Actually, the Dunmer look better in my opiinion. But yes, the others are more resembling ET than to the Humans, which is good in the sense that are not simply LOTR Movie Elves and more of a different race, but they are pretty ugly (except for Dunmer where it was an improvement)
[quote]Slow motion critical melee kills return from Fallout 3 and NV. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! Thankfully, there's a mod for that
I have grown to like it, there are some nice critical effects and it does break combat abit.
Their hair, their eyes, the 'age', the way they look...You have no control over character creation except for sex, race, and name. LAME.
Hasn't even happened once, even when fighting upon a side of a cliff against an undefeatable foe, who was luckily defeated as his fireballs smashed into the side of the cliff opposed to me.If you are a melee character, be prepared to fall off a LOT of cliffs due to your stupid power attacks.
Dual-wielding is far greater attack.. but you have absolutely no defence. This is why I built my second character into a shield-warrior/maiden, because they simply rock.Dual-wielding combat, one of the major focus points of the game's marketing, is nothing to write home about. It is neither good nor bad. Just mediocre.
They don't scale that well. So they get easier. Went from spamming health pots to kill a dragon to not even having to use one at all. But then evil undefeatable foe appeared out of no where... (which I ended up cliff jumping to defeat when one of my power attacked knocked him off)Dragons are pathetically easy. I found more challenge in fighting a random giant than I did with the two dragons I have thus far encountered.
As for Giants, only time I crossed one (other than one getting killed by companions), I was one-shotted. Though, I should be able to survive far better with my current shield-maiden opposed to my Dual-wielding Scrub Wannabe-Rogue.
Now I need to resolve my money issues.. leveling Blacksmithing is almost as expensive as the WoW version.
Last edited by Beskar; 11-13-2011 at 03:58.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Daggerfall.
Battlespire.
Morrowind.
Oblivion.
Skyrim.
Can you spot the odd one out? I'll give you a hint: The one without class customization.
It is a different style of "class" customization which is a big improvement over the old. Point being, you mould the character in whatever way you like, opposed to being forced up different trees with different sets and game limitations. Far greater choice and option.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!Originally Posted by North Korea
Why is a system with no classes so bad Kekvit? What does it actually do, except give you a "job"? You can just as easily roleplay that, and it has no effect whatsoever on how you progress through the game and level up. I came into the game with little knowledge of what was different, I admit had I known of some of the changes it may have swayed me toward the not buying it category. I can finally play an Elder Scrolls game and not worry about which skills I level up, no moments of "Ah bugger, athletics went up again, I'll not be able to max my strength increase this time..."
Magic does seem more op than usual, there isn't even that short stage of squishiness you normally have before you get some more powerful spells.
I do find pickpocketing having a skill tree of it's own a bit odd, how many people actually use it enough to level it up regularly?
Based on what people are saying across the net this looks suspiciously like a Bethesda game which I might enjoy rather than dutifully spend 100 hours plodding through. It looks like they have addressed most of my complaints about the earlier ES games and, to a lesser extent, Fallout 3. That makes me a very excited frog! I've been waiting and hoping for years - I like what they attempt to do with their RPGs but due to a few aspects I really hated I found them all disappointing and not much fun to play, however much I liked the freedom they gave the player. What were those problems, you might be wondering. The broken Elder Scrolls character system for one (like the concept, loathe the execution in both Morrowind and Oblivion), the terrible writing, the awful plots, the bland NPCs, the billion and one near-identical tunnel dungeons, the poor combat.
The best aspects of the prior Bethesda games are still clearly on display. A massive, open world. Lots of different directions to take your character in. A varied, detailed, toothsome magic system. Support skills like crafting which are genuinely helpful. A unique, different setting (excepting Oblivion's bland fantasyville) which offers a departure from the norm. Hundreds of hours of content. Useful little options like buying a house to store your stuff in. Morrowind was the kind of game where you could spend the opening hours of the game diving for pearls and running around the forests to gather plants, selling them to fund a nice set of starting equipment before heading out to follow a road into the great unknown to discover your own adventure. Plus: upside down longboat houses!
I can't afford to buy a copy so I shall have to live vicariously by other's reports. I suppose getting it sometime next year means that the bugs will be fixed. :froggy stands outside in the rain, face pressed against the window-glass, gazing in at all of the happy, warm people inside the thread. The people are drinking hot drinks, eating nice snacks, and animatedly boasting of their exploits in Skyrim's snowy wastes. Froggy shivers and wishes she had an umbrella:
I'd rate the Bethesda games as Morrowind -> Fallout 3 ------> Oblivion. I can't think of anything in Oblivion which I actually enjoyed ...
Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.
Here's my updated review:
The game has been out for 56 hours as of this moment. Steam says I have played it for 24 hours. I feel like I've barely even scratched it. Time to get stuck back in. Oh... if anyone needs to contact me for the next week or so, Steam is probably the best place to do it.
Anyone discovered how to make those killing moves? I heard that if you perform some sort of attacking sequence you'll activate them.
It could be random just as well.
I went searching for the "Org" steam group. Please say it's from Hungary.
Reinvent the British and you get a global finance center, edible food and better service. Reinvent the French and you may just get more Germans.
Ik hou van ferme grieten en dikke pintenOriginally Posted by Evil_Maniac From Mars
Down with dried flowers!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
I'm checking out the Xbox videos on Youtube. The graphics look amazing. Maybe the PC could do better but it was made to run on the 360 and I'm impressed so far.
Reinvent the British and you get a global finance center, edible food and better service. Reinvent the French and you may just get more Germans.
Ik hou van ferme grieten en dikke pintenOriginally Posted by Evil_Maniac From Mars
Down with dried flowers!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
What perks/skills are people going for?
I've been playing mainly one-armed/shield so far, although I am unsure whether to go for axes, maces or swords (or all 3). I've tended to use axes so far as the damage stat is higher but have no idea how well that's balanced with weapon speed (swords are fastest; maces slowest but with mid-level damage) and with the perks (bleed for axes, AP for maces and crit for swords).
Looking at the perk trees, the ones that grab me are the quality of life/utility ones from archery (zoom, slow time); heavy armour (weightless armour) and sneaking (muffle armor, running has less effect on stealth) as I use all those skills a lot. Having block stop arrows and reduce magic damage also sounds good for me.
Anyone got any tips on magic? I've tended to avoid it so far except for healing after combat.
Also how do you get started on enchanting? I used to know this for Morrowind/Oblivion, but now I find myself staring at these soul gems I keep looting and don't know where to begin.
Someone. Quick. Get me some humble pie. I soldiered through what Beskar called an "unpolished" intro, and found myself having fun. From Helgen to Bleak Barrows was poor IMHO, everything after that has been very nice. A big hoorah for persistence. All my gripes melted away at Whiterun, it pulled away my resistance (brought about by my abhorrence for hype) and sucked me in big time. Weekend = gone.
Graphical tweaks I'd recommend.
#Hillary4prism
BD:TW
Some piously affirm: "The truth is such and such. I know! I see!"
And hold that everything depends upon having the “right” religion.
But when one really knows, one has no need of religion. - Mahavyuha Sutra
Freedom necessarily involves risk. - Alan Watts
All right, felt like I've done nothing the whole weekend but hey, it was worth it.
Killed around six dragons, with an orc who I am trying to make into a powerful magic user
as well as Heavy Armor.
Now, I'm going to make hundreds of iron daggers to raise my smithy skill to make dragon armor.
"They're just overloaded from the spamgasm."-Askthepizzaguy
"... Either your as destructive as the most depraved 4 channer or so devious that you can cause the most trouble while acting utterly oblivious as to make us think your too dumb to be doing this intentionally... and the scary thing is I cant help but think the latter."-Greyblades
"Thefluffyone is the greatest thing to happen to the .org since Beefy187."-Askthepizzaguy
"TheFluffyOne makes me feel moist."-Askthepizzaguy
I've always avoided magic in ES games, so I chose to go as a mage in this one just for a change of pace. I'm a Breton mage, and have dumped almost all my level up points into magicka. I've found it to be very viable, when played properly. My main issue at the moment is deciding whether to be a robe-mage or a light armor mage. The robes provide massive bonuses to mana regeneration and decreased spell cost, and I can sling spells almost constantly while wearing a robe, with potions only required for large groups. However, robes also make me very fragile. As such, I'm trying to work my way towards being a light armor mage. I'm currently sporting full Dark Brotherhood gear, which is very nice for protection and combat. I use a bow as a secondary weapon, since I'm squishy due to low HPs, so even when out of mana I like to remain at a distance.
The main difference I find with being a light armor mage versus a robe mage is in prolonged magical combat. In light armor, mana regeneration is sufficiently slow to make it difficult to use magic after my initial pool is depleted. So, I tend to wade in with the big damage spells, then switch to bow to finish the battle. If it goes long enough to regenerate, I switch back to magic. However, I continue to carry around my robes and I put them on if I encounter a situation where I feel like I need to have a lot more magic at my disposal. What I am working towards, though, is a custom set of enchanted light armor with mana regeneration buffs. A set like that will serve both purposes without needing to swap back and forth.
As far as damage goes, magic is superb. I haven't bothered much with conjuration, alteration, or illusion. I'm generally just destruction and restoration. For a destruction mage, the perk tree is really very important. The 1/2 cost perks, the double casting perk, the staggering perk, and the increased damage perks are all essential IMHO. In fact, the only perk on the tree I'm not interested in is the increased range on rune spells. Double casting with staggering is itself very powerful. Everything you hit is staggered, and that gives you enough time to get off another spell. Provided I can maintain my mana, I can essentially disable and kill any single target with repetitive double casts. They simply don't recover long enough from the stagger to start moving again before I hit them with the next blast, which staggers them again. Dealing with crowds can be a bit more difficult, but that's only because I'm just barely getting to a high enough level for the crowd control spells to become affordable, mana-wise, in combat.
The damage spells themselves are also convenient for tactical decisions. I do not specialize in any single one and instead use all three, and have spent points in perks for all three. Fire is pure damage and I use it as my standard. Lightning is essentially the anti-mage spell tree, as it hurts mana as well as health. Hurl several double blast lightning bolts at an enemy mage and they won't be tossing much back at you. Cold is for crowd control situations, as the slow effect allows you to better handle multiple enemies coming from multiple directions.
I do drink a fair number of potions, but alchemy is always a no-brainer skill for me in ES games. I harvest everything I come across anyway and restore health and restore mana potions are extremely easy to make and common to find in Skyrim. I've never had much of an issue with running short on them, particularly restore health.
I will say that unless you're going to really fill out the destruction perk tree, I would not bother trying to use much in the way of magic for damage purposes. Without those perks, destruction does not seem to be very cost effective on the damage scale. If you're a warrior looking for some magic on the side, I would instead recommend using conjuration, alteration, or illusion to assist you. Something that you can cast at the beginning of a battle as a buff and then forget about. Destruction is really reserved just for dedicated mages with large mana pools.
Last edited by TinCow; 11-14-2011 at 19:00.
That's a good magic breakdown. Thank you.
I plan on starting off with my standard light fighter/heavy thief and planned on using cold as my primary combat magic. I hope this will give me the maneuverability advantage much like my stun/slow dual weapon main in DAO.
Last edited by Vladimir; 11-14-2011 at 18:18.
Reinvent the British and you get a global finance center, edible food and better service. Reinvent the French and you may just get more Germans.
Ik hou van ferme grieten en dikke pintenOriginally Posted by Evil_Maniac From Mars
Down with dried flowers!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
So how do you guys stay alive when faced with magic casting opponents? I'm playing as a heavy armor axe and shield orc and whenever I try to fight enemies that deal frost damage I die in just a couple of hits. I ended up having to run away from a dragon I couldn't beat, and when I was exploring an old Nord ruin I had to turn the difficulty down when faced with higher level magic casting drougrs.
Weapons that drain magicka and magicka poisons could be effective. I haven't had much trouble with casters, but then I'm a rogue type and usually get some sneak attacks in before they even know I'm there.
The Achilles heel for non-player spellcasters is mana. For player spellcasters, it tends to be health, but enemy spellcasters can often be really strong, particularly dungeon bosses. However, they still have stats like the player, and that includes a mana stat. They start a battle with full mana and drain it as they fight. They will not regenerate mana at anywhere near the rate they spend it, so if you can get past that initial period of heavy spell-slinging, things get a bit easier. As jht said, if you can do things to reduce their mana, that's a really good idea. Another thing you can do, and one I often use, is to just let them use it up. Their spells have to hit you just like archers' arrows do. Keep enough distance from them and you can dodge the spells. After a bit of dodging, the spellcaster will get to the bottom of their mana pool and their spells will come less frequently. Then charge in and whack away at them. Having a bow and arrow to do some damage while you're waiting for them to run dry will help as well.
Hmmm I think so too, however (luckily) it's not 50% here more 25%. Kinda boring if you do one every 2 kills.It is random AFAIK.
A bit too 'oftenly' random for my taste. More than 50 % of my kills have been cinematic. Be it sword or axe.
The only way to turn them off is to use a mod.
My character is a Dunmer Rogue. I plan to get the light armor, archery, 1 handed weapons (swords and dual wielding) and sneak perks. However I still do not know what's best to upgrade: Health, Magicka or Stamina.
And TinCow, can't you use a spell which gives you an armor buff(-something-flesh)? So you can keep the robes with the mana regeneration?
Also what difficulty do you guys play? I'm going to give master a try, just to make things interesting. Don't know how balanced dual wielding is compared to shield or magic, but it seems somewhat inferior.
Last edited by Drunk Clown; 11-14-2011 at 19:49.
I have to admit, I didn't expect what just happened...
Since I only did the beginning of the companion quests, this allowed me enough to get the Skyforged Steel Sword. Which is a very good blade. In my early Blacksmithing days, I improved it and thus it became "Superior" in quality, giving a nice boost to damage. Pretty much been using it the entire game.
I am currently level 20, and I still haven't come across better, but I decided my companion should have one and since then I picked up 2x +15% smithing improvement items and I had a +30% potion, so I thought "Let's give it a try".
Basically I now have two Legendary Skyforged Blade which is double their base stats (thus, 48 damage on them) which I am keeping one and giving the second to my companion. Just about to do my first dungeon with my new blade, but it looks like I made things simpler for me now.
Last edited by Beskar; 11-14-2011 at 20:03.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Bookmarks