Skyrim

[Jimboxy]

I bought the PS3 version

[radiofloyd]

A talented modder called ApolloDown has restored cut content based on the civil war that was cut from Skyrim before release. The mod can be downloaded from the nexus.

I have painstakingly restored the civil war in the spirit of what Bethesda intended, before they decided to ship the game half-done. This feature restores battles for Morthal, Markarth, Falkreath, Fort Greymoor, Dawnstar, Riften, and Winterhold - and puts them all back in the game.

Skyrim's civil war is a much bigger animal than you could possibly imagine. The underlying framework of the civil war was designed to be a completely dynamic series of campaigns for holds, incorporating elements of strategy and diplomacy to bring your opponent down. In the planned version, it's my guess that the designers were going to create some kind of map menu for the player to decide which hold he wanted to hit next, and allow the enemy to counterattack as well. Regardless, each hold was to be won by doing up to TWELVE RADIANT QUESTS, as opposed to up to TWO in vanilla skyrim.

There were quest rewards, series of dialogue, and it was far more dynamic than any other kind of radiant quest in Skyrim. Dialogue was recorded, scenes were created, and scripts were set up. Somewhere along the line, likely in the last stages of development, the devs look like they ran out of time and could not complete the dynamic campaign. So what they did was hardcode the gears of this radiant masterpiece to ONLY allow a very limited set of quests that operated entirely linearly.

Just let that soak in for a sec. The civil war is nothing more than a facade.

Therefore, in order to restore the civil war, I have certain challenges that I must constantly fight off:

1) Rebuilding broken parts - Much of what is behind the civil war is epically huge and dynamic and prone to bugs. It has also NEVER been updated by Bethesda. That means I have the work of multiple patches ahead of me for every new function I use.

2)Building parts that weren't complete - Much of the coding and quests for unused material looks like one day the devs just got up, went out to get a pizza, and never came back. This is probably the easiest thing to fix, because I already know where they were headed, and am basically already there, with a few holes to fill in.

3)Building things that were referred to, but never built - This is pretty easy for me to do, as it gives me total creative license on how to use the assets that were left behind. Unfortunately, I need to get the basic framework solid first before I spend my time adding to its accouterments.

4)Tearing down the "vanilla civil war" - The vanilla civil war is a problem, because all it really is is the hardcoding of the dynamicism of the original design. To put it in car terms, Bethesda decided to only let the car go one way. A normal person would say, "Let's just use one of those U lock things to hold the steering wheel in place." However, Bethesda, wanting to make it absolutely error proof (I assume to keep the console kiddies happy), decided to BLOW TORCH THE AXLE TO THE FRAME AND TEAR OUT THE STEERING WHEEL. Then let a family of badgers nest in the hole left behind by said steering wheel, because badgers. This is the hardest thing to work against in making this mod, because while I can just flip a switch and turn on a quest, it usually breaks EVERYTHING when it runs up against the vanilla civil war.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=22576

http://youtu.be/64F54BgCcck

[radiofloyd]

It's time for another mod for Skyrim that needs attention and it's called Falskaar. The mod adds over 20+hrs to the game, and is made by a modder that wants a job at Bethesda.

It can be downloaded from Skyrim Nexus.

Falskaar is a new lands mod that adds an entirely new worldspace to the world. It's accessed by a dungeon the first time, then by boat from then on out. Falskaar's goal was to act as a DLC, adding content in almost every area. There is a new land, places, people, quests, dungeons and more for the player to experience. It adds roughly 20+ hours of content, and favors all types of characters.

Features

- An entirely new land independant of Tamriel, roughly the size of 2-3 Skyrim holds.

- 20-30+ hours of gameplay.

- 26 quests, including a 9 quest long main story, and 17 side quests! (Along with some unmarked content)

- New items including new books, recipes, weapons and armor sets. (A mix of brand new, and retextured)

- Two new spells and a new shout.

- A bard with several unique new songs.

- A soundtrack containing 14 brand new tracks composed by Adamm Khuevrr just for Falskaar, adding more than 40 minutes of new music!

- A fully voiced experience, featuring almost 30 semi-professional and professional voice actors and actresses.

Not all quests in this mod blatantly hold your hand. If you seem to be stuck, look around and think through the quest. All quests were rigorously tested for complete-ability, so it's more likely than not that you just have to figure it out without a blatant quest marker telling you what to do.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=22824

http://youtu.be/EeFT6qhja-0

[Sambob]

Ive not played skyrim in ages, might boot it up with all the cool mods.

[radiofloyd]

Ive not played skyrim in ages, might boot it up with all the cool mods.

Here's a good summary for you then:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/28/the-25-best-skyrim-mods-2/

[radiofloyd]

Ever since I insulted Skyrim in another thread, I've been feeling like playing it.

So I booted it up tonight and discovered somethings I didn't know before. Firstly that music and voice have separate sliders in the audio settings, now I can finally hear the music clearly without everything else causing a cacophony.

Also, I don't know how I didn't realise that the third person camera is great. Well it looks a bit janky in indoor environments but it's so much better for exploring the world than the narrow first person view.

Would you believe that my play time for the game is over 40 hours and I've only visited one city? I did spent a lot of time doing the quests in Solitude though. Which city should I visit next?

Tonight I tried to do a sidequest in Stony Creek Cave, but I ran into an enemy called a bandit marauder who decimated me in a couple of hits. I'm not sure if I've encountered this enemy before. I'm level 25, not sure what level I'm supposed to be fighting those. Now I'm doing a quest called The Wolf Queen Awakens in the catacombs in Solitude.

The funny thing is, my first battle when I booted the game was against a dragon. I warped to a farm outside Whiterun and got attacked by a dragon straight away. It must have been one I hadn't fought because I got a soul for it. I also got nerfed by a dragon in Stony Creek Cave which must have been a bug. I was running along in an underground cavern when suddenly the dragon music played and my character got destroyed by flames. I think they were coming through the roof...

[DANGERMAN]

yeah, around level 25 (I think) tougher enemies start appearing in the world. It also depends where you are too, in the centre of the map you should be ok, the edges can be tough though

I'm going to go back to this once I get my new card, see if I can get some of the fancier mods running and maybe even switch to a controller so I can play on my tv. I might even go back this week, I've kind of got the itch for it and don't have a huge amount left I feel obligated to play

[Sly Reflex]

For all the shit I gave it, it's the ideal Christmas game. I might get it on PC if it's in the steam sale for beans and see if it feels any better than the console versions.Maybe give myself some focus instead of chopping and changing between classes.

[Sambob]

This is a good christmas game, and Ive still not bothered with any of the mods yet either which im sure would actually make the game better. Despite saying that, I dont know if ive got enough of an inkling to go back to it.

[halfagogo]

my times with oblivion keep making me want top get this but all the talk is of pc mods this & pc mods that. if i loved oblivion on the 360 all them moons ago, will i be thrilled with this or just bitter i dont have a gaming pc?

[radiofloyd]

Completed the Wolf Queen Awakens quest which introduced me to another enemy, the Draugr Deathlord. Pretty powerful but they are susceptible to my Unrelenting Force shout which helps a lot... Level 26 now. The next story mission takes me quite close to Markath so I might make that my next port of call.

Skyrim has some minor problems that if they were fixed would make a big difference. I wish you could tell your companion to run forward without having to ask him to follow you again every time. Also it would be nice if you could lock your companions equipped weapons and armour. Mine pulls out a mysterious bow every 5 minutes...

[Sly Reflex]

I think companions select weapons based on what you're using and what you've given them to carry. If you go ranged they start running in and if you go running in they go ranged. That's how it seemed to work when I was roaming about with Lydia.

[radiofloyd]

I moved on to Morthal because it's the city nearest the next story mission. Did the Laid to Rest sidequest there which gave me the "Sideways" achievement for having completed 10 sidequests. Just gotta kill a dragon and it seems like I'm done with this place. The whole area is covered in snow, I'm not sure that's because I'm in the "Frostfall" season...probably.

A couple of points:

The AI is appallingly bad, worse than the Infinity Engine games. You should be allowed walk through your companion - I've lost count of the number of times my companion has stood in the exact spot that blocks me from moving forward, or the number of times I've jumped over him at some awkward angle in order to move forward. Half the time when you ask them to move somewhere they just stand still. I won't even mention their inability to keep up with you... None of this is game breaking or even a major negative - but really does it have to be this bad?

Also, some of the music on the soundtrack is incredible - but how come I only ever hear snatches of the best songs? I run into someone's cabin for a quick look and loot and suddenly the most gorgeous piece of music starts playing, then I exit to Skyrim and the song is replaced by the generic atmospherics. The inn music is pretty cool - but why does it cut off after about four notes?

[radiofloyd]

48 hours in and I've finished probably one of the earliest story missions, The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Pretty funny coming up against Draugr Deathlords in sidequests and then level one skellies in a story mission.

After I killed the dragon for the folks in Morthal I picked up a quest to kill a giant, not sure about that at my current level... The last giant I fought swatted me in one go. I have a lot of quests in the regions around Dawnstar, Winterhold and Windhelm so I guess I will be going to those places next.

Today was the first time I played the game connected to Xbox Live and I had to download a 25mb patch. Not sure what it's done but I have noticed tutorials are appearing for everything again.

[Sambob]

Just find a good bow or spell for the giants, goes without saying but do not let them close. Unless you want to get bounced to the moon of course.

[DANGERMAN]

I think ice magic slows them doesn't it?

[Sly Reflex]

How about you stop being a little bitch and learn to kite? You can punch them to death if you're good at kiting. Pretty much everything in the game is so stupid that you can exploit it by kiting it about.

[DANGERMAN]

looked that up and apparently kiting just means attacking from distance. Did this high level strategy really need a name or is it just to make twats more obvious?

[radiofloyd]

Haha. Well, it turns out level 28 is more than strong enough to take on a giant. They ain't much.

I think the patch I downloaded messed with my counter for "helping the people of Morthal". Before I downloaded it I was at 2/3. Since then I've killed a dragon and a giant and it hasn't gone up to 3/3. Oh well.

A couple more points:

Does the PC version have hotkeys for magic spells? Hotkeys would be nice.

Also, the game could do with an undo button for inventory management. Sometimes you just pick up shit you don't want.

I completed a quest for the Companions and now I'm going up to Winterhold to do the quests around there. Past the 50 hour mark now.

[Sly Reflex]

Specifically kiting isn't what you just said about attacking from a distance. It's about controlling what happens in an area to your benefit, whether you're using ranged or melee. You're use to pull something you want to tackle 1 on 1 and then maneuvering it so that you're hitting it for more damage than it's hitting you.

Being snarky about it being a high level strategy makes you sound really uniformed. Unless you happen to be really good at it, which I seriously doubt.

So I'm a twat? I'm in good company with you here then.