Dunno if such a poll has already been made, but here goes:

For the moment i don't have the game and i can't vote.

When i will have the game i will try suicidal/hardcore first.
Because i want to play during a very long time.
If it is really too difficult i will change and play tactical.

Tactical. It's definitely a step up from DD's average difficulty level, where the thing to fear the most was being mobbed. Not that those orc chieftains were exactly easy for a new arrival, but...

action

I like tactical. I had problems very early in the game, but once I took a time out to clear the first two areas of the Act 1 battlefield and raise my chars from levels 5 to 8, things have been easier. I still have to make sure to intelligently distribute my skill points, and it is pretty easy to commit suicide by not paying attention during battles, but overall it seems very well balanced in terms of being challenging without being too tough.

Tactical, and really it's not that difficult. Since you can instant quaff a potion I don't thinks it so 'tactical'...I'm hardly conquering Persia. To be honest I think these difficulties are a bit dumb. Firstly why give them misleading names. It appears it just toughens your enemies, it doesn't make them smarter or anything. The combat is primarily 'hit them more then they hit you', there are no fancy tactics to use.

Only the Ghosts and Skeleton Mages on the starting levels of the prison gave me a real problem. The only other times I die is by not paying attention to each characters health. Since I first messed around on Hardcore to get a feel for the game I'll probably restart on Hardcore....provinding Larian get their act together and make a new patch for 1.4 by the weekend.

31 voters, and still no harcore <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

Wait a few days.
I am going to get the game very soon. (Many thanks to DoritoOfDeath and Lynn).
And i will vote for hardcore.

I have suicidal tendancies <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Barta

Hardcore is the kind of level you try when you've finished the game before, cause it's simply too hard. Not to mention the game is just out...

[color:"yellow"] On what difficulty level are you playing ? (Total Votes: 38)
Very Easy 9 23%

Action 15 39%

Tactical 12 31%

Suicidal (or is it Hardcore ?) 1 02%

Potatoe (no game, no clue) 1 02% [/color]

One person voted hardcore and it is not me. I still haven't the game.

This poll is interesting because it shows that 62 % of the gamers want easy games.

People are scared in front of the difficulty ?

They want a nice game but they want to finish it very quickly ?

About the skill system points, it is the same story.
People ask for more skill points.
Why ? To make the game easier.

Barta

If you are wondering, I restarted on Hardcore and I've noticed the following changes.

More Skill Points per level. It's sort of 1.5, it seems that one character gets 2 for a few levels and then the other get's two.

Poison is more powerful, and the monster do a little bit more damage. The spiders on the Battlefields surface do serious poison damage. I don't think they were that bad before, but I have visited at a lower level so maybe I'm imagining it. On the other hand the skeleton mages seem pretty wimpy but the first time on tactical they gave me grief. So maybe magic is the same and poison is beefed up. Hard to say.

More monsters. The ghosts that were locked in the prison cells near the thirsty prisoner. Well there are two per cell instead of one, and one of them seems to increase level to match your party. He was level 9 when I fought him and pretty hard.

Barta, I am playing tactical myself, but I believe many people are playing easy because it's their first time through and that they will replay tactical and hardcore on the second run.

It is why i have said that this poll is interesting because at the beginning the game did not have the 4 options.
Everybody had to play "tactical".

After the release of the demo, the Larians included 3 more options.
And they were completely right because it's clear that a lot of people prefer the new options.

I am playing it on hardcore.. not having any major problems at all.. i did restart though.. was a hero-wiz dk-warrior and went back and did hero-war dk-war and having a much easier time (dk war is using a bow, and will have magic as i progress).. im having no problems at all.. fergus was kinda tuff but i used all my potions and opened the door to the shrine of the damned one and used the healup i nthere..

the ghosts on the ifrst level were kidna tough too, so i left them, be, got the battlefield key and did the first dungeon, ghosts were easy after that..

I am playing hardcore and now i am level 7 so i will keep on playing hardcore.
The beginning was difficult because i had two very good two handed swords and i spared my skill points until i could get the skills for the two handed weapons.

I could not kill the ghosts at the beginning so i killed them later and it was not too difficult.

Barta

youch, Barta Hardcore???// I had to give up on Tactical after the <span class='standouttext'>Spoiler : </span><span class='spoiler'> 4 sketlon mages </span> attacked me! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> butknow on AAction I am level 13 or so and in Act 2!



Glasd you got help so you can play it ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

I didn't vote as I haven't actually started the game yet, but when I do, I'll either play on Easy or Action, whichever one gives me the best feel for the action in fights.

Speaking for myself, I won't be choosing this difficulty because I dislike challenge or I want an easy game or anything like that, but mainly because I don't *want* to have to pause 50 times during a combat to carefully pick and choose what weapons, spells, potions me and my 100 party members are going to use to kill the orc or whatever.

I want to feel like I'm actually *in* the combat, like in DD, or Diablo 2, or even Sacred. I don't want each and every fight to last 30 minutes because I'm setting up the tactics or whatever as the fights are the things to get through to get to the *real* part of the game, as in the story and solving problems and character interactions.

Tactical fights in an RPG tend to ruin my immersion as if I'm having to think things like "Party member 1 is a warrior and needs to draw her ice sword for the fire demon *click a bunch of buttons*, party member 2 is a mage and needs to use his fireball on the center goblin surrounding the demon *click another bunch of buttons*, party member 3 needs.... I never forget that I'm sitting at a computer directing a combat like it's an animated chessboard rather than feeling like I'm a part of the action.

I know this tactical sort of thing is fun for some people, but my preferences are for deep storylines (see Planescape: Torment), problems to solve and challenges to overcome which are not always based on combat, and action-packed combat when combat must happen. These are the reasons I'll be choosing either Easy or Action difficulty mode when I do begin playing BD. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

i stared tactical. quit in 3rd floor of act 1. tho never tried going back AFTER Bf's...

very easy is just TOO Easy! I killed ghosts in 2 hits. so action it is for me. 2nd time through act 1, almost have all quests in there memorized so I can help later on. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> angel satus, in the game status, rocks thrown at hall of fame!

Well I am in act 3 now on tactical. Never visited the batelfields. And its to darn easy. my mage has 2 spells level 5 hammer and level 8 lightning storm that kills everything.

I have played through the game twice on hardcore and it really isn't that hard.

I use my DK as a mele tank on agressive and I sit back with my bow and spells.
The DK has very high resistances to damage when his attributes climb towards 100 and above.

I am playing action for the moment. And I don't have any clue on what I am doing... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" />

Anyone determine what the effects of the changes to difficulty in the 1.44 patch are? I don't see anything new on the options screen--unless 1) it's cosmetic, or 2) I'm going senescent before my time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

It seems to me that areas contain more enemy than before, and they match my level more often. This is in hardcore difficulty, that's all I play.