Board Thread:Wiki - General Discussion/@comment-24047760-20170914231132/@comment-26388711-20170915081612

I am sorry that you showed disapproval and disagreement in regards to your difficulty rating estimates. Please note that in the most recent levels in Difficulty/Reality, it has been marked as estimates made by Courtemanche, and sometimes, Primetime. As of now, the ones marked as estimates begin anywhere from World 30 to the start of World 31.

As you look down the table, you quickly notice that there is an upward trend (it turns out to be linear as well), and right now it is around in the 7.00 mark, which is extremely high (remember Fanciful Fort back in Dreamworld?), this can be shown in Difficulty/Episodes. Before the amendment, most of the latest episodes are literally off the scale with means above 8.00, implying that almost all levels are at least extremely hard; nowadays it has been regarded as overrated, but most levels have been reassigned to Very Hard. In this game overall, the Very Hard difficulty is now the most prevalent, with 594-598 levels so far, and it dominates around half of the levels in the last worlds as of now.

I understand that admins here have more "power" and "influence" in this wiki, and estimating difficulty ratings are no exception. Because of that, people start to view admin estimates as more accurate, and therefore they tend to agree on the estimates, sometimes even blindly. There are a few players (both regular and IP) who list the number of attempts taken to beat each level in a given episode, and give their own ratings for each level in a given episode; both can be found in individual level pages and episode pages. You can also find difficulty comments in the respective Youtube walkthrough pages as well.

Ever since 2013, the discussions in the last few episode and level pages are still active, and generates several tens of comments a few days after release. Youtube walkthroughs are still active and continue to generate comments and views. Even though the polls have been removed, I suggest that you bring back the polls for the later episodes, especially those suspected to be your estimates, as discussions around late levels are still active.

As a next step, the last levels should stay at Undetermined (except in exceptional circumstances such as an obviously asymptotically impossible level) for at least two to four weeks since release. You should collect the information regarding the player ratings for each level, from both the level pages and episodes pages, (and optionally) Youtube walkthrough video comments, compile the average, and give one last comment regarding your estimate before officially declaring the level's difficulty. Here is a guideline of now difficulty ratings should be amended as of now:

Collecting opinions and polls:
 * Poll pages should be set for all high levels, but should not be set for all levels.
 * The main focus on poll pages are the difficulty ratings. Players can give any rating from Very Easy to Extremely Hard. Comments, on the other hand, can be Nearly Impossible.
 * The stars earned poll should also be added below, to determine the difficulty of earning three stars, if applicable.
 * Nearly Impossible should have at least 95% of the votes at Extremely Hard.
 * Poll pages will be set for all levels since Episode 169.
 * Poll pages will be set for all levels at least Very Hard since Episode 163.
 * Collect all level and episode estimates, as well as tries taken from level pages and their corresponding episode pages. Keep track of users and IP addresses, their rating, and other supplementary notes. Getting at least 10 such comments is sufficient for you to assign a difficulty estimate.
 * In my more active days, I will also list and analyze all comments from users regarding difficulty comments, in a weekly report. This usually happens on a Friday or a Saturday. This helps give a more accurate rating in regards to the high levels.
 * I will also track other trends in regarding level rating comments.

Number of Tries and its corresponding Difficulty
 * Sometimes, a player may offer information about the number of tries taken to complete each level. These should also be factored in determining the difficulty level as well. However, it may be less accurate, as players can still complete an extremely hard level in one try. There may be overlaps to the number of tries and its corresponding difficulty: if this happens, determine the corresponding difficulty based on other players' views.
 * From the Difficulty page, if a player gives information about the number of tries need to complete a level, without supplementary comments, the corresponding difficulties are:
 * 1 (Crowned and lossless):
 * 1-3: (Failures only occasionally happen):
 * 2-5: (Up to one set of lives):
 * 3-10: (Up to two set of lives):
 * 5-15: (Up to three set of lives):
 * 8-30: (Up to five set of lives):
 * 15-50: (Up to ten set of lives):
 * >50: (More then ten set of lives): (
 * >250: (Hundred of tries):
 * Remember how a level being Extremely, or Insanely Hard back in levels before Level 1000? Up to hundreds of tries. Sometimes, these levels even gather detailed responses from ranked users, with reports of some users taking more than 200 attempts to beat one Insanely Hard level!
 * A level also contains ratings being mostly at the very hard side, but with a note regarding luck-related conditions that can make a level much easier to complete or a significant portion of votes being much easier.