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 The Game: Daggerfall is an enormous dungeon-crawling/sandbox rpg bulging at the seams with bugs and half-implemented features. The scope was revolutionary for its time (1996), and a good portion of the inspiration for the later Elder Scroll titles came from it. If you can get around the rough edges, the story line is great, the character customization extensive, and the dungeons gigantic. The Plot: Set in the Iliac Bay on the North-Western coast of Tamriel, Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall takes place approximately 20 years before the events of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The War of Betony has reached its conclusion with Daggerfall emerging triumphant over Sentinel for the island of Betony. This victory came at a heavy price, as Lysandus, the former King of Daggerfall, fell to an arrow during the battle. Although thought to have died honorably, Lysandus's ghost now haunts the streets of Daggerfall moaning for vengeance. Emperor Uriel Septom VII sends us to investigate the matter, put King Lysandus's soul to rest, and track down a missing letter. The LP: This is going to be a hybrid LP. Dialogue and errands will be presented via screenshots, while most of the dungeon crawling will be in video. I'll be playing v2.13 with the CompUSA patch and some cosmedic enhancements. I'm going to go with one of the premade classes, and avoid things that cheese the game like stealing and no-clipping. There will be occasional NWS updates (pixelated nudity) that I will label as such. Thread Rules: Tag spoilers related to the main storyline arc and its quests. Everything else is fair game.            
Deprecated fucked around with this message at Mar 20, 2013 around 01:54 |
| # ? Feb 22, 2013 22:39 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 06:10 |
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--Maps--------------- Tamriel  The Iliac Bay  source: uesp wiki To give this some scale, ESIV: Oblivion is about the size of the island of Cybiades in ESII: Daggerfall. Note that it is mostly empty space, and only really serves to make walking anywhere without fast travel take forever.    --Mechanics---------- Skills/Attributes Daggerfall employs a skill-based system for character progression. Every 15 skills-ups in your dedicated skills grants a level, which in turn grants increased health, attributes, and spell power. Skills can be raised by either using them (i.e. hitting things, running, casting spells), or shelling money out for training. The higher the skill, the longer it takes to increase it. Attributes give general bonuses to multiple skills and determine maximum health, fatigue, and magicka. Weapons The defining characteristics of a weapon are its damage and material. Deadra and most undead require a certain material or better to take damage. The notable exception is hand-to-hand combat, which can damage any monster. The direction of attack affects its damage and accuracy: horizontal slashes are average, forward thrusts are highly accurate but low damage, downword chops are inaccurate but highly damaging. Spells The power of spells scales with the character's level, while the cost of the spells decreases when improving related magic skills. The amount of magic available to a character is determined by their intelligence and a modifier chosen at character creation (default is 0.5x, max is 3x). An average warrior starts with about 25mp, which is far too low to cast anything without substantial grinding and enchanted items. Mages start with a far more generous amount at about 140mp, plus the skills to make spells cheaper to cast. To put this in perspective, in the first video the spells cost 40-50mp. Joining the Mages Guild gives you access to custom spells, allowing you to create both dirt-cheap spells for grinding skills and expensive spells for fiery death. Classes/Races Daggerfall's classes are defined by their starting skills and special (dis)advantages. Magic-based classes start with a decent magic pool, but are unable to wear plate armour. Mages are glass cannons that make up for poo poo defense with versatility and explosions. Any situation can be approached with a "There's an app for that" mentality. Warrior-based classes tend toward close combat and heavy armour, but are at a disadvantage in non-combat situations. If you don't mind heavy inventory management, magic items and potions can make up for the lack of versatility. These are few and far between until you climb the ranks of a knightly order. Picks locks with a sledge hammer. Thieves are the worst of both worlds with a bunch of useless skills thrown in. Avoid them. If you create your own class, you can bypass all of the cliche restrictions at the cost of taking longer to level up. Immunity to magic, paralyzation, and disease are all (overpowered) options. Races are mostly cosmetic except for a few who get extra resistances. Interface The link above is a quick video tutorial of the different menus in Daggerfall. --Technical---------- Where can I get it? Bethesda has released Daggerfall for free. You can find a modern Windows installer here. You can also get the old version here (use DOSBOX to run it). Be sure to patch it to v2.13. Improved music in DOSBOX: On Windows: follow this guide. On *nix: Install fluidsynth and a soundfont. Start fluidsynth in daemon mode (soundfont is usually a .sf2 file): code:code:Run SETUP.EXE, select midi device MPU-401 and port 330 Deprecated fucked around with this message at Mar 20, 2013 around 02:02 |
| # ? Feb 22, 2013 22:39 |
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 Let's dungeon crawl! I'm going to let the thread choose what class I play. There's lots of choices with small variations, but let's keep it simple and choose between the warrior and mage classes. You can find a brief overview and full class list in the appendix. Deprecated fucked around with this message at Mar 4, 2013 around 06:09 |
| # ? Feb 22, 2013 22:39 |
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I'm looking forward to this, I've always tried to play this game but never really got anywhere due to not really knowing what the heck to do to not suck horribly. 
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 22:55 |
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Oh neato, I always wondered what some of the older Elder Scrolls were like.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 22:58 |
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I got this game when it first came out. It was bugged. To. poo poo. Quest items or relevant NPCS wouldn't be in dungeons, or if they were there wouldn't be able to be interacted with. I tried to talk to the King for the first story quest and the game crashed. Being 13 at the time I had no idea what a patch was, so I never got anywhere. Looking forward to this.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:01 |
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I'm surprised, considering, that the game let you record instead of making you fall through the world or cause your computer to explode violently. Pick a MAGE so you can dink around with the spell maker as God intended. God help you in the randomly generated dungeons, you'll need it.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:25 |
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I was always a big fan of the 'spellsword' type character who buffs himself up with magic but primarily uses melee to on offense. Is that possible?
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:26 |
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Verbose posted:I got this game when it first came out. It was bugged. To. poo poo. The game is finish-able with the last patch, but there are still loads of bugs and broken quests that we will have to deal with. DarckRedd posted:I was always a big fan of the 'spellsword' type character who buffs himself up with magic but primarily uses melee to on offense. Is that possible? If I go with a mage, I'll be doing plenty of melee to conserve mp. The spellsword class plays pretty much the same as mage, except it gets more hp and less mp.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:39 |
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Yes you can half-and-half in this game. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Intrinsic_Classes Not that I can speak for Deprecated, however he likely wants to keep the amount of bickering to a minimum. Edit: I like that dagger choice in the introductory video.  A real man would pick something else and die horribly.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:40 |
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Deprecated posted:If I go with a mage, I'll be doing plenty of melee to conserve mp. The spellsword class plays pretty much the same as mage, except it gets more hp and less mp. Awesome, then I'll vote mage. How buggy is this game as of the latest patch? I heard it was practically unplayable on release.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:49 |
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Deprecated posted:The Iliac Bay The scale is impressive in one sense, but also very misleading. Like the Elite games packing a huge universe through procedural generation, Daggerfall's unspeakably huge number of square kilometers comes at the cost of 99% of it being redundant or completely barren. Not "you run into some interesting landscaping" barren like in Morrowind or further, but flat nothingness with the occasional tree sprite. Morrowind on up began focusing on hand-crafting the worlds instead, which lead to dramatically the opposite presentation of distance in the games. It was a bit disappointing coming into Morrowind the first time, but likely was the right choice.
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 23:55 |
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Mage, please. Sword and spell is the way I almost always play the Elder Scrolls games, so it's what I'd enjoy seeing most.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 00:03 |
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Go with a Spellsword. Warrior-wizards are always fun.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 00:08 |
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Nightblade because they are the least terrible of the pre-made classes.  Im sure you know how easy it is to make a super character with the custom class maker right?
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 00:22 |
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That first loving Imp. You gotta kill that little bastard fast or he will absolutely shred you. I'm really glad that point about the lack of things between locations was pointed out. I remember reading somewhere once that if you could walk from one corner of the map to the other, it would take you two real world days to complete the trip. It's a nice brag, but there's no point in doing it since the trip would be boring as poo poo. That said this is one of my favorite Elder Scrolls games and I'm looking forward to seeing a complete playthrough. Pro-Strat: At character creation, take the disadvantage that prevents you from casting spells in daylight, use this to fund some awesome advantages. Related Pro-Tip: No matter the time of day, dungeons are not in daylight. 
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 00:31 |
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I'm going to cast a vote for Knight just to be boring and contrary. I guess my main reason for suggesting Knight is that I find it objectionable somehow that the vast majority of classes in this game can get their best armor in the tutorial dungeon. Anyway, nothing is really stopping a Knight from learning magic... they're just terrible at it by default! We can train up a school or two of magic if we make nice with some temples, and that'll get us access to the Mage's Guild to create some good training spells to broaden our options a bit.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 02:04 |
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I must've played this game for two or three months straight when I was still in school. I still remember the first time I got out of the starting dungeon, and the feeling of sheer awe when I realized that I was literally in the middle of nowhere. 
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 02:07 |
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This game does satisfy my inner loot whore to a degree. It's all very evocative of the Might and Magic series as far as graphics and perspective go.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 02:13 |
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Oh Yes. I will be watching the hell out of this. I second the vote for Knight.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:42 |
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Here's the updated starting stats and equipment after exiting the first dungeon. No ebony dagger this time, but I did pick up an elven warhammer (5-20). e: Going to hold off on this for tonight, due to my horrible counting abilities. Deprecated fucked around with this message at Feb 23, 2013 around 05:17 |
| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:43 |
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Deprecated posted:I'm going to let the thread choose what class I play. Vote Results posted:Mage: 3 Deprecated posted:I'm going to go with a spellsword so I'll be slightly less squishy in melee. But... Spellsword didn't... the vote... Here, wait, let me fix the wording of your first update for you. Deprecated posted:I'm going to let the thread Much better. 
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 05:00 |
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Speaking of scale.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 05:09 |
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Critic of the Dawn posted:But... Spellsword didn't... the vote... You're absolutely right. I jumped the gun there and lumped mages/spellswords/nightblades together. Ignore my last post.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 05:14 |
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I've been waiting for an LP of Daggerfall. I really gave this game an honest try but kept getting killed by a rat or something in the tutorial dungeon because of the abysmal controls. I was lucky to make it out of character creation.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 05:48 |
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Bilal posted:I really gave this game an honest try but kept getting killed by a rat or something in the tutorial dungeon because of the abysmal controls. Controls aside, your best bet barring screwing over your class in the class creator, is to choose the dagger option for one of the questions. Imps for example, like the one IN the first loving dungeon, are outright immune to iron weapons and that dagger will last you quite a while because of the material it's made out of.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 06:05 |
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I'll toss another vote in for Spellsword. I had hours of fun with this game as a kid, shall watch this LP with interest.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 06:12 |
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Nothing says Elder Scrolls to me quite like Spellswords.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 09:11 |
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Spellsword seems fine to me.
1kb.se - för oss som inte tar spel så allvarligt
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 10:58 |
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No mudblood here go Mage fling you magic with the best of them. I've tried to play this game about a dozen time but the waggle the mouse to attack sucks for long play sessions. How in 17 years someone didn't just make a button to attack mod is beyond me.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 11:37 |
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In the long run, barring things like base magicka and equipment restrictions, class is meaningless. Mage does get you a large magicka pool, even if it does come with pretty severe equipment limitations. As a plus, it is the best pre-made class for having complete control over how and when you level, as all of its primary and secondary skills are only used if and when you decide to do so. It is also the easiest class to power-level for the same reason, but, meh. E: I have been playing Elder Scrolls II through V concurrently (just kind of hopping from one to the next as the mood strikes me) for the last month or so, and I'm thinking of trying my hand at Arena. I'm going to love the poo poo out of this LP. Scalding Coffee posted:Speaking of scale. As a counter-point to scale, is the amount of unique and compelling material filling that space. Daggerfall, unfortunately has plenty of generic filler. Still fun as hell though. Pvt.Scott fucked around with this message at Feb 23, 2013 around 12:03 |
| # ? Feb 23, 2013 11:58 |
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Spellsword is always the correct choice
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 12:32 |
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I took another look at mage on UESP and yeah its probably the best pre-made class so im changing my vote. So roll with mage and run around with a big war hammer while chucking fireballs.   
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 15:04 |
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Deprecated posted:e: Going to hold off on this for tonight, due to my horrible counting abilities.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 15:13 |
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Is hand to hand any good in this one? If it is atleast decent Monk Otherwise Knight
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 16:56 |
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I vote for pure Mage, if only because I can never stick to just one archetype in these games and Majick is always pretty darn cool.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 17:32 |
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Go with whatever class lets you break the game hardest (so presumably some form of magic-user).
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 17:57 |
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The only correct option is the Sellsword. (no I didn't say Spellsword)
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 18:05 |
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I've always wanted to see this game through but never had the patience to play through it myself. Voting for Spellsword. I usually play The Elder Scrolls games as a thiefy type but you've already mentioned that sneaking isn't so great.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 18:12 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 06:10 |
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One of my favourite things about Daggerfall is that hugeness; I mean, yes, I get that the overmap is kind of barren when you get down to it but the towns always feel so sprawling and pretty much each and every dungeon is just stupidly massive. Without magic or cheating, if you go down into a dungeon and get horribly lost, you're just not going to be able to leave it without daring do. I am anxious for the http://xlengine.com/blog/ to get complete. The guy is basically rebuidling Daggerfall from the ground up, which means we won't have to tool around with the broken and buggy original.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 18:24 |
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