well, i've played over 300 hours of Skyrim. I play slow and methodically. However, it would be different if i was on a computer and got to play with all the mods but i dont so here i am. Anyway, i'm playing on master diff, or the highest one there is like i always do. I use whatever i can to help me through the game. However, i'm only putting perks into dual wielding and only playing through the main campain with this guy. Let me tell you that its insanely hard. I only use the worlds auto save as check points so i'm not rushing through it at all. Moreover, the dragon fights are a real eye opener as to the great innovation Beth put into their unsricpted AI. For example, the first dragon encounter that starts the main quest outside of whiterun took me around several hours to pass. I simply can't go into certain caves and i have to run away from trolls and don't dare to fight large mobs. At first i just wore clothes on my khajit but i up graded him to light armor. However, i am only putting perks into dual wield for now, but plan on using enchanment as his trade. I'll be playing this game vallina style for at least a year if not longer. I'm piss poor broke in real life and this is the only new game i've had a chance to buy in over a year. I am so grateful BETH has put so much effort into this game for people like me that knows how to play it the way it was intended.
Anyone else out there that plays like this? and gets the same amount of satisfaction?
I play similar to that, I definitely go through the same situations where I cannot go to certain places etc. For all my characters I use these rules....no healing spells, no potions, no enchanting, no knockback/ paralyse perks (e.g impact), no filling an entire perk tree as they all become OP after a while, no companion, only horse and cart fast travels, no OP items (e.g Azura's star, I can get them but they stay in my house as a trophy), no smithing, no magic unless using a mage and no conjuration.
I probably have a few extra rules I forgot about but basically I like to by keeping the strength of my character relatively weak like how he/she is at the start of the game, because that's when I have the most fun, I try to pick the minimum amount of perks (normally only damage increases so I can keep up with the increasing enemy strength) but a lot of the utility perks are too much for my liking.