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Thread: Sky-rant

  1. #1

    Default Sky-rant

    Well...

    I can honestly say I've never had such a hard time installing a game than until now, with the new Elder Scrolls game Skyrim.

    After getting past numerous "Server Busy" messages, the game then insists on installing over the internet rather than off the dvd. A quick search of the internet reveals a way to force an install off the dvd, followed by another 5 or 6 restarts of Steam after it froze while trying to presumably "authorise" the installation.

    Finally attempt number <who knows> and it connects successfully, then using the command line trick it actually uses the dvd, and not 5gb (or 7 hours of time) of my monthly broadband allowance.

    Now it's installed, it's still downloading 240mb of patches ... and it's on day of release! Nearly 90 minutes after starting, and I've not played it yet. In an hour I have to sleep for an early shift tomorrow!

    I don't dislike the idea of Steam ... it's a pretty good platform for games, but what in the hells is making this so hard? Could Bethesda not have made a more traditional installer, rather than going with Steam?

    Rant over ... unless the game doesn't load.

    Rakku


  2. #2

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    You're probably getting lots of "server busy" errors because there's still millions of people trying to do the same thing you're doing at the very same time.

    Here in a few days, the congestion should let up and the install process should go a lot more smoothly. Why it tries to use the internet instead of the DVD is a bit of an oddity though, perhaps just a small programming oversight or error or something, maybe when it attempts to Q the server, a server error causes it to try and download from the server instead of getting it from the DVD or something.

    I was pondering going out shopping to get the game today, but uh, maybe with this news I might wait till Tuesday afterall, when the congestion dies down.

    You see this sort of thing happening on MMORPG patch days, same thing -- too many people clogging the system ASAP to get their stuff.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    funny thing is i had a conversion in game about how consoles need installs now to. i pop in skyrim to my ps3...ok first i need a ps3 update 10 mins. system restart ok now it needs to install itself on the ps3, ok 5.6 gigs and 10+ mins wait. ok installed now it needs an update also before i can play it.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Quote Originally Posted by Blue Hasia View Post
    funny thing is i had a conversion in game about how consoles need installs now to. i pop in skyrim to my ps3...ok first i need a ps3 update 10 mins. system restart ok now it needs to install itself on the ps3, ok 5.6 gigs and 10+ mins wait. ok installed now it needs an update also before i can play it.
    Such is what happens when they port a PC game to a console, especially a game that's meant to be regularly updated.

    I've always said that consoles are slowly turning into PCs, might as well just get a decent PC IMO. At least you'd be able to download player-created mods.....

  5. #5

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    It's not the first time I've seen Steam try and install off the net, instead of a dvd... before reinstalling by pc from scratch one time, I backed up all the steam games. When I'd finished reinstalling Windows and installed Steam, I then restored my games and it tried to do the same thing. I do appreciate that the Steam servers must have been stuffed, but I thought they would have been able to cope, given the strength of some of the titles released in the past.

    It is strange how console games now have to install, but it makes sense I guess. I've been playing now, and it is an impressive game. My one complaint is that the menu interfaces are *extremely* console oriented. Thankfully it works just as well with mouse/kbd.

    Pc will always be the main platform for me... I do wish Red Dead would release for it!

    Rakku


  6. #6

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    As far as complaints about Skyrim, I've only found two:

    1). Mouse Sensitivity maximum is too low. I'm a player who jacks sensitivity to the max more often than not, and the maximum sensitivity setting is not enough for me. This is WITH a high-performance mouse, even. I'd like to increase it another 20-30% or so.

    2). I don't really like the idea of having to equip spells to a hand -- in Oblivion, I enjoyed being able to heal myself while swinging a melee weapon and using a shield. But in Skyrim, you can't do that any more. The best you can do is set your blade and healing spell to both of your hands, but you lose the shield.

    But yet, you can set a "Shout" to Z, and you can use that along with a shield and sword... why couldn't they have let us do something similar with spells?

  7. #7

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Quote Originally Posted by Dhalin View Post
    Such is what happens when they port a PC game to a console, especially a game that's meant to be regularly updated.

    I've always said that consoles are slowly turning into PCs, might as well just get a decent PC IMO. At least you'd be able to download player-created mods.....
    Backwards. Skyrim is a console game first and foremost (controls and UI are the way they are due to console) and it was ported to PC (not the other way around, like their other games were..unfortunately).

    And like you Ive had a *#@%@ of a time with the controls and mouse stuff - had to tweak and read forums and all that jazz to get it to w ork right. And it STILL is buggy (rebind commands aren't rebound for every t ype of screen - sometimes Im still having to use the original key instead of my rebound key but its random so heck if I know when I go to press it if its right or not LOL).

    And its weird - my game installed from my DVD and then got the patch from Steam. The patch took maybe 10 minutes if that - no problems connecting at all. And yes, this was day of release as well.

    But they need some more patches for PC - mouse and keyboard controls being buggy as heck the nerd rage across the internet Friday was legendary..(and being as I was searching for fixes to my problems I read through mucho of them LOL).

    Dhalin - you can key bind spells/weapons (you still have to equip them by pressing the key but you can press one key - spell in hand - cast spell - and then press another ey and weapon returns to hand).

    Go look into "Favorites" (its in the manual) - pull up your spell menu and make the spells you want handy as "favorites" (or weapons) - yea it does work like a web browser this way LOL. Once they are in your favorite list - you can highlight the spell/weapon and press a number-key. It is now hot keyed and yoou can press/use/press/swap quickly.

    No, its not as straightforward as the other games that were made for PC first - but it IS a way to hotkey stuff. But you still have to put the spell in your hand to cast, and not free-cast like we use to could.

    Bethesba has totally disappointed me in the Quality control department for this game. The gameplay itself is awesome. But the PC-port conversion with controls and bugs is abysmal. Very disappointed there.
    Frith-Rae BridgeSol
    Great Elder of Keir Chet K'Eilerten
    Iea has returned.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Okay, so I find some more stuff that annoys me about Skyrim:

    1). Why is every mundane creature so freaking powerful? And why are these powerful creatures bending me over every few steps?

    To Elaborate this, I'll tell you of my first 3 hours into the game:

    After the intro part, and after I got to that first town, I was given a quest to go see some important dude (they call em Jarls I think) at some castle. I go there, then I have to kill my first dragon (which was ridiculously hard to hit with arrows, thankfully he'll eventually land that you can start hacking at him).

    Then, I'm given this quest to go to a place called High Hrothgar to get some training there. I look at the map and I am like ".... woah.... THAT far!?" Unlike Oblivion, you can't fast-travel to the main cities... that's kinda stupid. Oh well, off I go.

    Right outside of Whiterun, I find this bandit camp. 3 bandits, who I kill with relative ease. I loot their camp and there's a locked treasure chest which is easily picked. Then, 2 more bandits come in, one of them is a higher leveled bandit with mage robes.

    Apparently mages are overpowered in this game. You can't power attack them because apparently spells drain your fatigue (err, okaaaaay). He keeps using frost spells on me, so I drink a frost protection potion I happened to have found because it is doing some actual damage to me, a good bit of it too.

    Then he suddenly starts casting lightning. UGH. Okay, so resistance potions are useless now? That's nice. Or do we have to drink all three to make sure they don't use something we can't resist?

    Well, it takes me 3 tries to get past that fight because of how ridiculous incoming magic damage is.

    On I go... next I find a cave near a river. Step in, and I see a Troll right near the entrance. I sneak attack him with a bow and it barely touches his HP meter, which refills in 2 seconds. He hits me once and does 30%+ of my life without a power attack.

    Um, yeah, reload. I'll come back there later maybe.

    Then I find 3 more dungeons on the way, 2 of which I clear out (bandits) and then I finally find that town the quest pointed me to. Now, the quest is pointing me to the place at the mountain peak.

    On the way up there, I run into another troll. Nice. I try to fight it, but it is still too strong (even though I found nearly a full set of steel armor from some bandits) and I'm level 10 by now. I lead it back down into the town and the townspeople help me kill it.

    Keep in mind that this is only like the 2nd or 3rd step in the main questline.

    On my way up the mountain, I run into Ice Wolves. These guys hurt and hurt bad, ONE swipe of their claws does a good quarter of my health while a bite does even more. Thankfully I only ran into two of them, but between the two of them I had used a good 5 of my healing potions.

    Then I find IT.

    An ICE TROLL. A Normal Troll is already too freaking powerful, but an ICE troll? He runs down the hill at me, takes one good swipe and I try to block, and WHAM... a good third of my life is gone, so I just run. Thankfully he eventually breaks off and I make it to the peak.

    But wait, this ain't over...

    The guy at the top of the peak gives me training and tells me to go get an item from some cave. I open the map and it is the whole way across the map with no fast-travel? UUGH. Okay, Whiterun Stables is the closest.

    I fast-travel there and start heading towards the quest area. Clear out a small bandit camp, run into a Sabercat. That Sabercat kills me twice before I finally kill it (using 3 potions to do so). Immediately after that, I find a bear which is utterly impossible to kill. I found out that you can walk way around it to avoid it, but meh.

    Then I came across some dungeon full of nord zombies, forget what they're called drugar or something like that. There's this type of zombie that throws magic at you and that's where I left off -- another impossible dungeon because of overpowered mobs.

    I'm like "what the hell!?". I'm just starting the main quests and they are already throwing overpowered crap at me?

    2). Remember that mage I mentioned, whose spells hurt like hell? I tried my own spells, and they barely tickle even a lowly bandit. So, enemies using spells absolutely hurt like hell, but yet my own spells don't do jack? Nice.

    I hate it when games near-require you to turn the challenge level down from the default challenge level just to make things more reasonable.

    Even with setting it on Novice, I still couldn't clear that Nord Zombie dungeon; there's this dual-wielding ghost guy at the end who kills me in like 5 seconds, each swipe of his weapons doing a good third of my life, even if I try to block his attacks and he moves far too fast for me to swing and back up.

    I find myself missing the days of Oblivion when challenges were more suited to your level....

  9. #9

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    I have to agree with you on the point that some mobs are over powered and mages ridiculously so. Although I'm not sure why you're having problems with Draugrs. I find them to be one of the easier mobs for me. Trolls are definitely horrid, and that Ice Troll took me many tries of just out running him.

    I usually take Lydia with me everywhere as she's a major help in crowd control. Normally she hangs back and shoots with her bow while I charge in.

    Shouts. Shouts are essential. The knockback/push shout is an invaluable life-saver that has allowed me to win many fights.

    Dungeon boss fights are incredibly hard. Even with Lydia's help. They absolutely destroy my health bar while I'm popping health pots like Halloween candy; and I've put every level up into my health bar and I'm in full heavy armor.

    As for not being able to fast-travel to the main cities; talk to the man in the carriage outside the stables of every main city. He'll take you to all the major cities instantly for a small fee (20-50 gold). Once there you can just discover it and not have to take the carriage there again.

    A very useful combat strategy I found was to keep my one-handed weapon in one hand and a healing spell in the other. Once my health is dipping down I run in circles healing while Lydia peppers the opponent with arrows. I made the mistake of not helping Lydia once and she died, making me have to start back at the beginning of a dungeon as I reverted to a save.

    If anyone is having trouble with difficulty, try doing some side quests and level up a bit before continuing on the main quest. It really helped me out having those few extra levels.
    Glindor Occulus - Ancient Dragon - 100/80/25 - (Chaos)
    FaffyMuncher - Half-Giant - 86 ELAR 30 RNGR 20 KNOC 30 OUT 25 BLK 15 MAS - (Chaos)

    Cave draconis.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    yes mages are strong... its like i cast my fire spell on you and i can drain all my mana burning you and you still live but a few secs of them burning me and im dead

  11. #11

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Figured out part of the problem with mages: While holding your shield up to block, hitting the sword button causes you to smash the enemy with your shield (though it costs some fatigue).

    This interrupts enemy spellcasting and usually knocks people back a step for a second.

    As far as the Draugr, I ran into a Draugr Scourge... they are MUCH stronger than normal Draugr.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    You can fast travel to cities. But you have to visit them first. Which seems reasonable to me.

    One big change from Oblivion that perhaps you are running into is that the difficulty of monsters does NOT scale with you throughout the world. So you WILL run into mobs that are too tough for you and often if you just go wandering and aren't paying attention.

    Another thing is that I think they assumed you might spend some time doing the sub-quests around towns before moving on. For example, I stayed in the Jarl's town for a bit and am level 10 before I headed east to the Graybeards. And I stick to the roads much of the time when I do travel.

    Archery is pretty easy! You just have to take distance into account. And yes, use your shouts. I also use a bit of magic (potions and a healing spell) despite the fact that my primary weapon is a sword. If you watch Lydia even she uses magic as well as a sword.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  13. #13

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    You can fast travel to cities. But you have to visit them first. Which seems reasonable to me.

    One big change from Oblivion that perhaps you are running into is that the difficulty of monsters does NOT scale with you throughout the world. So you WILL run into mobs that are too tough for you and often if you just go wandering and aren't paying attention.
    That's what I was saying -- the *major* cities should have been fast-travel from the start just like in Oblivion, though everything else should require you to visit it first. In Oblivion, that'd save you from being in, say, Leyawiin and get a quest that takes you to, say, Bruma (or worse, Cheydinhal to Anvil) and it is "OMG... that's going to take hours to walk there!"

    Another thing is that I think they assumed you might spend some time doing the sub-quests around towns before moving on. For example, I stayed in the Jarl's town for a bit and am level 10 before I headed east to the Graybeards. And I stick to the roads much of the time when I do travel.
    That's a bit of a poor assumption to make, though I'll admit I was level 10 before going to the Greybeards without doing all that many quests. Still though, ice trolls along the road to the Graybeards? When you only have 1 shout power that doesn't even phase them? When you're likely wearing Fur/Leather/Iron or maybe Steel armor at best? That seems a bit over-the-top. Oh, and the quests AFTER the Graybeards? Did em last night... they were *Easier*. Nothing in those quests (I did up to the Infiltrate the Embassy quest) came close challenge-wise to those two trolls on the way to the Graybeards. Not even the guards at the Embassy, despite them wearing elven armor/weapons.

    Archery is pretty easy! You just have to take distance into account. And yes, use your shouts. I also use a bit of magic (potions and a healing spell) despite the fact that my primary weapon is a sword. If you watch Lydia even she uses magic as well as a sword.
    It is easy until you have a dragon circling you at a pretty high rate of speed... then it is "meh, why bother, just duck behind a stone until it lands". Thankfully, dragon breath seems a lot weaker than mages' spells; I've killed 2 dragons now (one with help, one without) and both of them were wimps, they just take a long time to kill. They give lots of Archery levelups though!

    It is pretty sad when a dragon is weaker than a troll. Even the one I killed solo posed no threat to me whatsoever. Never dropped below 75% health, only had to heal once.

    Oh, that reminds me:

    Why can't I use the Ethereal Form shout?

    It says "Dragon Souls are required to unlock shouts", yet I've killed 2 dragons (it says I have 2 souls) and I still can't use it.

    And I stick to the roads much of the time when I do travel.
    The two trolls -were- on the roads to the Graybeards, but the Sabercat and Bear in my earlier post were not, but then this place I was trying to get to, didn't have a road to it... and that's another mini-rant: They could have highlighted roads on the map or something. Nice hi-res map, but too bad you can't see anything like, you know, roads marked on it. And the clouds on the map obstruct the view of a lot of the map too.
    Last edited by Dhalin; November 15th, 2011 at 02:37 PM.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    GAH, the Edit button disappeared... that's kinda lame.

    Another small tidbit:

    Skyrim, Y U NO HAVE STRENGTH SCORE!?

    I'd like to be able to increase my carry capacity, but... no strength score that I can see, nor anything that raises it. Meh, I guess the only way I can increase my carry capacity is to get the heavy armor perk that makes armor weightless if worn...

    Also, absurd item weights have made a comeback. IRL, I have a steel longsword. It has a huge ornamental handguard (which makes the sword a very poor weapon, it is mostly for display) and it only weighs, at most, 5lbs. It is larger/longer than the one-handed swords I've seen thus far in Skyrim.

    So why are one-handed swords in-game (including Steel) twice as heavy?

  15. #15

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Jeez does noone read the manual... =D

    STAMINA effects your weight limit. There are ONLY THREE stats in the game - Stam, Health, and Magick. Why you think there is strength when there is no str stat anywhere in game I have no clue. The first time you level up and get to spend points - you only get to pick from Stam, Health, and Magick.

    Which I think is dumb for an RPG but I guess they wanted to bring in the "FPS-RPG" type players by dumbing down the RPG aspects such as actual equipment SLOTS being displayed and things like...more stats..LOL :/.

    So no, when you level put points in Stamina and your weight limit will increase!

    Also - if you dont want to walk everywhere (and cant fast travel yet) - buy a horse. You can buy a horse at the 2nd town you go to (the one with Jarls). Cost 1000 gold. Which doesnt have to be a big amount if you finish the quests in your fist town and grab EVERYTHIING you can to sell it.

    I left first town with about 2500 gold - all made by clearing the Bleak Barrows den or whatever the town sends you to go kill the bandits in. Kill those bandits and then clear the dungeon. Pick up everything that has gold value - when you hit your weight limit start picking and choosing smartly (i.e. the stuff that sells for 10 gold and weighs 5 gets dropped before the stuff that sells for 100 gold and weighs 25). Everything else but what I wear and use got sold.

    Bam pony by the time I hit the 2nd town (those whiterun stables - they sell a horse there) with gold to burn left over (bought all the spell books in town hehe).

    Havent done the first dragon part yet - spent most of a day running around Jarls-town picking up all the side quests and doing the quests that could get done in the town done (I joined the Companions hehe). When I get more playtime I will be pursuing a few of those side dungeon quests as well as the first dragon-soul.

    Controls still frustrating me and I dont like the fact that we are limited to the 3 stats and the dumb carsel-wheel mechanic and dont have classes (I loved my battlemages in all the other ES games!!).

    However, interesting that you feel your spells dont do much damage. First dungeon I went into my spells were kiling things in like 2-3 hits at most; significantly faster than the 1-handers. Even know with points spent in 1-h they are still hitting harder (the spells are). Heck I can hit a skelly once with the fire-spell (first one you get) and the DOT from him burning kills him pretty fast - I dont even have to hit him if I dont want to.

    But no havent battled a mage yet . Just skellies, zombies, humans, duagor thingies whatever...some wolves...uhh..thats it. heh.

    And the first t hing I learned - just because you mouse over something and its NOT red does not mean that yoou can pick it up without being caught for stealing. It doesnt have to tell you "steal" for it to be stolen. I picked up some jewlery in line of sight of someone because I thought it would NOT be stealing because the mouse-over wasn't the "red/steal" indication/command. Just the normal "take" and I was immdiately busted for stealing.

    :/

    Btw - anyone spent any points in the carosel-of-skills that they found was totally pointless or didnt make any difference? Or spend any of your points into something that made a huge difference?? (Me Im going for the heavy-armor-weighs-nothing so I can fill my packs with loot to sell instead of weighing myself down with my heavy armor lol)
    Frith-Rae BridgeSol
    Great Elder of Keir Chet K'Eilerten
    Iea has returned.

  16. #16

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    I bought it off steam, so no paper manual here lol.

    But I'll have to remember that stam=carry capacity thing, lol.

    Also... no STEAM CLOUD!?

    Lame lame lame.

    They KNEW they were releasing the game on Steam, why on earth would they NOT make use of one of Steam's coolest features?

    GAH.

    They even have it for Morrowind and Oblivion, but NOT Skyrim!?

  17. #17

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Quote Originally Posted by Dhalin View Post
    It says "Dragon Souls are required to unlock shouts", yet I've killed 2 dragons (it says I have 2 souls) and I still can't use it.
    You need two things for a shout- a dragon soul and a wall word or three.

    I'm really missing the paper maunal. Why can steam not offer a pdf copy? I would lave loved to know hours ago that there was an auto run or that stamina increased weight capacity. I would have changed my stats around. To further compound the issue I ran across a skillbook that told me it increased my strength! Bugged book?

    As far as fast traveling goes, if you're lucky you'll find a carrage parked outside that will take you to all the major cities so you can get the marker. Wheeeee!

  18. #18

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    I prefer to hoof it to the towns the first time. You find all kinds of great locations along the way, gain a level or two, raise your skills, and earn some gold.

    There is a manual for Steam. Go to the Skyrim page in your library, click on the "Manual" link on the right. That'll open it up and you can save it to pdf from there.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  19. #19

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Quote Originally Posted by Shian View Post
    You need two things for a shout- a dragon soul and a wall word or three.

    I'm really missing the paper maunal. Why can steam not offer a pdf copy? I would lave loved to know hours ago that there was an auto run or that stamina increased weight capacity. I would have changed my stats around. To further compound the issue I ran across a skillbook that told me it increased my strength! Bugged book?

    As far as fast traveling goes, if you're lucky you'll find a carrage parked outside that will take you to all the major cities so you can get the marker. Wheeeee!
    I have like 4 shout words I can't use and I'm holding like 4-6 dragon souls on me, but yet the shouts are still grey and can't be used, so eh... not sure what's up with that.

  20. #20

    Default Re: Sky-rant

    Quote Originally Posted by Dhalin View Post
    I have like 4 shout words I can't use and I'm holding like 4-6 dragon souls on me, but yet the shouts are still grey and can't be used, so eh... not sure what's up with that.
    Hit R on a grey shout to use a dragon soul and unlock it.

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