The Elder Scrolls Series General Discussion: Prison Escapes 101

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Elder Scrolls Series General Discussion: Prison Escapes 101

«‹›2 »

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Ginette Reno posted:

Oh wow, my hard drive crashed and I lost my saves for Skyrim. I had a dude who I'd been playing for a month on legendary difficulty as a pure mage. Welllllllp I guess it's back to the drawing board. I wonder how well I'd do as a melee or melee/hybrid. And maybe this time I won't fast travel at all either...

A pure mage with Sperg is really good. You get a lot of mileage out of all the spell schools and especially bound weapons and sneaking (though bound dagger needs a fix to make it quiet) etc though I still wouldn't recommend using destruction on legendary.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 20:42

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:33

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Glare Seethe posted:

I think I'm level 20. Getting to Orchendor was a little bit hard-going but certainly doable, which is why I said I thought I was underleveled (though I dunno how Skyrim does scaling, and I'm also playing on Expert). But the fight was such a curveball and incredibly bizarre in how it quickly became a stalemate where neither one of us could make any sort of progress. I was just so baffled by it all.

edit: Unrelated, but it's also amazing how bad - or at least untidy - the UI is even with SkyUI. I just noticed that inside the inventory screen an enchanted item's charge level depletes from right to left; outside the inventory it depletes from left to right. Why!

Everything about Skyrim's user interface � including Sky UI � from the slow animations, to the perk tree, to the way spells are cast, is clunky and not user friendly.

Morrowind with MCP quick casting and the thing that lets you type out the spell name to cast them 4 lyfe.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 20:56

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Mister Adequate posted:

Wait what

Doc Hawkins posted:

do your spells have names like ToggleCollision and player->AddItem

MCP has an option in the install config that allows you to type the initial letters of a spell to auto equip it. For example, if you wanted to equip fireball, you would just open the inventory/stat/magic/map menu and type 'f' then it autoequips fireball. For multiple spells with the same first letter, tapping the letter multiple times will cycle through them.

Kind of like Quicksilver/ Launchbar for mac. Changed my life.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 21:09

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Doc Hawkins posted:

That sounds good as hell. Like, so good it should be built into the spell and inventory interface of openmw post-1.0.

Yeah it's insanely good. Combined with MCP quick casting you can select different spells sooo fast. Makes playing a Mage more enjoyable.

Entropy238 fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Mar 21, 2017

# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 21:58

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Is anyone here involved in and/or tried Daggerfall Unity? (http://www.dfworkshop.net)

Seems like a cool project. Once it's finished it looks like it's going to be the OpenMW equivalent for Daggerfall.

I tried Daggerfall ages ago and the mechanics in it were pretty cool but the click and drag combat, UI and lack of QoL features (even a proper minimap) made it a pretty rough experience. I didn't get that far.

It's going to be another three or four years though before it's finished though from the looks of things.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2017 17:46

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I have minus excitement for Skywind. The Skyrim engine is complete wank for anything other than swinging a sword around.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2017 04:32

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

frajaq posted:

I know that it's part of Morrowind's charm learning the transportation systems, like silt strider, boats and mage guild guides and figuring out how to get from place to place but holy gently caress do I miss fast travel, specially considering some faction's locations like Morag Tong's HQ in Vivec

Melian's Teleport Mod

Let's you set as many marks points for the recall spell as you like. Feels more lore friendly than just fast travel, and you can limit yourself based on your Mysticism skill if you want.

Also see:

� The Boots of Blinding Speed; and
� 100 point jump spells for 1 sec + 1 point slowfall for longer time custom spells

# ¿ Oct 14, 2017 11:06

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Vampires are the cringiest loving thing � I've no idea how they've got such a big pop culture status.

That being said, the lore about them and the way vampires act in Morrowind is handled pretty well imo. Gives a nice stat boost too.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2017 12:09

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I embrace Chim as a play style.

When I get off the boat I don�t use any exploits and as my character gains more knowledge/experience of the world I start to do more and more crazy stuff.

I�ve been meaning to do a play through where I read all of the books but a lot of the time I find I don�t have the patience. Actually if I was gonna make a mod I�d make one where the player has to answer quiz questions after reading books to get the skill points from them.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2017 22:53

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

100% voice acting is what killed the series for me in terms of role playing value. Leaves very little to the imagination.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2017 22:43

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

From what I understand Fallout 4 is going to be kind of like a Transformers Movie: does well at the box office but doesn't really have any long-term staying power in terms of mods and a community

Cat Mattress posted:

He never played Morrowind. Or Daggerfall.

I've tried playing Daggerfall before but without some of the modern conveniences I've found it to be impossible. Daggerfall Unity seems to be doing really well and I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed they make it to the finish line.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2017 09:20

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Todd Howard is basically George Lucas at this stage.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2017 13:13

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I don't think the strength of a stealth approach would be much of an issue if the AI and enemy placement in these games was in any way decent.

You should realistically be able to get off 1 to 2 stealth kills unless you're really, really quiet and then everybody should be permanently on-guard and out to get you, huddling together or casting divination spells to find you, or letting dogs loose to sniff you out etc ...

# ¿ Nov 4, 2017 15:06

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

IIRC in the original Skyrim there was a weird quirk of the progression in smithing which actually meant that Elven Armour numerically worked out the best, because of double reinforcement and being able to make it higher quality much easier.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2017 10:41

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Kite Pride Worldwide posted:

What's wrong with the vanilla UI? I mean it's missing the sorting features and whatnot, but I like the simplicity and quick mashing through the nested lists. SkyUI is a pain in the rear end to actually use its unique features (the extra """quick""" menus are particularly egregious) and like I said, looks ugly as sin because it doesn't match the other fonts and UI. Is this one of those things that only makes sense from the perspective of a modder or heavy mod user? I use about the lightest set of mods there are.

I think SkyUI's got its problems, but holy moly the vanilla Skyrim UI is an absolute abortion

# ¿ Nov 24, 2017 16:04

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Kite Pride Worldwide posted:

Is this some kind of Frog Fractions-style meta joke I missed out on? What's the big problem with the vanilla UI??

The vanilla UI is primarily designed around console controllers. Everything is hidden behind layers and layers of menus, it's unintuitive, ugly, has no keyboard search functions (as far as I can remember) and works incredibly poorly with a mouse.

Conversely, look at the Morrowind menu UI with some of the enhancements from MCP:

� Spells can be equipped by typing the first letters of their names
� All of the character info you'll ever need to see is right there in front of you
� You can see your character in third person
� Item selection operates on a visual basis (icons) with the mouse rather than drilling down through a list, which reduces time and the number of clicks
� You can see the minimap/world map through it

And this is all on one screen, compared to the 5-6 different screens that you have to shuffle through on Skyrim.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2017 17:13

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

MCP has a quick casting component that allows you to cast spells oblivion style. Make sure you get the easier spell selection module too - it lets you type the first letter of spells to select them.

Strength is massively superior to agility in Morrowind. Agility gives approx +1% to hit and dodge per 5 points, whereas every point in strength increases your physical damage by +1%. It also increases your carry weight and movement speed too.

The most effective thing you can do before combat in Morrowind is to get shitfaced on sujamma.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2018 23:27

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

There�s no way to fix the combat in Morrowind. It�s something that I�ve thought about a lot, and you�d pretty much have to turn it in to a completely different game to do so.

You can make certain tweaks, like adjusting spell effect values, skill progression, items or using the overbuff mod to delay overpoweredneas but you�re never going to make it balanced. Just enjoy it for what it is and roleplay some restrictions on your character if you want to make things a bit more difficult.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2018 00:05

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I always start oblivion with the best of intentions, play for a few hours then stop.

You can make all of the tweaks in the world to that game but Cyrodil is still going to be a boring place filled with boring people.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2018 01:48

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I've always loved that drawing. There's a lot to unpack in it.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 13:32

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Never clicked for me that Sul-Matuul was related to him. That's cool.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 12:37

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I love the fact that the NPCs in Morrowind all have surnames. In the case of the Dunmer, you come across the families' ancestral tombs. It probably didn't take too much effort to implement but it's such a nice touch compared to "Master Bandit Lord".

For example, there's a Venim family member that works as an enchanter in Tel Aruhn. I wonder how he gets on with Bolyn Venim.

Anyone with the surname "Ienith" is a bad hombre, and most of the Dunmer in Morrowind probably know to stay away from them.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2018 18:37

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Khajitt porn is canon:

quote:

The Real Barenziah, Part III
They settled into Rifton for the winter, taking a cheap room in the slums. Barenziah joined the Thieves' Guild, knowing there would be trouble if she were caught free-lancing. One day in the barroom she caught the eye of a known member of the guild, a bold young Khajiit named Therris. She offered to bed with him if he would sponsor her for membership. He looked her over, grinning, and agreed, but said she'd still have to pass a test.
"What sort of test?"
"Ah," Therris said. "Payment first, sweet thing." He put an arm around her, leaned over and kissed her, thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth and his free hand into her shirt.
"Nice," he said presently, withdrawing his tongue, but not his hand. His other hand slid down inside her waistband and fondled her buttocks.
"Let's go upstairs. We can use my room," Barenziah felt both embarassed and excited by his boldness.
Therris grinned insolently. "Why bother? You want me, don't you? I'll bet you'd pay me, wouldn't you?"
"No," Barenziah said. She did want him, but not that badly.
"No? Well, a bargain's a bargain and Therris keeps his word. But here. Now." He hiked her skirt up and pulled her onto his lap so she sat astride, facing him. He opened her shirt and pulled it down on her shoulders so that her breasts were exposed.
"Nice pair, kid." She was facing the wall but she could feel the stares of the other patrons. A hush had fallen over the place. Even the bard had stilled. She felt both nausea and a hot burning desire. Her hands released his turgid penis and then it was inside her and she was screaming in both pain and ecstasy. Then everything went black.
When she came to herself again she was sitting beside Therris, who was buttoning her shirt.
"That hurt!" she said indignantly.
"Always does, kid. Didn't anyone ever tell you about Khajiit men? It hurts good though, now doesn't it?"
Barenziah scowled at him. She was still smarting. His penis had tiny little barbs on it.
"Well, the deal's off, if you like," he shrugged.
"No, I didn't say that. Only I prefer privacy, and I want to wait awhile, like a day or so before the next time."
Therris laughed. "You're OK, kid."
Straw was going to kill her, and maybe Therris too. What in Tamriel had possessed her to do such a thing? She cast an anxious look around the room, but the other patrons had lost interest and gone back to their own business. She did not recognize any of them; this wasn't the inn where she lived. With luck it'd be awhile, or never, before Straw found out. But Therris was by far the most exciting and attractive man she'd yet met.
He not only told her about the skills needed to be a member of the Thieves' Guild, but trained her in them himself or introduced her to people who could teach her. Among these was a Nord woman who knew something about magic. Katisha was plump and matronly. She was married to a smith, had two teen aged children and was perfectly ordinary and respectable except that she was very fond of cats, had a gift for certain kinds of magic, and cultivated rather odd friends.
She taught Barenziah an Invisibility spell and trained her in other forms of stealth and disguise. Katisha mingled magical and non-magical talents freely, using one to enhance the other. She was not a member of the Thieves' Guild but was fond of Therris in a motherly sort of fashion. Barenziah warmed to her as she never had to any woman, and over the next few weeks she told Katisha all about herself. She brought Straw there, too. Straw approved of Katisha but not of Therris. Therris found Straw amusing and suggested to Barenziah that they arrange what he called a threesome.
"Indeed not," Barenziah said, grateful that Therris had broached the subject in private. "He wouldn't like it. I wouldn't like it!"
Therris smiled his charming triangular cat-smile and sprawled lazily back in his chair, curling his tail. "You might both be surprised. Pairing is so boring. Well, would you mind if I brought a friend?"
"Yes. If you're bored with me you and your friend can find someone else." She was a member of the Thieves' Guild now. She found Therris useful but not essential. Maybe she was a bit bored with him, too.
She talked to Katisha about her men problems. Katisha shook her head and told her she was looking for love, not sex, that she'd know the right man when she found him, and that neither Straw nor Therris was the right one for her.
Barenziah cocked her head to one side quizzically. "They say dark elf women are pro- pro- something. Prostitutes?"
"You mean promiscuous, although some do become prostitutes, I suppose. Elf women are promiscuous when they're young. You'll outgrow it. Perhaps you're beginning to already," Katisha said hopefully. "You ought to meet some nice elven boys, though. If you keep on keeping company with Khajiits and humans you'll find yourself pregnant soon."
Barenziah smiled involuntarily at the thought. "I'd like that. But it would be inconvenient, wouldn't it? Babies are a lot of trouble, and I don't even have a home yet."
"How old are you? Seventeen? Well, you've a year or two yet before you'll be fertile, unless you're very unlucky. Elves don't have children readily with other elves even after that, so you'll be all right if you stick with them."
"Straw wants to buy a farm and marry me."
"Is that what you want?"
"No. Not yet. Maybe some day, if I can't be a queen."
"I think Straw will be a very old man before "some day" comes, Berry. Elves live a very long time." Katisha's face briefly wore the wistful look humans got when contemplating the thousand year life span that elves were entitled to by nature. True, few ever actually lived that long, as disease and violence took a toll, but they could.
"I like old men, too," Berry said.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2018 18:32

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

When someone's there to rein him in a bit Kirkbride's official stuff is pretty drat good. From what I understand the guy was basically an alcoholic when he wrote a lot of the lore for Morrowind.

I've never read anything though that suggests he's sympathetic towards Nazi views. Can you elaborate further?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2018 10:36

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

I understand that racists like to talk in dogwhistles, but seen in the context of the lore of the game as a whole � which to be clear apes from various different cultures and religions � I don't see how having a relatively small (I think?) proportion of a race of people that hold nazi like beliefs featured in the games should be considered an issue?

It is fantasy after all.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2018 11:07

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Archonex posted:

It is when the meta-physics of the setting support those bigot's beliefs.

"Bigots exist in the setting" isn't a contentious issue. "The things the bigots believe are the truth due to how the setting functions." is.

I think it has to be seen in context. The Altmer are maybe/perhaps right that the destruction of mankind would restore them to their Mythic state. From the perspective of Talos worshippers and men, it is painted as a bad for them. I don't really see the issue.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2018 11:21

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lyKxKn_WsE

# ¿ Mar 22, 2018 14:49

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

If C0DA is to be believed, Numidium gets sent in to a time warp after Tiber Septim uses it to destroy the 2nd Aldmeri dominion. It comes back (a la Alduin) in the 5th era and proceeds to destroy mankind and erase the Altmer. The Nerevarine, born again, appears riding Akhulakan and delays it long enough to allow the Dunmer and Khajitt to escape to the moon in a spaceship.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2018 09:55

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Fuligin posted:

That's dumb as hell. And whatever happened to tatterdemalion?

It's pretty silly yes.

I have no idea what tatterdemalion is.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2018 13:51

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

OpenMW is going to be the best hands down. Once they start adding the bells and whistles and replace MWSE/MGE XE it's going to usher in a new golden age of Morrowind modding.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 09:42

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

I love Daggerfall, and DFU is blowing my mind every time something like this is added.

Same. The lead dev � Gavin Clayton � is really good with updates on twitter too. It's amazing how fast the project seems to be going.

I completely missed the boat on Daggerfall the first time around and have tried to get in to it previously but the lack of QoL stuff and the bugs were super aggravating. Really looking forward to DFU bringing the game up to spec.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 22:46

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Doc Hawkins posted:

Previously, we left off by converting the problem of finding a route that completes all faction questlines in Morrowind into the general case of the travelling salesman problem with dependency constraints. Today, we'll come up with a way to produce a good enough solution to it.

This is really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 22:39

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

It�s going to be a remaster or a release on another platform.

# ¿ May 29, 2018 18:03

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

More excited about daggerfall unity than TES:6

# ¿ Jun 11, 2018 08:39

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

IIRC these blog posts were the ones that originally drew attention to and/or popularised the theory, though maybe there were lore people that were aware before then: https://fallingawkwardly.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/the-metaphysics-of-morrowind-part-1/

# ¿ Jun 26, 2018 20:57

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Oblivion and Skyrim's dialogue systems can eat my rear end and balls.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2018 01:06

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Kill your friends.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 20:30

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Minorkos posted:

I thought about that but then I wouldn't be able to play TES3MP anymore

Honestly it just fucks with so many game mechanics at once that even if my character wasn't hosed up by it, I'm not sure I would still like it. It gives everyone an always-increasing hit-rate instead of capping it at 100 in terms of skills and attributes, which, if my suspicions are correct, would make the game even easier than it already is and remove all sort of nuance from having to manage both hit-chance and damage. When you have 150 Long Blades, you're essentially going to land all your hits so what's the point of getting agility or fortify attack? Just dump it all in strength at that point, considering it also increases health in this mod for some reason

With full fatigue and around 80 weapon skill you pretty much de facto hit everything in the game all the time anyway.

IIRC strength also plays a minor role in determining health in Vanilla, but only at character generation.

Mods that take away attribute and skill caps and which tie attribute growth to skill increases are extremely satisfying for �pure class� characters. In the late game they allow you to get better and better, rather than hitting caps and having to diversify.

In the vanilla game there�s little, if any, reason to take more than one weapon skill but with a mod like that - assuming it works more or less like GCD - your warrior now has a reason to use loads of different kinds of weapons for the different attribute boosts they can get from them. It also gives you a good reason to use both medium and heavy armour.

Chances are in the long run your character is going to be a lot stronger with this mod if they�re focused on being a warrior. If the game gets too easy, maybe tune the difficulty up a bit or get your friends to also install creature mods to make the game harder in later levels? (e.g. Morrowind Advanced)

The decay mechanic sounds like rear end though.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 22:22

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Good tweet thread from the guy that's making Daggerfall Unity:

https://twitter.com/gav_clayton/status/1092683082375675905

This guy really loves daggerfall.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2019 16:27

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:33

Entropy238: Oct 21, 2010; Fallen Rib

Morrowind is the best Elder Scrolls game you�re ever going to get.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2019 23:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Elder Scrolls Series General Discussion: Prison Escapes 101

«‹›2 »