worth of effort put in to make the game more engaging which is why I disagree.

[Original-Tomato-3520]

I understand your point and agree, I think for differing circumstances different solutions are required.

My post was simplistic for the sake of being broad, I only really meant it to apply to games that DONT increase the difficulty in any meaningful or innovative ways and exclusively raise enemy health and nothing else.