Topic: Killing Dragons and Stuff (Skyrim)

[broodwars]

Well, my gift cards arrived today so I picked up Skyrim on PS3.  I hope I don't come to regret that.  The Nordic setting and not having to deal with stat point assignment might just be the thing to get me into an Elder Scrolls game this time, as at least it doesn't look like yet another Tolkien-esque High Fantasy like all the other Elder Scrolls games do.

[Caliban]

I tried to steal something from someone's house while he was in it. Needless to say, he didn't like that. He tried to kill me, but I ended up killing him first.

There's this video showing off the AI from Skyrim where the player covers the heads of the 2 witnesses with buckets, and they don't end up seeing that he stole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5aUdijAN8

[oohhboy]

I am not sure whats funnier, the pots or shoplifting without even walking out the door still promotes a suicidally lethal response. You would think they would program in a confrontational dialogue tree where they challenge you giving you the option of putting it back, paying for it, lie, or fight/run when you first get caught. I mean christ, you think they lived in Detroit or something.

[Morari]

[...] at least it doesn't look like yet another Tolkien-esque High Fantasy like all the other Elder Scrolls games do.

I think that's really only true for Oblivion, and it suffered greatly because of it. Morrowind was a very interesting and decidedly different world from what you'd normal see in the fantasy genre.

[BlackNMild2k1]

That's kind of what happened with me. I just got bored.

Although I found this to be kinda funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTgUm8VEWiU

[Chozo Ghost]

No, I starting killing everyone BECAUSE it was empty and boring.

I don't think that defense would hold up in court.

[NWR_insanolord]

Early indications make it seem like I should be able to run this game through CrossOver, so I may pick it up when I'm done with Mario and Zelda.

[Oblivion]

The one thing I did like was...the water physics?

[broodwars]

So now that I own the game, I went and restarted the game with a new character: a High Elf, due to my love of spell-casting in games like this.  I also picked a different person to follow in the introductory sequence.  I found that this time playing through the game, I've been enjoying it much more now that I don't have my friend looking over the shoulder and subtly pressuring me to keep moving.  I can take my time, poke around, and just enjoy the atmosphere.

My character is at Level 5 so far, with perks focused in Regeneration; Destruction; and Lockpicking.  Leveling-up my skills and stats feels more fun and easier to understand than it did in Morrowind, though I can't say the selection of perks altogether blows me away so far.  I am a bit annoyed at having to crouch all the time to level-up my Sneaking skill, but I suppose I'll thank myself for that later when I have to perform tasks for the Thieves Guild (as well as going for the pickpocket trophy).  From what I've read, the level cap this time around is in the 70s, so unlike Fallout 3 there seems to be plenty of leveling to do.

At the moment, my character is in the Barrow Downs on the sidequest related to the Golden Claw, and I've started having my first encounter with Undead Foes.  So far, my only big criticism of the game is that magic is a bit too useful, to the extent that at the moment I'm wondering why I'm even bothering carrying a bow.  I suppose bow strikes have the advantage of sneak attack damage bonuses and possibly being effective against magic-resistant enemies, but I haven't run into any yet.  I am also really missing Xenoblade's "fast travel at any time, even within a dungeon" feature when I'm dungeon crawling in Skyrim, as it's a royal pain dealing with the weight constraints on my inventory.

[Chozo Ghost]

it's a royal pain dealing with the weight constraints on my inventory.

That's one reason why I said I wanted to make a "Hulk Hogan" character. Huge strength means being able to carry more loot, and that's one of the most convenient ways to build up money. Plus it doesn't hurt to be hauling as much equipment as possible so you can be prepared for whatever situations await you. I would think with your magical elf character the strength would be really low so hauling loot will be more difficult.

[broodwars]

I would think with your magical elf character the strength would be really low so hauling loot will be more difficult.

Possibly (incidentally, my weight limit is 300 lbs.), but the annoying thing is that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to focus on to boost my weight-carrying capacity.  In Fallout 3 or Morrowind, you simply boosted your Strength stat at Level-up time, but that stat no longer exists in Skyrim.  Giant Bomb's Quick Look of the game revealed that you can find an item at one of the Standing Stones that increases your weight limit by 100 lbs., but otherwise I don't know how to boost my character's carrying capacity.  Maybe I'm supposed to get a perk in one of the combat skills?

[Chozo Ghost]

I remember in Fallout 3 there was a perk that let you haul an extra 50 pounds or something like that. I haven't played Skyrim, but its possible there is something like that.

BTW, an elf can haul 300 pounds right from the get go? Wow. If I remember correctly, I think in fallout 3 and oblivion that was the max you could do, assuming you maxed out in that area. Is the new limit 500 pounds or something? Or is this just the default new carrying maximum, and you can't go beyond it?

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

This is on my 'to purhcase' list, but there are other higher priority games I must get to first. My playtime on Oblivion was ridiculous, and while I don't think I have the time any more to sink as many hours into Skyrim, I'm ready for that style of game again.

Broodwars, assuming that most of the same spells carry over to Skyrim, if you work on your Alteration skill, you could get to a high enough level to be able to cast Feather, which boosts your encumbrance limit. That, or if a permanent boost would be preferable, if you can find an enchanting station, you could enchant an item with Feather. As I recall, the character I used in Oblivion, with all the measures I took, could hold 600 pounds, so it stopped being a problem in caves and dungeons.

[broodwars]

Amusing.  On my way to the game's first real town, I was beckoned over by a bunch of drunks who wanted me to partake in a drink.  I offered them a bottle of my own.  In return, they gave me a charm that gives me +25 lbs. to my Carrying Capacity.  And there was much rejoicing.

[Chozo Ghost]

Have you run into any HP Lovecraft references? Bethesda games typically have at least one Lovecraft reference. Oblivion had the town of Hackdirt and the quest there, and Fallout 3 had that one building with the obelisk in the basement, and the Necronomicon. I would reasonably expect Skyrim to have something like that also.

[Morari]

Isn't it about time they make an open-world Lovecraft adventure RPG? I want to be able to walk from Miskatonic University all the way out to Innsmouth and Dunwhich. A lot of the standard RPG tropes would translate over, too. Warriors could become police/investigators. Mages would become Miskatonic scholars. Rouges would be bootleggers and other assorted organized criminals from the time.

They'd really have to bring Sandy Peterson in as a lead designer though. Between his creation of the Call of Cthulhu pen and paper RPG and his work at Id Software on Doom and Quake, he'd be the obvious choice.

[Shorty McNostril]

So like I said initially, this game didn't really grab me like I was hoping it would.  So I took it back and am going to wait until it goes weekly for rental and try again.

Last night I saw Oblivion on sale on Steam for something like $6.  So I downloaded that one to give me chance to get into the whole Elder Scrolls universe.  Thus far it is looking good. 

[Morari]

Oblivion is by far the worse experience you will have in the series. Please keep that in mind.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Well, then maybe after some time with Oblivion, he will appreciate Skyrim when he gives it a second chance.

[Morari]

I'm hoping so.

I wouldn't say that Oblivion is necessarily bad in hindsight. It was just boring after having played Morrowind, both from the standpoint of story and setting. It all felt and looked very generic. A lot of the misdemeanors found within the gameplay itself was due entirely to it having a more console-focused development.

These are all problem Skyrim seem to largely fix... except for the list-style menus.

[Caliban]

Last night I saw Oblivion on sale on Steam for something like $6.  So I downloaded that one to give me chance to get into the whole Elder Scrolls universe.

I did the same thing, but the damn game doesn't want to run on my laptop.

[broodwars]

And so it begins.  I got my first crash in Skyrim mid-battle against a mage up near one of the Standing Stones near the first main town.  Great, it's like Fallout 3 already, where 90% of my crashes happened mid-combat in VATS.  At least I...probably...have an auto-save relatively close to that point since I had just Fast-Traveled in a few minutes prior.

As for my progress before Bethesda's laughably poor programming department decided I was done for the night, I had defeated my first Dragon (thus getting my first Shout) and joined The Companions.  I really need a house to store all my crap right now, but 5,000 gold for one is highway robbery and it's going to seemingly take ages to rack up that much cash given how much the local shops are ripping me off when buying my crap.

I'm doing pretty well on levels so far, as this first town has afforded me many opportunities to raise my Lockpicking Skill.  I've found a pretty good system for raising multiple skills at once in battle as well:

1.  Kill my target with Destruction Magic or my one-handed weapon if it gets too close.
2.  Go into Sneak mode and use Raise Zombie to revive the enemy's corpse as I sneak behind it.
3.  Use a power swing to severely hurt or instantly kill (3X Stealth Attack) my zombie.
4.  If the zombie is too strong to die that easily, whack away at it with my one-handed weapon until it is dead while taking any hits the zombie decides to inflict.
5.  Heal any damage afterwards.

I've found this method pretty effective for raising my Destruction; Sneaking; One-Handed; Light Armor; Restoration; and Conjuration skills pretty much at once.

[broodwars]

I ran into two extremely nasty situations today dungeon-crawling around that first major town.  The first was when I was exploring the caves north of the city, which at first seemed to be the standard issue spiders but gradually got much more dangerous as this new goblin-type enemy started emerging.  My conjured Bound Blades were effective at first, but that didn't last for long.  Thankfully, I had invested in other Conjuring abilities such as Familiar and that fire demon thing, which helped out a great deal.

Actually, I'm gradually finding the Destruction magic not particularly helpful against the stronger enemies, so I've found myself really increasing my Conjuring skill.

I eventually found myself in an ancient dwarven ruins guarded by an intimidating-looking-but-not-particularly-tough Dwarven mechanical golem and another of those goblin things with an instant kill spell.  Yeah, that was fun.  I did eventually manage to kill the goblin using multiple fire demons to wear him down and draw his attention so I could slice at him up close with my Dwarven War Axe, but that took quite a few reloads to pull off.  I picked up a lot of Dwarven junk in there, which I've stored in my newly-purchased house until I know what I can do with it all.

The second really nasty situation was when I found myself able on the map to fast-travel to a location in the mountains north of that 1st city that I'd never been to before.  I don't know why I could travel to it, but I suddenly found myself in a confrontation with a dragon.  The dragon was dispatched simply enough with arrows; magic; and my axe.  However, I noticed a Word wall nearby and was ambushed walking up to it by what's apparently a "dragon priest" named Knosis.  Yeah, that was a fun fight, considering he could control any creature I conjured and was fond of spamming a fireball attack that would wipe out my HP in 5 shots.  Thankfully, using a piece of debris for cover I managed to get his AI stuck trying to figure out how to attack me.  Meanwhile, I shot well over 100 arrows at him until he finally went down, raising my Archery a good 3-4 levels in the process and earning a level-up (and a nifty mask that ups several of my skills by 20% while worn).  I got a full 3-word shout in the process as well, though I could only power it up to the second word.

As an aside, I ran into another dragon today as well back in Rivertown, as it came out of nowhere and suddenly started attacking the town.  That was a fun fight.   

I'm getting increasingly annoyed at how little it seems you can influence the Speech skill.  There are several times I've tried to persuade someone, but the game doesn't tell you your odds and Speech can seemingly only be increased by shopping or those speech checks.  I've yet to successfully persuade anyone, and it's getting annoying.

[Morari]

My biggest beef with Skyrim so far. The menu system is terrible, and gets worse as you play. I'm starting to think that even the menus in Oblivion were better. It doesn't take much to whip up a proper RPG menu system... they had it almost 100% right in Morrowind. See what catering to consoles gets us? Devolution.

[Chozo Ghost]

Games like this should just require a USB Mouse and/or keyboard for play on the consoles. You can get a USB mouse for like what, $10? At that price they could just bundle an official Skyrim mouse with the game if people really don't have one. All consoles have USB ports, so its not like this would be logistically difficult or anything. In a way the analog stick might have been a bad innovation because it has supplanted the mouse even in games where a mouse would have worked better.