Board Thread:Wiki Running/@comment-3225604-20150129143201

A lot of things to discuss today! Well I'm bringing you a proposal on these three aspects.


 * 1) Very hard+ difficulty
 * 2) How to achieve a consensus for the difficulty
 * 3) Difficulty name change proposal

Very hard+ difficulty
First off I will talk about this new difficulty. You cannot vote a level to be this difficulty. This difficulty will not exist in the poll. It is a special difficulty which is a transition between very hard and insanely hard. (Therefore, you can only suggest an upgrade to insanely hard or a downgrade to very hard, but not an upgrade/downgrade to very hard+) The new difficulty is hoped to alleviate the problem of having too many insanely hard levels, without causing the problem of overusing very hard levels and retaining the meaning of the newly "downgraded" very hard+ levels.

By using the difficulty score, very hard+ will be graded as 7.5, between very hard (7) and insanely hard (8).

So how can very hard+ difficulty be achieved?

If a level cannot fulfill all the requirements below to become an insanely hard level, the level will be automatically downgraded into very hard+, while if a level can fulfill one of the requirements below, the level will be automatically upgraded into very hard+.

The requirements are:
 * 1) The level must achieve 70% of votes of insanely hard in the poll (at least 30 votes) of that level.
 * 2) The level must be one of the existing candidates in the Hardest Levels in Reality/Dreamworld poll, or a to-be candidate in the Hardest Levels in Reality/Dreamworld poll. (If the level is going to be eliminated, then the level can be very hard+ or very hard.)
 * 3) The level must achieve at least 60% of votes of insanely hard in the comments.

If neither of the requirements are achieved, the level will be barred under very hard.

By limiting the number of insanely hard levels using the method of creating very hard+ difficulty, I hope there is a difference between very hard+ and insanely hard levels, and that the only surviving insanely hard levels are really insanely hard in fact, giving an impression that insanely hard levels in Candy Crush Saga are really extremely difficult to pass.

How to achieve a consensus
This one is only my suggestion.

For very easy-very hard levels

 * The level can be voted in comments. It should also include votes outside a single comment chain, that means the whole page's comments should be counted, as to be fair. For a change to be committed, the level should get at least 60% of support votes, not including neutral votes. Unless the level is buffed or nerfed, all comments should be regarded in voting. Obvious trolling or voting for another version doesn't count as a vote.
 * The level can also be voted in polls. The median should be taken in the poll. The poll should only be created only if the votes in the level are quite equally balanced in the comments or a past candidate of insanely hard levels. If troll polling is suspected, the user may request a reset in the level's poll.

For insanely hard levels

 * The difficulty can only be achieved with the presence of the poll. The poll must have at least 30 people, otherwise the level would only be graded as very hard+ at the very most.
 * The poll should contain 70% of votes of insanely hard or more with at least 30 people.
 * The comments may also need to be supporting the level to be insanely hard as to show consistency. At least 60% of votes of insanely hard should be observed for all the comments in the level except for troll-voting comments or votes which refer to another level or version.
 * The level must enter the Hardest Level in Reality/Dreamworld poll in order to be graded as insanely hard.

For variable levels

 * The difficulty should not be voted since the perception of different players of the level varies. Sometimes, the level may be very luck dependent there is almost no reason for the phenomenon.
 * The poll should show a balanced voting percentage. The percentage should only vary within 10% for at least 6 difficulty sectors. At least 30 votes should be observed. This means if the level contains 16% for easy, considerably easy, medium, considerably hard, hard and very hard each, while 2% for very easy and insanely hard each, the level is graded as variable.
 * If the level does not contain a poll, the comments section can also be looked into to determine whether the level is variable or not. If the comments section show almost the same percentage in different difficulty sectors, the level is graded as variable. The percentage should only vary within 10% for at least 6 difficulty sectors.

How to grade a level
There are multiple ways to grade a level.
 * By number of attempts (Number of attempts to the difficulty can be found as reference in Difficulty/Sandbox.)
 * By number of combos used to win a level (For better results, we may use average number of combos to determine the difficulty of a level.)
 * By success percentage (Recommended: within 100 attempts)
 * By number of blockers using weighted calculation (Chocolate spawner is one of the blockers in the game which will severely hinder your success rate, while an empty slot is one of the blockers in the game which will not hinder your success rate much. Moreover, the ability to clear the blockers is also a crucial factor in determining the weighted value of the blocker.)
 * By moonscale (Dreamworld) and number of candy colors

Suggested value:
 * Peninsula (can be surrounded by empty tiles or blockers) - 3 for each
 * Islands (must be wholly surrounded by empty tiles or blockers) - 5 for each
 * Holes (surrounded by at least 4 tiles) - 4 for each
 * Regular icing - 1 for each
 * Liquorice locks - 3 for each
 * Chocolate - 5 (8 for extreme cases)
 * Liquorice swirl - 4 (6 for extreme cases)
 * Candy bomb - 10
 * Multilayered icings - 1 for each (single-layered); 2 for each (double-layered) and so on
 * Chocolate spawner - 10
 * Marmalade - 1 for each
 * Cake bomb - -2-10 (depending on usefulness)
 * Toffee tornado - 10
 * Sugar chest - 5 for each
 * Popcorn - 8 for each

Responding difficulty:
 * Very easy: <8
 * Easy: 8-14
 * Considerably easy: 15-22
 * Medium: 23-28
 * Considerably hard: 29-33
 * Hard: 34-40
 * Very hard: 41-55
 * Insanely hard: >55

'''If you don't provide a valid reason in why you suggest this difficulty, your vote will be treated as a void vote and will not be counted in deciding the difficulty of the level (upgrade or downgrade). This is similar to a troll vote.'''

Change in difficulty name
This has been proposed for a long time but has not yet been decided. I suggest changing the name of "considerably easy" and "considerably hard" to "slightly easy" and "slightly hard". This is to avoid confusion of the meaning of "considerably", since it is interpreted as "very" in most occasions, without the meaning of "a little". To change all the forms of considerably hard and considerably easy into slightly hard and slightly easy respectively, we will need to call our locally registered bot CzechBot out.

P.S.: I suggest very hard+ to be maroon color, while changing impossible to gray color. 