SureAI's new project: Enderal - The Shards of Order

[Sharpedge]

Few more thoughts on the ending after sleeping on it and chewing on it off and on throughout the day:

Spoiler

I quite like that the high ones are never given a trustworthy explanation. The black guardian obviously can't be trusted (Demon reputation or no, the fact that he tries to jack your body shows he's content to lie to you) and he doesn't even have a full explanation of the high ones. Plus the black guardian says the high ones never directly intervened or acted on anything which is obviously untrue since not only do they outright possess people, they (Apparently) are causing the red madness and more than that, are apparently the ones that made your ghostly ass if the black guardian is to be believed. Even that might not be worth believing though, since the veiled woman is the one that set you on your course and her connection to and interactions with the high ones are a little up in the air. Trying to think back on the game as a whole it's possible that the veiled woman is working on behalf of the high ones, I don't remember her specifically working against them (You get the impression she is, but that's before you know what's going on) and if she's with them then that would be another tic against what the black guardian tells you at the end of the game. That wouldn't explain why she revives you near the black guardian though, since presumably the cleansing is already happening at that point.

Another reason the beacon smashing ending sounds like potentially the best, when you do one of your earliest visions and you see the cleansing from the perspective of another prophet you learn that he tried to run. Went back to his family and was trying to get them away before shit went down. Going to the starling city would be your character's version of running away, so sacrificing yourself blowing up the beacon seems like it might be off-script. Another reason why that might be off-script is the implication (Again, from the black guardian so no idea how much is true) that fleshless are driven by some aspect of their previous lives, and for the PC that seems to be going from a nobody escaped slave to Big Damn Hero the famous prophet. Sacrificing yourself to blow up the beacon may sound like the more heroic option, but you'll be largely unknown. The only person who might know is Jespar (Or presumably Calia? I figure the companions probably change based on your rep with them) and the only way he might tell anyone is IF he manages to get on a myrad and haul ass before you nuke Enderal, otherwise you're dying and will be completely unknown. However if you follow the black guardian's plan (And it succeeds) you'll be space Jesus to the next crop of humans that come up. Even ignoring the likely connection with the cycle in general and how you'd probably just take the place of the lightborn for their cycle.

There's also the question of that whole cult that sacrificed themselves for the veiled woman, and what was going on there. I STILL (Since who has time for game books FUCK THE POLICE) haven't read the Butcher of Ark so I am likely missing some other clues, and it could be the cult didn't have any grains of truth to it. They managed a satisfying ending while also leaving it open enough that I'm still enjoying thinking about it which isn't all that common for RPGs and games in general. The premise is similar to Mass Effect from my understanding (Having only played 1 and 2 without the DLC) even down to the big bad causing the cycle juicing everyone to make a new big bad, but the execution's quite a lot better even though Mass Effect half-assed was attempting more C&C. Which as much as I over value C&C and I grumbled about the lack of it in Enderal a little bit, the story was better not having it.

Spoiler

There is a significant amount of evidence supporting the idea that the Aged Man is a prophet from a previous cycle, who attempted something similar to fleeing to the starling city. For starters, its known that hes been alive virtually forever, similar to how the prophet could live on forever if they aren't killed since they are undead. Furthermore, there are books inside his house which provide evidence to support this point of view and you can have a brief dialogue with his wife who is stored in a life support unit. Taking this into account its highly likely that fleeing to the starling city is not a potentially successful ending, because if the aged man tried to do something like that and was unable to change the course of humanity, then why would you do any better.

There is also evidence to suggest that the dreamflower ending is in fact a dream and that Yuslan was right about it. There is a certain picture within the game titled "Expulsion from paradise" which is only found within the different vision scenes where you talk to the high ones. If you go back to those exact same locations when you are not in a vision, there will be a painting there, but it is not the same painting. Here is the painting for reference.

If you drink the dreamflower potion, then in the final scene when you are in Qyra, this picture will be hanging on 1 of the walls, which is suggestive of the idea that this ending is in fact a dream. Whilst there is no evidence to support the idea that the default sacrifice ending will lead to a win against the high ones, it does seem to be the ending with the most promise. Either way I really liked how the ending was left open to interpretation. There clearly is room to have another game post Enderal if they so wished to, although they would need to make 1 of the endings canonical in order to be able to do that.

Upon replaying the game, its actually impressive how much foreshadowing there is of some of the broader plot ideas. For example, ff you run into people with the red madness on the road, they will refer to you as being fleshless. Or when you do the quest Qalian's Last Smile, he is confused that you and Tharaêl don't understand how he could change bodies, since he can see that both of you are dead. The side quest Apotheosis even provides some foreshadowing to the black guardian, where you had someone trying to turn themselves into a machine to avoid the cleansing.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Spoiler

There is a significant amount of evidence supporting the idea that the Aged Man is a prophet from a previous cycle, who attempted something similar to fleeing to the starling city. For starters, its known that hes been alive virtually forever, similar to how the prophet could live on forever if they aren't killed since they are undead. Furthermore, there are books inside his house which provide evidence to support this point of view and you can have a brief dialogue with his wife who is stored in a life support unit. Taking this into account its highly likely that fleeing to the starling city is not a potentially successful ending, because if the aged man tried to do something like that and was unable to change the course of humanity, then why would you do any better.

There is also evidence to suggest that the dreamflower ending is in fact a dream and that Yuslan was right about it. There is a certain picture within the game titled "Expulsion from paradise" which is only found within the different vision scenes where you talk to the high ones. If you go back to those exact same locations when you are not in a vision, there will be a painting there, but it is not the same painting. Here is the painting for reference.

If you drink the dreamflower potion, then in the final scene when you are in Qyra, this picture will be hanging on 1 of the walls, which is suggestive of the idea that this ending is in fact a dream. Whilst there is no evidence to support the idea that the default sacrifice ending will lead to a win against the high ones, it does seem to be the ending with the most promise. Either way I really liked how the ending was left open to interpretation. There clearly is room to have another game post Enderal if they so wished to, although they would need to make 1 of the endings canonical in order to be able to do that.

Upon replaying the game, its actually impressive how much foreshadowing there is of some of the broader plot ideas. For example, ff you run into people with the red madness on the road, they will refer to you as being fleshless. Or when you do the quest Qalian's Last Smile, he is confused that you and Tharaêl don't understand how he could change bodies, since he can see that both of you are dead. The side quest Apotheosis even provides some foreshadowing to the black guardian, where you had someone trying to turn themselves into a machine to avoid the cleansing.

Spoiler

That's a good point, I had forgotten about the Aged Man for this. Him being "Fleshless" sounds fairly likely since he even kind of implies you'll learn about immortality yourself soon enough. That might also explain why he fucks off since he wants to get to whatever his hidey hole is before the cleansing happens. I did have the brief talk with his wife but I forget what she had to say.

I do agree completely that the "Waking up in Qyra" part is a dream, but where I disagree with Yuslan is everything up to the point where the PC dies blowing up the beacon. When you come back through the planeswalker Yuslan tells you if you drink the dreamflower elixir you'll drop into a coma and have a fantasy perfect dream life in it. Since things go to shit for you I'd say it's fairly clear he was wrong about that part, but waking up in Qyra is a pretty obvious dream. You also hear the thrum of the beacon the entire time during the Qyra sequence which seems like another indication that it's just your character in a la-la land coma in the final seconds he's being blown up. The thrum might mean you don't succeed in destroying the beacon (Falling into a coma just before you destroy it) but IIRC the beacon was thrumming even before it was activated and I believe even before you put the crystals into it, so I wouldn't put much stock in the ending being functionally different if you drink the elixir or not. The painting's a good catch though, didn't notice that at all.

Qalian's Last Smile is also a particularly good catch. That also could lend credence to the black guardian's statement about fleshless being driven by some aspect they dislike about themselves/a particular desire, since if he's fleshless himself (What with the corpse) that could explain why he's the way he is. The question in his case would be how did he end up fleshless (Since the black guardian says it's the high ones that do it) and why. I'd initially been thinking their group had worked for the lightborn, I think he (Or someone) mentioned that the reason they would kill children was to try to bump off emissaries which I reasoned was the lightborn trying to save their asses. Now I suppose it could've been the high ones behind it to start setting the stage for the cleansing. Qalian mentioned that "The targets were always right" (Not the exact term but I'm going on memory from some week(s) ago) but what that actually means is anyone's guess, and again could be high one fuckery.

 

[Sharpedge]

Spoiler

That's a good point, I had forgotten about the Aged Man for this. Him being "Fleshless" sounds fairly likely since he even kind of implies you'll learn about immortality yourself soon enough. That might also explain why he fucks off since he wants to get to whatever his hidey hole is before the cleansing happens. I did have the brief talk with his wife but I forget what she had to say.

I do agree completely that the "Waking up in Qyra" part is a dream, but where I disagree with Yuslan is everything up to the point where the PC dies blowing up the beacon. When you come back through the planeswalker Yuslan tells you if you drink the dreamflower elixir you'll drop into a coma and have a fantasy perfect dream life in it. Since things go to shit for you I'd say it's fairly clear he was wrong about that part, but waking up in Qyra is a pretty obvious dream. You also hear the thrum of the beacon the entire time during the Qyra sequence which seems like another indication that it's just your character in a la-la land coma in the final seconds he's being blown up. The thrum might mean you don't succeed in destroying the beacon (Falling into a coma just before you destroy it) but IIRC the beacon was thrumming even before it was activated and I believe even before you put the crystals into it, so I wouldn't put much stock in the ending being functionally different if you drink the elixir or not. The painting's a good catch though, didn't notice that at all.

Qalian's Last Smile is also a particularly good catch. That also could lend credence to the black guardian's statement about fleshless being driven by some aspect they dislike about themselves/a particular desire, since if he's fleshless himself (What with the corpse) that could explain why he's the way he is. The question in his case would be how did he end up fleshless (Since the black guardian says it's the high ones that do it) and why. I'd initially been thinking their group had worked for the lightborn, I think he (Or someone) mentioned that the reason they would kill children was to try to bump off emissaries which I reasoned was the lightborn trying to save their asses. Now I suppose it could've been the high ones behind it to start setting the stage for the cleansing. Qalian mentioned that "The targets were always right" (Not the exact term but I'm going on memory from some week(s) ago) but what that actually means is anyone's guess, and again could be high one fuckery.

Spoiler

Yuslan could still be wrong, yes. He has plenty of motives to lie to you and his opinion on what the flower does is contradictory with other existing information. On the other hand if he was lying, it brings about the question why would he lie. The only good reason I can think of is that the high ones would not want the PC to take the dreamflower because it would make them more likely to choose self sacrifice, rather than choose to flee, but that seems far fetched given the fact that the PC should never reach the beacon to begin with. The veiled woman bringing the PC back to life is arguably a divergence from the intended solution so whether or not the PC drinks the dreamflower should have no impact on the final outcome from the PoV of the high ones. Maybe he is just lying to you because he wants the dreamflower for himself and he knows that once he puts his plan into action he would be caught?

With regards to Qalian, I think its a fair assumption that the high ones are not the only ones capable of creating fleshless. It would make sense that the veiled woman is also capable of doing this and she would be the most likely figure to be responsible there, given how much she was involved with that particular quest line. The funny thing is, it seems highly probably that in the context of the entire story, the father is the character who was probably the most "correct" and likely got the best deal out of any characters involved.

On the subject of the veiled woman. The book "Kadath" in the quest "Our Mark on this World" probably provides the most context out of any single source of information about the veiled woman. Whilst it is never directly stated that she is the character within the book, I think its probably safe to make the assumption that she is. Then again, if you consider the story of Nehrim to be canonical (I prefer to see Nehrim as being non canon since in my opinion, Nehrim's story is worse than Enderal's and there are some internal contradictions between the 2 which have not been resolved), then the character Fate in Enderal could arguably be the person who has been rigging the cycle in which case, the veiled women would likely be the person who replaced her and is thus a new figure. Interesting side point, the name Kadath is a reference to this.

There is also something else worth noting about the sky jesus ending. During the opening introduction to the game, the narrator states, "this is the story of somebody who wanted to be free." This is arguably a direct statement of the PCs "motives" that the high ones were exploiting and running away to a starling city does seem the most like the actions taken by someone who wants to be free. Self sacrifice is a far less likely driving factor for that and so its more likely to be a successful outcome.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Spoiler

Yuslan could still be wrong, yes. He has plenty of motives to lie to you and his opinion on what the flower does is contradictory with other existing information. On the other hand if he was lying, it brings about the question why would he lie. The only good reason I can think of is that the high ones would not want the PC to take the dreamflower because it would make them more likely to choose self sacrifice, rather than choose to flee, but that seems far fetched given the fact that the PC should never reach the beacon to begin with. The veiled woman bringing the PC back to life is arguably a divergence from the intended solution so whether or not the PC drinks the dreamflower should have no impact on the final outcome from the PoV of the high ones. Maybe he is just lying to you because he wants the dreamflower for himself and he knows that once he puts his plan into action he would be caught?

With regards to Qalian, I think its a fair assumption that the high ones are not the only ones capable of creating fleshless. It would make sense that the veiled woman is also capable of doing this and she would be the most likely figure to be responsible there, given how much she was involved with that particular quest line. The funny thing is, it seems highly probably that in the context of the entire story, the father is the character who was probably the most "correct" and likely got the best deal out of any characters involved.

On the subject of the veiled woman. The book "Kadath" in the quest "Our Mark on this World" probably provides the most context out of any single source of information about the veiled woman. Whilst it is never directly stated that she is the character within the book, I think its probably safe to make the assumption that she is. Then again, if you consider the story of Nehrim to be canonical (I prefer to see Nehrim as being non canon since in my opinion, Nehrim's story is worse than Enderal's and there are some internal contradictions between the 2 which have not been resolved), then the character Fate in Enderal could arguably be the person who has been rigging the cycle in which case, the veiled women would likely be the person who replaced her and is thus a new figure. Interesting side point, the name Kadath is a reference to this.

There is also something else worth noting about the sky jesus ending. During the opening introduction to the game, the narrator states, "this is the story of somebody who wanted to be free." This is arguably a direct statement of the PCs "motives" that the high ones were exploiting and running away to a starling city does seem the most like the actions taken by someone who wants to be free. Self sacrifice is a far less likely driving factor for that and so its more likely to be a successful outcome.

Spoiler

I'd forgotten the narration in the initial cutscene, and you're probably right. I was coming from the fame angle from one of the dream sequences where it hammered that you were a nobody that's now conveniently Joe Cool, but the intro cutscene is probably a much better way to look at it.

On the topic of non-high ones making fleshless, that is probably true. Calia is presumably either not fleshless or not made by the high ones (Directly, at least) even though she was/is dead. What's questionable about her of course is that she's aging, or at least aged to a point. Come to think of it I don't remember when her father was alive and doing his thing, but she's only supposed to be maybe in her 20's (30's at a stretch) and his fort was pretty ruined. It could maybe get like that with a few decades of complete neglect and harsh weather, but I'm not sure. The main point though is she died as a little kid and has aged, so her resurrection is apparently different.
Jespar also may not be fleshless now that I think about it. If a fleshless is a projection and leaves behind a body (As seen with the PC) then Jespar apparently didn't leave a corpse behind in that ruin where he got geeked. I don't remember exactly what the veiled woman said during that whole exchange but I'm not sure of her reasoning behind bringing him back now that the game's wrapped up.

Speaking of the veiled woman, Firespark. When you, Jespar, and Firespark head into that pyrean ruin to find the whatsit and Firespark goes nuts, I remember part of his rambling being something about how "She's so sad and full of wrath because we choose to close our eyes rather than see". Originally I had thought he was talking about the veiled woman, but bringing up a video of that scene to see it again I see he's talking about the TEMPLE when he says "She". Since the temple was supposed to be a pyrean soul stuck in it kinda like the black guardian, presumably it/she was able to tell him what was going on. Jespar comments on the maybe the temple was who he was referring to with "She" though after you kill Firespark, which makes me wonder if it was the veiled woman and Firespark just thought she was the temple. Firespark also notably doesn't get the glowy red madness eyes when he tries to kill you there too.

Which talking about that whole Firespark scene just brings me back to why the FUCK does the veiled woman make the PC fleshless? I guess it could be the setting's actual god/creator constantly making humans and testing them and then killing them when they fail. Which could explain why the high ones run rampant and the veiled woman appears to be aiding them (When it comes to making the PC fleshless at least) but then there are contradictory moments like Firespark going nuts and the veiled woman reviving the PC at the black guardian. The high ones being there to test humanity against and see if they kill themselves yet again even if she's rooting for humanity. Which also would tie in with Kadath/the cultists in Bleakstar. The high ones being the major fly in the ointment since perfection made everyone miserable. And since you brought up Kadath, the "And she created the Cycle... and with it, hope." line may be the ultimate point of Enderal. All the endings have a degree of hope and maybe that's what gets the veiled woman's rocks off. The self sacrifice ending seems the most hopeful of the lot, but even parking your ass in the starling city has a bit of hope. The particularly curious part is why she lets things like the starlings/black guardian/ageless man escape the cycle and keep on trucking, but maybe that's another bit of hope. The gradual build up of detritus from previous cleansings may be enough to prevent it eventually and leave humanity more peaceful/stable without getting bored by perfection.

Good shit, good shit. I know nothing about Nehrim's story though, and honestly I probably won't go and play Nehrim just on the grounds that the writing in Enderal was what really made it for me. The area design was great, lots of excellent work by modders, voice actors, musicians, etc but without the writing I would've jumped ship after a few hours. Still came relatively close to jumping ship early on as it was. And from what I've heard the main writer for Enderal wasn't involved in Nehrim, and as you mentioned Nehrim's story isn't up to Enderal-snuff. Plus I'd have to deal with Oblivion which is even more painful than dealing with Skyrim.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Finished the game. If it wasn't for skyrim combat it would easily be a 10/10 game.

Ending shenanigans

Spoiler

this is by far one of the best implementatio of "interpretation" based ending i have ever seen. The situation where i like such endings are exception. Writers often mistake open to interpretation to annoyingly vague. A lot of stories fall to the latter. Enderal endings are brilliant and really changes depending on your understanding of the whole and the little details.


brave new world: whether the cycle can be stopped depend on how much you believe base human nature can be changed. It is hinted the aged man did the same, and failed, became a recluse and he also brought his lover like we did to the star city and kept her alive via artificial means.

Argument for why Brave New World could work: what i think the aged man doesn't have is the realization about the nature of the high ones, how it seize the mind of people and they have no actual control over physical objects. It seemed the aged man escaped the cleansing for more of a selfish goals of keeping his wife alive, thus build all those things in his mansion where he kept his wife. He didnt talk with the black guardian, just he found a way to survive but never really uncovered the mechanics of the high one.

Argument against: human nature itself. Each iteration of the cycle has their own gods like the light born and they all met the same fate. It is just human nature to rebel, like how child would try to rebel against their parents. The black guardian said it would be different becuase you would be there when the new humans evolved or created from the start, but we do have relatively short collective memory imo, and it doesn't matter you are there since the start or not, man will act as it always do. Barring the prophetess will accumulate enough power to magically enhance the new human progenitor like some genetic manipulation to throw out the human base instinct.

Catharsis: similar to the BNW, except it's less from the pov of the prophet more on the remaining action of surviving humans in other nation. It seems the end monologue sounds like jespar trying to convince the golden queen.


Story from spring: this is my favorite ending not as the best scenario perspective but how well done the ambiguity is presented. Whether dreamflower scenario is real depend on how much you believe yuslan. On one hand, it's called DREAMflower literally. On the other yuslan offered to take the dreamflower for you and give you the "purified " version without you going asleep. It is still possible he wants the true elixir for himself, and the elixir doesn't give you dreams, but transfer your consciousness into the best possible eventuality relative to your biggest wish. That way he can move into the world where his family lived without the terminal arcane fever effect.

Personally, whether the elixir is real or not this is the ending i would choose if i was in that situation, because a realistic dream you never wake up from is practically no different than reality.

Fantastic game, gave a lot for me to ruminate on.

I also love how the main themes and motifs keep recurring in the sidequests such as the veiled lady, the eventualities, and the red madness and tons of mention of the cycle by characters outside of main quests.

 

[Ivan]

Some thoughts after a good ten hours or so of playtime. I liked the sense of exploration, in that regard it reminded me of Gothic. There are natrual trails that lead you from major location to major location, but the game does a fantastic job of offering you little glimpses off the beaten path that draw you in. In the early game, it's not a big deal to go anywhere in the starting area, so long a you commit to your playstile you should overcome. I did find the melee combat very lackluster, so I stuck with Magic as I just wanted the combat to be over with ASAP. I loved that the skill points are hidden via game items in the world (kinda like how Underrail does it with the Oddity xp system). Grew tired of the sheer amount of garbage you can pick up in the environment, and the messy UI that doesn't cleanly organize items to my liking. There are lots of different mechanics and systems to play with: crafting, enchanting, but I couldn't be bothered when the combat was so mindless. Got to Ark and decided I had had enough. Maybe if I stop exploring and just stick with the main quest I'll get more out of it. Perhaps I'm forcing the fun in places where it just isn't there and if I stick to the main q, I'll find more content that did resonate with me, e.g. Mayor's quest in first town.

 

[Yosharian]

Nobody is forcing you to engage with systems you're not interested in.

Btw IMO the combat is greatly improved if you play Enderal My Way

https://github.com/jdsmith2816/emw

 

[JRIz]

Gamebryo games inevitably turn into an inventory management simulator after some time. That's even worse than the combat IMO. Some ways to postpone that effect in Enderal are just picking weapons and armor for money and selling them as soon as possible. Anything else I picked up I immediately dumped into the chest. Don't pick up crafting stuff even if skilled in crafting. When selling weapons/armor, you can decide if you need the money or rather the materials you get by destroying them. The rest you can easily find in the cities when you need it. Enchanting is relatively weak and sets are superior anyway. Alchemy has always been a pain in the ass and can lead to OCD in no time. IMO, only elemental protection potions and health potions are worth it.

 

[Ivan]

Spent more time exploring, this time made it to what I guess is the highest/furthest mountain in the map. Clearly not meant to be there since I can get 1 shotted by some robo sentries, but I can still pretty much fireball most fools. Again, going off the critical path isn't all that enjoyable for me. It IS cool to reach the "bosses" of the dungeons since they each have unique models and rooms, but the rewards don't amount to much when I can just rely on my hadouken. Going back to Jespar and sticking with the primary story to see where that goes.

 

[JRIz]

Gameplay is really not Enderal's strength. I played a pure melee fighter and had the distinct impression that fighting enemies became easier the higher I leveled up, and only because of that. The stats and even the perks are of much less importance. You can level up 10 levels and not spend any points at all and some enemies still become pushovers that were hard before. At least levels are fixed. It's still not Gothic quality, though, since e.g. skeletons in one place have higher levels than in another area, which is a bit MMO design. That said, I had fun because I played Skyrim only once before and combat was good enough for what it is.

Side quests also didn't interest me at first very much. Then the main quest forced me to get some EXP. However, afterwards I can say that most side quests are very well-written and closely connected to the main plot. They really give additional insights into the central topics of the game.

 

[Sharpedge]

Gamebryo games inevitably turn into an inventory management simulator after some time. That's even worse than the combat IMO. Some ways to postpone that effect in Enderal are just picking weapons and armor for money and selling them as soon as possible. Anything else I picked up I immediately dumped into the chest. Don't pick up crafting stuff even if skilled in crafting. When selling weapons/armor, you can decide if you need the money or rather the materials you get by destroying them. The rest you can easily find in the cities when you need it. Enchanting is relatively weak and sets are superior anyway. Alchemy has always been a pain in the ass and can lead to OCD in no time. IMO, only elemental protection potions and health potions are worth it.

My rule to deal with inventory management was to not pick up anything with a value/weight that was lower than a certain amount (I think it was 20). This means that most items get ignored and you only pick up a small number of items.

 

[Ivan]

after much exploration I started following the main quest and I'm glad I did stick to the main quest b/c the game's writing and character work chops are IMMEDIATE. I'm totally hooked and eager to follow the main quest/companion quests.

JRIz Yes! Once I got back to Ark, there was a quest that tied to someone who lost a loved one during Yero's Red Madness episode.

 

[pakoito]

Use the "dragons" to go to the

Spoiler

frosthill cliffs

and start the quest that's

Spoiler

in the caravan parked near the tavern. Should be easy to find, right in front of the dragons stop.

. One of my fave quests, specially the Epilogue.

 

[Ivan]

Wrapped it up after I felt satisfied after tackling x amount of side quests. I made peace with the fact that there were probably loads of npcs questgivers that I never met, the game world is pretty damn large! I was quite satisfied with what I did find. Ark reminded me a lot of that big town in Baldur's Gate 2. More thoughts to follow, but I second the praise for the characters and the fantastic voicework. Very excited to see a new SUREAI game. The more gothic inspired RPGs the better

 

[Doktor Best]

There surely must be some way to play this on SkyrimVR by now?

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've come back to Enderal, now playing the SE version which runs considerably better. However, every time I use a crafting station (alchemy, cooking etc.) the game freezes and I have to alt tab out and kill the process manually.

It's a completely vanilla install. Any thoughts?

 

[Haplo]

I've maxed enchanting and crafted 3 items with 30% Psionic Spell cost reductions and armor with+40% Mana Regeneration (plus gloves and boots with Sneak boosts). Most spells I use cost 1 MP now. Seems I've broken the game... which is maybe for the better, because the Skyrim gameplay sucks balls.

The game has very nice atmosphere, world building, NPCs.

But in my opinion it still suffers a bit much from level gating.
You don't really find really strong items/spells in out of the way locations, hidden stashes or deeper levels in areas destined for "lower levels". Yes, you can tackle high level areas sooner with some effort, but you basically always know what to expect. IMO the devs should have been a little more brave in mixing the risks and rewards a little.
Of course, its still a huge upgrade over Nehrim. And worth playing, if you can suffer trough the Skyrim terrible gameplay.

 

[HoboForEternity]

my complain is the way the map marker is used is very inconsistent. sometimes you get nice description of where you should go eliminating the need of markers, sometimes we have the typical vague "i'll mark it on your map"

 

[pakoito]

my complain is the way the map marker is used is very inconsistent. sometimes you get nice description of where you should go eliminating the need of markers, sometimes we have the typical vague "i'll mark it on your map"

Doesn't that make it more believable? Sometimes in life you get accurate descriptions, sometimes vague guidance.

 

[Sheepherder]

I just can't get over the how awful Skyrim combat is. It's so bad, it's preventing me from enjoying this mod. The shitty animations, lack of responsiveness, idiotic magic system (S + M1 to deal damage, wtf is this? reverse pyro from TF2?). Melee combat reminds me of that gif from some movie where two dudes stand in front of each other and just unload magazines of bullets into each other, without flinching. Reminds me why I've only played Skyrim once in all these years.

If there's one thing Todd did right with Fallout 4, was making combat half decent. Fallout 4 is the best TES game to date.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've come back to Enderal, now playing the SE version which runs considerably better. However, every time I use a crafting station (alchemy, cooking etc.) the game freezes and I have to alt tab out and kill the process manually.

It's a completely vanilla install. Any thoughts?

Please post the specs of your computer.

Turned out it's a problem with my save file, I had started on the 32 bit version and later installed the 64-bit SE version. I thought I could just copy/paste the savegames - for the most part, they work fine, but crafting is broken.

I have to restart and don't feel particularly enthused about it. I was about 10 hours in and Skyrim combat really is fucking awful.

 

[Ivan]

I just can't get over the how awful Skyrim combat is. It's so bad, it's preventing me from enjoying this mod. The shitty animations, lack of responsiveness, idiotic magic system (S + M1 to deal damage, wtf is this? reverse pyro from TF2?). Melee combat reminds me of that gif from some movie where two dudes stand in front of each other and just unload magazines of bullets into each other, without flinching. Reminds me why I've only played Skyrim once in all these years.

If there's one thing Todd did right with Fallout 4, was making combat half decent. Fallout 4 is the best TES game to date.

just fireball everything. we know it sucks, but it works.

 

[Haplo]

I've been pretty successfull with Psionics - dual-cast Dreameaters from Stealth and Purge.
But the enemies do become more bullet spongy as the game progresses (might be a good idea to use the Enhanced mod - or whats it called).

 

[pakoito]

I just went full summoner and let my minions fight for me, sometimes supported by AoE spells.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Damn, playing Enderal right now and am having a blast! It's like The Elder Scroll and Gothic have a baby. I went arcane archer using bound bow to sneak attack from a safe distance while summoning minions from Entropy school to be my meat shield. Btw, today is SureAI's birthday. Can't wait to see what these guys has in store for us next. Hopefully a low-budget indie RPG even though it won't take place in Vyn.