Which is the most 'Balanced' difficulty?

[Preciousgollum]

Hi,

Which of the Bethesda RPG difficulty levels is the most fair or balanced, where enemy encounters are playing by equivalent stats?

From Fallout 3/NV, I'd think it would be Hard Difficulty (although I have finis he'd Fallout 3 on Very Hard), but Skyrim has this issue where some enemies might simply have more health on equivalent level than the player could ever achieve (on same level).

I'm thinking of getting Fallout 4, and I used to enjoy other Bethesda RPGs, but it seems that from Oblivon onwards, the 'Balancing' of enemy stats relative to the player has been somewhat inconsistent.

A strategy game, usually, has a difficulty mode where there are no innate added bonuses or handicaps to enemy units - RPGs should hopefully work the same way.

Raiders die in a couple of shots, but the player has a lot more health, and the higher difficulties don't always fully address this issue (but nevermind...)

I like a challenge, but a bullet sponge enemy isn't always as fun as taking down a Dark Souls boss.

I wish that these games would be a bit more straightforward, rather than seemingly having their difficulty and power curves be inconsistent.

If Survival Difficulty is at least fun for Fallout 4, then I'd happily play it, even if it isn't the fairest of difficulties.

Thanks for reading.

[MaximumEffort]

Very Hard

[sdack]

Depends on personal preference. There is no one setting to fit everyone or there wouldn't be a choice in the first place. In fact the existing choice is barely enough for everyone, but people look to mods, too.

[Zu]

I think Survival is the fairest setting. Unlike Very Hard where you deal ♥♥♥♥ all for damage and enemies have massive multipliers, the patched Survival has everyone deal the same damage. Eventually you're like a legendary enemy in terms of health and damage output, but that's sorta what you're supposed to be, no?

[Kalsu]

Fallout 4 survival difficulty is the best of the bunch. Unlike very hard or other bethesda games , it doesnt turn mobs into bullet spounge. The only thing people complain about survival is because they can't save scum unless they use mods. But like all the other bethesda games , at higher level all the difficulty are a joke.

Imo , survival difficulty in fallout 4 is the best we have for now.

[Zu]

Originally posted by Kalsue:

The only thing people complain about survival is because they can't save scum unless they use mods.

Right. I personally use Survival Options[www.nexusmods.com] because some of the consumable related penalties and sleep-exclusive saving are just nonsensical.

[Preciousgollum]

Originally posted by sjrekis:

Very Hard

Are you sure?

Fallout 3, for example, had Enclave Hellfire troops at 250HP (Normal), and player HP would be around over 450-500HP on equivalent level.

Because of the Difficulty Scaling, on Very Hard, they would have 500 HP in real terms (because player does half-damage), which seems correct, but I then sometimes forget that the damage modifiers are applied both ways, meaning that Player actually only has 250HP real terms.

I.e the advantages that Fallout 3 seems to inherently give to player on Normal, becomes inverted to disadvantage on V.Hard.

On Hard, the scaling is 50% Damage done AND received, which, unless I am mistaken, means roughly equivalent real terms HP for both player and enemy. (375 HP).

Skyrim seems a bit different, in that early game the player has advantage, but then mid game Normal HP of enemies seems to be higher than even the player can achieve at natural level.
(I have not done any investigation where late game difficulty balances out).

Of course, this knowledge doesn't solve all the 'little quirks' of a Bethesda game, but suspension of disbelief helps 😀

[Preciousgollum]

Long story short: I wish developers would try to refrain from over-compensating their difficulty curves (with hidden modifiers) and instead provide the 'Fair' difficulty option.

I still enjoyed Fallout 3 'Very Hard' difficulty, but it was somewhat deflated by the presence of the nearly immortal companions.

[Preciousgollum]

Originally posted by Kalsue:

Fallout 4 survival difficulty is the best of the bunch. Unlike very hard or other bethesda games , it doesnt turn mobs into bullet spounge. The only thing people complain about survival is because they can't save scum unless they use mods. But like all the other bethesda games , at higher level all the difficulty are a joke.

Imo , survival difficulty in fallout 4 is the best we have for now.

Having sampled the Free Weekend intro on Survival (literally up to the ending of the E3 Demo lol), I can definitely see the initial allure of its difficulty.

Survival might be the way to go. Thanks.

[Xyzzy]

Well the best way, per design is to change difficulty on the fly at Esc-Gameplay. Thus, you can put it to Easy in High Threat Level areas and to Hard in lower threat level areas. Or as you like. My current chr. lev-10 is on Very hard but it's too hard at such early stage, I'm gonna lower it a bit. My best Strategy is to store Perks, so it doesn't become too easy.

[Daylon]

I personally play on very hard which unfortunately, I don't find vary hard. From what I have read and experienced, enemies tend to level up with you but not at an equal rate. I've ran across a couple areas where Super Mutants are as tough as nails and I was concerned about running out of ammo during the fight but those are exceptions. I have run across anomalies as well where an enemy has a skull next to them indicating that they are several levels above me and was still able to 3 shot kill them with a regular Gauss rifle.

As far as Survival mode... some people love it. For me, it doesn't interested me in the slightest.

[Preciousgollum]

Originally posted by Xyzzy:

Well the best way, per design is to change difficulty on the fly at Esc-Gameplay. Thus, you can put it to Easy in High Threat Level areas and to Hard in lower threat level areas. Or as you like. My current chr. lev-10 is on Very hard but it's too hard at such early stage, I'm gonna lower it a bit. My best Strategy is to store Perks, so it doesn't become too easy.

Personally, I don't think I could do that, since the idea of a character/save game run made up of multiple difficulty levels would give me the heebie jeebies 😂.

[xchrisx88]

Hard is good, Very Hard and Survival is kinda meh, in the beginning, always get 1-shot by those damn Molotovs

[Emmental]

Normal for casual play, survival if you want a challenge. Very hard can be tedious, you're never really in danger if you know what you're doing, it's just it can take ages to hack down obnoxious bullet sponges.

[casualsailor]

I think Suvival as well. You hit harder but so do enemies and they are not the bullet sponges that they are on Very Hard.

[J A C K S O N]

Survival all the way.