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I'm about 2/3rds through the main story, and definitely finding it enjoyable. Speaking as a huge Elder Scrolls nerd, Skyrim's delivery of the main story is a huge improvement over Oblivion. Oblivion had a neat idea, and it makes for good "history" (Skyrim takes place 200 years later), but the execution was very bland and the player's role in it was incredibly dull (why wasn't the player the hidden Septim heir? That would have been more interesting, I think). Skyrim puts the player back in the shoes of someone who's potentially important. And the lore ramifications of the story so far are pretty cool.

Also playing the Civil War quests (on the Legion side, of course). It's a sort of territory control-lite thing. It isn't exactly sophisticated (go here, kill all the dudes, hooray fort captured!), but it does have some interesting effects. Towns can change allegiance and I noticed Dawnstar in particular had its Ulfric-sympathizing Jarl removed and one of the more Imperial-minded citizens installed as the new Jarl.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:the player's role in it was incredibly dull (why wasn't the player the hidden Septim heir? That would have been more interesting, I think). Skyrim puts the player back in the shoes of someone who's potentially important.

Well, I agree that in Oblivion the player character did nothing that anyone else couldn't have done (potentially), but on the other hand it was interesting exactly because of that: you are NOT a reborn god or chosen by the gods or something, just a regular dude/dudette.

Delivery was still dull, and it was kinda disappointing how it all played out.

In reality I guess the player wasn't the Septim heir because they needed a fitting npc to slap Sean Bean's voice on

By the way, wth do Dunmer still not have the awesome raspy Morrowind voices again? People went nuts over that when Oblivion came out, you'd think they'd listen to uproars like that. Maybe it is because only Vardenfell Dunmer speak like that because of volcanic ash </fat nerd fanboi>

Chopping wood is amusingly profitable.

I made a ton of gold from pressing E every 30 seconds while I chatted on MSN on another device.

Honest gold for honest work indeed. (granted no way i'm going to stand around chopping wood if I wasn't actually speaking to people on MSN at the time...)


I agree that the game still lacks a certain personality and charm compared to something more focused such as Dragon Age, but on the other hand, I am compelled to just hike and enjoy the ride.

If I must say one thing for Skyrim, it's that few games are enjoyable enough to make me want to wander off into the wilderness and hunt things with my bow. No quest, no special stuff, just me, a bow, an- OH my fucking god how fast are those damn elks... even so, shooting wolves is fun.
It's pretty enough that I don't get board just having a yomp. And, you know, Dragons (thanks char)

charlemagne wrote:By the way, wth do Dunmer still not have the awesome raspy Morrowind voices again? People went nuts over that when Oblivion came out, you'd think they'd listen to uproars like that. Maybe it is because only Vardenfell Dunmer speak like that because of volcanic ash </fat nerd fanboi>

Damnit. I could swear I heard an old Dunmer voice in one of the early videos, but now that I'm playing you're right in that they're nowhere to be found. They're not as bad as Oblivion, and I guess if one is forced to rationalize it it could be considered a cultural thing - it is traditional for the males of Morrowind-native Dunmer to speak a certain way or whatever. But that's kind of lame. Maybe it's too hard on the voice actors? Morrowind had comparatively few VO'd lines.


we make a special trip just for you, same low pri...

So....

If you come up behind someone and sneak attack them for massive damage, do you get a cool external camera-swap animation finishing move?

This is very important.

GuppyShark wrote:So....

If you come up behind someone and sneak attack them for massive damage, do you get a cool external camera-swap animation finishing move?

This is very important.

Yes
Depends on the weapon your using if you get animations. Can't steath kill people with an axe but you can slit throats, put a sword through the spine or my favorite, grab their shoulder and gently but firmly pull their neck backwards onto your sword.

GuppyShark wrote:So....

If you come up behind someone and sneak attack them for massive damage, do you get a cool external camera-swap animation finishing move?

This is very important.

You also get this occasionally when finishing them off normally (without a sneak-attack).

Also, i don't know whether it's due to relatively high level, my advancement in the main story line or just sheer bad luck (or good luck, i needed some soul-sucking), but i just got attacked by two dragons at once (by non-named ones in the wilderness, so it wasn't related to any quest). Good thing i forged that dragon-scale armor and enchanted it with frost resistance

The finishing moves are nicely done, but in my opinion they don't fit in an Elder Scrolls game. They are clearly "inspired" by Dragon Age I guess, but TES never was this bloodthirsty.

They fit fine as far as I'm concerned. So what if they're new and a little, as you put it, 'bloodthirsty', if they don't detract from the experience?

Just saying, I said they are nicely done, I was just pretty surprised about the brutality is all.

I think they add a lot. I had a couple of encounters while prowling around bandit-infested ruins. I would try to sneak and generally fail at it in my heavy armor, so a bandit would come around the corner to investigate. I'd do a little "oh shit" swipe of the sword, and instead it gave me a sudden one-hit execution of the curious bandit. It felt very cinematic both times it happened; narrowly dodging discovery by a patrol by quickly impaling said patrol on a sword.

I don't dispute that, it breaks up monotony of combat nicely.

What "class archetypes" are you guys playing this time around? Since I'm used to playing damage dealers in heavy armor in MMOs I just went with that for the start, dual wield and heavy armor, plus restoration and archery. Didn't even look at offensive magic yet, but I think I'll go on as battlemage once onehanded is maxed out.

I like that there's no stats like strength, int etc. anymore, levelling in Oblivion was kinda silly if you wanted nice round +10 every level up.

Paladin-ish. Heavy armor, one-handed swords (dual-wielded on occasion, but no shield), a little bit of lightning magic, healing and turn undead, and a bow for backup with bits of sneaking thrown in (I want to try that roll move...). Oh, and I maxed out smithing (Legendary items are good to have), with a little alchemy and enchanting on the side.

I can understand the design philosophy behind the Fable stripped-down stats, and it's done well enough that it isn't a real problem, but part of me misses the depth the old system imparted. The details of its implementation certainly needed improvement, especially in Oblivion's case, but there was nothing really wrong with the core system of attributes and stats derived therefrom*.


*Hm, Firefox spellchecker says this isn't a word, but it damn well should be

Straight up Archer, with some skills in lockpick. I'm apparently the Robin Hood of Skyrim.

"Wandering Artificer-Bard" - more appropriately "Skald" - if you want a name for it.
One-handed blade, light armor. A mixture of all magic, primarily healing and destruction (if i need ranged combat) though. Very heavy focus on smithing and enchanting, decent skills in speech and lockpicking.

I guess crafting would be worth checking out, but I really don't want to go farm stuff in a single player game. Enough farming in my MMOs already, thank you very much. And I'm already swimming in gold anyways, as usual.

charlemagne wrote:I guess crafting would be worth checking out, but I really don't want to go farm stuff in a single player game. Enough farming in my MMOs already, thank you very much. And I'm already swimming in gold anyways, as usual.

Then use that gold to buy those crafting supplies, that's a really good money-sink. And it's really worth it, you don't find equipment that is anywhere near as good for a looong time, if at all.
Crafted armor and weapons are better because you can improve their quality, custom-made enchantments are very powerful if you use high-powered souls and have the right perks and from the looks of it self-brewed potions are stronger than anything you can find if you do it with the right perks.

I broke mages. Not the same way I broke them in the original, but in a new and entertaining way!

(Warning: Maxxed enchanting required)

So I made myself a full set of custom-enchanted glass armour (for the looks, I'm a mage, if I'm being hit in melee I've done something tragically wrong) and among other things I layered it with destruction magic discounts all over the place. For best results, swig the best enchanting potion you can find first.

To the point that Destruction spell costs are reduced by 100%. To free. Oops.

I was afraid that that would be possible
They actually wisened up and reduced the threat of that significantly by only allowing certain enchantments on certain items. You can't put magic resistance on most armor parts for example, and it's similar for most other enchantments.
However, you CAN put magic discount on lot's of items - AND there is a separate enchantment for "less cost for school X and some extra magic regeneration". With 100 enchantment you can stack two different enchantments on items - so you go ahead and stack those two wherever possible.

Of course that's nowhere near as broken as, say, 100% reflection or 100% chameleon in Oblivion
But i am already planning on making a Summoner equipment set for when i can actually summon permanent elementals - i'm not using Conjuration for anything but soultrap and the occasionall summoned bow to train a bit of archery when i feel like it, so i won't put any points into it - that way i can cast those high-end spells for free once i can actually cast them.
Mind you, that would also be possible without getting a 100% cost reduction.

100% sneak is not 100% Chameleon but it is free invisibility if your crouched and don't have LoS. So you can stab someone in the back, sprint through the doorway, duck to the side and hide again they will stop and start searching for you, as long as you stay five feet away your invisible.

I might see about the possibility of doing dual-school freecasting with the right enchants; if so, and if I level Restoration to max, having a perma-run high-end Ward in one hand and a tier-4 destruction spell in the other could be...highly amusing.

I was crossing an open area and I see a dragon in the distance, thinking yes I go toward it. I then spent the next 10 minutes tring to convince it to land as it circled over my head doing barrel rolls and loops at that point I gave up and left.

The real full munchkin option though is the combination of smithing, alchemy and enchantment. You can enchant to boost alchemy. You can make potions to boost enchantment. This ends after a while, but the guy testing it apparently managed to come up with a build with 2175 armor and a two handed sword doing 605 damage.

I'm currently running a sneaky sort and a two handed heavy armor eviscerator with massive enchantment and smithing which resulted in a very nice suit of armor, although the use skills for the axe and armor aren't close to being that great yet.

Based on my experienced in Oblivion and Morrowind, I'd went straight for Battle-mage. I use one-handed swords with plenty of spells. I use shields when cornered into a melee fight or when I run out of magicka. Mostly Destruction and Restoration (lesser ward is a great one when fighting dragons), but I use both Alteration Oakflesh and Conjuration if I need a little help and distraction (nothing like a disposable fighter on your side).

Already maxed out smithing and slowly going towards enchanting (though I should be focusing more on Restoration for the perks). Not bothering with Alchemy as I can't be bothered to keep track of all those damn ingredients.

I miss Myticism more and more. No water-breathing or water-walking can make travel sometimes annoying, especially the lack of flight and feather-fall when it comes to those damn mountain ridges.