Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

JM1 · 2011-11-25T12:06:08.000Z

Sarkus:

Which actually forces you to explore more, though, right? I was trying to get to the top of a mountain for a quest and ended up walking all the way around it trying to find the path to the top. In the course of which I discovered four or five locations I may never have otherwise found. And in general there are usually quite a few ways to get places in the game. Your complaint is specific only to some of them, and those make some sense anyway as most mountains are not accessible from multiple directions in real life anyway.

I think I know the one you mean and I ended up taking a completely different path too.

extarbags · 2011-11-25T12:13:42.000Z

JeffL:

That’s good to hear - I am only at level 19 and most of my wandering has been around the mountainous region. Most places I have walked to were restricted by either rocks or mountains (and in the mountains I can’t seem to go anywhere unless I find a path.)

Man, jumping up mountains is like half the point of an Elder Scrolls game.

kerzain · 2011-11-25T12:35:45.000Z

Seriously, if Skyrim had the same acrobatics stat Oblivion had, I’d have maxed it within minutes of finding my first rocky slope. I am a jumpfiend. To me Skyrim is just a platformer in RPG clothing.

XPav · 2011-11-25T12:47:21.000Z

I find it amusing that one of the perks in the Heavy Armor tree is to reduce damage when falling.

Geez, all you’ve got to do is hold “back” and take small falls off the geometry all the way down the mountain, and you’re good.

kerzain · 2011-11-25T12:53:21.000Z

Yea, except for those times I find myself being rocketed to Oblivion by an angry giant, I can’t think of any instance where I’ve taken significant falling damage in my heavy armor. The only reason I buy that skill is because it’s a pre-req for another perk I want.

Razgon · 2011-11-25T13:25:42.000Z

Ahhh, skyrim, now I know you are an elder scrolls game.

Just killed a named dragon in a small village, and had a small girl say to me afterwards “In all my years, I have never seen such a thing” :-D

What are you, ten?

PapaSmurf · 2011-11-25T13:31:01.000Z

You know, as much as I worried when Bethesda released Fallout 3 that the Elder Scrolls were creeping into Fallout too much, I’m now concerned it’s gone the other way.

I kind of miss some things the way they were. Not the generic carbon copying, but the wackiness you could get away with. Get to level 10 solely with jumping, running, and haggling. Create your own overpowered (Morrowind) or impractically expensive (Oblivion) spells and items.

Pogo · 2011-11-25T13:54:32.000Z

Eightball:

Interesting you say this. At level 38, I find completely otherwise. First, power attacks will stagger and break shield blocks (can hold both hands down to charge a dual wield power attack, or trigger each hand independently). And with respect to damage, I’ve found that with dual wield completely upgraded, including the +50% damage with dual wield power attacks, I find it brokenly powerful against even the most powerful enemies. For example, I kill even those named lich guys in about 2 hits (one power, which staggers them, and then one normal attack)…

As for the damage taking, I saw the loss of block as a potential problem, so I chose to wear heavy, smithed armor, and resist jewelry. My defense was fine (except ice mages are still a pain because they slow you), but I had to use potions to heal. Now I find that even defense isn’t much of an issue anymore, as the damage output means I just kill everything fast, as once I get within melee range, everything dies.

Well, I’m light armor and not level 38. What else do you have in your build.

I shouldn’t say I was underpowered, but I had quite a bit of potion chugging to do. I don’t have the power perk. Part of the problem is that I was kinda going archery, sneak, smithing all a the same time. Oh well, it’s fun enough to keep at it.

Hammet · 2011-11-25T14:13:14.000Z

extarbags:

Man, jumping up mountains is like half the point of an Elder Scrolls game.

CLIFF RACERS!

Sarkus · 2011-11-25T14:52:12.000Z

PapaSmurf:

You know, as much as I worried when Bethesda released Fallout 3 that the Elder Scrolls were creeping into Fallout too much, I’m now concerned it’s gone the other way.

I kind of miss some things the way they were. Not the generic carbon copying, but the wackiness you could get away with. Get to level 10 solely with jumping, running, and haggling. Create your own overpowered (Morrowind) or impractically expensive (Oblivion) spells and items.

Seriously, you think eliminating the exploits and other gamey crap was a bad thing? Its one of the more universal complaints about the series. I haven’t heard anyone else bemoan the loss of those “features.”

I’m finally finding Ebony stuff, but my smithing is way too low to (17 levels) to even take that perk yet. So I’m level 26 and the orcish armor I’ve been using since level 10 is still my best stuff and I’m dual wielding elvish weapons. The few glass weapons I’ve found haven’t surpassed the elven stuff either.

soondifferent · 2011-11-25T15:14:02.000Z

I have thing for giant statues in real life, so the shrine of Azura is one of the most breathtaking sights I’ve encountered in a game. Moreso knowing that it had to be built there in the unforgiving mountain range by a group of troubled and displaced pixel people.

Chuck_Jordan · 2011-11-25T17:19:51.000Z

Sarkus:

Seriously, you think eliminating the exploits and other gamey crap was a bad thing? Its one of the more universal complaints about the series. I haven’t heard anyone else bemoan the loss of those “features.”

Now you have. (And incidentally, it has come up before in one of these threads). I think the acrobatics skill was silly, but I do miss creating spells in Morrowind. These games are all about customizing your character exactly how you want, and combining different spell effects was a big part of the fun.

And as said before, it’s a single-player game, so freaking out about “exploits” seems silly. If it offends you to have something “over-powered,” then just don’t use it.

Plus, part of the mythology of the game that we keep hearing over and over in Skyrim is how Talos ascended from human to god. I like the idea of being able to turn your character from a prisoner on the back of a cart into a demigod.

TimJames · 2011-11-25T17:45:49.000Z

aganazer:

I wonder when they will be able to drop the zoning for cities and interiors. That is probably the last issue preventing them from having full on flying in the game.

There are mods for it. The Nehrim mod had open cities. It was brutal on framerate, though it might have been the objects and NPCs themselves.

Papageno · 2011-11-25T17:57:15.000Z

Speaking of Morrowind, it’s 50% off right now for the GOTY on Steam. It may drop to 5 for a daily deal, but maybe not. I’ve got the GOTY on disc, but it would be nice to not have to deal with the CDs and any ancient DRM that might have a problem w/Windows 7.

Staff_Sergeant · 2011-11-25T18:27:56.000Z

Papageno:

Speaking of Morrowind, it’s 50% off right now for the GOTY on Steam. It may drop to 5 for a daily deal, but maybe not. I’ve got the GOTY on disc, but it would be nice to not have to deal with the CDs and any ancient DRM that might have a problem w/Windows 7.

Morrowind has no DRM of any kind. No serial keys, nothing. I actually installed my old discs from 2002 last week on a win7 pc and it worked flawlessly.

rhinohelix · 2011-11-25T19:26:29.000Z

rei:

Goddammit, still no soundtrack. This is just being handled wrong. No release on iTunes or Amazon. The physical discs still haven’t shipped yet.

Have to troll Youtube for my fix.

I received my “shipping” notice: 4-6 weeks until delivery*.

I am a huge Soule fan and gladly bought the physical disks but wth? 2011.

*From 11-11, it notes at least.

merryprankster · 2011-11-25T19:37:38.000Z

Does anyone know if block perks apply to two handed weapons, or do you need a shield equiped?

kerzain · 2011-11-25T19:57:56.000Z

merryprankster:

Does anyone know if block perks apply to two handed weapons, or do you need a shield equiped?

From my testing (and a few notes in the strat guide) I can verify that certain perks do indeed work with it, but I can’t verify them all without doing some more intensive testing.

From what I can tell everything on the right arm of the tree (and also Quick Reflexes there in the center) supports weapons. When using a weapon, I’ve never blocked an arrow with the Delflect Arrows perk in the left tree (it has to actually HIT the shield, so perhaps they’ve just never hit the blade or pommel of my sword…), but I block them all the time with my shield. Also, I don’t think (or more precisely, know if) spell damage is being reduced when blocking with a 2h when using the Elemental Protection perk, but there’s no way to verify specific numbers here, also left tree). Block Runner (left tree) certainly works though, and I can’t imagine not having it (now that I have it I’m spoiled).

I don’t have Shield Charge yet (though I have everything else), so I have no idea if that works with weapons.

Also, what works for 2h weapons also works for 1h weapons (assuming you don’t have a spell/weapon equipped in left hand).

olaf · 2011-11-25T19:58:04.000Z

Paul_cze:

holy moly after a long time I visited rpgcodex again (yes, that site) and what don’t I see? They are positive about Skyrim?!
http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=66746

Man those guys rub me the wrong way. Yeah one of them likes it but just in the first few comments there are people shitting on it. I had to stop there.

This game is tremendous. Nothing is perfect but if its not in your top 5 RPGs then I submit the genre is not for you.

Personally, its shaping up to be my all time favorite. I just cant get enough, I have like 6 characters going and they are all fun and I have done some quests literally 6 times and its not gotten old. I am constantly getting side tracked, the world is so big and so hand crafted, its stunning. What an achievement in content.

BG2 was my all time favorite game with KOTOR and the first Mass Effect slightly behind. Skyrim has surpassed them all in terms of me making time for it and jonesing to play it.

merryprankster:

Does anyone know if block perks apply to two handed weapons, or do you need a shield equiped?

Some do, some dont. The right side of the tree is supposed to, I think, but I am not 100% on that.

Relayer71 · 2011-11-25T20:05:27.000Z

Hammet:

CLIFF RACERS!

Mountable Cliff Racers - what’s missing from this game.