quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: I don't think the whole Paralyzed By Freedom thing is really an issue with american gamers. If history of open-world gaming is any indication, we love it.
I should've prefaced that comment by stating that I live in Japan. Most of the Americans I hang out with limit their video games to FPSs and sports games on the X-Box 360, so I've probably lost touch with American Geekdom.
That being said, maybe the Paralyzed By Freedom thing applies more to console gamers (like Gabe) than PC gamers. Or maybe I just acquired that perception from the console gamers I actually know. ("wait...you mean you can *play games* on the Facebook Machine, bro? No way!") It's worth noting that almost all jRPGs were developed for consoles, and up until 10 years ago or so, almost all western RPGs were developed for the PC.
Posts: 2222 | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
I have had no problems with my archer thief. Fought a few dragons just stay outta their line of fire and take my shots as i can. yeah the giants arer tough. The only way i got my mammoth tusk was to run from them and giants and kept sneak attacking it till it fell then i ran like heck away from that giant.
game exceeeds my expectations. The only thing i wish they had was the power and weapon hot keys like they had in oblivion. I also dont like that you cant use magic while your bow is equipped.
Posts: 1661 | Registered: Dec 2000
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You can hack hotkeys, they're just coy about it while trying to keep this an equivalent experience on console (such as with the mouse smoothing, which I detailed how to disable before)
quote:The book that comes with the physical copy for PC mentions using 1-8 for hotkeys to select weapons, however it doesn't work the same way oblivion did. So I wanted to write a quick guide on how to use this method of quickly changing weapons/spells. The directions in the book are poorly worded and I think have a few errors but after some tinkering I figured it out. For this example I'll use two swords, a shield, fire, and heal for our items/spells. First you have to favorite them by pressing F in the items/spells menus. Then you press Q in game to bring up the favorites menu. Now I love dual wielding so I'm going to L-click and R-click on the sword to put on in each hand, then while I still have the sword selected if I press 1 that assigns that combo to 1 key any time I press it I'm now dual wielding swords. Now comes the tricky part the sword is labeled with a 1 so I can't assign another key to it, but if I put my shield (or any other weapon) in my left hand and press 2 (while that item is highlighted) it will give me a sword/shield combo when ever I press the 2. I can continue this by equipping the heal and pressing 3 and then fire by pressing 4 (while keeping that item highlighted). Want to add a great sword or bow select it and press your desired key. This function basically allows you to set up your equipped weapons and spells. It probably works the same way with armor (I don't change my unless I get better so I didn't try) or arrows (again I like to hit things so I didn't experiment with that). The biggest thing you need to remember is you have to favorite the item and you can only assign one number to each item so it takes some work getting 2 handed combos properly set up. I'm not sure how to hotkey dual sword, dual fire, and then fire/sword (since that would lead to a double label on one fire or sword).
Regardless, I'm sure that'll get 'improved' rather quick.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Level 11. I totally took advantage of the guy who trains you in archery, who you can turn into a follower. I kept having him train me up to five times, I'd level, I'd exchange inventory and take my gold back, train fives times, rinse/repeat until he couldn't train me anymore. Still broke 40, but I figured I deserved it. It's bloody hard just using a bow and arrow. Inevitably somebody is going to get in your face, and you can either try to evade, which is impossible in a cave, or just keep shooting arrows, and using shouts and well placed smashes to the face with your bow to take people out.
I've only seen one non-quest dragon. I was walking along a town at night on my way to investigate the bard's college when suddenly the music got epic and there we shouts of, "Dragon! Dragon!" He kept going from rooftop to rooftop and I'd ping him with arrows until he was quite low, then he went to the ground and nearly burned me up, I had to keep putting well placed arrows in his head. ------
BTW, I distinctly remember running into a cat person who can train you to sneak. My sneak is already quite good, but when I first happened on her I didn't have any gold, and now I can't for the life of me find her anywhere.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I think it's funny that reviewers say Skyrim is an improvement over Oblivion, yet some review sites like Gamespot gave Oblivion a higher score than Skyrim.
Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
Anyone know any crafting guides for potions?
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quote:Originally posted by Marlozhan: I think it's funny that reviewers say Skyrim is an improvement over Oblivion, yet some review sites like Gamespot gave Oblivion a higher score than Skyrim.
Man, I can actually use that as Exhibit A.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Well there should be some sort of consideration when a game is an upgrade of a previous format. Not that a sequel should be penalized for pushing the boundaries of its predecessor. But a game that adds almost nothing on top of what the prequel or inspiration offered should absolutely lose points for not being innovative.
Skyrim got a lot of the problems of Oblivion right this time around. It also has a completely different story, interface, etc.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The only problem I have re: the Paralyzed By Indecision thing is I can never decide what I want to be. I have no problem exploring the open world, but I have a really hard time not wanting to use every piece of gear I find, regardless of what skills I have. So I have a mage, a thief, and a warrior, all at low level, none of them advanced particularly far. I really need to just pick one and go nuts.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Yeah, that's my problem with CRPGs -- I want my character to be master of all trades. In oblivion, my main character was a Khajit custom class assassin-mage, with maxed out stealth and destruction magic. Decent in close in fighting, but killer with a longbow. Wasn't perfect, but was the best blend I could come up with to let me sneak around as much as I could but still be able to stand toe to toe with most baddies.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I'm really annoyed right now that you can't smelt together two ingots to make an alloy. You HAVE to use ore.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Has anyone else gone down the main Forswarn quest chain in Markesh? I'm at the end of it and I can't find a way that doesn't end up with me having a huge bounty for having a bunch of murders pinned on me or for actually being forced into releasing the Forswarn to actually cause a whole bunch of further murders, thus making me a horribly wanted man... I don't particularly want to pay a 4k fine, lose all my equipment or just abandon the city...
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Things like that are silly and disbelief-straining, Juxtapose. Such as how *absurdly* easy (and cheap) it is to level Smithing. It may be considered a spoiler, but I'll tell ya if you like.
I've found a money-making trick that actually sort of fits within the game, that is it's a totally silly cheat. It involves smithing, enchanting, and a particular enchanted item I was lucky enough to find and break down. It does require some startup gold, but more than pays for itself. Which is good, because after skill level 50, training costs jump by at least 3x.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Smithing was the one I was curious about, I'm fine earning my money the hard way (by stealing it). But I have found it surprisingly hard to level smithing, barring grinding the hell out of ore deposits, which doesn't terribly interest me. The margins on buying ore and making it into armor/arms are pretty terrible.
How much of a spoiler are we talking? If it's major plot related, I'll pass. If you can strip it of plot, great. Like "If you use the quest reward you get from the quest at This Location then you can do XYZ to up smithing," but if not I'd rather dwell in ignorance than get spoilers. Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I've only found one so far, in Whiterun by the lady blacksmith. I didn't notice it at first, big stone dome behind her forge.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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For smithing, a couple of tips: purchase all the iron you can, ingots and ore, from the general stores and blacksmiths in the cities and towns-take a cart ride if you need to. It's relatively cheap, and very fast. Do the same with leather and leather strips-this won't be much of a problem, though, since every wolf, bear, goat, deer, and sabertooth cat you kill yields hides which turn to leather which turns to leather strips.
Once you've got at least 20 iron ingots and leather strips, visit the Guardian Stones near Riverwood, select Warrior, return to Whiterun and rest for 8hrs. Your Smithing skill will now improve at +20% the usual rate. Craft iron daggers, and you're done. Heavy skill leveling results-I hear improving an iron dagger with an ingot levels even faster.
(You can do this for each stage if you like, hit each different Guardian Stone. But I've happened upon a Stone which improves *all* skill advancement by +15%, eliminating the need, really, to switch around.) As for money making, I stumbled on it by accident: I got an item which had the Banish enchantment, and broke it down to learn it. Then I applied it to those iron daggers I'd made, even with petty-sized souls-they sold to vendors, not just its base value, for about 800gp.
I don't know the street value of other enchantments-the ones I remember don't pay nearly as well. This method requires some money to load up on the low grade empty soul gems, the ability to soul trap, and the knowledge of the Banish enchantment at an enchanting station. Doing this has also greatly improved my Conjuration skill, as the Soul Trap spell falls in this category-as do my Bound Weapons, which now automatically trap souls if they kill things.
quote:Things like that are silly and disbelief-straining, Juxtapose. Such as how *absurdly* easy (and cheap) it is to level Smithing. It may be considered a spoiler, but I'll tell ya if you like.
I'd read about the iron dagger being the way to go, but I didn't know the warrior stone affected smithing. Thanks!
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: Yeah, giants sending you into space is definitely a bug.
Are you kidding?!
I'm sure they're just that strong!
Anyways, I played a bit more today, found a dragon priest but he wasn't the one I wanted to find. His was the mask that improves lockpicking. >.>
Can't wait to find the 100%+ magicka regen mask.
I've noticed that I easily wander into extremely dangerous fights. Had to keep summoning flame atronachs, and let Lydia do all the real fighting. Krosis was hard! (Not to mention a dragon landed in the middle of our fight)
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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posted
There is a child trying to perform the Black Sacrement in Windhelm. Try breaking into the Arentino residence ...
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: It involves smithing, enchanting, and a particular enchanted item I was lucky enough to find and break down.
Yeah, and it's not even hard to get a weapon enchant. It can be done nearly instantaneously. I've already found a number of things which I would consider 'breaks' — and which should be avoided as though they were console cheats — and I want to send them a list of things they have to fix alongside the smithing/enchanting/speechcraft recursion chain.
My favorite so far is that there's a number of people sitting around the world who you can attack forever with no reprisal (they don't fight back, nor is it considered a crime by any witnesses) because they can't die due to quest reasons. So, if you were so inclined, you could just hammer them with weapons and spells until you're leveled up all the way in multiple schools. It shouldn't be too hard to, you know, have put a flag on these characters which prevents skillup.
Damage from low-level creatures like wolves (and any self-inflicted damage, from falling or environment) also should scale off to the vanishing point in terms of providing skill-ups for armor and restoration.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Wooh. Finished the College of Winterhold quest. Morekei killed me maybe 25 times til I finally got him, he glitched and stopped casting spells so I just ran up and shot flames at him for five minutes.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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posted
I'm still a huge old wanderer. I've done almost none of the main quest, or any other main quests, except...hmm, four or five stages into it past Whiterun? I'm at the point where I'm getting letters from 'A Friend', as well as directions out of High Hrothgar, about places to investigate to find both dragons and Word Walls. Because that sends me all over Skyrim, it takes a *long* time to get there, partially explaining my level which is probably high compared to the usual spots in quests.
In Oblivion, if you waited too long to start the main quest it would be obscenely difficult, and everyone with you was almost sure to die. Hopefully that won't happen this time!
Anyway, I've killed a few Dragok Priests and gotten their masks-this happens in the course of discovering some of the Word Walls. These fights are, with my build and difficulty level at least, extremely tough-substantially harder than most dragons. My only bet is to get the drop on 'em, keep them staggered as long as I can, and then blast them into a wall with a Shout and hope they're sufficiently dead when they stand up.
Even these very similar-in type, I mean-dungeons are distinct from one another. Not just in the type of enemies, but their structure-some of the designs are similar, since they're all from the same basic culture, but one was frozen in the top due to its location, and bears had...nested?...in it. Bears are tough, which meant a hard fight. Some are partially flooded and flat, others have enormous antechambers. Sometimes I'm sent to the top of a mountain on the other side of the map, and I have to hump it out there-and then frantically summon my goon and weapon whenever I see something or hear a roar, just *sure* it's an angry dragon.
I'm disappointed in the followers, though-they're useful (but dumb), but they're very vanilla. The one I have now, a Dark Elf conjurer from the Shrine of Azula, had an intriguing background-I thought it was cool that Morrowind is, effectively, *gone* in Tamriel,-but nothing's been done with her after I finished Azura's quest. Lydia, my 'housecarl' courtesy the Jarl of Whiterun for feats of derring do, is even *more* bland. In Fallout 3, there were a couple of pretty nifty stories in the followers you could get.
I'm all decked out in Ebony armor now, which is rad. It was my favorite in Oblivion as well, though I think the design in that respect has taken a hit-I really liked the black and gold coloring. Probably won't even wear Daedric, though I've got a perk point just waiting to be used-it looks too monstrous, heh.
I wonder if I can safely take Giants and Mammoths now. Hmmm.
After shooting at a dragon with a powerful bow, breathing fire on it, and setting a death mark on it, thanks to the damage-over-time shout it was banking for another strafe when it became too injured to fly, so it plummeted almost right into me-so close, in fact, that I wouldn't see it and was blasting flames into the dust cloud frantically. They're extremely dangerous up close when you don't know where their mouths are, even weakened. Even lovingly forged Ebony armor is but a nice texture contrast when they decide to chomp.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Man, it's really tempting to jump straight to making a final review of this game, but the scope of it — and having to deal with the psychological nature of the enthrallment phase — means it's not time yet.
I have my answer now, though: yes, Skyrim showed that Bethesda really did learn what I wondered if they learned.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Ha! I saw a mammoth yesterday (I'm level 7) and what I thought were 2 guys with it. I fired off an arrow or two and as they charged towards me...I realized they were giants. Oh, crap. Thankfully I had saved it when I spotted the mammoth so I was able to avoid them after I died in one hit.
I did misplace the pilgrim that can follow you on the Eldergleam/Nettlebane quest, but it's probably my fault. I have a tendency to go off road, off cliffs, through the water, etc. with little regard for those following me. Have to work on that.
Samp, I agree - Skyrim so far feels like Oblivion, minus the stuff that bothered me. Other than the sucky UI (I'm playing on the PC).
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I saw my first mammoth last night too. I saved immediately after seeing it and went to bed. I'm hoping that I'm out of aggro range for the giants that are undoubtedly with it (and that my housecarl doesn't do something stupid). I'll find out tonight, I guess.
Posts: 1087 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
The giants and their mammoth herds are pretty much peaceful. Leave them alone (and back off when they tell you to) and they'll leave you alone.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Is there an in-game explanation for why giants are so much more formidable than dragons?
From the Penny Arcade comic I was assuming they were huge, but in the video where they are punting things into space they don't seem much more than 15 feet tall.
Just curious. I probably won't get the game until its 20 bucks or less, so it'll be a long time until I care.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I'm willing to bet they'll patch the giants thing eventually.
Anyone heard anything about their plans for DLC? Oblivion had a ton of it, as did both Fallouts.
Anyway, mammoth tusks are worth about 150 each. Do the giant drop anything valuable? I've yet to actually kill any of them...
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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posted
None that I've encountered so far. It is pretty silly. I concocted a few RP possibilities, heh. Right after I'd killed three or four magic, flying, fire breathing giant reptilian predators...and had the stuffing kicked out of me by a hairy elephant herbivore, much less their shepherds.
As for giants' loot, they always carry a couple hundred gold at least, an alchemical ingredient, and often some weapons, of varying quality.
posted
Are Dragon Priests supposed to be the hardest things ever to fight? (I've killed 3 now, all by summoning atronachs and running away, then the atronach is turned on me!)
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: I'm willing to bet they'll patch the giants thing eventually.
Why? They're perfect as they are. Always pretty much an optional challenge, but otherwise just fine to leave alone.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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And, most importantly, they remind all of us that it's not going to be a problem for long, because ... ~modding~
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Of course, those Morrowind menus that worked fine on the PC were a pain in the ass on consoles. Look at those potion icons -- no indication whatsoever of which potion is which without mouseover. And I'm not sure I'm down with using glyphs over words, in any event. I'm certainly finding that plenty frustrating in HoMM VI.
Seems like Bethesda likes to make only one version of their UI. At least the UI functionality is worse on the moddable version, although the mod toolset has yet to actually appear.
On the whole, this is sounding a lot like the Oblivion launch in terms of UI and bugs, but fortunately nothing at all like it in terms of actual mechanics. By pretty much all accounts I've read, the underlying game is great.
What I'm hoping for is DLC along the lines of Shivering Isles, where you go somewhere colourful and whimsical rather than somewhere brown and gray. That, bug fixes, and a load time patch for HDD installs on the console version, since that's where I'll spend most of my time until I can pick up the PC version on the cheap in a year or two and test out the cream of the modding crop.
Until patch day, though, it's Assassin's Creed: Revelations for me. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Yeah. I bought the 360 version, primarily because I wanted Kristy to play it, and knew that she wouldn't if I got it for the PC, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up picking up a PC copy of the game too once the price has dropped to a fraction of what it is currently, and the mod community has had time to really improve things.
Posts: 1087 | Registered: Jul 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: I'm willing to bet they'll patch the giants thing eventually.
Why? They're perfect as they are. Always pretty much an optional challenge, but otherwise just fine to leave alone.
Because people will undoubtedly complain about them. If enough people complain about something in a game, it usually gets patched. Though, that isn't always the case, of course.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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posted
I wish Skyrim's world leveled like New Vegas, not like Fallout 3, but I knew going into this game I would feel that way. Other than this gripe, I'm having a blast.
Example: I waited a ridiculous length of time before going to High Hrothgar. On my way up the mountain, people kept warning me to watch out for wolves. Cause they'd seen some wolves on the trail. There were wolves there, which might be dangerous. Not much else but wolves and cold winds.
And on my trip, I encountered... a bear, a saber-toothed snow cat, a frost troll, and an ice wraith.
And zero wolves.
Really, Skyrim? Couldn't you just set the level of that part of the world at "Wolves" regardless of player level? Would that be so hard?
posted
I was being charged by a bear, and right as I was about to loose my arrow, I'm spun around by some NPC who is named "Fugitive". He demands I carry something for him, I ask him about it, he demurs but insists if I try to pull a fast on on him when he comes for it he'll kill me (remember the bear should have closed the distance by now). I agree to it, because hell saying no means him and the bear will probably be ganging up on me. He runs off, I promptly turn around and apparently my bear believes in fighting fair, he didn't move while we were rudely interrupted.
I was simultaneously annoyed by and endeared to the game's designers.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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