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[Skyrim] & [The Elder Scrolls] I can't believe it's you! Posting here! Next to me!

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Posts

  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    Did they remove city dragon attacks? Because I know in previous games I would occasionally have one attack Solitude but I haven't seen one at all in my current game, even though I keep looking for one.

    I have never had this happen, and I play a lot of Skyrim.

    I'm pretty sure if you are getting dragon attacks inside major cities it's a mod. I don't use any of the dragon mods, no dragon combat overhaul, no deadly dragons etc. Never had a dragon attack inside a city world zone.

    -edit-

    Or maybe it's tied to a late stage in the main questline. I usually start the main questline but I rarely proceed past the point where you get the elder scroll, so if dragons spawning inside major cities is something that only happens very late in the main quest, I may have just been lucky the very few times I proceeded deep into the main quest.

    Regina Fong on
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited February 2015
    I've never used any dragon mods. I've seen a couple in Solitude, but this was a long time ago now and I haven't seen any since then. It's possible some other mod I was using caused it, but I don't know.

    I do have a screenshot from after I killed a dragon in Solitude:
    ?.jpg

    I uploaded that sometime in 2012. I have a feeling they got patched out at some point.

    Edit: And I've only made it past Diplomatic Immunity once, and that was fairly recent.

    Sir Carcass on
  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    Ok, some more research appears to have found the answer. There is an event trigger for dragons in walled cities, as well as a bug which keeps it from happening (or makes it incredibly rare) and that bug has apparently been fixed in the unofficial patch mod, hence people having very different experiences in encountering dragons within walled cities.

  • RoyceSraphimRoyceSraphim Registered User regular
    I had a mystery, I want to take Vladimar out for a spin (found him through his horse, outside markarth, stupid college student refused to move so I sent him home) and have him help slay a dragon. So we go out to that tower near the throat of the world. Things are going fine until the dragon flies over the hill and suddenly dies.

    I'm confused and set out to learn what the hell happened. After going one way, to the imperial camp and helping fend off bandits, to the shrine of talos and wondering if that killed it, I find arcwind point.

    Death Alternative has always failed to work for me but it was an impressive fight between all sides.

  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    it is hilarious seeing a dragon land in the College courtyard and get blasted in like 15 seconds by all the wizards

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    So something I'd like to have but which (surprisingly) nobody seems to have really tried implementing yet is the ability to taunt. Human enemies sometimes bang on their shields with their swords, and I've seen high-level Draugr do a weird sort of thing where they stop and point at you with their swords (although the animation is so slow by the time it finishes he's usually pointing at empty space rather than me). NPC's can taunt, at least a little, but you as a player can't.

    Ideally there'd be different animations depending on what type of equipment you had... bash your shield, brandish a two-hander above your head, beat your chest if you have a free hand or are Unarmed. I'm not sure what practical effect it would have or even if it needs one; I'd use it just for flavor and fun. That said, I did find a mod which is a spell that draws enemy aggro, and I guess that's one obvious effect... although personally I don't see much use in aggroing enemies to tank for your followers since half of what followers are good for is tanking for you. I think I'd rather see something like a chance to restore/add a small amount of health or stamina, and a smaller chance to apply a minor buff to any nearby allies. And it would probably be difficult to code but it would be awesome if when you taunted after a kill or two there was a chance enemies would be intimidated and flee.

    Gaslight on
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
  • HjorvarthrHjorvarthr Registered User regular
    Finished the main Dawnguard quest, on the Dawnguard side


    I enjoyed it, although the Soul Cairin was more than a bit confusing at first, especially looking for the opus pages

  • BionicPenguinBionicPenguin Registered User regular
    The Soul Cairn would be so much better with a proper map.

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    august wrote: »

    Damn. Want to find a video of that.

  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    The watercolor effect is surprisingly lovely, I think it's a much more elegant way to bring the graphics up to par for a Morrowind replay, vice that hodgepodge of high res texture mods that seems like such a major effort to instal.

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    Found a video where you can see what it looks like in motion while playing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qIXMZ-HaNLY#t=930

    (About 15:30 if that link didn't go to the right timestamp.)

    From a distance it seems to look pretty much like the vanilla textures, but the watercolor effect gets more and more noticeable the closer you get to something.

    Reminds me of that quest in Oblivion where you had to enter the artist's dream and kill trolls with paint thinner or something like that... that quest had a pretty neat watercolor effect as I recall, but I don't think anybody ever seized on the idea of applying it to the whole game.

    Edit: Went and found screenshots of that Oblivion quest ("A Brush With Death" in Cheydinhal) and looking at it objectively now the colors were kind of garish and silly. Was still a nice change from the overall blah look of Oblivion at the time though.

    Edit again: Just for kicks I decided to look up YouTube videos to see what the current cutting edge of Oblivion visual modding is, and immediately regretted it when I found a vid where people are talking about how "Oblivion's has such a unique atmosphere while Skyrim just feels empty" and "Skyrim feels like it was thrown together real quick." I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think Oblivion is a bad game by any means, I probably put close to 100 hours into it in its day, and I know people can have their opinions without hurting me, but sometimes I swear I read things and I just get a shooting pain between my temples.

    Gaslight on
  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    I'm not surprised that there exists a pocket of people who prefer Oblivion to Skyrim, and given human nature, that those people being in such a small minority take a negative position on Skyrim (given its massive popularity).

    I'm not even sure I can really criticize Oblivion except to say that I disliked it so much that I barely played it and considered it a waste of my money.

  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    I can almost see what they're thinking. Skyrim feels big and therefore everything has more room to breathe. Oblivion was basically like a theme park version of a fantasy world. I guess some people could see that as being more "full". A warehouse full of stuff feels more empty than a closet, too.

  • Toxic PickleToxic Pickle Thash grape! Registered User regular
    I really liked playing Oblivion, I just hated the main quest because it involved going into those stupid Oblivion gates, which were just torture. I put quite a few hours into that game, mostly just exploring around and doing all the guild quests, after which I quit. Thing is, I don't much care for the main quest in Skyrim either, but it's got so much more to do, and the modding community is so much larger and advanced, that I keep getting drawn back in to try new things.

    On that note, has anyone here ever tried ERSO - Erkeil's Real Skyrim Overhaul? I had never heard about it until the other day, as it was recommended by someone as an alternative to Perkus Maximus since it overhauls lots of stuff but doesn't use tons of scripts. I'm a little hesitant to try it myself (and haven't yet) because it really does touch everything, and figured I'd look for some feedback first.

  • Lucid_SeraphLucid_Seraph TealDeer MarylandRegistered User regular
    OH good. I was going to ask if I should try Oblivion once I've finished Morrowind, and the answer seems to be "don't bother."

    I have the entire Super Special Awesome Complete Collection In the Nice Box (I briefly worked for ZeniMax Online Studios so I got the whole thing at an employee discount) so I wouldn't be paying extra to play it, but I was more wondering if it's worth my time.

    Really loving Morrowind so far btw.

    See You Space Cowboy: a ttrpg about sad space bounty hunters
    https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    Eh, Oblivion is probably worth playing. It's just no where near as good as Skyrim. I'd at least recommend doing the guild quests, arena, and main story. The main story is pretty weak, but worth experiencing once.

  • KakodaimonosKakodaimonos Code fondler Helping the 1% get richerRegistered User regular
    Or just get a set of gear that has Chameleon > 100 and run through the oblivion gates. Makes them so much more enjoyable.

  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    You know, I put quite a bit of time into Oblivion when it came out, but I never progressed past the second quest in the main storyline.

    I've said this before: I'm not a big fan of Oblivion's fairly by-the-numbers approach to fantasy. Morrowind has a pretty unique philosophy and aesthetic, so it's no surprise that the next game couldn't match it for style, but it was still a bit jarring to do from something so different, unique, and flavorful to Tolkien-with-cat-people (and I say this as someone who loves Tolkien). I mean, I think the game has its merits, but setting is - in my opinion - not one of them.

    In terms of overall game-design, Oblivion really feels like the halfway point between Morrowind and Skyrim. That sounds like an idiotic thing to say, given that it literally is the middle game between them, so maybe it's more accurate to say that it feels like a first draft of Skyrim. It feels like they tried to make a Skyrim experience and didn't quite stick the landing; that became Oblivion. Then they learned from it, trimmed things that didn't really make sense in the kind of game they were trying to make (like attributes, for example), and the result was Skyrim.

  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    The setting of Oblivion is one of the things I didn't have a problem with.

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    Like all Bethesda open world games, Oblivion was a near-constant in my gaming life until Fallout came out. I enjoyed it a lot, but there's no way I could go back to it again now unlike Morrowind. Everything it did well was done better in Skyrim, and most of the things it did poorly were removed completely.

  • Lucid_SeraphLucid_Seraph TealDeer MarylandRegistered User regular
    I AM told that Shivering Isles is pretty awesome, and I do have that.

    See You Space Cowboy: a ttrpg about sad space bounty hunters
    https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    I AM told that Shivering Isles is pretty awesome, and I do have that.

    Oh yeah, I didn't even think about the DLC. Definitely do that. Knights of the Nine is decent, too. And don't even think about skipping Horse Armor.

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    Oh I missed that part. Yeah absolutely play Oblivion if you already own it and were considering doing the games chronologically. There's a lot of good stuff about it, Shivering Isles being at the top. Just from the perspective of someone who has played all of them it's difficult to go back once you move on to Skyrim.

  • McHogerMcHoger Registered User regular
    I AM told that Shivering Isles is pretty awesome, and I do have that.

    I realized that even though I have put hundreds of hours into them, the only Bethesda RPG I had done a lot of the story stuff to was the one they didn't make. So I'm going to try playing through them all and Shivering Isles is pretty much the thing that makes me want to play Oblivion.

  • Lucid_SeraphLucid_Seraph TealDeer MarylandRegistered User regular
    I AM told that Shivering Isles is pretty awesome, and I do have that.

    Oh yeah, I didn't even think about the DLC. Definitely do that. Knights of the Nine is decent, too. And don't even think about skipping Horse Armor.

    Yeah the Super Special Awesome Boxed Set has Arena through Skyrim and ALL of the DLC for all of those games.

    I decided to start with Morrowind just because I absolutely despise Western fantasy and am 100% burned out on that garbage, so I figured Morrowind would be a good way to get into the world, and then if I really dig it I'll move on to some of the other games.

    Another really interesting thing, actually... so my... er, I can't even call it a day job? My part time freelance thing I do because Grunt Office Jobs and Grunt Retail Jobs have repeatedly not worked out for me... I do layout and design for various indie tabletop roleplaying game publishers, mostly 3rd party guys who do Pathfinder stuff. I have to say, Oblivion's dungeon maps? They are REALLY well made from a dungeon designer perspective. The best dungeon maps in D&D adventure design theory (did you know that was even a thing? I didn't until I started doing this job!) have multiple ways of completing the dungeon, multiple paths, multiple entrances, and multiple ways of encountering things. All but one dungeon in Morrowind so far has hewn almost completely to this design philosophy in the best way, and the one that didn't was just a really small mini-dungeon (some dude's tomb. I took his things. He's dead, what does he care?). The first Dwemer dungeon ESPECIALLY is just fantastic in terms of layout; the really clever bit at the beginning with the timed door, and... heck I haven't even gotten through the whole thing, there's some locked door that I was like I'm low on health, I'll come back later. About the only thing most don't seem to have are multiple entrances, but one of them did so whatever. Neat stuff, I'm taking notes :p

    On the flip side the actual encounter design, that is, how you encounter and fight dudes, has thus far been boring, but I think that's mostly just an engine limitation and the nature of computer games vs tabletop. Everything is mostly "encounter a dude and just wail on him yelling till you maybe hit the guy, and hope you have enough potions."

    See You Space Cowboy: a ttrpg about sad space bounty hunters
    https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    On the flip side the actual encounter design, that is, how you encounter and fight dudes, has thus far been boring, but I think that's mostly just an engine limitation and the nature of computer games vs tabletop. Everything is mostly "encounter a dude and just wail on him yelling till you maybe hit the guy, and hope you have enough potions."

    Morrowind's combat is tedious in part because they stayed too close to tabletop; every time you swing your sword the game is rolling virtual dice to see if you hit him based on your skills instead of looking for a collision between the models.

  • Lucid_SeraphLucid_Seraph TealDeer MarylandRegistered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    On the flip side the actual encounter design, that is, how you encounter and fight dudes, has thus far been boring, but I think that's mostly just an engine limitation and the nature of computer games vs tabletop. Everything is mostly "encounter a dude and just wail on him yelling till you maybe hit the guy, and hope you have enough potions."

    Morrowind's combat is tedious in part because they stayed too close to tabletop; every time you swing your sword the game is rolling virtual dice to see if you hit him based on your skills instead of looking for a collision between the models.

    Well it's a matter of more like... being halfway. In a tabletop game, I can say "Eh fuck this, I'm going to use my rope to swing off that thingy sticking out of the wall and kick him in the face" or "I'm going to break that Dwemer steam pipe and scald everyone in the room" or "I'll light the alcohol in my bag on fire to make a molotov cocktail" or "I throw a bag of flour at him to temporarily blind him, and then roll ball bearings on the floor so he might trip."

    In Morrowind, yeah, I could have a bag of flour on me, but I can't throw it at a dude's face and have that effect. I CERTAINLY can't swing on a rope to kick a dude in the face.

    Also, man, my 1st level 1st edition D&D wizard hits more often than my 5th level Morrowind character. Like 90% of every fight is spent with me and the other guy going wiff wiff wiff wiff. Whatever system they're using, I don't think it even has the 5% change of a guaranteed hit that D&D has.

    See You Space Cowboy: a ttrpg about sad space bounty hunters
    https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    Skyrim also has wonderful dungeon design.

    There are caves and very small dungeons, yes, but there's also just a metric fuckton of medium to large dungeons and they are so cool.

  • EnigEnig a.k.a. Ansatz Registered User regular
    Yeah I think I remember it being a talking point that while Skyrim has fewer dungeons they are more handcrafted than Oblivion's.

    I would say that Oblivion is definitely worth playing, though Skyrim is better in pretty much every way, so it is probably best to play Oblivion before experiencing Skyrim, if possible.

    ibpFhR6PdsPw80.png
    Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
  • NosfNosf Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    Started to play again some, didn't want to grind out enchanting, sneak etc so I used player.advskill to rank up some skills. At the same time, I'm using some bandit levelling mod. So yeah, without upgraded and enchanted gear, you get positively wrecked at high levels wearing basic leather and weapons. Ouch.

    At one point, I went into that bandit camp south of the Dragon Bridge on the little river - there were ~5 bandit chiefs and god knows how many bandits in a mix of ebony, glass, etc. Breaking in via the little grotto under the chief's hut went.....real poorly. I had to leave poor Aela behind as I parkour'd my ass over the wall off a tent.

    Nosf on
  • RoyceSraphimRoyceSraphim Registered User regular
    I AM told that Shivering Isles is pretty awesome, and I do have that.

    Oh yeah, I didn't even think about the DLC. Definitely do that. Knights of the Nine is decent, too. And don't even think about skipping Horse Armor.

    Yeah the Super Special Awesome Boxed Set has Arena through Skyrim and ALL of the DLC for all of those games.

    I decided to start with Morrowind just because I absolutely despise Western fantasy and am 100% burned out on that garbage, so I figured Morrowind would be a good way to get into the world, and then if I really dig it I'll move on to some of the other games.

    Another really interesting thing, actually... so my... er, I can't even call it a day job? My part time freelance thing I do because Grunt Office Jobs and Grunt Retail Jobs have repeatedly not worked out for me... I do layout and design for various indie tabletop roleplaying game publishers, mostly 3rd party guys who do Pathfinder stuff. I have to say, Oblivion's dungeon maps? They are REALLY well made from a dungeon designer perspective. The best dungeon maps in D&D adventure design theory (did you know that was even a thing? I didn't until I started doing this job!) have multiple ways of completing the dungeon, multiple paths, multiple entrances, and multiple ways of encountering things. All but one dungeon in Morrowind so far has hewn almost completely to this design philosophy in the best way, and the one that didn't was just a really small mini-dungeon (some dude's tomb. I took his things. He's dead, what does he care?). The first Dwemer dungeon ESPECIALLY is just fantastic in terms of layout; the really clever bit at the beginning with the timed door, and... heck I haven't even gotten through the whole thing, there's some locked door that I was like I'm low on health, I'll come back later. About the only thing most don't seem to have are multiple entrances, but one of them did so whatever. Neat stuff, I'm taking notes :p

    On the flip side the actual encounter design, that is, how you encounter and fight dudes, has thus far been boring, but I think that's mostly just an engine limitation and the nature of computer games vs tabletop. Everything is mostly "encounter a dude and just wail on him yelling till you maybe hit the guy, and hope you have enough potions."

    This is why I always recommend the marksmenship mod because it put me at a point where I was throwing steel throwing stars at an ashlander bandit and he was yanking them out of his flesh and throwing them back at me. Purely a matter of the stars being added to his inventory and he switched to them because they had a higher damage rating than his dagger, but in terms of gameplay, it was awesome.

    Would have been more awesome if I could slow down time and snatch them out of mid air but, eh.

  • HjorvarthrHjorvarthr Registered User regular
    started up Dragonborn


    a very nice walk in the past so far, Morrowind music, the plants, and the netch!

  • RoyceSraphimRoyceSraphim Registered User regular
    Started Siege of the Dragon cult. I don't know if its the mods I have installed or Bethesda, but hearing this dude talk....from the first word...the way he looked.
    I stabbed that Thalmor fool like he was fucking Fargoth. So fucking obviously I had to laugh. A high elf storm cloak?

    Motherfucker, did you believe I would see your ears and think, "those are the ears of a close ally of Ulfric Stormcloak!"

    Its funny how the little things make you laugh. I believe I will make it my mission every new character to visit this person.

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    Even better doing that quest if you followed Hadvar at the start of the game.
    He's dressed as an Imperial officer, which is still ludicrous but a bit less so. If you let him live and clear out the dungeon, when you get out he's dressed up like a Stormcloak and trying to con a Stormcloak soldier into going inside.

    It's like three for the price of one, when they both attack you. Killing an actual Stormcloak as well as a Thalmor dressed up as a Stormcloak? Couldn't ask for a better gift.

    Aistan on
  • HjorvarthrHjorvarthr Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    I love that quest

    and I enjoy these quests in Skyrim, just finding stuff while wandering around and getting rewarded for doing so


    also Miraak is being a jerk, stealing my dragon souls, that's what I get for defending Dawnstar from a dragon attack

    Hjorvarthr on
  • ArteenArteen Adept ValeRegistered User regular
    Just turn Oblivion's difficulty down as low as possible and run around, explore and quest until you've seen all the game's highlights. Be a Cyrodiil tourist!

  • Regina FongRegina Fong Allons-y, Alonso Registered User regular
    Best non-troll use of AFT "make anyone a follower" ability: Was doing the Morthal quest and feeling rather low level to take on the vampire nest alone, and I'm like... hey there are 4 Dawnguard guys just hanging out in Morthal, they can get off their lazy asses and help me. And so they did!

  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    Arteen wrote: »
    Just turn Oblivion's difficulty down as low as possible and run around, explore and quest until you've seen all the game's highlights. Be a Cyrodiil tourist!

    It is unfortunate that they dumped all the language skills after Daggerfall, otherwise that would be a very, very silly runthrough.


    rip The Linguist. Even though no proper Linguist could make it out of Privateer's Hold.

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