In all seriousness I think Veteran/Soldier/Custom has been one of the most intuitive ones so far.
I like that idea, the hero part ties in with the rest of the game giving some coherency.I have to agree. I would like to have Hero for "realism" difficulty, and as seeing that most people that will play HOS will have played first-person shooters of one kind or another, Veteran should constitute "relaxed realism," while Custom is straight to the point and is suitable.
(Another of) My take:
Hero
Veteran
Custom
I like to keep things simple
Immersive - realism
Accessable - relaxed realism
Custom - custom
Just my two cents.
I think these are the best suggestions so far.
Immersive is less controversial than "realism" and its just as descriptive.
Accessable is descriptive like "casual" but is less off putting to people who might think casual means "not serious" or "easy".
It also avoids calling one mode better than the other. "Hero" or "enhanced" are skewed towards those, since the alternative is not a hero, or not enhanced.
I have to say, the idea of naming the modes after army divisions is extremely bad. It's a pretty much useless name since 90%+ of people are going to have to read the description to tell what the mode is actually about.
Gap between veteran and recruit is a bit too small, Elitist and Conscript sound more proper to me. It's a war game not some fantasy, keep it military style and professional
Elitist
Conscript
Custom