- Joined
- Nov 25, 2024
How so? I've never played oblivion but the primary factor keeping me from playing it is the leveling, is there some definitive mod that fixes the issue?
The Elder Scrolls
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Spooky Dogwood
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2024
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/46199
Don't be dissuaded from the description, it basically removes level scaling(and therefore it's possible to encounter high level enemies at the start of the game) and adds some lore-friendly content. I think you will need another mod to change leveled quest rewards though.
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2022
Like who?
The Jarls are all Nords. The Queen and late King are Nords. About half of their stewards are Nords. The ones that aren't are mostly Imperials, which makes sense for the setting. Most court wizards are elves or Bretons, but that's because elves and Bretons are more predisposed to magic than Nords. The only one I can think of that's hinted at as being a Grima Wormtongue situation is Sybil Stentor. The military advisers to the Jarls are all either Nords or not depending on their allegiance. All their thanes are Nords. I'm pretty sure all guards are exclusively Nords, even the Imperial ones. The Greybeards are ostensibly Nords. The College is again mostly elves and Bretons but again that makes sense, though I'll concede Nords are underrepresented here given the setting. The Companions' Circle are all Nords. The Stormcloaks are obviously Nords. Even economically, the majority of businesses -- inns, shops, farms, mines, ships, carriages, stables, etc -- are owned by Nords; all the notably wealthy and influential families like Silver-Blood, Black-Briar etc are all Nords.
Really it's just the Emperor and General Tulius who are Imperials because, duh, and the Thalmor are elves because, again, duh. They're in positions of power because they're seizing positions of power, that's central to the plot.
Conversely, the guilds that are inexplicably ethnically diverse are the thieves and murderers.
In any case, if you're trying to insinuate that a game that paints a picture of a white population rising up in response to being threatened by an invading globohomo empire discretely under the influence of a small group of conspicuously influential meddling isolationist ethnonationalists from a far off land who canonically want to bring about the apocalypse to fulfill a religious prophecy, while simultaneously being undermined by gangs of thieves and murderers made up of predominantly foreign immigrants and refugees, is woke, then we're going to have to agree to disagree.
My issue with this is that Skyrim shoehorns it into every faction. No matter what you set out to do, you inevitably find out that you're the chosen one prophesied to do that thing. In Morrowind if you ascended to the top of a guild/faction it's because you wanted to, and you put in the work. In Skyrim if you try to become a cobbler then three quests in the ghost of Springheel Jack appears and tells you that every event in your life was laid out before you to bring you here and you are soul bound to go to the Basilica of Sneaker Squeaks and reforge the fabled Jordan 5s of Blinding Speed or cast the Yeezies of the Apostle into the pit of bullshit or whatever. It's fine in a main quest but in the context of chosen pursuits it robs you of all choice in a genre about choice. Fuck you Emil. Fuck you Todd.
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2021
What exactly did Todd mean by this?
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2022
Wow, I had heard it was bad, but destruction in Skyrim is actually worse than I expected. I have built my entire build around being a destruction mage, have a fully enchanted outfit and accessories, make/buy magicka potions at every possible opportunity, and it still sucks ass. I am level 50 in it with points in most of the nodes I have unlocked, and it still is quite poor. It's crazy how often I will end up running out of magicka potions and resort to my elven mace and armor, then absolutely wreck what I was fighting despite having a much lower 1 handed and armor skill with one point in them. I thought about just scrapping this character, but I decided I will cheese to destruction level 100 and see if that makes a difference first before I waste all this time. I know heavy armor, sword and shield, and alchemy worked great my first playthrough, but I would like something a little different, so I think I will give 2 handed a shot. Shields honestly are way too good in Skyrim so I want something a little more challenging.
Pretty bummed that destruction isn't fun. I really have tried to make it work but I have to agree with some of the other posters: the lack of custom spells is extremely restrictive and limits you too much. At least you could compensate for bad design with custom spells, if it had them.
As for your insinuation that I was calling it "woke", you are jumping at shadows, though I am absolutely the kind of guy who will happily accuse progressive propaganda of being just that if I think it's accurate. I just think it's bad ethnography, which damages the setting, and I recall it being done better in the previous two installments; that being said, it has been a long time since I played TES and I am getting back in with Skyrim, so I may very well have misremembered how well done those games are in comparison as well. You are arguing against a point I never made.
Pretty bummed that destruction isn't fun. I really have tried to make it work but I have to agree with some of the other posters: the lack of custom spells is extremely restrictive and limits you too much. At least you could compensate for bad design with custom spells, if it had them.
Yeah that's my conclusion as well, having finished the College of Winterhold questline. I never bothered in the past since I never did magic, but the story was pretty pants on head retarded throughout, especially that ending. It was very notable how obviously you are railroaded through the entire time, never giving you a chance to ask obvious questions or pick any other option other than "do what you're told". Now I am the arch mage despite being a literal nobody who joined last week. Surely the masters who have been around for decades would have been better picks? Nobody is even salty that you took the position, they just all instantly defer to you.
It's funny that you get pissy at me, then proceed to list a bunch of examples of what I am talking about. You also missed the Dunmer housecarl of Whiterun. I am not going to derail the thread arguing about culture war stuff, but despite your anger, my lying eyes and ears still accurately noticed a trend in the game that holds true for a lot of the setting. They stick out like a sore thumb, especially given the context in universe of Skyrim struggling to define its own destiny.
As for your insinuation that I was calling it "woke", you are jumping at shadows, though I am absolutely the kind of guy who will happily accuse progressive propaganda of being just that if I think it's accurate. I just think it's bad ethnography, which damages the setting, and I recall it being done better in the previous two installments; that being said, it has been a long time since I played TES and I am getting back in with Skyrim, so I may very well have misremembered how well done those games are in comparison as well. You are arguing against a point I never made.
Spooky Dogwood
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2024
For an optimal mage build you need to max enchant and alchemy (for fortify enchant) and then go all in on stacking gear that reduces your magicka cost in destruction until your spells cost nothing.
foreman 89
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2021
@Deus Exica Is Skyrim woke?
Deus Exica
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2024
@foreman 89 Difficult to say, because the right wing elements the game allows you to engage with might be unintentional. Skyrim is rare in that the rebellious native white population of xenophobes may unironically be the better option than the long past their prime globohomo counterpart, with thematic elements both past and present to support that idea, not that Redditors would agree.
Despite the diverse population the game leans hard into realistic racial and social tensions.
I would say maybe incidentally woke the same way most things are but nowhere near almost every RPG that came after it.
Despite the diverse population the game leans hard into realistic racial and social tensions.
I would say maybe incidentally woke the same way most things are but nowhere near almost every RPG that came after it.
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2024
15 years of modding and theres still not a single good reason to really play it.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2022
Yeah, I have been doing all of the above, but honestly I am just done. I have put well over a dozen hours into trying to make destruction fun and it just is not fun. I finally started to get into the more powerful spells, but all of the ones I have found are AoE, and can absolutely hurt you in some contexts, but worse than that is that it's so fucking easy to aggro your follower. I had Serena with me and even though I was only using flame wall well away from her, I can only assume that she ran through the spell, because she decided to start attacking me during a difficult boss fight. Only me, I might add, despite the fact that she was still getting wailed on by the enemy.
The magic just isn't fun in general. The projectiles appear to move slower than arrows so they miss quite a bit, and I have had a lot of times where I can see the magicka projectile go THROUGH the enemy but not damage them at all. This is especially bad when you're using a more powerful spell, since the waste isn't even on you. Also, you can't sneak attack with the spells to try to compensate for the slow projectile speed, so all too often I would end up getting uncomfortably close to the enemies just to make sure my spells hit, and that led to a lot of deaths since mages aren't supposed to fight up close. I thought about getting some of the new spells through the Creation Club since I have some free points to buy with, but I just don't care anymore. At this point, I have put in more than enough hours into trying to magic in Skyrim fun and I am just done with trying. Destruction magicka is busted and not in the good way.
I will say though, there are legitimately some nice parts to this game. I still like alchemy and bartering, and usually end up a greedy Jew because of it with this time being no exception, and enchanting is actually pretty cool unlike destruction. Enchanting kind of sucks at first, but it was already getting quite good in my mage playthrough, and I could see it being absolutely phenomenal at higher levels; the biggest barrier is finding the right enchantment to breakdown and learn, since I still had not found a single "improve enchant" enchantment. I also think there's some really nice set pieces in Skyrim, especially outside, and despite the aged graphics I really do love the ambiance and environment much of the time in the game. There was one spot by Ivarstead in particular that I stopped at for about fifteen seconds to enjoy and soak it in just because it looked incredible and I genuinely felt really immersed in the moment. Despite some of the naysaying here, I really do think there are some nice parts of Skyrim. It isn't game of the century like some people present it as, but there really is a good amount to like about it.
Enough to like that I am going to give the game another shake, though I am definitely not being a mage this time. I think I will try two handed and light armor, since I have never tried either. Hopefully it won't be such a frustrating combat experience this time around.
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2023
From my limited time with Skyrim I at least seem to recall everyone recommending shock damage spells for several reasons - one, they're hitscan (no projectile, you point at things, click and they die), two, they damage enemy HP and mana, three - outside of Storm Atronachs, almost nothing resists or is immune to them. Fire and ice spells made me want to sprint off a cliff.
Kharash
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2022
I don't get why magic doesn't just scale with level like every other weapon type. it was odd in previous games too but there they had the excuse of spell crafting but in Skyrim it's literally just a handful of premade spells tied to specific delivery methods such as short range flamethrower, fireballs etc. Why wouldn't they scale in a game where literally everything else does?
Well it's obvious no one at Bethesda gave a fuck about magic but it's still strange.
Well it's obvious no one at Bethesda gave a fuck about magic but it's still strange.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2020
It's too late now but, for future playthoughs, the trick is to have a melee focused follower and use Destruction and Conjuration. The idea is you plonk down a summon (or two if you're good) and while the enemy is dealing with all that nonsense you can poke them with Destruction spells.
This isn't a defense of magic in Skyrim. It's shit. But you can make a mage work if you know how. It just depends how much you want to spite Todd.
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
It is very shit and Destruction spells suck ass.
But you can simply deploy 2 dremora lords and wait.
You can't do that in Oblivion for example.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2020
Dremora Lords are god-like when you first unlock them, but get destroyed by later enemies. Deploying one against a dragon and watching it get killcam'd immediately was an "Oh shit" moment for me that I vividly remember years later.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2018
DREAM is really ugly though.
The only thing necessary are mods to make the dungeons less insane and some mods that give the overworld a bit of life.
Now there might be no point in doing wilderness content, but it makes the world feel more alive.
In same vein, making the cities more interesting helps.
Observotron
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
Bethesda likes to nerf game mechanics to make their gimmick stand out more.
In oblivion, Enchanting is shit because they wanted people to keep running oblivion gates for the sigil stones. Same thing with Magic in skyrim. Dragon shouts are the "new" Magic system, so spellcasting isn't allowed to be good and we cant have spellcrafting.
In fallout 4, anything that isn't power armor is useless and there's almost no interesting towns or cities because of the settlement system.
In Starfield, there's no interesting locations or questlines because the emphasis was on procgen exploration.
The general trend with their games is that whatever the main gimmick is replacing will suffer greatly.
Spooky Dogwood
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2024
While I think it's pretty obvious that shouts did steal some of the design space for magic, I'm fairly sure that Todd spelled it out for us in an interview before that he's basically a lazy faggot, who would rather throw a system out than try to fix it(The same reason all conversations are scripted in Skyrim instead of using Oblivion's radiant dialogue system). Todd mentioned how he didn't like how magic became "spread sheets", and to a degree I could see his point. Players are just going to make the most optimal spells or use it for exploits(like a 1 second 100% charm spell), but he could have actually put some thought into balancing it and giving players a reason to use vendor spells instead of scraping the whole thing.
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2024
I agree with Toward on this, because players WILL optimize the fun out of a game given the chance (pretty sure that's a Sid Meier quote)
The problem is Beth fixes this optimization in the worst ways possible.
Observotron
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
Well I think that's a whole other issue with Bethesda, maybe Todd specifically - they misinterpret streamlining with simplifying.
I think that streamlining the understanding of systems, and how they interact with their worlds, would be a good thing, but they don't do that. To the point of spellcrafting, they didn't try to make it balanced or work (not that I think it should in a singleplayer game) they just outright remove it from the game. With the example of 100% charm for 1 second, an easy fix would just be to have spell timers countdown even in conversation. Instead, NPC disposition was removed and replaced with a binary system of whether they like you or not, and "charm spells" being reduced to a player aggro modifier.
In general, their whole game design philosophy has changed from "simulated worlds" to "arcadey dungeon delvers".