Yeah, I'd agree with everything you said, really.

The only real irritation from my point of view is the reduced concurrence of legendary opponents and the resulting magic items. Then again, if you're not playing on survival it's not so desperately important that you find all the good items, so I guess that part balances out.

I like survival for the slow healing, I wish this were a separate game mode where you can change difficulty inside of it because I do not like the bullet sponge enemies that come with survival mode.

Legendaries (and efficiently traited Legednaries at that -- that penetrating rolling pin isn't going to help my sniper) are not as needed at Hard and under (or Normal and under, depending on your play style). Just good gear with the loadout that compliments your perks and build.

If you want to use it, there's a mod on Nexus Mods that allows you to both scrap Legendaries and use a unique junk item the mod adds to Legendaries that are scrapped to craft legendaries more tailored to your character. Sniper? Get Instigating or Two Shot on your rifle. Melee? Turn that Super Sledge into a Penetrating Sledge.

If you're interested, here's the mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4042/?

I found that the costs are not out of line for what you're getting. Typically most Legendary effects cost 6 (for low level) to 12 (for the high end stuff like Two Shot) 'Effect Chips'. That means you have to scrap anywhere from 6 to 12 other legendaries to get the materials for this (as they generate 1-2 chips per). That's a lot of legendaries, and a lot of caps I didn't get by selling them to Arturo.

It's no different than breaking down the legendaries and set items you don't need in Diablo III for high end crafting materials.

(FYI, I don't suggest adding Grognak's trait to anything. It's supremely overpowered as it was meant to be attached to really crappy items -- a loincloth and a prop battleaxe. Attaching it to, say, power armor and a super sledge nets ridiculous results. Do it if you wanna romp around on easy mode.)

Agreed. Survival just makes things mostly bullet sponges and it gets really annoying having to use 300 fusion cells shots to kill a super mutant overlord.

I think Very Hard is the sweet spot for 'challenging, but not stupid'. I added the Darker Nights mod and instead of using HP pools to change the difficulty, I remove all ambient, non-sourced lighting from the game world. Meaning there needs to be an actual light source for most lighting effects. This has the effect of making night in the wasteland not just dark, but pitch black -- especially in the shadows.

The way this increases the difficulty is by reducing visibility ranges dramatically. Ghouls fling themselves out of the dark, with only the sounds of growls and scuttling as a warning. Deathclaws lurk in the darkness, pouncing on you when you least expect it.

Add the True Storms mod on top of it to give yourself denser, meaner weather and the wasteland is a very eerie and dangerous place.

For the first time since playing with these two mods, I honestly felt 'Ok, I need to just sleep and let this pass' because I would be unable to see more than a foot in front of my face in the dark. It was utterly deadly to go out and I had to assess whether the danger was worth it. Daylight is a relief. I expend a lot more resources than I used to getting my settlements lit up with generators and as many lights as I can afford, turning them into oases of relief in the dark.

Also, the view of Diamond City, which literally glows against the night time sky, is actually quite lovely from outside the city on a ridge. It also shows that the fusion reactor under the Glowing, Green Jewel of the Commonwealth is one of the most important things in the entire area. It banishes the darkness and drives the monsters away. It is so bright it positively calls to you from the darkness of the wasteland. Remember, aside from DC, there's no more world awash in light like we're used to in the modern world.

Go out to the wilderness or the woods far away from civilization and turn your flashlight off. See how dark it truly is. That's what I like seeing in my game. Civilization's light has fallen, and darkness has filled the void. If you rebuild, you can make respites, where the light comes back. The glow of settlements, blazing in the dark, but with vast gulfs between them illustrate just how far the world has fallen. It's lore friendly, evocative, immersive -- and makes the game hard as hell without changing anything's stats.

Some examples of the type of difficulty this presents (and the challenge that goes with it):

Glowing Sea Rad Storm, night time: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736832089340/F9E2E6D7DA8094E49E84ADD89AC6C5731CEC8EFC/

Coast Line, near Nordhagen, night time, clear skies: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736830388898/A958B4935069E8973304F7832955C7773A5E263A/

Decayed Reactor, south of County Crossing, Night, Rain: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736820599678/C47C36F48F6E21839410EF0878C90A528763CC72/

Wooded area, near Tenpines Bluff, night, rolling fog: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736820598520/40BB93F381D717A99A7EE8BC46F5258AC5431577/

Downtown Boston, viewed from Greenetech, night, fog: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357274177497396867/B15196E49DE137AC9ABA7B7C74F8613A0862E9EC/

Diamond City, viewed from south of Greygarden, night, clear: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273262822855425/24E31E71D26517993FFAB6B3912C24ADE761BFC4/

Not even sure where this is, but vainly trying to see in the rain at night with headlamps on: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736820597710/A6D20A9E7CB8E6864DCEE5F962AF8CA909D0C5B2/

Boston Ruins, unfriendly fires, Night, clear: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736820599993/7B56C67A80E8FACEC6C72EC01445132734502158/

Islands of safety, refuge, and light:

The Castle, main gate, night, clear: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736822148251/3809DE6470744E399D5AA257F9EA506ED714EAD5/

Sanctuary, as seen from Vault 111's outer area, night, clear: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357274177484196273/2459C0DA4A538A98D57234AAB140A8357083D16D/

Slim's Garage, Downtown Boston, Night, clear skies: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273736820600569/A892A3B3534D2B234E89C4283906ACE01874CC2D/

Greygarden, from south of Jalbert Salvage, night, heavy rain: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/357273262822855141/80285DE5E7E5CAD0F6048BDC3E17AF8EE2822450/

On console, I can't use mods. What I can do, though, is learn from a previous play.

Like you, I have a level 75 toon who is so far OP, even a god bows to it. It's also now a boring game. However, I did this intentionally.

I have the luxury of playing previous Fallout games so I was well aware the level scaling was going to be atrocious again. I absolutely refused to take any % damage boosting on weapons, sticking only with modded base weapons and the few legendaries which dropped. This game wasn't easy, but it was rewarding.

At level 50, I decided to take the non-automatic % perks for rifles and guns, and this action completely negated any reason to play it. 100% more damage put my combat shotgun at a "base" of 248. Add another 25% for the Lone Wanderer perk and you can see this weapon is seriously OP. I don't know what the most difficult enemy is in the game, but if I met it, then it wasn't difficult. Even Assaultrons drop within a few well-placed shots.

I re-rolled a new character, and this time, I decided to do something a bit different. I'm taking the % damage increase only. No weapon modding after level 2. So far, this has been a very unique game. While I can definitely hold my own when attacking, I'm taking far more damage because I'm only stuck with level 1 armor.

I just rolled into level 20, so the next "tier" of enemies just popped up. Raiders are getting creative names and Alpha Deathclaws makes their appearance. Kellogg had a skull next to his name when I fought him, and this turned out to be one hell of a fight because one his from him took well over 70% of my health. Several attempts later, finally took him down.

The first fight I had with a Deathclaw didn't go over too well. Nor did the second. Despite not having skull icons, they're still ripping me apart. When I see one, I run.

Knowing how the game scales is probably the biggest factor to keep from going OP. It looks to me every 10 levels brings out new enemy classes, so adjusting how one plays can definitely help.

I will keep playing this way to see how long my lack of improving weapons/armor can go. I'm guessing I may make it to level 30 before it'll be forced on me to make a change in either weapons or armor, but for now, things are keeping me on my toes.

One thing's for sure: no way can I play DiD unless I abuse the perk system. Mutant suiciders have taken me out more times than I care to admit, but that's part of the fun when trying to stay balanced with the game.

The only issue I have with this mod is that the enemies are not affected by it. I may not see the raider standing 30 feet from me, but he can see me just fine. Sure it makes things harder, but not really realistic for this reason. Just like in Skyrim where everyone pulls out a torch at night with this mod every NPC should be carrying a flashlight or something when the sun goes down. But no, they walk around like they can see perfectly ... which they can, and therein lies the problem.

They shouldve made the enemies adjust to your level as you level up not make the area locked to your level when you entered it. Needs the be like Final Fantasy 8 where your level meant jack and it was your skills and magic that made you powerful enough to take enemies down.

Played games like that before (Oblivion) and really hate that feature and it doesn't really make any sense. Plus I get a sick pleasure by going back to areas that kicked my butt when I was low level and killing everything with a pipe wrench.

I also went to an area last night that was way over my level and I had to leave. But I'll be back. I'll be back.

I just hope add a higher difficulty in the DLC. Everyone is complaining the game gets too easy after level ~50. It's impossible the devs haven't noticed it by now.

But I don't want (only) the damage you do and the damage they do to change, I want the AI to be more intelligent, more clever, using tactics to kill you. Lack of challenge is why I abandoned my lvl 70 stealth char and started over.

I've read something above about bullets being too easy to find, and I agree. Using non automatic weapons leaves you with a ton of bullets. Playing stealth and using just 1 bullets to kill almost everything leave you with even more bullets, way more bullets. So I guess the number of bullets you find/buy should be accordingly to the play style you use: automatic weapons, non auto, stealth snipers. Like if you take the perk for automatic weapons, you also raise the chance to find more bullets cause you need more bullets. And if you pick ninja/sandman perks, you find less bullets.

I adjusted to it pretty quick. Headcanon is that one of the many tiny mutations that Wastelanders as a whole have is slightly better night vision.

Again, it was about making the game harder, while looking evocative for me, not the NPCs (who already have a hard enough time with my Power Armored butt).

Some good ideas and discussion folks!

Well, my second character died at level 20, so maybe if you don't min-max play and play super-cautious it isn't "too easy" on Normal.

My mistake was to go south of the city that early. Big difference facing Legendary KillClaw Mirelurks and Alpha Rabid Mongrels compared to ~level 50.

I had a look at that darkness mod but I kinda agree with LeBurns.

Well they didn't 'change' how things worked (damage-wise) with later DLC in Skyrim like that, they just added tougher enemies in new areas, which is what I prefer. I don't want anything to change while I'm going up to level 50, but once there being able to fight a three headed super mutant titan would be pretty cool. Bugs the size of houses. Etc.

I think that without changing anything else in the game, having a random chance for one more mid- to high-tier mob in any given randomized spawn (at all levels, but with increasingly probability and increasing count at higher levels) might do wonders. Add to that, more random "death squads" that are actually scripted to ambush the PC after certain thresholds . . . might well make Normal much more satisfying even at higher levels.

These seem like changes that may well be easily modded in; I'm definitely going to be trying when the GECK comes out. The deficiencies in difficulty do not really show up till you've 'more than got your money's worth' in terms of play time and I doubt Bethesda did a lot of testing or design tweaking for characters past level 30 . . . after all, its the first couple hours that will make the most difference to most players (maybe?). I think it might also be a pretty difficult thing to do with only 'in house' testing, even with seven years of development time.

One of the biggest factors in 'difficulty' in games is 'lack of knowledge,' which is why I try to never use guides or tips until I've tried to 'beat' a particular scenario at least once on my own. Areas that one finds challenging the first time, if not also the second time, can literally become a cakewalk once you know what to expect. After developing it for so long, I suspect that everyone in Bethesda's staff or in-house testing pool who play-tested the game must have known much of what to expect, at least in general.

Difficulty settings and game balance are just a huge mess, designed to add some arcady game mechanics.

Enemies and the player magically having more health because they have a higher level. A headshot with a .50 cal isn't an auto-kill just because the target is a super mutant primus instead of a regular super mutant? I find the whole tiering system to be pointless. Unless a tier adds an actual game mechanic it's just redundant.

Legendary weapon affixes that don't take weapon type into account. Getting an explosive rocket launcher is just laughable, but on a minigun or shotgun it's far too strong.

Legendary enemies mutating and fully regenerating instantly.

Difficulty settings boiling down to reducing player damage and increasing enemy damage the higher the difficulty setting, leading to bullet sponge enemies.

There are some games that do not seem to rely on this. Jagged Alliance 2 to some extent I think. Jagged Alliance Back in Action also. Arma to some extent. There are also quite a few strategy games, but that is a totally different kettle of fish. In a game like War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition your "Hit Points" are really more like "how many air craft/ships/weapon platforms/trained squads do you have and how fast can you replace them . . ." Some of the most popular 'strategy' games (like Civilization) are no less party to the bullet-sponge as difficulty shtick as your average FPS.

Even games like Arma and JA include something akin to "legendary" enemies with more HP and way better gear. The HP part isn't a total absurdity. Some people take a tremendous amount of damage before they stop fighting or go down, others pass out or collapse in agony at the first blow. The part where the absurdity of "more HP" and "healing" comes in is of course the rapidity and ease with which trauma, contamination, poisoning are healed, but in truth I doubt a completely realistic game would be fun. Arma is about the closest I can think of and even that one, a "Medic" can basically get you back up and operating even when you are completely laid out and dying.

There is an inherent limit to how much realism we'd really want in a game, but the bullet-sponge = "difficulty" mechanic is one of the most annoying and pervasive design elements in games by far.

If you play on anything but survival you are cheating yourself of legendary loot. It's the most efficient use of time.

I get plenty of Legendary items on Normal. So many that I have a full set of legendary weapons and armor by not later than level 30. Only reason I'd need them sooner, or need 'better' ones is if the enemies took more damage, aka I was playing on "Survival"

Do you ride a bike with training wheels as well?

If you want the game to play harder but don't like how the higher difficulties play, I suggest turning the HUD opacity off. You can still do everything and still get the power armor's HUD, but you don't get the benefits that swing things in your favor when having the HUD up. Only your own senses tell you about enemy positions or whether or not you are hidden. Also, if you don't choose the awareness perk, you don't know exactly what kind of enemy you are facing, so you might not start the fight as you would if you knew beforehand that that super mutant in your line of sight is actually a legendary warlord. Completely changes the game, in my opinion, when you don't have all the HUD help ... and I didn't expect it to change much when I first turned the HUD off. I first did it just to make the game more cinematic. I found out that the game played different as well. I've played a bunch of different kinds of games and it's kind of like going from normal mode in the older Call of Duty games to the hardcoe mode. hardcoe ain't for everybody, but it's puts situation awareness all on the player, not on the tech.

Idk, at 103 i pretty much go melee mythical deathclaws with a combat knife on survival. Ive found it rewarding but maybe its how I play. I avoid the hard hitting weapons unless im in large skirmishes and even then ive little use for them. My kits Kremvhs Tooth, The Gainer, and my favorite weapon for emergencies is an Institute Rifle with 25 Bleed effect completely modded out. But I took the time to mod them and didn't just cap spam to max them out. Raiders/Gunners and such do heal themselves when on low health and those damn grenades are hell.



I think its that we lack real boss fights imo. We have these random enemies but nothing with a real sense of "OH [censored]!" Yea we have Behemoths and Mirelurk Queens, but they feel more like harder tier mobs than bosses. Boils down to too much fire power nothing scary enough to use it on. Giant Deathclaws anyone?

I usually play these games on normal or easy. Bullet sponges are not my idea of fun. I'm also a roleplayer so don't really care about the numbers.

Been fiddling around with turning off the HUD, it's been pretty fun but I'm not sure if I'll be keeping it off, we'll see.

I miss hardcoe mode, just for the stimpacks and the hydration, but I have been playing on hard. Anything more than that seems to be too much like the super mutant overlords from 3. They just take a ton of bullets. I might switch it up to very hard next time. Honestly I have the most fun in any fallout game at the early levels. Running around with pieces of mismatched armor, a baseball bat and a pistol with too few bullets. Death may be around any corner if you are not ready to run.

I started on Survival with my first char, then stopped and started my second char on Survival which is currently just lvl 49. Tried other modes only a bit. My rules to have a balanced game:

- Survival is mandatory because of the slow healing; immediate healing kills the difficulty

- player damage on Survival is too low, making the game just tedious; I now play with a 1x damage factor for player, NPCs deal 2x damage, perhaps later you need to go to 3x damage for NPCs

- player health is really a culprit; I felt stronger on Survival with 0,5 damage than now because I had so much more health. I restrict myself heavily with Endurance. I have 3 points in it but 0 points were better. Here a mod should change health increase to not to force you to stay away from Endurance.

- you need less loot. I use a loot overhaul mod which makes ammo, stimpaks, radaway, cores, legendaries etc. much scarcer

- use power armor carefully. I currently at lvl 49 have 6 fusion cores and I use the armor only for the GS and the most daring tasks

- restrict yourself with weapons carrying, don't carry 6 different weapons ideal for variant situations

- restrict yourself on perks which increase damage. I have Rifleman 5 but stayed away from others that add to it; however I've momentarily problems with newly spawned strong NPCs.

- I use the Arbitration better AI mod; wether it really makes the AI better I cannot say but often the enemies put me under pressure considerably

- expect that you'll sooner or later get perhaps too powerful and in the bore zone, so plan to add other activities to your life than playing FO4