Skyrim "Hardcore" Playstyle

More power to y'all. Hardcore! Me, I can barely handle the game vanilla - there is no way I'd survive with all those restrictions.

Somebody keep a log! I'm sure I'm not the only one that would luv to read these misadventures.

My restrictions vary from build to build but the few that are constant are:

-No fast traveling
-The only goods I can use are the ones that I crafted from hand. Looted enchanted weapons and/or daedric artifacts can be used but cannot be improved.
-No buying (only selling) from merchants, ore and ingredients are fine, no soul gems.
-Outside merchants and traveling caravans only (occasionally bend on this for ore and ingredients only)
-All enchanted weapons and armor (not jewelry) created must be created in duplicate with the other left at a shrine of choice
-All soul gems found are empty, or made to be (dropped) before use, in other words, earn every soul.
-All leather must be obtained from an animal
-Respect for the dead... and the undead. No looting draugr unless necessary for quest and no looting random dead bodies.

Just a few I mostly stick to.

luddy420 said:

This would be extremely challenging

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I would say extremely unreal and unnecessary ... when I entered to this thread, I thought it would be more realistic, like ability to cut arms, legs, not just heads, more blood, burned dead bodies, etc ... for example, I like FEAR because when you kill, you see a lot of blood and kind of pretty close to reality when you kill enemies; I would love Skyrim to be like that so for me it would be hardcore ... just my 2 cents

Daelon DuLac said:

More power to y'all. Hardcore! Me, I can barely handle the game vanilla - there is no way I'd survive with all those restrictions.

Somebody keep a log! I'm sure I'm not the only one that would luv to read these misadventures.

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Already done. Check out the journals in my signature. d;-)

BIGwooly said:

Already done. Check out the journals in my signature. d;-)

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Will do!

orca45 said:

I would say extremely unreal and unnecessary ... when I entered to this thread, I thought it would be more realistic, like ability to cut arms, legs, not just heads, more blood, burned dead bodies, etc ... for example, I like FEAR because when you kill, you see a lot of blood and kind of pretty close to reality when you kill enemies; I would love Skyrim to be like that so for me it would be hardcore ... just my 2 cents

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Each to their own. I don't see how it's unreal to force your character to eat or sleep or not travel magically across the entire land with the push of a button. And it's not necessary for sure, but it does add a lot to the gameplay. Don't knock it until you try it. But I also agree, it's not for everyone. d;-)

And regarding cutting off arms and legs and seeing more blood, I'm all for that, but that's not something I can change about the game, lol.

Daelon DuLac said:

Will do!

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I recommend you check out the Hrisskar journal first, FYI. It was the original.

BIGwooly said:

Each to their own. I don't see how it's unreal to force your character to eat or sleep or not travel magically across the entire land with the push of a button. And it's not necessary for sure, but it does add a lot to the gameplay. Don't knock it until you try it. But I also agree, it's not for everyone. d;-)

And regarding cutting off arms and legs and seeing more blood, I'm all for that, but that's not something I can change about the game, lol.

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I do actually agree with the make your character sleep, eat & drink as well as nixing the fast travel stuff. It only makes sense that, if your character didn't eat, drink or sleep he/she wouldn't be up to snuff in most situations. I always try to make them at least do that and try to avoid fast travel whenever possible. You're right that it really improves game play.

Daelon DuLac said:

I do actually agree with the make your character sleep, eat & drink as well as nixing the fast travel stuff. It only makes sense that, if your character didn't eat, drink or sleep he/she wouldn't be up to snuff in most situations. I always try to make them at least do that and try to avoid fast travel whenever possible. You're right that it really improves game play.

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The no fast travel thing is a game changer for sure. I mentioned it in another thread but I use the paragons from Touch the Sky as makeshift fast travel enablers. I set some guidelines and restrictions for their use and I'm really enjoying using them as such. Better than selling them or shoving them in a chest.

-Diamond paragon must be placed first and must be hidden in a snowy area in order for it to come online. Once the diamond paragon is set, all fast travel ceases for any reason until the next paragon is set.

-Ruby paragon must be stashed in a forge along with a daedra heart and a human heart. Once the ruby paragon is in place and online, fast travel between the two spots is enabled. The process continues with the setting of the next paragon, it must be walked from the location of any active paragon and so on.

-Sapphire paragon must be submerged in water along with salmon roe, pearl, small pearl and a flawless sapphire

-Amethyst paragon must be placed at a standing stone. To activate it, you must lure a giant close to it and soul trap him. The soul gem and his toe activate the paragon

-Emerald paragon must be placed in a forsworn camp (small one...). The paragon becomes active when placed with the briarheart from that camps leader. Paragon is tied to that camp until it is manually moved and a new briarheart is obtained. Style points if you add the restriction that the heart must be pickpocketed.

After some tweaking, I'm having a lot of fun with those restrictions.

Well, from a character perspective fast travel isn't instantaneous. In fact, it probably advances time more than if you ran it, since the game calculates the time to advance based on walking speed. I think of it as travel during which my character is traveling slowly, sticking to the roads, not exploring, carefully watching for danger and making shift to avoid it. In other words, the type of travel that is not very entertaining for the player, hence the ability to skip past it.

I incorporate elements of hardcore playstyle into every character, and some of them revolve around it, but the one thing I never force is no fast travel. Sometimes I have the time and feel like exploring, but sometimes I might only have half an hour to play, and I'd rather spend it killing bandits or plundering castles, not retreading the road between Whiterun and Morthal for the six-thousandth time.

Hardcore mode would be Legendary difficulty with certain restrictions, like you can't switch standing stones power, only one kind of shrine blessing, stick to warrior style, thief/assassin style, or mage style, etc.
If we have a follower, it must be a certain kind of follower and try to keep from having essential followers unless it's part of the quest only, no straying for fun and company advantages.

A hardcore difficulty like in fo nv would be nice for the console guys, good that we PC players have mods for this. Some nice ideas here anyways

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Morgan said:

Well, from a character perspective fast travel isn't instantaneous. In fact, it probably advances time more than if you ran it, since the game calculates the time to advance based on walking speed. I think of it as travel during which my character is traveling slowly, sticking to the roads, not exploring, carefully watching for danger and making shift to avoid it. In other words, the type of travel that is not very entertaining for the player, hence the ability to skip past it.

I incorporate elements of hardcore playstyle into every character, and some of them revolve around it, but the one thing I never force is no fast travel. Sometimes I have the time and feel like exploring, but sometimes I might only have half an hour to play, and I'd rather spend it killing bandits or plundering castles, not retreading the road between Whiterun and Morthal for the six-thousandth time.

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I agree and disagree. I agree that it can be advantageous to use fast travel if you just want to play the game and don't have a lot of free time.

However, having played with and without fast travel I can say without a doubt that playing without it has really opened up the game more from an immersion standpoint. Having to always physically move your character around in the world creates a sense of immersion that you can't get when you allow yourself to fast travel.

I have nothing against fast travel or people who use it. I just prefer to not use it because it makes the game world feel more real to me, and in addition to that, it opens up the game to create experiences I would have missed otherwise.

LotusEater said:

The no fast travel thing is a game changer for sure. I mentioned it in another thread but I use the paragons from Touch the Sky as makeshift fast travel enablers. I set some guidelines and restrictions for their use and I'm really enjoying using them as such. Better than selling them or shoving them in a chest.

-Diamond paragon must be placed first and must be hidden in a snowy area in order for it to come online. Once the diamond paragon is set, all fast travel ceases for any reason until the next paragon is set.

-Ruby paragon must be stashed in a forge along with a daedra heart and a human heart. Once the ruby paragon is in place and online, fast travel between the two spots is enabled. The process continues with the setting of the next paragon, it must be walked from the location of any active paragon and so on.

-Sapphire paragon must be submerged in water along with salmon roe, pearl, small pearl and a flawless sapphire

-Amethyst paragon must be placed at a standing stone. To activate it, you must lure a giant close to it and soul trap him. The soul gem and his toe activate the paragon

-Emerald paragon must be placed in a forsworn camp (small one...). The paragon becomes active when placed with the briarheart from that camps leader. Paragon is tied to that camp until it is manually moved and a new briarheart is obtained. Style points if you add the restriction that the heart must be pickpocketed.

After some tweaking, I'm having a lot of fun with those restrictions.

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This is a pretty cool idea. I like that you found a way to open the idea of fast travel but you have to work for it a little.

BIGwooly said:

This is a pretty cool idea. I like that you found a way to open the idea of fast travel but you have to work for it a little.

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Thanks. I was just playing tonight and it's still a ton of walking. Five seems like a lot but it's a challenge to find five efficient spots using those guidelines.

I currently have 3 placed.

Diamond- Docks at Windhelm behind the barrels. I live in Solsthiem so this one was a no brainer.

Ruby- Stashed in the forge at Shor's Stone

Emerald- Stashed at Kolskeggr Mine behind the chicken coup


That's it so far. It's hard to commit using those guidelines. I think I already regret the one at Kolskeggr Mine. I'd like to find something a little closer to Solitude... I think.

I've thought about using an even tougher method but I haven't worked the bugs out. It involves two Centurion Dynamo Cores. Two core may be used as teleportation devices. Same principle in that you must manually walk to place the second core, however when used in either direction, the core must be taken with as sort of a key, thus losing connection to that teleport point. From that point you may either leave the current core you just arrived at and walk the one you have to a new destination or you can put them both in your inventory and start from scratch.

It sounds complex and it kinda is but it's the one I have on standby to try out if my current system makes travel too easy. I don't really see that happening though. Still might try it for the challenge.

I understand people that are deadset against fast-travel but I also think it's kinda silly to imagine that a dude with as much power as the Dragonborn wouldn't have access to SOME SORT of travel magic. Even just a little...

I mean if Harry Potter can do it... c'mon...

I just got an idea for restricting fast travel, from LotusEater's comment about Harry Potter. Apparation, in the Harry Potter world, is a magical ability, so applying that to Skyrim, you could treat fast travel as a spell. It would probably fall into the Alteration school, so you could set the following rules based on your Alteration skill level.

- Skill > 30: You can fast travel between major cities (Whiterun, Riften, Windhelm, Solitude, Markarth).
- Skill > 40: You can fast travel between major and minor cities (the above plus Falkreath, Morthal, Dawnstar, and Winterhold).
- Skill > 50: You can fast travel between major and minor cities, as well as villages (the above plus Riverwood, Ivarstead, Dragon Bridge, etc).
- Skill > 60: You can fast travel anywhere.

Adjust the skill levels as you like!

imaginepageant said:

I just got an idea for restricting fast travel, from LotusEater's comment about Harry Potter. Apparation, in the Harry Potter world, is a magical ability, so applying that to Skyrim, you could treat fast travel as a spell. It would probably fall into the Alteration school, so you could set the following rules based on your Alteration skill level.

- Skill > 30: You can fast travel between major cities (Whiterun, Riften, Windhelm, Solitude, Markarth).
- Skill > 40: You can fast travel between major and minor cities (the above plus Falkreath, Morthal, Dawnstar, and Winterhold).
- Skill > 50: You can fast travel between major and minor cities, as well as villages (the above plus Riverwood, Ivarstead, Dragon Bridge, etc).
- Skill > 60: You can fast travel anywhere.

Adjust the skill levels as you like!

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If you want to get technical, that'd actually be quite similar to the Mark and Recall spells under the School of Mysticism. Alas, the school and most of its spells fell into disuse a little while before the final days of the 3rd Era.

Neriad13 said:

If you want to get technical, that'd actually be quite similar to the Mark and Recall spells under the School of Mysticism. Alas, the school and most of its spells fell into disuse a little while before the final days of the 3rd Era.

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Surely there's an Elf or two who could've taught our Dragonborn on their travels before Skyrim?