# What's your preferred difficulty setting?



## Pipistrele (Jan 3, 2018)

A thread like that was probably already created on this forum on one point or another, but I think it would still be interesting to share opinions and discuss one of the things exclusive to a video game medium - in this case, difficulty settings. 

As for me personally, I've spent a decade mostly ramping difficulty to the max - to challenge myself, give more playtime to often short games, and just out of weird sense of pride. However, during last 2-3 years or so, I've started to try more and more games on Normal setting, as well as revisiting games I've completed before on lower difficulties, and that eventually evolved into some sort of epiphany. Several conclusions I've made for myself when playing same games on different difficulty settings:

1) Most games aren't really designed with "Hard/Expert Mode" in mind, and at times it breaks the fun or balance of the game - like how in Hitman and Manhunt games you lose the way to track enemies on the map, which turns both games into trial-and-error; or how fun shootouts of Uncharted transform into cover-based slogfests due to how quickly you lose your health. There are exceptions (like rhythm games, which are actually more fun and rewarding at higher difficulty), but they're much more rare.

2) Challenges are often "artificial" - most of the time, you don't get harder levels or intricate obstacles, but something like "you have less health" or "dudes take more damage". 

3) Aside of couple of unlockables and achievements, in most cases you don't even lose out on anything - story and levels are the same, from start to finish.

I like challenging games a lot, though, which is why I'm quite a Mega Man and Castlevania fan - it's just the first two points above that made me tired of harder modes, since challenging games are actually designed with their level of challenge in mind.


Either way, I would really like to read your opinions and tastes when it comes to difficulty settings .u.


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## backpawscratcher (Jan 3, 2018)

Shoot em ups such as Call of Duty, Bioshock etc, I always play on easy.  Not that good with the mouse/keyboard co-ordination.  The only games I play on harder difficulty settings are strategy type things.


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## Simo (Jan 3, 2018)

I don't think my Sega Genesis really has this. Or my NES.

*thinks a bit, of the Sonic games, TMNTs, and recalls no such settings*


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## MetroFox2 (Jan 3, 2018)

In all seriousness though, it depends, I used play shooters on easy back in the day because... Well, it's a shooter, the fun is in the name, you shoot dudes.

These days, I'm not bothered, I prefer sandbox stuff, but enjoy delving into games with an emphasis on detail and realism, like Dwarf Fortress.

Edit - Oh, and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, which, from my experience, is made for sadists - "Welcome to the rice-fields motherfucker!" - FilthyFrank


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## Latur Husky (Jan 3, 2018)

Depends on the game but i’m trying to keep it as high as possible. General rule:
Strategy : normal with transition to hard if it’s interesting enough to keep me playing. 

FPS: Hard from the very first second.


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## Yakamaru (Jan 3, 2018)

Normal first to get a feeling for a game. Then harder and harder diff until I hit max. There are often Achievements to do it on different difficulties.


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## Pipistrele (Jan 3, 2018)

Yakamaru said:


> Normal first to get a feeling for a game. Then harder and harder diff until I hit max. There are often Achievements to do it on different difficulties.


Sounds like an interesting way to play games, actually. Though time-consuming too, not something I can afford myself with my 50+ backlog of Steam/PSN games x)


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## ellaerna (Jan 3, 2018)

I typically play games on the "normal" difficulty since as you said in your first point, that's the difficulty that most games are designed around and I feel like it gets you the best (or, I guess, most authentic) experience for that particular game. Depending on the game, if normal ends up feeling so easy that it's boring or too hard that I'm not enjoying it, I'll switch things up. 

I definitely get why people like to ramp up the difficulty, but I am personally completely content to just play things at baseline.


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## dragon-in-sight (Jan 3, 2018)

I always play on the lowest difficulty setting when I'm new to a game. I like to enjoy the content and storry, and just seek a little stress relief, instead of the big challange. For me a game is something to have fun with, not a high-performance sport. I also don't go for achievements, unless you get something worthwhile for it. I don't see the point of just having a log entry saying you have done this or that.


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## Crimcyan (Jan 3, 2018)

I normally play most games on normal, I don't really bother to try to play them on max difficulty unless if I need to do it so I can get all the awards. The only game game that I have played on max was saints row 4 to 100% the game. I also play borderlands 2 on OP8 (max level/difficulty) just so its more challenging


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## Yakamaru (Jan 3, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> Sounds like an interesting way to play games, actually. Though time-consuming too, not something I can afford myself with my 50+ backlog of Steam/PSN games x)


Heh. My Steam library is sitting at almost 300 games.

I like a challenge. Some games are hard as fuck, like for instance Dark Souls. You're meant to learn how to deal with certain bosses, mobs, etc. Not every game is going to hold your hand while you walk towards Rainbow Land.


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## ellaerna (Jan 3, 2018)

Yakamaru said:


> I like a challenge. Some games are hard as fuck, like for instance Dark Souls. You're meant to learn how to deal with certain bosses, mobs, etc. Not every game is going to hold your hand while you walk towards Rainbow Land.


Well, Dark Souls doesn't exactly have difficulty settings unless you're counting the class choices, so it's a bit irrelevant here.


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## Deleted member 106754 (Jan 3, 2018)

Always bump one or two steps above what most games end up calling "Normal" depending on how many bumps up you can make.

Tricky stuff is good, but putting it on the hardest difficulty just for the sake of it being there I don't know, something like Skyrim ended up like a shitty slashfest just to kill simple npcs and instead ended up like a chore. I guess some games just end up making different difficulty settings that could be worth re-visiting.


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## Casey Fluffbat (Jan 3, 2018)

backpawscratcher said:


> Shoot em ups such as Call of Duty, Bioshock etc, I always play on easy.  Not that good with the mouse/keyboard co-ordination.  The only games I play on harder difficulty settings are strategy type things.



I agree. If it is slower, I put the difficulty up. It's not that the game is easier to play because of the slow place, it's just the type of gameplay, like strategy games. Increased difficulty on shoot-em-ups often results in too much to focus on and becomes more frantic than thoughtful.


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## Broke_N (Jan 3, 2018)

I like going with Normal first, just to get a feel for the game. I then like to increase it on replays for more of a challenge. Granted, I do enjoy roguelikes for the challenge (and frustration) they offer. No game has ever gotten me as steamed as The Binding of Isaac has, yet still leaving me compelled to keep playing.


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## GarthTheWereWolf (Jan 3, 2018)

Hard mode. I tend to pick up the game's mechanics and get better at them faster when I just jump right into the deep end first.

Also obligatory:


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## Yakamaru (Jan 3, 2018)

ellaerna said:


> Well, Dark Souls doesn't exactly have difficulty settings unless you're counting the class choices, so it's a bit irrelevant here.


Dark Souls is a game designed to be Hard as its "Normal". It has a much higher challenge/difficulty baseline, so no, it's not irrelevant. This is a thread about difficulty. Dark Souls, on its "Normal", is Hard/Extreme for more casual gamers.


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## ellaerna (Jan 3, 2018)

Yakamaru said:


> Dark Souls is a game designed to be Hard as its "Normal". It has a much higher challenge/difficulty baseline, so no, it's not irrelevant. This is a thread about difficulty. Dark Souls, on its "Normal", is Hard/Extreme for more casual gamers.


But the thread isn't just about difficulty, but _difficulty settings_. It's right there in the title. Dark Souls has only the one setting. The only differences in difficulty come from class choices and self-imposed challenged runs. If you're going to play Dark Souls, you aren't given a choice in the matter. So no, it's not really relevant in a conversation about what settings you play games on. 

Also I'm a filthy casual and I love Dark Souls. Like a lot. And yeah, it's harder than most other games I've played that also don't have difficulty levels, but I'm not playing it as though I'm going up a difficulty level. I'm just enjoying the game as it is presented to me.


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## BahgDaddy (Jan 3, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> A thread like that was probably already created on this forum on one point or another, but I think it would still be interesting to share opinions and discuss one of the things exclusive to a video game medium - in this case, difficulty settings.
> 
> As for me personally, I've spent a decade mostly ramping difficulty to the max - to challenge myself, give more playtime to often short games, and just out of weird sense of pride. However, during last 2-3 years or so, I've started to try more and more games on Normal setting, as well as revisiting games I've completed before on lower difficulties, and that eventually evolved into some sort of epiphany. Several conclusions I've made for myself when playing same games on different difficulty settings:
> 
> ...



Oh hey, fellow Castlevania and Mega Man player here.


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## Pipistrele (Jan 4, 2018)

BahgDaddy said:


> Oh hey, fellow Castlevania and Mega Man player here.


The of two edgiest franchises - it's all about stealing weapons and whipping asses!



Yakamaru said:


> Heh. My Steam library is sitting at almost 300 games.
> 
> I like a challenge. Some games are hard as fuck, like for instance Dark Souls. You're meant to learn how to deal with certain bosses, mobs, etc. Not every game is going to hold your hand while you walk towards Rainbow Land.


Welp, the difference is that I actually consider finishing my library sooner or later 

I'm pretty much a hardcore gamer too - be it brutal classics like Contra, obtuse puzzlers like Sokoban, or soul-crushing RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei. Which is probably why I've played with ramped-up difficulty for so long, but it's just often kinda not worth it, I guess? With Dark Souls, the game was clearly designed to be difficult - it doesn't hold your hand, but it also leaves you all the right tools to do your mission. The problem I started to see with Hard Mode in games is that it just denies you those "right tools", turning odds against you in the dumbest fashing. Like, when I play Contra: Hard Corps, I feel like a badass dude on a brutal mission, which is fun. When I play Half-Life 2 on Hard, I feel like all my weapons are loaded with blanks, since everything takes 1-2 magazines to kill - if you can't even instakill an ordinary combine with a well-placed point blank shotgun blast, what crappy kind of shotgun is that?

(also, @ellaerna is right, the thread is specifically about difficulty settings, rather than just difficult games .u. )


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## BahgDaddy (Jan 4, 2018)

I'm a very odd video gamer. I literally just play the same 1990 era games I played when I was a kid... never been inclined to get different games. Apparently i don't require much variety.


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## Kiaara (Jan 4, 2018)

In all seriousness, I start a game in the medium/middle difficulty, and if I play it again i'll increase it.


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## BahgDaddy (Jan 4, 2018)

KiaraTC said:


> View attachment 26103
> In all seriousness, I start a game in the medium/middle difficulty, and if I play it again i'll increase it.



Minecraft is surprisingly hard on Difficult.


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## Kiaara (Jan 4, 2018)

BahgDaddy said:


> Minecraft is surprisingly hard on Difficult.


Fight me on Roblox, m9


I'm a dead meme i'm so sorry



Serious post:
I never actually played the game fully, I just messed around and talked to people on multiplayer before I put it down and never picked it back up again


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## Pipistrele (Jan 4, 2018)

BahgDaddy said:


> Minecraft is surprisingly hard on Difficult.


It's surprisingly hard on Normal, really - if you know what you're doing, you can still get your house exploded by wandering creeper or lose all your equipment by getting shot into a lava while navigating a cave; if you don't know what you're doing, you won't survive a night in the first place.



KiaraTC said:


> Fight me on Roblox, m9


OOF


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## Kiaara (Jan 4, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> It's surprisingly hard on Normal, really - if you know what you're doing, you can still get your house exploded by wandering creeper or lose all your equipment by getting shot into a lava while navigating a cave; if you don't know what you're doing, you won't survive a night in the first place.


The last time I played it I was trying my hardest to do stuff in the nether, and I fell in lava with all my stuff before I just stopped playing it when I moved.


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## BahgDaddy (Jan 4, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> It's surprisingly hard on Normal, really - if you know what you're doing, you can still get your house exploded by wandering creeper or lose all your equipment by getting shot into a lava while navigating a cave; if you don't know what you're doing, you won't survive a night in the first place.
> 
> 
> OOF



Eh, I have a habit of selecting "PEACEFUL" to get out unscathed. I do what I can to survive at all costs, think it comes from my real life perspectives.


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## Yvvki (Jan 4, 2018)

I find a lot of games are more of an experience then anything else and I'm down for that. 
If you want to rage at something go play flappy bird or oxygen not included or don't starve. 

I play games to relax, it's cool to include puzzles or building mechanics as well. 

If I find a game that seems more like a chore then I drop it. Aha. ☆


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## Deleted member 111470 (Jan 4, 2018)

Medium, but it doesn't matter because I have been corrupted by speed runners, bunny hopping and binding stuff to the mouse scroll to break the game.


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## Yakamaru (Jan 4, 2018)

ellaerna said:


> But the thread isn't just about difficulty, but _difficulty settings_. It's right there in the title. Dark Souls has only the one setting. The only differences in difficulty come from class choices and self-imposed challenged runs. If you're going to play Dark Souls, you aren't given a choice in the matter. So no, it's not really relevant in a conversation about what settings you play games on.
> 
> Also I'm a filthy casual and I love Dark Souls. Like a lot. And yeah, it's harder than most other games I've played that also don't have difficulty levels, but I'm not playing it as though I'm going up a difficulty level. I'm just enjoying the game as it is presented to me.


Well, I guess my preferred difficulty setting is Hard/Extreme then. 



Pipistrele said:


> The of two edgiest franchises - it's all about stealing weapons and whipping asses!
> 
> 
> Welp, the difference is that I actually consider finishing my library sooner or later
> ...


Yeah. Some difficulty settings are, well, *hard*.


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## Pipistrele (Jan 4, 2018)

Yakamaru said:


> Yeah. Some difficulty settings are, well, *hard*.


More like "Unfair", really? "Tedious"? "Flow-breaking?" Playing Half-Life on hard isn't really that, well, hard, and you have unlimited savestates - it just makes the game less fun and more tedious due to your weapons filled with blanks. Persona 3/4/5 are just as hard on both Normal and Hard difficulty - it's just that it gives you less EXP and money with each beaten enemy, which doesn't add to the actual challenge, but forces you to grind more (and running through same dungeons 2-3x more times than before isn't exactly an exercise in skill and dexterity). Some of the games even openly warn you that they weren't designed with hard mode in mind - like Doom, where if you try to choose the hardest difficulty, it will literally give you the next message: "Are you sure? This skill level isn't even remotely fair".

Again, I'm something of a hardcore gamer myself, I just think there's difference between game being *hard *or* tedious *- sure, there's an argument that tedium is a part of challenge, but as with washing dishes or cleaning your house, it's not really "fun" kind of hard .u.


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## Vitaly (Jan 4, 2018)

If I can choose I always play on normal since most of the games are designed for this difficulty, switching to hard mode simply increases enemies lives/reduces loot and destroys the balance, like in Skyrim (also it’s autoleveling sucks).

But mostly I prefer games that originally were conceived as hardcore.


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## Kyr (Jan 4, 2018)

For me games are all about the challenge and i like to make it as difficult as possible, certainly with FPSs at least. Haven't played much else in recent years.

Oh, and Dark Souls isn't hard. I's just an exercise in timing, memorizing attack patterns and map knowledge.


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## depthjacks (Feb 9, 2018)

Eh, it depends on the game. I usually play on normal, but if its too easy, then on hard... like dishonored 2 for an example.


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## Dongding (Feb 9, 2018)

Hard as possible as long as it doesn't turn heads into bullet sponges. (Think _The Division_.)


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## PlusThirtyOne (Feb 9, 2018)

it depends on the game but for the most part, i usually start at the hardest difficulty. it all depends on how the game is balanced. i like realism in shooters so not being able to absorb bullets like a sponge is a plus. When i get shot, i wanna feel the _punishment_ of getting careless. However, i want the bad guys to go down _just as easily_. if ramping up the difficulty just means that my weapons are downgraded to peashooters and the baddies can still insta-kill me, FUCK THAT. Same goes for melee; if HARD mode just dumbs down my swords to wet noodles then i don't see the point in that. i also like it when game devs implement new game features that are specific to difficulty like survival mode (like eating/sleeping) or more realistic crafting requirements. At the same time, i wish games had more "easy features"; not just an easy "mode". i like that in the new Mario games you can skip levels that are particularly difficult. When i played Street Fighter with my friends, we adjusted the damage so that matches are typically 10-30 seconds. Same goes for auto-aim; we should be able to toggle that on or off, depending on skill or controls. Difficulty should be something more _customizable_ beyond just picking EASY, NORMAL or HARD. At the very least, games should have NewGame+ or brutally hard difficulty settings for die-hard players. i'm looking at you, DOOM's "Nightmare" difficulty.

Also...
iNCOMiNG SiDE TANGENT!! AWOO-GAH!! AWOOOOO-GAH!!​Zelda:BotW's "master mode" had me really bummed because the only thing they added was a new level of enemies and placed a bunch of stupid enemies at bridges and waterfalls. LAAAAME!! i was hoping for eating requirements or locking items and runes behind challenges instead of giving them all up right off the bat. i was also hoping for some changes to the climbing and gliding mechanics because the game was CLEARLY designed with _limitations_ before they decided to make every damn wall climbable. if "master mode" disabled fast travel, made climbing more difficult with requiring gear on some surfaces then the replay value may have been worth it. in the end i was truly disappointed with all the DLC. There was sooooo much potential and they didn't do anything new. They just added some arbitrary samey content, cutscenes and babby shark boi. Meh~ it was hardly worth the download...


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## Dongding (Feb 9, 2018)

PlusThirtyOne said:


> ...



You play Fallout 4 still, don't you? Still one the only games I play. Never gets old much in the same way war never changes. lul

Doom has a fantastic "Nightmare" mode too. Sort of arcadey but it's more fun than just about any game I've ever looked past 4th wall breaking gameplay elements to enjoy.


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## Latur Husky (Feb 9, 2018)

Fallout games have their unique soul inti them. unfortunately the only true ones were 1 and 2 rest is just an good extensin of the story ;(


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## Ciderfine (Feb 9, 2018)

Not many games I do play now  have a environmental challenge ratio changer at all. Many games do, but only the massive sellers of franchise offer level difficulty changers. But even on those I play on the darkest to second to last levels of "Your fucked". 

I like things getting more lethal, more serious and not being an unstoppable trigger finger grin and treating everything else with honest seriousness. I guess it depends on how honest and mortal I feel. Being vulnerable is a good feeling when your facing hordes of aliens and just a pistol with a hidden zoom on it.


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## PlusThirtyOne (Feb 9, 2018)

Dongding said:


> You play Fallout 4 still, don't you?


Yes but i've modded the HELL out of it and do whatever i can to roleplay -and oooooh it's a struggle. it's frustrated me to no end that the Bethesda shoe-horned the main quest into every goddam quest and dialogue tree because i don't always want to play as the sole survivor! Just like with Skyrim, i have to mod the game and auto-complete certain quests and questlines to keep NPCs from mentioning my characters' Dragonborn-ness or missing child. GAAAAAWD it's soooo frustrating!! in Skyrim i had mods that disabled the dragons so i could roleplay someone before the main quest storyline and in Fallout4 i'm cheating my way through the first leg of the main quest and disregarding the Railroad so as to avoid the main quest. if ever my character accidentally mentions his/her missing kid i just cover up my ears and go "LALALALA! i CAN'T HEAR YOOOOU!". if you want to do anything with (or even SEE) the Brotherhood of Steel, you have to at least dip your toes into the main questline to advance the plot.

i'm currently playing two characters in Fallout4. Chip is a wise-ass Chinese _ghoul_ from the pre-war era tasked with the Far Harbor DLC and Synthia is a _synth_ (surprise surprise) in denial trying to pay off her debts by cooking and selling chems outside NukaWorld. Now, if you've played either one of these DLC questlines, you already know how difficult it might be to roleplay such characters. My ghoul had to save a certain somebody from the main quest and my synth had to bypass the intro to NukaWorld altogether....and disregard every NPC that calls her "boss". *sigh* Dammit, Bethesda...

i haven't even finished the main questline because of how badly the latter half was written and designed. There was simply NO WAY of redeeming the story past a certain point since there's no righteous or non-retarded outcome. Everybody is evil, everybody gets shafted and everybody ends up acting out of the character. *sigh* As for the difficulty, i have mods that make weapon damage realistic across the board against everybody but synths, robots and mutants. Human vs human fights are shorter, if not avoidable (via a passive behaviors mod) and explosives are often an instant kill for everyone involved. MY kind of difficulty!


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## Sarachaga (Feb 10, 2018)

Easy for FPS, medium for RPGs and I usually ramp up to hard for RTS


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## Dongding (Feb 10, 2018)

PlusThirtyOne said:


> ...



I modded Skyrim on PC to have Frostfall (I think it was called.), Realistic Needs (Need to eat and drink or suffer penalties.), and some hunting one that allowed you to skin and butcher animals for materials and meat with hunting knifes; the lowest tier being bone.

With Fallout well... I just try and make it through a playthrough without it having a game breaking bug occur. Been playing it fairly steady since it came out, and I've made it through once without that happening... (I consider having done everything I wanted and all the DLCs then getting bored and finishing the main quest a playthrough.)

I usually make an AGILITY/LUCK Build. Fave weapon I ever got so far being a wounding double barrel. I'm still looking for that instigating hunting rifle though... one day. My current playthrough I have an instigating laser musket and a wounding submachine gun which will be fun later when I have caps and full auto perked up. Fucking girlfriend has found the hunting rifle like 3 times now and texts me a picture of it every god damn time. 3:<


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## PlusThirtyOne (Feb 10, 2018)

Dongding said:


> I usually make an AGILITY/LUCK Build.


On the topic of vidja-game difficulty _specifically_, i also like to make my OWN challenges. Both Skrym and Flout4 are games cut from the cloth of oldschool RPGs but they've been homogenized to make them more accessible. This usually means dumbing down game mechanics, neutering top tier rewards and tossing out well defined character classes. The latter has always been my biggest gripe because i DON'T WANT TO PLAY A JACK OF ALL TRADES!! i want (to be forced) to adjust my playstyle accordingly to match my characters' skills. i don't like that i can master lockpicking in a day by futzing around with bobby pins for an hour. i don't think my character should be able to learn how to swim in a day. i think it's absurd that a 300lb beast of a tank can still sprint faster than a Jamaican track star. BALANCE is the key word here, and i hate that most games are dumbing down their mechanics to allow _unbalanced_ characters.

"Build" doesn't have the same meaning anymore. "Pile" is more like it; a pile of skills. Skills and talents mooshed together in a heap with no cohesion.

Anyway... *AHEM* -Which is why i assemble my characters ON MY OWN. Self-imposed limitations are what's kept me coming back to my keyboard. if the game won't lock me out of skill trees and talents, then someone's got to bring balance to the game! When i "build" a character, i assemble their skills and talents from the start. Sometimes that means starting a game of Skrym and console-coding up his/her level and class to match an honest-to-Talos CLASS! Even if the game will LET me attempt a lockpick, i simply refuse to do so. Sometimes i'll use a mod to add a strength-checked lock bashing mechanic or something but generally speaking, if the game designers require you to open a door, there's a key hidden somewhere.
This leads me to my second policy: Self-imposed "gimps" as i call them. Sometimes i'll forego looting bodies or only take gold and jewelry; otherwise i'd be tempted to loot everything and sell it, which might force me to needlessly grind my speech or mercantile skill. if my character isn't a shopkeep or vendor, i keep selling loot to a minimum. Sometimes i'll limit quests to just one per day, sometimes if it can be helped i'll use just ONE sword from start to finish. "Papa's Longsword" has sentimental value! Sure it's rusting, bloodstained and dull as a horker's toof but by Azura, i'm NEVER replacing it!! Playing a xenophobic Nord? Well, i'm not doing business with so stinky beast folk! i don't care how much they pay for wolf pelts, these are getting sold to my fellow Nords! Sometimes i'll limit my exploration to night time only. Vampires don't like sunlight, you know! Playing Khajiit? i'm not swimming across that stream. Gotta find me a bridge.

My point is, suuuuure the game will LET me do those things but it's more fun (and challenging) to NOT do them and find other ways to play.

The real challenge for me though is not caving in and disregarding my own limitations. i like playing Flout4 with pistols ONLY but i often ask, "What harm would it do to use this FatMan juuuuuuust once?"..."Then again on that guy."..."What about that Assaultron? She'll kill me quick for sure!"..."Okay, but just this one time and then i'm ditching this over-powered weapon!"

...

"Oh, look! More mini-nukes! i wouldn't want to waste those!"


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## Dongding (Feb 10, 2018)

Yeah builds are sort of a joke with how Bethesda develops games. I'm currently playing Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition on mobile more than any other game so I know what you mean. I play it at work since I work away from my home and my console for more than half the year. I do 2 weeks on 2 weeks off rotations flying in and out. If I do a single week of OT in a year, I'm officially away from home more than I'm home that year. I never say "no" to OT... Console gaming is only for when I come home as I prefer to veg out and just watch cartoons and youtube when I get back to my room completely exhausted in camp.

As far as self imposed limitations go, I've generally try to RP as thieves. I'll wear clothing instead of armor because those farmers ropers gloves are bad lookin' as heck. I rely on only a dagger and bow, and play conservatively. Often I use a companion or a tactically placed arrow shot if not using companions to lead an enemy into backstabbing position while I hide somewhere in the shadows inbetween the distraction and my mark. (The backstabbing gets QUITE motherfucking overpowered in that game, which I think is just great.)

In FO4 I generally play a sniper/sneak role with either a sidearm or a combat knife and either a fully auto scoped rifle with steady aim for hip firing mid and close range, or a plain old hopefully legendary hunting rifle or Old Faithful from Arturos' gun shop in Diamond city if I don't have one at the time. I try to get a hold of a good legendary double barrel when I'm feeling Mad Max-ish. If I found a wounding double barrel, I would probably forgo long range all-together and rely on a sidearm for that.


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## Sunburst_Odell (Feb 10, 2018)

Most games I play don't have a set difficulty setting, but in Mario Kart, I play with people online because they're more of a challenge than the CPUs. In Mario Party, I play with the difficulty on hard. So generally, I try to challenge myself as well.


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## ChapterAquila92 (Feb 11, 2018)

Depends on the game. I've cold-turkeyed my way through Halo: Reach on Heroic and C&C Red Alert 2's campaigns on Hard before, but I've got a lot of problems trying to do an Impossible run in XCOM (and no, I'm not touching Long War for extra masochism).


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## Xinehma (Feb 20, 2018)

The games I play don't have difficulty, but when they do I start it in the "hard" mode. Then I adjust to how bad I am.


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## Pipistrele (Feb 20, 2018)

sunburst_odell said:


> Most games I play don't have a set difficulty setting, but in Mario Kart, I play with people online because they're more of a challenge than the CPUs. In Mario Party, I play with the difficulty on hard. So generally, I try to challenge myself as well.


To be honest, maybe that's just me, but CPU opponents in 150CC and Mirror modes of MK7/Wii gave me way more troubles than human ones, particularly when going for 3-star runs. AI rubberbands like hell, and even when playing near-perfectly, victory is never assured (you can get a way with a nasty blue shell shot in multiplayer if you're far enough, but since CPU is_ constantly_ on your tail, getting hit on the last lap during solo play is usually fatal) .u.


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## Sunburst_Odell (Feb 20, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> To be honest, maybe that's just me, but CPU opponents in 150CC and Mirror modes of MK7/Wii gave me way more troubles than human ones, particularly when going for 3-star runs. AI rubberbands like hell, and even when playing near-perfectly, victory is never assured (you can get a way with a nasty blue shell shot in multiplayer if you're far enough, but since CPU is_ constantly_ on your tail, getting hit on the last lap during solo play is usually fatal) .u.



I think it's more of a challenge for me because of my VR level. Typically, you will be placed with users with around the same amount of VR as you online. In MKWii, back when NFC was still up, I had around 7900 VR and I found it horribly more difficult than CPUs on Mirror(although that's not to say getting star rankings was even remotely easy) But in Mario Kart 8, I tend to find CPUs on 200cc much harder than people online. I don't play online as often these days due to me trying to unlock stuff, so I have around 1300 VR.


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## Sergei Sóhomo (Feb 22, 2018)

Usually one notch below the hardest difficulty.


Then I realize it's too hard and go to the closest setting for normal


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## Sagt (Feb 23, 2018)

I usually play the normal difficulty by default. From there, I'll only increase it if I find the game too easy.

*Remembers when, a year or two after CoD: World at War came out, I naively gave veteran mode a try*

It's not very enjoyable for a game to be nigh impossible and require too many attempts to complete, as it takes away from the experience of the game. That said, I can appreciate increasing the difficulty for games like Europa Universalis, since it makes the AI more aggressive and unpredictable, without making the game stupidly difficult for the player.


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## Fitch_Tiger (Feb 25, 2018)

I always start on the easy/normal difficulty to enjoy the story and get story based trophies. I then switch to harder difficulties if I loved the game enough and feel like I won't get stuck too much.


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## Rumby (Feb 25, 2018)

Easy because I'm bad at games LOL


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## real time strategist (Feb 26, 2018)

normal/hard usually, it really depends on the game, if it's not a relatively new FPS game i'm going to generally play on hard because they don't tend to have enemies turn into bullet sponges, while on newer FPS games it's going to be normal because i don't really like pumping two magazines of assault rifle ammo into one dude while still being able to take something like double of that damage before i die.


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## Skychickens (Mar 1, 2018)

I usually chuck things somewhere in the middle. Easy settings are always TOO easy and sometimes I don't feel like playing hard. Once I get a good grip of the game though I usually play harder. Like Skyrim...I install mods that are super immersive AND ones that will make my life miserable. Oh god I have to worry about not freezing AND the dragon that is scaled for a character 4x what I am?! GREAT.

Point is I usually set my games (when I can) to whatever they rank in the middle to start. Then if I need it harder I'll adjust on a later run.


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## LeonOnyx (Mar 2, 2018)

I usually go normal cause I want to get through the game at a constant pace but games like Halo I usually bump it up to Heroic a sweet middle ground between Normal and Certain Death, but if I really like the game I’ll go back through on the hardest difficulty.


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## EapingEagle (Mar 4, 2018)

Games like kingdom hearts, JRPG, or any game I'm familiar with I go with the hardest difficulty

But games that I'm trying out I go on Normal difficulty.


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## Remy (Mar 4, 2018)

Easy / Normal, rest of the difficulties [especially ones with achievements] i leave for my corgsband to SUFFER through. **CACKLES* *kidding, he doesn't mind doing it for me.


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## Stealtheart (Mar 6, 2018)

Normally I play on easy settings. I can do hard, but I prefer to play causally. I mainly play strategy games and I like to take my time and build my empires or cities. Sometimes it does get boring but the feeling of building something wonderful from the ground up is always worth it, rather than the feeling of dread as everything falls apart. 
In games like Company of Heroes I put the enemy on normal and my allies on hard. Just to keep the enemy back because I take a little longer to build up my forces. But I tend to carry the team because the Allies aren't that great anyway.


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## MoguMoguArt (Mar 28, 2018)

I'm a soft person i start on Easy at first and when i get the hang of it i increase the difficulty


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## Hairy Harry (Mar 31, 2018)

Always Easy, I suck at most games and rather than rage quit I just never finish them, so I gotta have better odds lol


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## Firuthi Dragovic (Apr 1, 2018)

My general practice is to start at the hardest difficulty and work my way down if I can't get past the first couple levels any other way.  Once I'm past the 1/3 mark, though, I consider myself locked into whatever difficulty I've played to that point.  Any inability to progress beyond that point is not a sign to turn back but a sign to start seeking advice.

There's one notable exception to this rule - when higher difficulties introduce new rules.  Three examples I remember are respawning enemies where there weren't before (Doom), a sudden reduction in the number of revives you have (Payday 2), or friendly fire suddenly becoming an issue (Vermintide 2).  In most cases, I avoid these changes like the plague, and when they're all that's left, I consider the game done and move on.  (Incidentally, Vermintide 2 is likely going to become a partial exception to this exception.)


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## Dongding (Apr 1, 2018)

Halo5 was AWFUL playing through on legendary. What a broken PoS.

Let's make it necessary to keep 3 squadmates alive that die one hit and don't utilize cover EVER! The move to command only moves them to a spot until they get there. There's no "Hold" command. They just run back into the open as soon as they reach the cover you commanded them to go to.


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## Infrarednexus (Apr 1, 2018)

It depends on the game. On some shooters like COD, I like playing on hard because it seems more realistic like in actual warzones. However if I'm playing RPGs like Borderlands or Oblivion, I play on easier difficulties because I like to feel like a badass and make myself harder to put down. It really depends on the enemies I'm fighting. If it takes three magazines to kill one dude when they could down me in just several shots, the game feels illogical and unenjoyable at that point.


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## ChapterAquila92 (Apr 1, 2018)

_Ghost Recon_ on Elite. Not _Ghost Recon 2_, not _Advanced Warfighter_, not _Future Soldier_; we're going old-school with the ur-game of the tactical shooter series.

Squad-based tactics where you better be able to move and have a good alpha strike, or else your fireteams are going to be overwhelmed and dropped like flies.

The original _Rainbow Six_ was the room-clearing version of this.


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## Sealab (Apr 6, 2018)

I usually play on the hardest or second-to-hardest difficulty, because I just have fun getting my ass kicked until I rise above the challenge.


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## Manek Iridius (Apr 8, 2018)

Normal/Hurt Me Plenty on three-point scales, Hard/Ultra-Violence on five-point scales. The latter especially when the numerical difficulty isn't in damage taken or dealt, but enemy density and reaction time.


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## Catolo (Apr 18, 2018)

Alien Isolation has to be one of the most frustrating games I've experienced on the hardest mode. It's been a year or so at this point, so sorry if my mind falters. 

The Alien AI is practically on your neck throughout the scenarios its involved, and the hardest mode resets your game if you die once. If I remember correctly, farthest I got was the big as room with metal pipes producing electricity shots all around. Place was so dark and the thundering so loud I didn't hear the android behind me..

RIP should've been more careful


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## Judge Spear (Apr 21, 2018)

I prefer hard modes but it depends on how it's handled. You can have a real difficulty mode like Crimzon Clover or Mega Man 10 where the game is actually specifically differently arranged to be harder and you are required to rethink strategies. Or you can have shit boring hard modes like "Master" Mode in Zelda Snore of the Wild where the enemies do nothing different and just take tank your hits, breaking more of your tinfoil weapons, and one shot you.
Also, man the gaming section is deader than shit.


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## Firuthi Dragovic (Apr 22, 2018)

XoPachi said:


> You can have a real difficulty mode like Crimzon Clover or Mega Man 10 where the game is actually specifically differently arranged to be harder and you are required to rethink strategies. Or you can have shit boring hard modes like "Master" Mode in Zelda Snore of the Wild where the enemies do nothing different and just take tank your hits, breaking more of your tinfoil weapons, and one shot you.



Oh, right, I kind of forgot about the "lack of real effort into difficulty settings" bit.  I'm increasingly intolerant of games that take the lazy way out of just dialing up a few stat numbers for difficulties - that'd be an example of a game that could drive me into easy modes just out of sheer contempt.

Especially given my understanding that most games willing to pull such crap don't have any compensating factor like better random drops.  It wouldn't be enough to save most games with this issue, but it'd be the least they could do.


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## Judge Spear (Apr 23, 2018)

FrostyTheDragon said:


> Oh, right, I kind of forgot about the "lack of real effort into difficulty settings" bit.  I'm increasingly intolerant of games that take the lazy way out of just dialing up a few stat numbers for difficulties - that'd be an example of a game that could drive me into easy modes just out of sheer contempt.
> 
> Especially given my understanding that most games willing to pull such crap don't have any compensating factor like better random drops.  It wouldn't be enough to save most games with this issue, but it'd be the least they could do.



I don't really mind it in games where the goal is to make an optimal build because then the fun and focus is to understand the systems and synergy of equipment and stats. Stuff like Borderlands or Phantasy Star Online. The fun is in figuring out how to break your character and make your own stats ridiculously high. But in games where that ISN'T the case? Boo.


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## Judge Spear (Apr 27, 2018)

One type of difficulty I like in the games I play is whats called loop 2. When you beat the game and complete specific hidden parameters (usually no deaths for the whole game) you are immediately thrown into another playthrough (loop 2) with rearranged patterns and slightly changed rules. Patterns are now obscenely difficult and if you get through it again without dying, you usually face a horrifically *brutal *secret boss at the end of the game.

I love reaching these and fighting these bosses but it takes me months to get that good usually.


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## Karatine (Apr 27, 2018)

Usually the second to hardest difficulty setting. Maybe the hardest, if I feel comfortable with the genre or game I'm playing.
I don't really like breezing through most games like some sort of god-creature. It's more investing that way to have limits... Unless it's God of War. Then maybe I would.


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## dogryme6 (Apr 28, 2018)

Personally I'm a much bigger fan of the Normal difficulty. I don't like to be bothered with Hard difficulties for the reasons everyone else said before me. Usually the Normal difficulty's hard enough for me, and I can handle that most of the time. If it does get too hard I switch downwards to something easier, but I don't like to give in so I push as hard as I can "Just one more level" that sorta deal. If I can't, I switch.


KiaraTC said:


> View attachment 26103
> In all seriousness, I start a game in the medium/middle difficulty, and if I play it again i'll increase it.


Ah here we go
/gamerule keepinventory true
Bangarang. We're in. NO MORE LOSS FOR ANYONE!
As for @PlusThirtyOne and @Dongding I don't usually mod my games that much due to not having the technical know-how to do it. And when you try to twist a game into something it's not, for your own desires, it tends to work against you and that can be very frustrating.
However I WAS able to mod Minecraft with Forge and I gave myself Grappling Hooks and Gravity Changing. I find that to be a more fun change, especially when you run up the walls and then grapple your way across ravines to somewhere you want to go for self-imposed challenge's sake. So doing that's very fun. I'll give you guys that.


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## TrishaCat (Apr 28, 2018)

I try to aim for hard mode, but it depends on the game and also what exactly said difficulty levels do.





Pipistrele said:


> 2) Challenges are often "artificial" - most of the time, you don't get harder levels or intricate obstacles, but something like "you have less health" or "dudes take more damage".


While this is true I think its important to note that this isn't _always _a bad thing. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix for example has a Critical Mode difficulty that rebalances the game as a means of making it harder. Enemies don't act any differently. Rather, there's just a lot of balancing changes with regards to what abilities you start out with/how you learn certain abilities, the amount of damage you deal, and the amount of damage you take among other things. And this did wonders for the game imo, as the game was so easy that you could just spam the attack button and reaction commands most of the time without actually being forced to learn and utilize all the tools the game gives you (the game gives you LOADS of different combat tools that often go underutilized by players on lower difficulties). A simple change in balance can have a huge impact on a game if done right.


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## Dongding (Apr 28, 2018)

dogryme6 said:


> As for @PlusThirtyOne and @Dongding I don't usually mod my games that much due to not having the technical know-how to do it. And when you try to twist a game into something it's not, for your own desires, it tends to work against you and that can be very frustrating.


Sort of have to with skyrim after you've run your course 8 or 9 times. I think if you have a mod manager you basically just check boxes of the mods you want to use, launch the game using the manager, and it just loads up with the mods. There's no technical knowledge necessary other than a quick google search.

I'm not a modder by any means. I play vanilla almost exclusively since there's plenty of games I still need to beat but don't have the drive or time for. Even with MC I never modded. Skyrim was the only game I've ever perversed and it added mechanics and small touches that complimented the core game.

Bethesda is a great developer for people wishing to mod a game that acts as a good foundation to build upon.


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## dogryme6 (Apr 28, 2018)

Dongding said:


> Sort of have to with skyrim after you've run your course 8 or 9 times. I think if you have a mod manager you basically just check boxes of the mods you want to use, launch the game using the manager, and it just loads up with the mods. There's no technical knowledge necessary other than a quick google search.
> 
> I'm not a modder by any means. I play vanilla almost exclusively since there's plenty of games I still need to beat but don't have the drive or time for. Even with MC I never modded. Skyrim was the only game I've ever perversed and it added mechanics and small touches that complimented the core game.
> 
> Bethesda is a great developer for people wishing to mod a game that acts as a good foundation to build upon.


Well if that's the case then I suppose Minecraft and Skyrim are very easy to mod.
But some games are more easy to mod than others. PlusThirtyOne was trying VERY hard to avoid certain plot details in Skyrim and Fallout 4 so they could pretend to be certain characters or classes. It's kind of why I said what I said. That Trying to twist a game into something it's not for your own desires, it tends to work against you and that makes it frustrating? That's why.
I wouldn't know the first thing about programming or writing. Theoretically you could erase the lines of text that refer to the hero in skyrim as dragonborn, or the ones in Fallout 4 that refer to the character's missing child, or the lines in the same game that refer to one of the certain characters as "boss."
But that sounds really tricky to dig into and I'm not sure if it'd be worth the effort. And besides, deleting the lines could cause an error in the game that checks for those lines to have been read and completed for the game to progress and it either crashes, or it doesn't register the check and the player cannot proceed normally.
Either way would be bad. Which is why I don't give people advice in programming because if I screwed up on Networking Concepts in College then I'd probably suck to heaven to hell and back again three more times at programming.


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## Dongding (Apr 28, 2018)

Making mods wouldn't be fun, no.

Unless you're into that sort of thing! :3


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## Karatine (Apr 28, 2018)

One of the "difficulties" I like in a purely masochistic way is the perma-death, lose everything or a lot of progress type things. 
Not necessarily rougelikes, where games last one or two sessions at most. More like games that you could put many, many hours into. Like Minecraft's hardcore mode, or Deadspace 2's hardcore mode. The game itself isn't exactly punishing (except for Deadspace), there's always a possibility you _could_ die at any point.
I guess the whole appeal for me, is that it makes moments of progress feel monumental, and you grow extremely attached to everything you've done in that life.
It also makes anything with any risk associated with it 10x scarier.


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## DaWaffleWolf (Apr 28, 2018)

Hard


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## dogryme6 (Apr 28, 2018)

Dongding said:


> Making mods wouldn't be fun, no.
> 
> Unless you're into that sort of thing! :3


Well I wasn't exactly talking about Making mods... But that would be cool if I could. But personally what I'd love to do more would be to make a platforming game of some kind with a few weird and perhaps interesting mechanics.


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## ChapterAquila92 (Apr 28, 2018)

Dongding said:


> Making mods wouldn't be fun, no.
> 
> Unless you're into that sort of thing! :3


A lot of modding actually happens to be looking at the nuts and bolts of a game to see how it works, and then copy-pasting the bits of it that you want to be part of your mod.

That was pretty much how I went about making my exosuit upgrade mod for XCOM2.



> *
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Which reminds me that I still need to sort out the WOTC-compatible version...


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## PlusThirtyOne (Apr 29, 2018)

Dongding said:


> Sort of have to with skyrim after you've run your course 8 or 9 times. I think if you have a mod manager you basically just check boxes of the mods you want to use, launch the game using the manager, and it just loads up with the mods. There's no technical knowledge necessary other than a quick google search.



The Nexus Mod Manager has both _saved_ my ass and utterly _wrecked_ the every-loving-shit out of my copies of Skyrim and Morrowind; i would say in equal parts for both games. The Mod Manager helps to download mods and auto-install them, pair mods together and order them properly. Your game is still subject to breaking mod scripts and bloating saves especially if you add or remove mods mid game. i can't even remember all the times i've broken my saves (or even install!) by adding just oooooone mooooore aaaaaaaaddition. it's never something massive like a fast-travel overhaul, a companion script change, a new questline or a city expansion, of no, THOSE go off without a hitch. it's always the tiny mods! Like -i dunno- a mod that _moves ONE BARREL just 3 inches to the left_ that nukes my character save.
in the case of mod manager hiccups, i wanted to do some HDD cleaning and i figured that since i had mods already installed, there wouldn't be a need for the installs to keep hanging around so i deleted them. The installs, setup and RAR files; THAT'S ALL- but the next time i fired up the Mod Manager is said, "OH MY GAAAWD! WHERE'S ALL MUH FiLES!?!?", flipped its shit and proceeded to automatically uninstall ALL MY MODS. No message, no error, no permission...

it just NUKED. MY. GAME.


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## Dongding (Apr 29, 2018)

PlusThirtyOne said:


> The Nexus Mod Manager has both _saved_ my ass and utterly _wrecked_ the every-loving-shit out of my copies of Skyrim and Morrowind


I only had Frostfall, realistic needs or something, some hunting mod, and a music mod to add a whole bunch of really awesome fantasy music to the game. Maybe crashed once? Beginner's luck perhaps. (Plus just having a few mods installed instead of hundreds probably helps too. I've seen some people's mod lists on tutorial videos and... holy crap.)


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## MaikeruNezumi (May 12, 2018)

Usually Normal, but I pick Easy on games I'm not familiar with.


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## Whimsycal (May 12, 2018)

As stressing and bothersome as it can get, I love playing on the hard difficulties


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## brawlingcastform (May 24, 2018)

Super easy. I hate to lose in games unless the story requires it.


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## Redwulf16 (Jun 2, 2018)

Dark souls. My preferred difficulty is dark souls. Just beat the gaping dragon yesterday, in fact. I started playing remastered a couple weeks ago and I've been loving it to pieces. that said, even I can't play lunatic or even hard mode on touhou games. damn touhou is hard, makes dark souls look like a walk in the park. In skyrim legendary mode isn't hard enough so I add mods to ramp it up even higher.


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## Aiodensghost (Jun 3, 2018)

I tend to ramp difficulty up as far as I can. Sure, levels may be the same, but dang. 

In terms of a challenge, Im what they now call a "masocore" gamer. I tend to stick to really brutal indie games to the liking of Binding of Isaac and N++ Ultimate Edition set in its veteran mode, which makes the game harder from a time and level stand point. Terraria set with a Hardcore character and an expert world makes boss fights tense cause if you die even once your items are gone for good (if you do this and dont want to lose your items, play multiplayer, if you dont care about losing items for good, play in singleplayer.) 

Some games I do like on Normal difficulty, though. Minecraft is one I like on Normal cause Normal is relaxing while still having to fend off mobs.

And some difficulty setting cant be changed in some games, like some of the games on the Nintendo 3DS.


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## Inklop Bunny (Jul 12, 2018)

Normal, depending on the genre: RPG/JRPGs, Sims, whereas Sandboxes/FPSers  are usually Easy or Story mode. Which has nothing to do with my skill, I’d kill to go back to Normal,  but I’ve lost more use of my hands so I rather enjoy things instead of ruining my joints.


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## Lopaw (Jul 12, 2018)

I’ll go through on easy first then go back and do harder difficulty after generally.


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## Eli Wintershade (Jul 12, 2018)

Depends on the game. Like some games I LOVE on the most brutal difficulty such as doom (1993 and 2016 as well as 2). or both persona 4 and 5 as well as SMT:3 

Other games I will flip on the difficulty right below the hardest, and if the game allows you to switch the game to the hardest I will definatly put it there.


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## linkmaster647 (Dec 9, 2018)

usually i do medium but, if im familiar with the franchise/genre, ill go hard mode


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## DarkoKavinsky (Dec 9, 2018)

Usually I don't touch it. But I have a tendency to drop the difficulty if I'm not having fun or if something is getting to the point of nipple twisting annoying. I play games for fun, not have masochistic  tendencies!


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## Illuminaughty (Dec 9, 2018)

It varies. If I'm unfamiliar with a game I'll work my way up, starting with low difficulty. If a game is especially hard and I just want to have a casual half hour of enjoyment, I'll go for easy mode. If I want a bit of a challenge I'll go for higher difficulty.
Games in general have varying levels of baseline difficulty, so what difficulty I choose has more to do with the game itself than anything else.


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## CrookedCroc (Dec 11, 2018)

It depends on the game.
For example, games like Ninja Gaiden Black, Bayonetta, Devil May Cry and Nioh feel fun and rewarding when playing on harder difficulties.

But FPSs can be pretty bullshit since enemy weapons usually use hit scan and force you to hide behind stuff pretty often, anyone that has played Halo 2 on legendary knows true hell.


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## Misha Bordiga Zahradník (Dec 15, 2018)

On FPS/strategy games I prefer normal or parity difficulties. I like the enemy an me to have a fair footing, so I'm challenged, but not overwhelmed. 

I also like playing ultrarealism mode in games like Fallout, or in multiplayer shooters. It challenges you to ask how you would actually deal with that kind of combat scenario. Good tactics get rewarded. Bad ones get punished. 

Played New Vegas with a mod that allowed minute settings tweaks for gameplay. I turned the settings so that both my character and NPCs got very little bonus health from endurance, and damage scaling based on skill was minimized. The result was that a few small bullets could kill either the player or NPC. 

I died so many times by getting hit with a lead pipe it wasn't funny. Let alone the brutal respawn-die-repeat firefights. 

It's a shame an unrelated bug killed that run. I had to drag my character across the wastes after barely surviving a grenade. Realistic crawling speed. !FUN!


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## Jackpot Raccuki (Dec 15, 2018)

Lunatic.




_Also screw this fairy, ruins my 1cc_

I usually only go for Hard/Expert in games.
I refuse to play on Easy modo with the only exception of testing mods.
And if the game has no difficulty other than "character choice" since Don't Starve Together has Wes which is hardmode, but I prefer Maxwell who is frail and dies quickly so he's hard enough I guess.

*Insert something edgy about how I play on hardest difficulty here.*


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## Pipistrele (Dec 15, 2018)

Smexy Likeok4™ said:


> *Insert something edgy about how I play on hardest difficulty here.*



I do appreciate challenge quite a lot too, so you can consider me a friendo in that regard. I just mostly prefer hard games to normal games with hard difficulty - in case of something like Bark Souls or Mega Man 11, you know designers spent countless hours to make the game specifically around beating your ass; with something like BotW's  Master Mode, however, it's kinda like, "We'll just gank up the numbers so the game becomes infinitely more tedious and repetitive". In a lot of cases, I found out "hard mode" basically being the "suck-the-fun-out button"


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## Misha Bordiga Zahradník (Dec 15, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> I do appreciate challenge quite a lot too, so you can consider me a friendo in that regard. I just mostly prefer hard games to normal games with hard difficulty - in case of something like Bark Souls or Mega Man 11, you know designers spent countless hours to make the game specifically around beating your ass; with something like BotW's  Master Mode, however, it's kinda like, "We'll just gank up the numbers so the game becomes infinitely more tedious and repetitive". In a lot of cases, I found out "hard mode" basically being the "suck-the-fun-out button"


Agreed.

Also, "Bark Souls"

I need to 'shop this.


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## Jackpot Raccuki (Dec 15, 2018)

Pipistrele said:


> I do appreciate challenge quite a lot too, so you can consider me a friendo in that regard. I just mostly prefer hard games to normal games with hard difficulty - in case of something like Bark Souls or Mega Man 11, you know designers spent countless hours to make the game specifically around beating your ass; with something like BotW's  Master Mode, however, it's kinda like, "We'll just gank up the numbers so the game becomes infinitely more tedious and repetitive". In a lot of cases, I found out "hard mode" basically being the "suck-the-fun-out button"


Not edgy enough.
But still good.

I'll give 8/10.
+1 for the Bark Souls.


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