That's kinda the point though, whether you like it or not VATS is a feature in this game, so is PA. If making use of features that the devs themselves provide and said features trivialize the most challenging difficulty of the game, then it's pretty obvious that you have a balance problem. And it's not like VATS or PA are the hidden uber-weapon of doom and destruction, they are literally provided from minute 1.

I am playing on hard difficulty and find it too easy and out of balance. What is most annoying is the typical baddie goes down in one or two hits from a 10mm (too easy) and then you pull out the heavier weapon and possibly a chem for the legendary (right on!). Please give the trash mobs more defense and a little more offense to balance it a little more. Thank you

If you honestly think that higher difficulty would only cater to .003% of the player base then I have no idea what to tell you other than you're wrong. You RP? 1 & 2 were twice the RPGs of either Beth FO but NV was decent at replicating the FO experience. It doesn't matter. It's pointless to argue with somebody who wants to deny a huge swath of the player base something they would enjoy when it would in no way, shape or form effect the way you play.

I killed a Legendary Mythic Deathclaw with a combat knife on survival, your argument is invalid. I took on 5 alpha deathclaws and a behemoth all at once. The difficulty is [censored]

It's was a crutch put in to pander to the FO 1/2 crowd. I've ignored it since after the first hour playing FO 3

Survival Mode was pretty hard for me until I got the hang of it, now it just feels "normal", but it still feels just right. And I still find myself dying a lot.

But then, I'm not an elite gamer who's actually good as stuff. I'm terrible at shooters. I thought I was pretty good at Mega Man, but then I saw some people play it on youtube and it made me sad. I'm good at TES and Fallout because I'm thorough. But I'm really not a leet gamer god.

Okay. No more arguing from me.

Instead, I have a suggestion. For all the folks that are posturing that Survival is ridiculously easy, how about we go ahead and set up a channel or just post videos here of you folks that are so "awesomely awesome" so that you can show us all these amazing skills. I'll even pay for it if we need to. I think the rest of us can certainly learn how to "git gud" from y'all. I honestly do. My only request would be to "prove it". Post the difficulty, armor and weaponry you are using and then show us how you go up against these bosses and difficult foes. I, for one, can obviously use a tutorial.

As per my last post. Prove it. I don't believe you.

Enemies scale, especially main quest enemies. At level 60, they're doing oodles more damage than they would at level 10, and I'm positive the player's stats will lag behind after a point. After perks and gear, only your HP marginally increases with each level, everything else has a natural top out in-game.

But as for the topic overall, this game was never meant to be super difficult. Inevitably one will get into a violent confrontation, not everyone or everything can be reasoned with after all, but game play needs to be open enough to avoiding violent conflict. Personally, I think it would be nice if harder difficulties simply meant more enemies, more accurate enemies, and more damage from enemies without any associated durability boosts. Sure, the game can be easy, but if even with bleeding edge equipment and perks into damage resistances and extra health we still go down in 3-4 shots from your average raider, it can be hard. Though honestly, I think placing more requirements on the player might be the smarter way to go. Less ammo found, food and drink becomes a requirement. Weapons and armor have durability (unusable when broken, or just less damage and inaccurate at lowest durability?) All humanoid enemies have stims and use chems for various effects (jet would make raiders super accurate, buffout faster and more durable, etc. Obviously better armors and weapons, as opposed to simply beefier health and damage values. If Bethesda could afford to tax players machines with smarter and more numerous AI, there's no reason not to even on normal.

VATS is cheating. It's built in because it's an RPG as well as a FPS game. It's for those with poor FPS skills.

I can play this game naked on Survival and do OK. Not because it's too easy, but because I'm a monster who has played FPS since Doom and when I was good, could snap shot pretty well any pixel on the screen. I'm nowhere near that now but hey.

Some pain, I'll be 70 soon.

I chose to play a combo RPG/FPS game because Stalker is one, and it's what I love.

This. If I can stand in front of a minigun on survival and not die something is wrong

Hey, nobody forces you to use the highest difficulty. Some people are asking for a real challenge, what's your problem with that ?

This, and all Beth games, handle awfully as FPSs. Not to mention half the perks are VATs only and melee builds are useless without VATS. The game was balanced to use VATs on most occasions. Always has been.

Guys, this is getting a bit personal in places, cool it and be mindful of the forum rules. Thanks.

Perhaps. But how do you judge that scaling when Player A finds it trivial, Player B finds it just right, and Player C finds it too hard?

(And then you push the curve upward to be harder..... and you still get people saying "too easy", along with a larger and larger number of people saying "too hard"?)

Having played all 3 3D Fallout games a whole lot. Be into the thousands of hours now, I do know how poor they are as shooters and understand the perks I never use.

I have managed to dominate them, always on the hardest setting, so for me, VATS is most certainly cheating. They are way more fun without that crutch. Melee in F4 is certainly bad as compared to ESO, where my beserker Orc uses a big hammer exclusively, but I can adapt.

I would agree with you generally, but you can't deny that there are features that FO4 provides itself that make the game far too easy that don't require high or any mechanical skill. (VATS, Power Armor)

You say some people don't have the possibility to lower the difficulty? Is it a known bug?

You're level 97!? That's why! The "endgame" difficulty content is designed around level 50. Of course the game is ridiculously easy now, that's supposed to happen when you're several dozen levels above demigod status!

My question is, how? The highest level I've ever gotten was level 52, and I'm running out of things to do on that character.

Power Armor is fun. I have spent way too much time getting it just right. Mine runs like a deer and regens AP very fast when it's not doing the deer thing. As well a T60e is considerably tougher than regular T60 junk the BoS runs. I just took out a heavy sledge and beat the Forge guy to death. That was close though.

Easily, you don't need to get rid of any of the modes in now. Just make harder ones. One's that aren't pure bullet sponges. Increase the number of enemies, make damage more realistic, reduce the amount of ammo, Reduce the efficiency of stims such that using them in combat is near useless, make stronger enemies more accurate instead of bullet sponges, have flanking tactics, have long range snipers that take potshots while you are being charged by short range beserkers, have enemies lay down a barrage of covering fire while some move forward. And I don't mean the silly 95% miss rate fire they do now, i mean covering fire that you actually need to take cover from or die (which would tie in with more realistic damage).

As for scaling you don't need to judge the scaling at all. Just make harder and harder difficulties until you make one where even the developers go [censored] man, I don't think I can survive this. And then make one that's another level harder and call it a day. And make them all available so you can find one that suits you.

I wish they could upgrade their AI. FO4's is only slightly better than anything previous and they are still dumb as a sack of rocks.

What if we don't want to lower the difficulty? It's not like the good things about Survival are retained at the lower difficulties.

I actually haven't played with power armor at all, even though I have a full set of X-01 just standing there, will try it in my str playthrough along with heavy weapons. It does seem fun tho.

You can do silly things. I like to smoke through a building after disturbing the hornets nest. Then hide a bit, you can seriously confuse them, and murder them from the other side, the devs did not seriously plan for. I'm terrible, it's just a game to me.

Closed for Review.

I am leaving this closed as some people can not discuss this topic without resorting to personal attacks even after a moderator told you to cool it.

About 10 posts went in the trash, the rest of the thread stays closed.