Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

[NiX]

Just got to the second area. How far into the game am I?

Or just an entire game based on the thieves guild or vampires guild or something. Typical elder scrolls is fucking stale at this point.

I stopped playing Oblivion after completing the Assassin's and thief quest lines. Figured there wasn't anything worth doing after those.

[schild]

My opinion on modding has not changed since f13 became a thing. If I have to mod your game to make it something I want to play, I'm just going to go play something else.

[lamaros]

My opinion on modding has not changed since f13 became a thing. If I have to mod your game to make it something I want to play, I'm just going to go play something else.

[Paelos]

Depends on if the mods are about fixing mistakes, or adding new content.

[schild]

Depends on if the mods are about fixing mistakes

This is, perhaps, worse than actual modding of player created bullshit.

[tazelbain]

F13.net: Entrenched opinions about irrelevant things.

[schild]

F13.net: Entrenched opinions about irrelevant things.

Like, say, gaming. Yes. It is a gaming website.

[Paelos]

I used to feel that way about mods, then I played Skyrim, Mount and Blade, Total War, and Minecraft with mods. Pretty much changed my outlook forever.

[Rasix]

Skyrim really doesn't need mods unless you're really into bear fucking like rk.  I don't even remember if I had any installed.  Maybe a texture pack.. no idea.

Modders fixing bugs is fine until the moment they start injecting their own bias into the process.  The mega-fix packs for VtM: Bloodlines were rife with this. 

[lamaros]

Nothing worse than a mod 'bug fix' which defines a bug as anything the creator just didn't like about the game, typically breaking the game in the process.

[Merusk]

Skyrim really doesn't need mods unless you're really into bear fucking like rk.  I don't even remember if I had any installed.  Maybe a texture pack.. no idea.

Modders fixing bugs is fine until the moment they start injecting their own bias into the process.  The mega-fix packs for VtM: Bloodlines were rife with this. 

None of the games listed need mods. They increase replayability but aren't required, to quote schild,  "to make it something I want to play." 

I agree totally with that stance on modding and always have.  However adding mods to already good games gets me through the dry spells since I don't buy *everything* out there. 

[Ingmar]

Mount & Blade would be the example I'd point to where modding takes it from 'eh' to 'great'.

[lamaros]

Mount & Blade would be the example I'd point to where modding takes it from 'eh' to 'great'.

Having to mod a game to make it great makes it go from 'great!' to 'eh' for me. I cannot be bothered with that crap.

And I played hours and hours of M&B and it was great without mods.

[Lantyssa]

It really depends upon the game and the mod.  If I get the game cheap (and almost always do now with Steam and patience), and the mod doesn't require me sacrificing a goat in the hopes of installing it right, I'm all good with combining the two.

Now in a perfect world?  Yeah, the game should be fan-fucking-tastic on its own.  And mods should just be ways to enjoy the game further or little preference tweaks.  And devs that can't do that should be shot.  But we only get that game once or twice a decade it seems...

[Samwise]

Half-Life was a great game on its own merits, but if you were refusing to play Counter-Strike or TFC back in the day because they were mods, you were dumb.

Also, Vampire: Bloodlines, f13's first GOTY, is definitely much better with the mod that fixes the crashing bugs and whatnot.  An exceptional case, I know.

[lamaros]

Eh, CS is a pretty special case.

[Trippy]

Total conversions, while technically mods, aren't really the same thing in terms of gameplay experience.

[Cyrrex]

I'm cool with mods extending the life of a game (e.g. Minecraft), but not so much to fix the game.  But more important for me is the processing for getting and installing the mods.  Skyrim has it right, totally painless.  Even something like DayZ has it right.  Minecraft has it partly right (but a whole lot of wrong as well).  If I have to jump through significant hoops and avoid a minefield of ad/mal/spyware plagued websites, then fuck that bullshit.

Back to the topic at hand.  I haven't played SoM for a few days, and it is driving me batty.  It has been a while since a game made me spend so much time thinking about it even when I wasn't playing it.

[murdoc]

I'm with Schild and lamaros in regards to mods. The only game that I really felt needed them was Dark Souls for PC, but that goes under the category of actually making the game playable.

I keep trying Minecraft mods and I am probably not picking the right ones as there hasn't been anything that really enhanced it for the amount I play. I am fine with Skyrim the way it is and I could never get into any Civ mods.

I have not even gotten to the second area in Mordor yet - I keep getting sidetracked from the main quest and I was getting tired of failing the stupid stealth portion of the main storyline.

I hate escort missions and I hate forced stealth missions.

[Yegolev]

Mods are fine until the devs get lazy (BETHESDA!).  I don't have a lot of time for nonsense, though (Minecraft until Technic Launcher).

[schild]

Half-Life was a great game on its own merits, but if you were refusing to play Counter-Strike or TFC back in the day because they were mods, you were dumb.

Also, Vampire: Bloodlines, f13's first GOTY, is definitely much better with the mod that fixes the crashing bugs and whatnot.  An exceptional case, I know.

Bloodlines was an exceptional case, given we gave it GOTY before any of the mods that fixed bugs came out. We played through the pain that year. I've still never played it with bugfix mods. Though, I should, as its an excellent game.

CS took a couple months to catch on in Virginia and by then I was playing Unreal tournament and didn't care about CS really. I never played the original TF. That said, I probably would have played CS if UT had not come out.

I'm pretty sure I've modded less than 5 games in any capacity in my entire life. I definitely got maps for UT and Q3A, so if maps count that's two of them. I added a random thing to Skyrim when Steam Workshop came out to see what Workshop was about. This was long after I stopped playing Skyrim. I changed my texture map in Minecraft from a link on f13. Uhhhhhhh. Oh, and I installed Synergies mod for Torchlight 2, also from Steam Workshop, because TL was a half-baked soulless husk of a game (Synergies is a total overhaul of the game, and it was still crappy). Pretty sure that covers everything.

[schild]

Oh, oh, and I downloaded a mod for Diablo 2 called Path of Exile which has this seriously wackadoodle currency system, a new combat system chock full of wet noodle slapping, and a skill tree replaced with a Skill Google Map.

[01101010]

I'm with Schild and lamaros in regards to mods. The only game that I really felt needed them was Dark Souls for PC, but that goes under the category of actually making the game playable.

I keep trying Minecraft mods and I am probably not picking the right ones as there hasn't been anything that really enhanced it for the amount I play. I am fine with Skyrim the way it is and I could never get into any Civ mods.

I have not even gotten to the second area in Mordor yet - I keep getting sidetracked from the main quest and I was getting tired of failing the stupid stealth portion of the main storyline.

I hate escort missions and I hate forced stealth missions.

The dagger missions are all stealth and I have yet to be successful on any of them on the second map. I am always spotted either right before the end or midway through - and always by some random mob patrolling through either from another level that climbed up out of the blue or some wandering archer up on a tower somewhere. I may never do these as they are just too frustrating to consider doing.

[Sobelius]

The dagger missions are all stealth and I have yet to be successful on any of them on the second map. I am always spotted either right before the end or midway through - and always by some random mob patrolling through either from another level that climbed up out of the blue or some wandering archer up on a tower somewhere. I may never do these as they are just too frustrating to consider doing.

I find stealth missions require lots of patience, and constant use of wraith-sight viewing of mobs. Some are easier than others -- even so, yeah they can be frustrating.

[apocrypha]

None of the games listed need mods. They increase replayability but aren't required, to quote schild,  "to make it something I want to play." 

I agree totally with that stance on modding and always have.  However adding mods to already good games gets me through the dry spells since I don't buy *everything* out there. 

This is mostly how I feel about mods too. There's plenty of games that I've played for far longer than I would have if I hadn't modded the crap out of them. I also just like the process of finding, installing and experimenting with mods. Skyrim & Fallout NV I modded to the point of bringing my PC to it's knees :)

KSP is another one that's very moddable. There's a lot of mods that tweak existing game mechanics that the small dev team simply don't seem to have time/inclination to fix, e.g. making the atmospheric model more realistic, but there's also a vast amount of parts and tech created by users that can change the game massively. I'm on over 400 hours played now and I'd guess most of that time I've been running at least 20 mods.

[Ruvaldt]

The dagger missions are all stealth and I have yet to be successful on any of them on the second map. I am always spotted either right before the end or midway through - and always by some random mob patrolling through either from another level that climbed up out of the blue or some wandering archer up on a tower somewhere. I may never do these as they are just too frustrating to consider doing.

I find stealth missions require lots of patience, and constant use of wraith-sight viewing of mobs. Some are easier than others -- even so, yeah they can be frustrating.

Once I started using my bow extensively in those stealth missions they became trivial. 

[01101010]

The dagger missions are all stealth and I have yet to be successful on any of them on the second map. I am always spotted either right before the end or midway through - and always by some random mob patrolling through either from another level that climbed up out of the blue or some wandering archer up on a tower somewhere. I may never do these as they are just too frustrating to consider doing.

I find stealth missions require lots of patience, and constant use of wraith-sight viewing of mobs. Some are easier than others -- even so, yeah they can be frustrating.

Once I started using my bow extensively in those stealth missions they became trivial. 

Now that I got the final focus slot, I might try that. Dunno if it will help since most of the time I am minding my own business and all the sudden it shows the failed mission screen and my camera pans over to some orc off in the distance behind me that is just showing his face or something. Someday I'll actually give it a go again.

[MrHat]

This game is great.  There was a spear thrower, The Singer, that I couldn't kill at all.  Just immune to everything.  Finally got my wits about me and started an execution interruption mission which was him (L20) vs. another guy that was L5.  I plinked a few in there to try and interrupt and low and behold, the L5 dude beat my nemesis to death. 

It was awesome.  Jumped down there with a "scare everyone" stealth kill and picked up the item and ran off.

[Trippy]

The dagger missions are all stealth and I have yet to be successful on any of them on the second map. I am always spotted either right before the end or midway through - and always by some random mob patrolling through either from another level that climbed up out of the blue or some wandering archer up on a tower somewhere. I may never do these as they are just too frustrating to consider doing.

I find stealth missions require lots of patience, and constant use of wraith-sight viewing of mobs. Some are easier than others -- even so, yeah they can be frustrating.

Once I started using my bow extensively in those stealth missions they became trivial. 

Now that I got the final focus slot, I might try that. Dunno if it will help since most of the time I am minding my own business and all the sudden it shows the failed mission screen and my camera pans over to some orc off in the distance behind me that is just showing his face or something. Someday I'll actually give it a go again.

I've always had the audio cue trigger when I'm spotted while in stealh mode. Maybe play those missions with some headphones if you aren't already?

[Ruvaldt]

The only stealth mission that gave me much trouble was the one with the ghuls and the torchbearers.  That one sucked.  Mostly because I kept running out of arrows and had to run around finding more.  Plus, using arrows during that mission can lead to people seeing you if you're not fast enough about headshotting them.  Thus my need for lots and lots of arrows.   

[01101010]

I've always had the audio cue trigger when I'm spotted while in stealh mode. Maybe play those missions with some headphones if you aren't already?

Yeah... I tend to do that, but when the nice yellow arrow is just floating there and then an orc pops up from the ladder... /fin. Or the orc is up on some roof that just suddenly decided to patrol where I am. No biggy. I have plenty of other shit to do and I am hardly a completionist...

[Maven]

We must be playing a different game. I've never had an issue with mysteriously appearing orcs. They appear on radar, and they're long dead from Elf Shot before I move into a risky area.

[lamaros]

Yeah stealth missions have been a doddle to date. Only mission I've failed a bit was the stupid cave sword kill the ghouls crap. Some serious spacebar abuse it finish that.

[lamaros]

I don't understand this game. I've not yet done half the missions in the first area (free slaves, etc) or picked up the trinkets or images, yet I've still unlocked most of my skills, two of the super expensive finisher thingos, etc.

Are you expected to move on to the second area with most of this not done, because I think I've pretty much already powered up beyond any usefulness.

[Ruvaldt]

I think it just depends upon how fast you go through the main quest.  I went to the second map at around 20 hours in and was just barely breaking into the third tier of skills.  Most of my weapons had three runes, but they weren't very good runes.