ONLY VOTE IF YOU WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE NEXT DiD COMPETITION !

This competition is going to be stealth centered!

Reply to the thread if you voted please!






Choose what you want. The rules will remain the same (I'll add more rules once everyone has voted) :

- No Fortify/Restoration looping
- No forbidden mods (That give the player an advantage)
- No reloading previous saves even if character did not die (unless a glitch occurred)
- No map based fast travel
- Once in Helgen Keep, DiD rules apply
- No follower/trainer exploit
- You have to update at least once every 3 days




The competition will start day 12 of September, 15 hours (Portugal (UTC) Time) (unless something happens and I can't make the thread, in that case its going to be day 13 of September, 15 Portugal (UTC) time).


Don't forget to vote!



Here's the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1516840-did-scoring-system/#entry23944341.



Also, if you want to enter the competition, post (or pm me) your mod setup (if you have one).

Winners

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1516828-did-competition/
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Winner: Rick.

Second Round
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Winner: Rick.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1518239-did-competition-round-2/
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Winner: Rick.

Fourth Round
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Winner: Turija

Fourth Round

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Winner: Sah

Obviously voted. Just say- What Is going on in my pockets? *Looks down* Hey Sah, get out of my pock- Thats MY chocolate bar! Damn it Sah...

Also, my choices: 2 --> 1 ---> 1 ---> 1

I voted, but some of the options really don't reflect my opinion, so I shall elucidate (yes, in public here and now!).

First, I voted for dynamic difficulty, but what I really feel is that it should be just like mods... if you want to make it more difficult, knock yourself out. You'll be able to do that much more bragging if you win!

I voted to limit hours, but only because I'm afraid some of our overachievers will kill themselves in a marathon event. (anybody remember and old movie with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda called "They Shoot Horses, Don't They"?)

I do think quest choices should be limited, but rather than including just a few, I think excluding a few would be better.

I don't believe a thief would likely be doing mage quests, or companion quests though one might do the Civil War. Actually, I can see some of the quests perhaps being done, what I can't see is the thief joining the college or Companions. Pretty much all other quests in the game would be open to do.

To me, it seems like if all quests are fair game in all competitions, there's not much point to saying it's a "warrior" or "mage" DiD competition. We already had the competition where everybody could be whatever class they wanted, but we could redo that later if we want, eh?

As to limiting skills I have difficulty with the concept that a thief would be a master conjurer, but perhaps he could develop the skill without the perks. On the other hand, some things overlap a bit... like what about a mage who uses Bound bow? What about a thief who uses "Muffle" spell? Again, I can see the skill improving, but not necessarily being perked. I do rather like the idea Cjay had of only allowing perks in the skills granted by standing stones. Meaning like the 6 core skills for thief would be all that could be perked.

Some things need to be more specific, like blocking with a shield. It's a combat skill, not a thieving skill, but i don't see why a thief would not want to use something like spellbreaker, or an enchanted shield that grants some resistance of one sort or another. Again, I can't see that perks would fit well.

Last, I think it might be fun to make the scoring system a bit more... dynamic. I think a thief should get more points for pickpocketing, trespassing, locks picked, items stolen and perhaps a penalty for people killed. I also think it's important to specify if thief includes assassin and Dark Brotherhood quests. If we wanted to create an assassin competition later on, it would be kinda old hat if we'd already done that as thieves.

So that's my own opinions, eh?

Well, one definition we need to clear up early on is Stealth VS Thief. If we're playing a stealth character that doesn't necessarily mean thief, could be assassin.

That said, I voted:

Static because consistency of game difficulty is moot due to the way BGS slider works (meaning the higher the difficulty the longer to kill a mob, but not necessarily more difficult)

Voted No to hours played. Simply because keeping track is so mundane and I really don't want a timer to tell me to quit when I'm having fun! Totally ruins the mood

Voted to not limit quests with this caveat: based on how we define stealth character. If I'm playing a stealth assassin I want to be able to do the Dark Brotherhood. Also, unless we limit the stealth character to no shouts, I want to be able to join guilds to get word walls if nothing else.

Voted to not limit skills for the same reasons as above since Stealth is more than Thief.

Yes, yes, yes I'm a PITA from the olden days!!!

As Brambleberry said, its a stealth competition, not a thief (although I was thinking of making this one a thief competition).

You WILL be able to do the dark brotherhood because it fits in the stealth category (I guess), same for the thieves guild. You won't be able to join the companions or the College.

To be honest I would block those that I think are useless for a stealth character, like destruction, conjuration, alteration, restoration & heavy armor.

MrBA, do you plan to re-work your scoring system? I think the contest could be run with just one or two rules if you only gave points for stealth-appropriate things.

2 2 11 for me. I largely agree with Neil ( this is happening far too frequently ). I think this.....

Do limit perks to only the core six trees of the thief stone

Let's NOT have the MQ.....there's nothing stealthy about Dragonborn charging around shouting at everyone ( yes...I know there are a couple of stealth friendly shouts available, but mostly is not about those....it's all FusRoDah and dancing on Dragons heads......we don't need that). Go no further than completing BFB and leave the stupid stone map in there.

Do put at least me and Sah on Legendary....and I don't mean as some voluntary fun option Neil....I mean to slow us down a bit on purpose. Brambleberry......I really don't understand how you can say that pushing the slider only makes things take longer to kill not more difficult. If something can kill you more easily ( 3x more easily that adept) and you have to not get killed doesn't that mean it's more difficult? It only takes longer to kill things with no other penalty when you get to a high level with effective armour so YOU can't be killed....then it does take only a little more time to kill stuff ( like three hits instead of one). FOR THIS ROUND if only core skills are perked we ( esp me and Sah) won't have access to super smithed weapons and armours and with the extra damage enemies deal on Legendary it WILL be significantly more difficult........perhaps then Bramleberry could be tied to Legendary too.....tell us after you're dead if it felt more 'difficult'

I don't want a simple time limited game.....it will as I explained before ( previous thread), just give SAH a greater advantage ( she's clever.....she WILL calculate the most efficient and effective way to squeeze maximum points out of minimum available time...didya not spot that). It would stuff me though I admit, cos my ' efficiency' is only moderate. Damn! Just exposed another Achilles heel.

Yeah I think that'll do it. Remember how we died on Mage without proper armour?. Remember how hard it was in Round two with no smithing for our armour and weapons. Yes? Well that's what we would face again now. Increasing game difficulty with rising levels, but no corresponding increase in physical armour and no access to higher level Mage armour flesh spells.

I don't think we need to be more limited in terms of available quest lines ( other than the MQ) we can do COW without perking magic and be an asset to the college without being a great Mage.

I DO think that some of the overt Mage abilities need to be curtailed if you want to see quests done by stealthy or assassin' ish means. Particularly summoning....by which I mean firing off flame or frost Atronach to kill everything without the need to be sneaky........you do get a spectoral summon as a gift in the DB questline....summoners should wait for that one Imo.

I know this won't be popular (Soz SAH ). But I kinda think the muffle spell is Also a cop out for stealth play.........the muffle perk is available and needs to be EARNED through sneaky play....not just firing off a Mage spell. I'm not saying muffle is a bad spell for regular play.....just not for this round if you want to encourage stealth as needed to raise stealth perks ok!

Don't forget the alchemy tree is available and potions of increased sneak and invisibility are possible along with sneak gear in loot......so we're not hamstrung without spells......it means you have to WORK for it......and that's a good thing!

Other quest lines.....hmmm well, The Companions might not ideally suit a stealth play......but they don't all look like Farkas either I wouldn't object to doing their work as a Ninja stealth specialist. I wouldn't expect to live long either ( silver hand and poor armour = dead).

If we don't have MQ....we don't shout....and I lose my fav weapon MfD . Looks like I really would have to work then!

Please please please no fast travel not even by cart. It ends up being cart to to Windhelm, then cart to Riften, then cart to Whiterun, then cart to solitude cart cart cart cart ..........I hate it and it's barely a step from map based FT.

These are just my thoughts and I won't hunt you, find you, and kill you in your sleep if they don't all get adopted ( much)

Good luck with this one, guys! I don’t want to get stuck in another anything-goes situation, so since I’m not voting you won’t hear me complaining about what you choose.

@Rick - I misspoke with regards to the slider thingy, not so much one can't be one shot, but I have a fundamental mental block against just taking away damage from the player and giving it to mobs (seems very low brow tactics to me).

With regards to the "http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skills" if one goes with just the Thief/Stealth skills everyone is going to be a pugilist.

I am a firm believer that one handed and archery are stealth combat skills. The way BGS split up skills seems rather arbitrary and unsuited for class definitions. Personally I would have put the crafting skills and speech into a separate miscellaneous category. That said, for our stealth thief/assassin available skills seem to be light armor, lock picking, pickpocket, sneak, one handed & archery. From what folks have said in other threads and in this one, Alchemy seems to be the choice for a crafting skill.

Just thought I'd give us a reference, because perking only those skills that fall under the Thief would leave out one handed and archery. Doing so would make the game rather difficult, but...

My 2 septims worth (no, no they're not fake)

Cheers!

Bram

Well you don't have to perk up one handed and archery to be able to use them.......but without weapons smithing either they are going to pretty challenging to use..i.e. Rubbish past level 3! But as long as we all have the same Rubbish it matters not!

Thanks for the septims, Bram!

The right side of the Sneak tree has perks specifically for one-handed, bows, and then daggers, so I think we have enough evidence to support simply using bows and one-handed.

Rick, if you’re playing a stealth character unimproved bows should not be rubbish after level 3. They’re part of the challenge. Unless of course you have your difficulty turned up too high.

Grits.....well you know me

I might make a new scoring system and modify it every once in a while. Might...

Rick, for me the thief stone covers archery as well so I would have to customize what skill trees we could put perks on & use.
You and Sah are going to Legendary, I assure you!
About the MQ, what about doing it until the dragon attack?

CoW ques-line has NOTHING to do with stealth characters, same for the Companions ques-line, therefore its locked (You can't do it).

The only magic skill allowed Is illusion.

Cart FT is allowed since its really annoying going from Windhelm to Solitude by horse.

2,2,1,1... my vote.

I don't really mind what the difficulty is. I play on Adept or expert because that is the way I like to play. Sure I'd die fast on Master or Legendary, I'm not used to them, but that's my damage. I look at it being dynamic like a handi-cap race. Horses that have won more races carry more weight, same concept.

As the competition is for fun I see no reason to limit the hours one can play...obviously those with more hours will be able to play longer and get more points. But if I can play for 10 hr's and someone else plays for 20, I can take their score and divide it in half and see how I stack up against them. That's not a perfect system, but it works for me to see how I have done.

I voted yes, but I think it's more, not doing quest's that make no sense for a stealthy character.

Again I voted yes, mostly because the skill's need to be limited so that one doesn't become a "jack of all trades".

I generally do put some perks in Archery and 1h, for my thieves and assassins, but I can live without them. Alchemy has some very nice things that will make up it.

I have my 360 set up, just gotta charge up the controller batteries and make sure the disc isn't warped or something... storage, 105F.. why I got it out last week..

Read this and............giggled. Because I had this image of everyone having to wear ragged clothes, carry a rubbish iron dagger and long bow the whole competition. So the story goes, "I snuck right up to that sabre cat with my dagger drawn, I am the best sneaker in all of Tamriel, but I hadn't gotten more than 6 paces away when the Sabre cat lets out a huge sneeze, looks around sees me and runs as if he smelled something really baaaaad!" (sorta like this little story)

I've done a number of play throughs with only found items and no smithing. The thing I like about that kind of play style is it makes the in game rewards or found items actually desirable!

I voted 2,2,1,1.

I usually play on Adept, so the dynamic difficulty might help me stay in the game longer. I'm an old retired guy, with slower reflexes.

I think a Stealth character needs both bow and 1-hand. I could see some sense in limiting which perks are allowed in 1-Hand; maybe just the Armsman and Bladesman, and possibly Dual Flurry (like the DB assassins with the two daggers.)

As for Archery, it was always a Stealth skill in prior games, and it seems necessary for a lightly armored sneak to have a good ranged skill.

I think Smithing should be limited to the left side, and Enchanting should not be allowed to be perked.

I pretty much agree with neil. Voted 2-1-1-1. I also think there should be no perks in any crafting skill in this or any future rounds. Crafting is way too OP to perk it in competition play.

Earlier people were talking about no perks at all. That goes too far for my tastes. I'd rather see perks limited to core skills. Like for a thief competition, only allow perks in sneak (left side only), speech, lock picking and pick pocketing. That's it. Those are the only "thief" skills. We will play an assassin another time, and maybe a nightblade at some point would be fun.

But I would let people use other skills, besides the core skills, just not perk them.

BA thank you so much for that bloody pirate song. My kid's gotten hold of it on his iPad.....now you can hear it all over our house over and over and darned over again. He gone to his room now, but our ceilings are thin and guess what I can hear coming down from upstairs. Gaaaaa!

Glargg......no! Giving me and Sah access to smithing is like hooking the energiser bunny into the grid

I just realized something... this competition will start the 12th or 13th of September, and round-up starts the 19th. Well, my character will probably be deceased by then anyway. Some of you dudes (eh, not like "wassup dude", but more like "You tried to milk the bull? You really ARE a dude, aintcha...") and furriners won't know what Round-up is, but to put it simply, it's a rodeo. In the old days, in spring and fall, cowboys went out and gathered up the ranch's cattle, for branding, inventory, sale, or whatever and to move them to or from higher pastures. Rounding up the cattle and/or horses. Believe it or not, it's still done by some folks, and still on horseback. However, it's also come to be synonymous with a rodeo, and often the Pendleton Round-up in particular.

Anyway, we (eh, my family) aren't real big on cowboys, but several members of my family will likely be involved in various Native American events, and I may find my time limited. Oh well, the trials we must endure, eh?

Oh, it may be that you don't know what a "dude" really is. Well, technically, it's a cancerous tumor that grows on the testicles of a bull, but has historically come to also mean a "city slicker" who does not know/understand ranch life in the Wild West very well. Originally, it was NOT intended as a compliment... I thought you might enjoy that bit of information, so that next time you use the word "Dude" you can choose which term you actually mean...

Thanks for the heads up on the round up. I kinda understood the round up for market and I guess that's an ideal time to enter a few fiesty stallions for a rodeo in one arena, while perhaps other animals or cattle are paraded for sale in another arena. Deals are done an greenbacks change hands......lots of food noise and beer too I'd imagine. Sounds like fun, and also serious business. Testicular Tumor hmm.....well I didn't know that, but then thanks to the miracle of television we gets lots of words, phrases, even customs from over the pond, that take root in our popular culture......often without the core explanation. I only recently learned the origin of the expression 'it's a dusey'.

Native American events....sound far more intruiging....care to elucidate for the benefit of the uneducated?

BA.....doing the MQ upto the dragon attack? Well it's up to you but as you realise.......if you don't give Farengar his Dragonstone and thence meet Mirmulnir, then you don't get dragons appear in the game. It's the trigger 'Dragon Rising'. So the question is simply do you want dragon attacks or not. What I've never tried.....perhaps someone will know....is, what if you get 'Fus' after Mirmulnir then DON'T see the Greybeards. Can you still unlock and use shouts from walls using souls from dragons......my guess is yes!

I love certain shouts, even if we didn't continue the MQ. But when I say love them.....I mean they make things much easier. Do you want that? Think carefully!

Yeah, I'd guess you guys aren't really knowledgeable about rodeo.... Essentially, it's a sporting event. Cowboys come from all over to participate in events like riding bucking broncos (horses), bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, and wild cow milking to demonstrate the skills of the cowboy. There are certainly a lot of sales and trades made during the week-long event, (although it's not a livestock auction per se) and our little town triples in size for the week. Main street is blocked off from end to end, and there is live entertainment and dancing from 10 am to about 11 pm every day. Much Budweiser and Coors meets it's fateful end at the bars as well. A buddy of mine sells moonshine in the park...

Native American events are a bit different. For the rodeo, the main event is a wild horse race (catch, saddle and ride an unbroken horse at a dead on run around an arena) and there is a lot of gambling involved among Native American participants on the results. There are all night "Stick Games" with a few hundred participants that involve dancing in a huge circle, while an individual sits in the center with a "stick" ( kind of a staff ). He tworils the stick and drops it, and whoever it points to most closely is the winner of whatever prize has been offered.

There is a tee pee village set up next to the rodeo arena, where many Native Americans stay during the festivities. There are of course parades (at least two) that feature the Indian Princesses and their court, various painted and feathered warriors, and kids all dressed in paint and feathers as well. The parades also have the Rodeo queen and her court, various mounted possees, and for some unknown reason, shriners (masons) and a calliope.

Then, out on the reservation there is a big casino where there is usually a pow wow during or near to round-up week. A pow wow is a little difficult to explain. It's kind of like a ceremonial party where drums that are essentially hollow logs are beaten while whole tribes dance in a large circle. It is a cultural thing, quasi-religious, and very important. Children who have reached a certain point are taken into the circle, and "introduced to the floor" where they will be taught ceremonial dances, and a variety of other things important to the culture. it's a sort of "coming of age" as well.

The chiefs also use this time to make what some would call speeches, but it's not really the same. The chiefs or older warriors often stand at the center and talk of battles they have been in as warriors (think Iwo Jima WWII and the like, though new generations may speak of Viet Nam, Iraq or Afghanistan), and explain the reasoning behind some of their actions to their people. It's kinda like "I fought in such and such a battle, and you may wonder why I fought for the white man in his war..."

The tribes make and sell a lot of beaded items, and crafts like hand-carved (scrimshaw) elkhorn knives and the like. My eldest son makes very nice beaded jewelery, hatbands and the like. He's actually a bouncer at the main bar in the casino for most of the year though. You'd think the cheapskate'd give me a discount on a hatband, but oh no...

A couple of years ago I caught a couple of rattlesnakes and skinned them for belts, and sold him the skins. I got my revenge... I gave him a reciept (taxes you know) and at the bottom I put "Plus 15% to cover my down payment on hatband"

Anyway, Round-up's a huge week-long party with wild animals in attendance... and some horses and stuff too...

Sounds like you're gonna have a great time then.....thanks for the colourful pen picture ( read it out to Shelly too). I'm sad to say my little village (pop circa 2000) doesn't get anything like that going on. We did have one of the Olympic torch bearers and their entourage come through back in 2012 and I think we had some kind of street party event during the last Royal Wedding......yawn! So if I want to get with the Carnival spirit, I gotta go out and join in. On the good side I guess England is quite compact so you don't have to travel for half a day to reach an event.

We get the Summer Solstice event at Stonehenge 15 miles away and the colourful midsummer pagan crowd at Glastonbury ( known also for its music festivals) which is 60 miles out and smaller local villages hold fetes for a day or two each, throughout the summer. A fete is just a local community run fayre on the village green, of outdoor party games, raffles, beer tent, car boot traders and a burger van or two. Of course we also get a couple of circus and fun fair visitations every year.

No wonder I spend so much time in Skyrim

Nobody said you have to use it.

I'm fine with or without it. The only crafting skill that's really thief-appropriate is Alchemy.

My main point was that Archery is necessary for a Stealth character, even though it's technically a Warrior skill in Skyrim.