Although I ranted about this game but, dont compare this game with dark souls. that game is shit for most people, its only fun for those with a lot of patients and nice temper, whereas Skyrim is fun for everyone. Darksouls iss absolutely shit, I played 4 hours then traded in as soon as I was gonna smash my PS tripple.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim |OT2| Team Edward's Revenge
- Thread starter Blue Ninja
- Start date
scissorfight
Banned
GReat post. THE obvious answer to the problems which DO exist with both Dark Souls and Oblivion is to combine them...and this has already been debated somewhere I am sure, and I know there are reasons why this won't happen anytime soon.....but as a 40 yr. old that grew up with the original games (yes I was alive BEFORE pong and Atari 2600) that were next to impossible to "complete"...... Dark Souls is not difficult. I bought a PS3 for my son so I couold get a blue ray...but then I tried Oblivion and was hooked...I have not played a first person shooter much, nor any sports games...I liked to explore and fight and to a limited extent solve puzzles and strategize. THis was trupmed heavily when I by chance decided to get Demon's SOuls over Dragon Age. Dark SOuls was so anticipated by me that I travelled to a different country to ge tthe hard cover book, lost sleep over it, and became far more immersed than in Skyrim. Your post details why, so I won't reiterate except to say that having the least amount of difficulty is important even in layout. YOu can't have an "open world" that has so few hidden compartments, and then not even get a tangible reward for finding the few that exist. Perhaps for several posters on here that are having difficulty with Skyrim this may seem like a cut, but not intended, is that THIS GAME IS SIMPLY TOO EASY. INcreasing the diffuclty to extend battles that offer near zero change in startegy make no sense to me. THose that are finding it diifficult may not have played the other games in the series which are near identical in game play so I was an "Expert" the first time I drew a bow etc. Dark souls was not like that as much as although thegame play was similar the STRATEGY was different....not so in elder scrolls. ALso the online component in Dark Souls trumps any game that does not have it, which is one small point I might add. I will go through the material like reading a book in Elder Scrolls games, but the analagy I would add to your post is that although THe Elder scrolls add a wrinkle to reading a book, similar to the choose your own adventure books (i.e. if you choose this than turn to page 44.) but freedom in choice must have consequences that are satisfying in some way or it just turns into glorified storytelling.
THE best RPG of the future will settle the arguments you put forth...great post.
patience is a virtue all humans share in aspiring towards...whether they play video games or not....so I think a game that requires minimum levels is safe.
I'm probably having a slightly different experience so far because I'm playing a mage. I've found it challenging and have actually died a few times from getting in over my head. I'm focusing mostly on destruction so far, but my secondaries are necromancy and conjuring. I actually really enjoy going with a one handed conjured sword and using something like firebolt or lightning bolt in the other hand.
I finally made it to the mage guild last night after being distracted by a dwarf ruin and a certain lighthouse along the way. Looking forward to finishing that up tonight. I really like the area, though.
Never made it down to the thieves guild... I have severe shiny object syndrome and I can't help but explore everything, and rob everyone lol.
Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far. I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Souls, but this is just as fun to me.
I finally made it to the mage guild last night after being distracted by a dwarf ruin and a certain lighthouse along the way. Looking forward to finishing that up tonight. I really like the area, though.
Never made it down to the thieves guild... I have severe shiny object syndrome and I can't help but explore everything, and rob everyone lol.
Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far. I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Souls, but this is just as fun to me.
In this game, magic don't get any damage increase besides few perks in skill tree but destruction is still pretty powerful since you can paralyze foes every hit with impact perk. All you need is fireball, incinerate and fast heal. I switch to master difficulty once I get these spells in winterhold
Proposed Law
Member
Can I do all the quest lines after the main story? I've put about 80 hours into it and have only done 2 main story quests. There is just too much to do! I understand the guilds can be done at any time, but what about the civil war?
Oh I figured out my problem with the Imitation Amnesty quest, I just needed to look in my fucking quest log! I'm not sure when I got it, but I thought it was weird that it kept letting me take on side missions from Vex and Delvin. With the other 3 City Influence quests they wouldn't give me any more side jobs until I finished that particular influence mission. Weird, but at least it didn't break.
Oh I figured out my problem with the Imitation Amnesty quest, I just needed to look in my fucking quest log! I'm not sure when I got it, but I thought it was weird that it kept letting me take on side missions from Vex and Delvin. With the other 3 City Influence quests they wouldn't give me any more side jobs until I finished that particular influence mission. Weird, but at least it didn't break.
David Incorporated Esq.
Member
What's funny is that I had by far the most fun playing sword and board. I fall asleep as an archer and magic eventually becomes the least engaging when you're just throwing around fireballs with impact. It's fun to screw around with magic in different ways but you always know you're not being completely efficient unless you're relentlessly pounding away with your biggest spells.
Sword and board against competitive enemies, though, that's a lot more interesting.
Sword and board against competitive enemies, though, that's a lot more interesting.
That's why I go for the enchanted sword. It lets me get in the thick of the action, but I can still throw out a fireball or something with the other hand, or even just heal myself, if things start getting crazy.
How The Witcher 2 compare to Skyrim and Dark Souls? Is a mix of both?
I mean Skyrim has an awesome world, but miss to be a RPG, you can't feel your character evolving... some quests are nice but afterall the game looks like a medieval tech demo with an awesome world, but poor gameplay and miss the goal to be a rpg
I mean Skyrim has an awesome world, but miss to be a RPG, you can't feel your character evolving... some quests are nice but afterall the game looks like a medieval tech demo with an awesome world, but poor gameplay and miss the goal to be a rpg
Mortrialus
Banned
I used Dark Souls as an example simply because its probably my favorite game that illustrates what I'm saying. I could have used Half Life and Half Life 2 as examples as they illustrate the same thing. I also could have used Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong-Quest as an example, Super Mario Galaxy, the 3D Zeldas, Monster Hunter ect. ect.
Dark's Souls's combat is not that complex on the surface. Each weapon has four attacks, two if you 1-hand the weapon, another two if you 2-hand the weapon. This means that depending on your playstyle, you really only have two attacks unless you switch stances a lot. However, when you factor in blocking, dodging, using potions appropriately, and more specifically the absolutely fantastic enemy variety, it becomes extremely deep and fun. Skyrim should have just a little of that.
Honestly, I already think Dark Souls is already the best RPG, probably the best game ever made. It has some flaws (Frame Rate issues, a few shitty zones) but if it wasn't for those gripes, which are honestly pretty minor in the long scheme of the game, I'd call it perfect.
Yep you can do all the quests after the Main-Quest.
Thats extremely unfair. You'll be hard-stretched to find a game thats better for role-playing.
You get a call back from Bethesda yet? I hope you told them about all your PS tripple experience.
PalaceBrother
Member
I love it. This must never end.
I don't get this. Is it me or is it the game?
I cannot stick with any single one character for long. In Morrowind i could play long times with a single character. And in Oblivion as well. And in Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
Melee? Gets boring too quick, there isn't true challenge in a pure melee fighter. Inability to sprint to any direction prevents hit'n'run, melee glass-cannon playstyles which would be considerably more interesting way to play the game than the simple brawl it melee fights are currently.
Stealth? I could ramp up the difficulty up to master and the game wouldn't still offer any challenge. Sneak attacks (regardless of weapon) and sneaking are simply too good. Gimme Splinter Cell's, Deus Ex Human Revolution's or Thief's sneaking, investigating enemies etc and stealth would be fun.
Stealth-melee hybrid inherits issues from both but doesn't add anything positive really. Other than throat slitting.
Magic? Well i've never particularly cared for pure magi in any game (not counting PnP RPGs). Magic user needs some twist to be fun like WoW's Warlock with its pets and DOTs. Or in Morrowind, a Nightblade or some other mage-hybrid.
Still haven't found a fun mix of something and magic.
Spellsword doesn't work since the game lacks DOTs, absorb skill, damage/drain skill/attribute and damage item spells. Besides using both melee and Destruction-as-it-is spreads damage increasing perks too thin and using both is sort of ineffective and reduntant anyway. Spellsword first reduces enemies' fighting ability, gives them DOTs or such and then proceeds to kick their ass, Spellsword does not kill enemy with magic as that makes weapons useless. IMO.
Nightblade-style doesn't work well either in Skyrim. Invisibility is useless, stealth+muffle is strong enough as it is. Skyrim doesn't have Chameleon to strenghten sneaking. Skyrim doesn't have Command spells.
Necromancy is boring without permament minions. I really don't care to play one till i can get Dead Thrall. (Daedric Summoning is not my thing in Skyrim as the game lacks variety in them)
Sigh. I really need to get a proper gaming PC and get Skyrim's PC version and make a mod that overhaul the skills, the perks, the spells, the weapons, the races, the birthsigns (err, i need to add them as "traits", similar to Fallout); hell, every fucking thing in this game to suit my tastes.
I cannot stick with any single one character for long. In Morrowind i could play long times with a single character. And in Oblivion as well. And in Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
Melee? Gets boring too quick, there isn't true challenge in a pure melee fighter. Inability to sprint to any direction prevents hit'n'run, melee glass-cannon playstyles which would be considerably more interesting way to play the game than the simple brawl it melee fights are currently.
Stealth? I could ramp up the difficulty up to master and the game wouldn't still offer any challenge. Sneak attacks (regardless of weapon) and sneaking are simply too good. Gimme Splinter Cell's, Deus Ex Human Revolution's or Thief's sneaking, investigating enemies etc and stealth would be fun.
Stealth-melee hybrid inherits issues from both but doesn't add anything positive really. Other than throat slitting.
Magic? Well i've never particularly cared for pure magi in any game (not counting PnP RPGs). Magic user needs some twist to be fun like WoW's Warlock with its pets and DOTs. Or in Morrowind, a Nightblade or some other mage-hybrid.
Still haven't found a fun mix of something and magic.
Spellsword doesn't work since the game lacks DOTs, absorb skill, damage/drain skill/attribute and damage item spells. Besides using both melee and Destruction-as-it-is spreads damage increasing perks too thin and using both is sort of ineffective and reduntant anyway. Spellsword first reduces enemies' fighting ability, gives them DOTs or such and then proceeds to kick their ass, Spellsword does not kill enemy with magic as that makes weapons useless. IMO.
Nightblade-style doesn't work well either in Skyrim. Invisibility is useless, stealth+muffle is strong enough as it is. Skyrim doesn't have Chameleon to strenghten sneaking. Skyrim doesn't have Command spells.
Necromancy is boring without permament minions. I really don't care to play one till i can get Dead Thrall. (Daedric Summoning is not my thing in Skyrim as the game lacks variety in them)
Sigh. I really need to get a proper gaming PC and get Skyrim's PC version and make a mod that overhaul the skills, the perks, the spells, the weapons, the races, the birthsigns (err, i need to add them as "traits", similar to Fallout); hell, every fucking thing in this game to suit my tastes.
Awesome man. I'm glad to hear that. So how soon can we expect all the bugs to be gone now that you're on the case? Its great that we have a GAF person on the inside that actually knows something about programming instead of the morons at Bethesda.
Just finished the mage questline tonight. I do feel rather overpowered now with the loot that I got for completing it, but damn that was long. I can kind of feel what you guys are saying on the whole dungeon thing. I went through one long ass dungeon, finished it, and then was immediately sent through another long ass dungeon right after. By the time I reached the end I was frustrated at the amount of time I'd spent in dungeons.
Also, I am really tempted to kill my follower, or just her die. She's died several times, but when that happens I've always returned to a previous save. The reason? She's always in my fucking way. Want to cast an AOE spell? Too bad, the follower is in the way. Throw a fireball? Too bad, the follower runs in front of you and eats it.
And then she'll turn hostile against me because she ran in front of my spells.
With the tight corridors that they've made the dungeons into, this adds a certain level of frustration to gameplay at times. In the more open areas it's generally fine, but those are few and far between.
It's handy having a follower around, as they do quite a bit of damage and definitely help with tanking since I'm a squishy mage, but if I get to a point where I'm all mighty then I'll probably not bother with one due to the stupid AI.
Also, I am really tempted to kill my follower, or just her die. She's died several times, but when that happens I've always returned to a previous save. The reason? She's always in my fucking way. Want to cast an AOE spell? Too bad, the follower is in the way. Throw a fireball? Too bad, the follower runs in front of you and eats it.
And then she'll turn hostile against me because she ran in front of my spells.
With the tight corridors that they've made the dungeons into, this adds a certain level of frustration to gameplay at times. In the more open areas it's generally fine, but those are few and far between.
It's handy having a follower around, as they do quite a bit of damage and definitely help with tanking since I'm a squishy mage, but if I get to a point where I'm all mighty then I'll probably not bother with one due to the stupid AI.
Mortrialus
Banned
I made a mage alt and spent some time with him. He isn't focusing on a specific school of magic, just using whatever whenever. Magic is considerably deeper than melee. There are so many spell options that can be used that it's pretty clear the majority of thought and development regarding combat went into it. You can fury an opponent and reanimate their corpses to annihilate packs of enemies while sneaking about. You can blow them away with destruction magic. You can summon weapons and minions. There is a lot of variety here. That said, even though there is this larger choices of spells and abilities, it still suffers from the fact that enemy variety doesn't require depth or strategy.
VistraNorrez
Member
Just started playing with a follower and I've found if it's a tight corridor just let them fight and cast healing hands on them.
Just completed
- a whole lot of long range Archery and Fus Ro Dah on the castle walls sent people flying! I was trying to go through the game as an Archer, but have had to work on my two-handed for close encounters. At level 24, and some of the enemies like Bandit Chief's require a bit of close up love with my battleaxe.
Still looking for the enchantment to allow my arrows to light people on fire - not found that yet.
The Man Who Cried Wolf
Still looking for the enchantment to allow my arrows to light people on fire - not found that yet.
Yeah, I've been using courage/healing hands at times, but sometimes the AI will get stuck on a stairway or something, so I'll leave them behind - and then they just appear out of nowhere right as I use some spell that will fuck them up -_-
I wasn't able to finish the quest to
kill 3 undead with those scrolls of fire cloak
PalaceBrother
Member
I've got a friend who is having 3-4 minute load times on his 360 (the new small black model). Every time he fast travels or opens a door into a shop it takes forever.
I have the game installed on an older white model 360 and my load times are 25-30 seconds each. Is there a known issue with the game? Experience with Bethesda games has taught me to keep no more than 15-20 save files around at any time...he's not doing this; could this be the cause?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
I have the game installed on an older white model 360 and my load times are 25-30 seconds each. Is there a known issue with the game? Experience with Bethesda games has taught me to keep no more than 15-20 save files around at any time...he's not doing this; could this be the cause?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Is he saving to USB or local HDD (Cloud counts). I had that issue in Fallout3 because I was saving to a cheapo USB stick. Moved to HDD and it was faster. So that is a thought.
Holy shit, I'd lose my mind if I had to stare at a loading screen for 25 - 30 seconds each time, even. It's generally no more than a a couple seconds for me on PC for a loading screen.
I thought the same, but eventually archery becomes quite powerful and you'll be able to drop the melee combat completely. The only weapon I carry around now is my bow. I'm useless in close encounter situations still(shouts and magic help out in desperate situations), but my archery has gotten to the point where I can take down most enemies before they get a chance to get up in my face.
If you haven't already, work on your alchemy skills because you can create some very nice poisons to put on your arrows. Paralysis and slow poisons are useful to give yourself time against enemies rushing up to you. Damage Health and especially Lingering Damage Health are great for dishing out a good amount of extra damage. Plus, you can create Fortify Marksman potions that bump up your damage quite a bit(mine currently add 59% damage for 60 seconds).
Sounds like there's quite a lot of stacking of effects possible.
So Poison or Paralysis on the arrows (by applying it to you current held bow) + Enchantments on the bow for other effects + potions active for the player to improve Marksmanship?
I've not done a lot with potion crafting yet, but need to put some time into that. Found lots of strange ingredients, and have eaten one of each to determine the first effect, but need to dig deeper.
PalaceBrother
Member
Yes he is! Great suggestion; thanks.
Yup, there's quite a bit you can do.
As far as getting started with the alchemy, there's guides out there that'll tell you what creates what. If you do it on your own, its largely just randomly putting ingredients together hoping to discover a new potion. There's obviously some recipes you can buy or find lying around here and there, but they're not common. Its satisfying to do it this way, but if you're like me, I broke down and checked a guide for a couple recipes I dearly wanted. The Fortify Marksman one, for example, is tough to discover cuz there's only 4 ingredients that will create it.
And a piece of advice if you start using poisons - hotkey them. Its convenient when facing multiple enemies(or one strong one) to not have to go to the menu after every shot or two.
This is only one way of doing things, though. I know others have used enchanting and smithing to create a very powerful archer character. There's some perks on the sneak skill tree that are also extremely useful. Or you can use alteration and illusion magics to make fights easier or avoid them completely.
Lots of options available.
To add to Seanspeed's good advice, if you are interested in poisons, I suggest adding points to the perk tree up to the perk that applies them to two strikes, instead of one. As your alchemy skill rises, your potions become more potent (in addition to any perks taken to increase them). I currently have poisons that do 60 points of damage for two strikes, and lingering damage health poisons that do 12 points per second for 10 seconds for each of two strikes - and the effect stacks.
For my melee character on Master difficulty, they've been an essential way to combat dragons and other tough enemies. I also have paralysis poisons on hand that last for 9 seconds, which I use to stun dungeon bosses so I can beat them to death (so long as they're not undead or automatons).
When added to archery (which I've also done), you become immensely powerful. To the point where the game actually got too easy, which prompted me to re-roll on Master.
It's quite satisfying to tag someone with a potent lingering damage health poison and then just watch their life drain away before they can reach me.
Thanks very much for the advice - I had resisted looking at a potion guide, but will take a look and see what I can brew. My alchemy is untouched on the perk tree at the moment, so will need to add some perks there. The higher your alchemy level, the stronger the potions I assume.
I'm only playing on Adept and things are not easy for me. Probably because I dont use armor, so I've extremely vulnerable. I've also not invested much in raising my Health, so plenty of attacks(even an arrow from a bandit or something) do huge chunks of damage or outright kill me immediately.
I've usually got to plan my attack thoughtfully, but even then, I still die quite a bit. And I cant do anything about dragons. Right now, they just one-shot me and I just have to run.
Yep. And your rank up pretty quickly making potions.
I've only played on Expert and Master, but for the first 20 or so levels my archer was vulnerable in ways you describe. Getting the sneak perk for 3x damage combined with my poisons, I was killing about 1/2 of all enemies in one strike from sneak. From level 30 on up, it was about 3/4 of all enemies.
Once I got the perks for slow time and the stagger on arrow impact, even charging enemies posed very little threat. I wore light armor at all times, and worked on smithing to improve them, however.
What potions do you guys recommend for a mage, if any, aside from a backup supply of mana potions? I've been looking at all of them and they all seem pretty much oriented towards melee/bow users.
I've found that right now, I can't really get away with getting up close to a lot of the enemies as they just do huge amounts of damage to me since my armor value is low and my HP is also fairly low since I've mostly divested points into my mana so I have a decent pool. I don't really want to start pouring points into HP, though.
I've found that right now, I can't really get away with getting up close to a lot of the enemies as they just do huge amounts of damage to me since my armor value is low and my HP is also fairly low since I've mostly divested points into my mana so I have a decent pool. I don't really want to start pouring points into HP, though.
They've got Fortify 'whatever magic' potions you can make. Guessing you're using destruction as your main plan of attack, so make Fortify Destruction potions.
And if you're not completely opposed to the idea of carrying around a bow(any bow/arrow will do, it wont be your damage dealer), there's Weakness to Shock/Fire/Frost/Poison/Magic poisons you can launch off from a distance then switch to your magic and then blast them away.
Ah, I've seen the potions (and have made some) that give a bonus to my mana pool, but haven't seen any that boost specific magic attacks (fire, lightning, etc.)
Oh, and I have to say, being able to go into deep water with your horse in this game and not get booted off it is amazing. It seems like in every game that has horses as soon as you go into deep water they just boot you off your horse rather than, you know, letting it swim.
I remember, in particular, when I played LotRO if I fell from a few feet or went into deep water my horse would be desummoned and I'd have to resummon it again lol.
"Oh shit bro, you went into 3 feet of water. I'm out." *poof*
Now, if only we could attack while on horseback
I really wish this game had more fantasy environments, especially in caves. The only thing that really stands out are the Falmer/Dwarven caves which awed me the first time I walked through them. Aside from that everything looks so generic. They could've gone crazy with caves (a la demon doors in Fable) but sadly they didn't.
Mortrialus
Banned
Blackreach, yo. Best looking zone in the game. I wish there was like an entire city there with a shit ton of main side quests.
PalaceBrother
Member
The last cave in the "Sam Gwynne" (sp?) quest line was gorgeous. It was the first time in the game I really explored to see the landscape & design.
I agree that most of the caves are very repetitive dwemer/draugr mazes though.
RebornYeti
Member
So, I buckled and returned to Skyrim today. I was holding off on it until the DLC rolls out, but who knows when that will be!
Anyway, I created a new character... A Khajiit Brawler, in fact. He uses no weapons; just hisfists claws. He also likes Heavy Armor, Smithing, Restoration, and Enchanting. I think this is my favorite character I have created yet!
Anyway, I created a new character... A Khajiit Brawler, in fact. He uses no weapons; just his
I noticed some of you guys were complaining about enemy variety. Have you checked out Wars in Skyrim?
I'm tempted to give it a whirl, but since I'm on my first play through I don't want to start messing with the game. I'm just doing texture additions right now and leaving out all of the other modifications until my next play through.
I'm tempted to give it a whirl, but since I'm on my first play through I don't want to start messing with the game. I'm just doing texture additions right now and leaving out all of the other modifications until my next play through.
Blackreach falls under the Falmer/Dwarven caves I was talking about, though. I really wanted to see more caves like that, it's a fantasy game for god's sake.
Wow, those new enemies look great, but it's a bit too concentrated the amount of enemies in one area. I like the heroes vs villains aspect and wonder what scale the battles are on. Since I'm a console peasant I'll never get to enjoy this.
:sadface:
I think that video was kind of a poor demonstration of it.
Here's the mod download page which has a bunch more details about it. From what I gather it works well with Warzones which adds in exactly what you were wanting.
Really gotta try these out in my next play through.
Oh, and I totally made Lydia a beast in battle without realizing it. I gave her a few staffs to hold onto to free the space up in my inventory (staff of sparks, staff of lightning, and grand staff of repulsion). Well, she's been dual wielding the grand staff of repulsion and the staff of lightning and totally beasting it up in battles. Even bosses just get knocked around as she whacks them with repulsion lol.
ThirdEngine
Member
Did they ever fix that animation glitch where if you were playing as a man and wearing light armor you would walk/run with a woman's posture in third person? Playing on 360.
SUBZERO-08
Member
I have a question about the endgame mission.
Is this actually the last mission, or will I have a chance to do all the stuff I missed? I can't seem to fast-travel out of here, so I'll probably have to revert my save file.
I just finished a mission called The World-Eater's Eyrie, and then entered Sovngarde, but then I realized that this seems to be the final mission and that I might not have a chance to go and do a bunch of side missions I wanted to try.
Don't worry, you can still play after the main quest. Have fun!
Yeah it's fun as long as you stay out of their line of fire. Otherwise you won't know what hit you. Obviously I am not in their detection meter.
Nowadays I actually keep all staffs away from my companions. I've been killed at all the wrong times, and was tired of redoing entire dungeons and what not. I do however like putting self healing sword in their pockets, and I really like the "courage" spell.
I haven't died from that yet, thankfully. Lydia just bit the dust (again) and so I've decided to just leave her dead. I'm tired of her getting in the way all the time and dying, even with all of her pimped out armor, so I've now taken J'zargo as my follower instead. We'll see how he does.
I'm using the "specialized followers" mod as it adds quite a bit more depth to all the followers (they have unique specializations) so this should be interesting. For J'zargo, he alternates between fire, ice and lightning with this mod, and each of his attacks puts a debuff on the enemy so that it'll be weak to the next one (if hit with fire, then weak to ice, and so on).