Oh yah, the clipping issues (and all of the other bugs) were annoying. Especially since it was in the pre-Internet days (at least, I didn't have access to it). But there wasn't anything like it, so it was fun. The thrill of discovery! Buying a horse and clip-clopping around the country. Joining a guild and rising through the ranks through quests (until they asked for an item from a dungeon).

I think the thing that made it the hardest for me, was I didn't quite get the leveling scheme. Now I realize I should have picked primary skills that were easier to increase, so I would have leveled more often and gotten more HP/MP. But back then, I didn't know that.

And that opening dungeon you had to escape from...

I had such a love/hate relationship with Daggerfall. The thing I remember most about the hating bit is constantly falling through the floor.....and then just falling for forever. The best stuff I remember about Daggerfall is the same as everyone else. At the time, it offered things not many other games could.
https://www.greenmangaming.com/blog/daggerfall-10-reasons-best/

Necrophob wrote on Apr 27, 2022, 17:57:

I still have nightmares of those damn dungeons. It was always something like "Find the feather of infinite tickling in the dungeon to the west of town!" Ok, shouldn't be hard, right? Wrong I still hear those dungeon doors opening with a horrible squeal. Being killed by something due to the horrible combat mechanics (surely I can hit a damn rat?! ARGH!).

Since they're all glued together out of the same collection of stock parts, and because those stock parts have subtle variations across dungeons, and because the dungeons are so large and labyrinthine that they are completely disconnected from any sense of being a physical place, you're constantly battling a felling of deja vu and that you're losing your grip on reality. "Wait, this door led to the stairs to the maze with *shudder* ancient vampires, but now it opens to a brick wall?" Opening the automap, with its clusterfuck of a camera and limited draw distance, often just serves to trigger utter despair more than it serves as a navigational aide. You know its bad when a common strategy for tackling this crap is to leave a bread crumb trail of dropped items so you can tell where you've been, and how to get out: oh yeah, getting hopelessly lost and trapped in a dungeon and having to abandon a character because you forgot to make a save at the entrance is totally a Daggerfall rite of passage.

In retrospect, I have no idea what appealed to me about any of this.

Scottish Martial Arts wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 23:31:

ShakaUVM wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 21:43:
Daggerfall is the best Elder Scrolls game of all time, I super wish they'd do a cosmetic remake of it, without removing functionality. It had the largest world, the best magic item crafting system, the best spellcrafting system, and so forth, in all of the Elder Scrolls series, and was released in the mid 90s.

It's certainly unique and ambitious. Also completely broken with truly nightmarish dungeon design. Nevertheless, it's almost hypnotic to play, and I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I've finished the main quest (well both of them) three times.

I still have nightmares of those damn dungeons. It was always something like "Find the feather of infinite tickling in the dungeon to the west of town!" Ok, shouldn't be hard, right? Wrong I still hear those dungeon doors opening with a horrible squeal. Being killed by something due to the horrible combat mechanics (surely I can hit a damn rat?! ARGH!).

The most fun I had out of the game was breaking into shops, stealing everything, then coming back and selling everything to the merchants.

ShakaUVM wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 21:43:
Daggerfall is the best Elder Scrolls game of all time

lolno ... I never played Redguard so I don't know if it's even worse than Daggerfall but Daggerfall is one of the biggest piles of garbage ever, not just in the TES series. What a buggy heap of dung with its poorly made randomized crap dungeons, garbage gameplay, non-existent story, zero interesting characters, a generic and repetitive world... it was plain and pure trash on all levels.

Other RPGs at the time were infinitely better like Might & Magic VI, VII, Realms of Arkania Shadows over Riva, Baldur's Gate, Diablo, Fallout 1 + 2, Betrayal in Antara, Final Fantasy VII, Return to Krondor, Lands of Lore Guardians of Destiny etc. etc. etc. and yes I included some 1997/1998 RPGs in this list because, while Daggerfall came out in September 1996, it was barely even playable until years after it was released.

Bent wrote on Apr 27, 2022, 00:36:

I miss objective based attack/defend multiplayer and have no idea why it stopped being a thing

Yeah, I expected online games to change completely after that. And then they didn't, really.

Well, co-op eventually arrived in games. That sort of does it.

Wolf:ET and the Assault modes for UT2004 were so good that they ruined free for all / team deathmatch for me.

Splash Damage has continued to carry the flag for asymmetric multiplayer since then - I never really got into ET:QW but both Brink and Dirty Bomb were fun. Quite a few of my old ET clanmates got into Dirty Bomb, but I only dabbled and have no idea if it's still popular now.

Co-op being more prevalent probably works better for me - I don't have the reaction speed or time for hours of practice that I used to - but I fondly remember playing Wolf:ET during its heyday.

ShakaUVM wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 21:43:
Daggerfall is the best Elder Scrolls game of all time, I super wish they'd do a cosmetic remake of it, without removing functionality. It had the largest world, the best magic item crafting system, the best spellcrafting system, and so forth, in all of the Elder Scrolls series, and was released in the mid 90s.

IMO Morrowind was the best game in the series. Unlike Daggerfall it suffered a bit in terms of size, because it was handcrafted, but it also removed all the procedurally generated blandness and sameness of a huge open RNG world. It had the best quests, it had very little handholding, it had the best story, the best quests (and your actions actually affected the world), and awesome atmosphere helped by a brilliant score. Morrowind is probably one of the best CRPGs ever made, which is why I'm looking forward to Skywind (if it ever gets released).

For Arena and Daggerfall the news isn't that they're free (they've been free for many years now) but rather that they're available on Steam.

I miss objective based attack/defend multiplayer and have no idea why it stopped being a thing

Yeah, I expected online games to change completely after that. And then they didn't, really.

Well, co-op eventually arrived in games. That sort of does it.

I loved Wolfenstein ET. I played the heck out of it. I could have used a bit less spam damage like airstrikes. There was an option to limit that, though.

That beach landing map from the regular Wolfenstein game was a real eye opener.

I just wish there would have been an option to play the supernatural baddies on one side.

ShakaUVM wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 21:43:
Daggerfall is the best Elder Scrolls game of all time, I super wish they'd do a cosmetic remake of it, without removing functionality. It had the largest world, the best magic item crafting system, the best spellcrafting system, and so forth, in all of the Elder Scrolls series, and was released in the mid 90s.

It's certainly unique and ambitious. Also completely broken with truly nightmarish dungeon design. Nevertheless, it's almost hypnotic to play, and I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I've finished the main quest (well both of them) three times.

Ant wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 18:31:
WET was fun!

Yeah, it was superb and completely free too. Probably my very favorite multiplayer shooter: I miss objective based attack/defend multiplayer and have no idea why it stopped being a thing.

Daggerfall Unity is definitely worth the download to check it out.

ShakaUVM wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 21:43:
Daggerfall is the best Elder Scrolls game of all time, I super wish they'd do a cosmetic remake of it, without removing functionality. It had the largest world, the best magic item crafting system, the best spellcrafting system, and so forth, in all of the Elder Scrolls series, and was released in the mid 90s.

Check out Daggerfall Unity.

Never could get it to work, and had to take it back. I wonder if it works now?
*edit* nevermind, I'm not messing with dos or dosbox again.

This comment was edited on Apr 26, 2022, 22:38.

I own all of these from back in the physical media days... I think I even have Arena on 3.5 floppies? No it must have been a CD. Wow, time flies.

Daggerfall is the best Elder Scrolls game of all time, I super wish they'd do a cosmetic remake of it, without removing functionality. It had the largest world, the best magic item crafting system, the best spellcrafting system, and so forth, in all of the Elder Scrolls series, and was released in the mid 90s.

Elder Scrolls: Redguard and Battlespire also got added to Steam today, but these two aren't free.

Ant wrote on Apr 26, 2022, 18:31:
WET was fun!

Especially if you were a LPB!

WET was fun!

Don't recall WET at all but I remember how stoked I was for Arena and Daggerfall especially at the time. I think the all time hype meter high for me was Morrowind. It was such a big step up graphically and was the Delf homeland.

And they really need to get the next TES out. Skyrim was great and all but damn 11 years and counting, enough waiting already. I'm not convinced Starfield is going to be all that and a bag of chips.