[Silencer]

You can't make spells like that any more, Gothos! (Mind you, you can't summon more than one/two creatures at once any more, either. )

[Obdigore]

Briar King, on 12 February 2014 - 06:10 PM, said:

I didn't word my question right cause I was outside freezing. In SWTOR you have the entire galaxy on the map(Tameril), it's divided into sectors(Provences), then you choose which planet to go to(Cities, Caves, etc) I was wondering if it was set like that with the entire Empire on map and each Provence have playable areas.

Yes, each faction has about 1/4th of the map, and then the final fourth is some giant pvp zone in the middle.

Once you finish your factions quests/exploration, you can do another factions, and they are harder, apparently (50+ it is called). Once you finish that one you can do the final factions quests as 50++ content.

I'm not entirely sure how it works but as far as I'm aware there isn't really anything that is absolutely off-limits.

[Obdigore]

Briar King, on 14 February 2014 - 02:20 AM, said:

I'm wanting advice for leveling up a pure Mage if anyone has done it before.

If you were on PC I'd say get the Apocalypse Spell Pack and one of the hotslots/quickslots mods so you aren't stuck with 2 choices.

Since you are playing it on console, you are essentially gimped, because magic doesn't scale for shit in Skyrim.

[Gothos]

the only way you'll find stamina useful is for extra carrying capacity, as a "pureclass" mage.

As for tips, you want Conjuration, Destruction and Alteration at the very least.

[Gothos]

Just switch to nightvision and stay in the shadows!

[Gothos]

This is where an actual journal and directions would be a lot more useful than just map markers... bring back Morrowind style quests please!

Have fun with Dawnguard, it's a very good questline. Slightly cheesy at times, but overall it's great. Only read below if you've already played through it:

Spoiler

two dragons busting out through the ice from below you on a frozen lake is one of the best moments in my gaming life

Also, I hope you like // are good at killing Falmer.

[tiam]

Briar King, on 19 February 2014 - 12:57 AM, said:

I tried to find some night vision spell but no luck. I know Khajits have Nighteye which is cool. I used that on one of my Oblivion characters.

I think they got rid of it to make Khajit more viable. In Oblivion for example the main reason for picking a class would be a racial trait yet these traits could be easily cast by any character at the beginning of the game if they bought the spell (night eye for Khajit, water breathing for argonian etc). In Skyrim its a bit more balanced where your racial traits are actually good though the Orc one is overpowered. Night Eye is khajit only though you can get detect life as a spell.

I always play a mage but lost my 20 hour mage file due to a glitch and started again as a stealth archer. Playing the entire game like that on master difficulty is very good as levelling up is rewarding if you do it naturally (i.e. not sneaking around NPC to boost sneak) and you become the ultimate glass cannon by the end of the game. I played as a bog standard dual wielding Orc named Icarium not long after and found with Berserker rage even early doors I was killing heavy hitters like Dragon Priests without too much difficulty. I then played a stealth archer wood elf again and it was still as enjoyable as the first time.

As someone has said upthread magic is woefully underpowerd in Skyrim.

[Gothos]

If you want to sneak around, I very strongly recommend trying out melee. Daggers can get up to 30x backstab damage, and it's a lot more thrilling to sneak around close to enemies rather than just firing at them from the other end of the cave. Also, the throat slit animation never gets old. My first Skyrim character started out like that (Sorrow, female dunmer: sneak, light armor, one-handed, smithing, enchanting, illusion as my main focus).

[Obdigore]

There is another ESO beta this weekend, and I have a 'friend invite' I can give to someone for the NA server.

First one to post in NA (or willing to play on the NA server) gets it.

Remember, its a Stress Test, so expect connection issues during the 'day' US time, and its a 20+GB DL, so those of you with Data Caps might want to be aware.

[tiam]

Gothos, on 25 February 2014 - 07:21 AM, said:

If you want to sneak around, I very strongly recommend trying out melee. Daggers can get up to 30x backstab damage, and it's a lot more thrilling to sneak around close to enemies rather than just firing at them from the other end of the cave. Also, the throat slit animation never gets old. My first Skyrim character started out like that (Sorrow, female dunmer: sneak, light armor, one-handed, smithing, enchanting, illusion as my main focus).

This is true. I invested very little points into one handed probably just the initial damage bonus and I could throat slit most enemies on Master once skill was high enough. Also if you use two daggers (Fully upgraded Blade of Woe and Mehrunes Razor/Daedric Dagger is best) and do the double power attack all the sneak attack damage upto the 30x is done. This allows dragons to be killed in one go. The three time bow damage if sneaking perk also allows dragons to be one shotted aswell. The sneak bonus plus the slow time aiming is overpowered even on Master.

Funnily enough I couldnt figure out why my damage, even with the 3 times sneak bow, on my initial file was so low. I loaded it back up and though id put all my smithing perks into light armour allowing me to upgrade glass I was using a fully upgraded Ebony bow which stunted my damage boost to like 150 with 100 in archery. It made the game very difficult but an enjoyable first playthrough.

[Obdigore]

There isn't an 'official' ending to it yet. We will have to wait to for the next game, assuming it is in the future.

[Obdigore]

The only real 'race' related conversation is one of the people in Ulfric's city who was giving that Dark Elf woman crap, if you aren't a nord, you can respond 'yes, I think non-nords like me should get the fuck out' or something.

[tiam]

It will be interesting to see what comes of it, I personally think canon will be independent Skyrim though what the new MMO will put in place who knows.

[tiam]

It will be interesting to see what comes of it, I personally think canon will be independent Skyrim though what the new MMO will put in place who knows.

[Silencer]

FYI everyone, there is another beta this weekend. Friday 12pm EST through Sunday. There are codes floating around, so if you're interested (and have the time and data to dl the 20Gb+ install), now's your chance.

[Defiance]

Silencer, on 28 February 2014 - 12:07 AM, said:

FYI everyone, there is another beta this weekend. Friday 12pm EST through Sunday. There are codes floating around, so if you're interested (and have the time and data to dl the 20Gb+ install), now's your chance.

Played it a little bit today. Not impressed so far. It just feels like a clunkier, uglier version of Skyrim. Plus I'm still trying to get past how terribly they've butchered the lore (Nord-Dunmer-Argonian pact? Just...no.).

[Silencer]

Indeed. The game really doesn't know what it wants to be.

And yeah... Don't get me started on that pact and it's numerous implausibilities. even having Valenwood and Elsweyr operating amicably is weird. More plausible, but still on the far side of reasonable lore decisions.

I haven't played any yet this weekend, and my general lack of desire to do so kind of speaks for itself, I think.

[Silencer]

Briar King, on 01 March 2014 - 05:36 AM, said:

I wonder why they'd do that? Esp when we ve had 5 games worth of rather rich history... Hell I spent well over an hr earlier today just reading books on my shelf and loved it. Has there been an explanation on that decision?

Essentially it is "in the name of game/faction balance" - they wanted each side to have a sort of magic/warrior/thief race, as well as make the map easily divisible into three chunks which are your starting areas, and then allow you to move around the wheel, with Cyrodiil as the PvP in the center.

In-universe, the 'justification' is that there was an Akavirri invasion which forced the Dunmer/Argonian/Nord factions to put aside their differences to fight them off. Frankly, I find it far more likely they'd have decided to stand and fall separately rather than unite to drive them off, or have sought aid from other sources. There's too much bad blood there for it to be overcome by a common enemy - bear in mind, none of those factions exactly helped each other when the Empire of Cyrodiil was founded, and that was a much bigger threat than any nebulous invasion force from Akavir.

So basically it was a design decision that they've forced into canon. TES was never built to have these sorts of factions in play - the Empire was always fighting to maintain dominance over provinces who hated each other and being under the Empire's heel, in the third and fourth eras, and prior to that, it was Ayleid's dominating the races of men, etc. Heck, you're lucky if you can get the Great Houses of the Dunmer to agree on something, let alone get them to agree to alliances with slaves and their ancient border-enemies of the North. It's fundamentally a mix that does not work.

Of course, they had to do something like this. Having allied factions across the map from one another, or god forbid, "uneven" factions, or put some of the provinces as unaligned, would not have "worked" for the game. I say this, dripping with sarcasm, because it's really not true. This is just easier for people to understand and easier for the developers to balance and write for.

Frankly, I don't think TESO should be considered canon, given how much it fucks with the lore. But alas.

[Silencer]

That's an onboard graphics card, isn't it?

If you can run it, you won't be able to run it very well. The minimum graphics settings are probably not very intensive in TESO (the top-end graphics are pretty good, but not stellar), so you might want to give it a try with the Beta if you can spare the 20Gb for download.

But they do specify an ATI 6950M (for mobile) discrete GPU in the minimum specs. That's not usually a good sign for an onboard graphics card. XD Your best hope is that the presence of a quad core CPU makes up the difference.

[Cayhn]

Anyone up for a Malazan themed guild in the upcoming ESO?

"The Malaz 10th Army, or what was left of it, came rushing out of the crackling split in the air in a massive disarray. Sergeant Tummy took great gulps of air and stood up on shaky legs as he tried to spot his squad. He saw Corporal Lefty and Barol but most other faces were new to him. Damn recruits and damn this Hood spawned Warren. As he looked around he noticed a man standing up staring at him slack jawed and with big eyes.
"Where are we, lad?" The man looked even more confused so Tummy tried Daru and a fair share of waving and pointing. The man blinked and blurted out in a strange language, "Tamriel".
Tamriel? What in Fenrir's tusks had gone wrong. He had never even heard of Tamriel. Bloody mages and their bloody Warrens."

Not a hardcore RP-guild but maybe with some elements, not sure what you can do as to rank and such so far with the guild system. But the highest ranking officer would probably be a Fist or maybe a High Fist and then maybe a Hand of Claws and maybe even a High Mage?

Would anyone be interested in forming such a guild? I myself will play on EU but if majority is NA I'm probably up for that as well.