News:

That line from the father's song in Mary Poppins, where he's going on about how nothing can go wrong, in Britain in 1910.  That's about the point I realized the boy was gonna die in a trench.

Main Menu

Unified Vidya Games thread

Started by Cain, November 21, 2013, 05:10:58 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Junkenstein

My current setup is somewhat similar to Cain's (See note below), but with a few alterations.

I've pillaged the "realism" section of G.E.M.S as well as a few others not listed from the Nexus. The nexus ones tend to act as accelerators or multipliers to the effects listed resulting in disease being FUCKING LETHAL. As it should be in such a setting.

For combat mods, where Cain suggested not to use X with Y, I'm using X with Y. A guy running at you with a knife is now a serious issue. As it should be. 3 people approaching with axes is a FUCKING PROBLEM. Because you're starving to death and have ultra rabies.

There was a passage of time mod in there as well, can't recall the name offhand but I'm pretty certain it's responsible for nearly killing me when I left the game running for a few minutes and came back to a malnourished, dehydrated guy who's got every disease you can name. Don't hang around in sewers kids.

(edit to fix version, It's basically the requiem list and the survivalism list I'm running, with the few extras.)
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Junkenstein

Also, dragon mods. Many. All those listed and "World eater beater" which I have no expectation to deal with anytime soon but revamps the final Alduin fight to something a little more interesting and less cheesy. I've also thrown other trap mods in so they're harder to see (if you can't predict likely places after the dozenth tunnel dungeon, you're really not paying attention at all) and pretty lethal.

To give you an idea of my level of progress here, I FUCKING SURVIVED HELGEN. DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THAT SHIT. FUCK. MAN. HELGEN. YOU WEREN'T THERE MAN. YOU WEREN'T THERE. It took an in-game month to get to Riften and everything on the way is fucking evil and made of hate.

Then some smug little fuck wants me to go to SOLITUDE FOR 10 FUCKING GOLD. I GET IT. YOU'RE POOR. BUT FUCK YOU. IT WOULD BE NICER TO ASK ME TO JUST KILL MYSELF NOW.

It's surprisingly enjoyable, you feel like actions have consequences. Even just waiting around has a consequence. You will, eventually, starve to death.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Junkenstein

I just realized how many times the game will eventually want me to climb that fucking mountain.

NOPE. Crazy motherfuckers want to live at the top of a mountain freezing and starving to death then they can go fuck themselves. I'd say it's safer down at ground level but that's a blatant lie too.


Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Pæs


Junkenstein

Further details:
Using the various enhanced enemies mods, these also appear to have stacked in places. Literally everything is a murderous ball of hate. I've come across one vampire and now consider the dawnguard to clearly have some kind of death wish.

Before any serious attempt at combat, training is probably a good idea. As it should be.

Again, for an idea of progress I'm about 90 days in game and level 3. I've not been particularly trying to push that up, mainly due to the way I suspect enemies will scale in some places utterly ruining my shit. Not resorted to exploits yet but after the sewers I considered it.

Exploration is considerably more significant with this rig and the level of difficulty mitigates the tunnel-dungeon problem somewhat. Places like Blackreach should become far more interesting to play through as a result of this too. But WHY THE FUCK would you go there? Suicidal fucker.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

Ah, I think I see the difference here.  I try to balance my game.  Admittedly, vanilla Skyrim seems to be balanced somewhere around Apprentice level difficulty, and I try to balance it somewhere well above Legendary level difficulty, but there is some balance.

So, for example.  Tougher, smarter, unleveled enemies, what do?  Well, Duel is pretty balanced, insofar as you get the drop on the enemy, you can beat merry shit out of them and they'll just stagger until they die (conversely, if they regain the advantage, they'll do the same to you).  So Duel partly balances out that power discrepancy.  What else?  Stronger poisons help.  So I have a mod for that.  Enemy spawns are larger now.  Balanced out with a mod which allows traps to be crafted - ambush the enemy, retreat and draw them into an unholy mix of fire runes and explosive dwarven oil.  Vampires and dragons are now exceedingly deadly - compensate with enchanted arrows (which do sick amounts of damge, btw) and buffed shouts.  Make your follower essential.  They'll still fall down when they're out of health, but at least you won't have to spend all your money on hiring mercenaries constantly, and they'll draw aggro from the enemy.

The other thing to remember is that the NPCs are already cheating bastards.  Many NPCs get insane bonuses.  Check out Kvenel the Tongue in Volunruud, for example.  At level 30, he can have 1000 HP and 575 stamina.  And he's not that uncommon, a great deal of enemies have HP, stamina and magicka well beyond what their level should allow them, presumably so combat in vanilla Skyrim isn't a complete joke.  Only the three overhaul mods (ERSO, SkyRe and Requiem) actually deal with this by reworking the bonuses to be consistent with race and level bonuses.  But it does mean that, for example, with Duel installed he will be a lot tougher than he was ever intended to be by vanilla or mod standards, and quite tough for the Dragonborn.  I know, I took him on at level 30 with Duel and Revenge of the Enemies installed, and he wrecked my shit.  So don't feel bad about balancing the game whatsoever.

WTF is also actually somewhat useful in this respect, as it means you can concentrate on using crafting skills to level your character without fear of gimping your combat skills and getting into a tough fight.  So spam potions, enchantment and smithing all day, every day (CCOR makes smithing more difficult and level more slowly.  However, activate Jewelcraft in the options and get hold of the transmutate ore spell.  I pretty much levelled 20 ranks in smithing from gold jewelry alone.  Plus I made so much that my home in Riften is filled with necklaces and rings, just waiting for vendors to have enough money to purchase them).  Do gimp work like chopping wood or picking crops and use the money to make Amren teach you his favourite sword and shield technique.  Stalk guards to improve your stealth.  Hell, you can even install mods where using the training grounds in each hold capital will increase your melee, archery and magic skills, at about 1/3rd the rate of actual combat.  I think that would be a legit, immersive install.

And yes, vampires are deadly.  Oh god vampires are deadly. Vampires are threat level alpha, just behind dragons.  That's almost entirely due to 4 little words: Revenge of the Enemies.  RotE doesn't, as far as I can tell, give them any new abilities or massive bonuses in terms of stats.  It does, however, alter their combat AI significantly.  They'll shift into batform, go invisible and spam drain life far more, and use their ice spells to drain your stamina and slow you down before engaging in melee. 

However, some juiced up inferno arrows certainly ruin their day, as does a bow upgraded with the 50% stagger chance.  Cast Flame Cloak for melee and go in with a fire enchanted weapon.  Use honed silver too, if you have Immersive Weapons/CCOR installed (30% damage bonus, adjustable.  I normally put it at 50%, because it's freaking silver).  Use a Frenzy rune to turn their thralls against them.  When all else fails, run away.

My playthrough is going fairly well.  Now at level 27, just joined the Thieves Guild and looking at joining the Dawnguard next.  I did the Morthal vampire quest, which was fun.  Caught Morvath with his pants down, figuratively speaking, with only a single thrall and a Nightstalker defending him.  I was significantly helped by my follower though....I recruited Meresine from the Immersive NPCs mod, and damn she's a badass.  Completely obsessed with fire, but that's hardly a bad thing.  Plus the voice acting is pretty good...significantly better than some Skyrim characters I could name.

I've toned down Deadly Dragons, after blood dragons started showing up, and the guard in Riverwood all went on an extended lunch break.  They always ambush me while doing my crafting in Riverwood....anyway, I had it set to Expert, but have reduced it since.  I might increase it again after getting enhanced crossbows, but not before.  I've also moved to the mod-installed Canal Home in Riften, which is pretty awesome.  Small, but I can do all my crafting there without blood dragons ambushing me, and I love how organised the layout for storage is (the mod author has labelled areas for ingots, leather, bones and remains, alchemy ingredients, scrolls etc).

I've also temporarily removed Dovakhriid - the Dragon Lords, as they are just insanely difficult at this level.  I'm using the equivalent to an ebony bow, upgraded to exquisite, with three ranks in bow damage, with the Deadly Aim stealth perk, with Nordic arrows, and I'm not seeing the health bar move, after multiple hits.  So I'm going to wait until I've levelled a bit more, than reinstall them.  They are meant to be a high-level challenge, after all.  And personally I don't reckon Alduin would consider me worth the waste of his lieutenant's time.  I mean, a high dragon would currently wreck my shit, so I'm not that much of a threat.

I also accidentally stumbled upon part of the Following Mercer mod, while exploring in the wilds.  Following Mercer allows you to find where cheating bastard Mercer Frey has stashed some of the wealth of the Thieves Guild, once he is exposed and goes on the run.  As it turns out, you can also do this before completing the questline.  One of Mercer's sources of wealth is a mine north of Shor's Stone, filled to the brim with bandits.  I made about 5000 in gold just from looting bandit corpses and gained three levels.  There was also a significant quantity of gems, and I'm planning to head back with a pickaxe and lots of spare time, and take every single ore from that place.  And there is a lot of valuable ores in there.  Frey also has a cabin on top of said mine, filled with even more gems and some potent magical items but it is heavily guarded, by a levelled shade of Mercer Frey armed with his signature weapons.  I decided that was a fight for another day.

Still, when you're a thief, it's not about killing.  It's about taking the other guy's stuff (which may or may not involve killing him).  And I took a bunch of Mercer's stuff while he's still treating me like a novice, who doesn't know one end of a lockpick from the other.  That gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.  And selling his stolen stuff to his fence is just the icing on the cake.

I'm now doing some prep work for the first major Thieves Guild quest, the Goldenglow estate.  Muffle and night-eye spells, check.  Shroud of the Gray Fox, acquired.  One scroll of Forgive and Forget (removes all bounties), acquired at great expense (well, I had to kill a LOT of bandits to find it).  I'm hoping to level so I have perk points to spend in Illusion, to help me along. 

Cain

If vampires are still getting you down, consider this mod.  I'm about to give it a try now - as I recently got wrecked hard by an Ancient Vampire.  Even with cave bears helping, which I found odd, as everyone knows cave bears are basically the gravest threat to civilization in Skyrim, and easily capable of taking down a mammoth, giant or dragon on their own.

Pæs

I played a dead-is-dead Old Orc whose stated purpose was to fight all the fights until something gives him a good death and I had to suspend disbelief on why he wasn't charging at cave bears, because that shit would have ended my game right there.

Cain

ITT, we question why Akatosh did not create the "Ursa-born" to defend Tamriel against this threat.  They could travel from cave to cave, killing bears and stealing their power.

Junkenstein

QuoteAh, I think I see the difference here.  I try to balance my game.  Admittedly, vanilla Skyrim seems to be balanced somewhere around Apprentice level difficulty, and I try to balance it somewhere well above Legendary level difficulty, but there is some balance.

Yes, indeed. I've gone for fuck all balance with a side of ludicrous nonsense.

Today's example - Bears are hundreds of pounds of fury and spite. These are nothing compared to the compact ball of evil that is the common mudcrab. Pincers that can slash steel like paper and a carapace made from the bones of everything that ever fucked with it before, these crustacean demons are the leading edge of worldwide doom.

I thought I would go mudcrab hunting to slowly teach myself combat. I ended up teaching myself enough healing to nearly gain a level. The disease riddled bleeding out crawl back to safety taught me something quite important. Do not fuck with Mudcrabs.

After this ill advised attempt, I briefly considered going after horkers instead but I doubt that anything that is composed of 80% tusk is going to be any nicer.

I'm still planning the Goldenglow job. I suspect that the best way to handle this will not look like anything I've tried in the past. It may involve some kind of Mudcrab invasion force.

Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

For some reason, I couldn't enter the sewer on Goldenglow or kill the merc and take his key, like the game hadn't properly registered I was now a member of the Thieves Guild or something.  So I had to console-advance the quest to completion.

Did some Dawnguard work on the side as well.  Since I have an enhanced ebony crossbow now, I did the first quest to recruit Serana.  Was doing really well right up until the point where there is a solitary, boss level vampire guarding the door.  I used flaming arrows, silver poison (50 damage per sec for 2 seconds, 25% weakness to fire for 30 seconds, -25% melee damage dealt -10% movement speed), struck from stealth and still only took his health down by 10%.

He, on the other hand, could virtually one-shot me with the vampire lord bolt attack (I have 90% cold resistance and 50% fire resistance, but that attack ignores all except straight up magic resistance), and kept on resurrecting a killer cave bear with about 90% of his hitpoints.  If I had been doing an Ironman playthrough...well, it would've ended long before there anyway, but it definitely would've ended there.

I'm going to try Serana with this mod, and see how that works out.  Mod maker says he uses Duel and Revenge of the Enemies and this mod makes her more useful, so we'll see.

Had dragons stop attacking me for a while, and kept finding dragon walls abandoned or populated by different levelled enemies, like Necromancers.  I think it was something to do with a Knife in the Dark quest, which does temporarily halt all dragon attacks, but I temporarily disabled Deadly Dragons anyway.

The fight at the end of that quest was fun.  The resurrected dragon summoned three of his buddies to join in...and as you may recall, that area is fairly exposed.  A friendly giant and mammoths drew some aggro for a bit, but it was a tense fight.  Since then, I've had dragons attack me in Riverwood and Winterhold, so I think the game is back to normal.

Also, someone has finally come up with a fix for the stalking dragons bug.  For some reason, Dragon Combat Overhaul really exacerbates this vanilla bug and Apollodown has been going crazy trying to figure it out.  Hopefully, this fix will get rolled into the next edition of DCO and not require a seperate mod.

Oh, Saarthal is fun, by the way.  Three draugr deathlords and a draugr wight make for a good fight.

Cain

OK, so funny story.

If you have Insects Begone and chose to get rid of all spiders (like I did) and you chose to install Skyrim Immersive Creatures (like I did) but you forget to set the option to "Lore Friendly - No spiders", you end up getting swarmed by thousands of minature bears.  Like, bears the size of small rats, rampaging around and roaring and attacking you.

Single most hilarious thing I've done in Skyrim, bar none.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Cain on May 29, 2014, 01:44:46 PM
OK, so funny story.

If you have Insects Begone and chose to get rid of all spiders (like I did) and you chose to install Skyrim Immersive Creatures (like I did) but you forget to set the option to "Lore Friendly - No spiders", you end up getting swarmed by thousands of minature bears.  Like, bears the size of small rats, rampaging around and roaring and attacking you.

Single most hilarious thing I've done in Skyrim, bar none.
:lol:
Did they pitch-shift the roars?
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

"The worst forum ever" "The most mediocre forum on the internet" "The dumbest forum on the internet" "The most retarded forum on the internet" "The lamest forum on the internet" "The coolest forum on the internet"

Junkenstein

That would be terrifying with my set up. I'll have to try it though there's no way in hell I could survive it.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Cain

No, they had the exact same volume as normal bear roars.

I don't think they were actually hard to kill, this was Helgen and a single hit with an iron dagger was doing the job.  But I was laughing too much to pay a lot of attention.

In other news, dragon priests are hard with Revenge of the Enemies installed.  Magebreaker arrows will do them in, with Power Shot - Quick Shot and a legendary Zephyr equipped...but it's not a fun fight.