At what difficulty level are you playing?

[Ink Blot]

Playing on Hard. So far the "regular" encounters have felt about right -- challenging but not frustrating. I've poked my nose in a few places I probably shouldn't be at this point and had it punched hard though. I figure the best way to go on Hard is to feel your way forward and if the going gets seriously tough try something else and come back later. At least I'm not good enough to beat some of 'em without serious savegame abuse at level 2-3.

Pretty much exactly this. At one point my Rogue ended up in a cave solo where there were two bears. Did not make eye contact and backed away slowly. Will return with heavy artillery.

[ShadySands]

Easy

 

And I'm cheating like crazy

 

And I'm loving it

[etagloc]

playing on hard, and so far I like it. I win if I do it correct and lose if I **** it up. thats how I like it

[newxieland]

I've not started yet, but am leaning towards Hard and Expert.

 

Does anyone know the specific difference between Normal and Hard?  More enemies in mobs? Changes to damage and health? Etc?

 

I think hard = more/stronger enemies.

 

Pretty sure on easy you only encounter a Young Bear in the cave but on hard I faced off a Mama Bear and a Young Bear. Needless to say I got creamed... But definitely coming back later with a few buddies as I'm determined to have a bear pelt for my castle!

[Emerwyn]

I see people mentioning here they have Expert on as if it means anything, and it doesn't. Doesn't make the game any harder or challenging at all, it simply doesn't send you pop ups with very basic tips the first time you encounter something new in the game (such as "put your potions in your belt to be able to use them in combat" etc). Expert is just a fancy name to say "I know how IE games play out", but not a difficulty slider by any stretch of imagination.

[Lephys]

I see people mentioning here they have Expert on as if it means anything, and it doesn't. Doesn't make the game any harder or challenging at all, it simply doesn't send you pop ups with very basic tips the first time you encounter something new in the game (such as "put your potions in your belt to be able to use them in combat" etc). Expert is just a fancy name to say "I know how IE games play out", but not a difficulty slider by any stretch of imagination.

Erm... I could very well be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain it does more than that. I think you don't get the mouse-over-a-foe tooltips for their HP and defense and such in combat, and you aren't told which dialogue options are unlocked by which stat values, or how certain responses will be taken, etc.

 

No, its inherent purpose isn't to be a difficulty setting. But, the game gains at least some degree of difficulty from Expert Mode's activation.

[Emerwyn]

 

I see people mentioning here they have Expert on as if it means anything, and it doesn't. Doesn't make the game any harder or challenging at all, it simply doesn't send you pop ups with very basic tips the first time you encounter something new in the game (such as "put your potions in your belt to be able to use them in combat" etc). Expert is just a fancy name to say "I know how IE games play out", but not a difficulty slider by any stretch of imagination.

Erm... I could very well be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain it does more than that. I think you don't get the mouse-over-a-foe tooltips for their HP and defense and such in combat, and you aren't told which dialogue options are unlocked by which stat values, or how certain responses will be taken, etc.

 

No, its inherent purpose isn't to be a difficulty setting. But, the game gains at least some degree of difficulty from Expert Mode's activation.

 

 

Unless I'm mistaken, you can access creature stats in the journal, more information added the more creatures of the same kind you defeat. I'm not sure what info you get when you mouseover with Expert mode toggled on since I'm playing with it disabled, but I'm guessing it's not much more than what you already have access to.

 

About what stats you need to unlock what conversations, I wish that was actually a different feature, because I'm a completionist and I'd really like to know what dialogue choices I'm missing by not meeting some requirements that I may want to consider for a future play-through. 

Edited March 27, 2015 by Emerwyn

[Eberict]

Normal since it's been a long time since I've played this kind of game and I have no idea what any of these wizard and priests abilities do yet! Once I figure all that out and have some solid combos/understanding, I'll ramp up.

[Reever]

As I said before, I suck at tactical fights. So I'll start on normal and go down to Easy if I need to.

[vetiver]

I play on normal difficulty. Mainly because my game time is limited, and I don't want to spend hours on one encounter. It's a beautiful game with a lot of things to experience, there's no need to ramp up the level too much. 

 

Anyway, those are my £0.02.

[boybrushdRED]

Playing on normal. I have played star wars kotor 1, is that close enough to the infinity games? I have no experience with the infinity games.

[Oxford_Guy]

Normal, I'm drinking, and answering the questions of my players for character creation for a high level Pathfinder game, switching between PoE and my secondary monitor. Distractions and alcohol and not being familiar with the game, I want some leniency my first trip through. >.< 

 

Haha! Yes,a little booze and RPGs go nicely, as long as not too much! )

[Dongom]

hard or above. it's the only way my fire-godlike aura monk tank works 

[Dray Truoc]

I played the IE games back in the day, so I ended up playing on 'Hard' with 'Expert' turned on.

 

So far, no real issues.  I've died a couple times, but most fights I've been making it through ok.  Seems a good challenge that I'm sure will ramp up.

[kozzy]

Playing on Hard atm and it is a blast, nice challenge!

[Lephys]

Unless I'm mistaken, you can access creature stats in the journal, more information added the more creatures of the same kind you defeat. I'm not sure what info you get when you mouseover with Expert mode toggled on since I'm playing with it disabled, but I'm guessing it's not much more than what you already have access to.

 

About what stats you need to unlock what conversations, I wish that was actually a different feature, because I'm a completionist and I'd really like to know what dialogue choices I'm missing by not meeting some requirements that I may want to consider for a future play-through.

 

 

I'm very confused now. You don't get more info with Expert Mode on. You get less info. It's possible the design has changed in the final game version, from earlier versions, but it was designed not too long ago to remove all the tooltip info on enemies in combat. What I mean is, the info pane that pops up when you hover your mouse over an enemy in the midst of combat. It shows you their defenses, etc.

 

Also, the second bit should be a separate feature. Expert Mode is essentially a toggle for a whole collection of individual game options. You can toggle whatever you want off, while leaving on "show me dialogue options I don't meet the pre-requisites for" or however it's worded, so you can see "[intellect 12/15] (dialogue option here)" even though you cannot choose it.

 

I hope that's helpful.

[PaintingInAir]

I'm just playing normal. There are still challenging encounters, but it doesn't feel like every encounter is tedious.

[PrimeJunta]

Playing on normal. I have played star wars kotor 1, is that close enough to the infinity games? I have no experience with the infinity games.

 

KOTOR is really not much like the IE games at all. Other than both being cRPG's, I can't really think of anything much they have in common, especially regarding gameplay (i.e. the stuff that affects difficulty). If you haven't ever played the IE games or even the NWN's, you might want to start on Easy, especially if you have a low tolerance for frustration, 'cuz you will likely get your face pushed in on Normal a lot before you figure it out.

[NoxNoctum]

Playing on hard - I started with expert mode but quickly turned it off as I find the various combat tooltips, AOE display etc. super useful.

 

Also - as much as I would like to turn off the dialogue display that tells you what emotion it's expressing, sometimes it's ambiguous so I feel the need to have it on.

[cloudline]

For a veteran of IE games (Baldur's Gate et al.) I would personally recommend Hard with Trial of Iron. I cannot express how incredibly much it's added to my roleplay/immersion that I cannot save scum. Oh no I missed the first shot, F8 reload. F5 F5 F5. Nope. None of that bollocks. The game keeps one save and you never have to worry about it. Scout. Buy potions. Don't attack things that will kill you. It's for the tactician and roleplayer. I love it!!

 

Also, my party just wiped.   But that's cool. I'll apply all I've learned to my new game. Woohoo!

[Rhaeg]

Playing on hard and boy that's exactly what it is from time to time...

[Hobo The Clown]

Playing on Hard as ive had plenty of experience with IE games (BG,NWN,IWD) and so far its not too hard a couple areas are a tad tough like raedrics while im still only lvl 2-4 with my party but that just means i'll come back for it later. Only a couple of deaths but mostly due to forgetting i have double speed on and charging into a room and engaging too many mobs at once with no time to break the party apart.

[JiminyJickers]

I'm playing on hard because I enjoy the combat better this way, but would have preferred to have a higher camping supply limit.  It is pretty boring having to go back to town to buy more supplies and come straight back wherever I'm fighting.

[Mirandel]

Normal. It's challenging enough for me (first PT, no beta experience) without making me quit.

[wanderon]

Only have about an hour in the game so far - one character taken through the "prologue" on hard with dialogue labels turned off (two others only through character creation) - today is my first real game day and I will probably fiddle with a few builds before deciding on a character for a more dedicated run at the game (as if my restartitus was not going to kick in several times before anyone is more than a couple of hours in anyway)

 

The prologue went fine on hard with a non min/maxed rogue built for dialogue/rp options (high int, per, res) - he was looking for rest by the time he got through the prologue but was not in much danger of dying at any point - I suspect the prologue is designed to be sort of forgiving anyway and if it turns out hard turns into a reload fest later I'll back off to normal with no regrets altho I'm pretty sure I want to keep the dialogue notifiers turned off and choose them from an RP standpoint and see where they lead me and not choose based on their labels - probably not going to go "expert" - will likely never try POTD but may well go for Ironman eventually (was big on No Reload IE games once I learned my way around them).