After 170 hours playing the PC version of Skyrim, my thoughts.

[cornbreadtm]

My first play through was a male khajiit. My immersion was destroyed within an hour of play. Ysolda man, Ysolda.

 

Why even state that Khajiit weren't allowed in the city? or even make it part of the game, If they weren't going to put in the effort. They could at least have you walk the streets with a guard escort to insure you don't steal anything or sell Skooma.

 

Why can I shop with skooma in my bag!!!

[Guest Plastrader]

Why even state that Khajiit weren't allowed in the city? or even make it part of the game, If they weren't going to put in the effort. They could at least have you walk the streets with a guard escort to insure you don't steal anything or sell Skooma.

That was kind of an dissapointment for me too.

Playing as a Kajiit one would have liked to see the trade caravan Khajiits recognise you as their kin, but no...

 

But as mentioned previously, that was not a concern for Bethesda...

 

I don't know if any of the DLC's ties down the lose ends of this game.

TBH I don't really care as I won't be bothered buying anything with the Zenimax or Bethesda logo on...

But yes, Skyrim in its original state feels very "unfinished".

[leddis3]

It's not just Khajiit, though they are the most obvious.

 

The entire game is Nord biased. From the Thalmor always thinking you worship Talos, to the xenophobic Stormcloaks accepting you whatever your race to everyone just assuming that when you die you will go to Sovngarde (Nord afterlife, hello!).

While the previous games had their default characters, there was never any racial bias. It was explicitly said that the Nerevarine could be anyone, in fact Nerevar himself was not actually a Dunmer, but a Chimer. Same with the main character in Oblivion, since every race had an equal vested interest in saving the world from Dagon.

[Kamen Rider Kuuga]

You make it sound like the Dunmer and Chimer are two different races.

[leddis3]

You make it sound like the Dunmer and Chimer are two different races.

 

 

Essentially they are, their physical change brought about a psychological change too, the Dunmer being far more dour and pessimistic than their ancestors.

If a Dunmer saw a Chimer they'd think them an N'wah like everyone else. Hell, a player character Dunmer is considered that too because they weren't born in Morrowind, and the Nerevarine prophecy says it must be an outlander anyway.

[Rayblue]

If I had a pet peeve about this game, there's one answer: Papyrus. Because it doesn't include some way of cleaning off scripts and variables that the game engine isn't using any longer.

[Dude500X]

OP needs Skyre

[Kamen Rider Kuuga]

I'm done with Skyrim, so no I don't.

[cornbreadtm]

Plus Skyre is what people use when they don't know how to mod properly themselves. Skyre's "fun" but it doesn't let you use some of the best mods around without conflict. I spent half my time playing with it (4-5 characters) just scrounging for patches and compatible mods. It's easier to just find mods you like that do similar things but don't push out other mods usefulness like SPERG and DUEL. And if you just can't mod properly your self you can just use Skyre... had a field day when I learned I'd need all new armor cause my mod armor wasn't Skyre compatible. Now the reproccer is out but people who don't know how to mod don't seem to be able to use it right.

[Dude500X]

er, what?  What do you mean "use Skyre if you cant mod" that is the most ignorant comment ive heard all night.

 

Skyre is an overhaul mod.  It is MEANT to change alot of things and of course it will conflict with other mods, thats what overhauls do.

 

If you want a more immersive RPG experience you go with Skyre straight out of the gate, most worthwhile mods work well with Skyre anyway.  Frostfall, realistic needs and diseases etc all work well with Skyre, add in mods like deadly dragons and asis and you have one hell of a challenging game.

 

Reproccer is easy, you install Java, you run the reproccer and away it goes.. its not really even needed either imo unless you use alot of custom armors such as Immersive Armors, I find that using it with basic vanilla and skyre gear it is utterly pointless.

 

I have yet to see an overhaul better than Skyre, Skyre along with Realistic needs and diseases and frostfall = a very FWE experience.

[cornbreadtm]

I use all of those mods without Skyre >_> guess I don't have to use the reproccer so lucky me. I'll just blow my Java on ASIS instead.

 

Like I said I used Skyre for several characters, Requiem as well (Requiem was not fun, I actually go bored of dying). Then after a while I though "I can just add mods that do each change these modules make but do it better" and I did. They're overhauls they do a lot but it doesn't really mean they do it well. A lot of mods do things like economy, combat, weapon overhauls better because they focus on them, so they update with fixes faster since they don't have to fix every little thing in the game like Skyre does. and they don't add some wonky bleed system.

 

So yeah Skyre conflicts with other mods because its an overhaul but since most of the mods I found that it conflicts with do the changes better, my game was better without it. and that bleed system.

 

I'm pretty good at killing conflicts in my game I can make everyone of my mods compatible with Skyre but no it wouldn't have been worth it. When Skyre stops "overhauling" and just grabs mods that other people made already and put them together neatly, then call me. Cause that's what he was doing at first. and it pissed me off when he stopped cause I really liked the weapon set up. Then came the Bleed system.

 

Ps: I hate that damn bleed system, he could never get it right...

[Dude500X]

You can use ASIS with Skyre...

 

This "wonky" bleed system you talk about is one of the best features.. if you dont go into combat prepared with healing potions on hotkeys then of course you're going to bleed out.. its part of the challenge.  Healing potions are not exactly hard to make straight out of Helgen either.

 

Add in Deadly Dragons, Frostfall, Realistic needs and diseases etc you really don't need anything else.  It is as FWE as you can get.

[cornbreadtm]

No shit you can us ASIS with skyre. Never said you couldn't works with everything. If you know how to exclude properly. Which most people don't...

 

I don't think you understand what I mean by wonky. I mean unbalance I experimented with pretty much every character build I could think up but the extra bleed on 2handed axes just made them broken. So any time you ran into some level 2 bandit with a 2handed axe your dead since the hit boxes on Skyres 2handers is huge. they can nick you from pretty much 4 feet to their left. People complained about it and every fix just made it worst. But I don't use it any more nor do I care to so I don't know if he finally fixed it. This is pretty much an example of just 1 problem and there were tons. It's not that I didn't like Skyre its just that I liked SPERG and other mods more.

 

I don't use Frostfall anymore combining that with RND or IMCN was like playing with a tomogatchi or digimon. It be came "when is he going to get hungry?" "O. noes he's cold" "tired now" "gotta cure that disease" "wet now." I rather just kill shit after some point not spend all day micro managing heavy scripting which is what it turned into.

 

I just started using Deadly Dragons again... for a while it got to the point that I was getting attacked every time I walked outside. Regardless if I was in a city or not. Had more dragon souls than fun. Had the encounters turned down all the way and was seeing 3 dragons from whiterun to Iverstead.

[GrimReaper]

I love SkyRe not only because it's a big one-in-all mod, but also because the changes it does are absolutely what I want to see in Skyrim. With SkyRe, even a bandit can still hurt a high level PC, if he has the right perks and weapons (crossbows, maces & 2h hammers, longbows). Likewise, a bandit marauder or bandit chief is not always a death sentence if you can't kite him. It is still more likely that the latter will give you way more trouble, of course.

 

And you can use stuff like archery, sneaking and crafting without feeling guilty of breaking the game. Seriously, some stuff in vanilla Skyrim just feels like exploiting, SkyRe takes care of that. I've been reading a bit in reddit about Skyrim and it is indeed amazing how many people play a sneaky archer without realizing that this is the way to actually break the game, much like the alchemy/enchanting/smithing cycle.

 

The next big overhaul I am going to try is Requiem, but I fear that Requiem tries to force things that don't work well with Skyrim on a very basic level, you can't really turn Skyrim into Dark Souls, for example. I've read some of the changes and while some sound awesome, some do not. I don't really want to grind wolves, goats and rabbits for houers before I can even think about taking on a troll or an ancient nord ruin. But I am going to try it out, sooner or later. For me, SkyRe eliminates pretty much any gameplay issue I had with Skyrim and I am really, really thankful for that because I adore Skyrim, but the gameplay really sucked. The first time you play this isn't that much of an issue because you have the whole game to explore, quests to solve and so on. But when you know 90% of the content and the gameplay itself isn't really fun... you have a problem.

 

 

I have a friend that plays Skyrim but he refuses to use any overhaul mods because he thinks it's better to play the game the way the devs intended it. Guess who loses interest first when we start playing Skyrim again (I know there is no multiplayer, but playing Skyrim while chilling with a buddy in teamspeak is awesome).

[cornbreadtm]

Requiem is hell. Bleakfall barrows was like a level 20 dungeon. I beat it at like 3 but I uninstalled after that. Wasn't going to go popping my head in every cave just to die till I found some easy level 1 slimes to kill. And all of the dungeons had a mass of enemies in them. Plus the no dungeon respawn thing is kinda boring, since I'd have been done pretty quick once I got momentum. Dragr and other undead aren't affected by arrows, so you can't sneak and pew them. Had to hit them with an arrow to draw them in one at a time and kill them with my sword. Was interesting.

 

I was an interesting change from vanilla skyrim though. Wasn't able to just roll over every change with a 2hander like in skyre but enemies where so numerous that any advantage I had quickly got outnumbered. I don't usually use warrior type characters, I like mages but I have one female orc who uses 2handers and heavy armor. In Skyre she never died, just hit things with none power attack strikes and they died from the bleed. Only put points in health since I didn't need stamina. On Requiem she couldn't even move had to wait till i got heavy armor perks since her stamina drained from wearing heavy armor.

 

I just replicated it in my current load order with high level enemies and ASIS. Only creatures OP in my game are falmer which I have no idea how to fix. Sickly little blind buggers can one shot me with a bow from 20 yards away. I'm currently looking for a mod that reduces their aim based on distance. They have to hear you to shoot you accurately

[GrimReaper]

Well the author mentioned in either the description or in the comments that Bleakfall Barrows is indeed a dungeon that's meant for 30+ characters or something, because he changed the dragons to be much more dangerous that you don't have a chance against them until at least lvl 30. That being said, I am not a fan of just increasing the hp, armor and damage of enemies to achieve a higher difficulty, that's just bad game design. More enemies don't work very well with Skyrim's core mechanic in my opinion, the game was made with the thought in mind that you only fight a few enemies at once, not 10+.

 

Regarding the bleed in SkyRe, I've never had any problems with it, but I only played two versions of it. The newest one and one from about a 3/4 year ago, I think. The bleed damage is noticable, but not gamebreaking, imo. One low lvl health potion is enough to work against the dmg the bleed does, you can even outheal it with the very first restoration healing spell. The bleed perk in vanilla was absolute garbage though, even the frostbite poison did more dmg than the lvl 3 perk.

 

Ah, well. Falmer were already a pain in the ass in vanilla if you didn't play a sneaky archer, I guess any mod that increases difficulty will make that even worse. In SkyRe however I am okay with the falmer, they still hit like a truck but so do I, if I have enough magicka. It's just that the groups of falmer you encounter through the game have everything: hard hitting melees, accurate archers, nasty frostmages and the chaurus just because. Also I am not sure if it's possible to adjiust the aim of enemies based on how far you are away, given how Skyrim's detection system works.

[cornbreadtm]

Yeah, I pretty much used Skyre since it came out so I got the slow progress, start new character ever update treatment. People who use it now probably wouldn't understand why it bothers me. but when it first came out it wasn't an "overhaul" it was 1 guy cleverly tossing several mods together making them work in sync. Now its just those mods plus a bunch of stuff that I can't get rid of cause they're build into the module which sucks. I could use an older version but they still have the bugs.

 

Bleed damage use to drain about half your health for about a year. He just fixed it with these last few updates. But now it's kinda ignorable. Locational damage does it 100% better but that's script heavy and if you use at least 4 script heavy mods in combat your game is going to suffer. I'm at about 4. So I can't use several great mods that don't conflict outside of Skyrims limitations.

 

My Falmers are insane since ASIS gives them potions... I run out of magicka after I down 1 and there are still 3 running at me. I spend a lot of my game running away which I actually like, gives me the "can't win them all feeling." But Falmer, they just shoot you in the back.

[Thorham]

My only gripe is that it's too easy to break the game without glitches and exploits. Just max enchanting and smithing, shop for blacksmith's and enchanter's elixirs, and you can make some ridiculously overpowered gear. Did that with my previous character. Now I play on master difficulty level, and don't use crafting at all. Problem solved (or so it seems).

[kaosmu]

 So... Which is better? SkyRe or Requiem? I want this game to be harder... But not just "bandits have more HP and can kill you with 2 hits". I'm looking for something that forces me to THINK about my next move.

[Remy]

I doubt there is mod like that kaosmu, for that the whole combat system would need to be updated, using of unique attacks for different type of enemies, bosses and the player, that would require also new enemy ai that uses that system, wich means changing the core of the game and that isnt possible i think as plenty of stuff is hardcoded, so the only way to increase difficulty is adding dmg, hp and armor, or such a mod would have been already worked on...i could be wrong though but thats my opinion.

 

Unless bethesda decides going away from the mediocrity, all of the tes games are going to be mindless hack&slash fests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kaosmu]

That's a real shame. Skyrim would be a real epic game if the combat system were better worked on ... I guess I will stick with Requiem for now on, thanks!

[GrimReaper]

Well, Duel + SkyRe works pretty well for me, Locational Damage is also compatible with both Duel and SkyRe. Locational Damage makes it important WHERE you hit an enemy (or where the enemy hits you, for that matter), SkyRe adds perks to enemies so that you have to take into account what the enemy actually uses for a weapon. Crossbows and longbows hit hard, even when wearing heavy armor, maces too because of all the armor penetration. Axes cause bleed damage and swords have a higher chance to crit. So depending on what you play you have to adapt, with heavy armor + 2h you are basically a tank that mows down light armored enemies in the blink of an eye. Wearing a full set of heavy armor gives bonus resistance to ranged physical attacks, so even crossbows won't hurt you as much, but they still hurt, of course. But mages will hurt you alot, so will other guys with heavy armor if the use maces and stuff. Light armor is all about evading attacks, mobility and speed.

 

Duel adds some AI tweaks and makes stamina management important, when you have no stamina left, you take more damage, are easily interrupted or staggered and you do less damage with normal attacks and stuff. etc. etc.

[cornbreadtm]

Yeah, Duel, Skyre and locational Damage will kick your ass. I've been shot in the knee a few times... might as well reload a save lol. You end up laying on the ground bleeding to death. All we need now is a peter griffin animation and we'd be set. If you combine ASIS potions and AI you can stop having fun and just get frustrated, till your level 10 or so lol.

 

But Requiem by its self is so hard, its stupid half the time so yeah just stick with that lol. I used asis potions with requiem and it was like killing bugs with harsh words. Not a lot of killing.

[kaosmu]

Just tested Duel and SkyRedone. Going to use it for a while, till something better shows up xD

[Dude500X]

this requiem thing sounds interesting