DiD competition Round XII- Dawnguard part 2 : V - Skyrim

» Wed May 11, 2016 2:30 pm

Heh, anybody remember the video I posted that showed me getting killed by Alduin on my way to the keep with hedvar?

» Wed May 11, 2016 7:17 pm

Ske3Lz sorry you felt it necessary to pull out for being castigsted over performing an exploit.

" l " can survive level one on Legendary and have done so for every restart until getting very first armour in whiterun.....its not hard.

This was not about you displaying the player skill of surviving on level one without perks. We all know how the exploit operates.

Your armour and weapon skills all increase with use while your enemies remain level 1 types..... Naturally you avoid known areas with minimum leveled foes. So you get stronger in relative safety whilst keeping track of your true level at each notified level up.

Once you get to around level 40...with one handed, block and armour skill at 100......then you activate your level ups bringing it all up to date and Dawnguard becomes available. So while most people die trying to grind up before even getting to Dawnguard.....you get an easy ride until you feel ready......we could all do that.......theres a reason we don't.......its an exploite.

There is no need to pull out......all we all want is fair play.....not looking to take advantage of ingenious get out clauses and loop holes in the rules. And yes....we do need clearer more explicit rules.....but you can also Ask if a clearly unusual play mechanism is acceptable!

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:12 am

SKe3Lz... I'm sorry you feel you have to withdraw from the competition.

I did quantify the difference between, spamming/ grinding and exploit, in one of the posts. If one is casting muffle and waiting the time of 180 seconds.. which is the duration of the spell and then casting again, then it's grinding or spamming... if one is casting over and over again as soon as one has the magic ( or taking potions to do so) it is an exploit.

Not leveling, is at any difficulty an exploit... Glargg often plays on novice or apprentice... what if he never leveled up?.. fair?

Even without perk's your skill increases... At Legendary this can hurt... but it will get easier to kill the lvl 1 enemies... 100 skill is still 100 skill...period.

And of course as was mentioned... if you know the game... and most of us do.. you can bump from lvl 1 to lvl 50 in one fell swoop.... and that IS not a fair way to play. Non of us said that is what you planned to do, but it is a possibility.

As I told Rick... This might be my last round to play and or host for a while.. I may be going OTR with my husband... I would like a comprehensive set of rules for the next host/ hostess. We have mostly played by the honor system.. using the same rules over and over. Unfortunately some of those rules have always been unwritten, they really need to be written so that no mis-understandings will happen in the future. I put a request to come up with the rules in the Trash Talk thread... I will do up the rules and as we get through it...re-post them ...

» Wed May 11, 2016 5:03 pm

Frigus Level 12 Difficulty Expert 14.03.51 hours + 13.42.00 from Tal

Spoiler

Frigus ran into a Whiterun guard after purchasing a new spell from the court wizard. The guard mentioned bandits hold up in a nearby cave, White River Watch. Frigus did not like bandits. These were killing travelers and raiding the nearby farms. Frigus glanced at the moons, dimly seen through the late afternoon clouds and decided it was time to make an end of the bandits' exploits.

The followers of this Hajvarr Iron-Hand lay dead throughout the cave tunnels. Frigus rested a moment and ate some of the vegetable soup he'd brought with him (made earlier that evening at the kitchen spit in the Bannered Mare). Frigus did not cast the muffle spell this time, he was going to meet this Hajvarr head on. Frigus did, however, apply a bit of Frostbite Venom to his newly crafted Elven mace. Frigus' whiskers twitched in laughter thinking about the great Hajvarr Iron-band feeling sickened at his first blow of his mace!

Frigus stepped out of the cave into the dark and using his innate Khajiit ability to see in the dark ran toward the leader of the White River Watch bandits as he rose from his chair and started to notch an arrow to his bow. The arrow never fired as Frigus mace smashed into Hajvarr's face leaving behind the tell tale greenish hue of poison. Hajvarr was quick to equip his two-hand mace, but as he started to swing Frigus smashed him with shield and followed with another mace blow. Then true to form like all the low life bandits Hajvarr spouted, "Is that the best you can do?" just as Frigus slammed him with his mace and shield ending Whiterun's nearby bandit threat.

Frigus gathered up spoils and slept in the cave for the night. Early next morn as he exited the cave there was a kind of fog lingering about and all was eerily quiet. As Frigus reached the road suddenly he was hit with a spike of ice. Upon turning he could just see two necromancers. He made his way to the first necromancer firing ice at him, but slowly as the ice was hindering his movement. He managed to stop a spell cast with his shield and hit the necromancer with his mace even as the other tried to burn him with flames from behind. Just as the first Necromancer went to a knee and Frigus managed to avoid the other and heal up a little with a quickly cast healing spell four bandits came round the bend in the road. Two Chiefs, a highwayman and one coward that ran and hid. All chaos ensued as the highwayman engaged the necromancers, but both Chiefs came at Frigus and already sorely fatigued they did end his life under a moonless sky.

Spoiler

R.I.P. Frigus Portum child of the Two Moons

» Wed May 11, 2016 11:27 pm

AW DAMN, Neil....

» Wed May 11, 2016 7:58 am

Purrrfectly confuzzled, who is this Neil.... you speak of? But seriously, it was a most disheartening turn of events that was completely unavoidable (not being able to sneak makes the player a beacon of noise to target).

» Wed May 11, 2016 4:30 pm

Ack. Sorry Bram. I was reading other threads on other tabs, and gots totally confuzzled myownself!

» Wed May 11, 2016 11:12 pm

:teehee: I've done that as well, no worries. I really was bummed as I liked Frigus. His mannerisms made me laugh a time or two in my head.

» Wed May 11, 2016 8:44 pm

Brambleberry, at least it was an exciting read, and perhaps not such an entirely bad death as such things go... He'll have tales to tell in whatever afterlife he finds himself, eh? Better than falling to an irate skeever or something. Condolences on your loss...

See, everybody has gotten so used to my characters dying off that every time they read of an event something like that, they immediately think it's another of mine.

» Wed May 11, 2016 9:06 pm

*WINCE*

» Wed May 11, 2016 4:32 pm

Bram...Stat's up... let me know if you are going to start as a Wraith....

And for those who have died...and not wanted to start again at a lower difficulty... let me know your final Stat's...Score...

Tyler update

Level 8.5

hr's 18.03

skills

Spoiler

Destruction............ 26

Restoration............ 23

Smithing..................22

Heavy armor............21

Block.......................26

1h............................33

Illusion....................21

All with one perk

light armor........20

Lock picking ....18

* Pickpocket.....16 ( I have no clue..not from a book )

speech.............26

Weapons , Armor & Spells

Spoiler

Steel armor ( superior)

Steel cuffed boots ( superior)

Steel cuffed gauntlets ( fine )

Iron sword of Burning..@

Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson...@

Steel War Axe ( superior )

Steel shield ( fine )

Amulet of Mara

Amulet of Talos

Gauldr Amulet Fragment ( +30 magicka )

Iron shield of Dwindling magic

Ring of Minor magic ( +20 )

Apprentic hood ( +40 magic )

Enchanted ring ( not worn atm)

Saarthal Amulet ( not worn )

Iron Gauntlet's of Smithing ( just bought :bunny: .. had to chop wood... just enough left over to buy a room for the night!

10 scrolls of J'zargo's Flame Cloak scroll

2 Fire ball scrolls

1 guardian circle

Clairvoyance

fire rune

Flame Cloak

Frostbite

healing

Ice spike

Lesser ward

Courage

Fury

Muffle

Flames

Sparks

Conjure Flame atronach ( C.O.W. gate test spell )

Healing hands.

Quests:

Dawnguard .....1

- Dawnguard ( speak to Isran )

10 quest's

12 misq

6 MQ

1 side

2 C.O.W.

He has Belrand as a follower and a dog... Love Belrand... he's in his Iron armor, Steel gauntlet's of 2h 12%+, Novice hood, Axe of Whiterun, Axe of Burning, crossbow... spell's

They are on their way to Dimhollow via the Atronach Stone and something else I wanted to do...lol.. can't remember atm.

» Wed May 11, 2016 8:38 pm

Aerial, no more for me in the competition. Zero points earned, no penalties for Frigus.

@level 12 Frigus had 27.45.51 hms (includes Tals 13.42.00 hms)

Block 26 1/5 Shield Wall

One handed 33 1/5 Armsman, Fighting Stance, 1/3 Bone Breaker

Light Armor 21 2/5 Agile Defender

Illusion 40 Novice, Apprentice

Destruction 15 none

Restoration 17 Novice

Smithing 43 Steel, Elven

Heavy Armor 15 None

Lockpicking 18 None

Speech 30 None

» Wed May 11, 2016 7:51 pm

Ok... I have that...lol

Ack.. this IS a hard round... too hard? IDK... but for those who wanted a challenge... well...there it is I guess...

» Wed May 11, 2016 9:04 pm

And the amazing thing is that nobody seems to be getting much beyond Dimhollow yet. And it gets far worse.

» Wed May 11, 2016 8:17 pm

Yeah I know.... Heading their now... via a couple other places. I am hoping that Belrand's AI decides that his weapon of choice should be his Reverant Steel Hammer.

» Wed May 11, 2016 8:47 pm

So many inuendos and double entendre one could make from that simple sentence. :devil: Best of luck in Dimhollow. I've started a non-competition mage and will be purposefully doing this quest line because I never really got out the door on it!

» Wed May 11, 2016 5:03 pm

:angel: ...what me? :shakehead: never.... Thank you... We need it!!

» Wed May 11, 2016 1:01 pm

Tuvahdin is heading there, too, as soon as she concludes some business with the Jarl of Falkreath. She's at level 10.

I should be able to do the whole quest line at Novice, unless something really stupid happens. I've done it without dying at Adept a couple of times, but, of course, that wasn't with a limited skill set.

I have a sneaking suspicion that with the skills we have, and the time limit, it's nearly impossible to complete DG at any difficulty above Adept. I hope somebody proves me wrong.

The real killer is the lack of both Alchemy and Enchanting. With Lolly I was able to handle the vampires just fine, with resist and absorb, but she couldn't stand up to something like a Dwemer Sphere, without chugging her meager supply of potions. You just take too much damage too fast.

» Wed May 11, 2016 5:26 pm

I miss archery... Crossbow's once smithed to Superior at lvl ten at Adept, two shoot most vamps...or wound them enough that one or two chops of a sword is enough. But I'll see what happens.. Tyler is going to try is best. I wanted to get their before the enemies switched to a higher lvl... the go find the 3 people....maybe a couple of the "side" quests... well of course gotta live through Dim Hollow 1st

» Wed May 11, 2016 6:47 pm

Brand has been reborn, and will be playing along the competition questline. I don't intend to be as strict in the restricted skills, but I intend to use them as little as possible. In the words of the Zen Master - "We shall see..."

Of course this Brand is Brand Knue, and his Knue updates will be in the Dead is Dead thread. We knue it would be difficult, but after discussing it, Brand and I Knue we just had to give it a try. The difficulty is going to be expert, but this time expert with a slew of mods that make life difficult like Deadly Dragons, Deadly Monsters, and ASIS as well as immersive creatures. I chose Expert for a base because I want magic to be useful... and not too nerfed to use.

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:03 pm

Neil if you find that's just not quiet enough... try http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69233/?... with D.D. , I.C., ASIS... it makes Adept a torcher at times... And I use the "presets".. Why I always have a follower, need one... sometimes two or three... I use Grimoire... and the enemy mages Oh yeah... fun times!

» Wed May 11, 2016 7:58 pm

Ha! So THAT'S what happened to Deadly Monsters! They morphed it into Enemy Enhancer. I spent an hour searching for it once I learned it had been removed from the latest version of Deadly Dragons, and I finally just downloaded an older version of Deadly Dragons and extracted Deadly Monsters out of it. I'll have to give this new version a try, eh? Thanks for the link!

Now if I could just find out which mod gave me the complete readout in the console of object IDs and such... I'd thought it was Ihud, but apparently not.

» Wed May 11, 2016 4:10 pm

I'm enjoying the little stories you guys are doing!

glargg - really liked your intro!

Good luck to everyone left. I'll keep watching!

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:54 pm

Bram, I just read your post on Frigus' death. That is some bad luck. I'll miss him. I liked his stories.

I'm actually surprised at all the deaths, other than the legendary deaths. I think the skill set is really strong. My first character on Master was just rounding into form and was just about ready to start the DG quest line. Inuksuk is now at the point where I thunk he can take on a oombfull of vampires and dominate them. Here is how he got there.

Spoiler

Inuksuk has joined the Dawnguard. Immediately after leaving Dayspring Canyon he was attacked by a Redguard spellsword in plate armor. Inuksuk was absorbing most of the flames from the spellsword when he heard a thump behind him and was hit in the back with frost breath from a dragon!

I'm using Frostfall so frost attacks have all kinds of nasty side effects (one you are freezing nearly all skills drop significantly and regen of health, stamina and magicks is greatly reduced). Inuksuk needed cover and some backup in a hurry. The dragon finished off the spellsword and Inuksuk headed toward Stendar's Beacon for cover and support. The Vigilant's were useless as usual and died quickly, but the tower gave Inuksuk sufficient cover to let loose some fire bolts. He closed in for the kill with his Dwarven sword. Absorbing the soul Inuksuk unlocked Marked for Death.

Next stop: Riften. Stopped by the temple of Mara to start the book of love and did some shopping at Balimunds. Found a nice Dwarven shield of blocking. Also picked up the lexicon.

Then on to Avanchanzel (actually ran back and forth, as I forgot to actually get the lexicon the first time!). Inuksuk had been searching for a flawless ruby for some time (he is not sure why) but could not find one even in the places they are rumored to be guaranteed. A Dark Brotherhood assassin attacked him on the road and was carrying such a gem in him.

In Avanchanzel Inuksuk found an even better Dwarven shield of blocking than the one he just spent all his money on. He also learned ancient secrets of the Dwemer and can make better use of his Dwarven armor.

Visited Fastred. Went to Whiterun to make use if the many scraps of Dwarven metal he had picked up. Went to the Atronach stone (had picked up the Warrior stone on the way to Whiterun). Fought the dragon at Bonestreen crest and unlocked elemental fury. Trotted back to Windhelm and hopped the carriage to Dawnstar. Inuksuk is thawing out at the inn listening to the citizens complain about their bad dreams.

He is level 23 with an Armor Rating of 488. His gear is all Legendary quality. He just needs a flame cloak spell to really get charged up!

» Wed May 11, 2016 10:35 pm

In four and a half years and 12k hours I have never gotten around to going inside Avanchnzel

How odd is that? Im just always too busy getting to or coming from..Riften (I know a cute girl from Riften).

Talking of which......I have also only ever done Peryites quest once in all that time....so too the Aetherium Forge thing

In fact the odd outlying quests and dungeons that I have done maybe once are so long ago I cant even remember them

But I have been to Bleakfalls Barrow 248 times