The "That'll do Pig, That'll do" action or aspect of Skyrim

[TheOneBearded]

Not too long ago, I made a thread that criticized the aspect of having companions in Skyrim and I asked you to tell me that one thing in Skyrim that pissed you off. Now, however, after talking with my neighborhood voodoo priestess, I am making this thread to say the one thing that I really liked from playing the game (something about a disturbance in the force and unbalanced karma she said).

While the companion system was crap, what was pitch perfect was the environment. Yes, the environment (including the dungeons) was better than actual moving people. There were some moments where I didn't want to leave my horse when I made it to my destination - the world is so beautiful. The dungeons (except those Dwemer ruins with the Falmer - so goddamn annoying and fruitless) were all, in my opinion, perfectly made. They all felt like the Vaults from Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas (but, more like NV), in which they all (around all) had a backstory with it. Take for example Yngol Barrows (up north in the cold as hell waters). I went in there for no reason - out of whim. I find a book talking about sea ghosts and Yngol and his tomb and at the end I get to fight Yngol himself and get his sweet ass helmet. This is what I'm talking about! A dungeon that has a reason for being important.

THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
Gasp! I also have another aspect that gained my satisfaction - the minor story lines (Mage's College, Companions, etc). The one I'm specifically talking about is The Thieves' Guild. Let me start by saying that I'M AM NOT A STEALTHY PERSON. WHAT I THINK AS STEALTH IS USING A SHOTGUN INSTEAD OF A MINIGUN THAT THROWS MINI NUKES AT YOU! I only started to be with them because my brother wanted to be a Dark Brotherhood member and I don't like doing the same things as him on my first play through. It's all normal (burn this, steal that), until the middle of the story where you go off to kill Karliah. The whole mission was a rush to me - every draugr is a Deathlord, traps everywhere, the rush to catch her before she leaves. Then, when we (the leader of the Guild is with you) find her it all goes to hell. She shoots me with an poisoned arrow and then the leader Mercer Frey stabs me with the intent of killing me.

Then, it turns out that Karliah is the good guy and Mercer is the dildo who killed the previous Guild leader, not Karliah. After that and many hours later, a totally different view of the Guild is shown to you - a group that follows and does the biding of a Daedric Prince. The Nightingales are a splinter sect of the Thieve's Guild that does just this and their existence is unknown to the rest of the Guild members. It goes from joining a group of thieves to joining a group of thieves that have the power of a God on their side and it goes from finding Mercer Frey to get revenge to finding Mercer to restore the sect's connection with their God. When you finally meet Mercer (after traversing one of the best Dwemer ruins in one of the best ways you can to look and feel like a badass - very laggy in one area, though), who is trying to steal jewels the size of a man's head (which you can keep!), and kill him, one of the coolest moments in the game happens as the area gets filled with water. Where is the way out! The water's too high!

To me, the Thieve's Guild story is one of the best stories in the game. I had more DAMN! moments doing this than the actual main story, which had its moments too.

My question to you is this: What was that moment, quest, magic, weapon, etc that made you think that Bethesda finally did something right?


Side question- If I were to have that box with a quote from someone's reply appear in one of my replies, how would I do it?

 

[xxcutesnakeyxx]

I loved the thieves guild quests too, but the water room wasn't so exciting because I play an Argonian

The moment for me was when I got the throat-slitting animation while doing a Dark Brotherhood quest. I felt so unbelievably badass.

To quote, you click the 'quote' button on the bottom right of the post you want to quote and the html is done for you in the reply to thread box

 

[Count Igor]

Please do spoiler that Thieve's guild stuff. I've done every quest line but that and have just started it. I looked away when I realised it was going into a bit of detail about it instead of, I assumed, just general praise for the emotions it caused.

But yeah, it seems good at the moment.
BUT SSH.
(Though I doubt it can top the sadness of the Dark Brotherhood. :c )

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I loved the theives guild quests aswell.
And killing Mercer for me was personal (beyond him trying to kill me) Because right outside the dwemer ruins the last quest takes place in, i was jumped by 3 super tough ice trolls who killed my horse before i could even fire a shot off .. I'd had that black horse from Whiterun for 70 hours since the start of the game, and just like that Mercer had gotten her killed

 

[Gustof26]

Please do spoiler that Thieve's guild stuff. I've done every quest line but that and have just started it. I looked away when I realised it was going into a bit of detail about it instead of, I assumed, just general praise for the emotions it caused.

But yeah, it seems good at the moment.
BUT SSH.
(Though I doubt it can top the sadness of the Dark Brotherhood. :c )

Honestly in Elder Scrolls: IV If the Dark Brotherhood

Spoiler

dies again

, then I'll just give up joining them. Honestly everything seems fines form them before you show up. Once I become leader of the Brotherhood I'm going to order all prisoners who might play into ancient prophecies to be killed before they're released from jail.

 

[Count Igor]

Please do spoiler that Thieve's guild stuff. I've done every quest line but that and have just started it. I looked away when I realised it was going into a bit of detail about it instead of, I assumed, just general praise for the emotions it caused.

But yeah, it seems good at the moment.
BUT SSH.
(Though I doubt it can top the sadness of the Dark Brotherhood. :c )

Honestly in Elder Scrolls: IV If the Dark Brotherhood

Spoiler

dies again

, then I'll just give up joining them. Honestly everything seems fines form them before you show up. Once I become leader of the Brotherhood I'm going to order all prisoners who might play into ancient prophecies to be killed before they're released from jail.

Spoiler: Don't worry, I promise you

Not everyone dies... That's something!

Though look at the tree outside. You'll know when.
Excuse me, I need to go cry...

 

[TheOneBearded]

I actually thought the Thieves Guild was one of the least enjoyable quest lines in the game.

Cant put my finger on it, but I will explain as best as I can: in previous games, and in TES lore, the thieves guild is always this light hearted thing. You know, they steal and do not kill, perform spectacular heists, but it almost never gets broody and overly violent.

And then, in Skyrim, suddenly, the whole questline is SUPER SUPER SERIOUS. Gods, betrayal, murder, revenge - Bethesda, how is this the thieves guild questline? It has fuck all to do with thievery! Disappointing.

I think a better questline would have included incredible heists such as

Spoiler: Oblivion thieves guild spoilers

stealing an Elder Scroll

, and stuff like that.

Well,...you do get an Elder Scroll eventually through story, but I rather not have it - stolen or otherwise. The thing weighs 20 pounds and you can't remove it from your inventory EVER; even after the game is done.

Edit: Oh, the quote thingy worked!

 

[Mekado]

I actually thought the Thieves Guild was one of the least enjoyable quest lines in the game.

Cant put my finger on it, but I will explain as best as I can: in previous games, and in TES lore, the thieves guild is always this light hearted thing. You know, they steal and do not kill, perform spectacular heists, but it almost never gets broody and overly violent.

And then, in Skyrim, suddenly, the whole questline is SUPER SUPER SERIOUS. Gods, betrayal, murder, revenge - Bethesda, how is this the thieves guild questline? It has fuck all to do with thievery! Disappointing.

I think a better questline would have included incredible heists such as

Spoiler: Oblivion thieves guild spoilers

stealing an Elder Scroll

, and stuff like that.

Well,...you do get an Elder Scroll eventually through story, but I rather not have it - stolen or otherwise. The thing weighs 20 pounds and you can't remove it from your inventory EVER; even after the game is done.

Edit: Oh, the quote thingy worked!

Actually you can sell the elder scroll to the college of Winterhold's librarian for 2000G.

If you don't have access to the college and don't plan to, you can always remove it by console (player.additem 00048782 -1)

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I actually thought the Thieves Guild was one of the least enjoyable quest lines in the game.

Cant put my finger on it, but I will explain as best as I can: in previous games, and in TES lore, the thieves guild is always this light hearted thing. You know, they steal and do not kill, perform spectacular heists, but it almost never gets broody and overly violent.

And then, in Skyrim, suddenly, the whole questline is SUPER SUPER SERIOUS. Gods, betrayal, murder, revenge - Bethesda, how is this the thieves guild questline? It has fuck all to do with thievery! Disappointing.

I think a better questline would have included incredible heists such as

Spoiler: Oblivion thieves guild spoilers

stealing an Elder Scroll

, and stuff like that.

I agree. The thieves guild goes from being robin hood and his merry men to being the mafia, except for some reason they think they can't kill people and make money. yet real organised crime clearly shows you can so that just makes their new attitude more of a jarring change.

 

[DasDestroyer]

I really like the Dwemer ruins D: Particularly the Blackreach place.

 

[Zhukov]

My favourite part of Skyrim is the exploration. Wandering the hills, poking around in caves, snooping around people's basements... that sort of stuff.

 

[Wayneguard]

murder, revenge - Bethesda, how is this the thieves guild questline? It has fuck all to do with thievery! Disappointing.

I actually liked the radiant quests you get from vex and delvin at least as much as the main thieves guild quest. You actually felt like a thief. Those quests reminded me of morrowind thieves guild where you get burglary jobs to just go and steal somebody's shit. I did enjoy how the mq wasn't all about playing robin hood and spreading the wealth around though. That just felt out of place for me in oblivion imo.

 

[JET1971]

I didnt like the thieves guild or dark brotherhood and I find it annoying one of the contacts for the main quest starts the initial quest for the thieves guild, in Oblivion you had to activly seek them out and I found that to be much better than an NPC stopping you from doing what you are doing and initiating a conversation, especialy when you are trying to do a quest already and they are the one you need to talk to.

then the mafia style protection money thing? wtf was that? I really hated that shit. the guild should be completly against making trouble in ther home town rather than giving the jarl and all the soldiers a reason to look into them. wich wouldve been a much better quest of dealing with the group who were doing extortion on the merchants and another part to clean out all the non guild thieves thus making Riften a safe place for the guild to do business. some side quests couldve been to get rid of a "thief" who is giving the guild a bad name. reasons for doing these quests would be that the guild are thieves for hire and the non guild thieves and extortionists make potential clients not want anything to do with them.

As for the dark brotherhood I never cared for it in oblivion and I definatly didnt like the new one in Skyrim. There was a few things I liked especialy poor Cicero, Yep I told the patrol he had weapons and I killed his ass the first chance i got. and outside of the guild I quite enjoyed killing the idiot assasins, I had both the Thalmar and stormcloaks sending them after me just wish I couldve confronted the guild with the orders after I joined.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Yes, the environment (including the dungeons) was better than actual moving people. There were some moments where I didn't want to leave my horse when I made it to my destination - the world is so beautiful.

So it's just like the real world then?

 

[Hal10k]

Yes, the environment (including the dungeons) was better than actual moving people. There were some moments where I didn't want to leave my horse when I made it to my destination - the world is so beautiful.

So it's just like the real world then?

Sure. But if you can break away from scenery gazing to lay the smackdown on a dragon in real life, I'd consider amending your current dosage of medication.

 

[Smeggs]

Mine was another time going past that Watctower near Whiterun where your first dragon had appeared. Another dragon showed up and was apparently already in combat with a Giant and the tower's Whiterun Guards. The dragon flew up and unleashed a torrent of fire on the Giant and began flying around the tower. The Giant was hostile and began attacking the guards before turning his attention to me.

I chose my Fire Breath shout and unleashed it on the giant RIGHT WHEN the dragon flew overhead, began to hover, and launched a large fireball that connected right at the same time. "YEAH, GROUP EFFORT! But now you must die, winged demon of the skies."

The dragon flew around and did an animation I'd never seen before. I ran toward him as he came low to the ground and he SLAMMED his legs into the ground and slid for about twenty feet, throwing up a cloud of dust. He actually left a long ditch of rubble along the place where he'd slid across the ground. he shook it off and turned to face me, slamming his tail once to crush an overconfident guard attacking his rear.

"Oh man..."

 

[Bubba Doongai]

Hmmmmm, I've only played Skyrim out of the elder scrolls series but I think I would have preferred a more light hearted thieves guild. Anyway, my favourite part of the game is a toss up between its tangential nature and its environment. In regards to the tangential nature, it feels like every time I'm setting out to do something I'm taking part in a mini adventure. Sure, I might've set out to go deer hunting but that ruin looks kind of interesting and this guy seems to need my help. It makes the whole game feel more organic and free rather than a 'Just go do the bloody quests already' type of experience.

In terms of the environments, they really are astounding when you take the time to look at them. This is part of the reason I advise people to avoid fast travelling because you miss out on some wonderful sights. It doesn't even have to be particularly remarkable, the most beautiful moment in the game for me wasn't anything special. I'd set out to finish a quest on the northern coast, near Solitude. After finishing it I couldn't find a way back to the beaten path and found myself traversing the dreary coast, killing bandits in the drizzly rain. After almost giving up I finally found a path that wound up through the mountains. As I began the assent the sun finally broke through, it was around sunset and it reflected on the path, giving it this beautiful golden quality. Those moments are some of my favourites. Also, Bethesda do environmental storytelling pretty damn well, a draugr ruin with a few notes lying around tends to be a lot more interesting than a carefully crafted questline.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Yes, the environment (including the dungeons) was better than actual moving people. There were some moments where I didn't want to leave my horse when I made it to my destination - the world is so beautiful.

So it's just like the real world then?

Sure. But if you can break away from scenery gazing to lay the smackdown on a dragon in real life, I'd consider amending your current dosage of medication.

Come to think of it, the warning label was a bit more emphatic than most.