sea's (Mostly Technical) Skyrim Initial Impressions

[Heresiarch]

Once again, Bethsoft proves they have no fucking idea to make a balanced magic system in TES. Apparently spells become very underpowered after a certain level, as they don't scale with character's level, and there seems to have no enchantment to strengthen spell damage. Compared to mages, warriors with equipments enchanted to hell can dish out ridiculous damage.

Let's recap
Daggerfall: Higher magic skill = lower spell cost, magicka doesn't regenerate, magicka potion is hard to come by and very weak, so pure mages are EXTREMELY hard to play, but once you get 105% in destruction, Disintegrate in 10 ft with magicka cost of 5 is extremely OPed and can completely render melee useless

Morrowind: Higher magic skill does NOT lower spell cost, magicka doesn't regenerate, thus spells cost TONS to cast, though magicka potions are easier to make and can be very powerful, damage spells with a reasanable casting cost are extremely weaksauce, powerful damage spells are prohibitively expensive to cast and may pale compared to what a Daedric Daikatana can do, pure mages can be played but very tiresome IMO

Oblivion: Higher magic skill = lower spell cost, magicka DOES regenerate, thus anyone can use a few spells in every battle, but spell damage is even weaker than Morrowind IIRC, pure mages are OK, but still a bit weak compared to a battlemage

Skyrim: Higher magic skill = lower spell cost, magicka regenerates but it seems even around 10 to 15 level you won't have enough to kill 4-5 weaker enemies or 1-2 tougher minibosses, damage seems alright early on, can easily two shot normal bandits at master difficulty, but damn Bethsoft made damage spells have a damage cap, and adding in the previously mentioned problem, it seems playing as a pure mage must put in MUCH more effort than a warrior

So far the game seems good, at least MUCH better than Oblivion, the new soundtracks are very good (even better than Morrowind IMO), the atmosphere is good, graphics are improved (characters in Skyrim are probably the best looking of TES), quests are dumbfuck as ever ("hey stranger I don't know you but can you help me bring this sword/food/expensive shit to my relative I know you won't cheat me lol"), Radiant AI is still so hilarious, game mechanism got so simplified that makes me wonder if I'm playing The Elder Scrolls: Dark Messiah, explorations seem to be much more interesting than Oblivion and maybe even in par to Morrowind.

 

[Qwertilot]

The difference with spells in Oblivion surely the spell creation? Getting to max destruction let you make some really rather insane spells. Damage/mana maybe not much improved, but damage/second massive and enough net to one shot pretty well anything (with a blast radius in fact). Except of course the utterly absurd things with level scaled hit points but there's nothing to be done about those!

If Skyrim is restricting you to fixed fireballs and the like it'll be painful.

 

[Jaedar]

It does, and pure mage is pretty underpowered. As always.

 

[octavius]

yes i do have ctds , but not frequently , most often while quicksaving or fast travelling. I am not even looking for solutions, what could be the cause anyway? The pc is new with good hardware, like 30X the power of an xbox, and a clean seven ultimate install.

This is the reason I won't even pick the game up for a few months. It's a new game. It's a huge game. Experience tells me that it's bound to be filled with bugs and other annoying issues that will dent the entertainment value I'll be getting out of it.

Plus... in a few months there will probably be some interesting MODs anyway.

That makes two of us that have patience and don't crave instant gratification. I wonder if there are more of us?

 

[Crispy]

After a weekend of playing, I'd like to update my opinion on the game and share some of my experiences with it. This post is generally spoiler-free.

I do like the game, but I'm certain my conclusion is going to be that it is ultimately unfulfilling. That's no surprise to anyone who's played any of these guys' games in the past few years.

Positive aspects:

- The game is obviously pretty, but it suffers from a few severe warts, such as the wtf? shadows. I won't go further into the hardware department this time for fear of losing most of you console players.

- I've been rather impressed with most of the scripted events that have occurred. I enjoyed the first dragon fight, I like having people join me to go on quests, and some of the theme-based dungeons have been legitimately fun.

An example of that: I found a tomb on the other side of the mountain from Whiterun that had a Nord waiting outside of it. He explained there was a necromancer inside who was violating his family's resting place and needed my help killing the guy. He joins up and we proceed to clear the place. Quite diffucult, too. This was a simple sidequest, not related to the story at all, but it struck me as being tight and interesting enough to have taken care of right there and then. It's a great quest to show off some of the spell effects if you haven't seen many of them yet and the dungeon design, while quite linear, was pleasing enough.

- I like the combat, although I have liked TES' combat since Arena. Good move to slow backwards running in order to prevent rampant kiting, and if you play on anything above Normal difficulty you're going to be hitting that heal spell/potion quickkey more often than maybe expected. Looking forward to the perks and their effects. I honestly can't complain about the combat so far at all although I'll be installing whatever bowpull fatigue mod that comes out once it does.

- The dragons are... interesting. I had to use an invisibility potion and some panicked sprinting to get away from one of them for fear of gettiing insta-pwned, and I like that. Provides incentive for revenge/character development/collection of power. That's all I really look to these games for: exploration, find loot, kill shit. Absorbing the dragons' powers is quite epic-silly, but it really was fun after the first time. I hope it doesn't become a trivial joke later on in the game.

- The terrain -- its diversity, layout and attention to detail is admirable. It's pretty impressive to finally realize how big that mountain is, after you've tried to trek your way around it. This aspect of TES V as a hiking sim certainly hasn't let me down. I just need to keep that in mind once I start finding myself getting frustrated looking for something in this game that's not there, namely its lacking aspects of being a true CRPG. Many here would do well to remember that as well.

Negative aspects:

- The game clearly needs a lot of cleanup work. From the rather trivial shit of broken shadows, weird graphics glitches (that are only temporary) to other minor technical issues such as low sound volume, etc., after a few patches things should be a little more stable. One amazingly fail moment was when I saw the dragon's skeleton -- the one that I had just killed earlier -- fall from a small height and flop on the ground a fair distance from where it originally lay after I loaded a save game. Bethesda has been known for this kind of stupid shit since Oblivion and it's surprising to me hasn't been cleaned up by now. Millions of dollars spent on these games' budgets and they still seem slave to their middlewares' failings. But there you go, Bethesda in a nutshell.

- Some severe inconsistencies in either the level scaling or just the straightforward difficulty levels. I normally like seeing areas that are impossible for the newbie to just stroll into, but when you're basically on only the 2nd part of your main quest and you're getting utterly slaughtered by some ice wolves just trying to make your way up the mountain that can get a little frustrating. Sure, I'll go and level up some, get that bitch companion back again (she's kinda hot, though) and try again, but I shouldn't have to. Again, though, I can't complain about this aspect too much because it forces me to either innovate or try harder, which is usually a good thing. I still can't help but wonder how many teenage derpers out there are WTFBBQ?!-ing over this kind of thing right now. I actually laughed at myself, picturing that G4 commercial where the glasses guy keeps running his Mario into the obstacle over and over with a single tear running down his cheek. Fucking wolves!

- As has already been discussed, the eventual pointlessness of this game. This is looming larger and larger the more I play it. Lack of experience points for completing quests is the main culprit, but this is a systemic issue with almost all skill-based RPG's. We've seen it time and time again and it doesn't appear as if Bethesda's been able to hide it well enough yet. They're trying to, by playing with the level-up progressions and level-scalings to where it seems like you're still chasing that carrot, but I feel the apathy creep from this type of system waiting on the horizon. It killed Oblivion for most of us and forced me to power grind my way through the ending of that game just to say to myself that I finished it. Hoping that doesn't happen here but I think it's inevitable.

- The interface, which I won't go into. It's been bashed justifiably plenty enough, no need to rehash. I will say, however, that disabling the compass and thereby completely removing any HUD features is nice. I mean if you're going to go the FP, LARP, hiking sim route you might as well go all in. For this reason, I'm actually glad there's health regen and in fact the rate at which it does seems at least rudimentally well though-out. Guess I should have thrown that part into the positive aspects section.

Anyway, majestic! Another glorious day on the Codex!

Edit: Just realized I have a pretty big disparity between my op and this post regarding how good the game looks. I first described it as being ugly but my opinion on that changed because I have to give credit where credit's due. Again, it's pretty but with some nasty warts.

 

[Excidium]

Also it seems they have been experimenting with using magic on the enviroment. Those random puddles of oil feel artificial as fuck, but hey, it's a start.

I wonder if you can activate traps by yelling at them?

 

[Peter]

Yeah, it seem that you can actually set anything wooden on fire, which is p cool, if not pointless, I suppose.

Anyways, I more or less agree with that pros and cons list Crispy. My honeymoon period with the game has ended, however, and I'm starting to realize this is Oblivion 2, not major incline.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Anyway, majestic! Another glorious day on the Codex!

 

[Mortmal]

yes i do have ctds , but not frequently , most often while quicksaving or fast travelling. I am not even looking for solutions, what could be the cause anyway? The pc is new with good hardware, like 30X the power of an xbox, and a clean seven ultimate install.

This is the reason I won't even pick the game up for a few months. It's a new game. It's a huge game. Experience tells me that it's bound to be filled with bugs and other annoying issues that will dent the entertainment value I'll be getting out of it.

Plus... in a few months there will probably be some interesting MODs anyway.

That makes two of us that have patience and don't crave instant gratification. I wonder if there are more of us?

I suggest people to keep multiple saves too , save games can be corrupted, not a surprise for me i always keep multiple saves, same bugs as usual.
Its true the voice of reason is to wait a few months to get everything debugged + some free adittional content, and get it at half price to boot, but fuck her i am too old and i have zero patience anymore...

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Also it seems they have been experimenting with using magic on the enviroment. Those random puddles of oil feel artificial as fuck, but hey, it's a start.

I wonder if you can activate traps by yelling at them?

"LOL, THAT RAISED PLATE IS WAY TOO OBVIOUS"

*trap disarms in shame*

 

[Crispy]

I always knew VD liked me.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What's not to like?

 

[Excidium]

Also it seems they have been experimenting with using magic on the enviroment. Those random puddles of oil feel artificial as fuck, but hey, it's a start.

I wonder if you can activate traps by yelling at them?

"LOL, THAT RAISED PLATE IS WAY TOO OBVIOUS"

*trap disarms in shame*

 

[hoverdog]

Also it seems they have been experimenting with using magic on the enviroment. Those random puddles of oil feel artificial as fuck, but hey, it's a start.

I wonder if you can activate traps by yelling at them?

"LOL, THAT RAISED PLATE IS WAY TOO OBVIOUS"

*trap disarms in shame*

MAJESTIC

 

[Commissar Draco]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7trmEmI5Js

In my ORIGINAL game, being played on my high-end, well mainteined PC, none of this has ever happened, so I call BS and pirate.

Still unpatched Skyrim runs way better than than any previus Bethpizda games... no crashes, played around 25 hours... mainly sidequests and begining of two main quests: Dragonborn and Legion/Stormfagots.
I'm shocked that game is not shit... Thank you oh wise for pointing me to it.

 

[Black]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7trmEmI5Js

Oh man, gotta love the attitude.
Hahahaha, yeah, those bugs are sooo funny, they're trademarks of every Bethesda game, so charming.

But when some other dev releases a buggy pos (like, Obsidian) it's LOL LRN2 MAKE GAMES FAGGOTS.

 

[Gord]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7trmEmI5Js

Oh man, gotta love the attitude.
Hahahaha, yeah, those bugs are sooo funny, they're trademarks of every Bethesda game, so charming.

But when some other dev releases a buggy pos (like, Obsidian) it's LOL LRN2 MAKE GAMES FAGGOTS.

Well, we are just so used to buggy Bethesda games by now, it's like mentioning that the pope is cathollic.
Everyone takes it for granted.

That being said, Skyrim just crashed on me for the first time, after about 3 hours of playing. Could be worse.

Shadows are strange. They look rather ugly and putting them to very high seems to almost half my framerate, so I play with high and at least get a pretty smooth experience.

It is indeed very much from Oblivion as far as world/level design is considered. Also some nice little details. Witnessed a fight between some Stormcloaks and Legion soldiers. When I came back the next day, a marauder had started looting their stuff and putting it on.

Not sure how it will hold up though. So far I don't feel overly motivated to follow a particular goal and just run around doing random shit.

 

[Kaol]

Its ok i suppose. Finished the main quest after 22 hours, now trying to decide if i'd like to play again on hardest difficulty.

I've never played a TES game before so to me it felt very much like a fallout game.

The interface is horrible.
Dialogue is horrible.
Combat i'm not sure, on normal mode left clicking now and again was enough to kill anything.

Tbh i much preferred The Witcher 2 to this.

Theres alot of stuff i don't like.

Like fallout 3 it feels like a Jesus simulator, i like games where you arnt some kind of "chosen one" but i suppose thats a design choice.

Its very much one of those e-larp games, don't expect the game to amaze you with interesting quests/plots ect, at least not on the main quest line.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Some pics of M'aiq

http://imgur.com/ZkqaZ,YdDMo,OCoCJ,3P57 ... yL,4Iv51#0

 

[Roguey]

- Some severe inconsistencies in either the level scaling or just the straightforward difficulty levels. I normally like seeing areas that are impossible for the newbie to just stroll into, but when you're basically on only the 2nd part of your main quest and you're getting utterly slaughtered by some ice wolves just trying to make your way up the mountain that can get a little frustrating.

Haven't even played this thing but I remember Todd Howard saying when it comes to level scaling, higher elevation = harder. So stick to the ground until you're strong enough to go up?

 

[Crispy]

Ah, makes sense. Thank you.

 

[Raghar]

Are you victim of a 7 second freeze?

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... -outdoors/

 

[Metro]

Like fallout 3 it feels like a Jesus simulator, i like games where you arnt some kind of "chosen one" but i suppose thats a design choice.

Its very much one of those e-larp games, don't expect the game to amaze you with interesting quests/plots ect, at least not on the main quest line.

These are the two overriding negatives of Bethesda's latest 'RPGs.' They feel/play more like simulators than actual games and suffer both from lack of challenge and lack of interesting content; that is, you sort of have to provide your own content/e-larp it.

 

[Crispy]

Are you victim of a 7 second freeze?

Processor: Intel® Pentium® Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz (2 CPUs)
.
.
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 430

 

[Raghar]

System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.

That explains the above system.

Actually when I think about it that CPU is great when it's overclocked to 2.8, or 3.2 GHz. The funny stuff is some of these CPUs were able to be overclocked like that.