Skyrim: Less Harsh Hardcore Mode

[beholder2]

At this moment, I find this kind of way to play too hard to achieve because :

 

- The targeting system is too close. You have to be detected/seen in order to see the enemy bar, and so to know which kind of enemy you must face.

- You have really no idea about the difficulty to beat an NPC. You can rapped off all enemies in a place, fealing like a semi-god, and you encounter a NPC who 2-shots you without the time to understand what happened...

- It's very class dependant. Doing this with a melee character is kind of suicidal.

[minngarm]

Eh, what we need to make the game harder is increased spawns, not spawn locations but the number of what spawns. and improved UI. Wolves for example are retarded in this game. In reallity they hunt in packs, and use basic tactics such as feints, and flank attacks. They are faster than they are in game as well.

 

Mammoths as well are to slow, when attacking they would barrel down on you and charge at full speed. Knocking you over or trampling you.

 

As for people, Well mages charge at you, so that alone breaks their UI. They would stand off at range, use cover between casting, or stack up behind a melee. Also Melee in groups needs a rework. They too would also flank and feint. or even shield wall you. Then when working with a companion enemies focus on them and turn their back literally to you. Which no one with any fighting experience would do if they could help it.

 

The problem isnt just the game mechanics, its the shoddy AI for NPCs.

[mutonizer]

This is just what i think but here i go

 

I play on master 100% of the time, straight from the start of the game....it's easy mode and not hard enough!!!!!

No fast travel besides carriages? i do the same because i hate fast travelling and the carriages are fine as morrowind had the silt striders and they too went to the major cities

no 3rd person unless looking at your toon? idk about anybody else but i switch from 1st and 3rd person all the time, not just when exploring but even in combat...

 

 

Everthing can be "easymode", depending on how you play since there is no ironman mode.

If you play on Master, then you can be one shotted by a lot of things unless you're in full heavy, and even then it doesn't take much. Per se, that doesn't spell "easy mode".

That said, there are ways to make it easy, which is what everyone does, when confronted with difficulty (that's part of solving the difficulty process). If something is insanely hard and you find ways to make it easier, than does it become easy? No, you just overcame the difficulty, that's all.

 

Adding hardcore realism mods just adds to that difficulty, but you WILL find ways to make it easier.

 

 

 

You want over the top REAL hardcore? Go Master & Ironman. Disable ALL saving systems and only save on quit.

- You lag 1/2 a second when facing a storm master? too bad, one shotted, you start new.

- You're 30cm too close to that Briarheart dual wielder when he combos, too bad, one shotted, you start new.

- Those 3 Draugr shout you all over the room while you get two shotted by random archers? Ah well, you start new.

Skyrim isn't really designed for that however and you can potentially become Dragonslayer by level 7 or 8, maybe earlier. It's not meant to be that hard of a game overall.

 

Last time I did Ironman was for Temple of Elemental Evil (one of the only real games with Ironman) and man..tons of fun, but never got to the end that way, ever. And no way I'm ever doing that in Skyrim, it's just nuts since there is no end.

[SansSword]

Only being able to save your game in town + no fast travel would be hardcore enough for me.

 

This is good. Perhaps spawn 25-50% larger packs of enemies to make it really nuts. Good stuff.

[soot00]

Ok while this sort of subject has probly been beaten to death i just wanted to though my current ideas out there ;]

 

• Master Difficulty
• Death Requires Revert To Save In Last Town
• Level Up Requires Town
• No Making Potions
• No Spec'ing Into Restoration Tree (Using spells is fine just no perks)
• No Fast Travel Besides Carriages
• No 3rd Person Besides Looking At Your Character For Fun ;]

Basically I was doing the whole restart your character (i was starting from lvl 1 in whiterun no perks spent) on death, but ummm i kinda died in really fail ways ex. i feared an assassin into a group of ice wolves :/ my poor little breton got 2 shotted

 

So this is my way of bringing some scattered thoughts together to make the death punishment still harsh but while not so harsh that you would really just not want to play.

 

 

So what do you think?

 

This is just what i think but here i go

 

I play on master 100% of the time, straight from the start of the game....it's easy mode and not hard enough!!!!!

No fast travel besides carriages? i do the same because i hate fast travelling and the carriages are fine as morrowind had the silt striders and they too went to the major cities

no 3rd person unless looking at your toon? idk about anybody else but i switch from 1st and 3rd person all the time, not just when exploring but even in combat...

 

Since it's a jack of all trades game and no limitations to # of skills one can have. Those that boast about Master difficulty being easy is laughable. You want to make it hard, than limit the skills your character is rolling with .. :teehee:

 

Example:: Mages casting the most powerful of spells, rolling with heavy armor and a nasty 2 hander, whoop de doo, i play on Masta difficulty!!

Edited November 18, 2011 by soot00

[ogridum]

My self imposed rules.

 

-Must play on master difficulty all the time

-Must use real time scale set to 1 all the time

 

 

-No changing of armor gear during combat, except taking out shield.

-No drinking potions while the game is paused. Must fall back from combat for at least 6 seconds to drink a potion or be far from enemies and in cover to drink more than more potions.

-Must role play physiologic needs regularly:

-Must eat food every day.

-Has to use "sleep" every day like in real life, or sleep for longer in situations where you deprive yourself from sleep. After sleep is the only moment the player can save the game.

-Must take shower every few days and REMOVE cloths to shower and wait/jump a bit before putting clothes back on.

During low temperature scenarios, such as night snow, heavy snowing, snowing or rain in high altitude and blizzards, player must roleplay adequate behavior: seek refuge, remain close to a fire source, use fur armor, frost/fire cloak /stoneflesh magic, frost resist on armor or drink a frost resist potion. If none is available, role play hypothermy.

 

-No Fast Travel.

-No fast travel through carriage.

-No using "wait" to skip time passing.

-No quick save and quick loading

-Character dies, must use the save made after last sleep. "Everything was a bad dream".

-Player can only hike slopes that have 130 degree of inclination or more. No wall running of anything with less than 130 degree of inclination.

 

-No unreasonable, not natural, unjustified methods to improve skills:

this means no rubberbanding sneak behind a balcony near a vendor. While its ok when hunting or stealing/pickpocketing or trying to assassinate someone. Sneaking everywhere in town without an insidious purpose other than training a skill is not reasonable.

not using azura black star for cheap enchanting leveling, If the player stumbled upon the quest naturally without previous knowledge of the devious exploitative possibilities, its ok. Starting a new character and doing a bee line for it is not ok. If it is acquired a long playthrough where the player has effectivelly paid his deeds by leveling enchanting the hard way up to level 80 or so, its excusable, but not to abuse it by non stop enchanting up to 100 in a sit. This exception is just to not negate completely one of the unique rewards for quests just because the unlucky player got spoiled about it.

Not abusing bribery in Riften to raise speech skill. Speech has to be leveled naturally. Its ok to sell items one by one, its reasonable to imagine the character bartering for each item individually and thus gaining more experience in doing so.

Not intentionally breaking lockpicks over and over on a master lock for the purpose of fast leveling. This has to be leveled naturally, players has to do its best to get the locks opened.

Not hurting yourself on fire/blizzard/fall damage in a method that by itself could represent a threat for the life of the player (anything that deals huge chunks of damage in one attack/event) for the purpose of training restoration or training with an enemy that represents a threat (character is not going to risk its life stupidly during training). If the damage to life is manageable by its nature, then it could be naturally used by a healer to train its abilities. This allows the player to use enemies/methods that obviously dont represent a threat as training subjects, such as conjured enemies without weapons, mudcrabs, slaughterfish, due to their obvious characteristics. Using terrain against their physical limitations is perfectly fine.

 

In combat is not fine to abuse the AI pathfinding, for example: you know the enemy cant reach you in a straight path, but it can do so if it turns back and circle around an obstacle, but after the enemy starts doing so, you promptly move again to an area where the actual pathfinding cant reach you, forcing the AI to find a new pathfinding and then repeating it over and over, making it so you can easily and unreasonably kill an enemy by abusing the AI, such as a frost troll/bear/giant/mammoth getting stuck behind a rock or elevation that it would be realistic in that situation for said enemy to just escalate, jump over, jump down or pass over, but due to the mentioned AI limitation, it does not do so. Its ok to attack a target from a strategical advantageous position, but once the AI has figured that the current path cant reach the player and makes up a new pathfinding, the player can either remain or move to a different spot, but after the player moves again, and the AI addapts the pathfinding, the player cannot go back to a previous position, forcing the AI to backtrack everything again in an endless exploitative cycle when the AI limitations when judged by the player would not hinder the actual enemy from reaching the player. A giant, frost troll, big cats and bears should be able to jump over an obstacle the player can also jump, but since they dont do so, the player cannot use the AI limitation to get a cheap kill. The player can only use/explore strategic points that enemies would not legitimaly be able to reach, even if they could jump/escalate according to their individual physical characteristics.

 

Pickpocketing attempts must be preceded by reasonable undetected aproach to the targets (no just walking behind them after they saw you and then activating sneak, its unreasonable because the npcs should still know you were just there, therefore the player must account for npcs memories and refrain from pickpocketing unless he is certain that according to the situation the npc is not aware of his presence, such as approaching enemies from behind, in dark areas, or while they are sleeping are examples).,

 

Allowing oneself to get hurt moderatelly by an enemy that is no threat for the purpose of training restoration/alteration/block/light armor/heavy armor is allowed. Just like the random event student that asks to train his magic abilities on you. Its reasonable and part of the role play.

Conjuring enemies to use them as sparing to train one handed/two handed/archery/destruction magic is ok, as well as weak enemies the player knows that doesnt represent a threat to its life, such as a mudcrab or a slaughterfish, due to their obvious limitations, its reasonable within the setting to use them for the purpose of evolving ones abilities.

It goes without mention that naturally improving during life threatening situations has no limitations, as long as the character intends to cease the aggression as fast as possible by disabling/killing the threats. Not maiming dangerous enemies. Thats unreasonable. Player must role play realistic threat for its life and role play accordingly.

 

-Player cannot use an alchemy guide for the purpose of finding all the effects of each ingredients without error or waste of materials. Players has to eat alchemy ingredients to find their properties buying the alchemy perk, read recipes they find in-game. Attempting to find ingredients by trial and error only if the player never read an alchemy guide, thus not being spoiled forever.

 

-No console modifications such as adding/removing money/perks/skills/levels/carryweight, etc.. Cosmethic changes such as removing the hud for screenshots are ok. Changing FOV to a lower value for the purpose of zoom cheating with eagle eye is not allowed. Player has to choose one FOV setting and stick to it.

 

Its ok to use the map or the quest markers. Its justified as the equivalent of the character socializing more in depth with the npcs to gather more accurate information on the targets/locations.

 

 

I think this covers most, if not all the "self imposed rules".

"The way its meant to be played". Its a shame people ruin their own experience inadvertently, by not staying true to the immersion, trying to be fair and reasonable, justifying everything in a coherent way. Preventing themselfs from using cheap routes.

[SansSword]

My self imposed rules.

 

Wall of text

 

Well, good luck finishing sometime in 2017. But it sounds like you're not into finishing so never mind.

 

Little extreme for me but each to his own.

[Solitude102]

My self imposed rules.

 

I play similar to this style as well. Thought I was the only one o.o..

[19logan91]

Based on the original reply i was ready to be hated on the whole time good to know some people have similar play styles. The whole reason i do it is i feel like im cheating almost if i allow certain things

[ogridum]

I dont play games to reach a destination. I play games for the journey.