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Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
Warrior Squirrel wrote:I was on a lovely walk with Lydia when I saw a fight between Stormtraitors and Imperial soldiers. I helped slay the filthy traitors but as I slayed the last an elder dragon swooped down. It´s breath attack drained half my health before It was attacked by a bear. It flew of to the other side of a river where it killed a mudcrab. Being a brave citisen I charged. However I was forced to use cheats not to die. The dragon threw me into a cliff where I got stuck. But then, from nowhere a horse came and attacked the dragon. The dragon was to occupied with trying to kill me the horse was able to knock of almost all its health. In the distance I could see a bandit fighting a Sabertooth. After a while the bandit slayed both the horse and the Sabertooth. Luckily I managed to get out from the cliff and slay both the dragon and the bandit. Hurrah for horses!
Just another day in Skyrim.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Warrior Squirrel wrote:I was on a lovely walk with Lydia when I saw a fight between Stormtraitors and Imperial soldiers. I helped slay the filthy traitors but as I slayed the last an elder dragon swooped down. It´s breath attack drained half my health before It was attacked by a bear. It flew of to the other side of a river where it killed a mudcrab. Being a brave citisen I charged. However I was forced to use cheats not to die. The dragon threw me into a cliff where I got stuck. But then, from nowhere a horse came and attacked the dragon. The dragon was to occupied with trying to kill me the horse was able to knock of almost all its health. In the distance I could see a bandit fighting a Sabertooth. After a while the bandit slayed both the horse and the Sabertooth. Luckily I managed to get out from the cliff and slay both the dragon and the bandit. Hurrah for horses!
Unsure if this has been posted before, but if it hasn't it really needs to. Remember that little week that Valve had off which led to Portal 2 being created, well Beth had one too. Because of the Steam modding community and DLC I'm thinking that its going to be pretty likely that the better (hell there all great) mods from this will be making it into the game at some point this year. ^^
Thing is that stuff like that was created for oblivion and fallout by independant modders. Now Obsidian took clear hints from the community and implemented them in New Vegas, but I feel as though Skyrim's only done this to a lesser extent. Sure the game actually feels like an Elder Scrolls game, citing Oblivion here which had a generic fantasy atmosphere, but it would have been nice if the stuff that was shown in the video had been in the game from the start. I mean it took under a week to code those mods (though they are only implemented to a limited extent), I doubt it would have messed around with the game's deadlines too much to add seasons, better shaders or those extra kill anims .
That giant mudcrab boss battle would have been so epic if it had been included in the game. They damn well better include that in a DLC.
They're just the same as those hosted by Skyrim Nexus, though in a lesser quantity. At the moment the quality range seems to be the same despite Betheda's claims to the contary, ie you still get silly texture mods, though no entirely useless files yet unlike on the Nexus. The Nexus just seems to me as a lot less convoluted host.
I clicked a single button that downloaded and then installed the mod, that button also subscribed me so all updates for it are auto-downloaded and then installed when I boot up the game.
I haven't looked into it much, but this is just my inital impressions of it. I guess its just me being used to the Nexus' system, but that one felt foreign to me too when I was coming to it from Planet Eldar Scrolls. Admitedly I think that I'll be sticking to the Nexus for my mainstream modding and only really using Steam for its exclusive mods-ie Bethesda content that they release as free DLC as has been promised.
Unfortunately Steam can suffer from terrible download rates for me, 750kps, whereas the Nexus rates are much higher. Right now I've got Skyrim in an "update paused" state after I opted into downloading the high res texture pack and found that I was still at 1% after a half hour. Unfortunately with Steam you can't cancel an update once its started, so now I've got that thing over my head. =/
Oh yeah, but I'm noting that the larger mods are each a few Gbs in size and I don't think Steam has really done much to accomodate for them. Sure most games are of a similar size and no faster rates are offered, but you can cancel downloading those and play something else (or install from a disk). With mods it means that your game's unplayable due to updating until they're installed. =/
Spears, Mounted Combat, and follower commands would make part of a great expansion.
The Thalmor decide to finally invade Skyrim after whichever side you take's quest (Romans or Galecapes), and you're called upon by their respective leaders to lead a section of the army in defence of Skyrim, and assault of Thalmor holdings in the area, before branching out into Cyrodiil and sparking revolts there (Cyrodiil expansion) etc. etc.
Spears + Mounted Combat = Lances or simply just mounted combat, and follower commands = commanding the troops that you're in charge of.
You get to choose which troops you command to better suit your style, such as warriors leading H2H infantry or cavalry, archers leading... well, archers and mounted archers, mages leading, again, mages and mounted mages, and so on; perhaps even allowing you unit certain specialisations.
Specialisations could be things like Stealth Insertion for unmounted melee, where you lead your unit deeper into enemy lines and closer to vulnerable targets, so that when the battle starts you can start to inflict pain from the get go; you would, of course, have a chance of failure, resulting in you having to fight your way out and the battle occuring as normal.
Mounted melee could have Lance Formation, which is pretty self-explanitory.
Regular archers could get a version of Stealth Insertion (perhaps all unmounted units get access to it; it's the only thing I could see as benefiting every class), and mounted archers could get the Encircle Formation, where they ride around an enemy unit in circles, both grouping them up and keeping their distance.
Regular mages could also get SI, and mounted mages... this one is a toughie, perhaps a Death Wall formation, where the unit lines up and rides towards an enemy unit with a wall of fire/frost/lightning in front of them, with each mage contributing the right spell (Flames, Sparks etc.) adding to the damage caused on impact (meaning that the first rank or few of enemy soldiers could literally go flying if you and your unit can produce a large enough wall).
Both mages and archers on foot get access to a stake wall, giving them defence against enemy cavalry, and warriors on foot can call a spear wall formation if they're in unit of spears, but if they're not, then they can brace against it.
Since these battles will be a much grander scale, regular spells will be quite useless against hordes of enemies, but mage units can combine their spell power (also where the combining spells mod could come in). A Fear spell cast by you alone might scare off a few enemies, but one cast by a whole unit could deter a whole unit of enemies at once.
The spells you currently have equipped will become the ones your unit uses (so you could become a moving first aid station if you don't want to kill), and when you're not casting, they can passively use the spells against the nearest enemies/allies if you order them to.
Any units you target will become the primary target of your units, and each mage in your unit increases the power of the spell, as long as they are also casting it; you might have a stupidly high magicka pool, but they won't, so it adds a tactical element even if you have huge magicka buffs; do you keep casting, or do you let your unit rest?
Of course, you can order them to regenerate their magicka if you want them on full powah for something like a huge fireball, and then order them to fire on your target, throw your fireball, watch their fireballs join yours in midflight and watch the unit you fired at die in a raging inferno.
Archers can work in similar way. With the fire/frost/shock arrows (another mod entry), you can order them to switch, which will automatically call an allied unit of mages over to enchant their arrows (you can't control the mages, so don't draw them away from a task they need to deal with, or into the line of fire, making these arrows a tactical decision). Order passively shooting, or order them to cease fire so that they can preserve ammo (unlike other archers, I think they should have limited ammo, which would be displayed) if you want, or to pick up fallen arrows. You could also order them to focus fire on an enemy unit, like a group of mages about to roll away your leader's unit.
Warriors would be outfitted similarly to whatever equipment you had at the start of the fight, so if you want HW/S soldiers, equip a sword and shield, but you can switch part-way through if you want. Spears can form a spear wall, shields can form a shield wall, but two-handed weapons can only brace. Spear wall absorbs an enemy charge (reducing unit damage taken by X%) and deals a percentage of the damage absorbed to the enemy, Shield wall simpy absorbs the damage, and Bracing absorbs a significantly smaller amount of damage.
A unit ordered into a wall or brace takes a small amount of time to reform out of it again, allowing you to order your unit into a feigned charge where half your unit sets up a charge, whilst the other half runs/rides around. The charging half pulls away at the last second, allowing the other half to smash into the unit whilst they're busy reforming.
There's a chance the enemy unit's leader will see through the deception, and adjust their position to the non-feigning half, resulting in a regular charge (so still risky against spear units), but this chance is lower against mounted units, since they give less time to decide.
Of course, an enemy unit can try it against you, and you have to order your unit to brace or charge themselves according to the enemy's actions.
I speak a lot about units, and hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to implement. Units would share a unit health pool, and a morale pool, which is lowered as casualties are taken and will force any survivors to break and flee upon reaching 0. Those fleeing members are then independent targets, even if they all regroup, since it's a loose regroup and they're far more likely to break again.
Fear spells or passive effects (like being a higher level) can lower the morale pool to a certain point based on their power (with powerful fear spells concievably breaking a healthy unit), and fire spells/arrows also reduce morale in addition to morale damage caused by casualties.
Whichever unit you target becomes your unit's primary target, with units targeted in the process being attacked if you stop dealing damage to the primary unit for a certain period of time; the new primary target will be the unit you caused the most damage to in that period of time.
Your unit also shares a health pool, and a seperate morale pool. Seeing you killing enemies increases morale, as does your use of Dragon Shouts (which reduces morale in enemy units). You gain a new Dragon Shout which emboldens your allies, and any fleeing allies within a given distance automatically regroup and become immune to morale damage for the duration of the shout's effect.
Cavalry charges also reduce morale for the defending unit, as does your use of shouts. Also, your rank will finally mean something, with a higher rank granted by your leader increasing the passive morale damage you cause against enemy units.
I realise that this has gotten really, really, really long-winded and perhaps even strayed into the realms of "Okay, half of this stuff is really difficult to implement, the other half is impossible." but oh well, I needed to let my creative juices out somehow, and it was either this or self-abuse.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/02/10 01:44:36
Mandorallen turned back toward the insolently sneering baron. 'My Lord,' The great knight said distantly, 'I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offence against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fur which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornment for a human face. Is it possibly that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat?' - Mimbrate Knight Protector Mandorallen.
Excerpt from "Seeress of Kell", Book Five of The Malloreon series by David Eddings.
"You need not fear us, unless you are a dark heart, a vile one who preys on the innocent; I promise, you can’t hide forever in the empty darkness, for we will hunt you down like the animals you are, and pull you into the very bowels of hell." Iron - Within Temptation
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
Magic could use an overhaul. Like copy-pasting the Oblivion ability to custom make spells(but make it extremely difficult to create a really powerful custom spell)
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
at low levels the bossness of draugr is extraodinary...
Veteran Sergeant wrote:In the grim darkness of the far future, the guy with a rifle is the weakest man on the battlefield, left to quake in terror, hoping the two or three shots he gets do the job before somebody runs screaming across the battlefield to hit him with an energized stick.
i was doing the imperial quest chain, and got up to the "being the generals messenger bitch" quest. But I hadnt finished the dragonstone quest, so I have to do it to be able to continue the imperial chain, arrrgghhh!
Veteran Sergeant wrote:In the grim darkness of the far future, the guy with a rifle is the weakest man on the battlefield, left to quake in terror, hoping the two or three shots he gets do the job before somebody runs screaming across the battlefield to hit him with an energized stick.
i was doing the imperial quest chain, and got up to the "being the generals messenger bitch" quest. But I hadnt finished the dragonstone quest, so I have to do it to be able to continue the imperial chain, arrrgghhh!
Wha? You don't need to play the main quest to complete the civil war questlines. In fact the main quest postpones them near the end, but you can finish them once its done.
Spoiler:
I choose to finish the Imperial questline just before the treaty signing so as to see the dead characters in Sovngarde. Its an Eldar Scrolls game, the main quest is purely optional.
i was doing the imperial quest chain, and got up to the "being the generals messenger bitch" quest. But I hadnt finished the dragonstone quest, so I have to do it to be able to continue the imperial chain, arrrgghhh!
Wha? You don't need to play the main quest to complete the civil war questlines. In fact the main quest postpones them near the end, but you can finish them once its done.
Spoiler:
I choose to finish the Imperial questline just before the treaty signing so as to see the dead characters in Sovngarde. Its an Eldar Scrolls game, the main quest is purely optional.
That's not entirely true. He hasn't done Dragon Rising yet, which puts you in an odd place in the world.
Balgruuf won't accept to read the message before Dragon Rising has been completed.
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Although I don't play 360 (don't have one) I think the Kinect shouts would just be awesome. Means there'd actually be a reason to shout "Fus Ro DAH!" at your screen- and would help immerse you into the combat more, since you'd not need to go hitting a button for it, but could just Shout when you feel the timing is right.
GENERATION 8: The first time you see this, copy and paste it into your sig and add 1 to the number after generation. Consider it a social experiment.
If yer an Ork, why dont ya WAAAGH!!
M.A.V.- if you liked ChromeHounds, drop by the site and give it a go. Or check out my M.A.V. Oneshots videos on YouTube!
i was doing the imperial quest chain, and got up to the "being the generals messenger bitch" quest. But I hadnt finished the dragonstone quest, so I have to do it to be able to continue the imperial chain, arrrgghhh!
Wha? You don't need to play the main quest to complete the civil war questlines. In fact the main quest postpones them near the end, but you can finish them once its done.
Spoiler:
I choose to finish the Imperial questline just before the treaty signing so as to see the dead characters in Sovngarde. Its an Eldar Scrolls game, the main quest is purely optional.
That's not entirely true. He hasn't done Dragon Rising yet, which puts you in an odd place in the world.
Balgruuf won't accept to read the message before Dragon Rising has been completed.
How odd that is seeing as none of the civil war quests are related to the main quest (I can't recall there being any mention of Alduin by either faction). Rather silly not to at least kill the first dragon, I mean Dragons are such a great part of them game.
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
~4100
~1660
