five difficulty settings:
* Very Easy
* Easy
* Normal
* Hard
* Really Quite Hard
currently in 2.0 RC4-2319, we have 3 settings that I consider
to be Very Easy / Normal / Really Hard.
Some revisions ago, the difficulty for campaigns has also been altered,
in addition to money and number of soldiers,
(which is not mentioned in the campaign-descriptions !)
and this is a bit too much at once.
Too many soldiers is bad because you cannot use them (only the
first 19 men are selectable), and it causes more micromanagement.
Too few soldiers is bad, because it takes away choices from the player.
(You have to use everyone in the mission, to have any chance at all)
And restarting the game until you get a 'good enough' team is not fun...
I suggest:
* Very Easy - 18 soldiers, 6'000'000c, difficulty -3,
* Easy - 16 soldiers, 6'000'000c, difficulty -2
* Normal - 12 soldiers, 4'000'000c, difficulty 0
* Hard - 8 soldiers, 3'500'000c, difficulty 2
* Really Hard - 6 soldiers, 3'500'000c, difficulty 3
Another important issue is the availability of armor:
currently, you only get 8 kevlar-vests.
With one of these, a soldier has a chance to survive 1 or
2 shots from a distance. Without it, he is most likely dead.
Armor of dead soldiers is lost, so without replacement
from the market, the situation gets worse, because
the soldiers will die even faster.
And on "hard difficulty", you get less money,
so even producing armor (at outragous prices)
is not feasible.