Video Games

[Count Arioch the 28th]

On the other hand, Mayhem will clear an entire dungeon out when cast at the entrance, not having any thralls makes that a viable choice as Lydia is too high level to be effected (she bitches about it though)

[Count Arioch the 28th]

So I played a magic-only, no crafting, vanilla only run in Skyrim. I'm going to adjust my opinions, magic is actually effective. I took Lydia, my two dead thralls (Orchendor and Sild the Warlock) and picked a fight with Karstaag at level 50. Down in less than 10 seconds, no damage taken, no casualties on my side.

[Thaluikhain]

Out of interest, what made you think it wasn't effective? Sword and spell is always me choice for combat, whatever mods I'm running, and hadn't seen any problems with it.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Mostly I perceived it as inferior to either stealth archery or abusing crafting and making 500+ damage weapons, plus max armor and resists. I was bored so I made a challenge that turned out surprisingly effective in reality.

EDIT: Yes, I'm aware 500 is very low when it comes to actual crafting abuse. You can literally farm the materials to do so if you buy Hjelharchen Hall Windstadt Manor. No need to point that out.

[hyzmarca]

Magic is amazing. It's pure destruction that lags behind, and even then it has stunlock.

[Whipstitch]

In fairness to Count, Stealth Archery really is bullshit strong and the controls for using it are way less annoying than futzing around with which hand you want a particular spell to come out of.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Plus even at low skill levels, paralysis poisons will ruin most things' shit. Poison in general is good if you aren't paying for them.

Also: fuck Serana. She bitches about being in the sun. She bitches when it's cloudy. She bitches when you go inside. When you talk to her she starts spazzing the fuck out. When you stop moving she either starts fucking with everything around you or say "Yes, what do you need?" every two seconds. She can't decide if she wants to keep the best corpses for herself or ignore everything in favor of the dead chicken half a mile away. Lydia might be a smartass when you try to give her better equipment and she's kind of racist against elves but she's much better company in general.

[Thaluikhain]

In fairness to Count, Stealth Archery really is bullshit strong and the controls for using it are way less annoying than futzing around with which hand you want a particular spell to come out of.

Eh, never had a real problem with that.

Having said that, never got very far in Skyrim. I keep deciding to play it, but lose interest very quickly for some reason.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

That would be because Skyrim is not a very interesting game to play.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Okay, I just have to bitch about Octopath Traveler, because I've seen this game praised a lot and I don't get it.

I just beat the game and the final boss was an absolute chore. The fights got repetitive about 50 hours in and the stories were pretty variable in quality, ranging from Cyrus' fun and dangerous mystery to... whatever the fuck Tressa's story was supposed to be. I liked the travel banters, but the fact that nobody actually had any involvement in anyone else's story really bothered me. The fact that they WERE all tied together at the very end of the game felt tacked on just so the game could have a final fight, except they ALSO threw in a shitty boss rush too, along with infodumps that should've been part of the stories to begin with. Add in the boring dungeons, lack of voice acting, and the downright cheap graphics that get smeared with fucking depth of field, and you have a game that got a lot of praise for... reasons? It was promising at first and I tolerated it enough to beat it, but I definitely felt like I was wasting my time towards the end. Don't even get me started on the actual ending to the game.

[Foxwarrior]

The game was fun for 50 hours?

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

It was fun for 20 hours, then gradually became less fun until it was just a chore. But I was in too deep to turn back.

[Shrapnel]

Also: fuck Serana. She bitches about being in the sun. She bitches when it's cloudy. She bitches when you go inside. When you talk to her she starts spazzing the fuck out. When you stop moving she either starts fucking with everything around you or say "Yes, what do you need?" every two seconds. She can't decide if she wants to keep the best corpses for herself or ignore everything in favor of the dead chicken half a mile away. Lydia might be a smartass when you try to give her better equipment and she's kind of racist against elves but she's much better company in general.

It should be noted that Serana is bugged as fuck. A lot of Dragonborn was, but Serana's AI in particular was really poorly written - for instance, she is programmed to interact with every single activator in the game: she'll even use ones that the player can't (such as being able to sit down on a tree stump or cross legged on the ground). Hell, she'll even do the "cowering in a cage" animation if she's near Molag Bal's shrine in Markarth.

And this is a list of some of the bugs she has, from UESP:

When Serana is your follower, she may not return to a walking position after sneaking.

Serana may get stuck in combat after her target has died. Entering combat again fixes this only as long as the combat persists.

After being asked to "wait" or being dismissed as a follower, she may not have the option to follow again.

Even after completing Touching the Sky, Serana will sometimes say that she will meet you at Darkfall Cave when dismissed as a follower, though she will never go there.

Sometimes after completing the main questline for Dawnguard, while visiting a specific place (like Volkihar Courtyard), she will appear out of nowhere and act as if she were your follower even if she wasn't beforehand. If you dismiss her, however, you will never be able to recruit her again as the option "Come with me" will not appear.

If you have both a dog follower and a humanoid follower when entering the cell to kill Harkon, she will continue to follow you in addition to your other two followers after you've completed the quest. This effectively allows you to have two humanoid followers and a dog. You can dismiss the humanoid follower and acquire another while still keeping Serana as a follower. ?
Unlike other followers, the option "I need you to do something." does not appear while conversing with her as a follower. You will need to press and hold E (Pc22.png) or A (Xbox360.png) in order to issue commands to pick up, sleep, attack, etc.

When you convince Serana to get cured of her vampirism and meet you back at Fort Dawnguard, after the short talk about being cured, she may only reply to dialogue options with "What do you need?" and "Yes?", making it impossible to take her as a follower again.

Sometimes when Serana is your follower, you will acquire 'vampire skills' and yet not be a vampire (Champion of the Night, Nightstalker's Footsteps and Weakness to Fire).

If you bring Serana back to Dimhollow Cavern, she may become totally immune to any attacks.

Sometimes when Serana wears her hood outdoors, the game creates a new copy of the hood for her to wear, which will eventually fill up her inventory with a number of identical hoods.

While Serana is your follower if you use Vampiric Drain as a Vampire Lord the spell's damage decreases dramatically. This is the result of a condition on the Damage Health effect of the spell; if Serana is following you, the Damage Health effect will be reduced to zero points for all levels of the spell and only the Drain Health, Magicka, and Stamina will take effect.

Talking through Serana's dialogue tree in the Soul Cairn may cause her to stay in one place instead of following you, as if you had ordered her to wait (which you cannot do in the Soul Cairn).

After asking Serana to "Wait here." in an area where the dialogue option is possible and getting the response "Sorry, I'm not that easy to get rid of...", Serana may wait where asked but eventually reappear at the Dragonborn's side (for instance, when approaching Knight-Paladin Gelebor for the first time triggers a conversation involving her), then continue to follow the Dragonborn, but at a great distance.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Well, that explains why she often disappears in the Soul Cairn. Luckily, after you talk to Valerica the first time she's not required for anything in the Soul Cairn so I'm not too worried about it.

Or maybe it was because I shouted her off the floating tower where you fight one of the keepers. Killed the shit out of the keeper though.

[Whipstitch]

Eh, never had a real problem with that.

It's less "Spells are hard" and more "Tapping crouch triples my damage and de-aggros practically everything short of scripted fights." Shadow Warrior is hilariously stupidly strong.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Finally beat KotOR. I got pissed at the Malak fight and didn't play it for a long time. Turns out the battle is simply a matter of "Win if you are immune to critical hits, die if you are not".

[Archmage]

Better solution: Place a stack of mines on the ground before you aggro him, then lure him into the appropriate spot and watch him explode.

[Darth Rabbitt]

The mine trick is fun. Getting the high end energy shields and stims and then just getting all the equipment that boosts Dex and saves also allows you to kill him fairly easily (I once made a Dark Side Guardian that dropped him in 5 minutes, no use of mines). Crit immunity is definitely helpful but I don't think it's necessary if you can dodge/tank enough of his damage from high Dex, save boosts, and energy resistance. If you're not a scout (and you probably shouldn't be) taking the implant feats is really good.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

I played KOTOR when I was about 11 or 12, had a great time with my poorly made Light side warrior guy, then made my way to Malak and got my shit completely rocked. I wound up having to start the game over and blast him with Force Lightning until he died, like everything else in the game.
I had no idea how any of the RPG mechanics really worked in the game at the time. It was embarrassing.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

The mine trick is fun. Getting the high end energy shields and stims and then just getting all the equipment that boosts Dex and saves also allows you to kill him fairly easily (I once made a Dark Side Guardian that dropped him in 5 minutes, no use of mines). Crit immunity is definitely helpful but I don't think it's necessary if you can dodge/tank enough of his damage from high Dex, save boosts, and energy resistance. If you're not a scout (and you probably shouldn't be) taking the implant feats is really good.

Considering he has an attack modifier of +38, I didn't bother with trying to boost AC. I'm sure it CAN be done, I just didn't feel like it. My skinny consular just put on the helmet that makes you immune to critical hits, let Malak run himself out of force points (as he's a guardian that takes like 3 rounds), then I kept smacking him ineffectually with my laser sword. I had a shitload of med kits and a pretty high medical skill, he did not.

My dark side soldier/sentinel would probably stomp a mudhole in his ass in a few rounds. He's a standard dual wield/flurry/force speed build that is popular with the kids these days.

EDIT: Technically, I am talking about "critical hits" because Malak has Master Critical Strike. In reality, anything that prevents stunning, being hit, or making that DC 29 fort save more manageable would likewise solve the battle. It's just that out of those things the only thing I had was a helmet that prevented critical hits. His damage is high for a single target but is completely manageable when you're not being constantly stunned. Honestly it was harder getting through the halls with the infinitely respawning dark jedi and sith troopers (I didn't know how many it would take to kick my ass but I did find out how many the game was willing to throw at me).

[Iduno]

I played KOTOR when I was about 11 or 12, had a great time with my poorly made Light side warrior guy, then made my way to Malak and got my shit completely rocked. I wound up having to start the game over and blast him with Force Lightning until he died, like everything else in the game.
I had no idea how any of the RPG mechanics really worked in the game at the time. It was embarrassing.

It would have helped if the game told you somewhere in the manual that the bonus for max light side is wisdom (play a mage) and the dark side bonus is...strength or dex? (play a fighter). The alignment-specific items (a light-side hat and a dark-side saber crystal) in the smuggler's store end-game doubles down on that.

After losing to him once, coming back with DC: fuck you stuns feels good. Then you just murder everyone as a dark-side fighter.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

The bonus for max light side depends on your jedi class. Guardians get strength, sentinels get con, consulars get charisma. For max dark side, guardians get +1d8 damage when using any weapon, sentinels become immune to poison, consulars get +50 force points.

[Iduno]

For max dark side, guardians get +1d8 damage when using any weapon,

Ah, that explains my vague memories of a 2-weapon dark side guardian. Does the game still hold up after...17 years?

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

KOTOR 1? Not really.
KOTOR 2? Absolutely.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I just remember seeing the first inter-party banter in KotOR 1 and getting excited because I'm seeing what becomes one of the more entertaining parts of newer Bioware games. Then I realized most characters never interact with each other at all, and most only do so once. Mission and Zaalbar, best friends forever and all that jazz? They speak twice.

The writing is kind of meh although there's some funny parts at the Sith academy. Most of the other sith apprentices are evil but incompetent to a hilarious degree and there's lots of opportunity for both light side and dark side characters to fuck with them.

Also, ignore most guides on the game. Most of them are kind of dumb, just use your d20 instincts. Many guides also do not have the Yavin Station DLC in consideration, this is important because it adds some really great rifles and heavy weapons (something the base game lacks, Canderous and HK-47 really suffer in Vanilla KotOR 1 because of lack of decent endgame weapons). Also consider a mod that allows you to level all characters from level 1, some characters are really gimped by pre-selected feats (Carth is better dual-wielding melee instead of dual blasters, Mission is set up as single weapon dueling when she should be dual-wielding, etc)

KotOR 2 is better in most ways, but it feels "chunky" for lack of better word. You remember the inter-party banter complaint I had? KotOR 2 is the opposite, every time you go back to your ship you'll have to watch 3-5 inter-party banter scenes at least. Many do not make sense in sequence (One second T3-M4 is getting zapped by Darth Traya Kreia while she shouts "BETRAYAL!", immediately after he's perfectly fine and having a conversation with HK-47, then next you see a conversation between Autism McGee Bao-Dur and G0-T0 while Hanharr looms awkwardly menacingly awkwardly behind them.