[Megathread] Skyrim Discussion

[jtgizmo]

The spell that was used there is kinda a spoiler so here

*SPOILER*

At the end of the thieves guild, nocturne gives you a choices of 3 abilities. That one, which I believe is Shadow of the Nightingale, gives you the ability when you stealth you turn invisible and the spell lasts like 120 seconds.

*END SPOILER*

There is also an invisibilty spell in the illusion tree when you hit like level 70.

Thank you, funny enough I am doing TG quests just now.... any ideas about quest markers?

[Flaks]

Before I start *SPOILER* *SPOILER* *SPOILER*

I want DLC that will let me kill that hoe Delphine.... she made me kill Paarthurnax which really pissed me off.... he was a bro.

*SPOILER ENDED*

Ok in all seriousness probably something like Shivering Isles, or maybe a quest involving the Divines... where you could actually see them. Basically like the Daedric quests except with a connected storyline... I think that would be awesome.

*SPOILERS AGAIN*

*MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR END OF MAIN QUEST*

Turns out he deserves it considering if you let him live he yells that Alduin was his bro and now he's going to take his place. If you translate his name from the dragon tongue the three words are something like "brother" "ambition" "evil" or something

*YEA MAJOR SPOILERS HOPE YOU DIDN'T READ*




They NEED to make a separate set of Nightingale Armor that we can enchant as we want. The armor looks way too badass to be wasted because you did the quest way too early and stats don't scale well into later levels or because that illusion frost resist and 20 stamina is so useless compared to some other things you'd prefer in a stealth/thief playstyle.

[Poppincaps]

Thank you, funny enough I am doing TG quests just now.... any ideas about quest markers?

Quest markers? If you are talking about the quest marker hovering over the NPC's head, then it is an option that is on by default. I think it's in the gameplay section of the settings.

[frozenkex]

Turns out he deserves it considering if you let him live he yells that Alduin was his bro and now he's going to take his place. If you translate his name from the dragon tongue the three words are something like "brother" "ambition" "evil" or something

No he doesnt say that at all, and no he didnt deserve it. You misinterpreted the whole thing. I know people with names like Dick, are they necessarily dicks?

They NEED to make a separate set of Nightingale Armor that we can enchant as we want. The armor looks way too badass to be wasted because you did the quest way too early and stats don't scale well into later levels or because that illusion frost resist and 20 stamina is so useless compared to some other things you'd prefer in a stealth/thief playstyle

.
No they dont, at all. Unique armor is meant to be that way, you either use it , or make your own or get 100 enchanting. And same arguments can be brought for every single item set in game.
If you want to always look like youre in nightingale armor, use mods.

[obdigore]

*SPOILERS AGAIN*

*MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR END OF MAIN QUEST*

Turns out he deserves it considering if you let him live he yells that Alduin was his bro and now he's going to take his place. If you translate his name from the dragon tongue the three words are something like "brother" "ambition" "evil" or something

.

Err no it does not. He is sad Alduin is dead because it he was one of the strongest of them, but he turned from the 'path'. Think of him as the kung-fu teacher who teaches morals along with DUS FO RAH. He is going around to teach the other dragons that eating humans is bad and that they should just chill on mountains and contemplate dragonism.

I have seen that his name translates as that, but it appears he isn't being a dick anymore? Maybe he will return to his dickish ways in the DLC? Doubt it since a bunch of people killed him.

[nbm02ss]

[Kickbuttmario]

I'm talking about without having the kill everyone. There must be a way, considering the quest tells me I failed to do that part of the quest every time I hostile the thalmor or just go past the guard. I can't sneak in without killing one of them. The way I took the quest was literally to prevent bloodshed on either side. I don't have those companions with me, I didn't take the quest that way. And I don't run with a henchman because they suck when you are a sneaker.

Sorry but I think its impossible to rescue the greymane without killing them. There is just no way. Unless you got master stealth skills such as putting invis postions on you and keeping spells up at al times.

[Neeshka]

maxed out enchanting to 100 along with dragon/daedric weapon armor with the 2 effect enchant perk.

Paralyze+Fire main hand axe
Paralyze+Soul Tap off hand axe

All weapons/armor upgraded to legendary. Used smithing and enchanting potions.
Levelling enchanting seems to be a pain, stuck at 80ish.

Smithing and enchanting involves making HUNDREDS of iron daggers; enchanting them with paralyze and selling them for a gigantic profit.

Now almost everything dies in 1-2 hits. Hmm. If they don't they are stunned forever lololol.

Also now that all my important skill trees are maxed out (one-handed, heavy armor, smithing, enchanting, alchemy, lockpicking) the only way I can level my character is by using crappy skills that I never used thus far.

So it's something like this - equip 2h weapon; swing at mob, block; get skillups for a minute or so; go back to dual wield and 1 shot enemy.

Or, summon familiar; sneak attack, repeat ----> levels sneak; or just go near a door and press C and go afk.

Or, Equillibrium+fast heal spam ----> levels up resto/alteration(?)

+Remember to go to a trainer every level and get 5 free levels.

Making money is a total joke thanks to enchanting+smithing.

Soul gem acquisition is RIDICULOUSLY easy.

Stealing stuff again is just too easy; close the door; bam.

Is it just me or are there just too many massively OP ways to do things in this game ?

So basically enemy scaling, crafting and the economy in this game is totally messed up. Also magic is garbage.

Now that the charm of exploration has worn off and everything feels generally the same I'm bored with this hiking sim.

Also; where on earth are all the tough high level enemies ? Dungeons with rock hard casters and daedra ? OR do we have to wait for a DLC for that ?

[Drakoro]

If you are a Heavy Armor user, and are doing the Thieves Guild, a Muffle Enchant on your boots would REALLY help. It's like you're wearing Light Armor.

[obdigore]

Yeah, putting the difficulty on max- oh wait.

And your second point makes no sense at all. Levels aren't even supposed to mean shit as the game scales with you, or it's supposed to, the problem is your character becomes overpowered so quickly or it's just I'm amazing at videogames, which I highly doubt because I can't give 2 shits about this bug riddled game.

The point of leveling up professions is to, oh I don't know, fight stronger enemies? Oh wait everything is piss ass weak as fuck and this game is about as challenging as Cataclysm.

And the fact that the game allows you to level professions so easily through exploits like this is simply shit design and that's a flaw that the developers overlooked and not the player. What? Did you honestly expect me to level blacksmithing creating anything but iron daggers? What a fucking joke.

You aren't competing against anyone but the computer. If you want to powerlevel smith or chant to become temporarily overpowered, do it. I just wish people wouldn't come in here and complain about it afterwords. Its like in morrowind when people did super-fire spells and perm levitation, and flew around blowing everything/everyone to burnt crunchy bits, then complained about the game. You chose to do it in a single player game.

[obdigore]

well max difficulty just involves health and enemy attack bloat and more potion chugging.

The AI or combat strategy doesn't change at all.

I really don't understand why people keep saying levelling professions is exploiting.

If you aren't a magic user (which in any case sucks so much it's pointless to even go that route); and you don't use bows/sneak (again, utterly crap at lower skill levels); there really aren't that many skill trees to go for.

Smithing, enchanting are fairly obvious to pick; so is alchemy; you really need to have downs NOT to pick these.

Given how the inventory system is totally garbage and weights of items make ZERO sense; again it's an obvious call to make a crapton of iron daggers and enchant those.

Sorry but this is broken game design not players "exploiting".

I mass leveled chanting/smithing with my first character, and while feeling overpowered was fun for a bit, it got old fast.

On my second character, I only leveled up when I was making/upgrading equipment I was using or going to use without leveling it by making 800 iron daggers/leather bracers, and that way was much more fun.

I have absoulutely no disagreements with what you say about magic. It is horrendous unless you power level chanting then put -25% spell (school) costs for the school you use to make your spells free.

[Neeshka]

It's just depressing how such gigantic gameplay and design issues with skyrim are basically given a free pass; whereas even the slightest balance problem in other games is picked apart by both reviewers and the gaming community.

The fanboy response of saying either
1) o but bethesda makes huge games
2) mods will fix it

is really getting old and doesn't hold much water.
Also; there really aren't even that many great mods that fix many of the largest problems with the game.

O I just saw my 1st glitchy twitchy skittering reverse flying dragon last night.

Game balance in oblivion felt better i think; with skyrim everything becomes a joke after a threshold of about level 20.

To be fair Skyrim is a superb hiking simulator; and exploring the continent and the occasional (but extremely rare) "pretty" dungeon is nice.

[Blznsmri]

It's just depressing how such gigantic gameplay and design issues with skyrim are basically given a free pass; whereas even the slightest balance problem in other games is picked apart by both reviewers and the gaming community.

The fanboy response of saying either
1) o but bethesda makes huge games
2) mods will fix it

is really getting old and doesn't hold much water.
Also; there really aren't even that many great mods that fix many of the largest problems with the game.

O I just saw my 1st glitchy twitchy skittering reverse flying dragon last night.

There's always two options for this.
1. Don't buy it/ Return it.
2. Get into the game design field and code and create your own game and engine that is the same size and scope of Skyrim, with all the customization and NPC AI scripts that you want, while keeping the size under 4.5 gigs.

[obdigore]

It's just depressing how such gigantic gameplay and design issues with skyrim are basically given a free pass; whereas even the slightest balance problem in other games is picked apart by both reviewers and the gaming community.

The fanboy response of saying either
1) o but bethesda makes huge games
2) mods will fix it

is really getting old and doesn't hold much water.
Also; there really aren't even that many great mods that fix many of the largest problems with the game.

O I just saw my 1st glitchy twitchy skittering reverse flying dragon last night.

I'm not saying mods will fix it or claiming that bethesda makes huge games. I'm saying that its a rather open world game where you can do what you want. Apparently you can 'beat' the game in under 2 hours at level 7. Guess the game is too short for 60$ as well? And when you complain about balance problems, can you show me what you mean when not referring to multiplayer? If Skyrim had multiplayer there would be horrendous issues, I agree, but it does not. I'm not sure I would call focusing on a few skills to make you extremely powerful for a time and then either not leveling anymore so you stay powerful, or leveling other skills and having your power decrease because you cannot use everything at all times, broken.

I guess I'm just confused why you are so adamant that there are 'gigantic' gameplay and design issues, I have not really seen any.

[Neeshka]

There's always two options for this.
1. Don't buy it/ Return it.
2. Get into the game design field and code and create your own game and engine that is the same size and scope of Skyrim, with all the customization and NPC AI scripts that you want, while keeping the size under 4.5 gigs.

I've already got my money's worth I guess; and my character is level 51.

Why on earth is it necessary to keep the game size 4.5GB ?

Most of skyrim is full of filler content and boring dungeons repeated ad nauseum; it's really not that hard to compromise quanity for quality.

Skyrim just gets a ton more hype and attention than it should; if playtime and content are the most important things ever; then WoW would be the #1 game of all time.

[jtgizmo]

Quest markers? If you are talking about the quest marker hovering over the NPC's head, then it is an option that is on by default. I think it's in the gameplay section of the settings.

meh, check my previous post. I have a problem that after finishing the main quest (killing alduin) the michellanous quests (like Thieves guild quests) are not possible to toggle ON, as in I cant turn them on, the 'toggle on map' option is just greyed out and they dont display on the map or UI. How to fix that?

[Blznsmri]

I've already got my money's worth I guess; and my character is level 51.

Why on earth is it necessary to keep the game size 4.5GB ?

Most of skyrim is full of filler content and boring dungeons repeated ad nauseum; it's really not that hard to compromise quanity for quality.

Skyrim just gets a ton more hype and attention than it should; if playtime and content are the most important things ever; then WoW would be the #1 game of all time.

I said keep it under 4.5 gigs because the size of the game (for my 360 version that I installed on to the HD) is less than that.

Skyrim and the entire TES series is about doing whatever the fuck you want, and playing however the fuck you want.

You're the one that "broke" the game by maxing out the two most beneficial skill trees and made everything easy as hell. You're the one that hurt your gameplay experience.

[Neeshka]

Guess the game is too short for 60$ as well? And when you complain about balance problems, can you show me what you mean when not referring to multiplayer?
I guess I'm just confused why you are so adamant that there are 'gigantic' gameplay and design issues, I have not really seen any.

Where do I even begin.

Combat in skyrim is incredibly bland; it involves nudging up to the enemy, holding down left/right mouse buttons and then nudging back; repeat.
The UI is an abomination; this is related to the fact that it's one of the worst PC ports in recent memory.
Enemy AI is extremely poor; check *any* recent fps or RPG to see what I mean.
There are numerous well documented bugs in the MAIN QUEST that prevent progression.

The way potions work in the game is a clearly case of bad design. There is nothing that restricts you from pausing at any time and chugging an unlimited number of potions.

Item weights and player inventory capacity is badly designed. Why on earth does picking up dragon bones/scales involve a massive clickfest in the crap UI ?

Enemies are grossly underpowered after a certain threshold around level 20 after which everything dies in 2 hits.

Before the threshold level "difficulty" just means things will potentially kill you in 1 or 2 hits. This is "fake" difficulty; the thing you quite often see people crying about in a game like WoW.

This is bad game balance. Enemies should hit you for a decent chunk of your health; you should not be able to 1 shot enemies. Similarly potion usage should be limited.

Almost every decent profession (smithing/alchemy/enchanting/sneak/1h) is just incredibly overpowered.

The npc trade system is stupid. Having limited npc gold just adds a tedium aspect of waiting 24 hours for their inventories to refill.

Making gold again is so easy it's broken. Enchants and certain crafts can be spammed and you can make mountains of gold (iron dagger + good enchant/any decent potion).

The point is the gameplay totally sucks from an objective standpoint. Too many things are too broken and skyrim just stands out as a great hiking/gathering sim.

It's like an incredibly grindy unbalanced single player mmo with occasionally nice visual aesthetics in the environments.

---------- Post added 2011-12-07 at 06:42 AM ----------

You're the one that "broke" the game by maxing out the two most beneficial skill trees and made everything easy as hell. You're the one that hurt your gameplay experience.

Enchanting, Smithing, Alchemy, Sneak, One-handed.
ALL of the above are broken.
I really doubt if there is any scenario where a player that wants to be melee actually *wouldn't* break the game.
Also I'm unsure why anyone would not intentionally choose any of these.

If you actually have to try to make your character underpowered by playing a mage and ignoring any sensible profession and putting points into dumb stuff like speech and lockpicking/pickpocketing; I really really don't know what to say.

Skyrim and the entire TES series is about doing whatever the fuck you want, and playing however the fuck you want.

it's a sandbox rpg. on top of that the magic system is so horribly broken there is little point even going that route. Being able to do "whatever you want" is a heavily marketed feature but I really don't get this concept at all. You do the main quests; a number of non-radiant quest chains, and clear out most of the interesting dungeons and that's it.

[obdigore]

So your entire 'problem' with the game is that you can min/max your way to making it too easy?

I'm level 46, hardest difficulty, and even when using my 2H Daedric Sword I don't '2-shot' anything, Especially Deathlords or Dragons. Or Bears. Giants, Mammoths, almost any human I find...

My 2H skill is at 100. With my sword and board (one hand is at 70-something and block is at 100) I certainly dont 2-shot anything either.

I will agree with sneak/one-hand/chanting is broken in the x30 bonus you can get.

I'm honestly confused about you being level 51 and two-shotting everything. My gear does not get better and I can't do it any longer... are you just sneaking around backstabbing, repeating all the time?

[jakeic]

I guess I'm just confused why you are so adamant that there are 'gigantic' gameplay and design issues, I have not really seen any.

i would consider that you basically have to powerlevel blacksmithing with iron daggers and leather bracers a design issue. I would also consider that you are pretty much forced into powerleveling enchanting by only using petty soul gems as a design issue as well. I would further consider the ability to then sell those enchanted daggers to make easy gold as another design issue. these issues are further compounded by the fact that the best gear is easily crafted and enchanted by you. I never left the area around whiterun, never visited another hold and yet somehow i was running around in the best gear.

Clearly I'm at fault here when i notice during my first playthrough that all crafted gear was available to me if i choose to craft iron daggers and leather bracers for efficent skill points in blacksmithing. Again i must have been the one at fault to notice how easy it was to get petty soul gems (or really any soul gem other than grand, because enchanting gear you wear with anything other than a grand soul is stupid), then fill them and use them to make enchanted daggers to make gold with. The piss poor design is not at fault nor the people who made the system but didn't bother to put any thought into it.

i don't think anyone disputes that you can get enjoyment out of playing the game, i certainly have. however, i don't think the game is worth all the accolades that everyone seems to be so willing to throw upon it. before you go off calling it the perfect game, try brawling someone or picking a lock.