Messages

1

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Open Bar: Funnier Than White People Practicing Voodoo

« on: Today at 05:51:51 am »

Taking a couple of days off.  Apparently saying I've been up at 4am is code for "I'm drunk" rather than "I was at work at a stupid time in the morning and as such I'm pretty tired and made a mistake".

I'm too tired to get mad about it, but I don't like the implication, and I have other things to be getting on with.  So, later.

2

RPG Ghetto / Re: ITT Cain and Junkenstein (and maybe others) discuss Skyrim mods

« on: Yesterday at 06:59:50 pm »

Azirok's patches should give you a good idea of what works with Requiem.  Not a whole lot, to be honest...but because it's such a huge game overhaul, not a lot needs to.

Also the Requiem reddit (check the topics on the sidebar) and Nexus page have a lot of useful resources.  The STEP project can give you useful hints on how to install it best, and what to install with it.  Guide 1 and Guide 2.

I'm also working on reworking my Requiem modlist, so I'll let you know what I've done.

3

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Oh, Oregon!

« on: Yesterday at 06:52:35 pm »

I hope they're enjoying the penis pics in their inbox. 

4

RPG Ghetto / Re: ITT Cain and Junkenstein (and maybe others) discuss Skyrim mods

« on: Yesterday at 06:45:14 pm »

Here's some in-game experiences with Requiem:

My personal best Requiem moment was fairly early on in my quest as well. I decided to roll a Redguard swordmaster, arriving per ship at Solitude (using Alternate Start). Stupid idea, since the north is a lot colder than the south and I have Frostfall installed. After barely clinging on to dear life in the wilderness surrounding Solitude, doing quests, crafting my own tent and stuff, I run into some bandits near a wrecked ship. I sprint, zig-zag, towards the archer - cleave his bow and wreck his face before he can draw a melee. Thank god the heavy is stuck behind a rock, because the guy with the greatsword is now swinging at my neck. I take a glancing hit (thank you, Blocking I) and impale him.

I start circling the guy stuck behind the rock. Tried an arrow, but heavy armor doesn't give a shit. Dude's got a shield and an Orcish dagger, too. He gets loose afer blocking my first blow, and a mad battle of circling, blocking, shield bashing and hacking starts. Near the end, we're both within one good blow from death and I'm all out of potions and stamina.

I swing, he blocks, he swings, I block - I get disarmed. I don't even realize it because I'm already trying to swing again. Punched the sucker right in his face. He goes down on one knee while I'm still staring at the raised fists, wondering where my weapon went. I see it lying on the floor, think: "Oh yeah. You can get disarmed. Neat, I guess." Pick it up, shove it through his neck.

Felt like a right baller.

So my sneaky Bosmer archer explored Shroud Hearth Barrow today and engaged Requiem's walking dead for the first time (she's been to Bleak Falls but gave up on it for the time being after narrowly surviving the giant spider), thinking herself well-equipped at level 16 with 120 silver arrows in her quiver, a silver katana and her friend Gorr watching her back. It was really, really scary, with ELFX making everything so dark that I needed a torch in many places while at the same time often hesitating to light one for fear of being spotted, Sounds of Skyrim creeping me out with its weird draugr cries in the most (in)appropriate moments, and knowing that I was dead if they ever got close to me (managed to kill a few weak ones in melee though by blocking and bashing with a torch). In one narrow place with one of those accursed swingdoor traps I died about ten times, either to the trap or the draugr behind it, until I found out how to draw them into the trap without getting smashed myself. Got past a deathlord archer (not named thus in Requiem, but you still know them by the horns) by peeping around the door, shooting an arrow at him to get his attention and letting him trigger a blade trap, enjoyed listening to him getting cut into slices. The final fight in that big chamber with the many tombs went well enough until Gorr went down and the endboss came for me. I had run out of stamina potions by then, so in my despair I gulped a bottle of skooma and, suddenly feeling invincible, cut him to pieces; it was well worth the side effects (which TBH weren't as terrible as I'd expected, but I suppose the stamina regen penalty could be devastating under the wrong circumstances; anyway, I adore what you've done with skooma!. Scariest and most satisfying dungeon crawl in a long time.

I'm not too sure how 'exciting' this is, but I am curious to how other players dealt with this...

So the character I am playing right now is a Dark Elf spellsword named Vedas Fadrale. His primary skills are Light Armor, One-Handed, Enchant, Destruction and a bit into Archery.

After hitting level 18 I decided I want to try some of the Dawnguard content, so I spoke to Isren for the first time. This time however, after learning how dangerous vampires are in Pinemoon Cave (a small vampire lair near Solitude, to the west, I think) I decided to make some new armor... I used an Elven Gilded Cuirass I picked off of a Thalmor agent and gave it a Rigidity II enchantment, which buffed my health and claimed to make me 'immune to most magic draining effects'.

This was probably the most prudent decision I made (outside of enchanting an elven longsword with fire, I suppose), because I was basically able to torch all of the vampires in Dimhollow Crypt rather easily, while they helplessly tried to drain my life. Mind you, their attacks were still very dangerous (and I died a few times, especially to the mage vampires) but was able to clear the cave pretty easily. That is, of course, I got to Lokil.

This is where the 'epic' goes downhill, as I quickly realized engaging him in a fair fight was out of the question. His powerful lightning bolt spell and frost cloak was almost an instant kill for me, but luckily I found a way of beating him. By closing the gate to the room you start in, I was able to dual-cast fire rune outside of the barred windows and slowly widdle down his health... When he got around 20% of his health bar I decided to leave (since he automatically follows you to the next room) and finish him off with Lydia, in a semi-fair fight. Hilariously, he still almost killed me (I think I only had like 20 hp left after the ordeal) but we beat him down. Now Lydia has a full suit of Ebony Armor and I have a near full suit of Glass Armor from his vampire cohort. (which disappointingly only has a 10 point AC lead on Elven Gilded gear, I think it needs a bit of a buff)

So how did you guys beat Lokil? I think he's supposed to be like level 100, has a full suit of enchanted ebony armor and lots of mean spells. If anyone's beaten him legitly (without a cheesy strategy, I mean) I'd like to hear the story.

I needed some quicksilver ore and moonstone to create soulgems, so I decided to take Lydia with me. Now I'm not really a great fan of followers, in fact I hate them, but the last time I took one with me is at least a year ago, so I have forgotten why. This was a simple ore retrieving mission however, so what could possibly go wrong?

I left Whiterun and headed north to Silent Moons Camp and soon realized I was missing something: Lydia's footsteps. I looked around but she was nowhere to be found. Thinking that perhaps she missed the gate somehow, I decided to go back. At that moment I saw her in the distance running towards me. She had taken the long road passed Pelagia's Farm instead of just climbing the stairs, jump over a 30cm brick wall and heading north. Apparently, heavy armor and brick walls don't go well together, or she decided to have some exercise. All those days in Breezehome doing nothing did grow a couple of pounds after all.

Reunited, we collected the moonstone and went east to the quicksilver vanes. It was there we met our first challenge, a sabre cat. We saw each at the same moment, but the cat couldn't decide whether to go for Lydia, fat like an elk in summer, but armored like a mudcrab, or me, a skinny wizard, but easy on the teeth. That gave me time to put a Fire Rune on the ground before me and poke the cat in the face with Fiery Arrow. The cat took the bolt surprisingly hard and started running towards me. I readied a Frightening Orb and released it the moment the sabre cat run through the rune. I saw a bright orange flash and heard "Unghh". The cat run away and I thought by myself, I have never heard cats making that sound before. Then I saw Lydia, on the ground, at the very precise spot of my Fire Rune, dead.

I used my powers to travel back in time and tried a new approach. No more Fire Runes anymore, but simple fire bolts and and then scaring it away. I unleashed my first bolts, prepared a Frightening Orb, aimed and ... missed! The moment I released the orb I was pushed in the back by Lydia, which shove me a meter forwards, just enough to miss the cat. The cat didn't miss me however and had a good meal. Lucky for me I already had cast a contingency spell that put me back in time...

Third attempt. This time I positioned Lydia a couple of meters away from me and beside me. Lured the cat again, prepared an Frightening Orb, released it and ... hit Lydia, who managed with great skill and accuracy to jump in the trajectory of the orb at the precise moment I released it. Lucky for me, she also hindered the cat long enough to give me time to hit the cat with a second orb. While Lydia took cover behind a rock, I started pelting the sabre cat with more Fiery Arrows. I already begun to enjoy the exercise, temporarily without a follower, when Lydia shook off her fears and, feeling she had to compensate for her previous ... mishaps, she drew her sword and started chasing the cat.

Now, if you ever had the joy of seeing a sabre cat running, and then start imagining a Nord the size of a big fat (Breezehome) wild boar, clad in heavy armor, you can very accurately estimate the chance Lydia had catching the cat this way. She did however make enough noise to aggro three wolves and a troll, and irritated a giant in the process by just running through his camp.

After a long and tedious fight involving bolts and orbs to save Lydia's life, we collected the quicksilver ore and went home. On the way back, passing Whitewatch Tower, a small group of bandits were attacking the guards. By the time we were able to help, all bandits except one, were already taken care for. The last one had climbed the stairs to the tower, cowering in fear. I released a fire bolt, to put an end to his misery. Again, Lydia performed a miracle by wrangling her belly between me and the banisters (while still in heavy armor), and catch the bolt before it could reach the bandit. What a speed, what an agility! When asking her how she was able to perform such a great act, she simply replied "I'm sworn to carry your burns".

Since my last post i'm now level 20, but most of that has been non-combat grinding. I have many unused perks due to level restrictions in the areas I wish to strengthen and my character is still fairly weak. Anyway, i'm still hanging around the Whiterun area, with the occasional visit to Riften to work on my pickpocketing etc. I'm given the 'Valtheim Towers' quest and correct me if i'm wrong, but in Vanilla (I haven't played it for a while) it's just a case of taking out 3 or 4 bandits and job done. Although i'm weak, I think my character can take it and I head off.

This is where it kicks off. I approach Valtheim Towers and suddenly, the combat music kicks in and I receive a message telling me that my objective is complete and the Bandit Leader has been killed, despite me not even drawing a weapon. Obviously, this caused a bit of a 'wtf' moment, but I wasn't going to turn back and collect my reward just yet, I came here to slay bandits and i'll be damned if I was going to anything but that. I continue my approach... and get more than I bargained for.

I can see on the bridge that there are two NPC's in combat. I couldn't work out what they were but assumed they were both bandits. I had the OBIS mod installed (amongst others) and assumed it was at work? I hadn't noticed it up until this point, and had the spawn mutliplier set to 4 ignorantly assuming it wasn't working. I have so many unfamiliar mods installed I don't really know what's what just yet.

Anyway, I proceed into the lower tower by sneaking. There are three unarmed bandits there awaiting me. I manage to put arrows in two, step back a little and take the final one with my sword. Is this it? Easy. Lets get to the top tower and see what goodies are on offer. I proceed, and take out the surviving bandit on the bridge with another arrow. Again, easy.

I proceed towards the upper tower, and then it happens. I can hear all sorts of NPC's grunting, swords, battling, even a little FPS drop (F5, F5, F5!). Up the stairs I go... carnage! Bodies everywhere, about 4 or 5 bandits alive, unarmored, light armored, heavy armored. I die, obviously.

Load game, lets try and work out what's going on. I go up, I die. After many, many tries, I conclude that as soon as I go up those steps and take a look, they are on me. I need a new plan. This time, I go up the steps, don't even take the time to look, I just turn back and sprint. As I get back to the bridge, I stop, look behind me, did they follow? Of course they did. A group of bandits run after me. I manage to shoot an unarmored one with an arrow, but the rest - no good. More death... but a plan was forming. Eventually my tactic develops into 'take the unarmored with arrow, then run again!' Due to my level I at least had an abundunce of stamina, despite the lack of perks.

I sprint out of the tower. Stamina all but gone but i've built up enough of gap to get a safe quicksave in. Three more bandits come running out after me. The closest is unarmored... happy days. One arrow takes him down. The second, light armored, and I have time to hit him with an another arrow then finish him with my sword. Then... death at the hands of the heavy armored guy. It was a problem I need to solve due to my poor quicksave timing, but after trying with the same tactic for quite a while, I managed to get the first two killed in time to just about to avoid the swing of the final enemy sword. I switch to my mace and a battle commences, in which I win by the skin of my teeth. "That was the last bandit, it must be!" I heal up, save my game and off to get my goodies I go!

I walk into the lower tower, up the stairs, onto the bridge. Combat music hits... and so does an arrow. "FFS!" Load game. I go back up, a little more expectant this time. "Lets try and find out what's going on before I get hit, shall we?" Then I see it on the bridge. Another bandit, glowing to shit and back, armored with God knows what, firing arrows at me. Apparently, it's a Bandit reaver (upon more research it turns out it's from Dragonborn, but as I never played it during Vanilla, this was my first encounter). Am I fucked? Of course I am. I die... a lot more. On that bridge, the arrows were going to hit me everytime, I had nowhere to go and wasn't even going to get close.

10000th attempt. I try sprinting across the bridge. If I can get to him before he gets a shot at me, I can take him out, easy. "It works!", I thought. I make it to him without a single arrow in me. He pulls out a knife, I pull out a mace. "Haha, the guys as good as dead", I think. I barely scratch him... he in turn knifes me to death... Never the less, i'm having fun, so i'll keep trying.

Try upon try, I then somehow sprint towards him and pass him. I'm then making my way upto the top tower, completely unaware of where he is at this point. Either way, my natural reaction... quicksave. SINGLE HANDEDLY THE WORST QUICKSAVE I HAVE EVER MADE. He's on me like a sack of shit, every load... I'm fucked. My last proper save was back in Whiterun, I have wasted the last hour or so. A few tries later, and frustration that I may have lost my efforts I run as soon as my game loads... off the tower I go, onto the cliffside, into the river. I'm free!!! He's up there... i'm down here. I swim to the other side to safety. There is no chance in hell he can disobey Skyrim's rules and copy what I did to follow me. To get to me he must travel through the entire tower.

That's it, I'm done here. Back to Whiterun I must go to collect my reward, and i'll never be going to Valtheim Towers ever again. On my way back, it comes... my lifeline... my one chance to defeat him while i'm still here. As I make my way back, I see a travelling merchant accompanied by heavy armored brutes. Any other time my thoughts would be 'can I take them on, steal their gear?' Not this time, my thoughts right now were 'please be travelling past Valtheim Towers'. I walk with them, slowly. Painfully slow in fact, but I stick with it. There's a junction on the right, if they pass that, then they must be heading towards Valtheim Towers? Sure enough, they pass it. This is the moment.

As we approach, I quicksave then go on ahead. The difficulty was going to be getting him to follow me (he didn't follow last time after all). I get onto the bridge, combat music hits, arrows are fired, but I run back down the stairs unharmed, back to my new merchant friend. The bodyguards are armed ready. The plan was working, and what I loved most about it was that it worked first time!

Sure enough, he runs out of the tower, the bodyguards run towards him and my decision now was to either get involved or to let them battle it out. Hell to that, this guy has given me grief for the last hour or so, I want to kill him! I run up behind as he is in combat and hit him a few times with my mace. He goes down as if I were fighting an elk. I've done it... I've beaten him!

The merchant and his men are on their way. I decide i'll let them live (as if I would have beaten them anyway). Now I can finally enter the top tower and see what's going on. Up there, I find the reason for all the commotion, and the reason my FPS dropped. Whiterun guards and bandit bodies surround tower floor... what the hell happened? How did it happen? Either way, it's not my concern, my job was done and I had plenty of good loot to get that is probably way above my level, but I felt I deserved it for the way I dealt with the whole 'battle'. What should have been a simple quest took a near 2 hours of my time in all, and I loved every bit of it. Only Requiem (and whatever other mods that were having an affect) caused this. It was great.

Oh, and the great irony of it all? There was a bandit note at the top of the tower that stated that all merchants that pass by should be killed and looted... As soon as I read it I saved and quit, as I thought the story must be posted here.

5

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: PICS VIII: 10% LARGER THAN PICS VII

« on: Yesterday at 06:22:11 pm »

Potentially NSFW http://i.imgur.com/oNAjPqu.jpg

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RPG Ghetto / Re: ITT Cain and Junkenstein (and maybe others) discuss Skyrim mods

« on: Yesterday at 05:52:48 pm »

Requiem has no health regen. 

Well, in the case of Alternate Start's "left for dead"* option, what happens is that you are literally left for dead.  You wake up somewhere in the wilderness, in miner's gear, with no supplies, no gold, no weapons.

With hypothermia and realistic needs mods, this is frequently deadly.  With Requiem it is doubly so, as it's an unlevelled world, where running and jumping have actual stamina costs, enemies are frequently much higher level than you and everything costs thousands of septims to buy.  Oh, and no fast travel.

You will learn to despise frostbite spiders.  A single hit from their venom can bring your health down by 40 points or more...in addition to blurring your vision, effectively making fighting impossible and your death a certainty.  Bleak Falls Barrow is no longer a starter quest, but a major undertaking...draugr are resistant to most weapons, impervious to arrows (except silver) and can Shout.  Oh, and there are lots of them.  BFB is suggested as a level 10 quest, which, in vanilla Skyrim terms, is like a level 30 quest.  And dragons...now dragons really are the end of the world, capable of engaging multiple soliders without breaking a sweat. 

Archery is much less powerful, except against unarmoured targets.  Light armor now emphasizes the "light" part...meaning you'll die in 2-3 hits while wearing it, instead of just one without it.  Heavy armor emphasizes the "heavy"...meaning lighter opponents will be able to dance away from you and launch hit-and-run attacks, or else employ deadly magics from range.  Each attack costs stamina, and if you get exhausted, you get disarmed and killed.  Stealth is also nerfed, so expect less spectacular sneak attacks...especially against targets without vital organs.  Stamina also affects spellcasting, as does armor.  No more running around summoning daedra in your fancy ebony armor (not without a LOT of perks, anyway).

Oh, and vampire bosses are typically level 80, and decked out in ebony armor AND fire resistance enchantments.  They're blood-sucking fiends, not morons.

As such, Dawnbreaker is now about the best single sword in the game.  But good luck trying to get to it...

Requiem is actually my favourite game overhaul.  I did like SkyRe quite a bit, but it's basically a perk and combat overhaul.  Requiem is much, much more, though the combat itself is harsh and unforgiving.  It's meant to be a roleplaying overhaul and does quite well at that task, given the limitations of the Skyrim engine.  It's much closer to Baldur's Gate and Morrowind than Oblivion, lets put it that way.

*there are other options.  Starting with a guild isn't a terrible start, especially with Requiem's improved RPG atmosphere.

7

RPG Ghetto / Re: ITT Cain and Junkenstein (and maybe others) discuss Skyrim mods

« on: Yesterday at 04:30:59 pm »

Also, seriously Junk, try Requiem.  I know I've said this before, but it will make your hardcore playthrough even more hardcore.  For extra fun, install Requiem - Hard Times, the Dragonborn Patch and use Alternate Start to start the game in Raven's Rock.

You.  Will.  Die.

Seriously though, Requiem plus even a few mods can be extremely deadly.  I would go with Frostfall/RND/Hunterborn, for your survivalism needs.  Then I would install Hard Times.  Then YouHunger.  Then Dragon Combat Overhaul and Revenge of the Enemies.  Add patches and whatnot.  Add whatever fancy balanced weapon and armour mods you like (Immersive Armors and Weapons have patches to ensure they work with the game, and look pretty sweet besides).  Add pretty textures, if you like.  Install Enhanced Lights and FX.  Install Climates of Tamriel and select the darknest night option.  Install Alternate Life.

Select "left for dead".

Try to survive.  You wont, unless you get really lucky, but have fun in the meantime.

8

Literate Chaotic / Re: The Death of the Vampire Trope

« on: Yesterday at 02:16:35 pm »

I've read the first two parts of the trilogy.  It's fairly decent.  Definitely works better as a TV series though, I found myself thinking that as I read it (no surprise - it was pitched as a TV series first).  The scientific approach to vampirism is interesting, and sorta harks back to Bram Stoker, which is a nice touch.  And the old man's story is, once you know it, brilliantly terrifying, and totally in keeping with Del Toro's approach to horror.

9

Literate Chaotic / Re: The Death of the Vampire Trope

« on: Yesterday at 12:41:57 pm »

I predict vampires are making a comeback.

10

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Open Bar: Funnier Than White People Practicing Voodoo

« on: Yesterday at 08:03:34 am »

totally nonplussed by the "terrible danger" posed by Roko's Basilisk

How well do you understand timeless decision theory?

It's a rather critical aspect of why Roko's Basilisk is considered such a dangerous line of thought.  Without that knowledge, it would seem little more than Pascal's Wager.

11

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Just another YAWN thread

« on: July 25, 2014, 04:29:33 pm »

I think he's a vulture, personally.

Tywin Lannister

Both have had rather...epic bowel movements.

12

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Financial fuckery thread

« on: July 24, 2014, 02:43:05 pm »

If EA are really smart, they'll implement RNG with a freemium system.

That's kinda what they did with ME3.  You could spend money for Bioware points, to purchase packs to unlock content faster.  The trick is, with the packs, the contained goods are randomised and so there is no guarantee that, for example, you will get a black-listed weapon if you open half a dozen arsenal packs (as I've found from experience).

The only difference is that with ME3, none of the content was available to paid subscribers only.  If you had the patience and the skills to pay the bills, you could afford to unlock everything for free (minus the 900 hour average it has taken to do so thus far).

13

Discordian Recipes / Re: Vote on this weekend's special!

« on: July 24, 2014, 02:39:55 pm »

No.  Well, I have, but that's besides the point.  People wont eat garlic if they're out on a date, for example.

14

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Unlimited "Israel, What the fuck" thread

« on: July 24, 2014, 07:07:14 am »

Israel's getting creepy:

Yossi* wants to make it very clear from the beginning of our discussion that I cannot use his real name. Rotem, his friend who is also translating, explains, “He is afraid. We’re all afraid. The fascists are searching for our Facebook profiles, for any information about us on the internet. They are hunting us.”

Send leftists to the gas chambers & please take them there in garbage trucks

We may criticize the army and the defense establishment, but only from one direction: Why didn’t they let the army win? Let it “do its job,” beat the hell out of them, bombard them, crush them even more, conquer even more, cut off the electricity, tighten the siege and ramp up the killing, pain and devastation as much as possible; to exalt the might of the troops, to praise the daring of the pilots. To bring the Arabs back to the Stone Age and Gaza to the Middle Ages. That is allowed. The most moral thing on earth — as much as possible; doubting it is forbidden. One may also cry victim without limit. Ignorance will be crowned as a national goal.

15

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Syria reported to have use Chemical Warfare

« on: July 24, 2014, 06:58:55 am »

It's a convoy, so it's not unusual.  Blow the lead and the rear guard, shoot anyone still standing and release the prisoners.

Also, ISIS.  Or an affiliated group.  ISIS have done a number of jailbreaks over the last year, including launching a successful attack on Abu Ghraib.  It's their style, and within their means.