The definitive "what difficulty do you prefer and why" thread

[Lila Feuer]

@666shooter I got all the way to a point late in Eternal Doom where I shamefully noclipped because I couldn't figure out how to do a puzzle involving timed lifts (you had to do it in a specific order and there was a bunch of switches). This was like 11 years ago so I was no doubt far less willing to learn back then. I also cheated through the final map because I was completely burned out of Eternal Doom by that point and just wanted to see the end hahaha.

[Bauul]

HMP for me.  My time to play Doom maps is relatively limited, so I prefer to be able to experience the whole map in a reasonable time without having to redo sections frequently because they're too challenging.  

[666shooter]

3 minutes ago, Lila Feuer said:

@666shooter I got all the way to a point late in Eternal Doom where I shamefully noclipped because I couldn't figure out how to do a puzzle involving timed lifts (you had to do it in a specific order and there was a bunch of switches). This was like 11 years ago so I was no doubt far less willing to learn back then. I also cheated through the final map because I was completely burned out of Eternal Doom by that point and just wanted to see the end hahaha.

I will never forget being lost in the final map after about the first three minutes, then going and seeing that you had to sidle along the razor-thin edges of the central structure in the moated room in order to run along the platforms and fall down into the moats on the sides in order to progress. It was then I thought, "Nope, screw it." And then just watched the video every few minutes when the next obstacle obfuscated* in my direction. In fairness... that's no more obscure by itself than some moments in ALT (looking at you, "God is Dead"), but after the past few maps I was beyond burnt out and wanted a nice, straightfoward, entertaining conclusion, not another patchwork maze. [*I know that's not actually a very, but it sure applies to Eternal. xD ]

[Lila Feuer]

@666shooter After dealing with so many puzzles and wandering I wanted something with a focus on strictly action, preferably large-scale. So I booted up Hell Revealed and eventually beat it. I got my action alright!

[SirJuicyLemon]

"There was me, that is Flynn, and my three droogs, that is B.J., Stan and John and we sat in the Phobos healing bar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Phobos healing bar sold health potions, health potions plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ULTRA-VIOLENCE."

                                                                   ~Flynn Taggart in "A Clockwork Doomguy"

 

  

[Plasi Garbo]

UV just seems like the best difficultly because of how much I played the game and other harder fan wads
except sigli john knew what he was doing he played us with that

[PRIMEVAL]

Hurt Me Plenty is my go-to difficulty. I'll play the originals on Ultra-Violence, but any new WAD and mod I'll do my first playthrough in HMP. I'm a filthy casual and not the best at the game.

[instagib]

hmp. in my opinion its the best for mods

[Pegleg]

I prefer playing ITYTD. On the occasions when I don't play ITYTD, I generally choose HNTR, unless it's for something like Doomworld Ironman League.

 

I'm not a good player (which extends to games beyond Doom, as well), so when I do get a chance to play Doom, I just want to have fun and not be too stressed about it.

[HorrorMovieRei]

A bit of the ol' Ultra-violence usually. Though I'm willing to tone it down to HMP once my ego has been bruised enough.

[BigBoy91]

My stubborn, masochistic ass prefers to grind through ultraviolence all the time. Never even touch the other difficulties. Might give nightmare on the original IWADs a try during this lay off though.

[The Doommer]

UV -fast

 

Nightmare is a bit too unfair on any map. Since on some maps you teleport back to a previously crowded area.

The fast parameter is the best option for a challenge that is not Nightmare

[Senor500]

I'm also on the page of stubborn starting on Ultra-Violence, but clearly many wads are too much for me, so I usually test at first how hard it is on UV and then if it's too much I go HMP.

[Lila Feuer]

Yeah I went into Eviternity on UV and was as bold as doing only start saves to preserve the difficulty of the level and was surprised to find the first two episodes were designed super well so I had less than a handful of deaths. I hear that's not such a good idea later on for some of the bigger maps though lol.

E: It was also the most modern megawad I played so UV was even more bold, seeing as the skill ceiling in the last decade or so has risen significantly.

[Senor500]

1 hour ago, Lila Feuer said:

Yeah I went into Eviternity on UV and was as bold as doing only start saves to preserve the difficulty of the level and was surprised to find the first two episodes were designed super well so I had less than a handful of deaths. I hear that's not such a good idea later on for some of the bigger maps though lol.

E: It was also the most modern megawad I played so UV was even more bold, seeing as the skill ceiling in the last decade or so has risen significantly.

The last 2 chapters made me regret playing on UV and I haven't touched it since, really, the difficulty goes really high then.

[joshthenesnerd]

personally, i play on UV because it feels like a lot of mappers make for UV as the "Standard" or "intended" difficulty for their releases. even doom 1 kinda feels a little empty on HMP to me.

[drfrag]

Believe it or not i'm a veteran but i almost always play on HNTR, pwads are usually much harder than the iwads. For the iwads UM as UV is too easy and nightmare is a joke.

[WowozuelaSpammer]

I like HNTR because it's a "low-mid" difficulty, it is classified as easy in the game but i feel like it's the medium of the easiest, it isn't as hard as HMP (Although HMP isn't that hard) but it isn't as easy as ITYTD.

Sometimes i lower the difficulty if i need to (When i first played Thy Fles Consumed i changed from HNTR to ITYTD)

[randomgamerguy1997]

"Hurt me Plenty" because it is not too hard but not too easy. I use "I'm too young to die" though when I play Thy Flesh Consumed.

[Swordofdanu]

UV

Feels unsatisfying on lower settings for me and I end up with a huge stockpile of ammo, but only because I've run through all vanilla maps countless times over the years.

I'll drop down to HMP if necessary for wads though😅

[CyberDreams]

Older WADS UV. Mainly because most were balanced around UV, especially the really, really old ones.

 

Newer WADS HMP or lower. Sometimes lower since a lot of newer WADS tend to be too hard for me sometimes but i don't mind dropping the difficulty on them since most newer WADS are better balanced difficulty wise imo.

[Straal99]

Always Ultra-Violence, that's the way to go.

[Horus]

My default difficulty is UV. I have no qualms turning it down to HMP or HNTR if it gets too hard or if that's what the text file recommends.

[Bauul]

7 hours ago, Lila Feuer said:

Yeah I went into Eviternity on UV and was as bold as doing only start saves to preserve the difficulty of the level and was surprised to find the first two episodes were designed super well so I had less than a handful of deaths. I hear that's not such a good idea later on for some of the bigger maps though lol.

E: It was also the most modern megawad I played so UV was even more bold, seeing as the skill ceiling in the last decade or so has risen significantly.

 

@Dragonfly can talk more to this, but my recollection was that Eviternity was quite consciously designed not to fall into the trap of "difficulty creep" that many modern megawads suffer from. There are no slaughter maps, no super mean traps, no mandatory SR50 jumps or anything like that. It was meant to be challenging to players in a more traditional sense. 

[Deadwing]

Yeah, Evilternity is easier than AA and Valiant, although definitely harder than BTSX 1.

[Lila Feuer]

@Deadwing Good to know, I probably won't touch skillsaw's stuff for quite a while, but I'll have a lot to play from the look of things lol. Back to Saturn X would be a good play it sounds after I finish Eviternity.

[Deadwing]

You can also lower the difficulty too. I do myself often.

I'm pretty sure both AA and Valiant are balanced in HMP or HNTR.

[666shooter]

3 minutes ago, Deadwing said:

You can also lower the difficulty too. I do myself often.

I'm pretty sure both AA and Valiant are balanced in HMP or HNTR.

As one who almost always plays on HMP for a first go, I will add that Valiant is one of the best modern Megawads I've played and I found it challenging but never unfair or hopelessly frustrating on HMP. Skillsaw seems to know how to keep a fight tense and engaging without needing to make it prolonged or grueling.

[Altazimuth]

I stick to UV usually. I don't consider myself a great player but I'm often happy enough on UV without any want for any gameplay mods to make things harder/easier. If I'm not enjoying a map due to its difficulty I might save more frequently than usual (by default I attempt to beat maps w/o saves).

 

Sometimes I wonder about the feasibility of implementing some sorta console command that resets the current map but to a different difficulty, whilst you still keep your weapons and such. It'd be useful for WADs intended for continuous play that have huge difficulty swings. Feels like it'd be a useful accessibility improvement given some WADs can end up presenting users with a level that's too difficult for them to handle as part of their difficulty curve.

[Zekerlad]

I would say Hurt me plenty because it's not too easy and it's not too hard, it also has some extra enemies that you wouldn't really have show up on lower difficulties, I pretty much always play new maps/wads with Hurt me plenty, personally I think it's a decent middle ground in difficulties.