Daggerfall, fucking Daggerfall

[abnaxus]

The real challenge is getting Battlespire and Redguard to run and run *well*.

I can actually swing a sword, now in the game! I screwed up and made a character class that couldn't use iron, so I screwed myself

Start game with ebony dagger?

 

[Wyrmlord]

I feel like such a loser for the fact that I'd spend 20-30 minutes just going to the guild and repeatedly training/resting to get myself to level 10, every time I started a new game of Daggerfall.

Worth it, though. Having 50s in every skill saves a lot of time and effort later in the game. And having 90+ on all major attributes.

 

[Grimwulf]

I feel like such a loser for the fact that I'd spend 20-30 minutes just going to the guild and repeatedly training/resting to get myself to level 10, every time I started a new game of Daggerfall.

TES 2: Daggerfall. Action/RPG/Workout Sim.

 

[poocolator]

Yeah, despite playing it for dozens of hours, this is one game I will never finish. Has some good ideas and all but I think you'd have to be pretty autistic to get seriously invested in that shit.

Also, obligatory:

Codex frenzy when a new registrant is suspected being a wormlord alt.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Alright, I finally got myself seriously going in this game after beating Blackguards and here are some of my notes:

+ Because of the size of the initial dungeon, I couldn't explore everything. The dungeon was difficult, as I was barely equipped and so didn't want to risk too many fights. I ran away from some monsters I couldn't harm or would defeat only after significant health loss. I got lucky and killed a thief who had some great equipment, such as heavier armor and an elven katana. Almost every weapon I had found was some sort of blade, which worked out as my character took long blade as a primary skill. Ah, fantasy RPGs. As long as you build your character around the idea of a longsword and shield combatant, you'll be just fine. Alas, the poor fans of axes and maces.
+ This game world looks absolutely huge. It took me awhile to walk from the first dungeon to the first town. Yes, I know I could have fast traveled, but I wanted to explore. I met no wandering encounters, which I'm fine with. It seemed odd to me that the wildlife in Oblivion was out to get me, so this gentle walk was a welcome difference. I felt elated when I arrived in town, knowing now I can establish a safe house to fall back upon. I am thinking about selling off the extra equipment I found, equipping myself with more armor and some ranged weapons, and going right back into the initial dungeon that just respawned and building up stealth and archery.
- Monsters respawn when you leave a dungeon. I left the starter dungeon, and then said 'Oops, I should go back and rest before taking chances outside'. On returning, the three monsters I had just killed had respawned in those brief seconds and proceeded to murder me.
- I know it's a fantasy game and I shouldn't overthink things, but what the hell was a grizzly bear doing in a side room of that initial dungeon? Then again, that first dungeon had a bit of everything: demonic imps, rats, bats, thieves, skeleton warriors, and the grizzly bear I had to put down. Still... a grizzly in a man-made dungeon.
- I probably shouldn't go from a game like Blackguards to Daggerfall. In Blackguards, your tactical decisions heavily matter and combat resolution is based upon character skill. That's flipped in a game like Daggerfall. In Daggerfall, I'm busy holding down the Z button while flicking my mouse back and forth to make swinging motions just so I can slice at the enemy at a faster rate than he is slicing at me. Player skill and reaction speed is way more important in such a game, making the transition from one game to the other incredibly jarring.
- I keep having to lower the cycle count on each start-up of the game, even with the auto-loader I am using to make the game playable. Yes, I know I can adjust the way the executable starts the game in DOSBox to auto assign the rate, but I still wanted to mention this in case someone else plays this and feels the game runs to slow.

I'm playing a thief-mage with primary skills in long blade, stealth, and illusion. Yes, I know 2 and 3 are redundant but it's what I wanted. Besides, I plan to rely on stealth, but be good enough with illusion magic to make myself disappear and be able to flee when I can't beat an enemy. Major skills are in Archery, Lockpicking and Dodging. Minor skills are mostly focused with magic, with Alteration, Destruction, Restoration, Mysticism, Thaumaturgy, and finally Backstabbing for I improve Sneaking. It's not the most optimal character, but neither is he a disaster and I want to play someone that can perform plenty of sneak attacks.

I don't care what I'm supposed to be doing next. I just plan to start traveling around, clearing dungeons, building up my character, and collecting items.

 

[octavius]

I thought Daggerfall was great.
Then I exited the first dungeon.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Because of the size of the initial dungeon, I couldn't explore everything.

Privateer's Hold is like supersmall.

 

[felipepepe]

Privateer's Hold is like supersmall.

Yeah, just waiting for his report on the first "real" dungeon mission he gets.

 

[baturinsky]

Because of the size of the initial dungeon, I couldn't explore everything.

Privateer's Hold is like supersmall.

I doubt I'll need a second hand to count doungeons in TES3-5 that are bigger than Privateer Hold.

 

[markec]

You should travel to Daggerfall but try to get there during nighttime.

 

[4249]

Seeing this thread reminded me of the game again. What a shock.

But anyways, the last time I tried to play Daggerfall, I think the game crashed every time when I tried to talk to certain a quest npc at one point of the game. I think I had just gotten out of the initial dungeon and running around some town. I can't remember the specifics, but I think I had downloaded it from an abandonware site which might have been one of the causes for it crashing constantly. Now that Bethesda has released the game for free, is it playable without anything game breaking? I'd love to give it another shot at some point.

 

[Mastermind]

Yeah but get it from here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Daggerfall#Downloads

You can just install and play, no headaches or having to set up anything yourself.

 

[4249]

Awesome, will do that. Thanks!

 

[abnaxus]

I don't care what I'm supposed to be doing next. I just plan to start traveling around, clearing dungeons, building up my character, and collecting items.

Grind graveyards for easy money, equipment and XP.

 

[cherry blossom]

Anyone realise that Interkarma is back in business, adapting Daggerfall to Unity, has released a development package and somebody has released a rudimentary multiplayer version using that?

Spoiler

And here is a video:



http://www.dfworkshop.net/

 

[Sceptic]

It took me awhile to walk from the first dungeon to the first town.

dont do this bro

This. The game world is huge. As in, it'll take you hours real time to walk from one city to the other, and there is nothing in the wiilderness. Don/t do it.

Also, I hope you grabbed DQFIX and official patch 2.13. The game is VERY buggy otherwise. Even with 2.13 there were many bugs that could lock out the MQ. I think the newest DQFIX fixes them all, but keep multiple saves handy, even with 2.13 you can occasionally get corrupt saves and the notorious fall-in-void (though that's much more rare now).

This is a big game. Never mind dungeon and world sizes, there are a TON of things to do, factions to join, and a really unusual plot. I love the game, despite so many elements feeling unfinished.

 

[DraQ]

It took me awhile to walk from the first dungeon to the first town.

dont do this bro

This. The game world is huge. As in, it'll take you hours real time to walk from one city to the other, and there is nothing in the wiilderness. Don/t do it.

That's the one thing I absolutely fucking hate about Daggerfall - its area, the number of locations, size of the locations: none of those actually serve any purpose in game.
The wilderness could actually just not be there, number of locations cut down by about three orders of magnitude and the game would be pretty much exactly the same.
The dungeons are gigantic, but mostly they are just mazes of corridors all alike twisting around each other in 3D for no reason.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Arena and Daggerfall both I played and they just convinced me to play Underworld games again. I often wonder what first person RPGs would be like today if LGS had carried on.

 

[DraQ]

I often wonder what first person RPGs would be like today if LGS had carried on.

What wouldn't be better today if LGS had carried on?

 

[Ninjerk]

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It took me awhile to walk from the first dungeon to the first town.

dont do this bro

This. The game world is huge. As in, it'll take you hours real time to walk from one city to the other, and there is nothing in the wiilderness. Don/t do it.

That's the one thing I absolutely fucking hate about Daggerfall - its area, the number of locations, size of the locations: none of those actually serve any purpose in game.
The wilderness could actually just not be there, number of locations cut down by about three orders of magnitude and the game would be pretty much exactly the same.
The dungeons are gigantic, but mostly they are just mazes of corridors all alike twisting around each other in 3D for no reason.

Sure it served a purpose. It helped the player feel like he was in a frick'n huge world - because he was. Sort of like how most of the galaxy in Frontier had nothing in it, but it was there if you wanted to go exploring. Same with Arcanum's explorable world map - though that was actually quite a bit more fun to explore as there were things to find beyond "random dungeon #372".

Now, the dungeons actually aren't THAT big. If you take some time to think about where you are and where you are going, they are quite navigable. Yes, you can get lost in them, but that's the point. It's not like skyrim/oblivion where you just keep going in one direction for 5 minutes and then you find the convenient loop around at the end to take you back to the entrance.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Let me explain why the first dungeon seemed almost too large for me. First, I am using the manual but I am not using a walkthrough, so I had no idea where the exit was. The only aid I have been using is in viewing people's posts on character creation, and I found out that a pure spellcaster or melee fighter is the best way to go to have an easier time of it, but that the game can be won by any class. Hence why I am going primarily with a thief with skills in fighting and spellcasting to back him up. I just like thieves, and if playing one doesn't prevent me from finishing the game I'm going to play one.

Now that I went back to the dungeon, I find the path to the start rather easy to reach, but when I was getting out I was barely armed and armored, and I was playing a measely thief, so I barely survived each battle. I had to reload quite a bit as I tried to get accustomed to the controls (again, player skill required vs character skill), and some monsters like imps were immune to my initial weapons, causing me to have to flee often for the safety of empty side chambers. In these chambers I couldn't rest to restore health since there were often nearby monsters preventing me from doing so. I was frightened of exploring too much of the dungeon, since I could hear nearby creatures and I knew they could open doors to reach me if I wasn't stealthy enough. Also, in Arena, resting in dungeons too often hurt you as it caused respawns. This caused me to have to play like a thief, sneaking around in one room, trying to get a few shots in against the backs of creatures that hadn't yet detected me, and fleeing when the enemy was too strong.

At one point I had a skeleton I knew I couldn't beat chasing me while my hit points were low and I fled upon an elevator in order to get away. The bad thing was he was waiting for me down there and I couldn't return to previous resting areas. That's the kind of sweating I was doing in this dungeon. Eventually, I killed a thief with an elven katana and chain mail armor and the dungeon then became manageable and easy since I was also able to rest and restore hit points in the chamber he was in. So armed and refreshed, I cleared out several nearby rooms, one of which was the exit. Those damned imps are pretty easy to slaughter now.

Now that I've returned, I've learned a few things. First, I seemed to go explore every wrong passage in this dungeon, which gained me a lot of great equipment, but definitely lengthened the experience. I think there were only a handful of chambers I didn't explore. Second, resting in this game doesn't seem to cause as high of an enemy respawn rate in this game like it did in Arena. In fact, resting never seemed to cause any monster to respawn, but maybe I didn't rest long enough to see. I've also learned that creatures like the imps seem to depend on melee attacks instead of their more devastating magic spells when you get close, again making them even easier than they were at first. I am also more accustomed to the controls. Now that I have less to fear and have learned some tweaks about this game, that initial dungeon really doesn't seem all that bad, but when I was armed only with a small blade and had no idea how to escape the sense of danger and need for patience was exhilarating for me. I really enjoyed that first dungeon when I hardly knew anything. Too bad my new player knowledge ruins a second go at it.

 

[Sceptic]

I think the only way to reset the dungeon is to leave and reenter. It's why a cart is great to buy early on, you can access it and store loot in it WITHOUT leaving the dungeon. I usually place a teleport anchor at the entrance, both for a quick exit and for a quick dump-my-loot before adventuring forth again, all without resetting.

There are certain ways to make the starter dungeon easier, the most notorious being doing the questionnaire, and picking Ebony Dagger if you get that question. It makes the early game MUCH easier. Daggers don't do a huge amount of damage, but Ebony will IIRC bypass every immunity.

Keep an eye on your Language skills btw. If you're planning on playing it sneaky, know that, with high language, you can walk past enemies of that race without them becoming hostile (you don't talk to them, it's all automatic. It's like an automatic race-specific stealth mode). It makes some dungeons, especially ones you have to redo several times (like the orcish stronghold) a breeze.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I think the only enemy that could give you immunity trouble is the imp, who is in some optional room and even then you can try to run circles around him and close the door. Then again none of the other starter items come close to the usefulness of the ebony dagger (a fucking storybook?)

 

[Nael]

I think the only enemy that could give you immunity trouble is the imp, who is in some optional room and even then you can try to run circles around him and close the door. Then again none of the other starter items come close to the usefulness of the ebony dagger (a fucking storybook?)

The imp isn't in a side room. It's in the room with the exit door.