LE Skyrim Difficulty Balance Overhaul

[Beriallord]

A basic thief build, with sneak/pick pocket/lockpick/speechcraft using gear you can find/buy/steal is one of the most fun to play.

[Soutie300]

I have played Skyrim on Expert from the start and at around level 10 I moved to Master. I play stealthy archer and when I get half of the archery and steath perks i kill everything(except dragons and giants) in 1 or 2 shots....

 

The Smithing upgrade system definately needs to be nerfed. I made a Daedric bow doing 214 base damage(that is only possible if you have enchanted items that improve the upgrades and by using potions too(with no alchemy perks).

 

We need a mod that doesnt just balance things out. We actually need a mod that makes the mobs completely overpowered so that we can upgrade to the best we can and still have a really high chance of dying.

 

You can basically do smithing till level 100 at the start and already reach level 10. which means 10 perk points easy plus you can make the best gear and upgrade it. I know that there is a mod that nerfs the creation skills, you can get all the trade skills to 100 without getting a dot of xp which is nice and it makes it a lot harder to level up. There is also a mod that takes away the level cap for skills which is nice for single style playing.

 

Skyrim needs a huge nerf mod. Make the player weaker and mobs stronger.

Multiplayer mod would also be good, but they must do it Diablo style every player thats joins difficulty multiplies.

However i do like the fact that they kept the max sneak bow hit at 3x. So they knew about that problem.

 

I am really bored of the game now, it is way too easy and I don't think I will play until a proper balancing mod comes out

[ita44]

The only part I actually agree with is making smithing and enchanting harder to level, as in lower end things stop giving skill at some point or give very little. Also vendors selling increasingly powerful gear as you level up is kinda wrong.

 

However, no caps is fine. I absolutely hated the caps in Oblivion and always used mods to get rid of them. Namely in Oblivion all skills and stats were capped at 100 so if you you had for example 100 weapon skill and 100 strength as a warrior, all gear enchants except health and carry weight became useless. Even at lower level it was far too easy to cap them. The only thing that should be changed it the endless loops with enchanting and alchemy.

 

That said, even making the crafting skills more difficult to level and balancing out the income a bit should fix most of the problems. Sure, you can still make godmode weapons but at least you have to put so many hours into it that by the time you're done, you've completed most of the game anyway and should be godmode.

[cooltrickle]

Anyone remember Oblivion XP? No more using skills to level, doing quests and killing things is the only way to level. You then add to the skills you want once you lvl. It's a must have for Skyrim.

 

Ability to turn off friendly fire.

 

Yep and yep. You made a lot of suggestions but I can't really judge them yet. I'm playing a Nord warrior, who doesn't use any skills other that heavy armour, one-hand and block. I'm guessing Oblivion XP is a mod? It sounds perfect. You level up by actually playing the game rather than grinding. This would also solve the problem that occurs at low levels; you level up faster than you can earn gold. This means you have less opportunity to use the trainers as you leveled up several times before you have enough gold to pay for any training.

[Magicnubs]

I agree in general about the mage NPCs. I find it odd that I can easily die much faster to any random mage NPC than to a dragon. The only really effective method against this curently is to stack magic resist on a full set of armor, and thus there is pretty much no way to play the game effectively on master without fairly high-level enchanting (or archery, but this usually still leaves a pretty high chance of my companion dying). I'm not saying any method should be easy, just give me multiple paths to success!

 

I don't claim to know how to fix this; that is for people smarter than I to figure out. Maybe implement a standard magic damage reduction when blocking with any kind of weapon?

[idirex]

You know what I don't understand is how you can even complain about some of these things. I mean the way people talk, it's like your saying Bethesda is forcing you to utilize those professions to build your character, which is totally untrue. If you want more challenge, how about ignoring them entirely? Or how about limiting YOURSELF to not buying those crafting components and only utilizing what you find from ores / npcs? There are tons of games out there where people have done similar things, the final fantasy low level challenges, or single character challenges... blah blah the list goes on. Anyway I've been doing this myself personally not buying ingots for example from the vendors to level up black smithing, so there is no reason anyone else couldn't. Don't complain about something that's optional, it's silly. Set the game on master difficulty and only use items you find from mobs or out in the world, don't upgrade your items, don't use enchanting or limit yourself to only using items you find. I can guarantee you'll be challenged, and if dieing in two hits from a bandit isn't good enough for you. Then ask for a difficulty overhaul lol.

Are you serious ? If i Have to add balance by myself than it means the developers didn't do their job . A game should stimulate you to get better not nerf your intellect and skills . THe dificulty slider is just for this . Master is Only for the really crafty ones , not first time players like myself ( it was challenging but doable) . <= They should be ashamed of themselves if players want to change ALL aspects of the game simultaneously ! Mods add things , they are optional not necessary . If we put it that way why not just release just art and construction sets so we make the game by ourself ?

[doupegic]

Too bad we have to wait for the construction set to make such a mod, but I like all the mentioned ideas.

 

We must nerf smithing, enchanting and alchemy, no question, but we must buff them too. They are very powerful on high levels and with perks, but on low levels and without perks they suck:

 

+1% with a small soul gem or a bad potion = tiny bonus (almost 0)

In the early game my stats are low, so 1% is even lower...

 

+120% in the end = huge bonus, and all bonuses get multiplied.

On high levels my stats are good and 120% is overpowered...

 

I prefer a flat bonus (or similar solution). If you start your character you can get with bad skills, a small, but noticeable bonus. On higher levels the bonus is getting smaller and smaller because your main stats like armor or combat are bigger.

 

+5 Damage with Skill 20

+20 Damage with Skill 50

+50 Damage with Skill 100

 

Low Crafting Skill (20):

(Damage with Weapon+Bonus) = Total Damage

Character level 1: 10+5 = 15 Dmg (+50%)

Character level 10: 50+5 = 50 Dmg (+10%)

Character level 50: 100+5 = 105 Dmg +5%)

 

High Crafting Skill (100): (we should avoid getting too easy high crafting skills by just giving xp for good items on high levels, and stop the merchants selling too much crafting stuff)

(Damage with Weapon+Bonus) = Total Damage

Character level 1: 10+50 = 60 Dmg (+600%)

Character level 10: 50+50 = 50 Dmg (+100%)

Character level 50: 100+50 = 150 Dmg (+50%)

 

I just used these values to show what I mean, we have to test which values will balance this system

 

And we must remove the multiplikation of different bonuses like:

NOW: Damage = Base Damage * Skill Mod * Perks * Enchanting

TO: Damage = Base Damage * (Skill Mod + Perks + Enchanting/Alchemy)

[c4w]

I agree on most counts.

 

my 2 cents on crafting & loot:

 

as for overpowered crafting, I recommend to take all fortify smithing, enchanting and alchemy affixes off the items and limit them to potions only with a max of 100%. Right now I can get a 147% potion PLUS equipment enchantments. That's too much and also too annoying to craft an wear. Right now, I could spend about an hour or more just to make a single fully enchanted and upgraded armor set.

 

Once you have fairly high crafting skilly, loot becomes rediculously weak. Really, the only things I even bother to take home anymore are gems and the only containers I even keep looking into are urns.

Loot should have the possibility of spawning with unique and/or even multiple enchantments and maybe even smithed improvements.

 

on money and economy:

 

Keep in mind that selling gear is about the most annoying thing this game has to offer. Rather than forcing the player to visit the vendors more often by powerselling any piece of junk he gets, we might want to look into solutions that don't force you to suck on the vendors tits all day. I recommend going with the 1/10th price approach of the OP but keeping gems and other light misc items at the current price.

 

Also: nerf potion prices. 4k for a potion is just ridiculous >_<

Edited December 20, 2011 by c4w

[lemmiwinks321]

I wish they'd remove the redundancy of enchants and potions making you better at, enchants and potions and blacksmithing. I think potions to make you better at blacksmithing and enchanting should be removed. As well as enchants to make you better at alchemy and blacksmithing. It's just weird, annoying to deal with, and OP. I also think the blacksmithing perks should make you upgrade at say, 25% or 50%, not double. I can't wait for the creation kit for someone to do this.

 

edit: lol also nerf enchants as a whole. I too am one of those people who max out in every way possible that the game has. It just feels weird not blacksmith improving my weapons and armor, or enchanting without the +enchanting potions.

Edited January 4, 2012 by lemmiwinks321

[WarriorWithin83]

Hi, like you I am a pp who like the "old school" game.. Skyrim alone doesnt offert the kind of D&DPlaying, so I released my mod, with this I am overcoming this need of nostalgic gameplay :-)

 

You welcome to try!

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/38370