I constantly get placed in a hard game level game after queuing in normal difficulty.
Not fun when you are a level 3 commander and get placed into a hard instance of Scythe of Amon.
Unfortunately this happens because literally no one plays below hard so you get shifted to a queue that has a population.
4 Likes
This is actually a net benefit for you. If you que as normal and your ally que as hard, then the difficulty will be at unique level between normal and hard. If you win, you will get experience as if you were playing at the harder diffuculty.
This works especially well for mutation if you cant handle it on brutal mode. Que as casual or normal and if your ally ques as brutal, then when you win, you both get experience that is the same as a brutal win while only experience the difficulty as a normal-hard mutation.
hmmm I thought they said that wasnāt true and you literally get shifted up to brutal difficulty but get less reward
No, that definitely does happen and has happened to me, even with after patch 5.0.3. You get something in between hard and brutal - though I canāt recall which things remain hard and which remain brutal. I think enemy waves are as per āHardā and timings are as per āBrutalā.
If one of you is in Normal, then game speed is the same as Normal and not Hard or Brutal.
Note that your difficulty counters are as per the one you chose and not the one you got. (So your āHardā mission counter is increased but not āBrutalā, whereas for your ally, it increases their Brutal counter even though they got an easier mission - and you both played the same mission.)
evidently people do play at a difficulty below hard, even if that number is low. people of all experience levels play the game.
1 Like
it happened to me once and i still try to find out why. Literally played with a brutal partner but got hard exp.
Imagine if this didnāt work out this way, waiting there for 10+min at a dead hour for a normal partner. Man thatād suck lol.
1 Like
One reason that happens is because there isnāt enough people queuing for normal.
1 Like
Timings with brutal/ hard are already the same. Which is why Normal- Hard gap > Brutal hard gap, at least on most missions.
Brutal/ hard waves are closer to Brutal but in between. I think itās brutal regular unit counts and hard hybrid counts but not certain. You donāt have to deal with things like nukes.
Expo has 18 mineral patches like hard.
On Miner Evac, the first ship will be in Brutal location, not right next to main like in hard.
There was a mutation some time back that I was having a hard time with. Failed a bunch on brutal, then a bunch on hard. The next day I queued on Brutal again and I was teamed up with someone playing Casual. We crushed it, so it definitely dials it down when it happens. Best part is that I got brutal XP and all four bounties.
The part Iām unsure about is where the difficulty lands. The predominant theory is that itās a sort of hybrid of the two difficulties. However, looking in the map triggers, there isnāt anything that would allow for that (donāt quote me, I havenāt looked super deep). Taking that and adding it to my experience above, Iāve assumed it always lowers down to the lower difficulty. So in my experience above, it seems we were placed on actual Casual. If it had put us somewhere in between, it should have been akin to Hard, which I was up to that point unable to finish.
Iām in the same boat. I know this automated difficulty change/mix is here to reduce waiting time for coop games since most players play on Hard/Brutal, but it can be annoying.
Since Iām still leveling/learning how to play my available commanders, I usually select Casual or Normal, but lately Iām too often paired up with an ally on Hard (and I choose Random Map most of the time).
It can be quite bad depending on the map/my commander. Sometimes we still manage to win, other times itās a loss. Just 'cause the game had to throw me in a game only 5 seconds after clicking Ready. TBH Iād rather wait a bit longer and play on the difficulty Iāve chosen.
1 Like
Couldnāt you wait a little longer to go into the coop chat or coop discord and get a partner thatās willing to play on the difficulty youāve chosen?
i choose casual and get into a hard game. it is not that much of a problem, because the difficulty gets lowered while the reward is that of hard.
Yes, maybe. EU-en/fr coop chats donāt seem to be much active, so I forgot about them, but I can try next time.
Discord, I donāt use it.
Sure, the higher XP amount is good, if you manage to win. It depends on the situation though. When I want to level a new commander on Casual, itās frustrating to end up between 2 difficulties and lose because of it.
This auto-change isnāt a bad idea per se, itās just that it can lead to frustration when it makes you lose a bit too much. In fact, Iām just venting, arenāt I?
i have won on hard so, it is not a problem for me to get a hard light.
Once, while I played in Normal or Casual and the ally in Hard, I watched the replay, and things went faster when watching from ally perspective.
That was some time ago though, may have been a bug/undesired feature that got fixed/changed since.
You mean in a party right? I donāt think Casual/Brutal is possible otherwise.
Or rather, I never ever got paired with Brutal, probably require to play Brutal (not sure about Hard) or be in a party.
Random queue. It did def happen. Of all the previous tries I did with Brutal/Hard allies, that one was super easy.
Oh yeah if you que for a lower difficulty and canāt find anyone for you in a minute itāll shift you up to hard. I believe you get attack waves on your base will be of the lower difficulty, while the bases and bonuses will be set to the hardest. (Etc, so if you get a hard + brutal, your base will get attacked by small harder hard waves, while the Bases will be brutal fortified), and youāll get xp between the two modes.
Most of going from casual or normal to hard and brutal is mostly familiarizing yourself with sc2 and the maps. Feel free to try out guides for build orders and suggested unit comps to try. Team Liquid and Sc2Coop often have some great guides for all the commanders such as Kerrigan and raynor. (
Raynor TL guide: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/526722-co-op-commander-guide-raynor
Kerrigan TL guide: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/527054-co-op-commander-guide-kerrigan)
For most of the starter basics. Remember for most commanders, you have to juggle around economy. Start the game building scvs, then find your expansion. Some rock expansions will require damage to open, while others will have enemy fortifications on your commander. Of course if youāre more experienced itās just a matter of learning the commander youāre playing, (and guides give a great crash 101 on what the general units or build orders are, say for Abathurs/Mengsks). Scythe of Amon is just in general a rough map to start in on a low level if you donāt know your build order yet (as it is a heavily fortified base), but most guides should help just to get a basic 101.
Lol. You and your ally are going to experience the same ātimeā perspective. No relativity in effect here. Nor ābullet timeā. The replay speed is what was different - you can watch a replay at any speed.
Btw, in the replay overlay you watch the game at the speed specified in the overlay. You were probably watching the replay at āFasterā speed. I donāt think thereās a way to determine what the actual game speed was corresponding to your game, except knowing what the actual game speed was and then setting the replay to that speed.
As far as I know, Casual is the same speed as Normal. But Iāve not been matched with a casual in a while so canāt recall how slow it was.
Actually, itās the exact opposite. If youāre in a party, the difficulty, and hence the game speed, is selected by the party leader and you both have the same diff & speed. To get matched with a player with a different difficulty, it would have to be random.
(The in-game menu difficulty sometimes bugs out for a party after the first game and reverts to the one previously selected by the previous party leader if you then changed leaders before the first game.)
No, you both get the XP according to the higher difficulty player. Iām 100% sure of this as itās been happening more frequently when prestige COās at a low-level on Normal (until I reach a certain power spike) but I get matched with a player on Hard - I get the Hard XP, not Normal. Itās the game stats/achievements which counts it differently.
2 Likes