The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

By EL1TE
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Grand Master

mattmatik

Posted
Posted

You spell casters, are you finding as you get to the higher levels (50+) that spells are not scaling to the point where you get trashed in fights? I've been following a thread on another forum and that is the big claim. Having not yet tried a spell caster but planning to in my next play through, I'm curious if this is, indeed, a major deal?

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

I'm thinking one of the most amazing things about Skyrim is that any one of the guild/faction (companions, dark brotherhood, theives guild, mage college, bard guild) quests would make for an entire game by themselves. Just about every single one of those quest lines takes about 6 to 10 hours alone to finish, and each one has an interesting and unique story to it. And every time I play the game I might knock 1 or 2 quests off my list but manage to add 3 or 4 in return and that's not even taking into account the nearly 2 dozen and growing objectives in the miscelaeus quest.

That either says a lot about how much stuff there is to do in Skyrim or how bad other single player games are these days.

And for the record, I never finished Oblivion, in fact I never made it more than 10 hours in that game. It was just blande, I spent more time modding it than I did playing it, and even then it wasn't all that interesting.

Mentor

arrrgh

Posted
Posted

You spell casters, are you finding as you get to the higher levels (50+) that spells are not scaling to the point where you get trashed in fights? I've been following a thread on another forum and that is the big claim. Having not yet tried a spell caster but planning to in my next play through, I'm curious if this is, indeed, a major deal?

Yeah, there is no scaling for magic damage in the game. While fireball is awesome at early levels you soon run into critters that eat 10 dual-cast fireballs for breakfast. Warriors have much easier time because they can pile massive amount of damage bonuses in addition to gaining more damage from leveling the respective weapon skills (leveling destruction has no effect on spell damage). This only really applies to destruction though, the other schools are pretty crazy powerful (like permanents summons or damage reduction spells from alteration).

Apprentice

Telly

Posted
Posted

I'm playing an archer / spell caster type character. I haven't really explored that much but I'm currently on the quest to kill the head vampire. The problem is he runs at me, I get 1-2 shots off before switching to my "hands"... then I'm dead in 2 of his hits while he still has 90% of his health remaining.

Not sure what to do about this, think I'll have to finish the quest some other time once I've leveled up :crazy:

Grand Master

Ironman273

Posted
Posted

I think that's one of the coolest things about the game. The whole world doesn't level to match you. There will be times you need to turn tail and run only to come back and revisit the quest when you're stronger.

Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

I'm finding the stealth kills to be harder and harder as the game goes on, I have 3 of the 5 points in the stealth increasing, and it doesn't seem like I have a problem sneaking around, but generally speaking, hit detection for stealth hits blows.

I will start a power attack from behind, and when the attack is halfway through (weapon in the air), I'll go from fully hidden to Detected for no reason at all, and it will hit for normal (crappy) damage. Other times, I will be hidden (or "spotted", not fully detected, they will be in search mode), and I will attack from behind, and not get the sneak attack bonus damage, while other times, in the same situation, I will get the sneak attack damage.

Then there's the whole companion issue while sneaking, enemies will spot the companion, attack them, I will come up behind the enemy and slash 4-5 times, not getting ANY bonus sneak damage, and by then they I go from hidden to detected, and lose all chance of doing sneak damage. Beyond that, companions constantly get in the way and constantly alert enemies (because their sneak doesn't compare to mine, so enemies always hear them). Plus when I am sneaking, before I attack, companions refuse to attack enemies even after the enemy attacks them. I am okay with them drawing the attention of an enemy, but don't keep following me around bringing the enemy closer to me when I'm trying to help you by backstabbing him. Stand and fight, so I can help you out.

Also, enemies seem to have really weird scaling, I can go into a dungeon and sneak attack a sleeping draugr for 15x multiplier with a basic slash. Then I'll walk up to a normal human NPC in the same dungeon, sneak attack with a power attack for 15x multiplier, and it takes that plus 4-5 normal attacks (with my dagger) to kill them. I've even gotten a couple 30x multiplier hits on the same human npcs, and not killed them. I understand armor has something to do with it, but when you put 3 guys armored this much in the same room, a sneak attack on one of them alerts all the others and doesn't even kill him.

They need to rebalance sneak attacks IMHO, give it some more armor penetration at the higher levels or something, 15-30x multipliers are great, but when you weapon damage is low and the enemies have too much armor, it makes it very, very difficult for a thief to do anything, especially when they decide to leave their companions at home due to the issues mentioned above.

EDIT: Bow sneak attacks on the other hand are hardly worth mentioning, maybe I Just have a weak bow, but a 3x multiplier on a 25 damage weapon just doesn't even compare to sneak attacks with a sword (22 x 6), sure, they have range, but most of the enemies I'm fighting take a sneak attack arrow and it does less than 20% damage, unless I wait for them to stop looking for me I can only get 2-3 sneak attack shots off and they still have more than half health.

Grand Master

Shadrack

Posted
Posted

I think that's one of the coolest things about the game. The whole world doesn't level to match you. There will be times you need to turn tail and run only to come back and revisit the quest when you're stronger.

I was under the impression that the whole world does level to match you...

Grand Master

shakey

Posted
Posted

I believe it does level up with you, but how hard a npc is to fight will be determined by your level of skill in what you use. By lvl 20, you should be nearing 50+ in some fighting skill, if not, you are going to have trouble.

Also, magic scales well, but it just takes a bit longer to get up. Most who are having trouble with magic either aren't high enough level in the tree, or aren't using higher level spells. But using the right spells together can kill people quickly, like blizzard+snowstorm+firestorm is deadly.

Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
Posted

Lol I never knew you could marry people in Skyrim. After you're married, can you still go out and do quests, or do you have to help around the house all day? :p

lol, fortunately no, all marriage does is give you an NPC to sit at your house. She will cook 1 meal a day which when eaten will give you a temporary buff. You can also sleep in the same bed as your spouse and gain a buff that increases skill gain by (I think) 15% for 8 hours. Your spouse can also accompany you like a regular companion.....but, like all other companions, if they die they is gone for good, and even if they die, you cannot re-marry.

I was under the impression that the whole world does level to match you...

They do, but like the fallout games areas have a minimum and maximum level. So if you wander into a higher level area while you are a low level, you will get stomped by the enemies there, however, if you visit another area at a high level, they might be low level enemies that can't hurt you and die in 1 hit. They do level, but there is a cap on many of the enemies, so if you go back to "weaker" areas, it will actually feel like you got stronger (as opposed to having as much difficulty with a wolf as you did at level 1).

As for the stealth route, it seems to be working out better for me overall.....I decided to leave my companion at my house, and go it alone, and I seemed to do significantly better this time around, killing 80% of the enemies before they saw me, and the ones that did see me, did so because the NPC that was following me for the quest, alerted them to our presence. But then, because I had just gone far enough in the champion quest line, I was able to take out the ones who spotted me really easy (it was only really 1 room that had more than 1 enemy that I had to take on). Also plan on getting that dagger that can 1-hit things in straight combat (low chance, and low charges, but w/e), will probably use it as a weapon switch specifically for the one hit, since it does the same base as my normal dagger, but with a chance to 1-hit (which is needed more when stealth doesn't work).

Grand Master

shakey

Posted
Posted

How to you learn new magic skills? I'm level 9 and still have only the fire ball one that is default.

I got stuck in a waterfall this morning. Thankfully, I quick saved five minutes eariler.

Mostly either finding them or going to the mage college and buying them.

I got stuck on a house where the fence and wall merge.... I guess it's what I get for acting like Ace Venture while singing the Mission Impossible theme song.... The game does not like my humor.

Mentor

burnsflipper

Posted
Posted

lol, fortunately no, all marriage does is give you an NPC to sit at your house. She will cook 1 meal a day which when eaten will give you a temporary buff. You can also sleep in the same bed as your spouse and gain a buff that increases skill gain by (I think) 15% for 8 hours. Your spouse can also accompany you like a regular companion.....but, like all other companions, if they die they is gone for good, and even if they die, you cannot re-marry.

Mods will add the rest :shiftyninja:

Grand Master

Matrix XII

Posted
Posted

I haven't posted in this thread yet because Skyrim is overtaking my free time. :p

There's just never enough time to play this game... No matter how many hours you play its never enough!

PS > Smashing Pumpkin I love your sig+avy, that movie is one of my favs!

Grand Master

Hardcore Til I Die

Posted
Posted

This game is truly MASSIVE, and I love it.. there's not many games where you can play for hours and hours without even touching the main quest. I did a bit of the main quest yesterday but have spent about 6-7 hours on it since without doing any of the main quest.

Example of a little thing that turns into a huge quest:

* mini spoiler alert *

*speaks to random guy*

Miscallaneous quest: kill spider.

*trawls through dungeon and kills spider*

New quest: tell random guy that you killed the spider

*finds journal on dead body on the floor next to the spider*

New quest: find x, y and z's journals

*finds all three journals by trawling through a massive dungeon*

New quest: activate ancient dwemer defences

*trawls through dungeon and activates ancient defences*

New quest: find somebody who knows about the escavation

*finds someone who knows about the escavation nearby*

Reward: 1,000 gold.

That's how a tiny little thing turns into an hour long quest in the elder scrolls, and that's like one of hundreds of similar quests.

This game is amazing and I'll eat my own face if it doesn't get game of the year :p

Community Regular

Holey

Posted
Posted

Skyrim should definitely trump BF3 for GOTY, no doubt.

It is simply amazing, i cannot get enough of it!

Does anybody know how to recharge magic weapons? especially on a regular basis? I have the Nightingale bow, and its out of charge and feels quite a lot less cool now :(

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