Elder Scrolls V - Part 4

[ProjectPat2280]

Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants.

Haha no argument there, just thought it was an odd thing to post.

 

[StrainedEyes]

The question is, what thread did he think he was posting in?

 

[Spidey-Bat]

Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants.

Are you sure it's the heart? It could be...

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Lol.

 

[Speedball]

Haha no argument there, just thought it was an odd thing to post.

Same. I mean... I guess there could be a redguard woman decked out in Skyrim gear, so his request isn't impossible.

 

[James]

Gettin' pretty darn good at the ol' archery if I do say so myself. Really enjoying it too.

I hope they put cinematic shots in for ranged kills. I like seeing where the arrow hit when I examine the corpse, but it'd also be great to see it happen up close.

One particularly tough guy came at me, got pretty close, but I was quick enough to put four arrows in him in a very short space of time, the bugger went down like a ton of bricks.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

You mean like the VATS cinematic shots? That would be awesome.

 

[James]

You mean like the VATS cinematic shots? That would be awesome.

Yeah, like they already do with swords, maces, etc sometimes. I really like the feature, but it's sad that you have to watch your awesome skill shot from a mile away. I think it has something to do with critical damage, and they'd be the option to turn it on or off, I assume.

The actual VATS itself would be too easy, it got a little silly in FO3 and NV. Once the player had enough Action Points you never stood a chance of getting hurt if you employed VATS.

 

[Darkb0rn]

Yeah, like they already do with swords, maces, etc sometimes. I really like the feature, but it's sad that you have to watch your awesome skill shot from a mile away. I think it has something to do with critical damage, and they'd be the option to turn it on or off, I assume.

The actual VATS itself would be too easy, it got a little silly in FO3 and NV. Once the player had enough Action Points you never stood a chance of getting hurt if you employed VATS.

I was thinking about this too, I love the watching the critical hits with my blades. I could finally see one of the dumbass guards take an arrow in the knee up close...t:

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, like they already do with swords, maces, etc sometimes. I really like the feature, but it's sad that you have to watch your awesome skill shot from a mile away. I think it has something to do with critical damage, and they'd be the option to turn it on or off, I assume.

The actual VATS itself would be too easy, it got a little silly in FO3 and NV. Once the player had enough Action Points you never stood a chance of getting hurt if you employed VATS.

Oh yeah, I forgot they do it with other weapons. My character's a mage so I haven't actually held a weapon in like 30 levels.

 

[James]

Oh yeah, I forgot they do it with other weapons. My character's a mage so I haven't actually held a weapon in like 30 levels.

I think it's really great that different weapons have different animations for kills. I was even surprised to find a wielding a single sword (which I do accidentally from time to time) has a separate set of animations from wielding two at once.

I have no idea if there are different ones for say, a mace in one hand and a sword in the other?

The other thing I'm curious about is, do you get more kill animations as you get higher levels? I recently noticed a couple of new animations for duel wielding swords that I hadn't seen before, this happened right around the time my one-handed skill reached 90. Doesn't seem like a coincidence?

 

[Matt]

I've officially beaten every part of the main quest (aside from Kill Paarthanux, I refuse to do it), the civil war, the College of Winterhold, the Companions, the Thieves Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood. I think it is time for me to put this away for awhile, replay Mass Effect 2 and then hopefully by the time that I finish ME3, I will either be eager to revisit or have some DLC on the horizon.

Closing thoughts:

The main quest is pretty damn good. Definitely a step up from Oblivion. The rest....not so much. Oblivion had better guild quests, IMO. MUCH better guild quests. My biggest disappointment this time around was the Thieves Guild. There was no major heist. Heck, there isn't even much thieving. It is mostly just dungeon diving. The civil war was kind of a joke too. It was basically, "attack fort, kill a bunch of troops, repeat."

Honestly, when all is said and done....I prefer Oblivion. Skyrim had a lot of nice tweaks, better graphics and a more diverse map....but Oblivion's diversity of missions put it ahead for me.

 

[James]

I've officially beaten every part of the main quest (aside from Kill Paarthanux, I refuse to do it),

There's really no benefit at all to killing him, The Blades don't give you any new quests, only random 'dragon hunting'. You can't add any more followers to their ranks until you kill him, but if you've already added three then it's a moot point. So...I can't hunt dragons for them? I can hunt dragons just fine on my lonesome, jerks

My biggest disappointment this time around was the Thieves Guild. There was no major heist. Heck, there isn't even much thieving. It is mostly just dungeon diving. The civil war was kind of a joke too. It was basically, "attack fort, kill a bunch of troops, repeat."

Someone pointed out a while ago that, other than the Companions, it seemed other guilds were all in a state of disarray. The Brotherhood have seen better days, the Thieves guild are kind of all over the place...then you take over and...they're still pretty much useless.

I was pretty disappointed by the Civil War too, it had great potential. I enjoyed it, the battles were a lot of fun, but it was pretty short. I kind of ripped through it and it didn't seem like a very hard fought win. I'd have liked a bit more back and forth, the Stormcloaks maybe having some victories, making some sly moves, but they just get crushed. I'm hoping for a bit more of a proper war when the Dominion make their move.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Dark Brotherhood quest line in Skyrim puts literally every guild quest line in Oblivion to shame. I kind of want to start up a new character just to play through the Dark Brotherhood stuff again, to be honest.

The rest, yeah, they weren't all that great. My second-favorite is probably the College of Winterhold stuff, since that has overtones of the larger humans/elves conflict in it. The Companions and the Thieves Guild lines both felt like awkward excuses for the devs to do other things. The Companions line is essentially a [blackout]werewolf[/blackout] quest line instead of a Fighters Guild-esque quest line, and the Thieves Guild line does indeed have too much dungeon diving and betrayal and mysticism for my liking. There's no reason those things couldn't have been split off into their own optional quest lines so that fans of thievery and fighting could've had their usual fun in this installment of TES.

The Civil War quest line just sucks. Straight up terrible, repetitive, and frankly quite boring for the major political event of the game and the region and, quite possibly, the whole era the game takes place in.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

The main quest is pretty damn good. Definitely a step up from Oblivion. The rest....not so much. Oblivion had better guild quests, IMO. MUCH better guild quests. My biggest disappointment this time around was the Thieves Guild. There was no major heist. Heck, there isn't even much thieving. It is mostly just dungeon diving. The civil war was kind of a joke too. It was basically, "attack fort, kill a bunch of troops, repeat."

Honestly, when all is said and done....I prefer Oblivion. Skyrim had a lot of nice tweaks, better graphics and a more diverse map....but Oblivion's diversity of missions put it ahead for me.

I honestly think that with the guild quests, it had to do with a lot of the guilds being much weaker overall than Oblivion, but I agree with Civil War. There could have been a lot more there, like Espionage and going deeper into the Thalmor conspiracy.

 

[James]

I do like that there are still Stormcloaks kicking around after the war is over, still rebelling in small pockets. I like that they continue to try and take back Riften...although trying to take an entire city by sending one soldier each time could not be a worse tactic.

 

[Matt]

There's really no benefit at all to killing him, The Blades don't give you any new quests, only random 'dragon hunting'. You can't add any more followers to their ranks until you kill him, but if you've already added three then it's a moot point. So...I can't hunt dragons for them? I can hunt dragons just fine on my lonesome, jerks

I completed the recruiting before the peace conference (which is when Delphine ordered me to kill him) so yeah, with recruiting done, I didn't care about having some friends to go dragon hunting with.

I was pretty disappointed by the Civil War too, it had great potential. I enjoyed it, the battles were a lot of fun, but it was pretty short. I kind of ripped through it and it didn't seem like a very hard fought win. I'd have liked a bit more back and forth, the Stormcloaks maybe having some victories, making some sly moves, but they just get crushed. I'm hoping for a bit more of a proper war when the Dominion make their move.

Exactly! This was the worst civil war ever. The Stormcloaks did nothing. We could take their cities, invade their fortresses and Ulfric wouldn't do a thing about it.

The Dark Brotherhood quest line in Skyrim puts literally every guild quest line in Oblivion to shame. I kind of want to start up a new character just to play through the Dark Brotherhood stuff again, to be honest.

The rest, yeah, they weren't all that great. My second-favorite is probably the College of Winterhold stuff, since that has overtones of the larger humans/elves conflict in it. The Companions and the Thieves Guild lines both felt like awkward excuses for the devs to do other things. The Companions line is essentially a [blackout]werewolf[/blackout] quest line instead of a Fighters Guild-esque quest line, and the Thieves Guild line does indeed have too much dungeon diving and betrayal and mysticism for my liking. There's no reason those things couldn't have been split off into their own optional quest lines so that fans of thievery and fighting could've had their usual fun in this installment of TES.

The Civil War quest line just sucks. Straight up terrible, repetitive, and frankly quite boring for the major political event of the game and the region and, quite possibly, the whole era the game takes place in.

Really? I thought the Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion were so much better. There weren't any creative assassinations this time around, like dropping a chandelier on someone or sniping them with a poison arrow from a roof top (like that retired Imperial Guard in Oblivion). There was one big quest, killing [blackout]The Emperor[/blackout] and the rest was just dungeon diving and a few radiant quests thrown in our way between dungeons.

I honestly think that with the guild quests, it had to do with a lot of the guilds being much weaker overall than Oblivion, but I agree with Civil War. There could have been a lot more there, like Espionage and going deeper into the Thalmor conspiracy.

Even if the guilds were weaker, there wasn't any real meat on their bones. Rebuilding them should have been a fun and exciting experience. Why was that High Elf trying to take over the Eye of Magnus. It is implied that he is a Thalmor but we never really get any information. What was the deal with the Silverhands and Companions rivalry? How did completing Nightinggale quests help the thieves guild? It's like they threw together a vague story and gave us just that rather than fleshing it out.

 

[The Squirrel]

The Silverhands were werewolf hunters. That's the essence of their "rivalry".

 

[Matt]

The Silverhands were werewolf hunters. That's the essence of their "rivalry".

Yeah, I got that. But having a little more...meat on the bones of the story, I suppose would have been nice. It's like, "There's these guys that hate us, so watch out for that." Then I come back to the headquarters and they've killed [blackout]Koldak[/blackout]. So we go and kill them, then dive in another dungeon and the quest is over. There is no build up, no real conflict, it almost feels tacked on in order to give us consistent fodder to fight while dungeon diving.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I think this generation of Elder Scrolls games, they focusing more on improving combat than quests, which was a stark difference from Oblivion, where quest variety vastly improved over Morrowind (while Combat also did improve, it did leave quite a bit to be desired).

 

[Matt]

Yeah, I suppose so. I really hope an expansion adds a bit more variety to sidequests.

 

[Matt]

Yeah, I suppose so. I really hope an expansion adds a bit more variety to sidequests.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Well, the expansions are supposed to be pretty massive, so I don't think you'll have to worry.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Really? I thought the Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion were so much better. There weren't any creative assassinations this time around, like dropping a chandelier on someone or sniping them with a poison arrow from a roof top (like that retired Imperial Guard in Oblivion). There was one big quest, killing [blackout]The Emperor[/blackout] and the rest was just dungeon diving and a few radiant quests thrown in our way between dungeons.

There was the assassination of that one lady at her wedding. I dropped a statue on her.

But I was talking more about the quality of the narrative than the variety of quests. Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood is pretty much a gold standard for drama and intrigue in the Elder Scrolls universe, as far as I'm concerned. I got more emotionally invested in the DB than anything else in the game. I was actually personally enraged a bit when [blackout]the Penitus Oculatus murders most of my friends and burns the DB sanctuary down.[/blackout] Nothing else in the game got me that invested.

 

[Matt]

There was the assassination of that one lady at her wedding. I dropped a statue on her.

But I was talking more about the quality of the narrative than the variety of quests. Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood is pretty much a gold standard for drama and intrigue in the Elder Scrolls universe, as far as I'm concerned. I got more emotionally invested in the DB than anything else in the game. I was actually personally enraged a bit when [blackout]the Penitus Oculatus murders most of my friends and burns the DB sanctuary down.[/blackout] Nothing else in the game got me that invested.

Maybe that was my problem with it. I was never emotionally invested. I ***** footed around the Sanctuary, terrified of Babette's spider escaping and being right around a corner so I spent as little time as possible.