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Comments
Dawnguard was really good. I mean, sure, it was dungeon-crawl-y, but if that's a dealbreaker for you, you should probably not be playing Skyrim, since Skyrim's quest design is just kind of like that. The lore stuff was really interesting.
Also, I got it for $5, and I couldn't get Dragonborn for $5.
Also also, I bought the other two DLCs yesterday.
I bought it on sale well before Dragonborn even had a release date on PC.
And honestly, while the main quest is dogshit, Dawnguard's new areas and items are pretty cool.
Dawnguard = Twilight.
Dragonborn = riding dragons, teaming up with Cthulhu and killing an immortal lich who wants to eat your soul.
No contest.
I think it's actually a pretty good balance. You basically have the three major TES character builds- Fighter, Mage, Thief- plus a Paladin-type character.
From there, you can personalize it by choosing weapons, armours, etc.
It's not as freeform as I'd like, but... it's kinda okay, I guess.
Not sure if I like.
I have no words to sum up the level of wat here.
OH SHIT IT HAS VAMPIRES AND I DON'T LIKE IT IT MUST BE TWILIGHT
And I just said I bought Dawnguard first because it went on sale first. Are you even paying attention?
>vampires aren't cool
>all vampires are Twilight
(then again, I don't know the plot of Dawnguard)
I wrote that before you posted your response, sorry.
There are some evil vampires. You can join them to plunge the world into eternal night so you can rule it, or join the Dawnguard, a group of vampire hunters dedicated to exterminating them. You go to a bunch of new locations, learn a bunch of new lore, etc. I mean, if he were criticizing the fact that the quests tend to be dungeon crawls, I'd agree, but comparing it to Twilight is just silly.
Dude, even if you side with the vampires it is nothing like Twilight.
And yet the quests for both are mostly the same. It felt a bit too blatantly railroad-y, even by TES standards. Also, I dunno, this whole vampire thing felt a bit... tacked on to Skyrim. The dungeons are good, though.
Hey guys, on a scale of 1 to 10 how punchable is the average Thalmor Wizard?
0.
Stab them instead.
Stab them? Really now? The obvious solution is to set zombies on them.
No, the best way is to summon a dragon while hiding in some bushes, cackling.
But that would deny you the satisfaction to stab a Thalmor! Surely it's a pleasure to rid Mundus of those people yourself?
(it's kinda funny. Arguments as to whether Empire or Stormcloaks are better are numerous. But I've literally nobody ever seen argue in favour of the Thalmor. In fact, they're used as argument in the Stormcloak/Empire discussions... everybody simply takes for granted that everybody hates them.)
Chokeslam them for that visceral satisfaction, and to demonstrate that their oh-so-precious magical powers are nothing against a good pair of fists.
Time will tell if the Elder Scrolls MMO will escape the trap of ability refresh cycle prominence that dictates the gameplay balance of conventional MMOs. That's the downside of any ability that has a refresh timer; optimal strategies will be based around divisions of time, time manipulation and DPS within that. I always felt that Super Smash Brothers, despite not being an MMO or an RPG, had a really graceful solution to that -- reusing attacks excessively weakens them. This kept agency in the hands of players while altering what may or may not be optimal.
Besides, refresh cycles just aren't very Elder Scrollsy, I guess. I have a wide array of criticisms for The Elder Scrolls as a whole and for the individual games I've played, but at the very least I can say that gameplay experiences tend to be reasonably organic and natural, based on immediately observable and reasonable limitations.
Edit:
Based on my memories of playing Skyrim, I doubt the Thalmor could take it either way. The terrain is mostly comprised of dense forests and mountain ranges, bringing combat in close and preventing the deployment of large amounts of troops in an organised fashion. The Nords, who are at this point naturally predisposed towards fighting up close in harsh conditions, would probably wreck them pretty hard, be they fighting under the Empire or the Stormcloaks. Added to that, the Thalmor would have to contend with the natural wildlife, especially on the less common open ground that allows the deployment of more troops -- such as the areas inhabited by mammoths and giants.
But this is TES, not military history, so whatever.
Honestly, the biggest threat to Thalmor conquest of Skyrim would be the bears.
Unfortunately, the Thalmor have a nasty habit of being centuries-old elves with great arcane power at their command.
Those comparisons are not nearly as solid as the Thalmor comparison though.
Going by the game mechanics, that may not necessarily be that advantageous. Especially given that everyone and their grandmother in TES is a spellcaster. Even if the Thalmor are such advanced spellcasters, though, they still can't make effective deployments in Skyrim's terrain.
For comparison's sake, the Empire in Skyrim are losing ground against the Stormcloaks as you begin. This is self-evident -- the Empire once dominated Skyrim, but the Stormcloak rebels have reclaimed nearly half of it. That's not surprising, because the loose groups of Nordic skirmishers are going to run circles around the comparatively clumsy Imperial formations in such tight quarters. The Thalmor face a similar issue; not only must they fight the inhabitants of Skyrim once they arrive, they have to arrive in the first place. Furthermore, their supply lines threaten being choked by the same terrain that prevents them from deploying effectively, while the Nords have their supplies close at hand.
It would only take one decisive raid to cut the Thalmor off from their supplies, after which they'd be in a foreign land, surrounded by well-fed, angry Vikings. All of whom are better at fighting under the conditions in play, magic or no. Unsupplied, doubt sets in within the Thalmor ranks and all the problems that entails -- desertion, mutiny, violence in the camps and whatnot. Without supplies, the Thalmor's wounds go untreated once they're too tired for magic, they have no medicine, nothing to maintain their equipment and so on and so forth.
Making an assault on Skyrim is a fool's errand. There's a reason that neither Russia nor Scandinavia have never successfully been invaded on a wide scale -- the environment can become so harsh as to become a weapon in the hands of the inhabitants, making strategy and logistics several degrees more complex. The capacity to throw a fireball, create an illusion or summon a familiar won't do anything to alleviate those strategic and logistical concerns.
Yeah, but going by game mechanics, it takes a day to cross the entire country by foot, and you can literally sharpen your dagger so much that a single blocked sidehand swing will kill a person.
But we begin the game with the Empire just about to win the war, with their general and a whole bunch of troops about to be executed. :V
It's only because of a completely un-counted-for development- Alduin's appearance- that anyone wins, ever.
If killing generals won wars, then war would be much simpler and cleaner. Executing Ulfric would've created a power vacuum that would've been filled by someone else. A blow to morale for the Stormcloaks, but no-one's going to lay down their weapons just like that. Many executed leaders instead become martyrs, intensifying conflicts.
However, this is Bethesda we're talking about, I guess.
Except that's not it. The reason the Stormcloaks won so much support is because of Ulfric's claim as High King, which he got by killing Torygg. Which is part of the reason for the whole conflict- the Imperials consider that murder, but many Nords consider it a valid duel, with the use of the Voice muddying up the entire conflict.
If someone else stepped up, then yeah, the Stormcloaks'd still exist, but they'd lose their claim of legitimacy. Losing that means losing a lot of their support base in Skyrim.
That ultimately depends on whether the death of Ulfric would raise the ire of more Nords. If so, then their practical support base might even expand, given the additional supplies and troops they could gain. This is observable is pretty much every conflict -- the loss of a prominent political figure, the deaths of soldiers and civilians, and so on and so forth, often spurs more violence. It's one of the big reasons the conflicts in the Middle East have continued and is especially observable in Yemen, where US Predator drones operate.
Killing Ulfric also complicates matters by breaking the line of succession (unless they want to claim that the one with the executioner's axe is going to be the new king). Without a clear successor, there can only be more conflict. The Empire had it all under wraps beforehand, with a king the Nords accepted under their control, but with a rebel king via Ulfric, all that is out the window. If Ulfric lives, the Stormcloaks keep their legitimacy; if he dies, then the power vacuum will stir more chaos. There's no easy way out for them.
But none of that is the point. The point is that the Thalmor are dumb.
You can always check that in-game. (It doesn't, no matter if you're the one to kill him or if you're just gauging people's opinions of the war.)
That's what the Moot is for. It allows the Jarls to select the new king of Skyrim.
If the dead King has a heir, such as Torygg, then the Moot will still convene to announce the heir as King. Otherwise, the Moot will convene to choose one of their own as High King.
You're relying on many assumptions to say that, such as there only being one supply line in and out of Skyrim (there are three). It would take more than just one raid to cut the Thalmor off from supplies- and the Nords kind of need imports too, so they can't permanently cut the supply routes off.
Granted, people also don't care if you're being followed by the resurrected corpse of the Emperor.
They care if you kill a chicken though!
They also don't care if you strip Ulfric naked, resurrect his corpse, bring it outside and make it listen to Tullius' victory speech.
I wish I was amusing enough to do this, but sadly it was one of my friends.