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That's why magic and fists are the best options.
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Jul 28, 2021 16:17
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Mace will never help you Trust only your fists
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Jul 29, 2021 17:28
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call me a coward, but i think i played all of Skyrim on the easiest combat difficulty, because the system didn't seem to actually be engaging. I tried ratcheting up the difficulty in F4 to increase the odds of getting legendaries, but the odds of getting something actually USEFUL were low enough that I just consoled the ones i wanted and set the slider back to easy. Just as a super mutant should not be able to survive a headshot that causes a literal explosion, neither should even a really old dragon be surviving multiple arrows to the eyeball.
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Jul 29, 2021 18:16
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A game on the easiest difficulty wasn't engaging? I'm shocked
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Jul 29, 2021 18:20
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All games are better on low difficulty levels
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Jul 29, 2021 20:23
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it's just enemy damage and hitpoints going up, that's not engaging
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Jul 29, 2021 20:34
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Gaius Marius posted:A game on the easiest difficulty wasn't engaging? I'm shocked no, the harder the difficulty the less engaging i found it, sorry if i wasn't clear
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Jul 30, 2021 01:25
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Gaius Marius posted:A game on the easiest difficulty wasn't engaging? I'm shocked lol gently caress off
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Jul 30, 2021 02:21
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I've been playing through Morrowind again (and gushed about it in pretty much all the other Elder Scrolls thread except this one) and one thing I didn't really explore in those other threads is just how complex and messy Morrowind is. Ashlanders are victims of settlers coming in and taking their land and resources but the writers avoid the Hollywood problem of making them out to be innocent or naive that need to be saving. They are as varied as the settlers that think so little of them and can be just as vicious and cruel. Likewise the great houses are varying levels of lovely. Wanna join the neoliberals, the nationalists or the libertarians? Not exactly 1:1 analogies of course, but that comparison made me laugh. Exploring this messy society is really great and while the writing isn't super nuanced it at least gives you enough for your imagination to take over and get you invested that you at least want to explore (aka read the history books) of this land. At least it did for me. It's a small thing but even just following the cultural protocol of talking to the wise women and ashkhans of the Ashlanders is a neat touch. Talking directly to the wise woman about the Nerevarine prophecies has them calling you rude for not speaking to their ashkhan first. And in most cases you have to talk to their champion(s) before you can talk to them. Yeah, if you reduce it down, it's just little extra busywork to get on with things but it's inconvenient enough to get you invested in the setting and differentiates the Ashlanders from the rest of the people you've been dealing with up to that point. It's just little touches like that which Bethesda moved away from that keep adding up as to why I've only merely liked Oblivion and Skyrim but adore Morrowind. Before this most recent playthrough I've chalked it up to nostalgia and while Oblivion and, especially, Skyrim are more playable, they really lost something in the streamline process. I also wonder if that's just the side-effect of having fully voiced characters. You can really explore a ton of topics with text but when you have to voice all of that then the budget would balloon super quick.
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Jul 31, 2021 17:44
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voice acting becoming a "mandatory" feature was one of the worst things to happen to games, especially RPGs, in the entire history of the medium. every bit as bad as the constant push for better and better graphics that led to ballooning team sizes and really impersonal-feeling games. elder scrolls got hit by both of those things, led the charge in some ways really. full VA and fancy graphics were definitely big parts of the todd "take this nerd poo poo and turn it into something 'cool'" strategy that detracted from the development of the other parts of the games. it is hard to really make an interesting and detailed world with coherent themes and aesthetics when you have to get dozens and dozens of people on board, including disinterested voice actors that are reading their lines alphabetically
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Jul 31, 2021 17:53
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Yeah there's a reason for why Disco Elysium only had partial voice-acting for its release version, and why the fully-voiced Final Cut was a baffling and unexpected gift. Voice acting makes it so much harder to include extra paths and flavor, especially if it's later on in development and the voice acting is already being recorded. Making it all work in an RPG takes a herculean effort. DE's original setup was a reasonable compromise: record a few key lines so the audience gets a feel for the character's personality, as well as a fitting internal voice when they're reading the unvoiced dialogue. ThaumPenguin fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Jul 31, 2021 |
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Jul 31, 2021 18:10
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ThaumPenguin posted:Yeah there's a reason for why Disco Elysium only had partial voice-acting for its release version, and why the fully-voiced Final Cut was a baffling and unexpected gift. Voice acting makes it so much harder to include extra paths and flavor, especially if it's later on in development and the voice acting is already being recorded. Making it all work in an RPG takes a herculean effort. Yeah, I was thinking this as well. It's a good compromise, in my opinion.
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Jul 31, 2021 18:16
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Hell, I'd imagine it's how a lot of people experience the games anyway. I read a lot faster than they speak so unless the dialogue reads like it's going to be particularly cool to hear I'm hammering through the conversations and just hearing the first handful of words.
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Jul 31, 2021 20:38
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Vivec is completely gaslighting you, isn't he. "Go read my accounts of the events of the Red Mountain, I assure you me and the rest of the tribunal killing Nerevar and taking the power for ourselves is a fabrication of one of his most loyal companions." His account completely glosses over what happens to Nerevar Yeah, sure bud.
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Jul 31, 2021 23:26
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Vivec used his god powers to retcon reality to make his mary sue dreams real and you think he might not be on the level?
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Aug 1, 2021 09:01
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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/former-daggerfall-developers-reveal-a-teaser-for-their-open-world-rpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HWsSEnGZhg Could be good if it ever comes out
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Aug 2, 2021 22:13
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Partial-voice acting is definitely the way to go. Pathologic 2's VAs just said flavor lines to set the mood and tell you about the character with some extra stuff when out of menus for atmosphere, and it would have been very annoying if they had all just read out everything endlessly
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Aug 2, 2021 22:21
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I'm...surprised how much fun I'm having with Skyrim's survival mode. With the lack of autoheal, noticeable effects hunger has, and the warmth system making you think of armor in more than just big defense numbers, I have to rethink every part of my usual playstyle. Like I'm stockpiling torches to try and counteract how quickly my Argonian gets cold instead of just buying the candle spell and forgetting they exist.
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Aug 4, 2021 04:42
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Yeah, Skyrim survival can be a very rewarding roleplaying experience. It's probably in the way if you're chasing mission after mission, but as a sort of 'mess around' playstyle it can improve the gameplay a lot. oh no, urge to replay Skyrim rising
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Aug 4, 2021 09:05
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We might also be seeing AI voice actors especially in RPGs where lots of dialogue need to be done. The tech is being developed at a rapid pace and I've heard some incredible examples of voices being generated with nuances and all by machine learning a few paragraphs of a person's speech.
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Aug 4, 2021 09:41
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Yeah I heard about that in a BBC segment. One of their radio personalities was proudly demonstrating how it could almost perfectly replicate his voice for advertising. He explained that he was paid a tiny commission for licensing his voice instead of being paid hourly and this was somehow a good thing LMAO
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Aug 4, 2021 11:07
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I would also play an RPG where everyone is voiced by Microsoft Sam.
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Aug 4, 2021 18:30
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Does anyone else remember the old Creative Labs DOS voice program that came with Sound Blaster sound cards? It was called Dr Sbaitso and I still have “Dr Sbaitso bycreativelabspleaseenteryourname” burned into my skull. You could type “say” followed by whatever, and it would say it in a goofy monotone robot voice. I made it say “penis” constantly and found my 13 year old self to be quite clever and funny.
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Aug 4, 2021 19:40
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chaosapiant posted:Does anyone else remember the old Creative Labs DOS voice program that came with Sound Blaster sound cards? It was called Dr Sbaitso and I still have “Dr Sbaitso bycreativelabspleaseenteryourname” burned into my skull. You could type “say” followed by whatever, and it would say it in a goofy monotone robot voice. I made it say “penis” constantly and found my 13 year old self to be quite clever and funny. I have probably laughed more at Dr Sbaitso than anything else in my life.
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Aug 4, 2021 19:56
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thumper57 posted:I have probably laughed more at Dr Sbaitso than anything else in my life. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who remembers that goofy program! 
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Aug 5, 2021 15:08
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I've never played Oblivion before, but have played Morrowind/Skyrim. Is Oblivion worth playing? I don't remember why I didn't play it at release since I did play the other two. I'm currently working on a Morrowind playthrough and I'm debating whether I wanna take that Oblivion plunge next
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Aug 10, 2021 21:08
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It's pretty good
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Aug 10, 2021 21:11
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If properly modded, Oblivion can be...serviceable. It will never be a good game, however. That's not to say it doesn't have its moments. Some of the questlines are decent enough.
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Aug 10, 2021 21:14
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Ginette Reno posted:I've never played Oblivion before, but have played Morrowind/Skyrim. Having played a ton of Morrowind, zero Skyrim, and playing through Oblivion for the first time on PC right now, I'm enjoying it. You'll definitely want a mod that overhauls the enemy level scaling though, or the game is going to be a slog until you get close to level 20. That or you should just jack the difficulty slider way down until you reach level 20.
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Aug 10, 2021 21:29
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I've never played Oblivion because its potato people frighten me.
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Aug 10, 2021 21:49
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Ginette Reno posted:I've never played Oblivion before, but have played Morrowind/Skyrim. Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game so I'm somewhat biased, but I'd say it's certainly worth giving a go! The quests are overall more varied and interesting than those in Skyrim, especially the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, though Skyrim has the better dungeons. I'd recommend going through this guide, it'll give you a much more stable game, and the gameplay changes are firmly in the category of "subtle but good". It doesn't add any new content, it just improves and adjusts what's there.
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Aug 10, 2021 22:01
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Ginette Reno posted:I've never played Oblivion before, but have played Morrowind/Skyrim. Been playing it the past couple weeks with the wabbajack modlist and a handful of other mods. It owns
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Aug 10, 2021 22:09
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Thanks, guys. I'll probably give it a shot once I finish Morrowind. Looking forward to making a hideous potato pc
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Aug 10, 2021 22:54
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Oblivion also has slightly better casting. You don't have to equip spells like a weapon, you just cast it, even with a sword and board in your hands.
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Aug 11, 2021 04:24
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Ginette Reno posted:I've never played Oblivion before, but have played Morrowind/Skyrim. Oblivion is loving awesome.
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Aug 11, 2021 04:36
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Ginette Reno posted:Is Oblivion worth playing? From the Morrowind thread, a while ago: Vavrek posted:One of my favorite conversations with friends was when an old friend of mine and I convinced a mutual friend to buy Oblivion. (It was on sale, all DLC included for six dollars and change.) The two of us were alternating between "It's the worst game in the series," "I had a lot of fun playing it and spent hundreds of hours doing so," and "That's a really good price and you should buy it." To be clear, the both of us were adopting all three of those positions at different times, and this was eventually successful in convincing the mutual friend to buy it. unimportantguy posted:
It's been a while since I've actually played Oblivion, but I solidly stand by "I had a lot of fun playing it and spent hundreds of hours doing so." I think the main reason I stopped was just that I'd gotten comfortable playing the game with an arachnophobia mod (of my own make, I think, applied mid-game because I was just tired of having giant black widows come at me) and I turned a corner in some tunnel to find a Spider Daedra corpse there. Just nope'd right the hell out. Few games' giant spiders ever bothered me quite as much as Oblivion's, and walking right in to one after I'd gotten used to not seeing them any more was a shock that my waning interest in the game did not survive. It's a pretty good game! I hope you enjoy it. Whether or not you enjoy it, I hope you tell us all about it. We
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Aug 11, 2021 08:00
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It's a good game, don't play it on the 360 though or you'll suffer the same fate as I did: I ran too drat fast
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Aug 11, 2021 14:30
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I'm replaying Oblivion now, and once you get past the potato faces and the atrocious combat (besides magic, which I agree is superior to Skyrim), it's a fun world to explore with interesting characters and great quests, but boy is it ultra jank by today's standards. Archery is just straight up terrible – arrows fly so slowly it feels like I'm firing foam darts out of a broken nerf gun (then again I have terrible archery skills so maybe that's to be expected).
kedo fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Aug 11, 2021 |
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Aug 11, 2021 15:14
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Vavrek posted:It's a pretty good game! I hope you enjoy it. Whether or not you enjoy it, I hope you tell us all about it. We Alright, I can do this. I got into the Elder Scrolls last week or so in a serious way. I'd played Oblivion as a teen and goofed around with it but didn't really love it, then I played Skyrim on the Xbox 360 and didn't grok it either. I remember putting half an hour into Morrowind and hating it, which goes to show: teenage you may not have the taste to enjoy a game, no matter how good it is. I think it was looking at the Endreal mods that got me to finally purchase Skyrim and Oblivion (as Endreal as a prequel!) and then I figured I'd check out the vanilla games first, and picked up Morrowind as well. Which led to watching an LP of Arena, as I wanted to see the history of the series. (It's the one by BluScreen_Jason, and I quite like his enthusiasm!) So, actually playing the games: Morrowind I got a series of bugfix mods and such, and one that has magicka regenerate, because I like casting spells. Then I did the personality test and got an Agent, so I stab and steal instead.  It's been a great experience so far! I've settled into the joy of hiking to places (and leveling up my walk speed as I go) and really soaking in the atmosphere. Neverwinter Nights fortunately got me used to using rest whenever I can, as Morrowind relies on it as a mechanic, which is fascinating.I really, REALLY like having to ask for directions and then think them out. Just learning a town is an adventure, and it's been a lot of fun poking around and figuring out how to steal things for the Thieves Guild. The Mage Guild also starts with an adorable questline. "Do all the work for me! Thank you, here are a lot of potions!"  I'm currently in Vivec-the-city and I swear I went into ONE building and I've been exploring its massive corridors for days. And learning that I need cure disease potions, because bonewalkers are awful. My biggest complaint with Morrowind so far is the combat, as the to-hit system... well, it works. I can see what they're going for. But it doesn't work outside of isometric games/Neverwinter Nights, I'm sorry. (I do appreciate how it easily gates off other weapons if you aren't specialized, though, that's neat.) Skyrim I'm playing the special edition vanilla, with the console command to add infinite inventory weight as I hate managing it, and there's a LOT of garbage in Skyrim to vacuum up. I'm REALLY digging this game now that I'm approaching it correctly. Correctly as in I'm not hyper-focusing on the main quest, I'm relaxing into hiking through blizzards and finding weird nooks and crannies, and I'm taking the time to read more books than not. This game captures the feel of Arena more than Morrowind, I think - the sense of going from town to dungeon to town to dungeon in a series of mini-adventures, and really being an adventurer. It's not strictly "immersive" as it doesn't have the feel of being a complete outsider trying to find a place in Morrowind's society, but that doesn't matter, it's a fun sandbox where you go on your own custom D&D adventure and shoot things with chain lightning and loot the entire dungeon and kill dragons. This game absolutely excels at what it wants to be: fun. I like it a lot, it's great as a casual kind of experience after a tough day... ...Which yes, means I'm playing it more than Morrowind as it's not as demanding and I've had a rough week. Oblivion: I spent an evening modding it, realized I hated one of the graphical mods I added, realized I couldn't figure out how to remove it without starting over, and so it's been shelved until I'm ready to do that again. Probably this week, we'll see how interest goes. I want to get to the Shivering Isles, I looked up that lore and really, REALLY need to experience it. Daggerfall: Got it working, slammed directly into the UI (it's bad, folks) and I'll have to spend time figuring out how to change the keybinds around to something less, uh, that. Also I'm wary of playing it as I hear it has a lot of time limits. Elder Scrolls Online: I'm not ready to get back into mmos. I'm still burnt out on ffxiv. I keep swearing to myself that I'm not allowed to try it until I beat at least Morrowind or Skyrim. And that's my Elder Scrolls journey so far! Lots of fun, some frustration, and reading the lore was a hoot. I've also worked through the intense monomania so I'm not playing everything 24/7, I'm not working them into my game rotation and splitting my evenings between Warzone 2100, Dungeon Siege, and either Skyrim or Morrowind.
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Aug 11, 2021 15:31
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Imo one of the better ways to play Oblivion is to make a character who mostly avoids combat through stealth, magic and acrobatics and then just not really level up much so the enemies don't get super damage spongy.
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Aug 11, 2021 15:33
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