Hi,


What's the difficulty you chose in the game?


I started with the legendary difficulty, but after lvl 30 I changed to hard, but I think I will change to normal or easy.


What I don't like about difficulties in Skyrim is that's not fair for the player. It take you 30 hits to kill an enemy, but this same enemy kill you after 2 hits.


I hope in the SE someone will make a difficulty mod where "hard" actually mean "hard" but not impossible.


Thx

I always play Bethesda's games on their default difficulty. I think the implementation of Bethesda's difficulty sliders is nothing short of idiotic. I prefer to increase difficulty through the use of mods and roleplaying.

Lolol, nice one. I've played Skyrim at Legendary difficulty, in which I've beaten Karstaag after many, many attempts! It's cool, it would be great if Bethesda could add a sort of survival features list trasversal to every difficulty, in order to have a tastier way of exploring that fantastic world.

My difficulty slider’s never budged from default (Adept, I think).

I like weapons to be very dangerous where neither player nor foe can survive more than a few hits at most. An increased difficulty setting boosts enemy damage but nerfs yours so that does not do what I want.

I basically limit my character’s health to very low, effectively increasing the lethality of enemy weapons. Then I ‘oversmith’ my character’s bow, effectively increasing the lethality of her weapon. The result is that neither my character nor her foes can survive very many hits at all – which is exactly what I’m after.

Opponents in game ‘cheat’ in numerous subtle and not so subtle ways but I actually like that. It helps compensate for their tactical shortcomings. After all, they are not very smart, don’t know how to use poison, illusion spells, sneak or a variety of other deadly tactics the player has available.

Agreed.

Sometimes I'll even play on a lower difficulty (especially with Fallout) just so I can keep progressing through the missions/quests I am doing without having to constantly go into the menu to heal myself. It breaks immersion and wastes time if I constantly have to pause the game to eat 17 cheese wheels.


I love a challenging game (Dark Souls is life!) but it's not something I need or want from a TES game. I rather be roleplaying and questing than getting frustrated and repeating progress.


(I have played most TES games on high difficulty, but I find it gets tedious.)

I use Requiem. Requiem disables the default difficulty slider and replaces it with its own sliders in the MCM, which allow you to adjust damage taken independently from damage dealt, which is how it should have been in the first place IMHO.


I leave both sliders in their default position, which increases both damage dealt and damage taken by 6x vanilla Skyrim default.

I almost always play on Novice and don't level much. My favorite characters being one skill characters all perked up. Archers. Sneak assassins. Destruction or conjuration mages. Pre-Dawngaurd vamps skilled only in enchanting using only vampiric drain for offense and post Dawnguard vamps with no skills - using only vamp lord and followers for offense.

I did have an archer that I played on Master difficulty (before Legendary). She was an archer who utilized the restoration loop to smith a long bow up to about 1400 in damage if I recall correctly. She could one hit kill all but the biggest and baddest. In turn, she had only 100 in health and used no armor, so almost everything in the game could one hit kill her. I enjoyed playing her very much. It was very realistic: As an expert archer, if she got in the first shot, her opponent was likely dead, staggered, or immobilized (before archery kill shot animations ruined bullseye). Likewise, if she didn't, she was likely dead.

Default Adept... except in DiD competition's where I will adjust for the type of round OR if a specific difficulty is part of that rounds rules. I increase the difficulty through Mod's, Like Deadly Dragon's and Immersive creatures... lighting and weather mods that make it hard to see to fight.. so planning is essential. But even on 360 I never got above expert on normal play... Little trick's like turning the HUD down, turning the music off ( so you don't get the "warning" sounds).

But everyone is different and their really is no wrong way to play...as long has you are having fun, that is all that counts.

I actually play on Apprentice when I explore alone and go back to default if I have a companion with me.

Oblivion was criticized for the leveled enemies but I actually enjoy the sweet gaming spot that I got from that game. I never touched the setting once on that game. On Skyrim if I do not bounce up and down with the difficulty the game is boringly easy or annoyingly hard. FYI all my characters are role played and not meta gamed.

I also loved the attributes, majors/minors system in Oblivion and greatly dislike the perk system in this game. That could be why the game feels so unbalanced. And the addition of followers.

Very easy for me. Actually, I do that on every game I play except for the Civ games. I play those on Prince.

I know a couple of guys are gonna pan me for this....cos it sounds like an attempt to boast in some way.


But you asked...


Legendary

Dead is Dead

No healing spells or healing potions


Contessa Adella is level 42 and slowly progressing the MQ between teasing and berating her favourite victim....me (she loves me really, er' I think)


Adella make a rare use of the Sanguine Rose and does not regularly take pack mules (sorry, followers) along

We do have a little....just a little RP going on....I always have to buy her the best wine in the tavern....no matter how short we are on coin (believe me that is a real pain at times) and as a lady of cultured and expensive eclectic tastes, the Contessa enjoys an occaisional imported fine cigar.....which cost another 1000 septims a month for a box of 20.....deposited in Belethor's sack above his counter (tax dodge). When she discovers caviar, I'm sunk!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g79gwao10n1k15i/File%2024-06-2016%2C%2002%2004%2029.jpeg?dl=0


Oh and...I stopped playing for fun a long time ago......now it's personal.....

Usually adept ... like a few others here I find Bethesda's implementation of "harder" annoying. I wish harder actually meant smarter . However I am finding expert level (courtesy of a DiD competition) kind of being more of a challenge and less of a sponge fest.

I'm another who never touches the difficulty slider, but uses mods which increase damage, both given and received. I like my fights quick and bloody, not prolonged slugging matches of gradually chipping away at the enemy's health bar.

Started playing on adept, then had master playthroughs on warriors and mages -primarily destruction mages. Then I've had a couple more on legendary with the same types of characters. They all hit the old level 81 cap.

But then I started using shouts much more frequently and saw how it is to shout "Yol" and have the enemies in front of my character go "Really!".

No. When I say Yol, it means fire and nothing less.

So I went back to adept and lived happily ever after

It varies but it is usually the default settings. It depends on what mood I am in and how my arthritis is doing. If it is not acting up I might play at the highest and if it is acting up I might play at easy.

Well.....I an't dropping back from Legendary.....BUT...


I have to agree that high difficulties take all the zing and much of the satisfaction out of shouts and spells.


Some defensive spells and shouts are unaffected.


On Console...."Marked for Death" works as effectively as you think it SHOULD......though as I am told frequently by PC users....its broken.....because on PC a patch "Fixed" it (Fuxed it more like) rendering it practically useless......some "Fix" huh!


Slow time is ok, Become Ethereal is still a great life saver.....not just for jumping.....use it when being dragon blasted.....instant safety!


But all the offensive stuff is very weak on Legendary.....maybe as you would expect, but honesty Destruction spells and shouts should have kept at least most of their potency....imo


PS...btw...UF shout (Fus Ro Dah) is PATHETIC! Even after a boost from Parthy (improves stagger) its still rubbish. It SHOULD knock a mammoth over. It should hurl a bandit 200 yards. It should....at point blank range be body slamming fatal. The current FRD should be what you get with just "Fus Ro". Pah!

Exactly my thoughts. Bethesda's "Moar HP/Less Damage" idea opf difficulty is not difficult. It prolongs combat, which is not the main activity for me in TES games

If "difficulty" actually made opponents difficult, ie: better AI, I'd switch. For me, default/adept suits me fine.

Adept (default AFAIK) - because the game is not about combat to me, it's about exploring and having fun WITHOUT killing my way through the entire province.

Oh.....I see

So switching to say Novice doesn't make the game easier then

It just makes combat faster.


Not a difficulty slider at all then.....just a mere convenience slider. Correct?



So.....if I got this right. You character dies just as easily on Novice as Legendary.....cos its not about difficulty!


So you do not actually do more restarts or reloads on Legendary than you would on Novice!


Well.....you learn something every day here. See I thought that keeping a character alive on DiD against Legendary foes was a bit of a personal achievement for me, but it turns out that it would have been the just same achievement Novice, but just a bit quicker.


Hmmmm.....please forgive me laughing up my sleeve


EDIT.....no you don't have to make the game all about combat, but ya can't exactly avoid it all either!

Expert difficulty has been my sweet spot for quite some time now (I think it's Expert - one step up from default difficulty, whatever that is). At higher levels (40 is "high" for me), I'll often consider stepping things up to Master, but then the game reminds me that my characters can still be one-shot or overrun if I'm not careful.

Would you care to explain for everyone here why Adella lowered her difficulty for the DiD competition, when she was running short of TIME?

It's more than the speed of combat. It's the amount of playing time that needs to be devoted to "building" the character, to the point of overcoming the disadvantage created by the "difficulty setting."

Some of us find the longer combat and the craft grinding tedious. You find it a challenge. So it goes.

Always expert, never lower or higher.

No exploits, no smithing, and when I do use alchemy or enchanting I don't loop them. Prefer no-craft ofcourse.

I start on Master and increase it to Legend around level 35-40

Everything below that feels way too easy once I've leved up Smithing and Enchanting :/

Well firstly I know that Adella was only interested in killing bandits....(we have still yet to start) its ME who wants to play on Legendary and she bullied me into going Expert. (Plus in anycase as you know competition play has requirements that we do Not feel the need to embrace in our regular long term plays, so its kinda irrelevant).


But in anycase Glargg my friend you have missed....or should I say avoided....the point of my article.

(Which has NOTHING to do with "grinding anything" and does not NOT say that Legendary is "better" than lower difficulties.)


Were I being unkind...I could suggest that you were looking to initiate a heated debate with me cast as the moustache twirling villain suggesting Legendsry somehow invalidated other difficulties.....a debate I could not win and would not seek to.


So lets get to what I DID say....if my earlier words masked my intent!!!


That higher difficulties ARE harder to survive and do not "merely make combat take longer".


As I attempted to point out that would mean Novice play was also 'Not easier'....but just made combat faster.


That would mean, Glargg, that you would be NO more likely to die on Novice than Legendary.


Is that your supposition Glargg?

I'll have to disagree here ^^

Facing a Bear, Troll, Vampire, Tiger or even that Restless Draugr in Bleak Falls Barrow simply results in death on the lower levels, if you actually decide to fight them and not run away completely.

It's not like you can run to them, hit, run away, heal and come back for another hit... they aren't that slow so that you could abuse this.

Trolls even start healing themselves.

Higher difficulties actually make you have to pick fights. They make you use things like Conjuration and the stones in the landscape to distract your enemies.

Survival becomes way harder in general.

You start picking the fights that you can make it through and actually avoid fights to a higher level.

Going alone against 3-4 bandits won't turn out too well either.

I don't think Bethesda's difficulty system isn't too great either.

But claiming that higher difficulties aren't more difficult is simply wrong.

The fights aren't taking longer... they are just way more lethal, if you take damage.