Higher difficulty levels and ironman achivements

[Emnel]

From what I've seen watching streams (specifically Japan and Poland ones) the difficulty of the game on normal might have been significantly reduced. While that is a good-ish thing for the most part, since previous installments were indeed too prohibitive for newcomers I'd like to ask if a bone will be thrown at people like me who played hundereds of hours of HoO3 with and without BlackIce and more or less know the game in and out to the point of it becoming too easy to enjoy.

I heard on stream there will be at least one difficulty above normal that will "provide" player with penalties. Sounds good, but similar features in CK2 and EU4 weren't very popular. Partially due to being hidden among secondary options (unlike in most strategy games where they are presented as a major choice in game setup) but also lack of achievements associated with them, I'd imagine.

So if the game will indeed be significantly easier can we please get proper difficulty settings similar to ones seen in Stellaris?

And can we PLEASE get a cloned set of Steam Achievements for each of those like some games do?

For example:

Ethiopian Empire: Annex Italy as Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Empire(hard): Annex Italy as Ethiopia while playing on hard.
Ethiopian Empire(insane): Annex Italy as Ethiopia while playing on insane.

EDIT: Obviously getting the achivement on higher difficulty would grant you the achivvements on lower difficulties as well. For example doing Ethiopian Empire(hard) would grant you both hard and standard version of an achievement.

From what I understand that wouldn't take more than a few hours of development time, so please, please, PLEASE do that for all of us who are desperate for validation via online badges!

 

[Dr. Frog]

I gave you an 'agree', if only because I think you need a little bit of online validation ;D

(Though I do agree; I don't think all achievements need to be cloned for every difficulty, but a few higher level ones would be nice.)

 

[Ted52]

I would not like that, I think. If I ever want to get full achievements in HoI4, would I need to do every achievement thrice?

Could you make it "[x] difficulty or higher"? That way, the really good players could farm three achievements at once by just playing insane.

Otherwise, I would feel the achievement system would be artifically cluttered.

Definitely need a few achievements for insane, but as Dr.Frog, I am not sure on ALL OF THEM.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

It is an awful idea, sorry. As has been said, having to do every achievement three times... really? No thanks.

 

[Dr. Frog]

Could you make it "[x] difficulty or higher"?

Presumably, or at least the way I'd like it implemented, is that most general achievements would be awarded without specifying game difficulty, but there would be a few (like Italy/Ethiopia or a Barbarossa achievement) that there would be other tiers for other game levels.
I.e, achievement 'Poland Can into Space'
Difficulties Normal, Hard, and Expert
First time playing on Expert, get achievements 'Poland Can into Space' and 'Poland Can into Space: Expert'

Alternatively, just have a few Expert-specific achievements.

 

[Ted52]

Alternatively, just have a few Expert-specific achievements.

That would still be my preferred way of doing things.

 

[Emnel]

Very good points!

Easy achievements such as "Build as division", "Be at war" and so on should ineed be excluded, but I'd say that both standard (such as "Survive till 1945" or "Conquer China as Japan") and difficult ones should have those difficulty variants.

And yes, getting higher one definitely should automagically grant you the lower ones. That's how it is done in 99% of the games that use this mechanic.