Just thought it would be interesting to know what difficulty everybody plays on, since the slider changes the game so much.
I play on 3/4 difficulty (1 being the highest)

I haven't changed it, so I play on 1/2

Haven't changed it either

Hmm. I was so busy jumping into the gameplay, that I never thought about it. On the Xbox at least, it doesn't show up if you don't look for it. How does the slider alter difficulty? By lowering enemy hp or giving better "rolls" or something?

The slider alters hp it seems at least, and you won't have as many knockbacks, critical strikes etc against you at lower difficulty.

I've tried the extremes and the median and this is what i discovered trying to kill a "boss" in an oblivion plane:

(was lvl 20 at the moment and a warrior type)

Lowest difficulty: 1 shot, 1 kill with the firespell you get from the start

Medium difficulty: Normal battle lasting a few minutes back and forward

Highest difficulty: 1 shot, 1 kill... just the other way around


However it should be noted that if you start playing the game at the lowest lvl your skills won't increase as quickly as on the higher difficulty due to the fact that you won't have to hit enemies that much to kill them so the fastest way to progress in levels would be to play at the maximum difficulty, providing you can acctually survive that is

I play close to max, it's very hard! I'm a level 4 Redguard knight and stunted scamps own me!

i decided some time ago not to change difficulty levels at all in rpg games. Normal or Medium settings are the best, hard where it has to be hard, and not boring where it's easy. Also... oblivion brings up enemies so they match your character lvl, which is pretty comfortable as well, so no reason for a change.

I totally agree

1/2 for the most part. A few times I didn't want to be bothered running through a cave and dropped the difficulty slider to minimum and it was funny - I think I didn't even swing at them - just ran them over!

I attempted to close my third OB gate at level 15 on max difficulty and it took me forever (I only died 4 times though ) because I rested in every area long enough to charge up my adrenaline rush. Bring LOTS of potions LOL.

Had it on default for years until I got tired of hacking and hacking and hacking and hacking to make a mudcrab not live.
Of course, I have a mod now that make them friendly but I still don´t like to hack and hack and hack and hack. And since the slider doesn´t affect lockpicking, puzzles or anything else but damage giving/receiving, I have lowered it just a bit. Much better now

Default. Always default in Oblivion! ... The only exception to this (the ONLY one) is as my characters level up past 5. Imps. They should be 1 or 2-shot creatures. I mean...come on. I can't buy that a giant arrow piercing through an imp doesn't just kill it (like it would at the start of the game) So I'll adjust the difficulty downwards for that one exception, but otherwise i'm always a default duckie.

Mudcrabs (Horrid creatures): I usually just outrun 'em. Or some of mine will sneak past them, if they're in a dungeon with not much room to run by (and attract attention) Lady Saga uses them for target practice, occasionally.

...horrible creatures.

Agreed. They´re not big and bad like the Doom 3 ones. And they aren´t that big and bad either with a shotgun blast to their many eyes
(sorry, did not intend to derail)


Lothran uses them as creaking companies

Imps in D&D are pretty much 1-shot creatures summoned by mid-level wizards, they don't just "respawn". While I can't simulate the wizard summoning bit, I can RP this as an errant sorcerer who travels from lair to lair, re-introducing them to the world of Cyrodiil. And I CAN and DO get my pleasing 1-shot kills.

Love doing that with Saga, by the way. Getting those perfect sneak-attacks with a bow & arrow! swish swish swish swish....PLUNK! EEEEP!!!

Did I say I love the sound effects in posts you make!

Default. The difficulty slider does not do what I want it to do. I want weapons to be more deadly on both sides of the fight. Bumping the slider to the right does that for foes but not for your character.

Rather, I play default and render foes more deadly by keeping my character’s endurance at base (tiny red bar) and keeping any armor rating she may have down in the single digit range. Marauders become freight trains of damage this way.

At the same time, I optimize my own character’s damage by capping her level near 20. That allows her to max her bow killing skills and supporting attributes, but limits the health of her foes. I also equip her with a high quality bow repaired to 125%, and powerful arrows.

The result is exactly the glass cannon that I want: My character strikes like a dragon but can crumple like a butterfly.

Because I use a mod that makes enemies stronger, less-predictable (like Minotaurs at level 1) and more intelligen, I play on a difficutly somewhere between the easiest possible and default - I find it challenging enough.

Lothran: I think the sound effects thing comes from reading stories to my kid. I always make little sound effects if I'm reading her a bedtime story. So did my dad when he read for us as kids. It's infectious.



I dislike this as well. I did bump RG2's game up a bit one time. I wanted NPC raids to last longer and be more challenging. But the experiment did not last long because bumping the slider right also made her weaker. WTF, man?

Sounds like you´re a great mom But why do you call me Lothran?

DOH!!!

I'm not the only one!

Well, I don´t mind being called Lothran. It´s just... I´m not him

I basically turn the difficulty to normal on massive sandbox games. I try to appreciate the environment the first time through without too much challenge. Depending on how difficult or easy the game is I'll adjust it from there.

I don't like games to be an excercise in futility but I do like them to be somewhat challenging.

In Oblivion I usually play on default now that I’ve gotten better at *cough* “building” my characters. My older ones are somewhere on the easy side of the middle. I played for over a year before I realized that +4 and +5 attribute increases were even possible. So you can imagine how many times my high level characters would have to hit a rat if I played them on default difficulty.

So you roll better toons to beaten the game with nowadays? [COUGH] How about pwnage? Do your toons maximize their ability to grind some dp lairs? Or do your +5 skill advances result from hours of build-sculpting?

I have no idea what you´re talkin´ ´bout!

It's WoW (World of Warcraft) Speak. Pseron one day was complaining about hearing this long list of words over and over on WoW boards (Toon, Tank, Grind, etc.) so I started teasing him. And then SubRosa jumped in. And then it kinda took a life of its own.

I guess you wouldn't know the diff since you've never rolled a new toon. You've kept the same avatar all these years!

Toon? Avatar? No you see, I have a character. CHARACTER.

So you guys hang around WoW forums too? I think it´s enough with two so you won´t get me over there!