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The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim


7upMan

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Haha, I saw a very similar one where you can blind the guy with a bucket, brutally kill the woman, take it off of him, he wont even blink, wont care about the dead woman that is probably his wife, and dont seem to be able to hear the blows or the screaming while it happens... You wouldnt be able to do that in TDM, there would be the automatic reaction of suspicious and fear, even if you are not targetted as the culprit. I wonder what was the mistake here? They probably also have the teams mechanics, dont they? And what about the deaf ears? Sounds of pain alone should be quite the alarm. The main exploitation of ai though, placing the objects on them, is something that i really want to see solved in TDM too, they should feel insulted and go agressive depending on degree whenever touched by something the player is holding or throws at them, they are pretty much insensible to any objects hitting them right now, even rocks and such, though they will hear the noise of it falling on the ground after hitting them in the face. ;)

Edited by RPGista
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Haha, I saw a very similar one where you can blind the guy with a bucket, brutally kill the woman, take it off of him, he wont even blink, wont care about the dead woman that is probably his wife, and dont seem to be able to hear the blows or the screaming while it happens...

 

It is sister, I thinks.. It' this one.

 

 

Absolutely hilarious. Maybe they can fix that by making AI shrug off models placed on them.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Those videos are great. But wouldn't at least the first one theoretically happen the same way in TDM?

 

I don't think so.. I think our containers do not have real space in their collision brushes. And I think the AI can see through moveables, correct me if I am wrong.

 

What can be done in TDM is to hold out an object between you and a light source so that you are covered in shadow and the AI cannot see you.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Well, since nobody's posting first impressions I did a google.

 

http://www.mmorpg.co...ure/5795/page/1

 

http://kssunews.word...-impressions-2/

 

http://us.battle.net...opic/3577367968

 

This last one is video straight through the first hour of play so only watch if you don't mind spoilers:

 

http://www.psu.com/W...-a013568-p0.php

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I'll give some impressions after a few hours of play:

 

I love it.

 

But it's not quite perfect.

 

The menu interface is surprisingly clunky - the inventory system is almost non-existent, so you can't compare things without actually selecting them back and forth to remember their weights, etc. Sometimes mouse wheel will scroll the inventory when you didn't want it to, or just moving the mouse right when you were going to push a direction key, making you select the wrong inventory path or something like that. Hard to explain, but I think they should clean it up more. Hopefully it will get tweaked/improved with a patch. But it's not all that bad, just not as tight or smooth as I hoped. And it's absolutely spartan, no "design" to speak of.

 

The game itself is fantastic. Very gorgeous and wonderful, engrossing world, great visceral combat, nice spells, nice interaction with people, nice everything while playing. The storytelling thus far is very engrossing and immersive. Did I mention the world is extremely beautiful (in a rough-hewn way). There is so much detail and beauty. It's like a never ending masterwork. The rivers actually look like flowing rivers. The snowy mountains actually feel like the blustery wintery intimidating places they should be. I really enjoy playing this game!

 

EVERYTHING has been refreshed and revisited design-wise, so I almost feel like I'm playing a whole new universe, and that's a good thing. I've been Oblivion Shivering Isles the past couple weeks so I'm fresh from that game where I'd gotten quite bored of the same-old same-old, and I find myself suddenly very excited to be collecting ingredients, searching every single box or crate or container I can find, picking every lock I can find, etc, because they've all been so thoroughly refreshed that it's fun and new and interesting all over again. I'll have to wait a hundred hours into the game to see how I feel then.

 

I really like the detailed items themselves, just how nice and real everything looks in the inventory (when you look at them ONE-AT-A-TIME, blech)(At least the inventory categories are good and narrowed down enough to be useful)

 

Lockpicking is somewhat similar to Thief Deadly Shadows, by the way. It's cool.

 

They took some things out. No more grabbing anything. I miss that, I have to admit. But I also can understand why they removed it - most other games don't have it, and it never really served any purpose in Oblivion anyway except to just mess around and show off some of the model physics, which is old hat by now. The skills and abilities and stuff is all reworked, of course, with some thing taken away. I think the changes work fine so far, no complaint there.

 

I'm still quite early on so I don't have any experience with dragon "shouts" or dragon words yet. I haven't hired anyone yet or bought any property or a horse.

 

I like the two handed gameplay. You can use a two handed weapon (big sword, bow, etc), or two one handed, or one one handed with a shield, or with spell, or two different spells (that's a lot of fun - one hand blasting fire and the other blasting electricity, YES!) Although it's very weird that the default setup is that LEFT mouse button is for the right hand and vice-versa (but, strangely, that actually feels correct, it's just that SOMETIMES I get confused for a second)

 

They've added some crafting stuff, haven't done it yet (armor, weapons, etc). Leveling up is quite different and simplified, with various constellations of "perks", I guess I like the system.

 

I think the magika regen might be a bit too fast, it takes away a little from the strategic elements of the last games and makes thing more action oriented (but I must say the action is pretty great, so maybe it's an okay change).

 

That was pretty much all rambling, but hopefully it's a little helpful! :)

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I don't think so.. I think our containers do not have real space in their collision brushes. And I think the AI can see through moveables, correct me if I am wrong.

 

What can be done in TDM is to hold out an object between you and a light source so that you are covered in shadow and the AI cannot see you.

 

the opposite. by default, AI cannot see through moveables, UNLESS you are holding the moveable. this is designed so that you cannot carry around a mobile hiding place. nobody suspects the moving box with legs, nothing to see here! (one thing i believe you can get away with, if you hold the moveable in front of lightsource, the shadow will still hide you even if AI can see through the moveable itself)

 

edit: also, that video is motherfuckin' hilarious. almost makes me glad my system can't run the game. i'd be too tempted. After all, "if the game lets you do it, its not cheating"

Edited by ungoliant
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Thanks Komag. Sounds good. I'm surprised you said the grabber's not working because SH posted a vid link that shows cauldrons put on heads?

 

Lockpicking will be interesting. As I recall in TDS it was a sub-game with hands. Oblivion was a separate menu. When I first got Oblivion lockpicking was near impossible and so frustrating we gave up on it. Later with practice it got easier then I got to be able to buy new lockpicks by the score so it became very very easy. By comparison TDM lockpicking is still excellent. I would say perfect in fact. These other games show just how good TDM lockpicking is.

 

Also comparing, the vids I've seen show the landscape graphics are great but kind of strange like stark cartoony drawing rather than 'real'. (Guess that's intended and similar to Oblivion.) Like in TDM the best textures and lighting can feel 'real' if done well. I reserve judgement on the Skyrim graphics until I've played it. I loved Oblivion so I'm sure I'll adapt to this. Can't wait till tomorrow. :)

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Thanks Komag. Sounds good. I'm surprised you said the grabber's not working because SH posted a vid link that shows cauldrons put on heads?

 

Hmm, I read the whole manual and couldn't find it, and nothing worked in game. So I just Googled it and found out you have to HOLD the "activate" button! Man, yet another detail they left unclear. I even read a review where the reviewer played for 60 hours so far and didn't know about hot-key slots. I admit, it was a bit hard to figure them out myself, as the manual is a little vague about them and you can only set the hotkeys from the favourites menu and not the actual inventory menu (which is a dumb limitation). But I'm glad to find out there is still the grabber because I like dumping out baskets and moving stuff and tossing bowls and things sometimes!

 

I've also noticed, so far, quite a lot of tips and information in the loading screen hints that aren't in the manual at all which I was very glad to learn each time. I guess they wanted to keep the manual as short as possible (it is pretty short), but I would have preferred it to be much longer and more inclusive of key info.

 

Anyway, those little things are the bad stuff which can be lived-with/learned/whatever. The main game is fully great.

 

Oh, and the reason I think the lockpicking is similar to TDS is because you have to set the one pick angle correctly and then turn the lock, sorta like you have to set the angle correctly in TDS then click the button (IIRC)

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C'mon, I heard a lot about the stealth on this game here in the forums, tell us how it work already! :) Is it really consistent? Or just the same-old "get close exploiting this simple mechanics and score a 2x damage hit" thing? Do people have suspicious levels like in TDM? Notice stolen goods and call the guard?

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C'mon, I heard a lot about the stealth on this game here in the forums, tell us how it work already! :) Is it really consistent? Or just the same-old "get close exploiting this simple mechanics and score a 2x damage hit" thing? Do people have suspicious levels like in TDM? Notice stolen goods and call the guard?

 

Me too. When I get the game tomorrow I'd like to play a weak, sneaky thiefy character but I'm not sure if it's better to play this as a warrior.

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They said it had 3 levels of detection but it's more like a creamy suspicious center. Either that or its actually a suspicion timer, the eye can be 3/4 or a sliver open, when it's a sliver it will slowly close and display "Hidden" when fully closed... anyway you can bow kill a guy with 2x bonus and maybe have time to get the guy next to him with these new mechanics, because killing one bandit does not mean the bandit next to him knows where you are. In terms of AI smarts, in caves I've noticed that you can kill a bandit, the other bandits will hear something and investigate, find the body and go all "AHHH how could this happen" and then when you go completely hidden they won't go to where you are, you do a slight unhide, hide again and they will comment "guess it was nothing." More testing is needed but it's safe to assume a master sneak will play around with NPCs like cattle.

 

As far as perks go I will probably max out the archery and sneak trees, anything else is up in the air. Basically there are 250+ perks, and you can get only about 70 max. So you might be able to max out 4.5 skill trees (18 skills). It's interesting to note that there seem to be more pure stealth skills this time around - lockpicking and pickpocket are now separate trees.

 

Archery perks are (1-5) x 20% more damage, press block while holding bow to zoom in (expends stamina), one I didn't even see - zooming in with a bow slows time by 25+% (2 levels), critical shot - small chance to get a critical bonus of some kind, recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies, arrows stagger opponents, draw bow 30% faster, move faster with drawn bow, 15% of paralyzing target for a few seconds.

 

Stealth perks are 5 levels of % harder to detect when sneaking (looks like 20-40%), 1-hand sneak attacks do 6x, bow sneak does 3x, dagger sneak does 15x (!), noise from armor reduced 50%, you won't trigger pressure plates, sprinting while sneaking does a silent forward roll (as opposed to default - no sprinting while sneaking), walking and running does not affect detection, and crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant opponents to search for a target. I hope that includes dragons.

 

Lockpicking: novice locks are much easier to pick, apprentice locks easier, pick locks without being noticed (seems a bit too easy), make a key out of the lock if it has one, adept easier to pick, find more gold in chests, +50% chance of finding "special treasure", expert locks easier to pick, picks starts close to lock opening position, lockpicks never break, master locks easier. The tree is shaped like a lockpick and I don't think you would want to waste perks on making it super easy, it already is pretty easy so far as I can tell.

 

Pickpocketing: 1-5 levels of pickpocket bonus (20-40%). It notes that item weight and value reduce odds. +25% to pickpocket sleeping, place poisons in enemies' pockets, extra pockets - carrying capacity increased by 100 woot, pickpocketing gold is 50% easier, pickpocketing keys almost always works, pickpocket equipped weapons, pickpocket equipped items (i'm assuming rings and necklaces, not plate mail).

 

Alchemy includes poison enhancements, speech has coercion and bribery, and if you're willing to commit 4 perks in Illusion you can get Quiet Casting which works with all spells.

Edited by jaxa
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These perks are a bit dissappointing as they sound.. Its mostly all just numberjuggling and making things unrealisticly easy..

I am curious how it'll turn out in-game..

 

Btw, As from what i've seen so far, this game, it looks really promising on sitting on the throne next to Morrowind.

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I played Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 3 times without realizing the existence of the hotkey menu (until a mod alerted me about it). I played Oblivion for ages without accessing its hotkey menu until I did google search on it when I got annoyed with the lack of weapon cycle buttons. Now the grab button is playing hide and seek :D

I seriously need to know about Skyrim's details.

Edited by TheUnbeholden
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MY VERY BRIEF REVIEW.

 

it's as cool as I expected it to be, some bugs for sure:

 

1:giant kills you and sends you into orbit lietrally thousands of feet in to air, lol.

 

2: The Elk has Moose antlers.

 

3:I only CTD'ed once in about 5 hours, just now.

 

4:when alt-shifting to chat with friends in steam toggles the caps lock. so you either shout at your friends (see my first line^) and you walk really slow when you go back in game and everyone has been like WTF is going on???

--------------

 

I like the lockpicking a lot. Other than the mini game i really get a tdm feel from it. You have to finnese it just right. Better than Oblivions mini game tumblers. You just see the picks and the outside of lock turning, really classy/realistic. Force it and you snap the pick.

 

Crafting is cool, you step up to table/forge/workbench and have choices of things to craft and items you have stuff for are white, others are greyed out. You can upgrade, craft, tan leather, smelt ore... But if you find ore in the back country hope you brought a pick along, lol. You can chop wood, etc...

 

Inventory is a bit odd, it's not the panel screen like morrowind, its a scroll list. There's a hot key for 'favorites' for quick picking weapons, spells potions. pretty cool once you get used to it.

 

I was at lvl 4 before I realized I could lvl up. There are messages but i missed them.

 

First dragon was easy, but I had 4-5 other archers with me.

 

The shout is cool, I got the first one and can 'blow' people back with z, then hit them with weap/magic. You can duel wield weapons/magic/shield. left mouse is left hand, right is right hand. left hand can hold your bow out, right draws the arrow. Or just right click to draw/fire.(takes longer to get arrow off).

 

use console and type

SetCameraFov 90, much better.

 

sneaking is much like oblivion.

 

well, back to it.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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after watching the video on psu.com I've noticed that there are two different starts when going through the keep, although whoever did the video missed a lot of loot in the keep. and when I got to the village after the keep it was already going dark, and the console version its still light.

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after watching the video on psu.com I've noticed that there are two different starts when going through the keep, although whoever did the video missed a lot of loot in the keep. and when I got to the village after the keep it was already going dark, and the console version its still light.

 

Is that to do with game choices or is the console version different from the PC?

 

Three hours to go for me. hehe.

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