WDeranged Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I started a new character - Nord - and played some more, deliberately avoiding Riverwood. Hint: it's a lot more fun if you go LEFT after you leave the tutorial cave. I got distracted and started getting into random mishaps, and was level 5 before stumbling back into Riverwood. Levelling is definitely too fast and it feels like you're not even trying, so I really want to slow down skill gain by 15% or so as soon as possible. But yeah, having a blast. I enjoy magic and archery and sneaking, unfortunately melee seems pretty stupid - all they needed to do was copy Gothic/Risen a bit. you just swing swing swing, block seems to do little at least with low skill and there's really no variation. You definitely feel it when your enemies have a 2h weapon though. Monty: With Skyrim really the only decision you're making actively is whether to up Magicka/Health/Stamina and what perks to get. There are some obviously synergistic skills - sneak/archery, two handed/heavy armour, etc. As for magic I tend to go towards illusion (invisibility, make people berserk, etc) and conjuration (reanimate zombies, later some cool creatures if Skyrim continues the tradition) but destruction/restoration are obviously useful and mystical (?) is OK. Turning left is precisely what I did, there's a cottage over that way with some interesting stuff to do, it was a blast finding it minutes after hobbling into the daylight Levelling is way too fast but I'd assume/hope it dramatically slows down, I imagine they want you to quickly shape your character at the start of the game so you don't end up investing 20 hours on a build you're not sure about.
HoonDing Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Leveling fast is a non-issue considering you can only get around 70 of the total of 250 in-game perks. Not to mention you only get a small health/magicka/stamina bonus upon level up. There's also the fact that training already high skills will make you level up quicker. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
Tigranes Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 In that direction I found the whole dragon story which is nice to come across so early, then scaled down some rocks right on top of a few bandits who had just killed a dark elf or something. The mage really sucked away my health so I responded with Sparks, and at the end we were both in that stream duking it out... after which his corpse began to float downriver. I had also inadvertently stumbled on a small house near that area with bandits - I nearly left after a cursory look before noticing a note by the door referring to a treasure room, so I went back, found the secret entrance, and of course inside was a very big cavernous complex... the leader at the end was way to strong for me and I had to poison my dagger, sneak up to her sleeping, stab several times, reanimate one of her minions as a zombie distraction, then still run round and round the room. It does seem that they applied lessons of FO3 and making more 'crafted' dungeons with a story to tell. Let's Play: Icewind Dale Ironman (Complete) Let's Play: Icewind Dale II Ironman (Complete) Let's Play: Divinity II (Complete) Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy Ironman - BG1 (Complete) Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy Ironman - BG2 (In Progress)
HoonDing Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I like that there is no stupid story-hook to dangle from, e.g. "Bring this package to Caius Cosades!", "Bring the amulet to Jauffre!", "Find Daddy dearest!". I also turned off all quest markers, but I'm not sure whether the game will be playable this way. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
Tale Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Heck, even with the compass I find myself using Clairvoyance a lot. Those mountains are a bloody maze. "Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
Monte Carlo Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Getting lost is half the fun. Am about to restart, mebbe an orc.
WDeranged Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I also turned off all quest markers, but I'm not sure whether the game will be playable this way. That's how I've been playing and it seems to be working so far, you can still see quest markers on the local map so if you get dramatically stuck you can check that, or use the clairvoyance spell but I've avoided it so far.
Tale Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I wish they could frame all UI elements as magic spells. "Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
Niten_Ryu Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Found (master difficulty). Have to check if player is skilled at all I think I have to find better "Let's play" video series. It's blind run and person don't seem to have good grasp of game mechanics. He also misses a lot of environmental clues. Master (highest) difficulty seem to be balanced rather nice but he manages to die because of simple mistakes like rushing into group of enemies, not healing faster (or early) enough or lack of stamina. PC version seem to crash just like all the other Bethesda games and UI is absolutely hideous. I'd recommend everyone to wait 6-12 month for few offical patches and tons of mods. Maybe Steam summer sales or next Quakecon. Let's play Alpha Protocol My misadventures on youtube.
WDeranged Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 So far I've had three crashes all in the same spot in a dungeon, beyond that it's been rock steady, I've heard other people are having really terrible instability though.
Monte Carlo Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 As a fan of the FO3 / FONV "sneak about the wasteland sniping people" technique, Skyrim caters for this in buckets. Creeping around sniping with a bow = good.
Tigranes Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 The game's perfectly playable with no compass, quest marker etc. of any kind - every once in a while you might forget who was who and where, but then you can just look on the map if you really need. Was wandering about and found some clearly high level Thalmor guy taking a prisoner away , who's ultra-suspicious and attacks you very easily (I like how they've made the dialogue a bit more devious and a bit less kindergarten). Made use of a Scroll of Mayhem to have them all start attacking each other, including the prisoner and a random wolf that joined the proceedings. I ran away and contributed with arrows and now at level 9 have a full elven armour set , which isn't that powerful but at least looks nice. Let's Play: Icewind Dale Ironman (Complete) Let's Play: Icewind Dale II Ironman (Complete) Let's Play: Divinity II (Complete) Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy Ironman - BG1 (Complete) Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy Ironman - BG2 (In Progress)
Syraxis Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Interesting responses all One last question: I'm running on a DSL connection and am wondering for those who bought the game digitally rather than retail, how big was the download?
Malcador Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) It's 5 gigs or so, I think. Friend said his download was 5.12 Gigs. Edited November 11, 2011 by Malcador Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
Hurlshort Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I went to Target today and was unable to find a PC copy. I'll try Best Buy later.
Labadal Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) Bought the steam version literally 1 minute ago. What does it tell me when I want to install? Steam servers are currently busy... LOL? EDIT: Nvm, it's working now. 92% to go. Edited November 11, 2011 by Labadal
Starwars Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I have to say that, as bad as some textures look up close, there are also moments where the game looks absolutely amazing. Was doing some stuff in Riften and headed north to... uh, whatever the town is that is north of it. Crossing the Tundra there... wow, some amazing sights. Also makes me wish that they had done the UI more in tone with the game's culture instead of that "clean" look. Reminds me of Assassin's Creed for some reason, just hate that overall look. Also, reading some other posts provides some nice insight into the fact that the world is more hand-built in terms of loot as well. I'm higher level than Tigranes' character but haven't seen anything approaching Elven armor yet (well, one dude had a dwarven axe, really hurt). But I haven't really been off into the wilderness, I've mostly been following the roads and quests. So it seems that exploring could definitely be worth it. On the negative side, I'm already starting to get fatigued fighting wolves again... Listen to my home-made recordings (some original songs, some not): http://www.youtube.c...low=grid&view=0
Monte Carlo Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Mods: is there any problem with opening a Skyrim spoilers / quest / mutual helping out type thread please?
Morgoth Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Mods: is there any problem with opening a Skyrim spoilers / quest / mutual helping out type thread please? You could use the official Bethesda forums if you're stuck in a quest... Rain makes everything better.
Maria Caliban Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) Enemy mages, though, is another matter. One word: fury. Second word: sneak. If you slip behind them and sneak attack them with a greatsword, they're not so tough. Levelling is definitely too fast and it feels like you're not even trying, so I really want to slow down skill gain by 15% or so as soon as possible. Armor and smithing could be made a bit easier to level. Cheers Tigs... am re-starting (sigh) made some really crap perk decisions. Noticed that almost every skill tree has crappy filler. Edited November 11, 2011 by Maria Caliban "When is this out. I can't wait to play it so I can talk at length about how bad it is." - Gorgon.
Monte Carlo Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 Mods: is there any problem with opening a Skyrim spoilers / quest / mutual helping out type thread please? You could use the official Bethesda forums if you're stuck in a quest... Naaaaaah.
WDeranged Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) I got heavily diverted from my first Companions quest, I decided to go climb a mountain and ended up walking straight into Labyrinthine, my jaw dropped as I knew people had been crying out for that dungeon to return , I got about five seconds to appreciate the epicness before a Snow Troll absolutely ****ing murdered me I also saw some god awful, cringeworthy LOD on the way to Solitude but my arrival was epic, Aurora Borealis, fog, moons, mist and the city on the hill Edited November 11, 2011 by WDeranged
HoonDing Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 I set timescale to 10. I'm finding time flows too fast in Skyrim, I didn't even get to do anything in Riverwood yet because it's the middle of the night each time I try to return to it. I don't remember it being this bad in Oblivion. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
WDeranged Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) I set timescale to 10. I'm finding time flows too fast in Skyrim, I didn't even get to do anything in Riverwood yet because it's the middle of the night each time I try to return to it. I don't remember it being this bad in Oblivion. Yeah I turned mine to 15, far better now. I must say that I'm not a fan of being offered the fed-ex/kill this dude quests at every turn. I suppose this is where the Radiant story stuff will provide some randomization if I understand things right but it still really feels like filler. I suppose it's my own fault for expecting but my journal is now chock-full of "fetch me 10 of these/kill that person/retrieve this item" quests. I've had a few of those now and I don't mind them, it's a more creative way of doing what Dragon Age did with the Chantry board, I'm going to be going out grinding anyway, might as well have a little quest based incentive too. Edited November 11, 2011 by WDeranged
Syraxis Posted November 11, 2011 Posted November 11, 2011 It's 5 gigs or so, I think. Friend said his download was 5.12 Gigs. Thanks Well gals & guys; you've sold it to me. I'll order it tomorrow and will play a day later Not complaining about that since that'll give me time to finish some class work.
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