u/-CrlmsoN-

Hey everyone! So I started my first playthrough of TESArena today and I'm already loving it. I always play a mage in fantasy games and TESArena is no exception. I love magic! Went with a Breton. I made it through the first dungeon without any real issues. Didn't die once. I don't know if I'm doing well. I'm currently level 4 and about to leave the first dungeon. Already have 80 intelligence and like 70 wisdom. I think that's good? I read in the manual that the first dungeon is intended to be explored thoroughly, so I basically left no stone unturned and slaughtered every rat and goblin that I can across. Got a good bit of gold and equipment to sell.

Here are my questions:

1. I don't know how to tell what damage my weapon is doing. I look on the stat screen but under damage it still says 0, no matter what I have equipped. I probably missed something in the manual, but I'm a little confused on that area.
2. When I was running around the dungeon, I would randomly get experience and level up....or at least that's what I thought was happening. Like I would enter a new area and boom level up. Is that intended? Now that I'm typing this, I'm wondering if it's more that enemies weren't nearby, but not really sure.
3. After pressing the button for pilfering (on accident). I wasn't able to seemingly turn it off. I tried pressing it again and the "choose a target to pilfer" message wouldn't go away.

That's all I have so far! It's a great game and I'm really loving going back to the original. It's really cool seeing all of Tamriel as it was originally designed. I've played Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, but never Arena (Daggerfall, Redguard and Battlespire are next on the list).

Does anyone have suggestions for games like the title? Lately, I've been watching the Peter Jackson, Lord of the Ring movies and it's got me itching to play an RPG with similar vibes (without just playing a LOTR game). But I really like the idea of starting on some grand quest and become embroiled in a much larger conflict. Like how the Fellowship starts off with escorting Frodo and the hobbits to Mordor until they are separated with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf going on to help support the kingdoms of men as the scale of everything increases in each movie.

Are there any RPGs with similar vibes?

Does anyone have suggestions for games like the title? Lately, I've been watching the Peter Jackson, Lord of the Ring movies and it's got me itching to play an RPG with similar vibes (without just playing a LOTR game). But I really like the idea of starting on some grand quest and become embroiled in a much larger conflict. Like how the Fellowship starts off with escorting Frodo and the hobbits to Mordor until they are separated with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf going on to help support the kingdoms of men as the scale of everything increases in each movie.

Are there any RPGs with similar vibes?

Edit: I probably should have been more specific or gave some examples. I wasn't really thinking of games where you save the world. But specifically RPGs where you start off on a quest and get involved in a greater conflict between opposing factions. Bonus points if this plays out in the actual gameplay. Like in the LOTR example, the Fellowship didn't just start of with a goal of directly supporting the kingdoms of men against Mordor. The original objective was just to get the hobbits to Mordor and specifically Mount Doom. But they realized that they were attracting too much attention traveling all at once, so they separate. With the hobbits going to Mordor still and the rest going off to support Rohan and Gondor against both Saruman and Sauron's army.

Are there any RPGs like this? I know most involve you saving the world, but that doesn't always evolve into some sort of grand conflict between the forces of good and evil.

It's hard to think of good examples. One of the most popular would probably be Fallout New Vegas. You start off with the simple quest of finding out who shot you in the head and everything evolves much further with the player getting involved in a major conflict between the factions of the NCR, Caesars Legion and Mr. House.

Another one would be Age of Decadence where you start off as a nobody with a somewhat obscure main quest, but by the end of the game, all roads tend to lead to a major conflict with House Crassus and the city of Ganezzar being attacked in a siege by either the Imperial Guards or House Aurelian (depending on the player). That's barely scratching the surface of the game, but what appeals to me is the player starting off on some miniscule quest and getting wrapped up in a grander conflict between major forces.

Alright, so there was a thread about least favorite RPG mechanics. How about favorite RPG mechanics?

For me, it's permadeath. Especially if there are consequences or major changes to a character's death. Even simple stuff like failing a quest entirely if a specific character dies or having that character's role fulfilled by an entirely new character (which further encourages replayability). Bonus points if the game puts in measures to stop save scumming. So that when someone dies, they really do die and you have no do overs.

Also, I love it when RPGs implement immersive elements. Stuff like the ability to cook food, sleep, buy a house, have a family, etc. just gives meaning to all that questing and makes the world feel more lived in.

So we all know that the Treaty of Narion restricts the UC and Freestar to each having their own 3 systems under their control. But it seems obvious that both factions are permitted to extend their sphere of influence beyond these 3 systems. For example, the U.C. have Tau Ceti II (technically the colonists were U.C. citizens as stated by Commander Taula), but they also have a strong military presence at station SY-920 above Luyten's Rock. Likewise, the Freestar have Research Outpost U3-09 on the planet Altair II operated by Freestar scientists and featured in the Groundpounder mission.

Just seems strange that the factions would have these kinds of settlements as wasn't part of the reason why the Colony War happening in the first place was because the Freestar tried to set up an outpost on Vesta and the U.C. saw it as a violation of the treaty.

I'm amazed that no one talks about the sound design in Starfield being so good. I'm not specifically referring to the soundtrack, but instead the ambient and environmental sound effects. Stuff like how when you walk next to certain machinery, you can hear the clanging and clunking of the gears. If you walk around in mud, you can hear sloshing sounds. If you take off your clothes and run naked, you can hear your bare feet against surfaces. At higher elevations, you can hear the wind whistling. I've even heard creatures echoing in distant valleys when exploring the wilderness of Akila.

I've legit never played a game before with this much attention to detail when it comes to sound design.

I like his mustache

Nova Galactic

Deimos

HopeTech

Taiyo

Stroud-Ekland

Trident (even if you can't fly their ships)

Which manufacturer is your favorite?!

For me, like any good U.C. citizen, you'll never see me without my Deimos Longsword. Love that little ship, but their larger ships are great too. I love the militaristic design scheme. Even their less military style ships are pretty good. Such as the Sunsail, which is basically like a high-tech yacht. Their freighters leave a lot to be desired, but that's what HopeTech is for. Even so, the stock Carry All has an insane cargo capacity and it's just a Class B. Like the saying goes, "When you get serious about your spacecraft, come back to Deimos!"

For example, we're all familiar with the "science outpost", "abandoned hanger", "abandoned mine", "deserted robotics lab", etc. that can typically appear from orbit.

But is there a mod that adds additional POIs that can spawn from orbit? For example, the "secluded outpost", "abandoned military post", "lone hab", "hillside bunker", "radio tower", etc.

Basically, a lot of the smaller POIs that aren't visible from orbit. Is there a mod that can introduces these smaller vanilla POIs so that they can be landed at from orbit?