The Campaign Builder's Guild

Heavy Armor users get screwed most by the removal of Attributes and Athletics. For the most part, I don't give a damn about my Stamina. When you start out using Heavy Armor, though, your armor alone is almost half of what you can carry. It also seems to get a lot more expensive than light armor.

So, I have a decidedly non-gaming PC. This game runs better on my computer than I expected. Even with low graphics settings, it's very pretty. I want to see if I can increase the rendering distances without taking too much of a performance hit. (While fighting some bandits at range, one kept disappearing and reappearing as he'd move away from me and back towards me, crossing the distance threshold apparently.) I feel like I'm spending a pretty long time at loading screens, and that certain UI elements take longer than they need to (the pop-up progress bar and accompanying text when you increase a skill or when you level up, for instance), and I don't know whether this is universal or just my PC. I also wish I could trade the 3D map for a less clunky 2D map. I really like how much of the UI is invisible when it's not needed, so you just get uninterrupted vistas of awesome mountains.

Also, is it just me, or are all the menus engaged in a fiercely competitive "which menu can be the shittiest menu design/layout" competition? I will say I like the whole idea of the Favorites menu; that one's cool. Climbing up into some kind of metaphysical astronomical observatory just to spend my skill points is a little ridiculous, though. Would it be too much to ask to see all my skill values at the same time, or to browse perk effects with a simple mouseover, without having to zoom and twirl through the cosmos (and put all the other perk candidates outside my field of view)?

Enough bitching. This game is still fun.

Character models are engaging, feel complex and interesting. As soon as I started setting up my character's looks (a lean, middle-aged Redguard, going grey, skin roughened and scarred from a life of... what, precisely?), I started wondering what his deal was. What deeds had those hands done? What sorrows had those eyes seen? I'm still working out the details of this guy's past. He is the coolest guy, I'm telling you.

I've noticed it's interesting the way the world reacts to you. It's harder for me to play this like a game, you know? After the initial scene, I made my way to a village where a local blacksmith offered me shelter and whatever I needed from his supplies, and on the list was a magic ring. It looks useful; it even gleams! But I'm thinking, this guy doesn't even know me, and he's opening his house to me and offering up all his magic gear to a stranger, it's probably the most valuable thing he has-- no way I am asking for that. I just can't. It's too much.

Later I bought a cheap little "globe of light follows you around" spell, because I thought it would be an easy way to build up one of my magic skills. (Apparently that is not really the case?) The first time I cast it in town, a guard was all "whoa there, buddy, watch it with the magic!" which I guess is understandable; he had no way to know I wasn't going to burn the town to the ground, I guess. But once the spell was cast, kids followed me around because they wanted to look at the pretty lights. That sort of thing is way better than easy magic skillups anyway.

I really like how alchemy is all based on trial and error now, and high skill doesn't give you intuitive knowledge of ingredients' qualities. It makes me want to find an actual in-game library and learn new recipes by reading actual in-game books.

wow, that sounds like a pretty amazing level of immersion LC :D
Love the detail with the kids following you around.
Heh, your redguard sounds awfully close to one of the mental characters I was playing around with in my head in lieu of playing the actual game. Does he by any chance have a beard? (note: beards are great)

EDIT: pondering the nature of in-game beards. I think a good Turing Test equivalent for game realism would be to consider a game realistic when you character had to shave in-game. Do you think more people would play females to get out of the chore if that was the case? Hmm. (random B-philosophy)

He's got a little salt-and-pepper stubble thing going on. (I'll probably make a Nord character later, so I can really rock the Magnificent Soup-Strainer look.) I'm doing that thing where I'm trying to go without a helmet as much as possible, so as not to cover up the character model.

I'm doing a bunch of minor sidequests, rather than getting on with the main event. That may change, though, because I imagine that pretty soon I'm going to get tired of getting the crap kicked out of me by this one bandit chieftain. The upside: I'm getting to hear a lot of amusing banter from him and his cronies; I just wonder how long it'll take before it inevitably repeats enough to get old and stale. The voice acting in general, though, is pretty impressive. And the various NPCs are doing a much better job at feeling like distinct individuals than in Oblivion or Morrowind. (There's one asshole mage [you know the one] who's going to eat his words I swear it; there's one Redguard blacksmith who I'm going to help make the most famous blacksmith in Skyrim, listen, I don't even care if there's not a quest for that, where doin it man, where making this hapen)

Quote from: Ninja D!
Heavy Armor users get screwed most by the removal of Attributes and Athletics. For the most part, I don't give a damn about my Stamina. When you start out using Heavy Armor, though, your armor alone is almost half of what you can carry. It also seems to get a lot more expensive than light armor.

Stamina also increases Carrying Capacity. :)

Quote from: Elemental_Elf

Quote from: Ninja D!
Heavy Armor users get screwed most by the removal of Attributes and Athletics. For the most part, I don't give a damn about my Stamina. When you start out using Heavy Armor, though, your armor alone is almost half of what you can carry. It also seems to get a lot more expensive than light armor.

Stamina also increases Carrying Capacity. :)

I know. What I was saying is that is the only reason for me to increase stamina.

I don't know how they are on PC yet but the menus are supposed to be designed for consoles and they're nothing but a pain in my ass on there.

What I was alluding to is that Stamina replicates an increase in strength and a boost in Athletics. If you wear heavy armor, you should increase Stamina, that way you can keep carrying the increasingly heavy items and have the inner strength to hustle longer and power attack more often.  :)

As for menus, I like Skyrim's set up waaaaay more than Oblivion's.

Quote from: Luminous Crayon
Later I bought a cheap little "globe of light follows you around" spell, because I thought it would be an easy way to build up one of my magic skills. (Apparently that is not really the case?) The first time I cast it in town, a guard was all "whoa there, buddy, watch it with the magic!" which I guess is understandable; he had no way to know I wasn't going to burn the town to the ground, I guess. But once the spell was cast, kids followed me around because they wanted to look at the pretty lights. That sort of thing is way better than easy magic skillups anyway.

I remember being in Riften because I found a strange jewel and decided to have it appraised and as I entered the town a dragon attacks. People are running and screaming, guards are mobilizing, I run up to the dragon and unleash lightning and hellfire on it as it lands. At one point in the fight I used FUS ROH DAH right as it was about to breath fire, knocking its head back and interrupting the shout. After an epic battle with it snapping at me with 7 inch long fangs and me running 20,000 volts through its body it finally collapses and I absorb the dragon soul...

It's at this point that I notice everything has gone deathly quiet so I turn around to see a crowd of 10 townsfolk and several guards just standing there in awe. As I stroll past them one comments in amazement that I absorbed its soul and another asks if the dragonborn has really returned. Right as I passed the last guy he thanked me for saving them. Now that was some awesome immersion.

You know what really got me? I was in Whitehelm and I had too much junk in my inventory, so I dropped a mace on the ground, figuring I'd come back for it later (after I free up some room). Well, a guard saunters up to me and informs me that I shouldn't leave weapons on the ground because someone could get hurt. I tell him I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I turn around to pick the mace up and it was gone! My only explanation is the guard confiscated it. Pretty cool!

I was out for a stroll one evening, on my way to collect a sword from some bandit in the middle of nowhere. I noticed a lone traveler on the road and said to myself, "Gee, that traveler really shouldn't be out here in the middle of the night. They could get ambushed by a large predatory cat; a gang of bandits; or, Talos forbid, a Dragon! I shall offer them assistance!" So I waltz my happy ass over there and discover that the traveler is a Kajhit. Upon my approach, he promptly addresses me and asks if I would like to purchase some Skooma.

"Skooma?" I think, "That's quite an illicit substance! I'm sure this traveler is unaware of the illegal nature of his wares. I'll just ask him if he knows that his goods are not looked too highly upon by the local constabulary."

He knew. My God did he know. He immediately dropped all pretense of a buyer/seller relationship and begins to punch me in the face! I responded in VIOLENCE!!! As I am wont to do when greeted with violence. I notice that after his first barrage of swings I'm at less than half health and I begin to flee from this experienced brawler, only to catch a right hook to the jaw and drop like a stone. Dead.

What did I learn from this lesson? There is always something that can kill you that doesn't necessarily LOOK like it can kill you. Which leads me to the point that I love about Skyrim: You can always be killed by something or someone if you're not careful about what you say, or how you approach an enemy. It keeps you on your toes and makes sure the tension doesn't ebb out of gameplay.

And that's awesome.

It sounds like you met Charlie Kajiit :P

Quote from: Elemental_Elf
It sounds like you met Charlie Kajiit :P

I've got Khajit's Blood

[ooc]
A personal question:
When I get home should I get Mass Effect 2 at a discount rate or splurge on Skyrim?
I am way behind gameswise.
[/ooc]

Quote from: Superfluous Crow
[ooc]
A personal question:
When I get home should I get Mass Effect 2 at a discount rate or splurge on Skyrim?
I am way behind gameswise.
[/ooc]

Skyrim. ME2 is pretty dang good but Skyrim is far better.

But from a financial point of view buying ME2 makes more sense right? Also, let us assume that I want to start playing both games as fast as possible: if I start with Skyrim I won't get to play ME2 in this lifetime!
There are many factors :D

Oh, add Deus Ex 3 to the list too by the way. As I said, I am way behind.