Anyone here hardcore roleplay? I.e. no map, celestial navigation

[paradoxbox]

I started a wood elf thief/hunter/nomad type character a few days ago and have been playing him with some hardcore roleplay.

 

Right now I'm playing at master difficulty - I found that legendary is too useless, wolves take dozens of arrow hits to kill, not my idea of fun.

 

I printed out a map of skyrim with none of the locations besides major cities on it. Now whenever I discover a place, I use a pencil and ruler to mark of the correct position, like real navigation techniques.

 

I have also of course installed all the usual hard core mods for realism, frostfall, skyre, etc.

 

Of course no fast travelling except for using the carts between cities. Timescale slowed to 5 for the moment.

 

Anyone else have a hardcore character they're playing?

[fifteenspades]

Yes and i end up going in circles more then once. especially at night T_T

[drbeavis]

Interesting I shall try this sometime. I definately have played hardcore on Fallout - New Vegas (Hardcore/Hard with Project Nevada and FOOK) although I fast traveled -

 

Skyrim legendary is okay once you get to round level 10, untill then it is stupid hard. I've been going for a vanilla experience recently, the only gameplay changing mods are SkyUI (if that counts), weightless potions/food (I found managing them to be unappealing), and the unofficial patches to avoid gamebreaking bugs.

[dennis20014]

I do this as well, and never ride horses either. I use carriages sometimes, but I've played the game so much that I know the roads and directions to everywhere anymore! It's nice that I still come across places I've never found though haha

[Lachdonin]

I always get a chuckle out of the "no fast travel" crowd... Clearly some people have never played Daggerfall. Still, the map-navigation is an interesting concept, even if navigating by the stars wouldn't really work, since the sky doesn't accurately change based on where you are in the province. As such, you're basically relegated to compass asmuths, requiring you to know where you are and where you're going, which can get very confusing, particularly in areas like the Reach.

[billyro]

It would be much easier to navigate if there were more road signs around the place. I know that there are some mods that add more, and they make it a lot easier to navigate without using the map.

[cronosnake]

Roleplaying definitely revitalized my experience with Skyrim. I use Frostfall, Battle fatigue/Injuries, Eat/sleep/drink/bathe (my personal favorite food mod), and I use TextHud to keep important messages visible but disable most other HUD displays.

 

Just wondering, what mods do people use? I'm always looking for different approaches to 'immersion'.

Edited July 29, 2013 by cronosnake

[ruvuk]

I don't think I roleplay hardcore, but the immersion part is important to me. If I can't "lose myself" in a game like this, it just feels like I'm doing puzzles, and that's not what I want.

 

I don't use Fast Travel because it feels so out of place in Skyrim. I certainly breaks the immersion for me, anyway. I happen to like exploring Skyrim, and there's almost no part of it that I don't seem to like. I was really pleased a few days ago to find the new mod that adds "touring" coaches to the game (something like that). Now, you can ride between towns and actually ride between the towns (i.e., it's not Fast Travel). Really nice to travel that way sometimes.

 

Also, when I travel afoot, which is 95% of the time, I almost never stick to the roads. Lots more fun to travel on your own. I even enjoy (usually) finding my way over the mountains; I think I've gotten pretty good at climbing around on them, too.

 

As for navigating Skyrim, I travel almost entirely during the daytime hours. (I like to sleep at night. And I like to be able to see more when I'm on a quest or otherwise traveling.) I'm not 100%-sure about this, but the times I've checked, the sun has been oriented correctly for the time of day. I find the sun rising in the East and setting in the
West. I don't know if the North/South angle of the sun changes with the season or not.

 

And about the timescale . . . I have the timescale set to 2. <lol> I won't get to see the seasons change in Skyrim (if they change). But I didn't like it when I'd step into a shop to buy something at noon and then find the sun going down when I came out. With the game's original timescale at 20, the time of day was pretty much meaningless to me.

 

And, finally, . . . if my guy dies in the game, either because I wasn't paying attention or because I got him into something he couldn't handle, . . . I make myself let him go. . . . After getting my head sorted, I start a new game. I hate it, but I don't feel right playing a guy who died. It's not like I don't already have all the advantages in the game.

[Lachdonin]

Something i feel should be pointed out about the Timescale... It's faster ingame than in our world for a very important reason. The gameworld is scaled. Skyrim is NOT 16 miles across. It's more like 1600 miles. Time in game proceeds faster because it's supposed to simulate the fact that you are traveling far greater distances that it seems. Walking from Whiterun to Markarth takes days, not an hour.

 

For me, at least, messing with the timescale actually breaks the immersion, because suddenly Skyrim becomes so much smaller than it's supposed to be. The shop thing i tend to pass off as my character actually inspecting wares instead of just throwing gold on the counter and stuffing junk in his pack.

[Ozimandias]

Hard core, Dead is dead is the only way for me.

 

Ahlia, my female wood elf is, as are all bosmer, is a carinvore and will only eat meat that she has hunted and cooked herself. She will only drink water or mead.

 

As an alchemist she must buy most of her plant based ingredients, because she cannot harm living plants.