Am I the only one who doesn't play at survival difficulty? I feel like everyone is either playing at survival, or a newbie and playing at Normal or below.

I'm playing on Hard....and I find that it fits perfectly for me.

Although embarrasingly, I actually had to turn the game down to Easy to beat one boss It was the Queen Mirelurk or whatever, she was a pain in the ass.

I play on normal.

Cool, I don't feel so alone. Did you also play Fallout3 and Fallout: New Vegas?

Cracks me up how if they are playing one setting below your chosen setting then they MUST be a Noob.

I was playing on normal but have upped it to hard. Still finding it a bit easy now I am lvl 21 so may go for survival difficulty.

I've always played Bethesda games on normal.

Their systems are largely symmetrical; the player character and NPCs obey the same rules as far as stats go, which is something I really like. That symmetry is broken on other difficulties, which is unappealing to me.

I play on normal. I feel like it was designed to be played at that as it's the default. My play style is probably not great by most standards as I go do side stuff for a LONG time and I'm at lvl 24 and have only barely scratched the surface of the main quest line. Once I start rolling through I figure the early stuff will just fold in front of me and when I hit the wall I'll go back to side stuff for a while.

Easy for me. With the exception of Civilizarion 2,. I have never been a skilled gamer.

Normal, with the occasional drop to Easy when necessity deems it, then back to Normal.

Only drop it when suddenly I'm up against something that has killed me ten times in a row.

Mirelurk Queen, looking at you.

I push myself to the limit at work, so when I game I generally play normal difficulties, even if I'm face rolling everything. That all changed with FO4. I found it harder on default than what I was used to, but in a completely compelling and exciting way.

After my first ambush by a legendary, and the epic battle that ensued I was hooked.

I went to hard for the chance at more legendaries and haven't looked back. Not ready for anything higher yet though.

Playing on hard. My character is based more on high charisma and crafting, building, lockpicking and hacking ATM so I don't really have a lot of damage output and I don't use PA or VATS.

Normal...I don't like bullet sponges. If survival kept the same damage dealt to enemies but made me weak enough to be 1 shot by strong enemies then that would be interesting to me.

I also don't like power armor or having to wear the best gear. I'm challenged on normal with my pistol and shotgun combo and modest armor.

Normal for me. The whole "challenge" side of it is a bit meh for me I just take it as an exploration game and enjoy the FO world. If there was something new in harder difficulties like you couldn't meet x boss or armour on lower levels I'd worry about it but since (so far as I'm aware) it makes no odds on content I'm not really bothered.

I tried a character for 5 levels on hard, but wasn't happy with my setup or the difficulty. So i made a new one and went for Survival. I feel like Survival avoid most of the bullet sponging, though some enemies are a victim of this. You need a good balance of gear, perks and chems to take down enemies quickly on survival, atleast at low level.

Normal, because it's, er, normal.

I agree with you for the most part, but I ended up playing Very Hard most on Fallout 3 and just Hard on New Vegas.

Currently running normal on Fallout 4, and though it's arguably "too easy", I don't play Bethesda RPGs for "challenging gameplay". More like total immersion and experiencing the world. I might bump it up to Hard if I end up not having to fear Deathclaws in face to face combat, but I don't need to prove anything by seeing if I can "handle the challenge" of maxing out the difficulty.

Games aren't as hard as they used to be anyway.

I always play on normal. I don't like changing the damage dealt/taken as a way to make the game more challenging.

Normal.

Bullet sponge gaming is silly. Firing dozens of bullets while spamming stimpacks.....I don't see the fun in that.

Hard has been a nice mix for me. Every combat is intense, without worrying about being on the edge of min/maxing.

Dealing with the bullet sponges has just made me more careful, and for the trouble I get more shots at legendary gear.

I love survival, it keeps combat fun and keeps you on your toes and the only time enemies get bullet spongey if you don't stay on top of your weapon upgrades or perk dmg buffs.

Been playing on Normal; but thinking of bumping it up soon to Survival, since I'm up to level 55 and certain parts are starting to get a bit stale.

why cant I quote? I click on quote and it just puts up a blank reply box. oh well.

Yep, I played 3 and nv.

Same for me. Those modifiers on damage are just bad.

Same here. Might be hard to believe but i have NEVER not once ever touched the difficulty slider in a single Beth game going all the way back to Morrowind. I adjust my playstyle instead.

Seriously - I find survival too easy..... I mean I only die through truly careless play.