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Post by jgf on Jul 22, 2016 4:55:27 GMT
I prefer doing reloads of saves. .... She got dead, reloaded and calculated. It will take 9 shots and I have 12 seconds. Dead and reload. 9 shots and 10 seconds. Dead, reload. ... "To each his own", of course; but, oh how I hate playing that way. I recall a FPS game twenty or so years ago that had what I call a pixel jump - you seemingly must stand on one specific pixel, jump, and land on another specific pixel, or you fall and die. In this case you were walking along a narrow ledge on the side of a canyon and had to jump to a rock pinnacle, then to a second pinnacle, then a third, then to the ledge on the other side, activate a switch, then return across the three pinnacles to the first ledge. Jump-fall-reload, jump-fall-reload, jump-fall-reload... eventually get to the first pinnacle safely ("Damn! Finally!"). After half an hour I was on the center pinnacle on the return trip (thinking, "this is NOT fun!") when my ladyfriend came downstairs, "What are you cursing so much about?" "This *$%#&%*%($ game!" "Then why do you keep playing?" "Because it's fun." (We'll not discuss what a neighbor heard recently when I accidentally hit quicksave instead of quickload; but it's a good thing the walls of this high-rise are so solid.) For the ultimate challenge, play Torchlight II on the "hardcore" difficulty level; death is permanent...final...the end. The game deletes all saves for that character. (I've heard even if you've backed up the saves you cannot reinstate them because the game keeps an encrypted record somewhere of all hardcore characters.)
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Post by Sniffles on Jul 22, 2016 6:14:37 GMT
I prefer doing reloads of saves. .... She got dead, reloaded and calculated. It will take 9 shots and I have 12 seconds. Dead and reload. 9 shots and 10 seconds. Dead, reload. ... "To each his own", of course; but, oh how I hate playing that way. Me too. I simply make a save before a nasty fight, make it through and go on, saving the save for Psychogirl. I played Torchlight for a while. Aka life in a labyrinth junkyard. It was fun until I realized it was all about foo foo fixing up your weapon and wading through esoteric crap that may or may not improve things. I got to level 3 after a few weeks feeling pretty proud of myself then I saw the speed run. Delete game and wish crotch fungus on the developers and all their family members.
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Post by valandril on Jul 22, 2016 7:30:21 GMT
Eh, I am not, and never have been a skilled gamer - I'm dyspraxic, have chronic illness-related brainfog, and am just generally lacking in twitch skills and co-ordination. I also don't enjoy the combat in most games enough to want to replay the same fight over and over, usually - fighting a legendary dragon in Requiem with Dragon Combat Overhaul and having to keep far enough from the local giants to avoid aggro-ing them was pretty fun, for once I actually USED my ward spells, just to keep from getting sent flying every time the damn creature landed... (An exception for Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, I actually like the combat in those as it's a bit more than just "point my cursor at the thing and click" or "point my cursor at the thing and hit C" with occasional "hope I've remembered the hotkeys right to switch between offensive and healing magic" (sidenote, I am TERRIBLE at magic in Oblivion, my "mage" is mostly a swordswoman at this stage *sigh*)
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Post by valandril on Jul 22, 2016 7:42:00 GMT
Although I do occasionally join in on a Dead is Dead challenge on the Bethsoft Skyrim forum - that's quite fun. I made a Breton conjurer (having never used Conjuration before) who was only allowed to use five skills - I picked Conjuration, Restoration, Speech, Heavy Armour and Smithing. No reloads, a "buffer" of two skill points permitted for other skills (in case of accidental skill book reading/quest rewards and the like) and so on. I lost Faendal quite early on,* but kept Uthgerd alive until it was time to switch to Eola, which was probably about fifteen levels, and kept Eola alive the rest of the contest time (Uthgerd was fine, she got hired as a steward at Lakeview to look after the wife.) And, you know, obviously my character herself didn't die. Even managed to tank a hit from a giant eventually (I think it was just the edge of a glancing blow as I was frantically running away, mind you.)
*I had accidentally committed assault on someone or other in the city, can't remember how, it wasn't during a vampire fight or anything, I think maybe I just clicked the wrong button - panicked and quit the game then went "oh damn" and posted on the forum, asking what do (because that's basically a reload and not allowed), it was generally decided that the thing to do would be to commit another assault, intentionally, and then pay the fine. So, I walked up to Nazeem (poor Nazeem...) and punched him. Unfortunately, this apparently caused Faendal to leave my service. Even more unfortunately, while I was ceremoniously sheathing my sword to yield to the guard nearest me, Faendal (who was closer to a guard) had apparently not got the hint and was fighting the guard nearest him. More unfortunately, still, when a follower is no longer following you, they lose their protected status, so they're just some idiot fighting a guard. Poor Faendal.
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Post by jgf on Jul 22, 2016 15:44:08 GMT
... I played Torchlight for a while. Aka life in a labyrinth junkyard. .... That sounds more like Torchlight I than Torchlight II. I actually prefer the former as it's just a non-stop dungeon crawl, perfect for a few minutes of mindless hack-and-slash while dinner is cooking (it displaced Hexen, with the Korax Heritage mod, for my aggression venting). The latter has a (too) linear plot taking you through a series of quests on three worlds (or lands or continents or whatever) culminating in a boss fight on each. When finished you can restart the game with your now level 50 character ...and play the exact same game except with all opponents leveled to match ...and repeat again and again (game+, then game++, etc.); you also get access to map quests - purchasing maps to individual dungeons 2-4 levels in length. My major issue with Torchlight II is that it seems to be a computer game designed by a computer - everything is just too pat. No matter what character you play, no matter what (random) weapons and armor you find along the way, no matter how you play, you will be level 50 (give or take a level) when you defeat the Alchemist at the end; and will be level 70 when defeating him the next time. Ultimately, what's the difference between a level 10 player fighting a level 10 Doofus Beast and a level 60 player fighting a level 60 Doofus Beast.
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Post by blockhead on Jul 22, 2016 16:27:26 GMT
I like Torchlight.
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Post by jgf on Jul 22, 2016 16:34:46 GMT
.. never have been a skilled gamer ... hope I've remembered the hotkeys ... That's me. I'm astounded by friends playing these fighting games with a dozen or more key combinations for different moves; not just how you remember all those keys but how can you so quickly activate them during a fight with just one hand on the keyboard. Many people have complained of Morrowind and Oblivion not having such complex fighting options ...I'm glad they don't (it's bad enough hitting "~" instead of "1" or "e" instead of "w", not to mention accidentally using a healing spell on an opponent).
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Post by Sniffles on Jul 22, 2016 22:43:04 GMT
I liked Torchlight. The mood and ambience was fun. The micromanaging got old very quickly though. You can take your cracked whatever and stick it you know where!
Astounded by how well they play. I enjoy watching speed runs. I could never play that competently. I watch Squishy in action, cussing once or twice a minute when the keyboard doesn't respond fast enough. Her pet Skyrim hate is trying to come out of sneak mode and put away a weapon. One at a time. The Dragonborn may be able to lay Alduin to waste but can't straighten up and put her weapon away at the same time. And of course the solid 10 seconds when you get knocked down. Slowly stagger to your feet, get your balance then insult to injury, the camera slowly realigns itself. Honey, if you get knocked down by something, think the worlds fastest crawl and scramble.
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Post by valandril on Jul 22, 2016 23:09:03 GMT
And of course the solid 10 seconds when you get knocked down. Slowly stagger to your feet, get your balance then insult to injury, the camera slowly realigns itself. Honey, if you get knocked down by something, think the worlds fastest crawl and scramble. Can't help with sneak/weapon slowness, but for standing up after knockdown, there's this www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17491Works pretty well, I find.
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Post by dogonporch on Jul 22, 2016 23:11:00 GMT
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Post by jgf on Jul 23, 2016 3:48:32 GMT
I see it purports to fix that camera bug when you are knocked unconscious (to date the only solution was to save and reload). Unfortunately it is one of the 99.9% of Oblivion mods requiring the script extender. I can't help but wonder what effect all those scripts have on frame rates or stability, especially as you add more and more mods requiring them.
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Post by dogonporch on Jul 23, 2016 15:13:55 GMT
Yes, this is apparently fixed. As is the floating weapon bug for non-stock skeleton usage like Growlf's Universal Skeleton which is the standard these days. Worth the price of admission right there. As far as the OBSE causing slow downs or more CTDs...not on my rig. I'd say less CTDs, actually. I have a stable build that is over 7 years old. I could not even imagine Oblivion without it. You don't use it? I guess that does limit things.
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Post by jgf on Jul 23, 2016 18:48:13 GMT
I've had Oblivion less than a year (Morrowind has been present since '03), and didn't want to complicate things from the start. Especially since this old abacus groans under running Oblivion (even though upgraded with mahogany rails and ivory balls); a couple of mods running background scripts is no issue, a couple of dozen mods all running background scripts is inviting problems.
Upon perusing download sites I was appalled that the vast majority require the script extender, especially simple mods whose equivalents in old, obsolete Morrowind worked without the SE. My first thought was, "is anyone capable of creating a standalone mod for this game?!" (and I strongly suspect many use the SE for status, not necessity ...obviously it's a better mod if it needs the SE). As complex as Vilja is, no SE is required. As simple as a head replacer is, it requires the SE.
Then I read the OBSE page (http://obse.silverlock.org/) and think, "what a kludge!".
Not saying I'll never use the SE, but so far just seeing how much I can do without it.
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Post by dogonporch on Jul 23, 2016 19:28:52 GMT
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Post by jgf on Jul 24, 2016 1:52:52 GMT
I've noticed that, much like Morrowind, if you do not exit and restart the game periodically (no more than two hours) you're asking for a CTD or lockup. I typically save about every fifteen minutes, plus whenever going through a door (that seems to be when the game is most prone to misbehave); but Oblivion has been at least as stable as Morrowind, perhaps four or five CTDs since I've had it (most from running too long; I often pause the game and return several minutes later to continue, time adds up quickly).
My main bottleneck at the moment is a wretched vid card; the previous card died recently and the only thing on hand to replace it was an antique 8500GT, so I put my new monitor back in the box and purloined an old 17" (1440x900) from one of my XP systems to use til I get a new vid card. (My doctors won't let me get a new computer.)
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