Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

[Aeon221]

I have a staff of fireballs, and I really wanted to find a second one. I thought dual wielding staves would be super fun. :)

Also I have a staff of Paralyze, and it’s crazy powerful. I often forget I have it, which is for the best, since filling up and finding gems isn’t a problem at all, and it has like 8 charges on it. Not sure what skill it’s charges are based off (staves have more charges based on your skill with the corresponding school) but I’m guessing Illusion, as I have like a 27 in that school.

Paralyze is alteration.

[Sebmojo]

I loved my chameleon suit, though I hadn’t assembled it until after I’d finished the main quest. I rather like the breakability of Elder Scrolls games – it adds a bit to the open-world sense, the sense that you can actually become godlike in your power. Most games make such a fetish of “balance” that I find stuff like the chameleon suit charming. But I also like to discover the exploits as I play; it’s less enjoyable if you scour FAQs for them and just zero in on the optimal path like a laser beam. Since Elder Scrolls is single player and nobody else is on the hook if you screw up (unlike an MMO), there’s not as much pressure to reach Optimal in a hurry. At least, not for me.

Yeah, this is me too - the base game is so solid that all the oddities end up being incredibly charming.

[RichVR]

Can’t you? My character has a staff of raise zombie that I found. Never tried to wield it as an actual weapon though.

This is basic game mechanics so I’ll not spoiler it. Your companion ( for me Lydia) will use it.

[Eric_Majkut]

Does paralyze work the same as it did in Oblivion? It cracked me up every single time I used it. I especially loved hitting guys right before they’d start running down a flight of stairs so they’d freeze in place and kinda slowly keel over and topple down the stairs. So many hilarious possibilities with it. Just the way people looked when they froze up mid stride and slowly fell over.

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Paralyze is alteration.

Ah, I have about a 25 in that, too. I should have used it more, my next play through I’ll dabble in Alteration with my 2-hander/heavy armor guy, I think.

[Reed]

Someone on Reddit ran a survey on what characters people are playing.

The results are fairly well balanced, aside from Nords - http://imgur.com/a/sgEu4

[pg1]

I swear the Destruction problem has to be the result of a game system change that it didn’t get updated for or something, its too blatant of a problem. I’ve got about 70 hours in the game already (vacation) and have tried various archetypes and its night and day the difference.

I don’t think it’s just destruction that’s broken, I think a lot of skills are but they’re on opposite ends of.the spectrum.

Yeah I agree. It might even be a bigger change than difficulty settings. Even if destruction scaled better it still has a lot of other disadvantages compared to melee or bows. Damage is just one. You still have worse armor, limited mana, and no fatality moves.

The more I play with destruction, the more deadly it becomes. I might not be super amazing at killing a single high hp enemy compared to a dual weapon specced super enchanted high armor warrior, but I can effortlessly eat groups of foes on master and hold my own against bosses.

What kind of gear do you have? Are you basically on unlimited mana with -% reduction of everything to near zero?

[Royal_Fool]

Hey, remember Bethesda’s “challenge” to have a child born on 11/11/11 and name it Dovahkiin?

Someone actually did it.

[Lh_owon]

That is just creepy. PERSPECTIVE PEOPLE.

[RepoMan]

This is their webcomic.

Perspective, you say? Perhaps not.

However, in their defense, their explanation of their decision is rather reasonable.

Now, my husband didn’t know of the contest to start with. We conceived long before hearing of it. But it’s been a tough year and I wanted to do something special for my son. My daughter has a unique name. I wanted him to have a unique name as well. I am so picky about boy names that I was having a lot of trouble finding just the right one. We’ve toyed with Dovahkiin and the ramifications of naming a child that name, and that name being based on a video game character (however awesome), and what impact that would have on him. But the more I thought of it, the more I settled on Dovahkiin, contest or no. It helps that we told all our friends and family and very few are opposed to the idea. My mom thought it was neat! He will have a perfectly normal and common middle name if the first name becomes too much for him or us or we just want to call him a nickname (which is incredibly common. My sister went by her middle name for the first 20 years of her life and now chooses to go by her very unusual actual first name. She was incensed for years that we called her a middle name and not her real first name.)

I’ve read several posts on the site and most condemn anyone who would dare name their child such a thing, all for capitalism. Well, I really don’t play many video games (TB plays an ungodly amount though), and I would never name my child a name I found horrible or even terribly mediocre. I think we’re doing a great job with our daughter and will continue to be great parents for our son, too. Naming him something so unique may only have as much effect as any person’s opinion on another. That’s all they are. Opinions. We all have them; most of us voice them. But the ones that matter most are the opinions of your family and, more importantly, the opinion you hold of yourself. I think we can enable a high opinion of himself in our son because we’ve done so and will continue to do so with our daughter. The name won’t change my parenting.

Seems pretty on the level to me.

[RichVR]

Update: I am so loving the fuck out of this game, warts and all. Carry on. :)

[KevinC]

Update: I am so loving the fuck out of this game, warts and all. Carry on. :)

I’ve been discussing skill scaling issues a lot lately in the thread so I wanted to put it out there that, yes, warts and all, this is by far my favorite game of the year. Probably the last few years.

It’s a wonderful, wonderful game that is only going to get better when a patch (or mod) or two works out the few rough edges.

[RepoMan]

I’m quite firm in my opinion that this is the single best videogame ever made. I have never enjoyed any game more than I am enjoying this one. I put the frickin’ map up on my office wall at work, for background daydreaming purposes.

I’m not a big retrophile; larger worlds and more beautiful graphics mean qualitatively more fun for me. I fully expect that ES6 may beat Skyrim, or some other game will, anyway, because improved technology used effectively increases my enjoyment. That’s why I love this hobby so: the future is always brighter. But right now, Skyrim is the best game experience yet created by humanity.

Don’t agree? Fine. I only hope you have a favorite that you love as much as I love Skyrim :-D

[RichVR]

I’ll go far as to say that Skyrim is as much enjoyment for me as Baldur’s Gate: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Baal together so far.

[Jupiter_Jones]

Is there a way to get “cured” of vampirism?

[RepoMan]

Cure Disease potions work for me. I don’t want the bloodsucker hassle, so I clean that shit right up whenever I get the nasties. Steadfast Ward works pretty well as an immune shield, too.

[Sebmojo]

Is there a way to get “cured” of vampirism?

Or pray at an altar in a town.

[Demon_G_Sides]

I’m quite firm in my opinion that this is the single best videogame ever made. I have never enjoyed any game more than I am enjoying this one. I put the frickin’ map up on my office wall at work, for background daydreaming purposes.

I’m not a big retrophile; larger worlds and more beautiful graphics mean qualitatively more fun for me. I fully expect that ES6 may beat Skyrim, or some other game will, anyway, because improved technology used effectively increases my enjoyment. That’s why I love this hobby so: the future is always brighter. But right now, Skyrim is the best game experience yet created by humanity.

Don’t agree? Fine. I only hope you have a favorite that you love as much as I love Skyrim :-D

If not the best, one of the best games ever made. It’s just so good. I’ve played this game more than almost any other game that I own, at least in consecutive sittings, and I still haven’t even really tackled the main quest. Hell, I just, today, visited the final city I hadn’t been to yet (Much like Leyawiin in Oblivion, southern cities always seem to get lost in the shuffle for me. Poor Falkreath. Also, get some fucking walls, idiots, there are bad guys out there!).

[Jupiter_Jones]

I’m quite firm in my opinion that this is the single best videogame ever made. I have never enjoyed any game more than I am enjoying this one. I put the frickin’ map up on my office wall at work, for background daydreaming purposes.

I’m not a big retrophile; larger worlds and more beautiful graphics mean qualitatively more fun for me.

I am a “retrophile”, but in this case I have to agree with you. While I was playing Skyrim today I had thoughts of old RPGs and how Skyrim is just so much more than any of the ones I used to love. The amazing amount of stuff to do is just incredible. I’ve never loved a game this much.

[KevinC]

So here’s a question I’ve been asking myself. Given the staggering sales of Skyrim already and the industry’s propensity for clones, why is basically no one else trying to do this sort of game? Is it just the difficult and cost involved in doing it or what?

Ultima 7 was one of the most formative games for me when I was younger and the Elder Scrolls series (and especially Skyrim) is the only game out there that scratches that itch I’ve had for close to two decades. Bioware games, while you may argue are good in their own right, just aren’t the same open-world games that the Elder Scrolls series is.