Skyrim "Hardcore" Playstyle

[osheao]

It is my personal opinion that simply avoiding crafting, stacking bonuses, etc. is not enough to make the game challenging. For me. This is why I choose to play without the HUD. This is why I choose to limit how much I can carry. This is why I choose to play on master. This is why I choose to penalize myself for dying. The rules I've come up to make the game a challenge .. for me. I guess I'm not really sure why you are against them. If they make the game tedious for you, or too challenging, don't implement them. Or maybe just implement some of them.

This character is my first full playthrough, and I don't consult cheat guides or online walkthroughs and I avoid reading most threads on this forum. Why? So that I don't find out things before my character should. I don't know to go to a specific place to get a specific weapon because I literally don't know it's there until my character discovers this through the course of play. There are countless things I still haven't discovered and countless quests I have passed on because they didn't fit my character's RP. So for me, this is not an issue.

And just an FYI for the armor and swimming situation. I do actually drop my armor on the ground when I go swimming. That means I can't just swim across a river, because my armor will still be on the other side. I don't just unequip it, I drop it. I've nearly lost pieces of armor doing this, lol.

well f said.
i feel like i'm being attacked for stuff that should already be in the damn game.

some of your rules are extraordinary and add relevance and importance to the game. its the heart of d and d.

its the combo of dandd and video games.

why in the hell do i have to take off my armor to swim in the water? because bethsoft f'ed up.

 

[BIGwooly]

I think Skyrim is an awesome game, and Bethesda did a lot of things right. The uniqueness of dungeons was a huge improvement over the cookie cutter dungeons of Oblivion.

But Skyrim is also 'dumbed down' from Oblivion, which was 'dumbed down' from Morrowind. It's a pattern I really hate to see, because they are dumbing it down without giving us the option to play it otherwise.

Regenerating health and enemy radar ... these are things that make me sad for where TES is headed. If I want to play Call of Duty I'll play that, lol.

 

[osheao]

I think Skyrim is an awesome game, and Bethesda did a lot of things right. The uniqueness of dungeons was a huge improvement over the cookie cutter dungeons of Oblivion.

But Skyrim is also 'dumbed down' from Oblivion, which was 'dumbed down' from Morrowind. It's a pattern I really hate to see, because they are dumbing it down without giving us the option to play it otherwise.

Regenerating health and enemy radar ... these are things that make me sad for where TES is headed. If I want to play Call of Duty I'll play that, lol.

option to play otherwise. that's it. that's the truth.

i have to create my 'rules' because bethsoft 'chose to not.' that's me straight and to the heart. i will never forget that morrowind exposed me to a great world of gaming and skyrim gave it to everyone for free.

 

[DarkEastwood]

Honestly, from my point of view, Skyrim is just more broad. It leaves more room to 'add' these rules rather than force them upon you. You can say 'they should have been there in the first place!' but then you're also disregarding what everyone else wants. I personally enjoy these rules, and implement them for all my characters now. But what they did is anyone who doesn't want them, they can play normally. Anyone who does want the rules, can easily add it themselves. If they were to add the rules in the game originally, they would be disregarding those who don't want the rules since they can't do anything about it. But luckily, those of us who want these rules can apply them quite easily. Understand what I'm getting at?

 

[osheao]

mistype

hardcore rules should have been the first 'creative' implementation.

we all know that vegas was a great game. so do they.

the exclusion was the worst decision ever. and, i will not forgive them.

like i've said before: a tes game does not mean an automatic buy on my part. fallout3 was a masterpiece. vegas did a lot of good.

skyrim, to me, is inferior in many ways.

 

[DarkEastwood]

Inferior in some ways in my opinion, but also in my view superior in many others. But hey that's my opinion, I can respect that we all have different views.

 

[osheao]

Inferior in some ways in my opinion, but also in my view superior in many others. But hey that's my opinion, I can respect that we all have different views.

inferior, in that, past games allowed for you to screw up and die. i should never have to back rejuvenating health. these little things that you and many disregard, i don't.

 

[DarkEastwood]

Honestly, regeneration isn't as bad as you make it out to be. If you make a big deal out of health very slowly coming back, your just nipicking.

 

[nordicowboy]

hardcore rules should have been the first 'creative' implementation.

we all know that vegas was a great game. so do they.

the exclusion was the worst decision ever. and, i will not forgive them.

like i've said before: a tes game does not mean an automatic buy on my part. fallout3 was a masterpiece. vegas did a lot of good.

skyrim, to me, is inferior in many ways.

 

[DarkEastwood]

Thy govern everything in Oblivion and Morrowind. Not Skyrim. I don't know how and why you just brought that up. You're just ignoring me. I gave acknowledment to what you said earlier, I'd just love for you to do the same.

 

[nordicowboy]

thankgodim no miamiw hore.

At least Miami whores have decent grammar and typing capabilities.

 

[Renegader]

Cleaned and purged.

 

[BIGwooly]

Honestly, regeneration isn't as bad as you make it out to be. If you make a big deal out of health very slowly coming back, your just nipicking.

Here's my issue with regenerating health.

First, from a role-playing perspective, it makes no sense. If I get in a fight and come out of it barely alive, I shouldn't be able to just chill for 30 seconds and be all better. That doesn't make sense.

From a game-play perspective, it really lessens the importance of health potions for the way I like to play. In Morrowind and Oblivion if I was gravely injured and didn't have a health potion I had to go find one, because I wouldn't take the easy way out and just find a bed to rest in momentarily. Now it's fine if other people want the option to just rest in a bed to heal up, but I'd like the option to have to use health potions to that effect. With regenerating health (and with no way to turn it off) I no longer have that option.

What is frustrating to me is that there easily could have been an option to turn that feature off, but there isn't one. So I'm stuck with a 'feature' that makes the game a bit less fun to play and a bit less rewarding to role-play.

 

[Neriad13]

I'm really torn up about what to do with mercenaries in my current game. I've been playing in a semi-hardcore style and am unsure about what to do in that middle-of-the-road difficulty.

- Expert difficulty.
- Use of the True Compass mod, which only shows cardinal compass directions on my compass bar, blocking out area markers and enemy identification.
- Must take off armor and clothing to swim, though it remains in my inventory. A mod slows down my swimming speed by 40% should I enter the water in heavy armor and a little less should I swim clothed. However, I also can't change my clothes unless I'm in a safe area (which did lead to an amusing anecdote in which I went streaking at full speed straight through Ivarstead when a bear surprised me as I was gathering alchemical ingredients).
- No use of horses, carts, boats or fast-travel.
- Must eat two meals a day and sleep eight hours a night. Attempt to have a balanced diet - fruit, veggies, carbs, calcium and meat, hopefully daily. No eating of raw meat or fish.
- Must join no other factions but the ones present in Dawnguard.
- No use of any cheats.
- Only use Dunmer followers, if a follower absolutely must be taken on.
- Always carry a camping kit (mod), fishing net (mod) and an iron dagger (though no other encumberance restrictions are used).
- Wait one hour upon reading any book, skinning or carving up an animal, packing up camp and taking the clothing or armor off of a corpse. No waiting in any other situation.
- No use of Smithing or Enchanting.
- Not allowed to sleep in inns.
- No perks in Sneak.
- No reloading if caught committing a crime (though there are no death penalties).
- No refilling food stores for free from "unowned" barrels in towns or picking farmers' crops without selling them back to farmers.
- No wood chopping to earn gold, though mining and farming are fine.

I'm in a tight spot and in great need of an extra set of hands, after having gone 19 levels entirely alone. My issues are as thus:

- For the longest time, I've been marking all my companions as essential because I hate, hate, hate having the guilt of a friend's blood on my hands. I understand how overpowered this is, how much more exciting the game would be if the lives of my friends were also on the line and what great stories can come out of the death of comrades, but am still very wary of turning it off after relying on it for so long.
- I like the idea of paying a mercenary a daily fee, but have yet to settle on a good middle-of-the-road amount. I'm thinking that the 500 gold hiring fee is good for two days and that maybe after that it should be 200 gold a day.
- Is it even possible to take on a follower, even temporarily, without breaking the game for my Dunmer loner?

 

[BIGwooly]

My advice is this:

I created these restrictions to make the game more fun for me. So what you need to do is figure out what makes the game more fun for you. Sometimes that means trying something out that doesn't really work out well. So you just stop doing it, or revise the restriction.

For example, when I first started Skyrim I had a restriction to eat a certain percentage of my health every day. In theory it was great, but in practice it was tedious enough to make the game less fun. So I switched to requiring myself to eat 3 meals a day instead. Did I know if that was going to work better? Not really, but I decided to try it. And it happened to work out and I like it better.

So I say if you feel like something is missing, then try something else out. After all, it's a game. You can change your mind later if you want. d;-)

 

[BIGwooly]

- Is it even possible to take on a follower, even temporarily, without breaking the game for my Dunmer loner?

One more thing to add. On this point I would say don't take on the follower. This is a big role playing element for you, playing as a loner. So I'm guessing that having a follower will take you out of that to some extent.

Now, you could still take on a follower, assuming your character is hating doing it; hating having someone else along with him. And perhaps that annoyance can come through in your gameplay. If you get annoyed with them enough, you hit them, or even kill them. Just an idea.

 

[Neriad13]

One more thing to add. On this point I would say don't take on the follower. This is a big role playing element for you, playing as a loner. So I'm guessing that having a follower will take you out of that to some extent.

Now, you could still take on a follower, assuming your character is hating doing it; hating having someone else along with him. And perhaps that annoyance can come through in your gameplay. If you get annoyed with them enough, you hit them, or even kill them. Just an idea.

The issue is more with strategy than roleplaying - my character's always pleased to run into another Dunmer so far from home. Non-Dunmer, she treats a tad coldly. On most of my characters, I've found myself over-utilizing followers, relying on them rather than my own combat prowess and bypassing a whole lot of what the game has to offer in that regard. With this character I wanted to try something different and you have strengthened my resolve to keep doing it that way. What I was most afraid of was relaxing and ceasing to use my brain to survive. I did just buy a Scroll of Fire Storm - maybe I'll dig around and see if I can't find any more with which to blow those vampires out of the water.

Though being temporarily chained to an annoying Nord out of necessity, who disregards my commands and charges into battle on his own does sound pretty amusing.

 

[Foibleson]

My hardcore rules:
#1 Play on adept difficulty. If number of deaths = level, restart game with a new character.
#2 No fast travel.

This is how I play hardcore. I keep a written journal next to my xbox and I make a note every time I die, briefly describing how I died. I number my deaths. Currently I am level 17 and I have died 8 times. I play on adept difficulty. This is my first character because I waited to get Skyrim Legendary edition when it came out a week or so ago (June 4, 2013).

Because this is my first character I am exploring a number of skills sets. I am a Breton and my major skills so far are Conjuration, One-handed, block, light armor, sneak, archery.

Here is a list of my deaths, from my written-out diary:
#1 Hand of a giant that gave me fair warning, when I approached. one hit kill.
#2 bandit surprise attack from "wounded" traveller (even though I suspected something)
#3 killed by argonian lightning mage that "can't be trusted"
#4 falling (didn't seem that far!)
#5 killed by hired thugs because I had stolen some stuff
#6 ditto same encounter
#7 trying out wearing mage cloak instead of my usual light armor; 2-hit kill from surprise attack of big saber cat
#8 female ghost during the quest that that perverted guy would put females under his control

 

[jarif]

What you see is what you get mod

 

[LotusEater]

That's definitely a hardcore list. Sounds like deer camp. Only thing missing would be the ass smell in the sleeping cabin.