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Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks


Hello! My name is Brian Reynolds. Yes the same one who made various videogames you may have heard of, at least as long as the ones you're thinking of were Civ 2, Alpha Centauri, Rise of Nations, FrontierVille, DomiNations, or various other ones that didn't do quite as much toward getting my kids through college. Why is a videogame designer making Let's Play videos of other people's games? Because I want to, is why. I like to PLAY games, not just make them! Also for some reason I like to edit videos and also I apparently have way too much time.

SKYRIM - SURVIVAL - LEGENDARY - 9 LIVES PERMADEATH
What got me interested in doing another run through Skyrim is the new "Survival Mode" Bethesda recently published. One must now eat food, get enough sleep, and -- perhaps most important in an icy province like Skyrim -- stay warm enough! Plus there's no fast travel allowed (always an improvement in any Bethesda game!), one can only level up when sleeping, and a few other minor tweaks.

Suddenly Skyrim sounds like it might be a challenge again!

In order to make this a fun "challenge run", I'm planning to abide by the following rules:
1. Survival Mode - with all the fixin's!
2. Legendary Difficulty - the frailest of player characters and the spongiest enemies!
3. Nine Lives Permadeath - I don't want the run to end *too* anticlimactically the first time I step on a spring-loaded claw trap, but on the other hand I want combat to be for keeps!
4. No Stealing "except as required by quest" - Stealing seems a little too... easy. So I'm not going to do it unless it's required for some questline I want to do. Now if something's sitting out in a barrel not marked red-for-Steal, then fair's fair.
5. No Companions "except as required by quest" - Similarly, I think it would be too easy to get some melee companion to tank most of the damage for me. So there may be a few quests where we have a mandatory companion (if we join The Companions for example) but other than that, The Cat Stands Alone.
6. Not Abusing Professions - Although I plan to do some professions in ways the fit the story and the way the game is intended to be played I'm not planning to start the game by e.g. building 1000 suits of leather armor to get my smithing skills up to the sky before ever doing any combat. This is supposed to be an adventure not a minimax-fest. It's kind of a hole in the system that this is possible, so we're going to try to pretend it doesn't actually exist.

What YOU Can Do
Tell me what questlines/regions/goals you'd like to see me tackle! I'm telling you now, though, I hate daedra! Don't want to serve their dark will! Also anything else you think will improve the playthrough.

The Schedule
I'm guessing I'll try to get an episode out once a week except when I'm on vacation or whatever. I'm initially thinking Wednesday might be a good day to drop episodes, but I may change my mind later.

Playlist

Chapter 1: Kitty's Early Life (Up to Bleak Falls Barrow)
1 - Khajiit Has Done Nothing
2 - The Cat With Nine Lives
3 - Ragnar the Red
4 - You'll Make A Fine Rug, Cat!
5 - Oops I Hit That Guy In The Face!
6 - Kitty Loves Sharp Knives

Chapter 2: Kitty Loose In The World
7 - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
8 - Of Bear Food And Bandits
9 - Just Helping Myself To Some Fish, Sir!
10 - I Has A Horsey!
11 - Kitty's Favorite Dungeon

Chapter 3: Modded in Markarth
12 - Of Mods and Markarth
13 - The Shishkebab Machine
14 - Can Dwarven Spheres Swim?
15 - Now We're Playing Some Skyrim!
16 - Apparently That's Not The Altar

Chapter 4: The Road to Riften
17 - Haggy McHagface
18 - Finish Chewing Your Vampire!
19 - A "Long Cut" to Riften
20 - In Which Kitty Eats 107 Fish
21 - Thane Kitty

Chapter 5: Getting "Dragon Ready"
22 - Kitty En Fuego
23 - It Would Have Eaten Horsey!
24 - Kitty Does Things The Hard Way
25 - The Biggest Hairest Dwarven Thing (Of Them All)
26 - Can You Actually Freeze To Death?
27 - Dragon Ready!

Chapter 6: Dragons and Vampires
28 - Overcoming Bear PTSD
29 - Horsey Ruins Everything!
30 - Kitty Wants To Tickle You
31 - No Without Any Health Potions
32 - Dial-a-Monster
33 - Hit Me With The Stupid Stick
34 - Oh Right... the Companions!

Chapter 7: Getting Serious About DLC (Dawnguard)
35 - The Enhanced Staple Gun
36 - Why I Hate Holes
37 - Prechewed Draugr
38 - To the Undercroft!
39 - Volkihar Remedial Stealth Practice

Chapter 8: Where The Bad People Go
40 - Spooky and Disorienting

Have fun out there!
Brian

Brian Reynolds fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Feb 1, 2019

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Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks
(Original thread-starting post)

In honor of an official Survival Mode coming to Skyrim Special Edition, I'm ready to start a challenge run.

Clearly it needs to be SURVIVAL MODE and on LEGENDARY DIFFICULTY.

But I'm thinking it needs to have some kind of Permadeath element. Strict single-life permadeath might lead to a very very very short run. On the other hand, I am imagining the following:
1. Khajiit character... they're furry (for staying warm in survival) and sneaky (for staying alive in legendary).
2. So how about the Cat With Nine Lives? 9 deaths and it's all over? Fairly permadeathy but won't end anticlimactically the first time I walk into a spring-loaded claw trap.
3. Other possible rules I'm thinking of abiding by include "no companions except if required by a quest" and "no stealing except if required by a quest".
4. I'm not sure quite how to express this as a rule, but one thing I'm NOT interested in doing is min-maxing all my smithing/enchanting/etc stats by making a million leather armors or whatever just to force all my stats artificially up to 100. Nor am I going to follow the first guy around for five hours in sneak mode, etc, etc. I'll do professions on and off as it seems appropriate, and I'll certainly be doing alchemy as I think it's fun, but it's not going to be an artificial main focus.

Taking commentary & suggestions for a week or two and then I'll start the run!

Brian Reynolds fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Nov 1, 2017

TheGreatEvilKing
Mar 28, 2016





I feel like the "no companions" rule makes permadeath a lot easier as they don't hit you with friendly fire.

I am feeling evil and want to suggest you fight with only unmodded destruction magic.

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

TheGreatEvilKing posted:

I feel like the "no companions" rule makes permadeath a lot easier as they don't hit you with friendly fire.

I can imagine some companions that might, but for permadeath it seems like the companion strategy would be to have the companion be the melee tank and I'd then be able to hang out of combat (sometimes hitting THEM with friendly fire). I'm pretty sure that would make things much easier since I wouldn't have melee guys coming right down my throat all the time. Obviously working alone does improve stealth though.

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks
Let's do this thing! First episode is up...

1 - Khajiit Has Done Nothing

Nyaa
Jan 7, 2010
Like, Nyaa.

:colbert:
Compassion Time: Loot my house and pick my cabbage! :sax:

It's weird for me to see the hunger system for the first time in Skyrim. My first thought was this is like a permanent curse mechanism by the god to make everyone weak if they don't consume others and slow down to rest. Even though it's a perfectly normal thing in reality,

We should buy a horse (or permanently borrow one) to increase our loot capacity and shorten travel time... Unless horse count as companion?

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks
I feel like a horse is fair as long as we paid for it fairly or got it on a quest (i.e. the no-stealing rule). And as long as we're not trying to use it to tank the battles (you know how horses get in Skyrim...)

Using it to get around between major cities & other locations, that seems more or less okay. At least that's my first take.

I *could* be convinced that horses aren't fair until we've walked to all the major cities ourselves (which is, after all, what I'm thinking of doing about wagons).

With respect to HUNGER - I do like that it seems to make the whole "cooking" thing a lot more relevant. Plus another thing to fill up one's already-heavily-restricted inventory limit!

Scaly Haylie
Dec 25, 2004

We should go into conjuration. Our only allies will be temporary.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Conjuration is amazing when you're alone. If you need to run away from something can just summon up a cheap familiar or something. But it is a really fun experience to run in, kill one enemy and raise it as undead help though.

This looks like a lot of fun. One challenge I've thought about myself would be only using ancient nord weapons and armor but it might be too difficult to be fun since it's kinda just junk.

OAquinas
Jan 27, 2008

Biden has sat immobile on the Iron Throne of America. He is the Master of Malarkey by the will of the gods, and master of a million votes by the might of his inexhaustible calamari.
So far so good! Like the concept and the commentary--should be interesting.

Mr. Baps
Apr 16, 2008

Yo ho?

TheGreatEvilKing posted:

I am feeling evil and want to suggest you fight with only unmodded destruction magic.

:barf: gently caress that, it's a video game not a torture device (the torture is tedium).

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
I would totally replay this on the switch if it had mod support.

Gridlocked
Aug 2, 2014

MR. STUPID MORON
WITH AN UGLY FACE
AND A BIG BUTT
AND HIS BUTT SMELLS
AND HE LIKES TO KISS
HIS OWN BUTT
by Roger Hargreaves
I used to run the Hunterborn and Frostfall for my survival experience.

Tax Refund
Apr 15, 2011

The IRS gave me a refund. I spent it on this SA account. What was I thinking?!
Since you asked for suggestions, I'll chime in.

In the Youtube comments, someone suggested that the Dark Brotherhood questline would fit your play style because they're all about stealth. While I agree with the stealth part, I don't think they fit your play style well at all, since you hate daedra and "don't want to serve their dark will". The Dark Brotherhood is all about dark, evil deeds: while some of their contracts are for people that probably improve the world with their death (e.g., a sadistic orphanage matron, or a pirate captain), many of their contracts are to kill perfectly innocent people who are only guilty of getting in someone else's way (e.g., a helpless beggar who's worried sick about his sister, who he doesn't know is already dead). And besides, a playthrough where you avoid stealing (almost all of the time) feels like a playthrough of a "good" character, who'd be more likely to seek out the Dark Brotherhood for the sake of killing them rather than joining them.

So I'd vote against doing the Dark Brotherhood quest line, because it would make the character you're playing feel inconsistent in two ways: not serving evil beings like the daedra means that you'd be unlikely to want to serve the Night Mother, and having scruples against taking the property of innocent people means you'd probably have scruples against taking their lives, too.

P.S. Really liked the first episode, and looking forward to seeing more. One other suggestion, though: I don't mind your talking over the game's dialogue too much (especially in the tutorial). But in the future, would you mind turning subtitles on? While most people watching this have probably played Skyrim before, not everyone will be familiar with every quest, and it'll be far easier to understand what's going on if we can read what characters are saying while you talk over them.

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

Tax Refund posted:

So I'd vote against doing the Dark Brotherhood quest line, because it would make the character you're playing feel inconsistent in two ways: not serving evil beings like the daedra means that you'd be unlikely to want to serve the Night Mother, and having scruples against taking the property of innocent people means you'd probably have scruples against taking their lives, too.
Good point. I need to think of some good major questlines to do (apart from the main one) that fit the developing theme - I definitely want to hit some good story arcs not just plunge the main line. I think there's a destroy-the-dark-brotherhood opportunity but I don't think it's a very big quest line alas. Of course shutting off access to the only Master of Light Armor trainer in a permadeath thief run is definitely a style point :-)

quote:

P.S. Really liked the first episode, and looking forward to seeing more. One other suggestion, though: I don't mind your talking over the game's dialogue too much (especially in the tutorial). But in the future, would you mind turning subtitles on? While most people watching this have probably played Skyrim before, not everyone will be familiar with every quest, and it'll be far easier to understand what's going on if we can read what characters are saying while you talk over them.
Good idea! I have a bit already recorded ahead (as a proof-of-concept to myself that the run could be cool enough) but I'll get those switched on before long.

Lizard Wizard posted:

We should go into conjuration. Our only allies will be temporary.
That's an interesting possibility! Seems like it probably counts as fair, too. Of course it does imply putting a bunch of attribute points into Magicka instead of being able to keep them strictly for Health & Stamina - maybe I'll try to pick up a spell book I can experiment with. It would CERTAINLY pay to have another escape option when stealth blows up in my face!

Nyaa
Jan 7, 2010
Like, Nyaa.

:colbert:
How about becoming the skooma drug lord with this mod? We already selling expensive poison for cash. :350:

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

Nyaa posted:

with this mod?

I realize that rationally I should put mods in, but for some inexplicable reason it always feels "dirty". I mean I should have at LEAST put the "Unofficial Patch" in, right? I just can't bring myself to do it. I realize that speaks more of some inner defect in me!

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

The "true" Elderscrolls experience is spending hours hunting for mods, even more hours installing and ludicrously more hours trying to get them to work properly and setting up load orders and whatnot in vain attempts to find the one (lol) or several conflicts. Oh and about ten minutes of playing... until you realize you forgot to add a mod and the cycle begins anew.

I only use a handful of mods myself. Screw that mess.

Nyaa
Jan 7, 2010
Like, Nyaa.

:colbert:

Brian Reynolds posted:

I realize that rationally I should put mods in, but for some inexplicable reason it always feels "dirty". I mean I should have at LEAST put the "Unofficial Patch" in, right? I just can't bring myself to do it. I realize that speaks more of some inner defect in me!
I think that's call 'lazy' and you are 'feeling dirty bad for not doing it.'

But that's fine. This is our game, so we can vote for the mod we like to see and you won't feel dirty about our choice... Maybe disgusted.

Tax Refund
Apr 15, 2011

The IRS gave me a refund. I spent it on this SA account. What was I thinking?!

Brian Reynolds posted:

I realize that rationally I should put mods in, but for some inexplicable reason it always feels "dirty". I mean I should have at LEAST put the "Unofficial Patch" in, right? I just can't bring myself to do it. I realize that speaks more of some inner defect in me!

I'm absolutely fine with a "vanilla" runthrough; in fact, I'd prefer it. (Though I also wouldn't object to official mods like Dawnguard or Hearthfire). But the Unofficial Skyrim Patch is a "vanilla" runthrough as Bethesda intended it to be; all it does is fix bugs (some of which can make certain quests impossible to advance). So I admit to being a little puzzled why you'd feel "dirty" for downloading a bugfix patch. To me, it's only sensible to experience the game exactly as the designers wanted it to be, rather than with bugs getting in the way. (As a programmer myself, I realize that dev teams won't have time to fix every bug before release, so don't take my acknowledgement of the existence of bugs as criticism of the dev team.) So since you want to experience vanilla Skyrim as the designers wanted it, it seems to me the best way is to install the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.

You already know all this, of course — but sometimes it helps to hear it from someone else.

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



Brian Reynolds posted:

I realize that rationally I should put mods in, but for some inexplicable reason it always feels "dirty". I mean I should have at LEAST put the "Unofficial Patch" in, right? I just can't bring myself to do it. I realize that speaks more of some inner defect in me!
Eh, if you're having fun playing the game unmodded, far be it for me (or anyone else) to gainsay that. On the flipside, if somebody wants to use so many mods that you wonder how much of the original game still exists, that's fine too.

+1 downloading the Unofficial Patch if you can bring yourself to do it, though. Some of the bugs in this game are save-eating IIRC, although those might be version specific. That'll put the "permadeath" in this run right quick, and before kitty has even used up all of his nine lives!

Tax Refund posted:

(As a programmer myself, I realize that dev teams won't have time to fix every bug before release, so don't take my acknowledgement of the existence of bugs as criticism of the dev team.) So since you want to experience vanilla Skyrim as the designers wanted it, it seems to me the best way is to install the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
Tell me about it - if anybody here knows about a completely bug-free game, I'd like to hear about it. Some beloved classics are held together by the coding equivalent of bubblegum and prayers; just look at Gen One Pokemon or some old Final Fantasy games.


Nyaa posted:

I think that's call 'lazy' and you are 'feeling dirty bad for not doing it.'

But that's fine. This is our game, so we can vote for the mod we like to see and you won't feel dirty about our choice... Maybe disgusted.
I don't think mods have been explicitly put up to goon democracy in this playthrough; we get to decide what quests get done (and presumably how) and stuff like that, but we're only allowed to suggest other stuff.

Iunnrais
Jul 25, 2007

It's gaelic.
I would like to see you do the main quest, for the sheer novelty of it... I mean, I've certainly played well over a hundred hours of this game, and never even met Paarthurnax. I doubt I'm the only one.

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

Tax Refund posted:

I'm absolutely fine with a "vanilla" runthrough; in fact, I'd prefer it. (Though I also wouldn't object to official mods like Dawnguard or Hearthfire). But the Unofficial Skyrim Patch is a "vanilla" runthrough as Bethesda intended it to be; all it does is fix bugs (some of which can make certain quests impossible to advance). So I admit to being a little puzzled why you'd feel "dirty" for downloading a bugfix patch. To me, it's only sensible to experience the game exactly as the designers wanted it to be, rather than with bugs getting in the way. (As a programmer myself, I realize that dev teams won't have time to fix every bug before release, so don't take my acknowledgement of the existence of bugs as criticism of the dev team.) So since you want to experience vanilla Skyrim as the designers wanted it, it seems to me the best way is to install the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.

That's a pretty reasonable take on it. I do want a kind of vanilla run, but you're pointing out that Unofficial Patch really IS that, and maybe a better one even though it gave me all the "oh my god we're going to turn achievements off" warnings when I downloaded it.

I'll have to experiment to make sure that I can install it "on top of" my current save/character, since I don't want to start the run over again throwing away all the work to date (the playing didn't take ALL that long, but add in the recording and editing and Jesus!)

I *do* have Dawnguard and whatever the Solsheim DLC is called installed - they are after all fully official. So we can decide to do them.

lunnrais posted:

I would like to see you do the main quest, for the sheer novelty of it... I mean, I've certainly played well over a hundred hours of this game, and never even met Paarthurnax. I doubt I'm the only one.
For sure! :-)

Commander Keene posted:

I don't think mods have been explicitly put up to goon democracy in this playthrough; we get to decide what quests get done (and presumably how) and stuff like that, but we're only allowed to suggest other stuff.
Oh right - so for clarification I was planning to more or less control the "rules of engagement" for the run, which includes mods of course.

Almost *everything* is up for suggestion though, especially things like quest lines and stuff. I'll probably end up being the final judge of what fits the character arc, not to mention what I think Khajiit-Has-Done-Nothing can realistically survive at whatever point, but I'm *VERY* interested in requests and suggestions!

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks
AAAAND we're back, trying to get a little sneaking & combat experience in Embershard Mine near Riverwood!

2 - The Cat With Nine Lives

OAquinas
Jan 27, 2008

Biden has sat immobile on the Iron Throne of America. He is the Master of Malarkey by the will of the gods, and master of a million votes by the might of his inexhaustible calamari.
Oh, so you're the rear end in a top hat who takes all the free samples off the tray. :argh:

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

OAquinas posted:

Oh, so you're the rear end in a top hat who takes all the free samples off the tray. :argh:

Haha totally! :-)

Tax Refund
Apr 15, 2011

The IRS gave me a refund. I spent it on this SA account. What was I thinking?!

Brian Reynolds posted:

That's a pretty reasonable take on it. I do want a kind of vanilla run, but you're pointing out that Unofficial Patch really IS that, and maybe a better one even though it gave me all the "oh my god we're going to turn achievements off" warnings when I downloaded it.

I'll have to experiment to make sure that I can install it "on top of" my current save/character, since I don't want to start the run over again throwing away all the work to date (the playing didn't take ALL that long, but add in the recording and editing and Jesus!)

I'm not any kind of spokesman for SA or anything, but I think I can safely guess that MOST people wouldn't mind a bit if you replayed a save to get back to where you were and didn't re-record the replay, even if things ended up being slightly different. I.e., if you added the unofficial patch and it messed things up so you had to start over, and this time you ended up (for example) accidentally aggro'ing the bear and having to kill it, or you killed fewer Imperials, or any other reason why your skills might end up slightly different from the original playthrough, we wouldn't mind at all if you just said on the video "So I installed the patch and had to redo my save file, and here's what happened off-screen that's different than what you saw". As long as the major story choices were the same, the rest would be fine.

But it's probably a moot point; https://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3581-frequently-asked-questions-about-the-project/ says:

quote:

Is it safe to install the unofficial patch on an existing save?

Yes. All of the unofficial patches come with scripts designed to go over the state of things we've fixed and make sure your save is up to date with those. You can install them at any point during your game, whether you've completed the entire main quest or you just left Helgen for the first time.

Some issues may not be possible to fix retroactively. Those which can't are listed in the version history with an [NR] tag. Only starting a new game will resolve those issues.

So it seems the only drawback to installing the unofficial patch over your existing save is that it might not be able to fix all bugs. But if you're still early in the game, the chance that you've already triggered a bug they can't fix is really low.

I'll go ahead and watch the second video now, and edit this post if I have more comments after watching it.

Edit: Okay, watched the video. I really enjoy your commenting style; it's relaxed and yet informative, so I'm definitely liking this so far. As far as quests go, I only have one suggestion at the moment. When it comes to picking sides in the Stormcloaks vs. Imperials struggle, I feel like the storyline that makes the most sense is for most characters to be sympathetic to the Stormcloaks at first, since your first encounter with the Imperials was that you were about to be executed without a trial, apparently completely in violation of their code of justice. But then you get to Windhelm, discover how racist the Stormcloaks are towards non-Nords, and unless you're playing a Nord, you'd then change your mind and instead of offering to join the Stormcloaks, you'd turn around and join the Imperials instead. (And even if you're playing a Nord, many Nords still side with the Empire, so you could play a collaborator if you want to). For a Khajiit, especially, that seems to be the choice that makes the most sense of the storyline — that you'd decide to join the Imperials only after you've been to Windhelm.

Tax Refund fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Nov 8, 2017

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

Tax Refund posted:

So it seems the only drawback to installing the unofficial patch over your existing save is that it might not be able to fix all bugs. But if you're still early in the game, the chance that you've already triggered a bug they can't fix is really low.

I'll go ahead and watch the second video now, and edit this post if I have more comments after watching it.

Edit: Okay, watched the video. I really enjoy your commenting style; it's relaxed and yet informative, so I'm definitely liking this so far.
Yes! I did a test load with my current save and everything seemed to work just fine - so when I pick up from there I will run the patch from here on out!

quote:

As far as quests go, I only have one suggestion at the moment. When it comes to picking sides in the Stormcloaks vs. Imperials struggle, I feel like the storyline that makes the most sense is for most characters to be sympathetic to the Stormcloaks at first, since your first encounter with the Imperials was that you were about to be executed without a trial, apparently completely in violation of their code of justice. But then you get to Windhelm, discover how racist the Stormcloaks are towards non-Nords, and unless you're playing a Nord, you'd then change your mind and instead of offering to join the Stormcloaks, you'd turn around and join the Imperials instead. (And even if you're playing a Nord, many Nords still side with the Empire, so you could play a collaborator if you want to). For a Khajiit, especially, that seems to be the choice that makes the most sense of the storyline — that you'd decide to join the Imperials only after you've been to Windhelm.
Very cool idea! You're right the beginning of the story makes it seem right to head to Windhelm sympathetic to the Stormcloaks but then a Khajiit especially isn't going to be all about their racism.

Nyaa
Jan 7, 2010
Like, Nyaa.

:colbert:
The empire ban skooma, Khajit help stormcloak.

JossiRossi
Jul 28, 2008
Probation
Can't post for 42 minutes!
I am honestly really surprised that you aren't using SkyUI, it makes all the item/spells/etc management so much better. Like, watching you use the default menus are giving me flashbacks to the bad days when I first started playing Skyrim and tried to keep my inventory under control.

Aside from that, this is a chill good series to watch when I want to relax!

A Pleasant Hug
Dec 30, 2007

...It's the thought that counts, right?
As far as inventory management goes, I can't stand having limited inventory space in a Bethesda game, personally. They just love their clutter-items so much, and when they become actually useful for some reason (crafting systems, for example) then things get way out of hand extremely quickly, as I tend to take everything I can get away with and hoard everything useful. Skyrim is no exception; with all the alchemical reagents, different potions, and weapon/armor smithing materials. I usually end up cheating to inflate my carrying capacity to something ridiculous so I never have to think about it ever again.

quote:

Hello! My name is Brian Reynolds. Yes the same one who made various videogames you may have heard of, at least as long as the ones you're thinking of were Civ 2, Alpha Centauri, Rise of Nations, FrontierVille, DomiNations, or various other ones that didn't do quite as much toward getting my kids through college. Why is a videogame designer making Let's Play videos of other people's games? Because I want to, is why. I like to PLAY games, not just make them! Also for some reason I like to edit videos and also I apparently have way too much time.
Huh. This promises to be amusing, at least. How did you get into your role, if you don't mind questions?

Halser
Aug 24, 2016
If you're not using companions, you'll probably want to get as much mileage out of Conjuration and Illusion as possible.

Unique, DLC-end bosses aside, I don't think any challenge in the game can stand up to two Dremora Lords and a 76m wide frenzy.

Of course, that might be a bit too good, so it may be something to actually ban in the rule set.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Dremora Lords are pretty fragile though, Wrathmen are much more durable if you want something that can actually survive. Not sure about any dps difference but they use dragonbone weapons so it should be around the same.

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks

Nyaa posted:

The empire ban skooma, Khajit help stormcloak.

Oooooo... important recreational substances vs. mistreatment of Khajiit! Lore hurts!

"Halser posted:

Unique, DLC-end bosses aside, I don't think any challenge in the game can stand up to two Dremora Lords and a 76m wide frenzy.

Of course, that might be a bit too good, so it may be something to actually ban in the rule set.

I clearly hadn't thought enough about Conjuration as a possibility for Survival! Of course an advantage of not using magic is being able to concentrate my level bonuses into Stamina and Health exclusively. And right now I'm feeling hard pressed just to get reasonably proficient in Sneak and Archery which seem like they still might be safest at low levels. BUT it might make sense as a new specialty to open up during the mid-levels... especially if we decide to head off to Winterhold and stuff.

Jossi Rossi posted:

I am honestly really surprised that you aren't using SkyUI, it makes all the item/spells/etc management so much better. Like, watching you use the default menus are giving me flashbacks to the bad days when I first started playing Skyrim and tried to keep my inventory under control.

Aside from that, this is a chill good series to watch when I want to relax!
Interesting - perhaps this Let's Play is going to be my deeper education into good Skyrim mods! Took a quick look and it seems pretty neat (if a little cluttery for my UI designer tastes...). I may look at adding it in -- since it doesn't change anything about the core gameplay and doesn't do some kind of "bot-thing" to combat just gives me clearer details it's probably fair. I'll have to think on that a couple weeks though & also see what others say - does SkyUI seem fair? And a good idea?

Also... thanks! :-)

Pleasant Hug posted:

As far as inventory management goes, I can't stand having limited inventory space in a Bethesda game, personally. They just love their clutter-items so much, and when they become actually useful for some reason (crafting systems, for example) then things get way out of hand extremely quickly, as I tend to take everything I can get away with and hoard everything useful. Skyrim is no exception; with all the alchemical reagents, different potions, and weapon/armor smithing materials. I usually end up cheating to inflate my carrying capacity to something ridiculous so I never have to think about it ever again.
I've certainly been there! So far I'm finding the seriously-limited inventory is actually pretty fun - gives me an extra little challenge to keep track of. We'll see if that lasts into mid and late game... and of course it's incentive to put points into Stamina which is interesting in its own way.

quote:

Huh. This promises to be amusing, at least. How did you get into your role, if you don't mind questions?
(TL;DR -- good luck in spite of youthful decisions!) Hoo boy! Well I was a young teen in the early eighties when the first generation of personal computers was taking off, and back then the only way I could usually afford to play a game was if I wrote it myself. I'd sometimes get to play a cool game at a friend's house, and then I'd try to make a game of my own like it on the TRS-80. When I was 13 I made $100 (cue Dr. Evil hand gesture, "one HUUUUNdred dollars!") by sending a little RPG game inspired by Temple of Apshai I'd made into one of those magazines where people would type in the BASIC code straight from the magazine. So by the time I finished high school I was fluent in Fortran, Pascal, C, and various Assemblers, and thinking I wanted to do something computer-related for a living. But in college when I was being paid to tutor people through CS classes that were two semesters higher than the ones I was allowed to take "because prerequisites" I got bored as 18-year-olds are wont to do (and truly the state of CS higher education in the mid-80's was kind of spotty - in those days they didn't know what to do with kids who were already natural/self-taught programmers before they got to college). I had an awesome history professor so I changed majors to history and then later added a double-major in philosophy. I started thinking maybe I wanted to teach that, but when I got to graduate school I changed my mind and decided graduate school in philosophy wasn't for me. Which meant "oh crap I've got to think of some way to make a living". Which led to "well I used to be pretty good that that computer stuff" combined with the fact that I beat Ultima VI somewhere around then and watched all these names scrolling by in the credits I thought "wow that's a lot of people. It seems like they might get PAID for doing this!" So I went down to the university bookstore and spent half a month's income on the Microsoft C compiler and a few Peter Norton secrets-of-MSDOS books, and a month or so later I'd written a demo of another RPG type game (not a full game but a good "vertical slice" with assembly code, VGA graphics, sound effects, music, and my own cruddy artwork) and sent that off as my resume to three videogame companies whose games I liked, applying for programmer jobs (my resume mentioned accurately I had a bachelor's degree but strategically omitted what subject it was in, heh, and no one ever asked). A week later Microprose called and flew me out for an interview. A month after that I had all my possessions packed in the back of my pickup truck and moved to Maryland. So that's how I got into the videogame industry! A few years of doing programming led to an opportunity to do design alongside Sid Meier (I like to think that here is where degrees in history and philosophy started to pay the bills) and co-design Colonization with him. Which was successful so then there was Civ 2 and suddenly I was the lead designer. Which was successful so then I got to start a company, etc, etc. Anyway the part once I made it into the industry is easier to track. :-)

Shifty gimbal
Dec 28, 2008

Hey you... I got something to tell ya
Biscuit Hider
Brian Reynolds, you're alright

OwlFancier
Aug 22, 2013

I'm one of those odd people who doesn't mind the base Skyrim UI, but a lot of people have gripes with it and SkyUI works fine as far as I know, does purely as advertised, reworking the UI to a different layout. If you like that layout better or find the existing UI a bit clunky then I'd recommend it.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."
I second maxing Illusion asap, since it mixes really well with stealth and once it's at lvl 100, you can take the perk that lets you use illusion spells on undead and machines, which half the game consists of.

Brian Reynolds
Apr 5, 2017

The Alpha Centauri world would make an *awesome* RPG-shooter - Game Designer Brian Reynolds, "Something Awful forums post", Datalinks
There once was a hero named... :-)

3 - Ragnar the Red

90s Cringe Rock
Nov 29, 2006
:gay:
Don't join the companions. You're not a companion, and being a dog is the opposite of being a cat.

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Poil
Mar 17, 2007

It's a shame the game lacks weretigers. Is it possible to join the companions and stay a cat and just doing the random crap quests for money?

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