Okay so this is actually a combination of two core systems I originally made for my own game however after much time and tinkering it’s evolved into a very detailed AI program that could be useful in any unreal game however I am just one person and would love more input on how to make this program even better.

first let me explain the Darwin System I built. The Darwin system or Darwin Level (DL) is an automatically generated difficulty level. Rather then the player picking it from the home menu this system takes many things into account then changes how difficult the game is based on how well you are doing in the game. The current list of checks are as follows:
Time played
shots fired
shots hit
mana used
health healed
Enemy’s killed
Achievements won
Deaths
potions used
items used
traps used
traps successful
hidden wonderlands found
player level
overall item level
overall item number

However more variety would be nice. That is why I am asking for your ideas on what other things I could base the Darwin System on. The flip side is what the DL will effect in the game. The current list is as follows:
Ammo Drops
Gold Drops
Monster Strength
Monster Spawn Rate
health regeaberration
mana regeneration
psych level
Potion strength
weapon strength
Armor Strength
respawn rates
Magic Ink (used to save game)
again we are looking for more ideas to cover a wider range of games it could be placed in. Any help with ideas on what the DL could effect are highly appreciated.

now for part two of this core. The Smart Lunar is a built in system that tracks time to put it simply however it has become more then just a simple program. This system is now at a point where it tracks the seasons, time of day and even the moon phases. It’s based on 30hr days and 30day seasons and a 8 seasons a year. The reason it is so detailed is that some monsters will only appear during one or two seasons before disappearing again perfect for haunted houses or holiday based events. The day and night system is to adjust so that monsters could be doing some activity’s during the day and then something different at night and allows for a 2.5 hour dawn and dusk window for the creatures to move and travel. This is designed so bats would appear at night flying about while birds sleep and vice Versa giving it a more natural feeling to your world. The other bonus to this is the addition of Lunar and Solar items that gain or loose power depending on time of day. You can even create a whole character class around this concept of time lunar phases. The reason the moon phases came about was for special events such as rituals or mini bosses or anything of that nature.

the current set up for the seasons is as follows
15hrs day 10hrs night
13 day 12 night
11 day 14 night
9 day 16 night
7 day 18 night
9 day 16 night
11 day 14 night
13 day 12 night
with 2.5 hours for dusk and dawn

1st through 3rd of each month is full
4th through 15th of each month is waning
16th through 18th of each month is new
19th through 30th of each month is Waxing.

each season has a different coloration and aspects that match the current season.

Runiker said:

…this system takes many things into account then changes how difficult the game is based on how well you are doing in the game. The current list of checks are as follows:
(lots of different stats)

How does it currently take them into account? Would the game become more difficult or easier from the fact that I've increased “Time played”? I suppose it could depend on the genre, but still. Items used? What does that result in?

What do you believe are the core values that need to be examined to tell if the player is “good” - and good at what? In my opinion you'd want to separate the various properties into a few useful scores, describing how well the player is doing.

If the balancing resulting from one score isn't making the game fun, you can tweak it or scrap that score entirely.

I think it would also be nice to be able to present to the player how they are doing, and perhaps even break the score down and show the player why they're not doing good with foraging or why they're bad at using appropriate weaponry.

Is this system open to abuse? Can I miss and die on purpose to make the game easier? Speedrunners did that in Resident Evil 4, which also had dynamic difficulty.

Also, you mention things like achievements won. Does this mean difficulty persist over multiple playthroughs? What happens when another player starts playing on the same computer and they can't pick a proper difficulty? (the “Daddy, can I play?” situation)

In a typical single player game, there are only two stats that matter:

• How often does the player die?
• How often does the player want to die, in order to feel properly challenged?

The first of these is fairly straightforward. If the player dies too often, the game is obviously too difficult. If the player never dies (while still making progress), then the game is obviously not too difficult, but not necessarily too easy either. It depends on the player. Some people only feel properly challenged by a boss fight when it takes them several tries. Others are annoyed when they die even once. (I personally belong to the latter group.) Which is where the second stat comes in. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a good way to measure that second stat, which is why

None of the rest matters. Shots fired? Shots hit? Look, if the player wins despite only hitting the enemy 1% of the time, then obviously their spray-and-pray strategy is working for them. Same as when the player wins with a 100% hit rate. And if the player keeps losing, then obviously whatever strategy they are using isn't working for them.

Runiker said:

The current list of checks are as follows:
Time played
shots fired
shots hit
mana used
health healed
Enemy’s killed
Achievements won
Deaths
potions used
items used
traps used
traps successful
hidden wonderlands found
player level
overall item level
overall item number

However more variety would be nice. That is why I am asking for your ideas on what other things I could base the Darwin System on.

What you want to keep track of depends a lot on the type of game. Some examples I can think of, of things that games can do are:

• If the game has sorta linear levels, consider checking how many times in a row the player dies in the same place: getting killed by the same enemy three times in a row should probably make a change to that enemy or to something nearby. In theory, you could even remove that enemy, but that should probably only be done after something else turns out not to be enough to get the player unstuck.
• If it's a puzzle game, maybe time how long the player is taking to solve each puzzle and have hints that appear if the player has been stuck at the same puzzle for a certain amount of time.
• In racing games, it's common for computer-controlled cars to get faster or slower depending on how the player is doing.
• If the player can select a level of difficulty manually, allow it to be changed in mid-game. Maybe not at every place in every level, but do allow changing it in some places without having to start over completely.
• RPGs often get easier when you grind a lot. Some of them make enemies respawn when the player respawns, which means dying a lot gives the player more experience points / loot (that's assuming they don't lose the XP/loot when dying, and assuming they get those things every time they kill any enemies, including those they've killed before.
• Some games could get faster or slower depending on how the player is doing. But if it's a rythm game and the player seems to be just a little bit too fast but clearly not too slow, consider speeding the game up rather than slowing it down.
• Card games might look at which cards you have and take that into account when drawing random cards from a deck. I wouldn't do that in an online game however. But in single player, it might be okay, and in local multiplayer you could get away with a little bit of it, to level things a bit if the players are far from equally good at the game. But normal randomness (that doesn't try to favour less skilled players) also levels it a bit.

And I'm pretty sure most or all of those things are done in some games. For example, the Crash Bandicoot games would change the type of some crates when you respawned at the same checkpoint certain amounts of times in a row.

@undefined I did plan on having the stats with explinations on one of the pause screens. If you hover over the stat it will give you a small pop up with basic details on how to improve the score. It will also tell you an average range for that stat. Now on the more time playing and how it will effect the difficulty rate. if you played the game for 3hrs and got 6Quests done but used 3 Health potions the ratio would go from a quest every half hour (Normal avg) to a quest every two hours (Easy avg). The item part would also work this way. It will calculate how many items you are using per a hour in average. The less items used the harder it will get.

1024 said:

Is this system open to abuse? Can I miss and die on purpose to make the game easier? Speedrunners did that in Resident Evil 4, which also had dynamic difficulty.

Also, you mention things like achievements won. Does this mean difficulty persist over multiple playthroughs? What happens when another player starts playing on the same computer and they can't pick a proper difficulty? (the “Daddy, can I play?” situation)

The dynamic Difficulty issue RE4 had will be prevented because of how many aspects it takes into account you would really have to go out of your way to abuse it. The achievement system I’m talking about is more the in game ones that reset with every new character created.

lastly I like the ideas for different typea of games Having different qualifications. Also you gave me an idea to make diffrent aspects of game different difficulty levels.

Runiker said:

@undefined Now on the more time playing and how it will effect the difficulty rate. if you played the game for 3hrs and got 6Quests done but used 3 Health potions the ratio would go from a quest every half hour (Normal avg) to a quest every two hours (Easy avg). The item part would also work this way. It will calculate how many items you are using per a hour in average. The less items used the harder it will get.

Good about the explanations, but the above I just don't get - what if the player is good, but just chilling with some tv next to - takes a break i aa safe place, or likes to roam around cleared places for enjoyment? Seems like an unfit way to decrease difficulty - you should go with a more essential expression of how good they actually are.

As for the item usage - the same. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. But in the end it's for yourself to try on and balance.

@undefined Well the issue you are mentioning could pose a problem and that is why the difficulty level is based on more then a handful of numbers. If you exploited one variable it won’t effect the game much by any means. As for sitting idle while in game I had planned on putting an inactive script so if your not moving or doing anything it will boot you to the pause menu and stop timer from making it wicked easy. I do appreciate your help and honesty. depending on how advanced this engine becomes I may put it on the market to buy. I plan on realizing two other engines too. One is the skeleton frame to make time passing in your game smooth. It has 30 days a season and 8 seasons a year. It will also track the moons phases and night vs day. All the numbers can be tweeked and still work well enough to give the impression creatures and monsters eating walking and sleeping in here. This means if your looking for a black bear and it’s summer daytime you can find in forest however daytime in winter they don’t leave the cave. This is important to note because bears in the game have a very high armor making the easiest way to kill him is while it’s in the cave. combine all these things together and you get an advanced time flow for any game That gives off a realistic time flow And progression by changing up the graphics to match the season but I didn’t stop thier because several spells and rituals require very detailed information and criteria in order to get government help but you can see it with The random doors that lead nowhere only open during a special time frame be it lunar phase or seasonal. that’s what’s been up.

Why would you want to make it hard to intentionally manipulate? The goal is to give each player a challenge level that they enjoy, not to force them to play at whatever difficulty level the system deems appropriate for them.

The problem isn't that the variables can be manipulated. The problem is that the variables can give results that the player doesn't enjoy. Making the variables easy to manipulate fixes this problem. If anything, you should have big red buttons for “increase difficulty” and “decrease difficulty” on the screen at all times.

@undefined Love the big bfuton comment however I should have clarified if right off the bat and thier fore my fault for not going into detail. Thier is several potions that players can use to knock down or knock up the difficulty level. You can put the game on 0 difficulty making the game more about the story and lore then game mechanics of a boss fight ect. it’s not that I want to prevent the players from messing with the difficulty or whatnot I just think that they should earn the potion and work towards it rather then just handing it over. This would do two things at once. First is that when you have to work for it you will aprsheate the value a lot better second if the potions are hard to come by or to craft then that will dscourge players from over using them and exploiting the system.