Skyrim is worse than Oblivion in every way

[Monocause]

Doing that was a pain in the ass. Whenever someone took a few steps my FPS dropped to around 10 and everything was flying, with a bunch of "oomphs" and "ows" in between. Fucking hilarious :D

The jarl's so bloomish because I dropped a dozen lit torches on him, keeping his legs, arms and the throne very warm indeed. If only the torch fire dealt damage instead of being just a visual effect.

Sorry for the crappy quality but it appears the image was so colourful that jpeg compression couldn't cut it. Even after lowering the resolution significantly and double compression - first by FRAPS, then by Photoshop - the current image still weighs around 200 kb.

 

[PWSteal.Ldpinch.D]

Ugh, Markarth is bugged, they still go after for treason even though I've gone through the prison quest. Three gamebreaking bugs I've found so far.

 

[Majestic47]

I can hear the sound of a million monocles shattering at once then...silence.

 

[7hm]

Smithing and enchanting is way op.

This. .

They are broken, and they basically break the game.

You can craft iron daggers (and probably lesser shit) all the way to maximum armor smithing, it looks like.

There is very little-- if any at all-- XP loss versus crafting higher tier stuff.

Enchanting is the same way.

I disenchanted something for a 15 stamina damage enchantment. I can put that as a total noob enchanter, using a petty soul gem, on one of these iron daggers and its value is 600 gold.

Even with my crappy speechcraft, I can sell them for more than it costs to make them. Therefore, I can level up enchanting endlesslsy, and make money doing it, as long as there are soul gems and iron ingots to buy.

I haven't run out yet, and have only gone to shops in Whiterun and Riverwhatever, the starter village.

Level scaling will hurt you if you do that.

Playing on the higher difficulty levels at least.

At the end of the day this is a TES game though. You're SUPPOSED to turn into an overpowered killing machine.

 

[eric__s]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the greeter at the Black Briar Meadery in Riften has an infinite dialogue loop that you can use to raise your speech to 100 in like 10 minutes. Just keep asking him to tell you what he really thinks of the place and your speech will go up every second or third cycle.

 

[Stabwound]

I've played 30 hours of a pure mage character and I feel like restarting. The biggest problem with playing a pure mage is that the sense of advancement barely exists, because your spells never get any stronger and you rarely upgrade your equipment. Finding new equipment just means selling it for gold, and loot is a pretty big part of the fun in these kinds of games. Instead of going through a dungeon and finding a cool new weapon to use, as a pure mage you're looking for very specific types of equipment, which you rarely find. I've barely changed equipment at all in that 30 hours so far.

Also adding to the fact that the gameplay starts to get tedious as fuck, especially at Master difficulty, is for example the dragon fights which will end up with you running around like a headless chicken waiting for your magicka to regen (or drinking a ton of potions). I get the feeling that sticking to a single archetype is pretty sub-optimal, especially at higher difficulty levels. Unfortunately, I like to LARP, so the idea of playing a mage that uses bows or some shit is annoying.

The fact that I've played that long and am willing to restart says something about the game, though. I didn't even get that much into Twitcher 2 before I quit completely.

 

[made]

Mages get upgraded spells every 10 levels it seems. That's when they are at their peak, until level scaling catches up again. Only thing holding them back is mana regen.
Maxing out enchanting early is useful for the dual enchants perk because you can then put -mana cost and +regen on a couple items.

Anyway, no shame in switching the difficulty to adept to reduce the hp bloat. Higher difficulties aren't really more challenging, just more tedious as you run around waiting for mana to recharge.

 

[Morrisonsfweb]

I have not played it, and most likely wont. I'm not a fan of BioWare games and that's only because they aren't Open-World. THAT, is why I'm one of the biggest Bethesda Game Studios fanboys to ever walk earth and that is why I'm hyped for Reckoning. If Reckoning was to be semi-linear, just like the BioWare games, I'd have no interest in it. That does not mean that I don't like linear RPGs, I just like the feeling of freedom. It teleports me onto another world, if you know what I mean. Lets compare things a little bit:

What can you be in game like Dragon Age/Baldurs Gate/Neverwinter Nights:
- Mage
- Warrior
- Rouge

What can you be in games like Oblivion/Morrowind/The Witcher/:
- Alchemist
- Necromancer
- Mage
- Beggar
- Thief
- Rouge
- Warrior
- Vampire
- Werecreature
- Hunter
- Merchant
- Acrobat
- Assassin
- Wilderness Dweller
- Religious Enthusiast
- Guard
- Barbarian
- Mercenary
- Ect.

As to MMOs and RPGs, I've tried out the trail for WoW the other week, and I enjoyed it actually. If Copernicus will use a similar engine to Reckonings, I'm all in for it.

 

[attackfighter]

Mages get upgraded spells every 10 levels it seems. That's when they are at their peak, until level scaling catches up again. Only thing holding them back is mana regen.
Maxing out enchanting early is useful for the dual enchants perk because you can then put -mana cost and +regen on a couple items.

Merchants scale their gear depending on your skill levels (not your overall level). So if you're a level 10 character but your Destruction skill is only at 15 then you'll only be able to buy the 'novice' destruction spells and equipment. The first time you see an upgrade in merchant equipment is at skill level 40 I think. Afterwards it's either skill level 60 or 80 that advances the merchants to expert tier inventory and probably level 100 that advances them to master tier. As far as I know this only applies to magic skills.

 

[ChristofferC]

Smithing and enchanting is way op.

This. .

They are broken, and they basically break the game.

You can craft iron daggers (and probably lesser shit) all the way to maximum armor smithing, it looks like.

There is very little-- if any at all-- XP loss versus crafting higher tier stuff.

Enchanting is the same way.

I disenchanted something for a 15 stamina damage enchantment. I can put that as a total noob enchanter, using a petty soul gem, on one of these iron daggers and its value is 600 gold.

Even with my crappy speechcraft, I can sell them for more than it costs to make them. Therefore, I can level up enchanting endlesslsy, and make money doing it, as long as there are soul gems and iron ingots to buy.

I haven't run out yet, and have only gone to shops in Whiterun and Riverwhatever, the starter village.

Level scaling will hurt you if you do that.

Playing on the higher difficulty levels at least.

At the end of the day this is a TES game though. You're SUPPOSED to turn into an overpowered killing machine.

Level scaling wont hurt you much when you have 600+ armor and do 100+ damage with each attack.

 

[Ulminati]

Level scaling wont hurt you much when you have 600+ armor and do 100+ damage with each attack.

So to test this, I made a new character. I cheated myself to a hundred billion iron ingots (or thereabouts) and crafted a metric shitton of iron daggers to raise my smithing to 100 at the skyforge. (I used the master trainer there to speed things up a little). I then made myself a full set of daedric armor, a daedric bow and a daedric greatsword. upgraded everything to legendary and set forth to kick ass. (Master difficulty).

First encounter. Bandits. Sneak attacked one of them for ~50% of his max health. He in turn shot me and killed me dead in one shot with his hunting bow and iron arrows.

Compare this to my other test run, in which I abused the archer trainer/companion in Riverwood to immediately level my bow skill to 50 for free and could one-shot shit with ease.

The moral of the story: Being able to use your gear is better than being a newb in shining armour.

 

[Gord]

The moral of the story: Being able to use your gear is better than being a newb in shining armour.

This is actually pretty cool.

 

[Shannow]

Level scaling wont hurt you much when you have 600+ armor and do 100+ damage with each attack.

So to test this, I made a new character. I cheated myself to a hundred billion iron ingots (or thereabouts) and crafted a metric shitton of iron daggers to raise my smithing to 100 at the skyforge. (I used the master trainer there to speed things up a little). I then made myself a full set of daedric armor, a daedric bow and a daedric greatsword. upgraded everything to legendary and set forth to kick ass. (Master difficulty).

First encounter. Bandits. Sneak attacked one of them for ~50% of his max health. He in turn shot me and killed me dead in one shot with his hunting bow and iron arrows.

Makes no sense whatsover. Good to know Skrym's level scaling is just as shitty as expected. Thanks for checking that.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Moral of the story, RP not LARP character from Oblibion. With decent Legion gear ugraded to flawless and Heavy armor, one handed, and block at 60 my Imperrial warior has chalenging boss fights but takes care of bears, Trolls and other wildlife. He's around level 20 and he plays on adept but without magic and Dragon shouts. Don't level up shit you should not use or don't need and you'll be well.

 

[Gord]

First encounter. Bandits. Sneak attacked one of them for ~50% of his max health. He in turn shot me and killed me dead in one shot with his hunting bow and iron arrows.

Makes no sense whatsover. Good to know Skrym's level scaling is just as shitty as expected. Thanks for checking that.

Damn realism-fags.



Also it does ave shit to do with level-scaling. It's just the way TES has always tied armor rating to skill.

 

[Shannow]

First encounter. Bandits. Sneak attacked one of them for ~50% of his max health. He in turn shot me and killed me dead in one shot with his hunting bow and iron arrows.

Makes no sense whatsover. Good to know Skrym's level scaling is just as shitty as expected. Thanks for checking that.

Damn realism- and gameplay-fags.

fixed

 

[attackfighter]

The moral of the story: Being able to use your gear is better than being a newb in shining armour.

This is actually pretty cool.

Not really. It means that pacifist builds are gimped and that combats the way to go. It's the same as in Oblivion, how if you focused on lock picking, speech and whatnot for the first 5 levels you'd be fucked over by enemies with 5 times your strength.

 

[ChristofferC]

Level scaling wont hurt you much when you have 600+ armor and do 100+ damage with each attack.

So to test this, I made a new character. I cheated myself to a hundred billion iron ingots (or thereabouts) and crafted a metric shitton of iron daggers to raise my smithing to 100 at the skyforge. (I used the master trainer there to speed things up a little). I then made myself a full set of daedric armor, a daedric bow and a daedric greatsword. upgraded everything to legendary and set forth to kick ass. (Master difficulty).

First encounter. Bandits. Sneak attacked one of them for ~50% of his max health. He in turn shot me and killed me dead in one shot with his hunting bow and iron arrows.

Compare this to my other test run, in which I abused the archer trainer/companion in Riverwood to immediately level my bow skill to 50 for free and could one-shot shit with ease.

The moral of the story: Being able to use your gear is better than being a newb in shining armour.

I did some testing too now because I couldn't believe it and... yeah you're right. You do need some weapon and armor skills before you start pumping smithing and enchanting (on master difficulty)

 

[Gord]

The moral of the story: Being able to use your gear is better than being a newb in shining armour.

This is actually pretty cool.

Not really. It means that pacifist builds are gimped and that combats the way to go. It's the same as in Oblivion, how if you focused on lock picking, speech and whatnot for the first 5 levels you'd be fucked over by enemies with 5 times your strength.

Sorry, but nobody (except maybe the most naive larper) plays a pacifist build in a TES game.
There is NO FUCKING POINT to trying to play a smooth talker by focusing on speech in this games.

You could just as well complain that you can't talk to the monsters in Doom.

 

[crazy_dave]

Can anyone say something about two weapons style? I am having doubts wheather going two handed weapons or dualwielding? On Master difficulty... Heavy armor, bows... No destruction magic...

 

[attackfighter]

The moral of the story: Being able to use your gear is better than being a newb in shining armour.

This is actually pretty cool.

Not really. It means that pacifist builds are gimped and that combats the way to go. It's the same as in Oblivion, how if you focused on lock picking, speech and whatnot for the first 5 levels you'd be fucked over by enemies with 5 times your strength.

Sorry, but nobody (except maybe the most naive larper) plays a pacifist build in a TES game.
There is NO FUCKING POINT to trying to play a smooth talker by focusing on speech in this games.

You could just as well complain that you can't talk to the monsters in Doom.

So you're excusing a lack of viable pacifist builds on the grounds that no one plays nonexistent pacifist builds...

Bonus points for bringing up a 16 year old game from another genre!

 

[Gord]

No, I'm saying that you are playing a series that was always strongly focusing on combat while not even offering many incentives/possibilities to play a pacifist build.

I don't know about you, but I would like stuff like sufficient speech challenges as alternative ways to complete quests.
Or quests that are not clearly dependent on hitting stuff with a big axe.

Although I guess if you are fine with larping, you will find ways to have "fun" with the game pretending to be a blacksmith or an alchemist.

But yeah, complaining is a nice thing, I like doing it, too, so why not complain about a game not being something it never was intended to be.#

Speaking about complaining, where's Skyway disappeared to? Busy playing Skyrim?

 

[Gerrard]

I have 45 hours clocked, embracing my inner decline.

If only the combat wasn't so shitty.

 

[Captain Shrek]

I have 45 hours clocked, embracing my inner decline.

If only the combat wasn't so shitty.

And dialogues not so derpy.

Look. I try to rationalize ( :/ ) it this way: The game is NOT an RPG. Its an open world hack and slash. In that respect it is quite playable.

 

[GMonkey]

Hi there fuckers. Those who have tasted the latest in decline please comment on the following answers:

What are the consequences of doing quests in Skyrim? Do NPCs recognize you as, say, the leader of the Mage's Guild?

They recognize you in incidental dialogue. If you do a lot of good work for a community, individuals may randomly give you trivial gifts (gold, bits of crafting materials, etc.)

Is there a reputation/fame system? Do NPCs recognize you as, say, the leader of the Mage's Guild? Do NPCs change behavior if, for example, you assassinate their neighbors?

There's no explicit reputation system, but I believe individual towns have a simple one running under the hood (see earlier comment about gifts and incidental dialogue). The amount of incidental dialogue is huge, both in telling little stories between characters in the various towns, and in response to certain quests / achievements. The criminal system is by hold (Skyrim's term for a municipal region, the game has 9). If you kill or steal from people who have family, and are caught, they may send a thug or assassin after you, and of course the guards will demand you pay bounty or go to jail.

Do quest lines branch?

Some quests certainly do have multiple outcomes (i.e. you can make a choice), but I'm not far enough in any of the quest lines to say if there's true branching over multiple quests. Maybe someone with more experience can comment?

Do completed/failed quests enable or disable quests in other quest lines? Are there quest lines that are mutually exclusive?

Yes.

Are there any quests that don't involve fighting or killing?

Yes.

Finally, I assume the game doesn't have an economy or an ecology.

Correct. It does have what I would call an ambient ecology, in that there are non-hostile creatures you can watch / hunt / hang out with, and animals will attack each other. There's the spectacle of a basic animal order. But it's certainly not simulating predation patterns and the effects of predator success/failure on population.

This doesn't sound like Oblivion level retardation to me.