The mine is well-lit with torches. I take them down as I creep along. They will definitely expose me and make the prey more difficult to subdue and feast upon. A tripwire stretches across the ground, it will trigger a rock trap if I’m not careful. I skirt around it carefully.
The air is thick and cool. Damp and musty. Dust hangs in the air, sparkling from the flickering light of the torches. When I snuff out the torches, the dust recedes into the darkness of the cave as though it isn’t safe to be unexposed.
As I creep forward, i can hear voices. A discussion about the guard securing the door; the guard i already dispatched. They are bandits and their blood won’t be the most flavorful, but being cautious is more important right now. I don’t need to be exposed. Vampires aren’t the most welcome of creatures, even by the lowlife of Skyrim. I image fear is why vampires are so loathed.
I wait patiently, hungrily. The two men separate. This is beneficial as I can attack them individually. Although, I feel more and more powerful with every feeding, I am not confident I can take on more than one of the living. One of them walks down a lit corridor (I haven’t been able to remove all the torches), and the other lies on a bedroll. I advance on him.
Back outside in the daytime, I cringe against the sunlight. The heat and brightness saps my strength and energy. But it doesn’t feel as powerful a drain as before. The eight bandits inside the mine fully satisfied me, and one in particular (the archer) tasted sweet. There was something in her blood that seemed to speak to me. A few words floated along her blood, within her veins. Riften. The Thieves Guild.
I think I should attempt to join The Thieves Guild. If it actually exists. Ready access to homes, to people, to blood. They will know where people live. Yes, that would prove quite advantageous.
I’m on my way to Riverwood, a small village south of Whiterun. I understand there are no guards protecting the small hamlet. A thought blazes through my mind. no guards, no protection. but from what? From me? Is it possible that i am now considering slaughter of everyone living. I shake the thought away, focusing instead on the trip.
Wolves attack me shortly after I pass an Imperial patrol with what I assume is a Stormcloak rebel. I consider for a moment to decimate the entire contingent. But I don’t. Perhaps there is some humanity still left in this undead heart. This thought leads to another question: do I still have a soul? Moreover, does it matter if I do?
Riverwood is close, I smell the residents. I enter the east side of town and find the local drunk hovering around the inn. I approach him and stop. Something is wrong with him, within him. Inside his blood. I offer him a drink. He takes it without hesitation.
I am weary from the trip and the excess sunlight. The sun seems to wear on me now. I believe I will miss it’s welcoming and rejuvenating rays. Now only blood reinvigorates me.
Inside the inn I sense a human with unique blood. It calls to me, but she is awake and wandering the inn, engaging in an argument with the man behind the counter. He has something in his blood, too. But it isn’t alluring or enticing.
My sleep is restless, devoid of dreams and wants and desires. I arise and leave the inn. Outside the sun stings my eyes, and I instinctively search for shade.
The blacksmith is an intriguing person. He's passionate about his daughter and often bickers with his wife. He doesn’t tell me this but I know anyway.
I leave town, and head west. Not far, I notice a mine. Bandits inhabit this mine. And I am hungry.
The bandits at Silent Moons Camp are no match for my growing power. I dispatch them rather easily. New forms of magic arise within me and I use it to take them down. I’m sneaky, quiet, and bloodthirsty. Somehow I can even will myself to be unseen. My mother used to say powerful mages could bend light and become invisible. Somehow I can do this. It is intoxicating. Enrapturing!
I leave the broken and battered and drained bodies behind and head for a walled city. I believe the community is Whiterun, the most well-known location in all of Skyrim. This is most likely because of it’s central location within the province. The mild weather and wide-open landscape is also a deciding factor.
Whiterun reminds me of home. I grew up in Northpoint. My father fished the Etheric Ocean and my mother was a trader (selling my father’s catch most of the time). Seven years ago they died at the hands of some thugs from Evermore. The bandits were hired by a rival fisherman. They stole everything not fastened down and torched the rest, including my parents. Only their teeth remained after the fire finally snuffed out. After that, I left. Not knowing where I was going, but wherever it was would be okay as long as it was a long way away.
Two guards stand on either side of the large doors. Their blood calls to me but I resist. I wonder if my control is accidental from recent feedings or if I can manage my thirst more now? They do not speak or stop me, and I’m allowed to enter unmolested.
Inside, a man and woman are having a heated discussion, and although I’m not close to them, I can hear each word. I approach just as the conversation ends. The man in Imperial armor asks me something random. His heartbeat is all I can clearly make out. It’s powerful and steady. He is a strong human. I answer his question without ever hearing it. My reply pleases him. I wonder if he can feel that I now have control. I watch as he walks away.
There are more heartbeats. All around me. Within me. The hunger begins to grow. A small bunkhouse to my left has three guards within. I don’t know how I feel this. I enter and feed on the two sleeping men. A third man sits, he’s the watchman. I need him. Want him. Want, want, want!
He suddenly stands, dazed, entranced. I take the risk and feed while he is unaware. Then, as starkly as he stood and offered himself to me, he sits back in his chair—none the wiser.
I leave and head directly to the guardhouse. I seem to know exactly where I’m headed. An unseen power guiding me along the cobblestone to where more guards slumber. I’m getting bolder.
I regained consciousness slowly as if swimming up from a depth in dark, murky water. I’m confused, my memories no longer cohesive but a scattering of visions. I saw a man. Attractive and alluring. His eyes (a strange reddish hue?) seemed to have gripped me so powerfully and debilitatingly I couldn’t move nor resist. But did I want to? I felt no fear. Rather…curiosity? Was that it? Was I curios? And if so, why?
The cavern? cave? dungeon? was dark. A woman mumbled something I didn’t or couldn’t fully comprehend. I heard a sound behind me. A creaky, racketing sound. Fear had gripped me then.
I looked down and saw I was in new clothing. Gloves with sharp, pointed tips, a red gown, low cut, barely covered breasts, and dark boots.
Pain rippled through me and I felt a hunger unlike anything I had before. I smelled something I would place within death, maybe the stench of…draugrs? I’d heard stories of the bone-walkers as a child, but waved away the stories of them as tales to keep children away from the tombs and crypts.
The stone corridor was narrow with only one torch hung on the wall for light. I rounded the corner and saw a man. His skin was pale. He paced. A cage (torture chamber?) nestled against the opposite wall. Next to it appeared to be a dead female bandit. But why wasn’t she in the cage? Moreover, why was she here at all? Did she sneak in to steal? And if so, how did she get by the woman who was mumbling?
I approached the man. He said something that chilled me. I needed to get out. To escape! I took whatever I could and made a break for it.
Back into the cavern, I saw what appeared to be living skeletons. Not draugr, but actual skeletons standing and wandering around, making a creaking noise. Then woman saw me but didn’t accost me or attempt to keep me from leaving as I approached the exit to the cave. I”m felt certain it was a cave now.
I wondered if leaving would make me free. Or would I become a slave to something else? And if so, what?
Winterhold. A broken village in the north. Two buildings have been destroyed and still stand with their skeletons exposed. Off in the distance a man and woman are fighting over his drinking. He mentions the college. I can only assume he’s referring to the College of Winterhold. That’s where I must go.
Sven trails behind me. As a good servant should. A steep ramp leads to the College. During our approach I notice a crumbling walkway overlooking a long drop to the water below. There must be some history here that I’m unaware of. Or just don’t care to remember.
A woman elf stands watch at the first platform. The Eye of Magnus engraved in the stonework behind her. She stopped me and asked questions. I hardly heard her and gave some lame response. She agreed to let me pass as though I gave the correct answer. I think any answer would’ve been correct.
She hands me off to a Breton who promptly tells me about the college. She commented about how many new students there are but I see none. Fellow students aren’t why I went to the College of Winterhold anyway.
After the ra-ra speech from the Breton, I rushed away to meet up with a mage who specializes in Restoration magic. If I understand correctly, there's a special ability Restoration mages have that I could put to good use.
The Restoration instructor is annoying. She’s constantly complaining about how she's treated although I never once seen her interact with colleagues. Maybe it’s her that’s the problem.
I paid for several training sessions before leaving with Sven in tow.
Am I fleeing from some court intrigue? That’s what the Imperial soldier asked me. As if he might know what goes on in the rest of the world. What with the increasing decay of Skyrim due to the growing animosity between the locals and the Empire. Of course that countrywide fracture was nearly knitted back together as the Imperials hand the Bear of Markarth in bindings. Still, that Imperial soldier was much closer to the truth than he knows. Best to avoid him for now.
Then that black dragon showed up. Of course stories of dragons have always been told, but as everyone else had done, I dismissed them as folktales to frighten children. Now, though, it appears they are real. No matter, its appearance garnered me freedom. I suppose I owe that dragon.
The blond Nord said something interesting just before cutting me loose. He said something about the harbinger of the end times. That struck me in a familiar way. I can’t quite put my finger on it, though. I’m certain I have heard that before. But where? Or when?
Riverwood. A small village with a mill and blacksmith. A tiny general store. A bed and bar.
And Sven. A simpleton bard. He will do nicely. Or the wood elf. Nah. The bard.
First order of business: this character—Kylie—and her weaponry was created using mods available on Xbox 1 for Fallout 4. The character’s look, apparel, and weapons won’t be available on all platforms.
That being said, the Solar Canon is available for all platforms as it comes from the Creation Club. For anyone not familiar with the Creation Club, it’s a downloadable product available from Bethesda that works as a substitute for in-game microtransactions. The DLCs (I use the term loosely) are purchased with real money unless they’re specifically offered for free of a period of time.
As I mentioned in the video, I believe the writing is poorly executed. And I’m not sure the story itself is well articulated. A bit more time—and a proper editing—would have done wonders for this quest.
Overall, I don’t think this purchased content is worth your money, even if you’re a weapons hoarder. Wait for sale or free. There are enough base game weapons that are more than equal (several excelling) to this purchasable content.
Unlike many people using mods to play Skyrim, I only use a small handful. And some of those are completely convenience mods. Some mods just allow me to continue growing my characters without the need to declare skills legendary, and they let me build more rounded characters, but they certainly aren’t needed so I won’t include them here.
To be fair some of the mods I am going to share aren’t necessarily must-haves but the do make the game more enjoyable from my standpoint. And essentially that’s all this post offers: my experience with the mods I use and what they might offer you in turn. Now, keep in mind some of these mods may be viewed by you as cheats and that’s fair. But since this is a single player game you’re free to do whatever you want and only have the right to judge yourself.
Anyway, enough disclaimer jumbo-jumbo and let’s get to the mods, which may or may not be available on the platform you play on. I’m on Xbox One X.
The mod I use to make the environment more better (ha ha) is Dolomite Weathers and Lighting Overhaul by Megaloblast. A significantly darker evening requiring artificial light, more intense rainstorms, and different weather options. I’ll also include the A Quality World Map-Vivid with Stone Roads by Chesko. This is simple, it makes the map readable. And finally Dawnguard Map Markers by Arthmoor. This adds markers to nearly all Dawnguard related maps like the Soul Cairn and Forgotten Vale.
Now onto the gameplay mods. Immersive Citizens by Arnaud.dorchymont, which allows you to hear cut dialog and keep all your NPCs alive as you can set them to flee from danger and not attack you when you’re rampaging guards as a werewolf. Immersive Patrols by Ameermohamedtt. This just adds various patrols throughout Skyrim, which may or may not be hostile. It also adds civil war battles in various locations and forts, which is a great boost to build your skills in my next gameplay mod: Moonlight Tales by Brevi 11. If you want to play as a werewolf this is fantastic. More werewolf perks and skins (even werebears but the skins are the only differences), the ability to be a werewolf right out of Helgen, the ability to cure lycanthropy at any time, the ability to set involuntary werewolf transformations, and the ability to summon blood kin (werewolves and/or wolves) to aid you in combat. I do not believe this mod is available for PS4 users. The mod Werewolf Perks Expanded does offer some additional perks to the beast form though. Moving on to Alchemist Respite, which is a small mod that changes the weight of potions from .5 to .1. Next up is Stones of Barenziah quest markers. This mod flags each location for all 24 gems except the on inside the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. And finally my favorite mod for gameplay: Complete Smithing by ThordTV. A simple but exceptionally useful smithing mod. It completely overhauls smithing after Steel smithing. With this mod you no longer have to choose heavy or light as they are combined as you go. So Elven and Dwarven are level 30, Orchish and Advanced at level 50, Arcane and Faction (allows crafting of unenchanted faction clothing like Thieves Guild and Nightingale armor), Glass and Ebony at level 70, Daedric and Dragon at level 100 and Orsinic (higher quality lower-level armor using dragon bones) also at level 100. The mod also grants XP for turning hides into leather and ore into ingots.
Onto character creation. Unfortunately most of these won’t be available on PS4. Better Males by Alaan, Apachii Sky Hair Lite by Apachii, CBBE Body Slim from Jeir, and the superb clothing mod from Jeir: Keo’s Skimpy Outfits for CBBE Slim. Just go with the Forsworn Armor set and avoid the Nightingale armor. Most armor sets are changed to two piece and not one. Thieves Guild Armor, fur armor, elven armor are all tops with skirts. Is it realistic? Of course not. But neither is wearing glass against a warhammer or battleaxe.
Short and sweet. I’ll give my thoughts on the best Creation Club content I’ve purchased in the next post.
On my very first playthrough of Fallout 4, I maxed my Charisma as soon as possible. Truth is I believed Charisma was the best attribute in Fallout 4. Thousands on hours later it still is essential for all my play throughs. Without good Charisma you possibly leave a lot of experience points on the table. I recently earned 100 XP for a Charisma check with a sniper build. That’s a huge amount. But anyway enough of my gaming history and onto the breakdown of the perks in the Charisma attribute.
Tier 1 is Cap Collector. If you aren’t building settlements this perk isn’t all that necessary. Although the first two ranks give you a significant price discount over any other option it’s true value is in the settlement building as you must have the first two ranks to build stores at settlements. The third rank, which grants you the ability to invest caps in shops is a pass. You’ll have plenty of shops built at each settlement to sell all you loot. If you aren’t building settlements and still want the caps, you’re better off investing two perks in Fortune Finder under the Luck attribute.
Black Widow/Lady Killer perk is Tier 2. If you’ve built a female character this is a more useful perk as there are more male enemies than female and the bonus damage is nice. But it isn’t world beating, either. By the end game when this perk shows its most usefulness in combat, your weapons will be plenty powerful enough. The other benefit come from Charisma checks as it’s easier to convince the opposite sex and the Intimidation perk is more successful. Perk points best allocated elsewhere.
The Tier 3 Lone Wanderer Perk is the premier perk under Charisma and one of the best perks in the game. Let’s face it, companions are stealth killers and at best are poor shots and have little use in combat, except an overhauled Codsworth or Ada, both of whom can be devastating in combat and have a high carry weight. With the Lone Wanderer Perk you get a significant boost to carry weight +100 with rank 2, outdoing Stongback by 50. At rank 3 you also inflict 25% more damage while taking 30% less damage. And with rank 4, with the Far Harbor DLC, you get an addition 25 action points, a good bonus for V.A.T.S. users. And if you need to carry more loot bring Dogmeat along as he doesn’t count against the Lone Wanderer perk.
Speaking of Dogmeat, the Attack Dog perk can be had at Tier 4. The perks sound good but they really aren’t worth the investment unless Dogmeat is integral to your play through. Holding an enemy, maybe crippling a limb, and causing bleed damage isn’t likely worth the perk points as there are far better damage multipliers available. Give these a pass unless Dogmeat is with for the entire play through.
Tier 5 brings Animal Friend into the mix. You can pacify, incite to attack, or give specific commands to animals of the Wasteland. Other than provide to comic relief by bringing in a bloatfly to cause chaos, these aren’t worth the points. Easier to just kill the animals and the raiders. Maybe a Beastemaster-style play through is worth it or building arenas but honestly it’s more gimmick than useful.
Local Leader at Tier 6 is primarily for settlement building. You’ll need both ranks to combine with Cap Collector to buildshops, it only one rank to create supply lines and be able to build workstations in every settlement, which is beneficial as you can stop anywhere to improve armor or weapons, cookfood or make chems negating the need to always go to Sanctuary or Red Rocket or the Castle.
Like to drink? Well, the Partyboy/girl perk at Tier 7 is for you. This is actually a great perk for a variety of builds, especially and melee character as you can get even more strength by consuming alcohol. Plus your Luck goes up, and if you’re running a low Intelligence build with the Idiot Savant Perk, you can imbibe before turning in quests to 8mprove the chance of your XP multiplier. It’s a high investment into Charisma but probably a worthy set of perks.
The Inspirational perk at Tier 8 is mostly a pass. Yes it prevents you from harming your companions and them from harming you, but are companions worththis very high investment in Charisma to get? Since you’re far better off with the Lone Wanderer Perk, I would say no. Unless you already have high Charisma adding points to get here and then take these perks isn’t a great option.
Tier 9 and 10 are essentially identical to Animal Friend only they apply to wasteland creatures and people. Now maybe having a pet deathclaw is your thing or having arena fights with humans, creatures, and animals is also your thing. Either way these aren't worth getting until later in the game for any reason other than role-playing. Of course I'm going to be hypocritical under the Intelligence attribute in the next post as it has an option just like these only for robots.
Being able to manipulate others and have them do your bidding can be a fun and entertaining option, but the real strength in Charisma is the ability to dig out additional information and earn XP while doing it. I mean it is equally fun to squeeze more caps out of the tightwad residents of Diamond City. And, of course, the settlement system isn't fully optimized without the appropriate Charisma perks to make it happen.
Endurance is the next S.P.E.C.A.L. attribute on the list and it's the most polarizing of all the attributes. Not because it's always argued as one of the worst or best attributes, it's clearly one of the best, but rather because all the perks associated with Endurance are unnecessary. I'll do my best to give a decent argument for some of the perks but none of the perks are absolutely worth early investment unless that's how you're building your character. No more delay...
Tier 1 you'll find the Toughness perk. This perk grants you +10 to your damage avoidance for a total of +50 if you get all the perks. Much like the Refractor perk from Perception, the additional damage resistance is attached permanently to the character in or out of armor. So you could run around in your skivvies and have 50 damage resistance. Good enough for the Corvega raiders but not for the Quincy gunners. All that being said, if you were to play using only the Silver Shroud costume, the plus 50 damage resistance will go along way toward beefing up your armor as the cap of the Silver Shroud costume is in the 80s. And unless you use a mod the Silver Shroud costume cannot be upgraded at a armor bench. So be sure to keep Kent alive and compete the Silver Shroud quest line before level 45 or you'll wait for level 100 to maximize your armor. (Note: The Refractor perk would also be of great benefit it only using Silver Shroud costume for your play through.)
The Lead Belly perk plumps down at Tier 2 Endurance. Aside from survival difficulty I can't see any reason to pick these perks unless you have nothing else to pick. Aside from the early stages of the game, radiation isn't a problem. You'll end up having so much RadAway in your inventory you can clear up a good 10-15 encumbrance by storing or selling RadAway. Besides, cooking foods removes the radiation anyway, and unless you're eating fruits (why bother?) just take cooked food along and use some of the over-abundance of RadAway.
Life Giver perk at Tier 3 is another you could easily pass on. Although the final perk carries an additional benefit of slowly regenerating your health when not in combat it's still probably worth a pass unless in survival mode. That's three perk points you could spend elsewhere and reap more benefits than +60 health and health regeneration. In fact, the final perk in Endurance gives additional boosts the Life Giver perk doesn't. Plus you'll already be getting maximum health by having 10 Endurance. Or maybe invest more into Smithing and negate more damage.
Chem Resistant is the first perk in Endurance that is worth a close look and it comes at Tier 4 and only has 2 levels, which can be achieved at level 22. You earn a 50% resistance to addiction to all chems, including Med-X, and then complete immunity to chem addiction. I will give one caveat to this perk, Refreshing Beverage. The Refreshing Beverage you can craft at a chem station will completely cure all addictions plus remove 1000 rads and restore your health. It's actually the best medical aid you can carry because you have nearly zero wait time for you rads and health to be restored, but it's heavy. Still, the weight of a couple of bottles of Refreshing Beverage might be worth it instead of using two perk points on Chem Resistant.
Tier 5 grants us the ability to use the waterways as a means of travel without drowning and taking radiation damage from water. This is the Aquaboy/girl perk. This is one of my must have perks. Not because you need it, as you certainly don't, but there are enough areas in the base game where water is available to explore or peaceful travel, and Far Harbor even more so, I find this perk invaluable. I don't have to carry extra radiation meds, I don't need the Rescue Diver Suit or a Hazmat suit. Although those options are more than acceptable, they all carry weight to them and for that reason I always pick up the first rank of this perk. To me it's worth one perk point.
Rad Resistant at Tier 6. Much like Toughness and Refractor this perk just gives the player character up to +40 radiation resistance if you have the Far Harbor DLC, and like those previously mentioned perks it offers little value for the high cost. Refreshing Beverage, RadAway, RadX, Baked Bloatfly only cost encumbrance. I would argue for it's value with ballistic weave armor if armor pieces can't be added or the Silver Shroud costume. Otherwise this perk is another skip. And a pro tip for reducing radiation in Far Harbor: stay off the main roads as that's where you'll encounter the most fog. Go cross country to avoid the clickety-clack of the giger counter.
A fairly legitimate perk comes in at Tier 7 with the Adamantium Skeleton perk. If you take all three perks your limb damage goes away permenantly except from fall damage from high elevation, but instead of dying (depending how high the fall is) you'll just break a limb. This also means explosives and explosive turrets do no limb damage as well. A decent investment under Endurance as it's the only way outside of power armor to negate limb damage.
Cannibal takes a bite out of the eighth spot in Endurance. This perk is a complete pass. As it suggests feeding on humans, ghouls, and Super Mutants will restore health. Just use a Stimpak and RadAway. One of the worst perks in the game.
The Ghoulish perk at Tier 9 is another pass unless you are building a radiation based character or plan on using the Assaultron head from Automatron. The early ranks allows radiation to restore lost health. Later feral ghouls may randomly become friendly. Not worth it as you can just kill the ghouls for XP and spend more perks points on better perks.
Finally, we get to Tier 10 and maybe the best perk in the Endurance attribute. Solar Powered is a situational perk like Night Person but instead of increasing Perception and Intelligence you get a boost to Strength and Endurance, plus 2 for each. So for a melee character this is wonderful as you inflict more damage and can take more from six in the morning to six in the evening. Maybe you're building a hybrid character who snipes at night and goes hand to hand during the day. Rank 2 will slowly heal radiation damage and rank 3 regenerates your health, maybe negating the need for Life Giver. Plus you get additional health during the daytime hours with the +2 to Endurance.
A few closing thoughts on Endurance. The higher your Endurance the less action point cost for sprinting, the more health you get each time you level up as well. Maybe a good character build would be a melee or unarmed character with 10 Strength and Endurance combined with the Chem Resistant perks and Solar Powered perks. With that combination and basic perk investment not including clothing you could have 12 Strength and Endurance during daylight hours and you could take all the Jet and Psychobuff you wanted and be able to knock down the Mass Fusion building with one swing of Grognak's Axe.
Welcome back to the blog. In this post I’m going to provide an argument for choosing light armor over heavy armor for all character builds aside from one. Now I realize this concept will go against popular sentiment but once the information is fully broken down I think you’ll agree my argument for light armor is more than valid.
I won’t actually be covering any true mage builds in this post because I haven’t spent enough time working on mage only characters. I’m not a fan of magicka-focused builds. I enjoy magicka but it’s far from a first choice and has thus far only been supplemental.
The most important aspect of armor we need to get out there straight away is the game’s armor cap. This number represents the most damage resistance a player’s character can withstand. And that number is 85% damage resistant. This figures out to 567 armor rating in total. What this means is your super powerful Dark Brotherhood armor set with 1,200 armor rating is only good for 567 armor. With the introduction of dragonplate (heavy) and dragonscale (light) armor with the Dawnguard DLC you can reach the armor cap with both light and heavy armor and light armor is within shouting distance of heavy armor in overall armor rating.
After doing a bit of digging and mathematics I came up with the base armor ratings of both Dragonplate and Dragonscale armor. The final numbers include double improvement and the 50% bonus from the combined Well Fitted and Matching Set perks available in both the heavy armor and light armor skill constellations, which are called Deft Movement and Unhindered. The Dragonplate (heavy) armor went over the armor rating maximum with an overall rating of 612. The Dragonscale (light) was below the armor cap with a 492 rating. Now, looking at these numbers you might say, “See the proof is in the pudding. Heavy armor eclipses the armor cap and guarantees I have the most damage resistance available and the light armor doesn’t.” Of course you are correct by saying this. And if you were not using any enchanting or potions in your gameplay then heavy armor would be more beneficial than light. But, I have one more card to flip over: The Dragonscale Armor misses the rating cap by 75 points. This seems like a lofty number but it actually isn’t all that lofty. With a weak blacksmith potion or a weak smithing piece of apparel (20%) the Dragonscale armor also eclipses armor cap at 590. And a potion of only 15% brings it to 565. So for the armor cap each type of armor, heavy or light, will easily reach 567.
Now that we’ve witnessed light armor being equally protective as heavy armor it’s time to explore the perk constellations for each set. There’s a significant detail that I can’t leave out. If you’re using the Guardian Stones to improve your character be aware heavy armor is under the Warrior Stone while light armor is under the Thief Stone. I always recommend using the Thief Stone as it boosts the only skill you can always improve, in or out of combat, which makes it invaluable for leveling your character and that’s the Sneak skill. As long as you’re in sneak mode and undetected your character continually levels up just by exploring Skyrim. You can also use the Illusion spell Muffle to level your character while outside of combat or the Alteration spell Transmute. But neither are as beneficial as Sneak.
I’ll start with the Heavy Armor constellation. I’m only focusing on non-armor rating improvement perks. It’s fairly obvious to use rating boosts so there’s no need to discuss those. Aside from the Juggernaut, Well Fitted, and Matching Set perks, you’ll find Unarmed, Conditioning, Reflect Blows, Tower of Strength, and Cushioned. You’ll find versions of Conditioning and Reflect Blows in the light armor constellation so I will discuss those with light armor. As for the other perks, two have benefits while one is practically useless. Unarmed and Tower of Strength are the beneficial perks that are specific to heavy armor. Unarmed will do the armor rating in damage, which is awesome, but is only needed for an unarmed build. You should never lose a brawl. Tower of Strength reduces stagger from incoming attacks by 50%. Another great perk but not necessarily all that special. You will better off by blocking the attack, or better yet, using a shield. I can promise you getting hit with Ebony arrows will cause a stagger with this perk. As for the most useless perk in heavy armor we find Cushioned. This perk reduces fall damage by 50%. If you’re jumping from any location far enough to take fall damage you need more than this perk. You can walk straight down a cliff face or use the Become Ethereal shout and leap off anything.
Let’s move on to the Light Armor perks constellation. Like heavy armor, the Reflect Blows and Conditioning perks are available but with different names, Deft Movement replaces Reflect Blows, both giving a 10% of taking no melee damage, and Unhindered replaces Conditioning, which makes armor weigh nothing and not slow you down. Conditioning is more valuable in terms of more encumbrance freed up as heavy armor has significantly more weight. A full set of Dragonbone Armor tipping the scales at 64 encumbrance whereas a full set of Dragonscale weighs in at 20 encumbrance. Now onto the other Light Armor perks and I’ll save the best perk, which also tips the scales to light armor being superior to heavy armor for last, which is the only other perk available for light armor. Light armor has 10 perks in the constellation and heavy has 12. So for the final perk left we will find Wind Walker. The Wind Walker perks grants the character the ability to regenerate stamina 50% faster. At face value this perk doesn’t look so special but hear me out.
Stamina may actually be more important than health. Stamina is used for sprinting, bashing, slowing time in archery, and power attacks. It’s also used for getting out of the way of giants and mammoths bearing down on you at level ten. Or maybe you use it to quickly avoid a fire/frost-breathing dragon. No matter what the reason stamina is critical for survival. So having the ability to regenerate stamina without enchanted armor or jewelry is invaluable. You won’t need to carry stamina potions or waste an enchantment slot of stamina regeneration or even carry supremely heavy food items like vegetable or beef stew (both regenerate stamina). If you recall the heavy armor perk Tower of Strength reduces stagger by 50%. But what if you could just close that gap against the archers and, using that stamina, perform a sprinting attack that staggers them instead. And with your stamina regenerating so quickly, you can follow up the sprint attack with another power attack. So long archers. And this is even better against mages as they typically have no armor.
In my two-handed build I used heavy armor for a long time but ended up switching over to light armor because of the stamina regeneration perk Wind Walker. I still used a stamina enchantment slot for an additional 35% stamina regeneration which basically makes me completely unstoppable in pitched battle. Using the Sweep perk in the two-handed skill, which requires stamina, gives me the ability to attack multiple foes while avoiding damage at the same time. And with my stamina regeneration at 85% these attacks are back to back to back to back.
In summary, we know light armor is equal to heavy in terms of overall protection from damage—with a little help. We know the unique perks in heavy armor are very specialized and often unnecessary or not too useful. We know that light armor requires two fewer perks to fill out and you get to ultra beneficial Wind Walker perk, which regenerates the all-important stamina at a 50% faster clip.
So the next character you build, be it a two-handed, one-handed, dual-wielding, or sword and shield, would you still opt for the ever popular heavy armor or consider the better option light armor?
In the world of Fallout 4 many of the weapons available to the player have roots in the real world players inhabit. But before I get into these real-world counterparts of those in the fictional world of Fallout 4 let me make something perfectly clear: Fallout 4 is a video game. Period. End of story. In addition, I'm not going to get militant about Bethesda not portraying the firearms in Fallout 4 accurately to the real life versions. I'm merely going to point out a few minor flaws. In doing this there needs to be an understanding: assumptions will be made. If you, reader, can keep that in mind things will go a lot smoother. And lastly, I'm not going to get into the science fiction weapons or experimental weapons in the game. These posts will be solely about standard cap-and-ball firearms.
In real life I have many of the firearms represented in the Fallout 4 universe. I may not have the exact caliber, or more appropriately, cartridge of those offered in Fallout 4 but I have similar rifle “actions” as portrayed in the Commonwealth. For this post, I'll be focusing of the rifles. I'll save the pistols and handguns for another post. So we will be exploring bolt-action, lever-action, and semi-automatic versions of the game’s rifles and how they relate or compare to the actual versions I own.
For the purposes of this post, I'm going to use the .308 rifle as the baseline. In relation to Fallout 4, assumptions need to be made immediately as the game doesn't identify the exact .308 cartridge. So, I'll be going with the assumption the game refers to the .308 Winchester (there are several rifle cartridges with .308 as a prefix but none are as popular as the .308 Winchester), which is nearly identical to the 7.62 NATO or 7.62mmX51mm. To be clear the 7.62 NATO is not the same as the Handmade 7.62 you'll find in Nuka World but I'll get more into this a bit later. For now I'll focus on the .308 bolt-action rifle.
The .308 Winchester was released to the public in 1954, three years earlier than its cousin cartridge the 7.62 NATO would be adopted by the U.S. military. But that doesn't mean the .308 came before the NATO version. In the 1940s experiments had already begun to improve on the venerable.30-06 cartridge. So Frankford Arsenal began experimenting with a smaller .30 caliber cartridge—the .300 Savage and ended up with the 7.62 NATO, which was smaller than the .30-06 and nearly as powerful with light bullets. This adaptation led to a shorter action and lighter weapon. Now I mentioned the .308 Winchester and the 7.62 NATO where cousins but they're more like fraternal twins. I won't go into all details in this post. If you're interested in the differences post the question in the comments.
Now that I've thoroughly confused you, I'll get back to the game. The .308 is the first traditional bolt-action rifle you'll encounter in Fallout 4. I say traditional because pipe rifles are not traditional and won't be covered with any depth in these posts. Pipe rifles are more related to zip guns than true firearms and that's where I'll leave that. You can easily find a .308 bolt-action rifle, which will be more powerful than any other versions in the early stages of Fallout 4, at Walden Pond. One of the raiders nearest the sewer entrance will have a hunting rifle in .308. Not far from Walden Pond you may come across a broken section of highway with a few Gunners, one of which may have a full .308 sniper rifle.
So what about these snafus you're asking? Well, the first and most obvious snafu is the bolt handle on bolt-action rifles. For me, this was an obvious mistake or oversight and I'm leaning to oversight. Your character shoots right handed. Pistols, revolvers, rifles, sledgehammers, all weapons are active from a right handed person perspective. The trouble exists with the bolt handle being on the left side. I won't say this doesn't happen, but it's rare and typically seen with customized rifles, or left-handed models. This flaw or oversight also exists with both the lever-action and semi-automatic rifles. With the lever-action, the ammunition is fed in from the wrong side. For the semi-automatics the bolt handle is on the wrong side. I say this is an oversight because in Fallout New Vegas the lever-action loading gate is on the correct side. I suppose this could have been done on purpose to create a more immersive feel by watching the character perform more visualized actions, but I think it's a mistake by Bethesda.
Next I'll explore damage. In the Fallout 4 world the .308 is the least powerful of the non-semi-automatic rifles. Both the Handmade 7.62 and the .45-70 are more powerful, but this isn't true in the real world. As a reminder, I'm not including pipe guns that would include the .45 pipe revolver rifle. These errors go from bad to downright awful. Let's use the .50 caliber rifle as an example of downright awful. Again, we aren't given the actual nomenclature of the .50 caliber rifle, but assuming it’s related to real-world rifles, we can rightly guess it's the 50 BMG. I can assure you that all three of the smaller caliber rifles combined cannot match the power of the 50 BMG. But within the fantasy of the Fallout world the .50 sniper is only slightly more powerful than the .308. To me this is an egregious error, not as much as the power of the .44 revolver, though. I just need to remind myself that it is ONLY a game. I don't want to mire you down with all the ballistics within the post. So if you are interested, and prefer to see proof instead of just my world, then leave a question in the comments.
A small bit on the Handmade 7.62 and how it relates to the .308. Given what we know of the Handmade 7.62, it is safe to assume it’s based on the Alexander Kalashnikov rifle of 1947, aka AK-47. Another popular rifle using the same ammunition is the SKS. The 7.62mmX39mm doesn't share the same diameter projectile as the 7.62 NATO, although it still falls into the .30 caliber family. This is also a rather complicated section on real-world rifles and nomenclature so I'll save it for the comments. Inside a rifled barrel are lands and grooves. These lands and grooves are what provides the sealing surfaces and the twists as the projectile leaves the chamber, travels down the barrel, and exits the muzzle. The 7.62mm or .300 inches is the diameter of the lands in the barrel, whereas the groove diameter is 7.82mm or .308 inches. From this I can show you the difference with the 7.62X39. The projectile of the 7.62X39 is .312 inches. The lands of the barrel is still .300 but the grooves will be different at .312.
Now that this post has come to an end, I'm asking myself what it was actually about. So I feel your pain if you are asking the same question. That being said, I'll be doing a post of the handguns of Fallout 4 and where I feel things are off kilter.
I'm not even sure where to start with Dear Esther: Landmark Edition. Normally I would give a little background information followed by a breakdown of the game as I responded to it. The trouble with Dear Esther is it isn't much of a game in terms of gameplay. Quite honestly there isn't any gameplay—walk, zoom, and look is it. But there is one thing Dear Esther does well and I'll get to that in a moment.
Dear Esther was developed by The Chinese Room and published in 2008 as a free to play mod. Then republished in 2012 for PC and Mac and 2013 for Linux by The Chinese Room. And published by Curved Digital for PS4 and Xbox 1in 2016. It's a first-person, story-driven game. Sort of. At least in terms of story-driven.
Throughout the game a narrator appears and maps out the history of a killed spouse to the audience via letters written by the husband of the deceased. The letters loosely imply the character’s wife was killed in an auto accident, but it's soon muddled by some back story of other island inhabitants, and the drunk driver.
The story of the prior inhabitants and the death of the character’s wife soon becomes white noise, though. And I found it to have been disruptive more than inclusive, and the reason why is because of what the game does exceptionally.
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is a visual orgasm. The images are so real and lifelike, and the environment so believable, I quickly found myself shivering with the gusts of wind, hunching my shoulders over against the sea spray, and the chill of the caves that are explored within the game. At one point you explore a wrecked and decayed ship. As you walk through you feel immersed in the ribs of the broken ship and the emptiness of its cavity.
Although the game had a completely immersive environment, I could easily see people putting the game down and never returning to it, and that's in spite of its incredibly short story (I finished the game in an hour and twenty minutes, which could've easily been an hour had I not stopped for screenshots).
I would be hard pressed to say the game has replay qualities. One time through is more than enough. So be sure to take all the screenshots the first time.
As many people are well aware of the complete mess that followed the release of No Man’s Sky, I am going to explain why it isn’t the worse game release this year. That dubious title belongs to NBA2K17. To be fair, I’m ONLY referring to the MyCareer game mode in 2K. I have no experience with online games with other users, but from what I’ve gathered from players who do play online with other humans the problems there are just as troublesome.
For those not fully aware of the situation with No Man’s Sky, I suggest you look up all the nastiness surrounding the game. For me, I didn’t find the game to be all that entertaining. There simply wasn’t enough accomplishment to justify all the grinding to reach accomplishments. A vicious cycle of bad, bad, bad. For many other gamers who had followed the extended timeline of NMS (all along their expectations growing exponentially with each video release) the game failed miserably to meet perceived promises. Many consumers of NMS railed endlessly about how they believed the game was falsely advertised. Again, I wasn’t aboard the hype-train so I can’t make a reasonable comment about the game being guilty of false advertisement. In addition to the “false advertisement” the game dropped with several glitches and bugs, some involved the pre-order goodies. And as the world bore down on NMS, the game developers went dark. This only fueled the fire and suddenly it seemed as though the purchasers of No Man’s Sky were on a witch-hunt. But...there is a game release that has been far worse.
I’ll share some of my gaming experience with the NBA2K franchise so you all can get a better feel, and ultimately decide if I have the qualifications to explain all that has been and is wrong with NBA2K17.
I started playing the NBA2K franchise with the NBA2K16 release. I picked up 2K16 a month or two before the release of 2K17 to get a feel for the game. The storyline in 2K16 was terrible but the gameplay seemed to be good. Buying the game late, I didn’t have to suffer with all the glitches and bugs that apparently hampered the game upon it’s release. Now, hold onto that statement as you are about to see a pattern develop. Anyway, I enjoyed 2K16 enough to download 2K17 Prelude, which was an enormous waste of time—thankfully it was free. And 2K17 had some significant changes over the previous year’s release. A new shot meter and new player archetypes, which I’ll discuss a bit later. Some new play-calling functions that aren’t even worth the effort to figure out. And a new storyline, which up to that point, was far better than the 2K16 release. So, overall a step forward. But then the other shoe drops.
And this is where shit gets real.
I’ll begin with the new player archetypes. Now again, this review relates to the MyCareer mode. When starting a new MyCareer you are prompted to pick a player position, point guard, small forward, center, whatever. Then you are forced to pick an archetype. And at first blush it seems like a good idea. I can pick a playmaker point guard or a slasher small forward. Maybe a post up power forward. But this initially great idea quickly turns into a player who ends up constrained to the archetype. I’ll use the slasher archetype as an example. According to 2K a slasher is a player who excels at making layups and dunks, can shoot off the dribble, and has some reasonable skill as a post player. A slasher can’t shoot threes, can’t make plays for others, and is only a marginal midrange shooter. Now, I’m not sure how they came up with the qualities for each archetype but they obviously never watched Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen play. Yes, Jordan was a drive-the-lane first player, but he was excellent off the dribble and in the midrange. And he proved in the finals he could shoot the three by making ten in a game. And although Pippen wasn’t as consistent a scorer as Jordan, he was a great player with all of Jordan’s abilities plus a great playmaker. And the slasher archetype isn’t a top flight defender. Again, I refer to Jordan and Pippen. There are several archetypes available and I could easily find players who clearly fit the mold but are also excellent at the positions 2K believes they aren’t. Flaw number one, but only a minor annoyance.
The real trouble, and a major annoyance, is the game play. It’s supposedly smoother and allows for more user control, specifically for dribble moves. In previous versions the dribble moves were animations the game picked for you based on a series of circumstances. But I can assure you the gameplay, if it is indeed smoother, is bogged way down by animation locks. It constantly feels like the player is locked into an animation. And some of the animations don’t even look right. Often players appear to be “skating” to a spot or “skating” instead of dribbling. Skating as in on ice. But those are things you can get used to with a little gritting of the teeth. But the actual gameplay isn’t something that can be ignored…
Upon release the game default during transition offense was to rebound and give it to any player to start the break. This seldom happens in the NBA. You have a point guard for a reason. But that never mattered because the AI doesn’t know how to run transition offense. The basic premise of fastbreak offense is to get quick, easy baskets from high-percentage shots. How is this done? Start backward from the rim. It’s well documented that the closer to the basket you are the higher the chances of scoring points. But I’ll allow for leeway here and go with taking shots within the paint—twelve-foot shots or less. But at the launch of 2K17 all shooters not with the ball went straight to the corner three shooting area. This negates the high-percentage shot. It also prevents an outnumbered situation, which is also a major factor in transition offense. Easy buckets, high-percentage shots, outnumbered situations, and/or mismatches. So if you are on a 3 on 2 break and two guys set up at the three point line the fastbreak is squashed because it’s now a 2 on 1 transition defense situation. Sure you could dish it out and hope someone drains an open three but the odds are slim. And the longer the shot, the longer the rebound, and suddenly you went from a fastbreak to poor transition defense. Of course the thought is to put more threes in the the game because that’s the way the NBA game is shifting. And yes that’s true, but not in a fastbreak scenario. If there is an outnumbered situation in the painted area, that’s where the ball will go. If it’s a 2 on 2 in the paint and a trailer on the three point line you may see a kick out to the shooter. As a player, I wouldn’t have ever done that. Take your chances near the basket.
And there’s more. This game flaw pertains to both set offense and transition offense. The AI simply isn’t coded well enough to understand the player position on the court or mismatches. I can’t count how many times my big man is in perfect position at the rim, the defender under the basket, and upon receiving a pass for an easy score, the big man passes back out. This leads to the extremely flawed offensive three-second violation. Of course there is more going on within the painted area to cause a three-second violation. The AI is coded to prevent the player from traveling through the paint. This includes apparent holding from the defender. In one game I played during a baseline inbound play, the screener for the offense stayed inside the paint for 7 seconds. No call. A similar situation occurs during transition offense. It appears that the code is written in a way that once a certain amount of time has elapsed transition offense becomes set-offense, and this is accurate for the most part. When it isn’t accurate is during a wide open, uncontested shot being passed out. The AI simply doesn't take advantage of the opportunity. Instead it goes into set-offense mode, which can lead to a three-second call.
Still more. The shot-meter and Relentless Finisher bug. When the game was released it came with another bug or two. For some players the shot meter wouldn’t complete its cycle, forcing missed shots. The Relentless Finisher badge, which was designed to help boost the chances of making contested shots going to the basket, was also buggy. This badge was especially important to the slashers since layups and dunks were the main offensive attribute. See, the game grades you on you shot selection and shot timing. I’m sure you can deduce where this is going. If your shot meter doesn’t work, your shot timing will be off. The Relentless Finisher fuck-up would charge layups with poor shot choice. Poor shot selections impact your teammate score, which affects your game salary. At this point I’m certain that the game developers have never played basketball or watched basketball, or didn’t send the game to game testers who played or watched basketball.
Let’s go to the hot fixes. These were small patches designed to improve gameplay a little bit. Something they could download while you were playing the game. So, the braintrust at 2K decided that the best way to help players enjoy their fucked-up game was to apply a bandaid. Instead of actually fixing the shot meter issue, they made three-pointers easier. So somehow boosting three-point success percentage to the 80 plus-make mark was going to repair the disgruntled consumers. Of course it was two months later before they finally got around to fixing the Relentless Finisher badge. And when they did that they also “fixed” the fast break offense. Sure, they went from three pointers to no transition offense at all. And they practically patched the three pointer out of the game unless your player archetype is designed to shoot threes.
And these aren’t even all the problems. How about the magnetic defense or the player speed issue or the servers or the moving screen or that every patch and hot-fix isn’t an adjustment, it’s a complete one-eighty. I could go on and on but this post is already too long.
The most disturbing part of this is that developer Visual Concepts has been making this game for seventeen years. How the hell do these major game issues fall through the cracks? Visual Concepts and 2K Sports aren’t Hello Games. A person can expect an indie game to have flaws, but a big-time institution like 2K? Give me a break.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay, a blog dedicated to gaming. Ranging from first impressions to game reviews and a bunch of stuff in between. I’ll be sharing my first impressions of Life is Strange for the Xbox One.
I was browsing in Best Buy when I first came across this game. It might have even been mentioned by a friend but I can't recall for sure. Anyway, I grabbed the box and read the little blurb on the back. A young girl with the ability to rewind time. She saves someone and then must face the consequences of her actions. And this is throughout the game as each decision can affect the way things play out.
After an hour or so of play, I find myself more and more drawn into the game. There's a girl missing and a bunch of people connected to the girl, which leads to a huge suspect list. The more I play the more clues come to the surface. And, as one might expect, some of the potential perpetrators are simply too obvious for me to take as a serious suspect in the disappearance of a young art student. And there's an equal amount of suspects who are not obvious choices as kidnappers (and potentially murderers, although I don't know if the missing girl is dead yet) who I must take a closer look at.
The story is full of typical teenage drama surrounded by a mysterious disappearance and the introduction of an FNG (fucking new girl) not unlike many stories available we’ve all read about or watched in movies or television or even been an active participant.
Keep an eye out for my gameplay videos on YouTube as I unravel the mystery.
