Backstage - OOC Forums
General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Wanoah on 09 Nov 2011, 16:10
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Skyrim is almost upon us, then. Who is looking forward to it? Who has it pre-ordered? Who is filled with scathing contempt for all things Elder Scrolls and/or Bethesda?
Personally, I had it pre-ordered through Steam at the first opportunity. Notwithstanding Minecraft, this is 2011's other game as far as I'm concerned. Deus Ex: Human Revolution in case you're wondering.
There is a sense that over the years, there has been something of a retrospective backlash against Oblivion. People that oohed and maybe aahed over the pretty sandbox they had to play in started to remember only the absurd levelling system or the repetitive Oblivion gates. Me? I hated some of the flaws and I was disappointed that it wasn't visually interesting as Morrowind, but overall I loved Oblivion and I'm not jumping on the fashionable cynicism bandwagon. Besides, things that annoyed in the first playthrough were quickly solved by the abundant mods. It was a game that I came back to over and over, and only the Football Manager / Championship Manager series, Eve, or Frontier: Elite II are ahead in terms the sheer number of hours invested.
When it comes to Skyrim, I just hope that it lives up to expectations. I hope it hasn't been dumbed down too much to cater even further to the apparent needs of the drooling console-gaming masses. I hope that the game works out of the box so we don't have to wait for those first few mods to remove the most flagrant annoyances. I hope that infinite dragons aren't as bad as they sound. I hope that I find a world that I can spend some quality escapist time in. I hope I have some stories to tell.
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Preordered. Set aside a good chunk of time for it.
From what I've heard, it'll be a much better game than Oblivion, but with the Dragon stuff I'm slightly concerned that my preferred playstyle in Oblivion is going to be nigh worthless when facing off against Dragons. Still, everything indicates that this will be a game that beats Oblivion with ease and will probably be similar to Oblivion/Fallout3/Fallout:NV in sheer amount of time spent playing. I have hundreds of hours in -each- of those games, and I very much doubt Skyrim will disappoint in that regard.
And for the love of Slaanesh, have you SEEN how awesome Dunmer look now? Not to mention Khajiit and lizards. Still... there's bloody lizard tits in the game. That's going to bug the fuck out of me no matter how awesome the rest of the game is.
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Still... there's bloody lizard tits in the game. That's going to bug the fuck out of me no matter how awesome the rest of the game is.
Huh. Yeah. That is weird, come to think of it. Shouldn't Argonians lay eggs? Or something? :s
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They do. In Morrowind they didn't have jubblies if memory serves, but at some point during Oblivion's development someone decided Lizard Tits was the way to go, even with lizard egglayers. Bleh.
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Pre-ordered, looking forward to the lack of a class system. Whether or not my character will be able to handle dragons is not a problem, if my expectations are right I should hopefully just be able to run away.
And you can bet I'll just run away.
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Another one of these threads I see. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9eGtyqz4gY) :lol:
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I have it pre-ordered and pre-downloaded.
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I'm definitely looking forward to it, but I haven't pre-ordered.
Think I'll try a gnarly and brutish Orc for my first play through.
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Another one of these threads I see. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9eGtyqz4gY) :lol:
I literally fell off my chair laughing at the end. That may very well be one of the finest pieces of internets funny I have seen in ages.
Great quality on the song and animation too.
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I will not play it, I am not fond of Elder Scrolls. And more generally of sandbox solo RPGs (yeah, as weird as it sounds, I play MMOs for the sandbox aspect, and solo RPG for their linear and immersive story).
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Oblivion kept my loyalty over Morrowind by being fantastic in the main areas I bought the game for: ARCHERY! Plus ALCHEMICAL POISON MAKING! Plus STEALTH!
Elven arrows, fletched with eagle feathers, arcing silently out from hidden nooks, their bladed broadheads sticky with homemade death in a variety of exciting elemental and non-elemental flavors....
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Ahem. Yes, obvious Dark Brotherhood fanboy here. The Morag Tong just didn't do it for me, sorry.
My primary concern with Skyrim, aside from the lurking dread that it's going to secretly bite rocks, is the loss of the "jump" skill. I'll admit it was easily abused level up-wise....
"I'll just, you know, skip all the way from Bravil to Anvil. In full plate. Because that makes total sense. La! [clank] La la![clank clank] La lalalalala.... [clank clankity clank clank]."
However, it also made lightly-equipped wire-fu characters possible, especially in Morrowind, where it really got ludicrous. Even in Oblivion, the Shivering Isles expansion, otherwise mediocre, was brilliant if you packed light, maximized Jump, and took shameless advantage of the unorthodox terrain. Giant roots became bridges, walls became walkways, and many a dungeon became an exercise in puzzle-solving rather than a mere collection of hack-and-slash encounters.
Hell, for that matter, Oblivion gates handled as wire-fu stealth/speed runs turned from repetitive, monotonous slogs into lightning-quick exercises in tactics, timing, and judicious use of your few precious invisibility potions (leveling up Illusion so as to have Invisibility on tap is, I assert, strictly for game-breaking pansies) that could be finished in minutes and handed you, over time and at random, some of the most powerful magical effects in the game courtesy of your rapidly-accumulating collection of Transcendent Sigil Stones.
Ah, vividly do I remember sheltering temporarily on a narrow ledge, leaped to in desperation to escape the throng of fearsome Daedra, mad with blood-lust on the walkway far above-- then dropping, silent as a leaf, back into the corridors of the black-walled citadel to make my cautious way back past the frustrated horrors that had so nearly torn me limb from agonized limb....
*sniff* Skyrim is losing one of my favorite skills.
Still, looking forward to it, and have it on pre-order. Will be playing a Wood Elf archer/assassin, most likely. I may even play a guy, now that Wood Elf males no longer look like slightly-oversized hobbits.
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/me will not be using fast travel
That is all.
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/me will not be using fast travel
That is all.
Neither will I-- if, and only if, Skyrim does not suffer from an Oblivion-style area-transition memory leak. A walk in that game from Anvil to the Imperial City could bring my poor PS3 to its knees.
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Speaking of characters... I will of course be playing my Dunmer Mizhara for the Dark Brotherhood (They'd damn well better have added the Dark Brotherhood to Skyrim, god damnit!) with her sneaky archery and throatslitting (yes, they've added throatslitting if you can sneak up on someone), but I've also played with the idea of actually making a god damned Viking Warrior for once.
It's something I always intend to do in a lot of games, but it always deteriorates into a sneaky ranged killer for the most part. I can't help it, it's how I play these games. I avoid direct confrontation at all costs if I can instead horribly murder someone from stealth. (Horribly murdering people is what I do in these games. Never at any point will you find me doing a pacifist run in any game. They're my release, as it were.)
In this game I just might do it. My viking ancestry practically demands it in this game.
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Do like throat-slitting.
... Must have arrows, though. Lots and lots of arrows. And poison.
(I have never been able to walk away from this formula for very long in Oblivion, and I've sunk hundreds and hundreds of hours into that damn game.)
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In this game I just might do it. My viking ancestry practically demands it in this game.
This might explain why, while I did allways find the 'stealthy sniper from 200 miles off' type of killer interesting, the true passion was the in-your-face melee killer approach - mostly by going all-out heavy armor heavy weapon assault and massacre my way to victory, or the agile I-rely-on-skill-to-whoop-your-ass sword fighter style.
This hardly ever fail, if the game supports it - Warriors/Paladin's in WoW, cruel Federation-aligned blaster-boats in EVE, soldier/vanguard in ME2, etc, etc.
There is just something about the blood-soaked melee fighter apprach that I adore with a passion. Having said that, I've not pre-purchased this game - I'm entierly convinced this game will not run on anything even remotely top-of-the-line graphics on this PC, so I'll wait a few months until I have enough funding to purchase my next, updated gaming PC. THEN we're talking 'kill them with the sword'. Finally, the only way this game can 'fail' me personally is if it has the same horrible flaw as Oblivion had - NPCs don't follow your level, enemies does. So you ens up with weak NPC allies that die very easilly and you fight the horde solo, a near impossible prospect in some cases. They fix this, and it will all be good, afaic.
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Must not play heavily-armoured swordfighter with healing ability, must not play heavily-armoured swordfighter with healing ability, must not play heavily-armoured swordfighter with healing ability...
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Finally, the only way this game can 'fail' me personally is if it has the same horrible flaw as Oblivion had - NPCs don't follow your level, enemies does.
Enemy "level-up" is done Fallout-style. Don't know about allies.
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I'll be playing a wizard first time through, as I always do.
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Sneaky archer assassin. All day ere'day, baby. \o/
Y'all ain't gonna see much of me for a time after the 11th. :O
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So, am I the only one who always goes for pure magic?
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Hmm...I'm not a fan of making multiple characters (I just want one char to immerse myself in the world with, with no repetition). But if you go pure one thing, you cut yourself off from experiencing other things, like cool magic effects or melee finishers etc
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So, am I the only one who always goes for pure magic?
"Always?" Maybe. You had to be a bit of a masochist to do that in Morrowind, and the prerequisite for doing pure magic (for long) in Oblivion was a desire to feel like a god for extended periods of time (albeit, unless you played a sorcerer-type w/ heavy armor, a god made out of paper mache').
Eventually, collecting artifact staves and playing the "zorch" game got a little old for me.
"Zorch, you're a goblin. Zorch, you've got a corrupted clone. Zorch, there's a daedra right behind you (no, really). Zorch, you're both paralyzed and literally freezing to death. Zorch, you're running amok while on fire. Oops-- you died. Zorch, you're undead."
Staves of heinousness aside, Illusion and Destruction are two schools of magic that do not belong on the same character. (How can something so right feel so wrong? Easy: they make the game a cakewalk.)
Edit:
Though there was a worse combination: Illusion and Conjuration-- especially if you had the difficulty cranked.
"Yikes! Okay, Mr. Shambles, you shrugged off my fireball with hardly a flinch. Um. Here, how about some clannfears (aka velociraptors)? Their stats got cranked right alongside yours, by the way. Have fun. I'll be over here. Just ... come on over when you're done with the infinite number I can summon, one at a time. I'll be easy to pick out; I'm the one who's invisible."
Further edit:
Add onto that the fact that conjuration spells do not cast a hell of a lot of light and consequently are perfect for characters with high Sneak ...
... and that the aforementioned clannfears have the senses of a goddamned bloodhound ...
"Hm. A labyrinth full of necromancers, undead minions lurking in every nook. I'll just find a shady corner-- ah, there we go. Summon...." [weird magical chiming swoosh, clannfear-whistle, clickclickclick *SKLORCH!* clickclickclick *SKLORCH!* clickclick *SKLORCH!* rattle *SKLORCH!* clickclick swoosh, clannfear-dying-rattle] "... And again, summon...."
Wash, rinse, repeat, until all enemies are prostrate upon the ground and the clannfear is standing in front of you looking like it wants a doggie biscuit.... Which you will provide, if you're smart. Or else wait another ten seconds for the spell to run out. It's less troublesome to keep hidden with than freaking Illusion, which is the school that makes you invisible.
... God, I love/hate mages in Oblivion.
Even further edit:
Oh, yeah, and Mr. Replete Shambles, who I mentioned just now? Dude likely worthy of multiple clannfears (a fairly impressive feat in and of itself)?... Yeah, you can summon him, too.
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Apparently, melee still has the same problems as Oblivion, in not feeling like it connects fully when you strike.
Mm...after obsessing over Witcher 2, I think I'll go for a lightly-armoured, sword-wielding magic-user.
How pure warriors survive without restoration is beyond me!
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ROFL Aria, did I say I love you yet? Because you had me in stitches. Mostly because that's just how I think about things too. And we enjoy playing similarly, as well, it seems.
Skyrim pre-loaded on Steam. 5 hours to go. Glad I live in the EU :D And GMT+1, so got an edge on the UK too~~~ Super jelly of the Ausies who are playing already.
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I await the day when mods are released where I can play my
glorious cat girl custom race frightening dragon true born eldritch horror lich characters with retextured EVEN HIGHER DEF armor. I'm looking at you, custom Glass Armor from Oblivion.
I'm vaguely annoyed at the menu system, but I'll wait to play before I devolve into a racist spewing mass of vulgar hatred for consoles critic.
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T-10 hours, 27 minutes here in Austin....
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I await the day when mods are released where I can play my glorious cat girl custom race frightening dragon true born eldritch horror lich characters with retextured EVEN HIGHER DEF armor. I'm looking at you, custom Glass Armor from Oblivion.
I'm vaguely annoyed at the menu system, but I'll wait to play before I devolve into a racist spewing mass of vulgar hatred for consoles critic.
Silver emailed me. Said he got an early copy. Already level 8. I doubt you will ever catch him now...
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I started playing at midnight AU time last night. Being that I had to work I only played for an hour, but my Breton mage is coming along nicely.
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My system only barely meets the system requirements.
With Oblivion, that meant the game will start, but didn't mean you could play it.
Bleh.
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It's apparently not too taxing. A system that runs Oblivion at 60-70 fps can run this at 30-40.
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Oh my god oh my god oh my god squeeeeeeee! (http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/649870992070252617/027BBB14B0F04F6366A88997B377F307521ABA4C/)
And don't even get me started on the execution moves with dual daggers... or the throatslitting... or the sneaky archery... or the DRAGONS!
Eeeeeee....
/me goes off to play more Skyrim.
"So there I was... scarred and tired after fighting bandits and undead, stalking through caverns and ruins filled with traps. The beauty of some of the chambers having stirred my heart, but my head pounding after staring too intently on runes on the walls. The exit leaving me breathless as I stared across a river and onto the mountains. A small smile on my face. Victory. I'd killed them all and gotten more than what I came for. Wandering through the forest on my way back to the village, I forgot it all. Everything. A flame atronach was dancing in a glen, leaving behind burning footsteps as she floated around in her dance. And I was mesmerized for too long, as the fireball suddenly came flying towards me. What else could I do? I ran with my leather armor smoking and singed."
Just a short five minutes of my playtime.
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I think I'm going magic w/ one-handed swordsmanship this time around. We're all fully aware of how swordplay works from Oblivion...swish to left, swish to right, etc. sometimes finishing moves and so forth.
But magic is veerrrrrry pretty. It functions and appears a lot cooler than it ever did in Oblivion, with the whole magic charging up in your hand and that. You'd miss a lot of cool stuff by ignoring magic me thinks.
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Ignoring? Naw. Just doesn't fit this particular character. I'll do magic... well, not next time around, but the time after that. Besides, the dagger dualwielding killanimations are just too awesome for words. Beats any lightshow as far as I'm concerned.
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My system only barely meets the system requirements.
With Oblivion, that meant the game will start, but didn't mean you could play it.
Bleh.
I was facing the same situation, and was very tempted to wait.
I was giddy at seeing the game running very well on my system, despite my shitty processor.
btw, this game pwns on so many levels. They took everything good about New Vegas and integrated it into Elder Scrolls. I'm extremely impressed so far.
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I have never played any of the Elder Scroll games. Fantasy settings really have incredible low appeal to me. I did enjoy FO:NV to a great extent, though I always seem to lose interest a bit too quick in games that does not contain a strong strategy game type element. :(
Maybe I will get Skyrim when it goes on sale on Steam or something...
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Mhh as much as I can love medfan settings (like the Witcher), it is pretty rare to see something really creative and interesting, and I find the Elder Scrolls pretty dull and classic (personnal taste).
On another note, not talking about gameplay, story (even if I heard that most of the Elder Scrolls stories are quite meh), graphically, its a disaster imo. Some textures are quite good or even awesome (see the face or the leaves/tree (http://image.jeuxvideo.com/images/pc/t/h/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-pc-1303134798-032.jpg)), while other textures are definitly ugly (see the armor of the former, or here (http://image.jeuxvideo.com/images/pc/t/h/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-pc-1307522803-040.jpg), here (http://image.jeuxvideo.com/images/pc/t/h/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-pc-1313401335-055.jpg)...). This is quite dramatically inequal.
And this without even speaking of the way they render their speculars, that is just terrible. Every image or screenshot I see is partially or totally burnt by the light reflections, just because they thought that with a lot of specular it would be awesome or something... That is just ugly.
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Jesus christ this is the crack cocaine of gaming.
I cranked up all the details to ultra and it runs smooth as silk - very polished and smooth and totally immersive from the beginning. I enjoyed running and gunning with archery so much I've spent all my gold on the archery trainer and ranged combat tools and spanked my perks in that direction.
This is going to eat my life.
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Jesus christ this is the crack cocaine of gaming.
For Fuckssakes, THIS.
I've been geeking out for hours.... :cube:
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So far I've been most impressed by all the little things that take the immersion to the next level. The sound design (the music, the voices, the thundering environmental effects -- everything!), the third-party banter (which eventually will repeat on later play-throughs but for now is brilliant and refreshing) and voice acting, the engagement of the NPCs with the environment (an innkeeper rents me a room for the night... and then gets up to show me to my room), the animals (both wild and domestic; normal, scruffy, everyday dogs!), and the presence of children doing and saying children-like things in the towns. Skyrim makes it's world feel like a living and breathing place more than any other RPG I can recall.
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I have never played any of the Elder Scroll games. Fantasy settings really have incredible low appeal to me. I did enjoy FO:NV to a great extent, though I always seem to lose interest a bit too quick in games that does not contain a strong strategy game type element. :(
Maybe I will get Skyrim when it goes on sale on Steam or something...
Almost every New Vegas game mechanic is present in this game.
...which made figuring out lockpicking pretty easy. :)
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So I've got a companion that you lot probably have, the elf from Riverwood.
Anyway, we came across a nice view on a ledge overlooking a lot of Skyrim...the NPC goes "Wow...would you look at that..."
Then, we come across a cave and he goes "There's a cave here...think we should check it out?"
So good.
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So while I'm getting ready to install it, can anyone give me any more idea how it will run off minimum requirements? What sorts of graphics settings can I expect to push with the following:
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
XFX nForce 680i LT
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @2.40GHz
nVIDIA geForce 9800 GT (2GB)
4GB RAM
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anyone playing this on the PS3? if so, how is it on that?
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While I'm far from as acerbic on the matter of consoles when it comes to these 'lighter' games which doesn't rely as hard on the control scheme, I still can't fathom playing this on a console. Why? It's a freakin' Elder Scrolls game. You can finish the entire game ten times over, and then STILL have hundreds of hours of playtime through the sheer number of mods and addons people will make through the PC devkit.
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I will "acquire" the game next week. :twisted:
The magic effects look nice form what i saw on videos.
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Yaaay, got the first copy at my local GameStop!
Time to kill stuff. >:O
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Left hand magic shield...right hand blade conjure...keep this as default spells during transition. Come across enemy? Slam-bam both!
Summoning mystic blades is totally badass (the animation that is). Also has its own model thing
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http://youtu.be/rt5aUdijAN8
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I made my first set of rough leather armor today, from the hides of deer I hunted, tanned and crafted myself.
Nerd-on achieved.
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I made my first set of rough leather armor today, from the hides of deer I hunted, tanned and crafted myself.
:eek:
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Spent a little time chopping firewood myself, after I'd tanned some leather and used the leather strips to smith some daggers. The money made from that was just enough to finally finish furnishing my house. I think my Housecarl was rather pleased with no longer having to live in a run-down two-story shack. I have to leave her there, though. The amount of dragonbones and dragonscales I store in there is way too much to leave unguarded as I don my Shrouded armor set and head out into Skyrim to hunt men, women and vampires for the Dark Brotherhood.
I'm certain the Night Mother will be pleased with my actions, Dread Father Sithis be praised.
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I'm....
I'm never leaving this place, am I? :eek:
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Must....resist....urge...of....buying....must wait...for.....sale....
AAARGHHH! I CAN NOT TAKE THIS ANY LONGER!!!!
"heads to the game store"
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The Dread Father seems to enjoy placing challenges in the path of His faithful. As I stalk my prey through the town, waiting for an opportune moment to strike while whispering His name in the ear of my mark, an outcry is heard from a lookout. "Dragon!". I barely have time to register my prey's cry of fear before the dragon lands in the square before me, releasing a fearsome roar and a blast of flame. The battle swept across the entire town, but in the end I walked away bearing dragonbones, a dragonsoul and a little trophy from my original prey that I found hiding in a small cabin.
There's greater predators in Skyrim than the Dragons. The Dovahkiin Listener stalks these mountains, for the Dread Father Sithis!
Fr srs. I'm stabbing dragons in the face with daggers. This is by far the most batshit insane game I have ever played.
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You MUST purchase the game.
To not do so is to incite the wrath of Sithis.
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You MUST purchase the game.
Failing to do so will invoke the wrath of Sithis.
Fixed it. Forgetting how the Five Tenets are spoken will invoke the wrath of Sithis.
Edit: I fucked it up. Now I'm so screwed. Ah well, at least I get to meet Lucien LaChance.
SHUT UP! HE'S NOT REALLY DEAD! My Oblivion mods ensured that, damnit.
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Fixed it. Forgetting how the Five Tenets are spoken will invoke the wrath of Sithis.
Edit: I fucked it up. Now I'm so screwed. Ah well, at least I get to meet Lucien LaChance.
SHUT UP! HE'S NOT REALLY DEAD! My Oblivion mods ensured that, damnit.
...
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[spoiler]... okay, apparently I'm bloody correct. Massive spoiler ahead:
You actually get to summon Lucien LaChance's ghost as your fighting companion. Bonus: It's the same voice actor!
He's as badass as he ever was, and more.[/spoiler]
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The menu and inventory system is horrific on PC. It's obviously designed for consoles first, which makes me rage. Hopefully, there will be some great UI mods out there soon. Skyrim sure needs them.
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Honestly... they're not that bad. The only issue I've had with the menus/inventories is that sometimes it appears the mouse pointer doesn't recognize the areas it can activate. That is most likely a scaling issue between different resolutions, which is relatively common in a lot of these games.
Now, let's talk negative stuff about the game. It's important in order to avoid JUST overhyping it:
* You still look ridiculous when jumping and running in third person view. The combat and stuff looks great, but those two still look like shit.
* For some reason this game has inherited something from former Bethesda games. CTDs with no error message. Use the quicksave. Alot.
* Over my 15 hours (so far) I've seen two creatures 'fall through the world' when dying. Both were mudcrabs. Annoying that it still happens.
* I have seen a wolf do a handstand. Well, pawstand. Much rarer than Fallout3/NV though. Impossible to completely avoid I guess.
* Companions are a bloody nuisance at times. Most times, in fact. I've started using them as disposable distractions/decoys while I line up killshots. They'll trigger floortraps INCESSANTLY and never bloody learn where you DON'T want to step. I.E the same fucking trap ntheen times.
That's pretty much it, so far. I couldn't find anything else to bitch about. I think the game looks absolutely -stunning- graphics wise. (Yes, there's shitty textures some places, but considering just how much of the world is rendered at once depending on where you are, I can bloody understand that.) The vistas are gorgeous and the world is marvelously designed to really feel alive, rugged and real. There's real lives going on in the villages and the NPCs have so far -never- given me the multiple voices in one conversation thing from Oblivion, and I've yet to hear the same voice actor talk to him/herself.
The most amazing thing is how they react to the world changing. Immediate changes like a dragon killed in/near town will cause a flock of them to come admire you and the kill. Smaller events will be reacted to as well. You'll be shown to your room in some inns, quest npcs will guide you where you need to go and everything just feels right.
Once I've played a for a few more days, I'll try to get some mini-reviews up of the various faction questlines. I've finished the Dark Brotherhood one so far (except it doesn't 'end' as such. You apparently get almost infinite kill contracts afterwards, but they're not exactly 'epic' in nature.) and will be going for more.
Oh, and dragons. You'll just -never- find it getting old to stab them in the face with daggers, or whatever killing method you prefer.
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Okay, wtf. I can't walk 30 feet outside a town without getting attacked by a random dragon, and the fuckers massacre me. WTF!
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I will "acquire" the game next week. :twisted:
The magic effects look nice form what i saw on videos.
You know, normally this sort of thing doesn't bother me, but this game is so fucking good that it makes me rage that I have to subsidize the cost of people like you pirating it by paying full price for it.
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Okay, wtf. I can't walk 30 feet outside a town without getting attacked by a random dragon, and the fuckers massacre me. WTF!
When you hear it coming, crouch and take cover.
They'll pass.
If you're in a big fight with 10 people, however, they love to stop in and and go nuts on everyone at once.
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Okay, wtf. I can't walk 30 feet outside a town without getting attacked by a random dragon, and the fuckers massacre me. WTF!
When you hear it coming, crouch and take cover.
They'll pass.
If you're in a big fight with 10 people, however, they love to stop in and and go nuts on everyone at once.
Noted. I'll give that a shot.
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While we're handing out advice, anyone around that can explain how the stealth killing system works?
I've been testing it out all day, and it seems like half the time I successfully sneak up behind someone, hit the attack button and my Nord does a nasty throat-slitting animation that insta-kills the opponent. The other half of the time, he does a regular attack, or the enemy turns around and starts smacking me in the face with a broadsword. The sneak was successful, the actual kill just doesn't seem to register.
What I have so far is that the stealth kill doesn't work while the target is moving, regardless of their rank, hp, what have you. Enemy rank also seems to play a role, which is pretty difficult to gauge. I can't know what rank the target is until its already too late, it seems. :/
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I've also been trying to discover the key to 'execution' style attacks.
I'll let you know.
EDIT: Apparently you can't force them to appear. They will most often occur on the last chunk of health on the last enemy in an encounter, and are solely included to add cinematic flair. However, doing a full power attack (hold mouse) seems to make them happen a bit more often.
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I've also been trying to discover the key to 'execution' style attacks.
I'll let you know.
EDIT: Apparently you can't force them to appear. They will most often occur on the last chunk of health on the last enemy in an encounter, and are solely included to add cinematic flair. However, doing a full power attack (hold mouse) seems to make them happen a bit more often.
Well, there's two of the "cinematics," one is as you said the result of an enemy being finished off. Those, I've seen, and I've assumed them to be random. The stealth-based one is the one I'm unable to pin down.
Those last-chunk-of-health kills are pretty epic though. Lifted someone off the ground with my daggers once. O_O
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Why does everyone ask me if I'm feeling okay or tell me I look worse than they feel or that I need to sleep when I just slept for 12 hours?
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I will "acquire" the game next week. :twisted:
The magic effects look nice form what i saw on videos.
You know, normally this sort of thing doesn't bother me, but this game is so fucking good that it makes me rage that I have to subsidize the cost of people like you pirating it by paying full price for it.
You know, I don't really pirate games anymore. I usually just wait games to hit a Steam sale or something if they're not directly relevant to my interests. I wasn't going to bother pirating this one either, I was going to wait it to hit a sale. But now, I'm going to pirate this. Just for you. :yar:
I think I'll even play a thief.
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Why does everyone ask me if I'm feeling okay or tell me I look worse than they feel or that I need to sleep when I just slept for 12 hours?
You have a disease. ;)
Take a potion soon (cure disease) or eventually you'll start to get 'effects'.
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Yeah, the dumbass I am just thought it was related to how I decided my character should look in the beginning. Took quite a lot of gametime before I discovered that I had a -25% to one-handed damage effect on me, which explained a LOT. Anyway, as for the stealth kill animation, I'm honestly unsure. Step one is to NOT power attack, I've found. When I power attack, I -never- get the stealth kill animation. You don't need the power attack bonus anyway, since with the right perks and gear (Dark Brotherhood gloves which doubles backstab damage, some of the sneak stuff) you can do a full 30x damage attack from stealth. The second condition is, I believe, that the attack -will- result in a kill. If not, you just get a normal animation. I have done them on moving targets, so that's not important I think.
Oh, and not to insult your intelligence or anything, but are you sure you're not touching them before you attack? I've found that the player collision box is slightly larger than expected if you're playing a small-frame character.
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/me ponders adding Skyrim to the list of games she's purchased but hasn't found time yet to actually play...
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Oh, and not to insult your intelligence or anything, but are you sure you're not touching them before you attack? I've found that the player collision box is slightly larger than expected if you're playing a small-frame character.
Definitely not an insult, I took that into account too. I've tested with staying just behind the target, and actually touching them. It seems, and this is purely conjecture, that my best results came from hitting the attack button while moving towards the target, just before I would touch them if I kept moving forward... something like momentum, I guess.
Either way, when it happens, its OSSUM. Took out two guards in the same room and they never heard it. I'm only level 10! Who says Nords can't sneak? >:3
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Visually, it's stunning.
The combat mechanics are sweet.
However, the UI and menus system are a REALLY SHIT port from console, and take a lot away from what would have been an awesome game.
Disappointed personally.
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Why does everyone ask me if I'm feeling okay or tell me I look worse than they feel or that I need to sleep when I just slept for 12 hours?
You have a disease. ;)
Take a potion soon (cure disease) or eventually you'll start to get 'effects'.
How can I tell this? I took a Cure Disease potion and an in-game day later everyone was asking me again.
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you can see lingering effects (both good and bad) from the Magic affects dialogue. It lists things like random blessings and shrine effects too.
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If they're asking you again, you probably contracted something again. Diseases can be gotten from a number of sources, and almost -every- damn time you fight those damn rat creatures.
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http://oi43.tinypic.com/2m5lbbb.jpg
It Begins.
Edit: bad link replaced with good one :)
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Visually, it's stunning.
The combat mechanics are sweet.
However, the UI and menus system are a REALLY SHIT port from console, and take a lot away from what would have been an awesome game.
Disappointed personally.
I doubt it will be long before some good UI mods come out that resolve those issues. Same thing happened with Oblivion too.
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So they're selling a broken product and hoping someone else will clean up their mess.
So not worth my money.
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So they're selling a broken product and hoping someone else will clean up their mess.
So not worth my money.
Complete and utter twaddle. The product is working fine (as far as PC games go, there'll always be some bug hunting to do for a few months after a major game's release) and I'm a full 24 hours into this game having an utter blast. There's nothing broken about it. No more than... oh... every god damn game that's released on consoles as well as PC these days. It's just slightly less than PC Control Optimized menu-wise. After a little playtime, I don't even notice that as the menus and controls become as much reflex as notching an arrow as soon as the shadow of a dragon passes by.
Worth the money? Not if you're not into the kind of massive open-world RPG that the Elder Scroll games (and Fallout lately) provides, no. If you -are- into that, this product is worth the money and then some. This is definitely a 200 hour+ game in my book, and GOTY to boot.
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure the UI is not a reason to not buy the game. I've just hotkeyed most things to 1-8 so v0v. It's so good it goes beyond my pain threshold, in the sense that I'm just playing it for hours without really registering any emotions.
Anyone love how damned grimdark the atmosphere is this time around? They've set it in a charged political environment this time, with a Tamriel divided between states, new political actors, a civil war and so forth. None of this happy, united, multicultural empire that's waiting for their hero to fight off some evil demon invasion. Still retains its fantasy while adding in believable politics this time (especially as you find out the reasons for the war as you ask around). I haven't even done any of the main story yet, but I've learnt a lot about the background so far. Some places are just really depressing. Add the snowy environment to that.
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I have to agree. The grimdark is perfect. Really gives that old Norse feel to Skyrim, which I believe was the intended effect considering it's the home of the Nords. I do recommend doing a bit of the main storyline, though. To get the random dragon attacks, you need to have gone through at least the beginning of the main story, and you'll also get a massively useful Dragon Shout fully upgraded if you follow the main storyline a little further from that. (That's not a real spoiler, relax.)
Random dragon attacks means you get to collect dragon souls. Which in turn means that your random exploration and uncovering of Words of Power (I've found a few by accident) won't be wasted. Both are useless without the other. And let me tell you: Shouts are gamechangers. They can make impossible odds suddenly just challenging, while also adding some laughs to the gameplay.
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Horned helmets!
I feel like a viking. :D
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Mm, I think I'll do that Miz, now that I've finished my 19 hour quest to the College of Winterhold (at level 22 >.>)
I've always had a particular RP issue with the amount of titles and organizational affliations you got in Oblivion. The Champion of the Arena who is also the Archmage of the Mages' Guild, also a secret member of the Blades, who is the Champion of Cyrodiil and was responsible for fending off the Daedric invasion. Bethesda go on about you being the one Dragonborn to save the universe, while being able to do mundane things like chop wood and go on a fetch quest for a little girl. I wanted to "live my own life" without the whole Saviour of the World thing going on. I presume that doesn't come immediately, so I'll go as far as the dragon thing perhaps.
Also, you can't wing it with being a member of every faction in this game I don't think. I'm a sword-wielding mage (a la Jedi) and was asked to cast a specific Apprentice level spell to gain entry, which I had. Pleasantly relaxed that the style of the College means that it's more an extracurricular group than your full-time career (which was the vibe of factions from Oblivion).
Which is good for someone with RP Perfectionism like me :oops:
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You know what my favorite part of this game is, thus far?
I hit 15 today, I'm stretching my skills across Stealth, One Handed, Archery, Light armor, and maybe some alchemy and lockpicking as I move through the rungs. I've traveled down to Orphan Rock and the southern region just outside Iverstead, and I've gone as far north as the barrows outside Whiterun. Been playing two days and I've mostly been mired in clearing dungeons to skill up and gathering materials.
I opened up the world map and looked around. I've only covered ground in the immediate area of one Hold, and there's nine in total.
I get to do this eight more times, not including main and side missions. Just exploration for the hell of it.
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You should try joining the Dark Brotherhood. I swear Miz wore out enough Shrouded Boots to make the Dark Brotherhood outfitter cry out in anguish. You go -all over the map-. And of course, if you don't want to use fast-travel, it becomes even worse (or better, depending on viewpoint). But yeah... I absolutely love having a mission somewhere and just start legging it. Fighting past bandits or wildlife, figuring out which roads would be best to take and so on. Then, after being fairly sure you're getting close, checking the map and finding that you're barely halfway if that.
This game is gargantuan compared to Oblivion. Well, I haven't actually done any measuring, but it -feels- much much larger.
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You should try joining the Dark Brotherhood. I swear Miz wore out enough Shrouded Boots to make the Dark Brotherhood outfitter cry out in anguish. You go -all over the map-. And of course, if you don't want to use fast-travel, it becomes even worse (or better, depending on viewpoint). But yeah... I absolutely love having a mission somewhere and just start legging it. Fighting past bandits or wildlife, figuring out which roads would be best to take and so on. Then, after being fairly sure you're getting close, checking the map and finding that you're barely halfway if that.
This game is gargantuan compared to Oblivion. Well, I haven't actually done any measuring, but it -feels- much much larger.
Man, I'm tempted. I ran with the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion because gods save me, I just loved those guys so much. The whole "family" aspect made it creepy and endearing at the same time, and when the time came to perform the Purification, well... I was a pretty sad panda Khajiit. But, such is the way of Sithis. Not to mention, pulling off flawless assassinations always makes me happy.
This time around, I don't know what way I'll fall, honestly. Varghoss the wandering hunter is mostly focusing on surviving Skyrim at the moment. I've put him into the same "assassin" type class I usually play, with the addition of some dual-wield dagger and light armor skills for when there's not enough room to launch an arrow. I'm tempted to join up with the Stormcloaks, only because I've only just now read the history leading up to Skyrim. In Oblivion I at least felt some compassion towards the Empire, but, without the Septim line... I don't know. Something about the way they're treating the Nord territory seems like it's nothing more than a land grab.
If you haven't checked it out yet, y'all should read up a little. Pretty depressing shit:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Empire#Current_State_of_The_Empire
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If you haven't checked it out yet, y'all should read up a little. Pretty depressing shit:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Empire#Current_State_of_The_Empire
Nice link there, Senn. Thanks. I was wondering what the situation looked like outside Skyrim and... holy crap. Guess I didn't realize what a major shift the end of the Third Era brought. Sounds like the Empire has completely collapsed. Rome circa 410 AD. And (!) Argonians invade and conquer Morrowind? Talk about a slave revolt.
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If you haven't checked it out yet, y'all should read up a little. Pretty depressing shit:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Empire#Current_State_of_The_Empire
Nice link there, Senn. Thanks. I was wondering what the situation looked like outside Skyrim and... holy crap. Guess I didn't realize what a major shift the end of the Third Era brought. Sounds like the Empire has completely collapsed. Rome circa 410 AD. And (!) Argonians invade and conquer Morrowind? Talk about a slave revolt.
Yeah, imagine my surprise when I find out after buying and starting the game that not only is it taking place two centuries after the defeat of Mehrunes, but that for all the efforts of the protagonist to locate and assist Martin in the unbelievable task of defeating the whole of Oblivion, the Empire fell apart anyway.
Certainly explains a lot. So you see my dilemma here; I might have approved of Uriel Septim's Empire, but that Empire died a long time ago. The new one is reeling from losing Morrowind to the Argonians, and seems to be trying to recover by bribing the Nord jarls. It goes without saying what a smack in the face this is, especially since elves comprise a lot of the immigrants. The Empire is intent on populating Skyrim with the natives' mortal enemies.
I dunno, man. My love for the Nords is telling me to start putting arrows through those yellow and red tabards.
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I hadn't turned Steam on for ages, it was kind of hilarious to check the Inspiracy group.
Almost everyone was playing Skyrim :D
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Bethesda games are always released with some bugs. Always. UI got hotfixed though.
Moving on, I'm having serious trouble deciding on perks. Instead of playing my usual thief / mage combo I went with mage / thief. I've so far taken some perks into destruction, but I am at a loss as to where else to put them. I would like to pursue alchemy and enchanting so I can boost other skills without perks and make specific sets to get the best out of them. However, I am worried this will take away perk points that could have gone into other skills.
Anyone with some advice? I use all magic schools, the only negligible one being conjuration which is only used to grab souls. Not sure if I should get into bound weapons? I also find myself using all of the thief related skills. Welp :(
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Well, the advice is the same as for every damned game out there with skilltrees of various kinds: Become a Master of Something or mediocre at everything. Spreading yourself out too much means that you can level to 50 and still be barely halfway up your highest skilltree. That'll mean you're adaptive as hell, but probably won't be especially good at anything you do.
Anyway, I'm getting the feeling that you -can't- go too far wrong with these skilltrees. The skill gathering will have it's effect whether you perk the trees or not, so as long as you make sure to grab a few powerful perks that allow you to kill a few tough enemies without dying horribly, you should be fine. Everything else is... well, entirely up to you. That's the feeling I'm getting anyway.
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Generalized assessment of Skyrim with 20 hours clocked:
All the good aspects of Oblivion, most of the bad stripped out.
Very clearly and not even trying to disguise the fact it's a console port. Control interface is fucking weird. A lot of buttons are used on your keyboard around the WASD keys. Might as well not even bother to use the mouse, as it's simply less buggy to use the pseudo-console like controls. Weird but not a deal breaker for me.
Very much in line with Bethesda open world sandbox lego play. The quality of the stories is arguable, but the sheer scale of interaction and interlocking that occurs is amazing. Small obscure things I did offered tremendous, but optional, help in other quests like the Main storyline.
Dragons are a big deal but they're not the apex predator, either due to scaling issues or bugs. However the RANDOM ENCOUNTERS with them are hilariously random. I've had some spawn, kill all the bandits in a world den I was clearing out, and then fly away. EXP stealing fuckers.
Magic feels stupidly powerful and I just rolled a mage character for 5 hours. It's very pretty, somewhat simple to use, and holds its own as far as mono-mage gameplay is concerned. So far I've not had issues with magicka unless its an extended fight, which I definitely need to choke down bottles to keep going in.
The world is MASSIVE. FUCKING HUGE. I walk everywhere instead of fast traveling and man IT TAKES ME A WHILE to get to places. The crazy amount of things I discover along the way is pretty neat. If athletics was in this game I'd have it max by now.
Some things in Fallout 3 are present in here, such as kill syncs, lockpicking mechanics, companion system, etc. Not too familiar as I never got into Fallout 3. If I had to wager, Skyrim is the love child between Oblivion and Fallout 3 in terms of mechanics and graphical presentation.
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http://youtu.be/RMKJ9fDM2mo
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http://youtu.be/RMKJ9fDM2mo
D'aha!
Here's something to play in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EB6DGjgpGY
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Enjoying the game so far, a lot more than I enjoyed Oblivion.
Only problems I'm having/feel like complaining about are the UI issues. Trying to figure out what a merchant is selling but unfortunately having to hear about their drama because it didn't register what I had clicked accurately is getting old. Evolving tactics to using the arrow keys during conversation/purchases. Also I need to turn my graphic card's fan up to 100%, settings on medium, since it apparently is overheating and shutting down. Saving like my real life depends on it.
First "play through" consisted of getting to Whiterun to warn about the dragon and then immediately using the carriage to get myself to the College, went through that quest line, became arch-mage and suddenly found myself feeling as if that character had reached it's 'pinnacle.' What more can you do once you're the arch-mage except sit back and enjoy your adorable little garden?
Found magic to be enjoyable and the dual wielding of different kinds of spells was great. Though I found myself relying on weapons a bit too much for what a mage should be. Staffs are fun.
Started a new character with a bit less tunnel vision, going to try and mix-up the main storyline with some of the other faction fun to hopefully not ruin it for myself again.
Everything is really pretty.
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I made a Khajit with a view to stealthy pilfering with a side order of death from the shadows. Thirty hours in, though, and I haven't stolen a single item. The death from the shadows thing has panned out: I lurk in the shadows sniping while Lydia goes toe-to-toe with the bad guys. Works well, but we can get overwhelmed by numbers pretty easily.
I figured that I'd look at joining the Dark Brotherhood, but their first kill mission appears to be killing a harmless old crazy guy who I'd previously met and helped out. I felt sorry for him. Can I kill him? I don't know...
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Not a single thing? :eek:
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Ran into possibly the creepiest thing so far in-game last night. It wasn't so much the visuals as the music. I was afraid to even interact with the damn thing. Find this place (compass icons give a small hint):
(http://i40.tinypic.com/208af0l.jpg)
Then you'll know why. I was deemed unworthy and am not sure I want to find out what would make me worthy. :eek:
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So what does it take to get this thing to install off the disk rather than trying to download from Steam? I don't really feel like sitting here for an hour while it downloads when I've got the damned disk in the drive.
Also, I am now actually on Steam for the first time ever. I feel like this is some sort of milestone.
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If anyone runs into the corpse marriage bug:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irjyxOnYVx8
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So what does it take to get this thing to install off the disk rather than trying to download from Steam? I don't really feel like sitting here for an hour while it downloads when I've got the damned disk in the drive.
Also, I am now actually on Steam for the first time ever. I feel like this is some sort of milestone.
Is it integrated with Steam? Honestly hadn't checked. Steam should automatically know that you have the install media in and will run the data from disk if it is in. Had no issues doing that with Shogun 2 when I got it. Either way it is only ~6GB so not nearly as long as it could be (I'm looking at you E:TW).
Also random thing I saw on reddit (can we have more Game of Thrones references going on?): http://i.imgur.com/OuPyn.jpg
While I'm at it this list has a couple of super useful things I didn't know (hotkeys for one): http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/mb8la/massive_list_of_all_the_tips_and_tricks/ .
Good mods: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/14/the-10-best-skyrim-mods-so-far/
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Imagine the following, if you will. (Spoiler free in terms of names, names of locations and specifics BUT it can be reasoned out if you want to. Don't read the following if you want to remain perfectly spoiler free including vague imagery of what you might experience. Srsly, don't.)
[spoiler]
Standing on the very peak of the tallest mountain in Skyrim, the wind lifting the snow and almost blinding you as you take in the view of all of Skyrim beneath your feet. One more step and you stand in the shimmering wound in... well, it's all a bit above your head, but you have a faint idea of what is about to happen. You take out a scroll and start reading it, the sheer power of the magics you are unleashing blurring your sight and making you unsteady on your feet. A flash and your sight is covered with runes and signs you don't even recognize. Everything is blood red and around you the mightiest Nord heroes of old are battling dragons. Their Shouts making the very earth tremble beneath your feet.
It goes on... the sights nearly managing to instill fear within you as you learn the truth about what happened so very long ago.
Another flash. You return to the world you know... and stare into the face of the largest dragon you have ever seen.
"Dovahkiin..." he begins. The rest is lost to you as the battle commences and you unleash the mightiest Shout at your command.[/spoiler]
LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH!
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I'm finding it increasingly difficult to pick a side in the civil war.
On the one hand, seeing Imperials march a Nord off to be executed for worshiping Talos is unnerving.
On the other hand, walking through the Grey Quarter of Windhelm doesn't make rebellion look like the right choice.
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I guess it's a question of who you find to be the lesser evil. I personally find the Thalmor's eradication of Thalos to be offensive (as a Nord, that is. My Breton and Dunmer doesn't give a shit about that) and would rather get rid of the Thalmor's influence and then work from within the system to make the Stormcloak side better. On Miz, the Thalmor pissed her off rather royally with what they did in Cyrodiil and what effects it had on the Dark Brotherhood. They're going down and the Stormcloaks are useful patsies. Not to mention that if the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood's skills are shown to win the war for the Stormcloaks, they don't have any reason to trash on the Dunmer anymore. My Breton is rather annoyed at the Thalmor for what happened at the College, but doesn't pick a side at all. She's got bigger dragons to fry... literally.
The thing is, the way the Nords are treating the Dunmer is fairly understandable. Their two races have been in conflict in Skyrim since the beginning. Rarely have their two kinds been so amicable as they are now.
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I don't blame Ulfric for his ways. I mean you can't really blame anyone for their prejudices, every race was shaped by struggle. But I think the driving force behind the Empire's invasion is what irks me the most, it's just an attempt to keep the Emperor on the throne in the dying hours of the Empire. At least the Stormcloaks can say they're defending their homeland, despite the Imperials claiming that Skyrim belongs to them.
The Nords and Dunmer - and most races in Tamriel - are both molded out of lands that are less-than-hospitable. Tough people cut from tough environments and taught to survive at any cost, it's no wonder they don't like anyone outside their own communities. That being said, the Stormcloaks might not treat the people below them very well, but nothing compares to the cruelty the Empire can manage, when they think they have something to gain.
Tough call, but I'm only 26. I can stand to wait another level or two before I decide what faction I'll support. If any.
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How do you get that saved game mod to work? Mine keeps looking for Fallout 3 saves since that's what it was written for.
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I'm finding it increasingly difficult to pick a side in the civil war.
On the one hand, seeing Imperials march a Nord off to be executed for worshiping Talos is unnerving.
On the other hand, walking through the Grey Quarter of Windhelm doesn't make rebellion look like the right choice.
I haven't been to Windhelm yet, but I am struggling myself to choose a side.
All I know is I just woke up in Markarth after a big night and everyone in this city is a scumbag. I want to use my Archmage of Winterhold powers to kill them all, but self control is getting the better of me.
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I'm finding it increasingly difficult to pick a side in the civil war.
On the one hand, seeing Imperials march a Nord off to be executed for worshiping Talos is unnerving.
On the other hand, walking through the Grey Quarter of Windhelm doesn't make rebellion look like the right choice.
I haven't been to Windhelm yet, but I am struggling myself to choose a side.
All I know is I just woke up in Markarth after a big night and everyone in this city is a scumbag. I want to use my Archmage of Winterhold powers to kill them all, but self control is getting the better of me.
I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering the grimdark theme (which, is it me, or is Bethesda getting better at all the time? >>)
The sides of the war are basically divided into scumbags who went various directions selfishly, the slightly misled leaders heading the operations, and then there's a good 15% slice of folks who are genuinely helping, trying to help, or think they're helping, so at least their hearts are in the right place.
Not to mention, as RPers, I can't help but think we're prone to getting ourselves heavily invested in these matters. I know I am, at least. First time I saw a Nord being marched off for execution I was like >:C
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I'm finding it increasingly difficult to pick a side in the civil war.
On the one hand, seeing Imperials march a Nord off to be executed for worshiping Talos is unnerving.
On the other hand, walking through the Grey Quarter of Windhelm doesn't make rebellion look like the right choice.
I haven't been to Windhelm yet, but I am struggling myself to choose a side.
All I know is I just woke up in Markarth after a big night and everyone in this city is a scumbag. I want to use my Archmage of Winterhold powers to kill them all, but self control is getting the better of me.
I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering the grimdark theme (which, is it me, or is Bethesda getting better at all the time? >>)
The sides of the war are basically divided into scumbags who went various directions selfishly, the slightly misled leaders heading the operations, and then there's a good 15% slice of folks who are genuinely helping, trying to help, or think they're helping, so at least their hearts are in the right place.
Not to mention, as RPers, I can't help but think we're prone to getting ourselves heavily invested in these matters. I know I am, at least. First time I saw a Nord being marched off for execution I was like >:C
I too am struggling to make up my mind really on the big question of Ulfric vs Empire - I do kinda like the idealistic jarl of Solitude but I'm having a lot of problems getting over the fact the empire really did try to have me executed. That said last night I had the biggest actual roleplay decision of the game so far (I'm level 34 or something)
[spoiler]
End of the dark brotherhood plotline and I kill the emperor and he asks as his last request that I kill the person who set him up. I told the emperor "no" and he took it fairly stoically and I left him dead with a single dagger cut laying amongst the corpses of his elite guard.
So I go to collect the money from the contact (a sleezy ambitious imperial upstart plotter) and he's all bouncy gloating and sickeningly magnamimous to my greed. I look at the responses and I really want to kill him (thinking of the contrast between this guys attitude and the dignified exit of the emperor) but I choose a comment "this is the luckiest day of your life" and he clues me in on the location of the blood money for the kill. I get up and walk away back into the bar-room and listen to a bard striking up that "days of oppression" song and I turn round. Just stand there indecisive, thinking, genuinely thinking in character - then I turn around, go back into the chamber with the plotter and gut him like a fish thinking of the emperor's spirit looking down from the otherworld and maybe feeling a bit of justice has been done.
But I've broken my compact with the night mother I think, and my time with the dark brotherhood has come to an end because I'm not the sort of person to honour contracts with scumbags - of course I'm also the sort of person who murders old grannies, bludgeons orc bards, shoots brides on the wedding day and pledges my afterlife to noctural for power over shadows.
Fuck.
Maybe its time to get back to being an honest hero who shouts fire at frost dragons for a living.
[/spoiler]
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Like any civil war, Bethesda has nailed it perfectly. There are some Nords who support the Empire, others who are against it. Equally valid reasons for either side...for Empire, it's keeping the human races together in the face of a suddenly balkanized Tamriel, keeping order and unity and all that, as well as 'fighting' against Nord racism/pride. For Stormcloaks, it's bringing justice for a religious/cultural violation, as well as not wanting to be puppets of those Altmer people.
Really top stuff for the shades of grey and desolate sociopolitical atmosphere. Oblivion looks like a bloody fairytale in comparison to this.
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How do you get that saved game mod to work? Mine keeps looking for Fallout 3 saves since that's what it was written for.
PCGamer has been giving out the wrong link. Annoying.
HERE (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15") is the real link. I use it, it's good stuff.
Only problem I've had with it is that it wants to link to an .EXE that isn't there ('syrim.exe' when the file is 'tesv.exe'). Once you properly re-direct it, you're golden.
Worth noting that Steam Overlay is not enabled when you use this launcher. If that's a big deal for you, use the launcher once to select your 'profile', quit, then use the normal shortcuts to play. Your last chosen profile with SGM will remain the active one until you use it again to change it.
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ok, before i make a decision about buying skyrim, i have some questions.
there were several things that bugged me about Oblivion.
1. level scaling of monsters. If you don't level in a particular way, you can end up becoming worse at fighting goblins and other similar creatures. E.g. you had to train swords, then get some skills in armory, then some other skills, to get a +5 to strength for that level, otherwise you could end up with goblins that were puny easy before, and now are difficult, even with your much better equipment, because you did not train skills in a particular, convoluted, non-immersive way.
2. immense weights of items. 60lb swords and such. it made me :|
4. Argonian bewbs. >:| My understanding of amphibian and reptile biology says those shouldn't exist.
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ok, before i make a decision about buying skyrim, i have some questions.
there were several things that bugged me about Oblivion.
1. level scaling of monsters. If you don't level in a particular way, you can end up becoming worse at fighting goblins and other similar creatures. E.g. you had to train swords, then get some skills in armory, then some other skills, to get a +5 to strength for that level, otherwise you could end up with goblins that were puny easy before, and now are difficult, even with your much better equipment, because you did not train skills in a particular, convoluted, non-immersive way.
2. immense weights of items. 60lb swords and such. it made me :|
4. Argonian bewbs. >:| My understanding of amphibian and reptile biology says those shouldn't exist.
1: Fallout 3 method, some creature types are inherently below you as you level past them, others have a higher plateau you need to pass first. Bandits of the same type that were a bastard when I was level 1 are super-easy in the level 10 / 20 range. ymmv
2. Kinda fixed, armor you wear tends to be the heaviest with pure metal blocks that you smelt also being heavy.
3. there is no 3
4. SNAKE BOOBIESSSSSS yeah they're still there
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The per item weight for most weapons is pretty modest. 2H tends to hover around 22 and heavy armor is around that or slightly higher for the main chest pieces. The only thing that is annoyingly heavy are dragon bones/scales (4-5 per kill adds up quick), which I've now made the habit of storing in my house dresser every time I kill a dragon otherwise I'd be crushed by their combined weight.
The scaling is definitely more intelligent. The normal dragons have actually become pretty easy at this point (level 23), while the tougher Blood Dragons still give a decent challenge. I'm still traumatized by my first couple experiences against Giants so I've not tried to kill one to see if they are manageable now... :oops:
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Giants are ~level 37. Don't fuck with them for a while yet.
The one annoying thing about the scaling is that it seems to scale the NPCs in a particular dungeon-quest-thing to when you accepted the quest, and not when you enter the dungeon-quest-thing, so if you accept a ton of quests and level 10 times before going back to do them, you're suddenly one-shotting everything and falling asleep at the keyboard. Or so it seems, anyway.
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I'm actually having a hard time figuring out that system myself. It seems some things scale fairly evenly, some things don't scale at all and thus become easymode after a while and suicide if encountered too early. A quick example of -non-scaling stuff though:
[spoiler]The Companions questline is just... beyond easymode for the most part. It appears nothing scales there, especially not the guys with Silver Swords. I tore through that entire questline very early with my Vikingish character and the greatest challenge were the encounters on the -way- to the dungeons in question. When I oneshot almost -everything- with a single war axe, it gets a bit ridiculous.
The Mage's College on the other hand was downright infuriatingly hard... which I like. Mostly because it throws you into Dwemer ruins filled with fairly hardass automatons and dangerous Falmer. I had a few fights where I was chugging magicka and health potions against -single- enemies, while having a companion and everything. The last boss for the Mage's College was a serious pain in the ass with very high health, very high dps and even took away your magicka when hurting you. Well, not the last boss, but the Dragon Lich thingy in the dungeon. The last boss was just "Where do I point the staff this time?". It was a very challenging but rewarding questline.
I haven't really met much in this world that actually scaled with me.[/spoiler]
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There's mods out for the game already. Some guy made a nude female mod the day after it got released, actually. Hahaha I CALLED IT xD
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so, its a bit closer to Morrowind then? where at first you were like "aargh, a cliff racer" then later you were "heh, a cliff racer" ?
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Sorta. I think Bethsoft took notice of the leveling system crapbucket that was Oblivion. I am level 14, and I haven't seen Bandits in elven armor yet (appropriate for my level). Thankfully, they're still running around without shirts and shoes.
Also, no, there are no fucking cliff racers.
(http://i.imgur.com/76q1P.jpg)
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Level 20+ and Bandits are only using Fur armor or Steel armor still. I think they have a hard cap on their equipment, as the Thalmor always have Elven equipment regardless of level range.
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Dragons are disappointingly easy to fight, really. :P
But then again, i'm a magic user. So I can freeze them in place, summon flame atronachs to nuke them, cast fireball all day long. . . ahh, the wonders of being Arch-mage of the college and wielder of various +100% magicka regen items. . .
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Dragons are disappointingly easy to fight, really. :P
But then again, i'm a magic user. So I can freeze them in place, summon flame atronachs to nuke them, cast fireball all day long. . . ahh, the wonders of being Arch-mage of the college and wielder of various +100% magicka regen items. . .
Go to hell, some of us actually have to try. >:O
Every dragon that swoops down on me, I have to hit with like 50 arrows. And by the time I get a shot off, he's usually clipped me with a breath spell.
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Yeah feeding dragons to my Storm Atronach and Dremora Lord is my new favorite pass time.....
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Dragons are disappointingly easy to fight, really. :P
But then again, i'm a magic user. So I can freeze them in place, summon flame atronachs to nuke them, cast fireball all day long. . . ahh, the wonders of being Arch-mage of the college and wielder of various +100% magicka regen items. . .
Go to hell, some of us actually have to try. >:O
Every dragon that swoops down on me, I have to hit with like 50 arrows. And by the time I get a shot off, he's usually clipped me with a breath spell.
So, like i said, magic users ftw. :D
"Is he breathing fire? Use ice spells! Breathing both ice and fire? lightning!"
rinse, repeat. I have 8 dragon souls saved up at the moment. Dunno what I should do with them, not enough words to unlock yet.
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My RP-perfectionist self is trying to justify how a Redguard sword mage who wears cloaks can be the Dragonborn Hero of Skyrim, considering the trailer had a warrior in it.
/me rocks back and forth
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Trailer != prime fiction?
A dragonborn is a person selected by Akatosh to undertake the war against Alduin, isn't he? Could be anyone.
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http://www.bethblog.com/index.php/2011/11/16/dragonborn/
Wat. Also, so jealous of Matt (author of blog). Used to do marketing with him years back. Now he gets to work for Bethesda.
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Mercer Fray sounds like Steve Martin.
That is all.
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Mercer Fray sounds like Steve Martin.
That is all.
Stephen Russell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883hEJ7Xowo
The leader of the Greybeards is Christopher Plummer: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001626/
Delphine of the Blades is Joan Allen (Bourne Conspiracy series blond CIA chick)
General Tulius=Colonel Tigh from BSG
Ulfric Stormcloak=some guy whose name I can't remember that was in The 13th Warrior and some episodes of MacGyver back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth
Azura=Wonder Woman
Most of the voice actors were used in Fallout 3 as well, and many in even older games (quite a few from Neverwinter Nights I believe).
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Ulfric Stormcloak=some guy whose name I can't remember that was in The 13th Warrior and some episodes of MacGyver back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth
(http://uashome.alaska.edu/~dfgriffin/website/buliwyf.gif)
This guy. Perfect casting if you ask me.
Lo, there do I see my Father.... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN-no1Ka7yU&feature=related)
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God damnit, now I really want to see that movie again. And yes, that was brilliant casting by Bethesda. Slightly unrelated: I recently watched Thor and the swedish guy they got to play that aging professor didn't even get to say one word in Swedish. Hell, even his name was pronounced horribad wrong. Decent movie. Hate Marvel for what they did to the most badass mythology in the world. Don't get me wrong, the whole thing 'works' in a way. The 'magic' being technology so superior that it for all intents and purposes -is- magic is an interesting way to go, but damn... what's with the 'shiny' shit? Norse mythology is the darkest and grimmest damn mythology out there.
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God damnit, now I really want to see that movie again. And yes, that was brilliant casting by Bethesda. Slightly unrelated: I recently watched Thor and the swedish guy they got to play that aging professor didn't even get to say one word in Swedish. Hell, even his name was pronounced horribad wrong. Decent movie. Hate Marvel for what they did to the most badass mythology in the world. Don't get me wrong, the whole thing 'works' in a way. The 'magic' being technology so superior that it for all intents and purposes -is- magic is an interesting way to go, but damn... what's with the 'shiny' shit? Norse mythology is the darkest and grimmest damn mythology out there.
And thus, the bleeding heart americans can't consider offering it to their kids as-is. Make it shiny and marvel-safe and they are good to go.
I'd let them have their joys in peace but I don't like the idea that a whole generation of american kids will get a completely fucked-up idea what Norse mythology is... :bash:
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Guh. We offer it up to our kids just fine. I distinctly remember when we were being taught about Norse mythology in school and I had to go "Wait... why are we mostly Christian in Norway again? This is awesome!" It is probably the only religion I can cotton to, slightly. Don't get me wrong, there's pretty much nothing that can make me believe in -any- religion but the Norse mythology certainly provides some downright fantastic examples of ideals and concepts to aspire to. Strength and courage. Loyalty and willingness to stand for your beliefs. A severe distaste for deceit and falsehoods. All good things... and yet it doesn't fall into the trap of being unrealistically idealistic. It accounts for all the crap out there and admits that all these things aren't even remotely possible to make universal. Just that it's something each and every one can aspire to.
Besides... I can't get past that Ragnarok is the most mindshatteringly awesome end-of-all-things out there. When even the Gods themselves die in fire, by wolf, by world-serpents and so on, it just can't be beat. Especially given that it's just a reset button for a single mortal man and woman to create a new world.
Recently spoke with a Belgian friend of mine who is also interested in that mythos and it struck us... why has this not been made into a movie? Just name it Ragnarok, set it in 2012 (for the lulz) and just do the End of the World Norsestyle, with the Gods themselves coming down to Midgar for the end times. Hell, even Hollywood should appreciate it since it'd allow for the love-story of the two remaining humans after it's all done. Just imagine all the greatest Nolan Disaster Movies you've seen and superimpose Fenrir gaping from earth to the sky, Jormungandr in an epic struggle with Thor and his Mjølnir, Odin Allfather and all the other Norse Gods and Bad Guys clashing throughout the movie... and do it all from the perspective of a few mortals. Never let them interact with the Gods, just have the world powerless as the destruction reigns.
Gods, that'd be the best damn disaster movie of all time. I can't believe no movie-maker hasn't seized upon that yet.
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I'd let them have their joys in peace but I don't like the idea that a whole generation of American kids will get a completely fucked-up idea what Norse mythology is... :bash:
"HAI GUYZ LOL, DID U KNO TEH BYFROST WUZ RLY A GIANT TEKNO TRANNSPORTER BEEM?!"
"What? Where did you learn that?"
"I USED 2 RED TEH THOR COMIC BOOK LOL"
"Riiiight."
Ancient Mythology isn't learned from a comic book. Comic books are for entertainment, not education. (with exceptions.) If someone is quoting a comic book, you shouldn't be taking them any more seriously than if they were citing Star Trek to teach you about physics.
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Actually the magic = technology thing is much more a feature of the film, magic is well established as existing in the Marvel Comics universe.
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I really liked the story about Loki tricking Thor into thinking that he was pregnant.
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I really liked the story about Loki tricking Thor into thinking that he was pregnant.
o.0
also, are there any unintentionally funny bits? e.g. in Oblivion, one time, I, playing a blue elf, was on the unicorn, galloping through teh forest whilst naked except for a magic ring, then I arrived at a town, and there was an NPC there, who uttered the unintentionally funny statement:
"Oh. It's You. Hi"
as if naked dark elf women riding unicorns are a common occurrence. :D
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I like the one where Loki gets mounted by a horse and gives birth to Sleipnir.
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I like the one where Loki gets mounted by a horse and gives birth to Sleipnir.
Norse mythology putting the 'Best' in Bestiality. 8)
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/izumizagari/superhorse-1.jpg)
:|
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Yeah, not a fan of the horse AI so far. :P
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I dunno. Shadowmere has managed to take down 2 dragons to date, albeit not without some help.
Of course, that was before I got fireball. Now he rarely gets a chance.
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Any true game-fuist will agree with this statement.
"The Iron Dagger is the most powerful weapon in the game"
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Iron Dagger is mad OP at the moment, not even kinda joking. The souls of miner slaves across Skyrim feed my Iron Daggers
also Aura Whisper is an amazing Shout for dungeon checking.
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I'm fairly certain I'll need to play this game through more than once. Not only do the different weapon styles seem appealing enough to warrant entire characters, but the sides of the conflicts in the world also deserve exploration... admittedly, a little of the surprise and discovery will be absent, but I do so want to smack someone in the face with a greatsword.
Also, is anyone taking perk trees to their top tier? Because its starting to seem like I don't even have to...
Archery for example. Quick shot is useful, but Ranger? Moving faster with the bow drawn? And they're both required to get a15% paralyze chance from Bullseye? Seems like a waste of two perk points that could make my alchemy or lockpicking better.
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If you have a killer rig, I seriously recommend getting some 3rd party tools to turn on ambient occlusion, supersampling etc. Makes a HUGE difference. Looks gorgeous. Mah eyes x_x
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Confirming that smacking a dragon across the face on a snowy mountaintop with a greatsword you've made yourself is indeed pretty epic.
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Burning man? In my Skyrims? (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/izumizagari/2011-11-19_00006.jpg)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AApgfhC-sKE&feature=colike
SHUT THE HELL UP, LYDIA, GOD DAMN! >:C
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Iron Dagger is mad OP at the moment, not even kinda joking. The souls of miner slaves across Skyrim feed my Iron Daggers
also Aura Whisper is an amazing Shout for dungeon checking.
Iron daggers and not steel daggers?
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Iron Dagger is mad OP at the moment, not even kinda joking. The souls of miner slaves across Skyrim feed my Iron Daggers
also Aura Whisper is an amazing Shout for dungeon checking.
Iron daggers and not steel daggers?
Why spend more for steel when Iron is cheaper to buy? Steel is a runner up if you run out of Iron, but otherwise.
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Iron daggers and not steel daggers?
Why spend more for steel when Iron is cheaper to buy? Steel is a runner up if you run out of Iron, but otherwise.
Spend? I pick them up of corpses.
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Also, is anyone taking perk trees to their top tier? Because its starting to seem like I don't even have to...
Archery for example. Quick shot is useful, but Ranger? Moving faster with the bow drawn? And they're both required to get a15% paralyze chance from Bullseye? Seems like a waste of two perk points that could make my alchemy or lockpicking better.
Moving at full speed with a drawn arrow is every bit worth it. Especially with the 50% slow down of the zoom if you have that. imo, everything in the archery tree is well worth the perk point, with the only exception being the one that lets you recover more arrows. My character should be crushed under the number of arrows she's carrying.
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No kidding.
I carry around enough arrows to break The Siege of Constantinople.
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Perk trees to top tier? Hell yes. Some of those are pure porn. Heavy Armor not weighing anything? Dragonbone/Daedra smithing? Archery stuff? Oh.. hell... yes...
There's so much awesome at the top tiers.
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What's the highest level anyone has achieved here so far?
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What's the highest level anyone has achieved here so far?
81 (with the glitch). Mostly just to see what I could do. Back down to 44 now.
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I have SEVERE altism so I've only got 28 so far as my highest. Have finished all the 'storyline' stuff except for Thieves guild though.
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I....well....today Skyrim well and truly fucked me.
For two DAYS of play I've been travelling to get to a quest objective. It's rather hard to get to.
On the way I find a dungeon. Whee! Let's explore.
Bandits all inside of it. Challenging, but manageable.
This dungeon takes me over an hour to traverse. I'm saving all the way with my quicks and autos.
Bam! A puzzle door! I figure it out and move on. The door behind me seals forever. I can only move forward.
Now every enemy goes up in levels by a few exponents. Every encounter with ONE enemy takes everything I have and a couple reloads.
Somehow I've pulled it off finally. And now, a final guy.
One Hit Kills. Every spell + my summons + my companions + everything in my inventory is unable to make his heathbar move one perceivable speck.......
I cannot progress. I cannot continue. Boss guy can instantly see through any sneak attempt, and kills me and everyone I brought with one swing.
I cannot turn around either.
Two Days of play lost.
I'm sick to my stomach. I need a drink.
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Tried turning down the difficulty? Absolutely worst case scenario and even that not working, just use the tgm console command. I used it once back in FO3 when I found myself in a similar situation. From what I've read on the forums, the console commands are the same.
(tgm = godmode, in case you didn't know. Also gives you infinite loadbearing capability.)
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Ugh, I guess I'll try that.
God, talk about violating your One Rule.....
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Inorite? Sometimes it's just inevitable, though. Rules are rules until circumstances change way beyond reasonable expectations. After all, there's a reason most countries have an 'OhSHIT!' exception law to pretty much all other laws. You can drive drunk, break into people's homes and so on and so forth, as long as you can prove there just wasn't any other option that wouldn't cause worse consequences to life and/or property.
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For anyone who hasn't seen it....
The funniest shit I've seen so far in Skyrim...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZIiDS_RYVY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZIiDS_RYVY)
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For some of the nasty 1 shotting undead bosses the thing I've done that wins it for me is actually a full charge Unrelenting Shout to knock them down. Sprint over and get 1-2 dual power attacks before they are up and it they are usually almost dead. Granted I suppose this only works because I'm dual wielding soo. >.>
There is only one guy I can think of that might actually be immune to damage, and that is in Saarthal, which is supposed to be counter-acted by a quest NPC that is tagging along with you.
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Ugh, I guess I'll try that.
God, talk about violating your One Rule.....
The Nine Divines stepped in to save the Dragonborn from that fate, setting him back on the course to his destiny?
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Argh. It's a pain in the ass to get enough Ebony Ingots and Daedra hearts for Daedric Armor and Weapons. Daedra and Daedra hearts are apparently quite rare in Skyrim, with few vendors selling it and few places for 'farming' it.
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Ugh, I guess I'll try that.
God, talk about violating your One Rule.....
So the bards will sing...
The Nine Divines stepped in to save the Dragonborn from that fate, setting him back on the course to his destiny?
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Got tired of hunting through alchemy and smith vendors for Ebony and Daeda Hearts so instead I went and did some quests. Voila, found a spot where Daedra spawn on a regular basis (every few days, from what I can tell) and a mine with almost 50 Ebony Ore in it. Legendary quality Daedra Armor, Shield and War Axe looks insanely badass. From what I can tell, it's also the best damn armor in the game. Ossum.
Now to train Enchanting on my Nord so he can enchant all those pieces.
Oh, and derp. I bought a house in Windhelm. I can't find it. I ran around the city for half an hour, couldn't find the damn house.
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From another forum:
Not many funny things happen to Raj. Mostly tragic.
Raj get home, and go into living room, try to heal wounds after combat with dragon. Accidentally flame atronach. Certainly, this freak me out, so i proceed to stab it.
Flame Atronach fall over dead. Wife Mjoll come into living room, and scold Khajiit for miscasting. I apologize then "BOOOOOOM!", room bathed in fire!
Did you know Flame Atronach explode after death? Raj did not. Ruin house, sending everything in house off shelves. Make big mess!
Wife Mjoll cant help but laugh. Fire Burn off all of Raj's fur. Look pinker then pomegranate! Raj dislike next week in cold skyrim.
Now Raj see why nords always angry.
I swear a peed a little when reading that.
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on the console command rescue thing - i have had to use it once to escape from a glitched dungeon pit (plain walls, barred door, no way out but up - checked online for hints and result "don't fall in here there is no way out lol" - so consoled back home feeling like a (mostly justified heel).
Also, would like to know more about daedra-spawning locations.
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[spoiler]The best Daedra spawning location only occurs after finishing a quest started in Dawnstar. There is a fellow there on the far side of the town from where you enter that's got a 'Museum' going in memory of... well, bad guys. He'll want you to gather some shit, go to a place with him and fix said shit. You'll have a few options then, but one of them will make a certain Big Bad angry and spawn Daedra. They'll respawn regularly after the first time it happens.
I am NOT sure if there's a minimum level for that museum/quest NPC to appear, because another character of mine went to Dawnstar without finding it. Didn't look around too hard, though.
Daedra Hearts also has a small chance of spawning randomly in various loot containers and inventories after you hit level 25. Not sure when trader NPCs start carrying them, but there's supposedly a guy in the Mage's College that gets two every time his inventory refreshes.[/spoiler]
Made that as non-specific as possible, but it still might constitute a spoiler so I tagged it.
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The Windhelm house is way in the corner, near the Shatter-Shield House. It's called Hjelm (sp?). It's p nice, though just got enough gold (after upgrading that house) that I can afford the one in Solitude...so might see what that has to offer. I spent about 30 minutes to an hour fast traveling around to different merchants and bankrupting them with my crafted wares. :lol: Finding a gold mine earlier was win, so many good pieces of jewelry to craft.
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Where is this?
WHERE IS THIS?
/grab /shake TELLMEWHERETHISIS!
./twitch
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So, it's not really a spoiler, but I guess I'll stick it in the spoiler tag just in case. Found some advice for my fellow lockpickers:
[spoiler] I just picked up a book, entitled "Advances in Lockpicking." It gave me a point of lockpicking, which was well enough, but I also read through the short text in which the author mentions the materials locks are made with. Another book, "Proper Lock Design" is the opposing companion - there's a lot of these "paired books" in Skyrim, if you look hard enough.
Anywho, the author of the second book mentions never using copper in locks, because it easily deforms to heat and pressure. He advises to use a different metal for each pin to thwart lockpickers. The author of Advances, in response, advises the reader that heat sources will negate the differences in metal by making the metal expand, and I presume making the lock a little more pliant.
Well, being the curious young buck I am, I tried it out. I equipped a torch the next time I ran into an adept lock and, wouldn't you know it, the "sweet spot" where the lock will actually turn was of wider degrees than usual. I've since kept up the habit.
There are some obvious disadvantages. Torches, being a light source, might defeat a sneaky lockpicking attempt. I'm also uncertain if a spell like Flames would accomplish the same thing. But, it was fun to discover something like that, so I thought I'd share it with my fellow sneakthieves.
[/spoiler]
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Nice!
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Where is this?
WHERE IS THIS?
/grab /shake TELLMEWHERETHISIS!
./twitch
[spoiler]Southeast of Windhelm. I shall say no more.[/spoiler]
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For both those of us who already loves Skyrim, and those who have yet to play it... here is the ultimate timelapse video from Skyrim, showing exactly why this will with 99.9999% certainty be GOTY. (http://kotaku.com/5861581/is-this-the-ultimate-time+lapse-tour-of-skyrim)
Probably the finest Skyrim video out there.
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So Miz, if I know anything about you, I'm sure you'll find this pretty funny.
[spoiler] I've stumbled across three Black Doors so far. >> [/spoiler]
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/me laughs a bit. Nice.
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So. Annoying. Got smithing to 100, went the "light armor" route, right side, and can now only use dragon stuff to make a light or heavy armor set. Both daedric and ebony weapons seem to be better than glass ones by significant margins.
And I can't go down from the Top in that tree like I've expected, so in order to actually get better weapons I need to waste three perk points, two if I'd be content with ebony weapons.
This is mildly annoying and not a very good design. Give me dragonbonescalesomething-bows and daggers, please!
The rest of the game, however, is absolutely stunning.
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Well, to be fair, Smithing is largely there for the heavy armors and the weaponry. The best heavy armors are from Smithing. For Light Armors, you're actually better off doing the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild questlines, which only leaves weapons. This in turn means you could disregard the left side smithing options (elven, glass) for the far superior ebony and daedric weapons.
Poor design? I don't think so, really, since not a single perk point there are wasted. Every time you learn to smith something new there, you can suddenly turn a new type of ingot/ingredient into armor/weapons -and- improve them. That your character isn't very interested in wearing them just means that suddenly your companion got themselves a smashing new outfit, or the vendors of Skyrim collectively cry out in anguish as you deplete their gold supply.
It's quite simply a price/reward situation where you alone can be the judge of whether or not you want the ability to smith those weapons more than you want the (insert alternative perk choices here).
I myself now have the somewhat excruciating choice ahead of two of my own characters whether or not it'd be worth leveling smithin and enchanting respectively to high levels, since it'd benefit them. The question becomes... would it be worth the perk points? Bad design? Not at all... just choices to make.
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questline spoiler
[spoiler]
Man what the fuck is up with the Garudlr Amulet.
Great and terrible artifact of ancient power that thousands of men died fighting to seal away, guarded in-game by 3 high tier bosses, separated in 3 pieces in 3 different dungeons.
I finally assemble the fucker and I'm practical shitting myself as the stats page loads
+30 magicka/health/stamina
mfw i've enchanted items stronger than this
(http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/2521/1231711961530.jpg)
[/spoiler]
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Holy mother of Hell... go to that far eastern town. Enter the House of Horrors with that guy. (You'll find it.)
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:eek:
http://ppsh-41.tumblr.com/post/13145143504/entire-tamriel-landmass-built-into-skyrim
:eek:
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:eek:
http://ppsh-41.tumblr.com/post/13145143504/entire-tamriel-landmass-built-into-skyrim
:eek:
(http://images.memegenerator.net/images/408x/1159707.jpg)
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oh god Senn I think that picture has just crippled me
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o.0
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Foly Huck. :eek:
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ARGH.
Bethesda's number-one trollingest move:
1. Introduce children to a TES game for the first time
2. Give all the most annoying lines to children
3. Can't kill children
4. ?????
5. "Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
"Oh look, another wanderer here to lick my father's boots. Good job."
6. (http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/1957/ffffuuuu.png)
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Someday.
Someday the children will suffer. >:c
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Ah, s'cuse me m'lud...
(http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/75/75179.jpg)
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Started a second character. Can't honestly decide what I think is cooler... sword and shield, two-handed weapons, dual wielding axes... I know I wanna throw destruction magic in there somewhere.
On the one hand, if I dual wield or use a shield, I can switch to magic more easily. On the other, two-handed weapon finishers are sweet.
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Block makes the game trivial. My own Norseman is currently a bloody Juggernaut, decked in full Daedric Armor, Shield and War Axe. With the various perks in the block tree, melee combat is beyond easymode. Spellcaster? Shield slam. Incoming power attack? Shield slam. Is there something within reach? SHIELD SLAM!
It'll stop casting, interrupt attacks and it'll leave almost any enemy open to a devastating counter attack. Not to mention that you're practically invincible if you've used your levelups for alternating health and stamina, since Block perks also gives you 50% elemental damage reduction and some other sweet stuff as well.
I took a quest where I had to clear a dungeon full of undead, necromancers and some fairly hefty casters. Just for the fun of it, I kept the shield raised the entire time, just slooowly inching forwards, taking every single ranged hit and spell cast at me with a grim grin until I got into range and could practically oneshot most enemies with a shield slam + Power Attack.
I'm sure the Dragon Priests might still be a bit annoying until I get into melee range, but once there, I can interrupt any of their casts while whaling on them with my Daedric War Axe. Block: Almost gamebreakingly good.
I'd try dualwielding if I was you, especially if you want to add a bit of magic usage to the game, since Block is another perk tree you'd need to spend a lot of perks in. Dualwielding just means you need to spend points in Onehanded, whichever armor you prefer, and the magic/support/craft trees.
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Dual wielding definitely makes things much more challenging. I've lost count of the number of times I've died due to recklessly charging into tougher enemies and getting killed within a couple seconds because I ran out of room to maneuver. DW kill animations are pretty awesome too, FWIW. I'm running on Expert difficulty right now, but if I were rolling with a shield I would probably need to be on Master to make it even vaguely interesting from what Miz is saying.
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Everything I loathed about the shit that was Oblivion is rectified in this game.
My only gripe is a lack of keybinding support for weapons in the left hand when Dual Wielding unless it's the exact same weapon (including enchants) as the one in the right, which simply doesn't stick.
However while you have next to no mitigation as a DW nut, you have the best defence ever, you beat the shit out of stuff before it can kill you.
Jade said it best, this game is the crack cocaine of gaming.
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Warning!
Major quest conflict between The Jagged Crown and Season Unending. You MUST complete one before starting the other, otherwise you'll run into a gamebreaking inability to proceed.
I can't continue on the main quest OR the civil war until patch 1.2 fixes it. =/
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1. Introduce children to a TES game for the first time
2. Give all the most annoying lines to children
3. Can't kill children
4. ?????
http://kotaku.com/5861221/hooray-now-you-can-kill-kids-in-skyrim?tag=theelderscrolls (http://kotaku.com/5861221/hooray-now-you-can-kill-kids-in-skyrim?tag=theelderscrolls)
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I might be one of those strange people fascinated with all the arrows stuck in corpses after I pelt the shit out of them. xD
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I never really got that desire. I mean, sure, it's somewhat immersionbreaking to set a bunch of villagers on fire and burying your war axe in their collective skulls, only to watch Daisy Nipper run around as if she just stumbled and got a boo boo on her knee, but that's a price I'm more than willing to pay since I have absolutely no conceivable reason to start murdering children left, right and center. Children ARE obnoxious, be it real life or in a game. Every damn child I know acts like shit. It's the natural behaviour pattern of children.
What do we do about this? Clearly we summon a dragon to devour it, after setting it on fire and shouting them off a castle wall. No? We don't kill children in real life? What do you mean 'ignore' them? That's just SILLY!
I look at the people who actually claim that the child-killing mods are FIXING A BROKEN MECHANIC and get a sudden urge to strangulate someone with chicken wire. The game isn't bloody broken because you can't murder children. First: It's a damn smart move of Bethesda to NOT give the GameHater Coalition any more ammunition. Second: Bethesda games have ALWAYS been modded to hell and back, so anyone wanting it will get it anyway. Third: You have absolutely no storyline reason to kill them. They're not in your way, they're not a threat, they're not potential enemies or anything. At worst, they're a witness to your crimes which you can't kill. Congratulations, your incompetent attempt at being a criminal isn't instantly erasable through killing a child. This isn't broken mechanics, it's -your- incompetence.
On the other hand, I don't have anything against those who do download and use that mod for deeper immersion, the chance to kill the witness, the accidental AoE kill when fighting someone else, or watching a dragon actually being able to take on a seven year old and win. It's a bit morbid and slightly tasteless, but it's not like I've ever been a proponent of political correctness in any game setting.
I still get a severe desire to slap people in the back of the head when I see people claim unkillable children is a broken mechanic that 'modders have to fix'. Gods...
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I might be one of those strange people fascinated with all the arrows stuck in corpses after I pelt the shit out of them. xD
I love seeing how some enemies walk around with 8 or 9 ice shards sticking out of their heads from where I launched them into their skulls from range.
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(http://i.imgur.com/cBP16.jpg)
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In fallout and Skyrim, it's possible to be a mean little asshole if you want to. Theft, murder, whole-sale massacres, betrayal, drug use, drug-pushing/trafficking, constantly being rude/picking fights, slavery, destruction of property and so on and so forth, list goes on. I find it absolutely INSULTING then, that anyone who is 'adult' can be killed anytime for any reason or no reason at all... but not kids. Considering the huge list of offenses that WOULD and SHOULD have you punished in RL that are considered perfectly okay in these GAMES, simply saying 'child-killing is immoral and wrong, yo' is a massive finger to the face, a cop-out of grand proportions.
Anyone of the NPC's in these games can have the absurd miss-fortune of running across a player-character that can and will make their lives horrible and cut-short on a whim, because the players wanted it. The game let's them do that. IF they want to.
But NOT if your less than 18 years old. Because that's wrong, right? That's IMMORAL, RIGHT?
Fuck them. The pathetic attempt of some minor political-correct choices made by these producers just makes little sense. Do they really worry that critics will yell at them for 'offensive' actions possible in a GAME? Will they honestly worry those folks will pull out that tired, old and provably false argument that gaming affects kids an makes criminals out of gamers solely from playing these games?
I still recall the massive bitching about GTA back in the day. “OMG you steal cars! Run the owners over with them! Do drive-by's and serial-hit/runs and buy whores for the sake of getting your health back, you kill them to get your money back after! OMG omg whine whiner whining etc”
GTA came and went. I fail to notice the generation of brain-washed kids-turned-criminals out performing crimes because 'GTA learned me how to'. That shit never happened because humans have this amazing ability to separate reality from fiction, especially when what they are presented with is clearly fictional. Examples of the contrary reflect other issues those people had. Anders Bering Breivik killed 77 people this year. He spent a whole year playing WoW not to long ago. Where are the other 11,999,999 people who plot to do similar acts? You get my point.
In a game where I can go off to seek out and join a secretive 'brotherhood' of assassins because I wanted to, where I can kill anyone they order me to anywhere because I wanted to remain part of this 'family' of mass-murdering scum, a game where I can join the Imperial legion and go off to murder half of Windhelm, in this game I can NOT kill little Helene who was right in my way, because she's like, 17 and stuff, a child, right? To bad for her that the next day when I came back to off the other half – had to go sell all that loot somewhere, you know – she's had her birthday and are 18 years old. Her head goes off first after I enter the gates, just like her mom, dad and elder brother did the day before, because being old enough to NOT be a 'child' made them acceptable targets for my senseless killing-spree.
Discrimination by age or gender pisses me off. The kids in the game are annoying at times, yeah, they are. Would I want to slap them around from time to time? Yeah, sometimes I do. However, I'd also like to smack about that blacksmith in Whiterun for telling me her father's position in the Jarl's castle for the millionth time. STFU about that already! Do I off either of them? No. Because my toon is Thane of Whiterun and holds to a few standards, see. Even IF I could, by game-mechanics, off the blacksmith, I don't.
Set in the light of all the other evils you MAY chose to do in Skyrim, making the kids immortal is idiotic at best and serves no practical purpose other than trying desperately to ward off the retarded morons out there who still like to bitch about the moral-destroying gaming industry. Being able to kill any NPC/creature, even quest-needed toons that are normally immortal too, should at worst be a selectable option in the game's menu. Do I WANT the option to be able to accidentally fry a kid or that critical companion of mine with an AOE fireball? Yes. But if I did, I might risk regretting it. Keep that option flipped off, then.
Welp, that rant got long. Sorry. This is an annoying subject, more general reasons besdies just Skyrim's game-mechanics.
On a lighter and TOTALLY unrelated note, I've found two-handers to be VERY enjoyable – you get the offensive options of dual-wielding while still having a weak, but useful block option and can easily slip to a one-hander and spells if needed. Current combo is one-handed soul-stealing sword combined with healing/destruction magic and a health-draining two-hander with massive perks and bonuses. Fights can be very hard, hard, or only somewhat challenging based on what combo of enemies you run into and how you handle yourself. I also personally adore big, powerful weapons, so it's working fine for me. Ymmw, though.
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I still recall the massive bitching about GTA back in the day. “OMG you steal cars! Run the owners over with them! Do drive-by's and serial-hit/runs and buy whores for the sake of getting your health back, you kill them to get your money back after! OMG omg whine whiner whining etc” GTA came and went. I fail to notice the generation of brain-washed kids-turned-criminals out performing crimes because 'GTA learned me how to'. That shit never happened because humans have this amazing ability to separate reality from fiction, especially when what they are presented with is clearly fictional.
Thanks to GTA I still can't pass a flashy sports car on the side of a street without fighting down the urge to yank open the door and carjack my way to a free ride.
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I want the ability to kill children because I hate children in Skyrim. There's no fancy-schmancy morally laden reason for it. It's just when one of those little shits pipes up, my first instinct is to make sure I never hear that line of speech again, by violently eliminating its source with a giant fuck-off daedric hammer. Children's voices are annoying. :|
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I want the ability to kill children because I hate children in Skyrim. There's no fancy-schmancy morally laden reason for it. It's just when one of those little shits pipes up, my first instinct is to make sure I never hear that line of speech again, by violently eliminating its source with a giant fuck-off daedric hammer. Children's voices are annoying. :|
I just have this mental image of an Imperial Issue Apocalypse appearing over Skyrim, revving up all its weapons, and then launching a single Daedric Hammer with millimetre-perfect aim at a child's face.
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:eek:
http://ppsh-41.tumblr.com/post/13145143504/entire-tamriel-landmass-built-into-skyrim
:eek:
(http://images.memegenerator.net/images/408x/1159707.jpg)
not empty quotin'
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iirc, when oblivion came out, there was quite a delay before all the tool programs were available for mod makers to do their stuff. Unlike Morrowind, where there were things available right from the go, I think.
I think maybe that one of the tools took so long to be released by Bethseda that by the time it was, mod makers were already using a thing, that was reverse engineered. I forget what it did exactly. was it Nif-scope? a thing that allowed you to see the models, and/or edit things.
One of the things behind this delay, was the outcry about the "hot coffee" thing in the GTA game, and the demonisation of mod makers that was going on there. There were problems with Oblivion when it was revealed that you could make female characters have the dreaded exposed nipple, which is of course a Sign of the End Times. Talk of not releasing the mod tools AT ALL, because of "mod abuse".
A few Morrowind mods I've seen had babies and children in them. Killing them marks you as a Bad Person, and bad stuff happens. People don't talk to you, etc. etc.
Anyways, having mods that make the stock immortal children killable, are not really helpful when it comes to having developer supported mod making tools. It's bad press.
I remember in Fallout 2, there were also problems. The USA version had children, and you could kill them, it marked you as a child killer, and bad things happened as a result. The EU version(s) did not. And there were glitches as a result. One EU version (German?) had them removed entirely, I think. The other EU version, i.e. the one I have, the UK version, has a weird thing, whereby the children are invisible. They'll still make random comments which you can see onscreen, which is confusing at time. They can also be killed by area effect weapons, but iirc, that had a tendency to crash the game. And in one area, there were children that stood at the entrances to several buildings, pickpocketing. They were still there in the UK version, but you couldn't see them, and unless you read up about things, you wouldn't know why some of your items vanished. Silliness.
In any case, it's obvious why, even when you're a Bad Dude, you can't kill children in Skyrim.
Bad Guys always let children live, so that the child is RAISED BY MONKS, LEARNS TO FIGHT, SO THAT ONE DAY THEY'LL HAVE THEIR REVENGE!!!
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Well I'm personally not to worried about the "younglings" not being able to die at my hands. As it stands, i'm going to eradicate every sentient species on the map. Once that is complete there will be plenty of homeless, parentless boys and girls to have to fend for themselves. :twisted:
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Not sure what the fascination is with killing children. Sure, it's kinda lame they are 'invincible', but it seems more like a problem for the children than death. Exploitation anyone? "That's right, little Jimmy, just walk through that long hall of pressure plates, onto that pit of fire, and grab that piece of armor for me. Oh, and watch out for the hordes of dead that will come alive to curse you for eternity for disturbing their rest. THANKS!"
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My only game design issue with children in Skyrim is that they're invulnerable thief/murder detectors. In a way they're worse than the God-sight Guards from Oblivion; you can't eliminate them to stop the reports.
If that was removed, the only game balancing reason I have issue with would be addressed tbh.
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Not doing fast travel makes some things that would be trivial a real pain in the arse. If I was doing that, loading up with loot, fast travelling back to town, then fast travelling back to the ruin I'm looting would be trivial. As it is I'm loading Lydia up like a mule and carrying everything I can, and still getting distracted by bandits and grumpy when I can't carry their loot...
but I'm still not bored slow walking across the landscape.
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Discrimination by age or gender pisses me off.
Thank you.
+1
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Miz, these ones are for you:
https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6048/6350801151_9eba7e6824_o.jpg
https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6230/6350800589_0b7a78d022_o.jpg
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My only game design issue with children in Skyrim is that they're invulnerable thief/murder detectors. In a way they're worse than the God-sight Guards from Oblivion; you can't eliminate them to stop the reports.
If that was removed, the only game balancing reason I have issue with would be addressed tbh.
Well...
I'm fairly sure you can put a bucket over their head. :D
On a side note:
Skyrim, what the fuck. That was low dude, real low. You just stole me 9 hours of my life, 66% of that pure sleep time. I thought it was like 11 PM and not 4 AM and the only reason I found out was a crash to desktop. Else I would've wondered why the sun already rises outside.
Well then, working in zombie mode will be activated in 4 hours. -.-
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I can definitely say that magic is not for me. I really don't know why, because it's not complicated or impractical. Hell, I remember magic in Morrowind being more irksome. Either way, guess I'm a hands-on killer.
I do seem to remember alchemy being a little more useful in Oblivion. Skyrim seems to make leveling the skill take a helluvah long time, even if you're mixing three-effect potions to rank up.
I'm not sure I'm gonna jive with dual-wielding axes or using a two-hander any time soon either. At the end of the day I just can't feel comfortable without the control of the environment that stealth gives you... maybe I should make a pure dual-daggers build just to keep my life interesting, I'm not even using archery anymore once I have Shadow Warrior and Assassins Blades. vOv
Edit: Check that. Dual axes is pure brutality. Also, doesn't technically negate the usefulness of stealth.
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I think this is the deadliest weapon in Skyrim:
[spoiler](http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj235/hellgremlin/OPhammer.jpg)[/spoiler]
The stamina drain enchant allows me to do power-attacks non-stop. So really, the damage should read 800.
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Hardest hitting weapon in face to face battle, most definitely.
It's still beaten by Daedric Dagger with Fire and Shock enchant, due to the 30x damage multiplier from backstabs. (With the right perks and gloves). I haven't done the math yet, but I believe the dualwielded Daedric Swords has the potential for higher dps than the Hammer due to much higher attack rate and dual enchant potentials.
For a face to face battle I'd probably break out that Hammer instead anyway, due to the sheer power of each blow being enough to take down almost any enemy in a hit.
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and in further news consider skyrim to be skyoblwind
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.325308-Theres-More-to-Skyrim-Than-Skyrim
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You need to read the thread more often, Invel. ;)
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You know...
Maybe it was just me playing Fallout, but I really miss the VATS animation for ranged weapons.
I'd love to see the camera track my arrow on a crit strike, or have a kill animation for that or something. I'm pure archery spec, so I keep missing out on kill animations :(
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That is a bit of a shame.
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This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD07-cWaPOk&feature=related) is why I'll never take NPC's with me unless I've got to...
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LOL.
Same spot, same companion, same thing.
I sat there and watched her hit that thing 10 times, and I giggled myself silly.
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You know...
Maybe it was just me playing Fallout, but I really miss the VATS animation for ranged weapons.
I'd love to see the camera track my arrow on a crit strike, or have a kill animation for that or something. I'm pure archery spec, so I keep missing out on kill animations :(
I'm going archery and stealth, and while I agree finishing moves are neat nothing beats a well placed arrow sending a foe flying back several feet from the impact.
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(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvcl7oHTMl1r4tn86o1_500.jpg)
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Sad... on the one hand this new character of mine would be excellent as a Stormcloak, and I only got through the first two missions for Ulfric before I scrapped my old save...
On the other hand I'm really curious about the Companions. But I can't join both. <O>
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Erm... yes you can? Unless it's some IC reasoning that prevents you from doing it.
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<sagely Nord voice>
A man cannot serve two masters.
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<sagely Nord voice>
A man cannot serve two masters.
My thief, Companion, Arch-mage, Thane, Stormcloak disagrees....
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... I suppose I'm already a living instrument of Kynareth's will. Being a die-hard Nord patriot and an honor-seeking warrior doesn't seem so weird after that. @_@
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I'm actually with Senn on the 'A man cannot serve two masters' bit. Which is why you become the leader of some entity, then infiltrate or support other entities depending on your motives. My Listener for the Dark Brotherhood has infiltrated the Thieves' Guild to ensure there's good control over their actions and intel gathering, not to mention their resources are very useful for the Dark Brotherhood. The Stormcloaks are useful muscle to put into place for smacking down the Empire and create a new powerbase beholden to you, without them even knowing your true loyalty and so on and so forth.
There's -almost- enough freedom in Skyrim to invent good IC reasons for almost any character to do almost anything. I still can't find a good reason for my Nord Juggernaut to join the Mage's College, unless I create some reasoning to try and figure out the Thalmor fellow there.
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Yes, in fact, my Imperial Battlemage is seeking Archmageship of the College of Winterhold, in order to establish Empire influence over the institute, as the Mages' Guild went under in Cyrodiil, as well as gain an Imperial foothold in the northeast overall. Just take what a character would say in-universe "Oh, yes, the Archmage? He's a battlemage with the Empire...you can't believe how it goes against tradition for us to be partial to a larger entity, here"
(also, mwaha, first Redguard archmage. Go go, positive discrimination? trolol)
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Then again, the Companions are entirely outside the war, according to Kodlak, and they don't really have a "leader." No one is "in charge," as they say over and over. So as long as I stay loyal to Ulfric until the end of my days and put no one before the rebellion, the Companions are more of a "club" than anything.
Now I just have to decide if I can tolerate their attitudes. >>
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Great overview of what I think are Skyrim's amazing strengths and some of its obvious weaknesses
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7290527/one-night-skyrim-makes-strong-man-crumble
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(http://cheezfailbooking.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/funny-facebook-fails-skyrim-girlfriend-for-the-win.jpg)
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(http://cheezfailbooking.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/funny-facebook-fails-skyrim-girlfriend-for-the-win.jpg)
Can't stop... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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What's with all the rage about Twilight? :roll: Those films are gorram hilarious.
Haters gonna hate.
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What's with all the rage about Twilight? :roll: Those films are gorram hilarious.
Haters gonna hate.
For me, its watching dumbass girls swoon over an expression of purest chauvinism produced by an unloved wife.
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[mod]Let's keep it not too unpleasant or off-topic. There are people that like those movies after all.[/mod]
[spoiler]Though for the life of me I can't figure out why.[/spoiler]
Back on topic, I'm up to level 31, and I've not even explored more than half of the map, much less gone far on the main quest. I've just been poking around ruins and so on. I feel like 50 levels won't be enough :P
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For whatever reason, my "Bolar's Blade" has vanished. Did not drop it, or sell it. Can certain mobs disarm you in combat or destroy your weapon? or NPCs steal from you? or is this a glitch and its lost fovever?
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For those who haven't seen it, the live-action Skyrim commercial is pretty epic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1AenlOEXao&feature=pyv (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1AenlOEXao&feature=pyv)
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For whatever reason, my "Bolar's Blade" has vanished. Did not drop it, or sell it. Can certain mobs disarm you in combat or destroy your weapon? or NPCs steal from you? or is this a glitch and its lost fovever?
You can get disarmed by some Draugr shouts. Have had it happen to me a couple times. Though I don't remember if that actually throws the weapon on the ground or not.
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For whatever reason, my "Bolar's Blade" has vanished. Did not drop it, or sell it. Can certain mobs disarm you in combat or destroy your weapon? or NPCs steal from you? or is this a glitch and its lost fovever?
You can get disarmed by some Draugr shouts. Have had it happen to me a couple times. Though I don't remember if that actually throws the weapon on the ground or not.
Weapon gets chucked, goes flying if they shout again.
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For whatever reason, my "Bolar's Blade" has vanished. Did not drop it, or sell it. Can certain mobs disarm you in combat or destroy your weapon? or NPCs steal from you? or is this a glitch and its lost fovever?
You can get disarmed by some Draugr shouts. Have had it happen to me a couple times. Though I don't remember if that actually throws the weapon on the ground or not.
Lost a highly-enchanted legendary-grade two-handed like this. Made trying to fight with only minor magics and a back-up weapon interesting.
Was a Drauger boss - he shouted at he, ripping my weapono ut of my hands, before I could find it one of his two phantom-copies picked it up - when I 'killed' it it dissapeared, taking my weapon with it.
Unhappy is likely a good description for my feelings on the matter. Beyond this kind of situation, the weapon should land on the ground... somewhere. If you can't find it, I'm not sure why, beyond this kind of scenario above.
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For whatever reason, my "Bolar's Blade" has vanished. Did not drop it, or sell it. Can certain mobs disarm you in combat or destroy your weapon? or NPCs steal from you? or is this a glitch and its lost fovever?
You can get disarmed by some Draugr shouts. Have had it happen to me a couple times. Though I don't remember if that actually throws the weapon on the ground or not.
Lost a highly-enchanted legendary-grade two-handed like this. Made trying to fight with only minor magics and a back-up weapon interesting.
Was a Drauger boss - he shouted at he, ripping my weapono ut of my hands, before I could find it one of his two phantom-copies picked it up - when I 'killed' it it dissapeared, taking my weapon with it.
Unhappy is likely a good description for my feelings on the matter. Beyond this kind of situation, the weapon should land on the ground... somewhere. If you can't find it, I'm not sure why, beyond this kind of scenario above.
Now that you mention it I recall that happening to me, but I didn't think the weapon the Drauger picked up was mine.......UGHHHHHHHHHHH
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Why do none of my decisions turn out how I think they will in Bethesda games...
[spoiler] I finally get the gumption to join the Companions and gain some personal honor for my Nord rebel, and they're goddamn werewolves. Hircine's minions don't get into Sovngarde, so whats the point of the honor pursuits in the first place?! ><[/spoiler]
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I had the same thoughts, Senn.
Luckily:
[spoiler]You can cure yourself at the end of the Companions quest line so you can go to Sovngarde.[/spoiler]
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I kept werewolfism for one reason: the disease immunity. I don't actually use Beast Form because it's vastly inferior to my un-transformed self in raw damage. I wish Beast Form added to your stats, instead of subtracting a bunch.
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I kept werewolfism for one reason: the disease immunity. I don't actually use Beast Form because it's vastly inferior to my un-transformed self in raw damage. I wish Beast Form added to your stats, instead of subtracting a bunch.
Tempted to keep it for this reason as well, though I don't like having to give up the 'rested' bonus.
On an unrelated note, is there a bug that causes you to lose perks, or do you start at a higher level than I remember? I thought you got one perk per level, but I just counted, and I have:
4 perks available,
2 perks in smithing
9 in destruction
9 in conjuration
5 in enchanting
2 in speech
which should mean that I'm around level 32 or so.
I'm actually level 38, unless we start at 5 or something rather than 1.
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Project Skyrim;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4s-g9gz-a8&feature=g-all (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4s-g9gz-a8&feature=g-all)
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I'm a little disappointed by lycanthropy.
I mean it's neat having the best oshit button in existence, though I haven't used it yet, and being immune to disease.
But I don't feel like a lycan. The only real side effect is not being given rested bonuses. Being totally in control, kind of lessens the awesomeness, if you ask me.
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True.
Ironically, it's the Vampires that have the control issues.
A little backwards if you ask me.
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True.
Ironically, it's the Vampires that have the control issues.
A little backwards if you ask me.
Aww, da fuck? D:
Bethesda... da fuck.
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I'm a little disappointed by lycanthropy.
I mean it's neat having the best oshit button in existence, though I haven't used it yet, and being immune to disease.
But I don't feel like a lycan. The only real side effect is not being given rested bonuses. Being totally in control, kind of lessens the awesomeness, if you ask me.
If you're using the Companions werewolf form you have total control, but if you get the Cursed Ring of Hircine you have no control over when you will transform.
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Ooh!
I did not know that.
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You can get a cleansed ring of hircine that lets you do a 2nd wolf-transform per day.
But for me, wolf form is pathetically weak compared to my vanilla form. I have a fucking hammer that does 415 dmg + 30 health drain + 30 stamina drain, or thereabouts. So basically 830 dmg on power attacks (which ignore 75% of enemy armour) and the ability to launch infinite power attacks thx to the stamina drain.
When I transform into wolf form, it seems like the only thing I can do is scratch people violently. More of a pussywolf than a werewolf, really.
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The best thing about wolf-form is the charging power attack which one-shots just about anyone. Knocking a boss-char across the room and wailing on them as they struggle to stand is nice too.
Many LOLs have been had by knocking enemies off of castle towers or high cliffs with a furry backhand of doom.
But yeah, I've reached that point now where it's no longer a big boost in damage.
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Good god.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9TdDCWN7g&feature=player_embedded
Can't
stop
watching
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Good god.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9TdDCWN7g&feature=player_embedded
Can't
stop
watching
Would marry that girl tomorrow.
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Unnecessary Censorship in Skyrim...
Utterly hilarious...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIxlF86usAE&feature=related
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Level 44 Nord Warrior/Mage so far.
200+ hours spent in game.
2nd Character to level 15
STILL HAVENT DONE THREE MAIN QUEST LINES AND LESS THAN 50% EXPLORED MAP.
So. Freaking. Amazing.
I am loving the dual wielding swords, Dual Legendary Daedric Longswords just shreds anything.
Elder Dragons? 2-3 power attacks.
Master Vampires? 2-3 power attacks.
End-game Boss? Several, but by no means hugely difficult with a bunch of good potions.
Its just rediculously lethal - and with soooo much health/armour its just flying whirlwind of carnage.
RP wise, he is an Imperial loyalist swordsman with the dovakhin powers and minor magical capabilites (Enough to get to arch-mage! Booyah!) and the best bit is I can just immerse myself in it as well, the game is so in depth and flexible you can just see the story roll out in your mind as the game is playing... flawlessly and it fits perfectly.
I love this game, cannot stop playing it....
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Good god.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9TdDCWN7g&feature=player_embedded
Can't
stop
watching
I do love the bit when she breaks off into Draconic but I can't help but feel she overdid it too much with the echo.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHnEWlKFSSg&feature=endscreen&NR=1
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Right, I guess it's time to start looking a bit more... critically at this game. It's been out for a while and it's good, but there's... criticisms to be laid at it's feet! (Insert gasping, shock and horror.)
It does in fact have some serious issues. Let's try to make a list.
1. Bugs. Holy hell the bugs. I've gotten so many CTDs, corrupted savegames and other shit that it's infuriating.
- Unexplained CTDs come along often. I don't know anyone who doesn't get them. Get comfy with the Quicksave Key folks.
- Physics/animation bugs. Models flying in mid-air, things falling through the world, flailing corpses and so on and so forth.
- Script/quest bugs. Quests bugging out for unknown reasons, making them unfinishable. Often tied to NPC conversation or missing NPCs.
- Graphics bugs. Missing textures, missing HEADS, missing a lot of stuff. Often heralds CTDs.
2. Balance issues.
- It is quite possible to level yourself out of range of your missions or screw up and become vastly underpowered.
- Different story/questlines have -vastly- different difficulties. Companions vs College is an example. One is too easy at level 4, one is nigh impossible at 10.
3. Bethesda still aren't too good at storytelling. The world holds its breath doing nothing while the Champion is off picking flowers and raiding random dungeons. Nothing happens unless the player makes it happen.
4. Marriage completely dunces the character you choose. Watching Mjoll the Lioness suddenly turn into a mewling cub was a facepalm moment.
5. The Brotherhood questline was utter shite compared to the Oblivion one. I liked the story, but the missions were horribad. How do you do that?
6. Seriously underpowered Werewolf form. What the hell?
7. Still not any good at characterization. Portal 2 did with three characters what Bethesda couldn't with three thousand. None of the characters in the game got beyond their two dimensional archetype.
8. Sneak is still bloody broken.
There's more criticism to lay at Skyrim's feet, but these are the things that I remembered off the top of my head. Is it still one of the best games of the year? Absolutely... but as the shine wore off and the bugs and issues started being harder and harder to ignore... well, other games went off with the GOTY title as far as I'm concerned. It's a great game... but it's got issues.
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mm. yeah, I'm finding the more you play, the more bugs you encounter and the more :ugh: things get. Don't get me wrong - it's probably the only game I'm currently enjoying; certainly the only one I'm spending a lot of time in. But... shit really does need fixing.
Only a few minutes ago my character became completely stuck while trying to enchant something. I think it might be something to do with the renaming...but the keyboard stopped working in the enchant screen. I could use the mouse, select, unselect, go into disenchant, soulgems...wherever I liked. But tab to exit didn't work. No keys worked. It hadn't crashed, as I could see characters walking around. Trying to force a save in the console, it couldn't save at this time. (I did get out of it, with the console commant tm and clicked with the mouse so the char drew a weapon, taking her away from the enchant. keyboard still didn't work, so forced save, qqq, then reloaded and it was fine...)
I think the quest/npc bugged ones are the worst though. I was completely screwed in the companion quest line. [spoiler]the bit where it's the head guys funeral[/spoiler] - basically, when they finished the dialogue they were all 'busy' and wouldn't speak to me. One npc was missing (and I could only get to him with tcl) and when I did speak to him, he was busy too. I tried setting the stage to complete, but it did the same for the next stage, and the one after that...just completely bugged all the way through. I tried resting, leaving the area coming back, nothing helped.
I will have to reload from an earlier save I think, but in the space between the two saves I'd gained quite a few levels and there's no guarentee it won't end up the same way :mad: so I've just been playing other characters :|
I don't mind the occasional crash too much tbh...you kind of expect that. Annnnd...they've always been buggy, really...It's not been long since release so I spect there'll be plenty of patches sorting the bugs. They just can't come soon enough imo :P
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I noticed a lot of random crashes at first (no error, just game closing) but after I started using the 4GB trick I've seen almost no crashes. Probably a case of YMMV, but for anyone running a 64 bit OS it should help. I noticed that the weird texture bug I saw at the beginning (purple textures) stopped happening after I did that. That problem also heralded an incoming CTD.
Sometimes the melee controls get rather unresponsive, especially if you are dual wielding. Makes the Elemental Fury shout borderline useless sometimes, as you should be attacking every half second but because of picky click timing you end up swinging once every two seconds...
Aside from the texture bug I mentioned I haven't run into much problems graphically. Mostly random odd physics bugs. Not sure if enemies always flying away like they just got hit by a truck after a dual power attack counts as a bug or not. :lol:
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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5020-The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim
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On the technical side I haven't much to complain. I think I've encountered two CTDs in quite a lot of hours played, so that's nothing truly massive.
Have gotten stuck once, which - given the size of the world and the endless possibilities for stuckiness to appear - isn't too bad either.
Corpses have a certain habitus of bobbing and splashing on the water all the time, which is slightly disturbing and bloddy annoying.
Bugs, yes, there are some out there. I've made it a habit to quicksave before enchanting, because I had it happen way too often that after enchanting 29 iron daggers I end up stuck on the screen. Sometimes saving and reloading that save helps getting unstuck, sometimes not.
Quest dialogues that get screwed up and make some quests impossible to complete or start happend to me once or twice, too, which is pretty damn annoying.
Imbalances: The "levelling the wrong stuff" has the possibility to hurt, but then there's not much that doesn't help you in combat in one way or the other ( Speech comes to mind ). I haven't had much problems there. Also sneak on my khajit is working perfectly. It does get cheesy sometimes when you sneak up to someone, stab him twice, then run away through half of the dungeon until he looses you, only to repeat that two or three times more. However, I'm glad that I can loose enemies by running away and hiding, even if it's a bit unrealistic from time to time. Also a bit weird: Fire sneakily an arrow at someone. Miss it, and have the arrow hit the wall two feet behind him. See the enemy stare at that wall for 10 seconds, figuring what has happened. Overall the AI has improved massively from Oblivion but as you expect it, it's still miles away from being perfect - which is an impossible task anyway.
I have a gripe with some imbalanced perk trees, mainly with smithing. Heavy dragon armor is weaker than deadric - okay, it's at least easier to get. But I dislike massively that the 'light armor' smithing tree only offers the third best weapons.
Overall it is a nice gaming experience. Although I'm having a lot of fun with playing different characters ( and pursueing different goals ) over playing one super-character that does everything.
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At this point the game will probably take me forever to complete as my attention span has me able to do about one or two dungeons every time I decide to sit down and play it. Not a bad thing.
Also.
(http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvsvtrfuzV1qzvbepo2_500.gif)
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I have yet to put any perks in lockpicking, and I can still open most locks with only one or two picks. I think I did lose ten picks on a master lock once...
Is there a big advantage if you do put perks into lockpicking?
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None. Most worthless tree of them all. I haven't put a single perk in that tree on any of my characters and I open Master locks with four picks or less. I literally can't run out of lockpicks. I open -everything- I see without a single perk point on all my characters, without ever buying a single lockpick... and I just get more and more lockpicks! JESUS!
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I don't even go out of my way to get lockpicks on my distinctly non-sneaky Nordling and he averages around 70 at all times.
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Here's my opinion on the lockpick tree...
It's way useful if you're lockpicking to get places you aren't supposed to be. You sneak into a wealthy man's estate, the first lock is a little sticky, no big deal, you have Wax Key. Now, you don't even have to sneak around while he's asleep, you can just wait until his radial AI tells him to leave the house. Turns out he had a wife? Ain't no thang, no one notices your lockpicking because you got the perk. Oh swag, he kept his whole stock of gold in the house, and you have the "extra gold" perk.
Now, if you're like me and you only need to pick trap locks so you don't get poison darts in the face, or to get through a dungeon a little easier, the lockpick skill itself will take good care of you, no perks required.
That's my two septims, anyway.
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You can still kill something with only destruction spells and you don't need to have any points in destruction, but it would be easier and you may find it more beneficial if you do.
You can still pick master locks without any points in lockpicking, but it would be easier and you may find it more beneficial if you do.
* Kiruss Dasun repeats this for all the skill trees.
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She is Derpyhkiin, Dragonhoof! (http://veggie55.deviantart.com/art/The-Voice-270062274)
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You can still kill something with only destruction spells and you don't need to have any points in destruction, but it would be easier and you may find it more beneficial if you do.
You can still pick master locks without any points in lockpicking, but it would be easier and you may find it more beneficial if you do.
Bit different in my view. Destruction spells without any of the perks are much less useful than destruction spells with all the reductions in mana use. Sneak perks make sneak much more useful.
What I was asking is whether the perks in Lockpicking are worth the opportunity cost of not having those same perk points in armour/weapons/magic?
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They're really not. They add nothing to my thief, assassin, juggernaut, arch-mage and so on, and they all use lockpicking regularly.
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I can see one place where having major lockpicking know-how could be be exceedingly useful: busting out of the clink.
If my (one) experience is typical, upon being imprisoned you are able, as in Oblivion, to hide a single lockpick on your person. Now, if the locks are any good, that lockpick is as good as no lockpick at all: it'll probably break before you find even the edge of the sweet spot-- unless, that is, you have strong lockpicking perks.
... and for sure success, you'd best be Johnny NeverBreaksAPick.
Or you could just align your stars to The Tower, and walk out whistling a song.
In any case-- maybe useful to thems as likes taking tours of jails. Otherwise, not so much. I couldn't bring myself to take the lockpicking perks even on my thief.
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(http://troll.me/images/another-boromir-meme/one-does-not-simply-walk-away-from-skyrim.jpg)
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When y'all get an eyeful of my Skyrim-inspired armor, you gonna be so jelly. :V
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(http://troll.me/images/another-boromir-meme/one-does-not-simply-walk-away-from-skyrim.jpg)
wath me :yar:
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(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--8r04j8Hpmo/TuEaliDofFI/AAAAAAAAI4Y/ShPaLS6A8f4/s576/931446_700b.jpg)
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Not nearly as good as my friends had hyped but I guess at least it was better than Oblivion, which people loved for some reason I can't even grasp. Bethesda writes some seriously terrible dialogue. Found it really hard to get immersed given how opaque the whole game is. I actually had a little stack of notes I needed to keep when playing Morrowind nearly a decade ago, that's not so necessary anymore. Everything you need to know will get served to you on a silver platter. (Durrr, wonder where I go to join the Thieves Guild? Better watch the loading screen tips to find out...)
Cruci's rather cynical CRPG review: 6/10
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0la5DBtOVNI
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I try, I really really do.
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Where was Crucifire being a dick about it? As the shine is starting to wear off, I have to acknowledge the validity of every complaint he/she made. Bethesda does suck at writing dialogue, immersion suffers greatly in their games and the game has gone the way of 'lowest common denominator' when it comes to difficulty. I'd still rate it higher than Cruci did, but it's hardly 'being a dick' to give one's opinion on something.
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That was mostly just a chuckle for my sake.
Although seriously, I don't understand some of the complaints that arise in these video game-related threads. Like, really, the loading screen tips? That's just, totally unacceptable? I learned that a bash can interrupt a power attack and now I'm "lowest common denominator?" Just seems hyperbolic to me.
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I like dragons.
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Although seriously, I don't understand some of the complaints that arise in these video game-related threads. Like, really, the loading screen tips? That's just, totally unacceptable? I learned that a bash can interrupt a power attack and now I'm "lowest common denominator?" Just seems hyperbolic to me.
On it's own it's not an issue. It's just another drop in the cup, you know? I don't mind the loading screens. I don't really mind some of the other things either. When they all come together though... well, the cup overfloweth if you know what I mean? I'm not calling out anyone who like these things, different strokes for different folks and all. I'm just saying that complaints about these things have just as much validity to different kinds of gamers. I'd kill to have Skyrim be on Morrowind's level of difficulty and immersion. (Barring some of the derpery that's survived in lesser forms in Skyrim. It did vastly improve a lot of gameplay.)
And there's also an entire thread called 'Skyrim' where people talk about the game, which is not this thread.
And I certainly wouldn't mind if a moderator could move these posts there. The subject came up though and is thus quite valid to pursue.
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[mod]Merged some of the stuff from the thread. Crucifire's post technically fits in both, but since it caused the derail it got moved too. vOv[/mod]
My memory is pretty fuzzy about the difficulty level in Morrowind. I feel like I die a decent amount (only sometimes to stupid shit, I swear!) playing on Expert. It only stopped happening once I got dragon armor and then non-casters became well, a non-issue.
Some of the comments remind me of any debate about usability/accessibility vs challenge and discovery as parts of games. I think you can actually disable the quest tracker features if you want through the options menu? If nothing the option is there to not track any quests and have to find everything without giant arrows over the objectives. Bethesda (unsurprisingly) opted to make things a little easier to find and do to maintain the wider appeal. I don't think I can fault them for that, especially as there are ways to make the game more of a challenge already (like the hardcore challenge). Once the mod tools come out (January IIRC) that will be even more true.
WRT to story I think the link Gotti put here a couple pages back addresses that subject better than anywhere else I have seen. If I were in a writing mood (doesn't happen often :( ) I'd try to compare the approaches of Skyrim vs. say Uncharted 2 or 3 (:monies:) which are win from an immersion standpoint.
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Thanks for the mod help, Misan.
And yeah, there's definitely solutions to the common ailments of today's tendency to feed everything to the player whether they want it or not. Sometimes though... I really wish they'd create games that challenged you right out of the box. I hear Demons/Dark Souls does well, but since I don't game on consoles that's not really an option. Failing that, I'd like a little more depth in the rpg aspect. I can't help but think that NWN with DA:O/2 Graphics would be pure pornography for my kind of gamer.
I really don't mind complexity, as long as it's not stupidly designed. For the most part, it's just not there anymore. The only genre it survived in is the one I bloody suck at, RTS games. Even there it's rare.
I guess I'm just saddened that everything has to be stripped down and streamlined for the dunces, largely due to consoles.
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Looks like it took GOTY.
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UNGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Joined the Imperials, since Ulfric seemed like an idiot with zero foresight, zero tactical appreciation for mage artillery, and zero feasibility as a leader due to prejudice against perfectly sexy lizards (I married one, we look forward to laying many eggs together.)
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Shahvee (http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Shahvee)
(I'm a Breton.)
(http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj235/hellgremlin/NiceHat.jpg)
MAGICKA-ASSISTED ANTI-DRAGON ARTILLERY ACTIVE!
That armour hits the cap, as well as ensnuggles me comfortably against magic damage. Plus I look like a crusading Imperial badass. Fuck Daedric, it looks like a 5-pronged coat hanger. I found the helmet near a Shrine of Talos way up north. It singlehandedly cemented my decision to go Imperial. I mean if Imperials get to wear helmets like that I'm sold.
My weapon grows more terrible with each iteration of enchantment I layer upon it.
(http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj235/hellgremlin/DoomHammer.jpg)
I am now Thane of pretty much everywhere, Arch-mage, Arch-thief, soon to take over the Dark Brotherhood, and the only real choice remaining for me is... whether I will murder Emperor Titus Mede or not. It's really bugging me. I want to murder him but maybe he's a good leader. I'll have to talk to him, which will happen moments before I kill him (or not.)
Exciting.
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Your playthrough is starting to sound like mine. I'll post about it later....
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MG0xOr3-zJk#!
Dat's mah JAM! :V
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Well, I did it.
I killed the Emperor of Tamriel, and ate his flesh. The weakling didn't even fight back. Pretty much surrendered to his fate. Not a good leader.
I started with the Imperial Legion questline, which fit with the Dark Brotherhood questline rather nicely. I helped bring Skyrim back under the heel of a strengthening empire, beheading Ulfric Stormcloak, all the while rustling up enough action to lure the Emperor to the province. Whereupon I killed him and ate his skin using the Ring of Namira. I also raised him as a zombie. I don't think I could defile him any further without some kind of custom mod that enabled corpse-rape and/or carcass puppetry.
I also blew away Alduin in the same day, in a rather anti-climactic battle. All in all, a very fun playthrough. The Imperials who conscripted me should really have done a better job of checking my records - had they done so, they might have foreseen the eventual devouring of their emperor, as reflected through my fevered daedra-worship, and the array of howling demonic weapons hanging from my mockingly worn, blood-spattered Imperial plate armour. That's what you get for trying to behead me in the opening cutscene :|
Now to the final task at hand, the grim task that replays itself with each Elder Scrolls adventure: the merciless extermination of every NPC in Skyrim.
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As is my wont, I have now restarted the game more than half a dozen times to try out different approaches and methods before settling (back) down to my usual assassins. I have not seen it all, nor done it all, but I have sampled many zesty dishes before returning to safe and well-traveled ground.
Thoughts on ...
Magic: much better than Oblivion. The lack of custom spellcrafting does limit your options, but it also puts most game-breaking combinations out of reach. Illusion, a favorite/least favorite school, has gone from abusive to merely awesome. I love the fact that while there are perks that will subject even the highest-level NPCs, along with atronachs and the undead, to your wicked wiles, at least one class of reasonably deadly foes is forever out of reach. Accursed dwarven automatons!
I love the "overpower" effect for dual-casting the same spell; there's nothing quite like charging up a double fistful of destruction for the next miserable fool to round the corner, but for me the most important improvement to the magic system is simply this:
It feels like magic.
In Oblivion, you pointed and clicked. Click, whoosh, your spell was cast. Boooooring. This time? This time, absent a "continuous casting" spell, you must be patient, grasping and gathering in eldrich forces. It takes a measure of patience and control to hold your fire and let the power coalesce in your hand as a hulking orc charges with dwarven warhammer swung high to stave in your poorly-defended, low-HP skull.
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Complaints: broadly valid, but useful in inverse proportion to their inevitability. Bethesda makes huge-ass games that are, by necessity, very loosely joined together. The storytelling is never, ever going to be tight, plot-related absurdities will always abound, and the fact that this is possibly the LEAST bug-riddled product Bethesda has released is saying a great deal.
As for difficulty: Master difficulty is apparently un-playtested in a way and to a degree that makes it second-cousin to unplayable. That's annoying, but I don't play TES: Anything for the frantic challenge of it. I play them to have a world to explore, and when immersion breaks down, as it almost inevitably must, I make a new character and go explore something new.
I do not want a TES game to kill me regularly, because, in TES, if I die, I just broke history. Death in TES should leave me with the sense that I really, actually blew it-- and generally, it does.
As for Skyrim being "dumbed down," I found the allegedly more limited interface vastly more engaging and vastly less open to abuse. In Daggerfall, I could, and did, create a totally magic-immune character who could spam max-statted fireballs at his own toes, instantly reabsorbing the magic only to send it lashing forth again, a class I named the "Vortex" for good reason. Morrowind allowed me to trivially brew potions of intelligence, which reinforced my alchemy skill for making my next potion of intelligence, which ... and so on. Pretty quickly, you could make potions of I Am A God.
Skyrim, to its cost, did not escape this last dynamic entirely. Alchemy reinforces enchanting, enchanting reinforces alchemy, and both alchemy and enchanting reinforce smithing, such that combining all three does indeed allow you to once again stride the land like a god (your only true weakness being plot points that strip your equipment). Not my cup of tea, but I also don't find it entirely reasonable to ask a game of this scope to provide me a challenge if I choose to configure my character in such a way as to deny myself one.
If I want a serious challenge, I go play Dark Souls, where a miserable tapestry of attempt, failure, death, resurrection, and reattempt is the entire field on which the game is played. THAT is a good game for the proud and the masochists amongst us.
... And it's primarily a console game, by the way.
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I gave up and bought the damn game.
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Now to the final task at hand, the grim task that replays itself with each Elder Scrolls adventure: the merciless extermination of every NPC in Skyrim.
Best of luck, if you get by the whole 'all brats and half the adult NPC's are immortal pricks' kindly let me know.
Well, for you Aria, I agree mostly. If I wanted a super-masochistic game to play I'd go play Touhou on harder difficulty again. You and me seem to play very similarely - we vastly preffer a specific play-style over 1k different toons doing different things, and play mostly for the immersion enjoyment.
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(http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac34/Terenin_Amatiril/NxA%20Avatar%20Album/Random%20stuff/EbonyArturia.jpg)
I've seen many things in my life, but these naive fools are still impressive. In my eternal quest to become, faster, stronger, better, than anyone - any thing - I arrived in Skyrim. Helgen was a wake-up call - to be captured and sentenced to death that easily... seems someone knew of my record from High Rock - I should have known - and informed the Imperials. Or perhaps I was just unfortunate... no matter. That kind of scenario will never happen again. I'd die in battle before I let anyone condemn me to death or imprisonment again.
The Guards in Markarth are fools, all of them. They believed eternal vigilance and corrupt service to the local rich man - not their Jarl - lend them strength, authority. Only the latter apply, and I do not respect their false autority. I am a Legate in the Imperial legion. I severed "Jarl" Ulfric's head from his shoulders, I massacred his armies, I ended a civil war. I am Thane of Whiterun, I hunt bandits for sport, I kill giants for entertainment, I harvest dragons for materials I don't even use, that I don't even need.
And the Markarth guards wanted me in prison, for a murder I've not even done. I've killed thousands, but not that man. The Jarl of Whiterun is the only authority I heed, and when I see these fools again in Sovngarde I will inform them of this.
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Ooh, I should do one of those.
(http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj235/hellgremlin/FlammableMaterials.jpg)
Yeah, I have demonic servants, what of it?
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God damn it, BloodBird. That little vignette of yours ...
Now I'm going to have to do a twohander-wielding conjurer battlemage.
God DAMN it.
Edit:
As a side note, I've had a weak spot for ebony ever since that lovely wee dagger you (appropriately) started Daggerfall with about 70% of the time. Its appearance was very "meh" in Oblivion, however, especially the daggers; I'm relieved to see it done justice in Skyrim.
Edit 2:
Okay, not actually restarting (again) any time in the near future. Current Dunmer, when he's not trying to be sneaky, will do just fine for my ebony-outfitted needs. Though I do have to say that I like the look of the ebony greatsword rather better than that of the one-handed variant, which looks more like some kind of exotic weapon than anything that should be going by the name "sword."
Also, further reflection:
Biggest disappointment in the game so far is that people reacting to a player's sneaky, death-dealing ways still do not sound remotely sane. Take your typical high-HP orcish bandit leader in a nice, gloomy tunnel complex.
"Is someone there?" after an arrow strikes home.
"I know I heard something," with two or three arrows sticking out of his back.
"Must have been my imagination," as he wanders back to his starting position having plucked five apparently imaginary arrows out of his hide while looking for you.
At least they react to bodies that they find, now. It makes me want to really perfect the art of the one-shot kill, just so the poor crazed bastards don't have to wander around thinking they're hallucinating their wounds.
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I'm in love with Ebony armor by now. I've produced two full suits, one for me one for my little home-hugging servant, and I've enough Ebony ingots in storage to make at least 3 more full legendary-grade suits with a variety of weapons. Also have several Ebony weapons lying around or on display, though I use a health-drain greatsword and a soul-steal one-handed sword in the field.
Ebony weapons are in general sexy too. Exceptions beign the one-handed mace, two-handed axe and the one-hander "sword" - it looks more like a metalic beating-stick with a sharp end to it. Once my enchanting get's good enough to dual-enchant I'll add stamina-drain to my two-handed decapitation instrument.
While I've in general really enjoyed Skyrim despite a few bugs and annoying factors like the apparent need to join god and every man to beat the story-line, (I'm opposed to that on general principle, only one master etc.) I'm not entierly sure I'll manage to make more characters that are significantly different from my Ebony-clad seeker-of-ultimate-skill-and-power, simply becasue I'm madly in love with two-handed battle and Ebony gear in general. I did skill up to Dragonbone and made a suit of full-plate and scale-mail light armor because I could. I'm corrently debating selling this because frankly, only the scale-mail dragon-bone suit looked any good, and my toon has exactly zero skill in light armor...
What I'd love was, for materials to be tiers like they are now, but for all advanced above-steel materials to have light and heavy suits available for production. Ebony is automatically heavy and Elven is light - what if I wanted an Elven-mail clad heavy armor user, or a light Ebony suit for my ranger-type toon? Above leather and scale all you got in the way of light is Elven, Glass and Dragon Scale. That seems a bit thin. The Dwemer had no clue how to make ligt armor and 100% of their force were heavily armoured or dressed in robes... I guess whatever scouts they had used cloth, then.
All that remains now is to get to max level with this one toon while upping enchanting, magical destruction/restoration skills, gather the money I need to keep buying every Ebony ingot I see along with basic-level smithing mats, and swallowing my annoyance with the main story and go on, even if I'll end in serving the Thieves guild, Dark Brotherhood, etc etc etc.
Anyone who's done all the story answer me on this; Are you forced, by story, to join any organizations, and once the big bad is dead does the game stop? Can you go about messing around after, or?
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While not forced to directly join any organization, you will have to make good with some of them at times. Sometimes you'll have to choose between one or the other. My first character to go through the storyline didn't join anyone but the Mage's College and even that's only pro-forma if you shout at the interviewer. Well, if you tell her you're the dragonborn anyway.
I personally get around the 'Only One Master' bit by simply infiltrating the rest of the organisations. Easiest to justify if you're Thieve's Guild or Dark Brotherhood of course.
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(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9766/1323921830555.png)
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:lol:
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serious viking dragonborn is serious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw&feature=player_embedded
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serious viking dragonborn is serious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw&feature=player_embedded
This is an 8 minute 37 second long examle of why I don't do drugs >.<
It was however, hillarious to watch.
*EDIT to add* Having seen this I might actually go add the final point to smithing, (SMITH-ing bitch, not SMITE-ing, not sure if he did that on purpose) and make daedric armor as well as weapons. I wanted weapons because herp, better than Ebony, and derp, looks awesome. I never considered the armor because daedric from Oblivion looked like utter shit. Then again so did Ebony, I should likely have checked it out BEFORE I decided not to touch it.
Got to go find some daedra to massacre to rip out their hearts, gods know I've plenty of leather strips and Ebony ingots...
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BB: to answer your earlier questions, I understand that the main plot doesn't so much end the game as just plain end. They don't even interrupt the gameplay to show you the credits like they did in Oblivion. It's more, "Yay! You defeated Alduin and achieved (the first bit of) your destiny! Now go enjoy the rest of the game."
My housemate took the Godlike Artificer path, and his female altmer is outfitted with daedric better-than-artifact-everything up to her pointy little ears. The overall effect looks a lot like Batman Beyond, but with more barbs.
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My sneaky assassin type can't find anything better than nightingale armor.
Pretty, to boot.
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My sneaky assassin type can't find anything better than nightingale armor.
Pretty, to boot.
Wat? My sneaky assassin can't find a single useful bonus on the Nightingale Armor. The Dark Brotherhood armor got pretty much awesome bonuses on all pieces for assassins, but the Thieves get the awesome looking armor? Gnnrgh. I'm just waiting for a mod that'll give you the Nightingale armor with Dark Brotherhood bonuses.
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serious viking dragonborn is serious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw&feature=player_embedded
Hilarious.
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FUCKING BADASS GAUNTLETS
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DEN KILL DE CHILDREN. DEY ARE PUSSIES! >:O
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WOLVES? PUSSYWOLVES!
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serious viking dragonborn is serious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw&feature=player_embedded
Hilarious.
BADASS
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Oh man this looks good: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863
Going to be installing it in a bit.
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All of these guy's videos are amazing. I wonder if he plays eve?
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For those few of you who has not seen this yet...
NOT SAFE TO ACTIVATE DURING WORK (loud as hell)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSDfxde8fSg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSDfxde8fSg)
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rofl
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Hahaha OMG I am in tears at that. Oh boy, must remember to breathe.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlC6Z0iRoOA&feature=related
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I thought I was over this game.
Then I started modding it.
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I thought I was over this game.
Then I started modding it.
Okay, it's a little OTT as a response, but the way modding can draw you back into a game reminds me of:
Maecenas:
Now Antony
Must leave her utterly.
Enobarbus:
Never, he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies. . . .
Antony And Cleopatra Act 2, scene 2, 232–237
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So would this be a bad time to mention that I'm enjoying the darker dungeons mod?
edit: So far there's
the sword and board nord who joined the stormcloaks and then gave up the will to log on...
the dark elf thief/assassin who's causing trouble.
The nord two handed axe guy who killed ulfric and Alduin, and told the blades to stuff themselves when they demanded he kill Parthanax.
The Dark elf sword and board in light armour who turned into a werewolf and is trying to be a nice guy (no bounties so far) and is a thane in 4 cities so far.
The Argonian thief/Assassin (I wanted to explore the submerged parts of the map :) who now runs the dark brotherhood and the thieves guild.
The Khajiit Thief (well, darker dungeons meant seeing in the dark was attractive, and he's hoarding moon sugar like it was catnip)
I'm still finding new things I hadn't seen before, though less frequently now.
I am starting to feel a waning in the attraction of the game, but it's taken probably 300 hours to get there.
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I thought I was over this game.
Then I started modding it.
I have not yet completed it, not once. *Well* on my way, but then... then suddenly my PC decided it was to much of a hassle to let me keep my saved games in any game or any preference on my PC in ANY WAY so installed a windows update that got rid of all that.
But now when I've installed Windows 7, re-installed all my stuff and downloaded Skyrim again I will, without fail, finish the game. I'll modd it for more aesthetic joy and some fixes (want the dangers of being able to accidentally kill kids and important quest NPC's) and then I'll re-make my toon, just like it was. And then... I'll start it off while running a looping list of Damage Vault (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcLNVEO5xFg&feature=related) in the background.
I predict either my toon or the rest of the Skyrim universe will die horribly in short order.
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Can you guys recommend some mods?
Searching for that sort of thing gets me nowhere.
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The Construction Kit isn't out yet, so the mod offerings are still fairly limited. In addition to numerous high-res texture packs and reskins of dwarven, elven, and orcish kit to make them grey-ish and steel-like instead of gold/orange/green, I'm using these:
SkyUI (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3863)
ENB (Tatsudoshi release) (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2971) (nice post-processing and the only 'mod' of the sort that hasn't caused me weird hiccups with FPS)
Casting Animation Fix (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=580)
Cowardly Horses (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1522)
Realistic Force (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=601) (at the middle setting)
Realistic Running (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1931)
Reduced (or No) NPC Greetings (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=746) (the Dragonborn's enthusiasm for hearing about how much hard work it is selling vegetables at the market with your mother has definitely peaked)
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That last one especially sounds like a godsend.
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Agreed.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEMD28MMtNg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEMD28MMtNg) if you haven't seen it.)
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That's hilarious. Silly but hilarious :lol:
As for the last mod on that list I've had the pleasure of testing (among others) it works great; you have to define the range NPC's can greet you from yourself, and on the lowest setting you have to practically run into them to have them open their mouths.