Difficulty Ratings for the Keen Mods

Post by **tulip** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 16:41

I thought about this because of the comments in the Hard/Fun topic.

We could add a rating for the difficulty of each mod to the KeenWiki, so that newcomers aren't annoyed by the difficulty of one mod, and as an effect don't try any others. It'd be nice if everyone of you could post your personal rating for every mod you played here.(on a scale from 1 cakewalk to 5 insanely hard)
I'll put all that together and add a Community Difficulty Rating to each KeenWiki article.

shikadi · Post by **shikadi** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 17:51

not a bad idea, smile gets a 5, for sure, but what if now everybody (wel 90%) gonna dislike smile because it will probably be the only 5 rated.
heres my list, for if ever needed:
*goes to mods by keenwiki and rates all mods i remember completing for at least 50%*
keen1:
bad dreams:
Hazards: not very hazardrous - 1
Jumps: no difficult jumps - 1
Enemies: Also not a big deal - 1
Level size: Most levels are very small, some (like the first) rather rare - 3
avarage: 6/4 rounded (up if .5 or more, down if .4 or less):2

Bazooka Wowbagger:
Hazards: are their hazards? - 1
Jumps: You certainly have to jump a lot, but no dangerous ones - 2
Enemies:There is a balanced amount(vorticon image is silly) - 2
Level size:Most level are avarage, the other rather large(or at least they make me feel they are large) - 4
avarage: 9/4(rounded down) : 2

bunny basher:
hazards:You meets these once every minute - 1
jumps:theres nearly no danger, the larger size only makes it easier - 1
enemies:some levels are realy boring by the lack of ~ - 1
level size:big! most levels are rather large, with a lot of dead end - 4
avarage:7/4 (rounder up) :2

keenz
hazards:Lots of hazards, and it only becomes worse when you go further - 4
jumps:Just like jumps, lots of tricky, jumps with hazards above you, or wall that you its nearly can't jump - 5
enemies:There aren't much of them, and the ones that are here aren't worth much - 2
level size:i am happy i don't have to give a high number here, but some have rather annoying sizes for its other high values - 3
avarage:14/4 (rounder up) :4

lego keen
hazards:not worth much - 2
jumps:same here - 1
enemies:and here - 1
level size:some are not to small, this mod is probably good for newcomers to start - 3
avarage:7/4 (rounded up) :2

norp the yorp (1)
hazards:theres a (un)nice bunch of hazards in here - 3
jumps:lots of jumps, usually not difficult, but still - 3
enemies: this is realy a balanced mod - 2
level size:some levels are incredibily big and hard to find out- 5
avarage:13/4 (rounded down): 3

silcar 1
hazards:noteworthy to says theres a big variation, all uncommon but it adds up - 3
jumps:some jumps are hard, other are not that hard - 4
enemies:most keen 1 mods don't score high here, this is no different - 2
level size: some levels are realy to large, its not good for them, in a 40X150 mod i don't like going from one side to another 5 times - 4
avarage:13/4 (rounded down) 3

silcar 4
hazards:With those bones everywere, hazards are also everywere, but most aren't placed hard - 3
jumps:this is just the avarage jumping, nothing special - 2
enemies:unratable actually, because changing difficulty changes a lot - 2 on easy, 3 on normal, 4 on hard, avarage 3
level size:not a big issue in most levels, very playable - 3
avarage:11/4 (rounded up) 3

shadowkeen 1 (not even close to finished)
hazards: a lot, everywere - 4
jumps: Beatable - 3
enemies: i dind't see enough of the mod to rate this one - ?
level size:from what i have seen, to much is to much - 5
avarage:12/3 : 4

the search of the sentinel
hazards:not very much hazards - 2
jumps:Also not a to big deal - 3
enemies:becomes bigger with the level, mostly there are more then on the avarage keen 1- 4
level size:pretty balanced - 3
bonus: because the level becomes starts easy, and part by part becomes harder, the total goes down by 1.
avarage:11(12-1)/3 (rounder up) 3

generic mod 1
hazards: 4
jumps: 4
enemies: the shot mechanic here is rather unique, but doens't add much, also i think it takes longer to takes things down - 3
level size:... even for 1 level mods theres a lot (i cant find the blue key, even on the map)-5
avarage:16/4 : 4

i wil comment on the played keen 2 & 3 soon (in about 30 minutes - 2 hour)

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 19:18

Silcar 4 and Keys of Krodacia are the coolest because they let you choose the difficulty

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 19:19

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 21:00

I considered it briefly and thought that since it wouldn't be too difficult and would add significantly to the articles.
So my vote is yes.

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 23:15

I voted no, because...wouldn't that be too subjective? I thought Wiki articles should be objective. After all, everyone plays games at their own pace.

I think the only thing that would take away some of the subjectivity is if you stated what people thought of it, and not post it as the absolute truth, like how in Wikipedia they'll state if a movie or game got criticism. It would only be objective if you said something as in "this is how hard people have deemed it".

Stating someone's opinion isn't subjective if you do it objectively. However it does cross that line when you post how difficult it is as a fact.

Something I think should be considered

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 23:46

Maybe mention the types of puzzles/hazards and degree of sprite modification the mod contains.

Genius314 · Post by **Genius314** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:22

How about have another site with ratings (maybe Bipship?), and then link to those ratings from the KeenWiki... kinda like how Wikipedia lists the ratings that websites and magazines give to albums and stuff in the info box.

The KeenWiki actually needs a lot of cleaning up... a lot of information seems to just have been made up on the spot (I think Levellass is one of the biggest culprits here...

). Sure, it would probably sound great in a fanfiction or mod or something, but it probably doesn't belong in the Wiki.
...Like this, that I removed from the Stupendous Sandwich page a while ago:

It is unknown whether the Chungellans are intending to make any more snackfoods of stupendous proportions, though rumours of a giant milkshake are circulating.

Post by **tulip** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:06

Thanks to shikadi for your detailed ratings.

Yes, Lava, I'm aware that it's subjective, that's why I asked everybody on the PCKF to give their ratings, that's the most objectivity we can get here.

I would add a line something like this one:

Keen Z
Community Difficulty Rating: 4/5 (Hard) [or maybe

>: or something similar] (5 Votes) [based on the number of ratings I get here for a single mod]

If CKGuy rather wants to add it to his site, I'm happy with linking it, but I don't think this will overload the KeenWiki.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 13:51

Maybe >: >: >: >:

would be more suitable for Hard? More angry = more difficult.

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 20:08

Yeah I don't have a problem with stating how a game is rated. Just long as it is mentioned that such ratings are opinion and not fact.

(even though I do realize that I initially voted no, but at the time it seemed to me that it was going to be done in a non-objective manner, so I felt I had to vote no and don't regret my vote)

Post by **Ceilick** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 23:13

I think this is a cool idea. It might be worthwhile to list every keener and their rating (maybe in addition to an average rating), since we're all different. This way people can choose whose ratings they 'identify' with most; for example, I might find that Tulip's hardness ratings are more on par with my skill than say shikadi's.

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 16:46

That would be great for people deep in the Keen community, but what about outsiders? They'd just be thrown off by all the "this member thought it was this difficult", and "the other member thought it was this difficult". Why have different ratings according to different skill levels when you could just have one agreed-upon mathematical system of rating?

Post by **tulip** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 20:46

Yeah, I thought about mentioning different members names, but I think Delta is right, it won't help newcomers. And insiders who know all of us are probably able to play bits of every mod there is. So I'd rather stick with just giving a number of votes.

Does anyone else but shikadi want to give me some actual ratings? (as we mostly agreed already to do it)

Post by **Ceilick** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 23:41

Deltamatic wrote:Why have different ratings according to different skill levels when you could just have one agreed-upon mathematical system of rating?

Because how feasible is this? I mean, this is possible but requires and absolute analyzation of every jump and hazard in every level of a mod. Without that, it's subjective to the player.

However, I had given this some thought and I think you guys are right. If the rating is on a scale of 1-5, people aren't going to rate things that differently. Also, as this is the keen community, how many people are going to give ratings? We're laaaaazy

Public Commander Keen Forum

Difficulty Ratings for the Keen Mods

Should we add difficulty ratings for the mods to the KeenWiki?

Difficulty Ratings for the Keen Mods