No actual difference between difficulty levels?

[Revenge]

I have just downloaded gcfscape and peeked into the skill.cfg file in the source engine.gcf file (couldn't open the half-life 2 content.gcf for some reason...), and to my surprise it seems that the only difference between any of the difficulty levels in that file is that striders need 7 rockets to kill on medium and hard while they only need 5 on easy. It seems weapon damage and enemy health levels remain the same for everything else.

Now I find this quite hard to believe, which is why I'm coming here. What am I missing? Is there a different skill.cfg file in the half-life 2 content.gcf file? Are the differences between difficulties stored somewhere else now? Has anybody noticed any real difference to how hard the game is when switching difficulties?

 

[Dead-Inside]

Obviously the main difference is AI and reactions, not dmg and health.

 

[Fuzzy-_-Muff]

if you owned the strat guide, or had seen them on the net you would know that there are differences. you only do 75% of the listed damage of weapons, u get less ammo and u take 150% of the damage from enemies. also enemies ai is more advanced i believe. this is the difference between norm and hard of course.

 

[CriYam]

The enemies can take more damage. :/

 

[ummno]

It lists the changes under the change difficulty menu.

 

[Revenge]

Ah right, I see now. It's all it's all calculated automatically as opposed to individual figures stats for every npc and weapon for every difficulty level, as well as the ai changes mentioned... Very interesting... Thanks for the info. And CriYam if your weapons are only doing 75% of their normal damage, then you'd need to shoot them 25% more, which would make it SEEM like they are taking more damage (instead of you simply dealing out less damage).

It's interesting seeing the big differences in how much damage these weapons do when they hit NPCs or players... For instance a sniper bullet does 100 damage to a NPC, while only doing 20 damage to a player. Similarly NPCs take double damage from grenades.

Now when you consider that a combine elite has 70 health, and takes more damage than you do when hit by a bullet, it's no small wonder that they are no match for Gordon on normal difficulty, who has 100 health and up to 200 armour...

 

[Iconoclast]

I didn't notice any improvements in AI on hard, to be honest. Enemies just kinda stood there and shot at me.

 

[figge]

I thought Hard was easier... needed cheats to complete some stuff on easy (Nova prospekt with the turrets)

But it was a piece of cake on hard...

 

[CR33P]

I thought Hard was easier... needed cheats to complete some stuff on easy (Nova prospekt with the turrets)

But it was a piece of cake on hard...

you're mental

 

[$niffy]

you're mental

Crazy almost..