Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

[Arthmoor]

Sure hope I don't have vampirism. Got jumped by a pair of vampire mages on the way back to Riverwood. Those dudes are TOUGH, but their spell effect that drains blood is wicked cool.Uh. Being able to use weapons underwater was one of the gayest things ever in Oblivion. I mean, come on. Ever try swinging a baseball bat underwater? I doubt a big heavy metal sword works any better.

[prettyfly]

I'm sure a sword would work fine, provided that you swung it the right way, although they should still slow the swing down quite considerably.And btw, this.It kind of reads to me that the engine is new in name only, but it also shows that we can likely expect and easy porting of third party modding tools. Which to be honest doesn't bother me, provided the issues that developed with Fallout don't eventually transpire to have been carried over.

[Dwip]

So, Stormcloaks. Every time I hear one of them speak, I mentally insert "and if William Wallace were here, he'd consume the Imperials with fireballs from his eyes, and lightning bolts from his arse!"Is that just me?Also, 3 people following me thus far, and yet to have an interesting conversation. Wonder what I'm missing.

[Ysne58]

I think I figured out what I did. There are two launchers in the folder, one says Skyrim and one says TESV. I think I accidentally clicked on the Skyrim launcher that time that I found steam running. The times that I have made sure that I clicked on TESV Steam has not launched.

[Dwip]

So, my second dragon decided to circle me a lot, ignore all the arrows I shot at it, and then fly off towards Whiterun. Sigh.And since Samson's got his new avatar, here's me:As you can see, Lydia is shy.

[Arthmoor]

Yeah, so crashes still suck as much as they always did. Out of nowhere, BAM, hello desktop. Good thing I saved after killing that dragon.

[Hana]

He is scary, Dwip. Although, I'm not sure about these orcs that look more redguard than redguards.And Arthmoor .... your nose is bleeding.

[Dwip]

Actually the redguards look pretty redguardish and snazzy. And doing in the snot green color and round faces really worked for the orcs - my guy feels like a football player instead of the comic relief. Too, the more said about how awesome khajiits look, the better.OTOH, it appears arrows get stuck in armor forever...

[prettyfly]

I'm a Redguard, and I agree they look absolutely badass.

[Dwip]

Too, I'm really enjoying how people not from Skyrim really look like they're not from around here. Most notably redguards and khajiit.In other news, if you raid two mines, forge a ton of crap off the proceeds, and get training, you too can gain 2.5 levels off smithing. Very much enjoying the refinements made to the FO3 lockpicking minigame, too.

[Dwip]

So, I had an Experience about 10 minutes ago that I'm still adrenaline rushing on.I'm level 16 now, and, having previously found a bunch of words, I figured I'd go hunting for dragon souls to fuel said words. I've killed a couple dragons by this point, so I've got a pretty good idea how to do it, and I happen to know where one is, so I head off there. Found a keep full of evil mages near my destination, so I stop in to kill them all and loot the place for fun and spell tome profit.And when I walked out, the dragon had showed up.Ran up to fight it, when I realized it was actually fighting a giant at the same time. I'm actually more afraid of giants, who two-hit killed me in the past, so I fought the giant first, which dropped Lydia in the process. So it's me versus the dragon. No problem. Berserker Rage is a pretty OP power, so I use it and take down the dragon. Victory is mine, and I'm thinking "Well, that was pretty intense, I've never had to fight two on one before. But at least I don't have to fight it when I get to the dragon lair."Walk up to the dragon lair, which is more or less right there. See the stone with the power word on it, and I'm thinking "Wait, when did those get waving dragon tai...oh crap that's a second dragon!" And then the second dragon flies up and starts fighting me. I take it down with judicious power use."Man," I think to myself, "that was crazy! Two dragons AND a giant! There was a lot of stuff up at this stone!" But, no matter, the shout word is mine, and I walk up to claim it.All of a sudden, a sarcophagus I didn't notice before bursts open, and this...THING shows up that looks like a cross between a wraith and a lich, has a name, and is so powerful it completely mops the floor with me four times in a row without much of a struggle, despite me using every power I can think of while Lydia dual wields staves. I barely managed to take it down the last time, solely because I had, and I emphasize had, a big supply of healing potions.Final victory in hand, I wind up with some epic loot and a word that combines with my other words to form a full three-word shout.This is easily somewhere in the top five "HOLY SHIT!" moments in my videogame life. I'm still kind of freaking out about it.Now if I could just figure out where to buy lockpicks.

[Arthmoor]

Yeah. This game is definitely orders of magnitude more intense. I haven't killed more than the one dragon and haven't even gone word hunting yet and I've already been killed more times than half my Oblivion characters were in their entire lives.I ran into a particularly vicious fight with 4 witches and a hagraven. Yes, that's right, FIVE fireball throwing mages of uber death and me with just the Fus shout and the Jarl's axe. So how does one survive such an encounter? Why, you RUN LIKE FUCK and ditch them down a canyon. You then go into stealth mode and climb around to their flank and unleash from the canyon wall with stealth archery. All while your back is to a friendly camp full of Stormcloak soldiers in case you need backup.I tell you what, I've never had to pull so many tricks to stay alive in any TES game ever, not even Oblivion loaded with TIE and it's setup. Also, thank the gods for the Argonian Histskin power.Whoever was bitching about being able to regen health while walking? It doesn't help, believe me. The rate is so damn slow you'd need to hide in the bushes for hours.Lockpics are everywhere btw. They're not hard to find, I've got 70 of them already.

[Dwip]

Note: When you clear the huge camp of bandits, remember to save so that when the chief backhands you through the roof, you don't have to kill them all again.On which note, raise your hand if you're getting a "Fallout 3 with swords" vibe out of a lot of this.I'm pretty sure I know which fight you're talking about, and that thing was a bitch. Only really made it through because I had Lydia for backup. Wish companions had more to say, but I'm digging the utility. I can see the need for a companion mod, but they're pretty great.And yeah, let's talk about how the health regen thing is NOT saving my ass mid-fight. It goes ok out of combat though, and I'm pretty happy with it as a mechanic, overall. Actually, in general, Skyrim seems really well balanced, and I'm not running into a lot of mechanics where I say "Oh come ON, seriously?" This emphatically includes the combat, which I'm finding to be gritty, intense, and pretty awesome, definitely the best TES combat I've seen yet.I HAD 50something lockpicks, until I ran into a single master lock and broke half of them. Finally back up to 40ish again.Also, found a Dwemer ruin. Outside is awesome. Couldn't figure out how to get inside, though.What's everybody playing, btw?

[prettyfly]

I raise my hand. Not necessarily implying that's a bad thing (FO3 wasn't much more than TES with guns).Combats definitely leaps and bounds ahead on any combat they've given us so far. Although, I'm still waiting for a mod that will let me block while dual wielding. Still, I'm digging it as the spell casting Redguard. Though I used up quite a few potions by the time I finally finished electrocuting that bear at level 4.

[Arthmoor]

Stumbled into a cave somewhere with vampires. Thought it would be a pushover experience after dropping the first 3 with single shot sneak archery. Oh how wrong can one get! Got to the lower level and was coming up the tunnel and saw a vampire sitting at a table with his back to me. Easy kill I thought. Until it wasn't. I barely scratched what turned out to be a Master Vampire. He and his 6 buddies chased me clear back through the dungeon and the master chased me out on to the road. Even by himself he was easily a force to be reckoned with. Ended up having to lure him back toward that Stormcloak camp, where the bastard proceeded to maul their faces off. Only myself and the camp commander survived, and I was nearly dead after chewing up every healing and magika potion I had.Oh, and don't get me started on riling up a cave full of bears near the village below High Hrothgar. Oops.Anyway, my avatar is my current character. Argonian stealth archer. Eventually planning on joining the DB, as if nobody saw that coming :PThe dungeons I've been in so far have all been vast improvements over every past TES game ever, with plenty of interesting little tricks like exploding jars dangling from ropes you can shoot and start fires with.No, I'm not getting a "Fallout with swords" vibe at all. Not even sure where you guys are getting that.

[Dwip]

Hopefully people like the random screenshots.Meanwhile, it was somewhere in Solitude when the drugs began to take hold...One can't help but notice that the random peons usually aren't of much account, but boss fights? Shit gets real in boss fights. Especially the multiple minions + boss ones. I just got in a super epic fight with random pirates and their battleaxe-wielding leader, and that dude was a super badass. I really need to get myself back to Whiterun and upgrade my armor again.These dungeons are indeed amazing. They really, really learned their lesson from Oblivion. Honestly, I have no idea how any mods I make are possibly going to top that, though the outlines of the mod I may make are rapidly, rapidly taking shape for when we get the CK. That pirate fight I mentioned? Took place in something that looked like the Thieves' Den DLC times about 10. It was epic. Also, I really, really love all the mini puzzles.As to Fallout with swords, several things:- The Raider/Bandit comparison is strong, right down to the random strongholds I keep taking out filled with them. Nevermind the aesthetics.- FO3-style random encounters.- FO3-style wanderers.- The whole "X discovered" thing should give you flashbacks.- Combat feels a lot more like FO3 than it does Oblivion, though I'm not sure how to explain that.- The dungeon design is strongly, strongly reminiscent of FO3 dungeons.- Quests have a strongly FO3 flavor to them too.- Almost certain I recognize a bunch of statics. Sacks and bear traps FTW.All of which is a good thing, I hasten to add.

[Morena]

I ran into a particularly vicious fight with 4 witches and a hagraven.

Oh, I know which fight you mean. I barely survived that one. It was just a little side quest from the first city you visit... it's going to be easy, right? Haha! I had to use every item and ability at my disposal to get through it, which is unlike anything I remember experiencing in Oblivion or Fallout 3. This game is a lot more challenging than I expected it to be. But when that hagraven finally died... that felt good.

[Arthmoor]

As to Fallout with swords' date=' several things:- The Raider/Bandit comparison is strong, right down to the random strongholds I keep taking out filled with them. Nevermind the aesthetics.- FO3-style random encounters.- FO3-style wanderers.- The whole "X discovered" thing should give you flashbacks.- Combat feels a lot more like FO3 than it does Oblivion, though I'm not sure how to explain that.- The dungeon design is strongly, strongly reminiscent of FO3 dungeons.- Quests have a strongly FO3 flavor to them too.- Almost certain I recognize a bunch of statics. Sacks and bear traps FTW.[/quote']I guess I'm just not seeing it.So far I haven't been able to distinguish anything in Skyrim that is a random encounter, and trust me, I say this as a good thing because you shouldn't be able to tell these things apart. I did see a band of Khajiit camped outside of Whiterun that was gone later, but honestly, I don't recall ever once seeing this sort of thing happen in FO3.Not sure "location discovered" is uniquely FO3. Oblivion sure seems to tell you when you've found something, the wording is just different now. Also, one could do without the long range radar effect of it all. Stuff shouldn't show up on your HUD unless you can see it in the distance.Because we all have rapid fire bows, right? Since melee fighting in FO3 was damned rare I'm hard pressed to see the comparison here.95% of what I found in FO3 was bombed out buildings filled with debris, dust, and blue doors. Blue doors EVERYWHERE. You must be on crack to think the dungeon designs are anywhere close.Quests haven't really changed much - only the way the stage updates get presented. I like the less intrusive way this is happening, which is even less so than with FO3.I dunno, maybe after I've gone through some more it'll start to become more obvious, but right now it's just not comparable.

This game is a lot more challenging than I expected it to be. But when that hagraven finally died... that felt good.

Definitely. It was quite an accomplishment when I took her down finally. Clearly i was NOT supposed to be there yet, which made it all the more rewarding that I outsmarted her. Did she fling fireballs at random into the forest when you finally attacked her? She did for me, which I thought was rather cool. Fortunately I only got BBQ'd by one of them and was able to take cover.

[Dwip]

Oh look, it's almost 7 in the morning. Wonder how that happened.Incidentally, smithing does seem to be more or less worth the time, at least up to Orcish tier gear, which I can't find ingots for yet. Easy to level it, and gives you access to good armor way earlier than you otherwise might, and you can make it way better than you otherwise might. Also handy for those times when you say "You know, my companion needs better gear than this. Time to hit the forge."@Samson - - I've seen some things that qualify as FO3-style special encounters, and I'm pretty sure they are. Orcs on the road, the odd ambush, a couple others.- Location discovered looks almost precisely like it did in FO3. Flashes it across the screen, almost the same font, etc. It's not like this is a big thing, but it does betray a certain amount of FO3 influence.- My point with combat is that, unlike Oblivion or Morrowind, where 2 guys in a room is a big deal, you tend to spend a lot more time with multiple enemies, and you don't spend nearly as much time fighting any one guy. That's a very Fallout-style interaction, so, melee or ranged, you spend a lot more time doing tactical movement rather than straight swing and backpedal umpteen times like you did in Oblivion. OTOH, the power attacks and such are very TES.- Fallout 3 was littered with the same sort of "find the switch to open the door in the thing" thing Skyrim has, though Skyrim seems to have dialed that up to 11 (or I've just spent WAY too much time barrow raiding).- As far as quests go, you can see the Fallout influence in things like optional stages, more complex quests, more little tiny sidequests, more branches, and the like. Not nearly as far down that road as F:NV, but there's way more stuff going on in each quest than there ever was in Oblivion. Hi, Kynareth quest, which spends a lot of time routing you all over like an FO3 quest.I do dig the new quest journal stuff. It'll be nice when we start doing quests to get away from having to use journal entries as narratives.All of that said, FO3 sure never delivered up the plot moments I just witnessed. This game is intense.In other news, I FINALLY found a floating rock. I found a couple of mesh gaps earlier, but nothing to write home about. Considering prior performance, I'm really impressed.Also, the one thing I'm NOT impressed by? The main menu music. Morrowind and Oblivion did a really good job, Oblivion especially, with being epic on the main menu and making me want to play a whole bunch right then. Skyrim's is just kind of there and I ignore it.OTOH, you know what I don't miss? You know how much time I spend waiting for the menu screen to load in Skyrim? Like 10 seconds for the Bethesda logo. You know how much time I spend waiting for area transitions? Basically nothing. I like.Since I'm stream of conciousnessing - definitely need a dungeon darkener mod to make me use torches or light spells. I can't see why people bother. And you, O Fearless Leader of the Alsheroki, are SO on tap for Skyrim Open Cities. And probably RAEVWD II. Whiterun makes me a sad panda.

[Hana]

I'm digging the random pics, Dwip. Please keep them coming.While I'm here, random observation based on pics I've seen (cuz you all know I'm not getting the game, right?) --- One would think when making a game in a cold and snowy territory that they could actually find some PS brushes to make some pretty snowflakes. But apparently one would be wrong.

[AndalayBay]

Dwip, this is just for you :grinning:

[Arthmoor]

Oh look' date=' it's almost 7 in the morning. Wonder how that happened.Since I'm stream of conciousnessing - definitely need a dungeon darkener mod to make me use torches or light spells. I can't see why people bother. And you, O Fearless Leader of the Alsheroki, are SO on tap for Skyrim Open Cities. And probably RAEVWD II. Whiterun makes me a sad panda.[/quote']Yes, the gears of "Whiterun needs to be open yesterday" are already spinning at full speed. Unless there's some complex stuff I don't know about yet that shouldn't be terribly difficult. I haven't even visited the other cities yet, that's how much random oooing and aaahing I've been doing. Some of which has been populating my gallery. There are navmeshes though, and that means I'll have to somehow wrap my brain around an absolutely foreign concept before anything I might have planned will work.RAEVWD II? Don't count on it. My personal satisfaction levels with LOD are off the chart and I don't really see the necessity this time around. The pop-in problem that prompted the creation of such things just isn't there. Also, if it's even remotely as complex as these things were in FO3, I doubt I'll be able to do anything about it anyway.

[prettyfly]

Hopefully they've done away with the entire goddamned quad system anyway. In any case though, it looks tops.Good to see that we're getting some high res textures coming out already. Because the textures in this game are absolutely terrible.

[Dwip]

@Samson - Eh, navmeshes aren't so bad, though hopefully we have better tools for them this time around. We'll find out, I guess.It occured to me that my gripe about LOD may be because my draw distances aren't set to max. Game looks pretty great anyway, but I may get myself a new video card for Christmas just because I still DO get some pop-in from time to time.@AndalayBay - Spider bunnies. Fear. Also, is the site supposed to fail hardcore in IE?@Hanaisse - Remind me why you're not joining us, again?I don't actually mind the snowfall, but the actual snow accumulation could use some help.And just for you:

[Morena]

Definitely. It was quite an accomplishment when I took her down finally. Clearly i was NOT supposed to be there yet' date=' which made it all the more rewarding that I outsmarted her. Did she fling fireballs at random into the forest when you finally attacked her? She did for me, which I thought was rather cool. Fortunately I only got BBQ'd by one of them and was able to take cover.[/quote']She was lobbing quite a few fireballs down, but I had Faendel (I think that's his name, the elf from Riverwood). She seemed to target him about half the time, and unlike my character, he shrugged off those fireballs like they were just furballs. That gave me the occasional reprieve. I had unfortunately neglected my ranged attacks, and wasn't even carrying a bow. I had a fireball spell, but I couldn't cast it often enough to take her down. With my Breton's absorb magick damage power and a fair number of potions, I managed to get in close. Then she stopped casting spells and attacked me with melee. She was still tougher than any other enemy I had faced, but much less deadly than she was with magic.Like you said, I don't think I was supposed to be there at such a low level. I like that. Skyrim feels like a dangerous place to explore, which makes the exploration that much more enjoyable.