Just recalling back to Skyrim. If you mastered Smithing, Alchemy and Enchanting.....you could create armor that would virtually make you indestructible, and a one handed sword that could cut down Giants and Dragons with just a few hits......even on the highest difficulty.

It became so easy that the battle music did not even come on during any enemy encounters.

Really hope Fallout 4 stays in line with New Vegas in this regard.....and always keeps things a challenge even when you have really advanced weapons and armor.

Couldn't you ask that question about any game ever made? Honestly this is a subject with only one way to find the answer, by playing the game (especially since its a very subjective thing)

Well, even if there is crafting, there's no "magic", so the whole "pump up crafting 1, to pump up crafting 2, to pump up crafting 3, repeat" loop, doesn't seem like it can really happen. Higher rank crafting lets you make & use the higher rank parts, but that seems like it. No recursively creating a 10k damage gun.

(...as an aside, I always wonder why people go through all that effort in Skyrim to do the uber-crafting-loop & make stupidly OP gear.... and then complain that the game's too easy. They did it to themselves, by deliberately going out of their way to abuse game systems. I mean, sure - I tried making the "100% Chameleon" stealth suit in Oblivion.... but after 5 minutes, I realized it was boring and threw it out. Never did it on another character. Why would I, if it made the game un-fun?)

Um, New Vegas got pretty damn easy for me, actually, once I hit the level cap and had all of that sweet loot. And I didn't really mind, since that's the point of leveling up. I hope Fallout 4 doesn't become too easy too soon, but by all means let me become an ugodly powerful monster after I've reached like level 100.

Any game gets easy when you know how to break it. I have no doubt Fallout 4 will become that way when you have all your weapons handcrafted and combat perks maxed.

Everytime I read a thread about crafting in Skyrim it seems like there is this idea that everyone went out of there way to craft uber gear in the game...

Except myself.

Step 1) : Develop mastery in crafting the best and most powerful weapons and armor.

Step 2) : Complain that with the very best weapons and armor you find it easier to kill things and harder to die.

ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but you would expect to be more highly powered when you have, er, built up your power.

Though I expect the difficulty settings to confer some variety on the challenge.

So you spent 30+ hours meta gaming to make the most powerful character an low and behold you make the most powerful character.

Every RPG out there is like this. People spend more hours on making god like characters than the main story then act shocked that the game is easy...

@SofaJockey

That's exactly what those guys do though!

Complain that the stuff they spent several days making is "The Best" well if I had to craft 1,000 iron daggers and it ate 32 hours of my game time well it sure had better be the best gear in the whole game!

I don't think I've had any character with more than one of the craftings at 100. And I only ever used +Smithing equipment & potions that I found in loot.

(ooh, one character might have had two at 100. But only because they were doing Enchanting, and then I discovered that one of the armor mods I wanted to try out just stuck the armor in Dragonscale crafting, so I needed 100 smith to even see the things.)

I think if you play the game as intended, and don't go out of your way to level up quickly, then no it will not get too easy too quick. If you actively seek out a way to get to a high level before you try to do any quests, then yes it will be too easy. Who's fault is that? Yours and yours alone. At some point I want my character to be the most feared and lethal character in the game, but only after doing most of what is in the game.

No.

Agreed, to both points. Why complain that the game is too easy when you're using an exploit that, come on, is basically a cheat code. This time around, mods are set bonuses/penalties, and more ranks in Gun Nut or what have you don't increase their damage, just expand the types of mods you're able to create. There's just not a mechanic for that kind of exploit in Fallout. Unless you're also including regular progression, like in FO3 when you had the unique plasma rifle and Grim Reaper's Sprint and everything just turned to goo as soon as you looked at it.

In summary, I'm not just not worried, I'm negative-worried.

Well in regards to spending time making the best type of armor possible, only to then complain that the game gets too easy....Skyrim had a really un-even bandit system I found many times over.

You end up in a fight with a group of bandits.....seem to be holding your own but then 1 of them for some unknown reason is ultra powerful and kills you with only 1 hit. Gives you a really confused and mixed message to how effective you are.

Remember the Foresworn? Most of those could go down easy but then 1 of them suddenly cuts you down instantly! I swear some of those were even more deadly than Legendary Dragons.

I can't become god of the wasteland soon enough. Hoping somebody finds an easy exp gain real quick because the grind does not sound fun.

The grind is the best part!

Not for me its not especially when I'm looking at 200+ levels. No thank you

That was certainly true. A handful of times I'd easily clear the majority of a bandit fort, and the chief sees me and immediately goes to the kill-cam. Usually I tried to strategize more or just run away.

I mean, I absolutely made the best equipment possible and had both smithing and enchanting to 100 eventually. But I didn't abuse it via the iron dagger trick or the positive feedback loop exploit because that didn't seem fun either. To each their own.

Haha I remember that one, good times!

I suppose there is a wide range of what people consider fun. Kinda wish there was a setting like "Uber" in Wolfenstein New Order.

Hopefully there will be various mods that make it possible to customize the balance of combat encounters. In Skyrim, for example, using companions turned the game into easy mode, but after installing mods that added lots of increased spawns, you could get into some epic battles with you and your companions vs an army of necromancers, giants, mammoths and multiple dragons at once.

Difficulty is very subjective to players, aswell as how to best balance it.

Some people want scarcity. Low caps, constantly having to make tough calls on what to buy. Low ammo a constant threat that the next big fight you might just run out.

Some people want volume. Lots of enemies, they don't have to be tough there just have to be a lot of em. Fight the tide!

Some people want few enemies, but they should be hard to beat. They need to be constantly flanking you just when you reload. How do they always know!?

Some people just want enemies that are tough as nails. Like, seriously, that is the third clip. Did his healthbar even move?

Some people want entirely new mechanics. The enemies are not the biggest threat in a wasteland, starvation and dehydration are the real number 1# enemies! You can shoot a radroach, can't shoot hunger induced paranoia.

Ultimately it will come down to modding for players to really find what for them is their personal sweet spot. But even without mods there are choices i, as a player, can make. I'd skip perks like Scrounger if i want rarer ammo and caps, or i'd not bother with crafting if i feel i'd end up with to powerful weapons to early on. To give some examples.

Well, yes.. every game has the ability to become too easy. But, I think most people like to take on a role and try to stick to that role. Skyrims exploits were really fun to use after I'd already played the game a few times and yes they definitely made the game easy... but my first couple of times through I played a specific character and stuck to it. Sticking to your character role makes the game challenging and fun. My only advice is that if there are elements that you think will make the game too easy.. don't use them. These are sandbox games and they allow you to play in lots of different ways.. Making the game challenging or easy is completely up to how you play it.

I think a lot of it comes back to player ego.

Most of the people that complain about how easy a game is, in my experience, are pretty much just looking for the opportunity to "brag" about the weapons, armor, equipment, or tactics that they use to Make the game easy.

For most games, if you just stick with the play balance the designers set, if they did a decent job of play balance to start with, then the game stays fairly entertaining until you hit the top end level caps.

And the solution to that is to crank difficulty up to master and not put any point into health.

Yes you can single hit to kill most enemies however the more serious ones including random bandits with a good bow can return the favor.

You need the 80% fire+frost protection potion or the dragon will kill you before it land.

if it bite you, you die no question even with caped armor stat.

I learned that lesson playing Fallout 3, went back to Oblivion, did not raise endurance much, worked much better.

It was easy to do in Skyrim, none of my characters had more than 150 health.

Main issue in Fallout 3 was the artifact level weapons at fixed locations who was easy to reach if you was willing to spend resources on it.

And yes the shotgun exploit: sneak attacks with shotguns could do more damage than an fatman