The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | VR (Vive/PSVR)

[Plow]

For me though, its definitely the open world with no rules thing.

No rules except...

Can't carry more than a certain amount of shit.
Can't let anyone see you steal shit, no matter how helpless or even friendly they may be to you.
Can't bother with decent gear half the time because of the first part restricting you to gear with +carry.
Can't kill people in town, no matter how hidden/secretive/whatever (or even touch them, actually).
Can't adventure for any meaningful amount of time because you *HAVE* to go drop shit off or you literally can't move.
Can't kill important npc's... kill a Jarl or whatever and watch them fall to a knee for all of 30 seconds then not only stand back up and be fine, but apparently perfectly cool with you again. (sorry, trying to keep this to just a list of rules but some ranting is going to happen lol)
Can't pick the locks on tons of doors.
Can't sell stolen shit except to 1 single npc that has jack shit for gold.

That sounds like a list of complaints, which it very well could be, but it's actually a list of rules. It just happens to be really annoying ones.

Some of the rules *kind of* get out of the way eventually. Getting a house helped a ton, of course, because it let me stash the dragon bones I knew I didn't want to sell or drop and were taking up pretty much all of the weight on my hireling for the first 90% of my playtime. One of the thieves guild npcs implies that if I keep doing shit for them I'll open up fences and stuff in other towns, but I haven't seen any response to the 10ish random "xxx job" quests I've done thus far.


I dunno, I sound like I hate the game at this point, which I really don't, I've had a pretty good time playing it and I can see some amazing potential in it, it just seems like I keep hoping for more and there's nothing but the same.

And I guess I came here looking for some kind of hope that somewhere there's better story and combat, and unfortunately am hearing that yeah, the game just isn't about the story or combat.

[Greatguardian]

There's tons of story. Just don't expect to find it all in the Main quest, or even all the guild lines. The story is everywhere else, and finding it is half the fun.

Edit: Another epic random quest, massive spoilers though if you care about finding it:

Spoiler: show

You come across a dungeon with an Argonian Mage and a Redguard chick waiting outside, debating over whether or not they should go in. Obviously, they want phat loots, but they don't think they'll survive. When you go in, they go with you, trample all the way through to the boss. You kill boss. Argonian turns around and says "By the way, I'm not really here for the loot. I want to absorb the soul of the boss you just killed, and to do that I'll need a sacrifice. I was going to just kill the girl, but you'll work too!" Ensue boss battle part 2. Kill Argonian, girl turns around and is like "oh my gizzles, batman.. He's raised me since I was 5. What the fuuuuuuck. I need a jack and coke." Fucking lizards. Can't trust 'em.

[Plow]

Spoiler: show

There's another random, completely benign "fetch" quest that revolves around 3 brothers who divided their father's amulet of power hundreds of years ago and went on a huge killing spree. You find the three pieces of the amulet at their 3 graves, which were sealed by the Empire ages ago, and fight the restless spirits of the brothers one by one. Finally, you reassemble the amulet at the grave of their father, and have to fight each brother again back to back in a Boss 2.0 matchup with teleporting and shit.

wait what? now I'm interested

[Greatguardian]

The quest is called Forbidden Legend. I have absolutely no idea when or how I picked it up, but eventually I noticed I had it in my quest log and just went and did it. You sometimes get quests from books, and from overhearing conversations in towns, by the way, so honestly just by exploring you end up with a lot more stuff to do.

There's another quest

Spoiler: show

when you walk into Markath and see some dude being shanked, and basically end up playing detective for a bit and beating the shit out of witnesses until you get thrown in jail, and have to shank people with shivs, and then escape from jail and watch as your cellmates murder the town guard and escape out the city gates.

[Eaglestrike]

No rules except...

Can't carry more than a certain amount of shit.

It's still absurd how much extra shit you CAN carry, so whatever.

Can't let anyone see you steal shit, no matter how helpless or even friendly they may be to you.

Except you can just fight them, and the guards. Or if they're not associated with guards you can just beat them up and they'll shut up about it and you get away with it.

Can't bother with decent gear half the time because of the first part restricting you to gear with +carry.

lol? Just drop gear, take the best gear you can.

Can't kill people in town, no matter how hidden/secretive/whatever (or even touch them, actually).

You can kill most of them. Sure, you'll get in trouble for it, but in most games you cannot even touch them based on game mechanics...

Can't adventure for any meaningful amount of time because you *HAVE* to go drop shit off or you literally can't move.

You can just not pick shit up...

Can't kill important npc's... kill a Jarl or whatever and watch them fall to a knee for all of 30 seconds then not only stand back up and be fine, but apparently perfectly cool with you again. (sorry, trying to keep this to just a list of rules but some ranting is going to happen lol)

You can technically turn this off in the PC version, but it will fuck up some quests and shit down the line.

Can't pick the locks on tons of doors.

Meaning you go pickpocket/steal the key or kill someone for it, not that you never get to enter that door ever in the entire game (like most games)

Can't sell stolen shit except to 1 single npc that has jack shit for gold.

I can sell stolen stuff to at least 4 NPC's and I'm not done the Thieves Guild questline yet...

That sounds like a list of complaints, which it very well could be, but it's actually a list of rules. It just happens to be really annoying ones.

Some of the rules *kind of* get out of the way eventually. Getting a house helped a ton, of course, because it let me stash the dragon bones I knew I didn't want to sell or drop and were taking up pretty much all of the weight on my hireling for the first 90% of my playtime. One of the thieves guild npcs implies that if I keep doing shit for them I'll open up fences and stuff in other towns, but I haven't seen any response to the 10ish random "xxx job" quests I've done thus far.


I dunno, I sound like I hate the game at this point, which I really don't, I've had a pretty good time playing it and I can see some amazing potential in it, it just seems like I keep hoping for more and there's nothing but the same.

And I guess I came here looking for some kind of hope that somewhere there's better story and combat, and unfortunately am hearing that yeah, the game just isn't about the story or combat.

If you want a harder game, don't use a follower, turn up the difficulty and have at it. As a hint, Thieves guild quests are the ones NOT with the "The < > job" as their title, those are repeatable sidequests.

[Fallyn]

There's another quest

Spoiler: show

when you walk into Markath and see some dude being shanked, and basically end up playing detective for a bit and beating the shit out of witnesses until you get thrown in jail, and have to shank people with shivs, and then escape from jail and watch as your cellmates murder the town guard and escape out the city gates.

Loved that one haha.

[Gwynplaine]

The greatness of Skyrim is that it's all one giant open game setup for you to experience as is. You're presented with everything and then you go do what you want as the interesting/fun aspects come out of that.

If you're out in the field hunting a mammoth when a dragon swoops in and sprays the encampment with fire, turning every mob onto it and starting a mob vs. dragon war the fun is that it's organic. And things like that happen all the time and come out of the game as it stands. There's no team of a dozen CG artists who spent hours trying to make an impressive looking movie with cliche chorus music and pretty effects. None of that passive staring at the most action packed moments in CG while you don't control your character. The things happen and it is live with you as it happens. I think that's a principal of gaming that other games like Bioshock and Portal excel at: no padding your game with CG making the gamer passive, it happens TO you as you play. (I really hate CG) The opening of FFXI for example might mean something if it were an actual event you somehow took part in, as it stands its a movie that bears no relationship to the game you play.


The entertainment doesn't come from simply finishing a quest. It comes from investigating it, looking at it from all the angles, picking it apart, and toying with all the elements. If you just want a challenge, or a movie to watch, or a unique engrossing story Elder Scrolls probably isn't for you. If you enjoy interacting with the game, experimenting, and experiencing every aspect of what a whole open world offers you will love Skyrim.

[Greatguardian]

Honestly, all of the Daedric Prince quests are really really fun so far (and the Princes are just hilarious characters), but you have to actually go out and find them half the time.

[miokomioko]

I think his main problem is that he picks up every useless item in the game, assuming he should.

http://penny-arcade.smugmug.com/phot...PPTPkRk-XL.jpg

[Plow]

It's still absurd how much extra shit you CAN carry, so whatever.

This affects it being a rule how?

Except you can just fight them, and the guards.

And be punished, because you, guess what? Broke a rule.

Or if they're not associated with guards you can just beat them up and they'll shut up about it and you get away with it.

Haven't had a single occurrence of people seeing me do shit and not getting immediate guard response. I guess there's some then, but that doesn't change the rules about the vast majority.

lol? Just drop gear, take the best gear you can.

Right, let me grab the best gear I can. Ok so I need my lockpicking shit, my light armor hands with 20% dmg, my full heavy armor set for the defense bonus perk, my 2 weapons only since I can't afford the space to take alternate ones, got my potions, got my stupid ass 20 pound elder scroll that I'm not allowed to even store, oh gee I'm already to the point where if I kill a dragon I gotta go drop shit off. Better grab my extra carry gear, yay after its extra weight it gave me all of enough room to pick up a nifty weapon off that dragon if one drops.

Your decisions on what to do with your loot don't change the rules that dictate how I have to play the game.

You can kill most of them. Sure, you'll get in trouble for it, but in most games you cannot even touch them based on game mechanics...

Final Fantasy games are like the only ones I've played on ps3 where you kill shit and can't just kill whoever lol. Oh, and Valkyria.

The issue is the strictness of the rules involving it. Like you said, you'll get in trouble for it. That's not really "do whatever you want no rules," especially since there's nothing you can do to avoid it, like catch them alone in an alley and 1 shot them or whatever.

You can just not pick shit up...

Right, that's totally a legit option.

Sorry, the weight thing is far and away the biggest detriment to this game, no single issue has made me question why the fuck I'm playing nearly so much. It's a non-stop issue that's always in your face.

If you choose to not give a shit about all the crap lying around, good for you. I'd like to choose differently... but the rules dictate that I can't.

You can technically turn this off in the PC version, but it will fuck up some quests and shit down the line.

great?

Meaning you go pickpocket/steal the key or kill someone for it, not that you never get to enter that door ever in the entire game (like most games)

Why can't I just pick them? Lockpicking is really only useful for locks with no keys?

Why are you attempting to argue that there supposedly aren't rules and I can do whatever I want by telling me to do things differently than I want to?

I can sell stolen stuff to at least 4 NPC's and I'm not done the Thieves Guild questline yet...

good for you, I can't, which is a dumb and unnecessary restriction (i.e. rule)

If you want a harder game, don't use a follower, turn up the difficulty and have at it.

Is this a joke? Giving the dragons more hp is supposed to fix the combat?

Hint: the problems with combat are not difficulty issues.

As a hint, Thieves guild quests are the ones NOT with the "The < > job" as their title, those are repeatable sidequests.

Right, and the npc implied they lead to further quests, which I haven't gotten yet.



Anyway, I can't put into words the irony of someone responding to a post about how there really isn't such freedom and whatnot by telling them they're playing the game wrong.

[Hyan]

Yeah personally I haven't had a problem with the inventory space, although I think I'd like the game better if there was less shit all around the place.. I also think that by "no rules" it's more like the only rules you'd find are those that also apply in real life, making the experience more believable and less detached from the real world. While still being a fantasy game of course.

That still leaves a million restrictions that you can't do as opposed to real life, and I wouldn't blame you if that bothers you. It's pretty shitty that, for one, I can't really be a "good/lawful" guy since everyone is evil or hiding secrets or whatever and all kind of "break in there/murder this guy/steal X" quests are thrown in your face all the time. On the other hand the game provides many opportunities to be a bad guy.

[Plow]

The opening of FFXI for example might mean something if it were an actual event you somehow took part in, as it stands its a movie that bears no relationship to the game you play.

seriously?

The entertainment doesn't come from simply finishing a quest. It comes from investigating it, looking at it from all the angles, picking it apart, and toying with all the elements. If you just want a challenge, or a movie to watch, or a unique engrossing story Elder Scrolls probably isn't for you. If you enjoy interacting with the game, experimenting, and experiencing every aspect of what a whole open world offers you will love Skyrim.

Yeah, I guess I just don't get the whole sims aspect. I need some interesting fights and stuff to keep me in it.

Yeah personally I haven't had a problem with the inventory space, although I think I'd like the game better if there was less shit all around the place.. I also think that by "no rules" it's more like the only rules you'd find are those that also apply in real life, making the experience more believable and less detached from the real world. While still being a fantasy game of course.

That still leaves a million restrictions that you can't do as opposed to real life, and I wouldn't blame you if that bothers you.

It's not even that it bothers me (aside from the weight thing, seriously fuck inventory issues in video games), it's just that if the selling point and what I'm supposed to enjoy so much is all the freedom, why is it so restrictive?

[miokomioko]

Then do the non-repeating quests and stop picking up shit you don't need.

If you don't have quests, try talking to people.

[Plow]

What shit do you think I'm picking up that I don't need?

HAY GUSY IM RUNNING AROUND WITH 250 POUNDS OF BASKETS AND CUPS WHY MY INVENTORY SO SMALL

[Charismatic]

You can lead a idiot to skyrim but you can't make him enjoy.
Just give it up man, if they want to hate the game let them. Meanwhile I'll be over here headshotting dragons.

[Hyan]

It's not even that it bothers me (aside from the weight thing, seriously fuck inventory issues in video games), it's just that if the selling point and what I'm supposed to enjoy so much is all the freedom, why is it so restrictive?

Well, for example some people are bothered by the fact you can fast travel instead of walking/riding everywhere. It is probably because it's not believable that you could fast travel. So, the freedom is only relevant until it gets unbelievable. You could stretch the concept of freedom much further too. Say, what if you could fly or do all kinds of insane shit that isn't believable even in a fantasy setting? You are given the freedom to do so, but would the game be better off for it? I think it would lessen the experience.

[Plow]

It's sad how asking where I can find cool shit just degenerates into fanboys telling me I'm playing the game wrong within like 5 posts.

Especially cuz I really want to like this game, it's so gorgeous and has so much potential.

[Priran]

get the steed stone and the extra inventory perk from the pickpocketing tree. additionally, every stamina increase you take at level-up gives you 5 more carry weight. there should really be no reason for inventory problems unless you are carrying a truly absurd amount of shit.

also, you can fence stolen goods with any merchant in the game if you're willing to put a couple perks into Speech

[miokomioko]

What shit do you think I'm picking up that I don't need?

You tell me, you're the only one saying that items having weight is the most constraining aspect of the game. No one else is complaining.

Dump materials into chests in a house you bought.
If you're overloaded and far from home, keep a few strength potions on you so you can fast-travel and dump it.
Stop picking things up that you have no need for (i.e. if you don't do alchemy, don't pick up reagents).
Level up your stamina once in a while.

et fucking cetera

There are so many RPGs that have limited inventories or weight-based inventories, this is nothing new or strange or terribad

[Greatguardian]

What shit do you think I'm picking up that I don't need?

HAY GUSY IM RUNNING AROUND WITH 250 POUNDS OF BASKETS AND CUPS WHY MY INVENTORY SO SMALL

It sounds like you're trying to keep a bunch of different armor pieces around for their respective bonuses. That works, I suppose, but you're much better off just disenchanting armor that has perks you want and then re-enchanting that enchantment onto armor that you actually want to wear. That way, you only really need one set of armor for whatever you're doing at the time.

Also, once you buy a house, you can store niche gear that you don't need all the time on mannequins or in the house chests (the only safe ones to store shit in). For example, I play a heavy armor character but sometimes I just like going out in robes or sneaky stuff. Do I carry all that crap around with me 24/7? Nah. But if I feel like a change of pace, I'll just stop by my house and swap the gear on my mannequin for the heavy armor I'm wearing. It helps.

Also, on PC version, you can just increase your carry weight. I almost always end up doing this at some point. It's my only real pet peev. Dungeons drop 500lbs and 10,000 gold worth of stuff, but you can only loot some of it because you can only carry 200 lbs of extra crap and shops only have 500 gold. Oh, well. Honestly, you end up swimming in gold anyways so it's not a huge deal. Unless you're just starting out and really need the cash, don't bother picking stuff up at all unless you want the enchantment or need it as a mat (and even then, go disenchant it right away because with 100 Enchanting and perks you will always enchant stronger than any armor/weapons natively have on them).