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Author Topic: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.  (Read 4471 times)

Devastator

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Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« on: January 01, 2014, 11:12:41 am »

A few years ago, the latest game in the Elder Scrolls series was released, TES V: Skyrim.

It is a first-person CRPG where you are supposed to explore the Tamrillic province of Skyrim and save them from their infestation of dragons.  You do this by exploring dungeons, finding loot, increasing your character skills, and adopting broken infinite use abilities such that you are controlling an unstoppable powerhouse of doom.

I will not be doing any such thing.  Instead, well, things will go.. otherwise.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2014, 12:01:06 pm »

I will be adding an update every few days until my supply of screenshots runs out, wherupon it will be delayed to one every week or so.

For some background, for those of you who have only played Skyrim, or who have not played any Elder Scrolls games at all, they are a very popular series of western RPGs set in the fictional land of 'Tamriel.'  Each game, of the main titles, has had quite different gameplay mechanics, but all of them strive extensively to allow the player much freedom in exploring the large gameworld..  They are basically RPGs where the greatest feature is the worldbuilding around them, and generally the gameplay is good enough to keep you engaged while you get invested in the particular character you are playing.

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They all had various strengths and weaknesses, but one thing they did not fail was for scope.  Arena, the very first one had eight large hand-drawn dungeons, along with a very large procedural world to explore.  That, of course, was only if you could manage to get out of the tutorial dungeon.  Arena did not pull punches, and reading the manual was strongly encouraged.

There are also some common themes other than the land of Tamriel, and I'll be exploring them as they come along.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2014, 12:05:18 pm by Devastator »
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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2014, 01:01:58 pm »

Feel free to post about anything strange that you notice, or anything that you want to see checked out, as Skyrim is a single-player game, and although I have a lot of screenshots, I also have a lot of saves.  Showing things off-path is going to be much more possible than with a normal playthrough featuring 'character development.'

Anyway, I suppose it's time to begin:

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Skyrim begins with you and a few other guys in a cart, talking about how they were all caught and are going to be executed.

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One of the people, the gagged one, is a guy called Ulfas Stormcloak, who apparently killed the local ruler.  He's been captured, and he's due to be executed, along with anyone caught in the vicinity of him.

Anyway, shortly after we are hauled off the cart, and the guards ask us who we are.  Apparently they don't even know who this Khajiit is, but we're still sentenced to death.

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"Who are you, anyway?"

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Now, name selection is an important thing in a TES game.  It is particulary important for this Khajiit, as this is a strange situation.  An unknown person imprisoned next to one of the key figures of the era?  This is definately hero business.  And hero business is serious in Tamriel.  Heroes are characters written about in the mystic prophecies known as 'Elder Scrolls', describing past and future events, and the heroes themselves will be astride history, their actions driving fundamental changes to the world.  The presence of a hero means this is one of the key moments in history, and things will never be the same again for anyone currently alive.  Everything done from this point forward will echo through history.

In the end, there is only one option:

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((With apologies to Doug the Eagle of it-he.org))
« Last Edit: January 01, 2014, 01:06:36 pm by Devastator »
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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2014, 10:06:11 am »

"Really, Cat-Dude?"

"It's not as if you care, anyway."

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"Yeah, yeah, thanks.  The Dude family shouldn't have a problem recieving my bones."

Anyway, it's execution time.  First the mook gets killed,

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And then it's our turn.

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But nothing is actually happening, and you can walk around the courtyard without fear.

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After a few minutes of wandering around, brownian motion eventually brings Cat-Dude into a tower with that Ulfas guy and another stormcloak.

Stormcloak: So, Ulfric, was that a dragon out there?  I thought they were only legends.

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Ulfric: "That was no legend out there, my friend."

CD: ... "No, that is exactly what legends do.  They burn down villages, they hurt and kill people, they come out of the sky on the wings of storm and destruction.  That is exactly what legends are.  This one would not be so hasty in naming legends to be real."

Ulfric: "You're that Khajiit on the cart, right?  Well, you should get out of here with us.  Go get some gear from that soldier over there, and we'll make a break for it."

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CD: No, a Nord hero would take an axe and go charging the world with nothing between himself and death but the edge of his blade.  This one does not want to be known only for the strength of his blade and the might of his arm..  "This one is fine.  Let your friend keep his axe in death."

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Suddenly, a dragon breaks through the wall.  That Ulfas guy and his soldier scatter.  Cat-Dude, however thinks otherwise.

This is a strange situation.  Dragon attack many in the court, do little.  Break wall, hurt none.  Soldiers fire many arrows, hit nothing.  Dragon looks scary, but this one feels nothing.  There are many spells that can fool a man, many things that can beguile him.  There are no dragons in Tamriel.  This dragon is not real.

Cat-Dude then charges the dragon,

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...and falls right through him, as if he was not there at all..
« Last Edit: January 02, 2014, 02:14:57 pm by Devastator »
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MaximumZero

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2014, 01:05:08 pm »

Was not expecting that. PTW.
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Holy crap, why did I not start watching One Punch Man earlier? This is the best thing.
probably figured an autobiography wouldn't be interesting

Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2014, 02:15:17 pm »

PTW?
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MaximumZero

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #6 on: January 02, 2014, 02:34:46 pm »

Posting to watch. The forums automatically tell you when threads you've posted in update, so you can easily follow them. Hence, I'm posting here, to ensure that it's on my watch list.
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Holy crap, why did I not start watching One Punch Man earlier? This is the best thing.
probably figured an autobiography wouldn't be interesting

Bauglir

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2014, 03:01:43 am »

So, just to see if I've got this straight,
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.
“What are you doing?”, asked Minsky. “I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe” Sussman replied. “Why is the net wired randomly?”, asked Minsky. “I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said.
Minsky then shut his eyes. “Why do you close your eyes?”, Sussman asked his teacher.
“So that the room will be empty.”
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2014, 06:19:26 am »

So, just to see if I've got this straight,
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next update in a few hours.
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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2014, 08:13:34 am »

CD: Huh, so it isn't real, this is all just some kind of illusion.  Still better get out of here.

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Oh, you again.  Lets see what you've got, illusion.

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This one is not impressed.  If this one had his hands free, would they go through as well?

To summarize, you then meet up with a guy named Rolof, who cuts you free and then is perfectly happy to act as a sharpening post,

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You proceed through a small dungeon with a number of fixed encounters against the wussiest soldiers in history, requiring approximately thirty swings to kill a man.

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CD: No, breaking in and stealing things is what a Khajiit hero would do.  What if one wants to remain a person, rather than a symbol of an age?

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CD: Besides, picks are not needed to take stuff out of a cage, silly.

After a quick run through of the dungeon, the exit is reached, wherupon it is revealed that Rolof's opinion of you is no longer fixed.  Whoops.

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A quick reload later and the dungeon is exited properly.  And Cat-Dude will do what he normally does when faced with seemingly a whole world in front of him..

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which is to turn the other way.

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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2014, 08:28:27 pm »

Bit of a breather update today.

Anyway, our 'hero', Cat-Dude.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As he has not used any skill abilities, here is the starting list of his statistics:

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There were some issues with Oblivion's levelling system, that allowed you to end up weak relative to your level.  That could cause a death spiral, as levelling up meant more powerful enemies.  In order to prevent that, Skyrim has more enemies at fixed levels, and has made some significant changes to your stats.  There are no attributes, such as Strength, Agility, and Speed, and all skills count for level gains.  In addition, you select a perk for some bonuses eact time you gain a level.

Anyway, the total list of skills for your character are..

Illusion, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration and Alteration, which are increased by casting spells of the appropriate tree.

Enchanting, which is increased by using enchantment altars, creating or destroying enchanted items, and recharging staves from filled soul gems.

Smithing, which is increased by improving or making your own equiment with materials.

Heavy and Light armor, which is increased by taking hits while wearing the appropriate type of armour.

Block, Two handed, One handed, and Archery, which are increased by using the relevant equipment in combat.

..and lastly, Sneak, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, Speech, and Alchemy, which are increased by enemies searching for you and not spotting you, stealing or planting objects on NPCs, opening normal locks, buying and selling items, and making potions and eating alchemical ingredients.

Notably, with the one exception of Sneak, all of these are active-use abilities only.  This was another response to Oblivion, and it was seen necessary to allow people to be better able to control skill gains.  However, since they removed statistics, it's a change to fix a problem that would no longer exist.  Including automatically used skills such as Athletics or Acrobatics, would have introduced no issues with their presence.

One of the initial praises of Skyrim was that it was now supposed to be impossible to complete the game at level one, Ala Oblivion, where doing so was far easier than completing it at a more normal level.

This, however, is not actually true.  Instead of simply avoiding sleeping like one would in Oblivion, one can avoid gaining any skills at all.  Spellcasting is completely optional, and you never need to restore health, as it is now automatically regenerating.  It does introduce some new and interesting problems, however..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 05, 2014, 04:27:30 pm by Devastator »
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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2014, 03:45:29 pm »

Ralof: Thanks for your help there, I wouldn't have made it out of there.

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Ralof:  You know, you should join the Stormcloaks.  You don't need to be a Nord to defend Skyrim.

C-D:..  This one thinks there might be more important things than a rebellion.

Ralof:  Yeah, I suppose.  You don't see dragons everyday.

C-D:  You see them normally?

Ralof:  Well, not every day, but you know they're around, and there's all the stories about them..  And that one really saved our heads there.

C-D:  Be careful with that.  What one says can become true.  Dragons are.. very dangerous.  If you say it is a dragon, than maybe it will be a dragon.  This one jumped through it.  This one stood in it's fire and took no harm.  You lived, many others lived.  They'll go from town to town saying how a dragon broke us free.  Cheap, if it was only an illusion or a spell.. next one may be more dangerous, until what was spells are as strong as they can be.  Are all Nords so quick to claim they live in an era of terror and nightmares?

Ralof: ...

Ralor: Well, we should split up.  See you in Windhelm!  Do you think that dragon's off flying somewhere else?

C-D: Welp
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Devastator

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Re: Skyrim drew the short straw, a TES V LP.
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2014, 03:49:20 pm »

Sorry for the delay, this is going to have to go on hiatus, due to some failures in testing and conflicts with other projects I'm experimenting with.. along with the new Allegiance tournament.

I do have enough material for a few updates before that happens, though.

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C-D: Enough crazy nords.  I'm going to go climb something.

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(It is nice to see that Helgen is in fact revisitable.  Just turn around, and open the doors, and you're in an area completely unrelated to the one you just escaped from.)

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(Where, apparently, Fire No Burn... although that's not so different, considering the risk factor of that 'dragon'.)

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(Anyway, climbing is pretty straightforward.  The basic concept is you 'stick' to surfaces by continually walking towards them.  You then strafe-move in whatever direction you like to skitter around the too-steep surface left or right.)

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(You can be sticking in any direction you like.  Forwards, backwards, left, right, diagonally.. just use your mouse to move the point of view around, and go up by forcing yourself into seams in the terrain.  Try a variety of angles, speeds, and viewing directions, as it's truncation and small math errors that let you enter into the terrain, which then ejects you upwards, sticking you again to the wall.)

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(You can adhere to practically any non-vertical surface, as long as there isn't an overhang.  You still need to be very careful to keep up the pressure, and to not cross any vertical surfaces, as they can lead to a pretty big fall if you're not careful.)

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C-D: Whoops.  Ouch.

..a few jumps later..

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C-D: Chest!  This one will not be tempted.  This one can control Khajiit Loot Instincts!  Do you hear me, chest!

C-D: Probably time to travel with road now, should be less falling that way.

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C-D: Uh oh..

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C-D: Ack!

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C-D: Ghost!  Back you ghost!  The dead do not trouble the living!

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C-D: Ack!

(A few potions and a bit of unlimited healing, and a good deal of fancy footwork later...  not to mention some aid from the wispmother getting stuck under the staircase.)

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C-D: Do you hear me dead thing!  You had minions!  You had cheap freeze ray!  But this one broke you with naught but bare fists and more potions than this one is comfortable admitting!

C-D: What are you going to do to this one now, Skyrim?

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C-D: Oh.
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