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[Necro910]

God, what do you think this is, dwarf fortress?

Next you're gonna want to catch live rabbits and throw them at Dwemer Centurions.

See the funny thing is...

[Deon]

Well, since the invincible NPCs problem (definitely the worst design flaw I have discovered so far in the game) prevented me from

Spoiler: Mild spoilers about Thieve's Guild (click to show/hide)

  clearing out the evil gang of criminals in Riften's sewers, I decided perhaps doing the first quest would then allow me to kill them, since it's revealed to the player that they're the Thieve's Guild quest-givers. No joy, they still get back up with their inexplicable invincibility.
So, the next desperate course of action for my character is to deliberately fail the second quest, where you have to extort a bunch of shopkeepers. The only way I can see to fail is... To kill them. But alas, we all must make sacrifices in the course of justice, and that is the course my character is now set out upon!
I just need to get the bounty-money to stop the guards from hunting me for wiping out half the Black-Briar family. Surprisingly, my spellcasting hired thug managed to survive my disastrous attack on their manor, and caught up with me many miles away outside of another city, after I'd considered him dead.

Spoiler: Main quest spoiler related to Riften's Ratway (click to show/hide)

Really? I haven't done any thieves guild stuff, but when I was doing the Main Quest and looking for a particular person, I was advised to ask a particular huckster in Riften where the fellow I was looking for was. He was not inclined to talk unless I stole something and planted it on someone else, so, despite my quest arrow pointing at him and being given no alternative path in the journal, I left him, went into the Ratway (as it had previously been mentioned as where he would likely be), and had no issues killing the hostile named NPCs (who I presumed to belong to the Thieves Guild) who got in my way (specifically, they were all hostile, until I reached the tavern).

The ones in the tavern were not hostile, so I left those ones alone.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ones you've killed are just mob you HAVE to kill, the ones in the tavern (and the one who asked you to plant a ring as a quest) are the thieves' guild members.

[Yoink]

Spoiler: about that (click to show/hide)

Yeah, the tavern ones are the problem, sadly.

Okay, taking a break from my main characters, after hearing some of the dreadful singing voices of these bards, I've decided to make a character who tours the taverns of Skyrim, brutally murduring any bards who fail to entertain them!
Any suggestions as to their race, gender and Skyrim political leanings (as in, the path taken in the first quest), guys?

[Cthulhu]

The riding finisher doesn't look very cool if you have a shield.

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

Spoiler: about that (click to show/hide)

Yeah, the tavern ones are the problem, sadly.

Okay, taking a break from my main characters, after hearing some of the dreadful singing voices of these bards, I've decided to make a character who tours the taverns of Skyrim, brutally murduring any bards who fail to entertain them!
Any suggestions as to their race, gender and Skyrim political leanings (as in, the path taken in the first quest), guys?

Might I suggest a very old breton mage? And, if you can find a cane or something, that would be great.

[Yoink]

Sure! Haven't done much mage-ing, so should be good. Gender? I'm guessing male if they have a cane, but never hurts to ask...

[Rose]

Back in my day!

yeah, male.

[Dutchling]

Just got Dawnbreaker from some Deadra chick.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The swords is just as strong as my own swords so I can hardly call it a reward.

[Rose]

Incidentally, Sanguine's rose is way fun.

[Yoink]

I'm pretty sure that counts as a minor spoiler, doesn't it, Dutchling...? Not a big deal, but yeah.

[Dutchling]

Yeah I keep forgetting that.
Anyway, does anyone know where AzuraŽs place is? She had a very useful reward in Morrowind and IŽll hope sheŽll have the same one here.

[Rose]

She does.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's in the mountains south of winterhold.

[Ghills]

Just like to say that I'm not sure why levels are still used in TES.  They just don't work with a system that ups skills through use, and you really don't need them with that kind of system.  I see a lot of complaints about how leveling ruins a player's ability to actually play the game (level-scaling is a huge part of this).  It's not necessary.  It is really annoying when mixed with learn-by-doing.

RuneQuest (not the Mongoose edition) and I think GURPS do away with levels pretty effectively.  A character starts out with stats and a history that combine to give a starting build of skills. Then every time a player uses a skill they get a check/mark on that skill. When they get back to a safe area an RNG sees if they learned enough from using the skill to raise their skill.  Example: In RuneQuest you have to roll over your skill on percentile dice, so the lower your skill is the easier it is to raise, and the higher it is the harder it is to raise. 

It's easy enough to balance on this. If scaling is your thing, scale based on the appropriate skill.  Suddenly, your game is actually appropriately balanced for wherever the player is at! Mashing levels & learn-by-doing means your players need to actively manage their levels/skills to meet the designer's expectations. It's sloppy design. Using levels to scale the game means breaking it for everyone who didn't use the designer's favorite build.

Games don't need levels when they use learn-by-doing.  I'm not sure why TES games keep trying to combine learn-by-doing and leveling systems into one, but it doesn't work well and I wish they'd stop.  /rant

TL;DR: Bethesda should decide which system they want to use to track PC power and stick with it.  The current mash-up of learn-by-doing and D&D levels doesn't work well for balancing and demands specialized interventions by the players.

[Kivish Zokun]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So anyone else find out that you can mine soul gems?

Incidentally black reach is pretty damn beautiful.

[Dutchling]

spoiler

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