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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   2794 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 28, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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even just include preset spell effects that they didn't want you to have access to (eg, restore magika)

There's a game bug that lets you duplicate the effect of "cast spell, get all your magicka back". Drain your own Intelligence to 0 for one second; when it wears off, you have max magicka again. Cheaty, but so is Restore Magicka as a spell.

(eg, forbidding Levitation so you can assume players won't be positioned to notice that some objects don't have renderable surfaces from all angles)

IIRC this was only part of why they did it; another part was so that they didn't have to balance for flight (Morrowind notoriously just let flight break everything).

Even vanilla Skyrim I'd rate higher than Morrowind though, as I found the tedium of missing/fizzling constantly at the start of the game extremely annoying. This is related to the primary reason I tend to play Skyrim more than Oblivion or Morrowind these days. I tend to keep all my skills at a similar level so I can swap between them as my mood changes rather than specializing as the game expects. This doesn't play very nice with the earlier games balance or levelling system though.

Tips on the early-game:

  • Bound Weapons go a long way, especially the axe and longsword (though even the dagger that you start with if you've got a decent Conjuration is decent). The spell is very cheap and easy to cast (and obviously you only generally need to cast it once per battle, which makes it far more efficient than flashier Destruction and Mysticism spells), and the weapons have inbuilt +[Weapon Skill] effects that make you substantially more likely to hit. Masalinie Merian in the Balmora Mages Guild sells all six Bound Weapon spells.
  • Mentor's Ring is quite close to game start (go northeast along the coast from Seyda Neen until you hit a ridgeline, there's a tomb right on the waterline). It's a constant-effect +10 Int +10 Willpower, and Willpower controls your success chance on spellcasting. You'll probably want to buy a probe from Arrille, though, since the trap on the urn with the ring in it can one-shot a starting character (a probe is a handy thing in general, since traps have no difficulty levels; you can disarm any trap with an Apprentice's Probe and a Security skill of 5, even if it might take a few tries).
  • If you are going to use direct attack spells, start small. There's a spell called Righteousness, sold by Ygfa in Pelagiad and a few others, which is Absorb Health 10pts on touch; very reliable, and the time taken to spamcast is less of an issue since it heals you. Casting lots of little spells will also raise your casting skills faster.
  • You might already know this, but don't go into combat without your Fatigue bar at full. Your chance to cast spells and to hit enemies with weapons is strongly dependent on how full your Fatigue bar is. Feel free to run-jump your way through cities (unless you need to do persuasion or commerce; those are fatigue-based as well), but out in the wilderness, let it come back to full or nearly so (pure walking is pretty tedious, but you can alternate running with walking to go a bit faster while keeping your Fatigue up).
  • Level up smarter, not faster. Your attribute increases on levelup get multipliers determined by the skills you increased since your last levelup, and you can't max out the multipliers without increasing your "misc" skills - the ones that don't contribute to levelup. So don't be frustrated by using "misc" skills and levelling up slowly (note also that while Morrowind enemies don't get boosts based on your level, spawn points do check your level when deciding what creature to spawn, so levelling up rapidly and inefficiently can lead to you getting shredded by random kagouti on the road), and do spread out your major and minor skills across the attributes and specialisations (I usually play mage-ish characters, but I still take Light Armour and one weapon skill). I'd definitely advise against making Acrobatics and Athletics anything but "misc" skills, as they train hilariously fast but don't make you better at fighting.

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