SureAI's new project: Enderal - The Shards of Order (Mostly about Enderal SE now)

[Ramnozack]

Folks, please, someone explain to me: what exactly is atheistardy about the plot and/or the setting...? Or do you just throw this around as people on the 'Dex tend to do.

Been a while since I played it, but theres a lot of reddit-y retardation about there being no god, or if one exists he's evil, blah blah blah. That kind of cringe shit.

 

[V17]

Folks, please, someone explain to me: what exactly is atheistardy about the plot and/or the setting...? Or do you just throw this around as people on the 'Dex tend to do.

Also don't get it. Maybe it's because I'm an atheist myself, but I come from a super nonreligious region where religion is just not a part of life in any way, so I never had the need to be militant about it in any way, and the story in Enderal just seems normal to me. It's still a fantasy game full of powerful magical beings, this comparison to reddit atheists doesn't make much sense imo. Maybe it's just a few religious people unhappy that the game doesn't portray religion as they would like.

 

[Popiel]

Folks, please, someone explain to me: what exactly is atheistardy about the plot and/or the setting...? Or do you just throw this around as people on the 'Dex tend to do.

Been a while since I played it, but theres a lot of reddit-y retardation about there being no god, or if one exists he's evil, blah blah blah. That kind of cringe shit.

It indeed must have been a while since you played it, I have no idea what you're on about, and I played it very recently (for a second time).

 

[Crispy]

Last night I had the distinct displeasure of dying about twenty times in a row against those two assassins and their boss in the theater fight.

Discovering through watching videos about it that you have to "kill" both of them at least ten times EACH while they get a full restoration after each knockdown, the first of which triggers their boss to join in, forced me to turn the difficulty down to Novice temporarily and use every single health potion I had on me just to get through it. Haven't hit F5 to quicksave after a fight so quickly ever before.

Other than times like these, the balance to the game has seemed perfect for me. Yes, I have to blow a large portion of my gold on training manuals at regular intervals, but I'd rather have that happening than be wading in millions of coins with nothing to spend them on. I don't use magic, other than the new, custom "shouts" occasionally, at all.

 

[Tarkleigh]

Folks, please, someone explain to me: what exactly is atheistardy about the plot and/or the setting...? Or do you just throw this around as people on the 'Dex tend to do.

Been a while since I played it, but theres a lot of reddit-y retardation about there being no god, or if one exists he's evil, blah blah blah. That kind of cringe shit.

I think this is a misunderstanding. In the setting of Enderal, the world was ruled by a group of self-made gods called the Lightborn, each of them ruling over one continent. At the time of the game, the Lightborn - who actively invervened into the life of the mortals in the past - have been strangely silent for quite some time with no explanation given. The interpretations of the silence differ vastly, with some people thinking the gods never existed or existed but are dead now and some thinking this is just a test and they will return soon. You can find each position in the game. Your impression probably comes from the fact that in the game, your character works for the Holy Order which has a vested interest in people still believing into the Lightborn as this belief is the source of their power. They are worried about the Lightborn's silence and clash with some of their less religious allies but this is just in the start of the game (and the conflict is mostly about politics and the use of certain magic). Later the silence of the Lightborn does not play a big role and you find religious and non-religious characters.

 

[Sharpedge]

I personally don't see Enderal as being particularly anti theist.

Spoiler

Nehrim (the game before Enderal) arguably was, where you go and kill the setting's "gods," but not Enderal. The main theme to Enderal is that humanity is our own worst enemy - If everyone had banded together, then nothing would have gone wrong. If Yuslan had put the good of humanity over his own petty vengeance, the world would have continued. If everyone had agreed not to build the beacon, the world would have continued. If Arantheal had not prematurely detonated the beacon, the world would have continued. Whilst there is religion within the setting, it is the backdrop to help establish the world, it is not what the story is really about. You could even go as far as to say that Enderal has undertones that are in some ways pro theism, where the invading "enemy" for the majority of the plot is a bunch of raving atheists who are completely unreasonable.

 

[Sòren]

the main problem about the story is that it's fucking stupid.

the mage that went nuts for no goddamn reason while he could have ended the charade here and there? the trip to the space station that was meaningless except for one very far-fetched conclusion? the concept that it is the humans who are responible for their own fate/destiny also doesn't work, since the game states that those "outside identities" put the central players into the world from the beginning.

i enjoyed the expansion pack story tho. i thought it was better in any regard, with some nice ambiguity.

 

[Yosharian]

Just installed Enderal The Path, gonna try it out this week.

 

[Yosharian]

Will do

 

[Taim]

I strongly advise you check out the Wabbajack modlist Enderal my Way if you are interested in playing this on SE

Is this no longer a thing? Can't find any references of this modpack beyond November of last year and google searching turns up very little.

 

[Yosharian]

I strongly advise you check out the Wabbajack modlist Enderal my Way if you are interested in playing this on SE

Is this no longer a thing? Can't find any references of this modpack beyond November of last year and google searching turns up very little.

It disappeared off the face of the earth. Very strange.

However, the good news is that The Path exists and is even better than My Way was, as far as I can tell!

I have very briefly dabbled with it and it looks fantastic. Going to start playing it properly today.

The only thing I need to figure out is how to turn off the floating health bars.

 

[Yosharian]

I figured out how to turn off the floating HP bars, it was a setting within the in-game MCM menu under TrueHUD. With that abomination removed, the game is pretty much perfectly set up for my tastes. I've been having an absolute blast and haven't encountered a single bug yet, although I haven't reached the first main town so I am waiting for that before I properly judge the game's stability. Performance is astonishingly good considering how much the author has cranked up the textures in this list, I'm pretty certain I have never dropped below 144 FPS (the cap the modlist comes with).

Here are some screenies

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The ENB the author chose is a little on the colorful side for my tastes but it's fine and I can't be bothered to try another one.

I've been having a fun time with my thiefy archer guy, early days yet and he can just about take out a wolf or two without dying but once I get fire arrows and some more perks I think things will be a lot easier.

Based on my experience so far I would strongly recommend this modlist to anyone who has any kind of motivation to play Enderal.

 

[Cudds]

Keep updating these impressions please, would be very interesting if a modded (second) playthrough is worth it

 

[Taim]

I don't see any mention of EGO in the modlist. That was kinda my most anticipated mod in the whole EMW list.

Am I missing it? Or do they increase the challenge by other means? Or is it just an easier time?

 

[Yosharian]

I don't see any mention of EGO in the modlist. That was kinda my most anticipated mod in the whole EMW list.

Am I missing it? Or do they increase the challenge by other means? Or is it just an easier time?

What does EGO do?

 

[Yosharian]

Looking at the Nexus page I don't think EGO would be necessary to enjoy The Path. The combat mods that TP adds are pretty decent and I'm enjoying it. I would be lying if I said that the balance is perfect, but it's been challenging enough for my sneaky fire arrow archer.

Currently level 8ish and just entered Ark.

 

[Cudds]

I don't see any mention of EGO in the modlist. [...]

What does EGO do?

Oh shit, my trust in you is in decline. Halfway through this thread you were heavily recommending EMW in multiple posts, asking why anyone would play vanilla Enderal without EMW, etc., when EMW used EGO as it's core gameplay mod and arguably as the centerpiece of the modlist. Are you telling me you have been giving out recommendations for modlists either based on EGO (EMW) or not (The Path) without knowing what EGO is or how fundamentally it changes the game?

 

[Yosharian]

I don't see any mention of EGO in the modlist. [...]

What does EGO do?

Oh shit, my trust in you is in decline. Halfway through this thread you were heavily recommending EMW in multiple posts, asking why anyone would play vanilla Enderal without EMW, etc., when EMW used EGO as it's core gameplay mod and arguably as the centerpiece of the modlist. Are you telling me you have been giving out recommendations for modlists either based on EGO (EMW) or not (The Path) without knowing what EGO is or how fundamentally it changes the game?

I apologise for my lack of autism. I play gaem, if gaem fun, I tell on fourm

 

[Jasede]

Fun? Fun?! This is a serious matter.

 

[Cudds]

I apologise for my lack of autism. I play gaem, if gaem fun, I tell on fourm

This argument doesn't fly if a mod is as game-changing as EGO. That's basically like not realizing whether you are playing vanilla Skyrim or Requiem, should be pretty obvious after a couple of minutes of gameplay.
All I'm saying is that this makes me doubt if you are actually playing these modlists at all, or just posting about them as if you were playing them while masturbating furiously

 

[Jasede]

Just for the sake of argument, what would he get out of doing that?

 

[Cudds]

Just for the sake of argument, what would he get out of doing that?

Well..

or just posting about them as if you were playing them while masturbating furiously

Other than that, i guess attention?

 

[Yosharian]

I apologise for my lack of autism. I play gaem, if gaem fun, I tell on fourm

This argument doesn't fly if a mod is as game-changing as EGO. That's basically like not realizing whether you are playing vanilla Skyrim or Requiem, should be pretty obvious after a couple of minutes of gameplay.
All I'm saying is that this makes me doubt if you are actually playing these modlists at all, or just posting about them as if you were playing them while masturbating furiously

I mean I posted pictures of my playthrough of The Path, and I got as far as Riverville with My Way but I stopped playing it because it was too buggy at that time.

Both The Path and My Way modify the vanilla game experience enough that it is entertaining.

I am not as knowledgeable about Enderal modding as I am about vanilla Skyrim, so no, I didn't have much knowledge about the exact overhaul mod that was responsible for My Way's gameplay.

What I did do was play the game and judge that it was good enough to make the vanilla experience obsolete - there would be no reason to play it over a modlist experience unless one was particularly fond of the easier, dumbed-down gameplay that vanilla offers, or if for some reason you prefer inferior graphics and Bethesda's piece of shit UI.

The Path offers really fun gameplay and vastly improved textures, UI and other things - I don't really give a shit how the author achieves the experience, only if the experience is good or not.

And it is great, The Path is honestly night and day compared to vanilla.

But if you don't believe me, or if you think I'm just posting for clout, then you can just ignore my posts and make your own judgements.

 

[Cudds]

Aight, fair enough

 

[Yosharian]

So, I'm 18 hours in and ready to give some fresh thoughts on the game.

First of all, Enderal itself just seems so much better than the first time I played it. I'm not sure why. It definitely has its flaws, it's got some real eurojank at times, and the lighting sometimes shows its age (Undercity is particularly bad), but I'm having a great time. Once I hit Ark I felt some burn-out, but it quickly hooked me again. I had great fun delving in some crypt full of undead that's right in the heart of the city for some reason.

A couple of pics from earlier when I was adventuring around Riverville:

https://i.ibb.co/gzZ4n6F/1.jpg

Spoiler

https://i.ibb.co/0Zw515Y/2.jpg

Spoiler

And some pics from a certain dungeon where I found some Storm Atronachs and this weird-ass golem thing that I couldn't kill but I was able to grab the quest item near it before it smashed me to bits.

https://i.ibb.co/kHrNvV3/3.jpg

Spoiler

https://i.ibb.co/wsWyyFW/4.jpg

Spoiler

So, do I still recommend the modlist? Hell yes, but it has some issues, some of which I suspect are Enderal issues and some of which are definitely issues related to the modlist.

1. Enemies don't always behave in a smart way, and it sometimes ruins encounters which would otherwise be quite challenging/fun. For example, in the Arena, there is a rocky outcrop you can stand on where melee enemies can't reach you, and thus they just run into a corner to hide... a corner to which I still have LoS, so I just poke them with fire arrows til they die. The first fight had an archer so it was more challenging, but all the others were melee so it was a bit disappointing. Other times creatures are too dumb to find you so you can do the old poke with arrow then run away to hide trick - that's a Skyrim thing though. Sometimes enemies get stuck on terrain or can't path beneath a low doorway so they are just fodder for my arrows. It would definitely be more challenging if I was a melee character. Still, these problems aren't bad enough to ruin the combat, it's still very engaging. My squishy archer dude can still die to rats if I'm not careful. It's just a bummer when you come across an interesting enemy and then it gets stuck and can't fight back.
2. On occasion the game will put enemies in your face upon loading into a cell, and thus they get a bunch of free hits on you while the game finishes loading. It's frustrating, but so far it hasn't softlocked me or anything.
3. I've had a few moments where actors didn't do what they are supposed to do, but it hasn't locked any quests ... yet.
4. I've been seeing reports on Discord about certain cutscenes not working properly, though again the cutscenes still progress.

So just bear these issues in mind if you are considering playing the modlist.