There's no one there?!

This joke isn't going very well...

I'll not only catch them, I'll even eat them to see what effect is has.

 

It does make me giggle when I eat a load of ingredients to find out what their effect is, but nothing really happens until I've left the menu and my character exclaims just how disgusting eating all those things were.

I see where your subtle humour was leading me now! Well played, sir.

Aye, that is funny.

I've stopped doing it though because I think levelling up alchemy is a bad idea (increases my level without increasing the skills that matter (i.e. stabbing))

I did find it somewhat unrealistic in Morrowind that you could get out your alchemy equipment and ingredients mid-battle, set it all up, concoct a health potion then drink it, then continue fighting.

Level it up loads then apply some lethal poisons on your blades :D

Yeah but: 30 levels and 15 perk points spent in alchemy to put poisons on my blades.

Vs.

30 levels and 15 points on stabbing shit.

The poisons do sound cool though! Poison arrers!

They would be cool if they lasted for (significantly) more than like 3 shots. I would use them mainly for wizards. Some anti-magicka potion and then see how they like fighting me.

So you apply them and you get about 3 arrows with poison on? Can you separate them out of the normal arrows? Can you enchant arrows? I LIKE ARROWS.

Yes and no and no. Not sure about enchanting.

Poisoning is rubbish. There are perks to make the poisons last for more strikes/arrows etc. but... it's not enough. If I could poison a whole quiver or /permanently/ poison my blades then yeah, sure. But no. So fuck you alchemy.

I tend to use Alchemy for the odd poison for tough enemies (or when there's a lot of them to help me quickly dispatch a couple), and for making shit to sell. It's also useful having a few health potions, but I do like that you can now cook food to restore health and fatigue - even if it is a bit unrealistic to stop in the middle of a battle and scoff half a dozen stews!

Aye, all that is true, but you're still essentially putting skill points into something that can be bought for very little money. Which seems unideal.

I definitely haven't just gone and bought a new computer so I can play this...

:'D

So worth it.

I started following this thread with only a passing interest, but you bastards have got me wanting this game.

 

However, I'm fairly naive when it comes to RPGs. The last one I played was Baldur's Gate Shadows of Amn, which was awesome, but would seem to pale in comparison to this new offering.

 

So, has the RPG genre moved on massively from then? I remember character creation, exploring, fighting, fiddling with inventories, sleeping in inns, collecting swords, choices between good and evil, hamsters and using magic.

 

From what people are saying it sounds similar and because of that it appeals to me.

Pretty much the same, except replace hamsters with mudcrabs, which aren't quite as friendly.

:D

 

I'll get right onto buying it. As soon as I've finished the other games I've bought but haven't had chance to play yet. :C

It kind of is but also not really. It's similar that it's a game in an intriguing fantasy setting which you can explore at your own pace.

But Baldur's Gate was Bioware and Bioware games are extremely narrative-heavy and linear. You kinda choose what order to do some things in, but what you do is pretty much set in stone from the start (with the illusion of 'moral' choice).

The modern version of that is Bioware's Dragon Age. Which is ideal because it's the exact same story as Baldurs Gate (and all Bioware games, actually) so it'll bring back memories! (I'm trying to be objective but I can't stand Bioware games. Bioware want to tell you a story and they want you to have only a bare minimum of interaction so that you can't ruin their story for them. I find them very restrictive and tedious (with the exception of Mass Effect (just the first one) which was alright.)

Bethesda games on the other hand... ahh Bethesda games. They're simulations, really. They simulate a fantasy world and then ... let you do whatever you want. The massively overwhelming proportion of your experience of the game will be emergent. And will also diverge massively from anyone else's experience.

There are very many quests to do, from one off errands to full plotlines. But you choose what you want to do and how you want to do it. You're free to go anywhere in the world right from the start.

I started playing with a friend, chatting about what we were doing and stuff. And within 5 minutes (after the intro) we'd gone in totally different directions and were experiencing totally different things. He ended up at some village and ended up recovering some ancient Daedric artifact and then getting drawn into the affairs of a nearby city (he's now hunted by one of the city's factions and he's not entirely sure why). I stumbled on a farmhouse which turned out to sit on top of a bandit's den with a system of caves underneath and, at the very end, a treasure room. And I spent the subsequent 3 days (3 real-life-days) just exploring the country, visiting each of the cities, trying to get a feel for the politics before I get too involved.

So...



Yes and no. Bioware are still making the same game but others have moved on. Must stop bashing Bioware. I actually won a copy of Dragon Age: Origins and I still felt ripped-off. Ok, I will stop.

All that stuff is in Skyrim (aside from the hamster (and the horrible, trite, overly sententious, stodgy, overwrought, mannered Bioware writing (I just can't stop))). And so much more! If you like being thrown into a simulated world and deciding what you want to do (and then getting massively distracted from that to the point where 3 days later you remember that you intended to do it) then you'll like Skyrim.

Whatever I want? Really?


Can I piss on a dog?

Can I mount a dragon (ns) and go flying?

Can I build a castle with wood obtained by punching trees?

If I push over that big arch that Steve visited, does it create huge waves?

I can push it over, right? Cus I want to.

Can I make a wing suit and jump off a really high mountain, then glide into underground caves, splash through a waterfall and land on the back of a white stag?

Can I persuade everyone on the whole continent to follow me, then walk into a big lake and see who can hold their breath the longest?