Note: LucasForums Archive Project
The content here was reconstructed by scraping the Wayback Machine in an effort to restore some of what was lost when LF went down. The LucasForums Archive Project claims no ownership over the content or assets that were archived on archive.org.

This project is meant for research purposes only.

Skyrim: Elder Scrolls 5

Page: 4 of 5
 Achilles
12-08-2011, 12:05 AM
#151
Does anyone know if there is a limit on how many perks you get? The numbers I've seen are 50 and 70. I'm only at level 29, and I'm worried I might have wasted some perks.The rate at which your skills advance slows at level 50 and you stop getting perks altogether at level 81.
 Sabretooth
12-08-2011, 12:33 AM
#152
Does a level increase do anything for you other than give you an extra perk and an increase in health/magicka/stamina? Since there are no attributes now, I was wondering if level-ups contribute to a general increase in attack/defence.
 Alkonium
12-08-2011, 12:41 AM
#153
Well, unless you count level scaling and requirements for certain quests, no.
 Achilles
12-08-2011, 2:40 AM
#154
Does a level increase do anything for you other than give you an extra perk and an increase in health/magicka/stamina? Since there are no attributes now, I was wondering if level-ups contribute to a general increase in attack/defence.
Defense, yes, so far as your overall skill in light and/or heavy armor improves, but that's not dependent upon leveling up. You could be capped with heavy armor of 91 but still see your Armor stat increase as you approach 100. You just won't be able to get any more perks.

Attack appears to be your weapon's stats + perks + condition (fine, superior...epic, etc)
 Dak Drexl
12-12-2011, 5:04 PM
#155
Next Wednesday I'm walking directly to Best Buy after my last exam and picking this bad boy up. I'm planning on getting very little sleep over the next month.

How's it stacking up against Oblivion for everyone?
 Achilles
12-12-2011, 5:13 PM
#156
It's better than Oblivion in every way. It's still in Morrowind's shadow. If you played FO:NV at all, expect to spend a little time wondering why a newer game from the same publisher (not developer) doesn't have any options.
 ChAiNz.2da
12-12-2011, 5:28 PM
#157
How's it stacking up against Oblivion for everyone?
If I were younger, I'd be pulling 48 hour gaming sessions. Good thing my body (and mind?) force their will on me and make me sleep... eventually. :lol:

If you're easily side-tracked (like me).. don't expect to get anything storyline related done quickly. I'm over 200 hours in and have just barely started it :indif:
 mimartin
12-12-2011, 5:41 PM
#158
If I were younger, I'd be pulling 48 hour gaming sessions. Good thing my body (and mind?) force their will on me and make me sleep... eventually. :lol:

I did the up until 4:00am Sunday morning only thing it got me was to sleep all day Sunday. I was too tired even to eat Sunday.

It is a very fun game, but at times it can be very frustrating too. With each patch the stability of the games get steadily worse. I went from two crashes in twenty hours to 10 in thirty hours. Despite the frustration, I still can’t wait to get home and play it some more.
 mur'phon
12-12-2011, 6:47 PM
#159
Better than Oblivion in every way (though not Morowind), but as I'm playing it at the same time as New Vegas, I find myself spending less and less time with Skyrim and more and more with Vegas. Partly because the writing is much better, partly because it usually gives me more options, and partly because I don't feel like my character is getting more powerful. I'm kinda disappointed, it's not a bad game, it just isn't for me.
 Sabretooth
12-13-2011, 3:21 AM
#160
Ah Morrowind, none shall touch thy awesome.

Skyrim is fun and very addictive, but my primary problem with it is that it is too boring. I can play it for hours and think about playing it for hours when I'm not playing it, but when I'm playing it there's a distinct sense of want and excitement. Skyrim just doesn't deliver, it feels too flat and dull. Even Morrowind by contrast felt more alive than this one does.
 Drunkside
12-13-2011, 4:00 AM
#161
I agree with you on that, Sabre. Especially the Bloodmoon expansion felt amazingly alive compared to Skyrim. There just is nothing happening in the world when Im not around, and that kinda takes away from the immersion. Its still a great game, and way better than Oblivion.
 Sabretooth
12-13-2011, 10:37 AM
#162
There just is nothing happening in the world when Im not around, and that kinda takes away from the immersion.

Very much this. Skyrim feels too player-centric. Understood that the player is the centre of attraction, being the Dovahkiin and all, but the world as a whole feels absolutely lifeless. I've finished 4-5 story quests by now and nothing in the world's plotline has advanced at all, everything in this game just remains static.

I've heard nothing about the war between the Stormcloaks and the Empire since leaving Helgen. I hear nothing about what the Jarls think of each other, where the battlelines are and who is siding with who. The quests are amazingly trivial town affairs (boohoo I lost my sword, boohoo I need a courier, boohoo X did me wrong so I want him dead).

Apart from two (counted) people near the Helgen pass, I haven't seen anyone on the roads. Don't people in Skyrim get around for business or something? People has a whole seem incredibly laidback considering how much they keep talking about the war and the dragon resurgence.

The 'city' of Whiterun is barely a town in size and if I'm not mistaken, even smaller than Morrowind's unassuming Balmora. Vivec is what you call a goddamn city. The villages of Skyrim are pitifully poor as well and hold little to nothing of interest.

I'm coming to view Skyrim as little more than a glorified first-person dungeon crawler at this rate.
 mimartin
12-13-2011, 11:30 AM
#163
Do not take this as an Attack on Morrowind, it is not.

Are you sure you are not judging vanilla Skyrim against a Morrowind full of mods? I seem to remember Barmora being being pretty bland before Balmora Expansion and about 50 other mods.
 Sabretooth
12-13-2011, 11:40 AM
#164
I never played Morrowind with mods, so I'm pretty sure. :p
 ChAiNz.2da
12-13-2011, 11:49 AM
#165
Do not take this as an Attack on Morrowind, it is not.

Are you sure you are not judging vanilla Skyrim against a Morrowind full of mods? I seem to remember Barmora being being pretty bland before Balmora Expansion and about 50 other mods.

I never played Morrowind with mods, so I'm pretty sure.

Really? Because vanilla Morrowind doesn't have travelers walking the roads either. It wasn't until the mods gave life to the Morrowind world that it became what nostalgia makes it to be. Morrowind Comes Alive was one of the biggest breakthroughs for it.

The Water Life mod was another. Vanilla Morrowind swimming was a death wish in the form of slaughterfish swarms (though at least you could fight).

Morrowind's quests were nothing but fetch quests, cave clearing or escort jobs. Pretty sure nostalgia is blurring many views nowadays.

Don't get me wrong.. I absolutely LOVE Morrowind... modded. To the gills. Otherwise it's pretty much what Oblivion and Skyrim (vanilla) is. Just more reading and paying attention since it doesn't hold your hand for quests. That's really the only difference :xp:
 Sabretooth
12-13-2011, 12:14 PM
#166
Agreed about Morrowind's quests being fetch quests, but boy were there a bazillion of those in Morrowind. Skyrim doesn't nearly have the crazy amount of quest-dishing Morrowind had.

Surprised to hear Morrowind didn't have anyone walking about... I think I'm confusing it with STALKER now...
 Achilles
12-13-2011, 1:13 PM
#167
I think there's more than enough selective memory to go around here :xp:

Skyrim absolutely has life outside the player. In fact, I can tell you exactly where the spawn points are. Walk around this corner and you might see a hunter tracking game, Vigilants of Stendarr fighting off skeletons, a fire mage and an ice mage duelling, etc. Walk into Whiterun and listen to the rich farmer dude questioning the quality of poor meat merchant's selections and so on.

By the same token, Morrowind had a fair amount of stuff going on in the cities and town without mods (I know this not only because I remember, but because my son is playing it). There were random encounters on the road, but they weren't nearly as sophisticated as they were in Oblivion or Skyrim. I'm sure mods expanded on this, but the elements were there without them.

And I think most of the nostalgia for Morrowind has to do with the quality of the writing of the main quest. I don't think anyone would argue that this was sorely lacking in Oblivion. My contention with Skyrim is that, while good, it fails to meet the high water mark set by Morrowind and utterly fails to dovetail with any of the other quest lines.
 mimartin
12-13-2011, 4:16 PM
#168
My contention with Skyrim is that, while good, it fails to meet the high water mark set by Morrowind and utterly fails to dovetail with any of the other quest lines.
I really like The Companions and The College of Winterhold quest lines in Skyrim. My only complaint is both are way too short and have the depth of a fish bowl. Both stories had so much wasted potential. However in other places Skyrim seems to paint a vibrant view of life in a harsh magical environment. There was a time wondering though a cave reading journals that I was reminded about one of my favorite quest lines from Fallout: New Vegas (Randall Clark’s computer journals as the Survivalist). Although the Skyrim’s equivalent is both way darker and (of course)shorter dealing with a necromancer necrophiliac and the journals deal with his little experiments.
 stoffe
12-14-2011, 5:29 AM
#169
but the world as a whole feels absolutely lifeless.
(...snip...)
The 'city' of Whiterun is barely a town in size and if I'm not mistaken, even smaller than Morrowind's unassuming Balmora. Vivec is what you call a goddamn city.


Speaking of lifeless and Vivec, the only people I ever saw moving about in Vivec were the Ordinators patrolling the streets. Otherwise its streets and corridors gave the distinct impression of a ghost town. Sure there were a lot of rooms and chambers that had lots of NPCs squirreled away, but they stayed put and due to the size and architecture of the place they were so spread out that it still felt deserted. :)

Vivec was also the city in Morrowind that I avoided to visit unless I had some specific business there. The place was so (needlessly) big that it took forever to go anywhere, and it was a confusing maze of corridors and rooms without many distinct points of recognition. While Vivec certainly was impressive in scale to visit for the first time, I'd rather have a town like Whiterun to actually play and conduct business in. :)


Apart from two (counted) people near the Helgen pass, I haven't seen anyone on the roads. Don't people in Skyrim get around for business or something?

I've been encountering a fair amount of activity on the roads while roaming around. Just off the top of my head: Imperials and Stormcloaks fighting, guards and bandits fighting, hunters pursuing game, jackbooted Thalmor squads dragging prisoners around in chains, bandits lying in ambush, mercenaries en route to clear out some place that can be persuaded to show you where on the map, skooma/moonsugar dealers trying to sell you their goods, a thief wanting you to hold on to their ill-gotten gains while they shake their pursuer (and said pursuer you can rat them out to), highwaymen trying to mug you, a ghostly headless horseman riding around at night, farmers herding cattle, young idealistic nords en route to join the war, a riding noble with armed escort, travelling bards, M'aiq the Liar's great great grandson, mages of opposing elements duelling, refugees from settlements raided by dragons, dark brotherhood assassins stalking me. Etc.

Don't know how much the Legion vs. Stormcloak quest affects things. Both sides are jerks with questionable agendas so I'm staying out of that conflict. :)


The villages of Skyrim are pitifully poor as well and hold little to nothing of interest.

That's pretty standard for Elder Scrolls games, including Morrowind. 90% of the smaller settlements in Morrowind gave you absolutely no reason to ever visit them.


I'm coming to view Skyrim as little more than a glorified first-person dungeon crawler at this rate.

TES games are best played in third person mode, except when sniping with a bow. :p

I never played Morrowind with mods, so I'm pretty sure. :p

Morrowind... without mods.... does not compute. :wonder:
That game was unplayable without mods, but tons of fun with them.
 DarthParametric
12-14-2011, 7:05 AM
#170
a ghostly headless horseman riding around at nightThat sounds kind of cool. Where'd you see that?
 ChAiNz.2da
12-14-2011, 9:49 AM
#171
That sounds kind of cool. Where'd you see that?

Random encounter :D

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594704438466367565/6F925D331D07BEBA6D933906BCB37641A221FEC5/)

I've taken plenty of screenies of random happenings in Skyrim.. hehe

Cz's Screenies Library
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198040421228/screenshots/?tab=all)
 mimartin
12-14-2011, 11:04 AM
#172
Why does ever Jarl’s steward seem to ask me to go kill a giant? I could understand maybe if the giant was camped near the gates of the city, but why send my PC halfway across Skyrim to kill one. I haven’t really noticed giants attacking my charter or anyone else unless we get to close. Hell giants are probably only skittish about people getting to close to them because Jarls keep sending people to kill them.

Dragons are attacking the citizens of Skyrim, but do the Jarls request that I deal with that? No, but there is this giant 50 miles to the NW over 3 mountain and 2 rivers behind a wall of stone that can only be accessed on the completely other side of the mountain range. If this giant was to attack, he could choice 8 other towns and settlements before it ever got to us, but that is the giant I want dead.
 Achilles
12-14-2011, 11:58 AM
#173
Depending on the Steward, they usually mention that the giants have been attacking travelers. I've found more than one giant encampment that contains evidence of this.
 ChAiNz.2da
12-14-2011, 12:03 PM
#174
Depending on the Steward, they usually mention that the giants have been attacking travelers. I've found more than one giant encampment that contains evidence of this.

Yeah, there's been a couple where I've found "townfolk" corpses (generic "khajit, breton, etc" bodies). You'll usually find their mount/farm animal on the barbecue too :lol:
 mimartin
12-14-2011, 12:39 PM
#175
Well a giants got to eat too.
 Achilles
12-14-2011, 12:43 PM
#176
Khajit are friends, not food.

'Sides, why keep all that mammoth cheese on hand if you're not gonna eat it?
 Alkonium
12-14-2011, 4:10 PM
#177
I may be going nuts with sharing it, but here's Sovngarde Song by Miracle of Sound (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/miracle-of-sound/5117-Sovngarde-Song-Skyrim).
 Bob Lion54
12-15-2011, 7:33 AM
#178
I wish I had the money to update my computer and buy the game. I used to have the money... but then I took an arrow in the knee.

*walks off*
 Sabretooth
12-15-2011, 8:04 AM
#179
Come to Lucasforums to discuss the ongoing playthroughs like the rest of the "great warriors"?
 Darth Payne
12-15-2011, 11:10 AM
#180
Well, in the last few days i reached level 50, and am closing in on level 60. :)

It's getting harder and harder to level up though...
 ChAiNz.2da
12-15-2011, 9:35 PM
#181
Well, in the last few days i reached level 50, and am closing in on level 60. :)

It's getting harder and harder to level up though...

Yeah, seems I've been at lvl 51 for ages...

at least at that level, vendors start carrying the good stuff, and loot contains daedric items :D

Paahketgz, (my Bosmer archer/rogue/assassin) was grateful for the (somewhat) plentiful supply of daedric arrows he's amassed.

Installed a few cosmetic mods (not really cheating in my book :xp: ) but I was SOOOO tempted in installing a fletching mod. must... maintain.. willpower :headbump
 DarthParametric
12-15-2011, 10:10 PM
#182
I thought you said felching mod there for a second....
 Sabretooth
12-17-2011, 2:15 AM
#183
*googles felching*

:barf:
 Drunkside
12-17-2011, 9:24 AM
#184
To Achilles: I meant that the world doesn´t change at all when Im not doing something, of course there are these small random encounters, but for example, i have never seen a dragon killed by anyone but myself, and they have only attacked other characters while im around. All the people talk about is stuff i have done, almost never about anything else. Its like no one else does a sh*t about anything, even the of so horrible and brutal war didnt evolve at all until I took part in it, and i couldnt even choose to betray that ass of a jarl i ended up joining...
 Achilles
12-17-2011, 11:16 AM
#185
i have never seen a dragon killed by anyone but myself If you have a dragon spawn near a giant's camp you will.

All the people talk about is stuff i have done, almost never about anything else. We've gone from "nothing" (which I interpret as "never") to "almost never". I'll call the progress, but we're still a ways off from reality.

Its like no one else does a sh*t about anything, even the of so horrible and brutal war didnt evolve at all until I took part in itAt this point it sounds as though you're holding Skyrim to a standard that no RPG ever made can meet. Quests (and quest lines) are triggered by the PC. I'm pretty sure it always has been and always will be this way.

and i couldnt even choose to betray that ass of a jarl i ended up joining... This is my chief complaint with Skyrim: everything is a railroad.
 stoffe
12-17-2011, 1:01 PM
#186
i have never seen a dragon killed by anyone but myself, and they have only attacked other characters while im around.

I've seen a dragon try to take on a forsworn encampment and get crushed pretty quickly.

Also if you hide in the tower at the main plot quest where you first get to fight a dragon the Jarl's housecarl and detachment of town guards will kill the dragon on their own. Not very heroic, though. :)
 Sabretooth
12-17-2011, 1:04 PM
#187
If not make the finishing move, I've seen people bring down dragons to the ground. It usually annoys me when I can't make the finishing move on a dragon because some guy with a troll-face shoots him with an arrow first. >:/
 stoffe
12-17-2011, 1:08 PM
#188
If not make the finishing move, I've seen people bring down dragons to the ground. It usually annoys me when I can't make the finishing move on a dragon because some guy with a troll-face shoots him with an arrow first. >:/

Quite. The game does a pretty poor job imparting why the Dragonborn should even be required to deal with the dragon menace. Small groups of noname NPCs with bows and basic spells can take them down with little problem on their own, after all.

So it mostly feels like you're dealing with the dragon threat because nobody else can be bothered to, not because nobody else can. :)

(Speaking of dragon difficulty, I feel it was a wasted opportunity by the developers not to keep the Slowfall magic/potion effect in the game and give dragons a grab attack where they can snatch you off the ground in mid-flight and then drop you from high above. Aside from Alduin they also seem to use surprisingly few Shouts other than the basic fire/frost breath. Shouts are supposed to be the draconic language, so even the humblest wyrmling should know them, IMO.)
 Achilles
12-17-2011, 4:43 PM
#189
give dragons a grab attack where they can snatch you off the ground in mid-flight and then drop you from high above I've been bitten, shaken vigorously, then thrown a few times. Not quite the same thing, but...
 mur'phon
12-17-2011, 7:31 PM
#190
Agree on the railroading (though most RPG's are guilty of this), it basically force you to meta-game which in turn drags you kicking and screaming away from immersion land.

At this point it sounds as though you're holding Skyrim to a standard that no RPG ever made can meet. Quests (and quest lines) are triggered by the PC. I'm pretty sure it always has been and always will be this way.

Din's Curse actually has the entire world and plot moving, no matter what you do. Plots are usually generated by random presets on the map, and how the individuals react to them and each other (example: a town with little food will have plenty of people begging you for food, and if you don't help them, they might steal/kill someone for food/die of hunger) Opposing groups of monsters will murder each other in the dungeon, with the winners leveling and becoming stronger, and if the town is attacked and you don't get back, then you better have given the townsfolk decent equpment to fight them off. Granted, the game is low on story, but I hope one day open world games will be able to do this.
 Sabretooth
12-17-2011, 10:58 PM
#191
give dragons a grab attack where they can snatch you off the ground in mid-flight and then drop you from high above.

Sounds like it'd be too harsh on those not using Slowfall. Dragon fights tend to be tough as it is, the only way I get through them is to find a piece of cover and stick to it earnestly.
 Achilles
12-17-2011, 11:20 PM
#192
Effective use of Become Ethereal makes dragon fights significantly easier. Dual wield feels like cheating.
 stoffe
12-18-2011, 6:22 AM
#193
Sounds like it'd be too harsh on those not preparing for battle properly

Perhaps, but it's not that much different from how dragon fights currently are if you prepare for them ahead of time. Once you get reasonably high level and accumulate good gear (or become skilled enough at enchanting/smithing to make your own) dragon fights aren't that tough. Stock up on fire/frost resist gear (and swap depending on what you run across) and their breath weapons won't harm you much. Toss Spellbreaker and a few blocking perks in and you can stand in a dragon breath and take essentially no damage at all. :)

The Flemeth intro cutscene at the beginning of Ðragon Age 2 is how I envision a flying dragon would fight. When they don't it just feels like the dragons are going easy on you. They're big and strong and should have no trouble snatching a little human or elf off the ground. It should be suicidal to take on a dragon without being prepared. Buying a few potions of Slowfall seems like a reasonable life insurance when heading off to do battle against them. :p
 Zeron Skirata
12-18-2011, 10:26 AM
#194
I always find it upsetting to tank a dragon, and then die in a few blows by a frost troll...
 Sabretooth
12-18-2011, 11:52 AM
#195
Reminds me of how in Dragon Age I could own Darkspawn after Darkspawn and then get killed by a bunch of wild dogs.
 Achilles
12-18-2011, 1:19 PM
#196
I always find it upsetting to tank a dragon, and then die in a few blows by a random mage... Fixed.
 Zeron Skirata
12-18-2011, 6:36 PM
#197
Fixed.

That too.
 ChAiNz.2da
12-20-2011, 9:16 AM
#198
I always find it upsetting to tank a dragon, and then die in a few blows by a random mage... Fixed.

:lol:

Yeah, the Hagraven's fireball/incinerate spam volley or the Wisp Mother's triple icy spear (gawdz that hurts, even using a shield) I always dread :whacked:
 Achilles
12-20-2011, 10:48 AM
#199
Meh. Those I kinda get. Half-naked Nord bandits (inventory: fur armor, fur shoes, iron dagger, lockpick, 6 gold, potion of minor stamina) should not take 10 minutes and 27 restarts to kill. I mean, seriously, make this guy the Bandit Chief cuz the guy with the title and the heavy armor went down in like two swings.
 ChAiNz.2da
12-20-2011, 3:14 PM
#200
Meh. Those I kinda get. Half-naked Nord bandits (inventory: fur armor, fur shoes, iron dagger, lockpick, 6 gold, potion of minor stamina) should not take 10 minutes and 27 restarts to kill. I mean, seriously, make this guy the Bandit Chief cuz the guy with the title and the heavy armor went down in like two swings.

hehe.. true enough :D
Seeing many disproportionate leader/goon roles.

I hate fighting the forsworn "goons" moreso than the Briarheart leaders. I just pickpocket the briarheart and they die instantly :devsmoke: The goons I actually have to beat down :lol:

Though a lot of that is swarm tactics. One-on-one I usually don't have that many problems with encounters, melee or magic. So far, it's been the advantage of my sneaky/assassin IF I see them first. The moment I get swarmed, I'm boned. Hagravens tend to summon immediately then fireball spam (lately dual trolls or other insane creature at my level.. ugh) and Wisp Mothers tend to appear randomly with wisp encounters, only appearing after the first kill and landing icy spikes in my arse as I'm dealing with the other 2 wisps... hehe.

It's easier to take down a dragon than these 2 particular encounters for my particular playstyle. Though remind me to never run in to the bandits that are in your game... don't think I've ran in to any that tough in mine (or I have had the luck of landing the first, usually critical/sneak, first). May have to test their abilities just in case.. though admittedly, I tend to "potion up" (Alchemy 100) for the boss fights. May be why they're not as much problems as enemy fodder. :giveup:
Page: 4 of 5