Difficulty

[SirGalahad]

Did Bethesda actually figure it out?

 

I am shocked by how much more difficult the game becomes when moving from the default of Adept to Expert. Granted, I just started playing a couple days ago, but I never took beatings like this in Morrowind or Oblivion. I can't even imagine what Master or Legendary must be like.

 

I am surprised to find this level of challenge in a Bethesda game. Not disappointed, mind you—just surprised. Maybe it becomes too easy down the road?

 

I want to ask: Do you have to micro-manage your character's skills to avoid constant humiliation above Adept? I reckon I'm looking for a little affirmation here, that I'm not experiencing something unusual. My first and only character is a level 18 Breton warrior. I've not micro-managed the way I did in the last two games—I just play. I hope that's not going to paint me into a corner.

 

Thanks!

[KKrueger]

You're right: the leap in difficulty is astounding. Having said that, though, it's necessary and appreciated. I don't consider myself an expert gamer (I play in the evenings after work, mostly, and just to relax), but that leap in complexity is definitely needed by a large demographic of players; they'd lose interest if it was too easy. What I tend to do is start out as a Novice, build up my character, build up my own (real-world) skills, and slowly gravitate the difficulty upwards.

[Deleted2993601User]

The difficulty in Skyrim is pathetic to say the least. Higher difficulties should mean a more responsive AI etc but the only thing that happens when you up the slider is that you deal less damage and they deal more. Not necessarily a lot harder, just more tedious.

 

Also, with beth's cappy coding, you can take down karstaag on legendary with but a few hits, all without technically cheating.

[Sirropoo]

Playing Master is just knowing what to train and what NOT to train from the start, but even then, you have to pick your battles a little more cautiously and rely more on your companion.

 

Once you get past a certain point in the game, that "difficulty" curve starts going down to a point where it feels like you are playing in normal mode again ...enjoy the challenge tho.

[SirGalahad]

Right. I've read the difficulty really tapers off after a certain point, much as did Morrowind: Maxing it out made the game fun in the beginning, but it eventually became stale and repetitive.

 

I've read there are mods that change player and enemy damage proportions more thoughtfully, with the player doing 1× damage and enemies doing up to 4× damage. Is that an improvement?

 

Regarding the A.I.: It is monumentally bad. After a few days with the game, it is easy to see Bethesda spent most of their resources creating content without significantly improving or advancing their game engine. Early reviewers must have been blindly focused on visual improvements made since Oblivion.

 

Still, the bad A.I. allows us to cowardly fight from atop rocks....

[RatcatcherOfKvatch]

Oblivion at max difficulty is more difficult than Skyrim -- until you start building your obligatory Oblivion uber-mage. So the tutorial is grueling, way harder than anything you'll find in Skyrim, and once you finally crawl exhausted out of the sewer ... well from there it gets a lot easier, doesn't it?

[SirGalahad]

Since my earlier post, I've since learned how easy the game becomes once you've learned to exploit the rather limited A.I. For example, you can get a couple of Stealth perks and kill most enemies with arrows, because the A.I. is too poor to find you or bother looking for you for more than a few seconds.

 

So, yeah, the game is hard . . . until you learn how easy it is. Then it's just sad.

[kleinstaff]

Did Bethesda actually figure it out?

 

I am shocked by how much more difficult the game becomes when moving from the default of Adept to Expert. Granted, I just started playing a couple days ago, but I never took beatings like this in Morrowind or Oblivion. I can't even imagine what Master or Legendary must be like.

 

I am surprised to find this level of challenge in a Bethesda game. Not disappointed, mind you—just surprised. Maybe it becomes too easy down the road?

 

I want to ask: Do you have to micro-manage your character's skills to avoid constant humiliation above Adept? I reckon I'm looking for a little affirmation here, that I'm not experiencing something unusual. My first and only character is a level 18 Breton warrior. I've not micro-managed the way I did in the last two games—I just play. I hope that's not going to paint me into a corner.

 

Thanks!

 

highrt difficult levels is not making the game harder , in skyrim case master and legendary level is just a excersise in SM with you as victim , there is nothing more frustrating than a novice icemage killing your lelvel 40 warrior almost instantly with a simple sparks spell or a lowly banfint instant killing your character wearing deadric armour with on one hit with a iron sword

 

it is in my opinion more immersive loading mods that changes the AI or the combat system than the vanilla doffoculty levels

[Moshadawg]

I use a mod that removes level scaling from all enemies. The enemies that spawn are just as easy or difficult when I start a game as they are when I am super powerful. It's just kind of random what level of enemies will spawn where, but certain areas are meant to be more difficult than others. Using this I tend to start out on adept, or apprentice at the very least if I am really struggling, and move it up to expert as my character becomes more powerful (usually around level 20 or so). I have a level 66 mage with a mod that scales his spell damage with his skill level so I have to play on Master otherwise it is way too easy. I still kill everything with relative ease, but some enemies do a lot of damage to me as well so it's rather balanced.

I will encounter bandit plunderers at level 1 which will rape my soul on adept, but when I am level 25-30 on expert these same bandit plunderers are like standard enemies.

[RatcatcherOfKvatch]

Well I've just brought a Legendary / No Fortify Restoration / Permadeath character up to "probably will survive" status (~40). It's immensely rewarding.

 

Without Fortify Restoration supercharging your equipment there's a strong incentive to go out into the world and squeeze every marginal advantage for all it's worth, so excavating Kolbjorn and getting the Sallow Regent book both became very important tasks. I have to admit it's more fun this way.