recruit difficulty affects number of people/enemies?

[-Anti- 1]

Sorry, I can't find the answer to this anywhere.

Does 'recruit' difficulty only affect AI behaviour, or does it actually cut the number of enemy too?

I've just started the Harvest Red campaign and the map is fairly empty and devoid of action.

Most of the time I'm just travelling around on a nearly empty map!

If I chose normal, would I see more action, like random patrols or road blocks?

Cheers.

[igneous01 19]

i dont think the campaign spawned more enemies at higher difficulties. However the spotting range of ai has been reduced it seems.

[W0lle 1052]

It depends entirely on the mission creator. It's possible to make enemies and objects only appear in Veteran mode (or not in Veteran mode at all).

[-Anti- 1]

ok, thanks.

After posting, I read a lot of posts in various places saying that Harvest Red is not a well-built campaign, so maybe that's the problem.

[kireta21 13]

Mission designer can use difficulty level as condition for units to appear, but AFAIK it's not used in Harvest Red.

There are many patrols, but with map that large there are good chances to avoid them. Note game is balanced for higher difficulty when any firefight might get you, or your buddies killed, so it's more about avoiding troubles, than looking for them. You're not only friendly force in area, friendly patrols, both foot and armored, can be met, I remember when in Manhatan rampaging tanks spotted patrol in forest, chased survivors and wiped-out one enemy camp for me :D.

Also as stated above, with lower difficulty AI won't spot you unless they're really close, so many possible threats will just past you by. You might want to try AI mods, like ASR_AI where (via adjustable config) units may be set to spot and engage you from far away (like in Veteran), but their accuracy won't be dead-on at direct fire distances.

Edited July 27, 2012 by boota

[chortles 263]

The consensus seems to be that in general, difficulty only affects the AI behavior and not the total number and composition of enemies/vehicles.

[Ringosis 10]

ok, thanks.

After posting, I read a lot of posts in various places saying that Harvest Red is not a well-built campaign, so maybe that's the problem.

No offence to Bohemia, but their campaigns are always terrible with the one exception of Operation Flashpoint, but then the campaign is not why people play Arma games. The enjoyment comes from mods, custom made missions and multiplayer.