The Elder Scrolls XV: This is my Thu'um Stick

[Triaxx]

Too much overthinking.

[Vinyadan]

Well, yes but they're intentionally setup as Crime Syndicate over Catburglars INC this time around.

That said, I prefer the suave Gentleman thief type to the ST&T (Skyrim Thieves & Thugs) motif.

To me, the Guild in Skyrim felt absolutely unplayable. As far as I can remember, it felt too realistic, in that there was zero effort to make it somehow palatable. In the first missions, you were a racketeer, hanging out with mobsters, and that was it.

By comparison, Morrowind gave the Thieves an evil competitor (the Camonna Tong) and made them feel hunted (by the Fighter's Guild). Even the fact that you had to steal in some missions felt more like a test of skill than the brutish extortion in Skyrim.

[Rynjin]

I really liked the Thieves Guild in Oblivion as well. The whole Robin Hood-esque aspect makes being a thief feel virtuous for good aligned characters, while still carrying the thrill of stealing **** for less moral dudes.

[Yora]

As terribly designed many aspects of Skyrim might be, sometimes I am still amazed at realizing there are still threads like this for an 8 year old game.

The only other game that stayed relevant for so long that I can think of is Half-Life with its endless amount of mods.

Skyrim must have done something right.

[Triaxx]

Skyrim also has a seemingly endless string of mods. Even now we see them, though much of that has to do with Special Edition.

[factotum]

Skyrim must have done something right.

Part of it is being re-released with better graphics in 2016, so it's really only 3 1/2 years since the last major official release of the game, not 8 as you might think looking at its original release date.

[Lord Raziere]

I don't know what Skyrim did right, but its mods do certainly help. I have 200+ mods ranging from giving me new equipment to overhauls, some enairim, quests, new areas, all sorts of things that turned my skyrim experience into some dwemer magitech adventure while blast things with like, my hundreds of different spells that I own, I have a character who uses the infinity gauntlet, I can summon werewolves, hordes of undead and so on, I've got mods to put in anime stuff, I've long ago thrown out any pretense of immersion or anything when I can literally fire the kamehameha at dragons to kill them, like lorewise my wizard character has definitely Chimed by now, they know that all these additions from hyrule or naruto do not in any way shape or form actually fit with the rest of the world, they just don't care because they are a high elf vampire wizard they were only out for pure power from the start and thus like altering the world to be whatever they want it to be or think is interesting. the whole character just seems to have become an experiment to see how powerful I can make them without just console-commanding it or doing the alchemy/enchant exploit. its awesome.

there is a bit a of lighting issue during the day where its unreasonably bright for some reason, changing the brightness settings does nothing, I have searched elsewhere and apparently there is something called "bloom" or whatever, but I don't know what that really is and I'm trying to find a way to fix it, anyone know of something that does?

[Triaxx]

Sounds like an ENB issue. I don't use them, so I have no clue how to fix it.

[Lord Raziere]

Sounds like an ENB issue. I don't use them, so I have no clue how to fix it.

Whats an ENB? I kept seeing people on other sites mention that, and I don't know what that is or if I use one either, so I don't think I do. its just for some reason, at some point the sky started being real bright but I didn't install any mods to specifically modify that.

Edit; been investigating, I DEFINITELY do not use an ENB because I have no ENB, no preset, nothing, I think it might the vampires night eye since my character is a vampire, since a lot of the ENB mod pages mention a night eye fix, I'll have to look into it, see if the vampires vision needs to be fixed

[Triaxx]

ENB's are basically graphics overlays that do weird things to the looks of the game.

That could be the problem.

[Lord Raziere]

ENB's are basically graphics overlays that do weird things to the looks of the game.

That could be the problem.

Well I'm using sacrosanct as my vampire mod....and....its night eye is toggleable with no duration limit, so I might've turned it on at one point but never turned it off and it just keeps doing that. the way my character works there is a lot of buffs on them at any one time so its very possible that it just got lost in the clutter. hopefully thats all I need to, and it would make sense because the lighting returns to normal indoors.

Edit: okay so, vampire night vision is not doing it, because I turned it on and off, it barely changed the bright day lights so, I dunno, I have no ENB, because I'd remember doing something that inconvenient, because an ENB is something you have manually install directly rather than using a mod manager, whatever is happening is during the day, night is fine,its makes everything look glowy and bright. I could try putting IN an ENB in and see if that will fix it, but I don't know how this works, so I'm not sure if I should do that.

[Triaxx]

Next up is check your weather mods.

[Lord Raziere]

Next up is check your weather mods.

Thats the thing I've never used those either. I keep checking my mods and none of them seem to logically cause this. I've never thought about changing the sky or how skyrim looks in general, just things to enhance my character or make new quest/content to do. like the most a mod seemed to affect this was an outdated version of a race mod I had that made the problem even worse because of its night eye, once I updated it, the problem was half fixed, and while its still bright, its not as bad as it was.

so either another thing like that is causing this, or its just one of those things were you change one thing it causes something else to happen that seems unrelated or one of my mods does something to the sky that is just apart of the mods package but I either didn't focus on that or didn't know

Edit: okay. I installed a weather mod, and it actually pretty much fixed it. I can see into the distance again and things look normal now at least on the ground, weather is more varied which gives me more cloudy and rainy days, I don't know what caused the brightness, but its gone now.

[Balmas]

Speaking of mods, I'm going to be singing the praises of Legacy of the Dragonborn for a while. It's finally given me a reason to 100% the game. I mean, sure, Merlin, as a squishy glass-cannon wizard, has nothing to do with the companions. But a special tomb? A unique axe? Beg pardon, sirs, could a squishy wizard join the ranks of the companions?

[Triaxx]

Oddly my Warriors almost never join the Companions. My thieves and even the wizards? All in on it, but the warrior types never do.

[Lord Raziere]

Oddly my Warriors almost never join the Companions. My thieves and even the wizards? All in on it, but the warrior types never do.

by the time I consider doing the companion's quest, I often have become a vampire by then and so I don't do it because I don't want to lose the vampire abilities. I have to specifically make sure my character seeks out the companions early to make it happen at all.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Somebody asked me about ESO in another thread. Putting the response here for anti-derailment purposes:

I will probably regret asking but what do you mean exactly?

Im guessing but I assume the devs kept ignoring the customers and changing stuff in terrible ways, ticking off the player base.

In general yes. It's become blindingly obvious they're in it for the money and nothing else. There have been things like promising 'oh, we'll fix these issues with the game being really slow in the next patch!' and then it gets delayed...and delayed...and delayed...and so on, while the gamble boxes come out exactly on time every time. There have been issues with obvious bots rampaging around for years now and no sign of any action. Customer service has no idea what they're doing and frequently gives bad information. (I don't PvP much so I won't comment on class balance.) A little less than half the new content since the game came out has been obviously Skyrim-derived despite there being nine other major cultures just in the continent the games take place in. Including some pieces that really shouldn't be, like the homelands of those other cultures. And then we get sparkling gems from the game director like this:

I think Elder Scrolls is, at its heart – and Todd Howard says this all the time – if magic left Tamriel, no one would notice, because it's very mundane at its heart. It's like, there's poor Altmer pig farmers, like, it's not like the high elves are better than anyone else, they're just different, right? They're not like the super race, or they would've been able to control all of Tamriel. They have their own thing going, and so they can't be that much more advanced than everyone else. It just doesn't make sense in the lore.

For those of you who followed the link and haven't played any Elder Scrolls games, the Altmer he's talking about? DID control most of Tamriel (Tamriel = the aforementioned continent the game takes place in) at one point. They enslaved the people who put the constellations in the sky, and went and built enormous magical Towers in the far corners of the world that help hold reality together. The magic he's claiming could vanish and no one would notice? There's an entire organization specializing in nothing but magic. Reanimating corpses shows up in almost every single zone. NPCs in quests regularly open magical portals to get from point A to point B, even when they aren't dedicated magic users! There are giant anchors falling out of the sky and spewing demons everywhere. Saying Tamriel could lose magic and not notice is like saying the United States could lose electricity and not notice.

Tl:dr version, they have no idea what they're doing and the game is going downhill fast.

[Lord Raziere]

.....mundane?

Skyrim: dragons coming back, mages blowing up a town, eye of magnus, vampires attacking, auriels bow being used to corrupt the sun temporarily, Ulfric using the Thu'um as a way to help convince people he should be High King, thieves relying on a magical key not being stolen to be lucky enough to commit crimes, Dark brotherhood relying on a ritual to call them to assassinate people when their god speaks to them,a entire war being fought over some guy because he literally ascended to divinity and magic using elves didn't like that, werewolves.....

Oblivion: demons are literally invading the world because of a cult, Kvatch got destroyed by said demons, mages guild, heir to throne turning into some avatar to akatosh to fight mehrunes dagon, Ayleid ruins, hero becoming a god of madness.....

Morrowind: The Telvanni, clockwork city of Sotha Sil, The Telvanni, more vampires, the Telvanni, tools of kagrenac, that failed flying spell, levitation in Vivec, the freaking floating rock prison in Vivec, Vivec himself, Daedra worship and dealings in general, temples curing diseases....

Lore In General: dragonbreaks, the Elder scrolls from which this series get its name, CHIM, mantling, dwemer altering the fabric of reality with sounds and music, the Daedra messing with everything in general, Mannimarco and all his followers, soul gems just in general, summoning things in general, raising the dead in general, restoration in general, the telvanni, the numerous amounts of enchanted items, the fact that all the entire world of Nirn was born from half the Et'ada giving up their power so that it may exist to become Aedra, the ayleids, the magne-ge giving them stars and the sun, did I mention the telvanni?

the only reason people would not notice magic ceasing to exist in this world, is the same reason if bonds between subatomic particles ceased to exist in ours: because we'd all die instantly from all matter falling apart before we could realize it. because Nirn runs on nothing but magic, it is magic. I mean time is literally held together by a dragon god who when he fails to do so causes history changing messes where you can't really be sure what happened because technically all the stories about it happening are all equally true, and the world is made of parts of gods given up to make it, you can't make it more magical than that.

your right, they don't have any idea what they're doing. mundane is not a word I'd use for Elder Scrolls. one part high fantasy, one part exploration, one part cosmic horror mindscrew from realizing the more disturbing yet interesting aspects of its reality are words I'd use.

[Spore]

Guys, I expect a troll/subtle sarcasm in Matt's post. The elvish culture - and Altmer culture in particular - is heavily founded upon magic and mysticism.

[Divayth Fyr]

I wouldn't give him that much of the benefit of the doubt. Somehow they made Summerset architecture even more mundane and boring than the standard fantasy stuff we had in the high elf zones in the base game.

Apparently they wanted to make a literal opposite to their Morrowind DLC, both in the location on the map and the strangeness/uniqueness, and that was what influenced their choices the most. Even if it made no sense.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

@Spore What Divayth said. Here is actual in-game architecture:



All of the buildings in the zone are like that. Now, answer me truthfully: does this look like it's "made from glass or insect wings" or even "a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colors, which lies draped across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall"? (Source.) And Crystal-Like-Law looks like a cement cucumber:



They sucked most of the magic out of Altmer culture for ESO. On top of that they made the Psijic Order idiots, and the Psijic questline is a long string of 'go to a previously-existing zone and follow a string of lights to a mound of dirt, then interact with the mound of dirt. Repeat eight more times to find the Staff of Towers. Fight a boss at the end.' And that's it.

No mention whatsoever of the Altmer space program. No Sload ruins, one quest for the Thrassian Plague. Nothing about Syrabane, one quest acknowledging Phynaster but that's just 'go to this valley/cave complex and loot trinkets of the bodies of his followers that died there.' Nothing about the stars despite the Altmer being one of only two major cultures that acknowledge them religiously.

In short, if Firor was trolling he's been using the game itself to do so...which needless to say doesn't give me any reason to keep playing it.

[Triaxx]

My Warriors all tend to operate on 'borrowed strength is no strength at all'. So transforming into a Vampire or Werewolf doesn't appeal. The Wizards are more likely to be vampires, and least likely to stay Werewolves, since they don't cast a lot of spells while eating people.

For the Rogue types it's a get out of jail free card because the Werewolf is better at combat than the Rogue's tend to be. So when sneaking fails, Wolf out and cut a path through them to the exit.

[Caelestion]

Isn't the alleged space programme peak Kirkbride?

[Rynjin]

You say "peak Kirkbride" as if he's not the only reason the Elder Scrolls ISN'T a turbo generic fantasy setting.

[Keltest]

You say "peak Kirkbride" as if he's not the only reason the Elder Scrolls ISN'T a turbo generic fantasy setting.

Isnt like 70% of his stuff not actually canon in the first place, and just stuff that the fandom likes to roll with absent any official stance?

[Morty]

I have a strong suspicion that a good part of why Summerset looks the way it does there is because giving those descriptions justice would simply be impossible within the game's technical limitations.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Isn't the alleged space programme peak Kirkbride?

The wiki tells me the Pocket Guide mentioning the Sunbirds came with the Collector's Edition of Oblivion. I acknowledge I don't know if he worked on it or not.

Visits to Aetherius occur even less frequently than to Oblivion, for the void is a long expanse and only the stars offer portal for aetherial travel, or the judicious use of magic. The expeditions of the Reman Dynasty and the Sun Birds of Alinor are the most famous attempts in our histories, and it is a cosmic irony that both of them were eventually dissolved for the same reason: the untenable expenditures required to reach magic by magicka. Their only legacy is the Royal Imperial Mananauts of the Elder Council and the great Orrery at Firsthold, whose spheres are made up of genuine celestial mineral gathered by travelers during the Merethic Era.

Regardless, they were acknowledged (or at least not refuted) in an ESO interview:

Nate: This is an uncharacteristically short question. We've enjoyed the quests involving, uh, divination by the Orrery at, uh, Elder Root, but is the Great Orrery at Firsthold, wrought of celestial material retrieved by the Sunbirds of Alinor, still standing?

Phrastus: As it happens, I can answer this question, as a generation ago, the matter was a subject of scandal among scholars all across Tamriel. Around the year 235, Kinlord Rilis the Twelfth, whom I gather was a rather unstable character, asked the [Varmaster] of the Orrery of Firsthold a question about his future greatness. And when the [Varmaster] replied rather tartly that the Orrery was not a device that rendered astrological prediction, Rilis was vexed. He dismissed the [Varmaster] forthwith, and had the entire Great Orrery disassembled. It was crated up carefully, and is currently stored, I believe, in the vaults beneath Firsthold Palace.

And mention of the mananauts (although IIRC that was Reman not the Altmer but hey it's still space) in a different interview back when they were still doing the Answers-Your-Questions articles.

Lord Fa-Nuit-Hen says, "Ah! The 'Weir Gate' leads, or will lead, to the Slipstream Realm where you mortals have or will establish your Battlespire Academy. Regarding the 'Slipstream' designation: mortals, of course, can only perceive Oblivion and the astronomical regions of the Mundus in terms of their own frames of reference. They 'see' only what they can comprehend, and often that isn't much. Furthermore, what they do comprehend often seems to drive them insane, though the rate of mental deterioration varies with individuals. Twice upon a time, the Imperial Mananauts regularly ventured beyond Nirn, and in doing so learned that the mortal mind is best acclimated to other realities by gentle degrees. This is one of the reasons why Maelstrom seems to resemble aspects of your world—I wished it to be mortal-friendly, or at least friendly enough for mortals to experience my arenas without distorting their mentalities! Anyway, the Mananauts will learn that it's best to train for Oblivion in a transition zone, a place where differing truths can co-exist without conceptual abrasion. At certain points, transliminal forces balance in standing waves, and these regions are designated 'Slipstream Realms.' We haven't actually been to Battlespire yet, have we, my Tutor? Would you please remember forward for me to tell the Quidnunc about this 'Weir Gate'?"

Tutor Riparius says, "Of course, Lord Demiprince! The Weir Gate is a semi-permanent portal between Tamriel and the Battlespire that has been, is sometimes, or will be blocked or destroyed. Sooner or later, we'll know more than that."

And there's a Mananaut hat.

Tentatively I'm going to say it doesn't matter if Kirkbride helped come up with it or not; it's been acknowledged by ESO's staff.

My problem is that they couldn't be bothered to give us quests, lorebooks, or maybe a dungeon on the subject but they were perfectly happy to give us a pure filler 'free animals from an Altmer zoo' quest and 'help artists get paint' and 'help a bunch of idiots find an empty chest' and 'yet another woman and her husband and dog' variant.

[Caelestion]

You say "peak Kirkbride" as if he's not the only reason the Elder Scrolls ISN'T a turbo generic fantasy setting.

Well, he's not, so yes, I do. He's not even the creative brains behind Morrowind, despite his composing some concept art and writing some of the more esoteric lore.

[Spore]

All of the buildings in the zone are like that. Now, answer me truthfully: does this look like it's "made from glass or insect wings" or even "a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colors, which lies draped across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall"?

I'll defend the artists of ESO now. Have you ever tried to navigate one of these weird warped buildings? Lest tried to build them in say: Lego, Minecraft, or even just drawn them?

These descriptions READ well, but they do NOT translate well into actual architecture. Yes, they aren't quite inspired, but such lore is given in ingame books. And I've always thought authors in the world have a thing for the dramatic. They exaggerate, they embellish. The Psijic Order, the Towers however, yes. They should be special.

[Vinyadan]

The "until you are thankful for nightfall" part suggests me that that architecture actually isn't pleasant at all. Like spending the day immersed in strobe lights.