Most modern RPGs and adventure titles (Most of Bioware's as an obvious example) have moved away from this system in the past few years, splitting up saved games into separate folders - grouping all of the saved games produced for each character as separate from the whole. This makes sure that you don't accidentally save over the top of one character's progress with that of another...
Not so with Skyrim though. When I came back to start proper work on my Orc character I discovered that he was no longer there... Bugger. Yes. I'd saved over him.
So, despairing at my own stupidity, I started again. And this was the end result...
And to be honest I think I actually prefer it to my original Orc, which had no hair and looked a little bit more apologetic in his expression. I fixed THAT second time around. To me, an Orc should never look apologetic, or friendly, or charming in pretty much any way. My chief grumble about the Orcs in Oblivion was that even in the grimmest of situations they always looked and sounded as if they were feeling so damned cheerful! :)
It probably didn't help that they all appeared to be voiced by the same cheerful guy, and granted some of them were intended to provide comic relief, but by and large the Orcs of Cyrodill really did seem to be incapable of delivering any true kind of menace. Even the one who was Grand Champion in the Imperial City's Arena. Or the guy from the Fighter's Guild who insisted on ever addressing me as 'Meat'.
(A term which if I'm brutally honest, from the expression on his face as he delivered it, made me wonder far less if he was trying to threaten me and far more if he was trying to make some kind aggressive sexual advance upon me. I didn't care HOW much I wanted to progress in the Fighters Guild. I wasn't going to do it by becoming his 'Bitch'. :) )
So, yes. In my book Orcs should look menacing and/or aggressively grumpy. They are after all a simple but aggressive folk, governed by a very tribal mindset, with a penchant for hitting things over the head with heavy weaponry, and for frequent in-fighting with each other - usually started by a tremedous overreaction to something fundamentally trivial in the beginning.
(I suspect that this may be the true reason as to why the Orc Capital of Orsinium has been sacked quite so many times. It probably gets trashed far more frequently by its own native residents than the forces of High Rock or Hammerfell. :) )
If you ever DID see an Orc smiling it should truly be a reason to worry. Because that would be a smile brought on by the overwhelming sense of achievement they were feeling as they were about to bring an axe or warhammer down on your head...
I named my Orc 'Ogrul'. Ogrul gro-Khadba.
Orcs in Elder Scrolls games are named in a very similar way to how the Welsh used to name themselves - a First Name followed by a Surname which was created using the First Name of one of their Parents. And always the parent of the same gender.
If the Orc is male the Surname has the prefix of 'gro-' followed by the name of their Father, and if they are female they use the prefix 'gra-' followed by the name of their Mother. Very Tribal, no?
My intention with Ogrul was pretty simple, to play him as a Mercenary, and to suit him out in the heaviest armour and the heaviest two-handed weapons I could find. No subtlety, no sneaking. I was building a very intentional 'Tank'. I'd never played an Elder Scrolls title in that manner before. The idea of not using magic and just... hitting things hard seemed a bit basic to me. But what the Hell... why not? Maybe I'd learn something :)
I had Ogrul escape Helgen with Ralof, and make use of the heaviest arms and armour on hand in doing so, In this case an Iron Greatsword and some Heavy Imperial Armour, which he'd looted off an Imperial Captain, who I'd had him club to death at the earliest possible juncture. But hardy though that armour WAS it did leave us with a little bit of a problem. After all, it had belonged TO an Imperial Captain, and walking around in a quite specific set of a dead man's clothes was not exactly the most inconspicuous way to travel for an Orc who'd just escaped his own execution, and was now 'on the run' from the Imperial Army.
It was time for a change of attire... :)
It has to be said that probably the main drawback of limiting yourself to Heavy arms and armour is the price tag attached to that. They cost a lot more than the Light alternative. It is slightly cheaper though to Smith your own. If I was going to have Ogrul wearing the Heaviest kit I could find relying purely on stumbling across that kind of armour out in-the-wild could be very time consuming and very random in the results. If I was going to get my hands on full sets of high end armour, such as Orcish, Ebony or even Dragonbone, the only truly reliable way of doing that would be to get Ogrul to learn Smithing as a secondary Skill-set.
And here are the early results...
At this point Iron Armour was the best Ogrul could smith. And only to 'Fine' quality. But the main armour is 'Banded Iron,' with a slightly higher armour value. It's a good start. It'll certainly be sufficient for this part of the game, anyway. It also helped me level up in the process of crafting this armour, allowing me to take first 'Juggernaut' perk. No Bandits were going to be kicking this Orsimer's ass.
With my previous two characters stealth had very much been the order of the day. I needed the element of surprise, and therefore the idea of having a follower with me as I crept around Bleak Falls Barrow seemed a bit self-defeating. Well, given that Ogrul was wearing enough Heavy Armour to alert pretty much everybody to his oncoming presence, that was not an issue this time... So I thought 'sod it' let's go and find him a suitable lackey. :)
There are two Favour Followers available to characters entering Riverwood. You can, however, only acquire one or the other, and this is achieved as the reward for completing a small side quest. A side quest which to some degree intersects with 'The Golden Claw', as it involves one of the Valerius siblings. The guys who run The Riverwood Trader.
Ah, Camilla Valerius. The subject of obsession for so many of Riverwood's male residents. Although, if we're being brutally honest, this is a very SMALL town, and there really isn't that much in the way of competition. The others female residents are either married, exceptionally old, or somebody else's mother. Nevertheless there does seem to be some competition for her, and two very specific rivals for her affections. Both of whom, to listen to them, sound utterly unsuitable for ANY woman alive (or dead) and whose statements about their intentions towards Camilla sound worryingly obsessive, and as if they both may in fact have deep psychological problems.
First off there is Faendal, the Wood Elf (And Heathen murderer of Trees - if we go back to the revelations of last time's Blog).
Faendal's pastimes include being rather fond of stroking his own chin, and telling people how much they should NOT BE TALKING to somebody called 'Sven'. Even if they haven't actually met anybody called 'Sven' yet. In general he seems quite hostile and more than a little bit whiny.
And of course, he's also an ELF. >:(
Ogrul may be a Mercenary, he may even have done some very questionable things in his past to have resulted in his being taken to Helgen for execution, but associating with Elves was not one of them!
(Yes, yes... I know technically that Orcs and Elves are from the same stock! Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, Orsimer - even Falmer and Dwemer - they're ALL Merfolk if we go back far enough. But don't pose that concept to an Orc. You won't enjoy their response...)
So what about this 'Sven'? Faendal tells Ogrul that he's always off drinking mead instead of doing his job at the mill. Well, an Orc can see merit in any man that can hold his Ale! Maybe he's a better candidate?
Or... maybe not.
Sven may be a mead-swilling Nord, but he also still lives with his Mother. And if you thought Faendal sounded like an aggressive stalker Sven will tell you at length of how he's already told Faendal just how Camilla Valerius is already 'HIS,' 'HIS' he tells you!
He also likes writing poetry, and doing a lot of this
And this
Which doesn't exactly put him in Ogrul's highest regard.
But still. He's not an ELF.
Whichever prospective follower you choose they will give your character a 'Fake Letter' claiming to be from the other. You will then take said letter to wherever in town Camilla Valerius currently is, she'll read it, and proclaim never to have anything to do with the person she believes to have written the letter. You can of course tell her the truth, dropping your guy in it. Camilla is a marryable NPC when you reach that point, later on in the game. But doing so will mean you don't have the option of using that guy as a follower.
I had Ogrul opt to side with Sven. I have no idea what he wrote in that letter, but passing Faendal in town afterwards it was clear to see he was not a happy bunny, and he refused to talk to us '...after what YOU'VE DONE'. :)
But enough prattling. It's time for ADVENTURE. That Golden Claw won't find itself, you know? And I really NEED the reward money the other Valerius sibling is promising. So, off to Bleak Falls Barrow...
And you know what? I actually found hacking at foes en route, with my two-handed sword, to be fairly enjoyable. I had certain concerns at the outset. Two-handed weapons in Oblivion just seemed to be slow and inefficient. Here I was able to finish my foes by actually skewering them with my greatsword and letting them drop. That was relatively entertaining to watch :)
However, it should be pointed out that the journey to Bleak Falls was not without incidents of another nature.
There MAY have been some debate (Okay, so there WASN'T really, but just... go with it for now.) over just what IS suitable attire for going questing in Draugr crypts. And for not looking 'Flouncy'. The debate MAY (Again, just... go with it.) have been punctuated with a Greatsword. And it MAY have concluded with concept that a certain individual might look 'LESS Flouncy' if they were to actually put on some sodding armour.
Or maybe NOT. As the sad armoured truth might have revealed to be so...
There is no winning with Sven, it would appear.
Still, he did have his uses whilst fighting Giant Spiders and Draugrs. Mostly, it has to be said, with a bow and arrow. But also because the definite advantage of taking a follower along with you on your travels is that you can effectively use them as a pack-mule for loot which you find along the way. Being able to carry twice as much loot obviously means that you can coin in twice as much money when you reach the nearest town, to sell all of it. There was plenty loot to be had this time around also, and with far more items found which were actively useful to my style of play. Battleaxes, Warhammers and Greatswords. In the end I settled on this Steel Battleaxe, to keep as my primary weapon.
Clubbing things with Heavy Weapons may not be as pretty as setting your foes on fire, or besting then in sword to sword combat. But I have to say there is something terribly satisfying in watching your character finish off the enemy by first kneecapping them, before bringing an axe or warhammer down on their head. It's hard to beat that... :)
My perks for Ogrul so far have gone on Juggernaut, Champion's Stance, and two on Barbarian. He now deals more damage, takes a little more damage, and doesn't use up quite so much stamina in swinging that axe for power attacks. Basic tweaks, yes. But effective. As far as what will happen next goes? Well, with this style of play I think it's probably a bit of a foregone conclusion that he should join up with The Champions faction in Whiterun, and I think I might consider setting his permanent City of dwelling as Markarth. The feel of that place somehow seems to match his character.
We'll see. But I've certainly enjoyed playing as Ogrul far more than I ever expected to. He may be my current favourite, in fact. But there's plenty more time for that to change. For now, it's time to move on...
Next Time: Women. And Nords. Yes. A winning combination? Come back and find out...
And to be honest I think I actually prefer it to my original Orc, which had no hair and looked a little bit more apologetic in his expression. I fixed THAT second time around. To me, an Orc should never look apologetic, or friendly, or charming in pretty much any way. My chief grumble about the Orcs in Oblivion was that even in the grimmest of situations they always looked and sounded as if they were feeling so damned cheerful! :)
It probably didn't help that they all appeared to be voiced by the same cheerful guy, and granted some of them were intended to provide comic relief, but by and large the Orcs of Cyrodill really did seem to be incapable of delivering any true kind of menace. Even the one who was Grand Champion in the Imperial City's Arena. Or the guy from the Fighter's Guild who insisted on ever addressing me as 'Meat'.
(A term which if I'm brutally honest, from the expression on his face as he delivered it, made me wonder far less if he was trying to threaten me and far more if he was trying to make some kind aggressive sexual advance upon me. I didn't care HOW much I wanted to progress in the Fighters Guild. I wasn't going to do it by becoming his 'Bitch'. :) )
So, yes. In my book Orcs should look menacing and/or aggressively grumpy. They are after all a simple but aggressive folk, governed by a very tribal mindset, with a penchant for hitting things over the head with heavy weaponry, and for frequent in-fighting with each other - usually started by a tremedous overreaction to something fundamentally trivial in the beginning.
(I suspect that this may be the true reason as to why the Orc Capital of Orsinium has been sacked quite so many times. It probably gets trashed far more frequently by its own native residents than the forces of High Rock or Hammerfell. :) )
If you ever DID see an Orc smiling it should truly be a reason to worry. Because that would be a smile brought on by the overwhelming sense of achievement they were feeling as they were about to bring an axe or warhammer down on your head...
I named my Orc 'Ogrul'. Ogrul gro-Khadba.
Orcs in Elder Scrolls games are named in a very similar way to how the Welsh used to name themselves - a First Name followed by a Surname which was created using the First Name of one of their Parents. And always the parent of the same gender.
If the Orc is male the Surname has the prefix of 'gro-' followed by the name of their Father, and if they are female they use the prefix 'gra-' followed by the name of their Mother. Very Tribal, no?
My intention with Ogrul was pretty simple, to play him as a Mercenary, and to suit him out in the heaviest armour and the heaviest two-handed weapons I could find. No subtlety, no sneaking. I was building a very intentional 'Tank'. I'd never played an Elder Scrolls title in that manner before. The idea of not using magic and just... hitting things hard seemed a bit basic to me. But what the Hell... why not? Maybe I'd learn something :)
I had Ogrul escape Helgen with Ralof, and make use of the heaviest arms and armour on hand in doing so, In this case an Iron Greatsword and some Heavy Imperial Armour, which he'd looted off an Imperial Captain, who I'd had him club to death at the earliest possible juncture. But hardy though that armour WAS it did leave us with a little bit of a problem. After all, it had belonged TO an Imperial Captain, and walking around in a quite specific set of a dead man's clothes was not exactly the most inconspicuous way to travel for an Orc who'd just escaped his own execution, and was now 'on the run' from the Imperial Army.
It was time for a change of attire... :)
It has to be said that probably the main drawback of limiting yourself to Heavy arms and armour is the price tag attached to that. They cost a lot more than the Light alternative. It is slightly cheaper though to Smith your own. If I was going to have Ogrul wearing the Heaviest kit I could find relying purely on stumbling across that kind of armour out in-the-wild could be very time consuming and very random in the results. If I was going to get my hands on full sets of high end armour, such as Orcish, Ebony or even Dragonbone, the only truly reliable way of doing that would be to get Ogrul to learn Smithing as a secondary Skill-set.
And here are the early results...
At this point Iron Armour was the best Ogrul could smith. And only to 'Fine' quality. But the main armour is 'Banded Iron,' with a slightly higher armour value. It's a good start. It'll certainly be sufficient for this part of the game, anyway. It also helped me level up in the process of crafting this armour, allowing me to take first 'Juggernaut' perk. No Bandits were going to be kicking this Orsimer's ass.
With my previous two characters stealth had very much been the order of the day. I needed the element of surprise, and therefore the idea of having a follower with me as I crept around Bleak Falls Barrow seemed a bit self-defeating. Well, given that Ogrul was wearing enough Heavy Armour to alert pretty much everybody to his oncoming presence, that was not an issue this time... So I thought 'sod it' let's go and find him a suitable lackey. :)
There are two Favour Followers available to characters entering Riverwood. You can, however, only acquire one or the other, and this is achieved as the reward for completing a small side quest. A side quest which to some degree intersects with 'The Golden Claw', as it involves one of the Valerius siblings. The guys who run The Riverwood Trader.
Ah, Camilla Valerius. The subject of obsession for so many of Riverwood's male residents. Although, if we're being brutally honest, this is a very SMALL town, and there really isn't that much in the way of competition. The others female residents are either married, exceptionally old, or somebody else's mother. Nevertheless there does seem to be some competition for her, and two very specific rivals for her affections. Both of whom, to listen to them, sound utterly unsuitable for ANY woman alive (or dead) and whose statements about their intentions towards Camilla sound worryingly obsessive, and as if they both may in fact have deep psychological problems.
First off there is Faendal, the Wood Elf (And Heathen murderer of Trees - if we go back to the revelations of last time's Blog).
Faendal's pastimes include being rather fond of stroking his own chin, and telling people how much they should NOT BE TALKING to somebody called 'Sven'. Even if they haven't actually met anybody called 'Sven' yet. In general he seems quite hostile and more than a little bit whiny.
And of course, he's also an ELF. >:(
Ogrul may be a Mercenary, he may even have done some very questionable things in his past to have resulted in his being taken to Helgen for execution, but associating with Elves was not one of them!
(Yes, yes... I know technically that Orcs and Elves are from the same stock! Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, Orsimer - even Falmer and Dwemer - they're ALL Merfolk if we go back far enough. But don't pose that concept to an Orc. You won't enjoy their response...)
So what about this 'Sven'? Faendal tells Ogrul that he's always off drinking mead instead of doing his job at the mill. Well, an Orc can see merit in any man that can hold his Ale! Maybe he's a better candidate?
Or... maybe not.
Sven may be a mead-swilling Nord, but he also still lives with his Mother. And if you thought Faendal sounded like an aggressive stalker Sven will tell you at length of how he's already told Faendal just how Camilla Valerius is already 'HIS,' 'HIS' he tells you!
He also likes writing poetry, and doing a lot of this
And this
Which doesn't exactly put him in Ogrul's highest regard.
But still. He's not an ELF.
Whichever prospective follower you choose they will give your character a 'Fake Letter' claiming to be from the other. You will then take said letter to wherever in town Camilla Valerius currently is, she'll read it, and proclaim never to have anything to do with the person she believes to have written the letter. You can of course tell her the truth, dropping your guy in it. Camilla is a marryable NPC when you reach that point, later on in the game. But doing so will mean you don't have the option of using that guy as a follower.
I had Ogrul opt to side with Sven. I have no idea what he wrote in that letter, but passing Faendal in town afterwards it was clear to see he was not a happy bunny, and he refused to talk to us '...after what YOU'VE DONE'. :)
But enough prattling. It's time for ADVENTURE. That Golden Claw won't find itself, you know? And I really NEED the reward money the other Valerius sibling is promising. So, off to Bleak Falls Barrow...
And you know what? I actually found hacking at foes en route, with my two-handed sword, to be fairly enjoyable. I had certain concerns at the outset. Two-handed weapons in Oblivion just seemed to be slow and inefficient. Here I was able to finish my foes by actually skewering them with my greatsword and letting them drop. That was relatively entertaining to watch :)
However, it should be pointed out that the journey to Bleak Falls was not without incidents of another nature.
There MAY have been some debate (Okay, so there WASN'T really, but just... go with it for now.) over just what IS suitable attire for going questing in Draugr crypts. And for not looking 'Flouncy'. The debate MAY (Again, just... go with it.) have been punctuated with a Greatsword. And it MAY have concluded with concept that a certain individual might look 'LESS Flouncy' if they were to actually put on some sodding armour.
Or maybe NOT. As the sad armoured truth might have revealed to be so...
There is no winning with Sven, it would appear.
Still, he did have his uses whilst fighting Giant Spiders and Draugrs. Mostly, it has to be said, with a bow and arrow. But also because the definite advantage of taking a follower along with you on your travels is that you can effectively use them as a pack-mule for loot which you find along the way. Being able to carry twice as much loot obviously means that you can coin in twice as much money when you reach the nearest town, to sell all of it. There was plenty loot to be had this time around also, and with far more items found which were actively useful to my style of play. Battleaxes, Warhammers and Greatswords. In the end I settled on this Steel Battleaxe, to keep as my primary weapon.
Clubbing things with Heavy Weapons may not be as pretty as setting your foes on fire, or besting then in sword to sword combat. But I have to say there is something terribly satisfying in watching your character finish off the enemy by first kneecapping them, before bringing an axe or warhammer down on their head. It's hard to beat that... :)
My perks for Ogrul so far have gone on Juggernaut, Champion's Stance, and two on Barbarian. He now deals more damage, takes a little more damage, and doesn't use up quite so much stamina in swinging that axe for power attacks. Basic tweaks, yes. But effective. As far as what will happen next goes? Well, with this style of play I think it's probably a bit of a foregone conclusion that he should join up with The Champions faction in Whiterun, and I think I might consider setting his permanent City of dwelling as Markarth. The feel of that place somehow seems to match his character.
We'll see. But I've certainly enjoyed playing as Ogrul far more than I ever expected to. He may be my current favourite, in fact. But there's plenty more time for that to change. For now, it's time to move on...
Next Time: Women. And Nords. Yes. A winning combination? Come back and find out...
No comments:
Post a Comment