Skyrim: thoughts?

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:31 pm

The only one I can think of that's really like that is Tenpenny Tower in Fallout 3.

And that's because you're presented with "kill one side, kill the other side, or work out a peace" and the third ends in massacre because the guy you're working for is a massive prick.

If the peace was actually a peace, I would have had no problem with that quest.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:05 am

You know what I'm upset about right now? I'll tell you.

I have Dawnguard, which is pretty fucking awesome.

There is a quest called "Hide and Seek", which is not so fucking awesome. It's a side quest and it has you kill a random vampire posing as a regular citizen. Easy, right?

Wrong. Here's why:

Problem 1: Since the vampire is a "regular" guy, the Fuzz doesn't know that he's really a blood-sucking beast born from the loins of Molag Bal. This is actually rather hilarious, as the vampire has burning, glowing, yellow vampy eyes.

Problem 2: Because of this, you cannot simply murder him. Why not just eat the bounty, you ask? Because if you are doing this quest, that means you're working for the Dawnguard and you don't want to give them a bad name, and killing an "innocent civilian" that people don't know is a spawn of evil would look bad. So, you have to kill him discretely.

Problem 3: There are three or so good ways to kill him proper: 1 Ask him to follow you, which requires a high speech skill. There are two ways to do that: Either through a Persuasion check or an Intimidate check. Both are REALLY hard for anyone not skilled in that skill. 2 Snipe at him from a hidden location. Again, not very easy for characters skilled in stealth. And finally, 3 You can cast a really high-level Frenzy spell on him and watch him go berzerk. This, again, is really hard for people not skilled in Illusion.

Now, these all add up to create this scenario:

My character is a level 47 warrior-themed Breton (I liked the idea of a frail person from a race usually inclined toward magic swinging big swords) who has little skill in Speech, Sneak, and Illusion. I have to kill a traveling "bard" who often hangs out in plain sight, in front of other people and/or guards. I have driven myself INSANE trying various different ways of killing this guy... and failing spectacularly. He is not that hard to kill, but doing so discretely is another matter.

I. am. going. BONKERS.

...I may have my character quit the Dawnguard, and go live on a mountain somewhere as a lawnless monk-hermit...

EDIT:
I am now off to drive myself insane again trying to ram my swords up this fuck-faces rectum. Wish me luck. Ebonarm is my co-pilot.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:09 am

What mods are there to make combat controls less shitty

What mods are good for making everyone less hideous, and adding decent looking armor?

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:29 am

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:38 am

Lokathor wrote:For better combat controls:
I hope you're joking on this one because you're not gonna get much help here. the engine itself is much harder to mod than the files that the engine is loading.

a man can dream

also, how many things can I have sex with in this game, and what do the mods do for that. Like a dragon, or romancing a bear or something.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:08 am

OgreBattle wrote:also, how many things can I have sex with in this game, and what do the mods do for that. Like a dragon, or romancing a bear or something.

Thank the Gods. I thought this thread had been missing some not so veiled mention of bestiality.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:55 am

Well, maybe not as far as what OgreBattla has said, but it would be nice if there were bosmer or khajit that you could marry.

DenGamer · Post by **DenGamer** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:22 am

I was wondering if anyone tried the new Skyrim expansion, Dawnguard? Is it worth it?

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:50 am

Are there ways to get an mod on the Xbox?

Desdan_Mervolam · Post by **Desdan_Mervolam** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:05 pm

Darth Rabbitt wrote:The only one I can think of that's really like that is Tenpenny Tower in Fallout 3.

I never did the Tenpenny Tower quest because I play Fallout Games as a lethal vigilante, finding evil people and perforating their skulls. I went to Tenpenny Tower, poked around a bit, shot Tenpenny for ordering the detonation of Megaton and shoved him off his balcony.

In FO3 the biggest example I can think of is The Pitt. Now, The Pitt is actually kinda the best addon for FO3, it just has two problems, The beginning and the end. The beginning pissed me the fuck off because I went in there with my best guns and ammo, went through the front gate and was confronted with an unarmored dick-shitter who beat me into unconsciousness with a police baton during a cutscene and you don't get to do anything about it. Despite the fact that I had just finished Operation Anchorage and had on the Winterized T-51B armor which is one of the best armors in the game. But that's neither here nor there. The ending really sucked, because on the one side, you have Lord Ashur, who is a former Brotherhood of Steel Paladin who has turned Raider, and is using slave labor to try to rebuild Pittsburgh. Talking to him, you get a feeling that he is a deeply deluded man who sees the ends as worth the means, and intends to free everyone when his work is done, despite the fact that his work will never really be done and anyway he's built up an infrastructure that relies on slave labor and the people in it who aren't slaves aren't keen on shaking up the status quo. On the other side you have Werhner, who leads you there with talk of oppression and wanting to cure a rampant disease, despite that cure being largely non-existent (Ashur's infant daughter is immune to the disease wracking the Pitt, but noone's been able to figure out why. So, to develop the cure, you wind up having to abduct the child, probably killing the baby's mother in the process). After you defeat Ashur and everything, Werhner winds up telling you that he was only in it for the power and now has a lot of alcohol that won't drink it self and responsibility that won't get shirked on its own. In most ways, The Pitt is just like it is when you found it, except the power vacuum has been filled with a drunken, manipulative asshole who was using you.

Whee, that sure made me feel like a hero, itellyouwhat. Next time I play FO3, I'm going to play the Ashur-sympathetic angle just to see if that's like the stealth-good option. At least Ashur's heart is in the right place.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:21 pm

Yeah, that sounds pretty shitty (have only done Broken Steel and Operation: Anchorage for add-ons.)

The Tenpenny Tower quest basically tells you to either massacre the human residents, massacre the ghoul who's pounding at the door when you first arrive (and his friends,) or find a "peace" which results in the ghouls massacring the humans because Roy Phillips (the leader of the aforementioned Ghouls) is like the most hypocritical douchebag in the Capital Wasteland (you can call him out on it, but all he does is say some sort of "you don't understand me" bullshit)

New Vegas was worse than Fallout 3 in that regard, though, since the factions were possibly even less likable than the Imperial Legion or even the Storm Cloaks from Skyrim.

The main quest of New Vegas left me feeling like a massive tool, because I'm just the gofer for either the Legion (which is anti-science and goes around massacring people,) the NCR (who are basically Andrew Jackson,) or Mr. House (who is a cyborg dictator/mobster, but probably the best for the region long-term)

There was also Independent, which was by far the most satisfying for the basic principle of becoming a faction head yourself, even though the questline wasn't that different from Mr. House's.

At least the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel admitted that they needed you more than you needed them, and were not total pricks (unlike the West Coast Brotherhood.)

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:30 pm

I hear you on that cutscene incompetence, Desdan. Pissed me off.

The saving grace for New Vegas (and Fallout 3), storywise, was Old World Blues. It's the only one that outright states that the protagonist does anything worth a tin shit after the events of the game. (I'm not counting the nonstandard game over from Dead Money, because Elijah is a fucker.) I hate the "ride into the sunset/fade into history" type of ending. The "become a quasi-benevolent transhumanist overlord" ending is much mo better.

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:44 pm

Shrapnel wrote: I am now off to drive myself insane again trying to ram my swords up this fuck-faces rectum. Wish me luck. Ebonarm is my co-pilot.

At level 47 you should have a metric crap ton of resources. Just toss on a speechcraft item (at least one of the dragonmasks does it), quaff a speechcraft potion and get a blessing from whichever god gives a speech buff. Just selling the excessive fucktons of loot the game gives out as you got to level 47 should have put your skill at least at mediocre level.

After that, just play the save/load game until it works.

Failing that, doesn't the npc sleep at some point? Failing that, I dunno. In the base game I found skyrim 'cities' to be sparsely populated enough that getting away with murder wasn't ever a problem.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:10 pm

I thought persuasiom was an all or nothing deal? Either you had the minimum speechcraft or it failed?

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:18 pm

You know, I'm not sure. There is so little opportunity to use it (and it never mattered if I failed or not) that I never tried to figure out how the sytstem worked. Mostly it just gave me more useless pieces of gold as I went through the game.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:54 pm

Voss wrote:
Shrapnel wrote: I am now off to drive myself insane again trying to ram my swords up this fuck-faces rectum. Wish me luck. Ebonarm is my co-pilot.
At level 47 you should have a metric crap ton of resources. Just toss on a speechcraft item (at least one of the dragonmasks does it), quaff a speechcraft potion and get a blessing from whichever god gives a speech buff. Just selling the excessive fucktons of loot the game gives out as you got to level 47 should have put your skill at least at mediocre level.

After that, just play the save/load game until it works.

Failing that, doesn't the npc sleep at some point? Failing that, I dunno. In the base game I found skyrim 'cities' to be sparsely populated enough that getting away with murder wasn't ever a problem.

Actually, that sounds like a good idea. I'll have to try that. As for the sleeping bit, I've watched this motherfucker for every single minute of a day, and he does not sleep. He mocks me by doing so.

If he slept, I could silently sheath my blade hilt deep into his lungs, and dispatch him to Vaermina, forever may she bless our dreams.

But, yeah, I am definitely going to go buff my speech now. It's at seventy-something right now, so, it should work. If not, well then....

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:08 pm

I DID IT!!!!

The vampire menace lies dead! Skyrim is Red! Travelling "Bard" is slain! His naked corpse rots in the wilds of Windhelm!

LONG LIVE ME!

I'm so happy I could shit diamonds.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:03 am

Ted the Flayer wrote:Well, maybe not as far as what OgreBattla has said, but it would be nice if there were bosmer or khajit that you could marry.

same sex Bosmer/Khajit marriage

yeah, is there gay marriage in this game? Is there a sex minigame? Can you shout while having sex?

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:03 am

all marrying npcs are bi to make it easier. I do wish you could marry Khajiit though, the caravan leader is so pretty.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:49 am

Being close to finishing Demon's Souls has made me realize just how bad Skyrim's fighting system really is. Here's to hoping they actually fix it in future games.

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:27 am

Zinegata wrote:Being close to finishing Demon's Souls has made me realize just how bad Skyrim's fighting system really is. Here's to hoping they actually fix it in future games.

This. The best melee combat I've ever seen in a vidjagame is definitely Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, by Arkane. The game itself was not supergreat, but the combat implementation was close to brilliant. (Although this weird first-person brawler called Zeno Clash had some surprisingly good punching.) The fact that Bethesda is publishing Dishonored, Arkane's new game, really makes me hope that they will take some cues and lessons from the folks at Arkane as to how to make melee not suck monkeychunks.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:45 am

Zinegata wrote:Being close to finishing Demon's Souls has made me realize just how bad Skyrim's fighting system really is. Here's to hoping they actually fix it in future games.

They won't. It's sold 10 million copies with a dogshit combat system. Demon's/Dark Souls has nowhere near close those numbers, and it actually sells less due to the difficulty involved in using a precise combat system. Nobody plays skyrim for combat, they play it for free roaming permissive exploring, sex with things, and putting buckets on shopkeeper's heads.

The fact that Bethesda is publishing Dishonored

Do you get raped in that game? That's what "dishonored" brings up in my head.

Aryxbez · Post by **Aryxbez** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:51 am

JigokuBosatsu wrote:I hear you on that cutscene incompetence, Desdan. Pissed me off.

I too agree that it was too obvious as a railroaded cutscene, makes no sense when most people playing it with their first character most likely. Thus having PC's decked in Power Armor of awesomeness, and other cool weapons easily capable of taking out 5 guys with lead pipes. I think it would've been niftier if ye could've in fact just muscled your way through the thing (even if had to fight EVERYONE at once). That, or find a more imaginative way to KO a PC, otherwise, it was a rather memorable experience for me. I had fun slowly starting chaos as a slave, killing jerk slavers, making due with limited resources for great effect (yay for high Gun skills). Murdering every named slaver to great effect, causing extended shoot outs and so on...great times.

As for whole bit of Quests that make people feel sad, eh, don't see what's such a big deal, Post Apocalyptic isn't exactly a "happy" situation for one thing. Skyrim I guess I can kinda understand, but even that's bound to bring some jerkish circumstances in the name of being an Adventurer! Although I can understand being displeased when it means your input had little/no impact as Skyrim is known for, and that is rather frustrating, agreed.

Oh and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, wasn't that the game that's superior on the PC, and is all about kicking goblins into spikes, cliffs and everything else? Also I've been meaning to get Zeno Clash someday (nevermind Steam Sales).

Lastly, I've played Demon Souls (and beaten it) with couple characters, and played a bit of Dark Souls with a friends character. Why is that game so heavily praised on this forum? I know someone made the realization that Dark Souls = D&D experience or something like that, but all the same. What makes the combat so great, harsh pseudo-realism?

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:01 pm

OgreBattle wrote:
Do you get raped in that game? That's what "dishonored" brings up in my head.

I have no idea why the word dishonored would bring up such associations, but no. It's an upcoming Thief-like steampunk assassin game. Looks pretty neat.

Aryxbez wrote: Oh and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, wasn't that the game that's superior on the PC, and is all about kicking goblins into spikes, cliffs and everything else? Also I've been meaning to get Zeno Clash someday (nevermind Steam Sales).

First off, pretty much everything is superior on the PC. But your assessment is correct. The game really tried for a "swashbuckling" style of combat. As such, pretty much single area had multiple spike-walls or pits for you to kick enemies into. It was a genuinely cool experience. Although I think enemies had a bit too much hp at times.

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:03 pm

Zinegata wrote:Being close to finishing Demon's Souls has made me realize just how bad Skyrim's fighting system really is. Here's to hoping they actually fix it in future games.

Considering they've been using the same basic, shitty combat system for 6 games (battlespire was essentially the same system, but wasn't technically TES #); that isn't going to happen. They figured out what they can half-ass and still sell games a long time ago