MrGreencastle
Member
Here's hoping that the next DLC is a full-on expansion like Shivering Isles.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Dragonborn |OT| Did you think you were the only one?
- Thread starter Blue Ninja
- Start date
Here's hoping that the next DLC is a full-on expansion like Shivering Isles.
I'm confused. Because that's exactly how I'd describe Dragonborn: a new landmass, with a new primary quest line, side quests, other tasks, new items, weapons, enemies, locations, dungeon designs, characters, magic, shouts, settlements and even music. (Nice bonus: some of the new items from Solstheim appear in Skryim, such as bandits using Nordic armor and weapons.)
How is this not a full expansion like Shivering Isles? I've said a few times I wanted a Shivering Isles-like expansion, and I feel that's exactly what we got.
Unless you were being sarcastic, in which case, derp.
BootlegSnackz
Member
I just hope this isn't the last of the DLC. Fallout 3 had like 5 different DLC's.
Here's hoping we get a Mothership Zeta.
<-------I keed
Blue Ninja
Member
They'll definitely keep supporting the game.
I'm expecting one more piece of DLC, followed by a Game of the Year edition in May.
I'm replaying the Thieves Guild, the first time since my first character a year ago, and it's better than I remember it being. I just had a confusing series of events, but the end was worth it.
Thieves Guild spoilers, halfway through.
My task was to break into
He barrels out the door and I can't talk to him to let him know I've paid off his debts. I try to lose him, but he chases me into town. I chug a potion of invisibility, hoping to flank around him and enter the house. He lets out a yell of frustration when I disappear, and takes a swing at where I was last standing...only to whack the beggar Edda in the face instead.
I sit back, invisible, and watch Edda pull out a dagger and beat the shit out of
. The fight takes about 30 seconds and ends with him begging for mercy. Edda responds with an execution move, driving the dagger down into his neck.
So not only was
exposed as a pretty terrible guard, Edda emerged as this unexpectedly badass warrior with a dagger. I'm now wondering what her history is.
Not quite what I had planned, but it sure was entertaining. Either way, the house is no longer guarded.
I love this game.
Thieves Guild spoilers, halfway through.
My task was to break into
Mercer's house in Riften. I decided to go the diplomatic route (at least initially - I do love a good bait and switch), instead of brute force against the guard. So I offered to pay for Vald's debt, and fount the Quill of Whatever in the lake for Maven Black-Briar. I only needed to get to Vald now. So, I shot the ramp mechanism to lower the ramp. I didn't realize that would turn him hostile - though I probably should have.
He barrels out the door and I can't talk to him to let him know I've paid off his debts. I try to lose him, but he chases me into town. I chug a potion of invisibility, hoping to flank around him and enter the house. He lets out a yell of frustration when I disappear, and takes a swing at where I was last standing...only to whack the beggar Edda in the face instead.
I sit back, invisible, and watch Edda pull out a dagger and beat the shit out of
Vald
So not only was
Vald
Not quite what I had planned, but it sure was entertaining. Either way, the house is no longer guarded.
I love this game.
MrGreencastle
Member
Sorry for not replying to your previous post. I guess I'd have to agree with you there, what with Dragonborn being a full on expansion. It totally is. Call me bitter about Dawnguard and Hearthfire, I guess. Can't wait for it's PC release. More expansions like Dragonborn, hell go bigger, and go to somewhere we haven't been before. I'd totally pay $30 for a SI sized expansion again, as long as it was somewhere new. Half of Solstheim is basically Skyrim (not bad, I'm just not excited by it like the weirdness of SI).
As far as the Thieves Guild bit, I've been playing through on PC after discovering Requiem (hardcore roleplayer mod), and I have to say, the Thieves Guild is probably the best in the game, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it a lot more than my first vanilla play-through. There are a couple things here and there that I still wish Skyrim did - namely, factions affecting one another (ie: progress through the Dawnguard might put you at odds with the Companions, or what have you), the whole level/loot scaling thing, and an option to turn on more descriptive quest objective, not just "Defeat the Dark Wizard" with no indication of where or who he is in my journal unless I look at a waypoint - but all in all I'm excited for more.
This game is a lot of fun, I've played my newest character up to level 18 so far in two days (though it took a year and about 45 mods).
Yeah. I really hope the next add-on is another full expansion, or even a smaller new area, somehow. After Dragonborn, it will be unfortunate to step back and have just a new questline or dungeon or what have you.
I had fun with Hearthfire and am looking forward to Dawnguard, but more content packed into Skyrim proper is not really needed; it's bursting with content. I am really enjoying Dragonborn, though since this is my first trip to Solstheim (never played Morrowind), everything there is new to me. So that probably goes some ways.
Meanwhile I'd actually pay for a good hardcore mode, if that's what it took. I can list a good 20 things off the top of my head I'd love to have implemented. I'm sure all of them have mods available on PC, of course. Really hope Bethesda steps it up on that front in the next game.
I had fun with Hearthfire and am looking forward to Dawnguard, but more content packed into Skyrim proper is not really needed; it's bursting with content. I am really enjoying Dragonborn, though since this is my first trip to Solstheim (never played Morrowind), everything there is new to me. So that probably goes some ways.
Meanwhile I'd actually pay for a good hardcore mode, if that's what it took. I can list a good 20 things off the top of my head I'd love to have implemented. I'm sure all of them have mods available on PC, of course. Really hope Bethesda steps it up on that front in the next game.
MrGreencastle
Member
Absolutely. And I think that a lot of TES fans would, even though I think something like that should be in the game, like 1999-mode in Bioshock Infinite (we'll see how good that is). I'd love to hear about the kinds of things you'd like added to the game. Mods are a ton of fun, and I know Todd Howard has talked about trying to get a system working on consoles in the futures for that type of user created content. His personal favourite mod was actually really simple, and something that added something really obvious to the game: House markers for fast travel.
Now, I don't know if that was ever patched into the game by Bethesda, but if so, it was because of that mod. Other little things that were added in the earlier patches were all welcome additions.
Hearthfire is really cool in that it sort of added a new mechanic to the game rather than a new location. I'd love to see more of that style of DLC in the future, too. Still, from a story perspective, there's a lot left unresolved; the Thalmor and Aldmeri Dominion bit are a perfect example of the type of content I'd love to see addressed in the future. And I don't think it would be fair to leave that stuff be, and talk about it in a future game, since TES games are fairly independent of each other, outside of sharing a universe. But, sadly, I think they're looking to make a straight sequel to Skyrim to talk about that.
I guess I look at it like this:
Dawnguard = Knights of the Nine in size
Hearthfire = Any (or all) of the class hideout DLCs for Oblivion
Dragonborn = 1/2 or 1/3 of Shivering Isles
I'd love to see the other half!
That said, I think you're right on the money as far as more bigger content being released. I'd love perhaps 1 more Dragonborn sized expansion, and a couple more Hearthfire ones. Then it's off to Fallout 4 and TES VI (or Skyrim 2).
That feels about right, though my memory of Knights of the Nine is that it was a pretty brief quest line, and I'm hearing that Dawnguard has some more meat on its bones. Shivering Isles really was something else, I remember being blown away by how big a jump over Oblivion it was. And it was huge. I can't complain about the scope of Dragonborn, but I do hope the next DLC is also somewhat meaty and features new places to go.
As for a hardcore mode, hmmm. I've never played a game with one, so I don't have a point of reference. In general, I think a hardcore mode shouldn't just make the game harder, but rather leverage the game systems more fully and create greater risk/reward opportunities. So with that said my thinking on Skyrim would be:
Leverage all game systems to have more impact
Sleeping and eating should be important, possibly linked to the rate of health and stamina regeneration. A player who has not eaten or slept in three days should be as spry as one who does so regularly. That would give food a purpose, at least; as it is, food items are basically crappy potions, which is a waste of a crafting system. Some foods could even improve regeneration from the baseline, for a day, so it's not just pure maintenance.
Fast Travel and Radiant Quests
Limit fast travel to the wagon system. Meanwhile, tweak the radiant quest system to pull in locations generally closer to the location they are given. I shouldn't be looting a cave near Falkreath for a sword someone in Riften lost.
Difficulty and Scaling
I'm still grappling with loot/enemy scaling in a game like Skyrim. On the one hand, I think it's appropriate, especially for the guilds. I don't want to have de facto level requirements for each guild, I want to play them when and how I see fit. So I wouldn't remove it completely. But I would make the variety in the world much more pronounced. The frozen wastes of the north should be really tough - but the caves should also have glass armor and loot from the get-go, for instance. Really accentuate the risk/reward factor. (Hardcore would be played on Master, of course.)
Crime and Punishment
Double all fines for criminal activity, with a mandatory jail sentence for murder. I feel like the crime system is almost invisible, since I usually have plenty of riches on me and can afford to just murder a few guys in broad daylight then pay a fine. Getting caught murdering someone should carry real weight.
Buying and Selling
Double the cost of most items in the shops (but not the resale prices), but stock them with some fantastic gear early on. Sure there's an Ebony sword for sale in Solitude right away. But it's 5,000 gold, no enchantments - start saving! Make money really matter. Boost the power of unique loot from quests across the board.
Stealth
Enemies attacked from stealth or who see other allied NPCs get attacked from steal do not fully reset to default, non-alert mode. No more planting an arrow in someone's chest and then having them go back to eating dinner with a "I could have sworn I heard something..." They'll go down to partially alert status until the encounter is over. The system will still be gamed, but not as absurd. You'd still be able to land subsequent blow/arrows from sneak, but your targets won't be stationary as they know they're being hunted.
I could go on for a bit, but those are probably the big ones. And there are probably some major things I'm missing or not thinking of, so I'm definitely interested in seeing other ideas.
CrankyKong
Member
Finding the
pile of lusty argonian books in the rieklings tent was a great comedic pay off to the ship wreck quest
MrGreencastle
Member
Oh man, these are so excellent. I hope one day you can play Skyrim on PC, as Requiem as well as another mod called Economies of Skyrim, change the gameplay to almost exactly each one of your points (changes listed: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19281 ). Extremely high polish, too. It's almost scary how close you got, I imagine you'd be a good overhaul designer.
I hope Bethesda (and more devs) seriously consider this type of thing from the get-go in the future. Especially for RPGs, there are a lot of fans these days that still buy their games because they want to support them and their world-building, but want more mature mechanics than perhaps the main-stream majority fanbase want. That's why a lot of those guys got into the industry, too; I know Todd Howard's early work was damn brilliant in that respect (and probably why it wasn't as approachable). There's something to be said for us hardcore and our word of mouth, though. We like to sell other people the game, too, even if deep-down, we're heartbroken that it could have been something more. But just because you want to make a game appeal to the masses doesn't mean you can't include a mode for your devout fans to cherish forever and to live within your worlds better than ever.
Blue Ninja
Member
Not bad, Ghal. I would play your game.
Never commit crimes, though, so can't talka bout that system much.
Never commit crimes, though, so can't talka bout that system much.
MrGreencastle
Member
I'm curious, why not? Is that just role-play for that character? Or is it something you never do in games? Or is it something else?
Blue Ninja
Member
I really have to role-play an 'evil' character before I start breaking laws in games. I dunno why that is. I'll only kill or steal when it's absolutely neccesary. I have a Dunmer Assassin stored away somewhere, and a level 81 Vampire Lord who murdered half of Skyrim to get the "Vampire Mastered" achievement, but that's it. I enjoy playing as a noble character, a hero.
Unless, of course, the games revolve around breaking laws, like GTA for instace.
Speaking of characters, I recently moved all of my saves off my HDD and unto an USB, and then started completely anew. Save numbers started back at 001, really weird to see it back like that. :lol
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Are the book retrieval quests for Winterhold just randomly generated quests, or do they have a plot line/purpose? It seems like maybe they did at first, but now I can't tell.
I've been trying to mod my Skyrim to be more believable. I'm currently playing through Dawnguard with the following changes:
Skyrim Redone (I would change this for Requiem on a new character)
Morrowloot (Makes loot fairly static. You only find loot where it makes sense)
No GPS arrow (your location does not show up on the map)
Climates of Tamriel (differing weather. Also darkens everything at night)
Random Alternate Start (You skip Helgen and wake up in a random place in Skyrim)
Addictive Skooma (I started taking skooma on a character and felt this was needed)
HiRes Legible Road Signs
Immersive Armors
Skyrim Monster Mod Lore Friendly Version (adds monsters)
Compass Tuner (remove everything but cardinal directions from my compass)
I would also like to install:
Frostfall (Makes you require warmth and I think food, but hasn't been updated with Dawnguard compatibility)
Economies of Skyrim (just didn't realize it existed until now)
And then, ala Ghaleon, the things I wish existed:
Redungeon
A fan-made remaking of dungeons on a case-by-case basis to break some of them from the linear, loop back to entrance design pattern.
Ask directions
Since the journal is gone and there's no way to find anything, it would be cool if you could ask NPCs for directions to things around where they live. This would probably just take a lot of busy work on account of a modder.
Harsher criminal sentences
Back to Morrowind/Skyrim where you could lose stats during a long prison haul!
Civies
Button mapping to change into your town clothes.
Real time books/Gambling
Make reading books take time in the game world. It would give me something to do after 9PM when I'm putzing around town before sleep but after it's too dark to adventure.]
That, and gambling in the inns that also takes real time.
Better waiting
What is with waking up after 8 hours in an inn and having everyone still there, having the same conversations? Teleport them to their normal location for the hour, or something.
I just really want this game to push its simulation aspects further. My imagination can take over for a lot of it, but some things really break the experience.
Skyrim Redone (I would change this for Requiem on a new character)
Morrowloot (Makes loot fairly static. You only find loot where it makes sense)
No GPS arrow (your location does not show up on the map)
Climates of Tamriel (differing weather. Also darkens everything at night)
Random Alternate Start (You skip Helgen and wake up in a random place in Skyrim)
Addictive Skooma (I started taking skooma on a character and felt this was needed)
HiRes Legible Road Signs
Immersive Armors
Skyrim Monster Mod Lore Friendly Version (adds monsters)
Compass Tuner (remove everything but cardinal directions from my compass)
I would also like to install:
Frostfall (Makes you require warmth and I think food, but hasn't been updated with Dawnguard compatibility)
Economies of Skyrim (just didn't realize it existed until now)
And then, ala Ghaleon, the things I wish existed:
Redungeon
A fan-made remaking of dungeons on a case-by-case basis to break some of them from the linear, loop back to entrance design pattern.
Ask directions
Since the journal is gone and there's no way to find anything, it would be cool if you could ask NPCs for directions to things around where they live. This would probably just take a lot of busy work on account of a modder.
Harsher criminal sentences
Back to Morrowind/Skyrim where you could lose stats during a long prison haul!
Civies
Button mapping to change into your town clothes.
Real time books/Gambling
Make reading books take time in the game world. It would give me something to do after 9PM when I'm putzing around town before sleep but after it's too dark to adventure.]
That, and gambling in the inns that also takes real time.
Better waiting
What is with waking up after 8 hours in an inn and having everyone still there, having the same conversations? Teleport them to their normal location for the hour, or something.
I just really want this game to push its simulation aspects further. My imagination can take over for a lot of it, but some things really break the experience.
Blue Ninja
Member
Just saw some Forsworn use a grindstone to tear a Nord's face off. Goddamn brutal.
The P of Poland
Member
Ya, I really think the Thieves Guild must have been neglected in previous games, because it seems like Bethesda overcompensated in Skyrim. It's by far the most extensive of the Guilds in the base game, you don't automatically become Guild Master on finishing the main quest, you have to keep working through the side quests so you feel like you earned it.
Also, Holy Shit at that about the beggar. I never knew that. Just today, I discovered some areas I'd never been in in dungeons I routinely play through. God, I love this game.
Most of those are brilliant. But this one- just, no. That's one of the classic features of Skyrim, one of the things that gives the game its personality. Also, the stupidity of enemies is undoubtedly a great equalizer on Master. Would you really want to have absolutely no way to evade them once you've attacked?
That's not possible, unless you never joined the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild. I highly recommend you do if you haven't. Make a lot of money and get some fantastic gear.
I still think of my various girls who joined those organizations as heroines. Just adds an interesting dimension to their personalities.
?
Where was this?
Blue Ninja
Member
Lost Valley Redoubt. I never noticed it until today, but one of the Forsworn was busy at the table when I approached. Once I killed the Forsworn and noticed the corpse laying on a table. Once I dragged it off I noticed his head had been lying on a grindstone. Beth even added ample amounts of blood decals. :lol
That's not what I was saying. In general the AI goes through three states. I don't know what they're called so I'll call them Unaware, Searching, and Attacking.
When you tag someone from stealth but they don't see you the eye opens a bit - just a slit. They are in Searching mode, looking for the attacker. They may not even know the direction the shot came from - they're just at an elevated state of awareness. That's the state I was talking about, not the one where they know where you are and are attacking non-stop.
But then, as you said, it is part of the Skyrim's charm. I do think it's a bit too easy to game, IMO. Not that I don't game the hell out of it on Master. :lol
I forgot to add a suggestion I had for hardcore mode: locking picking occurs in real time.
So, my character's home is on Solstheim, but I'm currently adventuring in Skyrim, getting my skills and armor up so the Oblivion plane areas don't thrash me so thoroughly. So I make periodic loot drops back in Solstheim. And the one after I joined the Thieves Guild, I discovered the hook between it and Raven Rock, which was pretty awesome.
A nice way to flesh out some characters and give that wench Sapphire some backstory. I just wish I could give her the letter I snagged from the basement.
I wonder if there are hooks into the other guilds or quests.
I loved this detail. I only noticed it on my last character, and I'm pretty sure all of them cleared Lost Valley Redoubt. Pretty sure every character finds new stuff like that. Just last week I stumbled into a cave I'd never found before, somehow.
Jibbajabbawockky
Member
Its those little things I love about Skyrim. All the random dead bodies you see lying around that end up telling a little story about the dead person with just the environment and occasional journal entry.
I was going by Markarth recently doing one of the Dawnguard quests and saw some dead lady hunched over a stone in a pool of water. She had her clothes all neatly arranged on some nearby rock like she had just been swimming for a bit and a little diary/journal nearby where she wrote how she was sick of her parents telling her not to go to the swimming hole for fear of the Forsworn in the area.
Or little things like Meeko's Shack (super sad story) or the creepy lighthouse built over the Falmer cave. I love that stuff.
True words, man. All of those vignettes bring back memories. The Lighthouse especially.
The P of Poland
Member
I see what you mean. Yeah, that does sound pretty cool.
You can give Sapphire that letter. Have you tried and it hasn't worked? Because it did for me. She is very, very grateful. Gives you a unique item, the Exquisite Sapphire, worth like a bajillion gold.
I've been trying. I'll talk with her again, she just gave me her one liner blow off. Could have been the state she was in due to the active quest (everyone freaking out).
Glad there's a payoff. I love that it was unmarked - I just read it and knew what to do. Thanks for letting me know.
I wrapped up the Thieves Guild main questline tonight, returning the Key. And it's better than I gave it credit for when I first played it. It's probably the strongest of the guild quest lines. There are some fantastic missions in there, the museum being my favorite. So many ways through, so many ways to knock guards off.
My one major critique is with
Mercer's
The Twilight Sepulcher was a nice finale, though.
The P of Poland
Member
I gave it to her after I was already the Guildmaster, so that might have been part of it. Was actually rather funny, I tore the Cistern and Ragged Flagon apart looking for her for ten minutes before I finally found her.
The Thieves Guild quest line is the best. Like I said earlier, I really think Bethesda was trying to compensate for previously neglecting that faction, because there's just so much to do with them. Restoring City Influence, the odd jobs, restoring the Flagon, farming arrows, it's just so great.
Blue Ninja
Member
They gave the Thieves Guild one of the best quests in all of Oblivion, though. The Ultimate Heist was amazing.
Jibbajabbawockky
Member
Finished the main questline in Dawnguard, siding with the Dawnguard. I really enjoyed it. The
and
were amazingly beautiful locations. Really awesome, I only wish the main quest was a little longer and had some more "Oomph" to it with the conclusion. Serana is a pretty great companion and probably one of the better written characters Bethesda has done.
Is there any companion like Serana in Dragonborn?
Ancestor Glade
Forgotten Vale
Is there any companion like Serana in Dragonborn?
Arjen
Member
Yeah they come back after some time has passed.
Blue Ninja
Member
No, sadly not. But I think you can take Serana with you to Solstheim, though I'm not sure.
Hobbestetrician
Member
You can. Her and I have covered nearly every inch of the island together. Though her dialogue wasn't really updated, she still refers to that 'lovely Skyrim weather' she has heard about.
NullPointer
Member
Been unlucky with this game as of late. I've cleared four dungeons since jumping back in, all from different questlines, and each one was filled to the brim with roaming restless draugr, draugr pretending to be statues, draugr pretending to be asleep in their death bunks, that one draugr caster shuffling back and forth in the rafters, surprise draugr-in-the-boxes, spinny death blade sprint-or-die hallways followed by deathlord/named uber-draugrs and friends, a new word of power, some 500 burial vases with 4-9 gold pieces under the lid, and a pull-chain secret exit back in to the world.
Four times in a row, in four different quest-lines.
My flame bow is getting one hell of a workout, and my light footfalls have kept me out of all the devious traps (which the undead are more than happy to trigger to my delight), but my poisons are collecting dust. Just some bad luck I guess.
Four times in a row, in four different quest-lines.
My flame bow is getting one hell of a workout, and my light footfalls have kept me out of all the devious traps (which the undead are more than happy to trigger to my delight), but my poisons are collecting dust. Just some bad luck I guess.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
I would pay $5 for updated follower dialogue.
I think the best, or at least most entertaining, dungeons in the game have a good variety of enemies in them. Draugr ones, especially on high levels, are a straight up chore. I cleared one last night and it was a slog the second half. You have my condolences.
Ran into Hulking Draugr in it though, which startled the hell out of me. Apparently they were added in Dragonborn but I ran into them first on Skyrim. Pretty cool.
The P of Poland
Member
The closest there is is Frea, from the Temple of Miraak quest. When I first saw her I thought that was exactly what she'd be. Turns out she was just a really annoying tour guide and only hung around for one quest, though you can get her to be a follower.
Random Thought: Can you imagine what Skyrim would be like if the Dragonborn had guns?
The guns would be fired from a bow and only go a few inches in front of you and do half the damage of a rusty arrow
Haven't really played since Vanilla.. but this dragonborn stuff seems cool. I figure when it's out for PC i'll treat myself to both it and Dawnguard and play from scratch! I might even mod it (a bit... I've gone overboard sometimes) so I can get a non-vanilla experience.
Man I'm excited already, when I do this - I'll want GAF's help deciding what mods to choose!
Man I'm excited already, when I do this - I'll want GAF's help deciding what mods to choose!
I asked this question a while back when I was having a similar experience. What I didn't realize, and others informed me of, was that armor alone only protects from physical damage. To protect from magic users, you'll need to use armor with magical resistances. (Resist Frost, Resist Fire, Resist Magic, etc.).
Armor = protection from physical attacks
Magical enchantments = protection from magic
Having a lot of health also helps, or use things like magical shields (wards) to protect from magic.
Blue Ninja
Member
Or use Spell Breaker. Fuck yo magic.
I've run into two glitched black books, I think. Which sucks since I've spent the past week working on getting my character ready to take on the guys inside of them.
In Filament and Filigree, you get sizzled and lose life whenever you step out of the moving lights. Only problem is, the sizzle sound becomes permanent if you leave the world when it's going on. And it can get glitched permanently in other ways as well: I drew my fire bow, which makes a similar sizzle, while getting cooked. That locked the sound permanently on. I drank a potion of invisibility, and that did it, too.
The sizzle continued outside of the black book; saving and reloading, fast traveling, traveling back to Skyrim and back, entering a house and leaving, turning off the Xbox and reloading it from scratch all did nothing. Had to delete a few saves and engineer a death while in the light to get out (I couldn't take on the Lurker Vindicator at the end). It actually took four or five attempts to exit without the sound glitched on. So that was about an hour down the tubes. I'll try it again when I think I can take on a Lurker Vindicator and live to tell the tale.
Next I open Waking Dreams, which I had worked through to chapter five - and arena fight between a Lurker and a few Seekers - before "dying" last time. To my surprise I re-enter the book right where I left off. This time I load up on a few potions, poison the hell out of my arrows, and emerge victorious. I learn the word of power and....am stuck. The door behind me won't open and I can't find a way off the island. Been about 20 minutes now.
Am I fucked?
In Filament and Filigree, you get sizzled and lose life whenever you step out of the moving lights. Only problem is, the sizzle sound becomes permanent if you leave the world when it's going on. And it can get glitched permanently in other ways as well: I drew my fire bow, which makes a similar sizzle, while getting cooked. That locked the sound permanently on. I drank a potion of invisibility, and that did it, too.
The sizzle continued outside of the black book; saving and reloading, fast traveling, traveling back to Skyrim and back, entering a house and leaving, turning off the Xbox and reloading it from scratch all did nothing. Had to delete a few saves and engineer a death while in the light to get out (I couldn't take on the Lurker Vindicator at the end). It actually took four or five attempts to exit without the sound glitched on. So that was about an hour down the tubes. I'll try it again when I think I can take on a Lurker Vindicator and live to tell the tale.
Next I open Waking Dreams, which I had worked through to chapter five - and arena fight between a Lurker and a few Seekers - before "dying" last time. To my surprise I re-enter the book right where I left off. This time I load up on a few potions, poison the hell out of my arrows, and emerge victorious. I learn the word of power and....am stuck. The door behind me won't open and I can't find a way off the island. Been about 20 minutes now.
Am I fucked?
Where is the big book? The gate locked behind me when the Lurker came up. It didn't open again when I killed everyone...
Edit: okay, googling around I guess this is intentional, I need to re-read the book to get out. I was expecting a normal exit. Found a lot of forum thread with other folks "stuck" in the same place.
Blue Ninja
Member
Me and Lydia approach Harmugstalh, a clearly ruined fort infested with enchanted Frostbite spiders. As we near the entrance Lydia stops and contemplatingly says "Hey, a cave! I wonder what's inside."
I turn around. "Lydia... This cave is not a natural formation."
I turn around. "Lydia... This cave is not a natural formation."
Mr. Wonderful
Member
My Skyrim all of a sudden started crashing to desktop after loading screens (but with an autosave created on the other side) two days ago with nothing changed besides me rewiring my case with better cable management and .5 second power outages that turned off all my electronics except my computer. Capacitors! (And yes, in retrospect, I should have unplugged everything immediately).
Anyways, I verified my file integrity after that and everything seems to be OK in the 45 minutes I've put in since. Though it seems all my settings are reset now. Had to reset resolution, etc. Does that also mean that all my SkyrimPreferences tweaks and stuff were reset too?
Either way, the game is suddenly running smoother as well. Things seem happier.
Anyways, I verified my file integrity after that and everything seems to be OK in the 45 minutes I've put in since. Though it seems all my settings are reset now. Had to reset resolution, etc. Does that also mean that all my SkyrimPreferences tweaks and stuff were reset too?
Either way, the game is suddenly running smoother as well. Things seem happier.
Luna is getting ready to take a nice long vacation from Solstheim now, having killed the big bad, saved the day, and tied up some loose ends.
On the whole, Dragonborn was a fantastic expansion. In particular, the side quests and dungeons were constantly inventive, and restored that sense of wondering what crazy thing I'll stumble into next that I felt when I first started playing Skyrim. Of note, the new Dwemer dungeons were a sight to behold, and the moving components of them (yet another idea taken from the Game Jam output) made them very distinctive from their peers back on the mainland.
In terms of quests, "Unearthed" might be my favorite quest in the entire game, in terms of the writing and way it unfolded. A constant, darkly hilarious delight. Meanwhile "Deathbrand" was just pure joy. Few things spark a childlike reaction of glee from me than finding a treasure map with X's all over it. Especially one with such an absurdly excessive pile of loot as the reward. One hell of a final brawl and payoff.
And speaking of loot, that's another area where Dragonborn is head and shoulders above Skyrim proper. There's so much useful, unique loot that I struggled to settle on what to use. Bows, swords, suits of armor, magical effects, rings, boots....my house is just bursting with loot. As I tidied up and did my final organizing pass on my Raven Rock home, I felt a genuine sense of pride at the bounty adorning the place. It's a feeling no other game but Skyrim has really instilled in me.
Dragonborn's weaknesses are largely shared with Skyrim as a whole. It's about as buggy as Skyrim at launch, mostly in the form of some rough performance issues and more frequent hard crashes. A relatively small price to pay for the other qualities, but hard crashes are something we really should not be enduring at all; Bethesda needs to get a lot better in their Q&A department.
The last major weakness shared with Skyrim is the way the main quest is built upon a fantastic premise, yet doesn't quite pay it off. As with the main Skyrim quest, there are some great early events to set the stage - freeing the people of Solstheim from the thrall of Miraak and uncovering his temple. But from there the different pieces don't quite gel.
Spoilers ahoy.
Also, the less said about dragon riding the better. This is one of those things that would probably be best left out, than left in as it was implemented.
Still, the good dramatically outweighed the bad here. I loved the varied atmosphere in Solstheim; the hilarious Riekling areas; the ethereal ash lands with the waning cries of the silt strider echoing across the land; the strange silhouettes of the mushrooms; walking into a massive Dwemer cavern filled with giant rotating gears; the constantly shifting black book realms. Just a vast array of content on a relatively small island.
It's probably a good thing I do not have access to mods, playing on the 360 as I am. It occurs to me that if I had a steady stream of quality new content, I'd probably never stop playing. I'd just keep rolling new characters to take on new adventures. I'm really hoping we get one more healthy bucket of DLC from Bethesda to send Skyrim off in style.
##########
After I did my final walk through of my home in Raven Rock, loot arranged with care (Miraak is one one side of my bedroom doorway, framed by his weapons, with most of the Deathbrand suit on the other), I walked out to head to the ship back to Skyrim. Suddenly everyone looked up, terrified. A dragon - go figure. I decide to tame him and do my second dragon ride, and I get a nice quick flyover of the entire island. After landing I have a brief trek on foot back to Rave Rock, and run into a pack of my Riekling warriors thrashing a Reaver for me. I smiled. It really does feel like my work is (mostly) done on Solstheim. It was a fun way to leave the island.
Luna is beginning a new phase back on the mainland, a back stabber who will whip out the old sword and board when caught, a heavy mix of illusion and alteration in the mix. Her bow will now be reserved for Dragons and to keep distance from powerful magic users. I've decided she's going to keep two artifacts from Solstheim as a permanent part of her gear; a helmet to help her breath under water, and boots to walk on the surface of it. She likes to gets around.
I'll be heading back to Solstheim to forge that set of Stalhrim armor for the achievement, when my smithing is where it needs to be. I'll also head back to forge Firestorm, a mythical bow I've had in mind for all my characters, but none of them got their enchanting to 100; Luna will. I'm going to need to to do my final task on Solstheim, the small matter of a certain skull and a powerful ghost.....
Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks for bothering to read, if you did.
Edit: new phase started. Forged a Nordic sword and shield, which when combined with the boots and helmet make for a nice, foreign look for Skyrim. Chugged a blacksmith potion for improving, and an enchanting potion for the enchantments. The potions combined with high smithing and enchanting skill really provide a leg up when transitioned play styles. I trotted into the wild with sword and board out and thrashed a saber cat, then turned a pack of bandits on each other and strolled in for mop up duty. Yeah. This is going to work out just fine.
On the whole, Dragonborn was a fantastic expansion. In particular, the side quests and dungeons were constantly inventive, and restored that sense of wondering what crazy thing I'll stumble into next that I felt when I first started playing Skyrim. Of note, the new Dwemer dungeons were a sight to behold, and the moving components of them (yet another idea taken from the Game Jam output) made them very distinctive from their peers back on the mainland.
In terms of quests, "Unearthed" might be my favorite quest in the entire game, in terms of the writing and way it unfolded. A constant, darkly hilarious delight. Meanwhile "Deathbrand" was just pure joy. Few things spark a childlike reaction of glee from me than finding a treasure map with X's all over it. Especially one with such an absurdly excessive pile of loot as the reward. One hell of a final brawl and payoff.
And speaking of loot, that's another area where Dragonborn is head and shoulders above Skyrim proper. There's so much useful, unique loot that I struggled to settle on what to use. Bows, swords, suits of armor, magical effects, rings, boots....my house is just bursting with loot. As I tidied up and did my final organizing pass on my Raven Rock home, I felt a genuine sense of pride at the bounty adorning the place. It's a feeling no other game but Skyrim has really instilled in me.
Dragonborn's weaknesses are largely shared with Skyrim as a whole. It's about as buggy as Skyrim at launch, mostly in the form of some rough performance issues and more frequent hard crashes. A relatively small price to pay for the other qualities, but hard crashes are something we really should not be enduring at all; Bethesda needs to get a lot better in their Q&A department.
The last major weakness shared with Skyrim is the way the main quest is built upon a fantastic premise, yet doesn't quite pay it off. As with the main Skyrim quest, there are some great early events to set the stage - freeing the people of Solstheim from the thrall of Miraak and uncovering his temple. But from there the different pieces don't quite gel.
Spoilers ahoy.
The premise of a cult worshiping Miraak and trying to bring him back, and Mirrak himself having everyone in his thrall was a good one, but these premises didn't end up having a payoff. I thought we'd break up his cult, and that Miraak's plans would be complicated by our freeing his thralls. But neither of those played into the story at all, other than to populate the island a bit with interactive NPC's. Likewise, the construction of his temple was ongoing through to the end, there was no payoff to it.
I fully expected the main quest to climax with Miraak entering Solstheim through his completed temple, and us engaging in a desperate and epic battle to kill him here in Tamriel. Reading a book and having an arena fight with him in Apocrypha was decidedly anticlimactic and kept the threat he posed to Solstheim conceptual. And then once he's gone, aside from a few mentions in the Skaal village, no one even comments that we've just saved the day. Miraak was a cool villain, but he was poorly utilized.
In the end, it was a fun romp - especially the black book realms, holy crap - but the whole thing just didn't gel; no sense of building tension or climax. This is something Bethesda did better in Oblivion across most of their quest lines.
I fully expected the main quest to climax with Miraak entering Solstheim through his completed temple, and us engaging in a desperate and epic battle to kill him here in Tamriel. Reading a book and having an arena fight with him in Apocrypha was decidedly anticlimactic and kept the threat he posed to Solstheim conceptual. And then once he's gone, aside from a few mentions in the Skaal village, no one even comments that we've just saved the day. Miraak was a cool villain, but he was poorly utilized.
In the end, it was a fun romp - especially the black book realms, holy crap - but the whole thing just didn't gel; no sense of building tension or climax. This is something Bethesda did better in Oblivion across most of their quest lines.
Also, the less said about dragon riding the better. This is one of those things that would probably be best left out, than left in as it was implemented.
Still, the good dramatically outweighed the bad here. I loved the varied atmosphere in Solstheim; the hilarious Riekling areas; the ethereal ash lands with the waning cries of the silt strider echoing across the land; the strange silhouettes of the mushrooms; walking into a massive Dwemer cavern filled with giant rotating gears; the constantly shifting black book realms. Just a vast array of content on a relatively small island.
It's probably a good thing I do not have access to mods, playing on the 360 as I am. It occurs to me that if I had a steady stream of quality new content, I'd probably never stop playing. I'd just keep rolling new characters to take on new adventures. I'm really hoping we get one more healthy bucket of DLC from Bethesda to send Skyrim off in style.
##########
After I did my final walk through of my home in Raven Rock, loot arranged with care (Miraak is one one side of my bedroom doorway, framed by his weapons, with most of the Deathbrand suit on the other), I walked out to head to the ship back to Skyrim. Suddenly everyone looked up, terrified. A dragon - go figure. I decide to tame him and do my second dragon ride, and I get a nice quick flyover of the entire island. After landing I have a brief trek on foot back to Rave Rock, and run into a pack of my Riekling warriors thrashing a Reaver for me. I smiled. It really does feel like my work is (mostly) done on Solstheim. It was a fun way to leave the island.
Luna is beginning a new phase back on the mainland, a back stabber who will whip out the old sword and board when caught, a heavy mix of illusion and alteration in the mix. Her bow will now be reserved for Dragons and to keep distance from powerful magic users. I've decided she's going to keep two artifacts from Solstheim as a permanent part of her gear; a helmet to help her breath under water, and boots to walk on the surface of it. She likes to gets around.
I'll be heading back to Solstheim to forge that set of Stalhrim armor for the achievement, when my smithing is where it needs to be. I'll also head back to forge Firestorm, a mythical bow I've had in mind for all my characters, but none of them got their enchanting to 100; Luna will. I'm going to need to to do my final task on Solstheim, the small matter of a certain skull and a powerful ghost.....
Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks for bothering to read, if you did.
Edit: new phase started. Forged a Nordic sword and shield, which when combined with the boots and helmet make for a nice, foreign look for Skyrim. Chugged a blacksmith potion for improving, and an enchanting potion for the enchantments. The potions combined with high smithing and enchanting skill really provide a leg up when transitioned play styles. I trotted into the wild with sword and board out and thrashed a saber cat, then turned a pack of bandits on each other and strolled in for mop up duty. Yeah. This is going to work out just fine.
Lovely. I only have like 4 mods and I'm getting constant CTD's.
Wet and Cold
Opethfeldt6 ENB
a music mod
Enhanced Lights and FX
Official Skyrim HD patch
What a waste of 4 hours of game time and apparently I can't even fix it. Crashes anytime I load a save or a few minutes after
FUCK
Wet and Cold
Opethfeldt6 ENB
a music mod
Enhanced Lights and FX
Official Skyrim HD patch
What a waste of 4 hours of game time and apparently I can't even fix it. Crashes anytime I load a save or a few minutes after
FUCK
Felix Lighter
Member
Lovely. I only have like 4 mods and I'm getting constant CTD's.
Wet and Cold
Opethfeldt6 ENB
a music mod
Enhanced Lights and FX
Official Skyrim HD patch
What a waste of 4 hours of game time and apparently I can't even fix it. Crashes anytime I load a save or a few minutes after
FUCK
On Gaf, this thread is probably your best bet.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=457617
How are you applying the mods? The Steam Workshop, manually, or the Nexus? I have like 40 mods enabled and I'm very stable but there was a time a while ago that a single mod, I'm having trouble remembering which now, was causing constant crashes. I use the Nexus Mod Manager and I use BOSS to find incompatibilities and determine load order.
I'll post in that thread to avoid glutting this one up. I'll post right now!