I adjust it according to character

Heavily armoured Orc war machine - Far right
Unarmoured fisticuff monk - Far left

I usually leave it at 0, unless the game is really poorly balanced, like Morrowind. In Morrowind I scaled the difficulty slider with each level up after 5 (or sth) in order to keep the game challenging. At level 15-20 (it depends on character) I ended up with +100. This means that the game will be gradually easier with each level-up after 15-20 - well, Morrowind was never balanced with greater levels in mind, unfortunately.


I disagree. Powergaming should be fought with. If you can become godlike at level 10, then sth is CLEARLY wrong with game balance. If you can gain 100% Chameleon easily and enemies can't react to it properly, then it means that part of game mechanics affecting this is broken.

Bethesda should really re-think some elements of their levelling system - generally, it's really good, but going after maximum multiplayers is too gamey and unbalanced with the current settings. There are numerous mods that fix this, so it's definitely possible to make it more realistic and make powergaming less viable.

Throwing thousands of monsters at the player is just silly - it's not hack&slash game, let's be reasonable. No one should ever be able to fight with so many creatures at once and win.

Balance is the key.

I like it and tend to turn it down in Oblivion. It's not realistic or satisfying from a gaming point of view that I have to hit someone many many times with a giant sword before they die. It should be three or four hits max to take someone down IMO, so I turn the slider down a bit.

Some advice. If you're on PC, get some balancing Mods. I never have the problem of needing to change my difficulty, anymore. By the time everything is easy, I'm like level 30 (never happens), and I SHOULD be all powerful. Not defending Morrowind, just some advice.

In Morrowind I like to keep the slider at 0. I turn it down occasionally if I'm about to die in a ridiculous manner and I've forgotten to save (this happens much less frequently now that I've turned the autosave on).

In Oblivion I generally try to keep it at 0, except for when I'm fighting trolls or ogres, or some other enemy that takes 500 arrows to kill.

Edit: I voted for the top one, it's not because I want an easier game though. If enemies had less health, but were more intelligent, I would keep the difficulty at default. I think it would be a good idea to give the player less hitpoints as well, but I digress.

Double edit: If I'm doing a "Boss fight" type battle like what the OP described with Divayth Fyr, I always have the difficulty slider at default. I might be weird this way, but I feel like it would tarnish my honour if I "cheat" by reducing the difficulty against a significant opponent, as opposed to random minion #437.

In my version of Morrowind (heavily modified) game was challenging even past lvl 30 and reaching sth like lvl 60 war rather unfeasible. That's not the point - game should be balanced in its Vanilla form. And no, I should never be all-powerful - there should always be entities or at least groups of them that can beat me. That's how it works in the real world and that's how it should work in TES games (I think sth like this is sometimes implied in books). There are no unbeatable men or creatures.

I use it on occasion, but in general I just leave it alone. I don't see a reason for it to be removed.

I often forget the difficulty slider exists, really. I've never touched it in Morrowind, although in Oblivion I did occasionally resort to dropping it down to 40% or so. Primarily during quests like the Defense of Bruma and when I'm feeling impatient with a quest. Really though, I think that the default difficulty curves perfectly with both of the games. Elder Scrolls games are about doing things however/whenever you want to, and it's good that the desperate player can get through the more difficult combat encounters without having to resort to the console.

Why remove the slider? As far as I can tell, it's just a simple health multiplier - it doesn't in any way seem to prove a hassle to implement. Last time I checked, back in the 90s, more customizability and options was a good thing. Daggerfall's world was generic, but there was so much stuff to do that everybody loved it. There's seriously no reason to remove the difficulty slider.

I never use the slider at all and I'm ashamed to admit that I never defeated the ruby weapon and I did try many times.

I'm a little weird with what I do with it. I set it to very easy to play the main quest, then make a new game and keep it normal for my "actual" playthrough, then I make a new game and play hard for a challange.

This.

I wasn't saying that. I agree with you, the vanilla game is what counts. I was just giving some friendly advice. :shrug:

I always turn it slightly easy because of this.

Agreed.

I got through Morrowind just fine, no need to adjust any slider(because there was none unitl tribunal).

I don't know, I've never really payed any attention to it. The only thing I would probably ever use it for was to raise it and play a more "hardcoe mode" Oblivion.

I've always though if I wanted to cheat I would use the command console and put godmode on anyways.

I'm the same way. Even with it all the way on easy, it can be difficult keeping everyone alive in the Kvatch quest. I've done it several times, though. :celebration:

The difficulty slider is fine. If you turn it down past "normal" though, you better not brag about anything you manage to kill

It's basically a cheat bar. If you need to use it to have fun, fine.

As for personal use: I never touch the difficulty slider. It doesn't do anything significant in Oblivion, anyway. The 100 ways to guarantee-win-any-fight are still guaranteed wins no matter how high you move the difficulty slider, they just take longer.

Instead of moving it, I mod the game to close up exploitative tactics. That makes the game a LOT harder, but more interesting as well.

Like above, its basically an easily accessible cheat bar. I'd rather them not even bother to put it in the game, as long as if they do this "scaling" thing again, they do it right.

I don't think of it as a cheat bar. I turn it down when the game gets so hard that it hampers my enjoyment of the game. Whe it gets too easy, I turn it up. I just use it to keep the game's difficulty at a level where I can be challenged, but not have to deal with enemies that take forever to kill. I don't think that using it to maximize my enjoyment of great games makes me a cheater.

Why exactly do you think people cheat..?

I miss the option to vote something like "I never use it but i think it's great that it is there". It's really not much worse than a Easy, Normal, Hard mode. You said it yourself, you don't "have" to use it. Why does it matter how other people chose to enjoy the game if it dosn't affect your experience? Don't be so narrow-minded.

I think the issue is that some people can't help themselves and put it lower when they're about to die because they never saved.

Personally, I liked being killed 20+ times by...
MAGES GUILD SPOILER

It made the fight more interesting and helped me learn how to fight well against powerful enemies.

But then there are moments where a mountain-lion runs through and kills everybody at a daedric shrine and makes the person you get the quest from go flying off a mountain and you don't see them until you wait for 4 days. (happened to me)

I don't know. To not lose? I don't adjust the bar so that I can't ever lose. I adjust it so I don't throw my controller in frustration when I always lose.

I did not vote because my option doesn't exist in your poll.

I personally don't use it. But I strongly believe in giving the player options. Some people don't want to spend hours getting owned my mudcrabs and weeks leveling up to be awesome.

This goes along with fast travel in my opinion. I think it should be there for people who don't really have a lot of time to play and would end up spending most of their time walking instead of enjoying the quests. But those of us who can should still have other options. Like, boats, mounts, etc. They shouldn't negate each other.
Also, you can't blame the game for giving you an option. That's what self restraint is for if it matters that much to you.

So in short. Yes It should be there. And I'm glad it is, Though I don't use it.

Don't even start it. :homestar:

This. Since it's just a stat/health/damage buff for the enemies, I don't really care. It won't make my enemies any less dumber or give them new spells.



I did beat Ruby and Emerald, felt proud, then realized they would always come back because it was too soon in the story. Darn it...