tnyrmn

I actually just started an RP with a new character that is similar to this idea. I've based it on William Dampier, a pirate botanist from the 17th century http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/01/18/145402318/the-pirate-botanist-returns Linnaeus Dampier is a Breton who has traveled nearly all of Tamriel. His father was a blacksmith but the trade never stuck for Linnaeus, instead he was drawn towards his mothers alchemical trade. When he was younger, summer spent with his uncle in the Jerall mountains is where he learned to hunt, track, and defend himself with a sword. As a young man he spent years signing onto merchant ships and trading caravans, this led him to Hammerfell, Valenwood, and Elsweyr. He fought for the empire during the great war, primarily as a scout, and lost his family in the process. Now, he has decided to start over in Skyrim. A new continent to explore, a new flora and fauna to explore. They also have a functional mage college, Linnaeus has picked up some tricks over the years from his adventures, and would love to ad some more to his repertoire. Somewhere crossing the border he got caught up in an ambush and taken prisoner... I'm not sure if I want this character to pursue the dragonborn role, I've gotten to the part where he is summoned by the Greybeards, but Linnaeus might just decide that is a bunch of nonsense. Still, a consummate and brilliant student, the knowledge he gleaned from that word wall is rather enticing. He above all is fascinated by the world and wants to understand it all, history, magic, alchemy, etc. I'm playing him as a fairly good character, he isn't a thief or assassin, but is also not at all afraid to deal with shady characters or get his hands dirty in pursuit of his studies. Mostly I buff with Alchemy and Alteration spells, loose a few arrows from stealth, close the gap and then unequip magic (to enable blocking) and duel with a one handed sword. It is actually proving to be a really fun play style. I've added a spell pack too, which includes some useful utility spells (slow time, etc.) that he'll be picking up at higher levels. Here is the build I'm thinking of.. http://skyrimcalculator.com/#209239

^ Perhaps some one is convinced that Narfi killed his sister (driving him mad in the process), and wants him to pay. That is how I conceptualized it anyway.

^ The problem with the "Ulfric smashed him to death with his shout" argument is that no such shout exists in the game. The closest thing would be unrelenting force, and that hardly does any damage even at its highest level (I certainly hope that wasn't enough to kill the high king!). So I'm more inclined to believe the stories that it either disarmed or knocked the king down, not ripped him apart. Admittedly, one could assume that the shouts actually experienced in game may not reflect all of the shouts that exists in the lore, but that doesn't seem right. Why would Ulfric be privy to a super powerful shout that the dragonborn can never learn? That looks like Unrelenting Force to me (55 seconds in). So I'll base my understanding of the duel on that, Ulfric knocked the king down, maybe the king dropped his weapon in the process, and swept in for the kill. I should think a worthy king of Skyrim could withstand one Fus Ro Dah.

I know a lot has been said about the disappointing length of the guild quests in Skyrim, but a related problem occurred to me as well. The guilds appear to be really small institutions in Skyrim. In Oblivion the guilds really felt like large well structured organizations that were capable of exerting some power on the province. The fighters guild had dozens of people involved and a couple of guildhalls in different cities. The mages guild was arguably the most widespread with dozens of people at the arcane university alone as well as a guild hall in every major city. This really helped the mages guild feel like a powerful institution. Admittedly the dark brotherhood was similar in Oblivion as it is in Skyrim (really only one main location). The Thieves guild at least had fences and contacts throughout all the cities. In Skyrim, the companions have one guild hall which consists of about 8 people, and they approach you almost immediately instead of you approaching them as a hopeful recruit. The college of winterhold is also a single building, and no one likes them. Both of these groups have zero contact with any other cities or organizations, they are essentially isolated and appear to have little impact on anything. The thieves guild seems like the only guild in Skyrim that has contact and interactions with cities besides their home turf (and thats largely a function of their job, you need homes to steal things from). All of this is really disappointing, and it is really reflected in the isolated nature of the questlines as well (thieves guild and db excepted). I'm not sure who came up with this philosophy but it was a big miss and these guilds feel way less important than the ones in Oblivion. I realize there are some flavor issues going on here. Nords distrust magic so why would the mage college be prominent, and the old mages guild collapsed. I understand that, but well, they chose to make that part of the story and their decisions were limited around that setting. They could have chose something else, or they could simply say the imperial influence made magic practice more common and accepted over time. Why aren't their smaller winterhold college affiliated alchemy shops or something of that nature. As for the companions, why do they not have guild halls in other cities? There is no reason not too, and they could have diversified the quests more. Maybe put Jorvasskr (sp) in a different city, and a smaller guild hall in whiterun, then they could have set up a few quests to get your foot in the door before being sent off to the big time. Just seems like another missed opportunity to make the game world more engaging.

I want to play a sort of naturalist/alchemist/mage character that collects and studies plants, insects, etc. So I had an idea for some basic decorations that would spice up some of the player homes. If some one could make display cases that contain all of the butterfly and other insect types that would be awesome. I thinking like a classic pinned bug display (google image search for plenty of examples) that could be added to existing player homes. New displays could be created, or the existing display cases could probably be used, just enable players to pick up and place entire bugs (instead of just their wings as in vanilla). New display models could even be based off of this mod (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10216) where you can pick up and place these new items in existing homes (instead of a mod that creates fixed additions to homes). I would also love to see a player home (or a revamp of the arch mage's quarters) that plays on the theme of a nature researcher type mage. It could be full of these displays, alchemy gardens, troll skulls, scrolls, book shelves, and so on. I don't know a thing about modding so I would really love to see something of this sort put together. Thanks

I would love to see some ambitious modder put together some crafting specific guilds that would include questlines and new recipes for completing the whole quest. Maybe even radiant quests if that is possible. A Blacksmiths guild seems like the most obvious one to make. Alchemy/enchanting are sorta tied up with the mage college, but could be designed as a sort of sub/parallel faction with their own quests. For the blacksmiths guild, I could see it being like an ancient order of blacksmiths with a stronghold built into a high remote mountain or volcano (maybe with an active core used as the forge). There could be lots of forges and apprentices running around, and quests to join the guild, gather strange new materials (with clues about locations in books/dialogue), maybe tie in the skyforge and the lunar forge, and have it all culminate in learning new, unique, and powerful (but balanced) armors and weapons. Obviously, it would be quite an undertaking, but it seems like it could be a great idea if executed properly. Bump this if you think its a good idea and suggest whatever else might make it better.

I love Princess Mononoke and would love to some armors and weapons inspired by that movie (particularly San). A couple versions could be made, one with her warrior headdress on and one with the simple hair tie. Also, creating a giant white wolf mount (like the sabrecat mount mod) would be awesome! Some images for inspiration. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/24/Princess_Mononoke_Japanese_Poster_%28Movie%29.jpg/220px-Princess_Mononoke_Japanese_Poster_%28Movie%29.jpg http://images.paraorkut.com/img/wallpapers/1024x768/s/san_princess_mononoke_-_anime-8651.jpg

I you go down the light armor pathway you can get to dragon smithing with 5 perks, if you go the heavy armor route it takes 6. You'll also probably put a point in the skill that lets you improve enchanted gear. So you're talking 7 points on the upper end. Whether or not that is worth it I'm not sure. Daedric is the best heavy armor in the game. The dragon armors look pretty ugly imo, but I may still use pieces of it, like the light dragon gloves/boots.

Most of the guild quest lines are far too short. They should have just made it a requirement to do 10 or 15 of the radiant quests before you embark on the main quest for that faction. Maybe, as some one else said, they anticipated us to go and talk to everyone to pick up different radiant quests instead of just following the main quest. I ran into a problem with that though because once you started on quest, the companions wouldn't hand out any other work for you until it was done. As a result I found the main quest (not necessarily recognizing it as such at first) and stuck to it and was dissapointed when it was over in no time. Also, they really seem to push you towards the guild. The main quest all but forces the thieves guild down your throat (the continuation of it is still rotting and taking up space in my quest log), and the college of winterhold quest is much the same. Why they didn't leave you the option to turn down any quests or remove them from your log I will never understand. As for the companions, before I even got to whiterun I received an invite too join them from Aela.

Whats weird is that you do sometimes get appropriate dialog. potential spoilers I've gotten congratulated for clearing out the den of hagravens that cursed the companions. Or guards still talk in disbelief about releasing a dragon from whiterun. So clearly the game is paying some attention to what you are doing. The problem is that those moments are completely overshadowed by endlessly repeated immersion breaking moments. Guards still recognize me as "the new member of the companions" despite being harbringer. That punk kid in dragonreach still thinks I'm there to lick his fathers boots despite saving that city thrice over. The worst example was in the companions guild hall i overheard Farkas say to one of the other non-circle companions that "You don't get to fight until Skjor says so, until then you train" Now, maybe Farkas was being a sarcastic dick, but Skjor has been dead for months now. Anyways, the list goes on and on for examples. I'm less concerned about reward checks, I would love to see a dialog mod that fixes this problem though. I'd trade off 50 of the 200 dungeons in this game for better immersion such as npc dialog checks, reactive environments, etc.

Not sure if this would be possible, but it would be really cool if you could choose from a few different "themes" for each house when you go to decorate it. Some of the decorations feel way to upscale for the sort of character I play. For instance, the undecorated houses have furs on the beds, chances are that fur is a lot warmer than the green blanket it gets replaced with in many homes. My hunter/warrior character would probably rather keep the fur, along with having trophies (mammoth tusks, troll skulls, weapon racks, etc.) decorating the house instead of elegant vases or what have you.

I got pretty frustrated the other day when the main quest forced the thieves guild on my character to get information about Esbern. NO, I don't want to talk to brynjolf (sp?) and do some errand for him. I want nothing to do with him and his guild of crooks, now though, i'm stuck with "Talk to Brynjolf in the Ragged Flaggon" in my quest log forever. Then, a little further in the main quest they force the damn mages college on you too! Why can't I just go to the college and get the info I need without being admitted as a member of the college. Are regular guests not allowed? If I go and visit Harvard I'm not suddenly a student just by talking to a security guard in front of one of the buildings. My character is a hunter and warrior with some shamanistic inclinations (restoration), not a scholarly mage. I really wish they hadn't done that, maybe there were ways around this but they didn't seem real obvious (no intimidate/brawl option for Brynjolf). That being said, I think I like this main quest more than oblivions. Oblivions did feel more epic, but it also felt way way way more urgent and I found myself rushing to complete it because collecting bear pelts for a farmer pales in comparison to stopping hell from swallowing the planet whole. At least with Skyrim I haven't felt as pressured to get things done. I think thats my main problem with the main quests for both games though, they force your character to do things they may not normally do, but you pretty much have to or the damn world ends. Why would I be messing around with bandit bounties when Alduin is about destroy civilization? It results in your character having serious cognitive dissonance. Sure the world is ending, but I'm gonna track down some nirnroot for that lady in Riften instead. And sure, you can do all this side stuff after completing the main quest, but then you just feel like you're slumming it. I just slayed this uber-mighty dragon and saved the world, now some condescending jarl is asking me to do some bs errand. Great. Well, I guess there will be alt start mods that bypass the main quest eventually. Anyone else bothered by this sort of stuff?

I used to let them pass by, figuring out what this dragonborn business was about seemed more important than getting involved in politics. My character was just a simple hunter and all. However, after seeing three thalmor casually walking away from a hidden shrine to Talos where they slaughtered unarmed worshippers. Well this Nord got angry, ran back down the trail and butchered them all. Thalmor are now kos.

I'm enjoying it too. And its not that the quests were to short. It's all about impacting the world and making people recognise you. It may boil down to tastes, but as far as I am concerned, I want to get the feeling of being some kind of hero or villain when it comes to RPGs. With the Elder Scroll series they never managed to pull that trick. They pulled it with fallout - although, as I said above, I think they were only the publisher then. Thats what really bothers me too, I don't feel like my achievements are reflected in the game world at all. I finished the companions quest and they all still talk to me like an untested recruit. I mean, c'mon guys I'm the freaking harbringer now! You all saw!!! Worse than that though, is the town guards saying crap like "so your the new companions recruit huh?" WRONG BUCKO, I'M THE HARBRINGER NOW! Worse than that though, one time I was just moving through the companions guild hall (after finishing their main quest line) and Farkas says to the dark elf guy something along the lines of "you don't get to fight until skjar says so, until then you keep training" Spoilers... WTF, Skjar is dead! Like weeks ago. Was Farkas just being a smartass or something? Stuff like that really breaks your immersion and sense that what your doing actually impacts the world.

I'm enjoying it too. And its not that the quests were to short. It's all about impacting the world and making people recognise you. It may boil down to tastes, but as far as I am concerned, I want to get the feeling of being some kind of hero or villain when it comes to RPGs. With the Elder Scroll series they never managed to pull that trick. They pulled it with fallout - although, as I said above, I think they were only the publisher then. That really bothers me too, c'mon guys I'm the freaking harbringer now! You all saw!!! Worse than that though, is the town guards saying crap like "so your the new companions recruit huh?" WRONG BUCKO, I'M THE HARBRINGER NOW! Worse than that though, one time I was just moving through the companions guild hall (after finishing their main quest line) and Farkas says to the dark elf guy something along the lines of "you don't get to fight until skjar says so, until then you keep training" Spoilers... WTF, Skjar is dead! Like weeks ago. Was Farkas just being a smartass or something? Stuff like that really breaks your immersion and sense that what your doing actually impacts the world.