Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[schild]

Fucking Companions.

Ran into three of them taking down the giant on a farm outside Whiterun, after they're done they brag about it and how badass they are.  Right as they leave, i spot another giant approaching so figured i'd lure the bastard in the middle of them and with four of us it'd be a nice kill. So i put an arrow in the giant's eye, the guy gets pissed and runs over... at which point the Companions just stand and watch, very much otherwise ignoring the rampaging monstrosity, the farmers screaming for help and how one of their own nearly got plastered in the process, too.

Managed to solo the fucker eventually with the sliver of health left (got nearly hit, once), didn't even get a golfclap. I guess it's kind of fair since i didn't help them with their giant kill too... but still

Were you really looking for admiration from virtual characters?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Actually when you kill a dragon in a town, the villagers do stop and stare at it while giving you some praise.

[tmp]

Were you really looking for admiration from virtual characters?

I expected the aggro mechanics :/  after seeing everything out in the wilds aggro on everything else, the cold shoulder these guys gave my giant felt really cold.

edit: that said, i wouldnt' really be surprised if they reacted to the kill in some way. This is the game that had the bug with crime-reporting chickens, after all.

[Sheepherder]

In any other game I can think of, she would have just disappeared when I dismissed her. In Skyrim, she literally started walking from Riften to Whiterun, quite a long journey! I couldn't believe it. In so many ways, the world of Skyrim is happening all around you, independent of what the player is doing.

Oblivion was capable of doing this, but I don't think Bethesda used it in any way a player would actually notice more than a half dozen times.

None of that was for a quest or part of a storyline. It's just the NPCs doing what they do. Brilliant stuff. I guess it's an illusion - the NPCs aren't actually out living their lives when the player isn't close - but it's the most convincing illusion of a living world I think I've seen in any adventure game or RPG.

The vast majority of them actually are living out their lives, so to speak.  Most of the named NPCs will have low level processing enabled, which means they are running AI packages and navigating the world in the background even while you are gone.  The same was true for Oblivion, though Bethesda was fucking lazy and so most NPCs have little more than generic eat, sleep, and open shop packages.  How detailed a simulation is anyone's guess, though I imagine it's pretty bare-bones.

[Sophismata]

The problem with stealth spells is that the lighting gives you away. I've made a few mistakes pulling out my dagger with a spell in the off hand only to find myself being rushed down right after because of the light coming from the spell.

There's a perk in the illusion tree that makes spells silent. I'm not sure if that helps at all.

ATM I'm finding the game annoying. Combat is too easy (no thinking needed), and upping the difficulty makes it easy + tedious. The first dragon fight was a real let down, dramatically. Stood on the tower and plinked it with arrows until I ran out. Then I threw fireballs. It eventually died.

The music track was great but ended long before the dragon did.

[kildorn]

This game crashes or fails to load textures SO GODDAMNED OFTEN. Fucking ATI, I assume.

I'm enjoying this FAR more than Oblivion. I appreciate that when you get up in levels, skilling up minor side skills doesn't provide much movement towards leveling up so you aren't gimping yourself by taking up alchemy late in life.

I do not appreciate that their solution to "bandit in glass armor" seems to be just giving leveled bandits CRAZY MADE UP STATS instead, so you get hit for half your health at level 25 with 300 armor rating by a bandit with a steel 2h axe, or a hunting bow and iron arrows. I guess I'm just a little miffed when I loot them all and find nothing but the occasional dwarven arrow to make them worthwhile.

edit: dragon fight spoiler:

[Ingmar]

In any other game I can think of, she would have just disappeared when I dismissed her. In Skyrim, she literally started walking from Riften to Whiterun, quite a long journey! I couldn't believe it. In so many ways, the world of Skyrim is happening all around you, independent of what the player is doing.

Oblivion was capable of doing this, but I don't think Bethesda used it in any way a player would actually notice more than a half dozen times.

None of that was for a quest or part of a storyline. It's just the NPCs doing what they do. Brilliant stuff. I guess it's an illusion - the NPCs aren't actually out living their lives when the player isn't close - but it's the most convincing illusion of a living world I think I've seen in any adventure game or RPG.

The vast majority of them actually are living out their lives, so to speak.  Most of the named NPCs will have low level processing enabled, which means they are running AI packages and navigating the world in the background even while you are gone.  The same was true for Oblivion, though Bethesda was fucking lazy and so most NPCs have little more than generic eat, sleep, and open shop packages.  How detailed a simulation is anyone's guess, though I imagine it's pretty bare-bones.

Elder Scrolls 4.5 (Fallout 3) uses it quite a bit. It can actually get pretty annoying as various wandering NPCs get killed by random stuff out in the wilderness (or by falling off of cliffs, etc) as the game goes on.

[kildorn]

Skyrim seems to have people walk a bit, but they may teleport when they enter any door. I found this out by accidentally dropping down onto the top floor of a prison, killing the jailer inside and freeing my Quest NPC. He then runs out as I follow him, runs into the next floor down's door, but never appears on the other side. Which is good, since I had not cleared that floor and he would have been murdered.

Apparently Skyrim is not as nice about companions as Fallout 3, as getting to 20% health will put them in "knocked out" like FO3, but if something takes them from 21% -> dead, they permanently die.

[Sky]

Had a guy say "I'm a pilgrim! I want to accompany you to that holy site!" He's in peasant gear, I'm skeptical, but wtf. I'm not hear to coddle, come on along, buddy.

Fast travel to a spot nearby to start the hike into the back country and the guy takes off. Then I hear the roar and music of a dragon...guy gets toasted trying to fight the dragon with a wood axe.

  I TOTALLY DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING. 

[Rendakor]

Skyrim seems to have people walk a bit, but they may teleport when they enter any door. I found this out by accidentally dropping down onto the top floor of a prison, killing the jailer inside and freeing my Quest NPC. He then runs out as I follow him, runs into the next floor down's door, but never appears on the other side. Which is good, since I had not cleared that floor and he would have been murdered.

Apparently Skyrim is not as nice about companions as Fallout 3, as getting to 20% health will put them in "knocked out" like FO3, but if something takes them from 21% -> dead, they permanently die.

I've got a theory on companions that the only way they can die is if YOU kill them personally. The only times I've had my housecarl actually die have been when she stepped in front of one of my arrows. She's tanked dragons and giants (both of whom have melee one-shotted me) and only dropped to a knee, but I've accidentally killed her at least a dozen times and had to reload.

[rattran]

Mine got killed in a dwemer ruin by a passel of ugly guys, I think one landed a nice hit, and she went flat rather than to a knee. I'm hoping her corpse is there when I get back, she's loaded with dorf crap to smelt.

[kildorn]

Don't get me started on friendly fire with melee swings. I HAVE THIS COVERED, QUEST NPC. YOU CAN MOVE OUT OF MY SWING NOW.

I've now learned that while useless for bandit hunting due to a lack of black soul gems, it's really really cheap to put a 2s 400 charge soul trap on your bow of choice and randomly fill every soul gem you own while just wandering around. Though I question why it said I didn't have anything big enough to put a few level 20something undead zombie nord dude souls in, since I have a grand soul gem sitting empty.

[Rendakor]

I really don't get why low level humanoid take black soul gems to fill. They should be petty and lesser like the rest of the low level trash.

Edit: ARRGH two crash-to-desktops in a row, both in the exact same place. Please tell me this quest/zone isn't bugged.

[Tebonas]

Wow, stuff happens fast in this game. Now I smithed myself a full set of Superior Dorf Armor and two nice and sharp Dorf Axes. The smithy right next to my House is a real godsend. Sure, I leveled on this stuff. But unlike Oblivion I don't feel like gimping myself in the process.

I'm still not sure if the next thing should be Orc Armor or if I should dabble in Enchanting. I want a Soul Steal on one of my Axes so I can Enchant away, but I'm still missing the right Soulstone for that. Right now I just do quests to finance my tradeskill habit, I still can't figure out who the good guy is here. I don't want to go with my gut feeling and support the Stormcloaks yet.

All in all, an outstanding game. Apart from a CTD once in a while it was surprisingly nonbuggy for a Bethesda game.

[kildorn]

So poking around trying to find a fix for my crashing issues, it seems to be brought about by my video card just saying fuck it..

But apparently the fan fix is this: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=134

Because in 2011, we're still making fucking 32 bit games.

edit: and I will never fail to fuck up my stealth approach to forts by assuming at least ONE goddamned fort or keep in Skyrim isn't occupied by bandits or necromancers. What the shit do the Jarls do all day besides lose keeps to brigands?

[tmp]

Skyrim seems to have people walk a bit, but they may teleport when they enter any door.

They can also despawn when you enter any building, it seems. I found a hunter shack in the woods, and there was a hunter guy munching on his dinner by the campfire. We chatted, i went inside the shack to see if there's any cool brooms there, and when i came out couple minutes later the hunter dude was a hunter lady

[Tebonas]

Nonsense, that was a Lumberjack from British Columbia! 

[Tannhauser]

So I went to a fort and killed some mages.  I left and came back and found a shock mage lying half in a pool with a bucket on his head.  What happened?  I'm dying to know but I guess I never will!  The mysteries of Skyrim.

Other random thoughts...

-Finally Bethesda has made attractive humanoid figures.  Even Argonians look cool now with their wet look.  Bravo!
-Whiterun is one of the best looking towns in a game ever.  First time I saw it I thought of Edoras, the capital of Rohan.
-I love my farking house in Whiterun.  So convenient and now my loot is stashed there I can loot even more stuff.  My income is taking off.
-I like that I find dungeons that are too hard for me.  And, at level 15, I still run into wolves.  Fuck Oblivion.
-Unfortunately, my game window minimizes once in a while. 
-There is a dupe bug  but I have not tried it.  I hope I don't.

[koro]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricSchwarz/20111114/8890/User_Interface_Analysis_Skyrim.php

Very interesting article on Gamasutra about the Skyrim UI, one that I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with.

[Xilren's Twin]

One thing I did run into is my Housecarl just disappeared and I havent seen her since.  We were walking down a road, spotted a troll across a river so i start shooting arrows at it and a fight ensures.  During the fight 3 other guys (i think an imperial courier and 2 bodyguards) show up and jump in and Im not sure if i hit one or what but when the troll was dead they attack me.  I kill the bodyguard and courier and look around and the other guard and my housecarl are gone.  I think i saw them running up the road but its been days now and she's no where to be found.  I've heard you get a letter when she dies, but no letter either, so i'm thinking bugged behavior.

That being said, i think i enjoy soloing more.

And money hats are clearing mage forts since robes dont weigh much, but dang some of the higher level mages can blast you down with like 2 spells...

Oh, and oddly, i have only had 1 dragon fight (the first one) at level 15.  Have only seen 2 more and they never attack me or landed so eventually I got tired of trying to plink them with arrows and just when on my way.  I have like 3 shouts I can't even use yet b/c I require souls.  Oh yeah, and being a werewolf grants disease immunity and no rest experience for sleeping.  Bring it vampire boys!

[Comstar]

I've only played for 4 hours now, and my body cannot continue. The UI sucks, but the game is great right now.  Most amusing thing so far is shooting at the head of a bandit on abridge. He dies, falls backwards off the bridge into the chasm, and his weapon goes BOOOOOINNNNGGGGGGGG off into the air.

So are any of the companions interesting in a Balder's Gate NPC way, or do they not talk much and just act to get in your way? Anything I'm missing out on now taking them?

[koro]

I've only played for 4 hours now, and my body cannot continue. The UI sucks, but the game is great right now.  Most amusing thing so far is shooting at the head of a bandit on abridge. He dies, falls backwards off the bridge into the chasm, and his weapon goes BOOOOOINNNNGGGGGGGG off into the air.

So are any of the companions interesting in a Balder's Gate NPC way, or do they not talk much and just act to get in your way? Anything I'm missing out on now taking them?

They don't talk much (even if you marry them), but they don't usually get in my way. Lydia, the Housecarl, has saved my mage's ass through her tanking so many times it's not funny.

I do wish I could more easily get her nicer armor without having to gain a bunch of excess level-ups and spend extremely precious perk points on smithing though.

[Sheepherder]

I've heard you get a letter when she dies, but no letter either, so i'm thinking bugged behavior.

Don't worry, someone is going to write a mod that puts a quest marker on your companions very soon.

In other news, since I haven't been able to buy Skyrim yet, I booted up the TES4 editor and screwed around a bit.  Scripting around the one summon per NPC AI limitation to give the summoned Lich the ability to magic up a swarm of it's own minions is pretty fucking awesome.

[Bunk]

Well, apparently not all dragons just hover there and breath fire at you. Fought one at its lair last night and the bugger kept trying to land on me.

Found a hot spring, which was cool. Was even cooler when I saw hunters in their underwear chillaxing in the pools.

Started doing enchanting last night. Moonfire is an awesome enchantment if you don't mind the fact it only functions half the day. Dropped 200+ charges of plus 7 damage on Lydia's Orc Bow with only a common soul gem.

Oh, had a cool encounter where I walked in to a room in a crypt and a gate dropped down behind me - right in front of Lydia. So i'm suddenly trapped in a room by myself with four or five Drauger (sp?). I'm not used to actually letting the badies close on me, so it was quite the entertaining fight. After, I realize I could have ran over to the gate and pulled a chain to let Lydia in at any time.

[koro]

Well, apparently not all dragons just hover there and breath fire at you. Fought one at its lair last night and the bugger kept trying to land on me.

Found a hot spring, which was cool. Was even cooler when I saw hunters in their underwear chillaxing in the pools.

Started doing enchanting last night. Moonfire is an awesome enchantment if you don't mind the fact it only functions half the day. Dropped 200+ charges of plus 7 damage on Lydia's Orc Bow with only a common soul gem.

Oh, had a cool encounter where I walked in to a room in a crypt and a gate dropped down behind me - right in front of Lydia. So i'm suddenly trapped in a room by myself with four or five Drauger (sp?). I'm not used to actually letting the badies close on me, so it was quite the entertaining fight. After, I realize I could have ran over to the gate and pulled a chain to let Lydia in at any time.

Was it at Labyrinthian? If so, then at higher levels

[Sky]

I really don't get why low level humanoid take black soul gems to fill. They should be petty and lesser like the rest of the low level trash.

I haven't done any soul trapping yet, but the Asura questline leads you to a mage that explains black gems, iirc.

I haven't used any companions or mercs thus far. NPCs have a habit of getting in front of my axe.

[NiX]

Is there an easy way to fill soul gems outside of magical weapons? The idea of having to recharge the weapon just to trap souls is painful.

Anyone know if Solitude is the biggest city in the game?

[kildorn]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricSchwarz/20111114/8890/User_Interface_Analysis_Skyrim.php

Very interesting article on Gamasutra about the Skyrim UI, one that I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with.

Argh. That list reminded me of the single most maddening UI element:

Why the holy hell is my quest list IN THE SYSTEM SETTINGS SCREEN. CHRIST BETHESDA.

Still, by far my favorite of these games. I've never beaten oblivion because it just comes to a point where I feel like I don't give a shit. This seems to have taken a number of world design and gameplay design hints from FO3. And UI design hints from MC Escher.

[kildorn]

Is there an easy way to fill soul gems outside of magical weapons? The idea of having to recharge the weapon just to trap souls is painful.

Anyone know if Solitude is the biggest city in the game?

Soul Trap, from Conjuration. People just use soul trapping weapons because it's a really low charge cost thing (since you can set it to 1-2 seconds, and the duration determines the number of charges from the shit gem you use), and the Soul Trap spell is kind of clunky to keep pulling out, charge casting, and then going about your killing.

[tgr]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricSchwarz/20111114/8890/User_Interface_Analysis_Skyrim.php

Very interesting article on Gamasutra about the Skyrim UI, one that I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with.

It cannot be emphasized enough how much I agree with literally all of that article. Whoever designed that UI needs multiple whacks with the fucking cluebat.

[Rendakor]

I really don't get why low level humanoid take black soul gems to fill. They should be petty and lesser like the rest of the low level trash.

I haven't done any soul trapping yet, but the Asura questline leads you to a mage that explains black gems, iirc.

I haven't used any companions or mercs thus far. NPCs have a habit of getting in front of my axe.

Ahh ok, thanks. I don't think I've found that quest yet (since I have no idea who/what Asura is) but it's nice to know there's actually a reason.

[Yoru]

Does anyone know what the stupid little triangle that shows up in the inventory list next to some of my gear means?

Also, I like burning things. My office game is entitled "The Doomsong of Deadwinter Bloodpants", starring Deadwinter Bloodpants, the Nordic Scourge of the Frozen Lands. Rule 1 is murder anything that moves. Rule 2 is to murder anything that doesn't move.


Rule 3 is to run away screaming like a little girl if you cannot possibly kill something that either moves or does not move, and then vow to return soon and make the cur rue the day he crossed paths with Deadwinter Bloodpants.

Edit: I'm also really disappointed that the non-burning-but-wood-filled campfires you find around the world cannot be lit on fire with fire magic.

[Rendakor]

The triangle is supposed to indicate items which are an upgrade, although it doesn't seem capable of looking at enchantments or recognizing what armor/weapon type your character specializes in.

[palmer_eldritch]

Dropped 200+ charges of plus 7 damage on Lydia's Orc Bow with only a common soul gem.

You can do that?? 

[NiX]

So poking around trying to find a fix for my crashing issues, it seems to be brought about by my video card just saying fuck it..

But apparently the fan fix is this: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=134

Because in 2011, we're still making fucking 32 bit games.

edit: and I will never fail to fuck up my stealth approach to forts by assuming at least ONE goddamned fort or keep in Skyrim isn't occupied by bandits or necromancers. What the shit do the Jarls do all day besides lose keeps to brigands?

What were your crashes like? Mine happen very randomly, sometimes quickly and sometimes not for hours. Wondering if this will fix it for me.

Anyone experienced texture issues? Last night I had a robe show up purple and after that the Khajit model in the loading screen had purple skin.