Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Introduction

Skyrim is a massive place.

No, I mean, really big.

I have not yet seen all of Skyrim. I have 70+ hours on my first game ever played on it, and I still haven't been everywhere. I wish to see everything the world has to offer. And thus, this LP was born. However, we're not going to do vanilla stuff. Nah, I want a more immersive world. I want a world that is actually dangerous to traverse if you screw up. I want Skyrim to be an unforgiving mistress of pain and deal what she can to me.

I decided a Skyrim screenshot LP (let's play) would be pretty well for the medium, as then I could show you what I wanted, and not have to do tons of video editing.

I enjoy survival games. But I also want to do something other than survive. Skyrim has many mods that allow you to add some survival aspects to the game that feel very natural. I also love horses. I adore them. I especially love them when they make getting places very fast.

So by combining a few specific mods, I can make the love of these things come together in a very huge, very open world game.

Frostfall and Convenient Horses, and Alternate Start - Live Another Life, and Falskaar will allow me to do this. Edit as of 9/17/2014: I've also decided to add in Hunterborn, as my character will make his living off of hunting and traveling in the wild. This mod also requires Sky UI to function properly. Edit as of 9/18/2014: I've also added in Immersive Patrols and Inconsequential NPC's, just to give a regular buffed up feel to the people you can talk to and run across.

Frostfall gives just enough immersion to the game that it should have had from the start. Weather effects you, and you have tools to keep yourself warm and dry whenever possible when in the colder climate areas of the game.

Convenient Horses does exactly what it says on the tin. It makes horses a heck of a lot more useful and tweaks them to be less of a pain. This playthrough will be the first time using anything of this mod, so I hope it works out well.

Alternate Start - LAL also does what it says. Starts you off in a random location and allows you to get more invested in your character choice. As I will be roleplaying as my character, this will help me get in the mood instead of having to fit my character into that long opening sequence as a prisoner slated for execution.

Falskaar is just an extra quest and land to explore. I've not yet really looked at the land they've provided in depth, though from what I've seen and played, it looks fantastic. Something extra, you know, in case the 80+ hour game isn't long enough for you.

Added 9/17: Hunterborn will give a more immersive feel to hunting and butchering the animal. It will also work alongside the idea of Frostfall as I can pick up the carcass and carry it back to camp, as it does take time to butcher and skin. This will also have my meat output be larger than just one haunch of meat from a large deer.

Added 9/18: Inconsequential NPC's, Immersive Patrols, Horses Gone Wild, and Name Your Horse: Basically these two mods will allow me to speak with more people. There's more voice actors involved (doesn't effect you guys, of course) and will give me something interesting to look at while travelling. Running across patrols from different cities is also interesting, and they can fight if they run across opposing patrols. The horses mods are pretty self explanatory. All of these mods can be found on the sidebar.

I will not be updating graphics or the way things look in Skyrim, mainly because I think it looks perfectly fine as it is right now. Yes, it's an older game, but I think overall, the landscape offers very stunning views and overall a grand experience that doesn't need any fancy bells or whistles to enhance it. I'm mainly looking at things that effect the way you PLAY Skyrim, not how Skyrim LOOKS. If you like those sort of mods, though, by all means, go for it. I don't mind it if people want to make their game prettier, I just personally feel I don't need it.

So, let's go over the rules together:

1) No fast travel. Fast travel will be disabled completely by the Frostfall mod. I will have to travel by foot, horse, or carriage to reach my destination.

2) No magic. I don't like using magic, and the most magic I'll ever use is probably a simple heal and fire spell for my campfires. I will not be using it to fight.

3) Play in-character. I will be going over the character that I will create in the first post, and I will be playing according to how he will do things, not how I will do things. Will he be an imperial lover or a stormcloak lover? That remains to be seen.

4) No being a Vampire or Werewolf. They just suck to me. No pun intended for the Vampire. If I get bit, I will be healing as soon as possible.

I may add more to these rules as I go, but I see these first 4 rules staying completely the same. They add challenge, but not to where it's so brutal it isn't fun to play anymore. I see myself updating this maybe every couple days, though, once I get past the intro stuff, maybe once or twice a week. 

So sit back, relax, and come along with me to Skyrim.

TO PART ONE

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