Haven't been able to find a thread or any confirmed information on the difficulty settings and how they affect the game, does anyone know what they change?

I started my first game on the default setting, adept i think? (normal?) but around 2 hours in got killed by a frost spider or something along those lines and thought F* this, and lowered it by one.. really not sure but it feels i am levelling slower now and aren't getting my skills up half as fast, does difficulty only affect damage to and from enemy's? or is there more to it? cheers.

^

Difficulty?

Err well you gotta die sometimes. I'm not 100% sure, but I understand it's just meant to change the combat difficulty. Supposed to be a bit more like Fallout3. I do know that they made some areas and enemies more difficult so you really aren't meant to take them on too early. The great thing about a sandbox game is you can usually run away.

Well of course you die sometimes, just felt cheap, how a spider killed me....

And yeah i read certain areas are higher level, i find that interesting actually, makes it feel like an MMO but without thousands of people alongside you

It makes u feel your progress in the game and that's why it's good thing.