Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Why have two handed weapons in the game if they are broken then? The idea behind them is that they do more damage at the expense of a shield. So wither wearing heavy armor or moving very fast would be an effective way to use them. But because of the instakill archers that may not be an option.

I didn't actually try the two handed playstyle though. That's why I asked.

disclaimer: I won't watch two hour long videos, point out when the interesting thing happens.

Sorry, the first vid the guy is doing what I talked about the entire first 30 minutes. The second is a different guy. Mudcrab derp starts around 11 minutes.

 

[DraQ]

2h is just fine - you get high burst damage and high reach.

It's kind of weak against archers and costs you a bit of flexibility as you can't put shield in your offhand or wield a spell there, but OTOH it lets you murder trolls effectively from the start.

Currently playing a battlemage style build with HA and 2H.
Good damage with 2h, protective buffs and summons to compensate for lack of shield, planning to make artillery magic viable because you can't spellsword in close quarters with 2h weapon, planning to use ranged weapons as well, but only as poison delivery system.

A bit of a pushing the envelope experimental build to check what's viable and what isn't - 2h meshes a bit better with light armour becuase it lets you combine speed and reach (light armour + Ebony Blade = omfg) since you already forfeit much protection, spells mesh better with 1h because of mixed wielding, and HA meshes poorly with spells, making you effectively unable to use them before you reach 25 in HA and start putting perks in battlemage branch, but overall it's working out just fine.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

As long as he gets close to the archer without getting killed on the way, a two-hander user will cut him in two with one blow. No shield needed. I lugged a bandit chief zombie with me for a while and got first hand evidence of that.

 

[set]

Yeah, if you watched any one of those videos that were linked, you'd see that "getting close" is not easy. In corridors and open paths you have no cover and you need move a long distance quickly. At least a magic user can play peek-a-boo and kill things that way, people who use melee weapons need to actually walk out and stand in the open for more than .5 seconds to hurt something.

See, here's the thing, I stopped playing Skyrim right away because there was only one character you could play as: a mage-theif-warrior. Not because you were forced to, but because everything came so naturally that it was inevitable that you would just use everything to win. You don't choose a class, you never have to give up anything; you can be everything at the same time.

But in RPGs, you know, the ones where you play a role? You specialize. I want to specialize in melee weapons and light armor. If I have to be a generalist to be in any way shape or form successful, then Requiem has failed to turn Skyrim into an RPG. If "specializing" is "playing badly" or "not gitting gud" then the game is flawed, because you should be able to specialize. If the game is designed to make melee weapons worthless, then why do they exist? They have no advantages, because the risk vs reward just isn't there. Mages have better AoE, better damage, and don't use up their stamina attacking, so they can be more mobile to more effectively evade damage. The only thing warriors get access to is heavy armor, but there exist perks that let mages use that anyway.

If I want to roleplay as a 'magciphobe' or at the very least a fuckin' viking-archetype, you'd expect me to not utilize magic - and any good RPG has this option. This isn't "Wizard the RPG" or something, the idea is you can roleplay as a magicky type, a roguey type, or a warriory type. Again, roleplay. I'm not roleplaying as a warrior or thief when I am constantly killing my foes with magic, this makes me a wizard. A roleplaying game with one available role is not really a roleplaying game.

 

[Lancehead]

Requiem has only one viable role!

You make it pretty easy to discard your posts. At best you just suck at fpp games.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yeah, if you watched any one of those videos that were linked, you'd see that "getting close" is not easy.

You mean the videos with the retard that keeps doing the same unnecessary shit over and over for a half hour? That's the sort of skill level we are talking about here?

Unlike Lhynn I play the game too, don't know why you insist on telling me how it is. It's easy as long as your plan doesn't consist of tanking the arrows with your mouth. (well, relatively easy, as you need to pay attention. Certainly not zomg impossibel!!)

But in RPGs, you know, the ones where you play a role? You specialize. I want to specialize in melee weapons and light armor. If I have to be a generalist to be in any way shape or form successful, then Requiem has failed to turn Skyrim into an RPG. If "specializing" is "playing badly" or "not gitting gud" then the game is flawed, because you should be able to specialize.

Specialization doesn't mean crippling yourself. There are several ways of dealing with archers, but all of them apparently go against the character you are "roleplaying" - a defenseless guy who can't do anything but rush the enemy and punch him in the face, hoping he dies before he can punch you back.

Okay, serious answer now. The problem is that, if I understood it correctly, you have a very specific type of character in mind. A warrior who refuses to use any sort of defense. No shield, heavy armor, alchemy, illusions, conjurations, wards, mercenaries, whatever. No ranged damage either, because he's a supa brave warrior ^_^. If you want to play with such a crippled character, you better come up with a really good strategy to take on the enemies that poke your weakness.

So what you are saying is that a two-handed weapon melee user is a crippled character in Requiem?

Huh? I was talking about set's character.

Anyway, if the two-hander dude refuses to do anything else other than swing his big sword "cuz he's a Viking", he's crippled, yes. Like a mage who refuses to use anything other than fireball "cuz he's a pyromaniac", or a thief who has no way to kill anything that can't be backstabbed for 30x damage "cuz he's a ninja". If you "specialize" to a crippling point, you are crippled. And that's okay, as long as you don't expect the gameworld to bend to your special necessities (Magic resistant enemies? Bullshit! Undead can't be backstabbed? Bullshit! I can't just dash towards an archer without some means of protection? Bullshit!)

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

See, here's the thing, I stopped playing Skyrim right away because there was only one character you could play as: a mage-theif-warrior. Not because you were forced to, but because everything came so naturally that it was inevitable that you would just use everything to win. You don't choose a class, you never have to give up anything; you can be everything at the same time.

But in RPGs, you know, the ones where you play a role? You specialize. I want to specialize in melee weapons and light armor. If I have to be a generalist to be in any way shape or form successful, then Requiem has failed to turn Skyrim into an RPG. If "specializing" is "playing badly" or "not gitting gud" then the game is flawed, because you should be able to specialize.

A roleplaying game with one available role is not really a roleplaying game.

Pretty much this.

Rather than being a game which accommodates different playstyles, which is generally the idea behind an RPG, Requiem turns it into a game which favors one - the fighter/mage/thief (aka the munchkin). I love how being a character who can do fricking anything is being considered strategic by clockwork knight. What if you were locked into a class by a ruleset that refused to let you metagame like fuck, hmm? Like, I dunno, Bauldur's Gate's - the game Requiem wishes it was? Love to see you "git gud" at that when archers kill you in one hit. Is it possible? Very. It's just boring to sit through load screen after load screen. That's Requiem's main flaw - playing anything other than a fighter/mage/theif/munchkin is no fun.

 

[Gord]

Now now, I'm playing Requiem quite fine with a pure unarmored breton mage, using a combination of conjuration and destruction.
While I do think that railgun-archers are bad balancing, nevertheless they aren't that limiting that you are forced into a certain type of character.
It's all about finding and using the right tools, in my case some conjured minions as decoy and ranged destruction magic to deal with the archers.
Of course I still have to resort to if I don't want to die instantly from archers, but it's not necessary to play a "fighter/mage/thief/munchkin" to survive. I've probably used a melee weapon (a elven dagger I found early) about 3-4 times in total, and I've never used other weapons except for some magical staff.

It's the popamole aspect and damage imbalance relative to other weapons which I don't like about the current archer implementation in Requiem.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Now now, I'm playing Requiem quite fine with a pure unarmored breton mage, using a combination of conjuration and destruction.
While I do think that railgun-archers are bad balancing, nevertheless they aren't that limiting that you are forced into a certain type of character.
It's all about finding and using the right tools, in my case some conjured minions as decoy and ranged destruction magic to deal with the archers.

...
Of course I still have to resort to if I don't want to die instantly from archers, but it's not necessary to play a "fighter/mage/thief/munchkin" to survive.

I was more speaking from someone who wanted to play a pure melee character's perspective. Yes, I also played a (nearly) pure mage in Requiem. It's quite possible as magic is easiest to popamole - even easier than arrows because Daugr are resistant to them. Good luck playing without magic though (it's pretty boring dying instantly all the time).

 

[Gord]

Well, I'm all for character specialization, but there are always some limits.
E.g. it would be stupid to complain that I can't play a pacifist diplomat in Skyrim, since the game is simply not made for that.
TES games do favour hybrid characters to some degree, but the question is how far you have to go there.
With melee in Requiem the biggest issue I see is healing and dealing with ranged attacks.
The first can be approached with a little bit of restoration or alchemy, although it might even work to rely on found/bought potions.
Ranged enemies are something else. Single enemies are usually no problem, but I imagine that a room full of wizards or several archers at once can pose a serious danger if you don't have some way to deal ranged damage as well.
Then again that is the trouble with overly specialized characters - you restrict yourself to one role and get good in that role, but lack in flexibility.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Nah, if it weren't for the archers, you'd be able to use resist frost, fire, whatever potions along with slightly cheese tactics (running and drawing them around corners to deal with the wizards. In Requiem, most wizards are instakillers too anyway, just less common than archers, so I imagine most builds would have a problem with your scenario if they didn't cheese a little. The key with a fighter is to increase HP to the point where you can tank mages - with the right potions - or absorb an arrow or two while evading the rest (not happening in RequiDumb).

 

[DraQ]

See, here's the thing, I stopped playing Skyrim right away because there was only one character you could play as: a mage-theif-warrior. Not because you were forced to, but because everything came so naturally that it was inevitable that you would just use everything to win. You don't choose a class, you never have to give up anything; you can be everything at the same time.

Except, you see, limited perk points and having to pick between magicka, stamina and health pretty much preclude that.
And Requiem makes perks absolutely crucial for making your build work.

The problem isn't that you specialize your character. The problem is that you refuse to adjust tactics you use with your specialized character.
If you're playing poorly armoured but mobile guy who needs to get close to deal massive damage, then you're naturally weak against guys who can just pick your poorly armoured ass off from any distance and need to exploit environment, your mobility and any other factors to survive against enemy specialized in killing your build.

And no, every build in Requiem has an enemy specialized in fucking it up, it's not just big bad modder unjustly picking on your favourite bare-ass highlanders with huge swords.

And if you still struggle and won't change either your playstyle to suit your build or build to suit your playstyle, consider getting a follower or hireling. Maybe a summoner to provide distractions while you charge in screaming your bare ass off, archer to provide ranged support, or maybe just a tincan to tank arrows for you.

 

[Lhynn]

Requiem: bringing classes to a classless game because fuck it and fuck you (dont even name the stupid classes, i always go custom, in every game that allows me to go custom). The beauty of TES games is that it doesnt force you to especialize, it just has a cost to doing it.
If you dont do it you become weak, as the only way to keep up with the new dangers is become more and more efficient at a single thing. But you also need to know a bit of everything to be able to deal with different situations, the games are designed to be about lone adventurer, ergo knowing a bit of everything makes sense.

 

[set]

Hirelings? You mean companions, the free slaves that gladly rush to my defense and trivialize every encounter by taking aggro, running ahead into dangerous traps and otherwise spoiling the atmosphere of exploring a world by yourself. Of course I could use them, but I just don't enjoy that.

You guys are fuckin' weird. Requiem just isn't worth this much of a defense-force. I do "adjust my tactics" - I do everything within my grasp to win. I will abuse the positions of debris, structures, and other enemies to block arrows and magic. But there isn't much to "adjust to" when you are killed in one hit.

I'm not asking for a lot here, really. I'm not convinced using heavy armor is going to make things any better either, it means I will be moving a lot slower until I get whatever perk it is that negates the movement penalty, meaning, I will just take more damage trying to reach my opponents to hit them with my big stick.

If by changing my playstyle, you're saying, "Use magic," then you're just missing the point. I could use magic. And it would probably be enough that I would stop complaining about archers, but then we're back to playing Skyrim again. Because if you actually played vanilla Skyrim, you'd know that there is only one class. Perks in Skyrim don't make a shit difference - destruction is always weaksauce, sneaking up on things is piss easy, unlocking doors and robbing people blind is trivial, and wearing plate or cloth doesn't really matter all that much (but you should probably be wearing plate). Yes, you do "specialize" into having more health, magic or stamina, which lets you utilize magic or sneaking a little more often, but you are still utilizing the same three core skillsets - mage, rogue and warrior. All the time. There is never an instance where you can feel like a thief or a mage or a warrior because you are never any one thing exclusively.

Giving archers one-shot-kills for things at close range is absolutely ridiculous. I'm stacking health exclusively and it's still not getting any better. It is the very definition of bullshit and there is no reason for it. If archers did 50% of my health, I would shrug and deal with it, but there's no "adjusting tactics" when you die in one hit in mid range. That's my problem and I think it's a simple issue: common ranged enemies (aka bandits and undead) should not be able to kill me with a single solitary arrow. That's all I'm asking for. I don't think this is that large of a request, archers would still be riciulous if they did half your health, but at least they would give me room to play in. There's no "room" for tactics when you die instantly. All you can do is hide, bait, and cheese.

 

[RK47]

Dawnguard Adventure continues

Spoiler

 

[Lancehead]

Requiem: bringing classes to a classless game because fuck it and fuck you (dont even name the stupid classes, i always go custom, in every game that allows me to go custom). The beauty of TES games is that it doesnt force you to especialize, it just has a cost to doing it.
If you dont do it you become weak, as the only way to keep up with the new dangers is become more and more efficient at a single thing. But you also need to know a bit of everything to be able to deal with different situations, the games are designed to be about lone adventurer, ergo knowing a bit of everything makes sense.

You're an intellectually bankrupt idiot making these claims without playing the mod. Here's how my build currently is: I have most of the perks in Sneak, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, Smithing, Archery and Enchanting, and some perks in Speech, Evasion and Alchemy (edit: and One-handed). That's 10 out of 18 skills that I'm decent to good at.

 

[Lhynn]

You're an intellectually bankrupt idiot making these claims without playing the mod. Here's how my build currently is: I have most of the perks in Sneak, Pickpocket, Lockpicking, Smithing, Archery and Enchanting, and some perks in Speech, Evasion and Alchemy. That's 9 out of 18 skills that I'm decent to good at.

Truly a jack of all trades, cant even see a pattern in your skill selection.

 

[Lancehead]

Truly a jack of all trades, cant even see a pattern in your skill selection.

Weak strawman. You claimed Requiem forces one to specialise and that one must become efficient at "a single thing". Those claims are patently false. Being good at more than half the skills is not what you'd call "specialisation".

And please do tell me what pattern did you observe in Smithing and Enchanting being focussed on alongside Sneak, Pickpocketing and Lockpicking.

 

[Lhynn]

Truly a jack of all trades, cant even see a pattern in your skill selection.

Weak strawman. You claimed Requiem forces one to specialise and that one must become efficient at "a single thing". Those claims are patently false. Being good at more than half the skills is not what you'd call "specialisation".

And please do tell me what pattern did you observe in Smithing and Enchanting being focussed on alongside Sneak, Pickpocketing and Lockpicking.

muffle, +sneak, speed, creation of lockpicks and melting of valuables that you steal, and well, being good at stealing, oh and also the silent rail gun.

 

[Lancehead]

Spoken like someone who hasn't played the mod. I don't create lockpicks nor melt stuff I steal. I chose smithing and enchanting specificaly to deal with certain types of enemies, namely undead and constructs.

In other words, knowing that there are enemies that I couldn't handle well with just stealth, I diversified. I.e., exactly opposite to your bullshit claim.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Requiem: bringing classes to a classless game because fuck it and fuck you (dont even name the stupid classes, i always go custom, in every game that allows me to go custom). The beauty of TES games is that it doesnt force you to especialize, it just has a cost to doing it.
If you dont do it you become weak, as the only way to keep up with the new dangers is become more and more efficient at a single thing. But you also need to know a bit of everything to be able to deal with different situations, the games are designed to be about lone adventurer, ergo knowing a bit of everything makes sense.

There's no cost at all, and what you described is one of the reasons this game sucks.

But then I suppose adding classes to a sucky game built around a shit system would be equally crappy, and other expletives.

 

[Lhynn]

Spoken like someone who hasn't played the mod. I don't create lockpicks nor melt stuff I steal. I chose smithing and enchanting specificaly to deal with certain types of enemies, namely undead and constructs.
In other words, knowing that there are enemies that I couldn't handle well with just stealth, I diversified. I.e., exactly opposite to your bullshit claim.

That is one of the cool features of requiem and ive said this before, resistances are a brilliant idea, they force you to be flexible.

By the way, im intrigued at how you play the game, what do you do besides shooting people in the face or in their backs? backpedal while shooting people in the face maybe? . So as an archer you shoot the enemies dead before they can reach you/shoot back. But as a melee you have to use cover, slowly move forward, use terrain, time blocks perfectly at the right angle and hope you get lucky while at the same time each step forward makes it more dangerous and likely that youll have to reload. F.u.c.k.i.n.g. bullshit.
Diversify my ass, youve got a weapon that can deal with anything short of creatures that are immune to it (which is solved by your lighting/fire enchantements), at any range, and everything you have is aimed towards that very same goal.

PS: Not being able to melt stuff you steal or creating lockpicks makes me a sad panda, its one of the most immersive, most interesting things ive done with SkyRe. =(

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The beauty of TES games is that it doesnt force you to especialize, it just has a cost to doing it.

The cost being that of a new keyboard.

So as an archer you shoot the enemies dead before they can reach you/shoot back. But as a melee you have to use cover, slowly move forward, use terrain, time blocks perfectly at the right angle and hope you get lucky while at the same time each step forward makes it more dangerous and likely that youll have to reload. F.u.c.k.i.n.g. bullshit.

Agreed. Different characters playing differently, that's not balanced at all. How can we correct that?

Ah.

 

[Lhynn]

look at me, am funny

snip

Agreed. making one way of playing simplistic and repetitive and also the best way to handle things and the other hard as fuck and not rewarding is fun.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Last time I wrote you an actual reply you dismissed it all with an one liner. So now you get funny gifs.