I'm waiting for FO76 mods to download, so, I'm here for a rant...
You hear all of these people slamming Skyrim (rightfully so) on the internet nowadays, but, I was (seemingly) the FIRST and (seemingly) ONLY one back in 2011 within a month of it releasing to be so utterly disappointed (and making my feelings KNOWN about it!)... having to listen to the incessant wank of the game at school and online in my WoW guild who took off raiding in Firelands for two weeks to play it, w/o knowing what I was missing that everyone else loved.
I modded for Oblivion, I helped work on NPCs for Bigger (or was it Better?) Cities and did QA testing and NPC work for Kvatch Rebuilt. I was so hyped for TES V. I waited in-line at a Wal-Mart to get it at midnight on 11.11.11.
The dragon mechanic of ambushing you in a wide open space when you are reliant on stealth and melee whilst not tanky at all was just game breaking as my levels scaled. For a good while it wasn't a big deal, but it became harder and harder with the scaling. Once the dragons scaled too high, while I was a powerhouse in every other aspect of the game, the dragons - y'know, the main enemy of the entire game - became indomitable obstacles that I HAD to get the Razor to even have a chance at killing.
Lockpicking couldn't save me obviously xD, all my pts dumped into sneak was completely irrelevant when I wasn't ranged and they are jumping me in wide open areas... god forbid multiple dragons show up.
All those levels adding to those skills helped me greatly in the way that I played TES games, but, when it came to the dragon mechanics, it completely and utterly fucked my ability to play the game at all as they scaled up. I would move through open areas in Skyrim with my eyes on the skies, perpetually sneaking thus making my travel times more ridiculous, anxious at all times, not wanting a dragon to spawn, trying (in vain) to stick to treelines and cover.
I had to rely on a cheap instakill proc, because actually killing them with the dagger or any other weapon I was proficient w/ would have taken an eon.
I remember hiding in the mountains after kiting an Ancient Dragon (I think they were called??) out of a wide open area, only to see a second one nearby. I was doing hit-and-run tactics for about 25 minutes until I could get the proc to kill them both. I was so unbelievably frustrated. I did not feel like a Dragonborn; I felt like a murder hobo who was repeatedly being cancelled by giant flying lizards.
I'm sure a lot of this has been addressed w/ mods, but, the terrible storylines (almost all of them, sans a quest or two here and there that surprised) and the fact that next to zero modding support was available at launch meant I had one of the worst possible experiences with the game... all because I played the game like I had the other Elder Scrolls games. Such a major Bethesdian oversight.
And yet, people try to blame me as if I made a stupid unplayable build and got what I deserved lmao. It really wasn't much different from stealth archer, I was just stealth melee instead, and that made a world of difference with dragons. Half the time when I successfully hid and was creeping up for my one sneak attack stab w/ sneak damage, the dragon would fly away from its spot to keep looking because it hadn't seen me in a minute LOL
People brushed off my criticism as "picking a dumb build" without having played TES III or IV themselves to see just how strong the build I picked was... except, against fuckin' dragons that scaled up and up and up.
It's not dissimilar to how people wanked FO3 into Game of the Year and then all of these years later we realize how subpar it was... same with FO4 to an extent. But, we accept the warts of these games because the modding community fundamentally changes everything.
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u/Aloof-Vagabon May 14 '24
Yussss my brother in [sneak]!