V The Elder Scrolls

[Gwardinen]

If you want to do a no fast-travel rule, buy a horse.

Or have a companion to treat like a pack mule.

Or make exception for the carts? (Morrowind style fast-travel!)

I've avoided buying a horse because I have a companion with me most of the time. Is there any way to get them mounted too? I already often lose mine for minutes at a time on tricky terrain so I don't want to make it even more likely that they'll wander off and get eaten by a grue.

[Sno]

Something's really been bugging me. The first corpse I looted in this game, gave me the best helmet I've seen the entire playthrough so far. I know loot distribution in a non-linear game can be a bit hard to manage, but why do so many RPGs ignore that certain pieces of gear have much more significance than others. The helmet is the most visible piece of gear, and other than weapons it's the most important loot.

Was it one of the game's unique pieces or artifacts? Probably unlikely that you'd stumble into one of those early on.

If it's just a normal heavy helm with particularly good stats, keep in mind that there are things the game doesn't surface. Heavy armor is dramatically noisier when trying to be stealthy, and heavy armor also impedes the effectiveness of your magic. (Ideally, if a mage, no armor is what you want. So robes and the like.)

Also, I guess i don't understand what connection you're drawing between the helm being highly visible and you not having found a better replacement for it. You just want more visual variety?

I mean, it's also not really a loot game, you tend to stick to gear for a long time, all of the TES games have been like that. In this, I stuck with some of the first armor i found for a quite a few hours. (I've been using my current cuirass for more than ten hours, actually.)

The game also still does some scaling as you level up, just not to the terribly unpopular extent of Oblivion where you had bandits running around in full sets of glass armor by level 20. Still, you definitely notice an upward trend in what shops are carrying and what loot you find. (Also seems it mixes it up a bit, throws some extra nice pieces your way every now and then.) So you will find something better, but it's slower to get there, which is probably a fine compromise between the way Oblivion did and the way Morrowind did it. (Which is to say, Morrowind didn't really scale very much at all. Tons of soft-gating and pre-defined loot in the world. It was more popular with series fans than Oblivion's approach, but it was also easy to completely wreck the game once you knew where stuff was.)

I've avoided buying a horse because I have a companion with me most of the time. Is there any way to get them mounted too? I already often lose mine for minutes at a time on tricky terrain so I don't want to make it even more likely that they'll wander off and get eaten by a grue.

I'm not actually sure, i haven't played with a companion at all.

[Orv]

(Which is to say, Morrowind didn't really scale very much at all. Tons of soft-gating and pre-defined loot in the world. It was more popular with series fans than Oblivion's approach, but it was also easy to completely wreck the game once you knew where stuff was.)

First trips in Morrowind: Balmora, West Guard Tower.

Sunken ship off the coast of. . .Sadrith Mora?

Vivec

Voila, enjoy wrecking the game for the first six-eight hours.

Anyway, I'd recommend running everywhere or preferably fast travel if you're big on companions. Anyone mechanically attached to you (a purchased/quest mount, companions, anyone voicing dialogue to you when you phase into an instance) will come with you when you shift anywhere that requires a loading screen. Otherwise your best bet is to run. They'll catch up with equine travel eventually, but you'll probably be dead by then if you're relying on companions for the heavy hitting.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I never noticed the guy in the Flight of the Phoenix remake doing the Carlton.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Orvidos

[F4T C4T]

I have a horse and a Housecarl (the wonderfully shallow Lydia) and until my most recent Dragon fight, a dog called Vigilance. They do/did a good job of keeping up with my mad horse (who stands perpendicular to any surface he stands on) but to be honest my preferred style of travel is by myself, sneaking through the landscape with bow in hand. It's slow but I'm just soaking in the atmosphere and landscape at the moment.

Maybe once I've been over the terrain a few too many times I'll start using the cart but for now I don't mind the inventory management. It makes me evaluate what's actually worthwhile for the character I'm playing. Being a lightly armoured, bow/knife wielding Khajiit who specialises in poisons, I don't have to worry about a collection of heavy weapons and armour dragging me down. I collect alchemical ingredients, pelts and valuables for the most part which allows me to explore several areas before having to offload. My biggest bane is special items (magical most likely) too good to pass up, or quest items.

It's funny, these weren't really rules I set out with but have just evolved as I've played and I'm enjoying sticking to them now. I've largely ignored quests apart from a few of the main ones and I think once you get dragged into the mindset of completing all those miscellaneous ones the fast travel becomes too great to ignore. I have been tempted.

For now, looking at a far away place on the map and preparing for the journey is still a massive part of my enjoyment. Like I said, I'll probably get to a point where that's not the case and then I'll use fast travel, but I'm about 40 hours in and I'm not tired of it just yet!

[Brannigan]

I only fast travel to places I've been to a million times, or when I just want to go somewhere with an enchanter table thingy to enchant a weapon. Otherwise I walk the wilderness. I only got a horse once and it got killed within 30 seconds of me buying it, that was pretty awesome.

[elmuerte]

My housecarl walked out on me because she waited for a long time in my house. I don't really care about companions.

I've only used fast travel once. But that was because it was getting late and I wanted to finish the quest. Walking back would have taken a really long time because it was from one side of the map to about 75% on the other side of the map. Other than that I didn't use any for of fast travel, I don't want to miss out of things. Maybe in the future I will use it more often to cut some boring corners that I already fully explored.

[Forbin]

I wouldn't worry about losing the companion on a horse. They sometimes get stuck on geometry, but generally keep up. If you do lose them, they should eventually warp to you, but failing that the next time you zone or fast travel they'll be right there with you. Also they seem invulnerable (one guy joining me for a quest wasn't, but he wasn't a proper companion either).

As for the helm, I was talking about visual variety yeah. As a warrior I don't care about sneak or magic effects. They gave me an amazing helm immediately, and I put it on my head. But if you're going to make a game with any loot whatsoever, I think it's insane to not focus on helms. Even if you're not making Diablo, you should put the variety where it matters. Chest pieces, boots and hands will never show up nearly as prominently as a helmet. Mine looks stupid, and I've seen no others with equivalent stats let alone better.

[subbes]

Your housecarl can die - Shammack managed to get Lydia killed by a bunch of thugs in a watery cave somewhere.

Somewhat relatedly: the metaphysics of morrowind

[Orv]

Companions die if you kill them. Otherwise they're tagged Essential and when "killed" just go down on one knee. The mobs then ignore them and go after you, they get up after an amount of time I've yet to determine. Just be careful, because if you hit them with any significant damage in this state, they die permanently.

[Brannigan]

Oh god, worst/best situation ever happened to me during a main quest mission.

It's the one where you have to sneak into a diplomat's manor, and you have your gear smuggled in beforehand. After I hand over my weapons, I go to meet Delphine at the stables...and a fucking frost dragon attacks. Armed with nothing but a shitty dagger that I have no skill in and a can do attitude... I use Storm Call and accrue a 1200g bounty in about 3 seconds from killing everyone ever, those who are alive that are trying to kill me at this point are a few guards, Delphine, a horse, and the dragon. Using the 5 D's of Dodgeball, I somehow survive all this and kill the dragon with a shitty dagger and my lvl 20 destruction skill fueled Flames spell. I'm pretty sure I said "you have to be fucking kidding me" like 15 times during this whole thing.

[elmuerte]

So I tried to assemble that dragon statue that came with the collectors edition of Skyrim... I failed.

It's simply impossible to get the dragon properly on that rock.

[Sno]

So I tried to assemble that dragon statue that came with the collectors edition of Skyrim... I failed.

It's simply impossible to get the dragon properly on that rock.

The fact that it just kind of sits there without any pegs showing you where exactly it is meant to attach makes it kind of tricky, but once it's in the exact right spot, everything fits together as it appears it should.

Though I suppose it's possible, even likely, that many of the statues were missassembled or damaged in transit. Perhaps it's worth looking at some press photos for reference, to ensure that you've at least tried to get it sitting right? (Though this will likely only serve to draw attention to how much less finely detailed the real thing is compared to the prototypes.)

While generally impressive, the quality seems a bit shit. Probably not one of the better collectibles i've gotten with a game, but that's the kind of eventuality you have to be prepared for when paying the dumb person tax. (It's also far from the shoddiest collectible i've seen, so i don't feel particularly spurned by it, but mine is at least sitting properly on its base.)

[elmuerte]

No, I'm pretty sure it's not going to fit as it should. I've inspected the dragon a bit more, and some parts have not been glued in the correct position. For example the right leg of the dragon is facing too much inwards.

[subbes]

Aw. Your dragon is differently-abled.

[Brannigan]

Aw. Your dragon is differently-abled.

So it needs some giant cumbersome leg braces ala Forrest Gump?

Also finished the main quest, archery 100 is pretty hilarious. But it was pretty great, running through again on a new character and aiming to do the stuff I completely passed over/didn't finish.

[elmuerte]

I went back to that cave that I couldn't clear a bunch of days ago. I figured I was now bad ass enough to clear it. Those creatures that kicked the shit out of me were now no longer a problem. But then I continued and I encounter some really powerful bugs that almost killed me. I continued and then I found

A huge metal door.

Booyah, I found Dwemer stuff, cogs and all. Of course that room also contained some enemies, a more powerful version of the creatures that killed me days ago, but also...

a Dwarven centurion. I don't know how powerful it was, because he couldn't reach me, but it took a long time to take it down.

. Oh, and I accidentally my horse from a cliff when going to that cave. So not I have to a new horse.

btw, how do you guys take down dragons? I usually hide behind stuff and fire a whole bunch of arrows at them until they die. I tried killing one with my axe, but it killed me faster than I could recover from.

[Cigol]

btw, how do you guys take down dragons? I usually hide behind stuff and fire a whole bunch of arrows at them until they die. I tried killing one with my axe, but it killed me faster than I could recover from.

I find fighting them tedious and usually ignore them but if they persist I tend to use my usual tactic of running towards the nearest mammoth farmer and letting them do it for me

[Brannigan]

I went back to that cave that I couldn't clear a bunch of days ago. I figured I was now bad ass enough to clear it. Those creatures that kicked the shit out of me were now no longer a problem. But then I continued and I encounter some really powerful bugs that almost killed me. I continued and then I found

A huge metal door.

Booyah, I found Dwemer stuff, cogs and all. Of course that room also contained some enemies, a more powerful version of the creatures that killed me days ago, but also...

a Dwarven centurion. I don't know how powerful it was, because he couldn't reach me, but it took a long time to take it down.

. Oh, and I accidentally my horse from a cliff when going to that cave. So not I have to a new horse.

btw, how do you guys take down dragons? I usually hide behind stuff and fire a whole bunch of arrows at them until they die. I tried killing one with my axe, but it killed me faster than I could recover from.

My first character was an archer, so yea i just ARROW'D it with some shouts thrown in. New character is going to be mainly melee. I actually enjoy the dragon fights, especially when they come at the worst times.

[Nappi]

I find fighting them tedious and usually ignore them but if they persist I tend to use my usual tactic of running towards the nearest mammoth farmer and letting them do it for me

I think I have to buy the game now.

[subbes]

Hey elmuerte, I think you either found

Blackreach, a plot dungeon, or Irkngthand, a dungeon that is associated with a Dark Brotherhood Thieves' Guild quest

.

[elmuerte]

Hey elmuerte, I think you either found

Blackreach, a plot dungeon, or Irkngthand, a dungeon that is associated with a Dark Brotherhood Thieves' Guild quest

.

I don't think so. It was just one of those caves that's a bit more special.

I'm starting to get a bit annoyed. I keep picking up quest items. Some of them are part of an active quest. But I also have quest items belonging to a quest I don't have on my list yet. This is really annoying because all they do is take up space in my inventory. I wish I could put these items inside a chest of my home :/ They should make quest items weightless.

[subbes]

Oh, right, I forgot just how giant this game is. Derp.

[Sno]

I'm starting to get a bit annoyed. I keep picking up quest items. Some of them are part of an active quest. But I also have quest items belonging to a quest I don't have on my list yet. This is really annoying because all they do is take up space in my inventory. I wish I could put these items inside a chest of my home :/ They should make quest items weightless.

Quest items don't actually take up space, even if they have a listed weight.

[Brannigan]

and sometimes they come in handy! like the shitty dagger i mentioned in the giant block of spoiler tag! That was a quest item and literally the only reason I had it.

[elmuerte]

Quest items don't actually take up space, even if they have a listed weight.

I'm pretty sure the listed weight does count towards my carry weight. Most quest items are not that heavy, except these blade shards which have a weight of 6 :/

Anyway. I just completed an awesome Dwemer quest. I visited an enormous Dwemer thingy, and it finished with quite a difficult boss fight. And when I finally came out (on a balcony) I was attacked by a dragon. ffs.