The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

[Evilsod]

I agree. It would be simple to fix too: just remove the fortify smithing and fortify enchanting potions. This was the same potion-boosting loop that was exploited in Morrowind (not sure about Oblivion tbh) so it can't have been news.

It you take out the ability to create those 130% or more boosting potions, you probably limit the power of the crafting abilities more to what they should be.

I did use 80% fortify smithing potions on my gear and whilst it's not as silly as many I've seen, it does make almost all encounters too easy, really. And that's with only 2 perk points in the alchemy tree...

And it's a shame they actually nerfed magic so much it becomes essentially unusable for late game. I so wanted to be a pew pew mage, too

Still, having fun sniping with my bow now.

Wouldn't be necessary. They just need to remove the bonus you get beyond Legendary. As I understand it, weapons get +10 and armour gets +20 at Legendary, with every point beyond that increasing it at a rate of 0.1/0,2 respectively. Remove that and you limit the effectiveness of weapons to something reasonable. Honestly if people don't like it they should just set the difficulty to Novice because thats essentially what they create.

I do think they intended you to use Spells cost x% less heavily but forgot to limit it so you can make them cost 0. I mean your Expert level spells (since you can generally ignore the Master ones) will only inflict 90 damage with both Augmented perks for a huge base mana cost. I inflict slightly less than that per hit with my Ebony Sword and I can do so once per second as often as I like (neglecting armour), plus extra from power attacks and staggers from that or shield bash, while spell casters only get Impact which costs a stupid amount of mana to dual cast.

Looking at the Dragon Priest Masks on the wiki I really don't think they thought it through. 2 of them are clearly aimed at mage types, offering 20% less to certain schools of magic, yet they are both heavy armour... which means both of them will break your bonus armour when unarmoured perk.

 

[Warbie]

What's actually worse is that nothing you find either in shops or dungeons can compare to what you can create yourself with smithing, enchanting and alchemy.

The variety in weapons and armour is always disappointing in games like this. Why so few variations when we should have access to all manner of awesome toys to play with?

 

[Curio]

The variety in weapons and armour is always disappointing in games like this. Why so few variations when we should have access to all manner of awesome toys to play with?

I agree completely - it's one area I always feel let down with TES games. With the amount of work that goes into these games, you think it would be a simple task for one guy to make a bunch of different weapons/armor. A nice smattering of totally unique weapons that are incredibly hard to find would be cool.

 

[MaX_PoWah]

I was a bit disappointed with the end of the mages college.. i thought wow these are quite entertaining quests.. then it was just all over... i have a few quests from people in the college but i am not convinced they are going to go anywhere.

My character seems so broken because of dabbling in so many different skills by level 30 i am tempted to start another one.

 

[Jaffar]

What's actually worse is that nothing you find either in shops or dungeons can compare to what you can create yourself with smithing, enchanting and alchemy.

Makes even picking up the loot pointless once you've crafted yourself a decent set of equipment and amassed a spare pile of gold.

I imagine if you just focus on smithing or enchanting (not both) then it's still possible to find equipment that you wouldn't be able to make yourself.

But I agree, more unique items would be good.

 

[j.col]

Wouldn't be necessary. They just need to remove the bonus you get beyond Legendary. As I understand it, weapons get +10 and armour gets +20 at Legendary, with every point beyond that increasing it at a rate of 0.1/0,2 respectively. Remove that and you limit the effectiveness of weapons to something reasonable. Honestly if people don't like it they should just set the difficulty to Novice because thats essentially what they create.

That is why i have stored my 300+ Daedric armour, 200+ Daedric sword, smithing potions and my smithing gear in a chest in my house, and gone back to stock Legendry Ebony armour if iirc its around 110.

I also had a Daedric war hammer thats worth 16K but no merchant has anywhere near that amount of gold, so it was a waste to even create them.

I could 1 hit most enemies, i finally realised this was overpowered, when a dragon landed on front of me and i killed it with just 3 swipes of my sword.

The game just got too easy.

edit. My 2000th post

 

[Evilsod]

The variety in weapons and armour is always disappointing in games like this. Why so few variations when we should have access to all manner of awesome toys to play with?

Inb4 Neil links to this or this.

They have removed so much variety since Morrowind. Blades Sword is just about the only bit of variety there seems to be. Still, mods tend to make a good job of it, I'm just a little hesitant about adding them though since sometimes balance isn't quite maintained...

I was a bit disappointed with the end of the mages college.. i thought wow these are quite entertaining quests.. then it was just all over... i have a few quests from people in the college but i am not convinced they are going to go anywhere.

My character seems so broken because of dabbling in so many different skills by level 30 i am tempted to start another one.

The College questline is a joke. The length of organisation questlines is probably 25-50% what it was in Oblivion never mind Morrowind but the College one is just awful.

The NPC dialogue really does fail sometimes and spoil things. Just in a dungeon and came across some gal who wants me to team up with her. So after a fight I'm casting healing magic and she says "Is that magic? Careful please"... neglecting the fact that she is a ******* crazy Destruction mage who spent the entire fight lobbing Fireballs at the 3 Draugr I was melee attacking!

 

[Merlin5]

What's actually worse is that nothing you find either in shops or dungeons can compare to what you can create yourself with smithing, enchanting and alchemy.

Makes even picking up the loot pointless once you've crafted yourself a decent set of equipment and amassed a spare pile of gold.

That's probably the point though, to encourage the player to get into smithing, enchanting and alchemy and create awesome things. When I created the staff of frost atronach (I don't know if it's something that can be bought) from a recipe, it was far more satisfying than if I'd been able to just buy it.

 

[Evilsod]

That's probably the point though, to encourage the player to get into smithing, enchanting and alchemy and create awesome things. When I created the staff of frost atronach (I don't know if it's something that can be bought) from a recipe, it was far more satisfying than if I'd been able to just buy it.

I agree that they should be more powerful if you've invested in them but the question is how much more powerful and how soon should they become available. It makes sense that if you have Ebony Smithing you should be able to craft your Ebony armour either cheaper than someone can buy it for or slightly sooner than it could be bought at shops. But on top of that you've got the smithing bonus' which go well beyond the 125% repairing that you had in Oblivion.

Enchanting I'm not sure how much stronger you can get it than pre-made items but you obviously have the ability to put what you want on anything instead of the very, very unlikely chance of finding someone wielding an ebony/daedric quality item with a good enchantment.

 

[Fanatic]

The most awesome stuff should be at the end of deep, dark dungeons (or other quest lines) that you have had to battle through, almost dying many times on the way. Then at the very end you get the awesome artefact that is unique in looks, and any effects/enchantments it has (that can't be disenchanted (while at the same time not being levelled. Nothing I hate more than getting something awesome then later on in the game it is useless because I got it early on)).

 

[Merlin5]

The most awesome stuff should be at the end of deep, dark dungeons (or other quest lines) that you have had to battle through, almost dying many times on the way.

Tbh, I've mostly found the best goodies in chests in quest locations just like that, where the battle fought was tough and then you feel well rewarded.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Wouldn't be necessary. They just need to remove the bonus you get beyond Legendary. As I understand it, weapons get +10 and armour gets +20 at Legendary, with every point beyond that increasing it at a rate of 0.1/0,2 respectively. Remove that and you limit the effectiveness of weapons to something reasonable. Honestly if people don't like it they should just set the difficulty to Novice because thats essentially what they create.

I do think they intended you to use Spells cost x% less heavily but forgot to limit it so you can make them cost 0. I mean your Expert level spells (since you can generally ignore the Master ones) will only inflict 90 damage with both Augmented perks for a huge base mana cost. I inflict slightly less than that per hit with my Ebony Sword and I can do so once per second as often as I like (neglecting armour), plus extra from power attacks and staggers from that or shield bash, while spell casters only get Impact which costs a stupid amount of mana to dual cast.

Yeah, that would be another possibility. You'd still have the issue of being able to create somewhat overly powerful potions for situational use, and having overpowered stacked enchants, though. Though I agree the ability to smith beyond legendary is the main problem by far.

As for magic, I can't escape the feeling they really messed it up this time around. As you say, the mana issue kills its usefulness unless you get 0 cost stacked enchants, and the power of the spells doesn't increase with level to make the mana cost worthwhile. Basically a destruction mage is left with no choice but to go for 0 cost spells (or damn close to it) to have a viable build. And even then it would be dullsville to spam dual cast destruction spells over and over to kill most enemies.

That's probably the point though, to encourage the player to get into smithing, enchanting and alchemy and create awesome things. When I created the staff of frost atronach (I don't know if it's something that can be bought) from a recipe, it was far more satisfying than if I'd been able to just buy it.

Yeah, I kind of get that and I did enjoy crafting. But... I can't help feeling the game breaks immersion when you're sent on a quest by a divine being for a legendary weapon of mystical power (...and only with this wondrous weapon will you be able to complete the task set for you) - and then you find it and feel like... what? This POS? I made myself a better dagger than this when I was like level 12!

 

[Jaffar]

The variety in weapons and armour is always disappointing in games like this. Why so few variations when we should have access to all manner of awesome toys to play with?

I find the random loot generation tends to make the equipment you find quite generic and lacking in character. I liked the items in BG, which often had unique descriptions and a little bit of history about the item. It made them seem a bit more epic whereas here it tends to be "ooh, an extra x% damage".

 

[Evilsod]

As for magic, I can't escape the feeling they really messed it up this time around. As you say, the mana issue kills its usefulness unless you get 0 cost stacked enchants, and the power of the spells doesn't increase with level to make the mana cost worthwhile. Basically a destruction mage is left with no choice but to go for 0 cost spells (or damn close to it) to have a viable build. And even then it would be dullsville to spam dual cast destruction spells over and over to kill most enemies.

The spells are so limited too which is a problem. You've got Novice = Inferno 'while casting'. Apprentice = Basic projectile and Runes which cost a ridiculous amount of mana. Adept = AoE/chain projectile and Cloaks which add so little damage to the power of your melee attacks they aren't woth the effort. Expert = Powerful single target and 'puddle' type spells. Master = Powerful but gimped spells that aren't practical at all. Why aren't more powerful versions of earlier spells available? Hell even if someone names them Flames (Adept) or Fireball (Expert) so if you want AoE damage you aren't stuck with weak spells and if you want constant casting spells you aren't stuck with novice level damage.

 

[Jae-So]

Game seems really good with a 360 controller, loving it, will my 22" monitor do it justice or am I better off waiting until I get a 40" TV? That's a few months off though

 

[LizardKing]

I find the random loot generation tends to make the equipment you find quite generic and lacking in character. I liked the items in BG, which often had unique descriptions and a little bit of history about the item. It made them seem a bit more epic whereas here it tends to be "ooh, an extra x% damage".

Some of the daedric artefacts are quite cool, I've stuck with the Mace of molag bal for quite some time now.
Just wish the Dawnbreaker was a little more powerful as its effects are great


Its just a shame that spamming smithing negates them as great weapons. They really should have made is so the more you craft of one item the less skill points you get.

 

[Egon]

Do mines replenish themselves?

 

[Evilsod]

Do mines replenish themselves?

After being mined, the vein is depleted, though it will eventually respawn: 30 days if the mine is tagged as "cleared", 10 days otherwise.

So its a long wait.

 

[Angst]

Would love a borderlands style weapon generation system modded into this game.

 

[matt_fsr]

The spells are so limited too which is a problem. You've got Novice = Inferno 'while casting'. Apprentice = Basic projectile and Runes which cost a ridiculous amount of mana. Adept = AoE/chain projectile and Cloaks which add so little damage to the power of your melee attacks they aren't woth the effort. Expert = Powerful single target and 'puddle' type spells. Master = Powerful but gimped spells that aren't practical at all. Why aren't more powerful versions of earlier spells available? Hell even if someone names them Flames (Adept) or Fireball (Expert) so if you want AoE damage you aren't stuck with weak spells and if you want constant casting spells you aren't stuck with novice level damage.

Have you tried the Midas Magic mod?

I've installed it, but starting out with an Illusion character so can't afford all the spells right now. I'd bring out my sneak/thief character to buy them, but I doubt her 100 magic would help cast many

Although I now have a spell to conjur up a Dragonling... he's SOOO cute.. pity he doesn't fight, but that's an intended improvement for the mod soon.