ELDER SCROLLS OMNIBUS THREAD

[supremebve]

3 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Oblivion has some really excellent side missions. I think that's what stands out for me. I love the ghost ship one and the haunted house was neat too. 

My biggest issue with Oblivion was when I got to the point where I was either so strong I could kill an enemy with one blow or I'd run into a minotaur and have to run for my life.  My biggest issue with Skyrim is that once you get pretty strong, there are no challenging enemies.  Hopefully, whatever the next Elder Scrolls game is, there is some sort of middle ground.  I want enemies to level with me, but not to the point where I run into things I have no chance in beating.  

[Jiji]

I'm not a huge fan of enemies matching your level but they need to find a better way of things going from incredibly difficult to ridiculously easy. Better AI is definitely one part of it. One of my favourite parts of Bethesda games is just not knowing what you're going to run into. Turning the corner to see a bad ass troll that forces you to run for your life is part of the fun imo. 

My big hope for the next Elder Scrolls game is that they make it truly feel like a new game and not a really broad expansion pack with a facelift like Fallout 4 felt after the initial luster wore off. I want new systems in how the game works, not something that has been more or less the same since the early '00s.

[supremebve]

8 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I'm not a huge fan of enemies matching your level but they need to find a better way of things going from incredibly difficult to ridiculously easy. Better AI is definitely one part of it. One of my favourite parts of Bethesda games is just not knowing what you're going to run into. Turning the corner to see a bad ass troll that forces you to run for your life is part of the fun imo. 

My big hope for the next Elder Scrolls game is that they make it truly feel like a new game and not a really broad expansion pack with a facelift like Fallout 4 felt after the initial luster wore off. I want new systems in how the game works, not something that has been more or less the same since the early '00s.

I don't mind dificult enemies, I hate impossible enemies.  If I'm a level 23 I shouldn't have to run for my life when I come across an enemy.  I'm fine if I have to use multiple potions and/or try some new strategy.  I hate playing a game for 20 hours, and encountering enemies that you can't even damage, because they are two levels higher than you.  I used to make money in Oblivion by going to bandit camps, killing the bandits, and selling whatever I found.  Every once in a while, I'd go to a camp and a minotaur would be there fighting the bandits.  Me and the group of bandits were hitting this thing with all we had, and it would kill all of the bandits and then chase me all the way back to the nearest city.  We couldn't do any damage to it as a group, and it was my least favorite part of the game.  I started playing Skyrim again and I'm at a level 40-some with 100 in smithing and Enchanting and 90 some in one-handed, and my enchanted ebony sword can kill a dragon in about 5 hits.  They went from the biggest problem in the game being enemies being too hard and corrected it by making the enemies too easy.  There has to be something they can do to level the enemies with you, but not to the point that late in the game you still run into impossible enemies.  I've never finished an Elder Scrolls game, all of which I've enjoyed, because eventually the game is no fun because it's too damn easy or too damn hard.  

[Wyld Samurai]

I'm assuming the majority of you play vanilla? the levelling is fixable with mods. Elder Dragons give me a hard time at level 43, and Draugr Deathlords can also be a lesson in humility.

Mehrunes Daedra that he throws at you are pretty vicious. I didn't last 10 seconds against them at level 35-38. 

[Wyld Samurai]

What difficulty do you guys play on?

[Jiji]

Don't remember but I modded the fuck out of my Skyrim saves. There were some good combat mods that made the AI smarter. 

[RIPPA]

I always play the default and am totally fine mowing down guys later in the game.

I mean this isn't unique to Bethesda games

By the time I go to the conclusion of Dragon Age: Inquisition it was like a hot knife through butter

[supremebve]

26 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I always play the default and am totally fine mowing down guys later in the game.

I mean this isn't unique to Bethesda games

By the time I go to the conclusion of Dragon Age: Inquisition it was like a hot knife through butter

Vivienne was so overpowered it was kind of ridiculous.  She was pretty much a killing machine once you leveled her up.  

I've modded the hell out of my Skyrim, and I've added a bunch of stuff that keeps the challenge up.  I've added a couple Dark Souls characters and other random bosses throughout the game.  The vanilla parts of the game are absurdly easy though.  Draugr Dragonborn are fucking brutal to fight, because they can shout, which can be devastating.  I don't mind being overpowered to a point, but I hate when it gets to the point where the game is no longer engaging.  I think the biggest thing working against Skyrim is the size of the game.  I'm someone who largely ignores the main quest for weeks at a time, so I'm just wandering around exploring the world.  If want to be able to keep getting into interesting fights even at a high level.  

[Wyld Samurai]

There is a Civil War overhaul mod that completely changes the game. it's quite the challenge during the sieges.

Generally I do long stretches between main story quests. I get sidetracked by caves and dungeons when I'm travelling between the holds. 

Has anyone tried Enderal yet?

[supremebve]

23 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

There is a Civil War overhaul mod that completely changes the game. it's quite the challenge during the sieges.

Generally I do long stretches between main story quests. I get sidetracked by caves and dungeons when I'm travelling between the holds. 

Has anyone tried Enderal yet?

This is the fourth time I've spent over 40 hours in Skyrim, I've never picked a side in the civil war.

[Eivion]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I always play the default and am totally fine mowing down guys later in the game.

I mean this isn't unique to Bethesda games

By the time I go to the conclusion of Dragon Age: Inquisition it was like a hot knife through butter

The Elder One was embarrassingly easy by the time I got to him.

[J.T.]

19 hours ago, Robert C said:

Oddly enough, the Dark Brotherhood was my favorite part of Oblivion. 

Particularly (spoilered for Hedges' sake)

  Reveal hidden contents

The part where you have to take out the 5 people in a house that think they're in a contest to win it

DB in Oblivion isn't nearly as douchey as DB in Skyrim and I loved the DB assassination missions in Oblivion.

Spoiler

I am partial to the one where you have to make the death look like an accident so you have to sneak into the target's house, wait until he takes a nap in his comfy chair and then drop a heavy animal trophy onto his cranium.

 

[RIPPA]

I couldn't figure out why it felt like I was contracting so many diseases this playthrough. Hit me this morning that it was because I hadn't gotten Beast Form yet

That has been corrected 

[J.T.]

For you lore nerds out there, I used to subscribe to Roshank Redemption's ES Lore channel, but unsubscribed when he went dark.

He's started up again thanks to the remaster of ES: Skyrim.

Here is one of his more recent vids..

In case it is not implied, there are major spoilers in his vids.

 

[J.T.]

Alex Strasse is arguably the most annoying person on the YouTubes but his review of the Wind Path mod is fucking hilarious.

I like game immersion but watching my food cook in regular time is fucking ridiculous.

[Robert C]

Having a mod where you have to cook your food in real time may be the very definition of too much time on your hands.

[RIPPA]

So, hey, Gilfre

I kinda sorta left a dead dragon corpse on your property

Whoops!

[Raziel]

My personal favorite is when I went through the whole Forsworn mine quest, got to the end, and as soon as the group claimed respomsibility for the killings I was accused of and the bounty from Makarth was cleared, I up and Unrelenting Force shouted the whole group off the bridge to their deaths, ending their rebellion right there.

 

Was I rewarded, nooooooo.  See if I kill a Dragon flying around outside town again.

[RIPPA]

I really need to set some sort of goal or marker for myself.

Hit Level X and finally visit the Greybeards

Or I am going to end up exactly where I did last playthrough

[Hedges]

On 12/4/2016 at 0:46 PM, Oyaji said:

I loved it but it'll be heck of clunky going back to Oblivion from Skyrim. "Well met!" btw.

And to you, sir!

I kinda got sucked into Westworld the last couple of days. 

So, I am running a warhammer wielding Nord in honor of my original character (Stan F'n Hansen) who was lost when my 360 finally gave up. I am at level 39 and still am getting my ass handed to me every once in awhile.

Cool mods I'm using:

Clockwork- This a new quest mod that is hella creepy in some spots. A player home is added that is stuffed full of cool paintings and artwork. Not all of it is lore friendly.

Metal Shouts- It's exactly what it sounds like. Unrelenting Force turned up to 11 with the power of Pantera, Megadeth, Slayer, and others. It's fun, but the volume differential is way off. But, considering what it is, I suppose that's appropriate. The little quest with it is quite amusing. Also, very difficult at my level.

Holidays- I've only seen a couple so far. It's not as varied as I hoped, but it's still early.

There are others but I won't list all of them here. For as many as I have installed, I've only had a couple of hiccups in frame rate and game freezes. I thought about trying my hand at making a mod myself, but I doubt my computer could run the creation kit. I just want horses for my followers.

In summation, I still love this game. It looks and runs great on the XBone. My family and friends will just have to get used to being called milk-drinkers all over again.

[supremebve]

14 hours ago, Hedges said:

There are others but I won't list all of them here. For as many as I have installed, I've only had a couple of hiccups in frame rate and game freezes. I thought about trying my hand at making a mod myself, but I doubt my computer could run the creation kit. I just want horses for my followers.

 

I don't know how they've done it, but I haven't had any framerate/crash issues even though I have over 20 mods running at the same time.  The only thing I had was some faces were distorted, but I reordered my load list and haven't had an issue since.  

[RIPPA]

The game hasn't locked up on me once on my One which is kind of a amazing.

I have gotten a couple of times where it has slowed down but that was partly due to the pure chaos that was happening at the time

[RIPPA]

As I mentioned - the pure chaos that this game sometimes generates is really what makes it special

I haven't been fast travelling much because I am still fairly localized around Whiterun and I am trying to minimize dragon attacks at the moment. So I knew when I fast travelled to Kynesgrove I was pushing my luck since that is a hot bed for dragon activity due to the word wall fairly close.

I arrive in Kynesgrove and I talk to a guard who is walking around and of course - mid-statement he freaks because a dragon shows up. So it is me, Lydia, 3 guards, all the residents of Kynesgrove, the 3 travelling Khajiit merchants who were passing by going to war with this Blood Dragon. OH! And the cove bear that dragon decided to aggro for reasons.

Beat the Blood Dragon and continue up the path because Roggi's shield was in Cragwallow's Slope. So it is literally 30 seconds later and the Dragon up at the Word Wall decides it wants to attack. Of course - the thing was that there is a Giant's home between me and the mountain. So now it is me, a giant, TWO mammoths, three wolves, ANOTHER cove bear and imperial guards transporting a Stormcloak prisoners going at it with this Dragon. Watching the prisoner wave his arms around at the dragon while still in shackles was the best.

After it was all done I had to go back to Whiterun because both Lydia and I were overloaded with all the crap we looted from all the bodies

[Raziel]

Lesson learned:  Always double check system requirements before uninstalling your old Skyrim and installing Special Edition, since my PC can't take SE, at all, even on minumum. 

 

Fuck it, reinstalling old Skyrim and reloading all the mods in and it's just as good as SE anyway.

[BobbyWhioux]

14 hours ago, RIPPA said:

As I mentioned - the pure chaos that this game sometimes generates is really what makes it special

I haven't been fast travelling much because I am still fairly localized around Whiterun and I am trying to minimize dragon attacks at the moment. So I knew when I fast travelled to Kynesgrove I was pushing my luck since that is a hot bed for dragon activity due to the word wall fairly close.

I arrive in Kynesgrove and I talk to a guard who is walking around and of course - mid-statement he freaks because a dragon shows up. So it is me, Lydia, 3 guards, all the residents of Kynesgrove, the 3 travelling Khajiit merchants who were passing by going to war with this Blood Dragon. OH! And the cove bear that dragon decided to aggro for reasons.

Beat the Blood Dragon and continue up the path because Roggi's shield was in Cragwallow's Slope. So it is literally 30 seconds later and the Dragon up at the Word Wall decides it wants to attack. Of course - the thing was that there is a Giant's home between me and the mountain. So now it is me, a giant, TWO mammoths, three wolves, ANOTHER cove bear and imperial guards transporting a Stormcloak prisoners going at it with this Dragon. Watching the prisoner wave his arms around at the dragon while still in shackles was the best.

After it was all done I had to go back to Whiterun because both Lydia and I were overloaded with all the crap we looted from all the bodies

One of the times I played a character who got married, a dragon came as close to crashing my wedding as the game's code will allow.

Rather than fast traveling away from Riften I decided to walk out normally and observe the script/AI behavior of my NPC wedding guests (also, make sure they didn't get themselves killed on their way home halfway across a continent full of randomly spawning bears and wolves, oh man so many fucking wolves in Skyrim, they're not even a threat but killing them by the dozen is so tedious werewolf mode is worth activating just so the wolf-wolves will finally leave you the fuck alone). 

Anyway, as I exit Riften's main gate a dragon spawns.  I am immediately concerned for the welfare of my fake wedding guests since anyone who has played Skyrim for any length of time knows, the NPCs are prone to suicidal fits of loyalty and making doomed charges into battle against a dragon on your behalf because you chopped some firewood for them one time or something [why, Carlotta, have you ditched your daughter and your vegetable stand that both supposedly mean so much to you to trek across three holds to attend a wedding of some guy you only met once, even if he did beat up the bard who was sexually harassing you for a modest fee?)  Fortunately none of them did such this time.  Strangely, none of them (bar one) ran away, either.  Filnjar and Carlotta et al completely ignored the dragon in favor of following their AI script of taking a leisurely stroll down Skyrim's roads, walking back to their default locations as though naught were amiss while the Riften guards pulled their bows out and ran around uselessly waiting for the Dragon to land.  My wedding guests were unflappable in the face of this dragon crasher.  With one exception.

Lydia.

Lydia, who by this point in the playthrough has not only seen more dragons than everyone bar the dovahkiin himself COMBINED, but (marginally) assisted in the slaying of several and the butchering/looting of their corpses and is the one NPC who shouldn't panic and should ho-hum a dragon appearance.  Nope, she's the one, out of all of them, who runs for cover and shouts the stock "someone do something!" dialogue line.  Go figure.