You guys MUST play The Elder Scrolls: Arena

[abnaxus]

Non-casting classes are completely defenseless against golems that spam magic missiles (there's at least one level with hordes of them) for which there is no defense potion (like fire/shock/ice immunity). Only remedy is either invisibility potion or an artifact with reflect magic.

But even a simple wraith that spawns in front of your character will immediately spam numerous fireballs and is a huge threat for a non-caster who cannot simply walk through the entire level invisible and with a reflect magic active.

 

[eric__s]

I haven't played Arena in a while, but doesn't it work the same way as Daggerfall where certain enemies require certain grades of weapon? You can't hit homunculi without adamantium weapons and ghosts without silver weapons and so on?

 

[Kraszu]

Yeah, Skyrim is not complete shit and does some things rather well. Doesn't mean it's flawless. What was your point again?

What is done well about fighting in very similar forts, against the same set of enemies?

 

[madrigal]

Non-casting classes are completely defenseless against golems that spam magic missiles (there's at least one level with hordes of them) for which there is no defense potion (like fire/shock/ice immunity). Only remedy is either invisibility potion or an artifact with reflect magic.

But even a simple wraith that spawns in front of your character will immediately spam numerous fireballs and is a huge threat for a non-caster who cannot simply walk through the entire level invisible and with a reflect magic active.

The shield spell makes invisibility and reflect magic pointless.

 

[SCO]

It could be not instantaneous (your globe idea DraQ) by creating a 'slope' invisible surface inside walls, oriented to your aim but starting from your feet (still fizzling if it can't find air after the wall). This would make it rather useless as competition for teleportation (it allows almost no vertical movement since walls are thin), but would run into problems with the game engine (morrowind rooms are 'additive' not 'subtractive' so i guess falling into the void counts as 'outside a wall').
Thinking about it, that's likely the main problem with all implementations. A false positive of 'yes, absolutely safe to teleport here, welcome to oblivion sucker'.

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah, Skyrim is not complete shit and does some things rather well. Doesn't mean it's flawless. What was your point again?

What is done well about fighting in very similar forts, against the same set of enemies?

It gets stale after some time, that's true. It has many flaws (oh gods why do those dungeons all have to be so LINEAR), but it's a gigantic improvement on Oblivion, it's pretty atmospheric when it wants to be, exploration is interesting enough due to landscapes actually looking distinct.

It's not Morrowind though. Then again, nothing is.

 

[Stabwound]

I asked this a long time ago but no one answered. Am I nuts, or does Arena have broken landscape (maybe it's in the original unpatched version only) where if you walk long enough into a general direction aimlessly, the geometry gets all kinds of fucked up with glitches and shit galore. I could be completely imagining it but I could have swore it happened to me back in the day.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I asked this a long time ago but no one answered. Am I nuts, or does Arena have broken landscape (maybe it's in the original unpatched version only) where if you walk long enough into a general direction aimlessly, the geometry gets all kinds of fucked up with glitches and shit galore. I could be completely imagining it but I could have swore it happened to me back in the day.

This is very simple.

Arena randomly generates outdoor landscape till infinity.

Outdoor landscapes are not actually spaces between cities. They are just endless generations of trees, barns, roads, and sometimes dungeons.

 

[Visbhume]

Arena is the only Elder Scrolls game I've ever played.

Passwall is the coolest spell in any game

I distinctly remember that spell!

 

[DraQ]

I haven't played Arena in a while, but doesn't it work the same way as Daggerfall where certain enemies require certain grades of weapon? You can't hit homunculi without adamantium weapons and ghosts without silver weapons and so on?

I hated this shit in Daggerfall. Not requiring materials to hit stuff, but clear gradation of materials.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I haven't played Arena in a while, but doesn't it work the same way as Daggerfall where certain enemies require certain grades of weapon? You can't hit homunculi without adamantium weapons and ghosts without silver weapons and so on?

I hated this shit in Daggerfall. Not requiring materials to hit stuff, but clear gradation of materials.

Yeah, I think there should have been instances when daedric weapons were completely useless and iron and steel the best choice.

That's why BG2 encouraged you to keep some non-magical weapons in case someone used Protection from Magical Weapons.

 

[abnaxus]

So if you play as a Ranger in Arena, can you one-hit kill enemies with a bow as soon as they're visible on screen without aggroing them?

I can see how a fighting class can finish the game, but it seems way too much of a hassle (hunting for artifacts, constant buying of protection potions) compared to a caster class who simply makes a bunch of protection spells in the beginning of the game and that's that.

 

[Wyrmlord]

So if you play as a Ranger in Arena, can you one-hit kill enemies with a bow as soon as they're visible on screen without aggroing them?

I can see how a fighting class can finish the game, but it seems way too much of a hassle (hunting for artifacts, constant buying of protection potions) compared to a caster class who simply makes a bunch of protection spells in the beginning of the game and that's that.

Hunting for artifacts is part of the fun and not a hassle.

 

[dream_the_cream]

The first TES game i played was Daggerfall. I bought it back when it came out. I found it very realistic that you could remove all articles of clothing from your characters. Later on, I downloaded the first TES game but was disappointed to find that you cannot remove undergarments, so I never gave that game a chance. I returned to Daggerfall to play my wood elf character using the brown hair with the head band. because that's the ONLY combination in the ENTIRE game (outside of mud skins) where the complexion of the face matches that with the body. I spent most of my time just visiting clothing stores to find the most revealing combination of clothing for my character. I think my character spent most of the time unarmored and unclothed. THen later, I bought Battlespire when it came out. And i was pleasantly surprised by the detail of artwork on the female anatomy. Unlike Daggerfall, the complexion of the face matched that of the body, so i was free to make a high elf female character.

 

[suejak]

I think what I liked most about Daggerfall was the procedurally generated aspect. Probably part of the reason I didn't much enjoy Morrowind or Skyrim (never tried Oblivion) was that the game became "explore carefully designed content spread over a big-ass world." Which is kinda cool, but I didn't really enjoy it for Elder Scrolls... or Fallout 3...

I did love NV, though. But that's mostly because of the atmosphere and factions.

 

[hakuroshi]

There's no point playing either Arena or Daggerfall as a non-spellcasting class, because finishing the game without magic is impossible. You could technically get by by farming Daedric artifacts and various magical tokens that replicate spells, but by doing this you might just as well have saved time and efford and picked a spellcasting class in the beginning.

The point to play non-spellcaster is exactly to get by farming artifacts and magical items. That's part of the fun. I admit that in Arena it become frustrating eventually, mostly by annoying habit of constant spawning behind your back (at least for me it was so). But in Daggerfal it's pretty easy to finish the game by non-magical character. You just have to be more careful so gameplay is distinctively different from spellcaster.

Edit: On the other hand impossibility of creating non-spellcaster in later TES was rather disappointing. Of course you can play without using spells, but it was not a challenge.

 

[BlitzKitchen]

Something that bothers me about TES is that even if you are not a magical character by any sense you still start out with a couple default spells.

 

[DraQ]

The first TES game i played was Daggerfall. I bought it back when it came out. I found it very realistic that you could remove all articles of clothing from your characters. Later on, I downloaded the first TES game but was disappointed to find that you cannot remove undergarments, so I never gave that game a chance. I returned to Daggerfall to play my wood elf character using the brown hair with the head band. because that's the ONLY combination in the ENTIRE game (outside of mud skins) where the complexion of the face matches that with the body. I spent most of my time just visiting clothing stores to find the most revealing combination of clothing for my character. I think my character spent most of the time unarmored and unclothed. THen later, I bought Battlespire when it came out. And i was pleasantly surprised by the detail of artwork on the female anatomy. Unlike Daggerfall, the complexion of the face matched that of the body, so i was free to make a high elf female character.

BSN is that way, kind sir.

 

[hakuroshi]

Something that bothers me about TES is that even if you are not a magical character by any sense you still start out with a couple default spells.

I think, that in DF and maybe MW the spells you get are defined by starting skill level in relevant magic school regardless of how much magicka you have. At 5% you'll get none.

 

[dream_the_cream]

The first TES game i played was Daggerfall. I bought it back when it came out. I found it very realistic that you could remove all articles of clothing from your characters. Later on, I downloaded the first TES game but was disappointed to find that you cannot remove undergarments, so I never gave that game a chance. I returned to Daggerfall to play my wood elf character using the brown hair with the head band. because that's the ONLY combination in the ENTIRE game (outside of mud skins) where the complexion of the face matches that with the body. I spent most of my time just visiting clothing stores to find the most revealing combination of clothing for my character. I think my character spent most of the time unarmored and unclothed. THen later, I bought Battlespire when it came out. And i was pleasantly surprised by the detail of artwork on the female anatomy. Unlike Daggerfall, the complexion of the face matched that of the body, so i was free to make a high elf female character.

BSN is that way, kind sir.

chill out. this was back when i was in middle school

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Something that bothers me about TES is that even if you are not a magical character by any sense you still start out with a couple default spells.

The setting is high fantasy as fuck, merchants sell spells and enchanted items for a couple shillings...it would be even stranger if an adventurer didn't know any.

 

[muckguppy]

I have been playing this lately and it's like kissing the furry anus of god, I will write a postmortem when I've finished. I will dig my tongue deep into this heavenly abyss.

 

[muckguppy]

oh yeah and this shit:

http://i.imgur.com/LUqkg18.jpg

 

[Revenant]

Oh shit, the second prosper is not confined to the shoutbox, begin the containment procedure immediately!

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I played this when it came out but I found a lot of it to be needle in haystack content wise. Comparatively I found UW and UWII to be much better executed. Maybe I should give it another go, but not until I am done my Wiz8 run.