Why is every difficulty setting allowed in full campaign runs. William Wallace is obviously in standard, but why isn't the rest only Hard mode?

Purely timings based standard is the fastest, but also the least challenging, since with the low aggro range you can basically run past everything.

The case with AoE1 was that some maps were faster on Hardest and some were faster on Easiest/Easy, so I carried over the rule to allow difficulty-mixing to AoE2 since I thought the same might apply here. You could do Hard difficulty runs of campaigns if you'd like, but I don't see the point in making it the standard, if some maps will be slower this way.

I think in either way it is more interesting to run the game on Hard rather than Standard or Moderate. Of course we can keep the so called Any% which allows any difficulty here, mostly being Standard. I also think that this game will never lack chances to cut time with such a huge amount of possibilities in build orders, micro, etc etc. Therefore Standard is not gonna be super boring either, also a more relaxed run compared to Hard, especially using the HD edition which seems to be having a way longer AI aggro distance.

IMO, as I have said on #AoM several times, we could just make categories for any difficulty runs and Hard/Hardest (on aoe1) both, the strats are so different from eachother in many of the ILs. Either way, if you complete a run on Hard mode only, IMO we should have a category for that.

Honestly, I don't think Standard or Moderate runs are particularly interesting in AoE2, since the AI becomes very trivial to deal with, and the tiny aggro range just lets you run through scenarios. It's still worth keeping track of what people pull off, though.

I'd be in favour of having one category where you stick to Hard mode only, and one where mixing difficulties is allowed (though I can't think of a single scenario where you'd want to switch away from Standard).

HD seems to be the hardest version to run, since the AI has been changed a bunch and certain strats that were previously possible on AoE2 no longer turn out to be possible in the re-release. In that sense, HD Hard isn't perfectly comparable with AoE2 Hard, but I think that simply listing it as a separate variable is enough.

Could you list a few changes of AI/levels that you can't pull of anymore? (or link somewhere you found that)

Standard difficulty allows you to simply walk into an enemy base with villagers without taking aggro, removes most micro in those levels and is just about building that siege workshop/tower.

I guess should have atleast hard difficulty runs as some standard, but if HD AI is that different it can cause some problems.

I have no exhaustive list of things that have changed, but a random example is Montezuma 4. In regular AoE2, it's possible to run past the first castle without taking any shots. In HD, it starts firing at you.

Secondly, aggro ranges are generally bigger in HD than in regular AoE2. I'll see if I can make some kind of comparison video some time.

In Montezuma 4 the castle shoots at you on hard difficulty. I think you are mistaken by the run barbarossa did on AGDQ? He did his run on standard difficulty, on which indeed the aggro range is lower.

AoK and AoC has some differences, but it as far as I can tell AoC/HD are the same, besides a slightly slower input lag on HD (though shouldn't make difference in runs)

In AoC, the first castle in Montezuma 4 doesn't attack on Standard difficulty, but in HD it does. I just re-tested it to make sure.

S̶p̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶a̶j̶o̶r̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶c̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶i̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶a̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶1̶1̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶o̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶t̶t̶p̶:̶/̶/̶w̶w̶w̶.̶s̶p̶e̶e̶d̶r̶u̶n̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/̶a̶o̶e̶2̶/̶r̶u̶n̶/̶5̶2̶1̶3̶5̶ ̶ ̶

T̶h̶e̶ ̶H̶D̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶m̶i̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶u̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶t̶t̶l̶e̶,̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶l̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶.̶

EDIT: Reinstalled, and now it works.

I'm pretty sure you did it wrong.

I got 4:59 on it when running it on stream quickly, HD might be even faster, feels much smoother, but I might be fooled because graphics are better. Things like going through gates when enemy units run in goes smooth, while it feels clumsy on non HD version.

Edit: I failed hard didn't set the frame for HD, black screen run on stream. Trying again.

Just tried mashing through, but to no avail. Reinstalled the game and now I can get through very easily. This is a bit puzzling, to say the least.

EDIT: nvm, it was on standard. On side note, is it possible to see difficulty on screen while running like with non HD

Ran agincourt on HD, 2nd try beating the record.

Either lucky now to run it better or HD is faster. Maybe the difference between 20fps/60fps that makes these maps about pathing easier?