Joshua1986 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 Does anyone know if it is possible to reach Skuldafn now after the ability to ride dragons is learned in the dragonborn DLC? I know it was previously only available to access in the quest to reach Sovngarde to defeat Alduin. But has that changed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sajuukkhar9000 Posted December 27, 2012 Share Posted December 27, 2012 No you cannot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pentigan Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 The dragonriding can only be used to access things available by walking. Going to Skuldafn is basically a direct teleport to it's own cell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relativelybest Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) No you cannot. The dragonriding can only be used to access things available by walking. I can't say I'm surprised, but this makes no sense considering that the main quest firmly establishes that one can reach Skuldafn by riding a damn dragon. :wallbash: It's things like this that really gets my goat. If we have a tame dragon, why shouldn't we be able to go back to Skuldafn? Edited December 29, 2012 by Relativelybest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdonin Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) I can't say I'm surprised, but this makes no sense considering that the main quest firmly establishes that one can reach Skuldafn by riding a damn dragon. :wallbash: It's things like this that really gets my goat. If we have a tame dragon, why shouldn't we be able to go back to Skuldafn? Alduin's defeat caused a magical backlash through the Sovengarde portal, disrupting its activity and causing the aetherial matrix which sustained it to colapse. The resulting explosion destroyed the temple at Skuldafn, flattened the mountain peak, and was viewable from as far away as Winterhold. Nothing now remains of Alduin's gateway into the land of the dead asside from shards of rubble scattered throughout the Velothi mountains. There, i explained the gameplay ommision for you, in a rather apropriate manner, if i do say so myself... The point being, sometimes ommisions are made unintentionally, and we have to live with them. I highly doubt you'll be able to fly to the Forgotten Vale either. It's not that big a deal. Edited December 29, 2012 by Lachdonin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrettM Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Nice. I was trying to come up with something involving phase-shifted gravitons focused through a re-polarized sensor array, but I couldn't make it work. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relativelybest Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) Alduin's defeat caused a magical backlash through the Sovengarde portal, disrupting its activity and causing the aetherial matrix which sustained it to colapse. The resulting explosion destroyed the temple at Skuldafn, flattened the mountain peak, and was viewable from as far away as Winterhold. Nothing now remains of Alduin's gateway into the land of the dead asside from shards of rubble scattered throughout the Velothi mountains. There, i explained the gameplay ommision for you, in a rather apropriate manner, if i do say so myself... Funny, I didn't notice any of that. You would think some people in Winderhold would have mentioned something that extraordinary. Why, if I wasn't such a naive and gullible person, I might even suspect all of that was just a lame excuse you made up to cover for Bethesda out of some kind of misguided fan loyalty. The point being, sometimes ommisions are made unintentionally, and we have to live with them. I highly doubt you'll be able to fly to the Forgotten Vale either. It's not that big a deal. No. Hell no. This is not something "we just have to live with." It's not the natural goddamned order of things, something we just have to accept; it's bad game design. We consumers have every right to criticize and complain when the game developers mess something up, or are too lazy to bother justifying their own shenanigans. Look, I'm a writer. Do you think we can get away with obvious bulls*** like this? Ha, no way! If I gave my main character the ability to tame and fly dragons, I'd have to aknowledge the fact that I just granted him the ability to fly wherever the hell he wants, as long as he knows where it is, because giving your character access to dragon piggy-back rides actually has consequences. And if I absolutely needed to keep him from flying to a particular place, you better believe I would have to establish - well in advance and in no uncertain terms - a very good reason for why he can't. I can't just handwave it away or ignore the issue and hope nobody notices, because that's bad writing and my readers would call me out on that. And they would be right to do so. But if it's a video game, apparently stuff like that is just something "we have to live with." What, you don't think we can hold the game developers accountable for this? Because we totally can, and for that matter, we should. Besides, I don't even see the harm in being allowed to return to Skuldafn in the first place. If you disable the gate to Sovengarde after completing the Main Quest, it's really just another Nord style dungeon plus a couple of dragons. Why is that so much worse than, say, revisiting Ustengrav? Worried it will break the main quest? Make it only accessible after you go there with Odahviing, because non of the dragons you tame know the way. Is that contrieved? Yeah, it is, but it makes a hell of a lot more sense than making it impossible to go to Skuldafn on a tamed dragon for no reason at all. Edited December 29, 2012 by Relativelybest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdonin Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Funny, I didn't notice any of that. You would think some people in Winderhold would have mentioned something that extraordinary. Of course not. What with all the damn blizzards, the only one to actually witness the event was the cities drunk, and he proptly blamed the Mages, leaving the incedent to be one of many false acusations the peasants of that misbegotten hole at the College. And yes, it was something i made up on the spot, i thought that was obvious enough without you having to be an ass about it. I too am a writer. More importantly, though, i am a story teller. Sometimes ommisions are made in story telling for the sake of progression. If it gets explained later, it's because there is a pressing need for it. Tolkien never explained what happened to Goblin Town, because there was never a need to go back there. Herbert never explained what happened to Caladan after Atreides gave up its stewardship. You don't learn what happened to Korlandril's statue of Isha, Tyrion's fensing instructore, Jessica or any of a million other places, things or people throughout literature. "Because i want to" is not a good enough reason for a writer or a story teller to revisit places or things, because it drags the story in circles with no purpose. Even with purpose, writers frequently get away with this type of thing. Harry Potter, argueably the most sucessfull book series in decades, is a long string of poorly thought out events, plot divices, ommisions and general literary blundering about. It is multi-billion dollar proof that writers DO get away with stuff like this. And do you know what writers don't have? Engine limitations. Activators. Coded script. Combatibility issues. Glitches. Bugs. Mods. Voice acting! A single letter out of place in a book won't cause the entire story to break down. A letter out of place in a script sequence can. Every change requires compatibility testing beyond just maintaining the story cohesion. The job of combining story telling with the interactivity of a video game is hard enough without having to go back and make sure every action and choice is possible, and all the more monolithic, fits into the continuity of the game! You also have a very slippery sloap when demanding absurd degrees of backtracking and expansive travel. You may want to return to Skuldafn (Azura knows why, the place was a dump) but someone else may want to go back to Vardenfell. Someone may want to go to the Shivering Isles, or Cyrodiil, or Hammerfell, or any of a hundred other places in the Elder Scrolls. Demanding such things would ensure we never see another TES game. Between the technical requirements (and the nessessary manpower hours to see them through, particularly since the community will rage of any minor glitch) the lack of story telling need, the fabricated standard you are argueing, and the inherent difficulty in covering the same bredth of story in a game as in a book, your complaints are both unrealistic and uncharacteristically entitled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorch621 Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 " No. Hell no. This is not something "we just have to live with." It's not the natural goddamned order of things, something we just have to accept; it's bad game design. We consumers have every right to criticize and complain when the game developers mess something up, or are too lazy to bother justifying their own shenanigans."- Relativelybest (The quote thing wouldnt work, I'm an artist not a programmer :P) This is Skyrim...not the natural godamned order of things, in this world 100 different men and women have taken arrows to their knees...that my friend is not the natural order of things, that is the natural order of a game.Its not bad game design, its making this all possible thats the problem, Skyrim allows us to do as much as we can, when we can, when we want, Skyrim is HUUUUUGE in comparison to other games thus difficulties in making large scale battles is bad enough, imagine the amount of bug fixing we'd have to deal with if we were allowed to fly a friggin dragon wherever we want? be thankful we're actually getting the ability to even hop on a dragons back and do stuff on it!! From a writing standpoint this can be validated in-game if you think about it."Dragons are prideful by nature"- EsbernDo you think a Dragon who was thinking of having you for lunch a few minutes ago is going to let you "piggy back ride" him wherever you want? He's a dragon, not a taxi cab with wings... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdonin Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 From a writing standpoint this can be validated in-game if you think about it."Dragons are prideful by nature"- EsbernDo you think a Dragon who was thinking of having you for lunch a few minutes ago is going to let you "piggy back ride" him wherever you want? He's a dragon, not a taxi cab with wings... Especially when you further consider that the reason you target Odaviing for the trap is because he's not an 'ordinary' Dragon, he's one of Alduins lieutenants. There is nothing to indicate that every dragon knows where Skuldafn is, in fact, specificly targeting a lieutenant implies it's not common knowlege. I'm not sure if i'm the only one whose experienced this, but when flying over mountains, everything kinda looks the same, so it's absurd to think the Dragonborn would remeber how to get there from a single trip. If the Dragonborn doesn't know how to get there, and the Dragon doesnt, well... You're SOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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