TES V: Skyrim

[Jedi2016]

Since the game has a better leveling mechanic, I haven't thought much about the difficulty. If I come across something that's too difficult, I just come back later when I'm a few levels higher and I've got better gear. It's kind of like a MMO in that regard.

Take the Azura's Star quest, for example. I got stomped the first time I went in there because of all the magic (this was before the glitch in 1.2). I knew what I had to do.. I went and got 20% resistance from the Lord Stone, got a couple more levels so I could add the perk to Block that allows me to block 50% of incoming magic damage, and then I went back in and walked through the place like a force of nature.. piece of cake.

Far better to choose that route than to simply drop the difficulty level. To be honest, I'm not even sure where that option is in the menus.

 

[swaaye]

Very much agree. I don't feel irresponsible for not doing the main quest. It doesn't have the THIS IS URGENT THE WORLD IS ENDING RIGHT NOW feel to the main quest that other games have. The game is much better for it as far as I am concerned..

It's nothing new with TES. You can spend 10,000 hours catching fish if you like. The main quest will wait for you and the world isn't going to end. In Oblivion the gates don't even appear unless you do some main quest missions. Although Kvatch will just sit there and burn for eons (I've watched it with timescale!)

 

[Grall]

Speaking of Oblivion, since it was part of yesterday's Wishlist Giveaway deal on Steam I re-purchased the whole kit and kaboodle (horse armor included!) at -75% rebate. Regardless of whatever criticisms you peeps have leveled at the game, I think that's a fair deal, all things considered.

I have it on DVD, but never played more than a few missions, partly because my PC at the time wasn't very powerful, and then also because I was disappointed with the change to blocking to be a button rather than a passive ability. But...whatever. I'll replay the game when I've finished with Skyrim. Maybe Morrowind too, I never finished Tribunal or Bloodmoon back when I clocked the game originally. I just quit playing since I got tired of the game crashing every 5-20 mins, but this time I've not had a single crash at all.

 

[Cyan]

Thats completely different case, because Mario didnt have difficulty levels and Skyrim does. I still remember how hard Morrowind was even when You played on 70% of difficulty bar and Skyrim does not, even on Master.
There should just be additional difficulty level for 'hardcore' players

And I agree that Skyrim has better main quest than earlier games. Morrowind had quite nice main quest, but i didnt like Oblivions at all.

Oblivion had a similar feature, a slider that went up to 100 -which was a truly crazy difficulty level.. Yes, Oblivion's story was written by a 5 years old kid because it was really simple. I've written myself better stories than that.

Regarding Skyrim's difficulty settings, are you guys playing the same game as me? I am talking about the Xbox 360 version here, but on Expert -the penultimate difficulty setting- I am having a hard time with either my one handed warrior or (ESPECIALLY) my mage.

I am loving the game so much, by the way.

 

[Jedi2016]

Today's the first day I've sat down and really played for more than a few minutes since 1.3.

I crafted a bunch of new Ebony gear yesterday, so today I'm running around collecting black souls to enchant it. Lots of running around different dungeons, in and out of Whiterun and various buildings. And after about an hour or so, the game starts getting really sluggish.. framerate drops down into the 20s. At first, it only happened when it was autosaving, then it just stayed low, no matter what was going on. Reloading didn't help, I had to completely exit the game and relaunch, and then it's back up into the 50-60 range where it usually sits. Same location.

I'm using the 4GB launcher and some of the "HD" texture mods.

 

[KimB]

Today's the first day I've sat down and really played for more than a few minutes since 1.3.

I crafted a bunch of new Ebony gear yesterday, so today I'm running around collecting black souls to enchant it. Lots of running around different dungeons, in and out of Whiterun and various buildings. And after about an hour or so, the game starts getting really sluggish.. framerate drops down into the 20s. At first, it only happened when it was autosaving, then it just stayed low, no matter what was going on. Reloading didn't help, I had to completely exit the game and relaunch, and then it's back up into the 50-60 range where it usually sits. Same location.

I'm using the 4GB launcher and some of the "HD" texture mods.

Yes, I get the same issue. There is clearly some combination of memory leak/fragmentation going on that degrades performance over time.

 

[Sinistar]

I am ashamed to admit,but I have 130 hrs in, half of that with the 4GB loader, no crash or slowdowns with the loader. I can't believe how many hours I have put into this game, but I am loving it.

 

[Malo]

Yeah my wife and I have about 150 hours each so far, still blown away by everything I see. Just last night I was in the marshy area below Solitude just after dawn and with the mist across the area it was just fantastic.

Can't say either of us have crashed at all since 1.2 patch.

 

[gamervivek]

 

[Entropy]

But think about it this way, without auto leveling the game would dictate the order in which you could do quests, removing a huge amount of freedom.

I don't want to get into an argument here. I do want to point out however that time is time - if there is, say, 200 hours of content, and someone plays 40 hours, having the world level with you does indeed let the player pick and choose what he feels like doing. There is still 160 hours worth of content however, left untouched, no matter what world levelling scheme is(n't) used. The price for that freedom is that while it allows you to arm-wrestle daedric lords fairly early on, if you keep playing you'll find that the farm-hands at the end of your game would all kick daedric lord ass. Which leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and doesn't really make any kind of sense in the game world.

Win some, loose some. I know where I stand on this, and if you are going to go through a major part of the content anyway, not having the world level up with you makes more sense. Ironically, personally I would be a prime target for the world levelling with you approach since my time is very short these days, so it's probably be the only chance I could have in finishing the main quest line in a game of these dimensions. However, as in Morrowind, I would probably prefer to be happily distracted and loose myself in the more interesting aspects of the simulated fantasy world. And I guess that is part of the why there is a divide on this - some see the game series as emphasizing freedom to do whatever you want, some see them as emphasizing open world gameplay in a simulated fantasy world. Both viewpoints are certainly valid, but I share Davros' feeling that "freedom" means that you are free to go where you'll get your ass kicked, and run like the scared rabbit you are.

It seems that almost all games try to allow gamers to fulfill their dream of "being badass". Skyrim certainly does that. Playing a badass Viking. Old age seems to have lowered my testosterone levels a bit.

 

[homerdog]

It seems that almost all games try to allow gamers to fulfill their dream of "being badass". Skyrim certainly does that. Playing a badass Viking. Old age seems to have lowered my testosterone levels a bit.

Oh my god.....thank you so much.

 

[ERP]

I share Davros' feeling that "freedom" means that you are free to go where you'll get your ass kicked, and run like the scared rabbit you are.

In principle I don't have an issue with this, but there needs to be some indication that this is what I'm doing other than just wondering around getting my ass kicked.
Frustration comes with not being able to determine what you can and can't do next, whether I'm getting my ass kicked because I'm in the wrong place or I'm just doing something wrong.

I do think they'd have a hard time making the sub quest lines (assassins guild/thieves guild etc) coherent if they had to be dragged out over a lot of hours of playtime because quests were in areas of varying difficulty.

Anyway I agree there is no right or wrong here, just preference.

Everyone wants to be the hero, I have no interest in living out a normal life in a fantasy setting.

 

[KimB]

The price for that freedom is that while it allows you to arm-wrestle daedric lords fairly early on, if you keep playing you'll find that the farm-hands at the end of your game would all kick daedric lord ass. Which leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and doesn't really make any kind of sense in the game world.

Well, you definitely don't see that kind of auto-leveling in Skyrim. For the most part, the specific enemies you face are generally always the same power. It's just that most of the time the more challenging enemies don't appear until you get to higher levels. And the people in the game generally don't level at all, though there are a few exceptions.

 

[Malo]

It seems that almost all games try to allow gamers to fulfill their dream of "being badass". Skyrim certainly does that. Playing a badass Viking. Old age seems to have lowered my testosterone levels a bit.

Awesome video, thanks! That is just badass! I was going to try out a heavy armor melee type next, might have to give that a go instead of a weapon lol.

 

[Entropy]

In principle I don't have an issue with this, but there needs to be some indication that this is what I'm doing other than just wondering around getting my ass kicked.
Frustration comes with not being able to determine what you can and can't do next, whether I'm getting my ass kicked because I'm in the wrong place or I'm just doing something wrong.

Insta-death traps represent terrible game design regardless of genre, and are pretty much unforgivable in simulations or games with a narrative. Of course there should be indications from area, location, architecture, NPCs et cetera that tell you what you're about to get into. There should be under any circumstances, if only to create atmosphere as you head into adventure. However, if you go knocking on the gates of Barad-Dur when you're fresh out from under your mothers skirts, well...even fantasy settings should have their Darwin awards IMHO.

I haven't played Skyrim, and it seems that world levelling is better handled than in Oblivion. So that's good, and it's a matter of personal preference to say if it is a good balance of world accessability and sense of progression. Frankly, I'd prefer a setting for this, just as with difficulty, but I can see the game design challenge involved.

Everyone wants to be the hero, I have no interest in living out a normal life in a fantasy setting.

Well, you should tell that to all the grinders in MMOs...
But no, not everyone wants to be the hero in the sense that they can kick the ass of every entity in the simulated fantasy world. That's just not true, and catering only to those who want to play gods of destruction makes for rather uninteresting game mechanics for everyone else. I touched on that issue in my post above - that western games seems to assume that every gamer seeks to live out their inner need to be Duke Nukem. The implication being that those who have no such desire simply get a rather thin fare in comparison, and so move on to other ways of passing their time that doesn't involve so much pixellated gore. I may indeed have grown too old for computer gaming. Just about all pretty graphics games revolve around killing orcs, arabs, zombies, dragons, commies, ...whatever. It gets old. If you don't get bored with dealing pixellated death and move on, well, what does that tell you about yourself?

There is potentially quite a bit that it interesting with an alternative world setting that has little to do with death dealing heroism. The degree to which that potential is realized or not is a major criteria of quality for a game such as this. In my opinion, obviously, but not only mine, which is why you see people commenting on quest-line story qualities, lore consistency, spamming daggers in smithing, uniqueness in looks and clothing (even in a single player game!) and so on.

 

[RobertR1]

I'm now really enjoying playing as a Mage with one-handed (dual wielding actually) when needed.

I'm not doing any of the exploit for super weapons and armor. Only what's possible through legit means.

Playing a Mage gives you a lot of options on how to approach combat. I keep switching things up depending on what I'm fighting. I can't imagine just playing sword and shield. That would get boring rather quickly.

 

[Albuquerque]

That badass viking video was indeed badass, thanks for the link Entropy!

 

[Cyan]

I'm now really enjoying playing as a Mage with one-handed (dual wielding actually) when needed.

I'm not doing any of the exploit for super weapons and armor. Only what's possible through legit means.

Playing a Mage gives you a lot of options on how to approach combat. I keep switching things up depending on what I'm fighting. I can't imagine just playing sword and shield. That would get boring rather quickly.

Yes, imo Magicians are the most balanced class in the game at any difficulty and are quite challenging in higher difficulty settings regardless the level. Yesterday I spent like 15 minutes fighting another mage in a fort.

I have been lucky once in my life in a videogame, because the mage almost killed me many times and with another hit I was done, but luckily I managed to dodge his attacks in those extreme situations. I thought I would die and then I healed myself with Restoration, then another hit and I got nervous thinking, I won't pull this off I am dead. But I triumphed,

It helped the fight was outside, close to a fort I had to go into, not in a dungeon, but even so, if I died I would have to fight three enemies again, before confronting that mage once more. It would take me some time, really.

 

[poopypoo]

Btw Frank, Chalnoth, sorry about that outburst. I was cranky that day.

Back to game balancing, I think it quite possible to have one's cake and eat it too -- it's more a matter of cake preference. For me, I thought MW balancing was excellent. It got tough and it got easy and if you sucked, there were tricks to pull you through. But a lot of people complained that the tricks were too powerful or waah I died. I think Gothic 2 also had a good approach. Actually, a lot of games do. Elaborate advice from npcs is often overdone, really. A sign that reads "this way thar be dragons" is really enough. It gives excitement. It makes the world feel worth conquering. If you die, you die. The only flaw in game design is if there is no clear safeish path. Then that's a problem for an awful lot of people. My advice to Bsoft would be, autolevel the main quest only. Make townspeoples fairly robust, but not levelling, with perhaps a few exceptions. Sure they could kick a mudcrab's ass but it's ugly and painful work. Then when the PC is level 10ish they can choose to really wreak havoc on the towns if that's their style.

 

[RobertR1]

lol easy mode achieved.

Dual enchanting.

Free destruction
50% off Conjurgation
40% Magic resistence
90% One handed damage bonus
Dual wield with 60fire + 60frost damager per sword

COME AT ME!

Played legit btw. No glitches and such. I'm level 46 or something now and still seem to have maybe got through 30% of the game?