Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[WDeranged]

Yeah I usually reach that point too, though with Skyrim it was around the 150 hour mark in my first playthrough

 

At some point you have to just ditch all those quests in your journal and push towards the endgame, the MQ isn't that long anyway, you don't have to explore the whole of Blackreach.

Edited February 27, 2012 by WDeranged

[GhostofAnakin]

I've kind of lost track of which quests are associated with the main quest though. I've got over a dozen sitting active in my journal, and their brief descriptions don't immediately tell me which ones are the main quest.

[Humanoid]

I put Skyrim down about a week ago and tried to get back to it today, obstensibly refreshed. Once Dwemer dungeon later and I was out again - there's a point where all the dungeon delving provided goes beyond the notion of providing content and into the realm of "gross misallocation of resources." I can appreciate that they're not all identikit clones of each other and they're to an extent hand-designed but there's a point where it all blends into the same repetitive haze.

 

5 dungeons in and you think there's some clever variations in them. 10 dungeons in and you start to see the themes recurring. 15 dungeons in and you feel you've seen all they have to show you. 20 dungeons in and you start asking yourself why you're still here. Wikipedia tells me there are 150 of them. Did no one in the development team stop to consider for a moment "Guys, is the answer to what the game is lacking another three-part dungeon?" "Is there nothing else Ted could be working on that would add some more variety in the game?"

 

It's not meaningful content if all it makes you do is wish there was a "teleport to final set piece battle" for each of them. The rare quests like the above mentioned murder mystery investigation may have been implemented somewhat clumsily but were huge releases from the tedium, but unfortunately too few and far between.

 

 

 

Anyway, in the end I got almost triple digit hours out of it so I can't say it's a bad purchase, but it's one I won't regret abandoning unfinished. I wish I could rewind my mind and replay from the start given some self-imposed rules (including selective cheating) I posted earlier and stop me ruining it for myself, but alas.

[WDeranged]

The only sane thing to do is put the game away for a very long time and come back when the modders have worn themselves out, that's my plan anyway.

[Humanoid]

Or maybe fool around with it if/when Mr Morris at IT-HE publishes an anti-walkthrough. The reality though is that I almost never come back to unfinished games, which is why I probably haven't finished over half my library.

[GhostofAnakin]

I've barely scratched the surface of all the dungeons available to be explored. The only ones I've been in are the ones associated with any quests I've been given.

[GhostofAnakin]

Well that's dumb. I can't continue the main quest until I finish another quest, because Ulfric won't talk to me. He just keeps saying that I should be off with his general at some ruins, and won't let me discuss anything with him.

[Rosbjerg]

If you are doing the Stormcloak questline is does make sense..

Because you need to find the jagged crown which will add legitimacy to his claim for High King, without it he is weaker and so he would want that taken care of

[GhostofAnakin]

Finished that quest (as well as the Dragonborn one) today. I'm pretty much just finishing off the various Xbox360 achievements now. The Brotherhood questline is pretty much the only "story" quests that I need to do.

 

I can't complain too much, considering the amount of time I spent playing. I still wasn't a fan of the actual story/writing, but I've accepted that these types of games are going to be more about the world exploration and combat, than about the actual characters and story.

[Enoch]

Well, I'm still rather early in the game, and the novelty of wandering around in-character hasn't worn off yet.

 

I made an Argonian named Climbs-Tall-Rocks. Did the early main plot quests until after the first dragon encounter. Then I decided that these Nords were crazy-- clearly the dragon communed with me because I was his cousin, not because of some silly ancient legend. They've just never seen any dragons and Argonians together before. I remembered the folks trying to execute me saying something about there being other Argonians in Windhelm, so I ditched the chick they tried to saddle me with, and headed in that direction to see what the Argonians knew. Had to jump into the river to run away from a bear on the way there, but I made it. Unfortunately, the Argonians here don't seem to know anything about their winged relatives. Actually, they're kinda pathetic.

 

But I do see a tall rock over there to climb, so maybe I'll do that next.

[Tigranes]

Climbing tall rocks: the secret cognitive science behind TES' success.

[Labadal]

I returned to this yesterday after not having touched the game since December 4 last year. I got the achievement for doing 50 misc quests wich surprised me. I thought I had done 25-30 at most. Not really bothering with the main plot. Doing some side quests and mostly exploring.

[Enoch]

Disappointing: My patented "jump into the river to get away from an enemy who is kicking my ass" is not particularly effective against dragons. Apparently, that breath is so hot, it hurts me even when I'm sitting at the bottom of an icy harbor.

[HoonDing]

The latest Catalyst drivers cause graphical artifacting in Skyrim with AA enabled:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6D3r9_rp7k

[WDeranged]

Deary me, so very glad I ditched the Radeon last year.

[Enoch]

So, from Windhelm, after watching a dragon attack as I was leaving town, I went North, along the coast. Looped around (and eventually into) Winterhold. Got attacked by some Hired Thugs there, and the guards just stood and watched. Had to cheese the encounter on reload, picking a vantage point and putting a few arrows into them before they declared their intentions to "teach me a lesson." Apparently some character whose name I didn't recognize somehow found out that I had stolen something that I had forgotten about. These kind of miniquests would work a lot better if any of the characters or loot were at all memorable.

 

Anyhow, there wasn't much going on in Winterhold, so I headed West, towards the pass that would take me back to the Whiterun area. I get the sense that I'm a little bit out of my depth up here-- anything tougher than an Ice Wolf wrecks my ****, and I can't really get anywhere in the wilderness without having to sneak around a Sabrecat every once in a while. Found a lighthouse with everybody dead, and some things in the basement that were definitely tougher than Ice Wolves. I managed to pick off a few with stealth-arrow cycling, but as it expanded into what looks like a full-on dungeon, I figured that further progression was going to be pretty hopeless against that kind of opposition and ran away. Found the town (whose name I forget) where everybody has nightmares. I saw leads for some in-town quests, but my impression from Windhelm is that those are pretty boring, so I just sold some loot and left town.

 

I'm level 13, Sneak is by far my strongest skill, and I've got 5 or so Perks saved up to use once I qualify for the better-than-entry-level offerings in some of the skill trees. Now heading south, towards what looks like a pass on the pretty-but-fairly-useless map.

[WDeranged]

Getting through Frostflow Lighthouse with my low level warrior was tough, those Chaurus things give me the creeps for some reason so I ran most of the way.

[Enoch]

Yeah, I was able to take out 3 of them by creeping forward and hitting them with an arrow from stealth, followed by immediate retreat to recover my "Hidden" status. Three shots like that (i.e., with the 3x stealth bonus) would take them down. But the next occupied room was positioned such that I could take out a gremlin dude from the shadows, but not without drawing the attention of a full-health Chaurus to mop the floor with me.

[Enoch]

OK, I've cleared some Bandits out of a couple forts along the road. My combat effectiveness hinges on either knifing people in the back, or chugging healing potions, but it works pretty well for bandits. (Also, so far, enemies don't actually follow me when I go through a loadscreen-door. Is this consistent in the game? Because it's a pretty huge and unfortunate avenue for AI-exploitation, if true.) Anyhow, the problem right now is that I keep encountering a dragon on the open road as I progress to the South. And I sneaking up on dragons to slit their throats simply doesn't work. Without the conveniend distraction targets that were around the first two times I faced one, I get roasted right quick.

 

The "fast-travel back to Whiterun" option is getting more tempting.

[Tigranes]

I seem to remember enemies following you through loadscreens, but I can't be sure. It may also be the difference between whether it's to a different floor/room or to exit the fort altogether.

 

It's pretty easy to run away from dragons, especially if you're willing to do some acrobatic tumbling down jagged cliffs. It helps if you have that burst of speed shout.

[Humanoid]

I never could tell the why and when it happened but sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I remember hired thugs following me in and out of a store for example, but also bandits who won't leave their fort.

 

If I were to play the game again, I would recommend following either the recommendation to not do the quest to kill the first plot dragon until a bit later, or alternatively to follow the main quest immediately until the point you get the ability to fight them on even ground.

 

 

Other stuff you might want to consider (besides the almost-universal SkyUI and Categorised Favorites) - the stuff I've come across sometimes too late, are:

- Quality World Map mod that can show all roads on the map screen.

- Either the Essential Horses or Cowardly Horses (depending on how much you thing the former is cheating) to counteract the tendency of horses to try to trample a dragon whenever they appear.

- Fast Travel from indoors (Radiant) - the full version is obviously too exploitable, but the version that allows it from certain obvious places (chiefly the Thieves' Guild hideout) saves a lot of frustration and loading time.

- One of the pickpocket mods that raises the maximum success cap - because a hard cap of 90% feels stupidly low.

[WDeranged]

I don't remember enemies chasing me out of a dungeon and into the world like they did in Oblivion, it does seem that Bethesda ditched Radiant AI for Skyrim, as broken and pointless as it was I did like seeing NPC's travelling around the world to meet eachother, even if they just talked about mudcrabs.

 

Stability is probably one reason for it, crashes were the bane of my existence in Oblivion but Skyrim didn't crash once in 150 hours.

[Tigranes]

I keep thinking about going back to Skyrim, but I think the idea itself is more attractive than the experience. Have there been any substantial mods released yet, in terms of character development, gameplay balance or new content?

 

Skyrim NPCs do travel around, more like Ultima's day/night schedule routines than Oblivion's let's gather to talk about mudcrabs deal (though that is still there sometimes).

[Walsingham]

 

- Either the Essential Horses or Cowardly Horses (depending on how much you thing the former is cheating) to counteract the tendency of horses to try to trample a dragon whenever they appear.

 

Incidentally, did I mention that I successfully killed that glowy eyes evil horse by shouting it off a cliff?

[Enoch]

Much the same as with Oblivion, I haven't yet seen any appeal in getting a horse.

 

Most of the NPC conversations I've seen seem to be scripted. I.e., the first time you enter a particular area, you'll be in a position to overhear some characters discussing whatever quest the developers want to draw your attention to.

 

Only mods I have installed right now are SkyUI and the one that puts the main roads on the Map. I imagine that were a good ways away from seeing a decent wholesale rebalancing mod.