Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[robdood]

If that stuff's half-way accurate (and it sounds like it is) surely it's just sloppy programming. Is there really any need to log the location of every single object in the game, forever? Just make a quick check if it's very far from its default, and allow it to reset if it's basically where it started. That'd save the game remembering 5 millions brushes up against fruit and cutlery for a start. They can have that one for free.

I haven't read the linked article, but simply storing the location if every object ever in itself shouldn't be too much of a problem, as you should only care about (and have in memory) the objects that are near to the player.

You'd still eventually hit same problem though.

Edit - Bugger, re read your post and seems I misread it I concur

[Angus]

Well I've been playing this now for a couple of days, and have quite enjoyed it.

First off it's an rpg and that means it's not for me. I assumed that weeks of gameplay would be required for fun, of course I was wrong. It was quite fun fairly quickly, but some of my old doubts remain.

My main one being... do I really trust the designers? I'll always wonder: Am I wasting my time with this mission because I went on it too early?

I love the idea of sandbox games, but this is always going to be a problem. I've been approaching this game like it's an FPS with some bells and whistles, and I'm quite sure I'm doing shit. On the other hand, I have been making constant progress. Perhaps I have to take this as evidence that it's all working ok. I just cant put such faith in the designers... that's my problem. I really like this game, but I don't trust the entire system well enough. Even if I win, it might have got it wrong.

Fuck it I like it. I just cant see it from the eyes of a person who's seen loads of them.

edit: by "them" i mean loads of other rpgs, which have all been fine

[Rudi von Starnberg]

No drug talk

[Angus]

I only consumed alcohol during the construction of that post, and it performed it's duties admirably.

[Space Gibbon]

I've been approaching this game like it's an FPS with some bells and whistles, and I'm quite sure I'm doing shit.

I just threw up IN MY MOUTH.

Real talk: The game does a good job of letting you play how you want to play. If you find one area hard, leave and go somewhere else. If you want to try out archery, do that, if you want to do magic, you can. You can also get by without. It's up to you. Find your own playstyle and have fun. It's a game, after all.

[NecroMorrius]

I'm on 140 hours, I started with 48 quests yesterday, played for five hours and finished with 50 quests. Had a funny moment yesterday where I was attacked by 'Novice necromancers master necromancer', which made me laugh.

[fasteasyfree]

Well, the markarth bug came to a head yesterday. I thought "I know, I'll just sneak in and do my missions without anyone seeing me." Which works if you're prepared to quicksave and load frequently. In the end I got so pissed off I switch to my dragon armour and killed every single guard in the whole town. I did it at night, too, so the occupants never suspected a thing!

[fasteasyfree]

I'm on 140 hours, I started with 48 quests yesterday, played for five hours and finished with 50 quests.

Same. Though I'm 'only' on about ninety hours. I think the trick is not to talk to anyone.

[Cosmic_Guru]

I've actually made a mess of this character. I downloaded an Alchemy helper done in excel where you tick which ingredients you have in your inventory and it brings up the most expensive potions you can make in order. Even with just the ingredients I collected around Riverwood I was making potions worth ~100 gold each.

Most had conflicting effects and I'd never use them but I've never seen Alchemy level so fast, I had 30 by the time I finished the first dungeon and then I got my smithing up to 45 with the iron ore I'd collected. Along with sneak and muffle I flew through the levels.

Result is a level 12 character that has pathetic combat skills and it's really tough to hurt enemies now.

Pfft. Get a ring, necklace and tiara with fortify alchemy and you will start to make much more valuable stuff which in turn helps you level up more quickly. I think my most valuable potion is worth 944g nomnal.

I agree with your other points though - if I had my time again I wouldn't make any batches of iron daggers to advance smithing, but simply use all the various ingots which are lying around the world as and when I get hold of them.

[The Fox]

I finally managed a proper play session over the weekend as my wife buggered off to Ikea, so Norgoth has now gone from level 10 to level 24. Got my smithing up to 80 by doing loads of iron daggers so can do Ebony stuff now (not that I've found any ingots out in the wild, but hey). Need to get my enchanting and alchemy up to speed now.

In terms of quests, I've done a bit of the main one up to where you get the horn for the Greybeards and meet with that woman. I've also done most of the Companions' stuff now I think, and some Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood stuff too.

Can you 're-spec' in this? I'm sure I can probably add and remove perks with console commands, but I just wondered if there was a more 'legit' way to do it.

edit: I made a really valuable potion yesterday: even with my terrible alchemy skill its nominal value was over 800g. I think it was Giant's Toe and Wheat but don't quote me on that. There might have been something else in there too

[The Fox]

PC h4x it is then.

[Wickedkitten]

If you need ebony, gloombound mine has shitloads

[Sng]

One of my misc missions is to buy a house in Solitude. Do you get any quests from doing that? Seems a bit weird that a quest is to buy a house. I already have one! Not in Solitude but I don't like that place anyway.

[imp]

One of my misc missions is to buy a house in Solitude. Do you get any quests from doing that? Seems a bit weird that a quest is to buy a house. I already have one! Not in Solitude but I don't like that place anyway.

It's part of becoming the thane of solitude.

[The Fox]

If you need ebony, gloombound mine has shitloads

Also, if you're going to go the mining route, do a little more of the main quest until you get to the top of the mountain, up there you'll find (amongst other things which are massive spoilers) a Notched pickaxe which will help when mining for ore.

Cool, cheers.

[Talk Show Host]

Any news on when the patch will be released to fix the resistances?

[Cosmic_Guru]

I think one of my favourite parts of the game is emerging from a long crawl, high up in the mountains and having a good stretch. Unfortunately things don't always stay peaceful;

I love the way you can always find a way of sliding down steep slopes without instadeath kicking in.

And time for some more kitty porn:

Those large Dwemer ruins are one of the highlights of the game too - loads of soul gems, dwarven oil which is ace for alchemy and then lots of falmer to one shot with Soul trapper. Perfect.

There is just so much to about this game Still although it would help if you could delete the rubbish from your miscellaneous file - stuff you've already done or duplicated kill quests for example.

I am guessing that "A night to remember" can be a much more drawn out experience for characters with lower speech skills who can't use persuade? I just kept replying "help me please, I really don't remember" each time and got moved along to the next place.

Got a lot of the chiff chaff cleared away now and can go back to focussing on thieves guild again, but most of my quests involve being downright murderous and I'm still strangely reluctant to kill without being attacked first.

[NecroMorrius]

Same. Though I'm 'only' on about ninety hours. I think the trick is not to talk to anyone.

Just sit in your house, counting your cheesewheels

[daveodeth]

I thought it was mid week like the last one, wednesday timeish.

[daveodeth]

If that stuff's half-way accurate (and it sounds like it is) surely it's just sloppy programming. Is there really any need to log the location of every single object in the game, forever? Just make a quick check if it's very far from its default, and allow it to reset if it's basically where it started. That'd save the game remembering 5 millions brushes up against fruit and cutlery for a start. They can have that one for free.

Problem is if it resets and there's something in the way that's been put there by the player your into more hurt. I imagine shite like this got discussed to high heaven and back. You have to remember that this stems back from Oblivion, the game was made for the 360's architecture. Bethesda never did a PS3 version, so taking into account the split memory pool was never taken into consideration. I guess at this point the amount of programming time required to sort the issue they see as not worth it.

[Sng]

I dunno if it's purely down to that though otherwise every PS3 owner would have the same issues, surely? Mine's been fine. I thought I was getting the stuttering problem but was being paranoid, I'm level 30 now and it's still smooth.

[drkbfhmmr]

Went to kill a bandit leader on the far west side of Riften yesterday, but when I got to his camp, no one was there.

Then I heard someone yelling not too far away, I zoomed in with my bow and saw some fellow running around on the grassy hill nearby. Well who might that be, I wondered ... then someone (not me) hit him in the face with an arrow and the 'Completed: Kill the bandit leader' notification popped up.

I then went to properly thank the imperial soldiers who had done all the hard work for me robbed me of the pleasure of killing another low-life scum by stabbing them all to death

[Teeohbee]

Does the DB armour look good on anyone? I'm thinking it might only suit a human female.

(Thieves Guild Spoiler)

The Nightingale armour turns my khajiitian face into a very much human shape

[scottcr]

I'll probably get major neggatory here for this - but here goes.

I wish Bethesda would do properly framed cut-scenes for the major incidents. It adds drama, filmography techniques can add tension and excitement, horror and thrill. I know what they're trying to do - but the in game character animation and facial technology just doesn't cut it, so what should be an in game cut-scene ends up looking stillted and a but rubbish. At worse, you can spend your time jumping around looking in the wrong direction and missing important dialogue because you're too busy upping your sneak skill.

The worst example I've seen so far was (not a major spoiler)

turning into a werewolf.

I'm in a cave, next to a bloke with a wolf and a bowl on a pedestal. Man takes out sword and cuts the werewolf's arm to get sword out... or, rather, he holds the sword out over the wolves arm and the bowl immediately goes from empty to full. The man's sword then disappears. I suddenly find myself running about in black and white - that bit worked, as I had no idea what was going on and that was the point...

but the whole lead up to that point could be so much more dramatic and exciting, with dynamic music and stuff. There's been a few bits so far where I think just coming out of their 'everything must be seen from the view point of the player' and maybe presenting a bit of theatrics, could really make a big difference.

Of course, I'm probably wrong.

[drkbfhmmr]

Of course, I'm probably wrong.

I think there are more important things to do when developing a game of this size, like deciding what kind of cheese to put in there.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Bethesda has literally no grasp of storytelling or writing or dramatic heft or how to create interesting characters, and Skyrim is no exception to the general shittiness of Bethesda game plots (Fallout 3 had a couple of more memorable characters but other than that was just as bad). Asking for effective cutscenes when they can't even get the bare-bones of storytelling right is a bit premature, I think.

What makes Skyrim enjoyable is all the other stuff around this generic framework. And I've got to commend Bethesda on some really good worldbuilding and establishment of the setting in Skyrim, even if the stories being told in this setting are mediocre at best; this is the first of their games since Morrowind that's actually had good worldbuilding, I think.

[scottcr]

Bethesda has literally no grasp of storytelling or writing or dramatic heft or how to create interesting characters, and Skyrim is no exception to the general shittiness of Bethesda game plots (Fallout 3 had a couple of more memorable characters but other than that was just as bad). Asking for effective cutscenes when they can't even get the bare-bones of storytelling right is a bit premature, I think.

What makes Skyrim enjoyable is all the other stuff around this generic framework. And I've got to commend Bethesda on some really good worldbuilding and establishment of the setting in Skyrim, even if the stories being told in this setting are mediocre at best; this is the first of their games since Morrowind that's actually had good worldbuilding, I think.

yeap - you've got a point. The script and the story are pretty awful. It's like a 80's straight to video fantasy film with bad American accents. I just wish they'd work a bit more on story, characterisation, narrative and cinematic stuff.

[The Fox]

Does the DB armour look good on anyone? I'm thinking it might only suit a human female.

(Thieves Guild Spoiler)

The Nightingale armour turns my khajiitian face into a very much human shape

My male orc looks absolutely awful in it. Mind you, he looks awful in the Nightingale too. Makes me think I'm playing Arkham City.

[NecroMorrius]

Bethesda has literally no grasp of storytelling or writing or dramatic heft or how to create interesting characters, and Skyrim is no exception to the general shittiness of Bethesda game plots (Fallout 3 had a couple of more memorable characters but other than that was just as bad). Asking for effective cutscenes when they can't even get the bare-bones of storytelling right is a bit premature, I think.

What makes Skyrim enjoyable is all the other stuff around this generic framework. And I've got to commend Bethesda on some really good worldbuilding and establishment of the setting in Skyrim, even if the stories being told in this setting are mediocre at best; this is the first of their games since Morrowind that's actually had good worldbuilding, I think.

They create such a strange mix of utterly compelling, engrossing gameplay and totally 'metagame' exploits and glitches.

[scottcr]

They create such a strange mix of utterly compelling, engrossing gameplay and totally 'metagame' exploits and glitches.

s/gameplay/experience