Yeah, they wrecked it completely by making it even easier to be overpowered (10 more levels + perks in BS) and by adding tedious damage sponge enemies.

I don't bother installing my FO3 DLC anymore. Game's better without them.


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If you want Extreme Difficulty Mode, you're probably going to want mods. Low odds Beth will do anything that'll satisfy you (even if they do add a "more difficulty" thing, it'll most likely not be hard, just tedious and annoying.)

I agree that a Legendary difficulty setting would be nice, along with implementing soft and hard caps on various stats. Min/Maxing should be a viable option... Might have to wait for mods though.

Some of the suggestions for making the game more difficult aren't bad, but as a game designer Bethesda has to think about how likely it is that someone would go through the trouble of using all the crafting skills to make a god like character. If you were to create a difficulty with the expectation that someone is going to be incredibly powerful, in comparison to normal play, you have to realize that for at least some part of that time you are playing you don't have a fully crafted character. You would probably never be able to kill a creature with normal gear. The ability to craft an amazing character still comes after many hours of gathering items to craft with. I don't think that making that journey more difficult is warranted.

Should Bethesda make it so that the extra difficulty setting is only used when you have that great character? That just seems like a waste of development time, I'm sorry to say. It isn't laziness on the part of a company to create the game around the way they expect the average person to play. If you do min/max things, you aren't playing the game around the expectations of a company. In fact there is no way a company can know just how you are going to exploit A.I. difficulties or abuse/exploit the system. If you do everything in your power to make yourself powerful and then create a difficulty setting around that, you are catering to at most... 10,000 customers? I don't think that estimate, even if it's very low, can be far enough off to warrant the man hours to work around it.

It may be totally possible to create a very difficult game setting, but to a company it just isn't worth it. It isn't just a matter of making things do more numbers either, because people would just find another way to exploit A.I. or terrain to always win battles. Making a good A.I. is extremely difficult, especially if you take away the limiting factors that dice rolls play. Making the A.I. deal with an open world setting where the player character can be pretty near immortal is probably so difficult as to be impossible. It isn't for a lack of trying either, there are tons of developers trying to make improvements, but none have made a game have truly difficult to defeat A.I. I think for an open-world game that Bethesda still does the best at trying to make the A.I. smart.

Once again, I ask, for the people who say this game is too easy, how do you play your game? I find it funny people say "game is too easy, make it harder" but do not say how they play the game. Is Bethesda mind readers? Are they suppose to know how you play the game?

What do you do to level up? Do you spam smithing daggers? Do you use 1H alot or 2H alot or magic?
What do you do when you do level up? Put everything into Magika, Health or Stamina?
What perk tree do you specilize in?
What spells do you use?
What enchantments do you use?
What weapons do you use?
Do you use range or melee combat?

So many posibilites, instead of complaining on how "easy" Skyrim is, say how you play so the "easy" can become "hard" then. Just doubling the enimies hit points or health points will not make the game harder, all it means you just have to hit him 4 or 5 times more.

So come on people what needs to be fixed? Stop complaining about it and become part of the solution then by making suggestions.

This thread is hilarious!

What EXACTLY do you want Bethesda to do? Have them create this INSANE/SUICIDAL/IMPOSSIBLE/LEGENDARY difficulty where rabid foxes bite you in the ankle and you get infected with Weapons Grade Rabies. It's PERFECT! Think about it... here are the symptoms...

1.) Loss of muscle function... dramatic decrease in all melee/archery/shield skills

2.) Restlessness... no resting bonuses

3.) Difficulty swallowing... oops, can't drink potions!

3.) Convulsions... leads to random staggering effect as you're walking

4.) Fever... health reduces 10 pts every second until you die and since you can't drink potions, you'll be using restore magic until you find one of those shrine things to heal you...oh, what fun!

Seriously people, I don't ever remember playing an RPG where I wasn't at least a semi-god and one hit most everything in existence when I got to a certain point. I remember my favorite... FFVII, where I "Knights of the Round'ed" Sephiroth's ass into submission with like two turns. When this super ridiculous mode gets invented, many of you will complain how "ordinary" your character feels after getting one shotted by a Briarheart.

Funny, for a second there I thought you could choose how to play the game.

you can be a min/maxer without exploiting the crafting perks.
dont perk more than 1 crafting profession instead try to make a min/max character on the pure combat/roleplay aspect, andm aster will be VERY challenging.

This is the original meaning.

This problem is very hard to avoid, because (1) they want you to be able to get powerful gear for end-game (2) the way to improve your skill is to make gear, which by its nature is open to grinding. So if the gear can exist, and if you get to it by making stuff, and they don't artificially restrict skill progression, then it will be possible to get godlike early on if you put your mind to it.

This proposed uber difficulty setting would only be of any use to people who ground both smithing and enchanting. Is that something they want to spend time programming and testing?

I have three characters, which I made without reading the forums after release or knowing much about the game. I'm playing on Expert for all three. All just have six or seven skills raised with no points added to anything else.

One uses no magic, including no enchanting, but sword, shield, bow and smithing. One doesn't use weapons or armor, but only magic, including enchanting. One is a Orc who uses heavy armor, a hammer, conjuration, restoration, enchanting and smithing.

The last character is way overpowered. He is at level 32 or something, and he takes out dragons in a few seconds. No sneaking, usually no magic, he just walks up to people and hits them. He is fun, but the other two characters are much more satisfying.

The mage in particular is great. Five schools of magic plus sneak and enchanting (not very good at it yet), and no points in anything else. The only attribute I am raising is magicka. Probably you should restart with a character like this. You always have to think tactically, and one hit will kill you if you don't have mage armor up.