Verno wrote on Jun 7, 2012, 09:04:
I agree with you but there's a mod to fix this until Bethesda decides (No Perk prereqs) and it even has different versions that don't touch certain trees like crafting if you want a more balanced approach. There are also some perk overhaul mods but I haven't checked them out yet. About 30 minutes at the Workshop fixed up most of my problems with Skyrim last night.

I just wish Bethesda would let someone else do the combat engine. Combat always sucks in the ES games - poorly animated, little to no feedback on hits and it looks like puppets dancing around. I had to laugh when I used one of my dragon shouts on some bandit on a mountain and it literally blew him off like a cannonball into the horizon.

Yeah I found a mod that I liked that made the smithing perk tree more like the other perk trees with the first perk having 5 stages, each stage allowing you to improve weapons and armor an additional 20%, and changing the requirements of the other perks so you can take a light armor path or heavy armor path. It didn't fix the problem with light armor users having to take heavy armor perks to get the weapons, but on the mod page that was on the to do list. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fix an existing game, and the mod author seems to have abandoned it since the initial release. I haven't checked, but I'm sure there are or will be some balancing mods.

Beamer wrote on Jun 7, 2012, 12:29:

Verno wrote on Jun 7, 2012, 09:04:
I had to laugh when I used one of my dragon shouts on some bandit on a mountain and it literally blew him off like a cannonball into the horizon.

What? This sounds awesome!

It really does sound like the kind of thing, like levitation/flight in Daggerfall/Morrowind, that's going to piss people off it they "fix" it.

Verno wrote on Jun 7, 2012, 09:04:
I had to laugh when I used one of my dragon shouts on some bandit on a mountain and it literally blew him off like a cannonball into the horizon.

What? This sounds awesome!

I never minded the combat in Oblivion, but I got bored so quickly in Skyrim. Figuring that the combat wasn't where the fun came from I followed those directions to make a bit of super-armor that made me invincible (well, the first bit I made actually killed me when I took it off) and one-hit-one-kill sword.
That actually made the game less fun. Whereas I got probably 160 hours out of Oblivion Skyrim lasted about 25 for me.

I'll restart sometime and not-cheat. But, to the point, I wish combat was better.

Agree with Verno

the only thing _seriously_ not good about Skyrim was the lame melee combat. It is like you are waving a whiffle bat in front of your face.

The "magic from 2 different hands" thing was rather well done however.

Anyway, the smithing perk tree is way out of whack, and the armor ratings need a total overhaul. If you're going for light armor like I did and want the best weapons, you have to take the heavy armor perks that you wont use just to get access to the other weapons

I agree with you but there's a mod to fix this until Bethesda decides (No Perk prereqs) and it even has different versions that don't touch certain trees like crafting if you want a more balanced approach. There are also some perk overhaul mods but I haven't checked them out yet. About 30 minutes at the Workshop fixed up most of my problems with Skyrim last night.

I just wish Bethesda would let someone else do the combat engine. Combat always sucks in the ES games - poorly animated, little to no feedback on hits and it looks like puppets dancing around. I had to laugh when I used one of my dragon shouts on some bandit on a mountain and it literally blew him off like a cannonball into the horizon.

I need to finish my first play though. I quit after some frustration with the way the perks work and armor balance issues. I was going for a stealthy character, so I took light armor perks. I pretty much ended up not doing much stealth, I get a sneak attack in with my bow then rush in and chop heads off with my sword.

Anyway, the smithing perk tree is way out of whack, and the armor ratings need a total overhaul. If you're going for light armor like I did and want the best weapons, you have to take the heavy armor perks that you wont use just to get access to the other weapons. I had/have a nice set of glass armor with some pieces enchanted, and when I finally got smithing up to 100, I took the dragon armor perk, and rushed to my home to build a set only to realize I was a few scales short of being able to make a complete set. I had some stashed in other places, but was still short. I continued to play and when I killed another dragon and had enough, I ran back to my house to make my nice new shiny armor, only to find out it only has something like 20 points higher rating. To make things worse, I decided to look it up on the wiki to see wtf was going on, and it seems that no matter how high your armor rating is, the game has a maximum damage resistance of 80% or 85% which equals an armor rating of 760 or something, which my glass armor already exceeded. Hell with my smithing at 100 I could create an improved set of leather armor that was over the 760 rating giving me the maximum protection any armor can provide. That's seriously fucked up when leather armor provides the same protection as Daedric armor.

Being faced with having wasted a perk on dragon smithing, I was faced with a decision; either load an earlier save before I took the perk, or "cheat" and use console commands to remove the perk and give myself a perk I would have taken instead. I couldn't decide, and was a bit frustrated so I decided to play other games for a while and haven't gone back.

I'm not going to pick up any of the DLC until it's all out and goes on sale (like I did for FNV). Eventually I'll finish my game, and by then I'll start a new game with the DLC enabled.

Shineyguy wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 16:02:
Doesn't really make a difference to them. May actually make them less money as people with the game on other platforms (like me, I of course purchased the game for PC) will skip this entirely just in principle.

It may line Microsoft's pockets, which is another argument entirely.

I don't think they will care much about a handful of people with the principle of "extreme impatience" when this game inevitably reaches #1 on steam for several months.

I don't mind if it's a few months till the DLC hits PC. I've got 230 hours on Skyrim (over 3 characters) and I have barely touched the main story or the war.

On the other hand I'm looking forward to the DLC because if any one aspect of Skyrim is weak, it's the vampirism. There are some nice mods that flesh it out but I'd rather something strait from Bethesda.

Shineyguy wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 16:02:
Doesn't really make a difference to them. May actually make them less money as people with the game on other platforms (like me, I of course purchased the game for PC) will skip this entirely just in principle.

Yeah, I seriously doubt that any significant number of people will refuse to buy it because of that. When it's out, they'll buy it.

That was a really pointless trailer for what I am pretty sure will be a really pointless game.

deadearth wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 15:10:

Kastagir wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 15:04:

I'm not in love with vampires or with the prospect of flying around looking like Marcus from Underworld: Evolution, so I understand where you're coming from. I expected something that expanded on core gameplay and the main quest(s) of Skyrim rather than adding this seemingly unrelated fluff. Time will tell.

I can understand expecting some core gameplay additions (and there may still be that we haven't seen). I'm not sure however why you would expect something that expanded on the main quest(s). None of the expansions for Oblivion or morrowind did this, and I'm pretty sure that none for Fallout 3 or new vegas did this either (although I'm not as certain about those).

Fallout 3's Broken Steel DLC allowed free-play after the campaign and extended the main quest line a bit. However in that case they actually had a loose end (Enclave was still around, even though they failed to stop you), but in Skyrim the major threat is completely done.

nin wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 15:35:

and all it does is anger the player base that uses the other platforms that the game is available on...

Well it does line bethesda's pockets...

Doesn't really make a difference to them. May actually make them less money as people with the game on other platforms (like me, I of course purchased the game for PC) will skip this entirely just in principle.

It may line Microsoft's pockets, which is another argument entirely.

and all it does is anger the player base that uses the other platforms that the game is available on...

Well it does line bethesda's pockets...

Sigh, stupid Xbox timed exclusives. Does nothing for the gaming community, and all it does is anger the player base that uses the other platforms that the game is available on...

Kastagir wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 15:15:

I was referring more to the tone of the main quests. For example, I would have expected Skyrim DLC (at least the early ones) to have a significant tie-in with dragons or the fallout of the civil war. From what I can tell, this is not the case, but I don't know the body of the Dawnguard questline, so I can't say for sure what it entails. As I said, time will tell. I don't consider the addition of "legendary dragons" to be a sufficient tie-in.

Ah, i see. that's reasonable. There are still more expansions planned, so I wouldn't say that something like that couldn't happen. Only time will tell.

deadearth wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 15:10:
I can understand expecting some core gameplay additions (and there may still be that we haven't seen). I'm not sure however why you would expect something that expanded on the main quest(s). None of the expansions for Oblivion or morrowind did this, and I'm pretty sure that none for Fallout 3 or new vegas did this either (although I'm not as certain about those).

I was referring more to the tone of the main quests. For example, I would have expected Skyrim DLC (at least the early ones) to have a significant tie-in with dragons or the fallout of the civil war. From what I can tell, this is not the case, but I don't know the body of the Dawnguard questline, so I can't say for sure what it entails. As I said, time will tell. I don't consider the addition of "legendary dragons" to be a sufficient tie-in.

Then again, Skyrim has done a lot of things differently from previous BGS games, and a "fortified" version of the main quest(s) would make subsequent playthroughs that much more interesting. Not everyone will want to play Dawnguard with their level 60+ character.

Kastagir wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 15:04:

I'm not in love with vampires or with the prospect of flying around looking like Marcus from Underworld: Evolution, so I understand where you're coming from. I expected something that expanded on core gameplay and the main quest(s) of Skyrim rather than adding this seemingly unrelated fluff. Time will tell.

I can understand expecting some core gameplay additions (and there may still be that we haven't seen). I'm not sure however why you would expect something that expanded on the main quest(s). None of the expansions for Oblivion or morrowind did this, and I'm pretty sure that none for Fallout 3 or new vegas did this either (although I'm not as certain about those).

wtf_man wrote on Jun 6, 2012, 14:08:
As much as I love Skyrim... I'm not sure why I have little interest in this.

(I'm talking about the Dawnguard DLC... not the stupid MMO Trailer)

I'm not in love with vampires or with the prospect of flying around looking like Marcus from Underworld: Evolution, so I understand where you're coming from. I expected something that expanded on core gameplay and the main quest(s) of Skyrim rather than adding this seemingly unrelated fluff. Time will tell.

As much as I love Skyrim... I'm not sure why I have little interest in this.

(I'm talking about the Dawnguard DLC... not the stupid MMO Trailer)

+1 For another play through of New Vegas!