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Difficulty Levels
Nero Would, a contributor to the Pharaoh forums,
has taken the time to discover and describe some of the differences
between the game's difficulty levels. Here is what he found:
I decided to take a look through the .txt files to see which things
vary with difficulty level. Here is the complete list (complete as far
as the .txt files are concerned, there could be differences not controlled
by them)
Cost of buildings and risk increment for fire and damage are about
7.5 times higher at Very Hard than at Very Easy.
I believe the column after the one for damage risk is the amount of
goods used per trip by School, Library, Mortuary and Senet walkers.
It is 12-20 times higher at Very Hard than at Very Easy.
Food requirements for housing evolution are identical except that
Very Easy does not require a third type of food for Palatial Estates.
Religion requirements are identical except that Easy (but not Very
Easy) does not need a 3rd god until Stately Manor (it's Elegant Manor
for the others). Also, the unpatched version of the files claims to
require a 4th god for Palatial Estates on Easy (but not the other difficulty
levels).
In the patched version of the files, education requirements are identical
for all difficulty levels. But in the unpatched version, Easy does not
require a School or Library until Elegant Residence. All the others
(including Very Easy) require a School or Library for Common Residence.
A strange feature is that in the unpatched version there are no education
requirements for Spacious Residence.
There are small differences in the desirability levels at which houses
evolve and devolve.
There are significant differences in the prosperity values for the
different housing levels.
There are differences in the tax rate multiplier. Not only are the
numbers lower at higher difficulty levels, but the housing levels where
the tax rate jumps up are different.
The risk of maleria, disease and crime is higher at higher difficulty
levels.
Enemy (including criminal and wild animal) hit points, attack values
and missile rates are higher at higher difficulty levels.
The effect of taxation on city sentiment is greater at higher difficulty
levels. The worst effect on sentiment is always at 50%-60% coverage
(I don't know if coverage is based on number of houses paying tax or
number of people). With 80% coverage, the negative effects start at
a tax rate of 4 on Very Hard, but not until a rate of 16 on Very Easy.
The result of all these differences is that the game can be very different
at different difficulty levels. Replaying a mission at a higher difficulty
level might require you to evolve your housing further to meet the prosperity
goal, which in turn might require you to develop different industries.
Or your favourite housing block might evolve to Fancy Residence every
time on Normal, but never make it on Very Hard. I think this makes the
game more replayable. When (if?) I finish all the career on Normal,
I can look forward to quite a different game on Hard or Very Hard.
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