So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[RTM]

BAH TES5 sounds like it's a dumbed-down version of MW. I really liked the complexity.

A side-effect of bringing the game to consoles, no doubt.

I'm actually kind of happy they removed the whole 'choose 6 minor skills and 6 major skills' thing. What I generally do after getting a game like this is make a character, run through the starting area, decide I don't like some aspect of my skill choices, reroll, and repeat about 50 times. Now there's nothing to 'reroll'. I might actually be able to accomplish something in the game within the first week!

A video of the first 20 minutes of the game was leaked and like a kid who searches the house to find where his parents hid the Christmas presents (not that I ever did that...) I had to watch it. It looks fantastic and I can't wait for the 11th.

[Zyn]

A video of the first 20 minutes of the game was leaked and like a kid who searches the house to find where his parents hid the Christmas presents (not that I ever did that...) I had to watch it.

I dont blame you, off to find it myself!

-Z

[Taem]

On the official Elder Scrolls website, you can download ES2: Daggerfalls for free. I downloaded it last night and will give it a show tonight when I get home. I used to love some of the older exploring games on my Atari ST, such as Kings Quest and Hero's Quest (Quest for Glory). I must admit I'm fairly excited to give this game a try. If I like it, I think I'll purchase ES3 from Amazon (game of the year edition with all expansions) and see how that goes from there.

---

A side-effect of bringing the game to consoles, no doubt.

It is disappointing that large gaming corporations are either choosing consoles over PCs, or going with a dumbed down version on both media. Did you know D3 was pushed back to first quarter 2012? I also heard rumors that this was to give the developers the time they needed to get their PC and console versions working together on the b.net 2.0 structure. In the end, it's all about the $$$. We'll see what occurs, but I often felt this is why Blizzard chose to go with potions floating in the air, ala Gauntlet, and a simple run/socket mechanism, to support console gamers. Just another reason I'll be getting Torchlight 2 and Path of Exile before, and if I even get D3. Skyrim will have to wait till I've played the prior games .

[Zyn]

Taem,

Just as a heads up - the beginning to Daggerfall (if I remember correctly) is a lot harder than the beginning to Morrowind. Dont let that deter you! Morrowind (TES3) starts you someplace much more forgiving than Daggerfall does.

Good luck, have fun!

-Z

[kandrathe]

Skyrim will have to wait till I've played the prior games .

That's not a bad strategy, and give Skyrim some time to get more bug free. Bethesda (Todd) has maintained a pretty consistent mythology throughout the series. I really liked the two tiered god thing, with the 8 divines like Azura, and then the human heroes, Vivec, Sotha Sil and Amelexia who become immortals by drawing divine power from the heart of Kagrenac and were then worshiped as gods.

[Frag]

Never been able to get really /into/ the games. I've purchased Arena, Daggerfall & Morrowind during the time when they were 'fresh' and still rarely will pull them out, but I just can't quite enjoy them. Maybe it's that I'm just not a good sandboxer, but I've always felt that they were clunky.

Any tips on how to make them less clunky? I even enjoyed Dragon Age more than them.

[Taem]

I even enjoyed Dragon Age more than them.

Now I'm really curious to see how my experience stacks up against yours. I really didn't like Dragon Age at all, lol.

[Treesh]

Taem,

Just as a heads up - the beginning to Daggerfall (if I remember correctly) is a lot harder than the beginning to Morrowind. Dont let that deter you! Morrowind (TES3) starts you someplace much more forgiving than Daggerfall does.

Good luck, have fun!

-Z

Just steal a horse and cart from the first town you reach and you're good to go! =)

[Tris]

Never played Daggerfall. Absolutely loved Morrowind. Oblivion is fun, but damn it's dumbed down. The leveled system is a bit annoying too. I know Morrowind had a "leveled system" of sorts, but if you could figure out how to kill tough opponents you didn't get some downgraded loot for the effort.

Most of it in MW had to do with things like constant effect enchant making, love them golden saints that show up at about Clevel 20 Guess, if your conjuration skill were high enough, you could conjure them 1 by 1 and slay them for their souls.

Also, IIRC, you had to be at least level 20 to get a Daedric Tower Shield, because those only randomly dropped from the above-mentioned golden saints.

In MW, as soon as I got levitate and a bow or decent attack spell, Umbra was toast. IIRC levitate and, for example, a scroll of fiercely roasting worked wonders. Take that you lowly ground-based melee grunt From then on, had a great 2H weapon that served well for many, many areas to come. Would sell the armour... hated medium armour in MW, mediocre protection, bad enchantability, and pretty high weight.

In Oblivion, assuming one could even kill Umbra at the same level as in MW, you'd get a downgraded sword ... not sure about her armour.

MW had lots of good high-end items that you could collect at a low level with some moxie and forethough.

Always seemed counter productive to penalize people for being able to kill stuff early.

[Rhydderch Hael]

...In Oblivion, assuming one could even kill Umbra at the same level as in MW, you'd get a downgraded sword ... not sure about her armour. ...

I'm afraid you have that somewhat backwards: In Oblivion, the sword you prize from Umbra is never 'downgraded' if you defeat her at a low level. The sword is a fixed reward (her armor is the loot that has two teirs of quality, determined by your character's level).

The reason the sword appears to be a downgraded version most likely stems from the fact that a low-level character will have low-level stats in their Strength attribute and their Blade skill. Simply put, a low-level character cannot utilize armor and weapons to their full potential, no matter how cool those items may happen to be.

[Taem]

On the official Elder Scrolls website, you can download ES2: Daggerfalls for free. I downloaded it last night and will give it a show tonight when I get home.

OM*G am I getting frustrated! I'm in the cave at the very very start of the game, I have reconfigured all my controls for WSAD and ENTER for attack, but guess what my toon will not attack. When I see that darn rat coming at me, I turn my view down to look at the rat and press enter like freaking mad and guess what, it tried to pick its pockets! I have my stupid weapon out! ENTER = Attack. WT* am I doing wrong? I even cycled through all the action commands, Pick Pocket, Look, whatever the other two where... but to no avail. Without the ability to attack, this game is DOA.

EDIT: Yeah... I'm about to give up on this game. Just spent the last 20-minutes trying and trying again to configure the controls. Basically I figured out that the "Swing Weapon" button is an ACTION button, regardless of what key you bind it to. This does not help me whatsoever however because the Attack function does not seem to work at all - it's been replaced with the ACTION button, so there is no way of attacking. This game appears to be broken. Unless I hear something to the contrary, I'm going to have to give up on this series. Shoddy controls can ruin a great game...

[Zyn]

I wish I could help sir, sadly I don't quite remember having a similar problem.
I can say that typically you select an ability to perform and use the action button to actually do it. Meaning that you have to equip things like "Pick Lock" and then use them.

G'luck,

-Z

[kandrathe]

Unless I hear something to the contrary, I'm going to have to give up on this series. Shoddy controls can ruin a great game...

I installed it after you mentioned it for the boys to play with, and they too had the same issue. I'll explore it more tomorrow. Now... It's midnight.

[Drasca]

Taem, you have to use your mouse to attack. you have to click and drag the screen after pulling your weapon out to attack. You can swing your weapon in different directions in daggerfall for different attack speeds and damages.

If you don't want to learn that, you could reroll and get the school of destruction as one of your major skills and blast the rat into smithereens. Not a bad way to go in this game.

Daggerfall was dangerous and the interface challenging with a tutorial made just for the first dungeon in the manual. It has a steep learning curve initially and is not a game that hand holds you through the beginning.

I was scared as all heck the first time I played but it was exciting to explore the possibilities. It still has more than a lot of modern games. You can scale just about any wall with climbing. I was a thief in the night going rooftop to rooftop, or hiding in shops until after hours and looting their goodies while the shopkeeper was asleep. Great way to get gold and equipment.

Also depending on what major and minor skills you choose and your backround decides what items you start with

[Taem]

Unless I hear something to the contrary, I'm going to have to give up on this series. Shoddy controls can ruin a great game...

I installed it after you mentioned it for the boys to play with, and they too had the same issue. I'll explore it more tomorrow. Now... It's midnight.

Did you find any solutions yet? I didn't get a chance to try what the other person mentioned in thjs thread yet.

[kandrathe]

Unless I hear something to the contrary, I'm going to have to give up on this series. Shoddy controls can ruin a great game...

I installed it after you mentioned it for the boys to play with, and they too had the same issue. I'll explore it more tomorrow. Now... It's midnight.

Did you find any solutions yet? I didn't get a chance to try what the other person mentioned in thjs thread yet.

Yes, it's as Drasca said. You need to hold down your M2 and swipe across the screen. I'm finding it hard to get used to, and a bit too archaic. Made it past a bunch of easy opponents (rats, bats, imps), then I went down a stairway and got owned by a guy with a green hood.

[NuurAbSaal]

then I went down a stairway and got owned by a guy with a green hood.

That's what you get for messing with Dr. Doom!

take care
Tarabulus

[Treesh]

then I went down a stairway and got owned by a guy with a green hood.

That's what you get for messing with Dr. Doom!

take care
Tarabulus

An Overboard reference!

BTW, for any TES game, the mantra "Save early, save often" is a necessity and have multiple save points because you never really know if something is going to go horribly wrong and you have to back up further than your last save. A buddy of mine was convinced to try Daggerfall out years ago. He played for a bit and saved. He ended up dead somewhere along the line and had to reload. Unfortunately his only save point was about 20 seconds before his character died of some horrible disease he didn't realize he had. He refused to try it again. =)

Edit: Bah, wrong Dr. Forgot the line was Dr. Death, not Dr. Doom. Bad me. The hints about saves though is still relevant.

[NuurAbSaal]

then I went down a stairway and got owned by a guy with a green hood.

That's what you get for messing with Dr. Doom!

take care
Tarabulus

An Overboard reference!

Edit: Bah, wrong Dr. Forgot the line was Dr. Death, not Dr. Doom. Bad me. The hints about saves though is still relevant.

Now I have to google Overboard :o

take care
Tarabulus

[Drasca]

then I went down a stairway and got owned by a guy with a green hood.

That's what you get for messing with Dr. Doom!

take care
Tarabulus

An Overboard reference!

BTW, for any TES game, the mantra "Save early, save often" is a necessity and have multiple save points because you never really know if something is going to go horribly wrong and you have to back up further than your last save. A buddy of mine was convinced to try Daggerfall out years ago. He played for a bit and saved. He ended up dead somewhere along the line and had to reload. Unfortunately his only save point was about 20 seconds before his character died of some horrible disease he didn't realize he had. He refused to try it again. =)

Edit: Bah, wrong Dr. Forgot the line was Dr. Death, not Dr. Doom. Bad me. The hints about saves though is still relevant.

About disease, certain kinds will kill you but you keep on playing. . . And you can get cured if you really want to but a lot of players don't (want to). In fact they try to get these diseases on purpose and there are also variants to the disease.