Well since TES V seems to be a far off hope at the time, I’ve been thinking about playing Daggerfall. I’m one of those who prefer MW over OB, so I guess my question would be; what should I expect from Daggerfall? Are the aspects of the game similar to MW or should I expect something completely different?

Expect to die a lot in the starting dungeon on your first playthrough.

All in all, if you're the type of person who made the transition from Oblivion to Morrowind, prepare for an even bigger transition of change from Morrowind to Daggerfall. I'd suggest reading the in-game tutorial the game offers to you during the starter dungeon, and if that's not enough, come back here and ask someone (not myself) for advice.

Oh, and unless you feel like going through an entire tutorial on simply setting the fourteen-year-old game to work on a modern computer, just download it here, all set up and ready to play. http://theelderscrolls.wiwiland.net/?title=Daggerfall_:_DaggerfallSetup_EN

To get a good idea of what Daggerfall is like (or any other game), I would recommend looking up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AEIMV-DXus on YouTube. But, to answer you question, I would say that if it is comparable to any other game in the series, it has more similarities to Oblivion. However, if you are a Morrowind fanatic like I am, don't let that put you off, as it is also drastically different from Oblivion.

First of all, the gameworld is HUGE. It would literally (and I mean this literally) take you probably around two weeks in real time to travel across the province. As such, it uses a fast travel method that is more akin to Oblivion's. The difference being that in Daggerfall, this method of fast travel is rather necessary, and it can cost you time (which can have consequences when doing quests) and money. Skills, on the other hand, are based mostly off of character stats, and not affected so much by player skill. In this way it is somewhat similar to Morrowind. You will dismay as your weapon passes through/past your enemy and your spells fail, all while trying to avoid being one-shotted by your opponent. As for the dungeons, they are random and labyrinthian in design. Some are of a reasonable size, whereas others seem to go on forever (I once spent six hours clearing a single dungeon). Unfortunately, I have to cut this short as I have to go, but I'm sure others will be able to give you much, much more detail about it. Hope you have fun! Cheers.

Speaking of controls, one can customize it to use the WASD control and remember to put on Mouse View.

As for attacking, it is not just click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. In order to attack, have your weapon out, hold the attack button, and move the mouse in any direction to simulate a "swing" of your weapon.

Vagrancy is illegal. In other words, don't sleep/rest in town. Use an inn instead. If you want to wait around in town, Loiter instead.

Gold is weighted. Keep this in mind.

There is one point earlier in the game where on would obtain a letter from a certain Lady Brisienna. Answer her call if you want to do the Main Quest.

Other than that, just take your time and enjoy the experiences.

^ this.

would make sense to make this link a sticky, it would save people a lot of trouble.

^ This, more than anything, this. It seriously felt like i needed 3-4 arms to play this game prior to finding out about Mouse View, they expected people to use keys to change the direction they were looking. Change the keys around, I suggest trying to make it similar to Morrowind, or whatever you're more comfortable with.

Don't think just because you're getting destroyed in the first dungeon your character is bound to fail in the real game (the game starts in a dungeon).

I haven't been playing for long, but a warning, the dungeons are huge and unforgiving (personally I enjoy this, but you may not), on average the quest dungeons have taken me what feels like 1-2 hours each, you feel like a rat in a maze but the Map that you can access is incredibly helpful. I prefer how magic is handled in this game to either morrowind or oblivion, your spells will scale with you as you level (you know so at level 100 that starter spell isn't going to cost 40 mana still). Combat is like morrowind, remember to keep moving, dont stand still and play rock paper scissors with your opponents, strafing in and out of their range is (atleast from what I've found) the key to being successful in dispatching the games enemies. Swimming svcks. Swimming really svcks. It uses the worst excuse for a journal/quest keeping tool I have ever seen. Keep in mind alot of it works like Morrowind, dont make a mage with 30 agility and begin throwing a fit when you cant hit anything with your battle axe. Read the tutorial, and while you're at it, read parts of the manual you might find useful- http://www.filefront.com/14209905/DAGGERFALL-Manual.pdf/ (i.e. what the hell Thaumaturgy is). Game world is huge, but it isn't like morrowind and oblivion; alot of it is barren so there's nothing really interesting to see while you're traveling by foot from place to place (always use fast travel, pretty much). Create a custom class, and play around with it until you are content- this is much more elaborate than Morrowind (and obviously oblivion). There's much much more I could go on about, but i don't want to ruin anything for you. Enjoy the experience

Thanks for the replies! watched a few youtube video's, looked better then I expected. I'll do the down load tonight, anybody have anymore advice on the custom classes, i.e; does and don'ts?

Also is it possible to configure the game to a video game type controller or should I just stick with the key board and mouse?

Stick with mouse and keyboard, as you'll be using the mouse a lot as a cursor for menus and the like.

As for dos and don'ts, just make sure that if you plan on using magic you take the "increased magery 3x" as a special advantage, and put at last 1 magic school as a primary or major skill so you can join the mages guild right off the bat. Everything else you can probably tinker with and see what you like. If you want a lot more info, you can go find my faq on GameFAQs

Hmm.

My biggest tip would be this: The main quest doesn't necessarily accomodate all play styles. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to complete the game as either a pure-warrior, pure-mage, or pure-stealth character. To accomplish what s/he did, Septim's Agent must have been a Spellsword or a Battlemage. Stealth characters, while effective in many situations, are pretty much just for roleplaying purposes.

Placing emphasis on the fact that the dungeons in Daggerfall are big. Very big and some are purposely designed to cause you to walk in circles and get lost. The caves and tombs of both Morrowind and Oblivion are itty bitty by comparison. One can easily wind up wandering around in a Daggerfall dungeon for a long time. Much of Daggerfall's gameplay will take you to a dungeon. The auto-map does little to help you remember where the exit is.

To deal with it- One of the first things you should ever do is join the mage's guild and make a teleport spell. Buying one costs money. Making one at the spell-maker is free. Cast teleport once in a town (close to the quest-giver in question) to anchor your spot, then cast it in a dungeon when you're ready to the spot you anchored. DON'T forget you have to re-anchor your teleport spot because it's lost when you teleport. Sometimes I'd forget to re-mark my place, head on into some other dungeon and get very lost.

Oh, one thing I noticed. When you rest up in a dungeon (which you'll have to do at times).. sometimes the game places a random monster in the dungeon somewhere. Somewhere. Not always close to you. So, you can be backtracking to an old location and run smack into something nasty. Daggerfall's dungeons scared me at the time.. and I liked it.

Starting issues:

OK, so I killed a couple rats and some bats, took a couple tries but some guy name "archer" standing behind a some tables, took his armor and sword( looks like a one handed claymore) . I move to the next room over, with a very large/wide staircase and this skeleton comes down the staircase, kicks my butt, over and over again! I can't even get 1 clean hit on him that shows blood. Is there a strategy to fighting skeletons? I tried hit, back up, hit and back up, but he makes up to much ground on me that he eventually backs me up against a wall.

I left the game speed on average, can I change the game speed during the game?

Also, I can't for the life of me figure out how to pick up/grab things when I'm in mouse view. About the only thing I can figure out how to do better is move/walk/look in mouse view, I really don't want to get stuck playing this game on the default, because I don't have 3 hands, LOL. Anybody help?

Attack, walk backward alittle, attack, walk back alittle. Repeat. If corner, Just run forward and repeat again. If it proven too difficult for you, just run away and avoid it.


Pretend the center of you screen is the crosshair. Get close to the object and press the "Activate Center Object" Button. You can also switch to use the Cursor by pressing the "Activate Cursor" button (I assume the enter button). Just click what ya need and hit the "Activate Cursor" button (Enter) again to return to Mouse view.

Ahh, good ole skelly. Don't forget the floor around the bottom of the staircase is big. You don't have to back up in a straight line. When skelly raises his axe, there's usually a pause before he swings. When skelly raises that axe.. move. Also, if you're fighting with an iron weapon that may also be the problem. Skeletons can be hit with iron, but iron is so bad in Daggerfall that there's a penalty for trying to hit with an iron weapon. Did your character start with an ebony dagger? Many custom character types in Daggerfall can wind up starting with an ebony dagger.

Otherwise, you might want to just go around the skeleton. Instead of going up the stairway where the skeleton is at, go past the stairway and look over to the right, just past the stairway. You might notice the outline of a secret door. There's more baddies beyond that door, though so be careful.

If you don't mind spoilers or getting help-
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Privateer%27s_Hold

The 5th picture down shows the staircase and the secret door I was talkin about.

Keep in mind, Privateer's Hold is actually kinda nasty for a 1st level character. Once you're out, you can breathe a little easier.

Game speed - Once it's set I don't think you can change it.

Picking up/grabbing things - what are you trying to pick up? The only real things you can "grab" are loot from fallen enemies or a "pile" of treasure. Everything else is eye candy.

Nevermind what I said about battling ol' skelly. This is it.

Giving up for the night, I gave skelly 2.5 hours of my life, I get 4 or 5 hits in now before he kills me. Not sure what I started out with, either dagger or short sword of some kind. The inventory system takes some getting use too, it doesn't tell me a discription of the item until I use it. I was really confused when picking the skills too, I didn't know what half of them were, with no discription I just picked the ones I know from MW/OB. Is there no armor skills? Something else I found puzzling, I'm a dark elf and outside of longsword, running and jumping I picked almost all magic cats for major/minor skills, but I can't do a simple shock spell that the game promps me tryout. It's says the spell cost 42 magica, but my dude only has 26 magika....... thinking I might just start my game over again.

I'll test out that dagger or shortsword tomorrow on skelly, thanks for the info.

There an info box (between Wagon and Equip) in the inventory menu. Just click that box and click any item to get the info.


If it sound like a monster name, its a language skill. Full detail on what skill does what here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Skills


Not really, no. Unless on count Dodging (avoid getting hit) or the Language Skill (chance foe of that Language won't attack ya), but there really none (in the sense of Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor skill)


One can reread Jormungandr's post on this. Take the "Special Advantage" increased magery 3x in the custom class creation.

I think it is a good idea to read Jormungandr's FAQ in gamefaq. http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/29065-the-elder-scrolls-chapter-ii-daggerfall/faqs/50211

Default key is [Enter] to enable a cursor so you can pick up items, then hit [Enter] again to reenter mouse view mode. You should get used to just figuring out where the center of your screen is (this was easy for me, as I play alot of FPS) but if not, there's always that option. I changed the [Enter] key to [Tab] so it would be more convenient to hit.

Interesting you have issues with the skeleton, from what I understand most people get destroyed by the imp. If he has you up against the wall just sprint out of it before he gets to you (make sure you have sprint bound somewhere accessible). Back up, rush at attack, back up quickly, repeat until he's dead.

Thanks for all your help, I went back and played around with the skill list. It's wierd cause the imp I take out with 1 swing, rats 2, bats 2, humans 3 and the bear 3. I finally got past that skelly, took forever, I could get 3 hits in before I got back up in a corner, then ran around, get 3 hits in, then ran around, hide behind the door, he got stuck. So then I hit him, back up, go forward, hit again and he finally went down. I still can't find my way out of this place, I'm at max wieght (tons of loot) and my dude just leveled up. I'm going try watching a youtube video to see if somebody can show me the way out, cause I can't find any doors that haven't been through yet.

I'm hooked!

Talk to you guys tomorrow.


Edit: really, I looked at that what I thought was a wooden chair at the top of the stairs for like 5 minutes.... GRRR

If Skelly was harder than the human enemies you faced, then you were probably using a "bladed" weaon (sword, short blade or axe) against him. The skeletons in Daggerfall are old-school skeletons where slashing type weapons do less damage, since they have no skin to cut or internal organs to damage. As your character becomes nastier, it'll make less and less of a difference. For now, though, a skeleton is something to worry about.

Oh yeah.. those language skills. Hope you didn't pick too many. Hope you didn't pick any of them, actually. There's a reason why other TES games didn't have language skills.

Why can't I fast travel without dying? After I get out of the 1st dungeon, the tutorial pops up and tells me this is a good time to learn how to fast travel, and that I should try traveling to Daggerfall. I go to fast travel and it tells me that I am not well, that I might not make the journey, sure enough I die when I get there. My health is full, did I catch a disease? How do I check?

OK, so I don't die when I travel short distances, bought a hourse, joined the fighters guild, took a quest...... is there a journal of some kind? cause for the life me I can't remember the name of the place I am soppose to go to and the quest giver doesn't tell me when I go back to him.

The only time I completed the game, I was an Acrobat. Without magic at all, pure stealth guy.
Any class can complete the game without needing magic skills. In fact, I never used magic in all of my playthroughs.

There is and I cant remember what the default key is for the journal :s Slam face on keyboard til it comes up? xD

You can check that in your Controls option when you open the main menu using the Escape key.
And you need a cure for your disease or you'll always die. Seek a temple, find the healer and use the Cure Disease option. Beware, it might be expensive!

Thanks,
I was about to give up and start playing MW again.
So why doesn't it tell me I cought something? And why does this disease only effect me when I fast travel?

OK one more question: I went and sold 80% of my loot to the first merchant I went to see. I got to the point where my gold was so high(wieghted I assume) I couldn't carry anymore gold, so there for I could not sell anymore loot. So the next town I go to I buy a horse, cost around 1,100 gold, which left me with about 150 G ( I should be able to sell more stuff, right?). So start going to every merchant, at every town assumming that I should be able to sell the rest of my loot, but every time I go to sell option with a merchant nothing shows up in my inventory. Is this a bug?

Like real life, one does not notice their infection right away (unless its very obvious). Usually with the help of higher Medical skill, one might caught it before it kill the host. Of course, ya still have to get a cure (via temple is the best solution).


You want a Small Cart if one want to carry more stuff. A Horse just make traveling time a bit smaller and has decent speed when riding in town. Note that one should NOT buy more than 1 horse and 1 Small Cart.

As for the weight gold, try going to a Bank. You can deposit your gold there. You get access to that gold in any bank within that region/province. You can exchange a crap load of gold for a Letter of Credit (very light). Its comes with a tiny fee but it worth carrying a note weighting nearly nothing and worth 100k compare to the same 100k of gold but literally carrying it. Oh, and you must deposit money in order to withdraw it into Letter Of Credits. More on bank here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Banks

As for merchant not seeing your inventory for selling your crap, it's not a bug; it's a feature. Many different kinds of stores sell and buy different kinds of stuff that represent the store (ie Armory buys and sells weapons and armor, Clothiers sell clothies, Pawn Shop buys everything). You should also notice that when one enter a store, ya would get a message like "Rusty relics lie wherever they were last tossed" or "The shop is laid out in a practical and straightforward manner.". Pay attention to these messages as it tells ya if the store would buy/sell ya stuff very expensive or very cheap. More info on this right here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Store/Item_Locations#Stores_Quality_Guidelines