Making the game harder or more tedious?

[tdbostick]

There is a difference between mods that make the game harder (e.g. Deadly Dragons, Monster Mod, Wars in Skyrim, Godlike Dragon Priests) and ones that make it more tedious/longer (e.g. no fast travel, no map, merchants with less money, mods forcing you to eat/sleep, merchants not buying your loot at all, etc.). After a while, most players will start looking for mods to add to the challenge, but I fail to see, in my humble opinion, the point in making the game drag on longer than it has to with mods such as the latter. You already need hundreds of hours of free time just to get through Skyrim satisfactorily, why drag it on with mods claiming to add realism/difficulty that only add to the tedium/length of time spent playing? It's a video game - there's such a thing as too real. There aren't any obese characters, cancer, IRS agencies, etc., in Skyrim because we'd rather not have tedium/reality in our escapist world.

 

While some people might enjoy taking an hour to slog from Riften to Solitude for the 13th time to go choke Gulum Ei or steal the Bejeweled Paperweight of Speech Therapy from Elisif's cook, only to take another hour to slog back and return it to Delvin, only to collapse in exhaustion because you forgot to eat/sleep along the way, and then take your hard-earned money and add it to the other couple hundred septims you own (after taxes) as you longingly gaze on the locked doors of Breezehome (face it, you'll never afford Proudspire manor) after another half-hour slog; I'd prefer 'apparating' from one known place to another, selling everything I risked my neck for in those dungeons/risked jail time stealing, and buying a nice home to put my trophies in.

 

I'm the freakin' Dragonborn, I'm gonna continue to live in the fantasy version of Skyrim where everyone, regardless of age, has the body of a fashion model, I have the option of making female companions wear daedric bikinis during a snowstorm in Winterhold without them turning blue, there are no bathrooms, no taxes, and I can shoot bolts of lightning out of my hands and ragdoll-inducing shock waves out of my throat, suck the life out of someone vampire-style, turn into a raging werewolf whenever bandits shoot arrows in my knees, and if I've been there already can teleport back within seconds along with my horse that I forgot all about four dungeons ago, all the while going months and months without sleeping or eating (which is good, since there are no bathrooms). If I'm feeling really adventurous, I'll climb to the Notched Pickaxe, become ethereal, Gay Tony off the summit of the Throat of the World, and see how far I make it before becoming coporeal again.

 

If you want to add to the challenge, make the dragons harder to kill or smarter, flood the landscape with monsters, make brawling harder, etc.; but do things to speed up the tedium (e.g. giving merchants more money, making mining faster) or add space to display my swag (many many homes/mannequins/weapon racks).

[tetradite]

The short version of this appears to be that mods increasing difficulty are only acceptable to you when they make combat more difficult. If anything else is made harder then this is apparently tedious.

 

Each to their own, personally I don't use fast travel at all (other than the carriages), and could not imagine anything more tedious than a landscape flooded with monsters, or where combat is so hard that you end up dieing 80 times just to clear one dungeon.

 

The divide between increasing difficulty and increasing tedium is in our own heads. Yours has combat on one side, mine has it on the other.

[Georgiegril]

People create and use mods that are to their taste. Their choices will never affect you. And your concern is....? Wanting to feel superior by denigrating others?

[fms1]

You may not have intended this, but this is a Troll topic....

[thompsonar]

You may not have intended this, but this is a Troll topic....

 

indeed.

[Tidus44]

Well, I suppose the getaquestfasttravelkillabunchofguysgetallthestuffIcancarryfindsomeonetosellittogogetanotherquest and repeat play style might hold some appeal, I guess.

 

I have to wonder why the OP thinks that using one type of mod prevents use of the other? Is there a rule somewhere I didn't hear about?

 

I use the mods the OP has listed as "harder" and also some others that apparently make the game "tedious". However, I can pretty much do everything the OP has listed as far as capabilities, and I own every house one can purchase in the game and still have lots of money, and I have quite a nice collection of items in my homes as well.

 

The difference is I have also taken my time and explored, seen somethings the OP is probably not even aware exist, and have actually had a lot of fun playing the game the way I like to play it. So, really, I suppose it could be said I'm doing exactly the same thing as the OP, I'm playing the game they way I like.

 

I suppose if one wants 1/2 or 1/4 of a challenge they will stick to one side or the other, but I like a 100% challenge, so I'll stick to using all types of mods - thank you - and enjoy myself with a game that is actually a challenge on multiple levels instead of just one.

[tdbostick]

How does disabling fast travel make the game harder? Or lowering a merchant's base money? Sleeping 48 hours all the time or dumping extra loot into chests isn't exactly a difficult task. You have to slow travel once to every destination (except the holds if you choose to use a carriage) anyway. I do sometimes just go out and wander (in order to kill things - I do enjoy challenging dragons/monsters), but when I have only an hour to play before I have to go to bed, I'd rather spend the time doing something new than trekking back across that same old stretch of territory I've seen and cleared a zillion times.

 

Thanks to the radiant AI system, there's no corner of Skyrim I've not seen. You have to travel by foot at least once pretty much anywhere you want to go. The only difference is that I've been able to complete the game several times in the span it would have taken me to do so one time had I disabled fast travel or crippled the economic system.

 

And nobody should have to die 80 times to clear a dungeon. If it's that hard, try a different combat style, come back later once you've improved your armor/weapons/skills some, or lower the game difficulty a bit. Even I start out one a lower game setting than I end on (Deadly Dragons is seriously too much if you're level 5 wearing steel/iron armor upgraded only slightly and shooting iron arrows with a hunting bow.

 

I tried some of the tedium-inducing mods (food/cold realism mods) but ended up disabling them. It's just not my thing. Reminds me too much of Sim City (I have to go to the bathroom/eat again?!) I can cook/dress warmly/slow travel all I want in the real world. During the few hours of free time I have, I prefer skipping over the hum-drum. Again, those don't really make the game harder. Buying bread and mead to eat is not difficult in the least. Sleeping is only a fraction more difficult than waiting. Tedium mods don't make the game harder, just more tedious. I stand by my assertion.

 

Claiming I'm denigrating someone's playing style is basically just denigrating my style, so if you accuse me of trolling, at least hold a mirror up to yourselves first. I'm being confrontational for a reason here and not attacking anybody in particular. Explain to me how eating all the time/freezing to death/getting bent over the table by merchants/slow traveling 500 times from Whiterun to Winterhold makes Skyrim fun, and I'll listen. Meanwhile, go camping, join the army, get a boring job, etc. and learn just how fun real-life tedium really is.

[Georgiegril]

How anyone plays is irrelevant to another person's game. That is one of the benefits of single player.

You say you are being confrontational for a reason, but even if you have a noble goal of attempting to help others see the light and adopt your superior form of game play, it will still have no tangible effect. Every game is a separate world.

[Tidus44]

Not quite sure what the point is....

 

If I want to be a farmer and load mods that only make me a farmer and all I do in the game is grow crops and eat and sleep and never fight anyone and the farthest I explore is the local inn for a mead once in a while and listen to the local bard - what is the problem, concern or issue about the way I am playing and how does this have any effect on you and how you play?

 

Nothing you or I do in the game makes my game better than yours or makes your game better than mine.

 

Nothing you or I do in the game makes you a better player than me or makes me a better player than you.

 

No one, anywhere at anytime can do anything to interfere or effect the way you want to play the game and there is nothing you can do to change the way anyone else wants to play the game.

 

And lastly, its just a stupid game that anyone can beat with minimal skill or ability so who cares what you or I or anyone does when they play?

[thompsonar]

Yeah it's different styles. Immersion mods are not supposed to make the game harder they make it more realistic. Not everything is about how easy or hard something is, but just the experience of actually doing it a certain way. Not everyone likes these mods. I don't use the hunger/thirst mods, but I love Frostfall (weather/hypothermia mod). I don't see why you have such a problem with it. It's obviously tedious for you, but may be just what someone else wants to do. It seems like you want a hack n' slash game while some other people want a different experience. Skyrim (via mods) caters to everyone's tastes.

 

For instance your thing about Deadly Dragons, not only do I keep it on all the time, I also use immediate dragons and an alternate start mod. It's not rare for me to run into a dragon I have no hope of defeating at level 1 or 2. I have to run away, sometimes barely escaping (and sometimes dying). When I get a high enough level to actually fight and kill the dragon it's a more rewarding experience since I've been unable to initially.

 

Can't you just accept that not everyone wants to play the game like you do? Doesn't seem like it should be hard thing to do. Your attitude about the situation is the reason you've gotten the reaction you have. You could simply have asked what the draw of these mods is without insulting those that use them.