The Elder Scrolls

[dick brain]

thoughts

Thanks. I've been experimenting with taking aerial screenshots of exterior cells in the construction set and stitching them together. It looks much, much better than map exports when it works, but it's a lot of work. Software for automatically sorting and stitching is hit or miss and I ended up having to do Vivec manually because the repeated structures made the software lose its mind. Right now the big issues are 1) finding a stitching software that will stitch the images without skewing or rotating them, since they're all taken from exactly the same angle and rotation, 2) finding a way to reliably and quickly move shorter distances in one dimension in the construction set, the way the arrow keys do, and 3) ideally finding a software that will let me define that distance or percentage of overlap when stitching, since it would be regular.

I'm also not confident I'll be able to have just one giant exterior map, which is what I was hoping for, partly because of watching stitchers struggle and partly because the verticality of the terrain necessitates taking screenshots from different heights. I haven't thought too much about solutions for this since I'm not even sure I'll get to the point where it's pertinent, but it's definitely demotivating. I feel like a big part of the Morrowind experience is navigating and "feeling" the environment and I want to be able to replicate that rather than just jumping from map to map. I'll probably end up compromising and having large but separate maps for regions like Vivec, Balmora, Ghostgate, etc. We'll see.

And when I say I intend to trick my friends into finally playing Morrowind, I mean that pretty literally; I intend to follow the questlines from the game and homebrew as little as possible. I'm not trying to tell a story in Morrowind, I'm trying to get people to experience what I already love about it -- the setting and atmosphere and plot and lore.

Ultimately it's all going to hinge on what I can make technically possible though. I'm particularly motivated to make decent maps because I know I'm not the only person who wants them and it would be cool to be able to solve that problem for people, but if I can't automate the process in a big way it's just too much work.

E: another workaround I've been thinking about is that, since the arrow keys move you a relative distance, I can get the effect of moving a shorter distance by taking shots on a grid using the arrow keys, then offsetting my position by a shorter distance and doing it all again. This adds a fuckload more work since it results in the shots being out of order and I have to sort them, but it's doable.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

I went into playing Skyrim today just to see if it was like I remembered it.
HOLY SHIT. Is the combat CLUNKY. I did not remember swinging and movement while swinging being so locked... It isn't fluid at all like I remembered.
This is wild as I had just played Morrowind before it and somehow the combat in that felt way more fluid...
Am I crazy?

 

[Super Hans v2]

I went into playing Skyrim today just to see if it was like I remembered it.
HOLY SHIT. Is the combat CLUNKY. I did not remember swinging and movement while swinging being so locked... It isn't fluid at all like I remembered.
This is wild as I had just played Morrowind before it and somehow the combat in that felt way more fluid...
Am I crazy?

I don't think so. As technical power increased, especially in the decade-ish from Morrowind to Skyrim, devs became a lot more masturbatory, showing off what they could do and caring less about how things play out. A more obvious example would be Sony's Third Person Open World Action Adventure with Mild Stealth and Crafting Elements games being half cutscenes, but it extends to stuff like Skyrim with attacks/animations being basically uncancellable and Todd actively fighting against the player getting the ability to ever get truly powerful - getting angy that you are playing the wrong way and feeling like they have to soft-script what you're allowed to do.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

Skyrim with attacks/animations being basically uncancellable and Todd actively fighting against the player getting the ability to ever get truly powerful - getting angy that you are playing the wrong way and feeling like they have to soft-script what you're allowed to do.

This is it.
I was running at a bandit and instinctively began to swing my weapon expecting to have a windup to when I hit them but it just locked me in.

Magic in the game too is just pitiful by comparison to morrowind or even oblivion. It used to be people would lament how broken magic was (never a bad thing in a single player game.)
But in skyrim its just so bad.

These games are supposed to be great explorations where you can customize your experience and have fun. Instead with skyrim it felt like I had to do it exactly their way. Skill selection and classes were absolutely eliminated. The only agency I had was in picking a color to level up and a levelup perk tree.

E:
Thinking about it too the shouts even diminished magic even further.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Thinking about it too the shouts even diminished magic even further.

*cries in alteration*

Yet somehow Alteration is still less useless than Illusion.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

Is there even a decent magic build that you can make in Skyrim? I've tried a little bit of Necromancy previously, but I've always preferred more of a "no minions" playstyle. Problem is, magic tends to drop off HARD compared to melee damage or stealth, and it gets to the point where the game basically forces you to play melee if you want to do anything.

Anyone ever manage to find a solid magic build in Skyrim?

 

[Asian tech support]

I went into playing Skyrim today just to see if it was like I remembered it.
HOLY SHIT. Is the combat CLUNKY. I did not remember swinging and movement while swinging being so locked... It isn't fluid at all like I remembered.
This is wild as I had just played Morrowind before it and somehow the combat in that felt way more fluid...
Am I crazy?

Morrowind combat works (imo at least) because it's an RPG before anything else and everything that's happing during combat is implied. It's sort of like an MMO or any game where combat is real time but not exactly action-y. Even Oblivion falls into this category. Skyrim, on the other hand, is almost 100% an action game but the action hasn't changed and thus falls completely flat, as it's no longer meant to be implied, rather that's the actual action. First person combat has come a long way. Look at Vermintide/Darktide, Mordhau, even KC: D:, that's the standard any contemporary first person action game is going to have to measure up against (looking at you, Avowed).

Anyone ever manage to find a solid magic build in Skyrim?

I like the minions build as it compliments just about anything that isn't a stealth archer but unless you're abusing 100% magicka cost reduction, hybrid builds kind of suck. Flesh spells are nice until you realize you can hit the armor cap without them. Skyrim gutting spell variety kind of killed spellblades, muscle mages, arcane archers, etc. My favorite builds in Morrowind and Oblivion were either pure mages or some kind of muscle mage and I was completely let down by Skyrim magic.

 

[God of Nothing]

Is there even a decent magic build that you can make in Skyrim? I've tried a little bit of Necromancy previously, but I've always preferred more of a "no minions" playstyle. Problem is, magic tends to drop off HARD compared to melee damage or stealth, and it gets to the point where the game basically forces you to play melee if you want to do anything.

Anyone ever manage to find a solid magic build in Skyrim?

look at this man
potionless
sans potion, as the french in france would say

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Anyone ever manage to find a solid magic build in Skyrim?

Conjuration and Destruction are your bread and butter. Put down a summon (or two if you're high level) as soon as a battle starts. While you summons and follower (always have a follower if going full mage) are dealing with enemies you can provide support with Destruction spells. Make sure you take Dual Cast + Impact from the Destruction tree. Use Destruction robes - this is why you need summons and followers to soak up damage).

Restoration should be your next priority after those two. The spells are fairly useless - they just don't heal quickly enough - but the some of the perks are decent. If you play Dawnguard you even get some neat sun spells to play around with. They don't do much damage but you can throw them around without worrying about your follower, except Serana lol.

Alteration should only be done for the Magic Resistance perk. Illusion should not be leveled under any circumstances.

Sorry for the effort post. Despite what people say, it is possible to make a viable pure mage build, powerful even. It's quite satisfying too because it feels like spiting Todd. Whether you think that's worth it when you can just play stealth archer and nuke everything is up to you.

 

[wakaran]

Anyone ever manage to find a solid magic build in Skyrim?

The Ritual standing stone is absurdly busted if you have the patience for it. The corpses you resurrect don't disintegrate and there's also no limit to the amount you can have at one time. (AFAIK) That is just a stone though so I suppose it hardly counts.
Dual Casting + Impact stunlocks really hard so it's busted against single targets but the upper end of your damage is way worse than melee or archery so you kinda need Alchemy to boost your destruction damage.
Shit SUCKS.

 

[God of Nothing]

The Ritual standing stone is absurdly busted if you have the patience for it. The corpses you resurrect don't disintegrate and there's also no limit to the amount you can have at one time. (AFAIK) That is just a stone though so I suppose it hardly counts.
Dual Casting + Impact stunlocks really hard so it's busted against single targets but the upper end of your damage is way worse than melee or archery so you kinda need Alchemy to boost your destruction damage.
Shit SUCKS.

salmon roe + nordic barnacles = insanely expensive potions that boost your alchemy to 100

 

[wakaran]

salmon roe + nordic barnacles = insanely expensive potions that boost your alchemy to 100

Last time I was trying to level Alchemy I did this.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

I had a good modding guide to Skyrim last year but got fucked with the newest updates.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I had a good modding guide to Skyrim last year but got fucked with the newest updates.

This is why I turn automatic updates off for Bethesda games. Know how to downgrade games, but it's not worth the headache. Only worth doing to impress less tech savvy friends. Just making a mod that turns Lusty Argonian Maid into a skillbook is impressive to them, though.

 

[dick brain]

Is there even a decent magic build that you can make in Skyrim?

Bound weapon :^)

Hot take as somebody with probably 5-6k hours across the series: TES combat has never been good. If you like post-Morrowind combat you're a casul; if you like pre-Oblivion combat, you're a closet tabletop player, or one without a group/DM.

 

[Miller]

Is it worth getting Skyrim Special Edition? (Todd, don't reply)

 

[Festivus]

Festivus Fun with Magic Guide:

1) Before each encounter conjure an ally and/or apply an armor buff (i.e Stoneflesh)
2) Use one hand for a bound weapon, perk it for filling soul gems to maximize the build
3) Then swap your offhand to whatever spell you want

Now you can effectively engage at any range and wear light armor without being a glass cannon. Only downside is having to mess around in the quickslot menus but they really didn't optimize Skyrim very well for magic to begin with. That being said this is the only magic build I've run that scales well throughout the entire game and doesn't feel completely broken.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

*cries in alteration*

Yet somehow Alteration is still less useless than Illusion.

Has illusion ever been useful beyond invisibility? It feels like they really under utilized it in the series.
Looking at baldurs gate how you could summon distractions or other things with it. Yeah I know apples to oranges, but illusion was neglected.

Bound weapon :^)

Yes. Bound builds I always found the most fun in old TES. Going around wearing nothing and then just conjuring a full set of gear when you needed to go. Its a shame they never made perks or things that played off this.
Where people would think you're unarmed and treat you differently until shit hits the fan and suddenly you're in demonic gear from a wave of your hand.

Is it worth getting Skyrim Special Edition? (Todd, don't reply)

It used to be. I think Todd in his infinite wisdom upgrades it automatically to the anniversary edition now which fucks a lot of mods over.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

It used to be. I think Todd in his infinite wisdom upgrades it automatically to the anniversary edition now which fucks a lot of mods over.

Pretty much all mods I use work perfectly fine with it. I'm using stuff from as far back as 2016 with no issues. Most popular SKSE based mods have been updated to work with AE by now.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Has illusion ever been useful beyond invisibility?

Illusion was forced to donate Paralyze to Alteration for Skyrim. Not that it was that useful before that but, still, it was something. The Night Eye and Sanctuary spells were useful in Morrowind IIRC.

God I love Morrowind's magic system. I need to play that game again; it's been far too long.