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R.I.P. neildarkstar. Haven will miss you dearly.
| Running The Gauntlet; This is neildarkstar's challenge competition. | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 22 2017, 06:27 PM (1,443 Views) | |
| neildarkstar | Jun 30 2017, 10:07 AM Post #101 |
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Overlord
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I believe I'm done with this challenge. I think I just can't take no more... The challenge is challenging, finding ways around the limitations is interesting, but in the end it is just boring IMO. Why boring? Hmmm... I think Legendary difficulty has a lot to do with that, as well as the lack of healing. For instance, I spent hours and hours trying to kill the dragon Mount Anthor, couldn't do it. I did manage to kill the dragon at Atumnwatch Tower, but it required some 200 (approximate) shouts of Frost. I also tried it with Marked for Death just a few minutes ago, and I never saw the health bar on the dragon move. Not at all. Can you kill dragons? Yes, but you have to be willing to dedicate hours to it. Can the Werewolf kill dragons? Yes, but dragons can also kill werewolves fairly easily. Speaking of werewolves, becoming one does make everything easier to some extent, but for me at least, becoming the werewolf was only a matter of luck. Get the Rannveig's Fast quest, and you've got your work cut out for you. Mostly because of the ghosts, eh? The second thing that makes this challenge boring is the lack of healing potions or magic. You fight a skeever, have to run for your life, and then you have to wait around for an eternity for your health to regenerate. Go back, encounter the skeever again, and end up waiting another eternity for your health to regenerate. I don't know right off hand how many hours I spent on this challenge, but I AM certain that over half of that time was spent shouting at dragons or waiting for health to regenerate. I'd rather watch grass grow... Is the challenge doable? Yes. In fact, this challenge has convinced me that if you want to , and have the patience of a saint, you can take on DiD Skyrim on Legendary difficulty with nothing at all. What you can accomplish will be limited, but if you're an underachiever, that wouldn't matter. I mean, no weapons, armor, werewolf, vampire, shouts, scrolls, or toilet paper... Eh, wait, you might need that last item desperately... Also, mods figure into the equation with huge impact. SkyTEST made all animals, i.e. skeever, wolves, mudcrabs and so forth, as tough as vanilla sabrecats I think. The redeemoing factor for SkyTEST was being able to scare skeevers and wolves away with a torch (though they usually had to get in one atack first).The Monster Mod made it impossible to travel unless by carriage. Even mounted on a horse was very questionable due to a predominence of fire based creatures. Anyway, I'll leave it at that, in case anybody wants to give it a go. Good luck if you do, eh? I don't know if AD is still playing it or not... So, all in all I had fun, but the fun part has worn off, so I'm going to go play Fallout 4 for a while I think... I really just want and need to kill something in less than an hour of battle. :D I really do wish we had a modifiable version of Survival difficulty for Skyrim though... |
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| Areial | Jun 30 2017, 11:22 AM Post #102 |
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Et'Ada
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Well... hmmm sucks?? I'm not into almost impossible challenges. ..or anything that requires patience. ..or much of it... I have to have too much of that IRL... I know my compitition rounds are challenging, but they are do-able... I don't think there is a single Skyrim mod that does survival in an easy to do, but challenging way.... getting a group of mods works, but .... Breaks are good. |
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| glargg | Jun 30 2017, 11:35 AM Post #103 |
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Jarl
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Yep, breaks are good. I've been playing FONV. Trying to decide if I like it. Mixed feelings at this point. But it's a break. :) |
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| Rick | Jun 30 2017, 12:21 PM Post #104 |
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Jarl
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Or.....try Adella"s Trial in which things are killable in seconds rather than hours. Still legendary, still DiD, still no healing or magic.....but the promise of rising to a strong resiliant build that can slaughter or sneak with aplomb! We just killed Sahlokir in about 3 minutes and went on to clear the Thalmor Embassy in a non stop fun slaughterfest! Just sayin' |
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| Kane | Jun 30 2017, 02:53 PM Post #105 |
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Overlord
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Yes, but where's the fun in that? I'm more in neil's corner in that aspect - I'd prefer a challenge that is always a challenge. The game gets boring once you have an answer to everything. It just happened to me in Round VIII....I got bored with 10 hours left because I could just roll through a dungeon fearlessly, smashing a mace and bashing a shield. Barely took physical or magical damage. The only time I had to use a potion was in Irkngthand. |
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| After Dark | Jun 30 2017, 04:14 PM Post #106 |
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Noble
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I'm sorry to hear that you gave up on this, Neil. I'm having fun so far with my werewolf. I've completed The Book of Love quests and i killed the witches of Glemoril Coven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJK0j0SiKkk About the quest i received from the Companions, fist was to intimidate Carlota and the second one was to kill an escaping criminal. For some reason, this character always got the quest to intimidate Carlota (you can see my rant here). @Kane I agree with you on this, but i have a plan to keep it challenging even at high levels. This involves switching from One-handed to Two-handed weapons and from Heavy armor to Light Armor. I started with the premise that a true warrior should know how to properly use all melee fighting styles ( S&B, Two-handed, Dual Wield, Unarmed) and fight wearing Heavy armor or Light armor. |
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| neildarkstar | Jun 30 2017, 05:04 PM Post #107 |
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Overlord
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heh, yeah, Carlotta can be a handful. You don't want to brawl with her in the Bannered Mare where you can't back away easily, I'll tell you that. Still, those ghosts at Rannveig's Fast are just a whole different order of magnitude for a level one character... I couldn't fight them at all, I had to avoid them. That of course is easier said than done. |
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| Rick | Jul 1 2017, 05:31 AM Post #108 |
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Jarl
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Well your problem is the game is so dynamic in its difficulty scaling ( not the slider thing). A challenging game at level 40 is downright impossible at level 10... even allowing for enemy upgrades. Skyrim is never a level playing field as levels rise....unless you can find a mod to achieve that (Requiem maybe?). But in any case, I guess I gave the impression that I was playing a complete walk in the park. Well, ha! If that was true, I wouldn't still be getting handed my butt by dragons at level 47 (as happened last time) and I would have achieved my goal long ago by now!!! The armour cap apparently only stops 80% of damage and let me tell you that 20% of some bosses damage output is still two hit lethal....(Ever faced a vampire Nightmaster on legendary? Butt clencher time!) Adella can kill a Deathlord in about 5 regular hits. A Deathlord can kill her in about 6 hits......so one on one it's evens.....but Deathlords often show up in threes! So not quite a walk in the park. However the Thalmor in the Embassy were easy pleasurable kills. The point being.....you have to know what you can kill easily....and what deserves greater respect! But taking two hours to gradually whittle a single foe down....just no! I don't blame neil for getting bored with that. Adella's Trial is designed to be hard, but still quite do'able..... Well....no point in me keep banging the drum. I know how Adella is thought of....but she is what she is....if people could look past that, they might find the Trial to be more fun than at first thought. All things are relative eh! Right best go before folk think I'm hijacking neils thread for another Adella plug.....again <eye roll>! @Neil.....You clearly did enjoy your tough gauntlet before the difficulty ground you down. Why not give it another go with a more achievable rule set? Allow certain weapons or magics maybe? Even Nekkid Nord was allowed basic weapons mate! Perhaps deliberately not take the level ups....keep everything under level ten....that would make a huge difference! :) Edited by Rick, Jul 1 2017, 06:34 AM.
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| neildarkstar | Jul 1 2017, 09:11 AM Post #109 |
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Overlord
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Rick, I'm thinking I'll probably come back to the Challenge after a little break taken in FO4. You're quite right, I DID truly enjoy it. Rule changes would have to be very carefully thought out, but I can do that while I'm on holiday in the Commonwealth, eh? :) It's too bad though that Skyrim damage isn't more easily configurable. The thing about FO4's Survival is that both you and your foes do 1.5 times normal damage, and damage is quite regularly far higher relatively speaking on vanilla in FO4 than in Skyrim. Combat is relatively very short and very deadly no matter which way it goes. In short, that is what I'm missing in Skyrim and what my challenge tried to address. Unfortunately, for me, it didn't come out in a challenging and engaging manner. It's true the werewolf made things much easier, but then that tips the balance back the other way... until you try to engage in a slug fest with a frost troll or a dragon anyway. Forcing the player to become a werewolf was not what I had in mind in any case... Well, time enough to think about that while I'm in the commonwealth, eh? ;) |
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| Areial | Jul 1 2017, 09:35 AM Post #110 |
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Et'Ada
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Rick.. I actually really like Adella.. my issue with the trial is that it's on Legendary.. and relies on all three craft's being used at maximum potential. I do not like the initial grind to a half way viable character.. I like them to be able to go toe to toe with most enemies, not a group.. ie they might not take on Krosis at lvl 1, but they aren't going to run from a mudcrab either. I tend to craft minimally .. unless it's a character that is a "Master" at one craft, then they barely use the other two.. or don't use them at all. Say, a Master Alchemist, might make his or her initial armor and weapons, but then never touch smithing again. |
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| neildarkstar | Jul 1 2017, 09:43 AM Post #111 |
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Overlord
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I tend to agree with Areial on all points there. |
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| Serethil | Jul 1 2017, 09:45 AM Post #112 |
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Et'Ada
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I'm going to hazard a guess that it's much easier to balance a game like the FOs - because they're based on real-world guns, ammo, and explosives (even if beth tweaks the weaponry to fit the concept better) - than it will ever be to balance a game set in a medieval world. |
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| Areial | Jul 1 2017, 09:50 AM Post #113 |
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Et'Ada
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Neil.. one of the thing's I was thinking.. the reason I don't get bored is that while I DO participate in the DiD challenges, I don't usually do outside ones that are also DiD.. reason is that I can't really get into a character's story that I know has the potential to die. Now I know the argument that one can have more care for a character if one is ( at least in the back of the mind) afraid to lose them. But I am the other way around, the reason I tend to use a lot of different characters for the competition is that I don't want to get attached to them... cause then I will resurrect them. I like the "happily ever after".. hmmm with an exception, but I haven't gotten to her story yet.... |
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| neildarkstar | Jul 1 2017, 09:56 AM Post #114 |
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Overlord
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True enough in part, but the full end of the stick is that the armor and weapons are only half imagined in the Skyrim world. The full effects of armor are not considered. Uhmmm, for instance like the problem with steel or iron armor that occurs when the the armored individual takes a heavy blow, and the armor is bent or dented as a result. One might survive such a blow because of the armor, only to then be killed by that same armor because it doesn't easily revert to it's usual shape. |
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| Serethil | Jul 1 2017, 10:32 AM Post #115 |
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Et'Ada
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All too true neil. Actually I had written several more paragraphs addressing just that - plus the fact that in a world where armor has various enchants sometimes, do those enchants retain "congruence/completeness" if your chestpiece got bashed in with a 2 hand axe? But I didn't post it, unlike some might have - simply because I don't think pedantry has much place herein, and it was getting way too close to that edge. |
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| neildarkstar | Jul 1 2017, 11:10 AM Post #116 |
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Overlord
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Well, pedantic or no, the fact remains that in Real Life and Fallout, a bullet to the head is almost invariably fatal, or at least has serious consequences. In Fallout 4 under Survival rules, if you didn't die immediately, you can take a "stimpack" but the effects work over a long period of time rather than instantly like Skyrim's healing potion. That combination of consequence and slow healing makes combat in Fallout 4 quite deadly. In Skyrim, if you don't die, there are no consequences to taking a blow to the head from a two-handed axe, you can heal in a second's time, and suffer no ill effects until you are finally killed... or kill your foe. That is what truly makes it hard to balance Skyrim's combat IMO. |
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| Andra Hawksdaughter | Jul 1 2017, 11:17 AM Post #117 |
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Jarl
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Are-sis, this is exactly why DiD just doesn't work for me. I get very connected to my characters right away. Losing them, I have discovered, isn't an option for me. |
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| Areial | Jul 1 2017, 01:08 PM Post #118 |
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Et'Ada
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Andra....That's why Akemmi ended up being a RP character after the round was up.. under mostly DiD rules, but...with some differences. Neil, I think if you find a good combat overhaul and dd in Death Alternative you might be a bit happier with some types of characters. Other than ASIS, OBIS and Enhanced Enemies, I don't use that type of overhaul.. most seem to be script heavy and don't deal well with other script heavy mods. But.. take the break, look at some of the mod's while your gone.. could be one of them is exactly what you need... or not. |
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| After Dark | Jul 4 2017, 12:40 PM Post #119 |
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Noble
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I don't know if anyone else care about this challenge anymore, but i'm still rolling and i'm having fun, so i'll keep posting. Last time i killed the witches of Glenmoril Coven only to find Kodlak dead when i got back with their heads. Now it's time to get revenge on those Silve Hands. I got the pieces of Wuuthrad back and Eorlund put them together. Now our quest to cleanse Kodlak's soul begins. Since we were doing this for Kodlak, it didn't felt right do use the Beast Form to get trough the tomb. So, there i stood, armed with only a torch, still wearing the prisoner's clothes, trying to support my fellows companions as much as i could. In the end, me and Aela had the difficult task to defeat Kodlak's Beast Spirit. I left Ysgramor's tomb and headed to Dawnstar and since i was here, i also visited The Lord Stone and the surrounding area. My next goal is to find a place to store my book collection until i can build Lakeview. Best place is Anise's Cabin since it's really close to the construction site. The only problem was that the AI glitch appeared again and there's no point in killing a poor woman that doesn't even fight back, so this video stops here. |
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| Areial | Jul 4 2017, 12:51 PM Post #120 |
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Et'Ada
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Nice run.. bummer bought the glitch... |
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