First post.

I took advantage of DF becoming freeware by downloading it and starting a character earlier tonight, just to see how it stacks up against Morrowind and Oblivion. I've always read and heard great things about DF and I know that there's quite a bit of people that hold it as the best entry in the Elder Scrolls series. I've also read about the bugs, the crashes, the random falling into dark space, etc. I read about the unbelievable amount of freedom and size of the game. The quests, the six possible endings; vampires, werewolves and witches. I had to try it out.

And I'm really, really glad I did. I started playing RPGs back in the late 80s with my uncle so this kind of graphical style didn't come as a shock to me -- I actually enjoy it. It hits me with a burst of nostalgia and makes me realize that graphics are by no means the measuring stick of a great game. I think gamers tend to forget that nowadays. It's all about the depth of gameplay. And for RPGs in particular, the immersion factor.

I wound up in the huge starting dungeon (Privateer's) and instantly felt comfortable with the interface. Games like Wizardry and Shadowgate come to mind. Now, I saw someone complaining here on the forums that you couldn't look down to attack a rat at your feet. I found that to be a bit ridiculous but doubted the accuracy. Well, it's nothing a quick once-over of the "controls" menu didn't cure. I was able to customize my keysets and instantly switched the movement over to "look mode" and the movement buttons over to W,S,A, and D. This helped greatly. The game felt smooth and fluid and awesome right away.

Long of the short, I made it out of the starting dungeon with a ton of stuff to sell and some decent starting armor and weaponry to boot. I walked outside in the wintry wasteland just outside of it for a bit. The sky, the snow, the trees... just awesome. I can only imagine how breathtaking that had to be upon its original release. Hell, to me, it's still awesome.

I fast traveled to Daggerfall, made it there just as night fell and tried to scale the walls. I picked a bad spot and fell a long way. Almost to my death. A guard found me and I chose to do some jail time for loitering until daybreak. I found my way into the city after it was all said and done and checked out some houses. And from what I can see, this game world is absolutely huge. The city of Daggerfall is so gigantic I almost didn't know where to start exploring. That's a feeling you just don't get these days. I felt like I was actually a part of a big wide world with plenty of options. Amazing.

So, anyway, I'll post some more stuff soon but I just wanted to say that Daggerfall seems pretty awesome to start. I'm not sure what people are complaining about. Yeah, the game's old and the graphics are stale but people still play plenty of great classics that fall victim to the same issues -- Final Fantasy 1 through 9 anyone? The Ultima series? I think if more gamers, particularly younger ones, would open their minds up a little bit they may just find a game that svcks them in so much they'll forget that World of Warcraft even exists and that single player RPGS can still rock hard.

I'm finished rambling now. Just wanted to share my excitement. A new game to play. Hundreds of hours to be devoured. Bring it on.

Glad you're enjoying it.
Daggerfall fans are particularly excited about the 'DaggerXL' project, which will offer modern-PC-compatability and allow modding (among other features), which should inject new life into this old beast. There's a dedicated thread about it in the 'Past Games' segment of this forum.

And welcome to the forums

Yeah I can't wait for DaggerXL! And I implore you, play the game and post your adventures in the "What you did today in Daggerfall" thread. Personally I find Daggerfall to be much more fun playing and sharing adventures in the thread. It just adds some life into the game. But I like roleplaying so I like it anyway!

Plus I like reading what other people get up to !

I was with my friend at that moment and wanted to say "OMG the snow, the trees, the music... there is really a world out there..."
But I couldn't speak. I was awestruck.

At school hours, I had been reading a magazine, seen the screenshots of the game and read the detailed info. I had bought the game the same night with excitement.
However when I first exited the Priveteer's Hold, I understood the magazine didn't do justice to Daggerfall's immersion.

For people, who don't understand that excitement, think about the first time you saw full water effects of Morrowind. Then imagine a game world whose every detail is as striking as Morrowind's water effects.

Glad you enjoy the experience so far

I think Daggerfall was the first game I played that had had schedules (shops, etc closing and opening at certain hours, NPCs out mainly during the day, etc) add to that the calendar and I was so immersed in the game world.

I'm glad you were as awestruck by the wonderful world of Daggerfall as so many others have been and continue to be.

Me too. I went to Daggerfall City and looked at the map. I was like, "This isn't too big..." Which then, I found out about moving the map around...

I was in love from there on out.

i really, really wanna try it but im just one of them kids that can only play games with good 3D graphics It svcks that i am like that, but i just am. I ain't saying that to be hated on im saying that because its just how some people are....

However, i love Morrowind and i love Oblivion and i will continue to love them games even when they become 10, 20 years on. So I'm not saying Daggerfall looks svcky by any stretch, i am just simply implying that i just couldnt get into due to the graphics (Sees that he is rambling, and stops.)

What you need to hope for is that ES V is like Daggerfall but with the graphics of Oblivion. You would never want to leave your computer.

Daggerfall city's pretty big but there's not a whole lot to do there, really. And, unfortunately, once you've seen Daggerfall City you've pretty much seen every other town in eastern High Rock.



It's not really a scheduling system *per se*. It just locks doors at night and tones down the number of exterior NPCs while increasing your odds of finding hostile creatures. An actual scheduling system would be more like what the Ultima games used, or, in terms of a game with largely randomly placed (I believe?) NPCs, would have more effects on where you would find NPCs at different times of the day -- for instance, maybe turning off NPCs in bars until the nighttime hours, or not placing NPCs inside of their homes during the day (Because presumably they'd be at work or something). As it stands, NPCs inside buildings are completely static entities.